GRIFF VS NANOWRIMO – THE AFTERMATH

 

 

 

I ended at 42,492… but that is by no means a failure.

GRIFF VS. NANOWRIMO– THE FIRST TEN DAYS

I feel lethargic and half dead.

DON’T TELL ME WHAT I CAN AND CAN’T DO

There’s always going to be someone that, for some crazy reason, doesn’t want you to succeed.

The first time it happened to me, unsurprisingly, was because I wanted to write.  No big crime, right?

You’d be surprised…

THE ERA OF CLOBBERIN’ TIME

 

Hello, friends!

It’s been all quiet on this particular front, as I’ve been busy doing the usual- working at the day job and lots and lots of typing.  I’ve been trying to get back into what I call “desk fighting shape”, where I am in prime physical condition to sit at my desk and work on stuff for long periods of time without going crazy or wandering off only to stand idly in the kitchen.  This involves honing my focus, eating lots of food before writing sessions, and a charged iPod.  A good selection  of movies always helps, as the worst background noise (i.e. if you lose the remote and the TV is stuck on BET or some crap like that) can derail the muse and make you want to dabble in self-lobotomization or some such. 

You see, Nanowrimo is almost here again, and I plan on winning again.

I’ve been entering the contest since 2005, but last year was the first year that I actually won.  I wrote the first draft of “Leroy Stacks: Book One” (no, it doesn’t have a title yet- I am a fickle bastard), and am not ashamed to admit that I tossed most of that bullshit out because it was, well, shit.  It was horrible. 

The second draft was easier, but still sucked.  I am my own worst critic.

The third draft is when everyone came alive and things finally clicked.  The world I created finally felt real and inhabited, and I’m giddy over what the future will bring with this story and these characters who now, finally, have lives on their own.  Part of what I’ve realized over the past year (and even more so during the past few months) is that, when it comes down to it, I just want to create. 

Concerning my writing, I’ve realized that I’m not competitive about it- I don’t see it as a race with other writers, it’s just simply something I need to do.  It’s just natural to me- it’s as easy as breathing, and with the modern technology, I feel like I have a way to do what I want with my work and be happy.  I can create my own universe and share it with others.  The sole fact that it’s mine makes me feel more powerful than I could have ever imagined.

Because, no matter what?

It’s still fun to me. 

Am I serious about it?  Fuck yes, I am.  Creating is what I do- that’s all there is to it.  When I don’t create, I turn into more of an evil, surly bastard than I am when the Redskins play football.  At the end of the day, I take my actual job very, very seriously… but, unlike the job that pays me, writing is fun for me, and always has been.  How can doing what you love not be fun?  It’s a gift!  It should be fun!

In other words, I love what I consider my actual job even though it’s not my day job unconditionally.

Like I said, it’s a gift… and it’s awesome each and every day.

But enough with the schmaltz- back to what I was talking about!

NANOWRIMO!

Last year I hit the 50,000 mark with about ten days to spare- once I hit it, I just kept going due to the fact that the word count no longer mattered, and the story could just go nuts.   Like I said, the bulk of it was shit, but it was a lot of fun. This year, I think I have a new goal.

Drumroll, please…

I’d like to hit fifty thousand words by November 10th… while I’m working a full time job and trying to be a normal human being.

I know, I know- there’s no way in hell that’ll happen, right?

Right.

That, of course, means that I will do EVERYTHING IN MY DAMN POWER to make sure it does.  It also means that I will need to come up with creative, quick dinner choices so I can scarf down some food and keep on typing away.

So, without further ado…

A NANOWRIMO DINNER RECIPIE FIT FOR A GRIFF

This Particular Meal:  Amityville Primo Pasta

Ingredients:

1.  A can of Chef Boyardee- doesn’t matter what kind.  Get your favorite.  Simmer it.  This means “cook it”, but I used a nice word.  Just cook it, will you?  Undercooked Chef Boyardee is NASTEEE.  Chef Boyardee is nasty, but if you undercook it?  NASTEE.  COOK IT!

2.  Chicken.  Any kind.  Just chop it up and cook it however you like.  You don’t want salmonella poisoning, do you?  COOK IT!

3.  Rice.  Make it.  I own a rice cooker, which is the greatest invention since sleep.  It cooks in the neato  machine, you see.  COOK THE RICE TOO, BUT NOT TOO MUCH AS YOU DON’T WANT TO BE SWIMMING THROUGH RICE IN THE KITCHEN IN ORDER TO GET TO THE FRIDGE.

Ahem.

