WATCHED

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

I never read the comics when I was younger, but I did watch the cartoon, so there was definitely a certain level of anticipation on my part when the first of the X-Men franchise was originally slated for release.  Though I’ve deemed the X-Men films as the movies where good actors go to get a break from acting, they’ve served their entertainment purposes and I’ve liked all three of them.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is supposed to be about the—er—origins of, well, Wolverine, if the title wasn’t obvious enough.  It starts off when he’s a kid and he finds out he’s half-brothers with Victor Creed (aka Sabretooth), goes through a choppy montage of clips with the two of them fighting in every war imaginable in recent history, to the point where they’re both recruited to become part of William Stryker’s personal SWAT team of mutants.  That’s all in the first five minutes.  To say that this film is roughly edited and moves at too quick of a pace is an understatement.  I had a connection with Wolverine because I’ve already been through three other movies with him, but it didn’t leave me enough time to bond with the other characters.

One of my favorites has always been Gambit, but the eight minutes of screen time he had wasn’t nearly enough for me (though they were probably the BEST eight minutes of the movie!).  The whole storyline was a bit contrived and I left feeling disappointed.  It was entertaining, don’t get me wrong, with some decent action and a look at a bunch of new mutants we hadn’t been privy to in the earlier films in the franchise (and some of them, like Gambit and Deadpool, already have Origins spin-offs of their own in the works), which was cool.  But the acting in this installment was particularly bad, even on Hugh Jackman’s part, which pains me to say.

And there’s also the fact that they CHANGED Wolverine’s origins for this movie!  Like I said previously, I didn’t read the comics, but even I know that Logan didn’t have his claws UNTIL the metal was added to his bones… they were a sort of perk of the operation.  In the movie, young Jimmy (I don’t know WHY he’s called Jimmy in the beginning and throughout the film by Sabretooth and is now Logan, but whatever) gets mad and the claws come out of his hands as bone, and he goes through all the wars and most of his life with the bone claws (which I actually found kind of disgusting for some reason) that turn into metal during the operation.  And since when does Sabretooth have long life like Wolverine?  He also seemed to have healing powers of some sort, because he never seemed to be hurt, no matter how he was shot, stabbed, cut or impaled.  Anyone know anything about X-Men that can let me know about this?

Basically, it’s a pretty mindless movie with some decent action and cool special effects.  Hopefully the Wolverine 2 movie that is already being planned will be a little better in the story and acting departments, because this one was definitely lacking in both.  Go to see it in theatres if you like (mostly because the SFX will look better), but it’s not really necessary.

Score: Not great, but didn’t want to throw myself on Wolverine’s claws… 6/10.

READ

Neil Gaiman’s Journal

Neil’s name has popped up over the past few years, but I never picked up one of his books.  Most recently (if you call two years ago recently), I saw the movie Stardust, which is based off of one of his novels, and I really liked it!  Now, I still haven’t read any of his books, but I subscribe to his Journal on his official website and I also just followed him on Twitter.

There are some authors that I love to read but who can be fairly boring people.  There are others that I don’t particularly like their books but I LOVE to read them talk (meaning, anything BUT their fiction, ie. blog posts, interviews, etc…).  Stephen King is one of the latter.  I HAVE eighteen of his books and I’ve read exactly four of them.  They’re okay, but don’t have me itching to pick up the next one (then why do I have eighteen of them?  I have mentioned my compulsive book buying before, haven’t I?), but his On Writing book is incredible, I read every Entertainment Weekly column he writes, and every time I see an interview or anything with him I have to read it.  He’s just an incredibly interesting and intelligent person whose brain I love to get a glimpse into.

This is my problem with Neil.  Not a problem, per-se, but definitely a predicament.  I love reading him talk so much that I’m afraid to pick up one of his books!  Take his latest Journal entry for instance (read it here… trust me, you’ll enjoy it!).  A very well thought out response to a question that plagues most published authors, but also an answer to an email from a fan!  As a heavy reader myself, I like to see instances where authors take the time to communicate with their fans, and Neil does that on a daily basis through email, his Journal, and on Twitter.  It’s very frustrating when some of your favorite authors don’t even have a WEBSITE, let alone a blog or Twitter account or Facebook page.  A great amount of interaction isn’t necessary (they do have to have time to actually write the books we so love!), but a little would be nice, and a bit more is always appreciated.

Are we too connected?  Only time will tell, but I enjoy the communication and is something I plan to do myself when I finally get published.  I mean, how else would I have known that Christopher Rice finished his fifth book last week if I weren’t friends with him on Facebook?  I know he has no clue who I am, but it’s nice to have that little connection.

