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Ouchies! Plus, fiction, writing, and writing for publication.
If I were a cartoon character there would be a wavy line emanating from my back just behind my right hip, with a couple of stars and an exclamation point dangling from the end. My back hurts. It's been hurting since early yesterday evening.
I don't know why. I helped dig up and move a small maple tree Saturday, but the pain didn't come on til last night. If I'd hurt my back doing yard work I think it would have started hurting before then. It started as an occasional twinge when I moved wrong and escalated to a constant ache which made sleeping difficult.
Today I wore a velcro wrap around my waist that applied heat to the area and I've been gobbling Advil every four hours. It's better as a result, but definitely still bothering me. Bummer.
In other news, I mailed off a story a couple of weeks ago. I have another ready to go. So it's time to start working on the next one. Will any of them sell? I dunno. It's possible. Only time will tell. My goal is to write and mail a story a week. At this point I'm averaging every two weeks, so I need to do better. Still, it's two more stories than I've tried to sell in many years--since probably before I got married, which was ten years ago in February.
I've also signed up for a writing workshop in Lincoln City in September, the infamous "Kris & Dean" show by Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith. It's billed as a two day workshop on how to sell a novel or story, how to be a professional writer and more! I attended a much shorter version of this once years ago, but recently decided to have a go at writing for publication again and decided to spring for the price of the weekend workshop. It'll be a weekend well spent, I think.
Why the renewed interest in writing? Well--in writing for publication? For money? I'm not sure. Partly because I've been feeling unsatisfied lately with my work. I think the work we do there is worthwhile, but...I don't know but what. Maybe it's my mid-life crisis. And if so, woohoo! That would mean I'll live to be at least 100 years old. Go me!
It also wouldn't hurt to find a way to earn a little extra money, and if I'm going to work a second job, why not do something I enjoy doing anyhow. I've been writing all along, but writing fan fiction and in online games (more like elaborate, open-ended collaborative storytelling). I've been finding that less satisfying as well. Games come and go with alarming frequency, or start and never really go anywhere. Other players/co-writers go AWOL or drop out. I find myself writing more solo pieces than collaborating, and enjoying having complete control over the story.
So...why not just cut to the chase and write my own stuff? And if I'm gonna do that, why not see if I can write something people will pay me for? Plus, I read a number of posts on Dean Wesley Smith's blog about writing in which he runs the numbers. If you write 1,000 words a day (or about 4 manuscript pages at 250 words a page), that's 365,000 words a year--or four 90,000 word novels (or a hell of a lot of short stories). If you write 500 words a day, that's still two 90,000 word novels a year! If you're painfully slow, churning out only 250 words a day, that's still one novel a year. (Yeah, yeah--barring rewrites, editing and whatnot. But still!)
I can write 1,000 words a day easily*. I've been doing it for years. What I haven't been doing is writing complete stories. So I decided to work on that. I'm doing short stories now, though I'd like to tackle a novel. But I'm not sure how to go about it yet. Dean Smith says you can always just start writing and see where it goes, and I may try that, but I have to figure out what story I want to at least start to try to write.
*At least I can when I'm doing fanfic or writing for a game. The moment I started trying to write a story to submit for publication, I found myself dithering and avoiding my computer. That would be fear talking. And as my lovely and talented wife says, when she realizes she's not doing something because she's afraid she makes a point of doing it--because she won't let her fears rule her life. Lovely and talented and fearless, that one. Is it any surprise that I love her?
So I adopted that as my mantra. Whenever I realize I'm procrastinating now, I make a point of opening the current project file and writing. Which is how I finished these two stories. Which means that it's time to start on the next one.
I don't know why. I helped dig up and move a small maple tree Saturday, but the pain didn't come on til last night. If I'd hurt my back doing yard work I think it would have started hurting before then. It started as an occasional twinge when I moved wrong and escalated to a constant ache which made sleeping difficult.
Today I wore a velcro wrap around my waist that applied heat to the area and I've been gobbling Advil every four hours. It's better as a result, but definitely still bothering me. Bummer.
