Drafts and Dreams
7 Days of Writing
How my first week as a public writer has been.
Renovating social media, filing complicated taxes and 10-hour shifts at the day job — it’s been one crazy week!
Being a writer takes work — hard work. In fact, what I’ve noticed from my experience with creativity in general is that you will likely not go anywhere with it unless you have the motivation and desire to manage it.
Throughout my short time here on this Earth I have made many attempts at being successful in a creative suit. (Be sure to look for these stories in a future series!) Although I do have some level of what I would call personal success to show for it, it has been very difficult to balance the intricacies of life while getting my ideas stored somewhere other than my brain. This week was no exception.
Seeing the battlefield now that the dust has settled, I am happy to report that it’s tough, but it’s very possible.
I was so nervous to post on that first day.
My palms were sweaty as I sat up in bed finishing the final edits on my phone. The early morning sun was breaking through the small gap in the curtains and I felt a surge of excitement.
I was finally going to do it.
“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”
— Benjamin Franklin
I was going to make a break for the fences and try yet again to make something out of the creative chaos that fills my mind daily.
My thumb hovered over the ‘Publish’ button for several long moments — my mind fast forwarding through potential future memories of a bookshelf loaded with published novels and followers genuinely interested in my lore.
I was ready…
I hit the beautiful green button that whispered these sweet nothings of grand adventure into my ear, and I was off to the races!
I already knew it was not good practice to wait on feedback right away and allow that to dictate my feelings, but I just couldn’t help it. It was the first time anything I wrote had made it to the public arena and I wanted to know if I was any good.
I wanted to be good.
I distracted myself for the day by writing more posts that I would publish later. Writing more, after all, is the only way to become a writer.
Each day this week I have toiled laborious hours for the day job and my newfound night job. I have a happy life (likely because of my happy girlfriend) and have been able to really schedule a balance between time with her, work, sleep and making progress in writing.
This has also allowed me to post a new story each day, which by no means is a necessity to becoming great as a writer — different methods work for different people. My own goal to always improve upon my writing can be assisted greatly by the fact that I have been putting in about 3,000 words a day across all of my projects and posts. Considering the amount I was doing prior to this week, I call that a personal best.
I began telling myself I was a writer.
I woke up early for my long work shift each day this week, repeating this mantra to myself over and over. I thought that for people to believe I was a writer, I needed to believe it myself. Not intending to sound self-indulgent, but I’ve always been convinced that the content in my head is good enough that people will look forward to it. The problem was having time to practice the right medium to develop this content in a format that makes the most sense and will be the most enjoyable for anyone who would like to absorb it.
I do believe that I have finally found creative stability in writing.
Most of all — it makes me happy. I have thoroughly enjoyed sculpting the terrain for my own magical lands, engineering unbelievable weapons and structures and designing the lives of legendary characters. There is just something about it that fills all of the gaps that other creative outlets were not.
“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.”
— Stephen King
A portion of my time before bed this week was used to create social media pages for my content as a writer and design background images for them to initiate a professional feel about my writing from a business perspective. I made all of the pages look the same across the board, thereby formulating a sort of branding to my work, before I even have anything of merit to publish.
Not only has this given me a more clean and professional feeling about myself and my creations, but it also gives an impression of my work that directly correlates to my motivation for said work. Whenever the public is ready to investigate my world, it will be ready. This fact helps boost my confidence and should provide a positive atmosphere regarding me and creations connected to my name.
To top off this busy week, I had to file my taxes before the government hunted me down. I did not have a great time with this considering I had to deal with my son’s mother, but it was alright. My love was there by my side, keeping me content so that I could put my head in the game. She’s awesome for that. And also, I don’t owe the government this year, so there’s another dash of positivity for the week.
All in all, it’s been a solid week. I feel good about the content I have produced, I’ve made healthy strides with my first fiction novel and often most importantly, I have been getting good rest. You only get one noggin — take care of it!
Thanks for reading, and look for another update soon!
15 Days of Writing
How my first two weeks as a public writer have been.
Consistency, fluidity, ecstasy.
My first week was interesting, considering I had not done something like this before, especially on so strict a schedule. I planned on writing more by dedicating myself to posting something here on Medium once a day for a year, and so far I have been successful in this goal. It is not a huge accomplishment in general, but it is the start of something good.
This is not something that I feel is mandatory or necessary for writers in order to develop a habit of writing, and it certainly does not need to be every day. The reason I chose to do it this way was to improve myself with a method that would work for me personally. I know myself, and I know that my most common excuse for not getting most things done is because I am ‘too busy’. If I can manage to stick to adding another task to my daily events for a whole year, then there is no reason why I could not be a writer in my free time and there is no reason why I cannot get my novel done.
My endgame is to write for fun and have that fun support me. It’s easy to say and extremely difficult to do, but I need to start somewhere.
The second week has been great considering I am slightly more busy than I was last week. I didn’t have to do my taxes this week, but they still are not done and I had to make phone calls and deal with my son’s mother. That is a whole ordeal in itself. Good thing there is such a thing as extensions.
At my workplace I am training someone to do a portion of what I do, and this is removing me from my normal thinking process for writing a little bit. Working on my own, I give myself some forethought to what I want to write over the days that follow, but I am unable to do a lot of that because I need to focus on making sure he picks up the methods correctly.
What this situation has created for me then is a chance to see if I can write well under a bit more pressure than I had in the first week. Instead of adding the additional task of making sure a post happens each day, I am now having to think, write and publish these daily posts a little faster. So far, I have continued to meet the goal and my content is still meeting my own standards after proofreading. I suppose there is some skill sharpening going on here.
