tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27207287557858896642011-10-17T02:11:49.312-07:00The infrequent ramblings of a wandering mind.Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.comBlogger781100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-15421422755066385772011-05-08T23:57:00.001-07:002011-05-09T00:01:17.886-07:00

Hi all.Just a quick note to say my blog has moved to www.benmann.net. If you're following this in a blog/RSS reader, you'll need to bookmark the new site. Sorry for any inconvenience during the move, but hopefully the new site will allow for more flexibility in future. See you there!

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-67583982343461456162011-05-02T17:16:00.000-07:002011-05-02T19:03:59.112-07:00

When it comes to the terminology we use in the technology business, I seem to be on a roll. Recently I blogged about the misuse of 'Share' when we talk about Sharing files or, in the case of ebooks, sharing books. Away from the blog, I've also been getting a little steamed up about the whole 'Cloud' terminology because of the way it abstracts us away from the underlying technology and, with it,

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-83801457507461002322011-04-26T17:58:00.000-07:002011-04-26T18:51:38.126-07:00

Time, she is a marching on: earlier this week I finished the first draft of the SF novel I've been working on since the end of December. The draft took almost exactly four months to complete and currently sits at a little over 130,000 words. Words which are not without their issues, either - an occasional lack of focus, some missing foreshadowing, shaky character arcs (including a main character

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-58944187422840440572011-04-17T23:37:00.001-07:002011-04-18T00:29:44.464-07:00

So today is one of those days you just wish... weren't. Mondayitis? Maybe, but a rough night (I swear I don't remember the sick 5yo jumping in bed with us) and the usual monday morning dramas (oh dear, the child seat's in my car, drive home, drop it off) sometimes conspire against us. There's plenty to be thankful for, of course - as well as even having a job, well, the work is going well. And

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-43203190736464948502011-03-22T16:50:00.000-07:002011-03-22T17:32:46.261-07:00

So maybe you've heard. Amazon cut off Lendle's access to its ebook services. Lendle, a company that allows you to network with other ebook owners and lend titles within Amazon's own "lend once for 14 days" policy, was deemed to not "serve the principal purpose of driving sales of products and services on the Amazon site". Of course, the internet is abuzz with the implications, and rightly

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-62501429743420006312011-03-11T18:42:00.000-08:002011-03-11T18:42:00.627-08:00

Last year was a struggle. I was burnt out from working on my Writers of the Future entry and feeling substantially uninspired by the amount of time it had consumed. Our one-year-old transitioned from a cot to a bed and had a hard time sleeping, not helped by a talkative four-year-old sleeping in the same room. Long hours paying off the mortgage and keeping the family fed via The Day Job seemed

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-8247102137169620352011-02-19T20:23:00.000-08:002011-02-19T20:50:07.268-08:00

So I've been having a bit of fun with BluRay this last year or so, watching movies I haven't seen for a number of years, enjoying them in their 'High Def' editions. And I find it interesting how much the special effects of yesteryear stand out as obvious tricks now. Scenes from two movies I've seen recently spring to mind in this regard, being from Superman: The Movie and Contact.The first case

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-43328185323925110832011-01-12T22:01:00.000-08:002011-01-12T23:09:27.230-08:00

...to a Small Lump of Blue Paper I Dropped Somewhere Odd One Midsummer Morning.(otherwise known as a series of emails I sent to my wife in rhyme, bemoaning having misplaced my passport today as I went to renew it.)Caution... Horrible Vogon Poetry ensues.Email The First.My passport, my passport... where could it be?It's not in the car on my desk or on me,nor my laptop bag, drawers or the floors,

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-90000059466115863152010-12-31T08:46:00.000-08:002010-12-31T08:46:00.216-08:00

Reading this year started well and then waned significantly. Only 38 books read. Arguably though, the 3,600 page trilogy of Peter F Hamilton should count for a couple of extra books :-)What I'd consider the overall best book I read this year was Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, for its well presented rhetoric and themes. The Cruel Sea was a close contender as a magnificent saga of life at sea in WWII

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-35658941908442353802010-12-30T23:28:00.000-08:002010-12-31T00:07:51.949-08:00

