The Mini Saga Challenge
So I have been looking to The Lovely and Very Talented Katie Lee for inspiration. She did a amazing project this year, where she took a self portrait a day for a whole year. And now, Katie is at the end of her year and has this amazing portfolio of art, it’s awesome and epic. It’s all of her! I can’t wait to own it as a book! It’s a real achievement. I like year long commitments. They seem real to me. The no drinking thing has been awesome, no sugar as well. I don’t see that as going away anytime soon. So, I have been looking for something that I can powerfully commit to for a year in the realm of my writing.
Something my friend Marian said today on twitter hit me. “The cure for not writing is to write. The cure for not doing yoga is to do yoga. The cure for not being awesome is to be awesome.”
I’m not sure how I can fit more commitments in. I’m over committed. It seems like I have no free time, I am always busy! But then again, so is everyone, so how do I get to complain? This, and I am very committed to writing! I am looking for something concise, something that others can take on with me and something I can share. I don’t want to put out works in progress. I don’t want to put out incomplete works.
So here’s something I am going to take on: A Mini Saga Challenge.
MY RULES: A mini saga is simple. It is a 50 word story. Not 49, not 51, exactly 50. 50 words is a contraint that does inspire creativity. I tried it out over the weekend.
It tells a story, with characters and possibly dialogue. It is complete on its own.
It can stand alone or be part of a larger tale. If stories go with other stories, they will be tagged in the blog.
I post them in my blog daily. If I am off the grid, and are unable to post, I will post missed days. I am also creating a community on Livejournal. I guess I’ll have to do that today. I’m not committing to posting them on tribe. Because they are seriously not committed.
They are numbered not titled.
I want more people to contribute. I want more people to play.
More rules may be added to this as time goes by, and more commitments may be take on to fill this space. I am really looking forward to the end of this project when I have 365 tiny stories…
Lack of Conflict
I was talking the other day about my writing. She asked me about how much I have been writing, to which I replied “A lot,” because I have been writing just about every day for weeks and weeks. My blogging has been often and intense.
But when it comes to my fiction, I have been having a lot of trouble getting going and I think I may have found some of the reason. Conflict.
Conflict is at the very heart of all fiction. Without conflict, that fucked up, things going wrong, rocks flying at your characters’ heads kind of conflict, you have no story. And my life has been going along swimmingly. My only conflicts are instantly resolved in my head when I go effortlessly with the flow. I don’t rage indignantly against reality, I ease along with it, allowing really great things to happen. I get my real conflict from other fictions (comics, movies, games, books) and I gobble it up like a good little American conflict junkie.
I think that’s why I like Burning Man so damn much, I go there and generate some real internal conflict against the environment. Out there it is survival, and one really could die if he or she didn’t take on survival as a personal choice. Out there, the fictionsuit of Spaceman emerges and I feel more alive than ever before.
And then there is my own personal belief in the power of metafiction and pantheistic solipsism. That is if I write it, I create it. That if I start writing conflict and real danger to characters that represent me and my life, I may suddenly end up living the dream. In that, it really s a question of courage, and my lack of it. I like my life easy and comfortable. And then again, when I find myself on real adventures, I am giddy with joy.
Right now, my biggest conflict is that I am fighting a head cold and really have to do my taxes when I get home. That’s doesn’t make for good fiction. I want epic battles with intergalactic empires and the saving of space empresses from the deadly clutches of dragons. Is that so much to ask?
I am open to assistance in getting my fiction writing going. If anyone can recommend a class or a book or a method, I will entertain it. Better yet though, if you can recommend some solid ways to get more conflict into the adventure in my life, that I am willing to look at.
A Small Favor
Today, my writing partner and I have a meeting to show off some of our writing projects. I have a favor to ask.
I want to do a little collective consciousness experiment. I want you at around 11am today, to think of me as a writer. This should be fairly easy considering you are reading this. But I want you to think of me as the kind of writing talent who should really be discovered. Think of me as a great writer, earning great money for putting my words on the page. Imagine me creating cartoons and shows that are loved by millions.
Imagine that I am brilliant.
Just take a minute, around 11 am, and think happy thoughts about Spaceman. Set an alarm if you want to.
Ideally, this will not be too challenging. Ideally, if you are going to participate in this experiment, you already like what I have to say with words.
I’ll let you know how it goes. Thanks!
Self as Corporation
I have been thinking about dong this for a while, incorporating. A few Key Grip friends of mine have done this, and it appeals to me. It s a way to control you financial destiny in this country, and to afford yourself certain rights afforded companies and not individuals. According to Scotty of Big Show Industries We The People in Burbank can make incorporation happen lickety-split! This is an interesting experiment, I invite you to play. Creating yourself as corporation is a handy way to craft a killer fictionsuit.
So what does The Spaceman Company produce you may ask? Good question. The Spaceman Company is an ontological entertainment and marketing company. We produce a wide variety projects and act as a vendor to major studios and event production companies. Creating intellectual properties and unique original ideas is a specialty of this venture. We also do personal consultation on a wide variety of subjects relevant to everyday life. In some ways, the main product of The Spaceman Company is space. We create space for people to be who they really are. We create space for people to love themselves unconditionally. We build and illuminate space for one’s truest self to emerge.
Notice that as soon as I become a corporation, I become a “we?”
The thing about becoming a corporation is that you suddenly become somewhat more than an individual. You have a company to run! There are financial and business plans to develop, and stick to. Marketing of your company (you) becomes necessary. Suddenly, talking about yourself with gushing praise makes a little more sense. Would you buy you? There is also production; are you being productive today? If my product is space, am I providing the right kind of space that will encourage brand loyalty to The Spaceman Company? Strategic partnerships become necessary. A network of other like minded companies, striving for profitability and cooperation become real business choices. The office is really just a laptop, and whatever chair I am sitting in.
It is really, at this point just a mental shift. But, I think I want to follow this rabbit hole as far as it goes.
The Spaceman Company loves you.
spaceman23
