The Anatomy Of Construction

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Who are you?
2008-03-22 03:31:00
Who are you? Many people will tell you who you are, but that?s who they think you are, who are you, from your point of view? To write you have to explore who you are, you have to explore how you see the world, how you feel about things. When you come away from the page, you?re a different person. In the time between sitting at the page, and leaving the page, you undergo a change. You might frighten yourself with what you learn; you might discover you are a closet racist. You might discover you are a wonderful, caring person. Don?t take it too seriously though, because next time you sit down, you?ll find you are different again. You and your writing will be different.
More About: Writing

The Original Writer
2008-03-21 01:21:00
William Shakespeare claimed there were only ever five stories to tell. If there are only five stories to tell, you don?t have to worry about originality. Original ity will come from the fact that you wrote it. It doesn?t matter who you are, you can only ever hope to tell the story as you see it through another character?s eyes. You, yourself, are a wonderfully intricate creation. You?ve had many thousands of experiences, and from each you?ve come away with an understanding of what it was about- your understanding. When you sit down to write, you?re creating a product of a lifetime of experiences. In this, writing and jazz are similar; you have to love what you?re doing, right now; you have to practice; and you have to put something of yourself into it.
More About: Writing , Writer

Doing is being.
2008-03-20 01:49:00
Just because you?re a writer today doesn?t mean you?ll be a writer tomorrow.If you don?t write, and drink coffee and talk about writing, you?re not a writer, you?re a person talking about writing.You don?t have to be grand to write, you just need to have something to write with.John Lennon didn?t even have a computer and wrote Imagine .Even people who suffer from Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (The name of the condition that renders one afraid of big words) can write.If you?ve ever felt happy, or sad, or mad, or bad, you can tell people a story.It will be good or bad, but you control that by the amount you put into the story.In every sense.
More About: Writing

Only do one thing
2008-03-19 00:53:00
When you write, just write and don?t think about being a writer. A person thinking about being a writer is different to a person writing, and you can only be one thing at a time.Being a writer is no big thing, it?s part of being a person; you choose to be a writer by writing.You don?t need to know a lot of big words; the words you use to communicate things to yourself and others are already enough.Nobody else is quite like you, and your writing will be quite unlike anyone else?s.That?s why we practice writing; to unlearn the idea of "trying to sound like ," and make our writing reflect more how we see the world.
More About: Thing

To Be A Writer
2008-03-18 00:43:00
You are a human being, but a human being what? When you sit down and write, you are a human being a writer, and that?s all a writer ever is.When you stand up, and walk away from the page, you are a human being something else; a coffee drinker; a shopper; a laborer; an accountant.Writing is just an activity, one anyone can do. It doesn?t matter if you?re blind.It doesn?t matter if you suffer Cerebral palsy. There are writers who didn?t even think to overcome these things, and wrote anyway. Sometimes, your obstacles can help you to write.When you sit down at the page, you are a human being, writing about being human.
More About: Writer

Initializing....
2008-03-17 07:09:00
A synthetic reality; a better type of car; television; credit cards; rooms lit by tubes of burning gases and maintained at a constant temperature to sustain people; refrigerators with internet connection and sixteen inch LCD screens; a better job for a bigger mortgage; buying, not making; never mending, always discarding; no understanding but knowing. The real world is not like this, it can?t be. It remains; sky and sun and moon; sweat on a hot day; walking, not sad scrambling; sleep without pills; youth, adulthood, aged; Gentle hearts; understanding, never knowing; reward consummate to effort; tender loves, burning hates; Agony and ecstasy; truth evinced by behavior, not argued; action and thought in resonance; rain, wind and sun, each and everything in its turn. Can a synthetic reality on basis of a majority vote override this world?Oh, what a glorious day it will be, when we finally live by manners and etiquette, rather than laws and threats.