I thought I might as well make it an annual thing - a chance to look at the past year's writing and have a think about what I achieved and what I didn't.In terms of the number of completed and new writing, 2010 was a lean year. Overall I don't think it was so bad, but I'll get to that. Stories this year included:January featured a half written short story in which I painted myself into a plot

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-66039775478315668202010-12-29T18:20:00.000-08:002011-04-26T18:55:27.406-07:00

Well, I suppose there's too much of a good thing. Forcing myself to step away from the outline (itself a novellette and a half), the character and plot notes and various other piles of paper, I set out on the first few pages of the first draft of another story. After the usual ungainly start (is that always how it's going to be?), the writing started to warm up and I was having fun. Nice!I'm

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-51030986393496092362010-12-23T15:15:00.000-08:002010-12-23T16:07:30.502-08:00

...writing?Courtesy of John Brown's blog, I came across this excellent post by Larry Correia which went a long way towards reassuring me that this writing gig is an achievable ambition after all. He's not just discussing time management, he's also discussing management of other responsibilities in life, such as the day job and family, and what got my attention was that I can identify with his

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-88522640100695277492010-11-08T18:56:00.000-08:002010-11-18T22:13:12.603-08:00

When you look at winners of a competition like Writers of the Future, it's tempting to try and classify them into types. While such classifications are hardly authoritative, they can be useful in illustrating various properties of a competition. One of the ways I choose to consider winners of WotF is to divide them (while allowing some blurring between the lines) into three camps:Those that win

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-45456916719628497192010-10-31T19:52:00.000-07:002010-10-31T20:20:53.295-07:00

I have a confession to make: I'm not doing Nanowrimo this year.I started this blog two years ago at this time of year, in part to journal my progress through Nanowrimo. It was a time when I'd just started writing again, and I ended up with (at @75k words) the first "novel-length" story I'd ever completed. The experience of committing to complete a story for Nano was a great learning experience -

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-5885683315759822122010-10-26T04:43:00.000-07:002010-10-26T04:43:00.167-07:00

I know a few aspiring writers who have been shuffling their collective feet over where to submit their first story, so I thought I'd share my own experience. Or to title this post differently, this is Why I Chose to Enter Writers of the Future.Five or six years ago I bought Asimov's On Science Fiction, a collection of essays on the nature of science fiction, its history, and the process of

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-53272178274469786832010-10-20T06:26:00.000-07:002010-10-20T06:41:00.238-07:00

I've been terribly slack with this blog over the last few months. I have a stack of half-written posts I never seem sufficiently motivated to finish, as with each I start to ask bloggish existential questions like Why? The kids are settling a down a bit and I've been getting back into some writing lately so I suppose it's all sorting itself out.But I should definitely at least add a quick update

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-77219102744111811172010-08-16T00:27:00.000-07:002010-08-16T00:44:48.555-07:00

The results for the 2010 2nd quarter of Writers of the Future are up, and my entry has been selected as a finalist.I received the phone call about three weeks ago, while stepping off a bus before dawn on my way to the daily grind. I couldn't stop smiling all day. Of course, keeping it under my hat for the last three weeks has been curiously strange - on the one hand I'd wanted to share the news

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-75025598300559672112010-08-01T18:23:00.000-07:002010-08-05T23:12:18.914-07:00

Why do we write?I had an interesting experience the other night. I was riding the bus home from work, noticed my stop coming up and rang the bell. Bus stopped, I alighted, and so did a young woman I'd not seen before (normally it's deserted around my area when I get home from work).As we crossed the street, she said "I'm glad you pressed the bell there, I was half asleep and missed my stop."I'm

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-40922061072781690642010-07-25T18:09:00.000-07:002010-07-25T18:41:42.728-07:00

It's been a while. The dark days of antipodean winter coincide with the busiest period in my day job, a time when the eleven hours I spend away from home consume all available daylight, when my home and refuge is a small outpost of warmth defending against the cold and night. I go a little crazy during winter and for an obsessive type, it's a good time to take a holiday from my writing.But the

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-9340816401998477982010-06-16T01:03:00.000-07:002010-06-16T01:04:31.737-07:00

I'm tired of being unwell.That is all. For now.Back when the weather and my health clears up.Sigh.

