All posts by Torben Jensen

Musings on Naming Conventions

Archi's Diary, ,

Look, I’m not saying I am three beers in and struggling with this, but I am right now trying to decide if the names of my central characters should or shouldn’t be a direct reference to their central nature. For anyone familiar with history or generally with mythology would get any reference fairly easily and oh my, isn’t it fantastic that I hinted to the central nature of my character.

But is that really useful? Is it realistic? Is realism something I want to aim for?

This is what I’m musing over at the moment. Hinting at someones true nature is fun, but is it good writing? And its genuinely question I’m struggling with.

When I was young, I loved it when a character had a name that aligned with their destiny or their powers, it was very fun to discover, but as I got older its started to feel more and more like an obvious spoilers at best or, god forbid, pretentious at worst.

An example; in a story where we are searching for “The One”. We have three characters, Jim, Natasha, and Adam. Gee, I wonder if it could be Adam, the first man. And sure, its fun if its not the case, a red herring is another great narrative tool , but choosing one or the other does give certain narrative expectations.

Another thing to consider would be what associations we have with a certain name. Often if we need a mundane simple character, we name them Steve, or if we need someone to be a bitch, we name them Karen, or should we need a terrorist, we name him Muhammad. Its a sort of cultural shorthand, that name A equals attributes B, C, D.

But this cultural shorthand is far from universal and in most cases will have very limited longevity. Karen as an example is hardly more than 5 years old at this point and will become stale eventually.

So the more I delve into it, the harder it becomes to select a name that does and does not have meaning attached that is acceptable. And honestly, I’m curious what you think.

Anyway, one my characters right now is Arthur Cane. I’ll leave it up to your imagination what his deal is. You can add your thoughts below, both on the topic and on Arthur Canes true nature.

Thanks for reading. Inconsistent post to come eventually.

(c) Torben Jensen

Writing Exercise – Outlining and Plotting 19.09.2024

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Been attempting some outlining exercises in another project idea this week. I came across the idea that there are two types of writers (though I forget where I found it). There a plotters and pantsers.

Plotters plan out their work in detail to know what they are doing and where they are going in as much detail as possible.

Pantsers basically go wherever their writing takes them. They will probably have a good idea of what the outcome should be, but are not perturbed by the idea of deviating.

I always thought of myself as the latter, but if honesty needs to prevail, I would benefit a lot more from the former. Most book projects I have worked on in the past 20 years have died in first 50 pages. Some not even breaking the 10 or even 5 page mark. Several science fiction and fantasy concepts, a noir crime novel, a cookbook, and many many others have come and gone.

And its not for a lack of ambition or creativity, I have that in spades. What I seem to lack is direction and an endpoint, that is what has screwed me time and time again. And I could just be a bad writer, that could also be true.

But this is what this writing thing is all about for me. To figure out if I can write a book, if yes, what I can write, and can I complete it. Publishing it feels like a lark should it ever come to that.

A lot of the reason that I think that I want to write is the idea that “writing” is something fundamental to the human experience. It’s “something you do” as a person. Growing up more or less camped out at the local library and taking weekly, if not daily, trips to exchange my loans for something new, was central. It was something I did with having to have friends involved or even parents. The lack of supervision probably added to the experience. I could choose to read whatever I wanted. So I did. And it ignited something in me. And I hope to brighten it more now.

Just to finish off this post. This week I outlined a 2000 word idea for an adventure novel. Just to see if I could. And you know what? It was exciting and invigorating for me as a creative. Maybe I will do another one next week.

Thank you for reading this short post. If you want to follow my journey, do click the follow button and I will try to keep you updated when I can. Aiming for every 2 weeks or so. Have a great day!

New Book Project – The Exodus – First Update 30.08.2024

Archi's Diary,

As this websites has changed to basically be about my hobbies and creative projects, I thought I would start writing about my passion project, The Exodus (working title) that I have been mulling over for years now. I always wanted to write a book, it was that thing that everyone should, or at least my childhood seems to have pushed that on me. After spending an inordinate amount of time in the library reading everything from Yoko Tsuno to the basics of Ninjitsu by some american ninja fella who name eludes me today.

