Changes in the New Year

Towards the end of 2013, things got a little bit hectic. Life got busy and I got well behind with my blog posts – and while I could have changed the schedule and posted some this year, I already had a plan of what I wanted to do. However, I got to thinking over Christmas and New Year (shockingly painful, believe me) and I’ve decided to make some changes.

This blog – Innate Wanderings

I’ve basically used this blog, Innate Wanderings, as a platform to experiment, develop my writing, tone, style and much more and while all have been of some interest I’ve kind of strayed from my roots a little and a lot of my thoughts have disappeared into thin air. My blog should be encouraging me to write more, just like my day job but as it stands, I do it because I should, not because I want to.

So, I’m not going to post once a week anymore. I think, to get real value I’m going to aim for two a month. More may drop in as and when I feel it is useful or necessary but Innate Wanderings is going back to its roots (and that’s a whole new story for another time). You can expect to see the following from now on:

·         Creative pieces

·         Writing workshop and activity advice

·         Genre reviews, analysis’s and discussions

·         Book and author reviews

·         More along the same lines, including answering any questions or topics suggested

This is something I’ve wanted to do for a while to really get back on track with my career and my favourite hobby and pastime – writing.

New projects

However, I like writing about games, movies and such, so I won’t be giving it up. In fact, I’m working on a new project to begin in February or March but this time, I won’t be doing it alone. I’ve been asking for volunteers; both in general and from specific people and I hope to have a team writing throughout each month of this kind of content. Its things we love as well as you and I’ll be posting more details about that as it gets closer to launch. If anyone else is interested in joining, get in touch with me on dave.r.mccreery@gmail.com.

As for the motorsport – well, I mainly covered F1 and occasionally BTCC. I’m hoping to spend more time going to races and I haven’t decided what to do about this yet. It may come on a separate platform, which I think will help it grow but that depends on my free time.

To summarise

So, expect around two posts a month here, with much more on the new project. If there’s enough demand for the motorsport posts, I will find a way to make it happen. The new project is most likely going to be on a Wordpress blog, rather than this and I am toying with the idea of moving this over there too. Time will tell.

Thanks for your support, and there’s plenty more to come. See you soon!

NaNoWriMo, F1 in Abu Dhabi and Disney Conquering Star Wars

It’s been a while since my last review. I have a few more planned before I get into the Dark Tower series, which will be an epic post, but there’s some things I’m still getting to grips with from that series. Between that, working Skyfall’s release, job hunting and NaNoWriMo, it’s a busy time right now!

NaNoWriMo

Well, it’s November and that means it’s another National Novel Writing Month. I’ve done this many times in the past but I’ve never been able to complete it. In 2010, I finally completed it and still had more to write. After a break last year because of my dissertation, I’m back on it this year – but trailing far behind already!

The goal is to write at least 50,000 words (either as a novel or part of one) in the 30 days of November. It’s quite a feat, even if it is only to be a first draft. It is completely up to you how far you want to get involved. I used to sign up every year but now I just do it on my own. It suits me better. There are a lot of events all over the place to meet other participants and have some fun while you’re at it.

This year, I’m writing the sequel to the project from two years ago. I will try to post some extracts throughout the month!

F1 – Raikkonen Returns to the Top Step

I am a big fan of Kimi Raikkonen in F1. One of the ‘coolest’ drivers and I say that because he is very cold at times. It’s just his nature, and Mika Hakkinen was much the same. Kimi was almost gifted the race by another failure from the McLaren team as Lewis Hamilton dropped out.

It made the race much more exciting. Sebastian Vettel produced a brilliant drive, and with a bit of luck with the safety car, made it onto the podium himself alongside the predictable Fernando Alonso.

One of the highlights was Kimi’s race messages. He doesn’t like a lot of information and it showed this time. Many would say he snapped at his race engineer but it was the focus of his driving. The message was clear both times – ‘leave me alone; I know what I’m doing!’ I’m paraphrasing but I’m sure the radio messages can be found on Youtube if you want a laugh!

 

The only thing that was disappointing was the language by both Raikkonen and Vettel. These are world class drivers and the heat of the moment does not quite excuse those slips. Slips happen but they are an example to younger viewers and it was a shame this happened. That said, there are two very exciting races to go and the fight between Vettel and Alonso is nowhere near over.

Star Wars and Disney; A fairy-tale in the making…

The news that Disney has bought Star Wars rocked me. I thought that the films were done and that Star Wars would live on through the Expanded Universe, of which I am a fan. So many authors on one story and the same characters – it gives you a brilliant insight into how each writer thinks and writes. I find that fascinating and the stories are pretty good too!

I am dubious about what Disney will do in these new films, with the first release slated for 2015. I have hope because of what they’ve done with the Marvel films but I see two main options for them to take.