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-77764210135186640212010-05-30T17:07:00.000-07:002010-05-30T17:45:09.138-07:00

The finale of JJ Abrams' series Lost hit the screens just recently and in its wake has been more than a little discussion about why the series ended the way it did. More than a few commentators considered the ending a cheat, such as Max Read's comment:I have taken a creative writing class or two (can you tell?) and do you know this thing they teach you? "Don't end your story with all your

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-60836882513254002122010-04-28T18:19:00.000-07:002010-04-28T19:36:55.981-07:00

James Cameron's Avatar has just been released on DVD & Blu-ray, and with the release, attention is returning to the phenomenal cost and box office takings of this film. Threads appear regularly in writing forums I haunt, as do posts on blogs, with a common theme: How can this film be so popular with such a mediocre story? The plot is too well-worn! We've seen Dances with Wolves before, right? The

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-54610465752043591612010-03-25T17:05:00.000-07:002010-03-25T17:29:01.662-07:00

I've a confession. I often find writing tedious. Not boring, per se, but simply a long hard slog with little reward along the way. The reward - feedback from a reader for example - is a long way off when I start writing. As a form of stifling inertia I often feel this is very difficult to overcome when starting a project.And the delayed gratification in writing a novel, in which reader feedback

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-27819963227877459562010-03-04T16:35:00.000-08:002010-03-08T17:10:29.691-08:00

I happen to be (re)reading Terry Pratchett's Small Gods this morning. One of my favourite satirists, I remembered this book as being possibly the best of his discworld satires. And on the train I reached the point at which Brutha and Om, a novice and his god, trapped in a tortoise, reach the philosophers of Ephebe.Philosophy is a foreign idea to the Omnians, who prefer a straight and narrow

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-42266712306343070612010-02-24T21:15:00.001-08:002010-02-24T21:59:52.216-08:00

Said Bookisms show up a lot in certain writing and critique groups. They're adverbs or other tags added to dialog such as:"We've got to be quiet," she whispered."Yeah," he said distractedly."No way!" she yelled."You're kidding," he roared.It should be said that in some markets, the use of Said Bookisms is de rigeur. If you're sure that's your market, you can stop reading now, and quietly ignore

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-51898528757999792432010-02-22T15:13:00.001-08:002010-02-22T15:27:22.993-08:00

Have you ever encountered what you thought was a silly rule? If you're working, does your company reserve parking for management only to have it remain unused, because the management are only in the office after-hours when the golf range is closed?I'm a computer programmer by day, and computer programming is a world built out of rules. Computers follow instructions, the 'rules' of their logic

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-3043965151289397842010-02-08T17:23:00.000-08:002010-02-08T17:45:03.795-08:00

The last month has been interesting with respects to critiquing and editing. First, I submitted an appallingly long-winded draft to my critique group and received a number of helpful and incisive replies. At the same time, I was able to critique a number of other stories, some with similar problems, and see my own issues from another angle. I mentioned some of this in my previous discussion on

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-89777431861036717402010-02-01T19:06:00.000-08:002010-02-01T19:31:16.600-08:00

I liken my progress at learning to write fiction to be something akin to learning to play chess. Once upon a time, someone showed me the rules of chess, what the objective was, how to move the pieces. Then I played a friend, and he beat me in four moves.Not one to give up, I got better at my opening game - I wasn't going to have that happen again. But then I got whittled down quickly in the

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-28636890593128915442009-12-31T13:00:00.000-08:002010-01-03T16:38:18.674-08:00

So it's that time again - the end of the year, and time to compare our reading lists. Did you manage to read as much as you'd liked? What was your favourite - and least favourite - books you read in 2009?This year I tried to make a concerted effort to read a mix of genre fiction, some classics, and some non-fiction, rather than my usual fare of mostly genre fiction. I failed a little here, as I

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-46370810192709066752009-12-31T12:00:00.000-08:002009-12-31T12:00:01.139-08:00

As a companion to my 2009 reading list, I thought another post on what was written this year might be interesting. Less because of what I wrote, and more because of what I didn't.I wrote six short stories this year, and learned a little from each:The 123 word 'twist' micro for a writing group competition. I learned that being clever is a good way not to win a competition.The 500 word flash for

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-41488397317893177342009-12-24T14:57:00.000-08:002009-12-24T15:04:18.316-08:00

After prepping the turkey, watching Christmas Carols with the eldest, and hitting the sack, I still had my latest story running through my head. Up I got, and wrote another few pages on the netbook in the dark.If only every day was as productive as Christmas Eve.Happy holidays!

