Monday, May 6, 2019
Sunday, May 5, 2019
The End of April Powers
I was doing a post more or less every day about my writing adventure, but I got a little behind, and I let it pile up. Now it's been more than a week, and I have a lot to catch up on. First of all, April came to an end several days ago. How did I do? Let's see.
Previously on April Powers: I was having trouble figuring out what to write when I last posted. That was all the way back on April 23rd. I'd finished my Christmas story, and it was time to move on to something else. I flailed about for a project to jump into. I wasn't ready to go back to Sunny & Gray book 2 just yet. I hadn't re-familiarized myself with it. It's been two years since I wrote a word on it after all. So, I decided to write on the prologue for The Gauntlet, because I knew I had a good plan for that, and I could write it as is. I did that, but the 23rd was the day that I finished it.
Usually, I don't count outlining or pre-production as writing. To me it doesn't feel like it should count, because it's not words that count toward a final product. But I decided that I probably need to change that. So, on Wednesday the 24th, I started trying to get some planning done for The Gauntlet. After all, I came up with the idea years ago. If I'd written back when I first came up with it, it'd probably be getting its own movie by now starring...well, starring Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman, so I guess it would be in the same place as it is now after all.
I struggled with the outlining, however. I couldn't get really into it, so I scribbled down some half-hearted words.
Words Wednesday: 331
Words Total: 13780
I continued to struggle for several days. I decided that I would just tell as much of the story that I knew, including background, world-building, odds and ends, anything like that. Thursday was actually pretty good. I got 566.
Words Thursday: 566
Words Total: 14346
But that was my best day. My heart just wasn't in it. I would open up the file each day, and then peck out a couple of words and quit early. If I even did that. A lot of times, I didn't even write on my lunch break like I had been doing all month, and then I had to squeeze it in when I got home late at night. That's what I did on Friday. I got 230.
Words Friday: 230
Words Total: 14576
Saturday was even worse, but it almost always is. The weekend seems to be the hardest for me to work. Maybe that's why people don't traditionally work on the weekend. It just sucks. I only got 156 words on Saturday. That's not even a paragraph, I don't think.
Words Saturday: 156
Words Total: 14732
Sunday, I tried a little harder to get some actual stuff down. I told some of the background stuff that may or may not ever matter in the actual book itself, but I can totally feel all J.K. Rowling-like by saying stuff that I know about the characters that never made it in the book, and I'll convince people that I'm smart because of it. I'm not at all, but It would be neat if somebody thought I was smart.
Words Sunday: 792
Words Total: 15524
The cool thing was that I made it over the 15,000 mark for words in the month. That's a kind of a milestone. And now there was only two days left in the month. I'd written every day for four straight weeks. Things weren't exactly rolling, but I was tenaciously holding on at least.
Then came Monday. I didn't even think about writing my words at lunch. How had I blown my habit so bad already? I was going to have to do them that night at home. I had a prior engagement, however. Avengers: Endgame had come out over the weekend, and we were podcasting about it on Monday night. I realized, as I was setting up my microphone that I still hadn't written. I considered taking a moment and writing a sentence or something, but I didn't have time for it. Renee Chambliss called right at that moment, and we started with the recording. I was going to have to wait until we were done. However, by the time we were done, I'd completely forgotten. My mind was all wrapped up in Avengers and not in The Gauntlet.
I went to bed, and didn't even realize that I'd missed writing until halfway through the next day.
Words Monday: 0
Words Total: 15524
I blew it. There was only two days left in the month, and I blew it. Way to go. I didn't get too down, though. Sure, I missed a day, but it was never about a streak of unbroken days. It was about getting actual writing done, and making a habit. So, I told myself that I needed to get back to it, and that I needed to make sure not to miss at my lunch break anymore. I finished out the month with 218.
Words Tuesday: 218
Words Total: 15742
Not a great total or anything, but I was still going, and that was important. The month was over, and I even think I managed to get more words for the month than Rish did, amazingly enough, considering how lamb-like I finished out the month. Here's my final chart:
I admittedly was still feeling a little uninspired. What I was writing had evolved into a sort of story treatment, as they call it in the film industry. I was going scene by scene, trying to plan out this book. I was struggling with issues in the story, however. I wanted certain characters to do certain things, but there wasn't a good reason for them to happen that way. I kept thinking about those Screen Rant Pitch Session YouTube videos where the producer would ask the writer questions about his inconsistent story, and the writers only response was, "Because I need it to be that way for the story." I didn't want my story to be that way.
I'm pretty sure that it was either Tuesday or Wednesday, when I decided to call Rish on my way to work, and ask his advice on how to get through the issues that were plaguing me with the story. This was a very beneficial conversation for me. Not only did he have some good suggestions for my plotting problem, but he also expressed amazement about just how much of the story I did have worked out in my head.
