Scheduling my writing in the morning has been helping me. I don't have to think about writing all the time just to get anything written down, and I'm getting more well-written stuff made. I need to shift my schedule around a little more, however - I should eat before I write, since I feel quite empty before I eat, and I'm sure that affects what I write. I often eat on the bus, so this requires some changing of my schedule.
I just sent out a list of poems and stories to many of my friends, those who had agreed to look over some of my writing. My fear of failure being equal to my fear of success, I took a long time sending this writing out. But at least I've done it now.
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
It's too Hot in Montreal. And I need a new schedule
The trouble with summer in Montreal is not the heat. It's not the humidity. It's the women.
Normally about this time of the year I can't take it anymore and, being too busy with too many things that interest me and not wanting to be distracted, I go become a hermit in my own town. No longer! The reason I decided to write is because if I don't start seriously writing now then I might never know what could've happened. The same thing is going to happen with romance and me, so I'm jumping into the pool on the ludicrously deep end, diving straight for the bottom.
So I've been busy figuring out what I needed to get myself out there and get something rolling. And it's going pretty damned fine, given that I used to be sure I couldn't get out there at talk with pretty women at all. I'm happy with my progress at least. The trick is that you don't can't care. Not that you can't like them, but you can't care if whether or not they like you, and you can't try to give them things to make them interested in you. I think I'm finally old enough that I can manage to date a woman without needing her approval, and that is a great thing to know.
In line with the above, I am both working hard on learning how to be relaxed and enjoy myself while meeting women, but also working hard to avoid making my life revolve around my search for a woman as I've done in the past at various times (because I find it easy to focus on any one thing at the detriment of all else). So I'm pushing myself to do the writing I need to do to potentially and eventually succeed in that sphere of my life.
Scheduling the writing has changed. I've decided I'll get more done if I write for an hour each morning before I go to work. This is because I can at least schedule when I get up, but if I have night classes or dates then I know that some things will break up my evening writing schedule - this has already lost me a week or two of productivity, so the new system should help. Working for an hour, instead of for 1000 words, also means I won't have to blather sleepily onto paper for pages just to fill my nightly word count. The scheduling thing just got started this morning - I'll let you know how it goes.
Normally about this time of the year I can't take it anymore and, being too busy with too many things that interest me and not wanting to be distracted, I go become a hermit in my own town. No longer! The reason I decided to write is because if I don't start seriously writing now then I might never know what could've happened. The same thing is going to happen with romance and me, so I'm jumping into the pool on the ludicrously deep end, diving straight for the bottom.
So I've been busy figuring out what I needed to get myself out there and get something rolling. And it's going pretty damned fine, given that I used to be sure I couldn't get out there at talk with pretty women at all. I'm happy with my progress at least. The trick is that you don't can't care. Not that you can't like them, but you can't care if whether or not they like you, and you can't try to give them things to make them interested in you. I think I'm finally old enough that I can manage to date a woman without needing her approval, and that is a great thing to know.
In line with the above, I am both working hard on learning how to be relaxed and enjoy myself while meeting women, but also working hard to avoid making my life revolve around my search for a woman as I've done in the past at various times (because I find it easy to focus on any one thing at the detriment of all else). So I'm pushing myself to do the writing I need to do to potentially and eventually succeed in that sphere of my life.
Scheduling the writing has changed. I've decided I'll get more done if I write for an hour each morning before I go to work. This is because I can at least schedule when I get up, but if I have night classes or dates then I know that some things will break up my evening writing schedule - this has already lost me a week or two of productivity, so the new system should help. Working for an hour, instead of for 1000 words, also means I won't have to blather sleepily onto paper for pages just to fill my nightly word count. The scheduling thing just got started this morning - I'll let you know how it goes.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Moved! and Sold!
A few things have happened lately.
I got my move done, which was a bit of a trial but all-around a good thing. Now I'm a bit closer to some of my more favourite locations, and have a cool new roomie. It also gave me a chance to get out of my routine and review my life. Anticipating this move might have been part of the reason I started writing again.
