So if you’re wondering why I haven’t posted part 4 up, here’s why. A few weeks ago Smashwords said that I couldn’t publish The Harvest the way I’m doing now (in parts). They said their research shows people only want standalone works and that I have to unpublish parts 1 to 3. Well the parts have still been up all this time so I guess I’m going to leave them on the site. I will, however, continue on with the project and hopefully publish the entire thing in the next few months. If I can find another avenue to publish this particular work the way I have been (in parts) I’ll try doing that too but if not I’ll just trudge on trying to tame this beast of a story.
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Sharper Eyes Needed
I was getting ready to upload Part 3 of The Harvest this evening and as I was copying and pasting the title links onto the document, I realized I had the same title on Part 2 as I had on Part 1. That means I’VE HAD THIS F*CKED UP TITLE PAGE UP FOR A MONTH!! UUUGGGHHH…what a kick in the balls. Needless to say, it’s fixed and I made sure Part 3 is good to go. You can read it here:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/292180
This past weekend I wrote about half of an outline for an upcoming project about a doomed couple. This will be based on an actual relationship.
And the muse has been paying me visits every couple of weeks and whispering story ideas into my ear. I’ve written down three or four of those ideas so I can one day develop those ideas into worlds for you to explore.
Inspiration…or lack of
I’ve always read that writers need to write every day, even if they don’t feel like it, even when the Muse is out doing whatever it does when he’s not standing next to your screen feeding your mind with all these great ideas and scenes that will help make your story “the one” that helps you break through. I think I’m at the point in my writing career that…wait, I shouldn’t say that. I think I’ve always been the kind of writer that only writes when inspired.
Admittedly, this is the longest I’ve been connected to my writing. When I took it up as a “serious” hobby in 1995 (although I’ve written things all my life starting with a journal when I was 8) I’d write a few stories over the course of a few weeks and then 2, 3 or more years would go by before writing again. But since 2009 or so, I’ve slowly narrowed the gap between my efforts from years to months and now to weeks. Maybe I’d write more often if I wasn’t a weekend writer.
But realistically, for me anyway, I need to write when I’m inspired. Everyone’s different. There is no singular way to do things. Yes there are some methods that work better for most people but there’s no commandment that says you have to write when you don’t feel like it. I’ve written when I don’t feel like it and when it comes time to edit weeks later (depending what I’m writing could be days later) I can tell which parts I trudged through.
Ha ha. Of course if I had a multi book contract, damn right I’d force myself to be inspired every damn day 🙂
But that’s just me…
Back at it
Went over part 2 of The Harvest this morning and made some slight adjustments. I’m going to sit on it for a day and hopefully upload it to Smashwords this weekend.
You probably haven’t noticed that I hadn’t posted in a couple of weeks but I have been very preoccupied by work. Real work. My real job. REALITY. I had this huge rant I was going to get off my chest but you never know if what you post will make it back to your boss and you’ll have to pay for it later. Better safe than sorry.
Weekends are made for writing and for pretending that this is what I do for a living. Speaking of which, I’m wondering when and if I should set a price for Part 2 of The Harvest.
Decisions, decisions.
Nothing like work…
…to kill my creativity. Crazy work week. Last minute presentation prep has melted the mind. Need to do a data dump and maybe the Muse will reappear. Don’t know.
At least the presentation went okay today and I have a three day weekend coming up.
Who can write…
…on a day like this? I just want to kick back on the couch, grab a blanket and a book, coffee. When I get tired of that I can take a nap.
Nice.
The Elusive Masturbatory Word
That title should say it all. Had a reader (THANKS!!!) ping me about a couple of errors found in my latest release, The Harvest Part 1. I’m embarrassed to say the least but appreciative that someone cared enough to point these things out.
I had spelled elusive “allusive,” which is an actual word, just not the right one for the story 🙂
And I have mixed feelings about “masturbatory” which I’d also misspelled. As much as I’d like to blame inexperience with the word or the activity, I quite possibly might have my own wing in the Hall of Fame. All the more reason I should’ve spelled this correctly 😛
I think that’s why it’s so important to have people review your work before releasing it. I’ve read my work dozens and dozens of times and I’m thinking now that after the first or second read through, perhaps I begin to just skim instead of taking it slow, one sentence at a time. Part of it is my A.D.D. (self-diagnosed but I do hit most of the symptoms on the list) and my impatience to just want to hurry up and share the story. Need to learn patience.
Thank you, Yeiring.
The Harvest
Finally got The Harvest out the door, at least Part 1 of it. Tweaked and rewrote a tiny bit of it throughout the week. When I was re-reading some of the novel last week, I saw some parts that I really liked and I’m hoping that when I release those parts down the road that readers like them too.
A New Year
Hope everyone out there had a great 2012. I accomplished most of what I had set out to do this past year. For this year, I pray for continued health for my family, my friends, my other loved ones and me. I hope for continued employment and for me to be where I need to be. As an author, I just want to be able to continue writing and for my readership to continue growing. I think at this point it’s all about making a lasting connection.
I Found It!!!
A couple of years ago I started editing my first draft of a novel and ended up totally re-writing it (or attempting to anyway). Since I wanted to start working on parts of it again, I began looking for the file a couple of weeks ago but couldn’t find it. Finally found it today in the same folder as the first draft. What helped me find it was that I was actually looking at cover drafts. I’d forgotten I had added the cover picture into this second draft (re-write) so in the folder, the icon appeared as a picture. By chance I wanted to see the picture of the cover and when I clicked on it, I saw that there was some story underneath and I immediately recognized it as the re-write.
Looking forward to posting some parts of it in the near future, probably as episode.
First Novel Blues 