Tag Archives: novel

Morning Pages Entry – july 16, 2014

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I need a trigger. I’m sitting here thinking about how I often feel in the morning, like I have this multitude of words sitting inside of me, waiting to explode and not quite sure of how to put them onto paper, or the screen, and then by sometime afternoon or late in the morning the feeling dissipates. Other thoughts and worries about the world fill my head, and I can’t be focused enough to put things onto paper that I should. I’m pushing close to 365 days (and almost 200K words) with my morning journals, which I have no problem sitting down to write, and wondering what’s the difference. The difference, is that I know, no one will ever read these words … or at least, it’s very unlikely that anyone will ever read these words. So, I suppose that the biggest thing holding me back from having 200K words written for my novels, is that I worry too much about what others will think of my writing … will it be good enough? And, the fact is, that it will never be good enough. There will always be something that needs improvement. The thing is, (and you’ve heard this a hundred times), is that everytime you write something, you get a little bit better at it. Although, I’m not sure, that writing my morning journals, makes me a better novel writer … although indirectly it does. It is definitely a different sort of writing. Novel writing follows a different form, and you are trying to get to a specific place. With the morning journals, you have a rather non descript place to be. You just want to write something mildly interesting, that occurs in your head at that given point in time. Nothing more, nothing less. I do have to figure out this morning, what to do with my dinghy while I’m gone. It seems to be holding air, slightly better then it was before, so that’s a good thing. I do need also to return that glue that I bought from Rons marine shop. It’s not really what I need. See, there I go, diverting my brain into a bunch of stuff, that really has nothing to do with writing, when I should be focusing on the writing and how to do more of it, and to make it better. I do really feel, like I have a ton of words inside of me that need to get out, but then ironically at the same time, I feel at a loss of the right words to put those feelings onto the page. How, do I get to that place. That place, where I feel totally free to just put onto paper, whatever I want to put, and be done with it. I think, perhaps, that making these journal pages (with some editing) public on my blog would be a good place to start. That might be an interesting exercise, in seeing what sort of traffic they generate as well. Your blog is setup, to promote your books, so it could be interesting to see what kind of traffic you generate to your blog with all these notes. I mean, I am pretty much up to almost 200K words, and like 225 or more entries. Those could make for some interesting blog enteries. I should, just put them all out there. It would be a good exercise. Sort of a “Writers Journey” to getting their first book published. Who knows what in there people might find interesting. You could, even end up with some interesting dialogues in the comment sections of your blogs about stuff rattling around in your head. It would probably, even be interesting for you to go back to your earlier entries, and reread while your editing them to see what was going on in your head at the time. Ahhh … just do it … it would be a cool thing to do. You should. You really should do it. What’s the worst thing that could come of it. Your going to edit out any really nasty stuff as you go along anyways. So, why not. Being an artist, is about exposing your emotions, and feelings to the world isn’t it? Or at the very least being expressive. So what the hell. You only go around once, and you may even get a bit of a following for the words you throw out there. Maybe, your the real story in all of this. The honest journey of an author.

TIGERBLOOD: maybe DAILYMOOD: good … cold LOCATION: bayfield boat WORDSWRITTEN: none PUSHUPS: none TODO: go home, store dinghy, read, write TV: none BOOK: none GAME: none EXERCISE: walk beach with mom WEIGHT: 170 BREAKFAST: bacon & eggs LUNCH: nuts DINNER: fish, ham, salad SNACKS: lara bar, 2 naked bars ALCOHOL: 2 gin and tonics BEDTIME: 1:000 AWAKE: 8:00

 

Morning Pages Entry – May 26, 2014

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Wheh!, that was a busy weekend. Sam and I managed to get the front window out and completely resealed. That was kind of nice, getting that thing done. Here’s to hoping that it worked. I’m not sure I got enough sealant down in the initial pass, and I’m not sure, that the screws were enough to hold it down, given that some of them (2) were stripped. But, hopefully, it till be enough. But, I suppose we will see. I did leave, a couple bags of top soil on the window, to give it a bit more weight, so hopefully, that will be enough. Time will tell. I suppose, I could have gotten slightly bigger screws for the two that were stripped, but it’s too late now. That would have been the smarter thing. Maybe, tomorrow I’ll run up, and run the hose on them to see if it worked. Would be good to know for sure. So, today, I would really like to have the last 5K words or so of the novel finished with my editing pass. I really need to get it done, and come up with a good way of breaking the novel out into two novels. Something that makes sense. I haven’t really done that yet. Then, I should go back, and perhaps add more conflict and/or drama to some of the scenes. The beginning, I think is a bit choppy, and could use some editing to make it flow a bit better. A result of my over zealous first editing attempts. I think I got too much sun over the weekend working on the boat. I woke up with a nasty headache at 3:40 last night, and had to take a couple of tylenols. I never get headaches. The other big thing going on this week, is I need to plan out the Whole30. Now that the window is out of the way (hopefuly), I can get to work on planning that. Although, I do need to rethread the fastner on the window over the galley in the boat. That would be a good idea. Can’t remember, if I bought a re-threading kit or not. Should check on that. Then, I probably need to order a new seal for the very front hatch of the boat. And if they all work, then super coolness, you may actually have a boat full of windows that are water tight. How cool would that be. I’d say pretty cool. That would be, about the time to sell the damn thing I suppose. Of course, once you start making six figures a year in book sales, that shouldn’t be a problem. This should be a really interesting year. A really interesting summer actually. Once you get the first three or four out there, that is. Just get them out there, and keep putting them out there. That’s the key. So many are doing exactly that, and you need to join the party. No more screwing around. Time to go. And, yes, I do also have to go to the dentist this morning, and get a cavity worked on. That shouldn’t take too long or be too painful hopefully. Just go and get it done. Then, it’s off to editing, and planning the whole30. You need to start putting together a shopping list. Maybe, in that spreadsheet you started. If I could make a bunch of runs to the grocery store for the really paleo stuff that would be good. At least a good start. Work on the menus, and work on stocking up the cupboards. Maybe, make on of the recipes to get us going. That wouldn’t be so bad. You would at least benefit from it. Maybe the book I ordered will show up today. That might be helpful. Not, that you’ve actually read the Paleo for Athletes book. You should definitely read the rest of that. I really need to do more reading in general. That’s something I’ve really been sucking at. I keep choosing to do other things, like play stupid games instead of reading. Maybe, you should force yourself to do it for the next 30 days, along side the whole30. If you can do it everyday for 30 days, at least 30 mintues, but more like 60 minutes, then maybe it would become a real habit. 60 minutes of reading every day. You have the time for it, just stop doing other stupid stuff, like watching endless vapid videos, or spending too much time on Facebook. That thing truly is a time sink.

