Tag: www.johnrsermon.com

Now for the preperation.

· Leave a comment ·

Hello again

 

Following on from my post on 15th October, I had a bit of a patchy reading week. I’m still reading 1984 and will hopefully finish it in, at the most, seven days’ time. If not before. I put this patchiness down to being nominated for my first blog award. See https://johnrsermon.com/2013/10/18/ive-been-nominated-for-my-first-blog-award/

Now, I am very happy to have been nominated for this award but it didn’t half take a while, and a fair amount of reading minutes, out of my week. Though, I don’t regret any of those minutes. I accepted the award, did what I was required, and nominated a few blogs as well. All in all a 100% successful use of time.

But, it wasn’t reading.

I managed to get some reading done before bed on a few nights and to and from my girlfriends flat. I did have an awesome weekend in Leeds with my mates as well. I took my book with me with every intention of reading it but alas it was not to be. Standing up on the train to Leeds and then starting on the beer pretty much straight away meant it wasn’t going to happen. And the resulting two day hangover didn’t help either.

But, another lovely writing thing is drawing ever closer and I ask myself…

What about my preparation for NaNoWriMo?

I already know which story I’m going to write and I’ve made enough notes to keep me going. And I reckon I’ll make notes along the way or even plan out each days writing. I remember when I did NaNoWriMo last year and how I made a few pages of notes on each of the main characters, and some notes to cover the plot, and just got to it. I found this to be easier and I rarely stumbled or found myself stuck for something to write. I just hope I don’t worry too much about it and ruin my chances of completing it.

Well, that’s me for now and I’ll leave you with a question.

If you’re taking part, how are you preparing for NaNoWriMo?

Bye

 

I’ve been nominated for my first blog award!

· Leave a comment ·

Hello

Following on from Tuesday’s post, the bewildered 20-something writer (http://thebewildered20somethingwriter.wordpress.com/), has nominated me for the Liebster Award! I’d like to thank her (again) for the nomination. She herself has a wonderful blog which I think you should have a good look at. Her mix of blog posts about all kinds of things from Miscellaneous Monday Mornings, Epic Quote of the day, Inspiration, Writing and much much more as she ventures into the real world following graduation, are always a good read.

                       

After doing some research and finding a page showing me exactly what the award was (see below), I’m proud to have been nominated for it and glad to accept it. In short, it is a blog award for smaller blogs with 3000 followers or less and is designed to help get said blogs out to a wider audience. The word ‘Liebster’, which is German, has several definitions which include dearest, sweetest, kindest, nicest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, welcome and sweetheart.

I would also like to thank Lorraine Marie Reguly who took the time to create the page with the full this, that and the other of the Liebster Award ((http://lorrainemariereguly.wordpress.com/2013/05/02/the-liebster-award-the-official-rules-my-first-blog-award-and-a-few-personal-secrets-revealed/) and take this opportunity to ask you to visit her new blog, http://poetryperfected.wordpress.com/, which is another new addition to her blogging world.

So, as part of accepting the Liebster Award, I’m required to answer some questions put to me by Alex (http://thebewildered20somethingwriter.wordpress.com/). So, here we go…

What inspired you to start writing/blogging?

I wanted to write ever since I took a Film Studies course at college in 2001. One assignment in particular required me to create a character and give him or her a back story. I did this with gusto which surprised me as I was doing it. I received some good feedback from my teacher and from there I wanted to write. I stopped writing regularly after a while but then picked up the pace around four years ago.

I saw setting up a blog as an extension of my writing and a way to talk to other writers and to get their feedback and anything else that could help me with my writing. I also want to help others in any way I can.

If you could shrink any animal–real or mythical–so that it was pocket sized, what animal would you shrink and keep as a pet?

A Tyrannosaurus Rex. I would carry it around in my pocket and if anyone annoyed me, I’d let Rex have a go at them.

Name three guilty pleasure books and/or movies that you’re sorry you’re not sorry you like (say that three times fast).

I’ve got two films, Legally Blonde and Clueless, and a TV series Gilmore Girls that are my guilty pleasures. But no books I’m afraid.

If you could change your name to anything, what would you change it to?

Agamemnon Metallica Austin Hitman Eastwood.

What inspires you creatively, i.e., what gets your creative juices pumping again when you’re in a bit of a slump?

If I find myself in a slump I always like to either go for a walk, watch my favourite film (The Good, The Bad and the Ugly) or listen to Metallica. I usually see or hear something which gets me going again.

If you knew you only had one hour before the zombie apocalypse, what would you do?

I’d make sure my nearest and dearest were all prepared then get a big stick, attached a knife to the end of it, and let them come!

