The End of Writer’s Block

Posted on July 19, 2010 by caleb

[Author's note -- This is part of the Seven Story Week I did a few years ago. It's just been sitting, collecting data dust.]

The End of Writer’s Block

By Caleb Rogers

I have writer’s block. I read once that if I ever had writer’s block, I should just write, and then it would all work itself out. So I guess that’s what I’m doing now. I’m writing just for the sake of writing, pecking away at the keyboard just to make something happen.

Hold on a second, computer, someone just knocked on the door.

OK, that was weird. No one was there.

Back to writing. Maybe there’s a story here. Maybe that knocking was some serial killer or stalker or something like that, wanting to kill me. Hmmm, I guess I could go with that.

Well, now. Someone is knocking again. Could that be my serial killer, I wonder?

Nope. No one was there. That must have been my neighbor’s kid or something. Yeah, that’s got to be the little brat. Someone just tapped on my window.

There it was again. Hold on, faithful keyboard, I’ve got to check through the blinds.

I don’t think I saw anything. Maybe someone’s head while they were ducking away — I’m not sure. Kid-sized, I guess. Anyway, back to the story at hand.

So this stalker of some kind—

I heard something again, but I think it was inside the house. It sounded close.

Nothing. I just sat here still, not even pecking away at the keyboard and I heard nothing. Must be my nerves. I guess the thought of a stalker or killer while someone is knocking on my door and window – well the thought just got to me.

A scrape? Did I just hear a scrape? Maybe I should stop writing? No, I should chronicle as much as possible. I guess the reporter in me never really died, living on despite the state of my career.

There it was again. Weird. It’s definitely a scraping, like a wind-blown branch rubbing on a window. The only real difference is that it’s definitely in the house.

Oh, God. I hear it getting closer. Here I am, listening to this really creepy sound, getting closer, and all I can do is type this miserable little writer’s block cure while thinking that I have gone and left my Colt .38 Detective’s Special unloaded in the nightstand. Brilliant.

Alright, my heart is pounding now because I can really tell that sound is getting closer. It’s not some guy in my house, it can’t be. The sound just isn’t like that.

I’m going to check anyway.

A quick peek and I was right, nobody was there. The sound stopped too. Maybe it was scared off by the large metal flashlight I had in my head, ready like a club over my head. I would have made a fine caveman.

I guess I’ve got the start of a story now, with all this creepiness going on. And… there it is again.

In the hall, coming this way, closer but not louder. The sound is deeper now, too. I’ll guess I’ll have another look. What the fu

The End

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Seven Story Week

Posted on July 16, 2010 by caleb

A couple of years ago, when I was toying with the idea of writing commercial fiction, I had a Seven Story Week. This was just a personal event, inspired by Nanowrimo, where I write one short story a day for seven days. The length, subject matter, and the quality were of no importance. I just wanted my creative juices to flow. After all, writers write, don’t they?

So anyway, I wrote seven completely different stories in seven days, as I planned. I am thinking of taking one or two of them and sending them out to editors, but I haven’t decided yet. I might need to write some more stories before I start the rejection letter pile.

All of the stories I write that suck so bad I would never dream of sending them to an editor or agent of any kind, I will make you read. That’s the last step of the creative process isn’t it — letting others read your work so they can print it out and then take a huge crap on it?

Hopefully I will have some time this weekend to select a story or two that you can read and then enjoy as toilet paper. Or maybe something with which to start your charcoal burning. Gotta have fire to grill meat, after all.

On the off chance that you are clinically insane, and like my work, feel free to send money to me. It’s not a charitable donation or anything. I’m just saying that you should give me money.

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What I Look for in a Book

Posted on July 12, 2010 by caleb

When I’m reading a book, I want it to do one simple thing. Take me for a ride. I read mostly for entertainment — lots of commercial fiction. I do, however, also partake in the occasional non-fiction book about some subject which holds my interest.

Regardless of the truthiness of the book, I want it to take me for a ride. Sit me in the car during a chase. Plunge vampire fangs into my neck. Blow up that bad guy with a holy hand grenade. Take me on an inner journey through consciousness and quantum physics.

Let a book tell it’s tale, and let yourself get wrapped up in it. That’s what I do, at least. And I bet that’s what most writers want you do with with their works, too. I write, and that’s what I want you to do with whatever drops from my fingertips to my keyboard and into your brain.

I don’t get why some people don’t enjoy reading, and why others just hate it. Maybe it’s how their brains are wired, I don’t know. I’m sure an army of shrinks has done the research, but I’ve got noodles waiting for me in the microwave, so I’m not going to look that up right now. I’ll just trust that the proper research has been done, and we’ll leave it at that.

