The Unwritten Words
Sunday night, I did some cleaning up on my computer. Still have a mess of stuff on my desktop, but I’ve been working on cleaning that up!
I wanted to post about “The Schedule” but I have been unable to find the piece of paper I wanted to photograph, show you and talk about. So, that’s a post for another day, as soon as I figure out where I put “The Schedule” so that I would be sure not to lose it.
Anyway, I’ve discussed before my problem of having lots of ideas of things I want to work on. I generally think of these things when I cannot do them, such as when I’m at work or in bed trying to fall asleep. Then, when I sit down in front of the computer, my mind goes to mush.
Fortunately (maybe), Sunday night I discovered Stickies. I’ve known of them for many moons, but never realized they were also on my newer computer. I’ve decided to give them a try. I entered four or five things to do. Already on Monday, I knocked that down to three things today. Yeah, not a lot of progress, but (a) these aren’t the only things I had to do–just the things I wanted to remember to do and (b) writing this blog post is one of those three remaining things.
On a related note, I’ve been spending a lot of time on Twitter too. I’m even one of those people with my own personalized Twitter URL. Here’s mine: dcrTweets. Cool, eh? Anyway, much of the time has been learning Twitter, gaining followers, interacting with people and generally getting a feel for how it works. I think I’m nearing the point where I’ll settle into a routine with Twitter, and be able to spend less time on it, but that time would be more productive while I’m using it.
That will free up time for me to work on other projects. My two main projects at the moment are my eBook and my eCommerce site. In fact, the other two items on my Stickies list are a project for each of those projects.
At any rate, none of that is what I really wanted to write about tonight. No, that was all background filler.
You see, what I discovered in cleaning up my computer is all those writing projects I’m always working on. I’m always thinking of them, and working out stories and characters and everything, so it seems I am always working on them. And, I would be remiss in saying that I have not been working on them at all, since I do work on them in non-writing ways. For example, there is one story I would really like to do as animation (actually, film, but unless hundreds of millions of dollars fall land at my door, I don’t see that happening soon), so I would count the modeling, even the learning modeling and animation exercises, that I do as working on them, as it is a form of work on the story.
But, it’s not writing.
You all may remember this post with survey results where I mentioned the stories I was working on. Well, here is my progress, in terms of words written…
- Story #2 “family search” - I have 10,554 words on this story. Last time I wrote anything on it? May 13, 2004
- Unlisted Story - This story wasn’t on that poll, but I have 1,245 words written on it. Last time I wrote anything on it was July 29, 2004. Oops. Scratch that. I have 1,423 words written on it, and the last time I worked on it was August 11, 2008. So, yay! I have done something recently…
- Story #4 “teenage killer” - I have 1,265 words written on this. Last time I worked on it was February 20, 2005.
- Story #5 “old conflict new era” - I have 2,907 words written on this. Last time I wrote anything on it was May 2, 2005.
- Story #3 “eclectic explorers” - I have 1,772 and 771 words written on this. (Two separate stories.) Last time I worked on this was July 23, 2006.
This was all somewhat shocking to me. I think about it so much that it just feels like it hasn’t been that long since I wrote anything on them.
I’ve just spent so much time working on things to try to earn money, as I’m sure many people are doing these days. But, I’ve got to figure out a way to work some writing into my schedule so I can get these things done.
Of course, I also admit that I’ve been a bit torn as well. I mean, I’d really rather see these things on-screen rather than in book form. And, while writing can get me a book, getting something on-screen requires either a boatload of money, or me figuring out how to do all the animation on my own. And, thus my efforts have largely been spent on trying to make boatloads of money rather than working on the writing of these stories.
I personally have a tough time reading a long story online which is why I chose not to write a 50,000 word Nanowrimo project. I find it impossible to read such a long story on a PC screen for some reason. I’ve been writing two books for a few years now. My horror novel has over 500,000 words and is still unfinished. I’ve rewritten most of it several times, tweaking it here and there, and it’s completely different than the short stories on my blog which are too short for character development or complex plots.
I’m burned out on Twitter and have barely even used it…lol. How many life coaches are out there anyway? It’s crazy to see so many people doing the same thing. I hope you finish one of your stories, I’d like to read one of them.
I am almost finished with my first childrens novel and will be self publishing right after the first of the year. I schedule in writing on it every day at least a half hour. Hard to do with five kids and two businesses, but I consider my writing the most important thing after taking care of everyone at home.
I have my work schedule written out and- if several days go by and a task like writing or keeping up the accounting does not get done- I crack the whip and get back to it.
I don’t use blogging to make money- I use it as a marketing vehicle for my vintage business and several of my blogs have a lot of traffic. This week I found out one is the top search item in google out of over 600,000 results - a few weeks ago I couldn’t even be found a dozen pages back. That really got me excited and I will be overhauling that website.
I have to admit I am pretty regimented about working online- I try not to let myself get distracted by social networking. It’s not for me- at the end of the day I want to see that I have done something. I don’t feel like I have accomplished anything by chating online. I have had family who hang out in their email all day- they also watch a lot of television and always seem to know what’s going on. And they are HAPPY about it. I am not happy unless I am creating, productive, and with my family. I have found my happy mix.
I hope you find your groove soon, whether it is making money online, twitter, blogging, or writing.
I have SOOOO many unfinished writing projects too. I get too easily distracted with blogging and tweeting that I tend to leave most projects undone.
However…I did FINALLY clean out MOST of my computer. That was a NIGHTMARE. Now if I could just stay on top of things so that it stays under control Id be a happy camper!
Life gets in the way doesn’t it
I don’t have any writing project, but my honey do list is getting longer, lol
I stopped trying to maintain a computing timeline what-so-ever. No matter how hard I try, my mouse wanders to what is next … like the feed for this post, then a comment, then a link ping, then some song, then who knows what.
I am writting a book about golf, but get to it here, and sometimes there. I write the old fasioned way, on paper. Crazy, but things flow easier for me AWAY from a keyboard, and the monitor that PULLS me away from what I am doing at the time.