Name the weirdest/funniest/coolest/most memorable/etc. dream you’ve had?

I can’t remember any dreams fully but I do remember part of one that was a murder mystery/horror story which was all in someone else’s dream. They woke up from it, and then I woke up from it in the exact same way.

What advice would you give your six-year-old self?

Don’t worry about it. Just keep doing what you’re doing, and you’ll be fine. Oh, and when you fancy a girl for the first time, play it calm and collected.

What are the five things that make you the happiest?

My Family. My Friends. My Girlfriend. My Writing. Any travels I go on may they be big or small.

Star Wars or Star Trek?

Star Trek. Only because the new movies are brilliant.

Another part of the award is to list some random facts about myself. Here we go…

I can’t click with my fingers on my left hand.

I’ve never had a kebab.

I finished 3rd in a width swimming race in primary school.

I haven’t completely shaved my beard off since 03/08/2012.

I love pizza.

I like to listen to Britney Spears every so often.

I hope to get married and have children one day and be like my parents are now, still very much in love, when I’m their age.

I have an older sister. Along with a brother in law and an awesome nephew.

There is an option to not carry on this award and ignore the part about nominating other blogs. I however, believe this is a great thing to be doing for each of us with smaller blogs trying to build an audience and enjoy the whole experience of blogging. I’ve chosen to nominate three blogs that I currently follow that fall into the Liebster award category. I have enjoyed following each of these blogs and hope I can help them to grow.

http://thoughtsandrainstorms.wordpress.com/

http://adifferentdaylight.wordpress.com/

http://charlottecarrendar.com/

And, these are the questions I would like each of my nominees, if they choose to accept the award of course, to answer.

1. What are the last three books you have read and why did you decide to read them?

2. If you could be any cartoon character, which one would you be and what would be the first thing you would do?

3. Godzilla has just attacked your home town, what do you do?

4. What is your favourite thing that you own and why?

5. When did writing become so important to you?

6. The world is about to end in 30 minutes, what do you do?

7. What is your favourite film and what is your favourite scene from that film?

8. Who or What inspires you?

9. Stick or Twist?

10. What are the most important things in life to you?

Ok. Well, that’s this post done and dusted. If you know of any blogs you think deserve this award, get nominating ASAP.

Cheers

Oh, sorry one last thing, here are the rules for accepting the Liebster Award.

The Official Rules Of The Liebster Award 

If you have been nominated for The Liebster Award AND YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT, write a blog post about the Liebster award in which you:

1. thank the person who nominated you, and post a link to their blog on your blog.

2. display the award on your blog — by including it in your post and/or displaying it using a “widget” or a “gadget”. (Note that the best way to do this is to save the image to your own computer and then upload it to your blog post.)

3. answer 11 questions about yourself, which will be provided to you by the person who nominated you.

4. provide 11 random facts about yourself.

5. nominate 5 – 11 blogs that you feel deserve the award, who have a less than 1000 followers. (Note that you can always ask the blog owner this since not all blogs display a widget that lets the readers know this information!)

6. create a new list of questions for the blogger to answer.

7. list these rules in your post. (You can copy and paste them from here.)

Once you have written your post, and published it, you then have to:

8. Inform the people/blogs that you nominated that they have been nominated for the Liebster award and provide a link for them to your post so that they can learn about it (they might not have ever heard of it!)

It begins!!!!…..again!!!!

· 6 Comments ·

Hello

Following on from last time, I tried to get more writing done to make up for a week of doing barely any. I succeeded, slightly by writing one character profile and two fully formed ideas for short to possibly long stories,   but I now have a clear idea of what to with my next writing week.

Read.

I’ve been receiving emails from NaNoWriMo (http://nanowrimo.org/) regarding preparation for the glorious event. I already know what story I’m going to write, well, continue to write as I’ve already written five chapters of it, and I hope I’ll be able to finish it or at least get within touching distance of its end by the close of November. And I already know how I’m going to prepare for it. About a week before hand I’m going to start on the character profiles for the story. It’s the same thing I did last year but in a lot more detail.

But then I read a few posts from another blogger, whose website seems to be down, about how she was preparing for November by reading a daft amount of books. I’ve always said to myself that I would like to have a reading week where I try to make a dent in my ever increasing pile of books I have to read, but I’ve never quite gotten round to it.

So this week is officially….My Reading Week.

I started by finishing ‘The Curious Incident of the dog in the night-time’ by Mark Haddon, which I completely recommend as it was a great read throughout, last night and will now move onto finishing 1984 by George Orwell. Then, if I finish 1984 by this time next week, I’ll go onto ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep’ by Philip K. Dick. I’ve been looking forward to reading a Philip K. Dick book for years after seeing many great to awful adaptations of his stories.