Here’s what you do to “plate” the meal:

Step one:  Combine everything.  Season according to taste, because Chef Boyardee is bland as all hell.  Personally, I like sriracha because it’s awesome and works with everything.  Except dessert.  Don’t fuck up dessert, y’all.

Step two:  Eat.  Refuel yourself, because you have more writing to do.

YES, I EAT HORRIBLY WHEN I’M MOTIVATED TO KICK ASS

Naturally, like the title of this blog post says, it is the Era of Clobberin’ Time around here.  I will kick all asses that need to be kicked.  I will succeed, damn it!

This calls for a STATUS UPDATE!

STATUS UPDATE THINGIE

Since Nanowrimo is coming up, all projects have been put on the metaphorical back burner… except for three:

Untitled Leroy Stacks Book 1:  Soon!  Soon, damn you!  This will see the light of day sooner than you think!

The Great Zombie Rewrite:  Expect it first!  Expect it sooner than Leroy Stacks’ first adventure!  I’m completely serious about this!  Once it drops, you will be like “Uh, what?  Griff just surprised the shit out of me!”  BOOM!

Leeds Company:  And this is  the Nanowrimo project for 2011.  A supernatural kung-fu western tale with loads of heroic bloodshed.  Its’ origins date back to… 1998.  IT IS  A STORY YEARS IN THE MAKING AND I CAN’T WAIT UNTIL NOVEMBER FIRST TO GO CRAZY WITH IT.

BONUS TIME!

The following roller derby video is the team introductions for the DC Demoncats vs. the debuting Majority Whips.  This was a fantastic bout that came down to the wire, and saw the Majority Whips win by ONE.  FREAKING.  POINT.  94-93.  It was intense.

The voice doing the intros for the Demoncats (the team in the silver and red), as well as one half of the ensuing announcing… is mine. 

Needless to say, the DC Rollergirls are awesome and I’m proud to be announcing for them during this sixth season of what will be fantastic derby action.

 

UNTIL NEXT TIME

Follow Leroy Stacks on Twitter- he’s @LeroyStacks. 

Also, be excellent to each other.

GOOD BYE.

SETBACKS AND GOALS AND ME BEING CRAZY AT THE END OF THIS POST

Summer’s almost over, I learned that the Big Push never ends, and I got my heart ripped out and stomped on.  What a fabulous month and a half it’s been!

You’re probably wondering about the “heart ripped out and stomped on” part, which means I hooked you. 

Good! 

Long story short, I went for a promotion at work, did not get it, and have been enduring sheer hell ever since... and it’s funny what that particular professional setback did to me.  For a while I was consumed with a feeling of self-hatred and worthlessness- why was it that I consistently busted my ass and couldn’t catch a break?  Was I doing something wrong?  Why won’t anyone give me a shot?  Day in and day out, I asked myself these questions, and while I could assure myself each and every time that I had done the right things and that my time would come, I was still drowning in my own shame.  Co-workers openly wondered why I didn’t get the position, and I just shrugged it off and did my best to stay professional;  I still had a job to do, so I was a ranty, frothing, profane mess at home during my off hours. 

As I waded through the days, trying to find some sort of reasoning for continuing to show up to a job that I’d hit the glass ceiling at, I remembered something very important.  Something almost… prophetic.  Something that says volumes towards what my goal is and how badly I want it.

It happened, ironically enough, during the interview for the promotion.  I was talking about my approach towards how I would handle things in the position, I had a very distinct thought in the back of my head:

 I don’t want to be here.  I’d really, really rather be writing now instead of dealing with this.

Looking back on the whole spectacle (and trust me, it’s been quite the mess Professional Griff got himself involved in), that’s the one thing that sticks out to me.  Amidst the possibility of getting a new job and moving up in the company, getting more pay and better hours, I knew what I really wanted to do.

I knew what I should be doing.

I knew what I can and ultimately will be doing.

I know what I am doing from here on in.

Writing.

Sure, I still get angry about the whole ordeal- it opened up a can of worms that ain’t going back in the can, but at the end of it all, I got my purpose back. 

PLEASE ALLOW ME TO RE-INTRODUCE MYSELF

Hi, I’m Griff. 

While I get paid to do another job during the day, I’m a writer. 

What do you do?

STATUS REPORT UPDATE ON UPCOMING PROJECTS STUFF BECAUSE I’VE BEEN WORKING DURING MY QUIET RAGE

Untitled Leroy Stacks Book One – Draft Five!  It’s a comedic sci-fi romp!  There might be a sex scene or two!  Getting thrown at pre-readers when I want my heart ripped out again!  You better ketchup the shit out of that shit!

