Homecoming: A New Way to Envision Stories.

I just finished Homecoming on Amazon. I liked it! It felt different, but I couldn't place why. Then learned that it came from a podcast featured on Gimlet Media. Ohhh...holy crap. Now I see. The podcast format necessarily has a different feel. I applauded the effort.

Then I realized that Serialized and story-based podcasts are a *great* way to get stories out there for people to pick up stories that they might not have with a book or a television show. Now my mind is whirring. The format is a different one.

While I know that the audio story is not new in the podcasting world, the way that people consume media rapidly changing. Looking forward to more interesting stories being created from this medium in the future.

Let me know what you think about the future of podcasted stories!

And if you're into any, let me know in the comments.

Click HERE to check out Amazon's "Homecoming" on Prime.

Click HERE to check out the original "Homecoming" podcast page from Gimlet.

- Mr Benja -

I Stopped Using Google Docs Because It Takes Microseconds Longer To Type

I have a problem with lag eating away at my work. I just realized this and I stopped using Google Docs. Those microseconds between keystrokes really make a difference in my writing productivity. It took me a while to figure that out. While typing, I'd expect the letters to keep up with me, but that often wasn't the case.

Now, I'll plow out my fast-typed prose in some other outlet before copying it over to Google Docs if I need it there for editing.

It's crazy. Some of these small, detail fixes that I've been doing have really been making a big difference.

Splitting My Focus Into Three Projects for 2019

I have three projects that I plan on getting worked on this year. I know that sounds like crazy talk, but I'm trying something out, here.

The common idea is that you should focus everything you are doing into laser-light precision and get that one thing done. I get it, and I believe that to be true in a general sense. In fact, The ONE Thing (by Jay Papasan and Gary Keller) is a great book that really got me to a good place with my productivity.

I know that I waste a lot of time, but when I'm most productive, I've found that I have a few things that I can roll onto. Basically, when one task is completing, I can roll onto another one without losing momentum. If I have to keep doing the same thing, I can sometimes burn myself out. I'll have to work on embracing the monotony, but that's how it happens right now.

Also, when I pour a lot of energy into something, it seems like people back away from the energy instead of responding positively to it. I don't know what that's about, but I've often been told to "calm down" on social media and in life. I've been told that I'm "too much". So pffft...I have to spread things out a bit or create new outlets.

Project 1 - The Trap Vector

The Trap Vector is my fine art print project. It's my lead-off effort for the year. It's a follow-up of sorts to a lot of the personal thoughts and feelings I was having for the past seven years. The genesis probably started well before that, but that's what it's about right now.

This outlet gets out my artsy fartsy concepts.

Project 2 - Transcendent Press

Transcendent Press is my writing project. If I could, I would probably just write for about a month, and then come out with some stone tablets full of god-like text. Then I'd realize it needs editing and I'd go away for another month. This doesn't fit in my plans right now, so writing is going to have to take the long and laborious route.

This outlet gets out my most heady creative ideas, and is currently my biggest long-range goal. I have a book planned for sometime this year, and I've gotten to work on it.

Project 3 - The 8BitCubist

Oh boy. A lot of people have been wondering what happened to the 8BitCubist from a while ago, and simply put, the band broke up. I mean, we didn't break up, but we went our separate ways, and the venture was never meant to be a solo one. So over time, I needed to put the brakes on it to figure out what the next iteration was going to be about. I am not going to be putting this in full force for the near term, but it's coming.

I think a podcast and apparel will do good to start with.

I'll do some other posts outlining what's coming I'm learning in 2019 in greater detail.
Let me know what you think of the plan so far.

I Printed A Short Story On My Biz Card

In order to fully proclaim myself as a writer, I created a super-short short story to fit on my business card. I have posted the whole thing here:

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“Rabbit Tracks”

A Bearded Old Man of the Mountain Super-Short

Prologue: No one knows much about Bearded Old Man of the Mountain except that he left the city, went to the hills, grew a beard and things got weird.

