Report on Monday, August 4th.

Okay, so I outlined everything pretty much until the end of The Cabin. Feeling pretty good. I also wrote 1100 words, which isn't as many as I'd intended, but I crashed in my easy chair for a couple hours this evening after the children were in bed.

So now it's late and I really need to get to bed so that I can get up early-ish for a sales call in Salt Lake City. We're doing a presentation of the business benefits package that ChartedCourse offers as a supplement to traditional benefits.

It's my first major presentation to a big company, so it's pretty exciting.

For now, that's it.

Gonna be a bestselling writer. Oh yes.

Oh, btw, if you are on Facebook, search me out and be my friend. Then become a fan of my writer page. Please. I'm needy!

carpe somnium

Wednesday: Odin's day

While I may not be the rather fractious father of the gods, I certainly acted like I was last night. I spent about three hours re-doing The Mars Betrayal in its entirety. After really getting down how my main character acts and his motivations and flaws, as well as the other characters and antagonists' motivation and flaws, I realized that the plot devices I was using were not springing from the world and characters, but really just from my own desires for coolness.

So now there's no bacteria missile. The ending is happier too. If any of my writing group reads this, please check out the synopsis I uploaded yesterday and let me know if I am completely missing the mark.

Today I have quite a lot of ChartedCourse work to do, but I will be able to get to writing by 4PM, if not a little earlier. I will do some final tweaks on the synopsis and send it on to the editorial team so I can have my self-esteem smashed again. Or not. We'll see.

This morning I did the Y hike again, from my house. Yeah, it's not getting any easier yet. Whew. This is the second time I did the hike, although on Monday I started at the trailhead.

My garden grows well, by the way. I think I have finally succeeded in keeping pests away from my cucumbers to the point that they will make it. My only remaining pumpkin plant is doing well also. I do have a completely unidentifiable patch of something growing between my squashes, so I guess I'd better do some reasearch to figure out what it is.

But now I must work. I'll report later.

My bed calleth

but I pay it no heed.

I haven't had a chance to work on any fiction writing today, what with preparing to pick up the sales reins at ChartedCourse for a few days. Ronnie's headed out of town for a few days, so I have to keep our momentum building. More to worry about.

Anyway, I did do writing for ChartedCourse today. Actually quite a lot. It's just not fiction writing.

I also finally finished 1776 by David McCullough. A remarkable, moving read. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading, history, or simply wants to be entertained. It is a singular reading experience.

I'll add it to my list of recommended books on this site.

But now I'm paying heed to the call of the bed, so off I go.

Happy Tuesday to you...

I am in the middle of ChartedCourse work, but I wanted to repent of last night's mistakes. I actually fell asleep in my easy chair pretty much right as the kids were going to bed, so I didn't do any more writing last night.

However, I hit the 6000 goal yesterday during that first session, so no worries!

I will be working on The Mars Betrayal today as well, from about 3:30 to about 5:30. I might not write later, as I am hoping to take a lengthy walk so I can sleep better tonight. I've been having trouble sleeping the last few nights.

It may be because of snoring or squirming baby, but it may also be because I need to be good and tired. I am trying to regularize my sleeping habits finally, since I am supposed to be a grown up now.

Discipline. As a young, naive (evian backwards) writer, I had not imagined that to be successful as a writer I would need to have discipline.

This morning I took my older boys up the Y hike. If you don't know what that is, too bad.

Only joking.

BYU has this massive white Y painted on one of the mountains surrounding Utah Valley. There is a well-kept, rather steep trail that leads to the Y, and the trailhead is about a 5 minute drive from the house. I had done the hike for the first time on Saturday, and had actually hiked from the house, so it was kind of long.

This morning I drove Thomas, Hintze and myself to the parking lot at the trailhead, then we headed up. It's good exercise and the boys really enjoyed it.

I have to get back to it now, so I'm off.

