Category: Writing – General

The Return of the G.S. Wright Elusive Monday Update

Back to Writing

Yes, it’s been awhile since my last Monday update, mainly because life. It’s difficult to do an update when I feel I am not moving forward fast enough.

For the most part, my word count for the year is only 128k, and here we are in July. Most of my time has gone to other things, and working elsewhere. As far as accomplishments? I published all of Spilling Blood Season 3. All 4 episodes are up on Amazon, of course, 14 books in total for the entire series.

With that, this week’s goal is to get Season 3 in a single volume, for those of you who prefer to read it as a novel and not as a serial. So that’s coming soon.

As far as other writing goes, my next book is a zombie romance. More coming on that later. It’s in the revision phase, and with a little luck, I’ll make a lot of progress this week.

So, not much of an update, except I’ve got some projects coming along.

Goals

I’m not going to look back at this year’s goals, except to get as many words as I can out before the end of the year. At this point, I’ll be happy if I hit 200k. If I get a good week of writing in, maybe I’ll rethink everything, see where I’m going.

Blogging

And I’m going to try and blog again. Like, here we are, right? Yesterday I did a writing prompt based on ideas I generate fairly frequently. Basically, I’ve got more story ideas than I’m ever going to use, so I thought I’d share some with you for awhile. Watch for another batch next Sunday.

Last Week’s Adventures

I spent quite a bit of time this week with friends visiting from California, though they’re not going to be Californians any longer. They’re moving to Washington. My friend Denny is an amazing guitarist, so I’ve had the opportunity to hear some incredible playing. Incidentally, his wife Jennifer happens to be my amazing cover artist for the plethora of my books.

I got dread locks on Thursday.

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Picture courtesy of Snapchat GoT filter.

I and the fam spent yesterday in Gooding, Idaho at a Basque Festival. I’m not Basque, but it’s still a good time.

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Sounds like I’m heavy into cultural appropriation, doesn’t it?

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Crushing Goals Before They Crush Me

I am slowly getting myself back on schedule for the goals that I created back in January.

I knew when I set my goals that my current work schedule would make achieving them difficult. That’s continued to prove true.

However, in March, I got a little more organized.

For starters, I made a new spreadsheet (because I love spreadsheet lists) that tracks a number of things.

  • It tracks my book ideas.
  • It tracks daily sales.
  • It tracks when I can promote books through Amazon.
  • It tracks daily goals.

For book ideas, I made a list of 100 ideas I want to write. This wasn’t to overwhelm me, but to see if I could come up with better ideas through brainstorming, than just accepting the first idea or two that came to mind.

I began tracking daily sales because I needed to know what is selling, and where, and if the promotions were working. This has helped me realize that sales on Smashwords are competitive with my sales on Amazon, despite having fewer books published through them. Also, paperback sales do far better than digital, as long as I have some type of signing event.

I made a list when each book becomes available to do a promotion on Amazon. This has been a problem, because I have a lot of books on Amazon, under numerous pen names, and I’ve been missing opportunities to promote them.

The daily goal spreadsheet is exactly what it sounds like. I have a list of everything I would like to accomplish, regardless of time to actually accomplish it. The first few columns are the easy ones, that only take a few minutes. Each consecutive column gets into projects that require more time, which includes most of my writing projects.

The daily goal spreadsheet also keeps my editing projects in front of me, a necessity considering I’ve still got 3 books needing editing, which is three more books I could have on the market.

So this has been fairly successful for March. The intention is that for April I can continue to grow with developing my tracking to be a more productive writer and a generally more happy person (because let’s face it, feeling successful living as a writer makes a writer generally more happy. You gotta write to be a writer, right?).

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2017 Week 2 Accountability

This morning I woke up to frost.

Anyway, here’s the official week 2 accountability post!

WRITING

The Goal: Write Every Day. Hit 2 million words for the year. Write a book a week.

Actual: I wrote 4 out of 7 days. Week Total: 14,421. Daily Average: 2,060. Words per Hour: 2,653. Books Written This Week: 1. O.ne rough draft completed.

