#vanramblings

This image just doesn’t make it justice. 

If I ever could buy one piece of art and hang it in my home it would be this painting. 

It is simply a chair that he sat in his studio at the time he was living in Arles, France. He painted it once again in the more famous painting of his Bedroom in Arles. 

It was one of the first time I saw a Van Gogh, London was my first stop when traveling trough Europe, taking tourist pictures at the lions on Trafalgar Square we saw this building in the back and decided to check it out. 

We walked into the national gallery, and began watching the old paintings of kings and nobles hunting foxes... I found them interesting in a historical sense and boring in an artistical one. 

Then as we advanced I began to see more interesting paintings, of cities, of nature. 

And then we walked into a green room where I saw a painting and yes, it was a Van Gogh. 

There were some crabs, and a woman, and wheat fields. 

And this freaking chair. 

A stupid chair. 

A simple chair. 

I think about it most of the time. 

It is the most beautiful chair I have seen. 

But it still was only a chair. 

I keep thinking about this chair for many reasons. A painting of a chair, surrounded by masterful works of art. A wood and straw chair. With as much if not more history than thrones of kings or presidential chairs. 

An old, rented chair. That might as well have been  an exercise, it is not as significant as Starry Night, not remotely as famous as any of the sunflowers, and yet as beautiful. 

A stupid chair that one day this man with many mental conditions just decided was a good enough subject to paint and to decorate The Yellow House. 

A chair that has it’s own wikipedia page. 

As I said, I think a lot about it. 

I think of how he just decided to create, how evey mundane thing had something worth painting, from the peasants cooking and eating potatoes, to the simple elements of his life. 

How all of the little details we work on, the small things in our life, shape us. 

How the effort we put, however small, hower big; no matter if it’s practice or if it’s a planned work... It all pays up. 

It takes time. 

Effort. 

But in the end the work we finish is the work that matters. 

From a painting of a chair, or a novel that you never shared about a man turning into a cockroach. 

It’s important to create, finish the work. And keep making art. 

For even a stupid chair may one day inspire a young man to keep writing. 

First part: One Shot For Ganymede. 

This was my entry for a parody anthology of the concept of Space Force. 

As I wrote it I began thinking that this could open up to many different protagonists and stories within the premise...

In the near future humanity aimed to reach the stars. 

Colonizing Mars, and from there going beyond the asteroid belt.

Upon reaching it, we found life, and we found that we were not welcomed. 

This first story follows Captain Fisher from the Space Force and his makeshift crew as their mission to breach the asteroid belt goes sunwards. 

Inside The Gagarin IV

Beyond Mars, the Gagarin-4's cockpit lighted up with two quick bursts of light.

After the third one, the crew was one body short.

"Fuck" Captain Fisher punched the controls of the spacecraft.

"No, no, no, no, no, no" Daniels dropped the photon blaster, letting it fall beneath the co-pilot's seat.

"What're we gonna do captain!?" Ryan's blue eyes darted across the cockpit, he dropped to the floor trying to reach for the weapon but it was jammed between cables and panels in the cluttered space beneath the cockpit.

"Fuck!" the Captain slammed the controls again, setting the ship to autopilot and pulling the lever that turned off the artificial gravity. "Darned IDIOTS" green fire in his eyes burning his temporary crew.

Liquid kept splashing everywhere. Yellow, green and blue goo sprayed as the source limply floated within the confines of its seatbelt.

Ryan's long blond hair began waving around, alien blood getting stuck on his hair. He tried to remove it, only getting his hands wet with the colorful goo. He was squirming nervously, "Captain, please tell us something. You-you-you are supposed to be the mighty Space Force veteran" Ryan resumed trying to un-jam the still warm photon blaster, but the captain lifted him from the floor and threw him to the back.

"And you two are the idiots that were playing 'shoot the photon blaster' with our guide!"

"He wanted to pass the time," Daniels said, the floating tears contrasted his dark eyes and skin. He was the tallest in the crew and had difficulty moving around the small cabin.

"Well, he has passed now" he pointed to the still oozing body of the Saturnian guide.