(Soul selling attempt #2):
Britney Spears, Scarlett Johansson, Britney Spears, Scarlett Johansson, Britney Spears, Scarlett Johansson, Britney Spears, Scarlett Johansson, Britney Spears, Scarlett Johansson, Britney Spears, Scarlett Johansson, Britney Spears, Scarlett Johansson, Britney Spears, Scarlett Johansson, Britney Spears, Scarlett Johansson, Britney Spears, Scarlett Johansson

Hehe.

carpe somnium

Thursday night... really late

So today was my birthday, and yesterday, Wednesday April 30th, was my anniversary. All in all a festive time in the Garrett home. We were celebrating till late last night, so I wasn't able to stop by, but I figured I had better today.

I got my client's project done today, finally. I was insanely dozy today, but after a rather long nap, snapped out of it. I think that had better be my approach to a doziness that hits hard: take a nap. Yeah, I think so.

Anyway, I won't be doing anything with ChartedCourse until some business is cleared up. So that means tomorrow I will work on The Cabin for most of the day. I am excited.

Annemarie gave me, for an anniversary gift, a ticket to see Ironman tonight, so that's why it's so late. I thought it was marvelous. A very well done movie that was visually excellent and wonderful in all other ways as well. I also got bongos as a birthday present today, along with some CDs and a sweet Steelers jacket. I pretty much scored big time. I have people around me who must love me.

I have to go to bed now so I can get up and exercise. I'll be back.

I am going to write a bestselling novel. And I am going to do it soon.

carpe somnium

No more mucking about.

It's past my bedtime, so off I go

I really need to be in bed now, as part of my new campaign to sleep like an adult. So what I did today was this:

I wrote a final article for my client's job and sent it off.

I did a pile of research and note-taking for the ChartedCourse May newsletter. By the way, Blake tells me that he'll have some material for me to start working on for the sales rep manual soon. Cool: more work!

And I wrote just under 1700 words for The Cabin. I know, I was supposed to do 2000, but other stuff kind of piled up. I ended up running some errands and getting 64 boxes of cereal for our food storage! That's right, 64. They were a dollar a box at Smith's, and we had been waiting for this sale, as it is an annual thing. So now our food storage is looking better.

Anyway, I was actually close to not doing any writing for The Cabin today, but I fought back the temptation to watch TV and be a fat vegetable who fears finishing a novel that could really be something.

When I sign off here, I'll run and write an article for www.helium.com and then rate a little. But then I need to get to bed! I am nearly certain that as I regularize my sleeping, the incessant ringing in my ears will reduce.

So off I go.

I am going to write a bestseller and I think I may just be doing that right now.

carpe somnium

Nothing inspiring to write today. Just a day that brought me closer to my success.

Yikes, a few days behind

The week has been okay, but I have been unusually tired during the afternoon, which is usually my solid writing time.

Anyway, I sent off the finalized User Manual to ChartedCourse. Hooray! Apparently launch for the Program is set to happen on the 20th. Good for them.

Today I finished the restructuring of The Mars Betrayal and I am excited to write it up. That will be tomorrow's job. I will get it all done tomorrow. You might ask why. Well, we writers got an e-mail outlining the timeline expected with our books. They're looking to have them in sales packages come mid year. So maybe July. That means that we need to get stuff done quickly. I need to have this draft ready immediately, and it needs to be good. So I have the skeleton redone and am going over it to make sure there are no plot holes and that characters are motivated well. I am still trying to find a way to flesh out the villain some, but that's kind of hard with the length limitations I have.

I'll find a way.

So with the second, good draft done, I will probably need to submit an art brief regarding artwork I think would work, and where I suppose it ought to go. Then I need to work up some proposals as to what the expository subject matter will be. I'm not sure, but I think I might put together a chronicle of the history of space travel over the last four or five decades.

I still fully intend to finish The Cabin this month. I'll squeeze it in. I'll probably start working on it after kids are in bed, in order to get my 5000 words a day.