But back to Neil.  I have been enjoying his Journal entries for months now and think it’s finally time to venture into his world of fiction.  Are there any fans out there who could recommend a first read?

And if you haven’t checked out his Journal, definitely take some time to do so!

Until next…

P.S. Follow me on Twitter if you haven’t already!

In the past four days I have written over 12,000 words, completed the third part of my book, and I am now working on finishing some things for part two.  When I finish that later on today, I will start going through the book chapter by chapter and updating old passages for my current voice.

Once this is completed, my book will be finished, and then it is up to three of my closest friends to tell me how it reads.  After eight years of working on it, it will be the first time anyone is going to get to read it in its entirety.

If they like it, or after I’ve made any suggested changes, then it’s time to send it out to agents, some of whom have actually asked to see it upon completion.

I’m reading through this post as I’m writing it, and I know it sounds so matter-of-fact, but I’m honestly having a hard time believing what I’m typing.  I’ve been working on this project for so long… it’s hard to think that it soon might be over.

Oh, I could edit this thing for the rest of my life, thinking of new and different things to write or have them do, but after eight years and falling in at about 145,000 words (which I think is just perfect for a literary novel), it’s time to let it go.

*deep breaths*

And now, I plunge into the deep end.

Until next…

I’ve finished writing new chapters for the second part of my book, and I’ve now started on Part 3.  It’s going to be a relatively short PART, about 10,000 words, not including the Epilogue, which is already written.  Hopefully, I can get it done in the next week.  Then I need to go back to Part 2 and rearrange/edit/splice what’s there and write some new scenes.  All-in-all, not much more work until it’s finished.  I’ve even given myself a deadline of March 31st (which I hope to stick to… this time), and have scheduled a week of vacation at the end of the month so that it can be done.  Anyone have any goats we can sacrifice… or better yet, any virgins?

The baby is being kicked out of the nest after this last edit.  When I’m done with it (by the end of the month!), I plan on sending it to three of my friends (you already know who you are), so that I can get an even analysis of the book.  From that, I’ll make spot edits/changes, and then it’s off to literary agent purgatory to await judgment.  Hopefully my book will be able to ascend, rather than going the h-e-double-hockey-sticks route, if you catch my drift.

I know I keep saying it’s time, but ya’ll, it’s time! Other characters for other projects are whispering sweet nothings in my ears, tempting me away.  And I am SO temptable at this point.  At least if they were real people I might be getting laid right now.  But that’s the whole point, isn’t it?  If I move on to these other stories, I’ll feel like I’m cheating on the current one.  This one will be scorned, bitter and abandoned, and the one I cheated on it with will be the dirty, resentful mistress, because of course I wouldn’t have TOLD either of them what I was doing, but they always find out about one another at some point!  See my dilemma?

For my next set of novels, I’ve already decided to go into them as open relationships (sorry to continue with the sex analogy here, it just seemed to work so I’m running with it).  I know my writing pace, so know I can work on multiple projects at once and finish two to three per year (if my life goes according to plan and I’m able to write full-time).  I can do one a year for each of my YA novels, possibly another random commercial novel, and a literary novel every two years.  This is something I KNOW I can do, if only I have the time.

You’ve probably noticed that I have a lot of confidence in my writing and my writing ability.  I don’t know where it comes from, but it’s there, so I go with it.  Now, the thing is, I have ZERO confidence that what I’m writing will sell, or that it’ll make me any money.  We have had it ingrained in us how hard it is to make it in this business.  Talent plays a big part (I’m not saying I’m talented, I just have confidence… I could be confident in crap, I don’t know, but I think every writer has confidence in their writing, or else they wouldn’t be doing it!  Hear that, D?), but it’s also luck and timing and an amalgamation of other factors that all need to align at the same time as the planets do (meaning, rarely).  I also know they say most writers never sell their first books.  Well, that’s not really an option for me.  I’ve spent FAR too much time on this book to never get it published… Even if I sell the rest of the books I write and make millions doing so, I’ll always be pushing this book, too.

That was a whole bunch of rambling, wasn’t it?  Well, have you ever paid attention to what I call my blog on here?

Hopefully I’m doing you proud, Simon, and you’ll be satisfied enough to leave in peace.  I love you, but eight years is a long time.  We’ll still be friends, okay?  And I’ll probably see you again in a few years, if I actually go ahead and decide to write the book from the POV of another character like I’ve been thinking about.  DAMN IT!  Shouldn’t have said that!

