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Archive for the ‘Blogging’ Category

Withholding the Evidence of a Blog Post

Sunday, August 22nd, 2010

Is there a blog post here?

Dunno.

Is that what you think you’re reading?

I disagree.

No, I agree.

Yes, this is a blog post.

Such as it is.

Can you prove it is not?

It is on a blog.

It is a post.

Therefore, it is a blog post.

Logical, no?

Substantive, no.

But, a blog post need not be substantive to be a blog post.

I feel like I’ve said that before.

At the very least, blog posts like this are easy and quick to read.

Quick to write too.

Usually.

Though I sometimes do need to pause to think.

Like right now.

You don’t realize it now, but I paused to think.

Feel free to take a pretend pause in acknowledgment.

Nod your head in agreement.

Now stick your left foot in and shake it all about.

Okay. We’re done here.

So, Last Weekend…

Saturday, August 21st, 2010

Anyway, last weekend, I heard about a writer who had sold 30,000 copies of his or her (I think it was her) books just on Amazon.com for the Kindle. I think maybe I shared the link. Or maybe not.

She has six books and has them on Amazon.com and sold those 30,000 copies in under a year. And these were fiction–not the typical “how to” type eBooks that “everyone” says sells so well online.

I thought that would be worth a try.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any finished books to try to do that with.

I do have a completed book I finished years ago, and that I was going to try to self-publish years ago, but I wrote that in grade school and maybe finished polishing it up while still in high school. It’s not really a publishable work (though I thought it was then). On top of that, it’s only a few thousand words long, which is short story territory and not book territory.

So, um, I gots nuthin’.

So, I figured what I would do is set aside at least an hour each day to work on my writing. I have several options to choose from (which is a problem in and of itself). I’ve mentioned many of them before but why not sum up for those who have forgotten, which is pretty much everyone probably.

If you think of novel length as somewhere around 100,000 to 120,000 words or so, here’s what I have. For easy figuring, let’s say a novel is 100,000 words.

I have one work that is about 10% done. This is the one that is actually furthest along. I have others that feel like they are further along, but that’s only because I’ve run the stories through my head so many times, that it just feels like they are further along. This one was originally intended to be a serialized story, but then I got so involved in creating the story that I thought I could get a novel out of it.

For a long time, I didn’t touch it. Unfortunately, I left off at a cliff-hanger. And, while I once knew what happened next, I had forgotten by the time I touched it again. In turn, that meant I kept putting it off, hoping I would one day remember. Well, a few months back (I think), I got past that cliff-hanger. The resolution is pretty much the same as I always intended. It’s the “who” that I had forgotten which meant I wasn’t sure how to get to the resolution. So, I came up with a “who” that may or may not have been my original “who” and went from there.

Also, I think it could be a decent movie or mini-series. Not necessarily a feature film, but maybe a TV movie. It’d sure be better than a lot of the Syfy original movies that air on Saturday nights. Ugh.

Of course, every writer thinks their stuff could be a good movie, so that probably tells you nothing, really.

The kicker here is that I have specific ideas of who I would want to play certain parts. And, you know I would not likely have control over casting, especially not on my first outing, assuming, of course, it even got that far. So, they probably wouldn’t cast the people that could really bring the characters to life, but rather some “name” or something.

Of course, the possibility of a movie actually getting made is, reasonably speaking, slim to none, so why even worry about it? Yet, you can’t help but worry about it. Of course, I could just simply refuse to sell movie rights unless I have casting approval or something, but, there again, narrowing the odds…

Moving on to the next project, it is about 2-3% or so done. I had a couple chapters done, but then I reworked it, so my original first chapters will now be later chapters, so they may or may not need to be rewritten. As for the actual beginning, I think I have maybe 100 words or so on that! Laughable, I know. But, I’ve gotten hung up on the outline. This is actually a prequel to another story I’m working on but I’ve decided to do this one first, because otherwise, as an actual prequel, you’d know how it ends before you got to it. So, better to just do it first rather than set it aside for a prequel later on. Clear as mud?

