The Ready Writer

Hello! I haven't fallen off the face of the planet, just busy with 2.5 jobs and trying to get some writing in.  Actual writing trumps writing ABOUT writing.  But here is where I currently stand. I haven't touched my main project in months which has actually been a good thing for me. I've been reading, working on short stories, and generally just thinking about who I am as a writer and that has done me a lot of good. As I grow older, I find myself really trying to take the time to think introspectively and to think about who I am now, and who I want to grow to be.  This is especially good for me while I try to craft and create my writers "voice."   So, let me introduce myself: I am a horror writer. My influences come heavily from American Southern Gothic literature and American Spiritualism.   And knowing that now, my writing is taking shape. I'm finding my voice. All this time I didn't think I had a writing voice, but I do! I have ...

Hello everyone! Just a quick writing update before I head for vacation later this week.  There probably won't be an update next Monday, and the usual Weekly Writing Progress posts will resume in March (I'll do another quick update before then). As I've mentioned, I am in rewrites for my main project.  I finished the rewrite of chapter one (and it is somewhere just over 2,000 words). While my rewrite is going better than I anticipated (now that I know the direction that I want to go), I still find that writing long is difficult. I'm so used to writing short stories, that when I try to write something long, I know I tend to ramble. I am sure that is something that will get better the more the write and the more I practice but for right now its a fine line for me between writing not enough, and just sort of...rambling. I've never been one for what I like to call "fluffy" language. I don't like a lot of extra detail, but at the same time, this ha...

So I have to confess that I haven't been the best at writing so far this year.  And yes, I know that the year is still young.  I DID submit a short story in January, and that is exciting, but I haven't done much else. Here are my excuses: -New Years Party -Grandfather Passed Away -Water Heater Leaked -Been working lots of extra hours since my SO lost his job -Applied and interviewed for a job that I really wanted and then didn't get it (which put me in a bad place) -My Birthday Okay. Got that out of the way. But things are on the upswing. My SO starts his new job in March, I'll be back in town (I'm going out of town to visit family in a couple of weeks) and my hours at both jobs will be back to normal (ish). I know I already stated my writing goals in a previous post.  But I'm committing to it (again). Right now. I'm in the process of re-writing the ENTIRE first act of my novel so it works with the plan I have for the next 2 third...

It's a new year! While there were a lot of bad things about 2016, I made some pretty big strides in figuring out who I am as a writer and what I want to write about. I finally accepted the fact that I write horror, and while some people may not think that it is "real" literature, I do.  And that is all that matters. I finally accepted that I also like to write Junior and YA fiction, and they too are valid, and that they can handle scary stories too. So, with these revelations in mind, I made some 2017 writer goals: Finish my main project Draft 1 Write 6 short stories and have them polished to final draft quality. Revamp my website.  It is in MUCH need of a makeover. Keep working on my side project during the 3 Nanos throughout the year (November, April, and July).  I have been having a lot of fun with that project, and it is a nice break in between my bigger projects. I have A LOT to keep me busy this year.  What are some of your goals and resolut...

Hello Readers! Sorry I have been away.  Last week was sort of...well...not great.  But I did get a little bit of work done. I am in the process of typing up Act I.  I have typed up chapter one so far.  As I type up Act I, I have some goals I want to hit: Delete all of the other POVs except for one of them.  I was attempting to do a multiple POV thing, and I didn't like it, and so I have decided to do it from a single POV.  I know this means that I am going to be deleting like, half of what I have hand written, but that's how writing goes sometimes.  And overall, I think it will help my book be better. Change one of my characters from a mystical/fantasy type character to more of a mortal psychic character.  My character needs to be "gifted" but she was feeling a little too deus ex machina for my taste, so I'm tweaking her a bit. This doesn't seem like a tremendous amount of work, but I'm not quite ready to do big edits yet.  I'm j...

So its the last day of NaNoWriMo and while I am nowhere close to 50,000 words, I am proud to have written close to 4,500. Why? Well, I started working on my main project in July,  and I finished the first Act in October at AROUND 8,000 words. I have written over half of what I wrote in 3 months, in just one. That's because I am working that writing muscle. It isn't a surprise that writing everyday is the best thing to do if you want to be a writer. But as someone with 2 jobs and somewhat of a social life, that can be hard. So I try to write as often as I can.  I used the fun frantic energy of NaNoWriMo to test myself, and to see if I could still squeeze writing in at any possible moment I could even if that meant just taking 5 minutes to write 50 words as opposed to sitting down for an hour and seeing how much I could write. And it helped! I find that I am getting better at getting focused faster, words come a little better, and my writing chunks are getting a litt...

