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Deadlines for a not-professional writer

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One nice thing about being a not-professional writer is that I don’t have any deadlines. It’s nice because if I can’t get it done, there’s no harm done. I’m the only one impacted and frankly if I couldn’t get to it, I had other stuff that needed attention. That said, I do have a deadline of sorts for Wine Bottles and Broomsticks. I’m publishing a chapter a month on channillo.com I think that if I missed a deadline there, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. People have subscribed and presumably are reading it. From that perspective, I do have a deadline.

What’s interesting is that I’m holding myself to that deadline. Of course, one chapter a month isn’t a particularly lofty goal. Some folks out there are publishing daily and weekly. This is not something I could do. It just takes me longer and I’ve got few hours in the day in which to write. In fact, I got up at 4:30am just to slap this silly post together. That said, after nearly missing the second deadline I set for myself, I decided I really had to work ahead. Now, I’m a few months ahead of schedule and working as much as I can to actually have all of the chapters of this book done, but the pressure is off and I’m stuck somewhere in the middle of chatper 6. I know exactly where I want it to to and chapter 7 too, I even have the end sketched out.

So what if you’re stuck Dave, you’re months ahead of the game, why don’t you let it cook if you need to?

Because I want to get this project done. I still need to get back to the War of Shadows re-write and also start working on another project I’ve got rolling around in my brain which I think I’d like to do Nanowrimo this year. Not only that, the Wine Bottles and Broomsticks project is really a hell of a lot of fun and I’ve already got a pretty good sketch for a second book, and dammit if I don’t want to get to that too.

Anyhoo, this rambly ramble is about considering the possiblity of upping the stakes for Wine Bottles. I’m debating putting the pressure on and releasing ever 2 weeks instead of monthly. Now that it’s winter and I’ve finished the new duck house and various other outdoor projects I’ll actually have half a sunday or so to sit down and work on it. I know that when I actually have time to focus I can knock out about a chapter a week. This gives me one week for writing and one week for revisions/rewriting. As a not making money from writing and having a good time with writing but aiming at being a full-time this is my actual job sort of writer, it’s a pretty aggressive schedule. However, if nothing else it’ll motivate me to finish. 

I still haven’t made the actual decision to go to evey 2 weeks, I think I want to get through chapters 6 and 7 before I make that call. Anyhow, that’s my update – I’m writing, I’m making progress, and I’m actually having a good time with it. With that, I’ll leave it. I’m out of time, the day job beckons!

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It’s the equinox today!

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In Fairbanks today there’s a marathon, it’s been underway since half an hour before I started writing this actually. It’s a well known event here in Alaska. This year there’s more to it. Several runners, including some colleagues and friends are running the race to raise awareness and research funding for Usher Syndrome. I’ve been doing my little part help via social media. Today, being race day, is also Usher Syndrome Awareness day. I’m not personally effected by it, only personally know one person who is, but I can lend a hand here, it’s just one little piece and in order to make something big, you’ve got to have those little parts.

I didn’t make it up there to cheer everyone on. That would have been great, but for various and sundry it wasn’t going to happen. Instead, I’ll be cheering them all on in the virtual universe. If you have a minute, take a look a their website, consider sharing it with others you know. Not everyone has the resources to donate, but anyone can send out the call to say: Hey – did you ever hear about this? For an effort like this one, that’s quite as important as the fund raising. One goal is to reach out to folks and connect with those who do have resources to donate. So, anyhow, that’s my plug.

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The muse

I haven’t blogged in almost two weeks. It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s that I’ve been distracted. Mostly, I’m having such a good time with Wine Bottles and Broomsticks that every free minute is devoted to getting the next line of that story down.

I promise I’m not going to bang on about my progress and number of words written and stuff. Last night I had a thought about the muse, and I wanted to share. Anyhow, maybe this shouldn’t be important, but for me I think it is. The definition the muse is a femenine figure who inspires an artist. Now, I’m not claiming that I’m an artist, I’m more of a guy who likes to tell stories, and there’s an art in that, I suppose. Anyhow, I like to think about muse in a slighty broader sense, in the sense that I’ve got a character and that character, be it male or female, is inspired by another person. To be clear, of all of the things I need to work on as a writer, character development remains my biggest problem. I’m not talking about just the character arc, I’m talking about just defining a character, anwsering the question: Who is this guy and why do I care? 

In one project, the main character has no real definition which does awful things for a story that probably has a good central concept and it’s borderline beyond my skill to fix it. In a few other projects, really these are more sketches and concepts for the most part, but I don’t have a clear picture of characters in my head. None of this is strictly true with Wine Bottles and Broomsticks, the characters are much stronger though I will conceed I’m not doing an expert job at drawing them, but I feel like I’m doing a much better job than usual. It’s growth and I’ll take it, even if it’s pretty incremental. 

Last night as I was forcing myself to go around a tiny track, hoping the tight little corners didn’t ruin my feet, I was thinking about my characters in Wine Bottles and Broomsticks. Once again, I realized that the main character needs something more. With this in mind, I turned to the other characters in that story – where did they come from? Well, I’m using muses, a lot. With one character in particular, the muse is an actor I’ve seen in several different TV shows. I haven’t picked a specific role to base my character off of, instead, I invented the character gave him a sketch and a role in the story, then as each scene unfolds, ask myself how would this actor play this character, what sorts of things would he add here? 

I took the trick to my main character. What actor would play that role if it were on TV? It came pretty quick actually. I realized I’ve got to go back and make a few changes, but nothing huge. The rest of it is a matter of sitting back and asking: How would this actor play this scene? That said, I this is really a guide to help me get past sticky spots and smooth out dialogue, not a strict set of rules. There’s plenty I’m doing with these characters that is unique to them and the story. At some point these characters will be stong enough in my head that I’ll asking how would this character do it more than how would this actor interpret it? Anyhow, it’s working for me to get me off the ground, and it’s making the project a little more fun to work through.