What a stupidly stressful day. I wish I could get into it but it’s too personal. The worst of it was at least one part of it could have been avoided if it wasn’t for incompetence. If someone (not me) had just checked the schedule!
I didn’t get much writing done but I am starting to put together the basic plots of all the ideas in my backlog. Currently there is 10+ stories to write. But luckily some of them are short stories because I suspect when people ask to read something that not everyone has time for a full-length saga.
I wrote a short prompt – it was trash. But oh well, just keep going – at least it got me writing. I liked writing yesterday’s extra post on tech tools, it was short and to the point. But I would be lying if I didn’t prefer writing something longer and a little “meatier” related to an actual piece of work like a review or a deep dive into something.
Today’s Lesson: Fear doesn’t go away. The warrior and the artist live by the same code of necessity, which dictates that the battle must be fought anew every day. (From Steven Pressfield’s turning pro)
Tomorrow: Hopefully I can have proper outlines under development & start planning out some characters. Starting the next extra post would be nice and actually thinking about it rather than writing it off the cuff.
Writing is hard enough by itself. Between the craft, the publishing process, and dealing with people – the last thing anyone wants is to make their life unnecessarily more complex for something that’s supposed to bring them passion + joy….
BUUUUUT… I’d be lying if I said these tools didn’t make my life easier. Anyone who's writing a modern work knows how many moving pieces there are before you have a draft worth presenting, so why not make the journey a little easier?
I know some purists who would only write with a quill and parchment if they could. But for us mere mortals with regular lives and access to the internet – there is no need for such theatrics.
Idea I learned: The right question alone posed to the right audience can be an extremely powerful marketing tool even by itself.
Tasks:
Spent damn near THREE hours replying to comments in a question based post that went mini-viral (50K+ views). Was it a waste of time? Probably. But I got some really good takeaways from the stories that were shared AND it was good practice for when I get popular and have to reply to a lot of comments :p
Decided I need to burn the idea of holding onto my best ideas and just go for it- I’ll have more later. I need to get the first draft in the bag so then I can come back to them later to edit/revise. So I’m starting the early work for all my “darlings”! (I’m excited)
Setting up my writing PKM database for all these projects
Learning Scrivener as my tool of choice (bought it ages ago but just never learned it)
There’s really no time like the present to make it happen – and always be sure to help others along the way without expecting anything in return.
Actually put some time into writing today. I even answered my first story prompt- it was trash! But that’s okay – the start is always the worst.
I’ve started and stopped my writing journey many times – and the only good thing that came from doing that is knowing the motions that I’ll inevitably go through.
Kinda random – but it rained here today. When I drove to the store and saw the reflections of all the cars at night. It was some real cyberpunk vibes…
Another busy day. But I scoured Youtube for the best tips, channels, and made a playlist related to writing.
I have also further developed the plotline regarding my main character, but for now – just casually thinking about the side characters and how the interactions will work between the characters.
That is all for now! I can’t believe it’s already been a week. It goes to show you really gotta attack your goals or else the time is gonna slip away from right under your nose.
I have a main character! He’s from NYC , a rakish young fellow who lives on the wrong side of the tracks (makes illicit money) but wants something more than just the small time hustles.
From this character I also found an opening into the plot, but now I’m trying to determine how he goes from his seedy start to the wider plot which involves the high life and international locations.
I started watching masterclass videos and got into Neil Gaiman’s course. I plan on doing a full course review and summary eventually but here is one key early takeaway:
Fiction is just a memorable lie to communicate true ideas.
This is actually quite handy to see it defined this way, because as a writer-he clarifies your mission in this statement to communicating true ideas. THAT should be a base for you to stand on. I think its also possible to interpret it as — too many writers meander about their stories not actually telling anything of substance. What are the actual ideas and lessons you want to imbue the reader with?
And for tonight – I’m going to watch a little more of that masterclass AND I’ll read this handy dandy guide for writing essays by Jordan Peterson. I know he’s a divisive figure – but I’ll be damned if I pass up on learning how to write better essays.
I spent way too much time today deciding what my pen name is lmao. But at least the task is done. I decided a pen name was the way to go because frankly my real name just doesn’t roll off the tongue that well and I will also likely write trash for this first little while and there’s no need to further destroy my ego beyond what life has already done.
I also signed up for a reddit account STRICTLY for the writingprompts community and a few other writing ones to further expand my knowledge via their wiki’s.
Created a local PKM (Personal Knowledge Manager – like Obsidian) to manage my writing (more on that in the future)
I never fleshed out that main character from yesterday… just ran out of time. But I know he’s from New York. Haven’t decided if he’s gonna be more bohemian or James bond-esque.
The one line for tonight: “You are not entitled to the fruits of your labor” – Krishna (if I remember right) , quoted in Turning Pro by Stephen Pressfield.
But for tonight:
Just read more from the books I brought on Day 1 or 2.
It’s been a long week, maybe I’ll watch a show while I plan for tomorrow’s writing tasks.
A bit of a busier day. My programming work took the bulk of my time but I did get to read a little more of Turning Pro by Steven Pressfield. What stood out to me from todays reading session was his list of traits of a pro:
The professional is:
patient
seeks order
acts in the face of fear
accepts no excuses
is prepared
does not show off
dedicated to mastering technique
does not hesitate to ask for help
does not take failure or success personally
etc etc
These and a bunch of other traits are what I hope to embody in full one day but for now let us just lay the foundation brick by brick…
Went to the bookstore , bought roughly 4 books related to the craft of writing. I will be doing reviews and summary notes on hopefully all of them.
I think my first mini-project is going to be an Oceans 11 style heist mini story.
I have roughly 3-4 “flagship” stories that I really wanna write. But I need to get my skill levels up before trying to execute on them. So for now – we shall remain in the learning stage + short story mode.
To successfully bring a story from start to finish is a big challenge of mine. So working on the smallest story size I can would be a good starting place.
The blog will be rather unkempt for a good while – I just wanna build proper routine first and then worry about organizing ideas later.