Out for a while / Fora una temporada

During the next month -or at least until mid-December- I don't think I'll be able to post anything. I'll be abroad and for many reasons, ranging from luggage limitations to an imperious need to unplug myself from the Net I won't take my laptop with me. Tomorrow I'll leave Catalonia to spend 10 days in Tokyo and when I'll come back I'll only stay here for a week before going to Leeds to attend to my Master's graduation ceremony and also to visit quite a few friends, so I don't think I'll have much time to write anyway. However this doesn't mean I won't do anything for nearly a month. I'll just change the medium and try to come up with new ideas and/or points of view without worrying about their actual implementations. I'll use all the time I'll spend on trains and planes to focus on the concepts, and to write down all these things I'll use two small notebooks I'll carry with me all the time.

The first one is an old Jack Daniel's notebook I've had for more than four years. It was where I wrote the first drafts and outlines of what ended up being The Castoffs. Apart from a few pages the whole notebook's dedicated to it. I've worked a lot on computers and most of the information contained in the notebook it's either generic or dated, but it always reminds me of how it all started and it also makes me aware of how I've improved as a storyteller. I still carry it with me many times, there are still blank pages and it's the best place for me to write ideas on The Castoffs.

The second notebook I'll take with me is a Moleskine I'll use to take notes on many different things. I'll work on all the projects I've told you about, but more importantly I'll take notes on the travels themselves, especially while in Tokyo. I've always wanted to visit Japan and now that I'm finally going I want to take as much profit as possible from the experience, obviously taking loads of pictures but also writing down feelings, images, sounds, situations... everything noteworthy that will come to my mind during the ten days I'll spend there. I tried to do that when I went to Cuba two years ago and although I wrote quite a few pages I didn't feel as I had succeeded in my purpose. But this time's different.

Concerning the future, apart from everything you already know when I'll come back Xavi and I have something in mind. The Castoffs' new draft is nearly finished, and as we want to make the project visible we've thought of a side project related to it that we can have finished in a relatively short period of time. We know what we want to do, so when I'll come back we'll get some things ready and then I'll write a post about it. We're even thinking of starting a crowdsourcing campaign to raise a small amount of money to do it properly. Succeeding would be both helpful and a morale boost as it would mean there's actually a few people interested in our work. Well, I won't say anything else by now... see you in a while!

Durant el proper mes -o al menys fins mitjans de desembre- no crec que pugui publicar res. Seré a l'estranger i per diversos motius, que van de les limitacions d'equipatge a la necessitat imperiosa de desconnectar-me de la xarxa durant un temps, no m'enduré el portàtil. Demà me'n vaig de Catalunya per passar 10 dies a Tòquio, i quan torni només seré per aquí una setmana abans d'anar a Leeds, a la cerimònia de graduació del meu màster i a visitar uns quants amics, de manera que tampoc tindria gaire temps per escriure. De tota manera això no vol pas dir que no faré res durant un mes. Només canviaré el suport i intentaré trobar noves idees i/o punts de vista sense preocupar-me de com s'implementarien. Faré servir tot el temps que passaré en trens i avions per concentrar-me en els conceptes, i per escriure totes aquestes coses faré servir un parell de llibretes que duré al damunt tota l'estona.

La primera és una vella llibreta de Jack Daniel's que he tingut durant més de quatre anys. Va ser on vaig escriure els primers esborranys i resums del que va acabar sent The Castoffs. A banda d'unes quantes pàgines tota la llibreta hi està dedicada. He treballat molt en ordinadors i a banda d'unes quantes pàgines la informació que conté és genèrica o antiga, però sempre em recorda com va començar tot i em fa ser conscient de com ha millorat la meva manera d'explicar històries. Encara la duc al damunt moltes vegades, encara li queden pàgines en blanc i és el millor lloc on escriure idees per The Castoffs.

