Tag Archives: write

March 31, 2013 · 9:20 pm

Bloggin’

With my waning, most likely, undiagnosed bronchitis on the one hand and wedding plan on the other, I haven’t had much time for blogging. I’m not asking for forgiveness, since most of you are spambots and were not offended anyway, I’m just offering up an explanation why I haven’t been able to stick to my blog schedule at all.

In truth, blogging and writing have slid so far down the list of priorities that I’m having trouble seeing them. I feel like I’ve been phoning it in the last couple of months as my job has managed to drain most of my energy in a surprising fashion.

I keep plugging away and hoping that something is going to happen, but all that’s really happening is I’m beat after work and during the weekend, I do not want to sit in front of my computer after doing that all week long. I at least have a hobby now, which I’ve maintained for a surprising amount of time, but now I want something else.

The blog has to change. The format has to change. I’m not feelin’ it and you’re not feelin’ it.

Let’s work together.

Throw some ideas up and see what we get.

-D-

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March 13, 2013 · 8:32 pm

Starting Anew

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve decided to start a new blog and it’s been a startling experience. In the last two days, I’ve written four entries. They didn’t require soul searching or deep thinking or effort to write.
And that hasn’t been the case here for a very long time. Often, I struggle to come up with ideas or concepts to write about. That’s a big reason why you get to sit through new features every other day.
But the new bog has a single focus and a single point of conversation to start from. I know what I’m going to be writing about the moment I sit down. And while that sounds constricting, it’s actually freeing. It frees me from paralyzing choice.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still be writing here twice a week, but this other blog has given me ideas about how to energize this blog.
That’s a good thing and I’m looking forward to the next few weeks.
-D-

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February 17, 2013 · 2:04 pm

Playing in Someone Else’s Playground

I’ve been working on a story to submit that takes place in an already established universe and the experience has been…interesting, to say the least.

When I’m writing for myself, it’s fairly speedy. I make up the rules for the world and away I go, only stopping because I saw something shiny on the internet. The story will be fully formed in my head and I’ll usually only change things based on the story itself.

But because I’m playing in someone else’s world, I have to abide by the rules. Which means research. Lots and lots and lots of research. Keeping in mind that I only have to write a thousand word sample, I would say that I’ve devoted a good three or four hours to just reading articles and books to make sure that what I’m writing makes sense within the confines of the world. And this is a lot for someone who never does research when they write.

I’ll write for a little bit, then wonder if I can actually do what I’ve done and then head back onto wikipedia. And then go back and erase three hundred words. It’s a jarring and jolting process, like riding in a car driven by someone who doesn’t know how to drive stick; I go forward a foot, jerk to a violent stop, roll back a few feet and start again.

But, in a way, it’s freeing. Most of the heavy lifting has been taken off of my shoulders. I can just focus on the plot and the characters without spending too much time on world building. Its a shift in priorities and a different type of writing that I’m enjoying and fits better into the time I have available.

So, maybe, in a few months I’ll be contributing to someone else’s universe and then I can take another whack at my own worlds.

-D-

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February 3, 2013 · 5:41 pm

Sample Size

I’m submitting a story to a site that does not want the whole story, that just want a five hundred word sample from the story. At first, this sounded like simplicity itself. I can write five hundred words in twenty minutes. Boom, done.
But then I really began to think about the implications. They needed to be the best five hundred words I could possibly write. in a very small amount of space, I need to sell the entire ten thousand story.
I began to review the entire the entire story based on those first five hundred words. I realized that I needed to tighten the plot and shift the focus. I re-worked the idea for everything to make sure that the sample I was sending would immediately grab the reader.
And that’s how it always should be. If the beginning of your story doesn’t grab the reader immediately, then the rest of the story is irrelevant. You can’t expect anyone to wade through a boring or uninspired beginning in the hopes that stuff will get more exciting.
And it only took a submission process to help me relearn extreme basics.