"Fuck," Fisher kicked the body, and it made a final splash before it stopped leaking, "The Outer Ring Protectorate will have a blast once they hear about this, I can see the headlines already," the captain made an arc with his hand and holographic words began appearing as he spoke them:

"Earthlings kill upstanding Saturnian Entrepreneur"

"He was a mobster," Ryan blurted.

"Ix'otl was not a mobster" Daniels protested with tears in his eyes.

"Shut up, D, besides, we both are Martians," Ryan dejected.

"It won't matter, that's how they like to frame it," Fisher waved the letters away, breathing and thinking fast, searching for a way to fix this, "besides, anyone from within the inner border is an Earthling to them."

"Why don't we just eject--" Ryan tried to finish his sentence but Daniels interrupted with a scream while grabbing Ix'otl's empty husk.

"NO!"

"Daniels is right. If we leave him floating around this side of the border and someone discovers him it could cause an interplanetary incident." The Captain calmly explained. A few silent moments passed.

"What are we going to do Captain?" Daniels sobbed and tried to clean the tears and snot with yellow and blue drenched hands.

"Just let me think." Captain Fisher breathed and passed a hand over his short military cut red-hair; meanwhile, the Gagarin-4, one of the finest ships of the Silver Age of the Space Force, moved at a relatively slow speed, getting closer to the border-ring-wall, carrying three tons of the finest Earth's Tequila as contraband in the cargo bay, toward Ganymede's Jupiter.

"It'll be okay," Captain Fisher continued, "We still have a few hours before getting to the customs asteroid where they will check our cargo. First, we need to clean this mess and get rid of the body."

"Daniels," the captain called to attention, "leave that thing and bring the vacuum cleaner from the back, it will be easier to clean this mess in Zero-G."

"Ryan, I want, get the body and stash it inside the hidden compartment behind the contraband; meanwhile, I'm going to retrace our course to give us some time and try to get that thing unstuck."

"Sir," Daniels ventured, it was strange hearing such shy voice from a man so big, "I could do that, I'm a pilot too" he breathed heavily and snot floated outside his nose, mixing in with the green goo around the cabin.

"You have done enough already, Daniels, follow your orders, get that vacuum cleaner, and get to work before that thing gets into the ventilation system."

enSo...

We have been at this for what? March was what? Three months?

All this time we have been inside the home and getting crazy, many people have already finished their Netflix queues or rewatched Lord of the Rings entirely in one sitting. 

Some have finished the videogames that they couldn’t because of work. 

Others have taken to writing to keep sane. 

And most of us are reaching peaks of anxiety because of the news. 

My country is one of the few whose President is still downplaying this thing, and the numbers that are being reported do not match reality. 

This are uncertain times. 

Which is why we need to have routines and habits in place to ground ourselves. 

Routines and habits can give us an anchor, a feeling of control. 

I personally use an app called Fabulous. (the free version, I’m not made of money). It is a habit developing app, it helps to build a morning routine that is quite necessary right now, and this are some of the things that I do in mine.  

1- Drink Water 

After sleeping your body hasn’t drunk water in hours. Hydration keeps the mind sane and helps you feel less hopeless.  

2- Eat a big breakfast 

Eating a healthy breakfast helps build your mood, and if you work on something like trying new recipes you can get a sense of completion. Cook a lot of things!

3- Exercise. 

We make a lot of happy chemicals, we rely on other humans to create serotonin and oxytocin. But to fight anxiety we can rely on dopamine and endorphins. We get dopamine from sugar. We can get endorphins from exercise. 

I have been doing an indoor routine that the app recommends, it’s seven minutes long. And you can vary the exercises it doesn’t have to be what the app recommends. 

Other musings. 

Sure, I can say, get some time to write and fit it into the routine, but let’s be honest, if we haven’t been able to do it before, with these issues it is not easier. 

Which is why I take a page from “How to ADHD” and have created transition times. 

Between normal work or chores or whatever, take some time to listen to music, chat with people through the web, scroll through Tumblr. Do something that doesn’t stress you out. 

Yet...There is one thing that has helped me with my writing. 

A change of phrasing. 

Instead of “I have to” or “I must”, words that we associate with chores. 

Use. 

