The Sum of David

It’s been so long since I blogged, I forgot how to log in to this bad boy. So sad.

I haven’t even been busy. I’ve just been unmotivated.

You know what helps get those gears moving? Going to Hawaii. But it’s not the beach, it’s the atmosphere… and the beach. The beach is pretty cool, too. Also? MANGOS.

Here, have a coconut monster.

I’ve got a bit of my wind back for creative projects — which is good, considering I have an art show in April.  But for now, the Rachel Train is focusing on illustration and writing.

September 1st will be first blood on D3, the last book in the series. I know, I know, I’ve said it before. But I turn a significant number in May of 2011, and while age doesn’t bother me in the least, missing serious goals does — and once upon, I decreed that I would finish this series before I was 30. So: GAME ON.

And also, we are going here for my birthday, and if I’m not done with the story by then, the end will resolve with Voldemorte and some cute kid with Lennon glasses with Dobby riding piggy back on his shoulders all exploding in one epic magical kaboom.

I typed that bit with a British accent even; you can see the danger.

Anyway.

Despite a vacation, I have been feeling overwhelmed. Let’s shake it off. Let’s go get’em, tiger. Let’s be FEARLESS.

rawrnoldsager, signing off.

While at Bellevue’s wonderful Affogato this week, we were discussing what we did for a living and our various expertise levels in it. My girlfriend mentioned Malcolm Gladwell’s theory that 10,000 hours is a magic number: that it doesn’t necessarily take exceptional talent or passion to get good at something, but if you spend 10,000 hours doing anything you become an expert at it by default.

I’ve heard similar theories. In art school, we were told you’ve got 1,000 crap paintings in you, so you’d better get them out of the way. I’ve also found a similar sentiment about writing — there’s 1,000,000 terrible words you have to write before you’re good. Write them now so you can begin producing quality work.

I have, since college and by rough estimate:

• Spent approximately 18,650 hours designing.
• Spent approximately 1,000 hours making art/illustrations.
• Spent approximately 2,000 hours writing, having written approximately 400,000 words.
• Spent approximately 29,200 hours sleeping.

10,000 hours is apparently a lot of hours. The above are estimates, but I would have guessed I spent way more time making art and writing than I actually did.*

Outside of arbitrary numbers divisible by ten, these rules all have the same idea — practice makes perfect, which is something I can absolutely get behind.

What’s interesting is that my day job is design — the reason my hours are so high for designing is because I’m doing it for 40 - 50 hours a week, for almost nine years. Despite exceeding the magic mark for hours, I would not consider myself an expert. Good, yes… I feel confident that I can solve any visual problem you can throw me. But an “expert”? No, there are people doing bigger and better than I in the land of design. I love it, but if it wasn’t my day job, I doubt I’d get near 10,000.

I haven’t read Gladwell’s book, this isn’t a review. This is simply an observation about a theory presented second-hand. I will say seeing the time I’ve spent doing some of the things I’m passionate about makes me re-evaluate them. Ultimately, as long as I love doing it I will continue to design and write and illustrate.

But I also wonder how much time I’ve spent with family and friends, or on the road to see those friends or family, or waiting for bus or food. Time I’ve spent cooking or working out or online. I don’t want or need to quantify these.

There are 10,000 hours in 417 days. I say a well-rounded life is one spent filling those hours with passions — both professional and personal — even if you never get ground-breakingly awesome at any them.

Let’s have a beer soon.

My my, look at what a philosophical turn this took.

*Not that any number of hours incorporating a comma is something to shake a stick at. And dang, I’ve got mad skills at sleeping. Go ahead, quiz me.

I entered the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest.

I’ve been sitting on The Sum of David for years now — the first draft was completed Christmas of 2006 — and man do I hate putting time into the getting published portion of… getting published. I am totally my worst enemy.

I like the story writing part, not the paperwork. I’m a designer, remember. There’s thankfully little paperwork in design.

Anyway.

This year’s competition has a separate category for Young Adult Fiction, which TSoD falls right into. I’ve struggled with writing summaries of varying length for TSoD in the past, but I guess ignoring the whole process for a year will freshen you up: I threw something down from scratch and Josh said was the absolute best pitch I’d ever done for the story. That’s encouraging. Hopefully the judges think so, too.

I like to consider myself a realist (doesn’t everyone?), so I’m not holding out extraordinary hopes. I indulged myself with a single day dream in which I won the whole shebang, but even in my fantasy I hung up on the person, jumping on them for making such a cruel joke of someone’s passion.

Maybe I’m not a realist. Maybe I’m a full-blown pessimist.

Whatever the outcome, I will  be exceptionally pleased with myself if I can make it past the first round… wouldn’t that be grand?