Some bonuses that I have uncovered this last week include the creation of a new publication to host fictional content. I have spent the time to build this new face across a few platforms and it looks great in my opinion. I still have some work to do to finish up, but it will be an ideal place to share my fiction as I complete the stories.
Speaking of, my fictional stories have not taken a back seat this week either. I have managed to work some time in to further advance my first short story that is released to the public. I am very excited to get it finished and out into the world. It will be the first story loaded into the fictional publication suite that I have created and will usher in this new stage of writing for me. I’ve also begun another short tale that will be released later on.
While we’re on the subject of this upcoming phase of putting my fiction out into public view, I have a fun new take on fictional writing that I will be releasing soon on the same publication. It has been really fun to write, so I’m hoping readers may get some enjoyment out of it. It’s based on a novelty that is already popular on Youtube, but I’ve transformed it into something for readers and have made it my own. I don’t want to spoil it too much — make sure to check back to my page often to see when it happens!
30 Days of Writing
How my first month as a public writer has been.
It has been one month exactly since I started posting content on Medium. Thinking back on this short thirty days feels like I have been through a hurricane. Not a deadly one. More like, a whirlwind of chocolate syrup and honey. Sticky, yes, but very good.
New fiction publication
In my update from a few weeks ago I mentioned getting a fiction publication started here on Medium called Tales Around the Mana Pool. I am happy to report that there are some stories posted that should be fun and entertaining for those who enjoy different takes on existing fiction. I will continue to post stories in these categories. If you happen to have any suggestions for content, let me know and I’ll work them in.
My first short story is complete and is being edited before I get it published in ‘The Collection’ section of the publication. I am looking forward to any feedback the community might have to improve both my writing and this story in particular. On top of that, I hope that it is relatively thrilling!
Character building
My novel is making strides now that I can write content that makes sense at a faster pace. I am around eight chapters in and have started fleshing out my characters a little more to deepen the ties between them, other characters and factions and the world around them.
I am noticing that I have a number of subplots that require more character and environment depth to attract a deeper emotion from the reader and carry the plots along to the next phase of the story. I am in the process right now of fleshing out these details before I progress further with the advancement of the book. There is still a lot of individuality I want to build into these existing characters.
For those who are interested, a tentative publishing year of 2020 is on the table that I would like to stick to, but we will see what happens as the story unfolds! I will be sure to keep you up to date with my progress.
Balancing assets
It has taken a bit of work and some tweaking to adjust my time spent reading, writing posts and developing my novel, but I think I am finally taking hold of the balance. It is amazing when you can see a world of improvement in your processes.
When I began writing in October of 2016, I was very slow.
I am not going to pretend it was anything other than teething into a new creative art. I was a novice. I spoke English and I began writing in English. This concept, coupled with my training in written English through mandatory education, was the proof I needed to accept that I could do it — but I was not great.
Luckily, I already enjoyed reading and have grown up learning a vast vocabulary. These tools were also going to help me. But I could not get past the fact that I was writing at the pace of a slug crawl. In my post about brainstorming I talk about the processes that tend to help getting past this, which I have picked up from wanting to learn more about the writing process.
Writing requires reading
I have also learned over the past month that writing requires reading and writing. There is no writing without reading. The refining of your writing process comes from learning what other writers have learned before you, and absorbing their work.
Reading literally becomes the guidebook for your writing.
You will learn valuable assets like structure, vocabulary, plot, and how to plan it and make it all work together. Read excessively in the categories you enjoy writing in and you will pick up even more detail about what you want to put on your page. The elements of the specific genres you want to write are weaved throughout the books you read.
Do not simply read the story for the sake of the story. Pay close attention to how the writer is laying down the words. Follow the tracks and you will reach the station.
Warmth and sunshine
With the spring months transforming into summer, we are going to start venturing outside more often. It does not mean your writing has to take a back seat.
Enjoy the nice weather, take a bike ride, traverse the wooded trails, and bring a book to read while eating your picnic lunch by the lake. Allow yourself and your mind some freedom, but you can always keep your skills honed without overworking. Keep yourself on a schedule of sorts to ensure you continue your writing even during the fairweather periods. Bring your laptop outside and lay in the hammock with a pina colada.
It is your time. Make it work for you.
Reduction
With all of the goings on I have… going on… I have realized that I will be making some major changes to reduce my overhead. One of these changes will be to get rid of my car for a cheaper one. Everyone loves a newer ride, but an older one with similar reliability seems to be where my heart and my wallet both lie.
On that note, I also have taken inventory of my monthly bills going out and have reduced a number of extraneous charges that I do not need. Society these days has shifted into drawing funds on a monthly basis for pretty much everything. It is good to make sure that you are not burying yourself with monthly charges that nickel and dime you out of your last penny.
I am willing to bet that this will free up some more of my mind for writing as well. No additional stressors needed here!
Web development
I have a website in the works to funnel my projects through and formalize my presence online. Ideally, it will be a place where any information pertaining to my writing projects can be found and references to the locations of these projects will also be available.
All of the projects that are being written, editing status, publishing information and a forum area for questions and suggestions for future writing will all be available on my site for anyone who is interested in following my work.
I am also hoping to incorporate a tracking system of sorts to show a visual progression of where I am at with my projects. I have seen other sites utilize progress bars that seem to work nicely. Hopefully I can find one that will do the job and look good doing it!
It has been a wonderful trip thus far and I am looking forward to getting some more writing under my belt. See you in a little while for the next post!
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