Crunch Time …I have to Wonder

Again. My goals are not great. With one book’s first draft finished and the first draft of another winding up I spent a good deal of time at the typewriter early in March. I was typing out thousands of words in a day. I had a competent level of new words being put down in my notebooks to easily make my minimalist goals. I felt confident in my progress and expanded my attentions to other need to do projects.

There lies the problem. I have too many need to do projects surrounding me. We need a new screen door on the front entry. That has turned into a major project with the slipshod way the former owner had kept up the house. A weight loss competition with my brother drew some of my energies in that direction. My wife and I, in pursuit of healthy eating, made some big batches of kim-chi, which in turn inspired me to research making sauerkraut, the way my grandmother made it. Yard work beckons as the days grow warmer and longer. Poker success drew more poker ventures. A workbench project I had been putting off went forward full throttle, …for a while.

I could be at a feeder poker tournament right now. I am poised to bring the workbench to a quick completion, but I had to stop everything to reach my monthly writing goals. It is what keeps the work progressing.

That is a whole lot of life to draw knowledge, insight and inspiration from as a writer. Or it could just become things standing in your way.

KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) was promoting this website via Facebook. It is the most alluring book/writing support site I’ve come across so far, but…Another website? More social media? One more ‘sign in’ to remember from among my already too many? It’s been a while since I’ve been on Good Reads, and that was by accident.

Marketing is essential and I need to schedule it in. With the effort required to maintain an Internet presence I wonder if simply paying a contractor to market my books might be the better approach. When and where will the networking begin that will bring sales success; enough for me to write freely without distractions? I have several work spaces amidst our living environment where I have put down many an inspired word. ‘Amidst our living environment’ is always the part that brings this end of the month crunch. Our house is a fixer upper and the spaces are small. Paying for editing and other services may be a necessity to speed up production.

After focusing on the ‘just getting the story down’ advice for my first drafts, setting out on a second draft is almost like starting all over. There is a lot to sort out. I question my type it out on the typewriter approach. Though it has some advantages, problems with these old typewriters, and contemplating having to type it all again into the computer, makes me wonder if all the typing is worth it.

Free your life from clutter and distraction aspiring writers, or anyone else in pursuit of a goal. April will be a turning point. If I can complete my second drafts things will continue on strong. It will determine if I can produce my works out in a timely fashion.

A Tale of Two Authors

Stephen King advises to write like a king. His first piece of advice in this regard is to stop watching TV and to read books. I have been reading a few books; mostly science fiction in hopes of improving my writing. I have read two science fiction authors; both self-published. A comparison of their writing I believe will prove insightful for anyone trying to make it as a writer.

The first is Ryk Brown; author of a successful science fiction series that has acquired a loyal following. The other is Vaughn Heppner; author of a collection of several series, of not only science fiction but also fantasy as well as other genres.

Ryk Brown has his own website in which he interacts with his readers. He has dedicated himself to writing as a full time profession, attempting to produce three to four books a year. He does not have as many books as Vaughn Heppner, but he does have the numbers, and that appears to be a major prerequisite to turning a profit in this era of self-publishing.

Vaughn Heppner also has his own website, a bit less personable. It is unclear how much time he is dedicating to writing. From what I could discover he is currently a school teacher, or possibly not. While it may be difficult to find out specific personal information on either of these authors, there is an abundance of information from Ryk Brown on his pursuits as an author. Not so concerning Vaughn Heppner.

Trying to write books myself, there is a single contrast that screams out when I read these two authors; the editing. First of all, I have to say I enjoyed the stories of both these authors. Vaughn Heppner has received more criticism in his reviews, and I believe I know why. Vaughn Heppner either is self-editing or relying on acquaintances who cannot dedicate the appropriate level of effort to produce the highest quality product.

I read Vaughn Heppner’s Lost Starship Series books 1 and 2. The beginning of book 1 was grueling. The sentences were confusing and words misplaced. The confusing sentence development cleared up early in the story, but a regular occurrence of misplaced words made me wonder if the books were translated from another language. The author is from the middle of Canada, which would suggest English is his native language though maybe not. I knew someone from the middle of Canada once. It was a ten hour ride to the nearest town when he was young and his speech patterns were a bit atypical. Book 2 had far fewer issues.

