Writer's Blog: School Doesn't Prepare You For Life

Recently I've come to realise that school fails in some important areas. I'm now living in a full sized house. The house is in a bit of a mess. I'm finding it a little difficult to organising my too many positions, deal with bills, cleaning, calling a plumber or electrician and the general upkeep that a house requires.

I'm going to blame some of my lack of organisation on school. I know this may seem like an odd segue, and a bit of a leap, but hear me out. At its most basic school is supposed to prepare us for life. Primary school prepares us quite nicely. At the end of Primary School most of us know reading, writing, basic arithmetic and some science. This is a good start. When we go onto High School...

(Just to try and be clear High School is different in the UK to the US. In the UK High School is five years from the ages of 12-16)

...these subjects are expanded upon. Of course these skills are important but I would argue that we should also learn skills for everyday life. We should learn, organising of finances, house work, laundry, finding a workman (how to make sure they are reputable) cooking and so on. These are things that everyone will need to do. I'm 24 and I'm still struggling a little to fit all the stuff I need to do, alongside what I want to do, into my daily life.

Perhaps I'm just being a little pathetic but I still think I have a point. My parents gave me a degree of autonomy before I left home. In the last year or so (I can't remember exactly how long.) of living at home I was responsible for getting my own dinner and doing my own laundry. I don't mean to cast aspersions but I imagine that many people don't do this. It explains why there is this perception that young people, particularly students, don't know you to cook ad are unclean.

School does have Home Economics but its not treated as important. I understand the need to teach biology, physics and chemistry but the average person probably won't use it much. Every one will have to deal with bills, work/life balance, cooking and cleaning.

Since I've got a job I've been at work for at least twenty hours a week. There is good (Money!) side to this but with uni and house work it can be difficult to fit everything it.

As I write this I realise I would probably have more time if I watched fewer you tube videos. Anyway that's beside the point. To be clear I'm not talking about procrastination, though there is a fair amount of that, its just finding the time.

So to round off this ramble... Is this something school could teach? Could there be a lesson where a teacher explains methods of balancing ones life? Most people will probably work for forty hours a week, they'll need to vacuum and clean the house, do the cooking and then try to have a life. My life is writing and I don't do it as often as I would like to but that's a topic for another blog.

Writer's blog: 2012.04.05

Its an interesting thing that our friends in life are sometimes determined by a computer. If you live a 'normal life' you probably got to know your friends in school. Form classes in high school will be determined by surname. So if your name is Albert Aardvark you might never meet Zara Zebra - and perhaps Zara shares many interests.

I's a little strange, and maybe even clichéd, to say this but I think school is something you don't appreciate until its over. I miss the social aspect of seeing friends everyday. In those moments between lessons there could be fascinating conversations. You got to talk to a variery of people - people who you wouldn't invite to you Birthday but knew fairly well if only because of school.

Sometimes though school is the glue that holds a group together. As you get older you realise that you have little in common. The group of friends starts to form because of those original form classes. You make friends but you probably know people in other form classes from primary school. Those older friends have their new friends and somewhere along the line a new group forms.

I enjoy going out for a meal with friends but that is most of what we do. We have some common interests but I'm still a bit of an odd ball and what I'd like to do of an evening is quite different. I still have elements of teenage self-consciousness and would feel a little strange about inviting people over for games, either Wii or boardgames, as it just doesn't seem to be what we do. Maybe I should just try it and see what happens. Now that I write this I realise that we have sometimes met up for Balderdash which was great.

I'd like to find some satisfying way to conclude this blog but I'm coming up empty. I suppose the point is how, as an adult, do you make new friends? Its a strange thing and not immediately answerable. Conversations in work are about work and going to the pub by ones-self is, at least in my opinion, a little strange.

Slightly off topic I've recently joined a dating site. This is in the hopes that I can avoid the 'friend zone' or not being thought of 'in that way.' This subject will form the basis of my next post.

Writer's Blog: The Writer's Journey

I've recently read The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler. I say recently but it was actually last year!

I read this book for university. Its one of three books that I'm using for a scriptwriting essay. It is a book to help writers in the creation of their stories. There are two main sections to the book, Character Archetypes and Stages of the Hero's Journey.

