doing everything and nothing

well, i would like to introduce you all to my very first unemployed blog post...

for just over a week now i have probably been the most active bum on the planet, refusing to let losing my job bring me down too much, so instead i have been trying to fill my usual work hours with as much as possible

this means that i have more time to make sure that the house is always tidy, i have finished checking and editing my NaNoWriMo novel, i've finished reviving and painting the cabinet that i found flytipped and shall now use in my geek room, i've reorganised messy drawers, i've gone out for long-ass bike rides, heck, i've done bloody loads of stuff, including getting my CV up to date and starting applying for new jobs

all in an attempt to not feel mopey and useless and bored, in fact, i'm quite enjoying all this extra time to do things that matter more to me, the only problem is that paying bills and a mortgage are also pretty high up on my list of priorities, but my time as a house-husband is in fact rather liberating, now if only it would stop raining long enough for me to get out and do some gardening!

despite this extra time, there are a handful of things that i haven't spent enough time on yet.

the first is blogging (hey, i've been busy with other stuff!)

the second is my music (hey, i've been busy with other stuff!) but as i was telling my brother the other day, music is a hard beast to tame, a couple of hours sat infront of a machine with the intentions of producing a groundbreaking piece of music will more likely result in being sat infront of a machine for two hours and still not be much further than when you loaded it up, indeed today i have tried to complete the final track of a Giles Babel EP and found myself going almost nowhere with it, and when you are trying to get the most out of every hour it is hard to accept that time can just slip away alongside any further achievement... but i'm sticking with it, don't you worry, maybe i'll have another crack at it after i've put the dishes away...

and the third...  i've done nothing at all to draw your attentions to the t-shirts that accompany my currently worked on EP, four tracks are complete, four t-shirts are complete, and yet, as of typing, i've only loaded one t-shirt up and have not even mentioned it anywhere at all...

in my defence, i had a lot going on. and in my defence, i've still got a lot going on. but getting the Giles Babel collection up to date needs to be another task that i sit myself down to complete


so before i waffle on too much i think i may leave it at that, you've had a little update, and i shall now think about making myself some lunch, putting away the dishes, hoovering the front room, maybe doing a bit of polishing, uploading the next three t-shirts in the collection, tackling that fifth and final track again and then perhaps i shall see you on the other side to discuss the t-shirt in the next couple of days perhaps...

so why don't i leave you with the first track, Poptarts and Battleships, from "programmed to prevent war" and a little subtle link to follow if you'd like to view the tee right now, and i'll be back with more info soooooon

what draft? first draft?

ok, i'm sticking with this writing theme for just a little longer, until i get distracted by reading comics or something at least.

and i had been asking what happens next.


when i first discovered the notion of NaNoWriMo, it was on a BBC Breakfast feature, with a couple of authors sat on the couch next to the hosts.

they talked about the lost opportunities of all those that had ever considered writing a novel, and i counted myself among them, and they talked of using these 30 days to just write anything, just to keep writing, and i did, and they talked about taking that first draft, and giving yourself a break from it, and returning to it in january to edit your first draft, create a second draft, possibly edit that later in the year, and so forth, until it if done.


first draft?

what?


yeah, ok, i guess it is.

but keep whittling away at it, time and time again?  i have conceded to the idea that it will need editing, it was slapped together so hastily that, above all else, it does need a second look to eliminate all spelling and grammatical errors (unless they were intentional), but i've been giving more thought to this...

i may change my mind, but i'm unsure if my 'novel', my NaNovel if you wish, really needs 'editing'.

i think it may well go through a number of changes if it is called for, and some of it most certainly is a bit of a mess, but it is my mess, and maybe, just maybe, i'm a messy worker.

some of the thoughts that spilt forth from my mind, splashed across this novel, may have no real place in modern literature, but why should i let a little thing like that stop me.


this is not my money-maker, this is not my retirement fund, this was a writing exercise, thas was fun (sometimes), and rewarding.  and i may even self-publish it.

but i like it the way it is.


my writing has always existed that way.  almost like an impulse.
to be acted upon.   and then that is it usually.

i read Roger McGough's autobiography a few years back, and was surprised to read that he writes poetry and revisits it and revises it accordingly, working on it until it is complete.

and i was shocked.

not once had i tried to write my poetry this way. i had never even considered it.
so i tried it.  and i didn't really like it.


and last year i wrote my first ever 'short story'.  in one sitting.  and had no desire to change a thing.


perhaps i am foolish for considering my work finished.

or perhaps that is just my style.


perhaps i'll find out in january when i attempt to re-read my very first 'novel'.

cosmic odyssey

and now i am just wondering where to go next.

i did spend the few days after completing my NaNovel not really knowing what to do with myself, knocking out a blog entry, but other than that, feeling slightly lost without the crutch of frantic and near-constant writing to lean on.


