jon_chaisson: (Mooch writing)
It's Saturday morning and we're on our second pot of coffee while A. catches up on some Day Job work and I keep myself busy with things and stuff. Tonight we'll be heading to the Symphony again (another of $15 a ticket deal, this time featuring Thomas Adés and Dawn Upshaw). Tomorrow is...up in the air. A. may need to do a bit more Day Jobbery stuff, and if I've nothing better to do, I'll once again use that day as Errand Day. Such excitement, very wow. :)

Last night was spent writing query letters to potential agents to get A Division of Souls out and about! This will be attempt numbers 2 and 3 for 2015, as one of my primary aims for this year is to find a home for the Bridgetown Trilogy. [This does include indie publishing if it comes to it.] And speaking of the Mendaihu Universe, I will freely admit that my writer brain is absolutely clamoring to get another MU story up and running. Even as I'm attempting to work on Walk in Silence and Blogging the Beatles, the ache to return to that universe and start writing more stories within it has been nagging at me for quite a few years now.

It all boils down to tricking my mind.

On the one hand, while I can easily multitask, I don't always find multitasking an entirely positive thing to do. It comes from my Day Job: I hate having to stop in the middle of one method of problem solving so I can jump to another issue that has risen to Threat Level OMGWTFONOES. That is due to the fact that many clients have differently tweaked setups, so what might be logical for Client A may be highly illogical for Client B. I waste time and energy adjusting myself to a different situation which, in my mind, should be similar but isn't.

On the other hand, with my creative endeavors, I can switch easily from one to another without a problem. I can do my daily words, do some drawing or squeeze in a blog post, and work on my main project at the end of the day, with little frustration and not that much time in between.

I realized this was due to the number of things I was working on, and which kind of thought process I was using. I've a good analytical brain which helps me in manuscript revision and plotting, but gets rather annoyed when I have to stop on a dime and restart in a different direction. Or in a different light...I'm happy when I'm in charge of my thought process.

My point being, it's a matter of tricking my mind into switching from one writing project to another. This is why I have the whiteboard; it's a deadline schedule to make sure my multiple projects are getting done in a reasonable time frame. And from my point of view, I should have the time to balance WiS, BtB and the possible new MU story.

Now? It's a matter of getting and staying off the damned internet and DOING them.

I blame the cats, I tell you. Evil, cute furry things!
jon_chaisson: (Mooch writing)
Oh hey there! Been busy the last few days with writing and other errands, so I'd temporarily forgotten to update here! Oops. Some updates:

ITEM: The daily 750 Words are working out quite nicely. There are days I'll just spit out random ideas that may or may not go anywhere, and then I'll come up with an idea that I'll riff on for a good number of days. The latest one concerns a family that used to be a band--sort of like the Osmonds in size and following, where their heyday was in the 80s--and what their lives are like now. This was another one of my ideas inspired by a snippet of a dream, and I've been playing around with it all week. I may or may not continue working on it, but we'll see.

ITEM: Related, it occurred to me last night that if I keep hitting the daily words in the form of this ongoing story idea, by six months I'll have a full novel. A roundabout NaNo project, if you will. I'm not going to call it a real thing, but the idea is out there. We'll see.

ITEM: Also related, I'm finding sneaking in the 750 in increments during the day works out nicely as well. I can log on multiple times, and in the process I've not only been hiting 750 a day, but more like 900 or 1000 words. This bodes well.

ITEM: Yes, this is including my regular writing work at night. [Noted: also good that I moved the 750 to earlier in the day, this gives me more flexibility for the main projects.] Blogging the Beatles and Walk in Silence are slow going, but they're going.

ITEM: Daily journaling is working out well too! Some days I'll write six short paragraphs, other days, like yesterday, I'll write a good two pages. Sometimes it'll be random bloviating, sometimes it'll be trying to figure stuff out. And art? Art still needs more love, but it's getting at least weekly dedication, so there's that. And music is still offline, but near-daily guitar noodling is at least counting as practice. Heh.

Not too much else to report here...doing a book store run later today, and we have the symphony tomorrow, so more busy weekend fun! Whee!
jon_chaisson: (Mooch writing)
So how does my newfangled whiteboard schedule look at this time? Definitely a few rough patches remaining, but other than that it's working out just peachy.

I've been hitting my daily words consistently since Day One, but over the last few days I've fallen into the trap of doing those words after dinner, which is cutting into my actual writing session time. This is a problem I've had for some time, especially since I *want* to be hitting those daily words plus my regular work; if it cuts into my session time, that's less work I actually get done. Recommendation: do what I did in the first few days, sneaking those daily words in throughout the day and getting them done well before 4pm. That seemed to work out just fine. I'm well aware there may be work days where that won't be able to happen, but I can adjust when and where necessary.