Until next…

(Oh, if you subscribe to my Journal through either an RSS feed or through Email, let me know if you’re having trouble getting it when I publish… The site I use to send out the updates was recently acquired by Google, and I haven’t gone into it since then.  Please let me know!)

Okay, I’ve been a little hush-hush about this in the last couple of blog posts, but I guess it’s okay to talk about now.  I have a confession to make: I’ve been writing.  Yes, I KNOW.  I don’t know what brought it on, so didn’t want to say anything in case it decided to go away again.  But I’ve actually written more in the last month than I have in the last YEAR.  Literally.  I’ve gotten a few more new chapters written, and rewrote a section of another chapter I’d been dreading working on (and it was actually REALLY easy to do, to my surprise!).  All-in-all, about 18,000 or so words.

I love my book, I really do, but I need to move on.  I’ve been working on it in one form or another since I was in 10th grade.  That’s over EIGHT years, folks.  Eight years is a long time to have the same voices in your head, to live with the same people day in and day out.  That’s why I’m hoping I can finish this one within the coming month and move on to some other projects.  I’ve already mentioned that I won’t allow myself to work on any other (novel length) projects until this one is done, because I’ll never finish it if I do, and that’s still very much the rule.  Though, IF I’m able to keep up this pace, finishing it within the coming month shouldn’t be a problem.  I HOPE.  I PRAY.  Please, God, just let me finish.  I don’t ask you for much, and all the jokes you like to play on me should warrant me some favors.  At least one.  I’m calling it in.

I’ve already decided on my next two projects, which are actually two beginnings to two young adult series’.  The first is a fantasy series, and the other is an absolute bitch-fest.  Did I talk about this in my last post?  I’m not going back to read it, so I hope not.  Ah well, you’re not getting any more information than that, so I guess you can hear it as many times as I want and it doesn’t matter, does it?!

Oh, did anyone happen to see a certain show this past Sunday, one featuring a flawless, bald, gold man who just so happens to be missing his genitals?  THE OSCARS.  So… KATE WON! I’M SO EFFING HAPPY FOR HER!! SHE SO DESERVES IT!!!  I made a vow a while ago that, by the time I’m established in the world of Hollywood, if Kate hadn’t won an Oscar, I’d write a movie that would get her said deserved Oscar.  Well, someone has spared me the trouble.  Not that I would have minded writing it for her, but I don’t know how long it’ll be until I’m there, and I couldn’t bear seeing her Oscarless any longer!  I love you, Kate!  Can I have your babies?!

I’ve seen the movie TAKEN, starring Liam Neeson, twice now.  It’s the one about an ex-CIA agent whose daughter gets kidnapped in Paris and sold into sex trafficking.  The trailers for the movie looked amazing, so I was really excited about it.  Honestly, the first time I saw it I was a little disappointed.  Don’t get me wrong, it was a really good movie, but I was hoping for/expecting something a little DEEPER, considering who the star was.  But it was exactly the kind of movie you’d expect it to be.  The second time I saw it I left those hopes at the door and just enjoyed the movie for what it was, and that time walked out much more satisfied!  I’d definitely recommend it to anyone looking for something with a few well-placed shocks and Liam Neeson kicking ass along the way!

Now, I need to pose a question to all of my writer friends out there, and I would really appreciate an answer from all who have the time!  A little backstory first, though…

I hate editing.  Editing in the general sense of the word, anyway.  When I write, I edit as I go, fleshing out sentences and paragraphs and pages, reworking dialogue until it has a natural sounding flow, making sure words aren’t repeated too often or too close together.  In starting a new day of work, I always reread what I’ve already written in that chapter, checking my flow and rhythm, wording, and so on.  By the time I’m done with my “first draft,” I’d say it’s akin to most other writer’s third or fourth drafts.  Depending on the length, it may have been “edited” twenty-thirty times already.  That being said, I hate having to go back over work I’ve already written and deemed finished, because I’m a picker.  I could pick and pick at words and sentences until the earth dies, and I could pick some more after, too.  I feel like I’ve already done the work and shouldn’t trouble going over it again.  It’s finished.  Most of my short stories—oh, who am I kidding?  ALL of my short stories are technically “first drafts.”

My question is, do you actually ENJOY editing/revising?  I’ve heard both arguments, but am curious to what you think.  Some say revising brings out the TRUE story, while others say you’re just moving around words and beating the dead horse more dead.  You know what I mean.  What’s your opinion on editing/revising?