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-71940533246066462962009-12-01T19:03:00.001-08:002009-12-01T19:13:20.317-08:00

I think it's safe to say it's been a challenging year for everybody. In addition to some economic challenges, which have probably had at least some impact on most of us, life continues to happen, and with life's progress have come the ups and downs of yet another year. I don't know about you, but I've been feeling really tired lately.Nevertheless, I set about writing a short story in November,

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-9706502890522929622009-11-25T22:01:00.000-08:002009-11-25T22:25:00.105-08:00

Something weird happened on facebook this morning. I logged in and one of my acquaintances had changed his status to readJohn Fellow Employee All I want for Christmas is a Westfield gift card.to which I immediately thought, now there's a gift idea for the office Christmas party's Secret Santa. I could just get a Westfield gift card. Nice.I checked facebook an hour or so later (yes, I know, I'm an

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-57242874683474382432009-10-30T00:46:00.000-07:002009-11-03T18:27:31.898-08:00

I recently picked up this forecast from The Rejectionist: Apocalypse is the new vampires.Don't know what I'm talking about? Read Twilight, have a look at recent publishing trends, and ponder.And while we ponder together, I'll throw a couple of thoughts out there.Early last year, fuel prices went through the roof. The price of oil hit new records daily. I wasn't the only person to start looking

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-49178257652812309952009-10-29T17:11:00.001-07:002009-10-29T19:49:08.869-07:00

Nathan recently made a couple of posts considering the inaccessibility of literary writing, balanced with the inverted snobbery of the less literary market. While plenty of commentators made eloquent and valid points with which I can completely agree, I felt I'd like to add another thought on the issue of literature here, and with a little more depth than I could hope to include in a blog

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-11999364410923458772009-10-21T23:08:00.000-07:002009-11-03T18:51:04.331-08:00

I reached a bit of a block with a novel I intended to start this year. Sitting down in September I found myself typing away about my character, plot and outline sitting beside me, scratching my head and asking Why do I care?The characters seemed flat, one dimensional, uninteresting dolts who I didn't want to write about and sure as hell no one was going to read about.I couldn't really find

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-78197070531047736852009-10-07T17:49:00.001-07:002009-10-07T18:02:49.948-07:00

Last year I participated in Nanowrimo. You know, that whacky internet phenomenon where people write 50,000 words in November, call it a "Novel" and give themselves hearty slaps on the back. It was fun, and I achieved something. But I also resolved that it was a one-time affair. I could make writing time for a novel again this year.Well, that didn't happen. Kids and motorcycle accidents and

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-32343226894061338152009-09-29T16:49:00.000-07:002009-09-29T17:04:48.363-07:00

Well, more than one.But Moonrat's latest gem from Robert the Publisher hits the nail on the head of one of my big sticking points lately. Fear of failure.Yes, I'm an FOF sufferer. I have acute and chronic FOF. I don't just fear failure, I fear mediocrity. Talk about hubris! Fear of failure does two things to me:One, it means I am perpetually stressed. Nothing's good enough. I have to catch the

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-86766491196076937112009-09-08T16:41:00.000-07:002009-09-08T17:07:24.094-07:00

Thanks to The Intern, I just came across the Hedonic Treadmill, a theory for understanding happiness suggesting that, on the whole, personal happiness in life remains at a constant. In the case of wealth, for example, as we accrue wealth our expectations rise - and so does our inability to fulfill them.This is timely for me, because on the one hand I can see myself conforming to this theory, and