“I get to...” or “I can...” (I am partial to “I get to”) This imply opportunity, something that you “Get to enjoy”, “get to write”. 

It doesn’t “have to” be your WIP, but you could “get to” create something new, or try something new. 

You could write a post on quarantines, or reach to other writeblrs. 

You could also exercise a “Do Nothing” time. Some time where you get to just lay down and let your imagination drift. 

Personally. I have learned to juggle. 

To finish I just want to remind you all, that we are writers, creators, artists. 

You don’t have to keep up with the news. 

You could use this time to research. Follow the rabbit and fall down a curiosity hole in Wikipedia. 

Be disgusted. Be amazed. 

We can challenge ourselves to be better. 

Or simply challenge each other sane. 

I leave this here for people to build on. Share recipes. Share stories. Share art. Share the skills you aim to master, or a creative list of these movies/books to analyze during this isolation time. 

And if anyone needs it, here is the how to adhd video. 

Stay safe, stay inside.

I do have some strenghts. Dialogue, mostly. Exposition as a secondary one. 

When I write dialogue I write it like a Tarantino film. A normal conversation. A normal situation. Every day stuff is the base. Much like the burger Dialogue in Pulp Fiction. The diner discussion in Reservoir Dogs, or the basement bar conflict in Inglorious Basterds. 

It has to flow naturally between the characters, if its my two main characters I think back to the times I have talked with my best friends and how we talk over one another, or how we finish one though, not exactly our sentences, inferences is more like the thing. I plant an idea, he follows it. I give an argument he gives a counter-argument. Or one of us corrects the other. 

Then I fuse the two things. Set myself in Character, imagine a normal conversation. How would they talk about their jobs. They would get a coffee and drink it nonchalantly, arguing about their daily lives between pondering about the body they have been asked to investigate. 

It has to feel comfortable between two close people. 

I don’t think about the actions, nor the mannerisms, sometimes not even the way they talk. I just write the dialogue and how it comes and goes. The intonation. The pauses. The excitement. 

But that’s not the only situation. Think about how you talk to people.

Listen how you talk to your friends, listen how you talk to other people, elders, strangers. How they talk to you. 

And then add the seasoning. The juice. The actions. After you have your dialogue and it flows like people would talk. 

This is from my first draft, first chapter, of Cannibal’s ball, a conversation between Homer and Virgil. 

“You got it wrong again,” I told the man who had arrived half an hour late.

“Hello,” he replied in an overtly exaggerated manner,  “nice to see you again too,” I did not know if he was being sarcastic or if it was his extravagant personality. “I brought you coffee, you're welcome.”

“I only drink black.” Hesitantly, I took the warm cup he had offered me.

“I know that.” He said with a silly smile. 

“So? Why did you bring me a latte then?”

“You haven't even tried it yet.”

“I know it is not black.”

“Come on, at least try it.” I reluctantly drank it, too much foam.

“See? It’s a Cappuccino.” He drank loudly with gusto. “The latte is mine.”

“I still only drink black.”

“I know.”

“Then why did you bring me this.” - I hold the cup with my thumb and my middle finger. 

“Because I forgot!” He threw his hands to the air dropping some of the coffee to the air to be carried miles below the city to become a slight drizzle over Paris. 

It still needs some work,buuuut....See what I did there at the end?

I threw a bit of exposition there. See, in my universe London is a flying city, and it’s flying a bit to the west and hundreds if not thousands of miles above Paris. 

Exposition also has to come out naturally. We don’t learn all and everything at the beginning in life and we don’t need to do it in a book. 

We can use a lot of devices to explain our universe. From humor, like Terry Pratchett did. To using a “fool”, explaining to a third party coming to your world for the first time about the intricacies of the magic system or political conflicts. 

If two characters know about something, they don’t need to give exposition about something they already should know. 

You don’t go saying to an American... “As you know, on July the fourth we celebrate the independance and because of that now we throw fireworks at night”...That would be silly unless it’s a teacher explaining to her 6yo pupils why they have that holiday. 

Which is also why kids make great tools for exposition... unless you are not talking to them like a child, or worse, treat your audience as a child. 

