Inspiration can come from anywhere

Words this week: 2,000+

I've been meandering around writing the book, again feeling stuck, then pushing through to just make something happen. It's old hat by now, but I have to keep reminding myself that regardless of my feelings towards my prose and my story, I need to just keep pushing on until the end. I don't hate what I'm writing, but I'm not in love with a lot of it either. 

For some inspiration, I finished reading Starless Night by R.A. Salvatore this week.

Look at that sexy cover. I still have no clue if the old man is actually supposed to be Drizzt.

The plot left a lot to be desired and understood, but the action sequences were really well done. It reads like a blockbuster summer movie with a ton of hack and slash broken up by occasional dialogue scenes. I tried to internalize the vocabulary and movement of the action sequences, as I'm writing a big action scene in the book right now.

I'm also currently waiting for the results of the latest NeoGAF Creative Writing Challenge. I'm not going to win it, but I'm happy that I got at least one top three vote from one of the most talented writers in the group. This particular challenge resulted in some really fun stories that I was also inspired by. I'm going to keep participating in these challenges to study what other writers are doing, and to continue pushing myself to be better. I firmly believe that in order to improve, you need mentors and goals to shoot for. There are several talented people in the group whom I feel are not entirely out of my league in terms of prose and storytelling ability. They're still better than I am, but it's not like I'm reading Nabokov and thinking that I'll never reach that level. 

Speaking of inspiration, the Pittsburgh Penguins just won the 2017 Stanley Cup last night, and as a fan of the team, my mood has been buoyed, as this is just another reminder that success comes with hard word. The team played on a knife's edge for much of the season, and that's exactly where I need to be if I want to be successful. 

When I'm writing my best stuff, I feel like my mind is at the farthest point in front of me, as if I'm projecting myself into the world my story and characters are inhabiting. I don't mean that to sound strange or pretentious. I just want it to sound as close to the experience I'm having as possible. I need to keep projecting out that far, looking over the edge of my own vision, and walking out onto that edge to see and record as much as I can.

Hope you all have a great week.

(Let's go Pens)