Ken vs. the City

New Media Update #1

Podcasting
Right now I’m lining up interviews for the next few episodes of the Haven Nation podcast. So far we’ve been producing about 1 episode per month. It’s been a rather liesurely schedule, and I want to start putting out episodes more often. Peoples schedules get a little wierd over the summer months, but hopefully I’ll be able to snag a few willing souls.

I want to have some writing read on the show, I also want to have a graphic designers discussion panel, a visual artist like a sculptor or a painter, and possibly another musician. It’s pretty cool to see how many contacts I’ve made through other people I know.

I’m also working on procuring a Sony Minidisc recorder so I can do some mobile podcasting. Once I do, I’ll spring for a libsyn account and start putting together a separate New York-centric podcast featuring interviews with random people on the street. I also think it would be cool to eventually do a podcast game show. I don’t think anyone’s done something like that yet.

Web design
I’m working on one major design project right now. I just chatted about the current design prototype with several team members. I’m going to re-work what I have into three or four related designs. Then we’ll vote together and decide which is best.

My only concern is that the back-end of the current version of the site is written in Cold Fusion, a server-side scripting language that I know absolutely nothing about. I have no idea how a standards-compliant CSS-XHTML design will work on a Cold Fusion platform. I haven’t gotten a chance to look at the source code yet, so I have no idea if merging the two together will be anything like creating a Wordpress (PHP) theme. Luckily, even though he’s not a programmer, one of the team members seems to know a lot about Cold Fusion.

Right now I’m focused on creating a good design. I guess we’ll cross the Cold Fusion bridge when we come to it.

(BTW, as you can see, Ken vs. The City got some new threads.)

I was on a retreat this past weekend in Connecticut. The long bus ride gave me some listening time, so I decided to fill my iPod up with some podcasts I hadn’t listened to before.

The most recent episodes of SCIFI.com’s Battlestar Galactica podcast is actually a recording of a Battlestar Galactica writers meeting. It’s really cool to hear how the creative process works in a commercial production setting. You can almost hear the creative juices flowing from one person to another. I’ve seen the episodes they’re discussing, and it’s interesting to hear how all the story arcs develop.

I think creativity works the same way for everybody. But in a group setting, under a deadline, and with plenty of financial incentive, it works much quicker.

Creative update #2

I’ve gotten some feedback on my screenplay from my writer’s group. Armed with a handful of new ideas, I’ve been plugging away at it again. When I first started re-writing it, I had this tremendous creative burst and wrote 14 pages in about a week. That’s massive for a screenplay. Now things have settled to a relative trickle. Not a bad thing. I’m still writing regularly, and the story is progressing, and I’m certainly in no danger of suffering a creative blowout.

When I get tired of working on the screenplay, I’ve been working on a short story. I really don’t find it that hard to switch between writing disciplines. I do it at work with news and editorials. When you write drama, you have to stick with dialogue, action, and images. Prose writing lets you play with description and exposition. It actually feels pretty good to write in one style, and then write in another. It’s almost as it it exercises the brain in different places.

Work update #1

I’ve applied to several jobs in the online journalism field this past week. Mostly editorial and web production positions. I’ve also decided to develop a side business in multimedia and web production. I’m looking for projects I can work on in order to show off my skills. I know a lot about web useability, design, online advertising, monetization, and podcast production.

I’ve been developing a design prototype for Fellowshipinthecity.com. We’re shooting for a re-launch of the site, with a whole bunch of new features some time in the next month or so. It’s great to work as part of a team and see a project like this develop.

I’ve also been gathering a few article ideas I might pitch to some publications I know.

Unconventional writing exercise #1

This is the premier unconventional writing exercise. As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ll try to avoid the sort of exercises found in writing books. This is to exercise my own writing skills, and hopefully to get others to participate and develop their skills as well.

Here’s how exercise number one will work.

Step 1 : Forget for a moment that the image above is Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple computer, segway enthusiast, and all-around nerdy guy.

Step 2: Based on the picture alone, write a very short narrative no longer than 250 words featuring the first character that comes to mind when you look at it. The end of the narrative must be a genuine ending that caps off the rest of the story.

Feel free to make your narrative as cheesy as you want.

The point of this exercise is to practice:

1. writing concisely
2. writing on impulse
3. wrapping up any plot elements with a deliberate ending

Post your narratives here by leaving a comment. These next two weekends are really busy for me, but I’ll post my own “Once Upon a Woz” narrative some time in the next two weeks.

Read my “Woz narrative” here.

