Blogger or Wordpress?

As I finished LonCon earlier this month I decided it would be nice to start a little blog. I had previously made an Icelandic website (einarleif.is) so I had looked at a few platforms and decided to go with Wordpress in the past. This website is however with Blogger. So why did I change platforms?

Simple answer is time. I had planned to blog and setting up a new Wordpress site takes time. I would have needed order a new domain name and inquire about a few things from my friend (who has worked in web design), like:

• How do you run two Wordpress sites on the same computer?
• Should a go with a new domain provider or keep using the Icelandic company (can I even book a .com with them)?

This would mean that I would not start blogging for weeks, maybe even months (procrastination is king). Also what if I didn't like blogging? Or just did a few posts and then nothing more?

As blogger is a much simpler platform then Wordpress that would be up and running in seconds I decided to at least start using them. Later I might set up a fancier Wordpress site but until then this is more than enough for my needs.

Can You Learn Creative Writing? or The Story of How I Got a Little bit Better

Next Monday I am starting my masters in creative writing (don't worry I am not giving up my day job) so I wanted to tell you a little bit about my experience so far.

As a kid I loved movies and making up stories with my G.I. Joes (UK: Action Man) but I didn’t read much. Books just didn’t do it for me. Comics’ sure but not books. This changed when I was eleven when someone, most likely my mom, found a copy of The Hobbit translated into Icelandic. I ate up that book and loved every bit. The very next week I created my own fantasy and even wrote eleven pages that are now sadly lost but since then I have been writing and as the years have gone by I have gotten a little bit better.

When I was young I started three or four books that were never finished (although I plan to write my epic space opera one of these days). The strange thing was that for the longest time I believed the stupidest things. For example:

• That if I showed strangers my works they would steal the ideas but this was probably due to shyness.
• I could not write because my spelling was so bad and there wasn’t any room for improvement.
• I also thought that no one would be interested in the stories I had to tell as SFF was almost never translated into Icelandic but I continued to write mostly for myself. 
• If someone taught me to write I would lose my own voice and become part of the establishment that never hand any original ideas. 

Thankfully most people know that these notions are pretty childish but I have heard young or inexperienced writers talking about similar worries. Ray Bradbury said that studying writing was a waste of time and that your time would be better spent writing and honing your craft. This is in many ways true. Reading and writing a lot is necessary if you want to become a better writer. I myself try to write for at least two hours every day and read a hundred books or more each year (audiobooks count too).

In the early 00's I started to write a lot. I stopped focusing on large manuscripts that I couldn’t finish and focused more on short stories. Everything I wrote I submitted on an Icelandic writing website were the works could be criticized and commented upon. Some people liked the stories while other did not. But none of the comments helped me evolve as a writer although at the time I didn’t realize it. I just kept on writing and learned how to become more disciplined and even finished my first 50.000+ word manuscript.

After I completed my master's degree things came to a complete halt. I always wanted to write but I had a demanding career and no extra time. The financial collapse of 2008 changed that. I was fired from my banking job but was lucky enough to get a new one quickly but there wasn't much to do at the new office so I started to write again. In mid-2011 I saw an ad from a small publisher in Iceland and sent them my novel. The liked it and together we tried to make the story as good as possible. 

It was through this process of editing with another person that my writing really started to improve. After I published my book and was more open to new ideas. I actively started looking for courses on writing. In the last year I signed up for three writing courses, attended two conventions on writing and watched lots of lectures on YouTube and my craft has continued to improve. I might not be great but I am always getting better and it is my hope that my master's studies will help me even more. Who knows? Maybe one day I can make a living doing this. 

So in conclusion it is my opinion that reading and writing are very important but there are also many other things that can help. There are many course, lectures, websites, books and advice out there. Look at whatever you find but use your own judgment to assess if it something that might suit you.  

P.S. I plan to use this blog to improve my English writing skills, so all comments are appreciated.

