The Good, Bad and Good Again

It's time to start a new week.  Last week was pretty good, but not great.  Some goals were met while others were completely ignored.  We saw two movies, "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" and "Transcendence."  They were both okay.  Just okay.  One you had to think, so be well rested before you go, and the other you could just leave your brain at the door.  I'll bet you can guess which is which.

Starting with the good, I managed to write everyday, staying above 300 words a day with a daily high of 517 words.  All total, I managed to get 2479 words down last week.  It seems that 300 is my fallback goal when I'm busy or tired and the world is falling apart around me, or if I'm just falling asleep at the keys.  That minimum needs to move up at least fifty words a day.  It's something that I think can be managed, so that's the new daily goal.  Starting now.

Moving from the good to some not so good, let's talk about my short story in progress.  Two weeks ago I made a run at getting it ready to head out into the wild, only to fall flat on my face.  So, of course, I took the whole of last week off from even looking at the thing.  That needs to change this week.  As bad as the editing is hated, the story needs it, and it needs to get out of the house.  So, I'll take another run at it this week and maybe even decide on a title.  What's a story without a name after all.

On a positive note, I moved up a level on The Magic Spreadsheet this past week.  I now stand at level 8 which is something that I'm pumped on!  That means that my daily word count goal is up to 600 according to the spreadsheet.  That's a goal that I may never reach, by the way.  It's a good thing that only 250 is needed to keep the chain alive which is the most important thing to me.  That's why I always get at least 300.  There's just something about getting at least one level up from the minimum that makes me happy.  <:-)  350 this week though, so look out Magic Spreadsheet, I'm picking up some extra points starting tonight.

I hope everyone out there has a great week.  Don't forget to get your writing done.  Every day if possible and look me up on Twitter @curt_mercer.  See you there!

Editing Deadline Not Met

It was a little over a week ago that I set a deadline for myself.  The plan was to have a short story that I've been working on edited and ready to head out the door by Monday.  It was a deadline that I failed to meet.  At the end of the day, figuratively speaking, I'll chalk it up to another lesson learned.

-What I did wrong.
The biggest thing I can think of that I did wrong was not thinking enough about what I had to do.  Not only what I had to do pertaining to the editing, but also what I had to do pertaining to the rest of my life.  We all know that editing is a time consuming beast, but I thought that given a week, I could make myself make time to get the work done.  I was obviously wrong.

It's hard to edit when you're traveling, away from you're computer or working, again away from you're computer.  The fact is that if I would have thought about it a little more, I probably would have known that having that story ready was a tall order.

-What I did right.
I set a deadline for myself.  Sure, I didn't make it, but as a writer, I need to get used to working under time constraints.  Setting deadlines for myself and working toward them will help me deal with real deadlines when I get them.

I also did some editing.  Probably way more than I would have done without the deadline.  Even though I failed to meet the target, the work that got done, got done!  So I'm that much closer to meeting my next deadline, even though I don't know exactly when that will be.

When I do know, I'll let you know.  In the meantime, I'll keep on writing and editing and if that story gets done before another deadline gets set, then so be it.  I'm outta here for now, so until next time, keep on writing and I'll be here doing the same.  Later!

The Time Problem

The one thing you always hear people say when talking about writing, is that they just don't have the time to do it.  I understand this sentiment very well.  As a matter of fact, I fight against the time robbing gremlins on a daily basis.  While I've managed to hold the writing time robbing gremlins off for a little over a year now, they are still keeping me from being from productive as I would like.

Last week I wrote at least 300 words a day, sometimes more, but at least 300 for a total of 2747 words.  I'll admit that that's not a huge amount of writing for a week.  Many people do that many words on the daily, but it doesn't appear that I will be there anytime in the near future.  If you're one of those people, congrats and keep on pushing.  You are an inspiration.

I lack that daily volume though.  What I lack in daily volume, I try to make up with consistency.  Writing everyday helps me not quit altogether.  The part that sucks though, is that I don't have enough time to do the things that I know I should be doing in order to be successful.  For example, there's this short story that really needs to go out.  I've made a few editing passes and it's almost ready, but not quite.  I blame my lack of time on that story not going out yet, but at the same time that's hard for me to accept.  I know that I control my time, or my free time at least, and I know that I don't always use it wisely.  That story should be done by now, but I have pushed it aside several times, put my daily words down and went to bed.

It's not like there aren't plans.  There are plans aplenty.  Almost everyday, while at work, I can't help but think that when I get home tonight I'm going to do write this or edit that.  Ah, those are some grand plans, but anyway, life gets in the way as they say.  There's always stuff to do at home and as any good general knows, even the best plans only last until the first shot is fired.  So I get home, get distracted, hangout with the family, and end up going to write around ten at the earliest.  It works for writing well enough, but editing, blogging, and anything writing related not focused on getting the daily word count has been a struggle.  I can't help but to think that maybe I'm missing something.

Could that something be a deadline?  I suppose it could be.  Of course it may not be either, but it's worth a shot.  The Magic Spreadsheet got me writing everyday, so maybe a self imposed deadline will light the fire under me that I need to get some editing done during the week.  Let's say that by this time next week, I'll have that story sent out or at the very least ready to go out.  That's the deadline then.  Have the story ready to go by 10:30 next Monday night.  It seems more than doable, so we'll see I guess.

I'll even do my best to let you know how it goes.  If deadlines work for me, maybe they'll work for you too!  What tricks do you use to get things done.  Let me know in the comments.  Thanks!

Lessons Learned From Year One

This has been a year of learning. I didn't really know what to expect when I started writing regularly and figured that I'd figure it out along the way. That process is long from over and at a year in, I feel that the journey has just begun.

