Ungh…
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in this blog, mainly because I’ve been working the the Wayward Gamer. Yesterday I played Final Fantasy XIII for roughly 7 hours and my wrist was not happy with me when I went to work last night at 10pm. Then I worked until about 6am and now I feel like a truck is parked on my head!
It’s been a tough road, but I’m really happy with the Wayward Gamer and I think that it will be very successful as long as we keep it up! For those of you who don’t know, the first issue released on the first of this month so you can check it out by visiting the website and subscribing. Anyway, it’s nice to have a day to relax and I also get to go to a hockey game tonight (Spokane Chiefs vs Tri-City Americans). It should be a really good game considering Tri-City is #1 in the Western Conference of the WHL.
Alright, back to the old grindstone!
-Rich
Why I’ve Been Missing…
Hey everyone. Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve posted, but I have been working really hard on my video game Ezine that I’ve started up again. I’ve got a team of writers and a technical guy together and this time, we’re going to rock even harder than we did before! Go check us out at www.waywardgamer.com and let me know what you think. Also, if you like video games, subscribe to the Ezine, we take pride in providing accurate ratings and reviews and we even have a section in the Ezine for reader reviews.
And yes, this is partially a shameless plug, but also a note on why I haven’t been around here lately. So go and subscribe already, it’s free!
Fiction Editing and Postless Days
Okay, I know that I said I would be trying to post every day again and I’ve failed so far, but things have been busier that I thought they would be. I’m trying to finish the first draft of my first novel, and after looking back at it and getting some feedback I’m pretty sure that I’m going to have to re-write the first roughly five chapters of the book. when I started it I didn’t really have a clear picture of who my main character was and now that I’m getting toward the last third of the book I realized he was pretty bland for the first part of it.
I’ve mentioned this before here, but I read in a book on editing that you should completely re-type your work before submitting it to a publisher. I think that I’m going to end up doing this only because I need to fix a lot of things in the beginning anyway. Is this something that you would do? Why or why not? I’m interested to see what everyone else thinks about it.
- Rich
2010 and English Language Fail
Happy New Year! Now that the holiday season is over I’m going to be trying to post every day again. And my first post of 2010 is going to address a subject that is very important to me: Word usage!
For those of you out there who have spent any time on the internet, (which you have done merely by reading my blog) you have probably seen what is referred to as leet speak (short for elite speak). These terms, along with many that have been made popular because of text messaging are not proper English, and they’re annoying as hell. But as writers be must be aware of these new words and – dare I say – use them in proper context. For instance, the word fail is being used like this: Epic fail, soccer coach fail, ect… Obviously the correct way to say those phrases would be: Epic Failure, a soccer coach’s failure, ect…
I wonder if our language is being molested because of people who are too ignorant to use it correctly, or are they actually just too lazy? Either way, I hope that these ‘leet speak words stay out of literature (unless of course used in dialogue) and out of the dictionary as new words.
- Rich
Use The Right Radio Lingo!!!
Right now I’m reading Halo: Flood and as a result I’ve been exposed to one of my biggest pet peeves and that is radio language use. It seems like people don’t have a clear understanding of how to talk over a radio (in the military that is, not trucker radio language). My training in the military and in ROTC taught me how to talk on the radio and so, for all you writers out there who have people talking on the radio and don’t know this information, please pay attention. My prayer is that by making this post I can eliminate these egregious errors.
The United States Army uses procedural words (prowords) in place of otherwise longer communications. Here is a list of prowords from the U.S. Army Field Manual 3-21.13:
- All After – I refer to the entire message that follows…
- All Before – I refer to the entire message that precedes…
- Break – I now separate the text from other parts of the message.
- Correction – There is an error in this transmission. This will continue with the last word correctly transmitted.
- Groups – This message contains the number of groups indicated by the numeral following.
- I Say Again – I am repeating transmission or part indicated.
- I Spell – I shall spell the next word phonetically.
- Message – A message that requires recording is about to follow. (Transmission immediately after the call.) This proword is not used on nets primarily employed for conveying messages. It is intended for use when messages are passed on tactical or reporting net.
- More to Follow – Transmitting station had additional traffic for the receiving station.
- Out – This is the end of my transmission to you and no answer is required or expected.
- Over – This is the end of my transmission to you and a response is necessary. Go ahead: Transmit.
- Radio Check – What is my signal strength and readability, i.e. how do you hear me?
- Roger – I have received your last transmission satisfactorily. Radio check is loud and clear.
- Say Again – Repeat all of your last transmission. Followed by identification data means “repeat – (portion indicated).”
- This Is – This transmission is from the station whose designator immediately follows.
- Time – That which immediately follows is the time or date-time group of the message.
- Wait – I must pause for a few seconds.
- Wait-out – I must pause for longer than a few seconds.
