Category Archives: Capital Comes Dripping

Writing Projects: Late April Update

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FoldersI intend to keep people updated on the status of my projects, though it might not be as regular as my writing goals posts that I post at the beginning of each month.

Capital Comes Dripping – the short story collection

I continue to work steadily on the pieces for this project and it’s at the forefront of my mind more than the other projects. As per my goals at the beginning of the month, I’ve finished Chapter Three of All Fascists are Zombies! – as well as submitting Evicted and My Boss Sucks out yesterday and today.

I’ve also begun work on the rewrite of An Abused Mind according the research I’ve done on homophobia and gay hate crimes. The story is so radically different that it could be considered a first draft.

Barbarism – the novel

I still haven’t touched this but last week another writer/editor asked about dystopian fiction from emerging writers and after some discussion, he wanted to read my first draft. It’s a 53,000 word first draft, which is unfinished and a NaNoWriMo first draft at that so it’s a bit of a gamble but perhaps someone reading it might spur me on to finish it.

The Red Pen – the zine

The Red Pen zine is my new project that I announced last week. My aim was to announce it and get discussion between contributors going which I can say has been a success. Now it’s time to get people moving on their pieces, as well as a piece of my own.

Sanity Juxtaposed – the unpublished collection

After some discussion here on this blog, I’ve decided to take the earlier work, my first short stories and poems, and section off that section of the collection into an ‘earlier work’ section with a little introduction.

Other than that, I’ve done nothing. I need to find a nice chunk of time to go through this blog and the old blog and pick out some pieces to include.

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There might be some overlap between this post and when I report on April’s writing goals at the start of the month, but thinking about these updates and going through each project is really helping to focus.

Another thing I think I need to do is prioritise projects and work out which ones deserve more attention.

Writing: What Projects Am I Working On?

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FoldersI’ve been sick the past couple of days, wasting time at home, and when I’m at home I tend to do less blogging, which is weird. Anyway, yesterday, in my boredom I managed to get moving on my novella again, All Fascists are Zombies!

I was partly inspired by Jeff Sparrow’s blog post comparing writing to work. Beginning to write again after a break hurts, especially those first few paragraphs, but I think I’ve pushed through it now.

So, thought it might be useful for myself (and maybe you too) if I updated everyone on the status of my projects.

Barbarism – The 2009 NaNoWriMo novel

I haven’t touched this since the first few days of December. It’s worrying that I’ve forgotten it. Coming back to it will become harder and harder the more I leave it. But I need to push myself to get some words down for it.

Sanity Juxtaposed – The Collection of Unpublished work from 2004 to 2009

A few weeks ago perhaps, I found someone to do my cover art for this minor project and after seeing the WIP of that last week, I feel like I need to give it more attention and upgrade it to a major project. I’m keeping details of this under-wraps because it’s just too exciting ;)

I’m thinking of SJ like a band’s demo tape or EP and plan to sell it that way. The pieces being in chronological order will hopefully give the reader some impression of my progress as a writer over the years and a taste of my style. Hopefully the first few pieces aren’t sabotaging people’s willingness to give me a go though.

I have all the pieces from 2004 to 2008 but need to gather the 2009 pieces, mostly flash fiction but there’s a decision to be made about what’s going in this, and what good political stuff to keep for my other project, Capital Comes Dripping.

Capital Comes Dripping – The Collection of Marxist Horror

I think this is the project with the most attention at the moment, leaving me able to work on simultaneous parts of it, be it my novella or various short stories.

I’ve also thinking about adding some pages to this blog’s sidebar about ‘Marxist horror’ and what I mean by it in order to conceptualise what I want out of it.

  • All Fascists are Zombies! – the novella – Like I said before, I’ve begun working on AFAZ again and am in the middle of writing a second draft, this time with a nice outline using Scrivener. I’ve become a real fan of rewrites, honing the plot and characters with each draft.
  • My Boss Sucks – short story – I’ve been through so many edits of this. I think it’s time for another rewrite in light of learning more about the main character. I’m struggling to find a market for this piece though that might publish it before it’s added to the collection.
  • The Homophobe – a poem – I’ve submitted this out again after making some changes that really improved the flow. I’ve gotten some promising feedback and the results mean I’ll probably work on some more poetry for the collection too.
  • Evicted – flash fiction piece – I think this needs to be edited and submitted soon in order to get a feeling of what I need to do with it even if it gets rejected.
  • Other short stories – I’ve got a few other shorts and flash pieces in various stages, needing edits, complete rewrites or redrafts. The main ones being one about homophobia and another set in an abattoir, which both are niggling in my head every so often.

I think Capital Comes Dripping is going to be an ongoing project overtime and I plan to submit the various pieces as they’re written in order to give them some miles so to speak. And this will certainly be the main project throughout 2010.

I’ve got a lot on and I think it’s going to be very easy to forget about things so might make these ‘project updates’ semi-regular.

How do you juggle and organise your writing projects? Do you find this kind of update interesting or useful?

