Greetings everyone and welcome back! As tempted as I am to have every word is today's post be 'kitty' repeated over and over again, I will spare you from that special kind of hell. If you haven't guessed, we are working on getting a new kitty, and today I found out it will officially be only a couple weeks until then. I conveniently have a vacation coming up around that time, and then I'll get a new fuzzy kitty to play with! Kitty, kitty, kitty!
Ha! Tricked you! Don't worry, I won't fill the entire post with the word kitty. I wanted to talk about important things like letting your brain do other things even if it doesn't want to and will think its weird you go to do it. I bring it up today because I had the experience yesterday because my laptop is being stupid. Don't get me wrong, I love the thing, but it has decided the battery isn't charging, like almost every other laptop I've ever had, and on the HP forums there's no actual fix. After my fits of rage of having to do this again, for yet another computer even though it's not a Dell (though this one did last longer so...that's something), I am now waiting for a second battery and external charger for said battery. The thing is I am currently unable to bring the laptop to work while waiting, so I need to find something else to do, and my brain was super not happy about that.
I got to thinking about the importance of break time and everything because of a show they pretty much always have on at work during my lunch. Generally I take what they have on there with a few grains of salt because they are still paid to promote certain things, and medical shows I am always a little skeptical about, especially ones that are run by the same people that run Dr. Phil. However sometimes they are pretty entertaining, and once in a while they actually do have pretty good information and I think they actually do want to help people. One day they mentioned burn-out. Now, I listened to that because I actually do suffer from it, but it's more on an official work capacity because the idea of taking time off stresses me out because I am convinced if I do that, when I come back there are going to be a series of fires I'm going to need to put out. Yesterday I saw the same things happening with my editing though, and it freaked me out, which is why I needed to bring it up today.
I have been editing for...pretty much it feels like over a year. I think there were a couple spaces where I played a game (nothing will interrupt my Pokemon time) and NaNoWriMo happened at some point, but for the most part I was editing. Putting myself on some kind of schedule that was more 'this seriously needs to get done' and less 'this needs to get done by noon' was better, but that didn't mean I wasn't doing it. Now I am still editing, and while it is going smoothly, I am now to where I need my laptop to for further. So with me waiting for things like the mail, I brought my 3DS to work and it felt so weird! It was in that moment I realized that I needed that break so badly just to do nothing of importance. I'm not even playing a new game, I'm playing one that I have already beaten I'm just trying to see how close to 100% I can get. I could start Final Fantasy X or X-2 or Braverly Default, but I haven't because right now that is far too much effort. In some sense the only break I've had was playing Pokemon X (and man I played the HELL out of it) and that was months ago, and it was a gap between months of editing/writing while still working my normal job in the mix of everything.
Taking a break is so important because if you don't you will get so incredibly tired. Not in the 'it's midnight I should have gone to sleep a while ago' tired either. I mean mentally and emotionally so. The vacation I have in May is the first week off I will have that wasn't spent jobless in over a decade. If you are feeling frazzled, exhausted, somewhat irritable, or that you are just super done with something that is your normal routine, then take a step back and go do something different even for an hour. It will really help. It's going to feel weird because your brain is going to be confused, but you will feel a lot better once you're done.
Thanks everyone for stopping by today! Hopefully I'll be able to do stuff for Friday too. This week is just a bunch of running around for me, so we'll see. Remember, 'Rending the Seal' is available at Smashwords so check it out and use coupon VQ68M to get it 75% off!! For now, have a great rest of your week!
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Monday, April 28, 2014
04/28/2014 Magnificent Monday!
Greetings everyone and welcome back. I hope the weekend treated you all kindly. Friday was exhausting, but it was still a good experience. Got some good potential prospects for future projects, so that will be interesting to see what happens with them. For now I am just going to relax and look forward to the rest of this week and hope today isn't too much of a disaster.
I say that because they are letting us do these self-governing think tanks at work. Right now the people who want to be 'in charge' but not actually 'in charge' don't particularly care for one another and one of them out right refuses to work with the other. Our first meeting turned very loud and incredibly passive aggressive. My only hope is that we can make some sort of progress or something that is reasonably looking like progress if you squint and turn your head to the side. I don't know if that will happen, but I can hope. Right now I'm just hoping not to get in anyone's way because this is a train wreck.
On the bright side things are going very well for 'Rending the Seal' so far. I made coupons for the craft fair, so please feel free to check it out and use the code VQ68M to get it 75% off. I am quite pleased with how this story turned out so I would like for everyone to pass it around as much as they can. I also made one for 'The Light Rises' that makes it free, XE43N, so toss that to people too please! I would really appreciate it.
For now I am going to have to get a move on. I have a lot of work to do today, some of which includes calling a billing company and getting answers over something I was just now sent from months ago. Needless to say, I am not happy. I hope you all have a great day and a nice start to your week. I'll see you back here on Wednesday!
I say that because they are letting us do these self-governing think tanks at work. Right now the people who want to be 'in charge' but not actually 'in charge' don't particularly care for one another and one of them out right refuses to work with the other. Our first meeting turned very loud and incredibly passive aggressive. My only hope is that we can make some sort of progress or something that is reasonably looking like progress if you squint and turn your head to the side. I don't know if that will happen, but I can hope. Right now I'm just hoping not to get in anyone's way because this is a train wreck.
On the bright side things are going very well for 'Rending the Seal' so far. I made coupons for the craft fair, so please feel free to check it out and use the code VQ68M to get it 75% off. I am quite pleased with how this story turned out so I would like for everyone to pass it around as much as they can. I also made one for 'The Light Rises' that makes it free, XE43N, so toss that to people too please! I would really appreciate it.
For now I am going to have to get a move on. I have a lot of work to do today, some of which includes calling a billing company and getting answers over something I was just now sent from months ago. Needless to say, I am not happy. I hope you all have a great day and a nice start to your week. I'll see you back here on Wednesday!
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
04/23/2014 Writing Wednesday!
Hello everyone and welcome back. I hope this week is treating you all well. I had a nice day off yesterday, so that was good. Now I just need to make it through today and tomorrow and everything should be fine. The final actual preparations for the craft fair will be done tonight or tomorrow (need to make coupons) and then everything should be ready. Still absolutely terrified, but I'm sure it'll be fine.
Since I'm fairly certain you didn't come here to listen to me talk about how the idea of talking to a constant stream of people sound really scary or how cute my cat is, I'll actually talk about something you care about. My cat is fluffy and cute though..just saying. As I work toward getting back into the came, I need to consider something, and that is how long it takes to move something from a notebook to a digital format. There is going to need to be time made for this, so I wanted to look at potential options for that today.