January Totals: 31,085 words; Daily Average: 2,391; Words Per Hour: 2,646; Books Written: 3; Books Published: 0

I am still well below averaging high enough for 2 million words for the year, but fortunately, just a little behind for hitting one million. I am still cautiously optimistic for both. As far as writing every day? On those three days, I wasn’t home. As soon as I got off work with the post office, I left again. I did manage to finish something, though.

Spilling Blood episode 14 is complete. I hope to have episode 13 revised this week, and hopefully published by the weekend.

The biggest distractions to writing this week were working for the post office and grinding xp for my Rock Band Crew in the mornings before going to work. I know, I know. I’m playing a game. 😛

I am going to continue and put off adding any other goals until my writing is more stable. This remains the focus.

  • This week I will write something new, I haven’t decided yet.
  • I will complete editing on Spilling Blood 13, get it to my proofreading crew, and get it published.
  • I will up my minimal writing from a minimum of 30 minutes a day to a full hour.

MUSIC

I didn’t get a chance to even touch my guitar last week. I think I will launch my music goal in February. Why because there’s a site called fawm.org. That’s February Album Writing Month. Hell, why not?

OTHER

As far as putting off my other goals, I think I will add back in one. Social Media, and specifically, Instagram. I will post at least one photo a day this week, and more as I can. Please follow me. 🙂

 

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2017 Week 1 Accountability

The first week of 2017 is over, and time for Week 1 Accountability.

Writing

The Goal: Write Every Day. Hit 2 million words for the year. Write a book a week.

Actual: I wrote 6 out of 7 days. Week Total: 16,664. Daily Average: 2,381. Words per Hour: 2,641. Books Written: 2. Two rough drafts completed.

So this word count won’t get me to a million words, and not even close to 2 million. I have to really pick up the pace. I had two free days to write, where I wrote over 11k combined. Then our snowstorm hit, and I’ve been called in every day to help with the Post Office. I tried to make myself write for 30 minutes every day, even when exhausted (we got *a lot* of snow). By Friday, my willpower was shot, and Saturday, I no longer had a plan (two first drafts completed, so either needed to edit or start something new).

The books completed were Spilling Blood episode 13 and a pen name novel.

And distractions besides the Post Office? I was offered a position in a Top 10 Rock Band 4 Rivals Crew. How could I say no? 😀 And then Netflix – they have all of Season 10 of Hell on Wheels. *Sigh*

Other: I did not take the move into poetry. I may start this goal later, but it’s going to take a back seat to my prose.

Music

I put off starting this goal due to time constraints. it is a secondary goal to writing.

Other

I didn’t even bother with these goals, as I was barely participating in goal #1.

The weather doesn’t look to be letting up much this week, so I don’t know what’s going to happen. My focus this week will be to write Spilling Blood 14 and get my previous two projects edited. That might be a full week, depending on the weather.

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5 Tips to Write Every Day

  1. Write early. Writing every day, even if you want to, is a chore. Therefore, do it early, if not first thing in the morning. Get it out of the way, otherwise, you might end up putting it off until there’s no time left. Which brings us to:
  2. Get up earlier than you need to. Give yourself the time you need to write. If you have a job to go to and/or family that needs your adulting, be ahead of them with some sacred writing time. Go to bed earlier, if you can, so you get enough sleep to be able to think upon awakening.
  3. Plan ahead. Know what you are going to write tomorrow so you don’t have to think about it. This will also prevent delaying until other distractions take over.
  4. Put off the distractions until your writing is done. This is your social media and email. It might sound like a good idea to get your communications out of the way first, but they will likely suck up your writing time. With this being the age of smart phones and laptops, you’re likely going to be playing on social media throughout the day anyway.
  5. Make it a habit/ritual. Start by making it a goal to write every day for thirty days. Then shoot for three months. Once it’s a habit, it’ll be easier to stick with. Don’t miss a day, if you can help it. Some people need the weekend off, but it hurts my performance. Add to the habit with ritual, such as launching music before starting, getting your coffee and breakfast, exercising, and invoking your muse. Create your ritual to suit your needs.
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Why Haven’t I Met My Goals?

Hey again. Yesterday I wrote about my goals for this year. Today, I’m going to write about why I’ve failed to achieve my writing goals the last couple of years, and how identifying them will help me achieve my goals this year.

