Shadowed Contractual Agreements

     I’ve noticed something about the muse, and I’m sure as writers everyone here has one. Sometimes, she’s a roaring lion, other times she as soft as a lamb and just as quiet. Since my injury that I received almost two weeks ago, my muse has been pretty quiet. But, at the same time I think it’s because she knows that I’ve been injured. Not a whole hell of a lot of things you can do while you’re injured especially when it deals with your wrist, as well as dealing with your shoulder. The whole typing thing becomes incredibly hard to do and since I’m left handed and not right handed (Thank God) I found that I think it would have been easier to just write things out. But even then the Muse seems to be sitting in the back of my mind with her hands up holding them up in front of her and going in an up and down motion for me to just quiet down and sit there. This startles me very much. Never, has my muse been this quiet or willing to let me do something other than rest and not work on any of my current projects. It’s been nice though, to sit and find some other things I can work on while my right shoulder is on the mend. It wasn’t till about a week ago that I was cleared to not have to wear the brace. Oh boy, you would have thought that was some kind of flare sent up in the darkness. That, like the loving Gym coach that the Muse had been before the injury had respired to life. I could almost hear her asking me ‘Oh your hands are both free? Guess that means they are good enough to pick up the electronic pen and get back to work’. But at the same time we reached a pretty subtle compromise.
     Even though I was down an arm, with limited mobility to do anything I found that I could use sticky note pads (I know, I know, things of the past right?). I used these and jotted down quite a few different story ideas. Though some of the ideas didn’t really revolve around the Wolves, and my furry friends the other ideas coming to me where just as wonderful and I am looking very forward to getting a chance to let everyone read them. As a writer it never seems like my brain ever takes a break about not exploring different possibilities. The best kind of metaphor I can give is like a bank thief attempting to rob a bank. He decided one day, on a whim to just walk into a random bank and rob it. After getting back to the safe (Using the old pointer finger in the coat routine might I add) he simply stairs at this big metal monster. These metal monsters that is so large, and so in charge that he now realizes that he’s in over his head. Then his best method of trying to crack this safe is to use the old vintage idea, the one thing that never fails, and you can always get the safe cracked! Insert heavy gasp of breath with the finger in the air here folks. Listening to the internal gears of the safe. My mind feels like that all of the time. I’m constantly attempting different combinations of things from ideas that I already have. For instance, I could match up characters fine, setting fine, the plot is the thickest thing to try and weave after that point. Sometimes, I take away from the plot to make it a little less dense, a little less complicated, and overall a little more fun for the reader. But on the other hand, sometimes I find I add plot, I add complication, twists, suspense even when it’s not needed to keep the reader guessing the whole way through. I know the rush I get when I have watched TV shows or movies and a twist and turn in plot is presented I find myself going ‘Whoa! That’s cool’ right along with the folks.
     The one thing that the Muse and I can come to fully agree on, and this is where the title of the blog fits in. We find it mutually wonderful when we go on car trips. It could be thirty minutes from here? It could be six days from here it doesn’t matter. I asked my wife tonight about this, curious if it was because maybe the change of scenery was better? Or if it’s just for the simple fact where we went today was also where I grew up, born and raised. But with that said as well I find that if I go higher up into the mountains, less populated places, lakes, camping, any of that kind of thing the Muse and I get along wonderfully. She breaks out of the Gym teacher mode and instantly wants to become my friend and confidant! Anyone else have this kind of an issue when it comes to writing? Maybe it’s the fresh air and the change of scenery that helps shake off the cobwebs of the same day to day same ole, same ole writing room. I’ve got a lot of family up in the mountains, maybe what I need to do one of these days is just pack it up and spend some time in the mountains for a week and just settle in and do some writing there. It’s worth a shot. What do you do to help enhance the creativity to write? Or, is it one of those things that you have to be in the mood to do so; and does it have to be more centrally located to you as to what the setting in the book is (I.E. Big City, Cattle Ranch, etc.) Please feel free to comment below in the comments and share with the rest!