- Wilco – I have received your transmission, understand it, and will comply, to be used only by the addressee. Since the meaning of ROGER is included in that of WILCO, the two passwords are never used together.
- Word After – I refer to the word of the message that follows.
- Word Before – I refer to the word of the message that precedes.
Alright, there you have it: The specific prowords as stated by the Army. Now let me clear up a few things…
- You NEVER say “over and out.” I can’t express strongly enough how wrong this is. If you’ve followed the definitions above, it should be obvious why. But, just in case I’ll state in plain English what “over and out” means. “I’m done talking and my message requires a response, please transmit that response, but do not respond.”
- Copy is not a response meaning you understand a message. I hear this EVERYWHERE! The proper response is ROGER. For instance: “Alpha One, proceed to checkpoint Juliet and wait for further instructions, over.” The reply to this is, “Roger that Higher.” Or another acceptable response would be, “wilco Higher.”
- NOTE: Copy is sometimes used when the transmitter wants the transmittee to repeat back a message. For instance: “Alpha One, prepare to copy, over.” “Roger Higher.” “Proceed to checkpoint Juliet and wait for further instructions, over.” “I copy, proceed to checkpoint Juliet and wait for further instructions, over.” The exact procedure for this would be stated in a unit’s SOP (Standard Operating Procedures) since it would deviate from the training manual.
I hope that this helps everyone understand radio lingo a little better. The last thing that I’ll say is, in reality most soldiers don’t adhere to these prowords, even in combat situations. But when you’re writing you want it to seem more military by using them, so use them correctly!
- Rich
Word Monkey
Write and post, and post and write. Word monkey got no sleep tonight.
- Rich
Optimism or Delusion?
In a world of adversity there are so many opportunities so accept the mediocre; to do what’s easy. But at what point in life do those who can make a difference stand up and make that difference? What would happen to the world if they didn’t, and do they have an obligation to just because they have the talent and ability? I think so, but the harder question… The one that everyone dreads to ask themselves is: Am I one of those people? Of course after that question follows the inevitable question: How conceited am I by just thinking that?
I’ve always thought that if you work hard and are diligent you can accomplish anything. But is that really true? I’ve always thought so, and I’ve always been able to do well at whatever I put my mind to. In all of that though, I haven’t accomplished anything. I’d like to think that that’s because I’ve never stuck with any one thing long enough. Perhaps one day, when I finally stick with something, that I’ll finally accomplish that something.
Yeah, I’m an optimist, and some people say that that just makes me delusional. Be that as it may, I would rather live in a world where anything is possible. A world where I really can accomplish anything and make a difference. Call me delusional if you want, but there isn’t a single person who has made a difference in this world that did so thinking that they couldn’t.
- Rich
Writing… Ahhh…
So, it’s been great being able to get back to writing and really enjoying it. Looking back at what I wrote for my wizard novel, it was obvious that I wasn’t ready to write it yet. There is a lot more that I have to do to the story before I can go back to it. In the mean time I’ve been writing my sci-fi novel, which has been really easy since I know the characters, world and story so well. I threw down another thousand words last night without really even trying.
Also, I’m about ready to go for another short story, which will have something to do with an address book. I got the idea from my friend Dana Kangas (check out her and her husbands blog in the blogroll section) and the more I think about it the more I think it’ll be fun and a good exercise for me. I’ll make sure to post it for everyone in the My Work section when it’s finished.
- Rich
Im Back!
For some reason, I’ve had a really hard time getting up the motivation to write, both in this blog and in my book. I think that part of that might be the fact that I’ve been perpetually behind on my school assignments until yesterday and that I haven’t really felt like I know who my character is in my wizard novel. Last night though, I got a strange burst of inspiration – at 3am no less – and began writing in my sci-fi book again. It was amazing!
The feeling that I got when I wrote before (before NaNoWriMo that is) came back to me in a rush and I remembered what it was that I loved about writing. It’s not the uphill fight to get published, or the feeling that I have to do certain things in order to better my writing, it’s the feeling of satisfaction that I get when I write something that I like; that I think other people will like.
So, for all of you out there who might be feeling frustrated because of the publishing race, take heart in the reason that you first started writing… Because you loved it!
- Rich
Responsibilities, Their Such a Drag…
Being behind on NaNoWriMo and my school work for almost three weeks, I had forgotten what it feels like to be responsible and complete work on time. I just spent the evening (after getting home from work) catching up on school work. While I wasn’t nearly as far behind as I thought that I was, it felt really good to get myself back on track, and even set up to get some assignments done early.
I realized through all of this that writing isn’t any different than this. It’s easy to shirk off things that will make your writing better (outlining, character outlining and development, proper editing, ect.), but taking the time to do those things right makes you feel better. Better about your writing and better about what you’ve produced. So, I’m going to make sure that I don’t put off those things that will make my writing better, just for the sake of doing it faster. Besides, right now I’m not getting paid for it anyway.
- Rich
