Dylan Charles's Blog, page 29

Angry and Lovin' It

I've been noticing more and more lately that I'm getting more and more angry and aggressive and it's the city that's doing it.

It's not Boston in particular, it's just…living in a big city where people can be rude and thoughtless and exceedingly annoying. I don't think cities especially attract awful people; the same percentage of awful people live in the city as they do in the country (20%). But 20% of 600,000 people is a metric shitton of people no matter how you look at it and you're going ...

Borrowing without Permission

As I mentioned in an earlier entry, I've found a couple of my stories floating around in the internet. Usually they appear on websites devoted to something called "creepypastas," which are, succinctly, horror themed flash fictions.

For the most part, creepypastas are treated like orphaned children. They have no credited writers and thus are up for grabs. They move from forum to forum, from website to website. God only knows the original writers for all of these stories.

But here's the deal...

A Creator's Thoughts on SOPA and PIPA

I'm a writer. I write stories and I have, in the past, posted them on the Internet. Other people have taken these stories and posted them in other places on the Internet without my permission and, most of the time, without crediting the story to me. Sometimes, the poster even gets complimented on his or her  story, as though they wrote it. There's even one person who's talking about making a game using a character I created, even though it's my goddamn character.

Every time I see one of my...

Good News in Failure

The more I write of the sixth and final story, the more there seems to be to write. A little more backstory, another character or two, the plot keeps stretching out in front of me with no clear end in sight. It's daunting, because it looks like this one is shaping up to be the longest story of all of them. Already, the story is as long as the longest story, but the investigation hasn't gotten off the ground yet.

What I'm trying to say is that I don't think I'm going to make the midnight...

A Delay of Game

This morning I woke up to the sound of dripping water. Apparently, a leak we had thought gone, is now back and with a vengeance. We've had a leak right over the light fixture in the hallway that connects our living room with the bedroom. It's annoying, because its warped the floorboards and goes through an electrical fixture, which is a bit nervewracking.

So that's how the day started. While I was calling the landlord and talking to the people upstairs and chasing drops of waters, I began to g...

Tiny Baby Steps

Since I've read at least three articles that state you should have small, clearly defined goals instead of giant, nebulous goals, I'm going to start setting small goals for finishing the book. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by the sheer number of things that I need to have done, but if I break it down into chunks, I should be able to focus better.

This week's goal will be to finish the sixth and final detective story that I want in this book. I hereby give myself the deadline of Sunday at...

An Analysis of Fear

Over the years, I've made Horror my thing. I've watched countless horror movies. I've read countless horror stories. I've viewed the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch. I've worked out the formulas for the non-Euclidian shapes of Lovecraftian geometry. I've sampled the wares of multiple cultures; the giallo films of Dario Argento, the existentialist nightmares of French cinema, and even some Bollywood rip-offs of American slasher films.

And, in all of my research, in all of my attempts to feel...

Disciplined

I can manage rare bouts of self-discipline at a week at a time. I'll write every day, doing what needs being done.

And then, I slack. I'll tell myself that, oh, it's been a long day, I should just make up the difference tomorrow. After all, if I write them tomorrow, I'll still be at where I need to be.

But then the next day,  it's that much easier to tell myself, "Why write them today, when I can just write them tomorrow?"

It's happened so many times now, where I always manage to give myself a w...

Grumbling in the City

After leaving Boston for a couple of days and then coming back today, I came to the realization that I might need a break from city living. Being back in the South, it was quiet, people were disturbingly friendly and I only feared for my life once or twice.

But back in Boston, I immediately began to view everyone wandering by as a potential hoodlum. Everyone had their music too loud. There were so many people talking on their cellphones. It was like I've turned into a curmudgeon.

The last...

Goin' South

For the first time in almost a year and a half, I'm going back down South. In fact, until Thanksgiving, I hadn't left Massachusetts since I got here in August of 2010.

I'm not going all the way back home, though it's close enough. Truth be told, that hasn't really felt like home to me in a while. I don't really talk about "back home" anymore. And I only have a Southern accent when I'm ringing someone up on the register. I'm not sure why I do that, but every person I ring up gets a couple of...