Measuring Success

I'm not really sure whether to call this week a success or not.

On the one hand I completed formatting my novel for Createspace, and redesigned the cover for print.  The files are currently with the Createspace team, and I will find out soon if they are ready to print or not.  If they are I'll have physical copies ready to go pretty shortly.  That sounds to me like a good week's work.

On the other hand, I have been procrastinating like mad.  I haven't written any blog entries, and I have barely done any work at all on The Lightless Labyrinth.  What I have done a lot of is spending time with my family, going to bed at a reasonable hour, and watching movies.  All of these are good things, but they don't help me get any writing done.  My plan once I posted Jack Manley and the Warlord of Infinity was to write every night, both fiction and blog entries.  That hasn't happened as often as I would like.

I think that I'm going to have to put this week square on the middle of the success/failure scale.  I've accomplished some important things, but not gotten as much work done as i should have.  Part of the reason I've started keeping this blog is to call myself out for being a lazy bastard, so I guess that I had to test it out eventually. If all goes to plan, this will be the first and last time.

WHAT ELSE I'M DOING

I'm watching (and planning to watch) a lot of Doctor Who.  With the 50th anniversary of the show fast approaching, I've decided to do a Who mini-marathon, watching one story per Doctor.  With eleven stories to watch, I figure I will be kept busy with this for the next month or so.

For the first Doctor, William Hartnell, I chose The Aztecs. It's an artifact from the days when the show did pure historicals, untainted by sci-fi influences (aside from the main character's conveyance, of course).  It's also my favourite from the first season, a great piece of pseudo-Shakespearean drama in which the cast gets embroiled in Aztec culture and the practice of human sacrifice.  What's notable about it from a modern perspective is the character of the Doctor, who is quite prepared to move on without doing anything to stop the sacrifices, or help those being killed.  It wouldn't be too long before the character's attitude would change, a necessary step in the process of him moving from ensemble player to heroic lead, but I still love Hartnell's original portrayal.

The Invasion is the story I chose for the second Doctor, aka Patrick Troughton.  It's only five years on from The Aztecs, but it feels like a completely different show.  Not only has the cast changed completely, but the show has moved from the studio-bound feel of a stage-play to a slick thriller with plenty of location filming.  The Doctor is firmly in hero mode by this time.  The TARDIS is the only recognisable feature between this and The Aztecs.

I've only watched half of The Invasion so far, and it's a very slow build.  I'm a fan of the measured pace of classic Who, but even I admit that it drags sometimes.  This story avoids that by constantly introducing new players and elements, and using them in different combinations.  Doctor Who has a lot of long stories, and the successful ones are those that don't get stuck with the same characters and situations for too long.

OTHER TIME-WASTING ACTIVITIES

What I've Been Reading
Grammar Essentals for Dummies by Wendy M. Anderson
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs

What I've Been Watching
Doctor Who: The Aztecs
Doctor Who: The Invasion
Despicable Me

What I've Been Playing
Need for Speed: The Run on the Nintendo Wii