Project 14 - Sketch Fiction: A Morning Disrupted

This is the second of six sketch stories. It's totally unrelated to the first, except that I wrote it and it's supposed to be short and simple.

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A Morning Disrupted

He came out of the dark smithy stretching and brushing out his beard. He looked up the road as far as he could see, finding no sign of Stera and breakfast.

He ducked his head back in the smithy, "Don't rush boys, no sign of the hot-cart yet."

The air was crisp and clear, and the sun was glinting off the city's colourful roofs. He took a drink from the water barrel, and sighed as he sat down, enjoying the feel of the sun on his face.

He pulled out his pad of sketching paper and started roughing in a sketch of the smaller lamp fittings Green Marlin had ordered for the new fishing boats.

He heard unhurried hoof-steps and looked up to see a young woman wearing blue courier leathers riding down the road. He shifted a little to slide the sketch under his apron, and nodded at the woman as she went past. Once she was out of sight, down the curve of the road, he pulled his paper back out and continued sketching.

He lost track of time as he sketched, but was suddenly called back to reality with a crash and raucous yelling. Jumping up, dropping his paper, he saw two young men on dark horses canter past, while up the road Stera's cart was tipped over, with her gear spread out all over the road.

Old Korin was standing in the middle of the road waving his cane at the the retreating riders and shouting "Ruffians!" while Stera was looking over the mess of her cart.

"Damned fools," Stera shook her head as he came up the road to them, "Not sure where they thought they'd get in such a hurry. The one of them turned his horse right into my cart, trying to get around Old Korin here! Knocked it clean over! And not a glance back to see what they'd done even! The poor horse!"

Several other neighbours had gathered by then and there was enough muscle to set the cart upright and gather up the mess.

"Ah well," Stera said, shaking her head again as she checked over her equipment and supplies, "Nothing's a day but challenges, I guess. Doesn't look like anything's too much the worse for wear. Glad I wasn't carrying fresh eggs today. Give me a minute to straighten up and then I'll get back to feeding you all."





 

Project 14: Sketch Fiction - Update

So again, I'm past a project deadline and I don't have five stories to post.

I'm still struggling to sort out how to keep myself productive creatively and still manage my actual work for my PhD at the same time. In January I started by cutting down on my giant list of projects and focus on one thing at a time. At that point I started to focus on my sketch fiction project and hoped, at a pace of one a week, to get five out by early February.

While I definitely haven't pumped five stories out over the last two months, I have at least been a lot more focused on writing. I think over all that's been a good thing for me. In my last update, I said I had progress on four stories, and while that's true, I want to do some more work to make sure they're good. At the same time a lot of the point of the project is for me to JUST ACTUALLY GET STUFF WRITTEN AND OUT THERE, so there's a push and a pull.

I have one story finished and in a state I'm happy with. That will go up in the next post.

The rest I'm going to take my time with, but try to keep myself on a deadline of one every two weeks. The goal is to have something that I can put out, even if it's not perfect. Two weeks feels like a really long time to take to write a few hundred words, but given that I've taken months already it may not be that unjust an estimate. And as an added bonus, if I feel like I've finished early then I can be ahead of schedule rather than behind it (what a weird idea).

So my next project is to put out another piece of sketch fiction by Wednesday, March 15, 2016.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 122)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we get ready for adventure and the weekend all with the great things of video games and music.

• First, I've been having trouble getting going, so it's really nice that we get to start with Mr. Smooth McGroove pushing us out Into the Thick of It. So grab that rusty sword out of the stream and go fight the fluffy evil of your to do list. (Or at least that's my plan.)
• Next, Josh would like you to remember that Star Fox was Really Freakin' Cleaver. I like his point that the world and the sense of journey is the reason why Star Fox has stayed memorable. I remember being a kid, spending hours fantasizing about how amazing a Star Fox II could be, especially imagining it letting you pick different paths and having more complex interactions with your squad mates (like having them actually shoot things). I think a lot of that came from how well the world grabbed me.
  Also, I have been creeping out my friends for years by saying  good luck like the flight controller in the beginning of Star Fox.  (Actually they've probably never noticed, but hey, I like doing it anyway.)
• Finally, Hank is ready for the weekend, playing half a century's worth of music all with the same damn cord progression.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 121)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we look at the shells we build for ourselves, the shells people gloop on to our heads and strawberries. (If he'd used peas I'd have had a chance. Thanks a lot John.)

• First, Ze Frank reads "If you are in a shell" and Harry Shum Jr. dances. If you have the time, stop what you're doing and put this one full screen (and I think bigger screen is better). It's very touching and I had one of those discovering my hands moments after I finished watching. And if you are in a shell, then this video is a nice reminder that you can always move.
• Next, somewhat in contradiction to the first video, we watch Frank Ippolito put Norm Chan in a shell, so that later, they can build a shell for him. Or actually, make a life cast of him, which is more cool. This is part of Tested.com's Zoidberg project.
• Finally, we check in with John Green for an update about things. This one is a video from an interesting time and it's nice to reach back and feel all the excitement when The Fault in Our Stars was starting production and Esther was getting published and the Dons were getting sponsored by Nerdfighteria.