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Morning Pages Entry – June 20, 2014

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Today, is going to be cool for a couple of reasons. 1, I’m hitting 200 days in a row of doing my morning journal, and 2, I’m going to publish my first short novel. I’ve decided, that I will publish the novel I have written so far in 2.5 parts. The .5 is because the last part, has only about 17K words, and will need at least another 25K words, to make it complete. I will have to write more for the third part before I can publish it. But, doing it this way, should give me three titles on the market before the end of July. That’s sort of cool. It does mean, that I need to get the last bit written and edited quicker perhaps … or maybe not … then I had thought, but nothing that’s not undoable. I think, today, that I also have to address how I felt yesterday while trying to format the first book. And, that feeling was one of panic, or basically just freaking out inside. To the point, where I was paralyzed with making simple decisions about even what front matter in the book. I think, I’ve built this whole thing up in my mind to be way bigger then it should be. Sure, there’s potential for this to be a huge money maker for be, and even a life changer for me, but don’t let that seem so huge, that it makes the smallest of decisions difficult. There’s nothing you do now, that isn’t reversible or fixable down the road. Sure, the first few books aren’t going to be all that great, but you truly don’t know how good or bad they will be, till you throw them out into the market. And, if they don’t fare well, then you can always rewrite them, or just pull them altogether. The first few steps are simply an exercise in getting this done. Push the story out there. Do the best you can with what you have, and see what happens. Getting on with the next story, is likely the best thing you can do. We need to get momentum working in our favour. The more you write, the better you feel, and the better your chances of success. And remember, remember this above all … do it for the love of writing. Not for the money, or the cool factor, or the possibility of changing your life. Those are all things that are too big to hang in the balance. Do the writing for the love of writing. For how it makes you feel, for how happy you are after doing the writing. Find ways to be happy in the moment when your doing the writing, and don’t put so much at stake. Think, instead of how much you love doing the work, and how much more you’ll appreciate that feeling, when you’ve become better at the craft. That’s what you want to focus on. The love of writing, and the craft. Getting good at your craft. To be able to sit down, and create characters and events dripping with emotion, and relevance … it’s such a good feeling inside. You know, that everything you’ve done up until now, has been moving you in this direction. Everything in your whole life. All the little signs were there. Even, how much you like writing stupid little things like emails, and how you’d hang onto, and edit the smallest of phrases in a stupid business email to make it sound just right. How, you always go back, and read an email you’ve sent, just seconds after sending it. You’ve always cared about the writing, you just didn’t realize how much. Now, you have that opportunity. To get really good at the craft of writing, and do it everyday. Every day without fail, for the rest of your life. You don’t have to take vacations, you don’t have to get away from your job, you don’t have to hate what you do every day. You can love your work … love the writing. Sure, in a way, that’s even a bigger prize to hang on the outcome of all this then then money and material things, but nothing you do today or tomorrow, is irreversible. It’s all just a learning exercise, that takes you one step closer to where you want to be. You can do this. Take a step closer. Hell, take two steps, or three for the matter. It’s your life to do what you want with it. Just do it for the right reasons … do it for love.

TIGERBLOOD: yep DAILYMOOD: really anxious LOCATION: home office WORDSWRITTEN: none PUSHUPS: 4:15 wall sits TODO: publish your first novel TV: californication, documentary on San Quentin Prison BOOK: Your First 1000 Copies GAME: 2048 EXERCISE: 1 hour walk WEIGHT: 170 BREAKFAST: bacon & eggs LUNCH: big ass salad DINNER: salmon, sweet potatoes, asparagus SNACKS: orange, grapes, apple ALCOHOL: none BEDTIME: 11:15 AWAKE: 6:15

 