Until next…

Well, something’s been happening in the last few years: another phenomenon was born.  I’ve been mostly ignoring it, somewhat because I was already so involved with the characters of too many series’ (Harry Potter, The Sword of Truth, the Inheritance Cycle, etc…), but mainly because the author is being hailed as “The New JK Rowling”, which is simply heresy as far as I’m concerned.

The author in question?  Stephenie Meyer.  The books she wrote?  The Twilight Saga.

I said I would never read these books.  I didn’t want to jump on the bandwagon, and I felt like I would be cheating on Jo and Harry if I did.  Seriously, I felt that strongly about it.  But, as the title of this post states, I finally caved in, having asked for and received all four novels in the Twilight series for Christmas.

Let’s just say that I started reading the books about two weeks ago, and I’m already on book four.  I have REALLY been enjoying them.  They’re absolutely nothing like Harry Potter, obviously, but they’re just as easy a read.  I’ve never been a HUGE fan of the vampire stuff, but there’s something about this new mythology that Stephenie has created that is, for lack of a better word, fascinating.  I don’t want to give anything away, so I’m just going to say that she takes all of our ideas about vampires and their culture and completely turns it on its ear.  She has new answers for everything, including but not limited to why they don’t go out in the sun, and it’s all proof of a really clever and talented writer.

The thing I like most about the books, and it’s something I imagine most of the readers really respond to, is the love between the story’s main characters, Bella Swan and Edward Cullen.  The forbidden love between vampire and human, “the lion falling in love with the lamb” as Stephenie so eloquently puts it, is both beautiful, heartbreaking, and completely hot.  Can’t believe I’m swooning over a YA fantasy novel!  If you’ve read the books, you’ll know what I mean.

The stories are full of passion, love, fierce rivalry, betrayal, and suspense.  I’m kind of disappointed that I didn’t start reading the books while the movie was still in theaters, because you all know I think every movie should be viewed in a theater environment, but it’s something I’ll definitely check out on DVD when it comes out.  I’m only at the beginning of the fourth book, but I’m sure it’s going to be a doozy, at least from what I’ve heard.

Now, for the second part: I’m not saying that I’ve broken through whatever barrier has been keeping me from writing, but I completed the chapter I began back in October and have also written a completely new chapter in the last week alone.  This part is going to be very short, because I don’t want to jinx whatever is going on, and I don’t want to put any false hope behind my sudden writing spurt.  However, I will say that it felt nice to finish something again, and then to write something completely new in such a short amount of time.  For instance, yesterday alone I wrote over 2200 words, which was the completion of the new chapter.  I haven’t been giving myself the time to write so much, which is part of the reason why it’s been going so slow.  I just need to prioritize, then everything will be okay.

Thanks again to everyone who commented on my last post, or wrote to me personally.  It’s not easy admitting one’s faults, but the support you have all shown me has truly helped.  Hopefully you won’t have to read anymore of the woe-is-me posts for a very long time, if ever again, but I hold no promises.  Sometimes it just helps to get it all off your chest.

For those of my writer friends who also have blogs, don’t take it personally that I haven’t commented on your sites in so long.  It’s hard to explain, but when things become stressful, even seeing a buildup of RSS reeds can feel like overwhelming pressure.  So, I have gone through and cleared all of the backlogs, and plan on coming back to them anew.  I’ll be back at your next new post and hopefully I won’t disappear like that again, stress permitting.  I love you guys!

Now, to end this post on a lighter note, I’ve also recently discovered David Sedaris.  For those of you who know me, you’ll know that David has exactly my sense of humor.  I’ve listen to two of his CDs, one a live recording of him at Carnegie Hall, and the other the audio version of his book Holidays On Ice, both of which were completely hilarious.  Below, you’ll find a clip of him on David Letterman, reading one of his most humorous essays.  Enjoy!

Until next…

It’s December 24th, almost 2009, and I’ve been thinking about the past year a lot lately.  What have I accomplished?  Personally, I feel like nothing… but that’s not really true, is it?  I mean, I did manage to graduate college with respectable marks.  Not summa cum laude or anything, but with a B average (slightly over a 3.0), which is nothing to shake a stick at.  It was always hard for me to commit fully to classes in which the subject or the professor were less than desirable, so all of the really good grades I got were equaled out by some, erm, really bad ones.  Ah well, hakuna matata.

