I'll Stand By You, If You Stand By Me

This evening I watched Stand By Me. If you haven't seen it, and you don't know what I'm talking about, it's an old movie, from the mid 80-'s, and based on a novella by Stephen King. It's a classic coming of age movie that I intend to show to my children as soon as I can. I think there is something to learn in this movie that, as a father, I find incredibly hard to explain: the magic of friendships.

Like your first kiss, how can you explain childhood friendship of having never experienced it? This movie is one of only a few that have ever made me feel incredibly at home. How do I explain that? I can't. I just can't, and even if I tried, my words wouldn't do it justice.

I'm a bit of a Wil Wheaton fan, and that was the main reason why I ended up watching that movie tonight. I urge you all to do the same, but not just to see four great actors as kids, but to see how a director makes magic - how a director can bring an idea to life in a way that I think we can all relate to somehow. Watch it for the idea's that come alive, that jump at you through the screen, and ask yourself how you feel.

Until then, I sincerely hope you guys watched it - they don't make movies like that anymore - and that's too bad.

Probability in Writing and Gaming

A friend of mine was asking when I would write about Probability. There's an inside joke here that's just too complicated to explain, so just take my word for it, and say it's funny. Anyways, I was wondering how I could relate probability to writing, because in gaming, well, you roll dice or something, and that's all there is to it, basically. For example, on a six sided die, you have equal chances of rolling any number from 1 through 6, so your probability of rolling any one of those numbers is 1/6. In writing, it's a little harder to figure out.

First let's choose an appropriate definition for probability, as taken from Dictionary.com.

Probability: a strong likelihood or chance of something.

So I was thinking about how my own stories unfold, and how some kind of something happens in them, and I realized that writing is all about expressing probable or less probable events, that happen in any given setting (well, for me anyway). This is what is traditionally called the Plot. The plot is the driving force behind any good story. You need something to happen, and that something, or that probable, or not so probable event, must be interesting, and in my opinion, drastic, while obeying the laws of probability. For example, let's say the hero in your story needs to do something really spectacular. If the chances are that your character will fail, then let him fail - don't play God unless that is the entire basis of your story. Your writing will be that much richer for it, and your readers will believe in it. I also think that your characters will be that much easier to relate to. I love reading about how a character progresses through both successes and failures; how they figure out how to do things on their own. I prefer seeing a character go through a realistic series of wins and losses, just how we do in real life, and how they eventually come out on top. It's just so satisfying to me when I can say I get what they're doing.

In any case, I urge you to think about the probability of events the next time you write - I know I will.

Walking, walking, everywhere...

So I've taken up the fine art of walking. Yup, you heard me: Walking. It may sound relatively boring, and easy, and not so difficult, but in all honesty, walking is amazing.

A few weeks ago I started feeling like shit, and I mean really like shit. I felt tired, and sick all the time. I was cranky and just pissed off at everything - kitchen sink included. It took heart palpitations, and chest pains to bust my balls enough to get moving. So I decided to walk, because mainly I'm not in any shape to run, and I really don't like running anyhow. It hurts my legs, and knees, and feet, and ankles, and fucking everything else that's connected. So running was def out.

My first walk took me 1.5hrs to complete, and I walked just over 6.5km. I was tired at the end of it. My feet were sore. I was sweating like a bull in heat, and I could barely finish it. But I did it. I went out the next few days, and then days turned into weeks. I now walk anywhere between 6 and 10km daily. Last week I put in over 40km total, and I've lost weight, feel better, am no longer as stressed, and I actually lost some tummy fat! Exercise is good - go figure!

Oh, and I do walk at a pretty fast pace - enough to make me breathe heavily, and boost my heart-rate to about 75-80% of my max. I think that's pretty good. I also took the time to think out my problems of the day, while admiring much of the city I live in. I notice more and more each and every time I go out. I wrote my short story while on my walk, just thinking of what I wanted to say, so walking is also creatively productive too. I've also been sleeping better, so there's an added bonus of sorts.

Maybe walking might not be the most intense activity out there, but it has helped me immensely, and I just can't get enough of it.

So whatever you do, just do it, dude! Walk on!

Sinking Ship of Creativity

So I've been thinking recently about how I want to continue writing this short story for the CBC Short Story contest. I let a friend read it, which felt weird, but oddly exhilarating, but I've put off editing it any further. I've hit a crucial point in my writing, I think, where the mo just ain't jo-ing.

What to do?

I think I've got an idea where I want this thing to go though, which is good. It's just that I get these sudden bursts of creativity, followed by lapses of creativity, which makes it hard to fully concentrate on delivering the goods when I need them delivered. So it's hard to finish what I've started - or no - it's hard to polish up what I've started. Finishing something crappy is pretty easy. Making it sound just right is fucking insane! I literally keep a thesaurus open, and a dictionary, just to make sure what I am writing makes sense. It's helped my vocabulary though, so there's that. I would encourage anyone to that too. It helped me tons.

Anyway, hopefully I'll get this thing finished, and at a point where it's good enough to let other people read it. The 25$ it's going to cost to submit it as an entry is irrelevant compared to crossing off this thing from my bucket list, so I'm all in on this one.

Wish me luck.