Amazon is accepting submissions through February 7, 2010 at 11:59 pm, or until they have recieved 5,000 entries in each category. If you have a finished novel sitting in a drawer collecting dust, now would be the time to break that baby out and give it some air.  Best of luck to those submitting!

I am 100% introverted. If I see you In Public and come off as a turd, I apologize. I am not being a jerk (or weird) on purpose, I am simply overwhelmed with the situation.

However, in complete contradiction, I also love to play host.

Josh has a Man Weekend coming up, and I am trying to figure out what to do with this sudden Rachel time.

Possibilities that have crossed my mind:

1) Host a Girls’ Brunch at our place. (Social!)

2) Take a road trip with my dog. (Isolated + Social!)

3) Write like my fingers are on fire. (Isolated!)

Oh, bother. I don’t know. In reality, I’ll probably end up wasting it watching the Jurassic Park movies.

Rawr!

I guess this is like the newsletter that some families send out with their Christmas cards. Except it’s on the internet.

I’m from the future.

52ills
I can’t say that I succeeded in producing an illustration every seven days, but I’d happily commit to “weekly-ish” success. When the last week of 2009 rolled around, I was only three behind. Josh has mentioned I could technically go back and change the time stamp on the blog entries, and make me look like a real champ, but that part isn’t really the point — the whole idea of 52ills was to see if I could complete it in the first place, and as of December 31st, I had 52 ills. Go me, and I want some pie.

As an exercise, it was an excellent experience. I learned more about Illustrator and due to the volume of pieces, I was able to reach beyond my comfort zone and usual material*. I’ve happily settled into a colorful, cute style. I kind of knew that already, but practice makes perfect and all that. I also developed some good habits: composing via silhouettes, utilizing interesting textures, and grounding subjects with some kind of background element.

I’d love to get some (or all?) of them into a gallery this year, but if nothing else, I have some new portfolio pieces.

*Although there are still quite a few zombies and robots.

Writing
I did embarrassingly little writing in 2009. Even my blogging decreased in frequency. The remaining 82 pages of my last manuscript have been sitting in my parents’ living room for the last year, so I am proceeding without my mom’s trained-but-unavailable eye. My apologies to the next editor in line. I am using January to comb through the 2nd book again before I hand it off, and a first draft for the third and final David book will be complete by June 30th, 2010. That’s right, you heard it here first. Only 180 days away and counting.

Geeze, when I write it like that, it sounds downright terrifying.

Studio
First things first, however. I’ve spent hundreds of hours on Pittsburgh’s South Side working on my creative projects. When we got our dog, we decided we wouldn’t be away from home as often as we have been in the past. I technically have my own studio room, although it’s been pretty junked up for a long time. So: I’ve resolved to redo the room in a way that allows me to go in there and work until my eyes fall out, while not neglecting our new pet, plus saving gas and time and money.

The room is 1/3 of the way done, and I’m very excited. I estimate it will be complete in early February, and I can’t wait. It’s going to be amazing to have my own space. Woo.

Oh dear. Oh dear. The notebook I’d been keeping for the last 18 months to close The Sum of David trilogy? It was missing. Lost. DISAPPEARED off the face of the Earth.

The only thing keeping me from a sharp descent into madness was the fact that I hadn’t really dived into my studio. My hope was that I simply needed to pick up the right pile of junk and it would appear among a chorus of angels and a holy beam of light and probably enough relieved adrenaline that my head would explode.

I turned the room upside down and it wasn’t there.

Hoo boy. Panic time.

Where could it be? In the past several weeks, I’ve been across the country, all around Pittsburgh, and through all sorts of frantic dog-proofing for the house. For a long time, I carried it with me to and from work, but my personality is one that when my schedule is disrupted I forget my usual habits, no matter how long I’ve been doing them.*

I looked everywhere it could be. Then I checked everywhere it couldn’t. Twice.

Finally, after feeling defeated and at a loss at the priceless information I had somehow misplaced, I looked in the only other place it could(n’t) be: under the passenger seat of my car.

I don’t know what made me look there, because it was pretty darn random. But I do know feeling the smooth cover of the spiral-bound cover was one of the sweetest sensations ever.

WHEW and crisis averted!

*When I’m off work for a week, I forget what time my buses come, even though I’ve been catching the same ones for 8 years. Good gravy.

I have taken some time off from writing. I took way too much, actually. I am still waiting on my first Editor’s comments to the remaining 2/3 of the current manuscript, and I’m hesitant to start the third and final book until a) I’ve corrected most of the grammatical/story errors and b) filled some plot holes.

Blah, blah, excuses, excuses.

Instead of continuing to wait, I spent a couple of glorious hours on Labor Day straightening some things out.  I have two dream sequences to add, and got through the more serious of them before it was BBQ o’clock. There are still holes, but I’ve got a list of optional things I can do to wrap things nicely. It felt good to get back into it, and since I’m waiting on other parties for my non-David task list… I may as well work on things I want to do.

