Almost met the goal today

Daily Goal: 500 words.
I wrote 400 words.
Sundays/Stories Finished: 6/0.

There are several good news: I wrote, I almost managed my goal, still developing the same story, it is getting there. There are a few bad news as well: I am still writing and rewriting the first few scenes, the set-up, the character introductions, and the opening dialogue. I never seem to get to the ending.

Whenever I get a chance to write, I have had a few days break and have reflected on the written passages. So when I do pick up the pen and pad again, I start rewriting and editing, instead of continuing on.

I think I will three more sessions like today before I see a finished draft. In order to get there, I need to continue from where I have left the story. No more edits until the draft is finished.

In other news, I feel quite good. I didn't update the blog last night. In fact, when the time came for updating the blog I had already been asleep for a few hours. My wife was out with her sowing circle. I, naturally, had great writing and reading plans, but around 9 o'clock I got tired and had a great idea: I'll just go to bed and get a decent night's sleep for once.

Gaming convention

Daily Goal: 500 words.
I wrote 0 words.
Sundays/Stories Fiinished: 5/0.

I had an urge to write today, but I let it pass. Instead I used the time to plan my weekend at Viking-con, a Danish gaming convention. Not writing when the urge is there is perhaps not something new, but doing it when I have the time to write is something I seldom do.

Most often I feel, after a long day, that the urge to read is much stronger than the urge to write. Hopefully, that is something that will change from month to month and there will come productive periods in the future.

I look forward to the gaming convention. It will be a very busy weekend. I will, of course, still have the baby to think about from 7 in the morning to 7 in the evening, but instead of reading for a few hours after that (and then complaining here about not writing) I'll be playing boardgames and getting much to little sleep.

Keeping the story alive

Daily Goal: 500 words.
I wrote 100 words.
Sundays/Stories Finished: 4/0.

My wife and I watched a movie tonight. There is almost no time for reading or writing left, but I had to write something to keep the story fresh in my mind. I think I managed about 100 words. I need to keep adding to it each day, even if I don't meet the daily goal. If I skip a day or two, the story stands the risk of dying.

I am still reading Citadel of the Autarch, by Gene Wolfe. I only manage a couple of chapters each day, since my free time is spent writing or socializing, instead of reading. I am thinking about doing an article or a review about the series (The Book of the New Sun of which Citadel of the Autarch is the fourth volume)  once I am finished with it. I don't know if I will ever get that far, but I do plan on finishing the short story before turning to reviews and articles.

I think I am going to squeeze another chapter in before bedtime. Tomorrow is looking to be another one in this series of very busy days, so I better get some sleep. Hopefully, it will be a short chapter.

I wrote an opening scene

Daily Goal: 500 words.
I wrote 200 words.
Sundays/Stories Finished: 4/0.

It worked quite well tonight. I just told myself that I can't read anything until I've written 500 words, and updated the blog. I never finished the 500 word goal, but now I am going to bed, so I'll update and perhaps sneak in a chapter to sleep to.

I wrote two versions of the same opening scene for the short story. I guess if I counted all the words up, they would come to about 400. I guess a rewrite shouldn't count, or should it?

My days are still terribly long, terribly busy. There is so much to do and no time to do it in. I used to wonder about the old man character you encounter in movies, that sits in a rocking chair at a tank station and just does nothing all day. Now I get it. If my everyday life will have this tempo until I turn 70 and retire, then I don't think I will have any trouble sitting on a chair doing nothing. In fact, sometimes, I look forward to it.

I am glad I wrote something tonight. I hope I will continue the story tomorrow. Perhaps I'll even have more time and energy to update the blog, so I can share what it is I am writing.

Writing again

Daily Goal: 500 words.
Yesterday I wrote 200 words.
Sundays/Stories finished: 3/0.

I didn't really write 200 words yesterday. I wrote them today and I did it in longhand. I don't feel like counting them up, but I think 200 is a good guess.

Here is a little sample picture of my writing. I Don't know how it'll look like published. I, still, write all this from my Galaxy Tab, using an application called Bloggerdroid, and it is all text. There is no easy way to see how the image will be formatted in the published post.



What I wrote earlier today is more of the synopsis for a short story. I can't really call it a synopsis any longer, because it is getting detailed. I got the idea from YouTube video (I'll post it if I ever come across it again). The idea is to write increasingly more detailed synopses (is that correct in plural?). Once you end up with an account that is perhaps a quarter of the length you intend the story to be, then you start on the real thing.

In theory, I should never get stuck in the real work of writing the story, because I know everything that happends. I won't suddenly find myself stuck. Often enough you think up a storyline where two characters drive to a destination and when you start writing that scene you realize you don't know what they talk about, even though you had envisioned that it took up a significant part of the story.