So I am still on hiatus from my main project, but that doesn't mean I'm not writing. In order to keep my horror writer brain sharp, I am doing the following: Working on my "affair" or "backburner" project .  This allows me to distance myself from my main project so that I can come back to it ready to edit critically (and next week I'll talk about what those edits will entail). Reading.   I'm a firm believer (but not the only one that believes it) that in order to be a good writer, you have to be a good reader (and by good, I mean participating in the act of those activities). So I am reading a lot of horror and seeing what the greats (as well as the newbies) are doing in the world of horror.  If you want to see what I'm reading, you can friend me on Goodreads.  You can find me under my full name: Brystan Strong. Research. This may fall into both the previous category and the next one, but I'm doing scholarly research on the genr...

So I finished Act I of my novel! Yay!  It's somewhere along 8,000 words.  My last 2 chapters are more notes than actual prose because I realized that I needed to make some shifts, so I didn't want to write chapters that would ultimately most likely just get thrown out.  So, now I'm taking a month off from that project (so I can distance myself a bit from it, and be able to edit a little more critically.) In the meantime, I am participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), and working on my "affair project". Here's the thing.  I love NaNo. I have participated in it off and on since I was in high school, I was a municipal liaison once, and have made a lot of friends doing it, but I have NEVER made it to 50,000 words.  I've always burnt out.  And I won't make the wordcount again this year either.  But the issue I was having before was that I was using Nano as a means to finish a project. And I just don't work that way.  Not onl...

I don't have any numbers for you this time, I will next time though. I do have a pretty dramatic (okay, maybe not dramatic to you) update about my project.  When I was writing that short post about horror subgenres I mentioned that my current piece is mostly apocolyptic horror with a sprinkle of occult horror mixed in. Well, my biggest struggle with my project has been that I haven't thought that it was scary enough, or scary at all.  And I think that is because I was writing within a subgenre that I don't think is all that scary.  Apocolyptic horror doesn't really scare me.  Occult horror definitely does.  So, I have decided to make a tonal shift.  I am going to make my novel an occult horror with some themes of apocolyptic horror sprinkled in.  The world isn't going to end, but the world as my characters know it, will, and this will be at the hand of a cult like entity.  This also allows for the slight supernatural elements of my story to be...

So I really liked the last stats post where it felt more like a chat rather than just a list of numbers, so that may be how I do it from now on. I wrote 778 words over the course of the last 2 weeks, which isn't a tremendous amount, but I was also on vacation during one of those weeks and didn't do any writing (though I had hoped to). This brings my total project word count to 8,996. But I did finish chapter 5 and started chapter 6 which is awesome.  I'm still working towards the goal of finishing Act 1 by the end of the month.  I know the editing process is going to be a long one, but studying the genre, and also writing those little flash horror stories have helped me to get my voice back a little bit.  I think I mentioned it in the last post, but I had been struggling with that a little bit during this book.  Not sure if its the length, or the fact that its my first dystopia, or what it was, but the tone and overall voice of this first Act is...messy....

Hello everyone! So I didnt track how many words I wrote each day, but I did write a total of 764 words last week which brings my total project wordcount to 8,218 words. I do have some goals for the month of October.  I want to finish Act 1 by the end of the month, I'm just finishing Chapter 4 right now and according to my outline, Act 1 should carry me through the first 8 chapters.  This means some intense writing days, but I think I'm ready for it.  Right now I'm a little disappointed with my small word count, but I'm halfway through act 1 now and am a little over 8000 words, so I'm gonna shoot for Act 1 being twice that.  And if each Act is 16,000 words, I'll hit right around the 50,000 word first draft I was originally shooting for, so I'm gonna try not to stress too much. The reason for the Halloween deadline is because... ...I want to participate in NaNoWriMo.  I miss the frantic off the cuff writing.  No outlines, no rules, just crazy writing....