Books are never finished...
2008-03-14 02:15:00
Click on the image to the right to see the full size page.Letting go is hard to do. Editing can be a very difficult thing to get into for some of us, the actual writing being so much easier (!?!). Once you get started editing though, you start to see fast changes in the quality, and the shape of the piece you are working on. It starts to shine, and your ambition will often make you ask, ?Just how good can I make this piece?? and so you polish more, and more, and more.You can keep polishing forever; there is no such thing as a perfect piece of writing. You will polish to a point where the work becomes sterile, but pushing beyond that, it comes to take on an intense and personal meaning with Zen like qualities. Beyond this point, you come to labor for hours over the semi-colon, the intricacies of quotation marks for dialog, and the artistic qualities of your grammatical structure.?Movies are never finished, they?re only ever abandoned,? said George Lucas , and he was right, you have to...
More About: Books

The end is nigh!
2008-03-13 02:20:00
Click on the image to the right to see the full size page. I?ve threatened it for a while, but all good things must come to an end. The Anatomy of Constructions tarted out as a blog about the more esoteric side of writing. It was never about grammar, and punctuation, but more about the basics, and how to become inspired, how to activate your own writing ability. I think it?s served its purpose. Now, the pages are becoming samey, and quite honestly, I feel a little under whelmed by the quality of the work. I?ve rarely proofed the pages as I?ve put them up, and now look back and groan at some of the typo?s that litter the page. That?s ok; it was always a first draft. Starting as of Monday, next week, there is a relaunched Anatomy of construction; it still concerns inspiration, it still concerns it with the arts, and writing in particular. I won?t have the image with text emblazoned on, it, just a regular page of hopefully good advice. depending on my work load I might run up anoth...

Rumors of a secret chord.
2008-03-12 01:43:00
Click on the image to the right to see the full size page. The line between poetry, prose and lyric is a fine one indeed. Song writing is the art of telling a story (conveying an emotional chain of events) in a short period of time, using aural methods. I am not a musician; I couldn’t play an instrument (except for the harmonica) to save my soul. Nor can Leonard Cohen, who had his first book of poetry published in 1958, his first novel in 1963 and his first album, in 1967. Ironically he is known as a songwriter.You might know him best for the song Hallelujah, covered by some of the best names in the music business; Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright, John Cale, k.d. lang and literally thousands of others. His lyricism is determined only by the fact that he adds a chorus, and puts music to his words. Hallelujah is a great case in point, it’s a shout at a lover leaving, a lament wept in the night, “I heard there was a secret chord, that David played to please The Lord, but you d...
More About: Rumors , Secret , Chord

What is truth?
2008-03-11 01:11:00
Click on the image to the right to see the full size page. I’ve never been on the receiving end of a meme, until Stella Carter, sent me this one, the challenge of a six word memoir.A magpie, hoarding heavens lost treasures. It’s not a nice little Zen vibe to it, and would make as great subtitle to a book on my life. I think i'll pass it on to my fovrite writerly types- The Truth about Lies, The Writing Journey, A Time and a Place and Sharp Words What is truth? Stella’s comment on yesterdays post got me to thinking. When one is thinking on the nature of truth over a glass of Midori and fruit juice while carving up two kilos of potatoes for a hoard of abusive drunks, it starts to lead you down interesting paths. Lets go back a step; I even be a little precious at times, especially about my writing- it is, in essence, my own business, and to make a business succeed you must have some large degree of pride in it, especially if it’s your own and you have to motivate your...

Working with what you've got.
2008-03-09 23:12:00
Click on the image to the right to see the full size page. The other night, I was given ticket to see, and review, an event called ?Global Comedy,? for the Adelaide fringe festival. I went with the impression that I was going to see the best comedians from the world over. This, it turned out, was to be a most mistaken thought. Comedians are writers, and generally very clever, strong writers- Ben Elton comes to mind as an example of just how good they really can be as writers. Comedians are also subject to the whims of mangers and the needs of their bank account- the guys I saw perform at ?Global Comedy? were subjected, subjugated and then spat back out onto the street. It?s always a bad sign when the room starts to fill with heaving white media personalities, and the flier in front of you tells you it?s a show all about the ethnicities of the comedians performing. A closer look around the room reveals that every single attending person is white, hey, no biggy, r...
More About: Working