The year has been filled with first. That is after all how you learn. I've written more than I ever have, joined The Magic Spreadsheet (google it), done some real editing, submitted a story for publication, and dealt with the rejection of that story. It's been quite the ride!  Out of all of these things, I am most proud of actually submitting something. Even if it was just a short story and who cares that its been rejected over and over, it taught me so much.

I sent my first short story out on October 8th 2013. It was, as I expected it would be, rejected. I was of course a little disappointed, I mean we all want to succeed at everything, but that never happens. The rejection mentioned that I had potential as a writer so that took a little of the sting out of it and the fact that I could now call myself a working writer, according to "I Should Be Writing's" Mur Lafferty's definition, was really cool.  Thanks Mur!

After getting the first rejection, I went through my story and found so much wrong. I would have rejected me on grammar alone, and I kicked myself (hard) for the stupid mistakes that I had made. It's not an excuse, but the first time I sent out the story I was in a hurry, thought I had corrected things which I obviously hadn't and sent it without much thought. It was late, I was tired, whatever, it was stupid to send it like I did but I did.  So there's my first big lesson. Don't be in a hurry. These things take time and you will overlook things that will make you look like you have no idea of what you're doing when you get in a hurry. 

After kicking myself many times and hard, I went back through the story to make corrections before sending it back out into the wild. I did more than grammar though. There were some scenes that could be better, so I spruced them up, added description here and there and sent it out again. It was again rejected. No big deal I thought and set to going through it again.

Somewhere in this process the story changed. Not just the grammar and fleshing out, but the mood and feel of the story. It lost a little of what I was aiming for in the first place, and I did it in an effort to make it better.

After two more rejections, I read through the story again and realized that I didn't like it as much as the story I had started with. The grammar was better, the scenes had better description, but it missed the feel of the original.  What started as a dark but funny story had lost all of the funny and was now just dark and kind of boring. There's my second big lesson. Stay true to the spirit of the story while you revise and edit or you may end up with something that you barely recognize as your work when you're done.

It looks like I'll trunk that story for now. Maybe I'll go back to it in a few years and maybe not. Either way, it was a great learning tool. I'm hoping for better luck in year two of my writing journey, but no matter what, I'll keep plugging away and stacking up the lessons learned. They are bound to help me get further down this crazy road I'm on. 

Writing Update - February 2014

It's easy for me not to post here.  The reason being is that I'm normally writing something else.  Something that I feel takes precedence over this page which is normally some form of fiction.  I started this blog, for a couple of reasons.  The first is that I wanted to own my name as a domain and the other is that I thought that it would it would be cool to have a personal author type blog.  A place to note the things I'm working on as a writer who is trying to get published.  That was the plan and I got away from it, but perhaps it's time to get back that focus and stop writing about daily events, because really, no one cares about that anyway.

Though my novel work seems to be going nowhere fast, I feel as though I am getting better at crafting a short story.  I have one out for consideration right now, but I think they have had more than enough time to consider it.  It's time to do a different kind of writing and craft an email to find out what the hold up is.  I have waited beyond the time stated in the submission guidelines, so there should be no issues asking for a decision on the story.  I'm okay with a rejection, but at this point, I just want an answer.

There is another story that I have that I need to go through and polish up.  Right now, it is just a rough draft.  There is probably some cutting and adding that needs to be done, and I plan to start on it later in the week.  Hopefully that story can be ready to be sent out to market by early next week.  That's a good goal anyway.  It may take a little longer than that depending on how many passes it takes to get everything ready to head out the door.

That's all for now.  I'll check back in later with another update.  Don't be surprised if it's a week or so though.  Just know that whether I'm posting it here or not, I'm still out here write 'n stuff.

2013 in Review

Overall, 2013 was a good year.  Sure there were some ups and downs along the way but they seemed to average out on the good side when all was said and done.  2013 is coming to a close though, and it is time to look forward to yet another year.  What will 2014 hold is anyone’s guess, but I am looking forward to finding out just what’s in store for me.

That being said, it is also that time of year when we make resolutions for the year to come.  My 2013 resolutions worked out pretty well.  I said that I would write and get in better shape.  Those things have come to pass.  For the next year, I don’t know if I will take on any new resolutions.  Instead, I may resolve to continue my 2013 resolutions.  I can do better at both of those.

Resolution 1:  Continue writing.

It may seem simple and to be honest, it is.  Just write.  That’s it.  Two hundred and eighty one days ago, I started using the Magic Spreadsheet.  With it, I have written every day for all 281 of those days.  I am pretty stoked on that.  That is a streak that I never would have imagined.  With the New Year here, the streak will hopefully gain 365 more days.  That’s the goal for 2014.  Write every day, no matter what, even if it’s only the minimum of 250 words.

Resolution 2:  Continue improving my health.

2013 was a good year for my fitness, but I didn’t reach the pinnacle of what I feel I can be.  Those six pack abs are somewhere, and I know that they are just dying to come out.  They need to come on out in 2014.  That’s pretty much all of that goal.  I’m not sure I can lose any more weight since I dropped that 15 to 20 pounds last year.  If I can tone up a little, I’ll be happy.  I know that it won’t be easy, so I need to be disciplined in my pursuit of fitness.  That kettle bell that I got for a Christmas gift will be good for this goal.

That’s it.  Nothing groundbreaking for the New Year, but I think that’s what messes’ people up so often.  People often set their goals too high and that often leads to failure and frustration.  So have a great year in 2014, reach for your goals, and I’ll try to do the same.  Good luck!