And Then, Bleary Eyed, I Realized I Had Come Home

Holy shit it's be a long time since I posted in here. You may wonder why. I tell you this: Locution's blog OWNS MY SOUL. :(

So, to summarize what has happened recently:
1) School year ended. I got A's and B's, thus maintaining my gpa. Yay!
2) I officially head to Edinburgh for a year of student exchange in September. Yay!
3) I'm currently spending my summer at my mother's place where I know nobody. Boo!
4) I'm waitering again. Boo!
5) My first novel-length project is underway.

Since this blog is supposed to be about my writing endeavors, I'll talk a bit about the last point. Chapter 1 is on it's second or third draft (not quite sure at this point) and I start Chapter 2 today, I think. I don't really have even a working title for it yet, but in my head I call it "Necromancy." That will very likely not even turn into the working title, but I don't have anything better at the moment.

I learned a bit from what I was trying to do last time I "started" a novel-length writing project. That time I spent too much time trying to figure out the world and then try to find a story in the world. Admittedly, I came up with a pretty interesting place, but world-building is not story-telling. It is part of story-telling, but only to the point that the story requires the world to be built.

How do you know where that point is? Well, start writing your story and when you come across something that needs the world to be fleshed out a bit, go flesh it out. For instance, I started writing the protagonist and his mother's arrival at a village and I realized that I wasn't sure what a medieval village would look like. And then I wasn't sure if I wanted it to be medieval, Saxon, or Elizabethan. So I went out to the library and picked up a few books, started taking notes, and resumed writing. Now I have an idea of what life was like back in the 11th to 17th centuries (and a bit about life before then, too). Will it all be used? Not at all, but that's okay. I was able to get on with the story and that's what matters.

I'm also learning to not be too caught up in editing. I want to edit the fuck out of this first chapter that I have, but I'm afraid of losing momentum. So today, I'm going to edit a few lines and then start writing Chapter 2. That's how I got even a first draft of Chapter 1 out, so that's how I'll do the rest of the book.

I am noticing, though, that it's gonna take a long fucking time to get this thing written. And I don't even know if the story is going to be any good. Is it all going to be a waste of effort? I'm not sure. I just have to believe that writing this story is worth something and that when I'm finished, I'll be satisfied with it. Of course, I worry that after this summer I won't have much time to get any writing done at all. Socializing, going to school, and trying to write a novel at the same time is difficult. Doing even just one of those things to the best of my ability is difficult, let alone all of them at the same time.

Anyway, I apologize again for the absence. I can't say they won't happen again in the future, but I will try to keep returning, too. 'Til the next time.

~Marrow

Testing, testing, 1 2 3

Lol! So, I was filling out this stupid survey thing from Facebook (because I saw it and kinda felt like it) and I got to the last few questions. The correlation between question 8 and question 9 was just a bit too funny for me to not show somebody this. I don't want to post it on facebook, though, in case Hannah actually gets angry at me. So instead I'm just going to post it here and lol my way to eternity. Enjoy~

(Btw, the bits in italics are examples of the definition given. And yes, these are all actual definitions on urbandictionary.com. And no, I did not upload any of them myself.)

Rules:
--Go to urbandictionary. com and type in your answers to the following questions.
--Post a definition it gives you.

1. Your name? Jeff
a fabulous name, anyone who has it should be proud, spontaneous (good in bed) ;) usually very sexy tall & thin (except for the few UNLUCKY Jeff's out there)

DAMN BITCH! Jeff is so fine

2. Your age? 21
The age at which one is finally considered human.

3. One of your friends? Paul
To get drunk then try shaving your balls, but in the process cutting the sack.

Oh fuck! I just pauled my nuts!

4. What should you be doing? Writing
a kind of love that thats annoying as hell and makes you want to pull your hair out. It keeps you up and night, and it makes you think about the world entirely differently. Its a passion that is unlike any other. It overides everything in your life.

What do I want to do with my life? I want to be writing.

5. Favorite color? Red
1) a communist
2) CCC tablet (Coricidin, OTC anti-tussive medicine)

1) "You reds!"
2) "He passed out on 48 reds (!)"

6. Birthplace? Mexico
1) Beautiful country full of rich culture and kind people.

2) Where my self serving, cheap skate in-laws keep their half million dollars to avoid paying U.S. taxes.

My in-laws go to Mexico to get rich and live off of the poverty of the people while ignoring their own family in the states.

7. Month of your birth? February
the best month ever.. every person born in this month is a true pimp and gets all the guys/girls

dude i love this month, february is the best

8. Last person you talked to? Hannah
a girl with class, grace, poise and elegance

Audrey Hepburn was a real hannah.

9. One of your nicknames? Marrow
Hannah's favourite toy.

Hannah was really getting off on that marrow.