Choose where you mention Banjo Carefully
2008-03-09 00:07:00
Click on the image to the right to see the full size page. Let?s do something different today. I keep talking about writing that captures that spark, the essence of what the story is, and poetry is a great example of this. One Poem has always stuck with me, from my early childhood, so I thought I?d share it- Most people wont have read, or heard of it, but it?s a piece of Australian Poetry By Andrew Barton ?Banjo? Patterson, and tells of the chase for a horse. A brumby is the same as a Mustang in America, or a wild horse in Europe. A station is one of the farms, the rest, we?ll you?ll figure it out?. Let me know what you think. I still find it a stirring and inspiring piece that points to what great writing can be. Tom The Man from Snowy RiverA.B. Patterson THERE was movement at the station, for the word had passed around That the colt from old Regret had got away,And had joined the wild bush horses ? he was worth a thousand pound, So all the cr...
More About: Writing , Choose

I can feel my feet on solid ground
2008-03-08 01:22:00
Click on the image to the right to see the full size page. I?ve been at a hard slog with writing for some months now. Most of you who?ve read ?The Anatomy? for a while will know that I?ve been struggling terribly. Recently I rolled back my writing to make way for what was supposed to be a flood of money from my engineering work- there wasn?t a flood, there wasn?t even a trickle. Things reached a howling crescendo at the start of the week, when after working myself into a harried mess, I was looking at being unable to make ends meet, in a big way. I was trying to write more and more, but couldn?t focus, I couldn?t even string together the most basic of articles for ghost writing. I couldn?t sleep, and because I couldn?t sleep, every little thing was beginning to gnaw at me. I took to listening to Radiohead, and walking alone along ragged bluffs that overlook the sea at night; it had gotten to the point where I A) didn?t know how I was going to pay the rent, B) w...
More About: Writing , Ground , Feet , Feel , Solid

The recipe for bum glue
2008-03-07 01:51:00
Click on the image to the right to see the full size page.Well, the work is going slow working on the blog ring. I forget how lucky I am sometimes to be able to write prolifically; it?s not a gift, it?s something you work to achieve, but when you become all to accustomed to it, you forget that while other people sometimes have the same work ethic, they can?t do the things that you can do.I try to write, a minimum of fifteen thousand words a day- when I?m writing full time, I write only an extra five thousand- there?s a limit to the time I can work at that speed, the rest is editing time. I need a lot of time fore editing- usually eight or ten drafts before anything is rolled out the door- (but for the exception of The Anatomy- a fact I?m sure more than a few of you have noticed.)Here are the things that help me do it:- Deadlines. I set tight deadlines, and I really beat myself up if I don?t meet them.- Goals. I set small goals each day- one to meet, and the other to exceed. So if I?...
More About: Writing , Recipe

Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast
2008-03-06 01:40:00
Click on the image to the right to see the full size page. I guess my first experiences with writing and reading made it something I savored and saw as a great way both into the world, and out of the problems I felt. This wasn?t some teenage angsty revelation, this was something I think I learned when I was very young, just starting at school. I grew up in a small country town in Victoria, Australia, where the men are men, and the sheep are afraid. My parents had only been in the town for about seven years, so we hadn?t yet passed the seven generation minimum to be classified as locals, and so weren?t to be treated with anything but the most dismissive of tones- we weren?t like them. Thank Goodness. The school I went to, the parents had played together as kids, their grandparents had played together as kids, and so on back to what I now realize had to be a single mating pair of hill-billys. I spent my time when I was very young drawing, and inventing things that would have pro...
More About: Writing , Stumble , Fast , Slow

Overcoming the odds.
2008-03-05 01:09:00
Click on the image to the right to see the full size page.What a day. I got up this morning, thought to myself about all the wondeul things I could accomplish today, and then logged onto the beige beast to see what awaited me. I looked at a few blogs that I enjoy, and went to click their Entrecard- nothing, just some weird thing appeared where ?Thanks? should be. OK, I thought, this, as they say on the near pacific rim, is odd. I was not getting credit from my clicks, and then I wondered, maybe they?ve changed their system.I was right, they?ve increased security measures against auto droppers. A good thing. Only I can?t open pages in new tabs, and I can?t run off the page of links I created in word with all my most favoritest of bloggers on it.Bummer.This is not all bad though- the idea of blogging isn?t getting hits- the hits are secondary to readers- not people who glance at your page and click away. The essence of a blog that is made up predominantly of text is the readership, no...
More About: Writing , Odds

