Writing Update

I’m not ashamed to say that book number five is kicking my rear-end.  It’s nearing the end of my proscribed story and it’s like pulling hen’s teeth to get the characters to help me along in the story.  Then again, they’re probably thinking that they’ve endured enough and they’re simply ready to move on.  Perhaps the problem is I’ve had too much on my mind these days—the general anxieties about money and my future, family, and such.  It’s nearly Thanksgiving which makes absolutely no sense.  This year vanished quicker than a dollar bill at McDonald’s.  I’ve also been in the process of reading one-too-many books and I guess, at the end of the day, that my brain is friend and in need of a respite.  Will I give it that much-deserved rest?  Yeah, all signs point to no.

A New Month

For the month of August, I am going to take upon myself a new attitude toward blogging.  I am going to write blogs alongside my novel, this ensuring a more significant output.  With that in mind, I’ll set of goal of posting at least 20 blogs this month.  Today hasn’t been the most conducive to blogging or writing, unfortunately.  It seems like I am tired all the time lately and my brain suffers as a result—I write, but it takes forever.  Another goal I need to set for myself?  Getting to bed at a decent hour.

Currently listening to “When I Close My Eyes” by Kenny Chesney

Stumbling Through Writer's Block

I've been known to dramatize things, turning minor events into life-altering situations with a simple turn of phrase.  So it should no surprise that, halfway through writing my third novel, I find a slight lack of inspiration to be disconcerting.  I'm writing this as we speak, maneuvering back and forth.  I tend to do multiple things at once—a manic kind of multitasking that I know isn't good for my brain!  At any rate, I am still looking at writing through different angles, drawing inspiration from any and all sources.   Ideas can come from unexpected places; notions can arrive from unknown recesses of the brain.   I find myself not as able to blog right now, either, but I’m trying.  Call it a summer dry spell. 

Currently listening to “Blue Moon with Heartache” by Rosanne Cash

Nose to the Grindstone

I am hard at work at my third novel, even though I promised myself I would take a sabbatical from writing. When the inspiration to write hits me, however, I have to start again.  It’s an interesting process thus far.  It’s a sequel to my first novel, Windswept, but I am working to cover different ground, to tell a story from a different angle.  I’ve explored a variety of subjects in my first two novels, things I had never really considered writing until, well, I wrote them.  So with that said, I’m still thinking about the different angles.  Many popular fiction authors will write upwards of 30 or more books during a career—how do you get to a point where everything is still unique,  and you aren’t just writing the same thing over and over again?  It requires a lot of creativity, a lot of effort on the part of the author.

Twice as Nice

It's official--I'm a two-time author.  My book is up digitally and physically on Amazon and I am thrilled.  This has been a really interesting year so far.  When it began, I was not an author.  Now I am, a mere seven months into the year, the author of two whole books.  I've decided to stick with the author thing for as long as I possess the time and energy.  I would love to have, you know, a full-time job that pays the bills but as of today no one is interested in me.  Therefore, I'm gonna keep writing and blogging until my fingers fall off or the world gets tired of me, whichever comes first!
Kindle e-book:

http://www.amazon.com/Kentucky-Summer-ebook/dp/B008J1T3PA

Paperback:

http://www.amazon.com/Kentucky-Summer-Mr-Tommie-Conrad/dp/147819815X

More Fun with Editing

I have new-found respect for people who edit books for a living.  It's a laborious job.  Going back over my own work is fun but also draining when you consider that it warps your own view of your work.  I've had the same problem in the past with other projects--you invest so much time and energy that you are bordering on hatred by the time you complete the job.  In writing, though, I have only been writing characters I love so it is easier to spend time with them.  At some point I will have to branch out and invent a darker character that I don't like.  It's all a part of the growing and learning process, pushing yourself to test boundaries and step outside your comfort zone.

Currently listening to:  "I'm Kissing You" by Des'ree

Editing

How much is it necessary to censor ourselves in everyday life? Clearly there are situations in which we need to maintain decorum and standards of niceness.  The weird thing about my writing is that, well, I never seem to find the need to do much editing.  Since so much of it just goes straight from mind to keyboard, I don't find as much need as I should to edit or reduce.  It's also hard to find constructive criticism, so even if someone told me to edit my work I would be hard pressed to follow through.  I'm sure all authors, and indeed any person who creates, struggles with this--letting your work go out into the world in order to be examined, disseminated, and scrutinized.  How will I feel, react, when I receive that inevitable bad review?  As long as it's not from someone I like, perhaps it will all be okay.


Currently listening to:  Forever Changed by Carrie Underwood

Chemistry

Tonight I decided to make lasagna from scratch.  And when I say from scratch, I mean jarred pasta sauce and a box of noodles.  Still, without my input, they were but a set of separate ingredients.   If cooking is a chemical reaction, what is creativity?  Is it chemical or something deeper, more meaningful?  The jury is still out on that one.  Anyway, the lasagna didn’t come out box-top beautiful, but it did taste good.  Perfection is always our ideal, but not what we need to succeed.  So many other factors come out of creativity—listen to an older song and look for errors in music (bum notes, wrongly-sung lyrics) that were left in and became a part of the song’s magic.  In writing it is important to wring out any and all typos, but sometimes from a mistake comes inspiration—you realize you wrote exactly what you were meant to write all along.  That’s a word explanation, but it’s the best one I can come up with.  When things are too pat and too perfect, you forget how to adapt and think.  With that said, who can ever tell what my next project will be.  I’ve already spent the past month cooking, writing, and painting.

Currently listening to:  Like a Rock by Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band 

Light in the Dark

What time of day is the most creative for you?  Most of my writing is done under cover of the night, in the minutes and hours before I finally decide to sleep.  This is the quietest time of the day, the point at which it is easiest for me to gather my thoughts.  As I compose this blog, I am working on my novel.  I also write during the day time hours, but for some reason my creativity is primarily stimulated when the moon rises.  It is entirely possible I have reverted back to my college pattern, where I would spend an evening thinking and crank out my work around midnight or later.  This type of creativity is never great for your sleep habits, and furthermore it makes you thankful for spell check.   The darkness, it seems, brings my creativity to light.

Currently listening to:  “Words I Couldn’t Say” by Rascal Flatts.