Posts Tagged ‘ Shift

Sometimes Things Break Down

Lady Ven Aleyo
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Monday’s post was late because I forgot to publish. Yesterday, I wrote most of a new chapter 1 of Starjackers, and set up a series in Medium (You need to do another) and now I am trying to catch up.

I lost count of how much I wrote today, though I appear to be around 1500+ words on StarJackers. I also added the Romance subplot. Ven Aleyo has changed from my original idea and is now a Subspecies living on the colony of Venice, a mostly water world with cites built around the few pieces of ground that rise above the waves of floating cities. As I see the planet, It is an old world where plate tectonics has ceased.

In Medium, I have created to Series that are used to showcase the articles and stories. I am happy with those.

Wow. I made a snap decision to finish Spell Thief as another Novella, eventually reaching about 35 thousand words. It took me a bit to get into it, but once I started, I think it came along very well. Spell Thief was going to be the first of a fantasy series, anyway, and it is a perfect match to Starjackers. I am setting my goal with Spell Thief to 500 words a day.

Today, I wrote well in excess of 2000 words. I admit that I am very happy where things are heading. I really want to reach a point where I have several books in Amazon, and hopefully start bringing in a bit of money.

Writer’s Log 01.20.2019-0752

Sundays are tough, it’s family you know. I want to stay on task, to make my goal, and today I did. But Sundays are difficult. We went to a movie today. We cooked. We hung out together. Tonight the boys went to see Glass.

Adventures in publishing: A reader found an error in Shift. Got it fixed, but I have learned a serious lesson. Editors make mistakes and writer’s pay for them. I need to work much harder with editing from the beginning.

I reached 1099 words today, and wrote a thousand words.

Writer’s Log 01.15.2019 – 2311

Just a short post today. Actually posted a piece of flash fiction earlier. I continued to write the novella and wrote 1340 words on the project, and you can add around 500 for the Flash.
That is a good day, no matter what you think
I am I am hitting my stride. The antidepressant I take–I am not ashamed–has allowed me to get my mind functioning. It is the fourth I have tried. The other three, over the years, had terrible side effects.
I am having an amazing period of creativity, flash fiction, short stories, a Novella. I need to get back to editing “The Jungian Gate” and plan a novella sequel to Shift.

Goal: I am thinking I will edit and tighten up all my short stories and put them together into a book.

Well, I think this is it. It is about time to hit the sack. My late start this morning happened because I stayed up to one in the morning.

Damned I’m not Not Late Getting Started Again

Damned if I’m not late getting started again, but it’s not my fault this time. No, I blame day, that being last night.
How can I blame a period of time equal to a fraction of the rotation of the earth? Easy, I went to sleep at 0100, that is 1:00 AM for the twenty-four-hour clock challenged.
You see, I sit up with my lovely wife until she falls asleep, approximately 2345. (Subtract 1200 form the number to read the time.) Then, after watching a few minutes of The Late Show With Steven Colbert, I decide why not read for a while. One thing led to another, and I start editing back over yesterday’s writing.
Suddenly, it’s 0100. (If you can’t read that go back to my second paragraph.
See what I mean, not my fault at all.

Well, only so much exhaustion can be fixed with a cup of coffee.

Ah, much better. Now, where was I? Oh, yes.
The alarm blares at 0520. I wake up, stab my alarm to death with my finger, and glance at my wife and say, “Time to get up, Dear.”
“Five more minutes,” says Dear.
What is a man to do? So, I give her five minutes.
“Five more.”
Now I start feeling like the witch hunter in Salem, Massachusets who in trying to seduce a confession from a suspect witch dropped a rock on his chest only to hear, “More weight.”
You probably see where this is going but being a writer, I can’t stop.

It’s like an addiction, and there is no twelve step program.

Five minutes later. “Dear…

“One more minute.”
“I have to wake up the boys.”
“One more minute.”

Then up she pops like a devil from a Jack-in-the-box. Strip from her Tee-J. (That is a t-shirt she sleeps in.) Bathroom break. Brush teeth. Shower.
A few minutes while I wake up my son.
Dressed, we run downstairs where she fixes breakfast to eat from her desk at work and takes most of the coffee.
Son #1 comes downstairs, bleary-eyed. Kiss, kiss, hug, hug and the door.

I need to compress time here, a bit, so consider this a brief trip through a small wormhole. (Obligatory Science Fiction Term.)

Boys fed and dropped off at school, I return home, sit my cold cup of coffee on the end table and recline with a lie to myself. I will just close my eyes for a minute.
1100, Oh, shit!

Damned if I’m not late getting started again, but it’s not my fault this time.

Now that we’ve reached that sudden moment of Déjà vu for you, I need to go to work.

Plans and Portents

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Plan of Action

NOVELLAS: Yes, yes, yes I will get around to my writer’s log, later. This is just a note covering my change in direction. since I am self-published, I’ve decided to write a series as Novellas. Each book will be between twenty thousand and forty thousand words. They will be complete, in that I will present a beginning, middle and end with rising action a climax and a denouement. (Yes, I am showing off my literary chops with that word.) But Each will be one part of a series of two or more books.
That requires writing one thousand words a day. I can do that.

I also intend to continue blogging about writing. This blog will expand out to more than one page, covering my printed works. along with the blog here, I will publish at Medium at least once a week.

Honestly, I’ve never been that disciplined, but it is past the time that I learned. I’m old enough, and I’m good enough.

First Novella will be Starjackers. Watch this bog for more.