We talked last week how progress isn't always a straight line, and that sometimes it's this curvy, twisted mess that seems unending. That's how things are for anything I have written in a notebook. 'Daughter of the Shackled King' took a specific kind of forever to put into my computer because I didn't just sit down and work on that. I had a lot of other things to do at the exact same time. I can already see that starting to happen with 'Feathers of the Dead' and while I know there's going to be some of that, I want to try and organize some of the chaos.
So let's say you have something in a notebook you want to edit. That is really awkward to do without putting it into a more easily editable medium first, and in this day and age that means it needs to be typed. Back in the day it would mean putting it into a different notebook, so I guess we're making progress? Less hand cramps at the very least. The first thing you are going to notice, unless your handwriting matches your preferred font size exactly and the paper you're working with also matches the 'paper' on the screen perfectly, that things are not going to line up. You are going to be all excited because you will be suddenly on page 3 in the notebook, but only about 1/4 of the way into page 2 on the computer. Don't freak out, that is normal, but it will start throwing off how much progress you think you're making. It's fine, but we'll come back to that
The second thing that is going to lead directly into the third is that it is going to feel slow. Partially because it is, but also because if you're anything like me when you were writing things down by hand you started getting a bit impatient with things like exposition or 'details' and started just being kind of vague and jumped ahead a bit. You knew what was going on in your head when you wrote everything down, and sometimes your hand started to hurt or you were just getting frustrated with that scene and wanted to get to something else. Handwriting isn't a fast process, and if you wanted to make sure you could actually go back and see anything you put down you had to make sure those little squiggles on the page were words, so you were writing slower than you would have been typing. However, now what's going to happen since you're moving everything to a typed format is you are going to start filling in the gaps you knew you left in for one reason or another. This will make it so you might be on a paragraph on page 12 for a lot longer than you had anticipated. This causes forward progress to actually slow down a bit and you need to anticipate this going into the project because it's going to drive you crazy along with that other thing I mentioned before.
The page numbers are going to absolutely mess with you. As you start making more and more headway you are going to find that the pages in your notebook are getting way ahead of you. This is going to start tricking your head and along with everything else that's going on it is 100% not helpful. I remember thinking about how short 'Daughter of the Shackled King' was going to end up being and that started to stress me out because I couldn't understand how something so short was taking so long to get done. I was on page 45 in my notebook, but only page 23 on my computer, and that gap stayed until I was done. It didn't matter that I used a composition notebook to write in, or that it was double-sided and my handwriting was larger than the font, I was still convinced there was something very wrong. The whole process took forever too, but I was also working on other things too, but that didn't matter, it still felt like an eternity.
These are all things that can cause a person to just toss something out the window because they are super done with it. Just remember that you need to keep looking forward and that the important thing, when nothing seems to be connecting, is to use logic with it. The reason the page numbers don't match is because when you were writing by hand you weren't a robot and at times you felt kind of impatient and lazy, which is fine. It's slow going because you are looking at a notebook, back at a computer, typing maybe a sentence and then back at the notebook over and over again. That is not a fast process. The page numbers are messing with your head because your brain is a jerk, and we've already been over how it wants things to make sense and if it doesn't it gets uncomfortable and decides it doesn't want to try that hard. Just tell your brain it needs to shut up and keep working, with how long it's going to take it's only going to feel that more satisfying when you get it into the new medium.
Thanks everyone for stopping by. Wish me luck on Friday, as I am really nervous about it. Remember, tell everyone that 'Rending the Seal' is available at Smashwords, also the Barnes and Noble link is up, so that means you should be able to get it at the other retailers too, so start searching! Have a great rest of your week everyone!
Since I'm fairly certain you didn't come here to listen to me talk about how the idea of talking to a constant stream of people sound really scary or how cute my cat is, I'll actually talk about something you care about. My cat is fluffy and cute though..just saying. As I work toward getting back into the came, I need to consider something, and that is how long it takes to move something from a notebook to a digital format. There is going to need to be time made for this, so I wanted to look at potential options for that today.
We talked last week how progress isn't always a straight line, and that sometimes it's this curvy, twisted mess that seems unending. That's how things are for anything I have written in a notebook. 'Daughter of the Shackled King' took a specific kind of forever to put into my computer because I didn't just sit down and work on that. I had a lot of other things to do at the exact same time. I can already see that starting to happen with 'Feathers of the Dead' and while I know there's going to be some of that, I want to try and organize some of the chaos.
So let's say you have something in a notebook you want to edit. That is really awkward to do without putting it into a more easily editable medium first, and in this day and age that means it needs to be typed. Back in the day it would mean putting it into a different notebook, so I guess we're making progress? Less hand cramps at the very least. The first thing you are going to notice, unless your handwriting matches your preferred font size exactly and the paper you're working with also matches the 'paper' on the screen perfectly, that things are not going to line up. You are going to be all excited because you will be suddenly on page 3 in the notebook, but only about 1/4 of the way into page 2 on the computer. Don't freak out, that is normal, but it will start throwing off how much progress you think you're making. It's fine, but we'll come back to that
The second thing that is going to lead directly into the third is that it is going to feel slow. Partially because it is, but also because if you're anything like me when you were writing things down by hand you started getting a bit impatient with things like exposition or 'details' and started just being kind of vague and jumped ahead a bit. You knew what was going on in your head when you wrote everything down, and sometimes your hand started to hurt or you were just getting frustrated with that scene and wanted to get to something else. Handwriting isn't a fast process, and if you wanted to make sure you could actually go back and see anything you put down you had to make sure those little squiggles on the page were words, so you were writing slower than you would have been typing. However, now what's going to happen since you're moving everything to a typed format is you are going to start filling in the gaps you knew you left in for one reason or another. This will make it so you might be on a paragraph on page 12 for a lot longer than you had anticipated. This causes forward progress to actually slow down a bit and you need to anticipate this going into the project because it's going to drive you crazy along with that other thing I mentioned before.
The page numbers are going to absolutely mess with you. As you start making more and more headway you are going to find that the pages in your notebook are getting way ahead of you. This is going to start tricking your head and along with everything else that's going on it is 100% not helpful. I remember thinking about how short 'Daughter of the Shackled King' was going to end up being and that started to stress me out because I couldn't understand how something so short was taking so long to get done. I was on page 45 in my notebook, but only page 23 on my computer, and that gap stayed until I was done. It didn't matter that I used a composition notebook to write in, or that it was double-sided and my handwriting was larger than the font, I was still convinced there was something very wrong. The whole process took forever too, but I was also working on other things too, but that didn't matter, it still felt like an eternity.
