Procrastinating

 As they say, I should be writing - my story rather than this blog post.  However, I have three brief notes about my Nanowrimo work and thought I would share them.

First, on the 22nd of November, I will have a Write In for Busan Nanowrimos - and others who are in the area. The photos with maps in the previous post.  I will also have a Write In on Tuesday the 17th and there is a photo showing the my favored location as well.

Second, I chose to write my current novel to see how last year's novel should end.  I frequently choose to jump ahead and organize a scene then see what needed to happen previously.  I have more professional company as my internet friend, Gord Seller, is using the same technique.

The first novel (set in 1720) is about 90% finished, and the second (set in 1736) is about 60% done. I’m trying to finish the second book first, which will make it easier for me to go back and finish the 1720 book, since one of the “characters” knows a lot about how things will unfold in the future so it’s helpful if I do, too.

Third, even in writing this short post, I have misspelled the word "the" three times.  Wehn will I get the muscle memory to write it properly?  I really feel I am seeing regression in my typign skill.  In this paragraph, I have chosen not to correct my errors.  So far, I have not hit the space bar too early, resulting in "I lik eapples" phrases.

Almost too late: Saha Gu's Sea Art exhibit closes this Sunday.

On the Dadaepo beach of Saha district in Busan, is the Sea Art Exhibit.  It started in Sept and closes this Sunday.  The dog and I had a lot of fun at it in today's beautiful weather.

The exhibits all featured some connection to the ocean, waves and things moving and temporary.

One exhibit was a pair of photos taken in Ontario, Canada.  One was taken in Fairy Lake, Huntsville near my home town and the lake I last did a polar bear swim in.

One artist, Yoko Ono, had a paper wish tree.  My photo:

Two more that I liked:

The dog loved running on the open beach.

First stage of planning something? reach for the paper. Also, Busan Writing Group and Good Professing

Apple has a fancy new iPad Pro that the firm hopes will be favoured by designers.  And yet, most designers start with paper in their design process.

I've heard good things about Slack. They love it at 99% invisible.

For my more-limited organizational work, I too go to paper and a coloured Sharpie or disposable fountain pen.

Via Wired which led to these survey results.
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The Busan Writing Group will join us in Nanowrimo this year and their first book has been published.

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Finally, a PDF on How to be a good professor.
The word 'creative' pops up at least once but I've included it mostly so I remember to reread it and consider my own work.

Crossposting: Summer plans

I have too many blogs.  Here I write about creativity and writing.  At creationevolutionbusan, I write about evolution and science. And at surprisesaplenty.wordpress.com, I write about other subjects, mostly family life, teaching and travel.

At the Surprisesaplenty site, I wrote this:

This summer I appear to have a lot of free time.  I hope to work an ESL camp in August and have a few other commitments but essentially I have time to work on my own projects.  Most of these projects deal with writing.

Writing Plans and Goals:

• 13 blogposts for 6,500 words.  Why 13?  I can't recall why I chose this number.  Somewhat more than two a week, I guess.
• 3 short stories: Working titles are 1) Ants, 2) Vampire on a boat and 3) Hyperbaric Chamber.  I'm figuring 2,000 words each
• Push forward one or all three of the books I have started and let sit.  30,000 words is the goal and I don't mind jumping from book to book as seems fit. Working titles are 1) Return of the Haloed Hunter, 2) the Distancing Engine and 3) Creationism's worst arguments
• 2 letters per week to friends.  Around ten letters and 2,000 words.
• Perform research and planning for future "Crowded Sky" story. As much as 5,000 words.

To keep the writing interesting, I have made further goals.

• I want to write over the course of a full day.  That is, at least once in the month write from 12:00 to 1:00 AM, once from 1:00 to 2:00AM ...
• I want to write in a variety of locations.  The local mountaintop has a good table. There are some nice libraries to write in.  I'll talk about coffee shops in a moment.  Eulsookdo Eco Centre might be a nice place to work in for an afternoon.
• Soundtrack: I may use Ommwriter which has its own soundtrack but otherwise it will be autoplayed classical music starting with some Janecek and letting Youtube suggest from there. Away from Internet connections, Doug and the Slugs and other 80's music would work; the tunes are so familiar that they can be white noise or a fun background as needed.