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-73650618840600395782009-08-23T17:24:00.001-07:002009-08-23T17:44:03.844-07:00

I have been especially lax with my writing and blogging in the last few weeks, so I thought it appropriate to at least note that I'm aware of this and no, I haven't fallen off the face of the planet (which side of the planet is the face, anyway?)This year has had its ups and downs, and every year does, but they've all seemed to have an anti-creativity theme this time. With worry over family,

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-7771889770711165132009-07-30T17:37:00.000-07:002009-07-30T18:09:36.484-07:00

Years ago I remember a school counselor advising in his dry manner that all we kids needed was to set goals. So I set the goal of being an astronaut. Unfortunately he didn't provide information on the interim steps required to actually achieve the goals we set. I guess that wasn't part of the curriculum.One of this year's goals was to write another novel or two. Unfortunately the year turned nuts

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-62101083225991859222009-07-28T17:43:00.000-07:002009-07-28T22:28:05.701-07:00

Phew, what a madhouse.There's been little inclination to blog these last few days; what energy could be found was being either directed at parenting or into finishing the plotting of my current writing project. With the first draft of the plot outline complete I've a moment for a quick breath before revising it (aren't arbitrary self-imposed deadlines just great?)Okay, so lacking anything

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-72681678997086504832009-07-11T20:12:00.000-07:002009-07-12T13:57:54.706-07:00

Visitors to my blog may have noticed I've added a progress bar and graph to the sidebar. This is tracking my current work in progress - in this case a novel*.I acknowledge that this is the worst kind of procrastination, for I should be working on the project's plotting as I write this, however I've been wanting a method with which to update this page (and other websites, such as facebook etc)

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-71962956311992117002009-07-10T23:35:00.000-07:002009-07-10T23:56:14.200-07:00

I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy; he hath borne me on his back a thousand timesI watched the beast ride out of our garage last night, complete with a new owner and new and exciting destinations, including an across-Australia adventure that will take the rest of the year.It was nevertheless not nearly as disturbing as this.Now to quietly sob into my beer and

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-13375067693683246202009-07-02T17:19:00.000-07:002009-07-02T17:55:36.923-07:00

Courtesy of the Bad Astronomy blog, I recently came across this video.Now, don't get me wrong - as a propellorhead myself, I love the idea of getting kids more interested in science, more involved in scientific pursuits when they graduate, or just an overall improvement in education and achievement.But I think there's a problem here. Let's have a quick look at Seth MacFarlane's opening comment:"

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-61874590797085499742009-06-17T22:29:00.000-07:002009-06-17T22:50:44.633-07:00

Gosh, am I really falling so far behind in my updates?Recently I started riding a bicycle to work. It's a 52km round trip; the ride each way takes a shade over an hour. Given I'm hardly fit, it's winter, 4C and pitch black outside when I leave just after 5.30 in the morning I've found the experience to be somewhat harsh. My legs are aching as I write this.And no, I'm not doing it in protest after

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-65691837633745318432009-06-02T18:38:00.000-07:002009-06-02T18:53:11.408-07:00

This last weekend my wife and I found some quiet time and watched Marley and Me on DVD. I don't know which part I liked the most - that it seemed to be a good old fashioned Man-And-His-Dog story, or that it seemed to be our story. Yes, we have a Labrador, yes he's eaten the walls of the house, and yes we have kids, one income and many of the challenges faced by the Marley's family.Due to our

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-36408242670654724942009-05-09T23:56:00.000-07:002009-05-10T00:11:32.112-07:00

I just finished Patricia Highsmith's Plotting & Writing Suspense Fiction. I really quite enjoyed it; far from being a technical manual on writing, it is a less formal discussion on the writing process and the author's experience, especially as related to Ms. Highsmith.I normally don't make notes of quotable passages in books, and as this was a loaner from the library I wasn't able to mark the

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-66658875098259549252009-05-05T22:29:00.001-07:002009-05-05T23:18:07.864-07:00

I recently got pulled up and shot down over a writing critique I gave. I had really tried to be as diplomatic as possible and was wondering, for a while, what all the fuss was about.I've decided, at the risk of sounding pretentious, that I am simply an idiot. At least in respect to literature. Consider if you will: When someone recently labelled another as a gadfly, I had to look it up on