These are all things that can cause a person to just toss something out the window because they are super done with it. Just remember that you need to keep looking forward and that the important thing, when nothing seems to be connecting, is to use logic with it. The reason the page numbers don't match is because when you were writing by hand you weren't a robot and at times you felt kind of impatient and lazy, which is fine. It's slow going because you are looking at a notebook, back at a computer, typing maybe a sentence and then back at the notebook over and over again. That is not a fast process. The page numbers are messing with your head because your brain is a jerk, and we've already been over how it wants things to make sense and if it doesn't it gets uncomfortable and decides it doesn't want to try that hard. Just tell your brain it needs to shut up and keep working, with how long it's going to take it's only going to feel that more satisfying when you get it into the new medium.
Thanks everyone for stopping by. Wish me luck on Friday, as I am really nervous about it. Remember, tell everyone that 'Rending the Seal' is available at Smashwords, also the Barnes and Noble link is up, so that means you should be able to get it at the other retailers too, so start searching! Have a great rest of your week everyone!
Monday, April 21, 2014
04/21/2014 Magnificent Monday!
Hello and we're back! I hope the weekend was nice to everyone. I wish mine had been longer, but I have tomorrow off, so I suppose that's some kind of trade-off. It will mark being with that guy I live with for 7 years, and while he may not have been able to get the day off, I am going to enjoy it by doing as little that is considered work as possible. I have a craft-store run I need to do (need to get something that wasn't at my primary store and everything was closed yesterday) other than that I think I should be good.
I am continuing my 'I'm so not paying for this' promoting for 'Rending the Seal', and while it is so going, because again, I'm not paying for it, things seem to be going smoothly. I need to stop comparing it to the other books, because it has been out for less than 5 days, and doing so is stupid. I think it's just because all of the numbers are right there next to each other and that makes for easy association. Also, I'm a crazy person at times, so there's that too I suppose.
In all honesty though I am really excited that I was able to put up the links for it on the 18th. I hadn't been expecting to be able to do that. I had assumed either there would have been more of a delay with their vetting process for the Premium Catalog or that something would have needed to be adjusted that I would have needed to look at later. That tells me a couple things: 1) that my saved format in Word is correct, and 2) that I actually did catch the formatting errors and didn't just see a bunch of blurs go past my eyes as i scrolled through that 250-page monster of a document.
As I hope you all also saw, I have lowered the price of 'The Light Rises' as well. I did this because of how I new games and movies and season dvd's get released actually. You have the first one, and it's at the starting price with some sales splattered about here and there, and then when the new one comes out the original drops down dramatically in order to help get more viewership. I really hope that bringing it down to $0.99 does help the series. Personally I think it's a good price, but that's because sometimes I can be arrogant about decisions I made.
All in all I would say this was a good weekend. This week is going to be absolutely crazy and I hope I can make it through. Really looking forward to using tomorrow as part of a resting day, which will be really nice, and then using Wednesday and Thursday as an attempt not to absolutely panic over everything else about Friday. They are opening it up to members/public, which I've heard they've done before, but I've seen the fair on a day like that, and I've never told on one of those days. I am really nervous about the number of people...
I will see you all on Wednesday though. Remember, please check out 'Rending the Seal' and spread the word that it's out, and also let people know that 'The Light Rises' has had a price drop. I would very much appreciate it. I will be back on Wednesday though, so have a great start to your week!
I am continuing my 'I'm so not paying for this' promoting for 'Rending the Seal', and while it is so going, because again, I'm not paying for it, things seem to be going smoothly. I need to stop comparing it to the other books, because it has been out for less than 5 days, and doing so is stupid. I think it's just because all of the numbers are right there next to each other and that makes for easy association. Also, I'm a crazy person at times, so there's that too I suppose.
In all honesty though I am really excited that I was able to put up the links for it on the 18th. I hadn't been expecting to be able to do that. I had assumed either there would have been more of a delay with their vetting process for the Premium Catalog or that something would have needed to be adjusted that I would have needed to look at later. That tells me a couple things: 1) that my saved format in Word is correct, and 2) that I actually did catch the formatting errors and didn't just see a bunch of blurs go past my eyes as i scrolled through that 250-page monster of a document.
As I hope you all also saw, I have lowered the price of 'The Light Rises' as well. I did this because of how I new games and movies and season dvd's get released actually. You have the first one, and it's at the starting price with some sales splattered about here and there, and then when the new one comes out the original drops down dramatically in order to help get more viewership. I really hope that bringing it down to $0.99 does help the series. Personally I think it's a good price, but that's because sometimes I can be arrogant about decisions I made.
All in all I would say this was a good weekend. This week is going to be absolutely crazy and I hope I can make it through. Really looking forward to using tomorrow as part of a resting day, which will be really nice, and then using Wednesday and Thursday as an attempt not to absolutely panic over everything else about Friday. They are opening it up to members/public, which I've heard they've done before, but I've seen the fair on a day like that, and I've never told on one of those days. I am really nervous about the number of people...
I will see you all on Wednesday though. Remember, please check out 'Rending the Seal' and spread the word that it's out, and also let people know that 'The Light Rises' has had a price drop. I would very much appreciate it. I will be back on Wednesday though, so have a great start to your week!
Friday, April 18, 2014
04/18/2014 Fantastic Friday!
Hello everyone and good morning! I hope this week was super nice to all of you. I am sad that I have to work tomorrow and don't get to enjoy an actual weekend, but next week I get a smattering of days off, so I suppose I'll just have to deal with it. There is actually a post today, so I wanted to get right so it!
It's shameless self-promotion time! Never have any shame in doing this. Especially when various forms of cheap advertising are the other methods that you have. Today we have the book by me, 'Rending the Seal' (crowd cheers somewhere). After what seems like forever and ever it's finally ready for public view! The prequel to 'The Light Rises', it take place about three years before the first book (give or take some months), and follows the four meeting one another and learning just how important they are to each other. Also, demons.
Detective Keagan Gillette is a homicide detective haunted by what he considers the be the failures of his past. His sister died, and he firmly believes it was his fault. Desperate to bring her back he learns the art of necromancy, but all of the preliminary tests show those won't work either, so all he sees are more failures. Feeling isolated from his colleagues both at the precinct and at the House of Masks, all he has are his memories when a new case is given to him; murders over the last several months. Introduced to a young woman claiming to be from MI6's Supernatural Defense Division, he suddenly learns that not all demons are internal.
Suddenly Keagan is shown the world around him is very different. Sure he knew there was magic and demons, but he'd never come face-to-face with one before. However the more he learns the more he wishes he never did. After enlisting the help of a self-proclaimed master magician named Elizabeth Stirling, and with all of them being volunteered by a strange man named Alexander Trouseau, the four of them learn of a plan to gather the pieces of the fabled Seal of Solomon that could alter the fate of reality forever. The problem is there are archdemons, inner demons, and monsters from the past and present that all must be faced before they can make sure that London and the world is safe.