Snacks: I bought snacks for my Nanowrimo writing and I will definitely eat in front of the computer but I need to show restraint here.  My weight is slowly dropping and I want to keep it going in that direction.  Controlling my weight is my greatest concern this summer.

Fitness:

• 18 runs with an average of 7.0 km.  I hope to attempt a solo half-marathon this summer late one evening and have been working out the course and where to place energy drinks along the way.  I am currently at 96 runs over the past six months so only the weather could prevent reaching this goal.
• Run faster than a subway train.  The local subway stations Seo-dae-shin and Dong-dae-shin are about 500 meters apart and the train takes 2:35 seconds from doors open at Seo- to doors closed at Dong-.  Further, this route is slightly downhill.  I can easily run this fast on a level surface but Seo-dae-shin is deep underground. I have no qualms or conscience problems about using the escalators but even with that assistance, there is a big climb at the start of the run.
• Swim 2km at a time. Korean pools are crowded with conversationalists and it is hard to get an unbroken swim in.  I am likely to need to stop a the end of a lane a few times.  Today, I did 1250m, with breaks and could have gone farther.
• Find 3 snorkeling places in and near Busan
• For at least 6 days, eat three meals, plus one snack plus one sweet drink.  I snack a lot and plan to spend a lot of time in front of a computer so this will be a challenge.

Education:  I am enrolled in 3 MOOCS.

• The Bilingual Brain
• Modern Korean History
• Archaeology of Portus

Family

• Teach my son to swim.
• Go on a weekend trip with the family. I would prefer a swimming site but that is negotiable.
• Read two books with my son.  I don't want this to be a purely teaching experience but one we both enjoy.  Tintin is a good contender here.
• Work on the farm.

Peter DeMarco on Photo Contests and CS Lewis on Writing

DeMarco is an acquaintance of mine, living in Busan, whose photos have graced National Geographic. He was recently interviewed and asked about photo contests.  In talking about his Busan Tourism Photo Contest entry, his method of choosing one particular pic was questioned:

What made you submit that shot over all of your other awesome shots?
That was one of my favorite pictures. But again, I tried to get into the mind of the judges. First, the city’s slogan is Dynamic Busan. I think photos that show a modern, even advanced, side to the city are best. Think newer, bigger, shinier, richer, faster. The city wants to use these photos to promote Busan to tourists and foreign investors.
A photo of a woman selling fish in the market is poignant, but it’s probably not going to grace the cover of some city-made promotional material. In fact, it seems like every year photos of the city’s most modern neighborhoods or buildings like Marine City, Centum City or Busan Cinema Center win. That said, what do I know? It could all change next year and a photo of a monk at a temple could win

Some of his pictures can be seen at the link above.
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CS Lewis discussed three ways to write to children.  The first two ways consider children as a coherent bloc with identical wishes and desires.  The third way involves writing out a story that might be first been told to one specific child:

The next way may seem at first to be very much the same, but I think the resemblance is superficial. This is the way of Lewis Carroll, Kenneth Graham; and Tolkien. The printed story grows out of a story told to a particular child with the living voice and perhaps ex tempore. It resembles the first way because you are certainly trying to give that child what it wants. But then you are dealing with a concrete person, this child who, of course, differs from all other children. There is no question of 'children' conceived as a strange species whose habits you have 'made up' like an anthropologist or a commercial traveller. Nor, I suspect, would it be possible, thus face to face, to regale the child with things calculated to please it but regarded by yourself with indifference or contempt. The child, I am certain, would see through that. In any personal relation the two participants modify each other. You would become slightly different because you were talking to a child and the child would become slightly different because it was being talked to by an adult. A community, a composite personality, is created and out of that the story grows.

There is (much) more at the link.  Via Boingboing.

writing as procrastination instead of writing as work

I have mostly finished my semester's work at the university.  Classes are done but I am awaiting grades from a test my students take outside of class.  I was fairly busy until Friday.

This summer, I will work at an English camp where I will teach, uh, biology, I guess, in an ESL environment.  The uncertainty I displayed above is due to the plans for the class.  In the past, I have taught evolution and ecology and dove into these subjects with enthusiasm.  This time the camp director is giving me students with weaker English ability and wants more of a hands-on taxonomy class, focusing on descriptions of animals and behavior.  All this is good and the subject has great potential, but now you know about as much as I do about the class.

