Wow! Look at that stock picture. Sometimes you find exactly what you are looking for. Isn’t that special?
To blog or not to blog? That is the question I am asking myself today. I say today but it is more than just today given that the draft for this was started some time ago.
With an uninspired title like that it might be that not blogging is for the best. Still I am going to explore this topic.
A blog is the blogger putting their thoughts out into the universe. The real question is is the universe interested.
I’m entitled to my opinion.
Vila & Avon Blake’s 7 (Bounty)
It is your assumption that we are entitled to it as well that is irritating.
No one can do a put down quite like Avon. The internet is packed to the gills with people expressing their opinions and/or giving advice. After a while online it all starts to become overwhelming. I have even started to doubt my own opinion on things like TV, films and books. “Well GenericScienceFiction4247 doesn’t like this episode so maybe I am wrong.”
You are erratic. Conflicted. Disorganised. Every decision is debated, every action questioned, every individual entitled to their own small opinion. You lack harmony, cohesion, greatness. It will be your undoing.
Seven of Nine Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 01: Star Trek: Voyager (Scorpion Part 2)
This post started out as me questioning if I should keep blogging. Now I am advocating for the Borg. Something has gone horribly wrong.
The thing about blogging is that it is takes time and it has to be thought of in the context of when it is being posted.
Let’s say I wanted to tell you about the time I took a water pistol to school. That might be just a funny story. However if, on that day, there is some story about a kid doing the same for nefarious reasons my funny blog post becomes insensitive.
I did actually take a water pistol to school once. I don’t know how old I was. I think I was around 12-14. The reason was the school was having a fancy dress day. I went as James Bond. Mum spray painted a water pistol black – and to my eyes it looked like a Waltha PPK. And that is actually the end of the story because I have a memory like Swiss cheese.
Let’s imagine that I had more to say. I would sit at my computer, write a blog post, and be ready to hit the post button. Then I read the bad water pistol story. Suddenly it sounds like I am making light of a tragedy. (How there can be a tragedy involving a water pistol is another question entirely.)
The point is that for blogging you have to be aware about stuff like this in a way you don’t, as much, for any other sort of internet content.
Every now and then, on Facebook, there is a post proposing a question. “Could you live without the internet for a month? At the end you get £1,000,000.”
Unfortunately no one is actually offering that. Nevertheless I have often wondered about my answer to that question. I think if I was allowed a good supply of books and DVDs it might not be so bad. This would especially be true if there were good places to go for walks. The only slight wrinkle is that there are some people I only talk to online. I would obviously have to make sure they knew I wasn’t just ignoring them.
A lot of what I do online is the internet equivalent of eating sweets. I watch YouTube videos. Sometimes they may have a lasting impact but mostly they are enjoyable in the moment only.
I don’t even want to know how much time I spend on YouTube on a typical day.
Sometimes I have the following rather silly thought: ‘I can’t sit and watch TV because I should be being productive. In lieu of that I will watch YouTube. Therefore I will have a break of only 15 minutes instead of 45.’
Yeah that is a bad idea. What normally ends up happening is that I just spend those minutes (and more) on YouTube instead.
At the beginning of the year I left my job. To say I had a plan might be playing fast and loose with the word. What is something that is a step down from a plan?
Anyway the “plan” was to focus on writing for a bit, finally get my novel finished, and find a way to earn money in a way that didn’t drive me completely mad. (That ship might have already sailed.)
I have achieved a draft of my novel. It is incredibly rough and incoherent but it is something. I now need to pull together all the other drafts (I hate my past self) to make it work. There is just one small problem….
I don’t have a villain. Maybe that is more than a small problem. It is like trying to make onion bhajis without onion. Which I have attempted. No. I am not a complete idiot. What I mean is that I have set out with the intention to make bhajis only to discover I have all ingredients except for onions. My brain and I have a rather dysfunctional relationship.
Do stories need a villain?
You will bow to my awesome power. There is nothing that can stop the destruction I bring upon you. Prepare to meet your doom.
Anubis (Stargate SG1: Redemption Part 1)
Actually Stargate is very good at this. The Goa’uld are literally described as ‘cliched bad guys’. Although that is mostly because it seems to be Colonel O’Neill’s favourite word.
Stargate SG-1 without the Goa’uld wouldn’t be quite the same. (Yes that was a dig at seasons 9 and 10… sorry.) SG-1 needs a villain so they can save the world at the end of each season. I don’t think a villain is always needed.
When I first started my novel, a long time ago, there was a villain. He lived in a grand castle with his minions. The castle stood alone on a mountain. The heroes make a daring attack in the final chapter – and not all of them survive.
The villain in their fortress has been done many times. From Ming the Merciless, to Sauron, to a number of the Bond villains. It does work but what if my story needs something else?
One of the best episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation is “The Defector”. This episode doesn’t end with a battle but it does have a villain. That villain is Tomalak played by the late great Andreas Katsulas.
The episode is tense. The Enterprise must determine if a Romulan defector is genuine or a ruse to start a war.
At the end of the story the Enterprise is outgunned and all seems lost. Then we get the reveal. The Enterprise has Klingon reinforcements. What was a sure thing for the Romulans is now, at best, a Pyrrhic victory. Tomalak chooses to withdraw.
I look forward to our next meeting, Captain.
Tomalak (Star Trek: The Next Generation SG1: The Defector)
I am trying to stumble towards a point here. (Although I have written this over so many days I am not sure what it is.) Perhaps this blog does have a purpose in that it helps me to work out story possibilities.
Fantasy novels often end with an epic battle. So in an effort to set myself apart I want to do something different. The question is what? Without a battle it might just be a bunch of connected ideas and nothing more.
I said at the top that I have a rough draft of my novel. I do. However this post has proven there are a huge number of kinks to work out. I
If nothing else I need to put barriers in the way of my heroes. Some writers like their characters to go through a series of horrible events. I am not so sure that is what I want. I also don’t want to end up with a red shirt problem. And I am not sure my novel is even that kind of story.
Thank you for staying with this rambling excuse for a blog post. Will there be more? Maybe. This is my first (Reviews notwithstanding) post in nine months! That is a long time. I think I will leave the final words to Homer Simpson.
…it’s just a bunch of stuff that happened.
Homer Simpson (The Simpsons: Blood Feud)
I just wanted to say that I have checked this post. I really have. Unfortunately my particular combination of dyslexia and dyspraxia makes it really hard for me to spot typos. Please enjoy and I’ll try not to make too many errors.
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/SDuKYJBkJm
The Princess Bride is thirty years old this year and it is one of my favourite films.
The one thing I not only don’t like, but actually hate, about this film is the way Buttercup is portrayed.
The dialogue in this film is wonderful. It is so quotable. If you have seen this film you know exactly what I am talking about.
The framing devise of this film is interesting. It gives the film a real fairy tale feel. There is something so special about being read to.
I have to mention Wallace Shaw. He really steals the show in this film.
The fight. Thankfully this is not an out of place reference to a mediocre episode of Voyager. I’m referring to the fight between Inago and Westly. In fact that whole scene is just pure gold.
The Princess Bride was originally a book. It was written in 1973 by William Goldman – he also wrote the screenplay.
Unstable Orbit 