The Iceman Cometh

And with him November, that dreaded, longed for month. Sometime within the next 36 hours I shall sit down before the white wilderness of the blank page and begin to build, carving line after line of black letters until the wilderness has been civilized and a story has begun.

Time will tell how fast or far my attempt will go, but I hope to reach the other side of the month having built at least a 50,000 strong army of words who tell a story worth remembering. But if I fall midway, to battle or busyness, at least I will have attempted the journey.

I hope to see you on the other side, if my mixed metaphors don't get to me first :)

Forth, and fear no darkness!

Let the Games Begin!

NaNoWriMo has officially entered pre-production! That is to say, I logged into my account... and set up my novel. :D

But that did require some thought, as I had to synthesize all the dozens of different ideas bouncing around inside my mind into a single, semi-coherent train of thought that could be further synthesized into a synopsis.

In addition there was that pesky thing called a title... my novel had been going by the unassuming name: NaNoWriMo Novel. That was going to fly any further, so additional thought was necessary on that front.

And to complete the trifecta of unknowns, I had not named any of my characters yet. They had been simply going by Protagonist and the Sister. So that had to change too.

So after much soul-searching and brain-wracking, I worked the bits and pieces of a story in single whole, filled in the missing pieces and came out the other side with something resembling the skeleton of a novel. It definitely isn't much, but it's enough to go on.

The Imaginarium

When Arson Folkert ran away to join M. Kardanian's Traveling Imaginarium, he didn't realize he would never see his parents again. Now his younger sister Alice, an orphan with nowhere to go, comes looking for him, but Arson has no intention of leaving. And the Imaginarium hides a dark secret; the small troupe who run it are far more than they seem. The deadly road that Arson has started on will take both him and Alice into the darkest places of their soul, and it will take a strength they don't have to escape.

Once More Into The Fray

Once again, dear readers (the few, the proud), I'm back. Probably not for long, but definitely for the duration of November and NaNoWriMo, and possibly after that! If it does continue, the theme of the blog will likely shift to represent my more current interest of screenwriting and architecture, but in the end it will still be all the same story I am telling. 

So expect the next month to be filled with a smattering of ideas, brainstorming, dead ends, restarts, random plot threads and the like, while the following month of November will be filled with excerpts, rants on plot, more brainstorming, more dead ends, probably at least one reboot and quite a few cringe-worthy grumblings at my own ineptness. After that? Hopefully some cohesiveness as I seek to organize the brain-frenzied creative outpourings of the month previous into a coherent whole. 

Until very soon,
Farjag

The Road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with eager feet,

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet.

And whither then? I cannot say.

All Good Things Come To An End

Sadly, yes, dear readers, all good things do come to an end, and for this particular corner of the blogosphere, that time has come. If you are one of the few still reading this, you know how sporadic and intermittent my posts have been of late. College is requiring more and more of my time, leaving little for other activities, and among them blogging has always ranked low.

As a writing blog, this blog depends on how much I write, and with sparse amounts of time for writing, little writing gets done. So instead of me dragging my feeble posts on until one day they simply drop dead and never come back, I shall lay them to rest with some scrap of honor left.

But all is not lost! For come November, and the ubiquitous NaNoWriMo, there exists a strong possibility of a brief resurgence of updates, outlines and the like.

Until then, I bid you all a fond farewell, and will always keep in my heart the memories, comments and wonderful bookish friends I have made during my tenure as a blogger.

Stay strong, dear ones, and may your quills never run dry!

Attack of the Bog o' Swords

*evil grin* Or Blog Awards.

Because we all know I need an excuse to put anything up here these days...

Anyways, Charley R over in her Leaning Tower of Terror Plot decided to break her normal rule (hah!) about doing blog awards and then decided that in the spirit of breaking rules she would not pass it onto anyone in particular, but instead open it up to the entirety of her readership.

And me, after a mercifully almost homework free Saturday, decided to take her up on it. *evil chuckle to match previous evil grin*

Ze questionz are as followz:

(1) Has a piece of music ever given you a headache? If so, what was it? If not, what was the closest thing?

Every time a car drives past with its speakers up so loud the chassis is actually rattling. It's usually a rap song consisting of ten words, four of which are unfit to be spoken. *rant over*

2) Do you like pens, pencils, or word processor better?