I love reading because it takes me for a ride, pure and simple. I’ve put exactly four books down, unfinished, in my life (I’m talking about books I chose to read voluntarily, not reading assignments from my academic career). Those four failed to pick me up for the ride. This could be my fault — my state of mind when I started — but I’m not going to worry about it. There are plenty more books to read, and plenty more dreamscapes to visit while I’m awake.

Pick up a book (or a nook, kindle, etc.) and let someone’s story take you for a ride. It’s worth it.

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Fiction Writing Find

Posted on July 7, 2010 by caleb

A couple of years ago, I started writing fiction. It was going pretty well, but right before I started submitting some of my work for publication, I just stopped. A couple of years and a couple of computer crashes later, I feared some of my work lost.

It was not. A backup that I thought had been corrupted contained the set of short stories I was trying to find. I was going to submit a couple of these, but did not when I stopped writing. Now that so much time has gone by, I’ll be able to read the works objectively and see if they are worth the effort — any effort, really.

One or two might make the cut. Once they get some rewrites and polishing, I think I will send them out to editors for publication. Even if they are rejected by editor after editor, I might be fortunate enough to get some critical feedback. Instead of just a rejection, a few words of direction would help out. And if someone actually publishes one… it will be time to celebrate.

I do enjoy writing, and if I were to ever see my work in print (published by someone other than myself), I would be thrilled. That would be too cool.

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Playing with my Nook

Posted on July 6, 2010 by caleb

Last week, my brand new Nook came in the mail. I’ve had a few days to play with it, read on it, and even buy and download a book. It’s pretty awesome.

I had read a bunch of reviews of the device, and watched a bunch of videos on YouTube, so I had a pretty good idea of what this could do. It’s a little on the heavy side, but that’s my only complaint (and it’s a minor gripe…I’m a big boy). The E-Ink display works as advertised — it’s like reading in a book.

I got the wi-fi only version, so I will have to be on a network to download books. This is enough for me, so I didn’t opt for the 3G version. I’ll just do my book shopping before I go on a trip where the is no wi-fi network. This “planning ahead” methodology saved me $50. Bonus.

This thing looks and feels good. It has a color touch screen for navigating, buying, searching, and annotating. Even though some people reported some issues with the touch screen, I am not having any problems. It’s easy to use and easy to read. I’m thinking about getting some protection for it. I’m not talking about condoms or firearms…but a protective case.

I think this will not only get me to read more (hey, this thing is just cool), but also read when I might not otherwise. I’ll get more reading in, learn more stuff, and have more fun. This is good all around. Oh, and the battery lasts a long time, too.

If you’re thinking about getting one, just do it. Check it out: Nook

[Note: I was going to upload a picture to show you, but my WordPress install seems to be having some issues. Sorry...]

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Dealing With Insomnia – Adventures Through Sleepless Nights

Posted on June 29, 2010 by caleb

Insomnia sucks. For reasons that I’m not going to go into right now, I’ve suffered from anxiety-induced insomnia for a few years. I know when it started, and I know the cause, but it is currently outside of my power to fix the problem. When I do put the solution into play, I’ll tell you everything if I feel like it.

In the mean time, just know that I think it sucks. I strongly advise you to sleep as much as you can, but I also know that it’s really hard to do that in our society. We seem to value at least two things above our own health: working to make money, and entertainment. With respect to our health, these to things lie in shades of gray and are unbalanced.

We work so that we can make money, but we are also working to make someone else even more money. Because our actions earn money for someone else, they will encourage us to work hard and set up a reward system to keep us at it. This has a Pavlovian response so that we associate working harder with greater rewards, regardless of the cost.

I’m not trying — in this article, at least — to argue that we are all over-worked. I bring this up because it puts our value of work above our value of sleep. The same can be said of entertainment. Our lives are stressful, and fun these days is super fun, so we are more than happy to sacrifice sleep for entertainment.

I know this because I have to deal with it. I’ve lost out on sleep for these reasons and more. I’ve tried lots of things to help me sleep, but they all fail in the end. I’ve even tried barely sleeping, then working out hard, just to get a good night’s sleep the next night. I just end up awake and more tired.

I lay there each night, trying to relax…trying to rest. I lie to myself and say that I’m resting because I’m not moving. But that still isn’t sleep. Sometimes I wake up intensely, realizing that I had been sleeping for a bit, like I was betraying something or someone for those few minutes of shut-eye.

I just realized that I don’t really have a point for this post. I’m OK with that.

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Gun Contol Laws are Generally Stupid

Posted on June 28, 2010 by caleb

Today, the US Supreme Court showed a bit of reason by overturning the Chicago handgun ban (basically…the case was remanded to a lower court, ordering them to fix their decision because the 2nd Amendment applies to states). As a result, a bunch of arguing has started. Let me just say that gun control laws are without reason or substance, and they do nothing but take a progressive society and push it back a little closer to the Dark Ages.