I also went to two writers conferences: ThrillerFest in NYC in July, and the Maui Writers Conference and Retreat in Honolulu in August/September.  In Maui, I even managed to get some really great compliments from a huge bestselling author about my work.  Again, not too shabby.

Other than that?  The year’s basically been a dud.  Yeah, I graduated, but then I was unemployed for a few months, got a job that I was forced to quit after 5 weeks, unemployed for a few MORE months (racking up some nice credit card bills in the process… eating is EXPENSIVE, ya’ll!), and then finally landed my current, low paying job in October.  I owe almost everybody under the sun some money, and it doesn’t look like it is going to get better anytime soon.

On top of all of that, I’ve hardly written anything this year.  I wrote one short story back in March, two chapters of my novel since I’ve been back from Hawaii, and I’ve recently started a new short story.  That’s pretty much it.  I haven’t had the urge to write and, despite my proclamation of a few months ago to say fuck-all to inspiration, you still need a little.  It feels like I’ve got some form of writer’s mono.  Like, I know that there’s this thing I want to do, need to do, but I just can’t seem to get myself to do it.  Oh yes, it does come in spurts, which is why I’ve managed to write what I have, but they usually don’t last for very long.

I’m being oddly frank here, internet.  But I figure, why lie?  Why paint a rosy picture on what I have been feeling?  Surely some of you have felt the same at some point or another.  I feel pressured to write for some reason, like I SHOULD be doing it, and that thought is very paralyzing.  I’ve tended to do relaxing things as of late, to keep my mind off of bills and writing… which means avoiding the blog, other writers’ blogs, email, and often the internet/computer altogether.  Honestly, if I didn’t use iTunes on a nightly basis, I probably wouldn’t have used my computer these past couple of months.

It would be all well and good to make some kind of New Year’s resolution, to stand up, pump my fist in the air, and say I WILL WRITE THIS YEAR!  I WILL FINISH MY NOVEL AND SUBMIT IT TO AGENTS!  I WILL NOT LET MY DEPRESSION GET THE BETTER OF MY WRITING!  (It’s not really depression… glumness?  Is that a word?  It is now.) But what good would it do?  I can’t lie to myself, so why make the resolution if I can’t make myself do it?

At this point, all I can really hope is that my finances level out, that I can start paying back all of the money I owe to creditors and my friends/family, and that some of the stresses of my life lift so that I may once again concentrate on my love, my writing.

The passion is still there, the love I so fondly speak about… I can feel it in me.  I keep getting ideas for novels and series’ and movies and stories.  My mind is always working through plot holes and other points, creating dialogue and scenes and conflict.  But how to get it out?

That, my friends, is the question of the year.

I hope everyone has a brilliant Christmas and that the New Year brings joy and success for us all.

Until next…

You’re either going to love this movie, or loathe it.  It definitely takes a certain type of humor to get this movie.  Luckily, I have said sense of humor, so I didn’t leave disappointed, but I can’t claim the same for everyone.

This story starts with Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich) as he gets fired from his job at the CIA for being an alcoholic.  He’s in a rocky marriage with uptight Katie Cox (Tilda Swinton), who is having an affair with Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney).  She wants to divorce Osbourne and marry Harry, though she doesn’t realize that Harry is a sex addict—and slightly neurotic!—and their relationship doesn’t mean as much to him as it does to her.  With me so far?  In the meantime, Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) wants to get plastic surgery to improve her looks and hook a man.  She works at a gym with happy-go-lucky Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt), where they find a CD containing information about CIA agent Osbourne Cox.  They decide to try and blackmail Cox into paying to get the information back, and it basically blows up in their faces.

And that’s really only the half of it!  Basically, this is the Coen Brothers’ idea of a Soap Opera, though much more entertaining, and with MUCH better acting!

There are a lot of big names in this movie (most of whom are listed above), and it’s nice to see most of them taking themselves not so seriously.  One of the biggest scene stealers in this flick is Brad Pitt, whose blond streaked coif and tight gym shorts only add to the slightly dimwitted character.  He is able to portray this almost childlike enthusiasm and innocence that gets caught up in something more dangerous than he could have ever imagined.

Some of the most hilarious scenes in the movie were between J.K. Simmons (as the CIA Supervisor) and another CIA officer, as they try to understand the situation from their end.  The story is so ridiculous that the Coen’s brought in these characters just point that fact out to us and make sure we knew THEY knew the movie’s ridiculous.

Now, this movie isn’t all sunshine and dildos (you’ll get that if you’ve seen the movie).  Some people actually die, and in some not so nice ways.  BUT, they were shown in such a way that they’re actually kind of funny (or, at least I think so!).  Just be prepared for it when you sit down with your garbage bag of popcorn and three liters of soda.