As I said, I’ve gotten hung up on the outline. I have to fit it to work within certain parameters I’ve already set up for the actual story, which would have been the original story but would now be considered a sequel, maybe. It gets confusing. Anyway, so I have to work around those settings, plus I need to make this story stand on its own. I’ve already changed the lead characters. Readers weren’t feeling it with the original pair of leads. So, now I’ve demoted them. They are still an integral part of the story and part of the main cast of characters, but they are not the leads. Instead, I have a single lead character. But, trying to get him from point A to point B has been a challenge because it has to be done in a way that makes sense and doesn’t feel contrived. Right now, I’ve got a twenty year or so gap between point A and point B. I’m not sure if that’s the optimal way, but I need to show him as a youth so you see where he’s coming from when he’s older.

And it’s been a struggle.

And then there’s another story that is maybe 1% done, if I’m lucky. I have more planned out than what I have written. It’s another that I think could make a decent movie, but it’s also one where I’m not picky about casting. So, from that perspective, it would be a good starting point. Get that done, hope someone would want to make a movie, hope the movie does well, and hope that would give me a track record whereby I might be able to negotiate casting control over the next movie, which would be the first story I mentioned.

Of course, all that just makes me wonder whether I should write screenplays rather than novels. My writing seems to fall somewhere in between. I think I’m more verbose than a screenplay writer but not as verbose as a novelist.

But, maybe that’s just my style and I should go with it. Don’t know.

And therein lies a part of the problem. Which do I tackle and what do I do? And, when I pick one, it feels like I should be working on another. All of that creates for more distraction and contemplation which leads to further procrastination.

I think I developed a bad habit of coming up with multiple ideas. I used to be better able to focus on one thing and get it done. I’d have that passion to tell a certain story. I still have that passion, but it’s split among several stories. And the passion seems to move toward whatever I’m not working on. I need to work at getting obsessed with a particular story rather than jumping about.

I figured it out that, last year, I wrote that eBook of mine in about 3 or 4 months. It took me a six to seven month period, I think. But there was one month where I didn’t do much with it at all because I was waiting on test readers to get back to me. And then there was 1 or 2 months of time spent in editing and formatting the eBook and getting the whole thing all together and ready to sell. In terms of actual writing time, that was just a 3 or 4 month period, during which time I was also blogging and doing other things.

So, in 3 or 4 months (let’s say 4), I wrote an eBook that was about 120,000 words in length, which is novel length. That works out to be over 25,000 words a month. I remember that, when I first started the first story I mentioned in this post, I was writing about 1,000 words each night I worked on it. (Some nights I edited or tweaked.) So, in 3 or 4 months time, I could have a completed novel. (There are some challenges to write a novel in a month.)

Upon reading about that author last weekend, I decided that’s what I ought to do. Last weekend, I checked through my stories and tried to refresh my memory on them.

But, not one day in the past week was I able to actually spend writing. I’ve had other things to do, work for clients, work around the house, and miscellaneous stuff. So, it just hasn’t worked out.

It’s frustrating.

It carries with it, of course, the realization that many writers don’t make enough off of their writing to make a living at it. They work other jobs. So, when there are bills to pay and the economy is bad such as it is, it is difficult to justify spending time on something that may not be able to pay the bills. Sure, there is a passion to get your stories out there, even without regard for money, but there is also the unfortunate realization that it’s something that maybe shouldn’t be prioritized. You know?

Still, it shouldn’t be hard to find an hour a day to set aside, but then you have to get yourself into that right frame of mind. It gets easier once you get yourself into it. Yet, then there is the issue of which to work on, for example. Perhaps over thinking it is part of the problem.

It’s one big bag of frustration. That’s what it is.

Delusions of Blog Posting

Friday, August 20th, 2010

Write write write.

 

Writey write writing write write.

 

Writey writey write writes write write.

 

Writingly writing write.

 

Writey write write!

And the Week Does Not Get Any Better

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

Really.

 

A package I was expecting yesterday did not show up.

So, I just knew it would be here today.

It should have been here today.

I planned on it being here today.

 

So, you can imagine the sad disappointment when the mail came and went with no sign of the package that I needed today.

 

C’est la vie.

It’s Been One of Those Weeks

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

The week started off on a promising note.

 

And then it’s just been downhill from there.

 

At least it will be over soon.

 

But let’s hope things get better before it is over.