The WordPress entries have been consistent so far, and I'd like to think that's because I'm actually starting them a few days early, well before the due date. That's part of the whole whiteboard project this time out--I'm trying to wean myself off the old school habit of doing my homework at the last minute and get it all done early. I have a Welcome to Bridgetown post due on Sunday, so I'll most likely be starting up something today so I have it ready for finishing, editing and posting then.

Monday's 'storyboarding' day worked out pretty well--I let my mind wander and come up with some new angles on the Mendaihu Universe that may be worth looking into. This has also leaked into my daily words, so all told I'm happy that the well has not in fact run dry, it was merely dormant.

Everything else has worked out pretty well so far, though of course I am being super hard on myself to get something of worth out of all this. I've been playing my guitars and trying a few different things, but no recording so far. I've drawn a few preliminary visual storyboards for a personal project (more on that sometime down the line) but they're pretty much remaining very basic pencil tests. I've gotten a good amount of word count on the Beatles book revision, but it still seems quite rough. Point being, it does feel like I'm flailing and getting nowhere...but that's just it: it's only nine days in. I'm just starting out here, and I've got to be a bit more patient.

Onward and upward!
jon_chaisson: (Mooch writing)
Oof. It seems one well-meant system rollout at work that went awry made my productivity go all pear-shaped in January. Thankfully it's sort of back to normal, but I did a lot less work than I'd wanted. Having to do the financial equivalent of medical triage all day for about week and a half can really take a lot out of you. Still...things have calmed down, so it's time to turn it around and get things done again.

One of the things that immediately fell by the wayside was the 750 Words. I just had no time or inclination to do morning words (or in this case, "early evening words just before I start up on revision again"). However, it's a new week and a new month, so it's a perfect time to get back on the horse. I kind of cheated last night with my daily words, but I figure I can accept it this time, as these words for a long-delayed post. These were the 2k-plus words to finish off the most recent Blogging the Beatles installment, which means we have one left to go!

So...was January a wash? Far from it. I finished off the main revision sweep of A Division of Souls, and though I'm sure it can probably use one more go-round, I'm happy with the work I put into it. The very next day I started in on the revision of The Process of Belief, and BOY was Chapter One a doozy. I definitely need to work on that one again. Thankfully I did a marathon eight pages of Chapter Two the other day, and it looks pretty good...so I'm not too worried. I just have to remember that this novel has a different voice from the first two, and for a reason: things have changed for all the characters, and they're definitely not the same people they were just months previous.

I did manage to get a number of journal entries and even a few poems in here and there. This side of the writing is a more personal tug of war, as part of me wants to tackle something every day--a journal entry, the daily words, and some kind of poetry--but some days I just don't have time for it. January was packed with events in and outside the house, so I had to remind myself that it was okay to miss a day if it comes to it.


So what does February have in store for me? Aside from the major revision work for Book 3, I'm going to try to get back into the schedule I'd planned. I also want to get cracking on a few new things as well--specifically, start making notes for future proejcts, as well as get some actual writing work done on Walk in Silence--both the blog and the book. Thirdly, it's high time I picked up the Wacom again after running out of time to play with it. I have a few interesting plans for that little project.

So yes--February looks to be equally busy, but in a good way!
jon_chaisson: (Mooch writing)
Is it officially springtime yet? I don't remember. Then again, what with it starting to get sunny here on the west coast while the east coast gets hit with yet another snowstorm (as well as the time change that took place while we were on vacation in a state that doesn't observe it), I'm still a bit out of sorts there. I'm actually kind of surprised it's Saturday already.

So what's going on? It's been a while since I updated here, aside from the Scintilla posts. Been a while since I've posted anywhere, actually. My online presence has been sparse all around. Most of the time I've been working on the last stretch of the A Division of Souls revision, but I've just been tiring of online drama and trying to keep up with quick-witted Twitterings. In a way, I think I've just felt like living life at my own pace for awhile instead of trying to keep up with everyone else, and I'm feeling the better for it. Mentally I've been feeling a lot calmer and my thoughts have been clearer.

Now that I'm back on the mainland and back on track, I do plan on returning to my various writing projects this weekend. I need to continue working on the Blogging the Beatles posts, plus I have quite a few Hawaii pictures I'd like to put up on my Tumblr...I also want to work on Walk In Silence, as I've got a few ideas I'd like to work on.

I did manage to get a lot of cosmetic editing done on ADoS during my vacation (thanks to my Nook!), and hope to finish that up as well. I can see where I may need to back up and fix a few things from about halfway through and on to the end, but for the most part it's coming along well. I'm aiming for being done by mid-April and making the first steps for submission in May.

So! What are we doing this weekend? It's going to be a nice couple of days out there, so chances are good we may end up going for a walk in one of the parks. A bit of shopping (we emptied out our cupboards before we went on vacation), maybe a stop at Japantown (yay, manga and cupcakes!). It's been a crazy week of trying to catch up on sleep and get ourselves back on track, and I'm quite happy the weekend is here.

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