TIGERBLOOD: yep DAILYMOOD: good LOCATION: home office WORDSWRITTEN: none PUSHUPS: none TODO: dentist, editing, reading, writing, whole30 planning TV: Where The Millers BOOK: none GAME: none EXERCISE: worked on boat WEIGHT: 170 BREAKFAST: bacon & eggs LUNCH: big ass salad DINNER: none SNACKS: orange, grapes, apple ALCOHOL: none BEDTIME: 12:00 AWAKE: 6:30

 

Morning Pages Entry – May 23, 2014

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Hey, happy birthday to me! 52 and still feeling pretty good. Keep it up old man. So, on to more pressing issues. I was starting to put together a menu plan for our whole 30, and it went ok. It’s definitely one of those tasks, where you need to approach it one small piece at a time. As, trying to come up with a plan that will work for everyone, is going to be a bit tricky. Suppers are probably the easiest to plan out, as everyone just sits down and eats the same thing. Breakfast and lunches I’m not so sure about. They’re a little bit more ad hoc. Sam is different, because of her swim schedule. She eats a bit before morning practice and a bit after morning practice. Jennifer is probably something the same. Karen and Jessica sit down, and eat before they go out the door. I don’t eat till later in the day, but it’s always bacon and eggs. Jessica, I can probably just make bacon and eggs for every morning. Lunches I suppose are a bit over the place as well. I think, I need to take the approach the one lady does where she just sort of cooks up a bunch of stuff at the beginning of the week, and eats it whenever. Planning out the dinners would help me, and I did get a good start at that. But, the lunches are a another thing that’s a bit trickier. I think, I need to get a list from everyone as to what they normally eat for breakfast and lunch each day. Then, I can tweak things from that. If there’s stuff they normally like to eat, then those things can stay in the meals. Things they don’t like will have to go, and I should find some sort of substitute for them. Sauces are another thing that would be helpful to have substitutes for. Like the whole30 mayo and ketchup for instance. Those will certainly help to ease the transition into this. One of the things you want to do, is to have plenty of wholoe30 approved food choices lying around all the time. And, plan to make more then want of everything for dinners. That way, there are lots of leftovers for the following days breakfasts and lunches. We may want to have more containers for storing leftovers. There is going to be some tweaking of things in the first week, but that’s ok. The kids are definitely on board for this, meaning Jennifer and Samantha. Jessica doesn’t really realize what she’s in for, but that’s ok. She’s likely the most flexible of the group. She can be picky sometimes, but we’ll see how that goes. The snacks for her I think will be the hardest. Giving up the coke, I’m not sure. And, making sure, that she doesn’t eat stuff from school can be a bit hard as well. It would be good for her to eat just the right stuff, but we’ll see how that goes. How strict do you want to be this for her? I suppose, I would like for her to follow it as strictly as everyone else. You will have to explain it to her, and make sure she understands it. As long as she knows the rules, she’s pretty good about following them. She is all about the rules. So, yesterday, I did get a pretty good chunk of editing done, and now only have about 9K words left to get through on the novel. Which is pretty good. I still have my edit notes, that I need to go through, and I think, the ending needs a bit more beefing up, and I do need to add more words to break the novel up into two publishable novels. I still have to look at the structure, and see where it makes sense to do that. But I would really like to hit the shelves with two novels off the bat. That would make up a little bit for being so late getting this thing done. Then, of course, you need to hit the ground running, and start putting out a novel a month. At least for the the summer. Then once you get that process going, you can start adding the serials. Once the boat is put away, you should move into doing the weekly serials, and the monthly novel. That would be pretty cool. To have all that going on at once. That would be busy, but good. Plan the serials to only run from October to May, then take the four months off and just write the novels. That would make for a pretty good boating season. Maybe, once the money is going good, you can even plan some holiday time.

TIGERBLOOD: yep DAILYMOOD: productive LOCATION: home office WORDSWRITTEN: editing PUSHUPS: 4:00 wall sits TODO: edit, write, read, plan meals TV: supernatural, californication BOOK: none GAME: 2048 EXERCISE: walk 1 hour WEIGHT: 170 BREAKFAST: bacon & eggs LUNCH: big ass salad DINNER: gypsy sausage SNACKS: orange, grapes, apple, 2 lara bars ALCOHOL: none BEDTIME: 11:15 AWAKE: 6:30