Two Five in the Morning Nights Later
It has been a rough start to the book. I chose a weekend with events on every night and every day. Yet, I told myself I wouldn’t let myself say, “I can start tomorrow”. So, I ended up getting home at 10:00 PM one day and 11:00 PM the next. On those two days, I dismissed myself from festivities to outline chapters in my notebook (I was physically there, but I was mentally in my own world). While people are slamming beers into their gullet, I was drinking coffee and water with lime. I wanted to participate, because I love my friends. But I knew, I knew I had to continue to working later that evening and it would be better for me to prepare. So I did, and I found myself in a trance like state until five in the morning on Friday and Saturday. Today, luckily, I have been able to focus on my work in the morning before I had plans. After those engagements, I got home and was able to finish up what I wanted to finish up (time for bed). However today did have its weird points; I ate a three day old burrito with brown guacamole on it… because my threshold for “normal” goes out the window when I am working on a manuscript. For those that were with me today, I apologize and suggest you just breath through your mouth.
BlackBox Enterprises Progress
Word Count: 8904
Chapters Written: 5
Progress Report for August 19th, 2014
Recently, a dear friend’s mother passed away. I am a strong believer that family and friends are the most important aspect of life. As I watch over his home, I have slowed my writing and switched to reading . Today, I have finished Galapagos by Vonnegut and suggest it to anyone who enjoys Vonnegut. While reading it, I spent a lot of time analyzing how he outlined the piece. I also analyzed what was in the original structure and what was impromptu. Either way, it is an impressive piece of literature that I thoroughly enjoyed. In other news, I have written a new piece Milgram and began work on a new piece: 3 in One (I can’t remember if I mentioned this piece, its original name was Three in 1).
3 in One began percolating during a discussion with my old philosophy professor while at lunch. It will be an experimental piece that I will enter in a competition. It has so many moving parts, which makes it one of the only short stories I have written with an in depth outline. Normally, I write down events and other important details of a short story on scrap paper. In this case, I outlined the piece on my 18×24 paper (reserved only for novels) because it is so complex.
Read MoreProgress Report for August 11th, 2014
I took a minor vacation this last two weeks from writing progress reports because there hasn’t been much activity (due to my birthday) these last two weeks. I submitted a lot of pieces to different competitions (these will be available as soon as I hear from the magazines) and entered a few this month. One piece – that is completed – is Relationships and another piece – that is being outlined – is called Three in 1. One of my old professors came back into town and gave me more tools to hone my craft. The idea that sprung up from an exercise is Three in 1 and it will be my most daunting foray into experimental writing. For reference, the exercise he suggest had nothing to do with writing a piece in this format, but – by practicing the exercise – I decided to tell the story in this format. I am excited; I am finally going to attempt a style of writing that has been on my list for a year (it is a surprise). In other news, I am sending out the third treatment for Journey to God and it will be accompanied by a treatment of Tesla’s Travels. So, I keep pushing forward and reading fiction (finished The Siren’s of Titan on Saturday) and nonfiction (research). The fourth book is still in the research phase, and I am hoping to begin the first chapter at the end of August. Thank you for listening and have a wonderful morning!
Read MoreProgress Report for July 27, 2014
Another successful week has come and gone. I have begun the research into my fourth book (working title: BlackBox Enterprises). The research has begun to illuminate the path the book will need to take in structure and content. I am excited to begin work on it soon. I also finished reading two books: The Heart of A Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov and The Sign of the Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I have read Bulgakov before (The Master and Margarita), but now I have chosen to read the majority of his work (next to be added to my ever expanding reading list is The Fatal Eggs). My first Sherlock Homes (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) was fantastic, and I decided to read all four of the full length novels in sequence. Both books (Bulgakov and Doyle) were widely different in style and fantastic to read. Also, I wrote two more pieces: Redirect and Smiles. Progress is happening on multiple fronts, but I am personally getting tired of submissions and writing cover letters for my short stories. Alright, time to get back to work.
Read MoreProgress Report for July 21, 2014
It has been a very busy week. If you read my last post, I completed Tesla’s Travels on Tuesday and was emotionally and intellectually drained. That state of mind lasted about a day. Now, I’m in full blown submissions mode for magazines and competitions. Since the last progress report, I wrote six short stories: Carbonation, Arm and I, Drops in an Ocean, Medallion, Cookies, and Bourbon. Cookies was actually a competition piece that I had 24 hours to write, and I completed it in 2 hours. More changes are coming to the Short Story section of the website, this section will be separated into a main navigation page which will lead to groups of short stories (Flash Fiction, Normal Short Stories, and The Old Stuff (aka the stuff that makes you question my ability to write)). This design change is to help with organization. At the same time, I am in the process of changing all the pictures on the website to be more web friendly (a lot of them are taking too long to load). Now, it is time for some Candide and bed.
Read MoreProgress Report for July 13, 2014
I completed my summer course – for my MBA – on Wednesday. On Thursday, I wrote another flash fiction piece Dipper which sits at 992 words. This week, I finished reading another book: As I Lay Dying. All in all, it has been a very productive week for my writing and reading. There are only three chapters left in Tesla’s Travels, withthe second to last chapter being my hardest literary challenge to date. The goal is to have the initial rough draft of Tesla’s Travels completed by Wednesday. I want two days of time to edit before I have to compete in a contest on July 20th. Finally, I have decided to enter a secondary contest that will no longer take submissions at the end of July, which means, I need three 500 word flash fiction pieces in a very short period of time. One is half done, and the other two aren’t even close to being formulated.
Progress on Tesla’s Travels
Last progress report I had written 60,147 words. As of today, I am at 65,426 words. Thus, I wrote 5,279 words this last week. By next weeks report, I will be done with the rough draft.
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