Insight: Parallax Update #1

Dear Readers, it’s been a while since I did a full-blown Parallax Update and since I had this blog laying around gathering dust, I figured why not just post the updates here. So, without further ado, here we go:

The Parallax Story originally started as a rewrite of a story that I had written back in 1990 and had sat gathering dust in paper files before I converted it to digital. In February 2014, I took on the task of updating the story and getting it ready to be self-published on Amazon as a full-length novel. It’s now a year later and the story is almost complete, although it went beyond a mere rewrite and became a brand new story in its own right.

I’m okay with that…

At the time of this post, the story is approximately 95% finished and I intend to have it go live on Amazon on or about March 30, 2015. Coincidentally, that is also my birthday but please don’t make a fuss…hehe.

Anyway, this particular post will be the first of several updates that I will be posting as the deadline draws near. I don’t plan on throwing out any spoilers although there will be some indirect story background information that I may accidentally on purpose throw out there for your entertainment so stay tuned or you may miss something interesting.

I also have a sequel in mind for Parallax, but that’s an update for another day. Ever Forward.

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Insight: Hand Holding and Butt Kicking

If you’re like me, you love writing. It’s what we look forward to when we get up in the Morning and the last thing we think about when we go to bed at Night. It’s our Love, our Passion, and the closest thing we have to a Religion. Buuuut….

We hit a wall in our story. We stay up to all hours staring at the computer screen and despite our best efforts, the words just won’t come. We grab a notepad and a pencil (or pen) and try to scribble down some stuff just to get the juices flowing. To no avail.

Congrats, you’ve just entered the Writer’s Block Zone.

Now, we don’t want to stay here for too long, so what do we do? There are a number of ways we can deal with this situation:
1) We can go back and reread what we’ve already committed to the Page so that we can recapture our flow and get things back on track.

2) We can take a break from our project and do something else until the feeling comes back. The problem here is that we can take too long away and end up accomplishing the same amount: NOTHING.

3) We can go on the Internet and read tons of articles (Irony, gotta love it…hehe) about how to fight Writer’s Block and hope that what we read sparks us to go back and get to work.

4) We can have a heart to heart with ourselves and honestly realize that we don’t want to write and it’s time to put the current project on hold and pursue a different story in hopes that it will somehow bring ourselves back to what we were doing in the first place.

As you can see, there are many ways to attack such a problem. But is it a problem? We all have a natural tendency to let our minds wander and the more we fight it, the stronger it becomes. Writing shouldn’t take any effort at all and the more pressure we put on ourselves, the harder the task will be.

Remember why you chose to be a writer. Leave all the nonsense about platforms, branding, promoting, and whatnot behind when you dive into your stories. They aren’t important. The only thing that matters is enjoying what you write. THE ONLY THING. You know how to write, so either stop screwing around and get to writing or shut down the word processor and go play. Either way, you’ve got this.

Ever Forward.

Insight: Being an Encourager

Those who know me know that I’m a champion of the Tough Love School of Motivation. I don’t believe in coddling anyone nor relieving them of their personal responsibility with regard to their actions.

However, when it comes to being creative, Tough Love comes up a little short and has an unfortunate tendency to come across as unconstructive criticism. I don’t like to do reviews or critiques of others’ work because the kind of honesty that I deal in doesn’t allow much room for ego stroking or emotional support. I evaluate each piece that I’m asked on its own merits and construction.

I’ve been called an Encourager and I suppose that it’s true. I believe that anything worth doing is worth doing right and giving up is the ultimate expression of failure. I also believe that anyone who can be discouraged from writing, should be and rightly so. There’s no easy road to becoming a good writer and the steps involved to get to that point are arduous, repetitive, and often downright annoying. The reward isn’t the approval of your peers or the money in your bank account, but rather the satisfaction of producing a story that you can be proud to share with others. Anything else is like posting pictures of your cat laying across your keyboard and then saying that you can’t get it done due to hairballs. Pure. Utter. Hogwash.

I’ll never tell anyone to quit writing…or painting…or whatever they want to do. However, I’ll never shy away from filling them in on the work involved. Romanticism aside, there are no magic elves who will finish your stuff while  you sleep nor invisible Greek demi-goddesses whispering prose in your ear. It’s all you and if you believe you got it, then you do.

So, get on with it and of course, Ever Forward. 🙂