A few sleep-addled lines

Confession: I forgot to blog today and got up at 1am to rectify the situation. Maybe I am dedicated.

Reading:

• "L. DeBard and Aliette: A Love Story," by Lauren Groff
  
• The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton
  

Writing:

• "Ferian Fetlock Hitches a Ride" - 1,245 words (Estimated completion 14%)
• "Ferian Fetlock Catches a Cold" - Outline 100%
  

Revising:

• "The Revenant"
  
• "Cora and the Sea" - Third draft 50%

No real progress today. I wound up napping on the couch for a large part of the late afternoon/early evening. It was just such an oppressive, muggy day that all my energy and willpower seemed to be sapped away.

Perhaps I should write a story about that.

I think what's become apparent is that I need to shake up my habits a bit. I've fallen into a comfortable pattern that involves not producing any new writing, and that is unacceptable.

Publication Status:

• Submitted: 5
  
• Accepted: 1.5?
• Rejected: 2
• Pending: 1.5?

Back to the Basics

Confession: I almost forgot to blog tonight. What's wrong with me?

Reading:

• "L. DeBard and Aliette: A Love Story," by Lauren Groff
  
• The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton
  

Writing:

• "Ferian Fetlock Hitches a Ride" - 1,245 words (Estimated completion 14%)
• "Ferian Fetlock Catches a Cold" - Outline 100%
  

Revising:

• "The Revenant"
• "Cora and the Sea" - Third draft 50%

In times (like this) that my willpower to write is low, I find it helpful to remind myself what it is about writing that I like.

First and foremost, I love to read. I don't actually remember ever learning to read. Oh, I remember being taught to read, in kindergarten by my first teacher, and earlier by my parents. But I already knew how, and was just learning new words.

In particular, I remember getting a new book on the condition that I read it aloud to my parents. Years later, I learned the full story. It seems that my parents had been reading books aloud to me before bedtime, and I would sit on their laps and look at the pictures. At one point, they were tired and tried to skip a page, or would skip over lines of text. "That's not what it says!" I would tell them, and make them read it in full.

This made them wonder, so they asked me to read these books to them, and I did. But they weren't sure whether I was reading, or just repeating something I had memorized. So they bought me a new book, and I demonstrated my ability to read. I was three, by the way.

I think developing the skill so early made it innate, and as I grew older, I developed that ability to the point that I was reading faster than anyone else in my class. Because of that, I could lose myself in a story and experience it in real time, as it were. Reading was never boring, because I read too fast to let it be boring.

The other element to my love for writing comes from loving to tell stories. I remember, again as a child, that I would play a game with my mom. "What do you think he's doing?" she would ask. "What about her?" And we would make up stories about the people we saw around us. A simple thing, but it got me to thinking creatively early on.

I am an only child, and I had to entertain myself for large portions of my time. I did this through making up stories as well, usually involving my toys in some way, but not always. I designed elaborate machines and systems of tunnels and all sorts of things.

I loved to read, and loved to make up stories. Writing is the natural combination of these two desires. Writing is my way of sharing stories with others, using the skills I've learned from a lifetime of reading.

Publication Status:

• Submitted: 5
  
• Accepted: 1
• Rejected: 2
• Pending: 2

100 Posts and Going Strong

Confession: I didn't accomplish a thing in writing today. I thought about faking something, but when you stoop to lying on your own blog, you've gone beyond mortal help.

Reading:

• "L. DeBard and Aliette: A Love Story," by Lauren Groff
  
• The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton
  

Writing:

• "Ferian Fetlock Catches a Cold" - Outline 85%
  

Revising:

• "The Revenant"
• "Cora and the Sea" - Third draft 50%

I was so scared at the beginning of this project that I would fail. Every other time I've tried to write something on a regular basis, it hasn't worked. So what's different about this time?

Well, the Blogger software is really easy to use, so that removes one stumbling block. I can get to it from anywhere, which removes another. But that's not really it.

Part of it is that I was finally in a place in my life where writing was a priority, and this blog is a reflection of that. Had I started it a year ago, it probably would have failed. The project I did start a year ago failed, so why should this blog be any different?

But also, this blog has kept me going in tough times over the last 3+ months. Without it, I think I would get swept along into the day-to-day routine that I would forget about writing for a period of time, and when I got back to it, I'd be rusty again, and have to start from scratch.

Well, that's not happening any more. I might not accomplish stuff every day, but every day I'm reminded of what there remains to accomplish, and that's the most important part.

Publication Status:

• Submitted: 5
  
• Accepted: 1
• Rejected: 1
• Pending: 3

A good measure of progress

Confession: I lived today on fast forward, or maybe pause. What do you call it when you just watch the Olympics and nap?

Reading:

• "My Brother Eli" by Joseph Epstein
  
• The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton
  

Writing:

• "Ferian Fetlock Catches a Cold"

Revising:

• "The Revenant"

Future Projects:

• Dairhenien's Library - Development
  
• Floorcraft - First rewrite of 1-5, first draft of 6-8
• Ferian Fetlock - "Ferian Fetlock Takes a Wife."
  