So, there you have it. To prepare for November I’m going to read and then write. But I leave you with one very important question….

Do I watch Blade Runner before or after reading the story that was based on?

Cheers

 

Oh NaNoWriMo, hurry up and get here will you!

· Leave a comment ·

Hello

 

This post is shorter than usual for one reason and one reason only. I haven’t really done that much in the last or so to do with my writing. I’m not sure how it happened but I reckon if I break it down I can probably figure it out. Here we go…

Wednesday 02/10/2013.

After work, went for a run. Got home to find my mate had come round to watch the football (soccer). Watched the game, was tired by the end of it, it turned out to be a very dull game, and went to bed. That explains Wednesday.

Thursday 03/10/2013.

After work, went to my girlfriend’s house. That explains Thursday.

Friday 04/10/2013 – Saturday 05/10/2013

After work, went to see my parents and stayed over for the Friday night. Spent part of Saturday with them as well. Went home, had some food, and went out again to meet my mates to go watch some rugby. Rugby finished, went to get some food and then out to a rock/metal night. That explains Friday and Saturday.

Sunday 06/10/2013

Spent the day hung over and watching wrestling, football (soccer), a film and playing on my xbox. That explains Sunday.

Monday 07/10/2013

After work, had some food. Had a nap. Made my dinner for the next day in work.

But then…

BOOM!!!! Edited two of my short stories. There we go. At least I did something.

How did this happen? I did read a lot of 1984 which I’m getting ever closer to end of but I didn’t really write that much at all. I didn’t notice the week get away from me. After a week like that, NaNoWriMo can’t come soon enough. I’ve made sure I’m signed up for it and already know what story I’m going to write.

If you want to get involved, have a look using the following link http://nanowrimo.org/.

Well, I’m going to make sure this week involves a slight case of Character Profile fever. Along with finding the writing bug that didn’t bite me last week and letting it have a field day.

Good Pie

Character profile fever.

· 2 Comments ·

Hello

So, one week later and I’ve still got character profile fever. Yes that’s right. It now has a name. Character profile fever causes you to improve the back story of your stories and characters and potentially create new plots points along with adding and improving to your story as a whole through character building.

I first thought I had character profile fever when I started getting the shakes 24 hours after completing the character profile for the chief villain for The Searchers Want. I didn’t really know what was going on. At first, I thought I was hungry so I had some food. That didn’t get rid of them. Then, I thought that thirst was what was causing it so I drank but to no avail. Then I thought I needed to exercise. Nope that didn’t work. After all this I decided to pick up my note pad and pen and write another profile.

The shakes suddenly disappeared and were replaced by calm followed by excitement. I completed two profiles, for the hero’s sister, a drug addict who caused the deaths of their parents and knows about his job, and a news reporter who works with the searchers and wants to sleep with the hero but he isn’t having any of it so instead she sleeps with another searcher to get to him. These were both great to write and opened up more story things and stuff for the edit.

I’m close now to finishing all the main character profiles. I’ve currently got at least two more big ones to complete and possibly numerous smaller ones to do for characters than are only in it for the battle scene at the end of the story.  Not decided whether I will give them big profiles (every point thoroughly completed) or smaller ones (just one or two things for each point). Best get the next two big ones finished though before I decide, a?

I also managed to fit in an edit for two of my short stories. Although, I was watching a football (soccer) game at the same time so I know I’ll have to go over them again. And again, And again. And so on…

So, to conclude, the only way to get over a case of character profile fever is by doing more profiles. I’ll let you know what to do when all the profiles that are required for any story are completed. But the question is…

Do you suffer, or have ever suffered, from any (entirely fake) fevers as a result of writing a story or poem?

Bye Bye

 

And its done. That was quick. But thoroughly enjoyable of course.

· Leave a comment ·

Hello

As I mentioned last time round, I was looking forward to completing the character profile for the main villain of The Searcher’s Want, my NaNoWriMo story from last November. Last November? Dear lord that’s gone by quickly. Although, the next NaNoWriMo is just around the corner! Focus John, Focus.

So, after spending the previous three days with my girlfriend and visiting my awesome big sister and my even awesome-er nephew and then helping to babysit my girlfriends niece, I sat down to write the character profile for the Ripper demon, the main villain of the story I mentioned only a few seconds ago.

