A Plan to go Faster!

ChalkBoardDid you participate in NaNoWriMo? I did. I used every spare moment to escape to the keyboard and pound out some words. My family was very understanding, thankfully.

Writing can feel so selfish at times. It is a solitary journey and when you have a family that you only see for a few hours  a day it can seem almost hostile to insist that you have to disappear for an hour or so. With NaNoWriMo, at least there was the excuse that it was just for the month. That there was an end on sight, that this was temporary, made all the difference.

With a goal of writing as much as possible during the month, I knew I needed a plan. Writers are generally categorized as either plotter or pantsers. Plotters develop characters, story arches, plot and themes before ever typing their opening line. Pantsers are writers who do not have a plan, but just want to see what happens as they go. Story telling “by the seat of their pants” A.K.A. pantsers.

Everything I had read or listened to lately had said that the secret to writing well and fast was to have a well outlined plan before starting. To be a plotter.

It made sense to me, so I bought the book Take Off Your Pants by Libbie Hawker.  I found it really helpful. This was my second year participating in NaNoWriMo and I DOUBLED my Continue reading A Plan to go Faster!

National Novel Writing Month

NaNoWriMo 2015
National Novel Writing Month 2015

Have you heard of National Novel Writing Month? Or NaNoWriMo for short? Every November millions of people sign up to commit to writing as much as they can in a month. The stated goal is 50,000 words at the end of 30 days. Many people achieve that goal every year. Not me, but there are people who have.

For me it is extra incentive to write with an accelerated pace for a month. Of course you can set that goal yourself and never join the official event, but it wouldn’t be as much fun. Plus, lets be honest, if all it took to for me to write 50,000 words was just saying I was going to do it, I would have already done it.

Here is a short idea of how it works. You make a profile and describe your book. You log Continue reading National Novel Writing Month

Stand up writing

Man sitting at desk has back pain
Sitting all day is a killer!

I am sure you have at least heard of stand up desks. The latest health push is to get us off our backsides and on our feet. Apparently  sitting is much worse for us than standing. Made sense to me and I liked the idea so I requested an adjustable stand up desk at work. I requested it four months ago, but still no stand up desk.

I really wanted to try this, so I rigged my writing desk by using a rack made for organizing my closet then putting my laptop on top of that. It takes a little getting used to. I quickly found out that there are some hurdles. First, your feet hurt.  Quickly.  Second, you can only stand for so long, then you need (want?) to sit down. No real surprises. Pretty much what I had read from others who had gone down this path.

First think I needed to do  was to ease my foot pain.  Now, every thing I read recommended standing pads. Like this:

But I didn’t want to spend the money. And I wanted to get started NOW so I found my sandals that I had bought from the Exchange. The are Sanuk Beer Cozy Sandals and they seem to be doing the trick, at least for now. They are really comfortable!

Still, I can only do the standing thing for so long. Ideally you take a break, but sometimes I need to stay at the screen. OK. usually I just want to surf the net for a while.  The set up I had was a hassle to undo, so I broke down and bought a ready made gadget to hold my large 17 inch screen laptop up off my desk. I am an Amazon Prime member, mostly because I am so impatient, and I got this baby within two days. I love it! It is light but sturdy, very adjustable and easy to remove when I need to sit down again.  I think it is the best solution for me and it is fairly cheap. This is the exact one I got:

I will keep you posted on what I think, but this works for me. For now!

Labor Day

The San Diego skyline taken from the Coronado
San Diego skyline Labor Day 2015

This is something I did not want to share. I believe it is private and others have said not to share it. I am going against their advice and my own.

My rough draft is done. There, I said it. Yesterday I typed “THE END” at the bottom of a page. I believe the writing process should be kept private until you have something to show. Of course if you are part of a writing group, then do what ever you agree on, but otherwise don’t share have baked books.

So why am I sharing this one? First, I want you to know that something was happening. That my writing was more than a few blog posts. Second, this is my first book and like many first books, I doubt it will every see the light of day. From what I have researched, most first books are an exercise of demons and take an eternity to write, but once that first one is out and the demons trapped into words on pages, from then on the writing comes quicker and easier. I hope that is true.

My plan is to let it sit for a month before I go back and start editing. Now it the time for thinking up new story ideas and doing some writing practices. Time to get excited about the next story, as soon as I find out what it is.

Today is Labor Day. We had some friends over Friday and went to Coronado on Monday and mosly I just hung out with my family in between. I will be going on the road again soon, so sleeping in and spending time at home was a necessity.

 

Still here

I am around. Just like you, life comes at me sometimes. This time it is nothing bad. I can’t complain, really. I am at a class for a couple weeks. What I can complain about is how it gives me such a great excuse not to write.

Ever been there? Right now I am near the end of writing a book. Finishing up the last scenes of the rough draft. Usually that is plenty of reason by itself. Finishing means change and that can be a good enough reason to slow the writing train.

Add on to that a class I am taking which is heavy in the writing area and I have all these great excuses not to write! I know it is a weak excuse. I wouldn’t let any of you get away with it!

What? posting on this blog isn’t really writing? OK, i get it. I am still wasting time and not writing. You caught me. I just wanted to let you know I was thinking about you. I am glad I did, you keep me honest!

Mingle

People socializing at a Christmas Party
Have fun getting to know each other

I believe that people rarely get anywhere on their own. I for one have not achieved the level of professional success that I have by leaning on my own skills and neglecting everyone else. I would go so far as to say that most of my success in the military has been based on my readiness to help others.

There are quite a few out there that say the indie writing community is the same. Continue reading Mingle

Happy 4th of July

U.S. Flag with Land of the brave written on it
Happy 4th of July

 

Now I  know you don’t come to a writing blog to discuss Father’s Day and the Fourth of July. I promise to have more writing based post coming soon. Honest

I am a father and I am a patriot. I think being a patriot is a good quality to have for someone who is active duty in the military. Right? Continue reading Happy 4th of July

Carving out time to write.

A whimsical pic of a winged clock in the palm of a hand
Tame time and make it work for you

The hardest part of being a productive writer seems to be consistency. I typically would get an urge to write something, go all out for an hour or  a couple days and then stop. That stop could last a week or months before I would try again. I have found that I am not alone in this. Thank God I am not alone in this! Really! So often the writers we hear Continue reading Carving out time to write.

Happy Fathers Day!

Father and son holding hands at beachI’ve been working on a post about how my writing has been more productive lately. It is a good post and you’ll like it. There are some tweeking I need to do to it to make it really useful and polished, but it will be good. But I am not posting that today. Today is Fathers Day.

I have four children. Continue reading Happy Fathers Day!

Did you think I forgot about you?

I wouldn’t blame you if you did. I have been neglectful and I am sorry. Truly.

When I started this website, things were somewhat stable and I thought I could keep it going. Then I got some contract work (not writing, darn it) and was traveling a lot and then when I came back I was working late at my real job for Uncle Sam.

Then we were looking at transferring again. Continue reading Did you think I forgot about you?