Write the night away, and dream the day away…

It’s that time of year again. When the days are getting longer, sunnier, and warmer, and all I want to do is roam, free as a bird, and take in the atmosphere of an approaching summer.

Then there are the exams. And essays. Those big bullies. They force me to remain inside, locked up in my room, or behind big glass windows in the library, laughing at me as I longingly look out on the sun-bathed city and harbour.

This year, another bully has joined the others. A bigger and badder bully than the rest. His name is Rugby World Cup. And he teases me with the prospect of drinking and partying all night long, and having a lazy as day the next day.

But my brain, bullied and beaten, recoils from its dark corner, and tells me that no matter how tempting it is to give in to the bullies’ taunts and bad influence, I must focus on my assignments first and foremost. And so I try to do that.

On the first day I wrote 1,100 words on a 2,500-2,800 word film essay. On the second day I added another 1,000 words. On the third day I decided to try a different approach and started all over again; 660 words on the third day. On the fourth day the New Zealand national rugby team, the All Blacks, were playing Australia in the world cup semi-final. Words written: 0. Beers consumed: roughly 7.

I can’t know the meaning of self-discipline unless I cave in once or twice, right?

On the fifth day, I woke up at 11am and then spent almost 4 hours reading Harry Potter. Word count so far: 281. On assignment: Zero.

Time to turn the day upside down and live out my fantasies while I’m awake and spend the dark hours writing without interruption…

Opting out

 

A couple of days ago I was asked by the editor of the local newspaper in my home town back in Norway to participate as a blogger on their new website due to be launched in a couple of weeks’ time, and I’m absolutely thrilled to say that I agreed to do it. I’m not yet sure exactly what it involves, all I know is that I’ll be sharing the task with 7 other people, each posting once every 8 weeks. Another blog to maintain, excellent. That ought to get my creative juices flowing.

Speaking of, I have a theory that Facebook kills my creativity. Lately I’ve been trying to study for my exams, so naturally I have spent a good 18 hours every day procrastinating on Facebook. And in less than two weeks my exams will be over, so I’ll go back to spending on average 8-10 hours a day on Facebook again. This has got to stop. So today I made an executive decision to deactivate my Facebook account for an uncertain period of time – all I know is that I will not activate it again until after my exams are over. If I’m past the sweaty palms and fevered dreams stage due to my abstinence from Facebook at this point, I will consider extending my absence indefinitely, to see if this will increase my attention to various creative projects I have started but not made any progress on lately.

This desire to be creative (and thus, to do something to make it happen) has been greatly spurred on over the last few days by the drama surrounding the production of The Hobbit, with the latest reports saying that Warner Brothers have decided to move the production offshore. Apparently they want to shoot it in a studio in England, where they shot Harry Potter. I am simply outraged by this development. Ever since I first heard that The Hobbit was going to be made into a film I’ve had mixed feelings about it, because ever since I first read the book, I’ve wanted to be involved in the making of the film version (preferably I would be the one making it). So at first I was against Sir Peter Jackson directing it. Then they announced that Guillermo del Toro would be the director, and I decided that I’d rather have PJ direct to keep things consistent with the mood and feeling of the LotR trilogy. Then GDT dropped out, and the whole thing was stuck in limbo for a while. It hadn’t been greenlit, the studio was bankrupt, there was no director – the problems seemed to be neverending, and the film destined not to be made. Then, just as we heard words of progress, some Australian douchebag union decided to royally fuck things up. There was a boycott of the film, demonstrations, marches, secret meetings, press statements, verbal abuse, anxiety, still no green light – and all of a sudden came the press release from the studios that the film had been greenlit, PJ would direct, and shooting would commence in February 2011. But wait… There was nothing about where it would be shot.

The fight instantly on between a handful of countries all wanting not just a slice of the cake but the whole goddamn thing, The Hobbit seemed set to be pried from the shores of Aotearoa. Tax breaks, cheap labour, no Australian unions – England, Scotland, Canada and several Eastern European countries all put their offers on the table, and Warner Brothers took the bait. According to the newspapers today, representatives are coming down to New Zealand next week to arrange the moving of the production offshore. After all this time, New Zealand is set to lose one of the bound to be biggest franchises of the next decade.

One of the main reasons I decided to study in Wellington was that The Hobbit was supposed to be made in Wellington during my stay here (originally there were reports that shooting would commence in March this year, but we all know that never happened), and now that is no longer the case, and the long-term effects of this move is likely to more or less shut down the smaller film industry in Wellington, I see no future for me here. Maybe I should transfer to London? I hear they make some films over there…

Caught in my immobile flight

Oh, the choices I have to make…

I’m currently sitting in my flat, trying to write a really important essay about Atonement, but my motivation is hiding (I think it might be hibernating) somewhere, so instead I’m just wasting time and playing around with everything that I shouldn’t be doing at the moment, like updating my blog, taking photos and listening to music (some music from The Lord of the Rings just started playing, so now I want to watch that). As you can tell, I’m also keen to read Harry Potter rather than write about that other friggin book. Besides, it’s so unbelievably cold in my flat at the moment; I think that’s why my brain has shut down. I’m unconsciously trying to conserve energy to heat up my body. I’ve put on three layers of clothes, slippers, gloves, a scarf and my bath robe, I’ve had a cup of tea and held my hands under boiling water, and I’m still freezing cold. Good to know that winter is just getting started…

To be quite honest, writing this blog entry has revived some of my brain, probably because I love to write when it’s not for something that someone else is telling me to do – I should get back to my essay while it lasts.

An anecdote

I just remembered something. I was sitting on my bed just now, with a bowl of Cadbury ice cream in one hand and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in the other hand, listening to The All-American Rejects and thinking that I should close the curtains, because it’s dark outside now, and people can see in more easily. Realising this, I also realised that I often change clothes and/or get undressed in my room without closing the curtains first. My across-the-road neighbours must love me. But that’s not what I was planning on sharing. What I had in mind was something that just came back to me, which happened a couple of weeks ago.

Like some of you might know, I live at the top end of a long, steep road, and on the day I’m telling you about I was walking down the road to catch the bus into town. The road is lined by houses on both sides, which are mostly occupied by students. This day my walk down the road started out like any other day, I was listening to my iPod and minding my own business, when all of a sudden I looked up, turned my head to stare at the buildings on the right side of the road and saw, to my astonishment, about four people sitting on the roof of one of the highest houses. They were happily chatting away with each other, and when they saw me staring at them, they waved at me, and I waved back. To put it MLIA style: I still have no idea what they were doing sitting up on the roof, or how they got up there. I have not seem them up there since. Either way, it easily made my day.

Motivated

Sadly I’ve been feeling less than averagely motivated to read my course books lately, so to boost my love for reading and hopefully find some motivation, I went to a book shop today and bought Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone… I’m sitting here staring at it now, wondering if it was such a good idea after all. I know what’s going to happen when I start reading it. I won’t be able to put it down until I’ve finished it, and no more studying will have been done. But I say what the heck, I deserve to have fun and to find my inner child every now and then. Hogwarts – here I come.