The first is to take the story in their own direction and the second is to follow the Expanded Universe and tell the stories already written down, creative license allowing. The first, I feel, has more chance of alienating current fans even more than the Prequel films did, and the franchise will not find that easy to survive. The second option will see a form of continuity and, if done correctly, bring those fans wandering away back into the fold. I hope for the second option.

Stories have surfaced that Lucas had plans for twelve films in total. Bearing in mind that he has controlled the majority of the Expanded Universe since its creation, these later six would logically fall into a story arc within that creation. If Disney takes that route, it will appeal the widest range of fans possible. Or so I feel.

It’s an interesting situation, as is who will star in the new films. Only time will tell us but I remain hopeful.

A few branches to follow on...

It’s been a busy couple of weeks at work since The Dark Knight Rises was released. It has kept me very busy and been an exhausting time but the film itself is very good, but not quite as good as The Dark Knight, I believe. There are reasons for this but I will go into that at a later time, in a separate post.

New writing project

Well, I’ve finally decided to try and start some writing again. It wasn’t a total success but it did get me a little closer. I still haven’t found a way to inspire myself on anything I’ve been working on recently but I did go through some of the pieces I did for university and found a few things that I began to merge and expand on that I think could turn into a really nice little project.

It’s already standing out to me as something different to my favoured genres and styles. One of the pieces that I’ve selected was specifically written for a much younger audience and while that age group might change again, it doesn’t feel like a story an adult would read. This could all change, as I don’t write to a certain age or with an intended audience in mind. I write to tell a story, and as the story evolves and is put to paper, it will inevitably find its own audience. There will always be editing to be done to touch up on issues or loose ends and this project will be no different. I am quite excited and feel closer than ever to start writing again.

Birthday surprise!

My birthday is surrounded by my father’s and older sister’s birthday. IT’s an expensive time of the year for the family, having all three within twelve days. F1 is something we all enjoy but being at Silverstone has shown me I also enjoy the other races going on. My father is also a fan of the Touring Cars and as they are at Silverstone the weekend of his birthday, the three of us will be going down. I’ve never had the time to really get into it, but the small parts I have seen I’ve enjoyed and now I have a reason to make sure I get it sorted before October.

I really enjoy going to Silverstone – it’s a fantastic circuit and there’s always a great atmosphere no matter what the weather. I’ll walk around the circuit again, as I have done both times I’ve been before and I may even see if I can get some good pictures and put them up here. I’m always experimenting with things online. Photo’s in my blog, from a writer? This should be interesting!

Stephen King

Over the last few years, I’ve slowly been getting through Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series. I’ve just finished book five and have started book six, The Song of Susannah. They’re fantastically intricate reads and it can be confusing as to what is happening and where but they have kept me interested far better than any other books have recently. When I finish the last two, I think I will do a post looking at the series in its entirety. It will be interesting for me, if nothing else!

Stephen King is a fantastic writer, although I have found some of his stories can be repetitive. I suppose when you rule a genre like he does, this can be an easy trap to fall into. Each story is very well written and I hope I can branch out to other genres and stories to avoid this pitfall.

There are some other gems I have recently added to my book collection again thanks to a book voucher from MMU for receiving the Programme Leader’s Award. I spent £94 and still have £6 left, with another £10 card to spend, so a few more books are coming my way. I finally bought The Hunger Games books and the first A Song of Fire and Ice (or more commonly known as The Game of Thrones books). I have a lot of reading ahead of me!

Commitment

It's weird to think I haven't been to a seminar at university for over four months now. Weirder that my last exam was in May and more than that, it's been two weeks since I graduated. That one will take a long time to sink, I reckon.

All in all, life as a graduate hasn't been too different. I'm working full time now but the lack of funding from Student Finance means I don't get to go out as much as I used to and I'm still not completely ready to jump back into writing again. More on that later.

So, I'm going to put more time and effort into this blog. I'll be following up my RPG genre post and exploring tangents from it, maybe so movie and book reviews, as well as things I find interesting throughout the week. Consistency is the key, I hope.

Job hunting

One thing I've never been a fan of is job hunting. It's something that my friends and I, along with almost every other graduate out there, are going through right now. The problem I'm having is that there are very few entry level jobs, and all the things I've done in university seems to count for very little so far. In time, I hope that will change but I'm under no illusions that my current state of mind is still enjoying the freedom of not having a "real" job right now. I do have plans, and I don't want to be in my 30's/40's by the time they start to happen.

Those plans keep me tied to Manchester. I'm not complaining too much about this, as I love the place and want to stay here for the foreseeable future, providing the work is here. I think a lot of it now is who you know, not what you know, and being lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.

Hungary Grand Prix

It's no secret that I'm a massive F1 fan and this season has been fantastic so far. My only complaint is that I can't watch every race live, and through no fault of work (for once). I cannot afford Sky, let alone the sports package needed to watch every race on their channel. The BBC coverage is good but watching highlights is not the same, especially as I usually hear the result from someone or somewhere before I get to see the highlights for myself.

