Welcome to Day 24 of Crashcourse!

Clearly NOT READING!

Did you ever stop reading fiction? If so, when did you stop? Why? And when did you start reading again?

When Did You Stop Reading?

First things first. I added 1,648 words in four hours of creative editing yesterday. It was an uneventful day and when I was finished, I started thinking about something that’s been on my mind as of late.

Whenever I tell people I’m a writer, something curious happens. Their eyes get a faraway look. Their voices grow kind of wistful and perhaps, a bit sad. “You know, I used to love to read when I was a kid,” they often say. Hmm … this always gets my attention. Books are, after all, my business. But also, I experienced something similar a long time ago. So, I’m always curious to see if other people’s reasons match up with my own.

“So, what happened?” I’ll say. “Why’d you stop reading?” The person’s look will, more often than not, turn quizzical. “I don’t really know,” they’ll reply.

Hmm … now I’m intrigued. What could cause someone to fall out of love with reading? Competition from video games, movies, podcasts, streaming TV, and the Internet? That seems like the most obvious possibility. But when I probe a little deeper, a different story often emerges. Namely, that reading became work, often during the middle school or high school years, and thus, ceased to be fun. Textbooks share part of the blame, of course. But there’s also another side to this. It turns out a lot of people seemed to lose their love for reading once they started analyzing fiction (especially fiction they never wanted to read in the first place). Ahh, this is curious since it’s my experience as well. Were you forced to read Shakespeare in, say, seventh grade? Did you tear it apart and analyze it week after week? If so, did it increase your love of reading? Maybe, but if my experience and conversations are an indicator, it turned off a lot of kids, too. Reading for fun is a wonderful experience. And it seems there’s no quicker way to destroy that experience than to force kids to read books they don’t want to read at a rigorous level. Fortunately for me, I learned to love reading again, but it didn’t happen until I finished schooling. Many people that I meet never read for fun again.

Anyway what’s your experience? Did you stop reading at some point in your life? Can you pinpoint the moment it happened? If so, send me a note. I’d love to hear your story!

Crashcourse Totals

Daily Total: 1,648 words in 4:00. 412 words/hour

Total: 23,986 words in 39:42. 604 words/hour

Welcome to Days 21, 22, & 23 of Crashcourse!

Exploring the ancient suburban structure known as the “mall.”

Despite a sizable hiccup, Crashcourse is at full-steam right now. What kind of hiccup, you ask? The kind that comes with an error message.

Save Your Work!

I spent the last three days in creative editing mode, yet still managed to add 3,830 words in eight hours. The story is growing in heaps and bounds and I can’t help but wonder if this will be my first book to pass the 100,000 word mark. My other books all average about 80,000 words apiece, but Crashcourse feels bigger than that.

After two to three hours of writing on Friday, Microsoft Word shut down on me. On the bright side, the error message promised it had saved changes to the document and I could recover them once I reopened the program. So, I reopened Word and … nothing. I had set auto-save to do its thing every ten minutes. But for some reason, it didn’t work and I lost a ton of work. On a whim, I tracked down the Autorecovery folder. Unfortunately, there was nothing helpful there. Overall, it was extremely annoying and a good reminder to save my work on a regular basis, rather than depend on Autorecovery.

Anyway what could I do? I just pointed my cursor at the right spot and started writing again. And you know what? It was actually kind of freeing. Don’t get me wrong. I would’ve rather spent my time writing new stuff. But it was an interesting experience to write something all over again on a moment’s notice. The words flowed just fine and I had fun. This new version is definitely different than the original version, although I can’t be sure how much. Regardless, the story continues to flow nicely.

Crashcourse Totals

Three-Day Total: 3,830 words in 8:00. 479 words/hour

Total: 22,338 words in 35:42. 626 words/hour

Welcome to Day 20 of Crashcourse!

Here’s a small part of my writing space. The painting, which I got in Mexico, is spray paint street art.

Creative editing continues on Crashcourse and I’m starting to see this story develop into something real and unique. It’s amazing to see art come to life.

Characters Forming all Around Me

Creative editing continued today and I’m forced to admit it’s way more involved than I’d first expected. With that said, I only added a net 569 words in 4 hours. But I’m not viewing that as a bad thing. You see, I thought I was only adding a new section to the story. But it turns out I’m changing a lot of things, lighting countless new paths through Crashcourse. Which means the story is changing and growing before my eyes. It’s awesome to see and helps me remember why I started writing in the first place. By the way, I decided to include creative editing under my total writing time since I’m interested in knowing how many actual writing hours it takes me to finish a story. By the time this is over, my words/hour rate will probably look pretty sad!