I need to write a booklet for the students by the end of the month and let me show you what I have so far:

Since I photographed this mind-map, I have added snakes, lizards and snails to it.  I may add shrimp as well.  Why shrimp for an inland camp?  Because Korea has fresh water shrimp - these are tiny or shrimpy-shrimp.

On the left is a snail and on the right is a longtailed tadpole shrimp.  Gangwon province is far from Kimhae where I took the picture so such shrimp are unlikely there.

Back to my narrative. I have had a little trouble sleeping because I have been worried about camp preparations.  Making the mindmap relieved me enough that I slept better after making it.  The thing is, the mindmap, though containing important information and offering suggestions on how to organize my book, does little to actually advance the project.

Earlier, I wrote about the differences between novelty and innovation.  I guess I have progressed through the first ring but have a lot of actual creating to do before the product is ready.

I think this illustrates the difference between the lessons of creativity lectures -like Music to my Ears - and discussions of genius.  The class focused on the creation of ideas while geniuses use their deep understanding of the material to choose the best ideas and build on them.  My mindmap contains no new (that is, not new to me) information and I, having studied biology in North America, am greatly ignorant about Korean flora and fauna.  To some extent, birds are birds everywhere and bugs are bugs, but this is to be a descriptive course and I need to be able to name and identify the critters seen or collected.

Anyway, here I am, typing this in a coffee shop.  Typing more original content on this blog than I have in months.  All too distract myself to the problem of not knowing what to type for the book.  Back to work.

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Before I go, my son and his cousin made a mud man while I was planting rice this weekend.  Have a look - and also enjoy the snail eggs:

Comic book cartography and more

Comic book cartography.

Does this help with world-building?  It sure is fun.
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Susan Messing on Improv
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Uberflip, which appears to be a marketing company, offers 9 (proven) ways to unleash your creative genius.  The ways are shown on a slide show and one of them is to 'dim the lights'. Why?

Another 'way' is to use various apps.  They suggest:
Coda -crowdsourced app for creative writing: Review and app.
Oflow creativity techniques. Review
75 tools for creative thinking. Website.
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I thought I'd written about my friend Gordon Bazsali here before.  In 2013, he wrote a new song everyday and recorded the first take.  His far more ambitious undertaking was similar to my work in InNoWriMo - working on raw creativity but with little filtering.  I spoke to him on Thursday about our respective projects and we agreed on some details.  He had imagined spending a year making new musical ideas that he would mine for the following several years.  Instead, he hasn't looked back at it or referenced it much at all. Well, he told me that, then he told me that he chose sixteen songs, cleaned them up and put them up for sale, so he did find at least some of his work commercially valuable.

In turn, I told him that I had written 52,000 words but hadn't finished the story - that would probably require another 5-10,000 words, nor had I looked back at or revised any of it.  I still plan to, though.

From there, our conversation looked at whether I could be called a writer or another coworker's wife an artist.  I have written and the spouse has produced art but not recently.  The comparison to being a killer came up.  Kill one person and for life people call you a killer.

Anyway, some links for Gord.  A 2012 album, Google+ (on which he and I may be the only two people remaining), a Prezi and Youtube page.

What's my name? F- you! That's my name.

The Busan English Theatre Association is producing Glengarry Glen Ross and the auditions are this Saturday.

What: Auditions for a Busan English Theatre Association production of Pulitzer Prize winning play Glengarry Glen Ross.
Where: Kyungsung University: Building 5, room 518
When: Sunday, April 6th from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m in 15 minute blocks. Three people per block. 
Who: Everyone is welcome. Even though the play calls for an all-male cast, I really want a mixed cast. In fact, for some of the parts, I would prefer women. Please see character descriptions below for details.
How to audition: Please email me at dwaynestores@hotmail.com with your contact information, preferred time and role(s) that you would like to audition for, and I’ll send you the scenes.   
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Before anyone asks, the famous “coffee is for closers” speech, done by Alec Baldwin in the 1992 film, is not available.

Shakespeare in Busan

Much Ado about Nothing"will be staged on June 2, 3, 9 and 10 at 3 p.m. at Dalmaji Amphitheater. The venue is east of Haeundae Beach in Dalmaji Park, opposite Alexander restaurant."


The Facebook group for the production is here.