Morning Pages Entry – June 19, 2014

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Well, today is number 199 in a row … only one more till a new plateau. This is the one piece of work I do that seems to be the most successful. If only, I could do so well with my other pieces of work. This one has become easy. For a lot of reasons I suppose. It is a habit. It is simple and clearly defined. It’s small and manageable. I don’t think of it as being something big, even though, after doing it every day, it has become quite big in terms of total word count. It’s at least the size of two novels by this point. I think I’m somehere over 150K words by now. That’s certainly a couple of novels. I could be closer to 200K words actually. I think, that’s another badge once I get to that point. That’s perhaps the step I’m missing in this whole novel writing. It rarely, except for days like today occurs to me, just how many words in total I’ve written for this. But, when it comes to my novel, it’s most of the time, that I’m thinking of the grand total of 75K words or so that springs to mind. I do need to stop thinking that way obviously. When I was doing the 1250 words in 45 minutes thing, is when I was the most productive. And, it was easy. You don’t have to care about the big picture. Just focus on the next 45 minutes. Do the next 1250 words, and take your break. It’s easy really. No big deal at all. It’s only a rough draft. No one is going to see the rough draft but me, and you’ll have plenty of opportunity to make it better. And, next time, going in, you’ll have a clearly defined outline of where the story is going. Start off with your island of events and move to organinzing them into a W structure or some other sort of beats that is appropriate to moving things along. It’s not rocket science. It does need a structure though. I thought to myself yesterday, that what you need is doing that things are being organized and put into place. You like that. Games like tetris and 2048 are organizing like games. Your putting things into their proper places. That’s why you become obsessed with them. Even squash is something like that. Your keeping the ball in the proper place … down the side walls, nice and straight, and no messy stuff into the middle where it’s all cluttered with bodies and limbs and racquets. Even when you were selling links, it was about keeping all the sites organized, and completed with enough articles, and properly running, and making sure all your orders for the day were fufilled. So, you can accomplish the same thing with writing. Number one goal, don’t get overwhelmed with the sheer size of the goal your trying to accomplish … always live in the moment … in the next 45 minutes worth of words. That’s all you need to be concerned with. Then the next 45 minutes, then the next … till your done. Then, by noon, you’ll have 5K words of rough draft to work with. That’s where it all stems from … everything else, is just gravy. Bonus work. Do, the 5K of words … you’ll feel better … just like how you feel better doing this … then the rest is easier. And you have a feeling of accomplishment, of organizing, of moving forward to something better. That’s the key here. So, speaking of moving forward. How do I move forward with the novel. You have some good plot/story suggestions from Emily your editor. You should incorporate those, break the story down into two pieces, and publish away. Get the first book set to perma free, start working on the next novel, and move ahead. I think, I do want to setup a mailing list, and I don’t want to look for beta readers (or do I) for this novel??? Maybe, I should make a post on GoodReads forum, and see what happens. You never know, you may get lucky. You could find someone good to read and give you some feedback. You could even publish before they get back to you. That’s no big deal. It’s a novel, and you can always go back, and make it better after it’s published. That’s again no big deal. You can do whatever you want remember. You just need to get past this first big hurdle of having a book published. So, break out of your old habits, and get things going.

TIGERBLOOD: barely DAILYMOOD: tired LOCATION: home office WORDSWRITTEN: none PUSHUPS: 2:00 plank TODO: outline, write, rewrite TV: supernatural (very first episode), californication BOOK: Your First 1000 Copies GAME: none EXERCISE: none WEIGHT: 170 BREAKFAST: bacon & eggs LUNCH: big ass salad DINNER: chili SNACKS: orange, grapes, 3 chicken fingers ALCOHOL: none BEDTIME: 10:00 & 1:30 AWAKE: 6:30

 

Morning Pages Entry – May 07, 2014

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Well, yesterday, it looks like I booked a date with an editor. Emily Nemchick, who has a thread on the Writers Cafe forum, which I’ve had bookmarked for a while. She can take my novel on June 9th, but she’s squeezing it in with some other work I think, so it will take here a couple of weeks to get it done. Which is OK I suppose. I will have to get this process down a bit better, and book her earlier, so I don’t have to wait too long. But, what it does mean, is that I actually have a deadline. Which is something I haven’t had for a long time. A pretty easy deadline, which is OK for starters, a deadline none the less. I still have about another 40K words to clean up on the novel, that is make my first editing pass, and make them more presentable. But, I also have a cover to put together, and depending on how things go, I should be able to start writing my second novel before she starts editing the first. What I should likely do, is to book my next editing date, as I have the first novel completed. Then, you’ll have a real deadline. Maybe, you should get the outline done first, before you book though. That would be good, as you’ve yet to do a proper outline first. One, that follows some sort of good structure (7 point structure), and has adequate conflict withing scenes, and sequels. I should practice to be a more concise writer, when I’m doing my journal. Although, I don’t want to mess with this process too much. I do however want to write the first pass of a novel a little bit more concisely. That way the 5K words you write, and the 5K words you edit in a day go quicker. Certainly, you will have a better novel as well. So, today, I do need to get through as many edited words as possible. I would think, that my writing the first pass can only improve, after torturing myself so much with this first round of editing. I mean, it’s been a pretty brutal process, and time consuming. There are some words that I need to get rid of “really” is one of them “a bit” is another and “somehow” is another one. Certainly, I will be more conscious next time. One of the things I do too much is over explain a situation. This is not a technical document your writing. You don’t need to explain everything to the n’th degree. Secondly, you need to use less narrative and more dialogue. I have a few chunks of that in the novel for sure that can be cleaned up. And thirdly you need to be more decisive in your writing. You use words like “somewhat” and “probably” and “somehow” a lot, because your unsure of yourself. You need to back off on that shit. If something is black, then say it’s black. Stop wavering. Your the writer, if you say something is, then it is. PERIOD. If I focus on those things, I think my next novel will be so much better. Be sure of yourself, use more dialogue, and don’t over explain everything. It will be a more fun experience. So, what else is going on today? I was going to go to the boat this morning but the weather isn’t totally agreeing, so I think, I’ll go tomorrow. Although, I should check the weather this morning to be sure. Also, today, I need to go out to Canadian Tire, and get a few more bottles of wax, just in case you don’t have any at the boat. Although, I’m pretty sure I do have some. You should also check for your bottom paint. I think I have a full can lying around here somewhere. If not, then you’ll have to buy some tomorrow from Ron. Also, check that you have enough paint supplies . . . rollers and things. I’m sort of excited, that I have a date for an editor booked. Sure, it’s going to cost me about $300 to get the novel edited, but the peace of mind will be worth it. And, it makes me feel like a real writer. Or at least more like a real writer. I have a deadline. I never thought, those words would make me happy, but they do. I have a deadline, and I’m going to hit it. Yes, this is a business, and you need to treat it like one. It feels good to know, that someone is going to an extra polish on my work and make it presentable for the public. Happy me 😉

