Story of my life…

I’d have to go back into the archives to remember when I posted last.

I get sick and/or distracted, and blogging is the first thing to go.

Can’t promise it’ll get better before it gets worse. Because of my involvement in my church’s Christmas show (henceforth known as LCT), any time that isn’t spent doing something else like–oh, I don’t know… WORK… or some other obligation, is spent focusing on LCT. And any time leftover from that is just spent recuperating.

As much as I love being a part of LCT, and honored to have such a prominent role in its creation, I really loathe a lot of the time I have to spend on it. It takes away time I’d rather spend writing–or, at the very least, pretending to write.

Nanowrimo is just a little over a week away. Can’t do it because of LCT. Got short storie brewing away up in the noggin. Can’t do them because I have no time for them.

Of course, if I were being truly honest, I’d admit that the above paragraphs are lies. It’s all in setting priorities. If writing were all that important to me, I’d be doing it anyway. I’d be using that act of creation to relax and unwind, instead of reading or watching TV (although there are some really interesting and fun new shows this fall).

And, of course, as of Sunday afternoon, I’ll only need to plan out the last few minutes of the last song, and that will only take a couple of hours. Realistically, I could start writing on a regular basis as early as Sunday or Monday.

We’ll see… we’ll see.

“Sick, Sick, Sick,” or “Why I haven’t written dick-all in a week”

I’m home today, sitting in the library with a kitty on my lap, and the lap dog taking up the majority of the floor.

Mrs. Wesley had been out of commission Tuesday and Wednesday with the Crud, and now I’ve got it. Coughing, hacking, sniffles. The whole nine. And I’ve completely lost my voice. Like, the only sound I can get to come out above a whisper is when I’m wheezing or hacking up a furball.

I would have written my 1,000 words Tuesday, but Mrs. Wesley needed to be cuddled, and therefore we watched the remainder of LOST Season 2 on DVD.

I would have written my 1,000 words yesterday, but, quite honestly, I was already sickipoo and vegged in front of the TV while Mrs. Wesley needed to use the computer anyway. I think I went to bed at 9PM.

Ironically, I may very well write my 1,000 words today, when I’m sick as a dog. There are some things I really want to get down in response to the book I read (and mostly completed) this weekend: a collection of Max Brand’s (mostly) non-western short stories. Like how most of them are built around just five scenes, or how strong his female characters are. I mean, almost all of the stories I read were from 1934-1936, and they were GOOD. Well-plotted, well-paced… well-written stories with well-drawn characters.

It’s a shame that Mr. Faust hated them so much. He may not have been a great poet, but he was a fine writer.

The First 1,000 Words

1000 words. I can do this. I can write 1000 words standing on my head. I can certainly do 1000 words bouncing on a big, inflatable ball.

1000 words about anything I want. Preferably about something either important to me personally or about a book or story idea.

Carrie’s hung the photo of me bungee jumping next to the corkboard on the wall in front of me to inspire me to do great things.

Right now I’m reading a book called Unleashing the Warrior Within. It’s really good so far, written by an ex-Navy SEAL, all about overcoming fears and focusing on what’s really important to you. Basically, it’s just another ‘power of positive thinking’ kind of book, but it does break down things nicely into chewable bits that are easy to digest and understand. Like, before you can achieve your goals, you have to choose them. Simple, huh, but strangely evasive. What do I really want? Do I want to publish a novel? Do I want, instead, to get my own TV show as a stand-up comic? Do I want to direct LCT, or even attend GBC? These are all things I have to decide if I really want to achieve.

But one thing that really hit home with me is something called the 3 elements of combat, or something like that. Basically, his theory is this: The type of target you’re… targeting defines the kind of weapon you will choose to attack with. Then, that weapon will define the kind of movement you will make against the target. Like, you wouldn’t take a slingshot against a tank; you’d take a bazooka or another tank. Then, depending on whether you chose the bazooka or the tank that will define how you will approach your target.

You can apply this to all sorts of things in your daily life. For example, take me. I want to get a novel published. To do that, let’s list off the different things I’ll need to do first. I’ll need to get an agent, probably (these are all ‘probablies’). I’ll need to publish in short story magazines or websites. Those three items are my targets. By hitting the first two, the agent and the short story markets, which will help me achieve my main target, a published novel. And what are my weapons to hit those targets? Well, for the agent, the weapons are the same: a kick-ass novel and a kick-ass query letter. But wait, an agent is more likely to look at my novel if I have short story credits to my name, so in a way, the first target I have to hit is getting published in a paying short story market. And for that, I need a bunch of kick-ass short stories. Something that defines my style, and if I get published or reprinted in something an agent is looking at, then maybe they’ll come to me.

So I need short stories to get published in short story markets. Short stories are my weapon, along with my imagination and skill as a writer. Oh, and my discipline, which is where this all comes full circle. I don’t have discipline. I don’t have ADD or anything (not that it was ever diagnosed, at any rate), but I am severely under-armed when it comes to discipline. Which is what the book is for: to help me focus on my goals and develop discipline in achieving my targets.

Okay, so my weapons are my wit, imagination, skill and talent as a writer, and my actual short stories that I write with my ten little fingers and big fat brain. Now I need to figure out my movement. Strategize about where these stories are going to be submitted. And so I can break targets down further, possibly. I can either write short stories or try to find an appropriate market, or I can study which markets I might best be able to fit in. A bit of circular logic, that, but you get my meaning. Either way, I think I should probably start writing short stories first just because it’s been so long that I’ve really forgotten how, and I’m out of practice. I could write a few short stories first, see what genre they land in, and then try to find markets that are closest to what they are. Then, when I’ve sold one or two, I can expand and see what other markets seem to fit the kinds of stories I’ve written, and start specializing in getting stories seen by them.

While all this is going on, I’m also working on my novel. Plotting it, anyway. And after I’ve sold a number of short stories and completed the novel, I can go to an agent and say, “Hey, I’ve sold a number of short stories in this genre that you represent, and a novel that I think you’d like. Here it is.” And they’d go, “Why, of course! Why didn’t notice you before? I’ll send it out to the ten biggest publishers in the world right now,” and they’d go, “please let us publish your awesome book! Here’s a big bag of money so you won’t go to any other publishers instead.”

At least, that’s how it is in my head.

Anyway, this all brings me back around to my point (thought I had forgotten that, hadn’t you?): In addition to whatever strikes my fancy in this blog, I’m also going to write 1000 words a day as a writing exercise, about wherever my mind will take me. Hopefully it will be developing a story idea, but it doesn’t have to. But the hope is that as I free write all this crap, there will be the occasional glimmer of something I can polish into something pretty or fun or adventurous or all three, and I’ll be able to submit it somewhere that will pay me to print it and my name.

That’s the first step.

And this is my first 1000 words.