It's that time of the year; National Novel Writing Month. I couldn't finish my WIP last NaNo, but it turned out nice, slowy becoming a proper novel work-in-progress rather than just an experiment at writing each day. If nothing else, that November got me into the habit of writing every day.

I'll doing NaNo this month again mostly to celebrate that fact and also because I'm curious what kind of ideas will come out.

Yup, I had a proper WTF moment the other day while watching a documentary about primates. There was this scene where a monkey was peeling a banana like a boss at the edge of the screen. Which made me think, what the hell I've been doing all those years? Then I remembered the quote -I think it was by Einstein, about how everyone could be geniuses in their fields, and not judging a fish by its ability (or the lack of it ) to fly. Which made me feel slightly better, but it still stings a little.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find a sample video of the scene, but here's Youtube video someone demonstrating how to do it properly, hoping that I'm not the only one to be flabbergasted by this.

In a few words, my experience with Smashwords was pretty smooth. If you read the official Style Guide and follow it as suggested, the process is very straight forward and easy to follow. Editing and preparing a short story takes about 10 or 15 minutes at best if you follow the rules laid out in the document. And the result is often very good. Preparing a cover is probably the hardest part if you aren't good at image processing etc. The results can be... well, a bit amateurish.

After you go through the process, your book or story is added to Smashwords’ listing and it goes under review for distribution to Apple Store, Kindle etc. I’m not sure about the usual waiting time for premium distribution but as of today, my story Wraiths of Caledonia has been waiting to be reviewed for about 7 days.

Now, a bit more about the story; Wraiths of Caledonia has been trunked for a while. I decided it was a really good candidate for trying out e-publishing. It’s free and you can find it here at Smashwords. Feel free to leave a review or comment if you take time to read it.

About writing fiction:

Writing can be tough.

I suspect there are a few people out there, words flowing from their fingertips and forming prose sweat like nectar and what-not. I'm not one of them. It's usually a difficult process for me, sitting in front of the computer trying hard to fight against the urge to just roll my face over the keyboard.(*)

A mild session of writing could easily change from "Hmm, this isn't actually that bad." to this;

Still, it has its moments. It always sounded a bit obnoxious to me, when I read about the established writers talking about their craft. How their characters were alive and bullheaded, how were the stories they wrote had twists even surprising to them. Bullshit! I called. It seemed like such a straight forward process to me; you outline the story and you flesh it out. The characters didn't suddenly rebelled and said "Screw you! I'm not kissing another dude."

And when I started writing, I found most of what I read to be true. It's hard to describe the feeling you get when something you create and flesh out, goes on and surprises you. You realize that for some reason the story you're writing isn't happening as you initially wanted it to and it's immensely fun. More than anything else, it is an insight to how your mind works.

I experienced this for the first time during my NaNoWriMo attempt. While it wasn't exactly a success, starting with a very basic idea of what I wanted to do and developing it on the way was quite a different experience. I woke up every morning, wrote roughly 1000 words and that was it. I didn't think about the story, or how I should continue. I just got behind the desk and wrote. And surprisingly, it wasn't a smoldering mess of shit.

And finally, it's creative and it drives you to think and wonder about things you would never do otherwise.  I mean, why on earth would you try to imagine how the dawn would look on a planet orbiting a binary system?

Go on, and try it. Maybe you'll like it. Maybe, you'll get hooked.

* This is the way I see it. You might not favor the head-on-keyboard writing technique to get those creative juices to flow.

It has somewhat become customary for me to start my blogs etc with Tom Waits. So, here is an old of post of mine regarding the man's genius.

It’s hard to describe this man’s genius. I’m either at loss for words or babbling like a fool when people ask me about the kind of music Tom Waits makes. We’re talking about someone who makes music whistling, howling, hitting pipes and old sofas. And by some divine intervention he creates haunting beats. I swear, he could make good music with nothing but a bag full of angry cats.

It was when I stumbled upon “Chocolate Jesus”; I saw him throw up a fistful of confetti and break into a bizarre dance, and I was hooked just like that. I thought “This guy is either a genius or mad as a hatter.”

He’s certainly an acquired taste -I’ll give you that, but one that you’ll never regret. I’m not afraid to say that I’ve got a huge man-crush on him. It would be a great day if Mr. Waits ever decides to come to Istanbul.