This weekend should provide an interesting race; a week after Fernando Alonso's third win of the season, the rule changes from the Red Bull engine mapping incident, and from today's practise sessions, the improved McLaren pace. While Friday practise is no evidence of pure pace, it is good to see the British drivers having a good start to the weekend, and hopefully they can carry on throughout the event. It will be even more interesting to see how much pace the Red Bull cars have actually lost, with the team saying it makes very little difference. If this is true, we could have five or six cars fighting for the victory on Sunday.

Safe to say I'm a little excited!

Writing again...almost

Ever since handing my dissertation in earlier this year, I've had very little motivation and inspiration to do any writing. It's annoying because I have a few projects on the go that I want to get back into but my random working hours and huge amounts of energy spent on job hunting has just stopped me from feeling any enthusiasm to any of them.

So, not only do I have a novel to redraft and a sequel to write in this year's National Novel Writing Month in November, I want to continue and finish the first draft of my dissertation by the end of the year as well as working on a sci-fi story too. Lots of projects and that's not even all of them. I also have an idea for another fantasy story and I'm pulling together ideas and pieces of information for that in the hope it will encourage me to write something - anything. I also hope this blog will help with this too. I'm going to post some pieces of writing here too, just to get it out there and maybe find some feedback!

Guild Wars 2

Less than a month before release!!! I'm going to spend a lot of time on this, but with enough will power, it won't interfere with the more important goals of doing some writing. I played the first two Beta Weekend Events but unfortunately I missed the final event due to the release of The Dark Knight Rises (an epic film that you should watch if you haven't already!). It just so happened to coincide with the release of the Sylvari and Asruan races, both of which I have been waiting to play since the BWE's began!

Then again, nothing will be spoiled for me on release, so there is a silver lining, and one I'm very much looking forward to!

Busy busy busy

It's been a bit longer than I had hoped since my last post, but I had to move at the beginning of the month and only just got Internet access back on my laptop - I didn't fancy writing a blog post from my phone!

I've set up a new e-mail address as well, and I do wish Google just had an option to change e-mail addresses or transfer control over easily, but that doesn't seem to be the case (unless I completely missed it and if so, I'm going to feel like an idiot...).

Other than moving, the big thing that's been going on for me has been the second Manchester Children's Book Festival, organised by MMU. The first festival took place in 2010 and it was a fantastic achievement and I was proud to be a part of it but this year has taken it to a whole new level for its second year. I missed most of the Family Fun Day on Saturday 30th June due top moving, which happened two years ago as well - I'm hoping to make sure this does not happen in two years time - but in the last hour, I managed to talk to a lot of the families attending and everyone had a great day with the zombie make-up being a big big hit!

Last night, Thursday 5th July, I volunteered at the Philip Pullman event and that was a fantastic evening with some interesting insights into his work and themes inside his writing, as well as a good way to get a bit closer to the author himself1 I'm a big fan of Philip Pullman's work, especially the His Dark Materials trilogy, which I did manage to get signed at the end. Hopefully there will be a photo to follow!

The man himself is a great role model for any writer, as he seems to be devoid of ego. He writes because he wants to, it's his passion and that's something I can really relate to as I feel the same way. There is nothing that I found I could dislike about him, even if I wanted to. He may have differing views on things from me but so do a lot of people and that has never stopped me from respecting or getting along with anyone. One day, I'd like to have a longer talk with him and go into further detail about things I found curious in his writing but there is hopefully plenty of time for that!

This afternoon I attended an event at the Museum of Science and Industry, here in Manchester. This was to announce the winner of the Midland Future Manchester competition, of which I helped judge the entries and create the shortlist that the winner was chosen from. The standard of the writing from these young people is astounding and very scary for someone like me, who can already see that in a few years, they will be at my level or even better. It shows that I can't stop writing for too long or risk missing out completely!

I do want to mention something else, on a much sadder note. Earlier this week, one of the F1 test drivers, Maria de Villota was involved in an accident during a straight line test and suffered serious injuries. It was her first time in the current F1 car and she has lost her right eye as a result of the accident, which is an awful thing to happen to anyone. Thankfully, while her condition is described as critical, it is also stable and anyone who reads this, I hope you join me and many other people all over the world in wishing her a speedy recovery. My thoughts also go to her family who must be suffering as well. It is a great thing that so many names in the F1 paddock are offering their support and wishes to someone who is new to this formula and it shows that even though each team is competing against each other, they are also part of a larger body that works together to help in the hard times.

A lot of people over the world can learn from this. Hopefully when they see communities and organisations doing this, it will happen more often and reach more people.

Well...

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I finally have a blog! Taken me much longer than it should have, I guess but late than never. I'll be posting about anything that catches my interest - both good and bad) as well as pieces of my writings that I feel happy enough to share.

Cya soon!