In other news, I mailed off a story a couple of weeks ago. I have another ready to go. So it's time to start working on the next one. Will any of them sell? I dunno. It's possible. Only time will tell. My goal is to write and mail a story a week. At this point I'm averaging every two weeks, so I need to do better. Still, it's two more stories than I've tried to sell in many years--since probably before I got married, which was ten years ago in February.
I've also signed up for a writing workshop in Lincoln City in September, the infamous "Kris & Dean" show by Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith. It's billed as a two day workshop on how to sell a novel or story, how to be a professional writer and more! I attended a much shorter version of this once years ago, but recently decided to have a go at writing for publication again and decided to spring for the price of the weekend workshop. It'll be a weekend well spent, I think.
Why the renewed interest in writing? Well--in writing for publication? For money? I'm not sure. Partly because I've been feeling unsatisfied lately with my work. I think the work we do there is worthwhile, but...I don't know but what. Maybe it's my mid-life crisis. And if so, woohoo! That would mean I'll live to be at least 100 years old. Go me!
It also wouldn't hurt to find a way to earn a little extra money, and if I'm going to work a second job, why not do something I enjoy doing anyhow. I've been writing all along, but writing fan fiction and in online games (more like elaborate, open-ended collaborative storytelling). I've been finding that less satisfying as well. Games come and go with alarming frequency, or start and never really go anywhere. Other players/co-writers go AWOL or drop out. I find myself writing more solo pieces than collaborating, and enjoying having complete control over the story.
So...why not just cut to the chase and write my own stuff? And if I'm gonna do that, why not see if I can write something people will pay me for? Plus, I read a number of posts on Dean Wesley Smith's blog about writing in which he runs the numbers. If you write 1,000 words a day (or about 4 manuscript pages at 250 words a page), that's 365,000 words a year--or four 90,000 word novels (or a hell of a lot of short stories). If you write 500 words a day, that's still two 90,000 word novels a year! If you're painfully slow, churning out only 250 words a day, that's still one novel a year. (Yeah, yeah--barring rewrites, editing and whatnot. But still!)
I can write 1,000 words a day easily*. I've been doing it for years. What I haven't been doing is writing complete stories. So I decided to work on that. I'm doing short stories now, though I'd like to tackle a novel. But I'm not sure how to go about it yet. Dean Smith says you can always just start writing and see where it goes, and I may try that, but I have to figure out what story I want to at least start to try to write.
*At least I can when I'm doing fanfic or writing for a game. The moment I started trying to write a story to submit for publication, I found myself dithering and avoiding my computer. That would be fear talking. And as my lovely and talented wife says, when she realizes she's not doing something because she's afraid she makes a point of doing it--because she won't let her fears rule her life. Lovely and talented and fearless, that one. Is it any surprise that I love her?
So I adopted that as my mantra. Whenever I realize I'm procrastinating now, I make a point of opening the current project file and writing. Which is how I finished these two stories. Which means that it's time to start on the next one.
no subject
There must be something in the air. I've got that nagging, throbbing, not-quite-so dull pounding that tells me a lovely migraine is on the horizon. I've been dumping drugs down my throat and keeping the roar to a muted drumming in the distance, but there are no guarantees how long that will last. Anyway, I do hope you feel better soon!
Way to go, you! Finishing and mailing off two stories is something to be quite proud of. I'm still stuck on the finishing part . . . actually, I'm kinda in the same boat as you and feel a lot of what you feel.
I
love live for adore am made oflike writing. I like it a lot. Always have and always will, I think. It's a part of me and one of my passions, though I do feel as though the quality has dropped lately, but that's probably a write up for another day. My true problem is that I'm more enthused and pumped when writing fan fic or in online games than I am writing original fiction. I like having someone else's characters to play with, getting immediate feedback in the form of replies, and yeah, basically, I guess I'm an "atta girl way to go" type. Insecure much? Maybe.But I'll stop my rambling babble now, and maybe now that you've inspired me, go make a real post on my LJ.