Well. Today was spectacularly productive. I have to say that it really has helped me to stay on target (think of Star Wars "Stay on target," "Almost there!" "Stay on target!" "It's away!" "Did it go in?" "No! Just impacted on the surface." I digress...). Anyway, setting out what my plan for the week was has really made a difference. Here's what I did.
I started by completing and passing my goal for submissions to Associated Content. I actually did the ten by getting articles from Helium to my Content Producer page over there. Then, I thought I would try to get some real hits by writing something timely and interesting, so I wrote an article about 30 Days of Night and why it is the one horror movie to rule them all, one horror movie to bind them. Then I put that article on Helium too.
Unfortunately a music review and movie review I had submitted to Associated Content on Monday were declined today. Oh well.
So, after that, I went to work on Chapter One of Charted Course's User Manual. Incidentally, if you are in the Salt Lake City or Provo, Utah area or even Boise, Idaho, you should go to www.gochartedcourse.com and check it out.
I finished my first rewrite and expansion of this chapter! It took me about five hours of steady work, but I got it done.
So there are two different goals for this week done!
Now, I also found out where I placed on the bigger Helium contest; I placed third! Wahoo! It ain't first, but it's money and satisfaction in my pocket.
Finally, tonight, I wrote one short story for the new Fat and Happy Contest on Helium. Here are links to the things I wrote today for Helium:
http://www.helium.com/tm/665785/autumn-roared-through-mountain
http://www.helium.com/tm/663987/millions-dollars-versions-something
The second one is the article about 30 Days of Night. It is in the wrong category, but the link should work for a day or two until it is worked out. When it is fixed, I will post the new link.
Now, I have to get bed soon (not too late tonight! Woohoo!) but I want to mention that I did not intend to write a story tonight. But I also knew that I needed to practice and I needed to do some creative writing today and every day. So I pushed it out and got it done. It turned out okay, and more importantly, was good practice and an important exercise in discipline. The story is familiar, I think, with some original twists. It actually feels like the beginning of a book, to tell you the truth. But it would need more work to become more original and not an Eragon clone. That book was marginally entertaining, but painfully unoriginal. It is what I might have written when I was seventeen and it really did not deserve publishing. Wait, Paolini was eighteen, wasn't he? And don't his parents own a small publishing imprint?
Anyway, I am going to start recommending books that have been huge influences on my writing.
Recommendation one is the David Eddings series called the Belgariad. Five books of crisp storytelling. Love it.
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