"I can't believe you know so much about this story...and yet it's not completely written already," he said.
I guess that's a backhanded compliment, but it worked all the same. I realized that I do really know the story well, and should be able to breeze through the problems that I was having pretty quickly. It got me excited about the story for the first time since I started working on it out of desperation for something to move on to back when I finished the Christmas story. Each day, as my lunch break arrived, the story would flow as effortlessly as Easy Cheese from the spigot:
So, on Wednesday, I got 591.
Words Wednesday: 591
Words For May: 591
Words Total: 16333
A new month, and a new invigorated outlook. On Thursday, I got 406. If I'd had the chance, I probably would have kept going, but I couldn't...alas.
Words Thursday: 406
Words For May: 997
Words Total: 16739
Friday, I did good too. I made it to 599. A record high for the month. How long could that record stand?
Words Friday: 599
Words For May: 1596
Words Total: 17338
Saturday, I really got into it. I wrote for extra time, late into the night. I finished the day with 1097 words. I guess the record didn't stand for long. Maybe this one will last a little while more.
Words Saturday: 1097
Words For May: 2693
Words Total: 18435
The treatment is really flowing like that aforementioned Easy Cheese, and I'm excited about it. I'm tempted to set it aside and start writing on the story proper, but I don't think I will. I think I'd like to know the whole plan from beginning to end before I go past that prologue, so that I can drop in hints, allusions, evil foreshadowings, and Easter eggs all along, rather than having to go back and try to stuff them into prose that was written to flow in a certain way. That tends to work like dropping a huge boulder into a stream. The flow always diverts around, and goes in a new direction that I never wanted and that I hate.
So, there's the report. Two weeks worth almost. Too long, really. I don't mind not posting about it every day, because, after all, I'd rather be writing story words than blog words. But I shouldn't wait so much between posts, because it gets a little cumbersome when I do that. So, in other words, I'll see you again soon. Here's my new chart for May so far:
Now I better go and get my words written for Sunday, before I blow it again.
New Toy Show Episode - Cheap Toy Hunting 3
Just put out a new episode. Check it out if you're interested. I detail some more of the good deals I've come across for toys, including a great one on an Obi-Wan Kenobi figure. I also talk very briefly about a story idea that I had that made me want to make a custom toy. Hope you enjoy it.
Friday, May 3, 2019
Monday, April 29, 2019
Shazam! On That Gets My Goat
Rish and I got together the other day after having watched the new DC movie Shazam! and talked about it's pluses and minuses. If you haven't yet, head over and check it out.
Hopefully, you'll enjoy yourself.
(EDIT: This one was on the Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine feed. Now
that the feed is gone, the only way to hear the show is over on the
Dunesteef Podcast YouTube page, which I am embedding below).
Saturday, April 27, 2019
New Toy Show Episode - Cloak and Dagger Part 1
Just finally finished part one of my Cloak and Dagger three-parter. Check it out.
And get ready for part two coming soon about season one of the Freeform TV show.
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
Powering Along
Monday was kind of easy, because I was about halfway through a scene that was going to run approximately 1,000 words. I wrote the other half of it...well, most of the other half of it. I was a smidge shy of being done, which was probably wise, because I was going to need that smidge later.
I finished Monday with:
Words Monday: 554
Words Total: 13251
Then on Tuesday, I didn't do anything to prep for going beyond that prologue. Back when I first came up with The Gauntlet story idea, I spent several of my commutes talking into a microphone about ideas for the story. I'm pretty sure I talked about what the main characters were going to be like, what the world would be like, and so on. I found those audio files, and loaded them onto my phone to listen to them during my drive to work now, so that I could be ready to keep writing. But for some reason, I felt confident in my ability to remember things well enough to continue the story, and never did listen to those files.
Tuesday, when I sat down to write, I quickly finished up the prologue, and then sat there, unable to continue. I needed a scene or two to introduce my main characters of Sebastian and Ramona Jones. I was frozen though. I remembered having a scene in mind where I demonstrated how amazingly studly Sebastian was, but it didn't seem right. I tried to remember what I had planned back in the day, and it wouldn't come to me.
Eventually, I ran out of time, and all I wound up writing was the last small chunk of that prologue. It's writing, but it's not enough to achieve the goal that I'd set for myself a week or so ago where I said 500 words per day, no less. Well, I didn't make that. I only got:
Words Tuesday: 198
Words Total: 13449
That kind of makes me feel bad. I think today, I'm going to see if I can do some serious outlining work. I'm going to listen to those files, and really see if I can get the story and characters ironed out so that I can plow forward like I did back when in 2017 when I wrote book one of Sunny & Gray. Maybe I'll even count the words that I write on the outline as words written. It goes against everything that I've ever believed, but I'm man enough to say that I might believe in something incorrect.
Here's my chart. I managed to get it pulled together today:
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