The Passing Place

Third draft blues , or how not to write

Posted on September 23, 2013 by Mark Hayes

Third draft blues

so you send off the second draft to your proof reader, get great feed back, a long list of notes on things to work on, have a good discussion on what needs to be changed , what could be better , where the writing could tighten up , where it needs expanding. The technical details of female masturbation techniques, ( don’t ask , just don’t okay, look i know you want to ask but don’t , okay since you asked my proof reader was sure i had it a little incorrect and so asked all her colleagues at work what they thought and got a consensus of opinion from them, apparently the one male employee walked in in the middle of this discussion and then turned around with a red face and walked out again)

you get all this down and sit back in front of the word processor and ……………………………………………

the hardest thing is to open the file and start to redraft again for the third time, its ripping apart something you have slaved over. Its only the third draft, but all the same its painful to tear back down the walls you have so lovingly crafted.

Its been siting in fount of me for about three weeks now while i procrastinate. in that time i have:
indexed and hyper-linked the chapters.
designed a book cover
watched seven and a half seasons of Dexter ( +http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0773262/ )
Played 500+ of stupid zombies on my kindle fire
come up with a new physical exercise regime
failed to keep to said regime
bought a painting
started a new memory wall
played with the cat
written a couple of blog posts
started two new face book games
searched or old friends on face book
read some books
put together a new bed
been to work
stared at the PC trying to motivate myself to start writing

I know once i get going on the next draft it will flow, I will stop feeling guilty about not getting on with it. And stop stressing over how to write the bits i need to change because i will be doing it .
But every time i open the document i feel a little ill at the thought of pressing the delete key and starting to type ……………

anyway , just to prove i have not completely wasted my time for the last month or so here is the book cover.

yes its an apple ,, I could go on about how its an un-bitten apple, the original forbidden fruit, unblemished , un-partaken of. That it speaks of temptation, sexuality and the end of innocence.

procrastination is bad , I’ll get around to not procrastinating at some point .

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Women in politics , politics in decline

Posted on August 27, 2013 by Mark Hayes

Statistics from the World Bank state the percentage of the United Kingdom population who are female is 50.8%, While this figure is unsurprising I draw attention to it in order to highlight the oddity that this modern western democracy, which expounds on the representative nature of its political system, is 49th in the world for the percentage of those representatives who are female; a mere 17.9% of it parliamentarians after the general election of June 2001. The United Kingdom is not alone in this; indeed 49th in the world is quite high in a ranking of over 200 countries. In the French parliament, for example, the figure is as low as 12.2%. These already low figures are thrown into sharper relief when compared to the Nordic states where the figures for representation range from the higher figure of 36.4% in Norway, to Sweden where 45.3% of its parliamentarians are female. If you follow the logic that a parliament should be representative of the people of the state then it would seem self-evident that the Nordic states and Sweden in particular are better at representing the female half of their population.

The question of why this is the case is something we can apply some comparative study to . by looking at the citizenship models of Britain, France, Belgium and the Nordic states . For example in Britain, moves by the labour party to increase the number of sitting female MP’s by introducing all female selection lists for election candidates were challenged in the courts and had to be dropped. It was not until they gained office that they were able to make changes to the sexual discrimination act in parliament to allow for such positive strategies in selecting female candidates. While this can be seen as a positive change it has not greatly changed the political landscape of the sexes in the United Kingdom. Contrast this with the approach taken by the Nordic states of introducing a quota system, and indeed the Belgium system where legislation was introduced stipulating that electoral lists could not contain more than a two thirds majority of any sex. Interestingly Denmark which was one of the first country’s to introduce the quota system has since abandoned it, and yet percentage of female representation has continued to expand in that country. The Danish political landscape having being originally changed by use of a quota has appeared to become self-sustaining.

Using a comparative methodology to look at politics in different states allows us to get a broad view of trends which seen in isolation tell us very little. Take the question of why participation in politics is in the decline, one which informs much debate in the United Kingdom. It is not until we look at trends in other countries however that we see that this is not a problem isolated to the United Kingdom but is endemic of most western democracies around the world over the last 50 years of the 20th century . Conjecture would have it that this is due to a high degree of contentment within these countries leading to a culture of not bothering to vote, as it makes little difference whom is in power. Oddly however this is not the case in two of the states on this list, Denmark and Sweden, where the trend towards less participation is reversed. Denmark and Sweden share a commonality in the investment in ‘social capital’ within their societies. Social capital helps to promote electoral participation. From this we can see that it is not simply a case of contentment, leading to apathy in the electoral process, leading to lower figures for voting, but perhaps a lack of social capital which leads people to feel less inclination to vote in elections. Here the comparative approach has the advantage of allowing us deeper exploration the issue of lack of participation in elections, and allows us to contend that by trying to increase the social capital within British society we may reverse this trend. Rather than the opposing view that it is simply contentment among the population, a view that many Politian’s would probably happily champion.

This lets us draw an interesting correlation of our own. This being that the two nations cited as having increased participation by the electorate, namely Denmark and Sweden are also respectively 2nd and 3rd in the world rankings for having female representation in there parliaments. While this is only a correlation and by no means proof of cause and effect, it does suggest that being more representative in parliament of the 50% or more of your population who are female leads to more interest and involvement in politics.

So strangely having women with more representation in political life will lead to more participation in politics. Because the 50.8% of the population who they make up might think that there is something in it for them.