Audiences are more intelligent than we give them credit for. Specially in this day and age, we have all this theorists and reddit boards and discord servers all to discuss the miniscule details of every little piece of media that we can get our hands on. 

You can try to hide away your plot twists, and great reveals, but someone somewhere will be trying to decipher your clues from the day of release. If you have luck. 

Use flashbacks sparingly, it’s like medicine. In the right doses it can be convenient...Too much and it becomes poison to your story. They are great to explain character’s motives, but they also halt the plot. We want to know what happens next, not what happened in the past. 

And finally. Information. Exposition. Is on a need to know basis. 

Sure. Tolkien could go on and on about all the things the Hobbits could eat for breakfast as soon as he began a book. 

But you are not Tolkien and this is not 1954. 

There is a reason Medium has an approximate reading time in the articles they publish, why most wattpad professionals make their chapters to be read in 5 minutes. 

Explain things as your characters/plot encounters them. Leigh Bardugo doesn’t explain why Kaz is such a bastard until he passes out from a triggered trauma. Patrick Rothfuss explains all about magic and names until Kvothe reaches the magic school, even if before that he had been thaught a bit of the magical system. And we still don’t know much about why they killed his family (sorry about the spoilers.)

If they need to know “Encyclopedic knowledge” give them an encyclopedia, a teacher, something that makes it logical or interesting. For example...

Homer buys a “newspaper” called “The Researcher” and in there he learns...

“The Central is located “underground” below the newest edifications of the city. After a big catastrophe almost seven hundred years ago, the state-cities began to develop ways to restore themselves to their old glory days and prevent any major incidents to happen again.“

He is learning about a new place he is going to visit. He is “The fool” in this case and has to learn about a new world. 

But later on we introduce Cybelle, who comes from another reality, she doesn’t know how things work in Earth, so Homer has to explain a lot of stuff to her.  And it becomes a dialog and it has to flow naturally, like you would explain something you are good at to someone who has never known about the topic. 

There is a truckload of tricks to learn about exposition, but this is a lot already and I have yet to cover some weaknesses. 

Like ...

Descriptions. I have a difficult time creating descriptions for many things. Since I try to keep “the juices” flowing I tend to skip on the descriptions and when I go back I forget at times what they were wearing or how the place they were in was like. 

And my other weakness, like many others, sitting down and write, defeat that blank page. 

Most of the time it helps to have something to calm the nerves... A glass of wine for example... but water also works, it is kind of a reset. 

But then you hit a wall and you think... damn it... what is next....

Take a breather. Have a snack...But don’t go searching for a snack! Have them ready and handy so that it can be easier to let it flow once again. 

I love to have a mix of cheese, ham, nuts, strawberries, anything that is not too sweet but can be nibbled. Make it fun and fancy as possible if you can/want. Get into that mindset to write. 

Another strategy that I have mentioned before to get into the mindset is to write that blank page, your day, but not YOUR day. What would your day would have been if your normal day was in a magical setting or science fiction setting. 

Dragons that nest seasonally on the mountains bringing different seasons with them. Your necromancy studies are not going too well and the frog you tried to bring back to life just the lower part began to dance while the other was very limp and dragging, it will give you some nightmares later. Or maybe your teacher from Orcish 101 decided to make an Orcultural festival and you have to make a traditional dish and an exposion on the evolution of traditional skullcups since the Orc-human treaty in 1924. 

Have fun and then get back to that story. 

A final strategy is a classic one, but one that I don’t do often specially in first drafts. 

Read what you wrote last time and edit a bit. Then go back to the last line and keep going. 

I don’t like that one much since you could get stuck in a self-doubt-editing loop.

I rather finish my writing day leaving a little idea or a clue of what comes next. A bit of a preview for myself to incorporate that the next day. 

Wow....

That went for too long. Sorry for the mess. If you have come this far I would really like to talk with you. Send in a message. We might help each other or just talk a bit. 

Hope you had fun!

One of my favorites is the first time we meet Vamp, a traveling escort, that for the time is residing in Paris, Homer is pissed because Virgil just got them mugged. Amidst his rage he still can process Vamp’s lovelyness...