Character Archetypes describes well known character types that we all would recognise. To give one example we have the archetype of the mentor. Obi-wan Kenobi, in the original Star Wars, is the quintessential mentor. He is the person who guides the hero on their adventure. The other archetypes are ones we would all easily recognise from out own favourite works of fiction. However these are not set in stone. Different mentors will have different mentalities and approach their mentioning in different ways. This is the most important thing to understand when reading this book. Vogler is giving us the building blocks. If the archetypes were followed to the letter it would result in a very boring and unimaginative film.

The hero's journey is also something most of us would recognise. The hero is introduced in their normal life, called the ordinary world, and at some point they embark on an adventure into a new and different world. To use Star Wars again this happens to Luke when he leaves with Obi-wan. Another stage on the journey is the refusal. If you know Star Wars you will know that Luke is at first hesitant to follow Obi-wan. However when his uncle and aunt are killed that refusal disappears and he sets off on an adventure. It is again emphasised here that this is not a direct formula for screen, or any other, type of writing. It is a guideline only. For instance Vogler places the refusal at the beginning of the story but this may come later or not at all. It The Princess Bride Westly is completely unwavering in his pursue of Buttercup and only has a refusal near the end of the film.

I recommend this book to any aspiring writer. The book skilfully shows how to build up a story and uses popular culture references so it is easy to see in a practical way. It also shows that this is not an exact formula and can be rearranged. This is something that I think films desperately need. I've seen so many films that follow the precise structure. The one where two people fall in love and it all seems so perfect and then one of them puts their foot in it. They say something stupid and it seems the couple won't get back together. It even happens in Shrek - when hallelujah plays. That's not to say this formula can't work, Shrek is brilliant, but I think it is over used.

Messy Humans!

Reports of my death have been greatly exasperated...

I know its a clichéd way to open a blog post after having been absent for so long. Since my last post I've been very busy. There was Christmas of course but the main thing I wanted to talk about was work.

Yes I have a job now. I finally have money coming in and face that horrible irony. You could call it Heisenberg's social calender. For going out with friends you need money and time. Before I didn't have the money - now I don't have the time!

In all seriousness it is good to have a job. I'm working at a shop in the restaurant. The job is varied between dull and hectic - I imagine that sort of dichotomy is the same for any job. One thing I've learned from this job is that people are very messy. The restaurant is supposed to be self clean but many people don't clear their tables. Sometimes they even put the sign that says 'Please clear your table.' on the tray! We get a lot of people coming with children. It makes me worry for the next generation as some people can't follow so simple an instruction as that!

The job pays the bills though and I'm able to fit in Uni work and other writing around it. I've hit a bit of a snag with my novels but I think I've come up with a way to plan and work on them better - writing a script.

I find that scriptwriting is easier than novel writing. So I plan to write a script to tell the main points of the story and then write the novel from that script. I've never been one to plan my work but I think that using a script as a plan could be a great help.

Writer's Blog: Christmas Lights

Have you ever seen the Christmas lights be turned on? I went last week and it is a strange thing. Before the lights were turned on there was the usual Christmas music but they seemed to only be playing the same six songs over and over again. I can't really blame them for that though. Often Christmas songs, or ones released around this time of year, have little to do with the season. When you take out the supremely annoying ones it doesn't leave you with many options. Having said that, they did play Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree - though that at least has the good grace to admit it's corny! So after this it came time for the lights to be turned on.

A celebrity who I'd never heard of was there to do the honours. From what I can tell this woman is so obscure she doesn't even have a page on wikipedia. Then while she was there giving her pre-turning-the-lights-on speech I couldn't help but notice one thing... Around her were many Christmas lights! Yes it seemed that someone hadn't got the memo.

...

I kid, well sort of. Pressing the button did turn some lights on and was the signal for the fireworks to begin but there were most certainly lights on before that. Is this a phenomenon present only in Britain?

Writer's Blog: Notes from a (small) Dwarf

I don't think I'm mentioned that I have a new web site: https://unstableorbit.wordpress.com/ I have been doing a lot on that site recently which is why there hasn't been much here. So I'm going to look at two books I've read since my last post...

Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson and Maybe the Moon by Armistead Maupin

Notes from a Small Island is a departure from the books I normally read as it is non-fiction. I read a few excepts from this book at university and so wanted to read more. I can't recommend this book enough it is brilliant.

The small island of the title is Britain. Bryson chronicles his travels around this island and reflects on many different cities. (I will admit to being a bit miffed at him missing Cardiff.) He has a wonderful wit and a great sense of humour. He is interested in obscure facts about people and places and generally has a high opinion of Britain. Particularly, as he is American, he reflects on the differences between the two countries.

'Just the day before at Skipton I had asked for a single to Manchester with a receipt. When the man in the window passed them to me he said: 'The ticket's free...but it's £18.50 for the receipt.' If he had done that in America, the customer would have said: 'What? What're ya saying? The ticket's free, but the receipt costs £18.50? What kind of cockammamy set up is this?' (P228)

This reminds me of something that happened to my father many years ago. I must have been, I don't know, twelve at the oldest. We were going to a museum or adventure park, somewhere where you had to pay to get in, and the leaflet had prices for adults and children. Since my brother and I were of an age where this was uncertain, at some places an 'adult' is twelve years old, my father phoned them. He asked the question 'How old are children?' and received the response 'Depends when they're born.'

My father has a great sense of humour so he appreciated this joke. It got me thinking though that for some people that joke could have caused offence. I have recently been working in a customer service role. It is interesting interacting with people. Sometimes jokes occurred to me but I wasn't ever sure of when the right moment was. It must be a great skill to be able to evaluate if a joke will be taken well. Jokes can so easily backfire. Either the joke is seen as somehow offensive, the other person doesn't get it, or they simply feel that now is not the proper time for humour.

To go back to the book this was a very good read. I look forward to reading more of Bill Bryson's works.

Maybe the Moon is a very different story. It is the tale of a dwarf actor. This character, Cadence Roth, stared in a film called Mr Woods in which she played the title character. However since the role required her to wear a rubber suit and she was uncredited she is not known for this.

The story is told in the form of a journal. Cadence believes that her life is of great interest and would make an excellent film. This is a strange story but I enjoyed it. The voice of the character is engaging and the story is compelling.

As a writer I find this to be a particularly interesting tale. If one looks closely not a lot happens in the story. I do not mean this as a criticism rather it is interesting the way a novel can form from a few simple events.

I recommend both of these books and hope that you enjoy them too.

Writer's Blog: Characters#2

Sorry about the extreme lateness of this post. Its been sitting on a tab in my browser for a long time. I thought I'd posted it - turns out I hadn't.

Chapter 5 of Writing a Novel looks to the subject of characters.

Characters are one of the most complex aspects of writing. Some authors describe how they can 'watch' their characters. Basically they know the characters so well that writing a scene about them is similar to the experience of listening to a conversation and just recording what is being said. I remember JMS saying that when writing a G'Kar scene he knew the character so well that he could just 'watch' and write what was being said.

I have not had that experience with my characters yet but it must be a magical thing. I even get into difficulties with how a character looks. For this at least you can cheat - well in a way. Sometimes I just simply search for an image of a person who looks like I want my character to look - then I just simply describe them.

Incidentally one of the best character introductions I've even seen is in Twin Peaks. Specifically the introduction of Dale Cooper. It is very simple. All he is doing is entering Twin Peaks and talking in detail about his expenses and, briefly, trees. Yet in that short piece, where he is speaking into a Dictaphone, we learn all we need to know about the character.

As with the other chapters this section gives a list of exercises to try. When writing science fiction or fantasy these sorts of exercises are quite complicated. If a character is living in a fictional world then, sometimes, everything about their life has to be invented. If they visited Mars you have to think of a good name for a city on Mars.

In the novels I have read the development of character is almost invisible. You reach the end of the novel and you know many details about the character but you can't always say how you know those things.