Now, onto something more personal. I am, blessedly, back in touch with a wonderful lady who is pretty much my oldest friend. I don't mean that she is older than any other friend I have. I mean she is the only friend I have that has been my friend since I was seventeen. Aside, of course, from the folks I grew up with in the Foundation Faith of God. In other words, Jena is the first friend I made outside of the FFoG.

Anyway, she sent me an e-mail and we have been e-mailing lots this week. So Jena, if you're reading this, thanks for sending that e-mail! I'll keep the mushiness to a minimum here on this blog.

So she lives in Austin, which is a place we've actually (I kid you not) been considering as a place to relocate to. Right now I am heavily into a job search. I even interviewed yesterday for a job I don't really want, but that I could do and probably enjoy doing. And I would enjoy the regular $$ that comes from an 8-5 job too. But what I was going to say was that we've seen several possibilities for employment in Austin, and we like the looks of the place and the housing values down there. Our $$ will go farther down there than here in Utah, and we need a bigger house.

But now it's late and I have to run. I really need to get enough sleep tonight. Of course, I've been up late folding laundry. Oh well. Now the pile's gone anyway. If you don't have four growing, insane kids, you don't know what it is to have a pile of laundry. Whew.

My plan for Monday

A new week, a new day, lots of stuff to get done.

A final report on last week: started a massive rewrite of The Mars Betrayal and am confident in its direction. I did get some work done on The Cabin during the week, and I even did just over a thousand words on Saturday. I also did some work for ChartedCourse, applied for a few jobs, got one response on a part-time freelance job and am now waiting for more information, and tried to professionalize my business. Finally, I won some cash from Helium and broke 800 articles last week.

I'm looking at getting into some real estate invesment this week.

Today I will do the final work (yes there's more) on the ChartedCourse member manual. I'll also get some info from Blake on what he needs me to do next. My guess is that I need to get to work on the other manual; the one for directors.

Then I will continue with the re-framing of The Mars Betrayal, with a plan to finish the reframing and then do chapter 2. Then I want to spend at least two or three hours (maybe more...) on The Cabin. I am eager to work on this book, more than I have been for any other project. I want to do a good job! I want to see where my character is going.

So that's my day. I'll report later.

Good Friday (not the one before Easter)

Just wanted to write up a quick post. Today was good. Blake finally got me the stuff and the instructions I needed in order to finish up the User Manual. Whew. So I thought I would be able to get it done and still have a couple hours in the afternoon to work on The Cabin, but I was wrong, wrong wrong. Proofreading a 176 page document takes a long time. So I was actually working on it until just about 7PM today, with a break for lunch and for dinner and for a scooter ride in the rain.

So I wasn't able to get anything done on the current novel today, but I still have high hopes for next week. If I can do 5000 words each day, I will hit 45,000 words for the book, and I really think that will probably do it. But I am also open to letting the book go where it needs to. I know the climaxes and the important scenes, but the spaces in between can be as big and detailed as they need to be.

So tomorrow I will pick up my first check for my work for ChartedCourse. That's pretty exciting. It won't be very big, but it's a start. I have done almost 40 hours of work for ChartedCourse by now for the month of February, so that'll be a better check, but it's still not paying the bills.

Gonna keep at it. Gonna write a bestseller. Gonna make this work.

Finishing my Thursday

Well, today was pretty good. I spent my morning at a local thrift store helping sort and hang up clothes. It was fine.

Then I got home, put my youngest down for a nap, had lunch and waited for my wife to get back from dropping the older boy off at Spanish school. When she got back, I went to a meeting out at Charted Course. I was right; I have a bunch more work to do. I need to finalize the User Manual by the end of Monday. Then I have other stuff to do.

When the meeting got done, I went to the library, checked out some books then worked on Mars Betrayal. I am at the last scene. I really wanted to get it done today, but I should have it done tomorrow morning. Then I will get to work on the Charted Course stuff. I'll take some time tomorrow to write at least one article for Helium, maybe two.

