Writing challenge from Incarnations of Immortality

I've been re-reading a book series, Incarnations of Immortality by Piers Anthony. I discovered this series about a decade and a half ago, while on a vacation in Florida with my parents.

On that trip I also recieved inspiration for the concept and words for a song I wrote called Magician's Plea, but that's another story.

Each of the books that make up the Incarnations of Immortality series contains an extensive Author's Note at the end of the novel. In the Author's Note of one of the books that I re-read recently, Piers Anthony discusses his writing schedule. I am, of course, interested in learning how other authors practice their craft. In this particular Note (Book Four, Wielding a Red Sword), Piers Anthony writes An average of two thousand words a day for two months covers a one hundred twenty thousand word novel. Wow, two thousand words a day for sixty days? That sounds like a lot.

Through a bit of experimentation, I have found that it takes me about ninety minutes to two hours to write two thousand words. Writing two thousand words is not the challenge for me; making up two thousand words worth of story at a time - now that is a challenge.

Progression #3

I'm playing with Progression #3 today:
Bb Gm7 F Eb Bb Gm7 F Bb

Just for something different, and because I gotta be me, I decided to do this one in 5/4 time, rather than the more common 4/4, 3/4 or 6/8 time signatures.

In standard 4/4 time, there are four beats to each bar. The first and third beats are accented - major accent on the first and minor accent on the third.

In 5/4 time, there are several ways of accenting the bar. For this exercise, I chose to put major accent on the first note and minor accent on the third. The timing does sound odd to my ear when I play back my demo, and the melody I came up with is suggesting I use a 6/8 time signature instead.

For most of the demos I've made so far for these progressions, I used a Grand Piano sound to play the progression and a Female Aah voice to play the melody. The result so far has been that, although each progression and melody is unique, they all sound similar in tone and style. At some point down the road, I'll have to start experimenting with different combinations of instruments and rhythms to get more variety.

Songwriting exercises revisited

Back in April I had found a book on songwriting. In this book I found a list of chord progressions and an exercise - to write a melody for each progression. (See Songwriting exercise) I dabbled a bit with this exercise, then got really busy at work so I didn't have much creative energy left.

I revisited those exercises this week, and worked on four of the eleven progressions. The effort has helped me deal with that state of lethargy I've been in the past few days.

One progression I particularly like is #4, which is:
G D Em C C Am Bm Em - G D Em C - G Am Bm D G.

I'm not sure what the dashes in the progression mean (I just copied it as written in the book), so I'm making up my own interpretation. I'm interpreting that the dashes separate the verse, chorus, and bridge. I've created a Reason file and so far I've worked on the verse (G D Em C C Am Bm Em).

Even though it's still in rough form, it already sounds very nice. J also likes that one best of the ones I've worked on so far.

Heat wave

It has been so hot for the last several weeks, everyone's lawn is drying up and turning yellow. Let me tell you, it is really freaky driving down the street and seeing all these lawns, even in the park, of yellow grass. Grass is supposed to be green! It feels like an episode of Twilight Zone, or like being on some other planet with alien vegetation.

Adustment, frustration and self-compassion

Having finished my recent work assignment and returned from my vacation to Sault Ste. Marie, I have more time on my hands now. So you might think that with all this extra time I would just go full steam on all the things I couldn't do before for which I was blaming a lack of time.

Logically that makes sense, but my motivation isn't tied into logic these days. I have simply slowed down the pace of my life. I feel too lazy and lethargic to do anything, yet too restless to do nothing. It is a frustrating state of being. I suppose my fear is that this state will continue forever and I will end up wasting my time away, wasting my life away.

Yet, perhaps I need to call upon my self-compassion, and accept that it is okay for me to be in this state in the present moment.

Did you write this about our childhood?

I was speaking on the phone with my sister tonight. She sometimes does graphic design, so I asked her if she could make a polished version of the Mission: Dawn insignia that I designed.

She said she could look at it when she has time, and asked me to email her my design. Well, I've already put a sketch up on the blog I set up for my novel-in-progress, so instead of emailing her a copy, I told her to go online and get it from there. She went to look for it while we were on the phone, and on her way to the relevant page she happened upon a scene I wrote recently called Bright of Sun. She read the first few lines:

"Knock on the door."
"You knock - you're older than me."
"I'm older than you so obey me."
"No! Just because you're older doesn't mean you always tell me what to do!"

When she read this, she asked me if this was supposed to be about me and her. She said it sounded like something I would have said to her!

That's funny. I wasn't consciously drawing on my own childhood when I wrote that dialog. But, come to think of it, that scene just came to me, just popped into my head, one day while I was driving home from work. I really liked that scene too; I liked the bickering between Nesta and Kitoyo. So, maybe my subconscious mind really was drawing on my own childhood when it delivered that scene to me.

Vacation Part 3 - Northern Lights Festival

In the final chapter of our vacation, we drove from Sault Ste. Marie to Sudbury. We didn't have to stop at all once we left Sault Ste. Marie - not for a stop sign, not for a traffic light, not for an accident or for traffic, or refreshments or washroom. Just drove for three straight hours until we reached Sudbury.

