A writer's interpretation of the modern world.

Writing is a strange animal. Anyone literate can do it. Just put a pen to paper and be honest or lie. There, it’s done. But in all my years of writing, I’ve learned that its accessibility makes it one of the most challenging things a self-criticizing artist (redundant) can do. There are so many ways to write, and so many ways to present your writing, that deciding what and how typically inhibits the first word.

I am easily the first villain of crippling my own creativity because I don’t know the “where”. I only know the “what”. And then I realized that this is my challenge. I am a writer and I have chosen the path of the rogue. I write screenplays, I write comics, I write books. All are different. But today, I’ve made a discovery. No matter what I decide to write, or where I decide to write it, I will always be the common denominator.

And for that, there is nothing to fear. There is no reason to not start, because the content will always be authentic. It will always be mine.

A few projects are scattered across my journals, my iPhone and my grey matter. All of them are incredibly exciting and in my niche. They’re big stories, they’re dark and they have great characters being thrown into fantastic new worlds. The problem is that all of them are written in completely different mediums. The context-switching is tough. It sounds strange to say it, but all the voices in my head make this effort a bit strenuous. The characters from each of my current projects are ever-present, even when I don’t want them to be. Perhaps it is because I love them so dearly. Perhaps it is because they are out to get me…

But those are my challenges as a writer. And I will face them. But I also have challenges as a person. My first challenge is being an actual person. I have a great job in marketing/advertisement that is budding into a promising career. I also have a writing career that is budding into a promising career. Not to mention a partner, family, friends and most importantly, my cat Zero. I am nowhere near close to finding a balance. I’m actually awful at it. So at this point, all I can really do is just be better.

And I will.

-Lex

There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes “What the hell is water?”
–David Foster Wallace

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Something to think about. Thanks Matt for passing this along.

-Lex

I won’t pretend that I’ve been an avid comic reader since I was 6. Heck — I barely read 2 comics a month. And to dig myself into a deeper hole – I only started re-reading them about a year ago. As a kid I tried reading The Uncanny X-Men, some Amazing Spider Man and a bit of Dazzler but my parents (ie; my mother) never let it become a bona fide hobby. As an adult nearly two decades later, I can see why. It’s a very expensive hobby.

But I have come across a bit of a gold-mine within the art of comic book reading. A few months ago I stumbled upon The Astonishing X-Men which was — in part — written by Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I read the first few issues 1-32 and couldn’t stop, so leapt to the Hope Trilogy: “Messiah Complex”, “Messiah War” and “The Second Coming” (not yet released). As I read through them all, I only played two albums: “The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place” & “The Rescue” by Explosions In the Sky.

Call it cheesy, but adding an instrumental soundtrack like that to an already epic, heart-wrenching apocalyptic storyline changes the entire experience. I’m not as big on music as I am on story, but the two combined –astonishingly– force each other to translate so much more clearly. Seeing Kitty Pryde ripped away from Peter (twice), just makes more emotional sense with “First Breath After Coma” or “Day Six” in the background. I can’t listen to any song on those albums — even without a comic in my hands –without feeling a sense of love and doom all at the same time.

Giving context to music with a great story or giving context to a great story with good music makes all the difference in the world. It is also incredibly therapeutic and could save you a trip to your psychologist.

Just my $.02
-Lex

P.S. …
The Astonishing X-Men

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astonishing_X-Men

Explosions In the Sky

http://www.explosionsinthesky.com

I can think of better ways to spend 4 hours.

Lesson Learned: Make $0/yr.

-Lex

Today is not Friday from Lex White on Vimeo.

Lesson Learned: Look at the calendar before you think today is a good day.

-Lex

My hosting administrator sent me an e-mail a month ago threatening to shut down my blog until I upgraded to version 2.7 of Word Press. I’ve apparently had this blog for so long and have been so poor at upgrading the database that my blog alone had become a serious security threat the billions of other websites on the world wide web. But rather than be the diligent, responsible webmaster I should have been, I chose to ignore the request and simply avoid updating my blog. For some reason I figured if I just didn’t update my blog, maybe he’d forget that I needed to upgrade at all.

Well, he didn’t forget and my blog was removed. Arg. A little in shock and a little ticked off (I never make any backups) I begged for an extension and my account was temporarily restored. Saved, I thought. But not quite. I once again avoided upgrading the WP database, hoping that he’d soon forget. Nope. This time he didn’t take it down. He just made it ugly and erased all my hard-earned themes, leaving me with a that sick Classic blue and white theme.

Okay Hosting Administrator, I got it. I upgraded the damn thing.

You win.

P.S. – Did I mention I lost eeeeveerything during my ugprade?

-Lex