Quick Update

So, I've completed all of my edits and have gotten the story in a state that I'm happy with. I've now sent it off to a copy editor to edit my crap grammar and all of that jazz.

I have posted a link to the novel sample up above, so give it a read! I don't know a good place to host the file yet, so I'm just using Google Drive. Let me know if you have any issues viewing the story!

And I hope to have some more content added to this blog. Stuff that will pertain to more than just writing. (Games and the like.)

Currently Reading:  
Storm Front: Dresden Files Book 1 by Jim Butcher
Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
The Second Time Through by Nathanael

Currently Playing:
Planetside 2
Star Wars: The Old Republic

Current Favorite K-Pop Song: (Yes, I'm doing this as a thing now.)
"Ready go" by 4Minute

I Live Again

So I haven't made any posts in the past few months. Mainly because my editing progress hit a rock wall and I lost this Amazon Writing contest, badly, so I think I was just a bit discouraged even though I kept telling myself that I wasn't.

Or maybe I actually wasn't and I'm just really lazy.

Whatever the case, I'm back to editing my novel and updating this page a little more regularly.

And on the topic of being discouraged, let me ask whoever stumbles upon my page a question. If you're a writer, artist, musician, any other kind of creative type, how do you handle feelings of discouragement or just lack of drive for your creative endeavor?

We all feel it from time to time. For me, it is often very subtle until I just realize "Hey, I'm not getting done what I wanted to get done." In my case, I told myself back in January that I was going to set myself what I thought was an easily obtainable goal, which was to have my novel edited and self-published by my birthday.

Well, my birthday is in about 1.25 days and I'm not close to that goal. When I realized that I wasn't going to make that goal, I got really discouraged, but I know that in reality I have two options:

1. Give up on writing.
2. Keep going with a new goal.

Obviously, I'm going with number 2, but I think that my goal is just going to be make myself edit until I feel it's right without over editing. No arbitrary finish date.


And to be honest, I think having some forum to state all of this just makes it easier to move on and focus on what I should be doing.

And I'd love to hear anyone's stories on this topic.

Thanks for reading.

Currently Reading: The Second Time Through by Nathanael
                               A Dance of Blades by David Dalgish

Currently Playing: Diablo 3

Greet Success!: January Speed Edit: Day 8

Really the only news I have today is that I've finished my first full edit! Huzzah and all of that jazz. I rewarded myself with a bit of Batman: Arkham City and now I'm ready to go back to it. (Though I do wish I could play more Batman...)

First edit: 100% Complete
Second edit: Pending...

Attitude: Ready to put on some tights and go punch some people while screaming "WHO DO YOU WORK FOR?!"

January Speed Edit: Day 7

Don't have much to say as I'm about to pass out due to tiredness, but I made a ton of progress today. I edited around 70 pages, I think? Not too shabby! (At least for me.)

Going through I've noticed my overall quality rising in what I've written, which is to be expected since I wrote parts of the novel over a year or two ago, but as I enter the more refined sections, I can definitely tell what sections that I had writer's block on.

I'm sure I'll end up talking about writer's block a lot here, but I do want to say one quick thing that I've learned. For me, I've learned that if I hit a writer's block, the only thing to do it keep at it. Keep writing, get past it. Sure take a little break and get some fresh air, get your mind of your work for a night maybe, but keep at it! You can always clean up poor writing during your edit. The trick is to just get past that section.

This may not work for everyone, but I've dabbled in saying "Oh I have writer's block today, let me watch a movie. Oh I have writer's block again, let me play a game." You can't get in the habit of doing that if you actually want to finish a piece.

Anyway, progress report is ~96% done with the first edit.
Attitude = Tired and I really want to play Arkham City.

Every day I'm Edit'in Editing: January Speed Edit: Day 6

I find that it can be so easy to get distracted even if I try to remove all distractions. Namely if I start rambling to a friend about other story ideas that I have, but still it's good to give my brain a bit of a break from focusing after a day at work. At this point, I wish I had the ability to take off a week or two and focus on finishing this, but we don't always get what we want. Never-the-less, I still plan on at least getting two full edits done. Hopefully three, but we'll have to see.

I've been cutting a bit more than before, so maybe I'm learning to be more frugal.

Anyway, progress report is ~69% done with the first edit.
Attitude = Still hopeful and determined!

January Speed Edit: Day 5

So I've decided to try to keep up with my daily progress through either here or my Twitter. I may have nothing to say, but I want to get into the habit of recording some of my thoughts.

Went to the gym today to try to maintain a sense of normalcy, but I have to make up some editing time tomorrow. Still, I've gotten 10 pages done tonight, so that's an accomplishment.

The main thing that I'm trying to get better at while editing is deciding what should stay and what should go. I haven't cut nearly as much as I was expecting, but I did add an extra chapter and a few more scenes, so that will pad my numbers a bit.

I'm still feeling pretty optimistic. I don't know if I'll get the 3 full edits done like I want, but I'll at least get two and hopefully will be able to incorporate some feedback from my friends/fellow authors. But likely by the end of this thing, I'll be saying "Y U TRY EDIT IN 30 DAYS?!"

Updating

Updating. I fail at it. I intend on using this blog to not only try to whore out my book, but also as a record for what I go through this journey of being a writer. Hopefully, in several years I can look back at this and learn what I did right and what I did wrong to share with anyone that is interested.

I've set a goal for myself to have the edits finished by the end of January. Primarily it'll be for this Amazon contest, but also just so I can have the novel finally finished and out in the wild. Please be on the look out for more sleep deprived updates.

Current novel status: ~58% done with the first edit