I would say specifically why I picked this story, but I wrote it, so I'm not going to! It's perfectly acceptable to be biased at times. I am really excited to finally get this out to everyone. I was also happy to see that it was accepted into the premium catalog today, so they made that process go a lot quicker since the last time I uploaded anything. I promise the next release will come sooner than this one. I really, really do, and I am sorry this took forever.
'Rending the Seal' is available at Smashwords, and will soon be available pretty much everyone else. It just needs to get over there and uploaded to the other databases. It is available for $2.99. Also, as an added bonus, 'The Light Rises' has gone permanently down in price. You can start the series now for $1!
Thanks everyone for stopping by today. I really, really happy to not only be able to do a post on Friday to to say it was for my book. Thank you again for Raegan Millhollin for making my pretty cover, I will pay you in food next time I have the chance (again I wasn't kidding when I said I do that), and thanks for all the support I've gotten. I can't wait for the next one. Until next week, I hope you all have a super fun weekend!
It's shameless self-promotion time! Never have any shame in doing this. Especially when various forms of cheap advertising are the other methods that you have. Today we have the book by me, 'Rending the Seal' (crowd cheers somewhere). After what seems like forever and ever it's finally ready for public view! The prequel to 'The Light Rises', it take place about three years before the first book (give or take some months), and follows the four meeting one another and learning just how important they are to each other. Also, demons.Detective Keagan Gillette is a homicide detective haunted by what he considers the be the failures of his past. His sister died, and he firmly believes it was his fault. Desperate to bring her back he learns the art of necromancy, but all of the preliminary tests show those won't work either, so all he sees are more failures. Feeling isolated from his colleagues both at the precinct and at the House of Masks, all he has are his memories when a new case is given to him; murders over the last several months. Introduced to a young woman claiming to be from MI6's Supernatural Defense Division, he suddenly learns that not all demons are internal.
Suddenly Keagan is shown the world around him is very different. Sure he knew there was magic and demons, but he'd never come face-to-face with one before. However the more he learns the more he wishes he never did. After enlisting the help of a self-proclaimed master magician named Elizabeth Stirling, and with all of them being volunteered by a strange man named Alexander Trouseau, the four of them learn of a plan to gather the pieces of the fabled Seal of Solomon that could alter the fate of reality forever. The problem is there are archdemons, inner demons, and monsters from the past and present that all must be faced before they can make sure that London and the world is safe.
I would say specifically why I picked this story, but I wrote it, so I'm not going to! It's perfectly acceptable to be biased at times. I am really excited to finally get this out to everyone. I was also happy to see that it was accepted into the premium catalog today, so they made that process go a lot quicker since the last time I uploaded anything. I promise the next release will come sooner than this one. I really, really do, and I am sorry this took forever.
'Rending the Seal' is available at Smashwords, and will soon be available pretty much everyone else. It just needs to get over there and uploaded to the other databases. It is available for $2.99. Also, as an added bonus, 'The Light Rises' has gone permanently down in price. You can start the series now for $1!
Thanks everyone for stopping by today. I really, really happy to not only be able to do a post on Friday to to say it was for my book. Thank you again for Raegan Millhollin for making my pretty cover, I will pay you in food next time I have the chance (again I wasn't kidding when I said I do that), and thanks for all the support I've gotten. I can't wait for the next one. Until next week, I hope you all have a super fun weekend!
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
04/16/2014 Writing Wednesday!
Hello everyone and welcome back! I hope that a majority of my sentences make sense today. That guy I live with (that is the title he gets right now) is sick and was up most of the night, which means that by proxy I was as well. Very few letters put together look like words to me, but I was with it enough to get stuff from Teefury, so that must mean something.
Let's say you go to a movie (yay!) and see a character that you think is awesome (like Loki) and while watching this awesome movie you start wondering some things about a story you're working on. You know that people tend to latch on to current things in pop culture, and then suddenly it hits you; what if they'll think you're just bandwagoning (it's a word, right?) and trying to bank on the awesome or success or something else. Then there is a wave of panic as you start wondering if you should make changes to your story or even a specific character and then crippled by anxiety you wonder if you should keep working on it at all. That is what we're here to talk about today.
Now if you don't go through this, then I am actually quite proud of you. There are certain genres though where this is a problem. Write a modern fantasy story where your main character just happens to be some kind of spell caster and people are going to assume you are trying to make a new Harry Potter of Harry Dresden. Switch to high fantasy, and depending on the message that's being delivered they are going to assume it's either Lord of the Rings or Chronicles of Narnia. So for space opera, it's Star Wars. Never a new Star Trek, which I always find weird, it's always someone trying to make the next Star Wars...it's strange to me. You're seeing this now in a similar way with the surge in YA novels being turned into movies. Everything's trying to be the next Twilight Saga (for some reason) or Hunger Games (this makes slightly more sense to me, even if it's child murder). The point is this is something that you need to be prepared for, and this is how I'm doing it.
In my series, the second half will involve characters that are descended from various pantheons. Some will begin trickling in starting in 'Through the Broken Mirror' but they will be, for the most part, in the last three books. Now I've been working on these since...whenever I was working at Verizon, which I think was 2010-ish? 'Daughter of the Shackled King' was originally put into a notebook, and the main character is descended from Loki. Since then the Marvel movies have started and Tom Hiddleston has started existing (I know he existed beforehand, but shut up). There were also the Percy Jackson books, but they focus primarily if not exclusively on the Greek pantheon, so they only half-count. The point is what I'm preparing for is a bunch of people trying to call me out saying that I am trying to ride on someone's coat-tails. It makes me sad because I would like to think that Lily is a fair original character, as are the other Godlings, but that won't stop people from making those accusations.
If this ever happens to you, my first response would be to ask if they've read your book or not. That will set the stage for the rest of the conversation, if there is one. Sure you have the people that poured over the Harry Potter books obsessively trying to find the places where JK Rowling 'stole' from other books, but I actually don't know how frequent something like that happens. I would be hard-pressed to find someone who isn't guilty of a knee-jerk reaction like this. I'll admit to doing it myself, and I haven't read the source material, but having it put out in front of me I can quickly say that one thing looks like another with the serial numbers filed off.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's going to happen, but you shouldn't let is bother you or let that necessarily stop you. Now if you finish up and discover that your character is a copy/pasted version of the Gunslinger except Rowland is now Rolanda, then there may be a problem. However, if you make a character that finds out they are living in a supernatural world with vampires, werewolves, and they are trying to adjust to life in that world, don't just assume everyone's going to say you're 'ripping off Twilight' instead make it your own because it's probably better and more interesting. Not everything is a ripoff or an homage, but we are just so bombarded by everything that we've come to assume that nothing is original anymore and look for things that are similar in even new things. That's why agents typically won't take on new authors or try new genres or story ideas, because familiar is safe. It's why the trailer for Divergent feels a lot like Hunger Games (it really does, only Hunger Games is way more orange) at least to me.