It is amazing that I got ANY writing in this week, but here are the stats: Monday: +118 words Tuesday: +93 words Wednesday: No Writing Thursday: +148 words Friday: +112 words Saturday: +148 words Sunday: No Writing Total Words Written This Week: 619 words Total Project Word Count: 4,203 words I'm pretty upset that I didn't hit ANY of my goals this week.  I didn't write at least 6 days, I didn't write 1200 words, and I didn't hit 100 words per writing session. Also, I didn't finish chapter 2 (but I'm REALLY CLOSE) This was a pretty bad writing week.  But, similar to last week, it was an AWESOME friends week full of spontaneous road trips, the beach, fun centers, late night pie excursions, church picnics, and movie nights.  This is what summer is supposed to be made of.  I also had a job interview (update: didn't get the job) and did some work on our patio, and lots of working out. Do I need to learn to be more assertive with...

Hello everyone!  Here is my writing progress for the week.  Remember, I am only working on the one project, which I am currently calling "Project Reboot". Monday July 11: +188 words Tuesday July 12: No Writing Wednesday July 13: +256 words Thursday July 14: No Writing Friday July 15: +309 words Saturday July 16: +84 words Sunday July 17: +239 words Weekly Words Written: 1076 Total Words to date: 1439 Current Status: About halfway through Chapter 1. Camp NaNoWriMo Update:  Remember, my goal this month was to write 5000 words, and camp nanowrimo says that "at this rate I'll reach 5000 words on September 2nd." omg. No.  Hafta step up my game!! Some Goals: 1. I want to be writing AT LEAST 6 days a week.  I'm giving myself 1 day off because my Tuesdays are crazy.  But ultimately, until my schedule calms down and I can write 7 days a week, I want to write 6. 2.  I want to write at least 100 words during t...

I have 2 jobs.  Neither of which are writing. This isn't a "woe is me" post.  I'm a hard worker, I have bills to pay (and more bills to pay soon) and right now, one job just isn't cutting it. Someday one job will be enough. And who knows, maybe someday that job will be writing. In the meantime, I work 2 jobs. But I'm still a writer, and its still work.  I've talked a lot about scheduling writing.  I'm getting better at that. I've started scheduling out hour chunks throughout the day.  Treating it like a job or an appointment. So far its working better than just saying "yeah, I'll write today." The next step is to utilize every extra minute, aside from my scheduled hour.  At each job, we are allotted 15 minute breaks.  I can use that time to jot down some notes. God knows that I've been thinking of my story all day, surely there is a detail or a sentence or something I can write down during that time. I also most da...

Hello everyone! Okay, so the first week of Camp NaNoWriMo is over, and I have written....0 words. BUT I do not count it as a failure. I've spent the last week really creating a solid outline and plot.  I have a rough outline for my entire book, and I have a scene by scene outline for Act I. I have also created lore, backstory, really solidified my characters, and thought long and hard about my overall goals for not just this project, but all of them. As many of you know, I've been working on 2 projects.  A Haunted House project and a Haunted Hotel Project (which is getting a new name). Some things are changing. Haunted House is on the back burner for a TBD amount of time. I'm still loving the idea of that story, it will get written, and now that I actually have an idea about how to outline and plot etc. I'm excited to start that one over and make it better. But for now, it is on the back burner.  This is for a couple of reasons. First of all, I really want t...

So today marks the first day of Camp NaNoWriMo. For those of you who may not know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month.  It is a worldwide event that takes place in November where people are inspired, motivated, and urged to write a completed novel of at least 50,000 words in 30 days.  It's crazy. I started participating in NaNoWriMo in 8th grade, regularly participating all through High School (but never finishing).  I stopped participating after I graduated high school, because I stopped writing for a couple of years after I graduated high school.  Once I fell back in love with writing, I was neck deep in college, and eventually grad school coursework so I never really got a chance to participate.  What I did get to participate in, is the community.  I got to surround myself with people who love the craft of writing, who inspired me to be a better writer (even if I never hit 50,000 words) and who understood the hard work and dedica...

So one of my biggest writing goals is figuring out a writing schedule.  I don't like just writing "when I can" because I either don't have time, or I find something else that is "more important".  I need to learn to schedule it out during the week.  Treat it as a 3rd job (because to me it is). There are 2 common times that people write: In the Morning In the Evening Now both of these have their good parts.  Writing in the morning when you're in a dreamy state, not yet awake, allows you to write with little to no censorship, to just freely put your ideas down. Writing in the evening allows you to wind down, to end your night on a high note, and can get you into a dreamy calm state so you can sleep. But, I'm not a morning person.  AT ALL.  I have a hard enough time getting up with enough time to get to work by 9:30 in the morning.  Let alone, get up even earlier to write.  I have said a million times that I am allergic to mornings. ...