I regularly read Dean Wesley Smith's blog. His blog is great to get a better understanding of the publishing world, it helped me immensely with choosing the path I'm following in my own writing career.
He set a challenge for himself, and here follows a quote from Dean Wesley Smith on his blog about his challenge for 2011
"The challenge I have set for myself is simple: 100 new stories written from titles and put up electronically in one year."
I got thinking about this challenge and thought that maybe I should have one of my own. I think it's a great idea to push yourself to test your own limits, and writing a lot and making more bookcovers will only add to my experience and consequently the quality of my work. So I'm going to set a challenge for myself. I'm not going to do 100 new stories for 2012 but I'll do a 1000... nah that's more than I can handle and so is 100. Mine will be 20 short-stories/novelettes for 2011/2012, starting today 30 October 2011 and the finish line will be 30 October 2012. (I chose the 30th of October as starting date because it's my wife's birthday and I hope to successfully finish this challenge in honor of her.)
Upon finishing a story and publishing it, I'll announce it on twitter and I'll put the story on my website and keep it there for a few days for my blog and twitter followers to read freely.
I'll be selling the short stories for $0.99 and the novelettes for $1.99 on Amazon and Smashwords.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Vacation Time
Finally my family succeeded in convincing me to go on a vacation. I'll be in Portugal for a few days.
Being in another area is the ideal moment for creativity to flourish, with everything new around I expect it to go naturally. I'll take advantage of this fact (well maybe it only applies to me) and will write a short story, and maybe if time allows, a chapter or two of a new novel I'm writing.
On my return I'll have an announcement to make.
Being in another area is the ideal moment for creativity to flourish, with everything new around I expect it to go naturally. I'll take advantage of this fact (well maybe it only applies to me) and will write a short story, and maybe if time allows, a chapter or two of a new novel I'm writing.
On my return I'll have an announcement to make.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Walk the devil dog
I walk my dog (well more my wives dog) every evening at sunset. He can be a real sweet dog, attentive, nice, and in my wives words; cute. Not when I go walk him, he becomes a little compulsive obsessed adrenaline filled dog, that doesn't understand that when leashed he can't go beyond the line. If you are not careful he will carry you to every bush and tree to pee at it, even if he is out of urine to pee. He pees air, this dog raises his leg and pee air. He'll stand like that wasting ten second of my time peeing air. What kind of dog pees air? He clearly does.
I go to a spot in the forest where he feels very comfortable and calms down. He'll be the sweet playful not pee obsessed dog he normally is. I let him loose and he'll be running between the trees and through the grass like all happy dogs would. When he's tired and ready to go home he'll come speeding back and stand still till I leash him. He'll be nice till we leave the forest. I've to admit that after running around he's too tired for mischief, so he's better behave on the return trip. (No air peeing)
It's my walk with him that made me come up with the idea for the short story "Don't believe what they say". The farmhouse on the cover is the one I pass everyday while walking the dog. I put the farmhouse in the story, and I believe it to be haunted. I would sure never dare go in when it's dark. Creepy place. The forest also tends to get creepy late at night. Still I walk the dog at sunsets. Being creeped out helps me get in the creative vibe to write the stories I write.
I recently made a picture of my dog and shared it on twitter. It's a great photo, it shows his demeanor while being walked outside. Look for yourself and be the judge of it:
Okay I may have enhanced the photo a little, I've added a little more luminous green to his eyes.
He's one mischievous dog, despite that I still love him, he can be a handful but I would not want him any other way. He keeps me fit while walking him, it's really physically intensive. You want to loose a couple of pounds you are always welcome to walk my dog free of charge.
I go to a spot in the forest where he feels very comfortable and calms down. He'll be the sweet playful not pee obsessed dog he normally is. I let him loose and he'll be running between the trees and through the grass like all happy dogs would. When he's tired and ready to go home he'll come speeding back and stand still till I leash him. He'll be nice till we leave the forest. I've to admit that after running around he's too tired for mischief, so he's better behave on the return trip. (No air peeing)
It's my walk with him that made me come up with the idea for the short story "Don't believe what they say". The farmhouse on the cover is the one I pass everyday while walking the dog. I put the farmhouse in the story, and I believe it to be haunted. I would sure never dare go in when it's dark. Creepy place. The forest also tends to get creepy late at night. Still I walk the dog at sunsets. Being creeped out helps me get in the creative vibe to write the stories I write.
I recently made a picture of my dog and shared it on twitter. It's a great photo, it shows his demeanor while being walked outside. Look for yourself and be the judge of it:
Okay I may have enhanced the photo a little, I've added a little more luminous green to his eyes.
He's one mischievous dog, despite that I still love him, he can be a handful but I would not want him any other way. He keeps me fit while walking him, it's really physically intensive. You want to loose a couple of pounds you are always welcome to walk my dog free of charge.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
The love of Editing
Once upon a time I hated editing my own work, had I the money I would have payed for someone to do it for me. Luckily I'm a poor writer without the income to pay anyone to edit my work, the most I can afford is a copy-editor. Luckily I said, you read right, had I the money I would never have learned to love doing it myself.
Sure they say one can't possible edit ones own work to perfection, but so can't someone else. Nothing in life is perfect, not even the sun. Though someone else will be able to see what you will never able to and catch the mistakes you have missed. Best is to have an editor edit your own work after you have self-edited extensively, this will iron out most mistakes. For the writer without ample budget self-editing and a copy-editor will have to do.
How did I come to love it? Simply by doing it. The more you practice by doing, the better you get at it, the better you get at it, the higher the chance will be you'll like doing it. Loving something will help in the rate you improve, because I hated self-editing it went slowly for me. My dislike was a ball of iron chained to my leg, it took me a mind adjustment to break the chain.
We people like to put borders for ourselves which we are reluctant to pass. Thinking we are not good in something, or that something is difficult, or that you can't possible do it by yourself, we limit ourselves in what we can do. By changing your thoughts into what you want to do and by not putting a ceiling for yourself, you will be able to go further than you ever thought would be possible.
I stopped thinking negatively about editing and focused instead on the good, and what I wanted to accomplish. By not thinking negatively about editing, I felt with each passing day the abhorrence of editing fading. I'm pushing more work now and have good hopes I'll finish my current WIP before years end.
Sure they say one can't possible edit ones own work to perfection, but so can't someone else. Nothing in life is perfect, not even the sun. Though someone else will be able to see what you will never able to and catch the mistakes you have missed. Best is to have an editor edit your own work after you have self-edited extensively, this will iron out most mistakes. For the writer without ample budget self-editing and a copy-editor will have to do.
How did I come to love it? Simply by doing it. The more you practice by doing, the better you get at it, the better you get at it, the higher the chance will be you'll like doing it. Loving something will help in the rate you improve, because I hated self-editing it went slowly for me. My dislike was a ball of iron chained to my leg, it took me a mind adjustment to break the chain.
We people like to put borders for ourselves which we are reluctant to pass. Thinking we are not good in something, or that something is difficult, or that you can't possible do it by yourself, we limit ourselves in what we can do. By changing your thoughts into what you want to do and by not putting a ceiling for yourself, you will be able to go further than you ever thought would be possible.
I stopped thinking negatively about editing and focused instead on the good, and what I wanted to accomplish. By not thinking negatively about editing, I felt with each passing day the abhorrence of editing fading. I'm pushing more work now and have good hopes I'll finish my current WIP before years end.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)