And that's really it. I will finally be getting paid for my work for Charted Course. Up until now, I have been doing my work on a trade basis: I am a client and a rep with no out of pocket money, and I gave them 100 free hours of work.

Now I am simply doing freelance work and I will give them a time summary and an invoice for each month that I do work. Woohoo! The pay will be $15/hour for now, but that will probably go up as things expand and I start doing more varied work for them.

It's possible I will be going to a conference in Vegas during the second weekend of February. Still not certain I'm going, but it's likely.

So that's it. We watched The Simpson's Movie and broke our 2 week sugar fast with some B & J tonight. Funny movie, but not spectacular. It was like three episodes rolled into one. And that's fine. And now I will go. Until tomorrow!

Thursday, November 8: Long hours

Well, the clock reads Friday, but I am just finishing my Thursday.

I spent this morning going about fifteen miles out and fifteen miles back on my scooter to a place that I hoped would help the ringing in my ears. The lady there did some muscle testing and gave me a bunch of herbal supplements to take. Wahoo. I have an appointment with the big boss lady there at the end of the month.

As for writing, I was able to get started right about 1 pm today. I went immediately to my NaNoWriMo project: The Cabin. I now have six thousand words on it done. I did just over five thousand words this afternoon, in a span of about three to four hours. Not bad. I feel good so far and am more excited about it now than I was before. I am interested to see where Mike goes and what he does. Mike is the main character. He is about thirteen or fourteen; I haven't decided yet.

So then we ate dinner, I helped get little ones bathed and then I headed out to ChartedCourse, where I had a guest at our weekly overview seminar. Cool!

I got to work some on Chapter 4 while there. So when I got home at about 9, I got started on the chapter again. It is now past midnight. Adding today to yesterday, I am think this chapter took me about nine to ten hours. Whew. I had to really play with format and structure, so I am not sure what the bosses will think.

So we're going to Southern Utah tomorrow and getting back late Saturday. I will do some writing down there and will make an entry here as well. But for now, it is late and I have to sign off.

Today's book recommendation:
The Icewind Dale Trilogy by R.A. Salvatore

Monday, November 5th, 2007: Many articles written

Well, I pretty much spent the day on Helium.

Let's recap what got done last week. I rewrote chapter 2 of the User Manual for Charted Course. I did a preliminary, pretty good revision of my Mars Betrayal proposal. I placed in contests on Helium to win $25.

Today I wrote probably ten to fifteen articles on Helium. Some required research, but most of them are ones that I could do from my own experience and knowledge. Here are links to a few:

http://www.helium.com/tm/684970/didnt-coffins-needed-nails
http://www.helium.com/tm/684432/hooray-another-those-leapt
http://www.helium.com/tm/685009/during-months-taiwan-teaching

Anyway, here is what I will do tomorrow:

I will start my day by getting my scooter's wheels balanced and looking into med insurance. While waiting for things, I will finalize the Mars Betrayal proposal.

I will then write 1000 words for The Cabin, my NaNoWriMo project.

Then I will do Chapter three of the User Manual. I will finish it. If I finish it in time, I will do some more articles on Helium. If I feel up to it after my meetings tomorrow night, I will do some more work on The Cabin.

This is the first week of my NaNoWriMo project. I have exactly four weeks. I must get at least fifteen thousand words done each week. So I will do so somehow!

So that's tomorrow. I really enjoy being my own boss. I like having steady work that has the potential to actually pay out in the near future. I feel really good about the new version of the Mars Betrayal.

The kids are all getting hit with a nose and cough virus. So far nothing serious. Prayers, sleep and echinacea are all wonderful, in that order.

Speaking of sleep, I am outta here.

Novel recommendations:
The Riddlemaster of Hed by Patricia A. McKillip This is a marvelous trilogy that is written in some of the best narrative prose I have ever read.