Tag Archives: deadlines

Morning Pages Entry – May 10, 2014

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So, I almost left to paint the boat this morning, without doing my journal entry. I would have had time to do it tonight, but there was always a chance, I would just forget. So, let’s do it now. Yesterday, I was really tired. I took a nap for an hour or two in the middle of the afternoon, then I still went to bed at 10:15, and didn’t get out of bed till 7 this morning. So, hopefully I will have plenty of energy for today. I was probably just tired from all that waxing the day before. Ah well. We’ll see. So today, I’m off to paint, and get the boat together. Then it should be totally ready for launch on Wednesday. If not I still have mon or tue to go up and do stuff. Today, painting is the priority, but I will need to put a few things back together. I wonder if the robins nest I found there the other day, will have hatched it’s eggs yet. I wonder, if the mother came back to the nest. I will have to deal with the stuff up there at some point. I do have to attach my dock lines up there. Even if, I don’t put the anchor on before I head out. Which, of course, Wayne wouldn’t approve of. It will be busy up there today I’m sure. Everyone will be out on a nice Saturday to get their boats ready. There will be plenty of distractions. I didn’t get any editing done yesterday, but I did do a bit of reading. Reading, is a good idea for me to do more of. It will get me more into the writing world. I should stop watching so much tv in the evenings. I can still watch my occasional tv show during my lunch / breakfast. But, my evenings should be reserved for reading. And, I should really stop spending so much silly time on FaceBook. There is really not much of value on there. You could likely see everything you need to see on there in half an hour a day . . . or less. Maybe a half an hour every other day, or every three days. There is some good stuff in the kindling page, but other then that, there’s really no need to be on there. It’s mostly just full of advertisment and just pictures and videos these days. So, something to change there. At least, until the first book is published. Not so much facebook. Say, maybe every other day for 30 minutes. And, no more tv in the evenings, when you should be reading instead. And, get your editing and writing done during the day. There’s no excuse for not getting that stuff done. For sure. I do still like, the idea of publishing a short story every week, while I’m working on the larger novel. They don’t have to be perfectly edited, but they do have to be put out there. You need the exercise of getting the story done, and publishing it, and making the cover and writing the blurb, and all that other stuff. Plus, it will give you something you could use at a later date. You could, always take them, and make them into big larger stories, with a proper edit, should the need arise. Then, they would be more likely to sell for you. If you did a 10K short story every week, then next year at this time, you would have 520K worth of words that could be put into omnibus editions and sold as five seprate novels. That would basically be like publishing 5 novels at once. You could do those over the course of the summer. Have them edited with new covers put on them, and perhaps spend some time writing extra narrative putting the stories together. Just like Bradbury did with his stories. Now, wouldn’t that be so cool. You’d basically have 12 novels out there, plus you could put five more out there before the summer finished. That would be a profitable time. The stories should be different enough from the plot line of the current one, but perhaps they could be about different people, in different places. Perhaps, over in Europe or somewhere the mutation isn’t running rampant. That would be pretty wild. Having that many books up within a year. I’m really liking the whole short story thing. I don’t think, they should be overly plotted out either. Just kind of make them up as you go. That would be incredibly cool.

TIGERBLOOD: not really DAILYMOOD: tired LOCATION: home office WORDSWRITTEN: none PUSHUPS: 2:00 plank TODO: paint boat TV: orphan black BOOK: Hyperion … Dan Simmons GAME: none EXERCISE: none WEIGHT: 170 BREAKFAST: bacon & eggs LUNCH: big ass salad DINNER: spaghetti sauce SNACKS: orange, grapes, apple, almond butter ALCOHOL: none BEDTIME: 10:15 AWAKE: 7:00

 

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