Do you know when you are writing and it just seems to flow out of you? Like it’s been dwelling inside of you, waiting eagerly for you to finish doing other stuff with your life and get back to your calling which is, obviously, to write? Well, that is what it felt like. I know the character well enough anyway and as I started writing I didn’t want to stop. I could have happily kept going and wrote all day. Who needs food and water when there is writing to be done? It did end quicker than I’d like but I wrote as much I thought was needed so I’m happy with it.

I had already made the necessary notes, so that I could at least start the character profile, when I was preparing for NaNoWriMo last October. I kept these notes to hand and as I wrote the profile, as like all the previous profiles, the character became completely fully formed on the page and in my head.

What I found as well, which made the process even more electric, was that I was coming up with plot points for the story as a whole and knew exactly how and what I needed to do to improve upon the Ripper within the story itself when editing begins.

My favourite part of the profile was the history part of it. This has allowed me to explain how the Ripper has arrived at the point I found him in the story. I was slightly worried about getting all the back story right but now, I’m not worried at all. Well, I probably will be when I add everything in, re-edit the edit, and find I need to write more. Oh great. Now I’m worried and excited. And I’m not sure what to do…

And that’s my queue to exit. I’ve not done any exercise since Saturday morning so hopefully that will help.

Good pie

Demons and their ways.

· Leave a comment ·

Hello

Since my last post I’ve managed to complete two more of my demon character profiles. I now have three of the four demons profiled that make up the villains of my story. I’m really looking forward to writing the next one as it is the chief, among many, villain of the piece.

Each of the other types of demon have certain skills and knowledge to do something in particular. This type of demon, known as the Ripper, was designed as a protector for the other three. It was designed to make sure the others don’t come to any harm.

I have most of the main parts to this character figured out so it shouldn’t take as long as the other three. Which is a shame as I’d wouldn’t mind it taking a lot longer. As I wrote the Searchers Want, the character grew more than the others because it was more influential. The Ripper demon is the architect of the demons plan to take over the world. As much as I enjoyed writing all the other character profiles, this one should be ever so slightly better.

What I am looking forward to as well, amongst a lot of other things when I start editing this story, is expanding on each of the demons characters. Relating to humans is easy, but demons? Do I know any demons? There is a bloke who walks around Manchester with just his trousers on, wet hair, and a bunny rabbit under his arm. Maybe he’s a demon?

Anyway, to sign off, here is a brief on how the Searchers became searchers in the first place. If you have any questions, feel more than free to ask them.

‘ There are four types of demon in total that make up the villains of my story, The Searcher’s Want. Three of them have been designed to do a certain thing to help the human race live better lives. The forth has been designed to protect them while they do this if required. Unfortunately they have decided not to help anyone else but themselves. After discovering, within hours of their birth, the powers that they had, they all fled to different parts of the world. That is what necessitated the man who conducted the ritual to bring them to life, Henry Radcliffe-Gray, to start searching and killing them just under 400 years ago. He is now the Searcher General and commands the rest of the searchers. ‘

Cheers

Research…Will I ever like you?

· 6 Comments ·

Hello

Following on from my last post, which was two weeks ago, my fault, sorry, I have looked into buying a notice board. This may seem like a simple task but I don’t want to be buying notice boards all the time. This is necessary I can assure you. (I’m sure some of you are aware of this anyway.)

I also decided to dedicate a majority of last week to research. I have started to research certain parts of two of my stories, the story I’m currently writing which is my take on the vampire myth, The End Solution, and The Searcher’s Want, my hunter/searcher against demons for the fate of the world story I started, and finished recently, for NaNoWriMo.

For The End Solution, I’ve started by looking into the structure of the British Government. Specifically, who the Prime Minister has around him and why. I since discovered that he has around 21 members of parliament who act as cabinet ministers around him mainly amongst others. This has given me the headache of having to come up with possibly 10 new fully formed characters for this story as I don’t plan to need all of them in a complete capacity. And, along with having to write full character profiles for the ones already in the story, this is both bad and good. Bad, all that time it will take. Good, because I know I’ll enjoy it on many levels and it will help to advance the story greatly. Research…Will I ever like you?

For The Searcher’s Want, I decided to start the character profiles. Using the template I found in a post from writerdsnelson entitled ‘Profiling Blake’, I’ve discovered a lot about my characters and some things I can use to enhance their back stories, and create some conflict which I think the story needs, when I come to re-draft the story in the future. What I found out when doing this was some research, which I’d been neglecting about some of my characters, was sorely needed. For instance, one of my characters, the second oldest searcher named Abraham Smith, has been a searcher for 200 years. He became immortal at the age of 55 after being a searcher for 2 years. Now, this brings up all kinds of things when I’m writing about his history. Working out dates and things. It’s as exciting as it is frustrating. I think I’ve got the dates right, which I’m going to go over again just to be sure, to then find out I’ve missed one thing out. And I have to start all over again. Research…Will I ever like you?