Creative Writing Update #1

I’ve been re-visiting a screenplay I started writing about two, maybe three years ago. It’s interesting how a story can develop from one re-write to the next. It started out as a psychic horror movie. Now it’s turned into a Hallmark made-for TV movie.

I”ve been working pretty consistently on it over the last few weeks. I wrote myself into a corner about a week ago, so I posted what I had so far to a casual writer’s group I’m a part of, hoping some feedback would give me more ideas. No feedback yet.

While I’m been waiting to hear from my colleagues I’ve been working on a short story. The screenplay was foremost in my mind when I started writing the short story, so I recycled some of the character and location names. I figure I’ll just think of new names after I’m done.

I’ve gotten into the habit of writing on the subway. Not much to do when you commute, few distractions, and it’s something you have to do. It’s the perfect time for writing.

When you write a story, you can’t stop. You have to keep the ball in the air. You have to play through. You can’t call an unlimited number of time-outs, otherwise you’ll loose momentum. The ideas you were working with will get pushed out the door by new ones that pop into your head. I can really feel it, after not having worked on my screenplay for about a week.

I still haven’t heard anything from my writers group, so I’ll have to forge ahead on my own. I want to have at least half of the first draft done by the end of the month. I already have some ideas about where the story can go. Hopefully things will be a bit darker this time around, and pull the story away from the pit that is the Hallmark made-for-TV movie. Oh, the horror!

Google always comes up with fanciful logo designs for various holidays. Today is Arthur Conan Doyle’s birthday, and it looks like Sherlock Holmes is doing a little web searching of his own today.

I started this blog last year to keep my friends and family informed about what I’m up to and to write down some of my thoughts. Things were pretty open-ended, which was good if I wanted to keep a miscelanneous scratchpad for thoughts and activities. But I really want to bring those regular Ken vs. The City readers a little bit more in the way of content.

I’ll be launching a new design for this website some time in the next few weeks. It’s one of several projects I’ve been working on in my spare time. As part of the re-design I want to start posting more regularly, and limiting the subjects I post about to three areas I’m interested in: writing (creative and journalism), new media (podcasting, video, etc.), and my search for freelance work.

Like many who come to New York, I had a general idea of what I wanted to accomplish in the City when I first moved here. But now that I’ve been here for more than a year, those ideas are starting to become more and more defined. I’m notoriously scatterbrained when it comes to
setting goals and making decisions. A years’ worth of percolating almost always boils down my grand illusions into real practical goals.

So here’s what I’m going to start posting about:

1. Weekly creative writing updates - a brief post on what creative projects I’ve been working on for that particular week, as well as some thoughts on the creative writing process.
2. Unconventional writing exercises - a series of mini writing projects to exercise my creative writing skills. I’ll try to avoid the typical exercises you find in writing books. I might post an exercise every two weeks, leaving it open to see what other people come up with, and posting my own responses on opposite weeks.
3. Interview of the moment - I’ll try and interview some random person in the city about their own experiences both proefessionally and spiritually. I’m not sure how often I’ll be able to do this, but I love doing interviews, and it sounds like fun. I may even post the audio and turn it into a podcast.
4. Media production update - a brief post on what I’m up to in the new media arena, namely the Haven Nation podcast, but also other projects I happen to be working on at the time.
5. Freelance update - I’m absolutely terrible about tracking down freelance projects. Hopefully posting regularly about what markets I’m looking at, and how I’m going about persuing them will encourage me to do more and get some feedback from Kvs.C readers. I’ll also include thoughts on writing for the Web, SEO-friendly copy, journalistic integrity, etc. (all things I’m interested in)

finally got my invite to Google Analytics. I’ll be trying it out on the site for the next few weeks.

I’m not a huge fan of Robert Frost. I really like a few of his poems, but most of them I just don’t get. One thing I absolutely love about him though, are his thoughts on what he calls the Sound of Sense. It’s the syntactical sounds that make up a particular language. In a letter to a friend in 1913, Robert Frost described it as hearing muffled “voices behind a door.” I’d describe it as talking about your day around the dinner table with a mouthful of mashed potatoes. Even though they’ll scold you for talking with your mouth full, your family can still understand what you’re talking about.

Frost’s poetry reflects his theory. Have a listen for yourself.

Here are some links to check out:
Sound Devices
Robert Frost Out Loud (contains mp3’s of Frost reading his poems)

Definately check out some of the recordings of Frost. At first he sounds so dry and boring, but if you listen closely, you can tell how he emphasizes the sound of the language.