Last week I said that I would be publishing chapters ever other week on Youpublish, but that has turned out to be incorrect. Two weeks between uploads is way too much time for me to forget all about what I'm supposed to be doing, so I'm putting a chapter online every week.
Welcome to chapter two of what I like to call The First Task of Symon Daye, wherein our heroes finally get out of the prison and begin the grand adventure of finding the lost city of Agras. It's totally free and you don't need to download anything - you can read it right on the page. If you don't have anything better to do for a while, give it a shot.
Other than that, there's not much going on. I'm currently reading two books, Stream of Consciousness in the Modern Novel, by Humphrey, and House of Leaves, by Danielewski. I am always using the same patterns, the same ideas, and I'm not experimenting with my words nearly enough. I can do anything with my words. Anything! I can say anything I want, in any way that I want. In any form and any format. Stream of consciousness is a little outdated, but I still think it's a valuable thing to know and to learn, and House of Leaves is a book that I'm discovering bit by bit as the story (stories?) unfolds. It's very exciting. Both of them are, just because they're something new and different, and because they're two very different ways of telling a story using methods I have never tried.
Experimentation is key, I think. I've probably said this on here before, but I firmly believe that you can never relax, you can never let yourself think that you're any better than anyone else. The moment you place yourself superior, you stop trying so hard to be better. And that constant striving for a perfection that can never truly be gained is the largest part of being a writer. A rut is a rut. No matter how good you are, if you're not bettering yourself you're still stuck.
And I say this, like it's no big deal, when in fact I find the whole concept utterly terrifying. Change how I write? Just... change it? But what I know is safe! And I know how it works, what to do, how to do it, how everything is supposed to fit together! Suffice it to say, it's hard. But it needs to be done, for the sake of my craft, to make it my art. Right now, I tell stories. I need to learn how to paint stories with words. Good luck to me, and good luck to you as well, whatever your goals may be, and wherever your experimentation may lead.
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