Today, a lot of work was devoted to three characters. Randy Wolf, of course, who’s turning out to be more resourceful than I anticipated given his status as a recent dropout. At first, he was a bit skittish and uncertain of himself. But it turns out he’s got a quiet sort of bravery and resilience to him. Next up is Thaddeus Crucible, a pea coat-wearing magician with strange powers who seems to have been erased from the collective memory. And finally is Headmaster Lancton Boltstar, the world’s greatest magician and a fashion plate  in his own right. Boltstar is an old-fashioned type of chap, dapper in his derby/vest combo. But don’t mess with him. I’ve got a great picture of him in my mind, by the way. I was this close to drawing his derby tonight. Hmmm … maybe tomorrow? We’ll see!

Crashcourse Totals

Daily Total: 569 words in 4:00. 142 words/hour

Total: 18,508 words in 27:42. 668 words/hour

Welcome to Day 19 of Crashcourse!

Taking a break from the writing

I did something I didn’t want to do today, namely editing. But this was a bit different than acquiescing to an inner critic. This was creative editing.

Creative Editing Begins

I added 1,366 words to Crashcourse today in 1:26. That doesn’t really sum up the day though as you’ll soon see.

Overall, I got sidetracked again, but I think it’s for a good reason. After about thirty minutes of free writing, I got the feeling I was off on the wrong trail. Not completely, mind you. It just felt like I’d skipped a few stops and failed to light a few torches along the way. You see, I’ve written a lot of stuff about the Madkey School and how magic works on the premises. I’d touched on Randy and his life as well. All in all, a fascinating world is coming to light. But Randy’s actions within that world felt off to me. He’s been a passive character, walking around, letting stuff happen to him. But that didn’t feel quite right. I get the feeling that Randy should be doing more. So, I took some time (a couple of hours) to let my mind wander, then returned to the book. And lo and behold, a whole new part of the story came to mind. I began to see how various pieces and scenes fit together. I went back to the beginning of the story, introduced a new character, and kept writing. Things started to change very fast. Unfortunately, I had to cut out early due to a prior engagement so I didn’t get to see it through yet.

Now, a few days ago I expressly said I didn’t want to do any editing until I was done with the story. And yes, the work I did today involved some editing, mostly little stuff, as I worked to add in the new section of story. So, yes, I edited. On the bright side, it was creative editing, designed to help add in this new section. I’ve always liked the idea of creative editing. But I’ve never really done it since it always dovetails into endless rewrites. My challenge will be to add in this new part while staying in creative voice. I hope it works!

Crashcourse Totals

Daily Total: 1,366 words in 1:26. 953 words/hour

Total: 17,939 words in 23:42. 757 words/hour

Welcome to Day 18 of Crashcourse!

Hey, look … it’s my adventurer’s hat!

After a few days of being sidelined by my inner critic, I finally got back to writing. Also, I continue to ask questions about my future. Namely, am I just an author? Or am I meant to tell other kinds of stories as well?

Am I An Author?

Yesterday, I wrote about how I got sidetracked by a desire to plan out something in advance, specifically the curriculum at the Madkey school. I lost a little writing time, but hey, at least I’m back to work. I wrote 2,563 words today in three hours and fifteen minutes. That averages out to 789 words per minute, which doesn’t surprise me. I found myself nitpicking A LOT today, making small changes here and there and reversing them multiple times. Overall, I had trouble keeping my inner critic in check. No surprise really, given how I succumbed to it the last few days. Still, I enjoyed writing today.

This blog series has been an interesting experiment for me, especially in helping me realize some of the problems with my work habits. But for now, let’s move beyond self-criticism and do a little dreaming. That blog title up there is really just for show. I’ll be writing books for a long time to come. But I’d like to try other types of storytelling, too. In the past, I’ve considered a lot of mediums. Animation, film, video games, theme park rides, physical adventures, board games … you name it, I’ve considered it. But I’ve never gotten past the point of daydreams.

