Its Halloween. Yay or Something

I made it home today before dark, so that means I didn't have to watch for little kids not watching where they were going in search for candy.  Greedy little monsters...  Why can't I have candy?  I guess I could go buy some...  Anyhoo, I'm still trying to find the right name for my character, and I need to start putting the kibosh on this anti-terrorism reading.  I found another ten books the last two days to add to my list, so I can pretend I know what I'm talking about.  I found a few things on the Middle East, and other parts of the world too.  I'm trying to decide what kind of scope to put this thing on.  Most spy novels have some kind of exotic local or something.  I live in LA, and I don't even know everything about this town.  I don't think I'm going to sweat out details on locales too much, as I am what's happening.  Most of this is more about the story then where it takes place... I guess I'm afraid of writing about places I've never been, and don't want to describe it wrong.  And in the last 60 seconds, I now have a name for my hero.  Huzzah, the night wasn't a total waste.  Now back to your regularly scheduled lives...

(Insert Clever Title That Makes the Ladies Giggle and Think I'm the Cutest Thing Since Sliced Bread)

Once again, I didn't get much done this weekend.  What little I have been doing has been mostly stuff related to the novel.  It's been mostly early ideas, and notes, a big part of what I was doing, was trying to get a feel more for what era I'm looking to write about.  I'm deeply convinced this needs to be a modern era thing.  I'm really concerned about plausibility.  I've read a lot of spy novels, and seen a lot of movies, and I while I've got a great appreciation for them, I don't want to sacrifice something for entertainment value, though entertainment is certainly a consideration.  Its mildly tough to explain.  I guess I'm looking for something with enough sophistication without a plethora of women in there, just for the sake of having them there.  I suppose that might sound somewhat hypocritical from me, but I guess I'm trying to be different a little or something.  I think I'm pretty close to getting all the research material for this ready too.  I've got a list of about oh...50 or so, different things to read and such for this novel.  I'm still trying to think up what to do for the American history book.  I need to spend more time on that, but I guess I've been focusing more of my time on stuff, that isn't gonna take several years to finish...  I'm need to figure out a format for the history book, for starters.  And I need to finish getting together the research list for that too.  All in all, its only about 200-250 books I need to read in the next few years.  No biggee.

....

I think I'm supposed to write another anecdotal entry about the wonderful world of writing.  For the past couple of days, I've been trying to think of new ideas, and new characters, but nothing seems to come together, that I'm real excited about.  I am making some progress, but rather than rehash the same ol' same old, I'm just going to say, I'm mildly pleased at the progress, but at the risk of repeating some of my previous complaints, I'll just leave it at that.  I'm doing my best to make this novel sound as plausible, and competent as it can be, so I'm trying to set the bar high on this.  Anyway, thats my story and I'm sticking to it.

Hi Girls, I'm a Writer. That In Itself Is a Pickup Line. You Know You Want Me Now

Ok...so I'm working on three books now.  Yes, I'm know, try to hold back all your admiration...  Actually, I'm trying to eek to the finish line on the one, and I have to read probably a couple of hundred books for the other two.  But lets be honest, even though its going to take me at least a year to finish the novel, and probably several years to finish the history book, that's still mondo impressive.  I can tell you're impressed.  Does that sound a bit braggy?  Oh well, I'm starting to realize the weight of what I'm trying to undertake, and the time involved, and all that.  I usually have a general idea of what's involved in these types of things, sort of something like you get when get write a paper for school.  You have an idea what its going to take, and the impression you might get it completely sometime within the same decade.  Oh well, I guess I can tell people I'm a travelling scholar or something.  Ok, that's enough bad jokes for the night...maybe.

This Is Getting Out of Hand

I'm down to two projects for the book revision, before I can send it to be edited.  The problem is they're both taking a while, and one of them might have to become its own book, or something.  I think I might just have to sort of post it as part of something on my blog at this point, because this one little thing I was working on about guys and girls is requiring some extra thought, and I suppose...a little extra tact too.  Its not really something that demands to be in the revision anyway, and I'd rather take some time, especially since it's something that needs...some finesse on my part.  I'm need to find a nice transition for that mystery story I'm writing too.  I'm a little stuck on it, but I'm trying to write up to the point I'm stuck on in the plot, and see where that takes me.  At any rate, I might be done with that soon, but who knows?  It look me nearly a year to come up with some of this stuff, I really hope it doesn't take another year to finish it.

Slooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwww

Today, I got to sleep in a little, and take a nap, and I might go to bed early tonight too.  I guess, I'm just completely stalled this week.  I'm trying to productive today, I'm taking some notes, and things like that, but not getting any writing done sadly.  I've been learning the last couple of weeks, that it seems to be ok to take some off, instead of trying to force a story through.  I think I knew this already, but some lesson I guess I have to learn more than once.  But I did just finish getting some notes transferred to my notebook, so now I can work on that novel the way I want.  There something cool about writing a book the old-fashioned way, and I won't have to worry about losing all my stuff if my computer crashes.  Win/win situation.  Alrighty kids, I guess I'm done injecting more of my genius into your lives for the night.  Happy Thursday.