Just keep working at it, don't worry about what they say. Sure I think Tom Hiddleston's Loki is badass awesome (so awesome) but that's not where I got any of Lily's powers or personality from. She's a descendant of Loki, not the actual God, and that book was written (technically correct) before the first Thor movie came out. That is my argument for her. I would actually say he's more like my character in our Saturday game than anything else...Anyway, not important. People are going to accuse you of a lot of things, because people are jerks, especially when they are trying to find a reason to start an argument or not like something. Don't let them get to you, just enjoy what you're doing.
I hope that all made sense today. I will hopefully be back Friday barring how much sleep I am able to get and the amount of time I have in the morning. Next Friday there will be nothing, since that is the craft fair. For now I hope you all have a nice rest of your week!
Let's say you go to a movie (yay!) and see a character that you think is awesome (like Loki) and while watching this awesome movie you start wondering some things about a story you're working on. You know that people tend to latch on to current things in pop culture, and then suddenly it hits you; what if they'll think you're just bandwagoning (it's a word, right?) and trying to bank on the awesome or success or something else. Then there is a wave of panic as you start wondering if you should make changes to your story or even a specific character and then crippled by anxiety you wonder if you should keep working on it at all. That is what we're here to talk about today.
Now if you don't go through this, then I am actually quite proud of you. There are certain genres though where this is a problem. Write a modern fantasy story where your main character just happens to be some kind of spell caster and people are going to assume you are trying to make a new Harry Potter of Harry Dresden. Switch to high fantasy, and depending on the message that's being delivered they are going to assume it's either Lord of the Rings or Chronicles of Narnia. So for space opera, it's Star Wars. Never a new Star Trek, which I always find weird, it's always someone trying to make the next Star Wars...it's strange to me. You're seeing this now in a similar way with the surge in YA novels being turned into movies. Everything's trying to be the next Twilight Saga (for some reason) or Hunger Games (this makes slightly more sense to me, even if it's child murder). The point is this is something that you need to be prepared for, and this is how I'm doing it.
In my series, the second half will involve characters that are descended from various pantheons. Some will begin trickling in starting in 'Through the Broken Mirror' but they will be, for the most part, in the last three books. Now I've been working on these since...whenever I was working at Verizon, which I think was 2010-ish? 'Daughter of the Shackled King' was originally put into a notebook, and the main character is descended from Loki. Since then the Marvel movies have started and Tom Hiddleston has started existing (I know he existed beforehand, but shut up). There were also the Percy Jackson books, but they focus primarily if not exclusively on the Greek pantheon, so they only half-count. The point is what I'm preparing for is a bunch of people trying to call me out saying that I am trying to ride on someone's coat-tails. It makes me sad because I would like to think that Lily is a fair original character, as are the other Godlings, but that won't stop people from making those accusations.
If this ever happens to you, my first response would be to ask if they've read your book or not. That will set the stage for the rest of the conversation, if there is one. Sure you have the people that poured over the Harry Potter books obsessively trying to find the places where JK Rowling 'stole' from other books, but I actually don't know how frequent something like that happens. I would be hard-pressed to find someone who isn't guilty of a knee-jerk reaction like this. I'll admit to doing it myself, and I haven't read the source material, but having it put out in front of me I can quickly say that one thing looks like another with the serial numbers filed off.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's going to happen, but you shouldn't let is bother you or let that necessarily stop you. Now if you finish up and discover that your character is a copy/pasted version of the Gunslinger except Rowland is now Rolanda, then there may be a problem. However, if you make a character that finds out they are living in a supernatural world with vampires, werewolves, and they are trying to adjust to life in that world, don't just assume everyone's going to say you're 'ripping off Twilight' instead make it your own because it's probably better and more interesting. Not everything is a ripoff or an homage, but we are just so bombarded by everything that we've come to assume that nothing is original anymore and look for things that are similar in even new things. That's why agents typically won't take on new authors or try new genres or story ideas, because familiar is safe. It's why the trailer for Divergent feels a lot like Hunger Games (it really does, only Hunger Games is way more orange) at least to me.
Just keep working at it, don't worry about what they say. Sure I think Tom Hiddleston's Loki is badass awesome (so awesome) but that's not where I got any of Lily's powers or personality from. She's a descendant of Loki, not the actual God, and that book was written (technically correct) before the first Thor movie came out. That is my argument for her. I would actually say he's more like my character in our Saturday game than anything else...Anyway, not important. People are going to accuse you of a lot of things, because people are jerks, especially when they are trying to find a reason to start an argument or not like something. Don't let them get to you, just enjoy what you're doing.
I hope that all made sense today. I will hopefully be back Friday barring how much sleep I am able to get and the amount of time I have in the morning. Next Friday there will be nothing, since that is the craft fair. For now I hope you all have a nice rest of your week!
Monday, April 14, 2014
04/14/2014 Magnificent Monday!
Greetings everyone and welcome back. I hope you all had a nice and comfortable weekend. Mine was relaxing though as per the usual it wasn't nearly long enough. Especially with me having to work my early shifts this week. It is really nice having a phone that works though, so I suppose that is an added bonus to everything. Also finally saw the new Captain America movie. It makes me wonder if I was the only person who, when they were listed off the potential threats to SHIELD and they said Bruce Banner, that was saying 'Do it, I super dare you.'
This week and next week are going to be...fun? I am currently stressing over deadlines and the craft fair being next Friday. I'm trying to decide which days I'm going to head out into the wilderness to purchase supplies like printer ink and any crafting pieces I may need. You may think that I'd be excited about all this, but I am actually quite terrified. There will likely be more people at this fair than there have in the past, and that is really scary sounding. For all I know I'll get there and will have forgotten the one thing to make the printer work, or something else really important.
Things are still also going on track for 'Rending the Seal', which barring any sort of disaster or anything, will also be released on the 25th as well. I have one more thing to check with it, but that will take all of 3 seconds and I need to put in the copyright page, but that's more of a copy/paste thing from other stuff. I am actually excited about that part. The craft fair is terrifying, the book being released is exciting. I am full of all kinds of feels.
As a member of the Colbert Nation I am also conflicted of the announcement that he will be taking over the Late Show after David Letterman leaves. You may not think this is blog worthy, but this is actually a big deal to some people. Colbert is incredibly influential so I think signing him is a actually a good move for that particular network, I just don't like change and I already know that I'm going to cry during that episode of the Report. I just hope he gets to have as much creative license with the Late Show as he does with the Colbert Report and that it is just as entertaining. I'd hate to see that wasted.
For now, I will see you all on Wednesday. I hope the start of the week is nice to all of you. If you have any topics you'd like for me to bring up, please don't hesitate to ask. Any questions, comments, or concerns feel free to drop me a line. I will see you then, have a nice few days!