Writing pop
2008-03-04 01:07:00
Click on the image to the right to see the full size page. Some days I count myself as blessed that I have such a flexible lifestyle. OK, the engineering work- going poorly. It?s not so much the work, s the pay check, which is in the exceedingly slow grinding entrails of the corporate structure, one with anachronistic government structures still within, rotting out all that?s good. Enough with that though. Ideas constantly abound, and I?m looking at expanding my freelance capabilities- which I?ve been doing a lot of lately. Becoming involved with the physical press and reviewing comedy, music and theatre; becoming stumbled across by established writers. I kinda really love blogging though. Blogging and novel writing seem to be the two chief activities my writing wants to revolve around. This is nice, but very unlikely to guarantee a comfortable retirement in a lavish mountain estate overlooking the ragged buffs where the crashing sea can inspire me to write further. No, in fac...
More About: Writing

Things Thom Yorke taught me.
2008-03-03 02:12:00
Click on the image to the right to see the full size page. I listen to a lot of Radiohead . Radiohead, for those of you unfamiliar with the band, is an English Band, heavily influenced by REM and having gone on to influence acts such as Muse, Snow patrol, Oasis and Blur. They have also revolutionized the way music has sold, even the most conservative of us must admit that their Album release last year- In Rainbows- Created a ripple that was felt the world over. Thom Yorke , the writer and singer, aside from a peculiar ethereal quality to his voice, is a writer of some of the deep, and evocative lines I have had the pleasure of hearing. In the same manner that the works of Leonard Cohen are disparaged as depressing, Thom Yorke, and Radiohead in general is reputed to be music that makes people want to kill themselves. It?s odd, because at the very surface, if you take no more than impressions on board, you could look at it as very depressing music. The sort of thing that would ma...
More About: Writing , Things

The similarities between playing the Uke and writing prose.
2008-03-02 02:10:00
Click on the image to the right to see the full size page. OK, Now blogger loves me, and I love it again, but I?m still checking out the wonders of Wordpress. Yesterday, as part of my reviewing extravaganza, I found myself at the Governor Hindmarsh, watching both the South Australian Ukelele Appreciation Society, and the Melbourne Ukelele Kollective perform. It was a three hour show, and while I went with just a few of the smallest doubts in my mind, I came away surprised and a little humbled. The Ukelele is considered by some to be a comical instrument something for the kids and the over tall clown or the Tiny Tim?s of this world. I had not recognized that the Ukelele, like any other instrument, can generate great emotional impact. I laughed when I first heard them start on Radiohead ?s ?Fake Plastic Trees? but soon came to realize that they, just as I, were using the tools they enjoyed, to tell a story that they could relate to and that entertained an audience. ...
More About: Writing , Prose

You need no other.
2008-03-01 01:55:00
Click on the image to the right to see the full size page. I was told I?d be having a pleasant evening relaxing last night. Just another thing that didn?t happen due to circumstances beyond my control, and now this? OK, that?s it, my next blog is going on Wordpress. I work to a deadline, I work to several deadlines, which are each deadly deadlines, tight hard savage deadlines that would scare any sane person. Not I, no, I forge ahead, despite the fact that I lost all connection to blogspot for an hour. Yes, there was to be no posting. ?Oh well, I thought, I think I might just do some Entrecard dropping,? you know, get the stats up there. It?s amazing how many Entrecard members use blogspot. Nearly everyone I know uses Blogspot, whether it be for domain or hosting. Blogspot goes own, no drops, no postings, me left sitting wondering what the hell comes now. Let google dent my unblemished post-a-day record? Fortunately things got better, just before deadline time....
More About: John Lennon , Billy Joel , John Milton , Leonard Cohen

Sucking at the lint on their sleeves
2008-02-29 02:16:00
Click on the image to the right to see the full size page. Time to revamp the page again, it?s getting ugly. Those who say they perform best under pressure do not know the pressures one can run against. Last night I saw Dave Graney? POINT BLANK, and was blown away. Here?s a guy who is a writer at heart, writer cum rock star, putting on what could well be a one man musical with accompaniment. It was great, one quote stood out though, ?Yeah, I?ve seen all those writers, sucking on the sleeve of your jacket, sucking the lint of the sleeve of your jacket and going home and coughing up that ball of lint because they can no longer cough up fur balls of their own? I felt as though I should feel uncomfortable, like it was directed at me, because I sat writing throughout the gig- the review of the gig. It wasn?t directed at me though, it was directed at what I call the coffee shop writers, the people who talk about writing over coffee or beers and tell people as the time passes what a ...