I know I have to do research to make sure my story makes sense when it comes to location, dates and times of things, street names etc. But I think I’m just whining because it’s not as simple as I thought. I’m going to continue for the next week and I’m sure I’ll grow to like it. Here’s hoping anyway.

Well, to end this post and push me back into a research and character building frenzy, I’ll leave you with a question. How do you like to go about doing the research needed for any writing that you are about to do or are currently doing?

Cheers

 

 

A fistful of grammar.

· Leave a comment ·

Hello

So, I’ve continued to brush up on my grammar skills and as it turns out, I know more than I thought I did. Maybe in my haste to get my stories written I’ve chosen to forget certain aspects of the wonderful, if not very frustrating, world of grammar.

As I’ve been reading through the exceptional book, ‘Improve your grammar; Learn the skills, master the language.’ By Collins. (http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/7802960/Collins-Improve-Your-Grammar/Product.html?searchstring=imporive+your+grammar&searchsource=2&searchfilters=s%7bimporive+your+grammar%7d%2bc%7b91%7d%2b&urlrefer=search or http://www.amazon.co.uk/Collins-Improve-Your-Punctuation-Graham/dp/0007288069/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374611468&sr=1-5&keywords=improve+your+grammar) I keep remembering things that I’ve somehow forgotten or easily working out what I should be doing. I’m currently on the section dedicated to commas and all their forms. And if I’ve missed any commas so far or hereafter, I’m sorry.

This has also helped me with my editing and writing over the past week. I’ve continued with my take on the vampire myth and editing one of my older stories. The writing is coming along nicely, although as it’s going along I’m realising that I’m going to need to create a lot more for the world this story takes place in.

It’s a world in which the Prime Minister rules the country like a dictator. He has put in place huge, gothic, dark buildings in each of the main towns and cities across the country. These help him to keep a watch over a majority of it. He uses special employees or ‘Operatives’ to keep an eye on the small villages and day to day life that he can’t control himself. This, as you might imagine, creates a whole host of questions and a whole host of answers to accompany them. I’ll let you know how I get on.

On the other hand, the editing process has been more fruitful than I’d previously anticipated. I’ve always liked editing but after almost two years away from the story I’m casting my eye on, I’m chopping and changing stuff and really starting to be critical of myself. I know I’ll have to go back over it again and again (location, character, descriptions and so on) but if it’s possible I’m looking forward to it more than I ever have.

Well, that’s me for now. I’m going to get back to it. Hmm…How do I end this post…why not with a question?

If you could change one thing about the world today, what would it be? And don’t feel like you have to choose a nice, save the world, type of option. Just go nuts if you like.

 

Bye

 

 

The glory of the laptop.

· Leave a comment ·

Hello

I would like to start off by saying that I ticked off something from my bucket list this weekend. I completed a 10k run in under an hour ( 54 minutes 50 seconds ). I’m hoping to do next year’s run and try and keep it up for the next few years at least. Wish me luck.

Ok. As you may or may not know I’ve recently embarked on a quest to write two stories at once without getting confused. I’m happy to say that this quest is going very well. Writing two stories side by side (ish) is keeping my mind fresh and I haven’t found myself struggling to write any of them at any time. By that I mean I’m not just writing to get my word count up I’m writing what I feel to be good stuff. Obviously this may be all completely binned come the editing stage but I’m quietly confident.

As for the title of this post, I recently acquired a laptop which is going a long way to helping me to try and get a writing schedule that I can realistically keep to. Since the New Year I have wanted to keep some kind of schedule for my writing. This would (or should) allow me to write on a regular basis and to read other authors stories on a more regular basis as well. I have always enjoyed reading other stories and having the people who frequent the websites I use (http://www.protagonize.com being the main one amongst them) give me feedback. It’s mostly useful feedback I have received so far as most of them are in the same position I am.

My laptop looks is looking like the perfect tool to help get this done.

Just the other day, I found myself waiting for my food to cook and wondering what I could do. I felt like writing but knew that I only had a certain amount of time in which to do so before my food was ready. Then I remembered my laptop. Just sat there on top of my printer waiting to be used. I managed to write a full page for one of my stories which, though it could turn out to be completely useless, has got me a lot closer to being able to make that decision.

So, officially following on from my last post I have prepared a rough schedule for my writing. This currently amounts to whenever I post on this very blog I will look to participate more in the online writing groups I’m part of and the websites I’m a member of. On any other week day I will try to write something towards my two current stories. This all leads me to a question…

What is your current writing plan?

Good pie