Tired

I have a day off tomorrow, which means I'll be sleeping in till noon or so.  Yesterday, I worked about 16 and a half hours, and got home some time after 1am or so I think.  I've been a little lightheaded today, and I think its from exhaustion or something.  I'm just sore and achy, and could use a 20 hour cat nap.  Somehow I'm supposed to connect this to my writing...well, at any rate, I haven't had a lot of time to write the last week or two, because of work, but I am trying doing a lot of notetaking for my novel, and history book.  Sorry it isn't more exciting, but things are slow, and I need a vacation or something...

Present Tense and Handwriting

I've been working on a story, thats completely written in the present tense.  Its a little slow sometimes finding words that fit, but its not as difficult as you might think.  I might try this on the novel too.  I've been finding out its sometimes a hard habit to break out of.  I was even briefly considering how to tell a story in the future tense, but that might be stretching things.  I might also try to handwrite a rough draft of the novel first too.  I wanted to try that this time, but it didn't work out because of time constraints.  I'd really like to try it once, but I seem to just break down and end up typing projects.  I'm not really under a time limit on these next two projects, so I'm thinking it'll work this time.  Alright you can go  back to your drinking, you drunks.

Crap

So apparently, I'm going to writing three books.  One is the book revision, one is the history book, and it seems I'm going to write a novel too.  I guess I'm a glutton for punishment or something.  I think I'm going to turn a short story into a novel, which means I'm down to two projects left for the book revision.  That's kinda nice, because it means, I'm closer to finishing it.  The novel should also give me a chance to work on something, that won't take as long to finish as the history book.  I think I'll need to do a little research, but I think the novel has some real potential.  I just don't find that a short story will be enough with this, and I don't want to leave anything out.  I try to unpack as much feeling as I can into projects, so I don't have regrets later.  And I just got a great idea for my little primer on men and women!  Holy crap, I'm a genius.

Slowly Getting to the Finish Line

I'm a little closer today, than I was yesterday.  I'm down to three stories, and that means, I'm almost done with this revision.  Finally!  I'm trying to close some plot gaps, but it shouldn't be too hard.  I hope.  So far, I'm picking up a few idea for the next project I guess, I'm a little disappointed by the idea its going to take me a very long time to complete.  I was thinking it could take a couple of years, to complete at the very least, a rough draft for the history book.  Its hard to see that far down the line a little, and its discouraging a bit too honestly.  I'm not a patient guy, and I like things done quickly.  I guess I should try and break it up into little pieces, that might make it seem like I'm getting something done, I suppose.  Anyhoo...I'm close at least on finishing this one.  And that's a big deal...even if it doesn't sound like it.

Booklist and the Final Four

I'm up to about 20 books and websites so far for my research list.  I've been thinking of sort of making it the Revolutionary War version of that Civil War classic history, The Battle Cry of Freedom.  I guess I'd like it to have the same impact, as Battle Cry did, sort of making it a definitive work, if I can.  I've also trimmed my projects a little, as I've been back and forth between doing three or four more stories for the book revision.  I thought as of about 30 seconds I was done to three, but I might just do four.  I have all four started already anyway.  Might as well see them through.  And in other news, its apparently October, and people are still going out their way to try my patience.  It seems like certain individuals really go out of their way to draw attention to themselves for whatever stupid reason...  Also my computer is throwing a fit, and keeps freezing a lot, so I better type faasss....

I Forgot About Pictures

I'm going to try my best to formulate complete sentences.  I worked about 50 hours in the last four days, and got home at 3 in morning today, and 6 in the morning the day before, so I'm having some trouble trying to stay awake.  I'm going to try and get some writing done anyway, just for the simple fact, I haven't really been able to get anything done in the last few days. 

I also had a strange thought that other day.  It seems in my desire to write an American history book, I forgot to think of something simple.  I need to find pictures, and maps, and things like that to put into it.  I thought of this months ago, but for some reason not when I actually decided to go ahead with the project.  I have no idea what kind of issues are involved in using pictures, or maps, if anything falls under the category of open domain, and what things I'd have to get permission for.  I suppose I can wait on this, but I have no idea even where to begin on that anyway.  I guess I'm going to try and get something done now, see you in the funny papers.

Prep Work

I've been bored the last couple of days at work, while on my lunch break, so I've started compiling a book list of books to read and use in my research for my American Revolution book.  I got about 8 books listed so far, and I think I've got a fairly decent idea of how to proceed with it, but I'm not sure yet.  I'm looking into the Founders' religion too a little, and I was even looking at things directed towards kids, so I could see how history books are geared towards people of different age groups.  Its been a while, since I wrote on anything historical, so I guess I want to be simple enough for anyone to understand it.  That's the plan anyway.

And in other news, I'm close to finishing another story, but I'm trying to find the right way to end it.  I know how the story will end, I'm just looking for the right way to end it.  I'm at some funky points in the last few projects for the book revision.  Just stuck a little, I guess.  I'm sure I'll get it out, its usually gets slow for a couple of days, while I wait for some genius to strike.  Of course it always does, I just have to patient.  That's believeable right?