November

***NOVEMBER***

I’ve spoken on the topic of National Novel Writing Month before, but I did so in a negative light. All this time I was convinced that my mental exhaustion would keep me from pumping out 50,000 words of a singular story within the month of November. Year after year I’ve opted to stay out of this particular challenge. But after having a heart-to-heart with my best friends Marie Krepps and Zero Urrea, I have a slightly different idea of what November is supposed to mean.

Marie disputed the idea of plotters having a disadvantage in this particular challenge. While it is true that I’ve got several ideas for a novel in my writing folder, none of them are planned out from beginning to end, chapter by chapter, scene by scene. Marie suggested that I participate in next year’s contest since a year is ample time to come up with a decent plot, especially something that’s supposed to be 50,000 words long. Of course, I could write the novel right away at that point, but doing it in November is an exercise in discipline and self-motivation since it requires daily attention to the task at hand.

Zero furthered the point of November being an excuse to write every single day. What he said after that put everything into perspective for this particular year. What I’m working on doesn’t necessarily have to be a novel. As long as I write something of substance every day, then the self-motivation is working. Therefore, for November 2015, my main writing project will be finishing my 50 story quota for Poison Tongue Tales. I have 41 stories already written, so I have nine more to go. Obviously, the other 41 stories were written before the challenge started, so I may be cheating a little bit. Other pieces of writing include reviews for books and of course, this journal entry.

You all know about my plans to write “Born to Die”, which is about the martial arts monk who challenges a bar full of mercenaries to a battle royal. My review for January First is live on all of my social media accounts as well as Amazon. The next thing I plan on doing is blitzing through Marie Krepps’ e-book “Love Me Today, Kill Me Tomorrow” and writing an honest review for it. I have only 180 more pages to read and it’ll be over. Right now, the book is looking at a grade between Extra Credit (five stars) and Pass (four stars). The sex scenes are hotter than hell. The vampire logic is well-done too. The thing that will ultimately determine the final grade, however, will be the attention to the topic of mental illness. January First paid great attention to schizophrenia to where it deeply affected me, therefore earning it five stars. We’ll see how Marie’s book plays out.

My attitude toward the month of November has changed significantly since having conversations with Marie and Zero. Plus, seeing my other author friends taking up the novel writing challenge is motivating for me as well. I may not be following every rule of the challenge to a tee, but it’s better than sitting on my ass and letting sleep apnea consume my brain. Let’s get some shit done!

　

***DARK FANTASY WARRIORS***

Now that October is over and therefore so is Villains Month, it’s time to start drawing some heroes from my short stories and novels as well. My next drawing will be of Brock Dempsey, the angry monk from the story that used to be called “Saggy-Maggie” and is now called “Maggie’s Wisdom”. An angry monk? Someone trying to reach ultimate nirvana is also a hotheaded dynamite shack? Luckily for Brock, he has a cute little puppy-duppy named Maggie to get him through it all. Before you ask, yes, Maggie is based 100% on my black and white Springer Spaniel with saggy jowls.

　

***HALLOWEEN***

Instead of going to New Orleans, I went around downtown Port Orchard and around my neighborhood with Reina. She was dressed as the female version of Finn from Adventure Time and I was dressed as a member of Slipknot. We both got a lot of candy like we set out to do. But the most rewarding part of that night for me was scaring the shit out of everyone around me. Little kids were crying and screaming in fear at my costume, but also because I slipped onto the rainy ground twice in the same night and unleashed a cataclysm of swear words in the process. As it turns out, my Slipknot mask has piss-poor eyesight, so that will be the last time I wear it for anything other than a photo opportunity. Next year for Halloween, I’m getting a mask without lenses, preferably of the Guy Fawkes or white sheep variety. All in all, it was a good night and I’m glad I got to spend it with my niece.

　

***MOVIE DIALOGUE OF THE DAY***

RANDAL: Jesus Christ, Elias! Step away from the deep fryer before you burn us all alive!

ELIAS: It’s not my fault you abandoned your post!

RANDAL: Was it too much to ask that you make the fries?! The machine does all the work! What, does a machine have to turn into a giant fucking robot before you take it seriously?! Go home!

-Clerks II-

National Novel Writing Month

There comes a time in every writer’s life, preferably every November, that he has to ask himself if he’s going to participate in National Novel Writing Month. It’s not an official contest, it’s just a challenge for all authors to pump out a novel before the end of November. You want to know my answer to this riddle? Not only no, but hell no. NaNoWriMo requires its participants to create on the fly. No preparation, no pre-writing, no planning of any kind, just straight up improvisation. I don’t operate that way. If I wanted to improvise so badly, I’d join the cast of Whose Line Is It Anyway? Or Second City, one of those groups. If I was to just drop everything I’m doing right now and write random shit I think of at the top of my head, not only might I get stuck in the middle of it, but my novel will suck. Call me a perfectionist, but I want my first drafts to be at least tolerable so that I don’t have much work to do when it comes time to edit. That’s why whenever I come up with ideas for novels, I have to do it far in advance so that everything’s planned out and nothing sucks. I’m currently writing a three-part novel called Brawl-Mart and it was planned out from beginning to end. I’ve finished parts one and two (Occupy Wrestling and Filter Feeder respectively) and all I have left of part three (Debt of Pain) is eight chapters of action. I would have completed the whole novel a lot sooner than anticipated, but lately I’ve been slowing down my writing schedule due to mental exhaustion and being bogged down by other projects. That’s another reason why I don’t participate in NaNoWriMo, because I can’t energize my mind long enough to get anything done in a timely fashion. It may take the entire month, it may take a whole fucking year. Either way, it may come out forced and therefore, it might suck, which is as I’ve stated before not what I want when writing a first draft. If anything, November will be dedicated to finishing those remaining eight chapters of Brawl Mart Pt. 3: Debt of Pain. And then after that, who knows where I’ll go from there. I have two ideas for novels sitting in my reserve folder as of now: Gangster’s Paradise (memoir of an anti-gang serial killer) and a nonfiction memoir of my life in middle school, high school, and college which I’m still debating the title of. I may develop more ideas beyond these and if I do, you all will be the first ones to know. Until then, I’m going to spend November doing essentially the same thing as everyone else: stuffing my face full of mashed potatoes and turkey. I won’t be watching any football since football is a boring sport with annoyingly loud fans. I’ll just stick to UFC and WWE for my athletic fix.

　

***MIXED-MARTIAL ARTS QUOTE OF THE DAY***

“The judges are giving out 10-8’s like it’s fucking Christmas.”

-Dana White on an episode of “The Ultimate Fighter: Team Nelson vs. Team Carwin”-