Friday, August 24: End of a low-writing week

Well, it's the end of another writing week. But, like I predicted on Monday, I really didn't have much time to write, as Annemarie really needed a lot of time to get her translation project done. Thus, I basically stuck with working on http://www.helium.com/ stuff. If you want to read my stuff there, go to: http://www.helium.com/user/show/45690 and you will be able to scroll down and see a massive list of my articles there. The most recently written articles are first.

I am placed second in a contest there, so I have the chance at $25 dollars next week, but that is fairly small fry.

The other substantive writing stuff I got done was this:

First, I did some research for 'The Cabin.' I needed to know about the area I was originally going to set it in. Now I have decided to set it in Quakertown, PA. It is better! This town is much closer to what I had in mind for the images and feeling of the area, so it will work our far better. This caused me to need to change a few little things in the outline, but that didn't cause a problem. I also opted to change a name, in order to keep things less autobiographical. Still wondering about using Cyrus.

Second, I got started on reworking "Song of the Wind." This is the story that won first place in the Vera Hinckley Mayhew Contest, specific category, here at BYU. The thing is, the concept and some characterization and images are strong. But all in all, the story does not flow well and it needs better illumination and characterization. I had never really seen this before. Plus, I finally got some research done for it, and basically found out that having wind scour the Earth's surface is too much of a fantasy and is not supportable enough by science. So basically the issue at hand is abrupt climate change.

In any case, I got to it and found myself re-shaping quite a lot. I like the new shape. It feels more real and solid, like actual quality writing. I am hoping to craft it into a top-notch story that I can send in to Writers of the Future. So I am probably half done with this major re-write now, and I hope to complete a final draft about mid-week of next week. Then, I can start getting chapters done on "The Cabin." Now, if Thomson Heinle gets back to me soon and offers a deal for "The Mars Betrayal" I will need to put that on the front burner. But it helps to have my outline for "The Cabin" done so fully, this way I can continue to work on higher priority items as needed and I can keep adding things to the outline.

I love it so far. Gonna make this work.

And finally, I have been working on making money on Associated Content, a neat website for journalistic articles. I have now sold them two articles. Read them here:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/207235/wwwcp80org_keeping_your_family_safe.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/207957/earl_tupper_plastics_and_marketing.html

Until next time!

Just a quick catch-up to Monday August 20

I did very little on Friday, just some online stuff.

Today, and the rest of this week probably, Annemarie has a heavy deadline with a large translation project. So we are giving her extra time. So today I did stuff around the house: laundry, mowing, made some kick@!! salsa.

I got an e-mail from an interested www.helium.com reader. Go there! Search for my articles by typing my name in the search field.

I will be back!

What I did on Thursday, August 16

Well, it is actually early, early Friday morning, but I have just finished watching "Breach" with my wife. It was cool.

Anyway, for Thursday, I began to re-establish my online writing presence by writing for www.helium.com
If there is anyone reading this, you may feel free to visit my profile there and read any of my over 650 articles! Follow this link: http://www.helium.com/user/show/45690

In any case, I wrote about five articles for a contest there and also posted in the forums to show that I was back. I want to try hard to get into this contest so that I can actually have some $$ to show for my work. Why? Because my first novel "Brothers in Arms" was rejected by Deseret Book and I got the notification today. Arg. I am a writer! I need validation. And I am talking about substantive, perhaps spendable validation!

So anyway, that was my day. I also tried to calculate how long my new idea for "The Cabin" should be. I am going to shoot for about 60,000 words. I am going to shoot for about 5000 words a day, starting tomorrow. I am going to have a first draft done by the end of September, but hopefully earlier. This means I need to put five hours into this book each day. That is usually all the writing time I have each day, so I need to find some more time on either end of the day.

Anyway, that is my day. I am feeling unmotivated for two reasons: One is that I got rejected today. The other is that we went out today (got a babysitter) and after dinner visited Barnes and Noble's children's and teens' section. There are a lot of books out there! Thousands! How is my stuff going to ever make it??

I just have to keep at it, I know, but it is sometimes hard to believe in this dream. But I am not going to give up, even if I doubt sometimes.

See you later.

Catching up with Tuesday and Wednesday

Alright. I forgot to journal my work on Tuesday and Wednesday. Both were good, productive days, although Tuesday could have been better. I will do this journaling now, and will journal today's work later tonight.