The snow fell in a soft drizzle. The bearded man was unsure what the weather might do next, but for the moment, he could still make out the rabbit tracks weaving between the trees.They led to a small clearing.

As he stepped around two gnarled oaks, he spotted his objective. A cottontail rabbit was standing calmly in front of a muscled mass of mountain bear. It growled as it stared down at the tiny morsel in front of its nose. The bearded man wasn’t sure if either animal had noticed him, but he crept forward anyway. The rabbit twitched its ears but kept its stance. Slowly, the bear opened its jaws and began to lean forward. By instinct, the bearded man started to reach for the weapon in his pack, but then he paused. Something happened that he didn’t expect.

The rabbit turned its head towards him and raised its small paw. Speaking softly, it said, “Don’t worry, the bear is only here for me…The hour has come.”

The bearded man squinted slightly in confusion at this statement. He brushed the snow off his watch and checked the time. When he looked up, the rabbit was gone.

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In 2019, you'll see more of my writing on my Transcendent Press website.

https://transcendentpress.com

The Most Dangerous Tool I Know Of

What follows is a test of my personal fortitude. If you don't want to read it all, jump to the END tag to see what the hell this post is really about.

------- BEGIN -------
The most dangerous writing tool.

Okay. This is a story about something called the most dangeouraous writing tool. I don' t know if you believe me, but it's the thing that has scared the shit out of me more times than I care to admit. You see, it works like this. You start typing. And then...you can't stop until the timer comples. Because if you stop? Well then the tprogress that you've made is erased...forever. That's a pretty good motivation for someone like me, because I like to stop, think, smell the roses, ponder the meaning of life, research on YouTube, check Facebook to see what my friends might be doing, going for a walk, making a ham sandwich, taking a nap to clear the minde...you know, anything that will help me actually write. Just kidding, those things never help me write. The most dangerous writing tool is what actually helps me write. Like most things, tits. Like most things that are actually good for me, it helps me to simply "do" withoout worrying about being good or being correct. It's pure output without the bullshit in my head forcing me to derail myself somehow.

In fact, this entire post was written in five minutes timer.

Check out the app. It's pretty good and will get you past whatever writer's block taht you need, because if it doesn't. Your idea is goign to be erased. And if that happened, well...that'd be a shame now wouldn't it.
a
at
a
fuck...those typose wrere there because my hand slipped and I got nervous. Point is, the thing was written and I've left this point in tact with minimal editing. I've only moved a few things around because I don't write in a perfectly linear form.

This is all an exercise in getting things done. Sometimes I wonder how people get so much done in a short amount of time. Then I apply the concept to do the most dangerous thing for mostpeople to do ...put things out into the world.

------- END -------

Whew. Okay. The timer ended, and I can stop typing now. What I have above was created with The Most Dangerous Writing Tool, which can be found at https://www.themostdangerouswritingapp.com.

If you've ever had writer's block, it will cure that. What you write might be shit, but since you have keep writing, the blockage will be out of you. I like the tool because basically follows the "just do it" mindset, and allows you to actually get things completed. I've put this methodology to use in other places as well with good results. And yeah, putting yourself out there freely and without pause to edit feels really fucking dangerous.

Try it. I really want to know what you think about it.

Note: I mentioned in the text above that there were minimal edits, but in reality, I left the text alone. I was only said that because my brain wanted something to fill the time.

WTF? My First LOL Comedy Dream?

I have dreams from time to time, but I've never experienced full-length situation comedies that have me laughing so hard that I wake myself while wiping slobber from my mouth. What the fuck was that about? After forty years of living, I don't know that I've ever woken up in such a cackling, mad state of mind. ("Mad' as in crazy.)

Is this what happens to writers when they really start thinking about writing? Because the night before, I had gotten a story sample from a friend and was having fun thinking about story structure and putting together a good tale.

It's basically about some some heroes running into a villain, but neither side can really use their superpowers blatantly and no one takes their standard identities seriously as they're trying to outdo each other.

I might whip that up into a short story one day.

Moral of the story? Write down your dreams.