This week and next week are going to be...fun? I am currently stressing over deadlines and the craft fair being next Friday. I'm trying to decide which days I'm going to head out into the wilderness to purchase supplies like printer ink and any crafting pieces I may need. You may think that I'd be excited about all this, but I am actually quite terrified. There will likely be more people at this fair than there have in the past, and that is really scary sounding. For all I know I'll get there and will have forgotten the one thing to make the printer work, or something else really important.
Things are still also going on track for 'Rending the Seal', which barring any sort of disaster or anything, will also be released on the 25th as well. I have one more thing to check with it, but that will take all of 3 seconds and I need to put in the copyright page, but that's more of a copy/paste thing from other stuff. I am actually excited about that part. The craft fair is terrifying, the book being released is exciting. I am full of all kinds of feels.
As a member of the Colbert Nation I am also conflicted of the announcement that he will be taking over the Late Show after David Letterman leaves. You may not think this is blog worthy, but this is actually a big deal to some people. Colbert is incredibly influential so I think signing him is a actually a good move for that particular network, I just don't like change and I already know that I'm going to cry during that episode of the Report. I just hope he gets to have as much creative license with the Late Show as he does with the Colbert Report and that it is just as entertaining. I'd hate to see that wasted.
For now, I will see you all on Wednesday. I hope the start of the week is nice to all of you. If you have any topics you'd like for me to bring up, please don't hesitate to ask. Any questions, comments, or concerns feel free to drop me a line. I will see you then, have a nice few days!
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
04/9/2014 Writing Wednesday!
Hello everyone and welcome back. I hope this week has been kindly to you so far. The weather seems to have at least been pleasant for it. I am mostly trapped inside an office building throughout the day, but I get to see it through the window. Remember there's something terrible Heartbleed bug out there, so be careful where you sign into until there is a fix put into place. Though I guess it's been around for a while...so...do whatever you want? If you've started using the Amazon site smile.amazon.com so that part of your purchases go to charity, this little tool thingy I found said there is a vulnerability there and while I didn't check is normal Amazon is vulnerable, I am now freaked out and worried, which is of course just awesome for me!
In my seemingly never-ending editing process I am looking at the light at the end of the tunnel that will be getting to actually write again. I've talked previously about how when you go back to writing after editing for a long time it's going to be hard not to look at every mistake and try to immediately fix it. Today I wanted to look at what happens next. I mean sure you want to say that you go right back to editing, but I also want to tell you that you're wrong, but I suppose that will partially depend on what your schedule dictates.
I'm actually going to talk about that scheduling part. Sorry if you feel tricked, but it is actually important. I'm not talking about saying you need to give yourself specific deadlines or anything, because those only lead to a ton of unnecessary stress. Unless you are working directly with an agent or publishing company, specific dates and deadlines shouldn't be used unless you know for 100% certain you are going to be meeting them. I'm more talking about the order in which you are working on things. Please note that this doesn't necessarily need to be the same as the order they are being completed in.
For example let's say you're working on a book series. Sure you could work on one thing at a time, but what will end up happening is that you will have gaps where you are doing absolutely nothing. On average you will have two to three projects in various stages of completion at any given time. That's a more realistic image. That is because if say someone is reading things over for you, because you can't look at it anymore, you aren't going to be working on that particular story, however that doesn't necessarily mean you aren't working on a different one. Either by getting part of it written or starting the editing for it. Then let's say you participate in NaNoWriMo and want to do something completely different for that, that will add something else to that pile. There is always something that is going on, but while someone might come in and think that looks crazy, you need to make sure that isn't crazy for you.
That series needs to have an order in which it's getting released, and you as the author I would hope know what that order is. So that means your primary focus is going to be on whatever is getting released next. Remember that doesn't mean you can't work on anything else, that just means that say when you get stuff back from your beta-reader your other work gets to a stop-point and you go back to the primary story. My personal rule is that whenever someone else has my stuff I work on something else, or the month after NaNoWriMo I will too just because I need a good amount of winding down. After that though it's back to work. As long as there's a method to your madness that's the most important thing.
For me while I have 'Rending the Seal' ready to go, I am working on editing 'Through the Broken Mirror'. Sitting on the back-burner though is the somewhat edited version of 'Daughter of the Shackled King' and the start of the transposition of 'Feathers of the Dead'. Granted that will be the order of release as well, but I was working on 'Daughter of the Shackled King' and 'Feathers of the Dead' long before I even started writing 'Through the Broken Mirror'. It's just that right now things are starting to line up into a release format-line-thing. At first it was work on whatever I wanted to because things were in such early stages it didn't really matter. I know that around September-ish I will need to start getting prepared for the start of 'War of the Pantheons' for NaNoWriMo, but that will be mostly a mental thing. That doesn't mean that anything but November is happening with that story for a long time. That is my crazy now and trust me, it used to make a lot less sense.
Thanks everyone for stopping by. I hope I helped out today. Remember it doesn't matter what order you're currently working in as long as the final one is the one you want. Hopefully I'll return on Friday. We'll see. I am not at 100% today as my mother informed me last night that my cat, Nikita, at her house has cancer. That was my first kitten and I got her when I was in middle school. The cat is 16 so they aren't treating her and just trying to keep her comfortable. Right now all I want to do is stay home and cuddle and play with Thoth all day, but I don't think work would appreciate that (something about me needing to get stuff done? I don't know, it's weird.) Hopefully I'll be back to thinking clearly on Friday. For now, please be careful on the internet, I mean...I hope you are already, it's a terrible place, but that Heartbleed thing is ridiculous, so please be extra careful and have a great rest of the week.
In my seemingly never-ending editing process I am looking at the light at the end of the tunnel that will be getting to actually write again. I've talked previously about how when you go back to writing after editing for a long time it's going to be hard not to look at every mistake and try to immediately fix it. Today I wanted to look at what happens next. I mean sure you want to say that you go right back to editing, but I also want to tell you that you're wrong, but I suppose that will partially depend on what your schedule dictates.
I'm actually going to talk about that scheduling part. Sorry if you feel tricked, but it is actually important. I'm not talking about saying you need to give yourself specific deadlines or anything, because those only lead to a ton of unnecessary stress. Unless you are working directly with an agent or publishing company, specific dates and deadlines shouldn't be used unless you know for 100% certain you are going to be meeting them. I'm more talking about the order in which you are working on things. Please note that this doesn't necessarily need to be the same as the order they are being completed in.
For example let's say you're working on a book series. Sure you could work on one thing at a time, but what will end up happening is that you will have gaps where you are doing absolutely nothing. On average you will have two to three projects in various stages of completion at any given time. That's a more realistic image. That is because if say someone is reading things over for you, because you can't look at it anymore, you aren't going to be working on that particular story, however that doesn't necessarily mean you aren't working on a different one. Either by getting part of it written or starting the editing for it. Then let's say you participate in NaNoWriMo and want to do something completely different for that, that will add something else to that pile. There is always something that is going on, but while someone might come in and think that looks crazy, you need to make sure that isn't crazy for you.
