Goal: Read 1 chapter of the Bible per day, read 1 book of C.S. Lewis per month, read 1 day of "My Utmost for His Highest" per day.
Goal: Ongoing...
Friday, December 30, 2011
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
2012 Goal #3 -- Focused Reading
Goal: Read the following per month...
-1 Genre Fiction Novel (SFF, Thriller, Horror, Romance, etc.)
-1 Mainstream Fiction Novel
-5 Short Stories
-1 Nonfiction Book (Philosophy, History, Science, etc.)
-1 Book on Business or Publishing
-1 Book on Writing
Deadline: 25 December 2012
-1 Genre Fiction Novel (SFF, Thriller, Horror, Romance, etc.)
-1 Mainstream Fiction Novel
-5 Short Stories
-1 Nonfiction Book (Philosophy, History, Science, etc.)
-1 Book on Business or Publishing
-1 Book on Writing
Deadline: 25 December 2012
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
2012 Goal #2 -- Traditional Publication
Goal: Submit 12 short stories and 4 novels to traditional markets.
Deadline: 25 December 2012
Deadline: 25 December 2012
Monday, December 26, 2011
2012 Goal #1 -- Amazon Publication
Goal: Publish 20 items on Amazon.com through Kindle Direct Publishing.
Deadline: 25 December 2012
Deadline: 25 December 2012
Monday, December 19, 2011
The Plan
The desire to write grows with writing.
-Desiderius Erasmus
 |
| Here we go... |
Okay, finals? Check.
NaNoWriMo? Check.
Travel home? Check.
Write? Check...but just for today.
Contact readers? Check.
Send stories to readers? Check.
Spend time with family? Check.
Watch new Batman trailer? Check.
Procrastinate? Check.
Okay, I guess it really is time to write this post.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Second Story: Complete
Well... this is taking longer than expected...
Over the weekend, I finally finished the second short story. It's about an android infiltrator who goes to college. It's got a couple of fun bits, a creepy turn toward the end, and what I think is a beautiful last line. (I tweeted it when I finished.)
Unfortunately, there's a big chunk of missing character conflict in the middle (easy enough to fix, really; I just need to add a scene in) and the concept sounds far more fun than the reality. So it needs work.
But it's finished. In the midst of Finals and everything else, I managed to rise up out of my procrastination and Resistance in order to finish it.
So now I'm struggling with the next one.
Sigh.
I'll keep you posted.
Until next time...
-josh k.
Second Story Stats
Title: "The Changer and the Student"
Genre: SF-lite.
Length: 4,859 words / ~17 pages.
Premise: Robby, an android shapeshifter, learns what it's like to live with a roommate.
Over the weekend, I finally finished the second short story. It's about an android infiltrator who goes to college. It's got a couple of fun bits, a creepy turn toward the end, and what I think is a beautiful last line. (I tweeted it when I finished.)
Unfortunately, there's a big chunk of missing character conflict in the middle (easy enough to fix, really; I just need to add a scene in) and the concept sounds far more fun than the reality. So it needs work.
But it's finished. In the midst of Finals and everything else, I managed to rise up out of my procrastination and Resistance in order to finish it.
So now I'm struggling with the next one.
Sigh.
I'll keep you posted.
Until next time...
-josh k.
Second Story Stats
Title: "The Changer and the Student"
Genre: SF-lite.
Length: 4,859 words / ~17 pages.
Premise: Robby, an android shapeshifter, learns what it's like to live with a roommate.
Friday, December 9, 2011
Reader's Block Presentation
Hey, everybody. So, things have been abundantly busy and stressful this week. As a result, I have gotten none of my work done unless it's for class. (And even some of that has been difficult to squeeze in.)
Even though I don't have anything to share about my short story sprint project (which is quickly metamorphosing into "the short story crawl" :-/ [Odd, I thought things were supposed to get better when they "metamorphosed."]), I do want to share with you a semi-creative piece I did as a part of my group presentation for the Introduction to Literary Genres: the Novel, class.
A brief background: Reader's Block is an experimental novel by David Markson that weaves numerous quotes from literary figures into a bare-bones story about a man known only as Reader who is trying to write a book about a character named Protagonist. It is this word-tapestry style that I attempted to emulate in presentation on the surrounding context of Markson's work, using the internet.
Right. Okay. And now for something completely different.
Even though I don't have anything to share about my short story sprint project (which is quickly metamorphosing into "the short story crawl" :-/ [Odd, I thought things were supposed to get better when they "metamorphosed."]), I do want to share with you a semi-creative piece I did as a part of my group presentation for the Introduction to Literary Genres: the Novel, class.
A brief background: Reader's Block is an experimental novel by David Markson that weaves numerous quotes from literary figures into a bare-bones story about a man known only as Reader who is trying to write a book about a character named Protagonist. It is this word-tapestry style that I attempted to emulate in presentation on the surrounding context of Markson's work, using the internet.
Right. Okay. And now for something completely different.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
First Story: Complete
Finished the first short story earlier today. Took me about two and a half days to complete it, and it clocks in at about 7,800 words.
I'm not really sure how I feel about this one. It took me longer than I would have liked, ended at a longer length than I would have liked, and all around was more difficult to write than I would have liked.
That being said, I'm still excited about the world that this story comes from. It's what I like to describe as a clockpunk western. It takes the feeling of isolation and lawlessness from frontier American life, and mixes it with the crazy inventions that rise out of the Steampunk genre, without relying on too much of the fantastical magic.
I'm not really sure how I feel about this one. It took me longer than I would have liked, ended at a longer length than I would have liked, and all around was more difficult to write than I would have liked.
That being said, I'm still excited about the world that this story comes from. It's what I like to describe as a clockpunk western. It takes the feeling of isolation and lawlessness from frontier American life, and mixes it with the crazy inventions that rise out of the Steampunk genre, without relying on too much of the fantastical magic.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
December Project -- the Short Story Sprint
Okay, I think it's finally time to lift the veil of mystique from around this new project.
It's pretty simple, folks. During the month of December, I plan to write one short story per day.
Exempting myself for Christmas, that means I should have 30 new stories by the end of the month.
Daunting? Yes.
Very much so, because I am utterly incapable of writing a short story. And that's the main reason I'm doing this. I feel reasonably confident of my ability to write longer fiction, but telling succinct stories (and, really, just straight-up finishing things) is still difficult for me.
Thus, I am going to practice.
It's pretty simple, folks. During the month of December, I plan to write one short story per day.
Exempting myself for Christmas, that means I should have 30 new stories by the end of the month.
Daunting? Yes.
Very much so, because I am utterly incapable of writing a short story. And that's the main reason I'm doing this. I feel reasonably confident of my ability to write longer fiction, but telling succinct stories (and, really, just straight-up finishing things) is still difficult for me.
Thus, I am going to practice.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)