It’s quite simple, really. A firearm is merely a tool. Some people will argue that if you take away the tool (by making civilian ownership illegal or at least heavily regulated and restricted), you take away the means, and thus murder rates will fall. If that was the case, why were people murdering other people before gunpowder was even invented? Statistically speaking, carrying a weapon prevents crime, but that’s not really what I’m here to talk about.

The plain and simple truth is that people are bad. People kill people, and they will always do so as long as they want to. Taking a certain material object away from a populace will not prevent people from killing other people. Knives are deadly, as are hammers and baseball bats. Want to ban those, too?

We humans kill each other way too much, and I would like nothing more than a little bit of love and caring between us upright primates. But gun control isn’t not an answer that is anywhere near the realm of reason.

In conclusion… 1) Inanimate, mindless and soulless tools do not kill people. We do. 2) Making something illegal doesn’t stop people from doing it. 3) Gun control laws have no place in a free society (in which we are supposed to be living).

Feel free to disagree with me, but on this matter, reason and history prove me right. Sorry.

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Workaholics Everywhere

Posted on June 24, 2010 by caleb

People work too much. I was walking out for my lunch break, and I noticed a bunch of coworkers heading back in with take-out from somewhere. I also see various other corporate types walking back to the buildings around us with “to go” food in their hands. This is a regular occurrence.

What is going on that’s so important that these people need to go back to their desks to eat? Sure, not everyone is going back to work while they eat their sandwich or whatever, but an alarming number are. Is the work they are doing really that important, or is this just a product of our “work work work” system?

We work too much, but the problem isn’t necessarily that we work too many hours per week (though 40 hours, I’ve found, is a bit of a stretch). The problem, as far as I can tell, stems from some artificial sense of urgency regarding company cash flow. What I mean is that employees are viewed as assembly line robots, expected to crank out more work per hour than they did the week before (just an example). It’s all about cramming as much money money money into each minute as possible. It’s less about the work itself, and all about the money.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed it, but it seems to me that everyone’s goal is to just work as much as possible. People want to get through the day as fast as possible so that they can get through the next day as fast as possible, and so on. Then they get a little break on the weekend, and then start the cycle all over again.

“Working for the weekend” is no way to live. What happens after 30 years? Do these people wake up one morning and wonder why they’ve aged so much? Do they wonder where all the time went?

I believe that our culture gives some kind of weird social reward for what clever business owners call “hard work.” I think they are overdoing it. I think that everyone needs to slow down, quit worrying about money and productivity so much, and just live. Be still amidst the chaos and see what life really has to offer you. It’s sure as hell a lot more than 40+ rushed hours during the work week, followed up by some fake weekend reward time and a paycheck that is just never quite enough.

Seriously? What kind of life is that? What is waiting for you after you’re done with your little workaholic race? Maybe a decent retirement nest egg, maybe not. Don’t let life pass you by just so you can work your life away.

Work less. Live more.

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Food is Not the Enemy

Posted on June 23, 2010 by caleb

I often hear people say that they are “dieting” or otherwise restricting their food intake in order to lose weight. Lame. You need food to lose weight.

I’m not going to get into the science of it right now. It’s getting late and I don’t want to spend any time looking up facts. But really, it’s simple. If you don’t take in enough calories throughout the day, your body will go into crisis-mode because it will think it’s being starved. I’m speaking generally here, but you can, by restricting your intake, make your body try real hard to store calories — just the opposite of what you want.

So how do you do it? How do you lose that fat you know is there (you look at it every day and try to hide it with the clothes you wear)? The first thing you need to get through your thick skull and washed brain is that food is not the enemy. Food is your friend. Without it, you’ll die.

Don’t look at food as a problem, but rather the solution. Food will give you the energy you need to meet your fitness goals, lose that fat you don’t want, and give you some culinary delights along the way. Remember, food doesn’t suck. You suck for making poor food choices. Eat right, enjoy food, and live well.

It’s that simple.

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Need vs. Want – Why Must We Choose?

Posted on June 22, 2010 by caleb

In this current economy, and with my current income, I can’t just buy everything I want. This is especially frustrating since what I want doesn’t really cost all that much. Still…I have to plan, justify the purchase, and plan some more.

It would be nice if I could just go buy these things, but disposable income is kind of a myth for me currently. What I want right now are these: Amazon Kindle, a new acoustic guitar, and a new stereo for my car. That’s less than a grand all together, but it will still put a dent in the checking account.

Now I am faced with planning and choosing. Should I cut down on things that I need to get something I want? Should I cut down on some excessive food spending (eating out), and put that money toward my short wish list?

I think the obvious answer here is to just increase my cash flow so I don’t have to figure out how to purchase the things I want. Too bad I can’t just snap my fingers to make it happen. I guess I’ll just have to save my pennies for now.

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