Writer's Blog: Graduating to Trolleys

My dad had the rather strange idea the other day. He suggested that I should wear a graduation robe to my pushing-trolleys job. It would be impractical but, as dad said, it would probably raise headlines. The point of this exercise was to highlight the of the job centre. I leave it to you whether you fill that gap with stupidity, short-sightedness or lack of caring. The point is that I have now attended the job centre with A levels and a degree and have noticed no obvious change in the opportunities offered. It makes me wonder how far the stupidity goes. If a person with a doctorate were to be made redundant and had difficulty finding work would they be given a trolley pushing job?

The point, that in a rambling and meandering way, I'm trying to make is simple. When a person is using the job centre their qualifications should be at the core of how they are helped. So a person with no qualifications should be given a different list of job placements to someone with qualifications.

To undermine everything I've just said the job isn't all bad. In fact were a vacancy available I would happily except it. It would give me an income, enough to pay the bills, and allow me to concentrate on my studies. Also being on one's feet and walking for so long is a great way to lose weight.

So I will be sticking with the job for the time being.

Writer's Blog: It Has Been a Long Time

I am now back online after quite sometime without Internet. Its funny how quickly the Internet has become so much of a necessity. When I first used the net there was only one computer in our house - my parents, brother and I all had to share. Now, between the four of us, we have at least twelve Internet capable devices. I was saying to my father the other day that I could, almost, manage better missing an arm than without the Internet. - I don't want to test that theory!

With my work placement still going on posts will be a little sporadic - till the placement ends or I get used to the routine - but I should be posting at least twice a week.

I also have a new site up - https://unstableorbit.wordpress.com/. On this site, which was created as part of my university course, I hope to put longer pieces of work.

I'll be back with another post in a few days.

Writer's Blog: The Internet and the Work Placement

I have been given a date when my house will once again have Internet – 7-10 working days. The problem is now my computer's unreliability. I'm currently sitting in the LRC at university and I'm supposed to have an Internet connection. For some reason this isn't working and my computer only seems able to connect to the router for short periods of time.

If you're reading this it means I found a connection!

I've had a job placement recently – I'm not sure I mentioned it. I won't say where it is for now. What I will say though is that it is a hard job. We're on our feet for nearly the entire shift and it mostly consists of moving trolleys about! I have another four days of this and the potential to continue for a customer service qualification. Though this is very hard work I am considering continuing with the placement. If nothing else the placement is very good exercise. They say that there is no job opening but maybe their will be in another few weeks. I find myself wondering if I was getting paid for this if it would make any difference to how I felt about the job – maybe.

Writer's Blog: Characters

Later this month I'll be posting the next segment of my analysis of Writing a Novel. This will be on the subject of character.

Before I do that I wanted to prefix that with a discussion of Summon the Thunder. This is a Star Trek book and it has, I believe, a bit of a problem when it comes to characters - quite simply their are too many of them.

The characters are reasonably well defined. However I find myself getting confused as to who is who, what species they are and on which ship they serve. Also, and this may just be laziness on my part, I get confused with the names. Mostly I just look at the peaks and troughs of the name, so a 'g' and a 'y' look smiler. Even two names starting with a 'K' can be confusing. Nevertheless the nature of the novel is that it requires many characters. It is slow to start but once it gets going it makes for an interesting read.

Writer's Blog: 100 Items

I don't know where my copy of 'Writing a Novel' is at the moment so It'll be a while before a post something else on that subject. In the meantime I just wanted to put up a quick post. This is about an article which I heard about second-hand hand.

It was about a man who decided to limit himself to 100 items only. This is something I want to try to do – to get rid of a long of my junk. I need to lean to be ruthless and throw away, or give to charity, a lot of the clutter.
In a couple of places I'm going to cheat however. For instance I have books, dvds, CDs and various filled documents (like bills) they will not be marked individually. So I'll have my library, my dvd collection and my CD collection as three items, my filing cabinet will also be one item. So I'm hoping to start by getting rid of one hundred items a day. I know that most days I won't make that target but it is a good thing to try.
Could you manage with just a hundred items?

