Keep on, Keeping On

First, let me just send out a quick thank you to David J. Thanks for the encouragement, and don't worry. The updates on the blog may be infrequent, but the work in the background continues.

So, where am I. Let's see. Currently have my second draft out to be read by friends so I can get some feedback and instead of waiting for it to come back I've started writing another story. This one is already shaping up to be interesting, as I want to use multiple viewpoints, including one that isn't even human, and switch between them over the story. Very cool, and a bit of a stretch for me. So far everything I've written has had one main viewpoint character and stayed with that one for the entire story. This should be interesting.

I don't foresee having much time to put up blog entries for the next little bit, what with all the holidaze coming up. What little extra time I have needs to be spent writing.

Well So Much for Regular Updates

Heh, when I started this blog I promised myself I'd update it every Monday to keep a record of what I've been doing on the writing front, to motivate myself by putting my progress up in public (if anyone other than me is actually reading this). Last little bit hasn't been going according to schedule. I have been better about actually writing though. I've got the second draft about 60-70% done so at least progress is being made. Last week was tough as I felt like garbage all week, and after work I really just wanted to sleep, but I got some writing done even if it wasn't as much as I wanted. Next week will be better as I feel much improved and a lot of the Christmas stuff is out of the way. The gifts are wrapped and ready to go, and today I made homemade turtles for friends and coworkers. :)

On a side note, one of my favorite episodes of Deep Space Nine aired on Friday. Now, you may be wondering what an episode of a television show has to do with writing. Well, the episode was Far Beyond the Stars, where Captain Sisko has visions of being a science fiction writer in 1950s New York. If you've never seen it I recommend going out and finding a copy. I wanted to become a writer before I saw the episode, but it highlighted a lot of the reasons I wanted to become one. Sisko's dream/vision character of Benny Russell has drive and passion for what he does, and writes a story about a black captain in charge of a space station, in other words Captain Sisko, making this kind of a dream dreaming of a dream that is dreaming. Yeah, it gets confused. I loved it. Anyways, the episode goes on about Benny's fight to get his story published and ends on a tragic note, but it is such a moving story, I just can't find the words to express how it made me feel, how it still affects me. I want to write stories that do the same thing to others, that make them feel something so deep and primal, that move them in ways they never knew the could be moved.

Oh well, time to get back to work on that. It won't happen overnight, but it will happen.

I've Been Drafted

First draft that is. Finished the first draft on my new story last week and took a few days off to let the story percolate in my brain. Not that the days were actually off. I still worked the day job, and I spent the free time reading which can be considered part of a writer's job.

I started on the second draft yesterday and I like where things are going. I'm not as strapped for words on this one since I don't have a limit like I did with Tesseracts, so I've starting to include more description. Also, the second draft is starting to include more direction. The first was all about getting it out on the page and that led to some interesting developments. I actually had one character die who I didn't intend to, and that ended up changing the protagonists motivation completely. I think in the end it gives him a more nobler and more personal reason for doing the things he does.

It sh0uld be interesting how this plays out. I'm thinking I'll submit this one to Writers of the Future when I'm done and see how it does. If that doesn't pan out I'll continue to submit elsewhere. I already have the next story idea in my brain and I can't wait to get working on that one.

One final note, still waiting on Tesseracts but then I'll likely be waiting for a few more weeks. Oh, and I'm almost done my Christmas shopping. Yeah!

I Guess I Should Put Something Up

A little bit late for my "Monday" update, but better late than never, as they say.

So, where am I, what's the "state of the union" so to speak. At this point I'm still waiting to hear on my submission on Tesseracts. No big surprise there. The deadline for submissions was Nov 30, so I'm early on submitting and won't hear anything till Dec at the earliest.

I'm almost done the first draft of my next story, and I have an idea brewing for the one after. Today I wrote at least 2500 words. I believe that may be a personal best. I normally only write between 500 and 600, so 2500 is a huge jump. It helps that I had the day off.

So, another day, another few words written.

I Submit!

Just sent off my submission for Tesseracts 14. This was after a final check for errors and a few minor tweaks.

Dear sweet Jeebus, I actually did it.

Now the fun part, waiting. Hopefully I'll know soon. Latest I should know is December 31. Let's hope the news is good. I'd love to be able to tell my parents at Christmas that I'm going to be published.

Remember, Remember, the month of November

OK, so we're into November and you know what that means?

Snow?!? WTF Mother Nature! (Yes, I actually saw a brief snowfall today, in Southern Ontario, shudder)

Nope, it means another chance to do NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month for those of you not familiar with the short form. The goal is to write a 50000 word novel in one month, that month of course being November. It means writing about 1666 a day, or lets just round it off to 2000 with a day off here or there. Let's put that into perspective. Robert J. Sawyer (yes, I like the guy- met him twice and both times he was pleasant and approachable), a professional author, writes an average of 2000 words a day, and that's his full time job. So the goal of NaNoWriMo is to have the quantitative output of a professional writer for at least one month.

Is this possible? I mean, most of us can't afford to spend all of our time writing. We have jobs to go to, errands to run, lives to live, etc. Heck, even the number of writers that only write and do nothing else is starting to diminish. So all in all, this is a daunting feat for many.

So, the question is, am I going to do NaNoWriMo this year? The short answer is No. The longer answer is No and stop bugging me about it! Seriously though, I'm not ready this year. I've just really gotten back into the writing swing, and my 500 words a day works for me right now. I hope to start bumping that number up and I have been developing better work habits. I'm less likely to wander away from the computer and watch TV. When I'm not writing I'm spending more time reading, which in the end will help my writing a great deal. I recently finished a book on Revision and Self Editing and my writing has improved from it. Just need to keep the improvements going.

Alright, I'm going to go out on a limb here. I'm going to make a public pledge in this blog to enter NaNoWriMo in 2010 and start work on my first novel. Until then, I'm going to keep on working on getting a short story published.

Updating While Cooking Dinner

Right now I have a spicy stir-fry on the stove so I'm going to make this quick.

Nearly at 5000 words on the new story and still waiting for feedback. Dang people having lives and all that. Don't they know they are on this Earth to serve my ever whim!

Don't worry, I'm kidding. I still have nearly a month before submission to Tesseracts, and the story is almost at the publishable state. I'll make it.

Hopefully more later this week. I want to make a comment on NaNoWriMo.