Filling in the gaps
2008-02-28 02:12:00
Click on the image to the right to see the full size page. It feels strange not to be writing a review this morning, I wonder how odd it?s going to feel when I no longer write ?The Anatomy?? every morning. This of course, is never going to happen, I remain ever the humble servant of the muse and quite frankly really could do with a rate rise.I was reading through a Stephen King book last night, ?The Tommyknockers,? it?s like sitting down with a box of chocolate, and a movie. You know it?s not going to do anything beneficial with you, but it?s so much fun to read. King has of course mastered that art of writing foot thick page turners that you can?t put down until the sun rises. Which is pretty much what I was on my way to doing before my body finally gave out. I awoke this morning, and felt like an alcoholic waking to know they?d been on a binge. The book was only three quarters of the way finished, and my eyes were swollen and red from lack of sleep.There is something about his w...
More About: Writing

Learning to send out spin.
2008-02-27 00:54:00
Click on the image to the right to see the full size page. Seventeen hour days, you gotta wonder how long this can go on for before hysterical exhaustion kicks in. See the trouble is, I still have to maintain the writing caper until the first pay check comes in from my engineering work, which is draining and straining to say the very least. I no longer have bags under my eyes, they?ve now slipped to the rather less visible region of my knees. This is proving- interesting- when it comes to writing. These reviews for the Adelaide Fringe festival are strange things. I would feel bad to write a review that says, ?Wow, this guy sucked. He sucked so hard I was regretting being there,? It?s much better to support local comedy with an honest, but encouraging review- just ignore the rough edges. Not always easy when all you?d like them to do is go back to writing new material and have nothing to do with their old. The wording I use for these reviews seems to me, a little sparkly to say t...
More About: Learning , Send , Spin

Restrictions and Ninjas
2008-02-26 02:18:00
Click on the image to the right to see the full size page. Typing faster than a typing ninja on Crack Cocaine. OK, time is short- When I returned to this world of making a non writerly income I didn?t give a thing up. I couldn?t- it?s a compulsion, an urge, a upwelling of not creativity, but an outlet for the articulation of character through the written word. I?ve been writing the review for the fringe show I saw last night, a great TheatreSports event called, ?21st Century Clash of the Theatre Titans. It?s where Comics compete in events, in this case, for a large, gold painted plastic cup. Which is nice. It?s fascinating to watch these people work. One act was challenged to tell the story in only one syllable words- these were the guys from Sound and Fury, a US act that won best of the Fringe in Canada. Watching them smoothly tell the story, with only two mistakes left me thinking that these guys must be some of the best writers in the world. They?re working within the increas...
More About: Ninjas

Finding the fascination in a pie.
2008-02-25 02:20:00
Click on the image to the right to see the full size page. Took a very swift lesson in the mundane last night. We?d just seen a show, and were on our way to another. Why not, it?s a Sunday night, and we?re professionals. We stopped off at the North Adelaide bakery for a quick bite to eat, a pie, a sausage roll, something to fill the space that was chewing up my stomach. Beside us stood a group of Tourists, and one girl was saying to another, ?They don?t have pies with meat in them back home, I mean you can get apple pies and that, but I?ve never had a pie with meat in it,? It made me wonder what an experience this would be, how strange it would seem, and how lucky she was, to be old enough to appreciate the flavors, to taste a pie for the first time. It made me think on what I was eating, and how it tasted, to blank my mind of all my preconceptions and taste the food. I guess this is one of the blessings of being a writer- your life can become more vivid if you apply those too...
More About: Writing , Cassidy

