Part-Time Warlord

I have always enjoyed teaching and passing along knowledge to those around me who are willing to listen and learn.  From teaching Sunday School at church to teaching new recruits at my law enforcement job, I have always liked doing that.  I have been told by those I taught that I was more often than not their favorite teacher.

I now have the opportunity to teach my eldest sister the tricks of the trade regarding creative writing.  She has often taught me valuable lessons.  Now, I have the opportunity to repay her.

She has already told me that she is not going to write fantasy and sci-fi.  She likes human relationship stories.  That’s fine because it takes all kinds to keep the old world twirling.

It has been a while since I have blogged. I apologize for that. I have been creating content for my first novel and living life in general.

I have a writing coach now. She lives in the UK and she’s amazing at what she does. One of the things we agreed that I should do is put up a bulletin board close to where I do most of my writing, which is in the rocking chair in the living room. On said bulletin board I should attach things that might be conducive, inspirational, and otherwise might contribute to good writing. I already have a bulletin board. My wife gave it to me for Christmas a few years ago. I just need to move it into the living room.

I included a photo of the legendary Lynda Carter as my blog’s illustration this time because that poster was one of four I had hanging up in my bedroom when I was a kid. The other poster featuring Ms. Carter was of her dressed in her Wonder Woman costume. The other two were of Farrah Fawcett from the original Charlie’s Angels. The one above featuring Lynda was my favorite. With that being said, I do not plan on putting the featured photo on my bulletin board. Why? Well, it was okay to have that poster on my bedroom wall when I was eleven, but now that I am a married adult, I don’t think that would be prudent.

“Then what are you going to attach to the board?”, you might be asking. Since the story is going to be a space western/police procedural, I plan on putting pictures of the agency badge and patch I have designed, illustrations of a few of my main characters, artwork of the animals that might populate the planet in my tale, and a couple of inspirational quotes regarding creative writing.

Have you watched any of the police procedurals/crime dramas on television?  Law & Order, Chicago PD, or, if you want to go way back, Hill Street Blues?  Remember the large bulletin boards or dry erase boards in the detectives’ office area?  The ones that take up a whole wall?  Well, real law enforcement investigators do actually use those.  On them they attach photos of victims and suspects, crime scene photos, as well as notes about what has already happened and what they think could potentially happen in the near future.  I want one of those for my writing.  I have a modest-sized bulletin board my wife gave me for Christmas a handful of years ago, but it is a bit smallish for what I would like to use it for.  Mind you, I am grateful to have it, but bigger is better as they say.

I used to utilize one of the bedrooms as an office/study, but my older son has claimed it as his own.  Since I now do the lion’s share of my writing on my laptop computer while sitting in the rocking chair in the living room, I hope to soon relocate the aforementioned board from my son’s room to the living room, with my wife’s permission or course.  Ideally, I would like to have an office in an outbuilding equipped with a doggie door so the pooches can come and go when I am out there working.  To wish in one hand and spit onto the other, we all know which one fills up faster.    

I know I can attach photos, type down notes, as well as pin maps and location illustrations onto various features on my phone and laptop as well as on sites such as Pinterest, and I do utilize those things for that.  The fact of the matter is I’m old school.  I would like to have a bulletin board to place photos of my characters and whatnot onto so I can look up and take it all in at a glance instead of closing this app on my phone to open a different app for another feature.  I guess the truth of it is I am just being a crotchety old man by yearning for something I think would be better for me.  I know I need to appreciate what I already have and make do with what I have at hand.    

I realize I have not written for my blog in quite a while, so I decided to fix that.

I have been circling the airfield, so to speak, regarding working on a new writing project. I wanted to write my sci-fi tale about the Davnogar brothers and their bounty hunter outfit for a while, but I did not know what direction I wanted the story to go. In a prior post, I discussed my need for boundaries in my writing. I have to have a clearly defined border to work inside. That is where plots come into play I guess. This need for borders and boundaries goes against the grain of my pantser side. Somehow I have to figure out how to set up a good plot and still be creative by the seat of my pants for the pantser in me.

Since I essentially want the tale to be a “space western,” I have looked at various forms of media for inspiration. I considered the television series “Firefly” and its subsequent movie, “Serenity.” I also checked into Osprey Publishing’s table-top wargame Stargrave. With that being said, I think I finally have some worthwhile inspiration for my potential book series.

I took some much needed time off from work this week. Went to Mississippi to visit my eldest and middle sisters. I had a lot of fun and was able to perform some acts of service for my family. Discovered a new-to-me author, Darcy Coates. Love her work. Went out into the Gulf of Mexico and ate at a seafood restaurant out on the water.

Now that I am back home in Texas, I plan on getting some content written for my book since I have a whole second week off.

After reading about the pros and cons of having a prologue, I have decided to not include one in the novel I am writing. Apparently, most readers do not bother with them. Why put forth the work into something that possibly no one at all is even going to read? I think this story will be better served by placing what would have been the prologue into a Chapter One that happens years before the events of Chapter Two.

I apologize in advance to prologue fans worldwide for my decision.

The title of this blog post is a bit misleading. I’m not referring to personal perfection. I’m talking about attempting to write the perfect story.

I have struggled for a few months with creating the opening scene of my first attempted novel. The reason for the struggle is due to the fact I have been striving to write the perfect first paragraph to the perfect story. Because of that quest, I have not written much of anything. That fact is embarrassing to think about and even more so to read in print. I did not even realize why I was so creatively stagnant until a good friend rattled my cage regarding the issue. He basically told me to quit trying to write the perfect story. Just write the story and the characters will eventually take over and it will effectively write itself.

It’s good to have good friends who are not afraid to be honest.

All is well. I guess the weather, as well as new medications, were messing with my emotional and mental health. That is all. Carry on.

I haven’t written anything creative in at least six weeks or so. Because of that, old demons I had hoped were gone for good have returned to visit.