La segona llibreta que m'enduré és una Moleskine que faré servir per diverses coses. Hi treballaré en tots els projectes dels quals us he parlat, però el que és més important és que hi prendré notes sobre els viatges en sí, especialment mentre sigui a Tòquio. Sempre he volgut visitar el Japó i ara que finalment hi vaig vull aprofitar l'experiència el màxim possible, evidentment fent moltíssimes fotos però també anotant les sensacions, imatges, sons, situacions... tot allò que em vingui al cap durant els deu dies que passaré allà i que valgui la pena apuntar. Ja vaig intentar fer-ho quan vaig anar a Cuba fa dos anys, i tot i que vaig escriure unes quantes pàgines no vaig sentir que hagués complert el meu objectiu. Però aquesta vegada és diferent.

Pel que fa al futur, a banda del que ja sabeu en Xavi i jo tenim una cosa al cap per quan torni. El nou esborrany de The Castoffs gairebé està acabat, i com que volem donar-li visibilitat hem pensat en un projecte derivat que podem fer en un període de temps relativament curt. Sabem el que volem fer, de manera que quan torni prepararem unes quantes coses i aleshores escriuré un post explicant-vos-ho. Fins i tot estem pensant a iniciar una campanya de crowdsourcing per aconseguir una petita quantitat de diners per fer-ho bé. Sortir-nos-en seria alhora una gran ajuda i una injecció de moral, perquè voldria dir que realment hi ha unes quantes persones a qui els interessa la nostra feina. Bé, de moment no en diré res més... fins aviat!

Another project (as if I didn't have enough) / Un altre projecte (com si no en tingués prous)

I started writing a book a few days ago. I don't even know why I did it. I happened to be working in another project and couldn't find the way to keep on with it. I found myself stuck, so I just opened a new document and started writing. I didn't have the slightest idea of where it would lead me to. I just wrote. A few pages later I realised I had came up with what seemed to be the first chapters of a novel. I also wrote some random chapters that didn't follow the previous ones, as I was writing without an order or plan of any kind. But those chapters also had their place in a story I wasn't even aware I was writing. 

Then, all of a sudden, I saw it clearly. I don't mean to sound arty at all. I know perfectly the writer's craftsman side. However at that point I foresaw a glimpse of the work, a clear yet fleeting vision of what I wanted to write. I also understood many things of the way those chapters were written, and also why did I started writing in Catalan, and how did I wanted to write. I don't mean to convince anybody I started writing a lifetime's masterpiece or even that I'll finish it -I intend to, though-, I just want to share that moment of illumination, when everything falls into place and you see crystal clear what you want to do, the way you want to do it and, what's more important, your reasons to do it. I won't explain them here -they're too personal-, but I would like to point out something that's so obvious we sometimes forget: Knowing your motivations when creating is also getting to know yourself, and it may help improving both you and your work. Or, as Hank Moody put it on Californication, "I'm not going to a fuckin' shrink! I'm a writer, we don't get that shit away like that, we're better than that!" 

I may post an excerpt later on, once I'll have everything clearly defined. After all, the vision you get only lasts for an moment. Now's time to take a leap into the creative vortex and let things flow, without ever forgetting it doesn't always flow and that, even when it does, it's still a matter of working hard. I actually had a quite important block right after that, as if that "revelation" had spent most of my creative energy and I needed time to be productive. But then again, it's just my way to explain it. I could be completely wrong but it's OK as it works fine for me. As always I'll keep you up to date with this project... after all I haven't said much about it yet.

Fa uns quants dies vaig començar a escriure un llibre. No sé per què ho vaig fer. Estava treballant en un altre projecte i no trobava la manera d'avançar. Em vaig sentir encallat, de manera que vaig obrir un document nou i vaig començar a escriure. No tenia ni la més mínima idea d'on em duria. Unes quantes pàgines després em vaig adonar que tenia a les mans el que semblaven els primers capítols d'una novel·la. També vaig escriure uns quants capítols que no seguien els anteriors, escrivint sense cap tipus d'ordre ni de pla. Però aquells capítols també teníen el seu lloc en una història que ni tan sols era conscient d'estar escrivint.

