Friday, November 10, 2017

Next Year's November

Now Playing: ROGUE ONE by Michael Giacchino
Just Read: SPIN by Robert Charles Wilson--Great book! Very cool pure science fiction story that really delves into societal sci-fi without getting too in the weeds. Kept the focus on the main characters. Love to write one like this some day!
Reading Now: AXIS by Robert Charles Wilson

This November, I'm gonna be swamped.

I'm juggling three or four school projects and a few extra papers and articles to write, conference calls, interviews for future anesthesia students, exams, and full-time clinical work. And building a house at the same time! Sadly little time for writing.

And I've got a decent story idea in mind. I think. I mean, you never know--this quarter I submitted a story that I thought was pretty good to the Writers of the Future contest after receiving my fifth honorable mention last quarter. But it was returned rejected this week. Oh well. In hindsight I can find a few problems with it, but it's so long (14,000 words) that re-working it seems daunting. I might end up taking a story from August and seeing how it will do this quarter, then working on this other story more slowly and submitting it after the first of the year.

Because November is gonna kick my butt. Next November, though--that's the dream. Done with school, working full-time and earning a paycheck again, and I'll have my own writing room to participate in NaNoWriMo again. If everything goes the way I want (HA!), I'll spend some time after graduation re-writing the novel I worked on for NaNoWriMo 2013, and then work on its sequel in November of 2018. That would just be awesome.

I get so jazzed for writing in November. Everyone is writing and tweeting about it, and the online writing community is so alive. There's just something in the air, too. Something magical about the season changing that makes me want to craft stories. This year, most of those ambitions will be on hold. But next year . . . .

Saturday, September 30, 2017

September Fruit

Now Playing: SHERLOCK HOLMES by Hans Zimmer
Just Read: PACKING FOR MARS by Mary Roach--A fun read! Lots of good science but also very funny. I love hearing the ridiculous stories of serious astronauts!
Reading Now: SPIN by Robert Charles Wilson

It's been a busy but fruitful September. In school we had some tough respiratory tests, then went to Seattle for a national conference and a student election, which I won! I'm the National Student Representative to the AANA Education Committee, and my first duties took me to Chicago for a weekend conference of committees. So needless to say, not a whole lot of writing time.

But, knowing everything that was coming, I spent Labor Day weekend writing a behemoth of a story--a 14,000-word old-school fantasy--that I edited here and there (literally, in Seattle and Chicago and at home in North Carolina) until I had a pretty decent final draft of 50 Microsoft Word pages. I just submitted it to Writers of the Future, right at the end of this quarter.

It's got some aspects that I think appeal to the WotF judges, but it's originality is questionable. It sounds like it wants to be a Game of Thrones style sword-and-sorcery type of tale, which is great, but I'm wondering if the judges will frown on it for being cliche. We'll see!

One thing I've been trying to do lately is edit my own stories better, to be a bit harder on myself and read them more honestly. I think the past two or three stories I've written have benefited. It helps me to print them out and let them sit for a week or so, then come at them with a pen and tear them up. Also, my wonderful wife got me some awesome moleskin notebooks for story planning, and they've been helping. So for October's story, I'm gonna try something a little less run-of-the-mill. Here goes!

Sunday, August 6, 2017

Favorite Season

Now Playing: SLEEPWALKING by Bring Me The Horizon
Just Read: A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS by George R.R. Martin--Great fun! Exactly what I was hoping for. This is the kind of fiction I would love to write, and think I can.
Reading Now: PACKING FOR MARS by Mary Roach

Summer is definitely my favorite season. The others have lots of attractive aspects, but the whole package of summer is unbeatable to me. Unlike others (ie, my wife), I love the heat. I could go to the pool every day. I love that it's sunny early--give me energy right away. And I love how long the days are, because it makes me feel like I can work forever.

And, I write my best stuff in the summer. Autumn and winter put me in a particular mood, where I tend to write specific kinds of stories full of descriptions and details, but summer is the season where I'm able to sit down and actually DO the most.

That has definitely been the case this summer. Sure, I'm not in class every day like the other seasons, so I have more time off to spend writing. But I also have energy that I don't always have: I can drink a cup of coffee, write, go to the gym, write, sit by the pool, write, read on the back porch, write, watch baseball, write, and not feel burnt out by the end of the day. Just the opposite--I feel energized, ready to do it all again tomorrow.

This summer I've finished two longer pieces--one 10,000 words and one 6300 words--and submitted them both. I've also finished a flash piece that I'm planning on reviewing one last time and submitting tomorrow. Also, I've begun plotting for two more longer pieces that I think will be good Writers of the Future submissions.

Oh! That reminds me, big news--I won my fourth honorable mention in the Writers of the Future Contest with a story that I honestly didn't think would place. I didn't think it was as good as stories I've submitted previously. So I was very humbled and happy to hear that I had earned an honorable mention. After four, I feel like I might be getting the hang of this whole writing thing, that maybe I'm knocking on the door of actually winning!