I sold a poem to Star*Zone. It'll be published in the Jan '07 edition, under the title "Along An Edge". My first semi-pro credit!
And I've been hideously distracted by the summer. It's a crazy time, and crazier this year than ever before. I'm looking forward to fall, but I'm really liking the summer right now anyway.
I got my move done, which was a bit of a trial but all-around a good thing. Now I'm a bit closer to some of my more favourite locations, and have a cool new roomie. It also gave me a chance to get out of my routine and review my life. Anticipating this move might have been part of the reason I started writing again.
I sold a poem to Star*Zone. It'll be published in the Jan '07 edition, under the title "Along An Edge". My first semi-pro credit!
And I've been hideously distracted by the summer. It's a crazy time, and crazier this year than ever before. I'm looking forward to fall, but I'm really liking the summer right now anyway.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
I have an apartment! For the last two days I couldn't get anything written; I got home exhausted and everything I thought about writing all I could focus on was wanting to sleep. But I'll probably write a story while at work today, if I can find the ability to do so.
I'm going to be moving most of my big stuff over the weekend, and anything heavy that I can get moved. Until then, I'm going to have to focus a lot of energy cleaning up my present place, throwing away excess stuff, and packing things away. So it'll be a challenge to get anything written this week, but I'm going to fait mon mieux.
I'm going to be moving most of my big stuff over the weekend, and anything heavy that I can get moved. Until then, I'm going to have to focus a lot of energy cleaning up my present place, throwing away excess stuff, and packing things away. So it'll be a challenge to get anything written this week, but I'm going to fait mon mieux.
Monday, July 17, 2006
Win some, lose some
I ended up looking for apartments during much of the time I would've spent organizing my old writing, so my friends don't have anything in hand yet. Soon as I get an apartment, I'll put something together. Hopefully I won't have to wait until the last week of the month to have a confirmed apartment; if so, I won't be giving my friends any writing for about a month.
There is a silver lining today, however: Over the weekend in my usual writing time I managed to finish the first draft of a story I've been working on since I started writing again, and write two very short stories. I'm reading fairy tales right now, and find their concise character to be very appealing--sort of like minimalist poetry in a way.
I also discovered there is an organization for Science Fiction Poetry writers. I always thought I was the only one, so I was very excited to see it. So excited I sent out three of my poems for consideration. In the next two weeks I plan to send out all my other good speculative poems, whenever I have a minute or two to do so. Now that I know there's some small market for them, maybe I'll write some more . . .. I always did like writing them more than anything else.
I also have decided on a goal for myself: I want to get my writing strong enough to attend next summer's Odyssey 6-week intensive writing workshop. I'll have to be careful that I don't stress out about this goal and ruin my writing, but I think just having the goal should add some extra motivation for when things get sticky.
There is a silver lining today, however: Over the weekend in my usual writing time I managed to finish the first draft of a story I've been working on since I started writing again, and write two very short stories. I'm reading fairy tales right now, and find their concise character to be very appealing--sort of like minimalist poetry in a way.
I also discovered there is an organization for Science Fiction Poetry writers. I always thought I was the only one, so I was very excited to see it. So excited I sent out three of my poems for consideration. In the next two weeks I plan to send out all my other good speculative poems, whenever I have a minute or two to do so. Now that I know there's some small market for them, maybe I'll write some more . . .. I always did like writing them more than anything else.
I also have decided on a goal for myself: I want to get my writing strong enough to attend next summer's Odyssey 6-week intensive writing workshop. I'll have to be careful that I don't stress out about this goal and ruin my writing, but I think just having the goal should add some extra motivation for when things get sticky.
Monday, July 10, 2006
Too many Smileys
In lieu of a better place to put this:
I met a man with the last name of Smilovitch. His nickname is Smiley. His brother's nickname is Smiley. Their father and grandfather had the same nicknames.
It must get confusing at parties. But not so confusing at family reunions, I'd hope.
I wonder if I can somehow make files for these random snippets on this blog. Anyone know a way to do that?
I met a man with the last name of Smilovitch. His nickname is Smiley. His brother's nickname is Smiley. Their father and grandfather had the same nicknames.