By now, I have writting over 15000 words in my lore/scene ideas file, but have decided to start afresh on the actual writing where I am currently at 1750 words give or take. And the promise to me, and I suppose to you, is to add 1250 words every week, 250 a day with the weekend as a natural break to muse things over.

The reason for the extremely low word count is that my harddrive is littered with failed attempts, drafts, ideas, characters and scenes that have served no purpose since I began my journey. For this reason, the aim is only to get words on page and routine established throughly.

Will this ever end up as an actual literary work, reviewed and possibly even published?

No idea.

The reason I am writing this is to at least keep myself somewhat accountable and to share some of the troubles and worries I have and have had since I started and to tell you, that its ok to go slow and just start. Maybe it will go nowhere, but at least I will know that I tried for real. At least this once.

That also means that you can start as well. Be slow, start with a notepad and a pen, or your phone and Notes. Does not matter. It only matters that you tried.

Now, if you read this far, I will now tell you about my book. Without spoilers and real plot, because that is still being worked on.

Basically, its a scifi retelling of a story a refugee friend once shared with me. The basics will follow what she shared, but take a bit more of a fantastical turn, despite the horrendous starting point. Where that will go will be interesting to see. If anything, I hope to touch on something in the human condition that, despite what she was forced to go through as a child, was very much present in her. A joy of being here, displaced but still here with us.

Thank you for reading.

Plans, a Pandemic and Plain ol’ Pain

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2020 did not start off as I expected and this first post in many moons is not going to be about how my website is going to be used and how the future is going to be great.

Local cry for help

Firstly, a pandemic happened which threw a wrench into everything on a global scale.

Secondly, I started a new job as a recruiter that I truly enjoy which ate a bunch of time, however, a global pandemic happened and threw a wrench into that as well. I haven’t seen my amazing colleagues in person for months now and working from home is getting a bit stale. Plus the crisis is taking its toll.

Thirdly, my amazing plan to go back to the gym and fixing my back was going back on track, but, sadly, a global pandemic happened and threw a wrench blah blah blah, you get it.

I could go on about wanting to revitalize my website and start working on new projects, but everything just kinda fell apart for everyone and we’re only now seeing a potential endpoint (at least in Ireland) which unfortunately does not seem to be anywhere close what “normal” was. Maybe that will come about in September when the government’s plan has come to fruition.

Whatever happens, we should try to stay sane and happy. I took up miniature painting again, see the Instagram feed on the right, and finished off a bunch of stuff that was just lying around. I progressed on something that I had initially abandoned due to lack of time and mental energy, which spurred this post as well. Maybe now is the right time to decide what we want to put energy into, whom to keep closer contact with and find out how we want to live after the crisis. The crisis, however bad it is, might be the kick in the tush for some people to decide how they want to live their lives.

We will. Eventually.

I had an interesting conversation with my partner yesterday about it (sort of). We were enjoying a lovely constitutional in the inner city with nay anyone about, the middle of Dublin seeming almost empty when it occurred to me that life cannot go back to normal. My partner seems to think that we will eventually go back to “normal”. The screens in shops will go down, social distancing will go away, shops will reopen and it will be business as usual.

I don’t. For one, unless a vaccine or super effective treatment comes about very very soon, that won’t happen. Normal wont be normal and steps will be taken to make people be careful. On a more personal level, I don’t want normal to come back. My life feels better, I connect more (if remotely) with people I care about and I feel more focused on figuring out what I want in life. This unfortunate reprieve from the “normal” has made me focus on how abnormal my life felt previously.

So I don’t want “normal” to come back. I want to shape my new “normal” to be better, to be better balanced mentally, focus better at work and play better at home. Maybe that is the takeaway from the pandemic. That finding value and balance are much harder when everything is “normal” outside. Let’s use this painful moment to make things better. Even if just a little bit.

The other takeaway is that people don’t wash their hands enough, don’t know the difference between a bacteria and a virus, and don’t understand what exponential growth means.

Baby steps, world. Baby. Steps.