Ryk Brown makes it clear in his blog that he has a team of what he calls contractors helping him. They also push him along in getting his stories out, from what I understood. A necessity if you want to produce more than one book a year. Editing can be a satisfying part of the writing process, but you just cannot see your own mistakes without a separation of several months from your work. Ryk Brown has had some editing problems himself; At least one character died more than once. There were similar mix ups in battle scenes as to which enemy ships had been destroyed and which not.

Ryk Brown has produced a solid believable history behind the intergalactic world he has created, which highly enhances the story. The Vaughn Heppner world is an intergalactic world laid out more simply by implied associations through world or system names being derived from continental, religious or corporate terminology.

Ryk Brown starts with a big picture and a limited scope; the perspective of a crew from a single ship. Political intrigues and a world of spies is developing from there. Vaughn Heppner drops you right into a world of political intrigue and spy craft; at least in the series I began with.

Ryk Brown can be read by all ages from middle school on up. Vaughn Heppner has a simplicity to his exciting and layered stories that is well suited to younger readers. Again, I am unclear if this is by intent. Heppner’s theme’s on the personal struggles of his characters are also positively instructive for young readers, though there is a level of sexual titillation involve with the main adult character that some might find unsuited for the youngest readers.

Vaughn Heppner also has a good collection of vocabulary. Vocabulary that all of us should know but is possibly being lost; words such as ‘proffer’ and ‘careworn’. I look for useful vocabulary when I read. While many preach that one must write with understandable vocabulary, staying away from large words, I believe a growing number of useful words that describe a specific emotion, state or action are being lost in our modern era, and that an author has a responsibility to use the most specific and expressive vocabulary possible. That requires an extensive vocabulary of what should be common words. I found the word ‘pell-mell’, to my delight, looking over an old Alfred Hitchcock series I had read as a child.

I can easily recommend Ryk Brown to science fiction readers; his first three books, together the equivalent a long single novel, are available for free. I recommend you read the reviews on Vaughn Heppner to see if my endorsement of his stories as exciting and well formed, will be worth enduring the problems with his writing people have expressed in their reviews. People’s tolerance of typos and hard to read sentences vary greatly. Vaughn Heppner’s books are available for free via Amazon Prime and Kindle Select.

Finally, Ryk Brown has given up on the exclusivity that Amazon requires for offering one’s work for free via Amazon Prime or Kindle Select, receiving a fee from Amazon if the book is read. He believes the returns Amazon offers benefit Amazon and not authors. Amazon in constantly changing their scheme of reimbursing authors for offering their work for free through their ever evolving programs. Vaughn Heppner is solidly established in the Amazon program. This is a decision I will have to face myself as I am dedicated and set to put out several books over the next eighteen months or so. If you are attempting to go full time as an author Ryk Brown’s approach to sales may be the way to go.

I certainly wish I could devote to my writing full time. Sorry for the delay is this months update. “Life On The Farm” keeps growing larger though I do not believe it will reach 40,000 words. Hope to have the second draft of “Partisans Of The Blue; The Dauntless Recruits” completed this month. The third draft will be put onto the computer. Then I will have to decide if I will pay out for editing services or not.

The delays in getting more books out are directly related to the editing process. I worked on “Chuck Hammer” again and again even after I published. I look to reach the highest standards in everything I set my mind to. I’m playing poker again.

The Process

The Christmas season was a fight to keep my goals. January began with a general cleaning and organizing of most every room in the house. Boxes of clutter went to Good Will, and work spaces were evaluated and rearranged. Felt good, but, Just making my new words goal, with a bit of ease, for this month brings me to an acceptable minimal level of production. But the process is down and being applied consistently.

“Partisans of the Blue; The Dauntless Recruits” is waiting to be typed out as the second step of my process. The completion of a personally designed typewriter/media desk, building myself, is not holding me back per say. Another table of suitable height is currently occupied. My mind has been focusing on the first draft of something growing a bit beyond a short story; “Life on the Farm”.