We stayed in a dorm room at Laurentian University in Sudbury. J found out about these accomodations when she was researching things to do in Sudbury, and that's when she learned about the Northern Lights Festival. It turned out that the campus accomodation was supposed to be for festival volunteers and performers only, but they gave us a room anyways. "We're not going to turn you away," they said.

Our room was on the second floor. There was one washroom on the second floor, and it was for females only. The men's washroom was on the third floor. Did I mention that I drove for three straight hours without stopping?

In the morning we heard that there was a breakfast at the residence, but we weren't sure whether it was supposed to be just for the volunteers and performers, and we were reluctant to crash it. Then we ran into one of the organizers, who is on the Board of Directors for the festival, and she invited us to the breakfast. So we went.

We met a few performers there. One was a fellow named Yann from a Montreal band named Genticorum. There was also a man we passed by in the hallway and I said hi to him. We later found out he was also a performer.

A shuttle brought us right into the festival grounds so we didn't even have to pay admission. I guess it was a worthwhile tradeoff - trading off a waashroom in our room for admission to this festival.

We watched several performances. During one of them, J recognized that the band leader was the same man we had passed by in the hallway that morning. He introduced the band - I didn't know how to spell it at first, but it sounded like Shaggy Dog. I found out later that the band is called Chakidor.

Chakidor had a really good, lively performance. Their sound was good too - it was clear and you could distinctly hear each instrument, Hey - people don't usually pay attention to the sound guy.

Vacation Part 2 - Touring the Soo

The hotel we were staying at in Sault Ste. Marie is called Water Tower Inn. It is named after a structure that stands in front of the building - it used to be a water tower. It is now defunct - it stands only as a landmark, and no doubt remains in order to justify the hotel's name. I thought it looked like an onion or a garlic; J thinks it looks like a turnip.

The hotel has a really nice pool area. It's part indoor and part outdoor. The outdoor part has a whirlpool but the swimming pool is all indoor. We swam a bit in the pool and then sat in the outdoor whirlpool, then went for breakfast.

We spent the afternoon touring the local attractions. We used the complementary vouchers that came with the package when we reserved our canyon tour.

We visited the Art Gallery of Algoma. There were lots of paintings there by the Group of Seven. There were also wind chimes at the gift shop. Nice ones. There was one called Pachelbel Canon in D. It's supposed to sound like the famous Canon. These chimes have a very sweet sound and an awesome resonance. I liked the Canon chime because it makes me think of the song I used when I made our Christmas DVD (Making Movies).

We also visited the Bushplane Heritage Center, an historic building called Ermitage House, and a museum. J got to play with a flight simulator program at the Bushplane Center. She learned how to take off but missed on the intricacies of a proper landing.

Towards the end of our touring we popped in to a smelly diner, which needed a renovation, for a late lunch.

Vacation Part 1 - Agawa Canyon tour

J and I got on the train, barely in time. It was supposed to be seven minutes from the hotel where we were staying to the train station, but our route was foiled by a section of street being closed for construction.

The first ten minutes or so of the tour was through the backyards of industry in Sault Ste. Marie. Some of the passengers made fun of the view, making fun of the promotional literature which had promised views of "lush" forests. Once we got away from the city, we did enter the forest. It was very, very green. For a large part of the tour, the trees were so high that they obscured a lot of the view. You couldn't see the lake for the trees. Despite that, it was a gorgeous ride, and I really felt like I was seeing a private and intimate part of the country.

At one particularly scenic spot, the train rounded a beautiful, large lake. It was a rare scene where the natural beauty of the land and the front of the train were both visible. I nearly collided with another passenger-photographer at the front of our car as we both jockeyed for position. The other passengers were amused by our little competition.

There were no signs, no traffic lights, no litter, no advertising along the way.

Chandler's day in the park

Our cat Chandler seems to have been not too well lately. He doesn't seem to have his usual appetite, he's been shedding a lot, and sneezing, and lethargic. We took him to a vet to check if there was anything wrong with him.

The vet didn't find anything physically wrong with him, which is a relief. However, we figured that maybe because we've been so busy the last several weeks, maybe he was upset that we haven't been around much. J's mom has been away quite a bit too, so he's been home by himself a lot lately.

Getting Chandler into the car to go to the vet or to the groomer to have his nails clipped has always been a major ordeal. He strongly resists going into his cage. This time, rather than trying to get him into his cage, J wrapped him in a towel and carried him into my car. He didn't resist at all - and J looked like she was carrying a baby. We took him to a nearby park. We were at the park for ten to fifteen minutes - we didn't want to overdo it. J held Chandler the whole time and he was totally relaxed about it; he didn't squirm or try to get away. I think he was happy we were spending time with him.

When it was time to go, J climbed back into my car with him. He went into his cage on the back seat by himself. I think that now he now associates going into the cage with going home.

When he got home, he went to his food bowl and finished it off - his appetite seemed normal. I think Chandler really enjoyed his day in the park.