Writer's That Double As Gamers!

     So, today after I’d posted about Diablo III and that I was an avid gamer, I felt compelled to go ahead and write a blog about it. Now, that I can actually type again. The injury had me cornered for about a week, including doing the edits to my book and writing on the newest venture I’d taken on with my Wolf. It feels good to be back in the saddle again and back at the writer’s desk. I don’t think I could have taken it much longer. I’ve scaled all of the wonderful walls in my house; I was running out of room. If I’m going to be scaling any kind of mountains it’s going to be out in the wilderness with my characters; not within the confines of my own house. While I was down and out, I found myself turning more towards the huge stack of games that I have for the Computer as well as some of what most people call the ‘Next Generation’ consoles (XBOX360, Wii, Etc.) to help pass the slow ticking time. I’ve always been a bit of a gamer but with my busy schedule I’ve always found it very hard to sit down and actually get anywhere in any of the games. But because of my injury I was not allowed to move said limb and to keep it immobilized, hence came fourth my ‘clicking finger’ of destiny. That not only helped with figuring out taxes, building new cities, and keeping the evil Trash monsters away in Sim City that knocked down almost my entire town. But to the more recent of keeping Demons’ at bay and killing there warlords with ease in Diablo III in which, I noticed a little bit of a pattern.
     As writers, are we drawn more towards a particular genre that we either write about? Or we are spellbound by? Personally I’ve always liked Survival Horror, good mysteries, and a paranormal twist on most on modern day twists. This, ironically said is typically the genre that I write. One of the other games that I picked up from my collection that I hadn’t played in several decades (Or at least how it feels) is the game LA NOIRE which takes place in The late nineteen forties of Los Angeles, California. It’s a great Detective game dealing with having to determine on whether or not people are lying to you based on their facial expressions, body movements, and overall statements. Constantly reviewing the evidence you collect at each crime scene and going from there. Those kinds of games enthrall me, I like a good mystery but I also like a game that makes you think, and not just blindly kill your opponents. But with all of that said, a good game can have glitz, it can have glamour, it can have the critics ranting and raving about a ‘Game of the year’ potential but for me, if the story isn’t good, character development sucks, and things aren’t fluid then I’m probably not going to be able to finish it. But, I think that goes back to being a writer, things need to make sense for me and have a good pace going through things. Stories, which go too fast or leave too much out and then reveal it at the end, annoy me. What are your thoughts on today’s’ games? Too much blood? Too much Gore? Not enough story? Not kid friendly enough? All reasons and complaints I’ve heard about why people have shied away from the current systems out there.
     Myself? I have my opinions on the matter and the gaming market, but am very specific on what I say. Again, if a game can present a decent story to me, it can keep my interest, it can make me think, and reward me in the right direction then I’ll give it a thumbs up. However, I’ve never been big on the games where it’s straight through killing. Again, being injured and not being able to physically type, and do edits on a final draft, and work on a rough draft of a new story makes it incredibly hard. I again, found my inner gamer and embraced him fully. Anyone else out there gamers? What types of games do you enjoy? Are they from the old school? (NES, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, etc.?) Or do you prefer the newer modern consoles? Or, are you a computer gamer? I know this blog is a little far off from writing, but it’s a topic that I wanted to cover because I’m sure a few of you were shocked out there. But I feel that we are all writers’ here. We are all friends (I consider you all my friends), and I feel that we should be able to kick our feet up once in a great while and be able to have some fun doing some gaming online. I posted my tags earlier today for my games, but if you are looking to join me on Diablo III, or Sim City and you lost it the first time, I will include them down here at the bottom of the blog. Again, I apologize for the lack of logs the last few weeks. It has been very busy with things as the weather improves, weddings pop up, and friends’ children are being born. In the word of writers’ some days it just pays to not have any kind of a schedule am I right? Heh, Good day everyone!


Sim City ID:
XxRogueWoifXX

Diablo III ID:
RayvenScript#1964