That series needs to have an order in which it's getting released, and you as the author I would hope know what that order is. So that means your primary focus is going to be on whatever is getting released next. Remember that doesn't mean you can't work on anything else, that just means that say when you get stuff back from your beta-reader your other work gets to a stop-point and you go back to the primary story. My personal rule is that whenever someone else has my stuff I work on something else, or the month after NaNoWriMo I will too just because I need a good amount of winding down. After that though it's back to work. As long as there's a method to your madness that's the most important thing.
For me while I have 'Rending the Seal' ready to go, I am working on editing 'Through the Broken Mirror'. Sitting on the back-burner though is the somewhat edited version of 'Daughter of the Shackled King' and the start of the transposition of 'Feathers of the Dead'. Granted that will be the order of release as well, but I was working on 'Daughter of the Shackled King' and 'Feathers of the Dead' long before I even started writing 'Through the Broken Mirror'. It's just that right now things are starting to line up into a release format-line-thing. At first it was work on whatever I wanted to because things were in such early stages it didn't really matter. I know that around September-ish I will need to start getting prepared for the start of 'War of the Pantheons' for NaNoWriMo, but that will be mostly a mental thing. That doesn't mean that anything but November is happening with that story for a long time. That is my crazy now and trust me, it used to make a lot less sense.
Thanks everyone for stopping by. I hope I helped out today. Remember it doesn't matter what order you're currently working in as long as the final one is the one you want. Hopefully I'll return on Friday. We'll see. I am not at 100% today as my mother informed me last night that my cat, Nikita, at her house has cancer. That was my first kitten and I got her when I was in middle school. The cat is 16 so they aren't treating her and just trying to keep her comfortable. Right now all I want to do is stay home and cuddle and play with Thoth all day, but I don't think work would appreciate that (something about me needing to get stuff done? I don't know, it's weird.) Hopefully I'll be back to thinking clearly on Friday. For now, please be careful on the internet, I mean...I hope you are already, it's a terrible place, but that Heartbleed thing is ridiculous, so please be extra careful and have a great rest of the week.
Monday, April 7, 2014
04/07/2014 Magnificent Monday!
Hello everyone and welcome back! We are into the actual first full week of April and I am hoping it is a good one. Right now I am just hoping to stay awake for it. I'm sure it'll work out, but with this not being a day I let myself have pop, we'll see just how successful that is.
I would say that I am going to apologize for the lack of post of Friday, but this time I am not. I know it sounds terrible, but I just can't. If you know me in the real world (not saying this is a real place, but you know the difference) then you know the frustration and anger my phone causes me. On Friday, my carrier (finally) opened pre-orders for the Samsung Galaxy S5, and I NEED it. I was fighting with their website though and needed to order directly through customer service over the phone because no matter how many times I selected that I wanted to pay for the phone at the full retail price, it would put it into my cart at the discounted price and try to change my calling plan. Keep in mind that I have unlimited data and my hands aren't cold and dead for them to pull that out of yet, so that wasn't going to happen. The phone has been ordered and now I get to excitedly wait though. So yeah...I can't apologize for no post on Friday, I have no regrets.
The craft fair is coming up fast and I am working as much as I can to make sure I have enough stuff to sell, but also not too much. They are limiting people to 1 table per/person this time around, which makes sense because they are trying to encourage more people to participate, however there are some of us that have a decent amount of product and don't want to feel limited for space. As things draw closer the couple of us that would like to have more than one table are hoping they let us ask for them if they are still available. They're also letting us 'advertise' this time around, which this is the first they've let us done since I've started selling, and I've seen the fair when people know it was coming, so there is a part of me that is 100% terrified. I hope paying $10 for that table is worth it.
The most exciting part of it all though will be that alongside the craft fair, 'Rending the Seal' will/should be released as well. I want to say that I'm making that promise, but for all I know my computer will catch on fire and melt before then. I'll cry forever, but it's always a possibility. I don't have a lot of control over technical problems, but for now I want to say the official release day will be April 25th. It might be sooner, depending on how a few things go, but right now that is the day with the gold star sticker on it. I am super excited and can't wait for it! I hope you're all just as excited as I am!
For now, thanks everyone for stopping by today. I will be back on Wednesday. If you have a topic you'd like for me to bring up, please don't hesitate to ask. Remember, if I run out of stuff you might have a day where I just talk about my cat (he's fluffy and orange) so help me make sure that doesn't happen. I hope you have a great start to your week though! See you again soon!
I would say that I am going to apologize for the lack of post of Friday, but this time I am not. I know it sounds terrible, but I just can't. If you know me in the real world (not saying this is a real place, but you know the difference) then you know the frustration and anger my phone causes me. On Friday, my carrier (finally) opened pre-orders for the Samsung Galaxy S5, and I NEED it. I was fighting with their website though and needed to order directly through customer service over the phone because no matter how many times I selected that I wanted to pay for the phone at the full retail price, it would put it into my cart at the discounted price and try to change my calling plan. Keep in mind that I have unlimited data and my hands aren't cold and dead for them to pull that out of yet, so that wasn't going to happen. The phone has been ordered and now I get to excitedly wait though. So yeah...I can't apologize for no post on Friday, I have no regrets.
The craft fair is coming up fast and I am working as much as I can to make sure I have enough stuff to sell, but also not too much. They are limiting people to 1 table per/person this time around, which makes sense because they are trying to encourage more people to participate, however there are some of us that have a decent amount of product and don't want to feel limited for space. As things draw closer the couple of us that would like to have more than one table are hoping they let us ask for them if they are still available. They're also letting us 'advertise' this time around, which this is the first they've let us done since I've started selling, and I've seen the fair when people know it was coming, so there is a part of me that is 100% terrified. I hope paying $10 for that table is worth it.
The most exciting part of it all though will be that alongside the craft fair, 'Rending the Seal' will/should be released as well. I want to say that I'm making that promise, but for all I know my computer will catch on fire and melt before then. I'll cry forever, but it's always a possibility. I don't have a lot of control over technical problems, but for now I want to say the official release day will be April 25th. It might be sooner, depending on how a few things go, but right now that is the day with the gold star sticker on it. I am super excited and can't wait for it! I hope you're all just as excited as I am!
For now, thanks everyone for stopping by today. I will be back on Wednesday. If you have a topic you'd like for me to bring up, please don't hesitate to ask. Remember, if I run out of stuff you might have a day where I just talk about my cat (he's fluffy and orange) so help me make sure that doesn't happen. I hope you have a great start to your week though! See you again soon!
