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November Update

12 Nov

004Okay, as promised. An update.

The final battle scene is complete. I am rolling forward toward the climax of the main plot line. At this point the words flow as I feel the end is near. I can’t wait for the main character to figure out what has really been going on. I’ve known for sometime where he was heading, but the journey has been a little surprising to me.

I’m still aiming to type ‘The End’ before December 1, 2014. We shall see. My number one test reader calls me every few days to make sure my fingers continue to hit the keys. I type slowly and sometimes I get frustrated that I can’t snap my fingers and see what’s in my head, on the screen. But…it continues to move forward and that’s the key.

For a change I have not been thinking about the revisions that are to come. I’m not thinking about scenes that need more depth. The focus is on getting what’s in my head loaded to the hard drive of my laptop where it will be safe for a time.

So, progress is being made. The ‘Good’ word count grows.

 
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Posted by on November 12, 2014 in Thoughts on Writing

 

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Just Weird!

14 Feb

Have you every sat down to do something and the next thing you know a whole day has gone by? It’s been eleven days since my last post and for the life of me, I have no idea where the time went. It’s not like when I was unemployed for five months and would play Harpoon on my IBM Model 50z from 9:00 PM until 3:00 AM. I knew what I was doing then. I was a conscious choice. I was trying to escape the fact that 250 resumes were sent out to 250 companies and only two interviews were generated. If you have to take off your shoes to figure out the numbers, that’s 248 reject letters!!! But I digress.

I got a flash update on MAVEN ans the next thing I know it’s Friday morning a week later and I don’t know where the time went. There is some good news. Wherever the time went, at least some of it went towards the WIP. Progress is being made and the writing habit I set out to create this year seems to be working. As you’ll see later even that had huge amounts of weirdness. Now that I know I lost time, I’ve been trying to find it. It’s strange there are just blank spots that I can’t account for. All of the important stuff got done like paying bills loving on the cats, and going to work. So, I was at least functioning physically. Quite strange.

Have you ever gone back to review your writing progress and determined that your word count for the last week has been EXACTLY the same everyday? I kid you, not! Every day since the 3rd the number of words spilling out of my head and into the laptop as been EXACTLY the same!!! The time spent writing varies from day-to-day by anywhere from five to twenty minutes.

So, what gives? Any ideas? Today is the full moon so that can’t be it. The waxing moon is my high energy period of the month. Maybe that plays into it? But, why do I write the same number of words? The scenes have been different in nature and feel. The one constant, which has been so for well beyond the period in question, has been writing have been fun. I like what’s coming out and it seems to be working. The muse is not fussing and the internal editor has gone south to get out of the extreme cold we’ve been dealing with.

Maybe this weirdness is a good thing? Oh, oh. i got an idea for the beaded moccasin scene, gotta go. See you later.

 
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Posted by on February 14, 2014 in Other Strangeness

 

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21 Days to a New Habit

19 Dec

How many of you NaNoWriMo winners have continued to crank out 2,000 words a day since December 1st? 1,000 words? 500 words? Threw the computer out the window and swore never again would my fingers touch a keyboard? If you have continued to write every day since 12/1, regardless of the word count, your are ahead of the curve.

Two grand a day is a lot of flippin words. Especially for someone with a full-time job or with several kids in the house. I’m not sure I could do it for a week, let alone a month. My hat goes off to you who did it. But, the real takeaway as I see it, is if you wrote every day for thirty days, you created a habit. Whether you want to believe it or not, you did. The experts say it takes twenty-one days to create or break a habit. Even if you did not reach the ultimate 50,000 words, you sat down and wrote something every day for thirty days.

So…since you went to all that work to create a habit, are you going to let yourself slip back into your past self?

I realize that, with my snail’s pace typing skills and my need to pay the bills and keep my wife smiling, I will not create 2,000 words a day anytime soon. However, I am three days away from creating a habit of writing every day, averaging 500 words a day, and moving my WIP forward in the process. The plan is to continue this habit going forward. I keep finding ways to put writing off and then I kick myself in the butt and go to the keyboard.

Creating the habit is the tough part. Forcing yourself to do it no matter what takes sadistic discipline with masochistic tendencies. Those of you reading “50 Shades of Whatever” can jump in here. Once you reach the 21 day mark, you have dealt with the majority of obstacles that might come your way. Why stop?

I will see if I can finish creating a writing habit and maintain it.  I will comment once in a while on my progress.

My question for you is this. If you created the Writing Habit and let it get away, why?

 
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Posted by on December 19, 2012 in Thoughts on Writing

 

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Christmas letters

10 Dec

I’ve been working our this year’s family Christmas letter. Some times it is a major chore. But, this year I am enjoying it more. Partially because I’m happy this trying year is about over, partially because it helps build a writing habit, and partially because Shannon M. Howell is letting me include it in the FAD challenge word count. 🙂

Holiday letters are an interesting writing form. Some are like a status report on the health and welfare of the family in question. Others go into great detail of the goings on of the family over the last twelve months. Still others consist of a picture, usually of a child or children with a few words about each child. Some individuals look forward to receiving these letters from friends and family during the holidays. Others see it as corny and a waste of time.

Mine falls under the second category. You see, with me,  it is tradition. Just prior to my mother’s passing, she gave each of her children a copy of every Christmas letter she had drafted for the last twenty years. It was a surprise for us and something that meant a great deal to her.

My mother took great pains in drafting these letters. Each family member had their own paragraph that detail their achievements. Sometimes she would allow us to add something that we thought was important. Reading back through these letters is like looking in a mirror at what we used to do and what made us who we are. Those who write memoirs would do well to save these letters as they contain ideas and stories you may have long forgotten about.

I will draft the letter this year. It will include the sorrow of losing my wife’s mother and our last cat, Libby. It will also include publishing an article for a magazine, the purchase of a lake cabin, and fishing with my wife. We will send it out to those we know and love. And we will wish every one of them and healthy and happy holiday season. Hopefully, they will enjoy the mini-memoir that is our family tradition.

 
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Posted by on December 10, 2012 in Other Strangeness

 

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