-D-

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January 1, 2013 · 2:59 pm

I Do Resolve

As has become a tradition, I will spend today not looking at how I goofed up last year’s resolutions, but looking at how I can improve for the following year. As I grow ever older, I’m learning more and more about myself; not just in how I need to improve, but in the best way to improve. For example:

1. This year I want to write two to three blog entries a week. Last year I resolved to write ten blog entries a month and I succeeded, though there were a few months that the last week of the month was loaded down with last minute entries. While I don’t necessarily want to increase the number of entries I write this year, I want do want to increase their regularity. Previous attempts to write on specific days failed miserably. I would get so hung up on trying to write on Monday/Wednesday/Friday that I if missed those specific days, I wouldn’t feel the need to make up the day on Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday/Sunday. With this new resolution, you get the same amount of content, spread out regularly through the month and, hopefully, less last minute, badly written entries.

2. I hesitate to mention writing projects. I’ve found through my own experience that announcing a writing project or a planned writing project removes all of my interest in actually carrying out the project. So secret resolutions go here.

3. I want to run, continuously, around the reservoir. In the last few weeks, I’ve fallen away from my running, but hell, this is the time to get back on old horses. It’s always better to pick a specific goal rather than a general one (I will be able to run two miles in five minutes versus I will run more), so as my first running goal I want to be able to run completely around the local reservoir without stopping. I hope, truly hope, it won’t take all year to do, but once I accomplish this goal, I can adjust accordingly and choose a new target.

4. I want to expand my cooking knowledge. I want to plan a series of recipes to make throughout the year, some difficult, some less so, but right now my recipe repertoire is a little lacking. Cooking, to me, is like magic, but, you know, real. The ability to make a good meal, a meal that people want to eat, is an ability worth having. My end goal this year is to make….bouillabaisse. Don’t ask why I chose this. Maybe because it’s French and French cooking has a certain something about it. Maybe it’s because Alton Brown talked me into it with an episode on making bouillabaisse. Maybe because it seems difficult, but doable. Whatever the reason, it’s one more goal for the year. To make bouillabaisse.

And that’s it for goals I have for the whole year. I have other things I want to do and accomplish, but they’re small projects or events or none of your business (for now). I hope there’ll be some exciting things in store for ya’ll.

In the meantime, enjoying a metric ton of beer reviews.

-D–

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November 30, 2012 · 9:15 pm

I Have Done It

It took me three tries and a lot of elbow grease, but I did it. I beat NANOWRIMO.

It’s hard for me to be ecstatic right off the bat. For the most part, I just feel tired. And I hate my book. I think it’s a dreadful thing, only fit for burning and as quickly as possible.

But, as the organizers of NANOWRIMO are so fond of saying, it’s not the quality that matters here. It’s about actually completing a novel. And I’ve done that. I’ve written 50,000 words of complete and utter terrible that will never see the light of day.

It’s an accomplishment that I’m not proud of. I will never mention it in polite company. I will not bandy it about in front of the relatives. It is my secret victory.

More important to me is the fact that I wrote something everyday for the last two months. I am very close to completing the 66 days necessary to form a good habit. It already feels very strange not to write. I feel a need to write now, a strong desire to sit in front of my computer and actually get some work done.

And my computer does not feel so much like a toy or an entertainment device. It feels like a place where I work.

So, thank you NANOWRIMO. I feel more like a writer, though not like a particularly good one.

Baby steps.

-D-

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November 26, 2012 · 7:37 pm

Push it to the Limit

Writing every day and for between 1500 to 2000 words at a time (and sometimes more) has been one of the harder things I’ve done. It’s not about the amount of words. I can write that much in an hour and then I’m done. That’s not bragging, at least I don’t think it is. 1000 words does not take much effort to put down on paper, if you actually care about those words anyway.

No, it was the writing everyday and pushing myself to write every day. It’s the writing when I’m worn out from work and all I want to do is drink beer and watch a bad movie and listen to loud music. It’s writing when all I want to do is forget about what words look like and what a page is and when I just want to throw my computer through a window because I…just…can’t…type…one…more…word.