Aleshores, de sobre, ho vaig veure clar. No voldria sonar massa "artista". Conec perfectament la vessant artesana de l'escriptor. Tot i això, en aquell moment vaig veure un flaix de l'obra, una visió clara però fugaç del que volia escriure. També vaig entendre moltes coses de la manera com havia escrit aquells capítols i també per què havia començat a escriure en català. No vull pas convèncer a ningú de que he començat a escriure l'obra magna de la meva vida o ni tan sols de que l'acabaré -tot i que espero fer-ho-, només volia compartir aquest moment d'il·luminació, quan tot encaixa i veus perfectament què vols fer, com ho vols fer i, sobretot, les teves raons per fer-ho. No les explicaré aquí -són massa personals-, però voldria destacar quelcom que, de tant obvi, de vegades oblidem: Coneixer les pròpies motivacions a l'hora de crear també és conèixer-se a un mateix, i pot ajudar a que milloris tant tu com la teva feina. O, com ho va expressar en Hank Moody a Californication: "No aniré a un cony de psiquiatre! Sóc escriptor, no ens treiem la merda del damunt d'aquesta manera, som millors que tot això!"

Segurament penjaré algun fragment més endavant, quan ho tingui tot definit clarament. Al cap i a la fi la visió només dura un instant. Ara és l'hora de llançar-me al remolí creatiu i deixar que tot flueixi, sense oblidar que no sempre flueix i que, fins i tot quan ho fa, encara és qüestió de treballar fort. De fet vaig patir un bloqueig bastant important després d'allò, com si aquella "revelació" hagués gastat la major part de la meva energia creativa i necessités temps per tornar a ser productiu. Però, al cap i a la fi, aquesta només és la meva manera d'explicar-ho. Podria estar completament equivocat, però mentre em funcioni a mi ja em sembla bé. Com sempre us mantindré al dia d'aquest projecte... fet i fet encara no n'he dit gran cosa.

The Castoffs - Sneak Peek (II)

The conflict's last act was the brutal assault to Desbia. Many of its inhabitants died during the Great Council's last stand. The city was partially razed by the Prince's fleet and lots of buildings collapsed either totally or partially. The new Governor gave priority to make the port and the market operational again and to repair the Palace and the city's defensive elements, so the inhabitants had to rebuild their houses with the materials they had at hand. The remains of the defeated fleet turned out to be a very useful source for the survivors, that repaired holes and cracks with the debris. Other buildings remained abandonned, either because of their state made them impossible to repair or because their inhabitants were dead. Despite all this, two years later the city had somehow recovered from the tragedy, and although the Prince maintained a tight grip on it through the Governor everything was slowly coming back to normal... or that's what it seemed.

Illustration by Xavier Ren.




El darrer acte del conflicte va ser el brutal assalt a Dèsbia. Molts dels seus habitants van morir en l'última defensa del Gran Consell. La ciutat va ser parcialment arrassada i molts edificis es van esfondrar totalment o parcial. El nou Governador va donar prioritat a restablir el funcionament del port i el mercat i a reparar el Palau i les defenses de la ciutat, de manera que els habitants van haver de reconstruïr les seves cases amb els materials que tenien a mà. Les restes de la flota derrotada van resultar ser una font molt útil pels supervivents, que van reparar forats i esquerdes amb les deixalles. Altres edificis van romandre abandonats, ja fos perquè el seu estat els feia impossibles de reparar o perquè els seus habitants eren morts. Tot i això, dos anys després d'alguna manera la ciutat s'havia recuperat de la tragèdia i tot i que el Príncep mantenia un ferri control a través del Governador tot estava tornant lentament a la normalitat... o això és el que semblava.

Il·lustració d'en Xavier Ren.