 

Fingers crossed…

 

Still crossed…

Stephen Foster’s Ghost

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

“De Camptown ladies sing dis song, Doo-dah! doo-dah!”
Stephen Foster, “Camptown Races”, 1850

I blame Michelle for my compulsion to watch (or listen) to this video over and over again…

 

Ghost of Stephen Foster

 

You can learn more about the video in their “Ask SNZ: ‘The Ghost of Stephen Foster’” video.

She linked to it on her blog last week.

It’s playing in the background as I write this…

Why No Updates?

Monday, August 16th, 2010

First off, remember National Do Not Reply to Dan Day? As of right now, which is 10 days later even though you will be seeing this 11 days later because this is a scheduled post, I still have not heard from two of them. Heard back from the others though.

Anyway, you may be wondering about the lack of updates on my forums.

Well, for a few days, I did do nothing. Well, not nothing, but nothing regarding the forums. But, other than that, I have been working on them. As I mentioned in my “Westward, Oh, Pioneers!” post, I started a thread on the forums which covers my progress.

So, that’s where my updates have been. There and not here. And that means I don’t have to be vague about things. LOL! Some things I might not want to disclose to the public, so I keep them vague here. But, in the forums, I can tell you straight out what’s up. Pretty much anyway. I still have some surprises.

That’s why there have been a lack of updates here. But, I figured it bears mentioning here, since many of you have not been back there, so you might think nothing’s going on because of the lack of updates here, but that’s not the case.

So, pry yourself away from Facebook and pop on in. ;)

Obstacles on the Way to Leaving Facebook

Saturday, August 14th, 2010

So, yesterday, I tried to leave Facebook.

I went in there and I scrolled down to the bottom of whatever page the option is on, and clicked the “deactivate” button.

Then there’s the annoying questionnaire on why you want to leave Facebook. “Facebook sucks” wasn’t an option.

But, I have fan pages and, apparently, you cannot deactivate your account without deleting your fan pages or turning them over to someone else. Well, since I don’t want to turn them over to someone else, and I don’t want to delete them (lest someone else end up getting them), I ultimately could not deactivate my Facebook account.

Why not just have the fan pages deactivate along with the account? Who knows.

So, apparently, I’m stuck with an account there.

Facebook is kind of like a roach motel, I guess. Once you get in, you cannot get out.

The Untitled Post of Untitled Untitledness, or How the Post is Untitled While Untitling by the Untitled Stream of Lack of Titles Alongside the River of Untitledness Which Runs Through the Forest of Silence Because Without Titled Thoughts There Can Be No Sound, Thus the Untitledness of It All, Or What Is This All About, Or Do You Really Need a Title Anyway, Or Simply Untitled, Or Just Untitled, Or There is No Freakin’ Title So Give Up Hope Looking for One Already, Or Untitled Titles of Untitlelyness Which is Not a Word But At This Point Does It Really Matter, Or The Inhumanity of Untitled Posts, Or Why Do I Keep Going On and On When Clearly There is No Title Here, Or Untitled Greetings, Or Untitled Lack of Thoughts, Or Let’s Just Leave It As This Which Is What It Is, Or Untitled

Friday, August 13th, 2010

Need I say more than I already didn’t say?

Let’s leave it all unsaid.

For what is unsaid never need be unsaid.

For what is unsaid never need be apologized for.

Probably.

Unless there was something you should have said but then you didn’t say it so leaving it unsaid was bad and you should have said it.

I never really used to have as much of a problem with run-on sentences until I started blogging.

Blogging has ruined my writing.

I cannot do complete paragraphs anymore.

See?

Saving Face While on the Case

Thursday, August 12th, 2010

Have you seen tomorrow’s face?
It has all of your base.

They belong to it, tomorrow’s face.
Time to get a sleuth on the case.

You will have no need of mace,
For the crook took off at a quick pace.

He shuffled the deck and drew an ace,
And knew he ought to get out of the place.

And so his shoes, he tied a lace.
He took off, thinking he left no trace.

But there was a man in that foot race,
Who would not stop until he solved the case.

He pursued the other round the world to Thrace,
Where they both met up face to face.

He told the crook to himself brace,
And the crook asked for his grace.

Then the mirror was shattered by a vase,
And no one again saw tomorrow’s face.