An interesting question, seeing as I'm not sure myself. Most of my writing is done on my laptop, so quantitatively, a word processor. However, I've always had a soft spot in my heart for pencils, as the callouses on my ring and middle fingers on my right hand can attest to. At the same time, as a architectural student, most of my notes are actually in sharpie permanent marker... so it's a hopeless mess.

(3) Out of the last five books you’ve read, what character was your favorite?

 Oh, goodness. What were the last five books I read? *five-minute mental computing break. Mutterings about syllabi and textbooks and powerpoints* Well, over Christmas break I read On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness, which was an awesomely fun read (and the first fiction I had read in over a year). And in that book I met Peet the Sock Man, who covers his arms with socks to keep the blades that grow there from being seen. That's the kind of man he is.

(4) Out of the last five movies you’ve seen, what character was your favorite?

Javert, from Les Miserables. Hands down. If I could sing (which I can't [in public]), I would love to act him in a play. The man who would stop at nothing to bring justice to the guilty, and became so fixated on his task that when mercy was granted him could not bear it. The perfect hero, who ended up on the wrong side as the villain instead.

Stars 

In your multitudes 

Scarce to be counted 

Filling the darkness 

With order and light 

You are the sentinels 

Silent and sure
Keeping watch in the night 

Keeping watch in the night 

(5) What’s your favorite genre to write?

Fantasy. And its many variations, such as steampunk. When the world is yours to shape, and the rules yours to make, there is no greater freedom. Still, the best story I've written is more dystopian than anything, with perhaps some sic-fi. Hardly fantasy. So I don't know.

(6) Is that your favorite genre to read?

Yup. Ultimately, I like a good book, whatever genre it is. But discovering new lands, creatures, customs, races... that is my favorite thing to experience in a book

(7) When was the last time you wished your library bought more good books, more often?

Last time I went to the library, which was about a month ago. Now, it was my college library, and I was looking for Les Miserables... so it's ever so slightly understandable. I haven't been to any of the libraries in town since I moved out here for college.

Interestingly enough, I wished that the local Goodwill had a better and bigger selection of belts, suspenders and hat racks the other day... You'd think the capital of the state would have a bigger Goodwill than my hometown did...

(8) Do you write with music or not?

Almost always. But silence has its merits, as I discovered last year during NaNoWriMo. You can check that post for an exhaustive list of what music I normally listen to while writing.

More recently my writing has been limited to sleepless nights of scriptwriting, listening to the haunting music my friend composed for Shadowland. (Check it out here!)

(9) Do you outline? If so, what method do you use?

Ha. Ha ha. Maybe....

See, its a sorta-kinda thing. I have a method.

Which I thought I had written a post about some time ago... and so went looking for it so I could link it here and save me some typing...

All I got was an awesome trip down memory lane :D.

Anyways, I got bored of making bullet points out of plot lines a long time ago, and have since developed my own way of keeping track of where the story will go without locking myself into a set path.

I was so sure I had already blogged about this!... Guess I'll have to now! Look for a post soon! Suffice for now to say that yes, I do outline, but in a very particular way.

(10) About what book or movie are you the geekiest, especially in public?

Definitely The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Seeing as that's the one most people talk about, giving me plenty of opportunities to geek out. Other contenders might be Doctor Who (which isn't a book or movie, technically), and Sherlock Holmes (All of them: books, BBC and recent films)

That's all folks! Till next time (which there will hopefully be),

Farjag

Shadowland

Once upon a time, last August to be precise, I wrote a poem based on a concept borrowed from C.S. Lewis. The idea of earth as a Shadowland of heaven. Well, after writing the poem, I went on to do a series of lithographs inspired by the same idea. That was in the middle of last semester. And the idea still wouldn't stop knocking around in my head.

About a month ago I began to ask my college friends if anyone was interested in making a movie. I got enough interest to warrant me writing a script, but didn't have any solid ideas. Until late one night, after several hours of sleepless tossing and turning, God gave me the nudge to start writing. So after scrounging out my old glasses I sat in front of my laptop in the dark of a room lit only by its screen; and began to write. Two hours later I had finished a seven page script across which were scattered the verses of the poem I had written months earlier. A few days and helpful critiques (thanks, Director!) later I had a finalized script. 

And we filmed it, less than a week later. And now, exactly one week after filming day, I present you the finished product: Shadowland.