Untitled Leroy Stacks Book Two – Notecards are fun!  I got a plot!  There’s fighting and the zaniest reality TV show known to man!  Battle Royale meets The Jersey Shore!  Gotta finish the first one first!  Sauce it!

Untitled Leroy Stacks Book Three – This is now officially a saga!  Not a trilogy!  We are wrapping up a storyline and moving on to new adventures!  If this book was a movie, its code name would be “THE NOOB SAIBOT STORY”!  No one knows what that means but me!  After one and two are done, then comes three!  Put some pepper on it!

The Great Zombie Rewrite – I like zombies, yes I do, I like zombies, how ‘bout you?  Draft Three!  Coming to pre-readers when it’s done- they will then stab me in the heart!  Nuke it ‘cuz it’s cold!

The Leeds Company Saga – Young Guns meets Scarface meets Eight Diagram Pole Fighter meets Batman… IF BATMAN WAS A DEMON!  What the hell is wrong with my brain?  I don’t know but I like it!  Ongoing scribbling ‘cuz it ain’t done!  It’s an epic!  It’s gonna hurt when pre-readers tell me how much I suck!  Throw it on the grill and BURN IT!

A Van Helsing Project – The existence of Stephen Sommers’ Van Helsing has pissed me off so much that my brain screamed “WHAT WOULD JOO DO?!” at three o’clock in the morning.  I came up with this.  It’s got a Van Helsing in it.  And a Dracula.  And I re-read a lot of my books on Draculas, played a lot of Darkstalkers over the years, watched “The Warriors” a lot as “research”…  and it’s not what you think.  SPOOKY!  INTRIGUING!  Ongoing!  Cook my brain because it’s fried!

AND THOSE ARE ALL MY PROJECTS

Too many ideas!  Too many things to do!  I will succeed because there is no other option!

Yeah! *fist pump*

Thanks for reading!

THE BIG PUSH–A WEEK ONE RECAP

This past week has been fraught with mental peril and sleep deprivation.  If I believed in word counts- something that I officially stopped believing in this past week- then’d I’d be all like, “THIS IS HOW MANY WORDS I’VE WRITTEN!” but I don’t anymore.

I’m much more interested in the story this time out.  The numbers involved in telling it can go to hell. 

LEROY STACKS has turned into a bit more of a mercurial character than he was in the first and second drafts- in the first draft, he was a wet blanket of a man, always reacting and never really taking the offensive until HAHA NO SPOILERS HERE.  Draft #3 has turned him into a bit more of a social force to be reckoned with- he takes control and handles things his own way… sometimes with his fists (someone’s put on some muscle since their last outing), and other times just by saying whatever he feels.  I wrote a bit this morning that involved him at an open mic night after an interesting encounter at a local carnival that left him a bit romantically shaken up, and I found it funny, touching and a bit absurd that he let loose with a crazy story from his past in order to cope with the new, mysterious element in his life, but fun all the same.

I think “fun” is the keyword here.

I like this first story of his now because it’s become fun again.  I know how it ends, and I can’t wait to get to that moment.  I’m enjoying letting it play out the way it is in my head- something full fledged and real; the previous hundred thousand words or so spread over countless files have created an amalgam of a completed product in my head- I’m not cutting and pasting old stuff into a new files- situations and ideas that I merely sketched out before are being put back on the page completely whole as well as brand new, and I’m having a blast.   I used to hate this thing because I couldn’t get it out of my head, and I had so much that ABSOLUTELY HAD TO HAPPEN, and now?

Now, I’m okay with it.  I’m giddy at what the future holds for this particular venture.  As wacky as this tale is going to end up being, as long as I can tell it naturally, then I’ll be more than happy with the end result. 

I think that’s my ultimate goal with this project, to be honest.  It’s not about success or failure at this point in the game; it’s just about me being happy with what I’m doing.

I’m perfectly allowed to be selfish in that regard, right?

FROM ME TO ME: TIPS ON HOW TO SURVIVE THE BIG PUSH!

Hi Griff!

This is Griff, from June 30th, 2011, writing to you because tomorrow, you start on The Big Push! 

I’d like to remind you, Future Griff, that when you decided on this plan, you knew that it was going to be a great idea.  I mean, I’m the rational, past part of your brain that you will destroy over the course of the next thirty one days, so I think it’s up to me to make a list as to why you’re doing this.

Because, I know what Future Griff is all about. 