Best of 2009: Benjamin, the Writer

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I think 2009 has been a big year for me in terms of my progress as a writer, in terms of putting myself out there and becoming known, as well as improving in the actual writing process.

I’ve summarised some areas of progress or highlights for the year.

Festivals, events and the real world writing community

I’ve discovered this year a friendly literary scene in Melbourne around events and festivals. Previously, the contact I had with other writers was mostly online but after attending the Emerging Writers’ Festival, my second Melbourne Writers Festival and some launches, I’ve met some cool people a few times and this has given me a boost.

Novella, All Fascists are Zombies!

Whilst not writing a whole lot at the start of the year, this novella length zombie story with themes of racism and fascism was probably my main project. Whilst longer than a short story, it was shorter than a novel and allowed me to work on something that seemed achievable.

At that point, finishing the first draft was finishing the longest complete draft ever not counting unfinished novels. I’m still working on a new draft.

Blogging and Twitter

Whilst I will publish a post wrapping up 2009 in blogging, I thought I’d mention a bit about it in relation to writing. Alongside meeting some Melbourne writers in the real world, I connected with them via our blogs and on Twitter.

Some of my posts relating to writing and the publishing industry were shared and read amongst writers and publisher types in the city. I’m pretty chuffed with that.

Writer’s group, zine and launch

My first writers group, zine, launch and reading all in one.

The writer’s group was a really valuable experience this year, pushing me to refine my best piece to date, mixing with more writers in real life and gaining some valuable feedback.

The zine experience was totally new and now I’m really curious to explore it further. Producing a zine and launching it was exciting and giving a reading really made me feel like a bona fide writer.

Capital Comes Dripping and short fiction

Aside from work on the novella, short fiction was a major focus this year, working toward completing some pieces that were much more achievable than a novel.

Editing, drafting, submitting and switching between multiple pieces can make it hard to maintain an overall focus. So, around August, when the writer’s group got together, I decided to make a project out of it all and work on the shorts together in a collection, Capital Comes Dripping, a collection of Marxist horror, with the title coming from the famous Marx quote, “Capital comes dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and dirt.”

My focus and motivation improved as a result, before being derailed by NaNoWriMo.

The Reader

I don’t know why, but being interviewed by Lisa Dempster for an article in The Reader and going to the launch is one of the highlights of my year. Perhaps it’s a weird ego thing where I get a rush out of getting my name somewhere.

I guess this goes under events and real life community stuff, but it stands out.

Barbarism and NaNoWriMo

I guess this should really be my number one highlight of the year in regards to writing, and perhaps in all areas. I fucking wrote 50,000 words in a month; half of a novel’s first draft and a massive boost to my confidence.

I showed myself that I can make the time to write if I push myself, that a story can be semi-coherent and it doesn’t matter because I can redraft.

Truths I learnt:

  1. Need to keep reading to keep inspired to write
  2. Redrafting and rewriting is a lot of fun and use it heaps.
  3. There’s a world of real live writers in Melbourne

New Project: Capital Comes Dripping

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“If money, According to Augier, “comes into the world with a congenital blood-stain on one cheek,” capital comes dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and dirt.” – Capital Vol. 1, Karl Marx.

That quote from Karl Marx sums up the violence and brutality that feeds and sustains the system of capitalism. When I first heard that quote, I bristled at how accurate, to the point and evocative it was.

In my own writing, it’s something I aim to do. I want to highlight the brutality, violence and injustice of capitalism through horror and dark writing.

So, after mentioning this ‘project’ that I’ve been working on that includes ‘All Fascists are Zombies!’ I want to announce that Capital Comes Dripping is the working title for a collection of short fiction, flash fiction, poetry and other writing that I’ve been working on and want to focus on for some time to come.

This collection will most probably include the novella, ‘All Zombies are Fascists!’, ‘My Boss Sucks’ and other things I’ve been in the middle of working on already, plus some new stuff as well. I hope that the collection will also manage to cover the various horrors of capitalism that inspire my writing.

Part of my reasoning for putting these stories in a collection and not just sending them to horror and political magazines is that I hope to reach a wider audience. Being published in a horror mag will only result in being read by horror fans, and being published in the progressive literature mags will only be read by the kinds of people that usually read those magazines.

I still hope to have some of my work published in these publications, and plan to include these in the collection as well. It will help promote my writing, increase my chance of the collection being published and overall, be a real confidence boost to myself and the work on the collection.

But publishing the pieces as a collection would also give the themes a much stronger impact as some will interlink in some ways and some themes will be covered in multiple pieces.

I also feel like the short story collection is underrated (something I want to blog on) and have found that some small press publishers in Melbourne are willing to publish collection from emerging writers. There is also the option of self-publishing which I am seriously considering.

I’ll keep everyone updated on the progress of the various pieces and the collection as a whole. And in the off chance that any publishers have read this post and the idea sparks their attention, you can always contact me before I eventually contact you ;)

P.S. Don’t forget to check out my rant against right-wingers against healthcare reform in the US that I posted this morning.