Pre-Lunch Checkin.

The air around me is changing from an overbearing heat wave to a gentle cool breeze. This morning, my fiance opened the windows to the apartment and lit a fall-scented candle. Caramel, apple, something along those lines. 

I sit here, on the couch, studying and writing, trying to make sense of a scene in my head. As I've said before, I'm in the process of writing my first novel. I'd say it's going well. When I tally everything up across all documents, I have around 45,000 words written. To me, this is a great achievement. To people I tell, I wonder if they know what that looks like. 

So how's it coming along?

I'd been dancing around a scene for a few weeks in fear of botching the execution of it. The timing, the blocking, the use of space within the scene, and the dialogue need to work together to convey a very specific moment in this character's arc. (Like all scenes)

For the first time, I was afraid to bring a scene forth from my imagination, because the imagery in my head is so poignant that I worry that I'll water it down without intending to do so, and then it'll read like shit. 

So, yesterday, I wrote it. I haven't re-read it, nor edited, nor re-written it. 

After this post, I'm going to eat lunch then do a quick read through of yesterday's work, then figure out where to go from there. Editing comes when I'm done. In the past, I've edited to perfection scenes and chapters, only to spend three or four hours on a small handful of pages. Does it read well and feel like a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie? Absolutely, with the gooey bits and all. Is it practical to edit this way when the goal is to get the whole story onto paper? No. So I'll save the editing for another time.

-=-

So what's the point of this blog anyways? I published two little things I worked on over the past few weeks here for whoever will read them. I have a whopping four views on each. To me, those four are more meaningful than a view or a thousand views on instagram because I know that someone had to click my link, click the article, and (hopefully) read it. 

And if they hate them, that's okay. At least they read them. 

Thanks, see you soon.

Chase Winter

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An Unexpected End

Last Friday, I had the pleasure of attending the release party for An Unexpected End’s newest single, All Together in Denver . The band, abbreviated as AUE, has roots in Winkler and Morden, Manitoba, and has been touring across the country since 2020. They’re expected to push an album out in the next year, with rumors of release as early as 2026. I was invited on a whim by one of the baristas at my local coffeeshop, Whitecap, last week. They handed me a card with a photo and a road number on it, and told me they’d see me on Friday. When Friday night rolled around, I punched the road number into my GPS, and it told me the yard was between this town and the next, then a little up the road. I drove along harvested pastures towards the stop sign, then took a left. A lone deer made its presence known on the shoulder but never dared to cross until I’d passed. With the windows down, I coasted along the path towards the barn. Little girls in dresses ran on the road, giggling and chasing their ...
Read more

Feature or Function: Extraction Shooters Need Drive

Image
ARC Raiders - Embark Studios This evening I was fortunate enough to get my hands on the stress-test demo of Embark Studio's newest IP: ARC Raiders. The game, which promised to revolutionize and make extraction shooter's accessible, leaves me with more questions than a desire to keep playing. What changed in the formula other than an articulate ambiance and a fresh coat of paint with Unreal Engine 5's capabilities?  What exactly is an extraction shooter (ES)?  In simple terms, an extraction shooter is a type of videogame where the players drop or spawn into an area, loot the area, and get out. If you die in the zone, you typically lose all or some of the loot you gathered or came into the map with. Often, we see PvP or PvE or PvPvE mixes for this type of game.  The PvP elements mixed with the loop are what make an extraction shooter an ‘extraction shooter.’  You can do ES without PvP, but the loop is the defining factor. The getting in and getting out with stuff is th...
Read more

Interview with Matt Graham

Image
The following is a transcript from an interview with Matt Graham, the lead bassist and singer of MattstaGraham. The band, based in Tucson, Arizona, is on the last leg of their Canadian Tour- opening for punk-rock classics "The Buzzcocks" and "The Descendants."   Yellow Paint , the band's third and most recent LP, brings all of the best qualities of their past works together with a fresh coat of flair. The production of the album feels like a pair of your favourite Etnies from that one year at summer camp; comfortable and familiar with enough grip on the bottom to rip around town in.  Graham, 33, has been a staple in Tucson's local music scene since high school, working with a variety of bands and artists like Nica Spritz, Isaac Cabrera of The Winter Without You , Taylor Carroll of  Cement Shoes , and Trevor Hedges of Sundressed . Producing, leading, playing bass, and singing fall within his spectrum of talent- a talent that comes from a fiery desire to creat...
Read more