• "Motley" - Expansion
• "Fireworks and Earthworks" - 5% into first draft
  
• Untitled School Mistress Story

Unpublished Stories/Status (in chronological order of completion of first draft)

• "Pictures of the Old Port" - 5th Draft, Unsubmitted
• "What Price Stamps" - 3rd Draft, Submitted to The American Drivel Review, July 30th, 2008
  
• "The Frost Fugling" - 2nd Draft, Unsubmitted
• "Black Pudding" - 2nd Draft, Unsubmitted
• "Cora and the Sea" - 3rd Draft, Unsubmitted
• "Motley" - 2nd Draft, Unsubmitted
• "Leaves and Sunsets" - 2nd Draft, Unsubmitted
• "A Happy Ending" - 1st Draft, Unsubmitted
• "The Revenant" - 2nd Draft, Unsubmitted
  
• "Illuminated" - 3rd Draft, Unsubmitted
  
• "A Cup of Coffee" / "Morning Tea" - 2nd Draft, Submitted to Tea: A Magazine, July 29th, 2008
• "Ferian Fetlock Cures a Horse" - 2nd Draft, Unsubmitted
• "Hattie Donnelly's Favorite Doll" - 2nd Draft, Submitted to 24 Hour Short Story Contest, July 27th, 2008

What is a sufficient measure of progress for writing? All this crap that I copy out every day is supposed to remind me where I stand in terms of a writing career, but more and more, it has begun to fade into the background where I don't even read it anymore. Partly that is because last week my attention was otherwise occupied, but that's no excuse.

I read Brandon Sanderson's blog, where he uses progress bars on the left side of his blog to update his readers on the current status of his projects. It's all percentage based, but I'm guessing he has some underlying numbers to back that up. I would also bet that those numbers are useful for him, not just interesting to his readership.

For my writing projects, I feel I need to do the same thing. I would like to be able to update those numbers on a daily basis, either revision by percentage, or new story by word count or page count.

In fact, I'm going to make this goal. Every day, I need to update my progress in some way or another. I've gotten into the habit of doing this blog every day, and that's great, but if I let it become an end in itself, then I've defeated the point. This blog has served to keep me connected to writing when I haven't felt like it, but when I do feel like it, there should be a lot more going on behind the scenes than is immediately apparent.

So starting on Monday, that's what I'll do. Every day, something will update. What I'm reading, what I'm writing, what I'm revising, what I'm submitting. On the day I get a response on a story, that can be my update for the day, thereby earning me a "free" day. In that way, I know that I will have constant progress.

So far, I've managed to keep from sliding backwards. Now I just need to keep going forwards.

Publication Status:

• Submitted: 5
  
• Accepted: 1
• Rejected: 1
• Pending: 3

Writer versus Author

Confession: I paid $13.25 to watch You Don't Mess with the Zohan this evening. I'm so ashamed.

Reading:

• The Van, by Roddy Doyle

Writing:

• "Ferian Fetlock Cures a Horse"

Revising:

• "Dolly Hobbles"

I think I've finally realized why I've managed to keep this blog going for three weeks. You may laugh, but this is my 25th entry, and that's longer than I've ever managed to keep something like this going. That's right, none of the "Radioactive Duck"s lasted this long.

This blog is my way of reminding myself I'm a writer. I start every entry by forcing myself to say something clever or unexpected in my confession. They're true, every one of them, but that's part of what makes it interesting. (I believe it's the restrictions in writing that inspire creativity... but that's another post.)

Next, I list out my current projects. Part of my job as a writer is to read, and to think critically about what I read. There should never be a point at which there is not some sort of book on my plate. All too often, I get caught up in the minutiae of life and set a book aside. When I finally remember it again, I'm out of the flow, but don't feel like starting over. And so it is abandoned. But this way, I list every day the book I'm reading, and if I don't finish, I don't forget.

After that comes my actual writing projects. The same thing holds here: how can I set a story aside when I don't allow myself to take it off the list until I'm done with it? That's not to say I can only work on "Ferian" and "Dolly" right now, but they don't get off the list until I'm done with them. That's a constant reminder that at any moment, I can either write or revise. Or read.

There's one last part. Did you spot it? It's hiding in plain sight. That is the blog post itself. I'm afraid that one day I'll run out of topics, but is that possible? Not while there are books I haven't read, at least, because I can always comment on what I'm reading if I can't think of anything else. Just tackling a theme on the topic of writing forces me to think about that theme, and to develop in a ways that I might not otherwise pursue.

All of that comes down to this: I am forging my identity as a writer so that I can have a career as an author. To me, the difference comes down to one of professionalism. I don't make a living as a writer, so I am not yet an author. I hope to become one someday, even someday soon. But I must first think of myself as a writer primarily, not as my day job.