So you get stuck and you don't write anymore and you leave the story for a day or two and suddenly it's gone. Hopefully this new exercise will get rid of that. It is offcourse a little bit of extra work, but I have to say it looks like it could work and I have enjoyed writing it. The synopsis isn't finished yet, but not a lot is missing and soon I hope to start writing the real story.

Orderly writing

Daily Goal: 500 words.
Yesterday I wrote 0 words.
Sundays/Stories Finished: 3/0.

Today has been busy, as most are. My wife went to see a friend so I put the baby to sleep. We also made an effort, my wife and I, to clean the living room and although we have some way to go, it feels good to be writing this in a clean enviroment.

I need that when I write. Quiet and order, a clean room, the coffee made, the desk free of clutter, nothing waiting - like the dishes. I can still write without all those things, so I guess 'need' is not the correct term. I wrote my master's thesis without all that. What I mean is I need everything in order if I am to enjoy writing. My days, as they are now, don't offer much order and quiet, so I don't particularily enjoy writing.

Perhaps the rant above is just another excuse. I probably spend more time finding excuses for not writing, than I do writing. I love to read, currently. I crave it. I think that it is yet another ploy to keep from staring at that empty page.

I have thought about giving longhand a chance. Perhaps I should get myself a legal pad and a pen and just leave the house for an evening or two each week. I wonder what place I can go to? I could just take a bus. To the end station and back. Perhaps I'll try that soon.

Tomorrow I have plans. My brother is leaving again and I need to see him so I can pick up the keys to my parent's apartment. I meant to make plans to see him before he left. Really see him, I mean, like go out to see a movie, not just pick up keys. The days were just filled up, however, and I never got around to it.

Finished Sword of the Lictor

Daily Goal 500 words.
Yesterday I wrote 0 words.
Sundays/Stories finished 3/0.

Another week has gone and I am nowhere near completing a story. I should have had three completed short stories now 'out there' being considered.

Alas the time I do have for myself I spend reading. I have finished Sword of the Lictor and started Citadel of the Autarch, the last in the series, by Gene Wolfe. I find myself already planning what to read next and I really shouldn't. I should stick to reading one short story a day and spending the rest of my free time writing.

Sword of the Lictor was wonderful. I ought to have written a detailed review, but I don't have the time and energy tonight. I found out there is an illustrated and signed edition of the four novels. How cool they would fit on my shelf, but what little means I rule are better spent elsewhere.

I will end this post here. Tired, as always, want to read more before I go to bed, as I mostly do too, Have plenty to say, but no energy to say it with. What is the title of that short story? 'I have no mouth but I must scream'. I feel like writing, but I am always too tired, it seems. Probably just a bad excuse. I just need more discipline and routine.

Return from break

Daily Goal: 500 words.
Yesterday I wrote 0 words.
Sundays/Stories finished: 2/0.

A few days ago I was on my way to bed when I realized that I hadn't updated my blog. I normally rush out a post at that point, but that night I thought, What the heck, no one will miss one blog post. The next night, same scenario, it was rather easier to miss the update. Easier still the third night.

So I have finally ended the bad habit and sit here in front of my tablet and keyboard. Those are the only good news, however, on the writing front. I have written almost nothing these last few days. I did have a good idea for a story and the only serious writing I have done is a synopsis and a few notes concerning that idea.

The idea is reminiscent of the first story I never wrote when I first started this blog, about two boys who want to cross a river, but there is a nice sinister twist this time around and I can't wait for a nice quite time when I can sit down and write a draft.

On the non-literary front all is well, but hectic. We are still unpacking and getting everything sorted. Our apartment is much smaller than my parents's. All the stuff that didn't take up that much space at their apartment now floods this one. Whenever we clean one room, we move all the stuff into the other room and then we move it back again to clean the... And so on.

Unpacking

Daily goal: 500 words.
Yesterday I wrote 0 words.
Sundays/Stories Finished: 1/0.

Writing the stats above - which have lost their formating since I have switched to writing these post with my Galaxy Tab, a change that also has deprived my of a spellchecker - it would seem odd almost by now to write anything other than a 0 for words written yesterday.

Today went by quickly. I have returned the car we borrowed while moving, we have cleaned the bedroom, and a number of boxes have been opened and unpacked, their contents sorted and stored.

Again I feel very tired writing this. I will not follow my blog update with any more literary pursuits, just sleep - good sleep, hopefully.

Moving day

Daily Goal: 500 words.
Yesterday I wrote 0 words.
Sundays&Stories Finished: 1/0.

We moved today. It went quite well, but it still feels good to finially be finished with the day.

I am further in to The Sword of the Lictor now and I still want to introduce those of you unfamiliar with him to Gene Wolfe, but I don't have the energy tonight. I am already thinking about going to bed now, instead of reading or writing, so I should wrap this up. I just didnt want to finish the day without an update on the blog.