Creating Accountability for your Creative Outlets

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First off, I’m not saying this approach is for you. It’s an approach that I hope is good for me. Trying to be creative and build your skills, to make art if you will, is a fine endeavour and for some, it comes naturally. Of you can sit down and create that’s great; you get enjoyment out of it personally and a product at the end of it that you can choose to share. I’m thrilled for you and your brain.

My brain apparently doesn’t work like that. I need some kind of accountability, some way of telling (even if I’m not showing) myself and the world that I am creating something. The same goes for consistency at the gym, if I don’t record it some way and share it, I forget to go. And I don’t do it for recognition, to me its a cognitive trick, a way of tricking my brain into repeating a pattern that is good for me.

Gym is good. Creating is good. Let’s try the same trick that gets me to go to the gym.

This time around I intend to use public exposure to keep myself active. So, for now, I will be using the hashtag #creativityeveryday on my Twitter to log my progress in writing (ie. word count), photography (progress in photo projects), voice work (scripts created, recordings done and/or shared, etc.) and whatever niche thing I’m doing. Maybe you want to do the same, create a public record of your progress, maybe even share some of your work from time to time. It’s not a competition, but it might spur you to sit down every day and get something done. Whatever your metrics are should only matter to you.

If publicly voicing that you’re doing stuff isn’t for you, then you could try keeping a project journal where you log your progress (offline or online), or maybe just scheduling a 30-minute window every day where you work. Not logging what you’re working on or its progress, but just planning out that you will work.

Consistency is key to improvement, so create a framework that allows you to improve. If posting on Twitter doesn’t work, try a project diary. Diary doesn’t work? Try telling a friend. Got no friends? Try shouting it at the void above. Keep trying, if its something you really want to do but you’re lacking consistency.

Really what we’re looking to do is to ensure that if you want to build your skillset you can. So get to it.

Legonium Photo Competition 2019

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A quick post on the Legonium photo competition. There is one!

And being a fan of language, learning, Latin and Lego, I had to enter it. The Legonium twitter, found here, is a wonderful place for insights into Latin presented in the medium of Lego.

Nam risu inepto res ineptior nulla est – Catullus, 84-54 BC, Roman poet

To read more about the competition, and read more about Legonium, head over to www.legonium.com/photo-comp. The competition ends on October 31st, 2019.

Have fun.

Creativity Every Day

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For a while I have been trying to get into the mindset of a creative, to create something consistently, even if what I create is only interesting to me. So this blog, formerly an inactive photoblog, has now been repurposed as a repository of whatever creative shenanigans I’m up to.

Shenanigans galore!

This includes, but is not limited to (as being creative can take you wildly diverse places):

  • photography
  • miniature painting
  • voice work
  • acting
  • improv
  • writing
  • podcasting
  • anything else that tickles my fancy.

Though currently, I am focusing on photography and voice work.

Why though? Well, to me creativity is a muscle. Currently a sad, atrophied and wholly un-oiled muscle that needs a proper workout. Why? Because a trained muscle gets stronger and works better, provides a consistent output and looks good. Its a matter of building a side of yourself that doesn’t necessarily have a purpose of other than itself.

So this is what I’m aiming to do, build the habit and get consistent creating stuff. I won’t post all of it since I do have some semblance of restraint, but I’ll do my best to share what I have, either here or on my various feeds linked somewhere on this site.

Have a great day unknown and amazingly clever reader. Got to create something amazing. Or terrible and dump it in the trash forever.

WPC: Danger – Dangers

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Dangers come in many forms, be they physical, legal or just potential, so I especially enjoyed the implicit warning related to being on private property and explicit warning that there is a bull loose on said property in the photo for this weeks photo challenge. Note, these signs were shot on a 60-degree incline leading into the property, which must mean that the bull was trained by mountain goats to be able to traverse this area, and I didn’t find similar signs on the side leading out, leading me to assume that the bull mainly frequents this particular section. Great, a parkour-bull with territorial preferences.

That said, who wouldn’t brave a bit of a danger for a beautiful view like the one below overlooking Greystones in County Wicklow, Ireland, though it does challenge the whole emerald isle thing.

This post is in response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: Danger

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