Writing Drive
Posted: Sun 10 August, 2008 Filed under: Domestic, Writing Leave a comment »Over the last few months, I’ve been thinking a lot about getting back into doing some other writing, rather than just D4D™ I’ve even started up a few things, but the thrust just isn’t there, and I don’t know why.
I do know that I’ve been fighting a dollop of depression again this year – again, for reasons unknown – and that that affects a lot of the writing side of things. And yet D4D™ keeps on getting written. Go figure.
Mind you, I know that even D4D™ has changed in style over the last couple of years – there are subjects I don’t bother writing about now, and others that have been written about more. I suppose that’s just the way things go, as we all grow up and change.
I do plan to do more writing – I’ve got the ideas, and I know I want to write them out, and see what they develop into – but it’s a matter of finding my way to getting the motivation again, and getting into writing again properly.
Six Years On
Posted: Sat 9 August, 2008 Filed under: D4D™, Writing 2 Comments »Ye Gods, I’ve been writing this rubbish for six years today.
Six years – 72 months, and somewhere around three-quarters of a million words.
As time goes on, I’m thinking more about putting D4D™ on pause for a while, during which I can put some more effort/discipline into writing other things. That might happen sometime in the next twelve months – but then again, it might not. Some of it just depends on how things work out for me with regard to work, location and the like.
All the same, six years of writing D4D™ Wow. Maybe it’s also time for a bit of a revamp – something else I’ve been thinking about for a while now…
English Test
Posted: Thu 3 July, 2008 Filed under: Geeky, Thoughts, Writing 6 Comments »The BBC has a 20-questions test on English (with Maths next week)
I got 20 out of 20. But then I’m
- Incredibly sad
- At least vaguely literate
How about you?
What’s Your Story?
Posted: Fri 20 June, 2008 Filed under: Geeky, Writing Leave a comment »Yesterday, following on from links by Tom and Laura, I entered into Waterstone’s “What’s Your Story?” competition.
The rules are simple – a story that’ll fit on a postcard, with a maximum of 600 characters. Due to the time-crunch in getting it done, (Yesterday was the last day for entries) I wrote the entire thing online, as I didn’t have time to print it, do it, scan it, send it, etc. However, that actually helped in a lot of ways, made it far easier to just get on with it.
When all’s said and done, 600 characters isn’t that much anyway. Although it’s an interesting (and, from the looks of it, popular) challenge to get an entire story into that number of characters.
I’ve no idea whether it’ll get any further, but for something approaching ten minute’s work, I’m not displeased with it at all.
Text after the link… Read the rest of this entry »
“Scarecrow” by Matthew Reilly
Posted: Tue 10 June, 2008 Filed under: Cynicism, Reviews(ish), Thoughts, Writing 3 Comments »While we were on holiday, I ran out of things to read – quite a shock to the system, it has to be said. Fortunately (and I use the term in its loosest possible sense) the place we were staying had some books as well. Unfortunately, the one I chose to read (as per the title of the post) was Matthew Reilly’s “Scarecrow“.
Oh. My. God.
If I’m being polite, I’d say that it managed to redefine my limits of “Worst book I’ve ever read”. I could even say that it managed the previously unheard-of achievement of making “The Da Vinci Code” look well-written and intelligent.
If I’m going back to being Lyle, I’d just say that it’s easily the biggest piece of shit it’s ever been my misfortune to set eyes on. It’s fucking awful. (And yes, I did finish the bloody thing. I’m really bad at admitting defeat with a book, even if it does suck the balls of dead donkeys)
You can see that Reilly really wants this book to be a film – it’s written in that style, and even adds emphasis and italics (and exclamation marks) to the bits you can tell he thinks would make good action scenes. However, even Michael Bay would decide that it’s fucking awful, and would make a rubbish film – and he’s the one who gave us “The Rock” and “Bad Boys, for fuck’s sake. Scarecrow really is that bad.
I don’t mind the odd thriller cliché – the last minute escape, for example. But Scarecrow managed to have about eight or nine of these last-minute “He just managed to jump out of the speeding truck in time” things – one is OK, two stretches credibility, but eight just makes you think “Oh for christ’s sake, get another idea. PLEASE.”. Or words to that effect.
All told, it was an execrable pile of festering donkey-shit. I hope to never read another book by the same author, even in times of desperation. If I wanted donkey-shit masquerading as fiction, I’d rather read the Daily Mail next time.