Coming together

Posted on by kassabi1a

It’s easy to watch the news or social media and see the bad in this situation. And I’m not talking about the obvious bad that Covid-19 is, but the bad in us as humans. Fist fights over toilet paper and what now. But the news always writes the negative and history will write the positive.

The positive is what I look for in all of this. I have haven’t ever seen the world galvanized like this in my life. I can remember 9/11 as a kid and how patriotic we were for a while after but I’ve never seen it on the global front.

History will remember that. It will remember the Chinese medical staff heading to help in Italy. It’ll remember the countless people who have been getting groceries for elderly relatives and neighbors. The amount of classes and content being given away for free to make this solitude a little more bearable. Even the amount of FaceTime hours logged between friends, families and even strangers to make this confinement better.

When you’re letting the news fill you with the negative remember the positive, and if you can’t remember the positive, then it’s time to be the positive.

Advertisement

The Primal Age

Posted on by kassabi1a

I was thinking a bit tonight while doing some writing. Back to the catalyst of The Primal Age Chronicles.

I was thinking of that week that I had to make the decision of if I was going to pursue fiction or screenwriting for the remainder of my masters. My heart was set on screenwriting(still plan to find my way back before I die) but my head told me to follow fiction. Issue was I hadn’t written any fiction in years. Thank you to two of my Mobies, Dana and Trilby for keeping me off the ledge that Rez.

I had originally mapped Foamers out as a tv show so I adopted those outlines and figured I’d be able to swing it. I am presently sitting here at 31.

I started the first novel nine years ago. I started the tv show eleven years ago. But when I made the tv show I drew characters from all my past projects to create the ensemble that exists today.

I was 21 when Kade and Dame were born, 20 for X, Ashton, and Mick, 19 for Tiny, and 17 for Victoria.

It’s weird to think how long they been fixtures in my life, and how they have changed as I have changed. It some times baffles me the worlds and people who only exist within the confines of my skull.

Writing, man. Nothing like it.

Survival Tip #283

Posted on by kassabi1a

Yeah bet you thought you were done with these! Not so fast.

The thing about writing post-apocalyptic stories is you look to find how far you can push a character and have them still hold onto their humanity. In my series there are two ways it can go…a character can go primal, losing their humanity, or they can become primed finding their end of the world self.

In my younger years I thought this was something that only existed in works of fiction. The older I’ve become the more I see it was a real world trait. The decisions people are faced with every day can change the course of their life.

So this tip is know your line before you get to it.

Going dry

Posted on by kassabi1a

Going dry…I’m about 2/3rds through the rough draft and also let go a little physically this summer. So to spur myself into motivation on both fronts I am going dry until I finish the draft. If you catch me drinking at an event that is not a wedding or funeral I will give you 5$.

The only question remains is will I write faster or lose weight longer…

When I write

Posted on by kassabi1a

When I’m working on a TPAC novel I do all the story lines in separate documents. It helps me track where each arc is and also keeps my word counts low so I don’t think too highly of my progress.

To make sure I was on progress today I did a quick tally.

Slightly over halfway. Means at my current rate I am a month and a half away from completing this draft and can be on track to be edited out by January.

Damn that feels good.

I’m not the master but

Posted on by kassabi1a

I’m not a master of writing, despite what my degrees would tell you, but I do have some success. Two books, two on the way. I’ve had a hand in publishing close to twenty titles(if not more). For a brief spell I was an Amazon #1 best-selling author.

Not saying any of this to boast, my last royalty check was 7$. Just saying this to express that I have a lot of years of experience in this writing world that is such a fickle mistress.

The one thing I’d like to talk about today, if you care to keep reading, is the quality of writing over the years. Once upon a time I was a 14 year old boy who found a love for writing. And that starry eyes little dumb ass called up his cousin who studied writing at Columbia and asked her to take a look at his stuff.

She was polite. And I will say she didn’t bash in my dreams as she likely should have. But the advice and schooling she gave me then was the same I paid a lot of money for 10 years later. Read more, revise more.(and a lot of other helpful stuff, but trying to stay on point since 75% of the people who clicked on this have already stopped reading)

But tonight, I was having a conversation about the fact that I make the same mistakes in writing I always have. I even know when I am doing them. But there are incorrect spellings and wrong grammar that flow naturally to me so I don’t fix them in the writing process.

I write as poorly as a did half a life time ago. I revise like my life depends on it. I let the red pen strike like I’ve got dragons to slay.

So if you’re out there, and you’re debating writing, remember writing isn’t the hard part. Writing is the fun part. Revising is where the work comes in, and revising is where many of us lose the will for a project. So write fast, edit slow. Get the words down. Make the mistakes. Keep moving forward. The best thing about writing is you don’t have to be perfect the first time. Enjoy the journey.

Back to writing

Posted on by kassabi1a

I’m back to writing. Finally. Two things happened to get me here. Real job number 3 finally reached a point I can relax, and more importantly my lady told me to ignore her while I write.

I am back to my 1000 words a day. And this is definitely the fastest I’ve ever hit my count each day.

Just don’t tell her that or she might increase my quota…

I fail…a lot

Posted on by kassabi1a

I fail…a lot. A ton even. I fail in one day more than most people do in a year.

After a recent work out I was talking with Lauren and told her I failed. Her response was “Aww Babes…come on. I don’t date failures.”

The good news is I get to keep my engf* cause I’m not a failure. I just fail. And fail well I do. My expectation for myself will always be that if a bar is low enough to reach I didn’t set it high enough. I fail at my job, my work outs, my sport, my life, and more than anything else my writing.

But as I resume work on The Primal Age Chronicles, I promise to keep failing, and to fail better each day. Cause as long as I continue to fail I am not a failure. So, let’s raise some bars.

*engf is an acronym for exclusive non girl friend since we’re both too stubborn to embrace bf/gf handles

#201 Three Weapons to Attach to You

Posted on by kassabi1a

Survival Tip #201

Three Weapons to Always Have Attached

Three weapons you should always have attached to your body are: pistol, knife, knuckles.

By having these three things attached to you at all times you will always have a short range projectile weapon, a slashing weapon, and a bashing weapon. This covers a large portion of situations you might have to face.

With a single gun strap or holster you will be able to carry your pistol, some extra ammo, and the knife. (Though I advocate a utility knife should be with you at all times, in this situation I am speaking more of a survival or tactical knife) With the brass/rubber knuckles you can simply keep them on your weak hand at all times, or a break away chain around your neck.

This doesn’t excuse you from a larger melee weapon or a long range weapon, but there is never a reason to not have the three of these with you in the Primal Age.  These three will make overcoming the obstacles you may face far easier, and more importantly, when not in use your hands are free.