Tuesday, the 14th, I got started a little late, due to my fiddling around on the Web a little. However, I did a final rewrite of my longer synopsis/proposal for a Thomson-Heinle graded reader, as well as the first chapter in that book. What is nice is that if they don't ultimately go for it, the book is pretty good and I think I might have a good chance of selling it somewhere else. After I sent that off, I took a walk and tried to come up with another idea for a Graded Reader. I wanted to shoot for low-level, so I was thinking genre fiction was not going to do it. About five minutes into my walk, I started getting some neat ideas about a fully character driven story about two friends who are young women. One of them sees something awful that she can't talk about, which then affects her life. The other tries to help her friend through it. So when I got home, I got the outline zipped out and left it over night. However, I felt really good about it. The stakes are high and we get to spend some good time in characters' heads.

On Wednesday, the 15th, I did some revision of that outline. The tentative title of this second graded reader will be 'Hidden.' I sent it on to the project leader. Oh, by the way, this leader actually got back to me Wednesday morning and said that the team is taking a couple-few weeks break, but that they will review the proposal and outline that I have sent them when they get back. Then, on Wednesday still, I took a long walk after sitting for a while and trying to think of another book idea. But this one will be for a general audience. I had an idea for a book called 'The Cabin.' It is fairly autobiographical, but is very altered in order to have dramatic tension and a good arc. It follows the life of a boy in a cult whose oldest brother leaves the cult and dies soon after. It is not a murder mystery. The boy, Mike Kerr, must try to deal with his feelings in an environment that does not care about feelings, family or anything but the cult itself. The themes I see are friendship, grieving, family, brotherhood, and courage. Sub-themes include abuse, negligence and nature's purity. So I got 'The Cabin' well outlined and some good characters fleshed out yesterday. I am excited to get going on this book. Today, Thursday, and all that happens will be journaled later tonight.

I like doing this journal. I imagine it really doesn't matter if nobody reads it but me.

Day One: Monday, August 13, 2007 Wow

I got so much done! My schedule today was our first try at our plan for when Spanish school starts for the two older boys. Since they have their school starting at 12:30 until 3:30, I suggested to Annemarie, my wife, that we have her take the morning hours to translate her Japanese to English. Thus, I would have the afternoons, starting around noon or 12:30, and going until dinner.
It worked out exactly as planned and I had the entire afternoon and early evening to write. As soon as I sat down, I reviewed my accepted outline for an original graded reader for Thomson Heinle's series. After familiarizing myself with my story idea again, I re-acquainted myself with the writer's guidelines in the packet they sent me.
Then I got to writing my big synopsis. This one was to be pretty detailed and was supposed to be 2 to 3 pages long. Mine ended up being about 3 and a half. I hope they don't mind it being so big, but I really found myself liking the idea of having such a detailed map of the story. They also ask for some character notes, which is something I might try to do with each story I write, even those not associated with Thomson Heinle.
Anyway, I got it done with time to spare, so I forged ahead and wrote the first chapter. This next stage of the proposal process requires a sample chapter, so that was good motivation for me.

The thing is, this is the closest I have gotten so far to a truly paying writing job that could very well end up in seeing my graded reader novel in print! So this is priority number one. So the first draft of the proposal is ready now, and Annemarie will review it for me tomorrow. Then I will make some of my own changes and have it sent off by tomorrow evening.

All of this while keeping the refinance process going. Oh, I also went and got an office chair for my writing station. Woo, it is a lot better.

This feels great so far. I got to spend time with my kids like mad today. Annemarie got her paying job worked on really well today. I moved forward. I know it is day one and this is a long post, but I am happy with this. Let's see if it lasts the week. Deseret Book is due to get back to me soon about Brothers in Arms. I am not confident. I keep thinking of ways that my first novel is really cut rate.

That's all for today.

Here it goes, the Friday before it all begins

So I am going to journal the year after I quit in order to fight for my dream of becoming a writer. This is the first and introductory post. I will write this for myself and for a general audience of anyone who happens to be interested. I have decided I will keep this online record of thoughts, feelings, pieces written and status of my writing. I mean publishing status of my stuff. And when I say publishing, I am talking about print publishing. I will be frank with my prose on this.

Now I have to say I have never been one for blogs. I am doing this because I think it will keep me motivated to journal this year. Plus, I am blessed with people who love me and care about me, my family, and our success. So this is a way for them to stay apprised. I promise not to make this the 'mental porn' that I refer to other blogs as. If it is not compelling and Pulitzer-winning, it will at least follow mechanics, conventions and be well-capitalized.

So that's all for now. I will post either daily or weekly, starting Monday, August 13. See you then!