I am a firm believer that we should not measure life by the number of breaths we take, but instead measure it by the number of moments in which life takes our breath away.
Reading 'Warbreaker' by Brandon Sanderson was just like that. Now I'm not going to harp on and on about it, this isn't a review page, but this book more than any other truly inspired me.
Its fantasy fiction, which is the genre in which I write but it has a scope and a detail to it that I haven't found since reading Feist's 'Magician' years ago. Magic in general, has to have restrictions. Otherwise everyone and their gran would be using it and the world would have no problems (or maybe it would only have problems...but I'm a glass half full kind of guy so lets go with the world having no problems!) So there are rules that have to apply to kind of 'curb' the infiniteness of it. This guy explains a unique concept of magic clearly and concisely in less than 200 words and it just blows me away!
I felt it was about time I started reading again as I haven't properly read a book since the game of thrones series (the novels not the TV series.) which was the middle of January and I genuinely believe that my writing was suffering because of it. Picked up the Warbreaker book from my "books I must read" pile (which is now teetering at a staggering 4 foot!) and finished it in about three hours. The only authors who can make me do that are Feist and Rowling (though only the last two HP books were proper page turners).
It got me thinking about my own concept of magic and how it is used in the world of Tjingaria, and a light bulb has come on! I am really loving the idea of incorporating it into my book because of the possibility it entails but also the restrictions it applies and the challenges the individuals have to overcome because of that!
Chapter 11 was typed up today, I must say my ability to turn a handful of handwritten words into a 1200 word POV scene baffles me but im not complaining! Im nearing the end now which is exciting and somewhat sad because I know I've got weeks of editing (and no doubt rejection) ahead of me before I can start to progress the story further. So far I am sitting on 78k words with about 3ish chapters to go, I may expand into an epilogue which would make 4 and put me over the 100k words (which was my goal at the start)
My bike died today...or is at the very least in a coma. The engine will just not turnover (I reckon the battery is needing charged but im no mechanic). It really is a shame because since I bought her in November I've ridden her maybe...ten times? With the combination of the bad weather and the surgery she just sat there. Que Sera, will visit the bike doctor at the weekend for some CPR or defibleration and get her going away.
I think I am really going to have to structure my time spent at the computer. I turn it on with the intention of writing, so naturally I have to open up Itunes and create a playlist. Which leads to either YouTube or Itunes Store to fill in the songs that I dont have. If it leads to YouTube I will inevitably get click happy and find myself watching re-runs of Johnathan Ross or Jerry Springer...or if its a bad day then ill find myself watching the one where the baby bites the boys finger...Then once the music is sorted I check my e-mails, hoping to find that golden ticket that is a letter of acceptance. Check the blog, the twitter, the Facebook (which results in at least an hour of catching up on all the status's that ive missed...half of which I dont care about and half again from people Im not actually sure that I know :S)
Before I know it the computer has been on for three hours and Word isn't even loaded yet! Lol, funny how the little things can way lay us!
Anyways, today has been grand, managed to get lots of writing done during the day and hopefully get another 2000ish words tonight!
Good Night all!
SBP
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