Thought-Drive

Today marks day seven of the ten-day window I have to go over the edits for the April release and send it back to my editor. Despite slacking off on the blog (already) I was (more) serious about doing my due diligence concerning making this book error-free (sort of). The editor isn't the same as last time; in fact, the style is completely different. There are no little, positive bubbles off to the right congratulating me or patting me on the back. If there's a note in the margin this time around, it concerns business and nothing else. This part is confusing; rework. What does this have to do with the surrounding statements; edit. Who is speaking;clarify. But, I suppose all of it makes sense. I needed my ego stroked then more than I do now. I know this book is better (good, even) so I don't have to be told, and I know it has mistakes as well. Those are the things it's important for me to hear about. The plan was to spend the ten days moving quickly (and thoroughly) t...

Today I'm back at work, first day of the new year. So far, I'm keeping track of how each day has gone, because there are so few of them. Because I plan on making this year better than the previous one. Appropriately, it started off with some victories and some failures. I said I didn't think I'd be able to do it, and then I did. I'm speaking of the 8 chapters I had in mind to write during the time that I was off. Two days after I typed my doubts out into the aether, something like a perturbed energy came over me, and I started writing. Call it drive I guess. Whatever the case, I finished the eighth chapter yesterday morning, and felt good. Then, I realized how much more work I have to do on that manuscript alone (at least as many chapters as I wrote over break). Then I realized how much more work I have to do on that series alone (going back and making each book better, line for line, chapter for chapter).  I guess the idea is to celebrate the victories less and...

It's the holiday break, and I'm three chapters into the eight chapter quota I set for myself. In the middle of the third, I happened upon a turn of phrase which made me rethink the naming conventions of the books involved with my little project. Which is not to say the name the books have were flippantly decided, nor is it to say that I haven't said the names over a hundred times to myself already, and even grown quite comfortable with them. What I'm saying is that the line that came out of me made so much sense, and tied things up so nicely, that I was happy I didn't get the first manuscript through, that I still have time to make it really, really good. A royalty report I got recently leads me to believe that there just might be a window for me to sneak through to make a market for myself. To that end, I'm pretty grateful, and am going to do my due diligence. But I'm thankful for small things, too, this season. I unexpectedly found some soda in the back o...

Work for the year is finally done. Well, the work I perform in an attempt to make a living, at least. I have eight chapters to write before I return on the 3rd and somehow, looking back over things, I thought I'd be farther along than I am. That includes progress on this blog, as well. In other news, I finally have some sort of concept for what I'm doing with my twitter account . I call it the 140 Characters Project, that is to say, 140 tweets of 140 different characters, each no more than 140 characters. An example: Going without made her go within:red walls,kinky carpet,locked doors.Looked fine to her.She wrote wish lists,put to music,asking why not her   I plan on celebrating my progress at each of the four quarters (at 35, 70, 105 and 140) , the first of which is a dozen or so tweets away. I realize even if I wrote one a week (which I'm not), it would still be a labor of some years. Somehow, though, I can't back off my initial statement. I think about conver...

I wonder if failure and success work in the same way that heat and cold do, the latter not being something in and of it self, but simply a lack of the former. For instance, failure can also create a place holder, make space for future success. I wasn't able to write the short story before December 1, but I did double up on the writing for the novel. Ultimately, I fell short of my goal, but I don't feel any worse off for it. An artist friend of mine spent the month creating many, many pieces, the goal being a number with three digits. When she was finished, she said, "I think in the future I need to set more unobtainable goals," a statement whose wisdom could only be observed through scrutiny. In any event, the writing this past weekend went well, and not so well. That is to say perfectly. A business meeting of mine got cancelled, the first of any of its kind. A person I was introduced to wanted to discuss with me the topic of ghost writing. It took me a days to even...

First off: thanks. To everyone who reads this, reliably, or just the once. Even on accident. You make the list of things I'm thankful for this year. Other notables on the are the warm, fuzzy feeling I have concerning next year and looking back on the decisions I made this past one (see, I'm doing it, too, winding the year forward faster than the calendar). So, I can talk about the writing that got done with a fresh mind for once because I wrote this very morning. Off work for Turkey Day, I felt that I owed it to myself to tend to an additional chapter this week. I think the secondary goal is to hit 20 before   the new year hits me. The chapter went well, even threw in a bit of extemporaneous plot that didn't seem too horrid (as I was writing it, that is; remember I said that for when I get around to editing it into the 3rd draft). Also, this past weekend I had the occasion to do some legitimate research for that short story. And by legitimate I mean leaving the house, l...

A couple years ago I wrecked my car, which sucked at the time. It turns out that without any transportation, that summer proved to be the most productive time in my writing life. I finished the draft of a 90,000 word novel in thirty days, my first completed book. Fast forwarding to now glosses over a lot of struggle with the manuscript, mostly over trying to convince publishers that it would, in fact, be an awesome story for readers to discover their way through. Clerical error stretched out its shelf life, in such time I became a much better and wiser author, and thankfully so, because I better see now what it's going to take to push that particular round peg through the square holes provided to me. And I think I'm mostly good with that. So I think I've turned a corner, and will be able to look back on this time as a decisive fork in the long and winding road, and will smile at my decision. I'm not going to stop working on the series, but after the book I'm curre...