A final note , the country where women are best represented in their parliament ,, Rowanda

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Remember remember , November can start in June ( struggling with words 1 )

Posted on August 27, 2013 by Mark Hayes

I have been trying to write a novel for years, which is to say trying to write several aborted novels since I was about 14. I still have reams of A4 pages in loose binders that have followed me around where ever I have lived for the past 32 years or so, steadily growing in size as time has gone by , until about 15 years ago when I started using word processors and stopped printing them off. I started on my dads only non-electric typewriter. Hacking out words then screwing up pages or using liberal amounts of tipex.

Over the years I have tried to write all kinds of things, from the near compulsory fantasy epic I started at 14 and typed out slowly and very very badly. (needless to say it was awful) to comic science fiction on my old amiga 500 which if nothing else made me laugh , but sadly no one else . The earlier fantasy epic had a wonderfully unintended gag in it where a warriors sword, strapped across his back kept clanking on his breast plate… oh the mirth . It never occurred to my much younger self , that the plate at the back was called a back plate ……..

Time has gone by , along with relationships , the discovery of beer, fatherhood, addiction to computer games, further addiction to world of warcraft. And I have kept on writing in fits and starts and never got very far. Sometimes I will have a huge wave of enthusiasm for a few months and start a new project which I know will come to fruition. But somewhere , somehow , something gets in the way.

Every year I have intended to do the November write a book challenge +http://nanowrimo.org/ and every year work goes its normal pre-christmas rush and it’s the one time of year I have the least time. The simple plan of writing with a bunch of others to act as a support and encouragement network appealed , but mostly the write to a time frame come hell or high water be done by the 30^th of the month, as a challenge and an aid to block procrastination appealed.

So this year, I turned over a new leaf, and made an attempt to try and write 1000 words a day, everyday on something, be it a short story, part of a larger project, or just a few ideas which never really become anything other than a descriptive piece. It sort of worked , and at the same time didn’t . but I kept trying to plug away at it before I had a moment of clarity. November can just as easily start on the 15^th of June .

So from a restless night of ideas washing over me as they do, several mind map characters of the bare bones of a story and character sketches , I launched November early. Gave myself 30 days and slung myself at a new project .

I ignored my normal tendency to fantasy and science fiction, and went for a straight forward none genre novel . because I had half an idea , and half another one, and because it avoided the pitfall of writing in my preferred reading matter and writing something I have read before.

I stripped away a lot of other tendency of mine. Rather than edit as I went along I just fired away writing, word count been everything , a target of 50000 words and daily updates to my Facebook friends to lobby encouragement became a mantra. Changing all my writing habits which had become so easy to procrastinate from. No in progress editing, no 1000 words a day and then stop, and just keep aiming for the word count.

In the end draft one ran in at 72000 words. And was completed with three days to spare, and I woke up the morning after completing it and realised I had written a novel . Actually completed it . Start to finish. I was , it has to be said , shocked .

I then had to face a whole new challenge , that of draft 2…………..

Anyway , the point of this post is a piece of advice , that been , keep plugging , change habits that are stale , and remember remember November can start in June ……..

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Fantasy Armour vs real Armour

Posted on August 27, 2013 by Mark Hayes

Armour, according to our friends at Wikipedia is protective covering used to prevent damage from being inflicted, not an astoundingly difficult concept you would have thought. Here then is a real woman in armour…

urdchama: rufftoon: samanthaswords: Champion of Longsword- Harcourt Park International Jousting Tournament, 2013 Awesome! (reblog, because we don’t see enough women in armour who are kick ass swordfighters) HNNGGGHHHH

real armour http://samanthaswords.tumblr.com/

As worn, indeed, when she became the Champion of European Long-sword at Harcourt Park International Jousting Tournament, 2013. Not woman’s champion I may add, she beat men and women to win the title. Swinging that big heavy long-sword, which though blunted for obvious reasons still weigh in at 2.5lds and swung in anger can break bones and cause no end of damage to the unprotected.
It’s a fairly safe bet therefore that when swing big heavy European longswords about, and importantly having them swung at her, a woman chose’s armour that actually protects those vital organs, bones and skin.

Fantasy armour from world of warcraft

So can you spot the difference, between real armour and fantasy armour? For it would seem to me that it is decoration rather than protection. Either that or the trio above have no actual vital organs that need protecting. The ‘real’ armour of the second picture is based on a blood elf armour set, notice the lack of protecting, well much to be honest. Even the shoulder guards do little to protect the actual shoulders…

The sad part is not that the fantasy armour is decorative rather than protective. I am not greatly concerned by this in comic books, games and movies. If that is the male equivalent in those same comic books, games and movies followed the same rules. However in general male fantasy armour is heavy, bulky, and indeed practical if overly ornate. From this one can assume the male characters have actually got vital organs to protect. Or perhaps one organ closely linked to the male ego to protect.

This is I am sure far from news to anyone. it has all been said before and better by others.
Indeed I recommend +http://repair-her-armor.tumblr.com/ as an entertaining viewpoint of the issue.

This is I know a minor rant, but it is something which seldom ceases to amaze me. I understand the intent behind decorative none functional armour, and sure it looks nice, sometimes. But occasionally it’s nice to see some fantasy try and be a little more realistic, and a little less, here’s her boob’s insert your sword here…