Writer's Blog: No internet

I'm writing this post in a word document, well LibreOffice Writer to be precise, because I don't have Internet at home at the moment. You see – I've just moved house.
I've been living in bit of chaos recently as everything is moved. I've discovered that I have a hell of a lot of junk. I'm hoping to get rid of lots of stuff and limit myself to just what I need. Its funny but although I have lots of stuff, what I use on a day-to-day basis is actually quite minimal: Computer; desk; chair(s); phone; kindle; book(s), food and a few other things. Sorting is hard though and sometimes you come across an item and you don't know what it is, perhaps a lid off something, but you keep it because you think that one day you will find what it is the lid for.
I should say thank you to my mother at this point for her invaluable help in organising the knew house and my too many possessions.
My Internet connection will be transferred down to my knew house in about a week. Then I can get back to wasting my time again. Its quite funny actually – I'm rather enjoying not having the Internet it means there is much less distraction. You as the reader though will notice no disruption in my posts as I have scheduled several to come out over the next few days – at least I think I have.
In other news my Scriptwriting Master's starts tomorrow. Its at the wonderfully civilised time of 1000 hours so getting up will not be a problem. I'm really looking forward to this course as scriptwriting is my favourite aspect of writing. I will write about the first day and, using my parents Internet connection, post it on Sunday. Until then see you soon.

Writer's Blog: Writing a Nover - More Sub-plot Symbolism

This will be a quick run through of the remaining questions of Chapter 4 of Writing A Novel.

There are five more questions in this section.(Pages 46 & 47)

In the interest of expedience I'm going to skip over question 3. It asks about unwitting symbolic elements to the story and I don't feel I've much to say on that.

Question four is far more interesting. It gives three one line synopses of a story and then asks for thoughts on sub-plots. In brackets are the possible themes of the stories. I'm just going to look at one of them.

'An out-of-work actor impersonates a woman to get work, and becomes a soap-opera star (men are very different from women).' (P47)

Now I would say that if this is your story its probable going to be a comedy. (Though it would be interesting to see this as a serious story.) So that gives ideas of sub-plot. In this type of story the secret would be a big issue. A gay woman could fall for him, believing the disguise, or perhaps a gay man falls for him not believing the disguise - and all the while the poor out-of-actor is in love with the young casting director who may fire him if she finds out his secret.

As odd as it may sound I almost want to write that story now.

The last three questions are all about names. The name of the novel and the names of the characters. What is being emphasised here is that a different name can have a different influence on how the character is viewed. This is a personal thing. If, for instance, you were bullied for years by someone called Alex - then it is doubtful that you would name a character this. So the name of a character will never be right for everyone - just try and make sure it sounds right to you and isn't accidentally the same name as a, either fictional or real, famous person.

Writer's Blog: Masters.

Just wanted to give you all a quick update. I have been accepted on a scriptwriting masters at Glamorgan University. This is a two year part time course and I'm really looking forward to it!

Since this course is part time I should be able to work as well. I'm hoping that being at university will mean that prospective employers will know what box to put me in. A person on a master's course applying for bar work makes a certain amount of sense. Most of my work will be personal study.

I'll talk more about this after my first weekend (Friday and Saturday) of study.

Writer's Blog: Writing a Novel - Sub-plot and Symbolism

Looking again at Writing a Novel I have decided to look just at the 'Things to Try' section.

I don't know what the rules are about quoting a novel on the Internet. Yet it seems to me that mention of new laws being passed and silly legislation come up far too frequently.

So here goes...

These questions come from page 46 and 47 of the book.

The first two questions cover the main plot and sub-plot of a novel. I am working on two novels. My fantasy novel is Lord of the Rings-esk but, I believe, still quite different. So it doesn't have much in the way of sub-plots. Rather the story is all about people doing what they think is best and the consequences of their actions.

My science fiction novel does have sub-plots. Actually the issue with it at the moment is that I'm not sure what the main plot is. I have a protagonist and it is the story of her life. I have flash points - events that spur her on - but I'm not sure how to interconnect them. In case that's unclear you can't just have the big events in a vacuum. Say you're writing a novel of two people and how they became a couple. A reader may know that is ultimately what is going to happen but you have to have mundane aspects of life interspersed.