TIGERBLOOD: of course DAILYMOOD: good LOCATION: home office WORDSWRITTEN: editing PUSHUPS: 3:30 wall sits TODO: editing TV: californication, orphan black, mad men BOOK: none GAME: none EXERCISE: walk for 30 minutes WEIGHT: 170 BREAKFAST: bacon & eggs LUNCH: big ass salad DINNER: salmon patty, brocolli SNACKS: orange grapes (too many), apple ALCOHOL: none BEDTIME: 11:30 AWAKE: 6:30

 

Morning Pages Entry – May 02, 2014

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So, it seems that more success stories were the order of the day yesterday. I’m beginning to not mind so much reading them, as I suppose one of my big worries, is that I’m going to miss this train. That train, being, the opportunity to start writing stories, and make money at it. Part of me thinks that, we’re in this era, where anyone that makes a prolific amount of good stories can make money. And, that does seem to be true. Right now, I’ve read about lots of people that put lots of stories out there, and make a decent living. I’m not sure, if there’s anyone putting out a lot of stories in a popular genre, that isn’t making a lot of money, but there certainly could be. Anyways, part of me thinks that this is sort of like the way websites and seo were a few years ago, where anyone could make money, but eventually things got saturated, and it became incredibly difficult. But, I think, the book thing is different, and here’s why. The book is the thing. Websites that became popular, had the SEO and links connected with that website directly. You couldn’t just magically, take a website content, and move it to a different domain name and be as successful. That original domain was part of the website success. It’s reputation and seo standings were seprate from the actual content of the site. Books, don’t really sell that way. The whole seo thing, is out of the equation. Now sure, there’s how the book ranks in Amazon that helps, so I could make that comparison, but the book stands more on it’s own, no matter where you sell it. It could be Amazon, or it could be some other book seller. But, I suppose a bigger distinction to make for me, would be to say that the content of my books will be much more valuable, then the content of my websites. I rarely bothered with moving the content of my sites from somewhere else, because the content was just a lot of fluff. Nobody really cared about it. My books however, the content is everything. It’s hand crafted and I care about what it says, how I say it, how it’s structured, and that it’s interesting. That’s the single biggest difference. And, this time, I do plan on building a mailing list I can do something with. I do sort of build a list for camera buyers at one point, but never did anything with it. This time, I will have more books coming out, and I will let those previous buyers know, that I do have more books coming out, and hopefully, that will become a real tool in my marketing campaign. Having a bunch of readers that have already bought my books in a list is the key to independence from sellers like Amazon and iTunes, and Barnes. I can basically sell my book from anywhere I want to. That is, really where the power is. Although, having those readers coupled with the power of an Amazon is pretty substantial as well. Having those mailing list fans buy your stuff first and having that boost get your book ranked in Amazon is a pretty good strategy as well. I’m so looking forward, to having this first book done and out there. I really want to have something to promote. And, I really want to get my process going for the next book, where I’m writing and editing 5000 words per day. Then, things can really start rolling along. That would be a process that kicks ass, and makes money. I’m quite sure of that, and I can have a blast doing it. Just get some friggin books out there. Get one book out there! That’s where to start. Then, I can start jetting around the world. Visiting family, buying a bigger house, and a bigger boat, just because it would be fun to do so. I was thinking last night, as I was walking, that I would love to have a house with a music room. A music room, with a baby grand piano in it, and a totally awesome drum set in it, and a bunch of guitars. And, have it all decorated with music paraphenalia, and the piano would be one of those fancy ones that could play by themselves, or someone could play it as well. And, I could just let the piano play a bunch of songs, instead of listening to a stereo. And, of course the room would have the most kick ass stereo as well, with some really exotic speakers in it, just because I really like exotic looking speakers. And of course cool furniture, for just lounging and listening to the music or whatever. And of course, a band could just sit down, and grab and instrument and start playing something together. That would be so totally cool, and Jessica would really love it too.

