My New Old Writing Schedule

Today's blog topics include: Making fine progress thanks to my new old writing schedule; approaching the finish line; alienating readers by writing about anime; FLCL's director commentary, and the the four ways to watch the series

Tim Cody is currently:
Writing: Crimson Soul II
Recently Completed: Resident Evil 4 HD (PS3)
Watching: FLCL with director commentary
For Dinner: A great big delicious sandwich


So I jumped right into my new old writing schedule this weekend--that is, only writing on Saturday and Sunday--and I feel as though it went quite swimmingly. I still write for my usual amount of time, which is from about 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, or until I feel as though I'm done for the day (usually around the ten page mark or so, if ten pages comes before 5:00).

This weekend was a good start. I finished 18ish pages, and only have 60 more to go. At about twenty pages a weekend, taking next Saturday off to see the Blue Man Group, and a weekend off for my birthday (October 22nd), I hope to be finished writing Crimson Soul II by the end of the month or the start of next month. But realistically it'll probably a few weeks into November. Which still puts me pretty much at least near the track to have everything finished and either on the way to be published, or published, by Thanksgiving or the beginning of December.

Writing only the weekends tends to go smoother than writing four or five days a week. I tend to get burnt out on a five day a week writing schedule, so giving a week in between sprints allows me to jump into it fresh the next time. It gives me time to reflect on what I wrote last time, what I need to write next, and it gives me something to look forward to.

And that's how I know I want to keep moving forward. Instead of feeling tired and burnt out, I'm excited and eager to go and write the next few chapters--especially once the finish line is in sight. I tend to produce higher quality writing on the first time through, which requires less editing later.

So Friday nights are for whatever video game I'm playing. Saturday during the day is for writing, and Saturday night is for video games. Sunday during the day is for writing, but I can't remember if Sunday nights were for video games. I don't think they were, so Sunday nights will not be for writing in the ol' blog here. 

Secret Technique #46: Blog Topic Change!

So the FLCL blu-ray is only in 4:3 resolution, which is kind of a bummer, and a little peculiar. Blu-rays should most certainly have larger resolutions available, seeing as they're made specifically for really big televisions. But it's every episode on one disc, which is better than the DVDs splitting six episodes up over three discs. The DVDs are full-screen, though.

I've been watching the series with the director commentary lately, and it's pretty interesting. You can really tell through a lot of what he says that the series was an experiment for the company--a lot of what he says is along the lines of "We decided to do this last minute," and "The art director thought it would be cool to do this so I just sort of let it happen."

I would recommend watching the entire series with the commentary because the director offers some pretty good insight. He explains a few of the more confusing or unclear plot points, and also clears up some of the very Japanese references that the characters make. I've officially added it to my list of ways to watch FLCL (detailed below).

The four ways to watch FLCL:

1. Straight through, start to finish. Let the weirdness wash over you.
2. With director commentary. Consume the fresh insight to better understand the aforementioned weirdness.
3. Straight through, start to finish. With your new insight, you'll be able to watch it in a new light (unintentional rhyming a necessary evil).
4. With your eyes shut. The soundtrack is pretty spectacular, and unusual from the usual anime soundtrack. Almost every single scene has some music by the The Pillows playing quietly in the background.

At just six episodes for the entire series, knocking out this list is a breeze.

That's that and marmalade.

-Tim Cody