THE PROBLEM

I am somebody that must write every day. If I miss a single day, that gives me permission to miss more days. If I break my writing streak, it is difficult for me to get back into the flow. So what keeps me from writing every day?

  1. Another job. The more I write, the more it pays. The less I write, the less I can afford to write. I have another job working for the post office, which often takes up a lot of my time. When I am delivering mail, I often don’t feel like writing at all. In the mornings, when I’m working six days a week, it’s hard to do anything but watch TV.
  1. Netflix. Ohhh man do I love my show addictions.
  1. Video Games. Mainly Rock Band 4 and Rocksmith.

THE SOLUTION

So, I know I’ve got to write every day. The three problems above will likely be there for a while. But what am I going to do about it?

  1. The distractions have got to be limited. Primarily, during my morning time. If I wait until the afternoon to write, I have less time and it’s easier to tell myself that I can make up the writing later. If I work 6 days a week, I’m not making it all up on Sunday. Therefore, mornings will be sacred. No TV and no video games. Although they help me unwind, my intention is to continue my existence as a writer. Which is supposed to be my pursuit of happiness.

So… I intend to find 3 hours a day to write, on average. Two hours of this will be in the morning before I go to work for the post office. The third hour will be in the afternoon/evening. If I don’t work for the PO that day, I’m shooting for 5 hours of writing. Neat fact – my writing speed can sometimes hit 3k an hour now.

  1. Can I still watch TV or play games? Sure, but maybe in the evenings while unwinding with my family.

The allowable exception is my music. The evenings will be used to meet my music goals, though maybe only an hour of practice a night.

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My 2017 Writer Goals

Hello, 2017, goodbye, 2016! Last year’s goals trickled out with a quiet, embarrassing poot. This year, I’m bringing to the table all new goals, along with some favorite oldies.

When I reexamined my goals and what I want to do this year, I decided that I want to focus on how I define myself. Therefore, my goals this year will focus on 2 things, writing and music. These are the two things (other than family) that bring me happiness, so I’m going to devote my time to having them daily in my life.

GOAL 1: Writing! I’m going to write 1 million words this year. And I will write every day. The real goal, again, is 2 million, because why not truly bury myself in disappointment by December? I am going to talk about what I’ve learned in 2016 about meeting and failing this goal later. I think I’m fine-tuning my writing ability. Anyway!!!!

Goal 1.1: A story a week. I might not get it published the week I finish, but I will have it written.

Goal 1.2: A novel a month. Just like the short story, I’ll have it written, but it’ll get published when it is ready.

Goal 1.3: Poetry. This is a small goal. I might not even share much of this, but I’m thinking I want to create poetry at least every now and then, if not daily.

GOAL 2: Music! This year, I want to get better on the guitar, and maybe later this year, the piano. So, this brings me to:

Goal 2.1: Learn a song a week. 52 songs in one year? Yes. Hopefully, by the end of the year, I have a fun repertoire to annoy people with at parties.

Goal 2.2: WRITE a song a week. Because that would just be cool.

The idea is that I will practice daily, and by 2018, I’ll have a bit of talent development.

Other minor goals:

Zazzle. I like Zazzle, and it provides a little bit of spending money throughout the year. I’ve got a few new store ideas I want to do, so I’ll share them as I make time.

Youtube. I intend to embarrass myself throughout the year, primarily with my music, in front of the world. This will be a difficult goal, because as a writer, I’m happier not being seen.

Social Media and Blogging. I will try to be more active. It’s easy not to be.

Part of the problem with my goals is that I saw them as chores that had to be done. This year, though they are mostly going to be daily, I’m going to try and have the attitude that I want to do these things every day, and it’s how I want to spend my time.

Tomorrow, I’m going to talk about why I see myself failing from past experience, and how I think I should go forward.

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My Indie Author’s Day Experience in Buhl, Idaho

 

Yesterday (Oct 8), I participated in Indie Author’s Day at the Buhl Public Library. The event was surprisingly successful and went by quickly, considering it was most of the day. And that’s always a good sign.