And writing disturbing dream sequences about heroin addicts is apparently a part of the Want To Do equation. Yes, I wikipedia’d “heroin”, and I’m assuming certain people on YouTube will not be pursuing a future career in politics (or any other kind of future, for that matter). Good grief.

I hope you had a nice Labor Day. I will never eat again.

Josh has planted the seed for another blog.

I need another blog like I need another hole in my head, but I have to say I am tempted.

I enjoy Pittsburgh’s public transportation system every weekday, and Josh is delighted every time I come home with a new Bus Adventure. I’ve been riding the public transport in Pittsburgh and Charleston, WV since I was in 7th grade… I can recount such entertaining tales as:

• The guy that pretended to kill me every time we rode together (via fake grenades, rocket launchers and machine guns)
• The guy that called me “Sawah” and was my best friend until I got my nose pierced and he and his religion were very disappointed in me
• The lady that smacked me in the shins with her umbrella because I was “in her seat”
• The multitude of people who have sat on me

I am fascinated with the how, why, and what-the-hell of people… and the bus carries every kind of person imaginable. Maybe it’s not a bad idea after all.

Also, it might not be bad practice for writing some short stories. Hm.

Of course, I could just put them here, but I have the best idea for the banner graphic…

How do you freak Rachel out? You make her think she has a finished marked-up manuscript –  then you let her think SHE LOST IT. Hilarity ensues… as long as you’re not Rachel, anyway.

I turned the house upside down looking for this special pile of papers before I vaguely recalled (conjured?) my mom plopping them in her carry-on before returning West a few weeks ago. A phone call cleared that up, and my heartbeat returned to a speed that wouldn’t cause me lasting anatomical harm. It wasn’t actually finished, so she took it home with her.

Whew.

On a similar note: while my mom was in town, we had the following disturbing conversation.

The Mom: “Now, okay, imagine a wave, and every event in your story is building up to the crest of the wave, and then you have the climax, which is the crest of the wave.

Me: “… you mean rising and falling action?”
The Mom: “Er, yes, exactly…”

And then she promptly changed the subject. So I was left wondering if a) that comment had serious bearing and D2 lacks the plot building that would make it an exciting adventure, or b) the mom hadn’t discussed stories and writing for over 1 1/2 years and wasn’t sure how to begin.

Thankfully — at least as far as David’s concerned, anyhow — it seems Editor #1’s attentions are simply split three ways from Sunday. Her third child is in his teens and she’s working a full-time job for the first time since we were all but wee chilluns. Her foray back into an office setting has revealed that those same vindictive manipulators and jerks we all grew up with? The ones that we assumed would eventually mature into something more resembling a human being? They never evolved. They’re still around, still nasty, and someone gave them power. So she’s dancing a political tango while editing her daughter’s grammatical nightmare. Poor woman.

Currently, however, I am sitting next to pages 1 through 62, ready to dive in. I’m very excited about it.

But first, in the realm of random productivity…

I am now a member of city’s spiffy Pittsburgh Society of Illustrators, which I’m all sorts of tickled about. I expected them to stifle giggles, passing my portfolio around and poking fun at its amateur skill and the silly, cute/creepy vibe. If they did, they graciously let me in anyway. It seems populated with interesting, talented people, and I understand the have a killer Christmas party.

There are certain times during the year that demand contemplation on the Future. New Year’s is one of those times for many people, but I find myself also thinking about things when the seasons change. It just so happens my birthday is at that part of the year where Western PA is debating between snow and summer-like heat (it usually just settles on rain). And since there’s changes afoot in the natural world, there may as well be potential changes afoot with me, my age and my plans.

I already mentioned I’m taking the summer off to write, and it’s a good thing too — I’ve decided on a deadline for the culmination of my David trilogy. My brother graduates high school in May 2010, and I’d like to hand him a little set of the trilogy as a graduation present. I began The Sum of David in 2005 as a gift for him, so I think it appropriate to present him with a set of the finished product when he’s beginning a new chapter in his life.

I’ll even put some money in there, so he doesn’t have to pretend to be excited.

That’s almost an entire year. A year sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? You’d think so, but no: my first editor has had my 3rd draft manuscript for David 2 for going on five months now. So in order to get it through the hands of at least three editors by May 1st, when I would send away to get the one-off books made, I’m going to need a completed first draft by… next Tuesday, probably.

Surprisingly, I’m actually almost ready to get started. I need to sift through David 2 once before it goes to Editor #2 — who, by the way, agreed so quickly to edit yet another of my stories that I could have cried — and then I’m back in the races, ready to rock.

Dare I say it, @joshsager? The next six months will be very interesting.

It’s that time of year again. Magic’s in the air.