S. Boyd Taylor's Blog, page 3

I said before that I had several Deliberate Practice Drills to share. Well, actually, I’m always coming up with more, so could theoretically post these forever. Here’s one I used the other day, trying to increase control and precision in the emotional content of my sentences:

1) Write a very short, very rudimentary Core Sentence, like, “He was happy,” or even, “She ran.” Subject-Verb or Subject-Verb-Object is best.

2) Write at least ten variations of this Core Sentence. Each variation must cont...

If you know me, you probably know how many hobbies I have, how many things I am trying to not just be good at, but MASTER:seven different styles of Kung Fu, Fiction Writing, several different languages, sword fighting, being a good parent, etc.

Despite apparently being spread thin, I am damn good at all of them: I’ve got 28 medals in Kung Fu from various national and international tournaments, I’m an excellent sword fighter, I’ve got published short stories and am >this< close to having a major agent for my novel. What I have not mastered, I am slowly mastering.

And how do I d...

“…and remember to believe in magic or I’ll kill you!” – The Magic Bunny

One thing I’ve seen endless posts on is “Finding Your Voice”, as if there is a magical voice that is yours — and one day you’ll just run into your voice and BOOM you’ll be a real writer with a real style.

First I need to be clear here. I’m not sure if this is a revolutionary view, but it is certainly MY view and I haven’t seen it anywhere else:

I do NOT believe that if you keep writing you’ll just accidentally run into “Your...

I’ve been plugging away at my novels, up to 16k words on the new novel, a Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon-style adventure that uses Tai Chi Chu’an (Taijiquan) as a central element.

I’ve also been getting a reader to plow through my Great Depression-Era Range War/Western novel; when feedback is in from that, I will send it to an agent.

Writing-wise I am consistently, if slowly, scrimshawing out words. Submission- and agent-wise I am in the doldrums, drifting about the ocean sails-up with no wind i...

So… I have been implementing my newfound plot skills. I am about 13k into a new novel, and the one thing I have learned is this: Don’t be married to the outline.

For me, outline-wise, first thought = worst thought. I almost always come up with something better when I get to that point in the novel. But just to get there, it really helps to have a structure. Even if I know I’m going to throw it away.

So, yes… I’ve been coming up with evil plots to inflict upon my characters, and, when it comes t...

Hey, I’m back, kind of . It remains to be seen if this is a repeatable thing or not, but here’s what’s up with me. As of today:

Trifecta!

1) Martial Arts: I did the Yang Taijiquan 88 Long Form for the first time in forever. Felt good!

2) Writing: I wrote a 1,200 word flash piece, beginning to end. It’s a Sci Fi piece, and I normally don’t do techie stuff. But we shall see if it works or not.

3) Hot Hobby of the Month: Ancient Greek – Did 5 exercises in my Ancient Greek book.

Rock on!

There is something about loss that makes you fragile, easily cracked, breakable. Like your skin has been spun from a thinporcelainshell, and if grips your hand or arm too hard their fingers will punch through into the hollowness — the vast and bitter void — beneath.

I went to see the movie Argo the other day, and event the trailer for Lincoln made me tear up. When we got to the voice over by President Carter at the end, I broke up. I think things like this are to be expected, but I wish I was...

Yes, I actually have a diary AND a blog. Most of what goes up here is not personal, but I recently suffered a tragedy, the loss of my mother, and I think the only way to share that is to share the diary entry for the day. I have cleaned it up a little, given it some context, but it is generally unedited.

Wednesday, 17 October 2012

Up late, running behind in the morning. Come into work knowing I must get a report draft done at work for the Disaster Recovery Test that happened Sunday, so I have t...

Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin teamed up on "Time Bandits" way back in 1980, and it’s definitely worth a gander. I hadn’t seen it since I was a child, and I’ve watched it twice now and quite enjoyed it, actually — though, as a child, I really hated the ending. It’s a rare treasure — a movie where the special effects mostly age well.

If you don’t know, in the film there are 6 dwarves, servants of the Supreme Being, and they have stolen His map of holes between different times and places and ar...

In the diary, Palin has just done a Saturday Night Live monologue with his mother. I went and watched it, feeling a manic urge to connect the words of the Diary to visual matter, and I am glad she had such a good time. Very funny, too.

I also ended up watching two other SNL monologues by him, and, man, monologues are tough. Even one which he said went very well, one where he told jokes about his mother, seemed very sparse with laughter.

And then there is the infamous “socks” Monologue (from app...