The first part of the day was a youtube presentation that was fairly informative as a discussion concerning getting into libraries. From the standpoint of someone doing this for awhile, I don’t know if I considered it particularly useful for me, and maybe it was geared for writers a little newer to the paying field. At this point, having been doing this since 2012, I’ve got different methods. the talk about getting into libraries was by far the most valuable, but still not something I intend to act on in the near future. The gist is that libraries will help you find people to buy your books in the future. Here’s the video:

Following this one hour presentation, the library had 4 panels – Creation, Editing, Differences in traditional and indie publishing, and Marketing. I did Editing.

At the end, around 3:30, we returned to our tables, and those of us who have books did a book sale and signing. I’ve done signings and several libraries in the past, and the overall takeaway from those events is that people do not come to libraries to buy books. They are there to check out books – for free. This signing was pleasantly different. Books were sold. I also was asked to do a speaking engagement for the Idaho Writer’s League in January. 🙂

There’s a lot of other activities I know other libraries did, like author readings and critiques, that would’ve been fun to include. However, all of the allotted time was used up, and I don’t know how we could’ve squeezed anything else in without cutting out other stuff.

The participation, too, was great. For the video and presentations, our small library was packed. Packed means about two dozen individuals. There were people who have never published to people who have been doing this for years. The book signing too took up about half of the library, with the librarians having to drag out additional tables for those who showed up.

I did not know many of the authors, which kind of surprises me. I expected to see more of those in this area that I know, but only a couple showed up. Maybe Octoberfest distracted them, and I know at least one author was out of town.

But then an author group I belong to with heavy numbers in the Boise area ignored this same opportunity from their library, and I’m totally surprised by this. Are the authors/writers I used to run with getting burnt out? It would be a shame. I know life happens. Or maybe I’m seeing a dropout. Maybe they published one book and no longer care about selling it. We all write for different reasons. No judgment, but I’m left with unanswered curiosity.

I expect this event to continue next year, and hopefully, my author/writer friends will attend next year. I know a certain librarian (my wife) worked incredibly hard to make the one in Buhl a success, and I think it’s great that libraries across the nation participated in creating an event for those of us chasing this dream.

So did you attend? What did your library do, and what are your thoughts?

 

 

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A Social Media Glimpse of Yesterday

Social Media is  a constant diary of our lives. Often I find it difficult to blog about doing anything else other than writing, because I rarely find my personal adventures exciting enough, and I keep my philosophical thoughts (including politics) mostly too myself. It was suggested yesterday I even chronicle my conflicts with all of the spiders that lurk near my writing station. (My office is right next to the back door and cellar. I’m in a high-traffic spider zone). Here’s a glimpse of what my life looked like yesterday.
 
A week ago, I stepped on a roadkill squirrel while delivering mail in Jerome. I didn’t even see it. Honestly, I’m only assuming it was roadkill, because after all, how many squirrels does a person actually step on? So Facebook has become the place to share squirrel stuff.
 

 
I’ve been using Snapchat a little, mainly screwing around with their filters.

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I think this is me. 🙂

 

With this result….

 

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I’ll be at the Buhl Public Library a week from today…

And my most exciting moment of the day…
 

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Oh… and writing?

I edited 2,880 words and wrote an additional 671 words on a book I’m finishing up under a pen name.

Join me on Twitter and/or Facebook.

patreon

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Am I back?!

Am I back?! I dunno. I’ve actually got time to work on my books, and first up is Spilling Blood episode 12. I had a fantastic start to this year, and then it came to an abrupt end when I started working pretty much six days a week for the Postal Service – and I’ve found it very difficult to find time for writing. My writing goals are shot, and while the year’s not a waste, it’s not the year I had in mind. In the past, it’s taken a complete one full day off to get my mind back into writing, and, well, here I am writing a quick blog post about it. 🙂

Regardless, today, hours (!!!) will be devoted toward getting Spilling Blood episode 12 finished and off to my proofreaders.

For my Spilling Blood fans, the wait will have been worth it. This episode is going to be about twice as long as any episodes from Seasons 1 and 2, and lots of vampire and werewolf action/horror. You’ll hear more about it as it gets closer to launch, but I’m going to set a goal of having this Season (and series?) wrapped up before Halloween ’16.

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