Getting the job done
2008-02-24 01:31:00
Click on the image to the right to see the full size view.Jaysus, Tom! Now there?s some good advice, Just do it? That?ll make it easier to get done?I?m currently rereading ?Musashi? by Eiji Yoshikawa and this is leaving me in a Zen state of mind. ?Musashi? for those who came in late, is the story of the Samurai Musashi Miyamoto, a master swordsman, founder of his own style (Niten Ichi Ryu) and author of ?The book of five rings? Musashi was greatly influenced by Takuan Soho, an Abbot of the Rinzai Zen sect. The essential practice of Zen is Zazen, quiet sitting. Some people call it meditation, and want to project into worlds other than this one and attain magical powers. Not so with Zen. It is simply the practice of sitting quietly. Not thinking, and not not thinking, just sitting quietly, taking no more effort than that.I think we?ve all tried the meditative practice of sitting and not thinking. I think we?ve all tried it and failed. It can sometimes be very hard for us to do one thi...
More About: Writing

More sound advice.
2008-02-23 01:01:00
Click the image to the right to see the full size page. Hah, I enjoyed that line, ?Think of your stories like they were your children- it?s wrong to lock them in the cupboard,? it?s true though. I was talking the other night to a professional musician and we were discussing the number of incredibly talented people in Adelaide City- there are some incredible artists here. My friend agreed, but added, ?It doesn?t mean much though if they never leave their bedrooms,? One of the hardest parts about writing is the fact that no matter what format you want to be published in, you are going to get rejections. Everyone tries to avoid rejection in many different ways. Many try to improve their work. Some try to get an inside edge in the industry through personal networks. The most popular way, amongst writers, of avoiding is rejection, is not submitting your writing. This method is much more popular than you think, and is incredibly effective. If you send n...
More About: Advice , Sound , Rejection

Never buy a wooden frying pan.
2008-02-22 01:32:00
Click on the image to the right to see the full size page. For those of you wondering at the title of this post, I could find no other place to put this wisdom down, and it's the finest piece of advice I've ever received. Some days are diamonds, said John Denver . He also said some days are stone and this day is very definitely beginning to take on all the features of a large granite thing. I don?t use face book. Won?t, dislike it in the extreme. It?s like a canker on the soul of society. It is ironic that through another?s use that I managed to contract some evil little VBS thing virus-hate-spawn that denies all computers access to my USB. We know this, and still seek a cure. Other computers see it, they register the USB drive, but it cannot be read, or written to. Which is not a good thing, as they say in the classics. Quite frankly it made me feel completely flat, like I should drag myself out on the street and be run over a couple of times rather than posting today....
More About: Character , Wooden

Say "Radish" exactly one-hundred and forty-two times
2008-02-21 01:51:00
Click on the image to the right to see the full size page.What does it mean if you dream that someone keeps sending comments to your blog saying your posts are great, but too long? Oh well, never mind the good advice of my dreaming comments, it?s the dreaming that?s the issue. Yes, dreaming about blogging. And I?m only new to this whole thing?Publicizing a blog is harder than the advertisements and banners would have you think. You can?t simply get away with dropping your blog to blog networking sites and expecting to see a mass increase in your hits. You might notice, in the first few weeks, a small rise in the number of hits you get, but until you start participating in the community; you chat on forums, you swap links, you comment where you can, help people out with questions if they ask, or seem to be struggling.Hey, we all made mistakes, and generally there was a blogger there, in the community that was willing to help up out when you asked. This is a big part of marketing, the...
More About: Writing , Times , Radish

Sweeney Todd is a vote of Confidence
2008-02-20 02:10:00
Click to the image on the right to see the full size page. I love seeing people mix up mediums to produce a result. I was stoked when I saw ?The nightmare before Christmas,? making a Bing Crosby musical of something quite macabre. I was joyous when I saw my two favorite actors modeled in clay and performing together, as husband, and wife in ?The Corpse bride? but dubious when I heard of ?Sweeney Todd ; the Demon Barber of fleet street,? A musical, I said, Like ?Paint your wagon,? only without Lee Marvin? But I saw it despite these concerns, showing a great faith in the trio of Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Burton. My faith was well placed, the film was ghastly, entertaining, heart wrenching and hilarious at once. In some way Burton has managed to capture an almost Shakespearian element of telling in the story, and while often, the performers and music mismatch in an ugly fashion by and large it serves well as both a medium of telling the story, and of portraying the character. ...
More About: Johnny Depp , Tim Burton , Vote