I know that you’re gonna get pissed about everything, hit a wall, get even angrier, yell at people at work, toss boxes around, and do all the stuff you usually do when you get surly.  When you start eating frozen Snickers at 5:45 in the morning before downing a glass full of Zipfizz, don’t say I didn’t know what I was talking about. 

Anyway, what you have to do is this- once you get mad, read this list.  It’s part inspiration and part reaffirmation.  Don’t forget to tell your friends on the Internetscope to shove this in your face when you start bitching!

It’s going to remind you why you’re doing this.

CUE THE BULLET POINTS

• You  have to do this.  It makes you much happier than when you don’t do it.
• Rotisserie Chicken Fridays will be even better and more awesome with a BRAND SPANKING NEW BOOK under your belt.
• Leroy Stacks is awesome and there will be many more adventures to tell about him… but you have to get through the first one.  Now’s the time, YOU BIG DUMMY!
• You are the baddest motherfucker on the planet, and will crush every worm-infested son of a bitch that tries to ride in battle against you.
• The term “FUCK ISM” will have a new, permanent meaning once this thing is done.  Only you and a few other people know why.  It’ll be time to share soon.
• You want to see if other people will laugh at the “Restless Leg Syndrome” scene as much as you do.
• The Cooking Scene.  Nuff said.
• You just bought that gallon jug for your reemerging water habit.  Don’t let it go to waste, you idiot!
• Sushi.  You want to reward yourself with sushi.  Lots of it.
• Goldbrook’s a pretty neat town.  Don’t you want to show people around?
• “A Slip In The Balance” is the title of the book.  Wouldn’t it be nice if there was an actual finished book to go along with it rather than over twenty files of stuff?  GET IT TOGETHER!
• The following video sums up how you feel about where you’re at concerning work. “…they say ‘you are what you eat’”.  Time to stop eating crap.   This is the first step.  Remember that.

 

 

• It’s important to note that the personal motivation you get from the video above will be lost on just about everyone.  That’s why it’s PERSONAL MOTIVATION, YOU BIG DUMMY!  CLICK ON THE LINK AND REMEMBER WHY YOU’RE DOING THIS.
• Dad’s the first in line to buy the book.  He already has a spot. He’s going to get to buy it once it goes up… SO GET IT UP AND OUT THERE.
• Mom asked if there was sex in the book because she read in the paper that sex in e-books makes money.  Mom’s HILARIOUS, isn’t she?  BTW, she’s gonna hate the sex scene and think you’re weirder than she already thought you were... but that’s okay!  YOU’RE GONNA FINISH THE BOOK!
• Be sure to warn your roommate that if he finds you passed out in the hallway, all he has to do is dump some Zipfizz on you and you’ll be revived instantly.
• It’s perfectly okay to keep The Transformers: The Movie on repeat while you write.  It worked in high school and kept you going, didn’t it?  Plus, you don’t have to rewind the damn tape anymore.  Hooray for technology.
• They’re all going to laugh at you if you don’t finish this thing.
• There will be a day when you freak out and start buying Muscle Milk from the store.  Just don’t drink it and be lazy.  Be active around the writing.
• You’re really going to enjoy tweeting during Attack of the Show because once it’s over, you’re going to hate getting started on your three hour writing blocks.
• The Chinese Food Bingeing Session of August 1st awaits.
• As you’re reading this particular note, you might have just bought one of those stupid ass 12 Packs of Tacos from Taco Bell, and are currently chomping down on crappy tacos and hating life.  Perhaps you’re thinking about completing a Loser Double Whammy and going to get one of those KFC Famous Bowls with everything in it later.  Skip the Famous Bowl, and enjoy the tacos.  Then get back to work.
• Once you finish this book, you are that much closer to explaining how CYBORG might have worked as the sequel to MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE as it was originally intended to be.
• He-Man would be so pissed if you didn’t finish this book.  As would Optimus Prime.  We can’t disappoint Prime- we’re infinitely better than that jackass Hot Rod.  He sounds like Judd Nelson and he sucks.
• You know a Doctor, and the Doctor wants you to finish the book.  Don’t let the Doctor down.
• You’re the best at what you do, and what you do is make shit up on your terms.  Your book, your rules.  Keep everyone else out of it.
• TITS!  Confused?  Looking around wildly?  Good.  FOOLED YOU!  Now, keep writing.
• And finally, the number one reason why you’re going to do this?  Because you have to go back.  You have to go back to Boston.  You have to walk into PAX EAST 2012 like you own the joint!
• PAX EAST 2012!
• PAX EAST 2012!

• PAX EAST 2012!

• PAX EAST 2012!

• GET TO BACK TO WORK!!!!!