TIGERBLOOD: yep DAILYMOOD: optimistic LOCATION: living room WORDSWRITTEN: editing -1586 words PUSHUPS: 3:30 wall sits TODO: editing TV: orphan black, glee BOOK: none GAME: none EXERCISE: walked 1 hour WEIGHT: 170 BREAKFAST: bacon & eggs LUNCH: big ass salad DINNER: spaghetti sauce SNACKS: orange, grapes, spoon of almond butter ALCOHOL: sip of Jens sangria BEDTIME: 11:30 AWAKE: 6:30

 

Morning Pages Entry – April 28, 2014

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It’s monday morning, and only 3 days left in April. Time to get into gear. I should have some new big goal set at the beginning of each month. Like, I should have this book published, and the next book published, before the end of May (next month). That would be pretty cool to actually publish two books in one month. Even though the first one has taken me forever to write, it’s pretty close to getting there, and if I could just finish it of, and get back to doing my 5K per day writing thing, then I could get the next one started. That would be pretty cool. It’s pretty ambitious, but also pretty cool. Something to think about. It would be a great way to kick off your summer. Then, by the time the second one is out there, you’d be working on the third. I could have a 5 book series up on amazon, by the time the girls go back to school. That would have to be making some money at least. Especially, if they were coming out that quickly, and you started doing FaceBook ads the way some of the kindling readers are doing them. I should, start looking for facebook ads out there. See if I can see what other writers are doing. I’m sure it wouldn’t be that hard to find. Go to a few zombie pages, and see what’s going on. There is the one group that I follow. They may even be willing to take ads on their page directly. It seemed like a pretty big page. Although, you’ll have to give some thought, as to what type of page, your reader likely hangs out at. It would take lots of testing for sure. Could be the zombie page, or it could be other authors pages. You may have to buy that scraper software, the picks up UIDs from each page. I wonder, how hard that would be to write. That could be something interesting you could do your self. Even if you did it manually. It’s probably, not that hard really. You’ve written scraper stuff before. I’m sure, you could do it again. A little PHP coding project, could be an interesting change of pace. Although, those ones are desktop applications that have been recommended. I could likely, make one and sell it to others, as a service. Maybe, offer it free to kindling members, and see if the word gets out there for other people to use it. That might be another income stream as a service for authors. Not a bad idea, as long as your not spreading yourself too thin with this stuff. Even if you could get it to be making 1000 bucks per month, that would be alright. Of course, if you could get your books to be making 10K per month, then why would I even bother about something like that. Yesterday, was a bit of a tiring day. I was supposed to sleep in till 8 or 8:30, but Sam woke me up, to take her to work a few hours earlier. Not cool. I was pretty bagged for the rest of the day. That girl really needs to get her license. I certainly hope she gets it the next time. I would really like to be relieved from all this driving around stuff. It’s getting old fast. It would be nice, not to be driving all around the city with this swimming crap. Even though, I no longer have to do early mornings, I’m still looking forward to getting out of that business entirely. No more swimming for me. Thank you very much. I sure, hope, it doesn’t screw me up in terms of going to work from the boat this summer. But, I suspect, it will mess me up for a few weeks beyond school ending. Unless, we just leave a car at home and I manage without a car at the boat for the first few weeks of june. That could be an inconvenience, but it would be better, then losing time at the boat I suppose. I really need, to find some more interesting things to write about with my morning journals these days. It’s becoming a bit of a struggle to keep these things up. Although, it looks like if I can just get through the next few sentences, then I will hit my total for at least another day, and be able to stop writing till tomorrow.

TIGERBLOOD: not really, too tired DAILYMOOD: tired LOCATION: living room WORDSWRITTEN: none PUSHUPS: none TODO: editing TV: sons of anarchy, wolves of Chernobyl documentary BOOK: none GAME: Mickey Mouse Illusion Castle EXERCISE: none WEIGHT: 171 BREAKFAST: bacon & eggs LUNCH: big ass salad DINNER: roast pork SNACKS: orange, grapes ALCOHOL: none BEDTIME: 10:15 & 1:30 AWAKE: 6:30