On March 1, 2014 around 10:17 pm I completed the first draft of The Sound of Madness. It took me 68 days total from December 23, 2013 to March 1, 2014. Of that 68 days, I spent 30 days actually writing. On the 38 days I didn’t write, I was probably staring at the monitor with self doubt. On my lowest word count day, I … Continue reading UPDATE: The Sound of Madness – First Draft Completed
As I see the finish line in the current WIP in the distance, I started contemplating on if I could truly call myself a writer even if I am currently not getting paid to do so. If I honestly respond to to the 8 statements to the left, then the answer is YES. But do I call myself a writer? I am not a published … Continue reading Can I Call Myself a Writer?
As I write The Sound of Madness (aka in my work in progress (WIP), I had to take a week off of writing in it. It’s a cardinal rule in my writing world to write a minimum of 500 words a day in whatever current WIP I am on, but there I was taking a week off. I needed to sort out my head and … Continue reading The Sound of Madness: Clearing Headspace
When the pesky Muse strikes, she strikes hard and without warning. On December 23rd, I was casually singing “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray. You’ll never know dear, how much I love you. Please don’t take my sunshine away…”to Nick da Dawg. I was channeling my mom really. She sang the song to my nieces when they … Continue reading The Sound of Madness: A Work in Progress
“God damnit, get out of my head!” is what I want to scream at this novel (aka Work in Progress or WIP). It’s been in my head too long. It’s become like a slow killing infection. My thoughts are consumed by it, my imagination is drowning in it, but it refuses to come together. It fights every word I write. It throws temper tantrums at … Continue reading Frustrated Writer
I’m two days away from the end of my writing challenge and I will be honest. I am no where near close to 75,000 words. The only good thing I can say about this writing challenge is that it got me to write again and that is something I hadn’t done seriously since January 2010. The funny thing is I know I can write a … Continue reading What Am I So Afraid Of?
Yesterday wasn’t a great writing day for me. If I’m going to finish this novel by April 30th, it’s going to be down right impossible if I continue having writing days like yesterday. Why was yesterday so bad? I wrote ZERO words. It takes words to fill a page…pages to fill a chapter…chapters to fill a book. I accomplished a big fat nothing. I tried. … Continue reading Inspired
I have had this idea for a new novel brewing in my head since late December. It was inspired by the fog hugging the side of the West Virginia mountains near/at an exit for Cedar Grove. Over the next few road trips back and forth between NC/MI, the idea twisted, turned, bubbled, and fell together in place. I had my plot, how I wanted to … Continue reading Writing For Me Now
I have had this idea in my head for a novel for about 13-14 years now. It is the novel I must write to exorcise whatever is making me obsess about it. I’ll hear songs and see characters in scenes because of it. Things I see, make me think of the characters, the story, the plot. It has seen many pages written and trashed…the word … Continue reading Staring at a Blank Page
It’s amazing how music can inspire. I was going through old playlists that were for some writing projects I had started and never finished. I’ll also post The Dumbing Down of Love’s playlist after I finish posting the novel as well. I stumbled onto a playlist “Untitled – Piers Druchark” and my interest in the project rekindled. It’s an untitled story with a man character … Continue reading Music Inspiration