Lately I have lacked focus, especially in the area of my writing. This is due to a lot of factors. First and foremost was the move. Our apartment still looks like a warehouse, but day by day, a little bit gets cleared. This past weekend, I set up the bookshelves and emptied all of my book boxes. The next step there is to bring the boxes I have in storage, as well as my wife's (smaller) collection, and our copious amounts of RPG books for shelving. These are prominently displayed in our living room. We wear our geek on our sleeves. Anyways, once we get the stuff separated out to be put in storage, the rest of the organization should go relatively quickly.
The other thing that has distracted me is my RPG habit. I talk about it a lot over at my other blog, but basically I seem to be consistently more motivated to write RPGs and RPG-related material, than actual fiction. I really need to work on that. RPG's aren't big unless the writers are. I self-published my first product at RPGNow this past weekend. It probably won't sell like hotcakes (it's nothing revolutionary), but I'm hoping it will generate enough funds so I can afford some pro artwork for another project. And then there's the OTHER other project, a space mercenary game called Stars of Fortune...
One thing about the RPG stuff, though, is that a lot of it either inspires or is inspired by my fiction writing. So, I guess in a way I'm still a bit foucsed on fiction, as I could consider the RPG stuff sort of "research and background" work.
Of course, school is an ever-present distraction. Last Friday I spent most of the day (while my boss was out of the office) writing a research proposal for my History and Popular Culture class. I'm doing a paper on on the history of the fitness industry, from its mid-19th century origins, through the bodybuilding sub-culture of today. Should be fun! Unfortunately, the proposal was 2 weeks late, as the afore-mentioned move caused me to overlook the due-date.
On a lighter note, I finally managed a date with the wife yesterday. With all that has been going on, we had neglected to just go out alone for a long time. So, my daughter took our son for the afternoon, and my wife and I had a burger before heading off to the second-run theater to see Star Trek Into Darkness. I would do a full review of it, but it's been out so long you can most likely find better reviews than what I can come up with out there. Suffice it to say, I thoroughly enjoyed it. And even though it borrowed heavily from The Wrath of Kahn, it was a really neat twist on that whole situation. There was only one groan-worthy part. "KAAAAHHHHNNN!!!" was completely misused and out of place in this version. Aside from that, I found no major flaws, personally, and enjoyed it a lot. My wife and I were both geeked at how much cooler the Klingons were in this one. And I really hope they feature prominantly in a future movie.
4 comments:
I liked Into Darkness, although Cumberbatch was badly miscast in my opinion.
I felt that way too. Although by the end of the film, I was comfortable with him in the role, I think they could have found someone more menacing, and less "goober" looking. Interestingly, I kept thinking the guy who played the captain at the opening of the first Star Trek movie (who commanded Kirk's father, played by Chris Hemsworth)would have made a good choice. He was also the leader of the Ten Rings in the first Iron Man movie.
Cumberbatch didn't look like a goober to me in that movie! On the contrary, he looked somewhat alien and delivered a performance that made him even more alien, and menacing! Oh well, different strokes, eh?
At any rate, I think most of us in the RPG community can relate to a lack of focus. We often find ourselves rushed, with limited time to devote to our beloved hobbies. That limited time combined with a passion for what we love can lead us to be a bit ADD, as we frantically try to cram our hobbies into less and less time.
But we are a creative folk, by and large. So just remember to be kind to yourself, don't be too down on your lack of focus, and shift things around a bit. Take a break on some of the multiple other projects you might have going on and focus on one.
I suppose I should get around to see this movie at some point.
And don't give up on the writing., whether it's fiction or RPG.
Post a Comment