Tag: Steve D

May Write Day: Continuing the New Mode?

On By Steven D'AdamoIn On Life, On StorytellingLeave a comment

Yard work. Gardening plans. Summer-like weather. Some light air travel with our boys for the first time. April was a cool month, overall. Work was stressful for the first couple weeks, but it’s calmed down enough for me to catch my breath.

I’m still figuring out my day-to-day routine, but I feel like I’m making progress, in that I have ups and downs but generally get things done when I need to. I’m referring to my “new mode” of approaching Second Shift, family time, and my hobbies, which entails trying to stay up and active through the evenings and not falling into a pattern of laziness that ultimately leads to guilt/shame over not being “productive enough”.

It’s gone pretty well.

Last Month’s Goals

  1. Finish three books.
  2. Finish final chapter of New Earth and review story for overall chapter structure.
  3. Contemplate what my vision for my writing/publishing actually is.

Finish three books?

No, but I finished two: MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios and His Last Bow, as part of the Sherlock Holmes omnibus I’m working my way through.

I’m still relishing the journey of Children of Time, and I’ve started on a nonfiction work about the marvelous world of fungi, called Entangled Lives. This is one of those books that is about science and microbiology and ecology on the surface, but really has some much deeper insights into our perceptions of life, sentience, intelligence, and the connectivity of all things. Both of these books will take me some time to get through and appreciate them in full, so I’m in no rush.

Finish New Earth and chapter overview?

Uuugggghhh no. This is one area I have not been able to work into a consistent routine. I’ve broken myself of the bad mental habit of only writing in long, dedicated sessions, which is a good start.

I was able to write in a couple spurts, but I’ve officially run into book-ending-syndrome, in which I find it impossible to write a suitable ending. I want to play out the scenes in my notes, but I keep watching the word count extend farther and farther over my intended count, and while that doesn’t actually matter, it absolutely distracts me from just writing the damn ending.

Contemplate writing/publishing vision?

Yes, and I haven’t made any firm decisions. I think I know what I would like my next four or five publications to be, which is a great start. Two of them would be the duology of novellas that are my current works-in-progress, and two would be full-length novels, which is obviously way more intimidating.

Identifying a tangible and achievable timeline to write and publish all those stories is the trick. At this point, I’m not even sure when I want to publish my novellas. I could just get them out into the world, but then it could be another few years at least before I publish anything else. What I can’t decide is whether I’m okay with that.

Similar to my previous workout life, spending 10+ hours per week exercising, I haven’t totally shed the notion of publishing at a pace more akin to a full-time writer. I’m not a full-time writer. At this point, I’m barely a hobbyist. But what does it mean for a hobbyist to publish occasionally? Should I try to prepare and publish several works in a shorter timeframe to try to drive real sales pivot into full-time writing? I’m not sure I’m ready for that either.

So, that is part of my dilemma at the moment. Not only the act of writing, but even what my medium- and long-term goals are. I require more contemplation.

Goals for May

  1. Finish three books. I already mentioned my current reads:
    • Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, and Entangled Lives by Merlin Sheldrake. I will likely finish both in the next couple weeks.
    • Likely next read: I’m eyeing Thor, Volume 1: The Goddess of Thunder for a change of pace, and because I never finished reading Jason Aaron’s run on the Thor comics. After that, I’m not sure.
  2. Finish New Earth, please? Focus on 15-minute writing sprints, a couple nights per week, and I should get this done.
  3. Continue to contemplate my writing/publishing vision. I went into more detail above than I had anticipated, so maybe I’ll end up writing about this more this month to get my thoughts onto virtual paper.

Steve D

Book Review: MCU illuminates the history of Marvel’s films

On By Steven D'AdamoIn On Storytelling, ReviewsLeave a comment

I recently listened to MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios on audiobook. I heard about the book, because one of the co-authors, Joanna Robinson, has a podcast I frequently listen to (House of R), and she talked a bit about the book in the run-up to its release late last year.

I’ve enjoyed Marvel films over the years and admire what they had achieved through the Infinity Saga. I also really enjoy documentary-style storytelling with behind-the-scenes insights. This book excels at this type of storytelling.

With plenty of quotes and perspective from the people who were involved with these films over the decades, it’s clear that the authors spent tons of hours conducting interviews with all kinds of folks, from production assistants on 20-year-old films, to directors, set/costume/effects designers, to the major actors, to Kevin Feige himself. There are countless anecdotes about snap decisions made in one era of the studio’s history that directly shape how the movies came together years later.

The book is paced and structured like a documentary, with most chapters focusing on a particular film, or a particular piece of the MCU machine, such as visual effects. It begins in the very earliest days of Marvel’s forays into film and television in the 60s and 70s, with projects and people I had scarcely been aware of, and then really picks up in the early 2000s, when superhero films started appearing in greater numbers.

The authors did a good job balancing fair criticism of various parts of the studio’s process with genuine appreciation of its accomplishments. The chapters on The Infinity Saga are rightfully tinged with admiration at how those films were pulled off, while the chapter on visual effects speaks to the issues that VFX artists have faced in dealing with the tight deadlines, scant budgets, and long hours demanded by their contracts with Marvel Studios.

My one critique is that the closing sections felt a little too concise. If this is a history of the MCU – and it certainly reads like one – then I would have wanted a little more summation on this era of Marvel Studios and what the future looks like.

Still a great read, and definitely worth picking up again to absorb all the nuggets of information spread throughout.

Steve D

On Outside with no Plants

On By Steven D'AdamoIn On Life1 Comment

I’ve been thinking more and more about the lack of nature in typical outdoor spaces. My in-laws live in a really nice 55+ development where their property is maintained by the management company. It works for them, and they live in a great house where the family frequently meets up for events and holidays.

However.

I cannot get over how completely devoid this development is of any plant life. Some residents’ front yards include tiny garden plots with polite little shrubs or flowers, but that’s it.

This is the backyard view. Mowed grass with shallow berms to prevent flooding.

Where are the trees?!

The last time we visited was a beautiful day with sunshine, a nice breeze, and just enough warmth to be comfortable but not hot. I was outside with my five-year-old for an hour or two, playing catch, chasing him around the patch of grass, and indulging in whatever nonsensical games he came up with.

And then he just seemed to get bored. There was nothing around him to occupy his attention or inspire a creative game.

Now, I fully understand and agree that boredom in kids can be a great way for them to learn how to be creative. But at this point in our day, I felt like he would have been better served by some woodlands where we could just wander until the next game idea popped into his head.

I had offered several times to just go for a walk, but he was not that interested. And part of me understands why. The walking paths through this development are similarly sanitized of any wildlife.

This strip of grass behind the development and leading up to a narrow tree line along a stream was barren.

Just a couple weeks prior, the brownish spot had been growing with tall stalks of grass, some wildflowers, and even a few sapling trees.

Then it was mowed down to… create a better view of the scant trees?

Why can’t this spot have just been left to grow? There had been enough grassy space between the wild patch and the path that the “risk” of wild animals jumping onto the path would have been non-existent.

I was annoyed by these observations on that day, and it’s reinforcing my ideas for covering the slope in our own front yard with shrubs and flowers and letting it grow as it pleases, unmanicured.

Steve D