As you might be able to tell, I’m not very good at remembering to update things. Well, no, that’s not exactly true: I’ve been thinking up blog posts now and again, but between work and life (and, yes I’ll admit it, some 30 hours in Tales of the Abyss) I’ve not got around to doing it.
It’s probably for the best; you’re all about this far from being introduced to my car. Even if he is a remarkably handsome CityRover, I’m pretty sure that I’m the only one actually interested in him.
After scraping over the finish line of my last ridiculous challenge, I’ve been recuperating (this is why I’m not a professional author--well, that and the fact I’m a terrible writer), taking time to recharge my writing batteries and play with the Copics I was tempted into buying (you know who you are). For most of the month my characters have been depressingly silent, but lately they’ve been waking up again. It usually consists of Milos throwing things at Alex while yelling, and uncharacteristic tenderness from Alex that makes me think he’s itching to return to the real-world setting where he and Milos are coming up to a year of whatever kind of relationship they’re in, but I’m not complaining even if Milos is.
Which clearly means it’s time for another challenge that I will likely fail at!
Only this time, I thought I’d try to bring others along with me (who hopefully won't fail).
I’ve been reminiscing about an old LiveJournal group/challenge called ArtGrind I was once a member of. The premise was that you took one of your characters and drew them every day for six months, then you’d compare your art at the beginning with your last pieces and hopefully see improvement. I’d never managed to actually complete it--the closest I came was with Arkadiy, a sci-fi soldier with fun facial hair who returned to the military after a short period of retirement in search of revenge--and, to add insult to injury, I actually think I got worse over time than better, but reviewing the old artworks made me feel nostalgic.
It also made me realise there was a whole subsection of pictures that had been inspired by whatever I’d been listening to at the time. Some of them were literal--Arkadiy pointing a gun at the camera, inspired by The Hoosiers’ Cops & Robbers, or sprinting forwards across a background of crosses sunk into the ground, inspired by Coldplay’s Violet Hill--and others were obscure, such as leaning against a stone archway because every time I listened to Cemetaries of London I saw the same (as far as I can tell nonexistent--certainly not London) city time and again, but they all reminded me that music can give us the ability to ‘see’ things and none of us will see exactly the same thing.
And it also reminded me that I don’t draw very often any more.
I’d been planning to call it “Pax’s Ridiculously Stupid Challenge Part II” until a couple of friends expressed an interest in taking part too. Calling something ‘stupid’ doesn’t work so well when you’re trying to encourage others to join, does it?
So in the end I settled on the ever-literal 30 Songs, 30 Works, 30 Days which begins on the stroke of midnight of the 1st June 2013. It’s not limited to starting then, of course: if someone wants to join halfway through the month, or in two months time, that’s up to them. If they want to go longer than 30 days because they’re having fun, again that’s up to them. If they want to write, draw, take photos, render in 3D... it’s all up to them. The point is only to challenge yourself to create something once a day based on a unique song a day, and hopefully have fun doing it. Nothing more, nothing less.
I managed to time it so that I’m in Nottingham meeting up with other writers when it starts! Never let it be said that I am talented at planning.
If anyone feels like taking part, please look over the link and I hope we’ll see you soon. ♪
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