I’m Having a Baby!

by John Andreula

Edited by Kodid Laraque-Two Elk

Smurf & the rest of the 5280 Geek crew are gearing up for a whirlwind Con season. I know they are busy making contacts, conducting interviews, and creating posts of their own. I couldn’t be more appreciative of their fantastic content. It’s always free, unique, and well-crafted.

I, myself, have been under my rock. I felt I should arise from my cave in the mountain to take in some vitamin D. I may as well address the world too.

blinds

Hello, world. What’s up? What’s happening?

That’s enough small talk.

It’s awfully nice to have everyone here. We are blessed at 5280 Geek to have our viewer’s attention. We recognize how valuable and scarce a commodity it is in this modern world.

In honor of the commitment our readership shows in coming down and returning to our site, as well as the tremendous opportunity I have had to be featured here, I have decided it was time to step my game up. It is high time to address my current status and decide a vision for what’s next for my ongoing weekly column here at 5280Geek.com.

5280 geek

I realize I have been doing a lot of reviews and Wanderer pieces. Those are fun to write and create, but I have been missing something. Although those pieces are loaded with love, care, humor and a whole range of emotions, this unknown thing has been preventing me from achieving fulfillment through production.

Sure, these past and recent works require creativity in word choice and sentence structure. However, they are not fully creative in the way I wish to be. I want to deliver “intellectual property.” In other words, I want to make!

I don’t want to produce something that is just reiteration and reflection on the world and media as I see it. I want to give birth to my own baby, metaphorically speaking!

pregnant

I have been skulking about behind a veil of yearning. Those who are in my orbit will have most likely noticed my Charlie Browning around. It’s not been a good look.

Then it happened…

The other day I underwent my usual early morning routine. I had just finished brushing my teeth and was settling in for my daily meditation.

I was set to clear my mind. I did so by focusing on my deep belly breathing. There’s been a heap of trouble with this lately. Distractions seem so abundant in my life and my brain. As per the standard in recent days, my mind began wandering shortly after I settled in.

This time was different though. Most other mornings I usually start thinking about my day’s schedule, or a job, or some other mundane crowding thoughts while my mind should be clear and seeking peace. This sitting, a vision came to my mind. The muse had struck me hard.

I was inspired with a vision of a story. The story was familiar, but new and unique.

My imagination filled with the dark tale of a girl. She had superhuman abilities. There was a fluidity to her reality. And there were dreams. It was a perfect story for 5280 Geek.

There was just one problem. It hasn’t been written yet.

It also has not been rewritten, edited, fretted over, and subsequently read by someone else to make sure it didn’t suck. Obviously, the piece hadn’t been critiqued and defended (in most instances unsuccessfully), and finally reread one last time for quality assurance.

Naturally, it hadn’t been sent off to Smurf. In all his thankless esteem and passion he hasn’t done whatever additional unknown wizardry is required to make the story apparate on the inter-webs.

14358902_527984374059315_8732348609283357801_n — Smurf’s head shot

All this is what it takes to transform the muse’s inspiration into a screaming, crying, but beautiful and precious, baby. I want to push one of those babies out of my figurative birth canal at least once a week; more if possible.

Each week, producing a finished piece, at an average 1200-2500 words, takes approximately two days worth of work. That’s—give or take—sixteen hours, once one tallies up all the odd times of work and subtracts out the time of procrastination, distracting oneself, eating, and dishes.

To add additional perspective, there are companies that solicit creative writing services on the web. Some of them pay as little as one to three pennies per word for finished content. Others pay $10-$25 for an article of similar duration. Many don’t even pay at all. (see Upwork‘s job postings or any magazine or e-zine’s website’s submission pages)

If a writer’s work is accepted for publication, they may receive a complimentary print subscription from wherever they had submitted their work to, as well as the prestige of having had the work published. Yay!

Fortunately, this isn’t the story of how the Snausages are made, so to speak.

This is the story of the story to come, that you are going to read. It’s a work of fiction. It’s not going to release all at once. After all, it hasn’t been written yet.

I plan to release it as a serial. Similar to comic books or television shows, you will want to tune in each week to find out what has happened. If it’s good, you’ll be excited to see what comes next.

This story that’s being written is about a girl. Her name is Sierra. The story takes place sometime vaguely in the present, in a place just as uncertain.

Sierra is special. I look forward to sharing her story with everyone here at 5280 Geek. Unfortunately, you will have to wait until next week to meet Sierra.

Now I must reenter my cave and hermetically seal off the entrance. I must return to my process of giving birth creatively.

I bid all the readers adieu until next week, when I bring everyone The Dreamer.