I’m not one of those people who’s very good at finding deep reserves of inner strength just as they’re fading and about to lose the big race. I’m more the person who says, “Well, I guess that’s that” stop running and walk away.

I have wanted to give this up. It’s such an awful book. It’s such a drain on my time and energy and I’m tired of sitting here and creating a shitty book that should not and will not see the light of day. And it is a shitty book, filled with purple prose and weird, hateful little people and monstrous imagery that disturbs me and disturbs me further when I realize I came up with it.

But…I will not let this be the arena in which I lay down and die, rather than just struggle on for those precious few inches. I will find that last bit of energy, I will find those secret reserves. I will dig deep. I will find the eye of the tiger. I will rage, rage against the dying of the light.

I will finish this shitty book, because it tasks me. It tasks me. And if my chest were a mortar I would burst my heart upon it. For hate’s sake, I will finish this novel.

For hate’s sake, I spit my last breath…at thee.

-D-

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November 12, 2012 · 8:26 pm

A Confession

It was, perhaps, a bit of extreme optimism that made me think that I could update the blog three times a week while I was also trying to write a fifty-thousand word novel in a single month.

Now, to be clear, I am not going to completely give up on updating my blog. But, I think we will both just have to accept that there will be days like this where you’re going to be reading entries like this; short, to the point and not really what you were expecting to read.

But, surprise is the spice of life and I think you’ll manage to do without a proper blog entry for a few more days.

-D-

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November 9, 2012 · 7:40 pm

Under Pressure

I absolutely hate to write this way.

My preferred method is to write a few paragraphs. Go back. Make sure everything is right. Are the words I used the rights ones? Did I use enough detail? Does this line make sense? Maybe I should take that part out.

It takes me a few hours to really write a few pages of a first draft. I want it to be researched and edited and nothing left out.

Believe it or not, this type of writing does not lend itself to getting anything done. I spend way too much time on the editing while I’m writing that by the time I near the end, I just bolt, trying to finish it to finish it, because I’m so tired of looking at the damn thing.

With NANOWRIMO, I can’t do that. If I want to keep on track of writing 1,700 words a day, then I need to never look back and just keep going. And I hate it. I hate every second of it. I’m embarrassed about what I’m writing, even though I know the only person looking at it is me. It’s shoddy writing, slipshod and badly composed. Every adverb I write, I want to throw the whole thing in the trash and start over.

But I think I need to do this to get better as a writer. As badly as I’m writing, I’m taking more time to think of ways to add words. One of the main problems I have is I write too lean. With NANOWRIMO, writing lean will kill you. So I throw in more words and more words and I’m learning how to actually lay down the words one after the other and not to look back.

You can’t look back. There are too many unwritten words ahead. Have to keep moving forward.

Why am I wasting time here?

Back to the shitty novel!

-D-

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November 7, 2012 · 8:10 pm

No More Excuses

Yesterday was the first day that the excuses started.

“It’s the night of the election. No-one would begrudge you taking the night off from writing to watch the election!”

“You’re a day ahead, you don’t need to write today. You can just start writing again tomorrow. It’ll be fine!”

“What’s just one day?”

The excuses trickle in and they’re insidious. They work their wiles and they chatter incessantly and brow beat you and use honeyed words. They do everything they can to just get you to back down from whatever it is you’re trying to do.

And you have to, have to, ignore them. There’s no compromising. There’s no saying, “Well, maybe just this one night won’t hurt.”

You back down once and the excuses will be that much stronger the next night. They take any approach. You’re too tired. You got so many other things done today. It was just such a bad day, you just need to treat yourself to some down time.

No.

Nononono.

Absolutely not.

We cannot be consumed by our petty excuses anymore. Today is the day that we stand up and say, we will not go quietly into the night. We will not finish without a fight. We’re going to write on. Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!

From excuses. Our independence from excuses.

(music swells)

-D-

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