Tag Archives: Writing

Brain Monkeys

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Brain Monkey

So, lately, I have been talking about brain monkeys on twitter. What am I talking about? What are brain monkeys? Well, let me explain…

One of my writer friends stated that her inspiration was, in part, determined by the monkeys residing in her brain. Sometimes they gave her great inspiration other times they threw poo…

Well, recently I have had my own experiences with these alleged brain monkeys. I have been awakened, through the night, with the monkeys screaming a piece of inspiration at me. If I ignore them they scream louder, keeping me awake; so I saté them by getting up and writing down the tidbit they offer. The problem is that when I return to that tidbit they throw poo at me and what I get out is a mess.

It seems as though they purposely choose the most inopportune times to give anything of worth, while asleep, in the shower, while driving, or while at work. Other times they throw poo and run around in my head till I give up and do something else. Then as if mad that I didn’t pay attention to them, they get me another tidbit of good stuff; I return to write it and they go wild again. …evil little monsters!

This is the war of the ages, the battle for our thoughts. We, writers, fight the brain monkeys so that you don’t have to. Well, that’s all I’ve got for now ’cause they are throwing poo at me again…sigh…

 

P.S. Just a little word to the wise: Brain monkeys are contagious and transmittable by any writer to another without ever coming in contact with them.

Evil Monkeys

Who do you write like?

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This is a great question. I happened on a website that analyzes your writing style based on what you paste or type in the box.  I was interested to find out that my style changed from post to post or piece to piece. I have a funny feeling that the way I write is heavily influenced by things I have read recently. It may not mean much but I find this fascinating and worth investigating. My own style and voice is still being, and will continue to develop for the foreseeable future.

Based on the results of the tool, my writing seems to be similar to the following:

I write like
Neil Gaiman

I Write Like by Mémoires, journal software. Analyze your writing!

I write like
Dan Brown

I Write Like by Mémoires, journal software. Analyze your writing!

I write like
H. P. Lovecraft

I Write Like by Mémoires, journal software. Analyze your writing!

I write like
Edgar Allan Poe

I Write Like by Mémoires, journal software. Analyze your writing!

I guess, Neil Gaiman, Dan Brown, H.P. Lovecraft, and Edgar Allan Poe are some of the authors I have taken notes from. I checked many pieces of my writing and these seemed to repeat, so at least it seems consistent.

The voice I use in my book was most like Neil Gaiman, whereas my posts varied between Lovecraft and Dan Brown. Every now and then the analyzer would come up with Edgar Allan Poe, so I must have some small bit of poetic flow during those pieces.

Overall I think it is a good tool to see how your own voice changes. It could be useful for those seeking symmetry throughout a single work, so I recommend trying it out yourself: http://iwl.me/

Let me know who you write like.

Food for thought:

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Life get in the way of creativity. I could end this post there and be satisfied, but I would feel a bit like a bum if I did. I really don’t like the way everything in life is so urgent and demanding of our time; to the extent that we have to forego some things in order to get others done. The question is why do we do it? Well, for one we need to live…i.e. food, shelter, and clothing, yet we let other things that are not important become so. For example: TV series; how many people have part of their lives revolve around a TV series, or sports, or comedy central? These and similar things are diverting as they should be, but we give them too much importance. There is so much potential locked up in each and everyone of us that should not be wasted on TV and the like.

My challenge is to devote myself to using at least a portion of diversion time to working on my book each and EVERY day. I have a long commute to work and will use that time to scheme up new plot twists and scenes.

I recommend, to anyone within my voice, that you take this as a challenge for yourself. You know when you could add even five minutes to your future or your passion. Why let things like TV get in the way?

Update

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As I am in the early stages of the story, big changes are sometimes necessary. The old outline I had been working with did not do justice to the overall story, and being a bit of a perfectionist, I decided to rewrite the outline. The result has been a boost in my ability to picture scenes and story progression. The downside is that major parts have changed and I had to rewrite the first chapter and other chapters.

Overall, even with the rewrites, this process has gotten me back on track and may set the finish date for part one a bit sooner. As it stands, I have a goal to finish the first full draft of part one – Rise of Dissidence – by no later than Thanksgiving, November 2011. If this goal is to be accomplished, I need to write an average of 7,700 words a month. We will see if I can keep the pace up.

Mike