Only one way to do that--keep writing! I'm off!

Saturday, June 3, 2017

Crawling Forward

Now Playing: DESPAIR by Hans Zimmer
Just Read: READY PLAYER ONE by Ernest Cline--Great book! This one was pretty inspirational for me, an interesting and intricate look at a possible future. Well plotted and fun!
Reading Now: MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL by John Berendt

The death of many would-be writers is stagnation. Time they could be writing is instead spent doing other things, and the writing just never happens. It's insidious and lethal, and I'm trying my hardest to avoid it.

The opportunity to put writing aside is so easy. I have clinical every day. I have graduate school assignments and tests and papers. I'm trying to buy a house. I love spending time with my wife watching our favorite TV shows. It's perfect weather for the pool. I want to make sure I get a workout in every day. For others it's work, kids, pets, vacations . . . endless reasons.

And none of these things are bad! They're all good--going to the gym on a day off isn't a bad habit, it's a great habit. But it's also time not spent writing. I can't look at any of these other taxes on my time and think, "Well, if i just cut down on the ____, I'll be a better writer for it." I'm not binge watching Game of Thrones instead of writing (yet).

That's why I changed my outlook this year, to make sure I stayed positive and moving the right direction. Moving AT ALL is the goal--stagnation is the enemy. I've got my notebooks in which to jot thoughts, Twitter to follow writers and editors and agents and keep up with some news, my notes app to plot story ideas, and, sometimes, when I can, my computer to write actual, real prose.

Today was one of those days. I hammered out--and it wasn't easy, wasn't without rust--about 1,000 words or so on a story that I think is ambitious but could be good, if I can pull it off. I'd love to finish it this week because I'm going away next weekend, and a magazine it might be good for has open submissions this week. Wish me luck! I'm going to get back to it, and see if I can write just a little bit more.

Saturday, April 1, 2017

April Fool's

Now Playing: SHERLOCK HOLMES by Hans Zimmer

It's April Fool's day, but no joke--I just finished a 10,000 word story that I started in March and worked on pretty vigorously between studying for pharmacology and regional anesthesia tests. I wrote on the weekends and on off days and in the evenings after coming home from clinical. I wrote in short bursts and long marathons. I got it done!

I'm proud of myself. It hasn't been easy to muster the energy to write new fiction during grad school. Class is demanding, but also more constrained by time. I mean, I can put off writing a story until later, but I can't put of studying for a test indefinitely. I have papers due and projects to complete and group meetings to attend. My days start early and end late, and somewhere in there I'm trying to squeeze in some fiction composition. I don't always succeed.

Like I said, though, I've changed my paradigm for this year, and since my amazing wife got me these awesome moleskin notebooks I can carry around, I've been able to take care of some story planning and draft outlines when I have breaks in class or downtime. I've still been adding to ideas in my notes app; there must be 200 budding stories saved in there, waiting to be written. I'm looking forward to finding out what they're all about.

But I doubt they'll all be done by graduation. :P

Monday, January 16, 2017

This Year's Paradigm

Now Playing: SAY THIS SOONER by The Almost
Just Finished: BREATH OF EARTH by Beth Cato--Great novel, very imaginative, fast-paced, and fun. Looking forward to more in this series.
Reading Now: READY PLAYER ONE by Ernest Cline

Happy New Year! It's 2017, and with the changing of the calendar comes ambitions for the upcoming year. For me that means writing goals. Mine are simple. Read more, write more.

Accomplishing this may involve a shift in my writing paradigm; being in graduate school is a real art-limiter, you know? Major bummer.

Totally worth it, I believe, and I love being a graduate student. But I also love writing stories, and being a student doesn't allot much time for those kinds of hobbies/passions.

I'm going to make 2017 a bit of a work-around. Here's the plan: every day I'll do something related to writing, even if it doesn't include putting new words down on paper. Thinking up new titles to future stories, jotting ideas for stories in my notes app, editing old pieces, tweeting about writing, putting together some poetry, blogging, submitting or re-submitting stories, or actually writing new prose. Even reading short stories. I'll count it all as forward progress.

Then, when school is on break or if I have a long weekend with some free time, I'll try to dedicate those times to relaxation and writing, and maybe even reading some fiction. Nonfiction dominated the second half of 2016, and while I like reading about nurse anesthesia, I do miss novels terribly. I was glad to get back to reading during Christmas break! Maybe the local library will reopen and I can go checkout some books on CD to listen to during my commute . . . .

But, yeah, that's it. I'm just going to keep doing what I've been doing: trying to juggle lots of things at once and do them the best I can. I'm excited about what stories will emerge in 2017! Let's get it rolling.