I am writing right now on a bluetooth keyboard with my Galaxy Tab. I hope to start using this combo to write short stories. At my parent's apartment I used their stationary computer. Me and my wife share a laptop usually, however, and sharing isn't that great a thing when it comes to the equipment you work with.

When I can afford it I might buy a new. That way I could grab the old one for writing. As for now this setu serves me well for there are fewer distractions on a tablet than on a pc.

A day of ideas

Daily Goal: 500 words.
Yesterday I wrote 0 words.
Sundays/Stories Finished: 1/0.

As expected the day went by quickly. There was not much time between taking care of the baby and getting stuff ready to move tomorrow.

I did finish a chapter more of How to Write Short Stories for Magazines, by Sophie King. The chapter was about getting ideas and writing them down. After the read I went for a walk with the stroller (baby carriage) - my girl likes to nap at about 9 o'clock in the morning and doing it in the stroller gives her mother a nice break. I had plenty of ideas while out walking and I wrote them down in a notepad I keep in the stroller for the purpose. I didn't count that into the daily word count.

I feel tired now after a long day. Tomorrow offers more of the same. I have started reading a novel as well: The Sword of the Lictor by Gene Wolfe. The author and the series of which that book is number three deserves a warm recommendation to anyone interested in science fiction, but I am too tired to go into details today.

Finished Blood Meridian

Daily Goal: 500 words.
Yesterday I wrote 0 words.

I think I might have to pick a new title for the blog: 'How I Don't Write Short Stories'.

I have just finished Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy. I think it was great. It is like a serious movie, if you want to give it a go - like, say, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - read it when you feel like taking on a serious read. Don't go into it lightly or you might just stumble. It really grips you a third of the way in or so. First you feel much like the kid, the protagonist, surrounded by strangers, just along for the ride. By the time you finally get some information about the characters, you find you already know them, since you've been alongside them for so long.

It is very bloody. I think even Shklovsky would have called it bloody.

Now that I have finished the novel, I plan to read short stories for some time. I hope to I will be able to steal more from reading short stories, than from novels and that the practice will fuel some motivation to write myself.

It is getting late here, so I will leave more blogging for another day.

Another zero

Daily Goal: 500 words.
Yesterday I wrote 0 words.

My plan is to write a more detailed outline for the short story, but I haven't written anything for two days now. Of things relating to literature, I have been doing plenty. I have read and watched videos about writing. I have almost completed Blood Meridian. I have been looking for what book to start next. However, I don't really feel to up for sitting down and writing much.

Today it even seemed like a chore to sit down and write this blog. Once I got started, however, it felt great. A daily blog is a guaranteed thing that will force me to think and work with literature each day at a specific time. I think that in the long run these sessions will provide the structure and discipline that will facilitate a more rigid work ethic.

Two days off won't kill me. Neither will three and I seriously doubt that I will write anything more than this blog tonight.

On YouTube in suggested videos this one turned up:

He comes across as a bit pretentious perhaps, but I do like his approach to writing. In a few blog posts back, I wrote about how he said he managed 500 - 800 words on good days. In the above video and the rest of the series, he goes into a bit more detail about how he writes.

Doing everything else

Daily Goal: 500 words.
Yesterday I wrote 0 words.

I had a long break today with plenty of time to do some writing, but instead I did all the other things that had piled up. I didn't write anything after the blog update yesterday either. I did think about writing something down in a hurry, before doing this update, but that would be cheating. Since there is no one reading this blog anyway, I would only be cheating myself.

I have been reading a chapter or so each day these last few days: Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy. The man can write. I don't think I approve of all the elements of his style, but a few chapters in I could safely say that I will never write that well, so I have no authority to fault his writing. He has that kind of raw, sparse American style of writing. Yet, he doesn't make it simple, he says just enough that you can follow it all, if you pay attention.

I don't know if I will write anything else today. My faith in the last short story is flickering now. Perhaps I should plan or outline better. I have a few things I want to try with outlining of short stories. When I find what works, I'll be sure to write about it. Outlining is something I think I need before I can craft a decent tale - not just when it comes to novels, but also short stories.

For now I think I will relax and read some more. Another day will dawn tomorrow. Perhaps I have some energy to write more then.

A change of story

Daily Goal: 500 words.
Yesterday I wrote 270 words.

Better than yesterday, I guess. I decided to change the story I am working on. The previous story left me a bit stuck, so I'm giving another one a try.

The short story I am working on now is about a couple's thwarted attempt at attending the first party after the birth of their daughter. The structure is simple: (1) the couple get ready for the party; (2) they arrive at the party, but the baby's crying forces them to leave; (3) the baby has fallen asleep and the couple reflect on the day while eating takeout.