Lady Vamp, a Lady of the Night... Her long lashes could whip any man (or woman) into submission with a single glance. An enigmatic and playful smile never left her full lips, painted in black. She was lovely...Beyond lovely.

“Please, do not make the same mistake as this young fella’” she pointed to Virgil, even though she looked much younger than him, “you can be sincere and speak your heart out, but, please, call me Vamp... once you snap out of your rage,” she remarked with a wink, her voice a gentle threat. 

I like this because of the eyelashes description. Vamp stays a secondary character most of the story line, but she is one of the major ones in the second arc of the series, she has a strong personality and can “whip” people into submission, literally and figuratively, and many times not in a playful way. 

After they leave her place and try to find something to help them get their possessions back, Virgil drags Homer into a bar...

“GOOD NIGHT PARIS!!!” Virgil yelled at the crowd as he opened the door and almost made me slam into the waitress. 

“How do you even plan to pay for our drinks?” I said as quietly as I could over the noise, I felt my head beginning to burn up. “We don’t have any Data.”

“Fret not my friend, the Virgil works in mysterious ways.” He winked and walked through the brimming establishment.

 It seemed like a sort of joke, two guys walk into a bar, one is getting angry again and about to kill the second one, while the first guy approaches a busty, scarcely dressed barmaid and whispers some lines into her ears, then she comes back with two pints of beer. I have never been good with jokes. 

But it was funny, at least for me. Funny in the sense that Virgil has a talent to make me go from angry to relaxed and back to madness in just three strides

I like that one because:“The Virgil works in mysterious ways,” is really how Virgil wants to be seen, and it works, even his best friend gets really pissed because he appears to be behaving irresponsibly in the middle of the work, but it all turns out in the end... and still... Virgil uses his own facade, to hide his own problems and fears, and he doesn’t want anyone, specially Homer, to find out.

Hellou again!

How's it going?

I am under 300 words, and I don't know what I'm going to do for the midpoint.

But I know that act 2 is where we meet the kids, children with abilities like them.

Here we are going to meet Armor , who can create armor for any part of his body. But has difficulties creating more than one piece at the time.

We meet Chains, a girl who Debris (our local mad scientist) has taken a liking to, she is the strongest of the Guardians project after Sword (who we won't meet yet), and can create chains and manipulate them.

And finally we meet Knives, he makes knives. Debris hates him.

( also he is going to be a protagonist after Homer and Virgil, but that's not for a time).

I think they are going to escape but I have not figured quite yet how.

This three kids are the reason, that in the future, Virgil takes onto himself to search and protect other kids with abilities.

That's how it's going. Slightly under, working on the act two, hopefully it will be interesting and not a mess.

From a different time and a different place, once a warrior, a thief, a reaver, a slayer; on this age, the black-haired, sullen-eyed, man polishes with his callous hands not the big broad sword, sitting above colorful bottles of whiskey, tequila, and rum, but a highball glass.

He wears no visible loincloth nor leather. instead, he drapes himself in an expensive vest and suit that clings tightly to his muscled body, and yet, you wouldn't know it, but under the bar, he wears on his feet the same sandals he arrived with, never did he grow accustomed to the footwear of this times.

The menu offers a variety of drinks, all named after various legendary and fictional places or monsters he once visited, conquered or defeated.

And, if you dare to look away from his eternal frown, you could find the name tag on his vest that only read...

Hi!

It's going well, as of this moment I have 7500 words around a 10% of my aim. I have found the right voice to narrate and currently am reading Save the Cat, which has helped me a lot to place the necessary beats to develop the story.

I have learned that my character, Virgil, is trying to fix things and when he can't he goes into denial and drowns his sorrows in alcohol and, I would say women, but he is pansexual, so he searches the company of pretty people (and sometimes not-people like droids), to hide his loneliness.

He thinks that marrying Angelina, his fiancée in an arranged marriage, will make him happy and make things right since it is what he has always wanted.

And when the marriage gets thrown down the edge of the flying city of London, after a cult attacks the party, he sets his mind to fix things to get back with her.

And that's where I am right now, finishing the first act and preparing to enter the second.

Thanks for asking! I like to talk about my story and would like to upload more about it, but if do, then I don't write.