It must get confusing at parties. But not so confusing at family reunions, I'd hope.
I wonder if I can somehow make files for these random snippets on this blog. Anyone know a way to do that?
Organization
When I started writing for the first time I hoped that lovely prose and poetry would just spill out, and people would read it and they'd love it and I'd never have to work again. Something like vomiting gold.
Fast-forward many years, and now I'm coming back with a vengeance. I know there's going to be piles of work and very little in the way of epiphanies, but all of that's fine because it's work with a lot of purpose to it.
So just like any other job I need to be organized. Here's a list of tasks to complete over the next month:
-Make up a 'care-packet' for my friends and family. A number of my big-hearted friends have agreed to read and comment on whatever writing I want to send them, and I feel they might appreciate reading my most successful earlier works, as a 'thank-you' but mostly to provide them context for the works to come.
-Start and keep up:
-Edit all newly-typed works
This is pretty much in order of importance, and all of it comes after the 1000 or so words I'm writing six days of the week.
Later on I'll start studying the fiction market again, learning what magazines might purchase my stuff, then reading each of them thoroughly. But I need to get an organized structure to how I relate to my craft before I can even think about publishing. By the time I'm fully organized, in six months or so, I might have the first new stories ready to send out.
Regarding the lists: I'm not yet sure where to put them, or how to keep them updated. I don't want to find that I spend all of my writing time updating my lists (or blogging about my writing). I want lists that I can easily update, easily add to, and easily garnish from. Tall order, eh? It's surprising there's so many good creative arts programmes for making art, but so few for brainstorming and embellishing . . ..
Fast-forward many years, and now I'm coming back with a vengeance. I know there's going to be piles of work and very little in the way of epiphanies, but all of that's fine because it's work with a lot of purpose to it.
So just like any other job I need to be organized. Here's a list of tasks to complete over the next month:
-Make up a 'care-packet' for my friends and family. A number of my big-hearted friends have agreed to read and comment on whatever writing I want to send them, and I feel they might appreciate reading my most successful earlier works, as a 'thank-you' but mostly to provide them context for the works to come.
-Start and keep up:
- a list of quotes
- a list of descriptions
- a list of character portraits
- a list of story ideas
- a list of miscellaneous brick-a-brack. Stuff in its elemental form, ye ken.
-Edit all newly-typed works
This is pretty much in order of importance, and all of it comes after the 1000 or so words I'm writing six days of the week.
Later on I'll start studying the fiction market again, learning what magazines might purchase my stuff, then reading each of them thoroughly. But I need to get an organized structure to how I relate to my craft before I can even think about publishing. By the time I'm fully organized, in six months or so, I might have the first new stories ready to send out.
Regarding the lists: I'm not yet sure where to put them, or how to keep them updated. I don't want to find that I spend all of my writing time updating my lists (or blogging about my writing). I want lists that I can easily update, easily add to, and easily garnish from. Tall order, eh? It's surprising there's so many good creative arts programmes for making art, but so few for brainstorming and embellishing . . ..
Welcome!
My name is Richard Baldwin, and I'm a young writer living in Montreal. A few days ago I decided it was time to bite the bullet and really put all of my extra energy into becoming a professional fantasy writer. This blog is going to be all about what's going on in the background of my writing. It will contain bits and pieces of info from my life, snippets of dialogue, story ideas I might develop--Whatever I feel might help me become a better writer.
Writing for me is about taking the personal out into the world, and first I have to find what I can show you--So I'll be spending a lot of my time here trying to map out what I have to say in my stories. I hope that, as I learn my trade and map out my tales, those of you with the interest will learn something by my side. For the rest of you I'll try to do my best to make my own mental journeys interesting, informative, or both.
Writing for me is about taking the personal out into the world, and first I have to find what I can show you--So I'll be spending a lot of my time here trying to map out what I have to say in my stories. I hope that, as I learn my trade and map out my tales, those of you with the interest will learn something by my side. For the rest of you I'll try to do my best to make my own mental journeys interesting, informative, or both.
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