This character joins Astrofleet, essential Starfleet, and it is about her career. However she needs to be actually doing something - even though the story is about her and not the mission.

I have watched several documentaries on Royal Navy ships, which gives something of an idea, but in my universe a lot of the day-to-day work can be done by robots. So if anyone from the navy, any navy, happens to stumble onto this could you answer a question for me? Say you're home port is in Portsmouth and you're deployed to the Middle East - on that journey, aside from drills and such - what do you do? I'd imagine that whilst travelling around friendly waters there isn't that much.

One thing I'm slowly discovering about a novel is that it doesn't have to be about anything. I'm reading Looking for Alaska at the moment. Its a good book but actually not a lot happens. Its a difficult thing to explain. There are a few actual events but mostly its people smoking and drinking. The character's are clear though and the first person narrative is very helpful.

Writing is a strange thing.

Writer's Blog: Looking For Alaska

Three days ago I finished Looking for Alaska. It is written by John Green. In other words this guy.



In case you are unfamiliar John Green is one half of the Vlogbrothers . Their videos are very good but this post is supposed to be about the book.

Looking for Alaska is a excellent novel. I won't write up the blurb here because it gives too much away. It is the story of Miles Halter who goes to boarding school and meets Alaska Young. There is a definite story here but what I find interesting is most of the actual scenes are just the group of friends talking, drinking and smoking. Yet from this, and the pranks they play, we get to know the characters.

With every book I read I lean something knew. This book has showed me that a story can easily be formed by chronicling every day occurrences.

Now I'm reading Star Trek Vanguard - Summon the Thunder.

Writer's Blog: Sorting Through The Pictures

My father has been setting up backups for me recently. The website we're using is called Spideroak. In a shameless bit of self promotion if you need backups you could consider Spideroak and, if you used this link I'll get more space!

Anyway enough of that. The point of this post is that one of the things being backed up are my photos. I don't take many but have a few hundred collected over the last few years. As I've said before photos are important to a blog so I'll be using some of them for future posts.

That's all for now - more posts coming soon.

Writer's Blog: Long Time No See

Its been nearly two weeks since I last posted. I wish I could say its because I've been doing a lot but that would be a lie.

I did spend a week in Tenby and utterly failed to take any pictures! My family go to Tenby every year. Its a great place but somehow this year it wasn't quite as good.

I'm quite an intense person. I don't relax very well and am always concerned about the next thing I have to do. When I go to Tenby it is a time to relax. Its almost magical how wonderful the feeling is of being in that place and feeling that their are no troubles in you're life. This time however it didn't come.

Don't get me wrong I enjoyed the trip but the feeling of relief was never quite there. I think I know why that was. I was aware that it was another year in Tenby and nothing had changed. I kept hoping that one year we would go and I would have a job. Therefore I could afford to pay my way a lot more and really contribute to the holiday. Still I have no job. (If not a job at least a girlfriend.)

I do have a degree in Creative and Professional Writing but I've yet to find a job that specifically calls for that particular qualification. It may be that one doesn't exist. So I'll continue looking for work and working on my novel.

I'm sorry to be such a downer - I sound worse than Jack Dee - but I see to be flipfloping between being silly happy and silly sad.

There will be more stuff to come this week. I'm hoping that that will include some pictures from Birthday.2 on Saturday.

Hope you have/have had a great day.

Writer's Blog: Uncomfortable Chair

Once a fortnight I have to go into town to go to the job centre. Usually I stay in town for the rest of the day and find a place to sit and write. I don't want to have to pay to do this so I go to Cardiff Central Library. Let me tell you something...

Cardiff Central Library specialise in the most uncomfortable chairs known to humankind! These chairs are hard, inflexible, they bow inwards, and there aren't enough of them by sockets. Some of the chairs have little tables attached to them. I've tried using them and the table never quite seems to be in the right position - also these mini-tables seem only just big enough for my tiny laptop!

I have only a vague memory of the previous library. This was at a time before I discovered the wonder of books. That library wasn't pretty but it was packed full of books and proper chairs!

When I have the money I'm going to buy a really nice chair from Staples. At least it should be really nice - the one I have my eye on is around £200!