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-80625227296794956912009-04-15T20:06:00.000-07:002009-04-15T20:12:56.933-07:00

Dorian and friends posted a list of uncomfortable plot summaries, including these pearlers and more:DOCTOR WHO: Elderly man serially abducts young women.HARRY POTTER: Celebrity Jock thinks rules don’t apply to him, is right.KING KONG: Endangered animal stolen, shot.STAR WARS: EMPIRE STRIKES BACK: Boy is abused by midget, kisses sister, attempts patricide.TWILIGHT: Girl gives up college for

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-12201469196950715442009-04-05T19:34:00.000-07:002009-04-05T20:07:10.069-07:00

Matter, Ian M. Banks' newest Culture novel is storytelling at multiple levels. It is at once a tale of a threatened royal family in a feudal society, a look at interaction between societies of different levels of development, and a question as to the morality and impact of intervention policies in relatively advanced societies.For me, perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of this novel was its scope.

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-37384134456253038952009-03-24T21:58:00.000-07:002009-03-25T21:25:28.268-07:00

Last year I came across the Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus. I was amazed. This is a really neat tool for pulling up words based on their relationships to each other.At the time, I thought a visual tool like this would help me in novel plotting. I usually have a (paper) notebook full of ideas, plot fragments, character, setting and milieu details, and a stack of post-it notes collected from when I

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-73155220239087687212009-03-18T21:13:00.000-07:002009-03-18T21:31:49.940-07:00

I have lots of excuses for not writing lately. Being unable to walk due to fracturing most of the bones in my foot has been a pretty good one. Not getting enough sleep due to the above, plus a few-months-old baby is another. And then perhaps a part of it is just that I let myself get a bit burned out finishing up my last project last year.I finally found the inspiration to write a little more

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-77780632603985575072009-03-09T15:02:00.000-07:002009-03-09T15:14:20.585-07:00

Occasionally a product arrives at just the right moment, grips the human consciousness and pushes us towards a radical change in culture.This is not that product.It does, however, lend itself to endless parody.Introducing...The SnuggieAs interpreted by College HumorAs understood by Mikey & Big Bob

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-31074234973222277422009-02-26T14:09:00.000-08:002010-02-14T21:15:03.713-08:00

My little writing break is coming to an end - nicely coinciding with my foot healing up and being able to walk again. So hopefully I'll have a bit more time behind the computer soon.By way of inspiration for my next writing project, perhaps I should take a leaf out of these opening lines. Or perhaps not.In the meantime, I readily identify with the sentiment of Louis C.K. in this video.

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-14653417863621273752009-02-16T18:22:00.000-08:002009-02-16T18:48:58.272-08:00

Just finished Micheal Crichton's State of Fear. I really don't know what to think about this one.On the one hand, it is a somewhat typical thriller centered around the idea of eco-terrorism.On the other hand, it is an apparently well researched examination of public perceptions about human influence on climate change.I felt the idea could work, but by the end of it I sadly wasn't that thrilled

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-27022176250310213792009-02-04T15:11:00.000-08:002009-02-05T15:43:49.250-08:00

I really do like British comedy; I'll have to try and find these guys on DVD.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8ko2nCk_hE

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-64219461812422343802009-01-26T18:14:00.001-08:002009-01-26T18:25:25.418-08:00

When I pranged my motorcycle I was in the last chapter or two of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. I quite enjoyed it, though the language forced me to take my time. I am not sure whether I read this as a kid, perhaps I read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Now I'm going to add that to my to-be-read pile as well to compare notes.In hospital I started Fear by Jeff Abbot. There is a

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-31832641355494885672009-01-17T15:58:00.000-08:002009-01-17T17:04:49.981-08:00

Wow. What a week it's been.I was taught a lesson by the School of Hard Knocks last Sunday that I won't soon forget. To understand why the lesson was necessary, allow me to digress temporarily.I grew up surrounded by a very Can-Do attitude: My mother originated from the US, her father being an entrepreneurial engineer and a WWII Marine. My father originated in Australia, with a combination of

