Monday, April 30, 2012

Been a while, I know, but it's better than ever. Two thousand words gets easier and easier to write every day. Just starting to let go, let the story take me where it will, then worry about revising later on. That has to be the key. No more rewrites, no more looking back, not til the story's told. Then the painting can begin.

Peace.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

I feel like if I don't post in the next couple days, this blog will officially fall to idle status...again. And really, I don't want that to happen. I never want it to happen. Sometimes it happens. Let's move on.

NHL Playoffs. This is really what I think is going on. I've had a pretty tough week writing wise. Everything leading up to this week had been pretty swell. The pace lingered slightly below 2k/day on the words output, the story was moving in an all right direction (it's been more focused on learning one character for a while before moving on to a second and third, etc.), but the past few days have dipped and I blame the NHL playoffs.

I usually love to make big prediction posts about hockey, but if there's anything I've learned from past prediction posts about hockey it's that hockey is, for the most part, unpredictable. More so than any sport relying on playoff series formats to decide championships, hockey is the sport that requires the perfect blend of talent, scheming, luck, GOALTENDING and, the two favorite words of all team sport coaches, grit and hustle.

Going into the playoffs, I would have picked the Penguins and Predators to play in the Cup Finals. Right now I could replace the Penguins with their soon-to-be vanquisher the Flyers and feel safe about that pick. But really, safe is relative in hockey playoffs, where a guy like Brian Boyle can punch a star player on the opposing team in Game 1 and then get jumped and pounded by a player specifically brought into Game 2 to jump and pound Brian Boyle.

I could post endless links that would show you the last week in playoffs action where hockey somehow reverted to the past where fast skating, high goal scoring and loads of fisticuffs and team-wide brawls when you least expect them. Think the play's over when a goal's scored? Try again. It's beautiful. I've watched the NHL playoffs for as long as I've had a TV, but if you too are one of the fortunate billion to own a TV as well and you have any desire to watch sporting at its finest and most emotional, do tune in to the NHL playoffs.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

For Your Next Peaceful Day Off

Scrivener

I downloaded the free trial of Scrivener and this looks like the novel writing program. I'm halfway through the tutorial and I already know I'm buying this thing. Amazing capabilities. It seems to have every little thing I need to organize an increasingly unwieldy story. Highly recommended for anyone looking to write projects of any length on a regular basis.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

30 Note Cards Later

I may just have finished up the outline for two characters at work today. I try to make my downtime at work count for production, but writing here is near impossible. I mean, I'll be going and going then someone will send an email or call and like, expect me to work. Pfffft. So I find that daydreaming about my setting, adding little details here and there in my mind is nice, but as with anything that stays in my mind, it's a fickle unreliable exercise.

Today I sat down with a stack of index cards and every time I found a lull in my work I just jotted down a small synopsis of the next chapter for my characters until I got them all to a point where I'm satisfied. You'll never guess this, but *gasp* this shit's lining up for a sequel real quick. And I think some of the work I've done is already begging to be the beginning of that sequel. People, the sun is shining, the words are flowing and life aint just good. Dammit, it's great.

Monday, April 2, 2012

My Writing Calendar

Here's a copy of the writing calendar I mentioned in an earlier post. An X is happy happy write write and a circle (or in the case of March 5th a sad face) means no writing was done that day. In the ended, I wrote 26 days in March and my output topped out at 52,000 words for the month. I'll take it. I'm aiming to average 2,000 words a day. So far so good with that for April, but uh yeah, that's not impressive for now. What will be impressive is if I can keep up with this pace. Forever. Seriously, my life feels better for all of it. You can't really see the specifics, but I have word counts attached to each day and since the St. Patty's Day Hiatus, I've solidly averaged 2k/day and I hope to keep that up to a point where I can plan on days off (only when absolutely necessary) and increase production accordingly to keep that clip going.

To me, it's not about anything but putting words down that lead to the end of this tunnel. I'm close with one character, not as close with another, a little further away with three others and way off with one who may not make the cut. Each character will follow his/her storyline to an acceptable story-telling ledge that will tie them together, albeit loosely, then I can go back and start re-writing and adding the details I've sorely missed in the rough draft thus far. I'm thinking each character has about a 20-30k word story arc attached to them. If I can just keep going at this pace (one word at a time, one day at a time), this should be done somewhere in the summertime. Maybe. Hopefully. But without those and without that pace, me and this silly little blog melt in the heat. No big deal or anything.