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
04/02/2014 Writing Wednesday!
Hello everyone and welcome back! I hope this week is being nice to you. I am trudging through it as much as I can. I keep looking at what's ahead of me and just keep on trucking. I can't wait to be able to do my release this month. I will keep you all posted for the official date!
Last night I was talking with my mom and she asked me a question, "Don't you want a break?" Naturally my answer was 'God yes!" Since frankly I feel like I've been working pretty much non-stop for at least the last half-year. The part that stood out to me about the conversation though, was the fact that I'm not taking that aforementioned break. I always advocate for having good work/life balance and if you feel like you need a break to take one, and yet here I am doing the opposite. Today I wanted to give a chance to tell you all why.
This may seem like a bit of a pity-party at times, and I want to assure everyone that I don't intend it to feel that way. My first reason for not taking a break yet is because I do not want the release gap between these books to be nearly as large as the one between 'The Light Rises' and 'Rending the Seal' I feel really bad about that, and I don't want that to happen again. There will likely be some kind of gap between 'Through the Broken Mirror' and 'Daughter of the Shackled King' but that will be because of a break plus stuff needs to get from notebook into digital form and that takes a special kind of forever. It's the ones that are in the same internal series that I don't want the release gaps to be so large anymore, so I am going to work really hard on making sure that doesn't happen.
The other part is regarding that tendonitis issue I bring up somewhat frequently. I know that some day I will need to get surgery on both my wrists. I know it will need to happen, my doctor has told me it will need to happen; it's just a matter of when I decide it. The thing is that I know what it means once that surgery is done, and that is where a majority of my determination comes from. I won't be able to do pretty much anything that I like doing nearly as much anymore. Almost everything I do, I do with my hands; at work I type at my desk and work on my computer. I draw, ink, and color in my sketch book. I write which involves typing, editing, some more typing, and well you know that cycle. I play video games to relax. Once the surgery happens my creative outlets will be almost completely gone and I am not ready to lose them yet. I know people say 'Just get Dragon so you can dictate your stories and save your hands,' however it's not that easy for me. My primary form of articulating what I'm thinking comes from typing, if I'm speaking I tend to stutter, and my thoughts feel like they hit a wall. Sure I could teach myself how to rethink my entire process, but at this point that is something that feels impossible. So for now, I work.
I do have a point to all of this, and it is about that goal-setting stuff I've brought up before. It is so important to have things planned out, but to also remember why you're doing it. Having a motivation that keeps you going is so very important. Sure I write for my readers, but I also write for me, because I know that if I don't finish it then I likely won't be able to. Remember why you started writing in the first place; was it to write a book? Or was it to get that idea out of your head before it destroys you and makes you go crazy? Did you just want to share what makes you happy with as many people as possible no matter what? Writing is so hard and in general there is so little reward that comes with it that we have to be prepared for anything, so remembering what got us here and where we're going is extremely important. Sure people at my work are impressed that I'm working on a book series, but no one knows how to talk to me about it so it's kind of weird, however, there is one person in our IT department who is excited about 'Rending the Seal'. One person who has read my book out of the entire company. That one person is why I still feel somewhat ok telling people at my work what I do. Hold onto whatever little things you have because they are going to be what drive you forward. You know what whole saying 'never look back'? I say to always look back, because you need to know where you came from in order to know where you're going next.
Thanks everyone for stopping by today. I got a little carried away so I hope you were all able to make it through the whole thing. Hopefully I will be back on Friday. I am really not liking this rush thing that's been happening in the mornings. For now I hope you all have a great rest of your week though! See you later!
Last night I was talking with my mom and she asked me a question, "Don't you want a break?" Naturally my answer was 'God yes!" Since frankly I feel like I've been working pretty much non-stop for at least the last half-year. The part that stood out to me about the conversation though, was the fact that I'm not taking that aforementioned break. I always advocate for having good work/life balance and if you feel like you need a break to take one, and yet here I am doing the opposite. Today I wanted to give a chance to tell you all why.
This may seem like a bit of a pity-party at times, and I want to assure everyone that I don't intend it to feel that way. My first reason for not taking a break yet is because I do not want the release gap between these books to be nearly as large as the one between 'The Light Rises' and 'Rending the Seal' I feel really bad about that, and I don't want that to happen again. There will likely be some kind of gap between 'Through the Broken Mirror' and 'Daughter of the Shackled King' but that will be because of a break plus stuff needs to get from notebook into digital form and that takes a special kind of forever. It's the ones that are in the same internal series that I don't want the release gaps to be so large anymore, so I am going to work really hard on making sure that doesn't happen.
The other part is regarding that tendonitis issue I bring up somewhat frequently. I know that some day I will need to get surgery on both my wrists. I know it will need to happen, my doctor has told me it will need to happen; it's just a matter of when I decide it. The thing is that I know what it means once that surgery is done, and that is where a majority of my determination comes from. I won't be able to do pretty much anything that I like doing nearly as much anymore. Almost everything I do, I do with my hands; at work I type at my desk and work on my computer. I draw, ink, and color in my sketch book. I write which involves typing, editing, some more typing, and well you know that cycle. I play video games to relax. Once the surgery happens my creative outlets will be almost completely gone and I am not ready to lose them yet. I know people say 'Just get Dragon so you can dictate your stories and save your hands,' however it's not that easy for me. My primary form of articulating what I'm thinking comes from typing, if I'm speaking I tend to stutter, and my thoughts feel like they hit a wall. Sure I could teach myself how to rethink my entire process, but at this point that is something that feels impossible. So for now, I work.
I do have a point to all of this, and it is about that goal-setting stuff I've brought up before. It is so important to have things planned out, but to also remember why you're doing it. Having a motivation that keeps you going is so very important. Sure I write for my readers, but I also write for me, because I know that if I don't finish it then I likely won't be able to. Remember why you started writing in the first place; was it to write a book? Or was it to get that idea out of your head before it destroys you and makes you go crazy? Did you just want to share what makes you happy with as many people as possible no matter what? Writing is so hard and in general there is so little reward that comes with it that we have to be prepared for anything, so remembering what got us here and where we're going is extremely important. Sure people at my work are impressed that I'm working on a book series, but no one knows how to talk to me about it so it's kind of weird, however, there is one person in our IT department who is excited about 'Rending the Seal'. One person who has read my book out of the entire company. That one person is why I still feel somewhat ok telling people at my work what I do. Hold onto whatever little things you have because they are going to be what drive you forward. You know what whole saying 'never look back'? I say to always look back, because you need to know where you came from in order to know where you're going next.
Thanks everyone for stopping by today. I got a little carried away so I hope you were all able to make it through the whole thing. Hopefully I will be back on Friday. I am really not liking this rush thing that's been happening in the mornings. For now I hope you all have a great rest of your week though! See you later!
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