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-56057593649365191732009-01-05T19:29:00.000-08:002009-01-07T05:10:07.222-08:00

Yay, it's 2009!The last two weeks have been particularly unpleasant in Perth. The temperature hasn't been truly extreme (we had a couple of days at around 38C and it's 33-37C daily) but we had a very mild start to summer, so the change has been quite dramatic. To add insult to injury, our home airconditioning system needs replacing and we don't have the thousands of dollars we'd need to make it

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-38928550208417718752008-12-21T18:45:00.001-08:002008-12-21T20:06:51.065-08:00

It's no secret that people in developed nations are getting fatter.On the one hand, this paints a somewhat ironic picture: While living longer costs more, a population able to enjoy more disposable income seems to spend more time earning it. The result seems to be that it also spends less time preparing or eating healthy food, creating an opening for fast food and fast entertainment into which to

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-73275370144360395232008-12-15T19:47:00.000-08:002008-12-18T18:21:12.267-08:00

What a fun week.I caught a cold. Not normally a big deal, but with the lack of sleep resulting from regular baby interruptions and trying to push out my writing project, it it hard. Once I was over it I had a chest infection. Then I couldn't sleep because it was 38C in the day, not much lower at night, and our airconditioner is offline.Then the company moved office to a new building, so there was

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-21325317321013560452008-12-10T20:05:00.001-08:002008-12-10T20:26:45.521-08:00

We've all heard that favourite idiom 'Don't judge a book by its cover'.We know it's really not true though, don't we?For if it were true, illustrators would be out of a job. The book-buying public might even read the blurb on the jacket in deciding. Hey, they might get so used to reading that they even open it and read the first couple of pages.But that's a pipe-dream; when a cover completely

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-3513118462509118462008-12-08T14:18:00.000-08:002008-12-08T14:37:40.154-08:00

Yeah, tell me about it. I had other things to do at the computer at the time. But I stumbled across Dwight Swain's Techniques of the Selling Writer on Google Book Search.I couldn't put it down - which is to say I couldn't close my browser and get on with my actual project of the moment. Sixty-odd pages in, I realised:I just spent more time reading on-screen than I've done in a long, long time.I

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-42690810552655385062008-12-03T17:39:00.000-08:002008-12-02T16:52:45.771-08:00

It's no secret that I have a special appreciation of computer games. I programmed my first computer game before I even owned a computer to play it on. Back in the eighties a machine like the C64 was the envy of every schoolchild, I remember my father bringing a BBC Model I home from school and allowing us to play one of the school's educational games for a short while.I also loved flying and

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-54023003224450685252008-11-27T15:01:00.001-08:002008-11-27T18:06:32.047-08:00

My NaNo draft stalled a little this week. After about 52,000 words I'd reached the end of chapter 10 and things slowed down dramatically for a couple of days.Part of the reason was that I finished chapter 10, and my hastily scribbled NaNo outline didn't have sufficient detail for me to embark immediately on chapter 11. To make matters more interesting, a pivotal scene planned in the outline could

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-33962810324088957222008-11-23T19:40:00.000-08:002008-11-23T19:51:05.831-08:00

One of the disadvantages of working in software development is that I spend a great many hours every week sitting behind a computer. It's a disadvantage at least in part because time spent writing after hours is more of the same.One of the advantages, however, is that I have a little time here and there to browse the internet while having my next cup of decaf.Todays browsing saw me stumble upon

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-41892756978199858432008-11-23T01:22:00.000-08:002008-11-23T01:43:44.068-08:00

Well, huzzah. My NaNoWriMo draft reached fifty thousand words today, allowing me to have met at least one goal so far in this project. The achievement has left me wondering why I'm not completely ecstatic about it. Where's the euphoria? Well, I suppose the answer is threefold: I exceeded my lifelong wordcount somewhere between day 2 and 7. Yep, my longest short story was probably less than the

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-87957909471144992252008-11-20T15:49:00.000-08:002008-11-30T20:21:59.533-08:00

