Category Archives: Notebook

Notebook 8 | . . .

Shit. I’ve gotten into that weird mode of only wanting to write. I had planned on reading tonight and sat down with a couple of books, a novel and an anthology, and couldn’t bring myself to turn the pages. Grabbed a stack of comics and they couldn’t keep my attention past a couple of pages either.

Maybe it’s just the stressful day at work that’s soured my mood and made me listless this evening. Month-end is always intense and the flurry of needy emails severely grate on my nerves. Friday and Monday at work will no doubt be their own special versions of Hell.

Or maybe I’m just anxious about starting NaNoWriMo in less than a week. Since I’ve been trying to wrap and tidy up other things prior to starting, I haven’t exactly prepped myself for THE literary endeavor of the year, aside from mentally. Well, I do have a summary written and some other conceptual notes from the summer when the idea originated in my noggin. I need to tweak the summary some. Write a skeletal outline. 

But I’m supposed to be working on a short comic script for a talent search as well. I think the anticipation and mental build-up of writing a novel, uninterrupted for a month at least, has diverted my attention from that. Like NaNo, it also has a November 30th deadline.

I suppose it’s possible NaNoWriMo has got me ready to forsake all else. Which is fine because that’s pretty much the only way I’ll be able to achieve a modicum of success with it.

All else must be shunned!

No squirrel is going to distract this eager, happy-go-lucky dog . . .

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Notebook 7 | The Wayward Mind

~ This is a #notebook entry on #ruckology in which Brandon L. Rucker kinda, sorta admits he’s mentally unwell ~

Last weekend I had a plotting breakthrough on Project: One Shot (formerly Project: Crime Time), the codename for my developing crime comic with my artist partner and best friend Joshua S. Hooten. Finally actual scripting had commenced. The plan was to take Monday off and resume writing on Tuesday. Tuesday became another off day. The rest of the week was compromised by family obligations and work exhaustion from the day job. But the mind stayed active with some fine-tuning of the plot happening in my subconscious.

That’s not the problem. The problem is my mind got more active on character and plot details for the romantic crime-noir novel I’m planning on finally starting in November during NaNoWriMo (codenamed Project: Dame Game, a project featuring an old character of mine in a new story I cooked up this past Spring — details in next week’s Workbook). So even if I had managed to sit at my desk and write this past week, it’s very possible I would have been writing notes for that project rather than the one I should be actively working on (which I’m doing today immediately following this missive).

By week’s end this got me thinking about how the mind is a wayward thing, wild and unbridled, doing whatever the hell it wants and not necessarily what you need it to do, when you need it to. I’ve always conceded that I have what I like to call creative ADD. As a highly active thinker I’ve always been hardwired that way, juggling an insane amount of information and ideas in one sitting than the average bear would. There are definitive pros and cons to it, no doubt. One of the cons is as I get older and more forgetful (hush, you) many ideas become like transient ghosts if I don’t get them jotted down quick, fast and in a hurry. And that’s the other rub — a notebook is not always handy, the ability to stop whatever you’re doing to jot down notes it’s not always an option. In fact, more than often it is not.

The silver lining I suppose is that I am almost always in a creative state of mind and at the end of the day I cherish this overactive gray matter of mine, no matter how wayward it may be at times.

You know that old proverbial saying that writers are slightly insane because they entertain multiple voices in their heads while also muttering to themselves when they think no one else can hear them? Yeah, it’s true.

I’m willing to bet you knew that already, didn’t you?

Notebook 6 | Write-or-Flight, the Phone Awaits Also

#ruckology #writeorflight

Image: screenshot from my phone.

So in yesterday’s Notebook the theme was about a writer (moi) finding himself in the compromised position of having to write on-the-go, out of office and out of his comfort zone using pen and paper rather than his trusty PC. Y’know, something normal people do all the time without quibble. Well, today’s entry is the sequel. Because …

If you (I) have to, you (I) can also be productive writing … on your (my) phone???

Say whuuuut? IKR?

Trust me, it’s not something I’ve ever wanted to have to do, but today I found myself doing just that out of desperation. While initially writing with the old school method of pen to paper today, I happened to remember a couple of things as I scribbled up a page with my chicken scratch:

  • I have Microsoft Office on my phone, featuring first and foremost MS Word.
  • My phone is also connected to my Microsoft OneDrive cloud storage account.
  • So whatever I write on the phone can be retrieved on the PC later. Win!

So, given that in the last four and a half years I’ve been a bit of a slacker, if only in terms of writing fiction (Nonfiction? No problem), you’d have to give me a virtual pat on the back for enduring such torturous methods as writing with pen and paper, or — ugh! — writing with a smartphone’s dreaded soft keyboard. Believe me, although I use it constantly all day/everyday, I hate the trepidatious writing experience that soft keyboards (and tiny text) offers. But, like I said yesterday, ya do what ya gotta do to git ‘r dun.

Because the Page awaits. Always.

No more excuses.

Yay, me.

Notebook 5 | Write-or-Flight, the Page Awaits

#ruckology #writeorflight

When you have to be productive but you’re on-the-go a lot, not at home in your study, not in your comfort zone, yet if you don’t get those ideas out and down on paper you will lose them, possibly forever.

I am usually loathe to do significant writing by pen and paper, but what’s a fella to do while on-the-go or at the day job during a slow week with story passages, plot points and lines of dialogue swirling around his noggin?

Gotta put pen to paper and git ‘r dun. By any means.

Because the Page awaits.

I should probably hashtag that one too.

Notebook 2 | Self-Observation #1

I’m one of those writers who is far more into the creative process — the creation of characters, the development of new ideas, the building plot, all the brainstorming — than I am into the actual writing. Creation is easy, like breathing. Writing is work. Feels like work. Requires the stick-to-it-iveness of work. For the most part it’s enjoyable work, no doubt about it. However…

Writing is a mind at work. Creation is a mind at play.

I suppose I like to play more than I like to work, so that balance can be a struggle.