Writing out the first draft by hand, then typing the work out, editing along the way, reading and rereading the typed sheets, adding edits again along the way, and after all that, avoiding exceedingly long sentences, I put it all into the computer. Several rounds of editing will be required after that. A good reliable printer is a must at that stage. A good monochrome laser printer is quick and reliable. The sales woman at the office supply store told us that ‘Brother’ printers are returned the least. This little work horse did not cost much at all.

The process of writing “Life on the Farm” is deviating from my norm. I sit down not knowing what to write. I list out every scene I am planning for the story. One looks good, and I start writing. It has been going well. The mish mash of scenes should be easily organized if I simply start a new sheet of paper, when typing, at every scene change.

If I really want to make a living writing I need to start focusing on other processes; most notably marketing. I have rereleased the e-book “A Vendetta’s Wage” (See sidebar). I formatted, or rather arranged, my e-book in a way I thought insightful for e-books, that I observed in a book written by Joel Goldman. That is, to put any superfluous sections of the book in the back. The story begins first page. He, actually, even moved the table of contents to the back. I also re-priced my book, in line with prices I have observed asked by other independent authors, usually $2.99 (or a bit more) for a full length novel. Those would be authors who have sales but no overwhelming support in the form of reviews and the like.

Thank you for reading.

Goals

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all my readers. Yes, it is still the Christmas season, a part of the season that is neglected to the detriment of our spiritual lives. It is the celebration of these twelve days of Christmas that pull us away from the material indulgence that has preceded the Holy Day and into the Day’s true meaning.

I read many articles by writers on goals. A word count goal is useful, very useful. But then again, some suggest that just focusing on a word count can be destructive to the final product, to the creativity of your work.

I have been successively achieve my monthly word count goals for sometime now. I find it to be a motivator, an encouragement and a confidence builder. My word count goals are also very low by the standards of most; only 12,000 new words a month; a good sized book every year. Still, at times, even today, the last day of the month, I struggle to meet this goal.

For this month it has been the holiday that distracted me, but more substantially it was this project to the left, installing a new door, as the month was coming to a close, that derailed me from a less frantic end of the month as I fight to make my goal for December. This was a complete rebuild of the rough opening, removal of the old door, rotted framing, the existing 3/4” T&G sheathing and exterior wood siding, (without damaging the existing aluminum siding that covers the house) and an exterior re-sheathing with 1/2” board, against which the door would rest, over the new framing. Of course I used flexible adhesive flashing around the opening before the final placement of the new door.

My wife didn’t believe I would complete the task in a day but I got the door in secure enough and installed the lockset before we went out to work our retail business Friday night. Ten hours non-stop for me, then off to work. My wife helped me placing the door and cleaned up after me from time to time. A 1/16th of an inch more to the left would have been ideal but I was being crunched for time. If the door is ever so slightly askew, it is only because the salesmen recommend that I remove the door from its’ frame to paint it.

And what happened? To my horror, I realized the next day that I had written nothing on the day of the door; the last relatively warm day of the season. I missed on my goal of writing ever day. I beg your forgiveness.

Not only that, but my mind was completely consumed with everything home repair (I am surrounded by work to be done on the house) leaving my mind blank of any concepts or scenes I had been developing for my stories. Right now I am working on “Life on the Farm”. I will be writing any scenes that pop into my head, completely disregarding an orderly timeline, as I need to produce over 3,000 words today. I do include my blogs, this blog in my word count.

Now that 12,000 word goal truly appears small when you include my blogs. But I have many other things to work on besides new word production. As a self published author without a team to help edit or market my books, my tasks are expansive in scope. I have the first draft of “Partisans of the Blue; The Dauntless Recruits” (yes I changed the title, from “A” to “The”) that I need to type out from my notebooks, and that is only the beginning of the editing process. I hope to create several illustrations for my works and I need to research and develop my own marketing strategy. Besides these labors I need to continually invest in my home repairs and our business, and I need to create consistent content for my blogs.