There’s a good reason for that. The life of an indie author is a solitary one. My wife helps out with editing and my dad pitches a hand with marketing. But for the most part, I work alone. And that’s just fine. But venturing out into other mediums would probably require collaboration. That’s a hard thing to admit, even harder to accept. I’m not even sure how I’d go about recruiting the help of artists, programmers, etc. And once you start working with other people, you have to deal with a whole mess of other things. Yikes. Still, it’s good to talk about this. Maybe it’ll help me move forward. Stay tuned …

Crashcourse Totals

Daily Total: 2,563 words in 3:15. 789 words/hour

Total: 16,573 words in 22:16. 744 words/hour

Welcome to Day 12 of Crashcourse!

Doing a little brainstorming on the way home from my gym.

Another day down and I’m still not up to a full workload. Even worse, my critical voice is chomping at the bit to do some editing. But things are looking up, nonetheless!

I’m Starting to Sound like a Broken Record Here, But …

First things first. I logged 2,717 words in two hours today. That’s well below my hour rate for the last two days, but still mighty good. My words are still very raw. So raw, in fact, that a part of me is starting to worry. Don’t get me wrong. I kind of like what I’m doing. The story is moving forward and seems to be taking a few interesting twists along the way. But it’s, thus far, heavy on action and light on description and emotion. I’m not even sure if I’ve actually described Randy Wolf or his friends yet. Plus, I’m repeating myself and sentences aren’t always in chronological order. It feels so free, yet utterly unsettling to write this way. Which is probably why my critical voice is quietly nagging at me, telling me that I should maybe start editing a few passages. Maybe write free in the day, then edit at night! What could go wrong?

If you’ve been reading this blog series, you already know the answer … plenty. Editing while writing has always been the bane of my existence. And yet, my critical voice keeps coming up with new reasons or ways for me to do it. I’ve written ~4,500 words in the last three hours of writing and it’s been a fun experience. And still, I’m tempted to go back to my old ways. I won’t do it, but this is a tough fight.

I haven’t talked about the story lately, but it’s getting interesting. Randy is a thirteen-year old magic school dropout. He works as an orienter, helping to bring in new students to Madkey (his old school). But his first real recruitment job goes bad and he’s confronted with a very old enemy of Madkey’s headmaster and staff. Now, he’s back at school, a little worse for wear, and trying to move on with his life. Something tells me it won’t be easy.

Crashcourse Totals

Weekend Total: 2,717 words in 2:00. 1,359 words/hour

Total: 7,144 words in 12:10. 587 words/hour

Welcome to Days 8, 9, & 10 of Crashcourse!

Some local street art, spotted during yesterday’s Memorial Day Parade

A few days ago, I wrote about how work on Crashcourse had slowed to an excruciating crawl thanks to major amounts of self-editing. So, how’d I do over the weekend? Did I manage to speed things up? Let’s find out!

A Path Forward, Perhaps

I guess I’m a bit of a perfectionist. I edit constantly as I write, massaging the text over and over again. The result is polished, close to publish-ready. However, the process is exhausting and often feels antithetical to creativity. Which makes sense when you think about it. My creative voice is trying to let loose, to explore my subconscious, to tell a brand new story. And yet, it gets shifted to the back burner by all of these edits. I’ve been writing this way for a long time and I think my stories have suffered for it. I vowed to take a different path this weekend. So, how’d I do?

Well, I spent most of the Memorial Day weekend with family and friends. In fact, I only managed to squeeze in one writing session, and that was for just twenty minutes on Sunday morning. Doesn’t sound like much, right? But get this … I wrote 584 words in those 20 minutes. That works out to 1,752 words/hour. Wow. I mean … just … wow. That’s a record for me and it’s not even close.

Now, here’s the thing. Those 584 words are … imperfect. They’re unedited and extremely raw. Honestly, I’m not even sure they make sense. A part of me is strongly tempted to edit them, to massage them like I always do. However, I’m going to try to keep that urge in check. The whole point of this is to learn to trust my creative voice, to give it room to speak. And editing right now seems like a good way to sabotage that effort. So, I’m going to try to keep writing this way, with no editing, for the duration of the book. Crazy, huh? I’m curious to see how it works out. Part of me worries I’ll end up with a unintelligible mess that’ll require months of heavy editing down the road. Part of me thinks my creative voice will settle down and the end result will surprise me. Hmm … I guess we’ll find out.

Crashcourse Totals

Weekend Total: 584 words in 0:20. 1,752 words/hour

Total: 2,542 words in 9:10. 277 words/hour