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Saturday, April 21, 2012

Suggested Reading

A quick post before I get fitted for a tux for a friends wedding. Something that Im going to have to get away from is editing each chapter as I finish it.  As I near 20,000 words I find myself lost in the first chapter, editing, and reediting the opening lines.  Today I spent the better part of my morning doing just this.

As a developing writer, I must force myself to avoid going back to work on things.  There will be plenty of time for all of that when I'm finished with the first draft.

Oh, also one thing I might point out for anyone who's looking into this world of writing.  Check out the book "On Writing" by Stephen King.  Its packed with a lot of information and from a viewpoint that we all can relate too.  Someone who's just trying to make it in life as a author and what he had to go though in life to make it.  It was a real eye opener for me.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Where I go to write (For now)


You know there are times that I find it very hard to sit down and write on my novel.  I find that I get distracted very easy and this was something that was very bothersome to me.  So about a month ago, I sat down to write and I found me playing with my bird Marty while he was out of his cage.  Now don’t take this as I’m not serious about my writing, because I am.  But there’s a good chance that I got a very short attention span.  This is something that I’ve dealt with for most of my life.  I get distracted very easily and I can find myself way off target when I’m going to get things done.  So I did what every normal person does… I Googled my problem.

It quickly became apparent that I am not the only person with this problem.  Like me there are others out there searching for answers.  I found several suggestions that were helpful and some not so.  One suggestion that I found is what has helped me the most  It comes down to this, if you think that your problem is that your distracted easily or too often then you need to sit down and address your situation and what you are doing in order to get your book done.  No matter the subject is, if you are like me and have a short attention span you must take the distractions out of the equation.  For me I had to get away from the TV, games, Ipad, and Facebook.

To accomplish this I come up with a game plan.  I like in Oklahoma City and near where I live there is a Library a few miles from my home and while the kiddos are in school, I started going there to write.  This works for me because the Moore Public Library is nice, quiet and has several comforts that I can enjoy while I’m writing.  For instance, At home I tend to write on my laptop while in bed and although you might think that this would be comfortable but I get terrible back aches from sitting in an odd position for hours at a time.  But at this library, they have wonderful armchairs that are very comfortable!  I can write all day (Backache free) if I have the time and if I go in the mornings there are very few people there to distract me. 

The Moore Public Library.


Another thing I tend to do is turn off the Wi-Fi on my computer while I write.  I find that my mind won’t drift off to things that would normally distract me like Facebook or the news.  I know that it’s simple to just turn the Wi-Fi back on but if I’m in the right mindset, I won’t do anything but focus on the task at hand.  This has helped me tremendously, even though the library had Wi-Fi, I don’t use it.  If I need to research for my book or look a fact up, I tend to use my smart phone so that I don’t get too distracted. 

The only problem I face now is that I want to get work done on the book while I’m at home in the evenings or on the weekends.  I find that it’s not easy to do when the kids are always distracting me.  I love them to death and I do enjoy that I get to spend all of my free time with them; I just need to figure out a balance so that they know that I’m working, even on the weekends.  Also we have a TV in just about every room and it’s very easy to turn it on and forget all about the work I planned on getting done.    

But that’s a problem I’m working on now.  If you have any suggestions, don’t be afraid to leave a comment, who knows, it could help me tremendously in growing as a writer! 

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Becoming a Blogger

Although I always told myself that I would never be a "Blogger", here I am blogging away.  I wanted some way to document my writing progress and the the many things that I will be considering along the way.  I also hope to use this experience to make myself a better author, by building on the knowledge of those who have walked this path.

There is a little learning curve to blogging and the blogger.com website but I feel that I can overcome those obstacles.  

I hope everyone following will enjoy the adventure and perhaps learn something from my experiences.  

Enjoy!