Looking at my blogs over this last year, I have been negligent in providing posts on a regular basis. I am particularly disappointed in not having spent more time on my blog, “No Sanction”. For 2015, I will be creating posting goals for each of my blogs. For this blog it will be once a month, on or around the first of each month. I would also like to raise my word count goal to 15,000 new words a month, particularly if I will be blogging more.

Accomplishing your writing goals will drive you forward as a writer. Make your goals achievable. Don’t be discouraged by low goals. Meeting those will be much more rewarding and helpful than even coming close to a higher goal that you were not able to achieve. Life happens, you can’t write 24/7. Accomplishing goals on my home repair have also been very useful in building my confidence. Make goals in other aspects of your life as well. Be realistic in creating your goals. Be even more realistic in accomplishing your goals.

I lost my fulltime job nearly ten years ago. Self motivation can be a struggle, especially in disadvantageous circumstances. But as this year closes I find I have come to encompass an even greater goal that I have been working to achieve these many years since I lost my fulltime employment. That goal would be to go beyond a forty hour work week in useful and productive labor, though not always gainful.

My persistence in my writing and all aspects of book production has developed into many consistent hours of dedicated work throughout the week. A slightly improved income has given me the resources to consistently make marked improvements on our home. I have a part time retail business to run with my wife. I am a building designer and have been inspired to invest more time into that aspect of my life. I have also been known to build some pieces of furniture. In this light I have recently achieved for more weeks than not a plus forty-hour work week. I will be documenting my efforts more precisely for 2015 with this goal in mind; a fifty-hour work week, and from their, sixty, seventy and beyond.

God Bless you all in 2015.

Open to Ridicule

I did it. I made my goal for November. No, I wasn’t trying to write a novel in thirty days. My goals are not vast. Many caution against being obsessed with word counts. It was simply a very hectic month and I needed to put out 1,500 words Sunday.

So I am filling in a few openings in “Partisans of the Blue; A Dauntless Recruit” and I’ll be done with the first draft. Another common piece of advice is to go for quantity, not quality, when writing your first draft. I would have to agree, unless you have not written much in a long time. Be attentive to your sentence structure, spelling and grammar. Refresh the knowledge that you have not had to access since high school or college. Writing makes one a better writer; another sage piece of advice. Once you have noticeably regained forgotten lessons, go for it.

Most of what makes your writing, different than the story, good to great happens in the editing process and progress.

To protect my work I do not wish to convey too much of my next book. However, in this digital and connective age of the hacker you want to protect your work by cataloguing the process.

Our villain of “The Partisans of the Blue” lives in my hometown at a time when there are no longer any political parties, but for the government. These members of the non-party hold weekly gatherings to promote the agenda and many to pursue more nefarious pleasures. Of course the gathering includes a seven course meal. Our villain is recorded enjoying two such meals in the course of the story.

So, here is the menu I created from some basic research. The accompanying wines are not clearly specified. Any epicureans who would like to comment or ridicule, I would be appreciative of your advice.

-Beluga Black Caviar ( with crackers) and Champaign.

-Tomato Basil Crab Bisque

-Whole Maine Lobster with drawn butter; serve with a White Burgundy

-Filet Mignon with Braised Vegetables; here our villain, to establish him as a man of particular tastes, has ordered the French Syrah replaced with a specific Pinot Noir of his liking.

-Goat Cheese salad with a Raspberry-Walnut Vinaigrette

-choice in desserts; Chocolate Soufflé or Baked Alaska

-Coffee

Then we have a meal in which our villain was called in to resolve a dispute between the head cook, who desired to serve his courses with a selection of beers, and the sommelier.

-Oysters Rockefeller with Champaign (yes, he sided with the sommelier)

-Fennel and Almond Soup

-Parmesan Encrusted Trout with Hollandaise Sauce

-Spice Lamb Chop with Chickpea Purée

-Rustic Baby Kale Salad with Raisins Walnuts and Goat Cheese

-Baked Apple with Raisins, Cranberries and Apricots

-Chestnut Praline Latte

Possible problem with this last menu; this would be in mid-June.

Epicureans, release the hounds, let loose the war machines, storm the gates, breech the walls.