I am writing the story with a themed publication in mind: Stealing Time. With a deadline in October, the parenting magazine has an issue whose theme is "Celebration". I read those details when I got my newsletter  from Duotrope. It stuck in my mind and that little plot above slowly formed over a couple of days. Duotrope, by the way, is a useful site for finding a publisher.

It made more sense to start out with a story where I have a more fully formed plot. The 200 and some words I wrote yesterday flowed quite easily. I have a feeling that the next 200 will not flow as well, but I hope to at least best today's effort tomorrow.

I have called the story "The Dinner", follow the link to Google Docs if you would like to read or comment.

The last few days have been mostly taking care of the baby. No parties have been thwarted, however. I was at a party a week ago and all went well. She is getting her first tooth and requires a bit of extra attention. We made another long trip today to see if we could pick up Neil Gaiman's American Gods. The bookshop must have had all his other novels and several copies of them, but Gods was sold out. I do make the trips mostly to entertain my baby girl, though, and give her mother a break.

500 words a day

Daily Goal: 500 words.
Yesterday I wrote 20 words.

Sad is all it is: 20 words. I might as well post them:

“I’ll show you where it’s dug.” The kid set off towards the river without looking back.The boy followed.

 Actually those are, probably, just nineteen words. I wrote a temporary title, "Crossing", as well.

After I finished my blog post yesterday, I did refill my coffee, and then turned straight to writing. After those twenty words I thought:  "This is a nice start. I'll take a little break and write the rest afterwards."

I want to write 500 words, minimum, every day. No days off. It is a work ethic that countless great authors have kept to and it makes sense. A day off from a story only creates a distance that you don't really want. You stop thinking about the story. I am still thinking about the story that those 20 words will hopefully turn into, but if I write nothing tonight, it will slowly slip from my mind.

Stephen King, I believe, writes 2000 words a day. His only days off are Christmas and his birthday. I read that, I think, in On Writing, a really great book about his experiences as a writer. Hemingway wrote 1000 words each morning. He first read and edited the 1000 words he wrote the day before. This I've read somewhere, I can't remember. He would sometimes stop at exactly 1000, so he'd really want to finish the sentence the next day.
I am pretty sure that I don't write the same way Stephen King or Hemingway write/wrote. I have never read anything by Ian McEwan - he is on my reading list - so I don't know if I could identify with his style or method, but I saw this little video on YouTube:

500 to 800 words on a good day sounds more like what I can manage. That doesn't mean I couldn't write more. Writing a blog post like this takes little effort. I find it difficult, however, to write good fiction, at the same pace I write a blog or a diary or a journal.

The story, "Crossing", of which I got twenty words down on paper yesterday, is about two boys who want to cross a river. That is my idea for the story, together with the first line of dialogue, mentioned above. I don't know if I'll drop it for something else tonight, but soon, I hope, I'll find something to stick with until I feel that it is good enough to send into some magazine for consideration.

First!

Daily Goal: 500 words.

Yesterday I wrote 0 words.

Another plateau in my life, another blog. This very space held my last attempt at a blog about writing, but with a new start I've revamped the blog and changed the concept as well.

I aim to get published. Each day I've set myself a goal of writing 500 words. Each Sunday I hope to finish a short story and send it to some publisher for consideration.

The idea about finishing a short story each week I got from a YouTube video featuring Ray Bradbury:

The lecture he holds is about an hour long. Unless you are a fan, I wouldn't recommend watching it all. He rambles on about how great writing is and how he got started. The advise I took from the lecture - about finishing a short story each week - is about the only useful thing he says about the craft of writing.

The structure of this blog I thought would be different from Bradbury's lecture. Sure, I'll probably ramble a bit, but I'll try to get one tip, trick, advise or thought about writing into each post. Today's tip is the one from Bradbury :) I'll also keep it simple, casual and fast. If I am to get into the habit of making a daily update, I need to be able to write a new post in half an hour or so.

I thought I'd finish each update with writing about what has happened since my last post: both in terms of writing and in general. Since I didn't write anything yesterday or today (never mind the fact that there hasn't been any last post to count from), I'll tell you about how my day has been so far.

I woke at 6 o'clock in the morning - or rather my almost 8 month old girl woke at that hour. It took about an hour to get her to take her first nap, which lasted 40 minutes. She napped in her stroller (or baby carriage), with me pushing it, so it didn't provide much of a break.

The next nap she spent with her mother, it gave me a two hour break, which I spent sleeping.

Since then I've been taking care of the baby, doing the dishes, and I had a long trip, with the baby to a bookstore to see if they had Neil Gaiman's American Gods. The trip was fine, but the shop didn't have the book. I want to get it for my brother-in-law, whose birthday is coming up.

My half hour has come and gone. I'll give what I've written a quick read-through, before I post. Then I'll refill my cup with coffee and hope to churn out 500 words or more.