I didn’t see There Will Be Blood, but I’m guessing this isn’t the kind of movies the Coen’s are expecting to get Oscar noms for, and they certainly won’t.  It was entertaining, it was funny, and I didn’t feel like I had wasted $10.  That’s a big plus!

Like I said, not everyone is going to like this movie, but some of you will.  I’d recommend it to friends of mine who share my sense of humor.  For me: 7/10.

Until next…

Here I’ve been, bitching and moaning that I haven’t written anything in months, that I just don’t have the urge.  Apparently, all I needed to do was go FUCK THE URGE, I’m writing anyway.  And you know what?  I did just that.  Two days ago, for the first time in over four months, I sat down and just wrote.  For about an hour and a half.  And spat out over 1,100 words.  Not bad, I say!

I found that writing without inspiration is very much like writing WITH it… except I don’t have that doofy grin on my face.  The voice of my main character was still there, ready to talk.  I just had to let him.  What came as the biggest shock was that it was up to my usual standard of writing.  Its quality wasn’t diminished because I lacked the usual inspiration.  Granted, it may have been a little harder to get the words out, but they still came.  So, apparently, inspiration can suck it.

There, I said it!

At the height of my productivity, I can write a 10,000 word story in three days, so about 3,300 words a day is the best I’ve done (to memory… could have been more without me realizing it).  In theory, I should be able to write a decently sized first draft (100-120k words) in about 30-36 days.  BUT, considering that pace is RIDICULOUS for the long term, I’d say something like three months would be far more likely, if I wrote between 1-1.5k words per day.  Which is an extremely doable pace for me!  Then take the next three months for revisions and editing.  At which rate I could potentially write two books a year, which I think is INSANE (though it is a slightly exciting revelation!).

What I’ve got to do is work on my discipline.  I’m a very lazy writer, and I’m the first to admit to that.  I’ve mostly been relying on “inspiration” for the past few years, writing in bursts when the urge hits me, but I know now that I can’t do that if I ever want to realize my dreams of becoming a fulltime writer.  Writing is work, and if all anyone ever did was rely on inspiration, then there wouldn’t be so many books out there now.

I never wanted writing to become work, because I thought I wouldn’t want to do it then.  Kind of like when I was younger and discovered the pleasures of cooking for the first time.  I really enjoyed it at first, but then my parents turned it into a chore for me, and it lost its appeal.  Surely the same would happen with writing, no?  But then another realization struck: there are people all over the world who LOVE their jobs.  They’re still doing work, technically, but they’re enjoying doing it.  Who says that writing would be any less fun if I had to do it to make a living?

A friend pointed something out to me after reading my last blog post… in the same entry, I basically declare how brilliant I am and simultaneously knock myself down by saying I suck and haven’t written in four months.  Now, I never meant for that bit about Steve saying I was a good writer to sound narcissistic, but to note my shock that he would say so (and there was a little pride in there as well, I admit).  She then said something that really got me thinking: “If Steve knew you weren’t writing, he’d lose all respect for you.”

And she’s absolutely right.

I’m unemployed at the moment, as I’ve noted.  Yes, I have a few stresses, but no real excuse about why I can’t write.  Did Stephen King stop writing after being hit by a car?  Did Anne Rice stop writing after her daughter died at a young age?  Did Jo Rowling stop writing when she was so close to being homeless?  No.  And look what’s happened for all of them!  (I’m not comparing myself to them at all, but they are the most tragic writer scenarios I could think of to prove my point!  And yes, I know SK got hit AFTER he was already über successful… but he’s bounced back almost tenfold!)

A new declaration: Writing is now my job.  Regardless of what happens in the near future as a means to make money, any other “job” I get will be part-time in comparison to my writing.  I’m not setting any goals right now as far as daily productivity, though I still have a personal deadline of finishing all revisions on my novel by October 31.  I’m going to need everyone’s help to remind me of this deadline, and make me feel guilty if I’m not doing my job.  Local friends and family: if you see me watching TV or a movie I’ve seen a bajillion times, ask me why I’m not writing.  Distant friends and family: occasional reminders that I should be writing or inquiries into how it’s all going would be appreciated!

As soon as this entry is posted, I’m packing up my laptop and going back to the local diner where I managed my last successful writing day.  No internet, no TV, no couch/bed to nap on… just my computer and my imagination!

To writing!

Until next…