Writing, Learning, Fun…
New Structure Format…
Coming Out of Writer’s Block…
I have for some time now not been writing at the pace I usually enjoy. This is from three life events. Going blind for a time, major shoulder injury and surgery, and then a discovery with our business. But as with all Writer’s Blocks caused by life events, I am emerging back into the light and my creative voice really wants me to pick up speed.
So now I am deciding on what to do next. And I hope sort of a start on December 1st with a ramp into 2025.
I know what I want to do on the publishing side. Top of that list is to bring Smith’s Monthly back to life. Got some details to work out, but wow will that be fun.
On the writing side I know I want to be back to 1.3 million words in 2025. Got that. That is firm.
But how to structure that is the question I keep doodling around on. I love challenges, but have done most sane ones and some really insane ones as well over the last 50 years. And I really get nothing from repeating a challenge in most cases. However that “Stories from July” challenge I did a bunch of years back still nags at me to do more.
The challenge I failed at on writing a story a day for the entire year also nags at me. Both would be a blast.
So I need to kill the fear that something else will derail me, pick a writing challenge, and fire onward. Stay tuned.
Lifetime Everything Subscription Kickstarter Price…
Because we offered it in the Kickstarter updates, you can now get the normally $10,000 Lifetime Everything Subscription for $4,000. Just write me if interested in the 300 plus classes and workshops on Teachable. As a friend called it, a PhD program in fiction writing, craft, and publishing.
Also remember that if you backed the Holiday Spectacular Kickstarter, check the updates because the stretch goal workshops are there, plus a half-price code to get the 4th quarter of Bite-Sized Copyright since we did not get that far in the campaign.
An Exercise Day…
Take a look at the fun pictures of Sunday’s 5K charity run on Kris’s Facebook page. Yes, that is me crossing the finish line with a cup of hot chocolate. But then today I managed another four miles of walking. Not for the best reasons, however. The weather here is just wonderful, so Kris and I walked to lunch today. About two miles.
Then after I sat at my computer for a few hours, I headed out and walked down to Fremont Street to get us doughnuts from Pink Box. Another two miles plus.
I did not eat much lunch and only had half a doughnut for desert after dinner, so trying.
At least I made four miles.
6 Comments
Connor Whiteley
Thanks for this Dean. I definitely get what you mean about not writing as much as you want because of life events derailing you. That’s why I’ve accepted 2024 will be a down because of my trauma and recovery and that’s okay. 2025 I’ll ramp back up to my normal speed of pulp Speed 3 and in the rest of 2024 I’ll rebuild my writing habit of hopefully 1,500 words a day bare minimum and I’ll finish some psychology books, short stories and maybe 2 novellas before the end of the year.
Life gets better and we can all write again as much as the “slow times” annoy us.
Kerridwen Mangala McNamara
From a physics standpoint we’re all “doing doughnuts” (and *not* doing Work) since we return to our starting positions…
4 miles isn’t bad, for whatever reason. I’m a little farther behind on rebuilding after “life rolls” – 2 miles at a shot or even in a single day is pretty good for me right now, but reading about what you are doing is inspiring!
allynh
But how to structure that is the question I keep doodling around on.
I still think that the best mix is,
– write a story-a-day
And when you stumble across a clear novel start,
– go ahead and write the novel
Then go back to writing a story-a-day.
When you focus on only writing a story-a-day and ignore the obvious novel starts, that is a form of “writer’s block”.
The same with only writing novels and stumbling on what is clearly a short story.
The journey will always trip you up when it is a path over a mix of overgrown sidewalks and neighborhood streets, not a smooth track.
dwsmith
Thanks for the suggestion. Still not a clue what I am going to do.
Kate Pavelle
Oooh, thanks for that! I do a lot of “prompted stories” for Dean, and I often realize that I wrote a novel start. I have been considering whether to go for a story a week for a year again, but I have been stalling. What you wrote made me realize that I dread writing novel starts! I keep thinking about them as I plug away on other projects, and they fade eventually, and then I feel sad. What you propose (keep writing if its a novel) is more sustainable and organic.
I think that will take a lot of scheduling pressure off, which will keep writing fun.
dwsmith
Sounds good, Kate. Shift to a word count tracking and it will work great, keep you focused.