Damnation Alley

I bought a 2£ (about 3$) copy of Damnation Alley by Roger Zelazny at LonCon3 and almost read the whole thing on my flight back to Iceland. It is a short book that was originally written as a novella in 1967 and then converted into a book in 1969. This is the second book a read by Zelazny, the first one being Lord of Light, and I have to say this is very different. Lord of Light was nominated for the Nebula and won the Hugo in 1968 and is considered among the classics of Science Fiction. Also it was the fake movie Ben Affleck wanted to make in Iran in the movie Argo (just a little bit of trivia there). Damnation was on the other hand was not nominated for a Hugo or a Nebula but was made into a movie in 1977 starring Jan-Michael Vincent.

The Book

The books synopsis is as follows (taken from Wikipedia):
The story opens in a post-apocalyptic Southern California, in a hellish world shattered by nuclear war decades before. Several police states have emerged in place of the former United States. Hurricane-force winds above five hundred feet prevent any sort of air travel from one state to the next, and sudden, violent, and unpredictable storms make day-to-day life a mini-hell. Hell Tanner, an imprisoned killer, is offered a full pardon in exchange for taking on a suicide mission—a drive through "Damnation Alley" across a ruined America from Los Angeles to Boston—as one of three vehicles attempting to deliver an urgently needed plague vaccine.

The book’s protagonist, Hell Tanner, starts of as a nominal hero that is eerily similar to Snake Plisskin from 1981’s Escape from New York. As the story progresses we see more of Hell’s human side but I found these scenes to be few and very short. The character could have been fleshed out more but the book isn’t trying to be a character study it’s just a simple post apocalyptical story. In truth I found Hell to be too much of a badass. He has very few faults and very little humanity. On the other hand he is the only memorable character in the book. At the time he was probably a more memorable character but today he is a bit of a cliché.

The nuclear wasteland that is the main setting of the book is interesting and Zelazny conjures up huge mutants that and shows a tiny bit of this new worlds ecology. For example how the big creatures are eaten by bigger monsters that are in turn eaten by something smaller. To get through Damnation Alley Hell and his fellow travelers use three huge vehicles armed with flamethrowers and rockets. The reason I mention these is that it is one of the few redeeming qualities of the movie.

The book is a very short read and as a 60’s Sci-Fi novel is far from the worst I have read. I you have some time to kill and come across it at a used bookstore I would recommend you give it a try. It is a simple story about a protagonists travel from A to B. On the way we get loads of monsters and desolate human outposts. It has tons of plot holes but it is an easy read.

The book has had some impact on popular culture as the book Hardwired by Walter Jon Williams is an homage to Damnation Ally. A long running ark in the Judge Dredd comic is similar to the book and Hawkwind wrote a song inspired by the story.

The Movie

When I had finished Zelazny’s book I decided to check out the movie. It is the only movie ever to be made from a Zelazny novel and commercially it was a huge flop. The movie came out in 1977 same year as Star Wars which had half its budget.

Zelazny was apparently happy with the first draft of the script but that was later completely rewritten. So the movie has the following in common with the book.
- The US is a nuclear wasteland.
- The hero is named Tanner but John Tanner and he is a classic American hero that has nothing in common with the book’s anti-hero
- There are Landmasters armed with flamethrowers and rockets. Apparently the vehicle built for the film has had more of legacy then the movie itself.
- The group is travelling east but not to Boston.
- There is a scene with a storm that is somewhat similar two separate scenes in the book.

I think that is it. There are a few other very minor things like there is a character in the book named Denton, which is the name of the movie’s second protagonist. The movie has neutered the books main plot and is a very watered down story. The funny thing is that if they would have gone with a meaner protagonist this movie might have some cult status today.

The movie was apparently an inspiration for the game Fallout which I have heard of but never played (not much of a gamer).

P.S. This is my first blog post in English. Hopefully there will be a few more. If you have any pointers for me please let me know.
References:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DamnationAlley http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/DamnationAlley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damnation_Alley_(film) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damnation_Alley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Zelazny http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=908562 http://blackholereviews.blogspot.com/2008/05/damnation-alley-1977-not-on-dvd.html http://www.stmoroky.com/reviews/authors/zelazny.htm http://www.avclub.com/review/damnation-alley-59164 http://angstandspeed.blogspot.com/2013/10/damnation-alley.html http://www.prometheus2-movie.com/community/forums/topic/14416&page=2 http://bronzeageofblogs.blogspot.com/2014/07/damnation-alley.html