Tag: Writing

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On Writing: Progress.

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6823 words written in January I thought was a strong start to the year. I am happy with this. In February and March, I had trouble keeping up the momentum falling to 4719 and 4577 words. April 8069 words.

The Ballad of Black Tom on Kobo

My goal is 250 words a day. Some days I reach close to 500, others 1000. The goal of 250 words a day is not that unreachable and I can make it within the thirty or so minutes I have to write. It’s fairly funny to see that in February I fell to 3190 since I had even set aside a weekend to give all my attention to writing and revising but instead spent it relaxing and reading The Ballad of Black Tom. My wife and I did manage to play a couple of games, several short of what I had wanted to do but, our baby was with us so life- well, didn’t belong to us alone.

In either case, both February and March were months filled with a lot of extra events that took time and energy. Goals for the year didn’t receive 100% of my attention. Add to the mix beyond family and work, I am truly thankful that I had any chance to do any writing and get everything else in.

A great win in early March is that I finished my first solid draft of my first novella. This is a big step for me who has written nothing beyond eBay, Facebook posts or Tweets.

What am I talking about here? In 2014 I decided to start trying to write. In college I majored in English Lit., so writing is not beyond me- for those that really know me. I wrote a lot in college and highschool. I enjoy writing and always have. Something happened where I realized the work it would take to get as good as I wanted to be just wasn’t in me- but this is another topic for another occasion.

When I picked up the quill again I wrote different things- I started this blog, review- well, ‘blog’ thing. Being able to occasionally play some D&D, I wrote some short adventures-never finished them though. I further wrote short bits, bits that I find out now are scenes. I was calling then ‘vignettes,’ but there were scenes. The difference to me is that a scene is part of a larger body of work. A vignette is something unto itself. My scenes comprised things like a pair of adventurers running down an old hallway pursued by a pack of goblins. A lonely man contemplating his life. An alien being found here on earth and peoples reactions to it. You get the idea and yes, there was a strong Sci-fy bent to everything. I also found myself taking notes on a fantasy world. I had no sense of what I would do with these notes, but I started making them. I justified them that when I started to write something significant- these became the foundation of that larger work.

The foundation became big, and I needed a place for this foundation to be part of, so a map was in order. And it snowballed. Pictures and maps and notes. Index cards are my friends and preferred mode of note taking so I keep index cards around me and these I use for my little sketches of places and things in my fantasy world I creating. So my little idea was getting bigger. My writing progress is forward but feelings more like a welcome release of all the multitude of ideas I’ve been working on for the last several years. This 250 words a day has led me to developing a habit of 250 words a day and a finished novella. That’s pretty good, in my estimation.

The Ballad of Black Tom on Kobo

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About Reading: Prior to 2018

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I’m uncertain when it happened or precisely how it happened but sometime ago I decided to read everything and practically anything. So the benefit of this was I found new authors I liked and read multiple bits of their writing. The disadvantage of this was that I read a few I didn’t care for.

I have read romance, thriller, horror, Science-fiction and fantasy, some nonfiction, and the rare western. I honestly recognize I am the better for it. Wanting to write and pursuing writing, people tell you to read and to read in the genre you want to work in and I do a lot of that. The added plus is that I can read a fantasy mystery and see it for what it is, a re-skin of a mystery novel. The way I write and my choice in reading material has benefited from it.

It’s benefited my work by giving me a new perspective on things and to make some of my writing more three-dimensional. What do I mean by this? I like high fantasy or any fantasy and some of the current mash-ups do that -mash two or more genre’s together- brilliantly.

I feel my writing usually does mash-up other genres into one and sometimes I’m successful and other times I’m not very- but being exposed to different genres gives me the ability to view where I fail or succeed.

Some books I read before 2018 that I cannot give high enough praise to- (no I’m not set up right now to get anything from using these link… obligatory frowny face… but the authors will if you buy them!)

Justice Calling (The Twenty-Sided Sorceress) (Volume 1) by Annie Bellet

The Vagrant by Peter Newman

The Bow of Destiny: An Epic Fantasy Adventure by P.H. Solomon

The Savage Song by Victoria Schwab

The Copper Promise by Jen Williams

The Goon Squad stuff by Jonathan L. Howard  This is a series of short stories- sort of like a serialized novel.

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On Writing: Finding Time

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Finding Time! Early in the morning is the only time I consistently have.

I am doing this part of my blog with the sole purpose of discussing writing, the process and execution of it in my everyday life. Writing is something that has taken on a larger facet of importance in my life recently. For several years, writing was almost too painful. I don’t know the reason for this, and there may have been no other reason other than I wasn’t ready.

Since 2014, writing and telling stories has become fun for me and I have a strong sense of personal freedom with it. I had the same feeling of personal freedom when writing when I was in school. I loved writing so much I used to say, “I want to be a writer when I grow up.” I read voraciously- everything but that is a topic for another post.

I have not always been so successful at writing. Even recently, writing is a challenge for me. But that isn’t the way it’s always been or will always be. Just in this past January 2018 I completed a 24,000 word novella.

My challenges with writing are along the lines of when exactly do I find time to do it. I think time and trying to find time to write is going to the primary focus of this article. Another challenge I face is the feeling that my writing isn’t good enough- which is a topic for another post.

Time is a premium not just for me but for everyone. Between work and family and other stuff who has time for anything else, especially something like writing? What I have done to cope with this problem, is get up early in the morning usually between 430 and 515 and write for 30 to 45 minutes. I’ve read other writers who do this and it works for them too.

This has worked great for me over the last six months but doesn’t mean I did it every day. What it means is that I had a designated time which I could write and that’s all I expected myself to do. I did it when I could. The days I missed, I did not beat myself up over. Some days I wrote multiple times and the results showed.

Now, some readers may think I’ve oversimplified this. But I have come to feel if you want something bad enough you somehow make time for it. This is with everything in life. There are things that slip through the cracks. You forget to get a birthday card in the mail or call someone. These aren’t any less important, but you have so many things going on you forget something. Sometimes, this has been very awkward and painful.

Writing assumes the level of importance in your life much like these other things.

Set aside a designated time to write. When you miss it, remember tomorrow and when you have opportunities for more time, take advantage of them.