A couple of days ago, writing through a time machine, Nathan Bransford posted this intriguing question on his blog (courtesy of Orange Slushie):"You go down to the crossroads and make a pact to have your novel and future novels published. You are given a conditional choice. Either you can receive the highest literary acclaim for your work, but a guarantee that you will never earn enough to give

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-32324031567215597062008-11-19T22:25:00.000-08:002008-11-20T16:40:33.999-08:00

Gah! I don't know about you, but I find Novembers crazy.As well as a number of annual bills falling due in November*, this year:The staff Christmas party occurs at the end of the monthThe choir is performing a concert at the end of the month,I have to have memorised parts of the music for said concert,I somehow need to find time to finish my NaNoWriMo project.I'm just glad I didn't decide to play

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-65680971652528713172008-11-16T19:16:00.000-08:002008-11-16T19:35:04.043-08:00

Last week I stopped by my mother's house after work. I have a music rehearsal four hours after work one day a week and the commute across town and back to have dinner at home is just so much aggravation, wasted time and fuel. On this visit she was busy gardening and doing the things sixty year olds do after work so I set up my netbook and took the opportunity to get in a little writing time since

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-86370634607592928692008-11-13T18:10:00.000-08:002008-11-14T13:56:22.196-08:00

My eldest son turned three yesterday. Being relatively new to the birthday phenomenon his day happily started with him blissfully unaware of anything being different.I had gone to work as usual, but this time Mrs Ben-M and the kids came down to the office for lunch. I always enjoy it when they visit; we sat on the beach nearby and had fish & chips, he maniacally chased seagulls all the while

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-58300612849029842992008-11-11T17:47:00.000-08:002008-11-11T18:19:59.067-08:00

I thought I had it in the bag when I sat down to tackle my evening's writing project last night. I'd spent some time and detailed what I needed to happen in the scene at hand and at first it seemed fairly easy to write. Pretty soon I started coming across minor issues that bogged down my progress considerably. There were three in total:One of the characters is able to be tracked by the antagonist

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-33265788603580754822008-11-09T02:48:00.000-08:002008-11-09T03:01:40.051-08:00

I managed to plough through today's writing task much easier than I had the last couple of days. The difference? I updated my synopsis.I had been wanting to participate in NaNoWriMo for a couple of months before it started, but the timing was just a little off. Child #2 came into the world mid September and so all my spare time before it was spent anxiously wringing my hands and making

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-79971923298957587122008-11-07T23:16:00.000-08:002008-11-07T23:52:28.780-08:00

My current writing project is definitely hitting a rougher patch.The novel I plotted out for NaNoWriMo will end up at about thirteen chapters. This is my first attempt at writing a longer work of fiction and it started out very enjoyable.In planning it, I had spent a lot more time thinking through the first few chapters. As a result, when it came time to start writing them I had a bunch of fresh

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-43931839970126315472008-11-06T18:11:00.000-08:002008-11-06T18:17:33.920-08:00

For all those days you've lost a little traction in the wet, this guy makes you realise that it's not that bad at all. Or maybe it's just him. Yep, that's it. He's not that bad at all.And if you don't ride, imagine how safe and secure having four wheels makes you feel in a car. Then take away two wheels and balance on what's left. Then stop balancing, and just wobble around and hope that you

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-22720409428295657682008-11-05T17:22:00.000-08:002009-07-30T19:33:07.654-07:00

A little advance warning. This is a longer post than what I really plan for this blog. But, by way of introduction, it explains a little behind why I'm putting it up. I'll try to keep them shorter in future.Throughout school, and for a while after, I really enjoyed creative writing. I found it a means to employ my imagination and find an outlet for expression that I couldn't find elsewhere. I

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2720728755785889664.post-85783607928958743852008-11-04T17:24:00.000-08:002008-11-06T15:30:35.345-08:00

Yesterday I came across this rather amusing link:http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/jeremy_clarkson/article4963194.eceIt seems that Jeremy Clarkson has been seen riding around on a Vespa. See what he has to say about the topic of motorcycling.I also came across this rather interesting list of SF cliches:http://www.cthreepo.com/cliche/which is nicely arranged by type and horridness. I think

Ben Mannnoreply@blogger.com0