i could feel how devoting so much time to it had seemed to have given my life purpose, and how blocking out practically everything else (plus the looming deadline) had given me a strong focus.


sadly i feel it slipping away from me already, as 'normal' life creeps back in and all the jobs i had put off until i had finished writing now needed doing.

in addition to housework etc, there is still some more home improvements that need further advancing (if not finishing) before christmas, mix in my intentions to record another christmas single, a follow up to my 2008 effort, and also wanting to learn to play guitar a little more competently and my time is soon spent.  and then there is the full time job that i will need to fit all of this around.

i've also made promises of a couple of reviews of Enfield bands that need to go up on Desperately Seeking Susan Boyle sometime soonish and seeing if the Enfield Advertiser will go on ignoring pieces submitted on local acts by a local journalist, which i probably can't do until i've rewired some speakers, and i guess i've got my work cut out for me yet again.


progress on the NaNovel will wait for now, i'll take another look at it in January perhaps, give myself some distance from it and return to it fresh in the new year to work on a second draft, but for now my girlfriend is reading her way through it, and i am preparing a pdf copy to fire off to a handful of people for judgement.


and if i could find the time to write 50,000 words in just 29 days, i really haven't got much of an excuse for infrequent blogging, have i?

has absence made the heart grow fonder?

i would like to apologise.

if you read the last blog post that went up on the 2nd of november, then you are probably aware of why i had taken leave for so long.


it was not that i wanted to, but once i was caught up in my NaNoWriMo novel, it became difficult to escape it.

i have a passion for writing, clearly for writing about just about anything from the past form of this very blog, i have had a passion for writing about the music i love, whether it is being published or not, and i wanted to take up this challenge and write a novel.

50,000 words in 30 days.

mine weighed in at 50,778 when i verified the word count last night.


it was enjoyable, and it was stressful, and it was so rewarding to have crossed the finish line, and to have crossed it with time to spare.


it was not looking quite so hopeful earlier this month, i had been writing daily, writing under my own steam, and figured i was not too far off the cumulative word count expected when trying to attain 1,666 words written each day, some days i had missed and i hoped others had made up for it.

on day 17 i took a break from the writing to log back into my NaNoWriMo account and log my word count, only discovering at that time that it would be input onto a dandy little graph and would spout statistics at me.

this was wonderful.

what was not quite so wonderful was the fact that even writing just short of twenty thousand words by that point, i was still over 8,000 off par.

the stats told me my average daily word count to date, how many words i would need to write daily to finish on time, and if i kept going at the rate i was, i would finish on the 13th of december.


much like drivers always aim to beat the little estimated time of arrival that their sat-nav displays as they set off on a journey, i too aimed to whittle down the days and reign in the challenge.  i would be proud of myself regardless of when it was complete.  but i wanted to do this.


and that is my excuse really.

i'm sorry i couldn't share any words with you over the course of my writing, almost everything that fell from my mind was channelled straight into the novel, i allowed myself the timely distractions of tweeting, but to have given any kind of worthy update on here, or to share anything on here at all, would have felt like a squandering of words that were much needed to plump up my novel.


so now, on this last day of november i sit here.

relieved it is over.

proud that i made it.

contemplating my return to blogging.


and with a rather attractive handlebar moustache to boot.

(please donate what you can afford, thank you)

what month is it?

there are a number of answers to this question.

a couple of which i shall look at in some vague sort of detail.


the most obvious answer would be November.

this is correct (1 point to you)


but over the last few years or so, men have been cultivating cookie dusters to raise money and awareness for men's health charities.

this well-meaning trend has seen the month formerly known as November now dubbed as Movember.

and since i thoroughly enjoyed showing off a bit of top-lip fuzz when i went to a screening of Anchorman, and quite impressed to people's reactions that had seen photos of my moustache, but not actually met it, i decided it was only right for it to make a return, for charideee.


the plan is simple, you start November 1st clean shaven, then let nature take it's course until you have enough facial hair to groom into something fascinating

i would be grateful if anyone feels the need to donate via my profile

(i expect contributions to be low whilst i go through the primary stubble phases)

and i shall update y'all with imaginative self-portraits over the course of the month

it is also NaNoWriMo

which looks like some kind of maths equation or a distant relative many times removed from the periodic table, but it is in fact a campaign to engage people in writing for the whole of November (or Movember, or NaNoWriMo)

and as someone that has spent years thinking that i would make a brilliant novelist, if only i would just get my head down and get on with it, this movement is pretty much geared towards people like me

alas, when i struggle to keep my blogs updated and barely find time to do any of the things that i genuinely intend to do, i can't promise how i am gonna fare over the course of the month, the aim (set forth by the campaign) is to complete a 50,000 word novel, broken down, this is over 1,600 words a day, and i didn't exactly get off to a flying start, or any start at all, yesterday.

shit.

less yapping nonchalently.

more natural facial hair growth and unnatural feverishly paced novel writing.

wish me best of luck at both (please)