Tag Archives: writing

Distraction-Free Writing With WriteMonkey Comments

I love writing. It sustains me. But no matter how satisfying writing is, Internet access practically guarantees distraction. Oh sure, I could choose not to connect. But Google and Wikipedia are just too useful for grabbing those quick bits of information. But then “I’ll just check my email,” “I’ll just retweet this,” or “I wonder if Nedroid updated yet.” One thing leads to another, and oh wow look, I’ve lost four hours and I seem to have opened thirty Wikipedia tabs on Marvel super heroes. Great.

If only there were a minimalistic text editor for Windows that could keep me focused, but retained the features that are actually important to my productivity.

I’d like to introduce you to WriteMonkey. It’s a scaled-down text editor that runs in full screen mode so you can concentrate on your writing. It’s like a little home office for your operating system.

» Continue reading “Distraction-Free Writing With WriteMonkey”

Categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Published:
November 28, 2009 – 12:37 am
Author:
By J. Mattocks

I Am Not a Novelist Comments

Thanks to my existentialist leanings, I tend to define myself by what I do. Figuring out who I will be in this world means figuring out the actions I wish to take. So who do I choose to be?

It struck me today that I am not interested in being a traditional novelist. I feel like I’ve been struggling with this for years, trying to be something I don’t want to be just because I decided somewhere along the way that novel writing is a more legitimate profession than writing alternative forms of fiction.

» Continue reading “I Am Not a Novelist”

Categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: , , , , , ,

Published:
May 3, 2009 – 5:52 pm
Author:
By J. Mattocks

Inspirational Pain Comments

I’ve come down with terrible writer’s block. Reviewing what I’ve written in the past—especially all that mess no one else has ever seen—it has become apparent that I write the most when I am in pain. Pain forces words out. Pain makes my pen move. Pain births new personalities called “characters” in my skull.

This creates a problem; I’m not really in pain right now. I’m not saying my life is perfect, but I feel pretty content. This presents a problem with three apparent solutions:

  1. I bring pain upon myself or seek it out
  2. I learn to give joy a voice
  3. I learn to express the pain of others

I think I need all three.

» Continue reading “Inspirational Pain”

Categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: , , , ,

Published:
August 3, 2008 – 2:35 pm
Author:
By J. Mattocks

Plot Device Comments

Click to Enlarge:

Cyanide and Happiness, a daily webcomic
Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

It seems like there’s a story in here. Some things just “pop,” you know?

If you had a “plot device” button, would you press it? Obviously there’s a high risk of danger. But if you find yourself complaining of boredom, why not?

I don’t know if this site is legal or not (and if it is, HOW it can be), but VirtualNES.com lets you play myriad classic Nintendo Entertainment System games directly from your web browser. I recommend Deja Vu, which is a really freakin’ cool Myst-style mystery game. The connection between this and the plot device is more emotional than logical, but it exists. I think maybe if you played the game you’d feel it, too. I just watched my character die by explosion when he tried started a car. Despite the setback, I’m far more amused than deterred; I enjoy a good mystery almost as much as I enjoy pretending to experience things that only happen in stories (and in the lives of others which, to him, seem only fantastic).

Last night, in preparation for the sexy new reboot with Edward Norton, I watched Ang Lee’s Hulk from 2003.  I found the experience thoroughly unenjoyable, yet I can’t quite dismiss it as a “bad” movie. There’s something else there that “pops.” It felt somehow like a candy-coated, subdued acid trip. I guess this can largely be attributed to the semi-surreal stylization reminiscent of an obnoxious art film. But this pop-ness suggests something else, something that works on the subconscious level. I don’t know if it’s worth watching just for the experience, but I promise analyzing the movie is far less mind-numbing than actually watching it.

Categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: , , , , ,

Published:
June 13, 2008 – 7:26 pm
Author:
By J. Mattocks

Science: Sci-Fi’s Friend or Foe? Comments

This article by Mark Rosenfelder (creator of Zompist.com) has been bouncing around in my head for the past month. I finally articulated a response as I was scanning Slashdot and Wired, and noticed what I was doing. Learning about a new scientific advancement is like a shot of creative adrenaline. I hear about some new tech and I immediately start thinking of the next generation or new applications.

Here’s the heart of my response to Rosenfelder’s article. Once you start trying to play the scientist by figuring out exactly how some cool gadget would work in the real world, you usually run into a wall. And understandably so; the present is plagued by the apparently impossible. But, historically, human beings are pretty good at figuring out how to do new things, and the most conservative visions of the future often fall short. Naysayers who proclaim “we’ll never be able to do X” face exponentially increasing odds of being proven wrong as time passes. If it’s in the future, who’s to say what’s impossible?

Many hard sci-fi writers would do it differently, but I say go ahead and give your space rangers laser swords. Don’t strain yourself by trying to figure out how it works—that’s the scientist’s job. Writers can afford to keep their heads in the clouds. Okay, maybe “afford” was a poor word choice. But you know what I mean.

Categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: , , , , , ,

Published:
June 2, 2008 – 9:46 am
Author:
By J. Mattocks