Thursday, May 19, 2011

My Writing Journey

If only planes were better suited for writing. Or... maybe, if only I had the discipline to write at cruising altitude instead of plugging into my iPod, spying on my neighbor's text messages or trying for the Nth time to actually sleep on a plane. Wasn't the idea of the mobile office amazing with the advent of smartphones, laptops, and the internet back in the day? You wouldn't have to stop working, you could just take your work with you! In the car? Get a car phone! On the plane? Pull out the laptop! Stuck somewhere in the middle of the N's at a boring high school graduation ceremony? Thumb through your emails thinking you can get some quality work in but instead just check the news, or some stupid jokes your coworkers sent you!

Now, aside from the fact that I fall into all those categories with my actual job (Lord knows there is no way accounting is going to enchant me enough to open up the ol' excel spreadsheets between the in flight beverage services), I do feel guilty that I haven't been able to keep up with my blogging, which sometimes feels like my second job, as much as I had hoped. San Francisco, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Denver, Houston, Austin...and, as of today, perhaps London...are travel destinations that I have visited or will have visited in the 2 month period that began on May 3rd. For a guy that loves to travel but unfortunately hasn't had the chance to, this has been a stimulus overload.

Each time I tell myself I'm going to be more productive, often accompanied by extra, strategic packing like books I've been meaning to read, or the addition of my personal computer on top of my work computer to more easily access the internet. And, each time, I end up soaking in the much needed sunlight at my destinations or finding a new local bar I can phone home about.
I've been traveling mainly for training at work, and extending the weekends into mini vacations. It's a great opportunity to essentially travel on the company's dollar and find some friends to crash with in the various cities once the hotel you booked for work kicks you out.

Although I wasn't able to keep up my blogging recently, I was thankfully able to keep the lives of my characters going and even started having my closest of critics (my mother and good friend from college) read my rough draft. The feedback has been great; I feel like I'm beta testing a new product. Hopefully once I get some of the kinks worked out I can share my story with more people and work up some excitement.

That's all I have now, thanks for reading and hopefully when I leave for my next trip....tomorrow...I'll get caught up with all this blogging business again! Or, we can just say this counts for the next couple weeks :D

Sunday, May 15, 2011

It's been a while

Sorry about that. Things have been good though, busy and mobile, but good. I am trucking away at my rough draft, trying to refine my first few chapters to be ready for critique from various willing parties. I hope to update more frequently. Look for more soon :)

Sunday, May 1, 2011

30,436!

That's the number of words in my first official rough draft! I apologize for the delayed postings, with the writing that I have been doing and the busier work schedule I have fallen into during the day, it has become difficult to post as frequently. I am so excited, however, about this new accomplishment because it means I get to start revising! And boy do I need it!

I have been rereading a few chapters and they are just bad, BAD. I hope I can figure out the best strategies to ramp up the quality and hopefully after fleshing out a lot more of the story I can hit my 55,000ish word mark. I'll keep you posted as I get closer and closer.