10. Your favorite drink? Cuba Libra
An alchoholic beverage consisting of Rum and Coke with half a lime in it.

"Man my head is minging today,I'd better have a CUBA LIBRA to sort it out.

Dreams of a Sheep

Hey guys. Just stopping by for a quick shout. I don't really feel like writing something long. I do have a poem, though, that people seem to like. It's not a serious poem (obviously) and it was written in like 20 seconds, so I doubt that it's actually any good. However, I also realize that I have no idea what "good" poetry is, so I don't mind posting this here.

Just before that, though, I want to rant and rave about how much I fucking hate it when people are untimely. I always make an effort to be on time and if I'm going to be a little late, I let the receiving party know that I'm going to be late. I'll even give an estimate of how late I think I'll be. So, I was supposed to meet up with someone today and four hours after my third text message, I still haven't heard from them. My time is important to me, so when people waste it like that I get really annoyed and start ranting in my blog. Not good! I don't mind if someone is a little late, but just fuckin let me know. If you're going to cancel altogether, also fuckin let me know. I'm not going to be angry. I don't know how to hold a grudge. (As a matter of fact, I doubt I'll be angry with this person the next time I'll meet them exactly because I can't hold a grudge.) It just fuckin bothers me.

Anyway. Here's the poem, entitled Dreams of a Sheep

Baa! Baa!
Beware you humans
with your pinkish fleece.
One day we'll shear you
and then it will be
Ahh! Ahh!

~J. Marrow

Four; A true masterpiece

I wrote a poerm today. It's for the ESU (English Student Union) Poetry Massacre. People bring bad poems to a bar and read them out to the thunderous boos of the crowd. Then, they go drown their sorrows in three dollar shots and free pool. It's going to be great fun. Anyway, here's the poem I wrote for it (in all of thirty seconds :P ).

Four

1.
2.
3.
4.
Where went the five?
It went out the door.
All we've left is this quartet
at the poem's floor, 4.

Boo!

Heeeeeeeeey! Guys, guess what? I'm writing for the Locution Blog now! Yay! Go me! Go team! Wait... there's no 'I' in team... forget that one. Go me!

Srsly. I don't have anything to say yet. But I will say things. Oh yes I will! There will be many things said. Maybe even stuffs. Maybe even RELEVANT things and stuffs! I know, hard to believe, but it's possible.

Link is added to the side as of two minutes from the posting of this. Because I'm awesome like that and can see into the future.

~J. Marrow

Blooming Retarded

I'm angry. You know why I'm angry? Because Harold Bloom doesn't reference! What the fuck, man? Here I am trying to use you as what you're supposed to be, a prominent scholar, and I can't because you don't tell me where you get your damn ideas from. And then you don't support your ideas, so I'm left to tango with your ideas and guess at conclusions because you don't explain yourself. BLAH!

Hamlet: Poem Unlimited is anger inducing. And please, if you ever read this, Harold Bloom, never use the word "impostume" again. Especially not as the title of one of your damn chapters. It's an OBSOLETE word. Realize that already!

~J. Marrow

HOLY CRAP IT'S COLD

Hey. I haven't written in a little while... sorry for anyone who actually checks this thing (don't quite know why you would, but it's your time). I've been doing a lot of reading. Let's see if I can remember it all...
- Neuromancer (William Gibson)
- King Lear (conflated text)
- In The Skin Of A Lion (Michael Ondaatje)
- Random selections of Aristotle from De Anima, Generation and Destruction, Physics, and Metaphysics
- Parable of the Sower (Octavia E. Butler)

I think those are the biggies. I read some short stories here and there, but no way do I remember their names or authors. Tomorrow I'm going to read Dry Lips Oughta Move To Kapuskasing by Tomson Highway. It's a play about natives in Canada and the effects of the culture clash with the White culture. So my Canadian Lit class tells me, anyway.

Other news... Oh yes! I got into University of Edinburgh! Next year I'm going on exchange there for the 2009-2010 school year. I'm super excited about that. I wasn't sure if I was going to get in, but I did. Obviously. Anyway, have to fill out a few more forms and then it's all done. It's very exciting, take my word for it.

I've also been working on a couple short stories. I ran into some severe blockage that stopped me from moving any further, so I posted them on the locution forums. I had a bit of a talk with Meristele about them and now I think I'll actually be able to continue them. I just need to get the reading and essay writing out of the way first and then I'll go nuts. Though I might write a bit anyway, because since when did I necessarily do the logical thing? ... >_>

Aaaaanyway. That's it for now. Well, it's INSANELY FUCKING COLD OUTSIDE, but that's neither here nor there. Well, actually, it is here (when the heat goes off). And there (places that are not here). So I guess it is relevant...

Whatever. Ciao, folks.

~J. Marrow