Archive for March, 2019
I ran across a post today on Medium by Turner Stories, which is linked to a blog, and all of it designed to create a platform.
That Medium post links to a Blog:
This is a model for what I want to do. By the end of March, this blog will be converted to the foundation of my platform.
Lots of work to do.
Success as a writer means finishing and publishing documents. Selling a few books would be nice, but marketing is another thing altogether. Now, my thoughts are turned full on to the production process. My process is slow because I have developed bad habits. It is time to examine those habits holding me back and rid myself of them.
I’ve heard this for years, acknowledged it, and ignored it. Editing the story, tinkering with the text, correcting misspelled words, cleaning up your copy, and any other Euphemism a writer cares to throw up in defense is pointless. MIND YOU: I DON”T PRACTICE WHAT I PREACH HERE.
Yesterday as part of the Writer’s Boot camp, were performed a ten minute exercise using the prompt, “At noon, the last camel died.” The point of the exercise is to get a clear idea of the narrative your want to write in the mind, and sit down for ten minutes and write. No editing. No going back. No agonizing over the perfect word.
Work with the premise that all first drafts are shit, and get the shit on the page fast as possible so you can begin the real work.
I have a habit over the years of constantly
I have caught myself doing that here in this post. I should be writing, getting the words on the page, not hitting the wrong key and backspacing to clear the word. If I just get it down, I can edit later.
ITS SO DAMN HARD!
So here I find myself working to unlearn
Changing my life begins now.
In Twilight’s Child (Rewrite) I ran into a problem/opportunity, they can be indistinguishable. I had removed an entire subplot. In brief, the Protagonist, Alec Thisbe, has a sister who was a “seventh son,” the seventh son of the seventh son down seven generations.
Yes, she is female and I have changed the rules to reflect that mortals, as opposed to the Fae, got it wrong. Every firstborn of her family line back seven generations was female, so she has the innate ability to use Fae Glamour (Magic).
I wrote her subplot because my protagonist for this first novel is a Changeling, an immortal Fae left in the crib in the place of a mortal child taken as a hostage in the Tithe to Hell.
I deleted the subplot because I had toyed with writing for a younger audience. I have changed my mind, so his older sister is in, and her dalliance with Puck is back in.
Now, I had thought I deleted those scenes, and it would have been a real pain in the tuchus to rewrite. I just pulled them out of an early copy of the novel.
Every thing I’ve written has had scenes or paragraphs deleted. I have a file where I keep those old versions. I consider it like keeping button box. Because I am old as dirt, I will explain for those who do not understand the reference in this throw away age.
My mother and grandmother kept buttons off old clothes or spares when they had to buy buttons in a box. When one of us kids would lose a button, an event so regular as to be the norm, they would have a source of buttons to make repairs.
My writer’s button box came to my rescue.
I am not a member of alliteration anonymous. Just thought I would write that.
I have discovered that the phrase, Old Habits Die Hard, is, at best, inaccurate. For some weeks, I kept my daily blog for weeks—weeks I tell you — and then ran into articles that told me I did it wrong. I’ve discovered Blogging daily had become a part of my discipline, and without it, I faltered.
I did not stop writing, but I have found it more difficult without this daily habit. Today, this afternoon actually, I chose to dump the way I am supposed to do this and move back to a daily post.
I have slammed up against one of my lousy habits with Twilight’s Child (the name may change). I now finish novels; now I need to learn to edit them. I am having trouble. Other than a few ongoing projects, I intend to bull my way through. If I can’t read through it who will, after all?
The Boot Camp goes well. Having done it before, these early phases are a bit of a chore, but it changes a bit from run to run and we will soon be over this phase.
I began a short story, A Cat by Any Other Name, and wrote 504 words. I expect it to hit 2000. Oddly, it started as a Fan Fiction for Forgotten Realms. One thing led to another. I am gong to start writing Fan Fiction and posting things on Fan Fiction sites to get people to know my name.