Thursday, August 23, 2012

Chapter Five

I'm starting Chapter Five of this book tomorrow. It feels way more legitimate now that I've been sticking with it for several weeks. I started listening to an Audible 'how to' book on becoming a successful novelist. It was written by the guy who wrote the Rambo books (I didn't even know they originated from books...sorry David Morrell!!). I definitely don't expect to become a successful novelist because of this audiobook, but I have found that listening to any nonfiction book helps me stay more aware of whatever topic that book is about. And they take me weeks to finish, so if I'm thinking about writing fiction for weeks, it can only help.

I just wanted to give myself a little congratulations on finishing another chapter. I'm using an app to track the amount of words I'm writing (did I mention this already in my latest blog post?) and the app is telling me that I'm 12% done with my goal of 70,000 words. I definitely say 'hooray' to being anywhere in the double digits of percentage done with this. If I could just get to triple digits percent complete...that's obviously my ultimate goal.

This audiobook brought up something interesting for me today. The author asks 'why do you want to be a writer'. He even brings up the really good point that writing one book could involve up to a full year of work that you may never ever be paid for (this is something I've thought of time and again recently..simply because I'm making and selling jewelry now, working for a living, and raising a daughter--all of these things give me a very limited amount of time and I can't help but equate time with money now that the jewelry business is something else I could be putting my time towards here at home).

I still haven't really fully answered the question, to be honest. I'm gonna have to keep thinking about it, I guess. Some of the reasons I can't let go of wanting to be a writer...
-I've been writing in journals since I was younger than a teenager.
-I have stories that I haven't even ended in my head yet...so I feel like the only way I can see them finish themselves, is by writing them.
-I need to feel like these desires to get published have not always been a delusional and childish 'I'd like to be a ballerina when I grow up' type dreams.
But I don't feel like any of these really answer the question of why I WANT to be a writer.


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Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Goodness.

I'm almost embarrassed to be writing here. But I'm writing a new book and I want a place to sort of post it to the world. I'm big on social networking and getting my thoughts and feelings out there (even if I'm not really getting a response...there's just something about knowing I told some public forum about something that legitimizes it for me).

I haven't finished a book yet, but I've started several. I always have an excuse, and it always has to do with life and a lack of making this a routine. I've started yet another writing project with new motivation (don't get me wrong, I have done this at least 5-10 times in the past...each time with this overwhelming desire to see it through to the end, never with any success).

I figure I can write to you, old ancient blog, to try and keep myself going. This is, after all, the sole purpose I created you in the first place.

For now...my new project is called 'The Earths Project: Book One'. It's an old idea that I've morphed now for the third time. I'm almost done with Chapters 1-3 and a Prologue.

I currently have strep throat for the 4th time since March and my husband and I are moving with our 2-year-old daughter to Arizona after spending a month homeless in Pennsylvania starting September 13th when the military movers come and take all our belongings to storage in our soon to be state of residence. We plan on living with my family and his over the month between September and mid-October, when we're starting our drive across country.

So keep in mind that my life really is hectic. I wasn't just saying that. But as an incentive, I think I'm going to reward myself with an Apple Macbook Air at Christmas as long as I keep up with the book until then. Of course, that would also depend on me having a job in Arizona. This particular Macbook is something I've wanted for years, because of my writing, so I'm probably going to look into trading in my current Macbook Pro for the smaller, lighter, and much more portable Air.

ONLY IF I KEEP WRITING (or else, why would I need it??)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:DuBois, PA