Finished up a horror writing class

Tonight we finished up a five week class on horror writing at the local library. It was fun. I'm genuinely sad that it's over. I really looked forward to spending two hours every Thursday night talking about horror and writing.

The topic each week was a general writing topic, such as character building, plotting, or tropes, with a focus on how use these in horror. It's always a good refresher to attend courses like this.

September / October

It's already October which means two things.

1) Yay!  It's my favorite month.

2) This year is going by entirely too fast and time needs to start slowing down again.

I wanted to take a quick look at any writing accomplishments from the last 30 days and set some goals for the next 31.

Taking a class on horror writing

One of the local libraries is hosting a five-week class on writing horror.  After thinking about it for about one second, I decided it would be wrong to not go.  It's close, free, and an opportunity of meet people and learn more about writing.

And it's cool.  It's a really small group of people with varying degrees of writing experience, but a common love and respect for the horror genre.

Keep Your Eye on the Ball

So I'm still feeling pretty high after leaving Colorado...

Wow, I could have found a better way to phrase that, huh?

Anyhow, after spending three days at the greatest writing convention ever in this history of mankind, it was time to accept the fact that it's over and go back to the real world again.

Back from the RMFW Conference

I'm sure I'll have more to say about this in the coming weeks, but I just wanted to chime in with some quick notes from the 2014 Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Colorado Gold Conference.

The first thing that immediately stuck out to me was just how friendly everyone was.  I've never met a more inviting, encouraging group of writers in one place like that before.

It was so refreshing to be around so many people that produced nothing but positive vibes all weekend.

August Project Report / September Goals

And August 2014 is in the books.

I started out the month by attending some writing sessions at OSFest 7.  Regardless of your writing level, there is always something to learn by attending writers' discussion panels.  During one of the panels, the 2014 Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Colorado Gold Conference was brought up.

I mentioned it to my wife and she thought it looked like something I should attend.  So I was like, whoa, that's why I married you.  I signed up for the conference right away and then redirected my focus to prepare for the conference.

Quick update on novel stuff

I wanted to check in real quick and talk a little about how the current revision of the novel is going.

And you know what? It's going surprisingly pretty well.  A couple of weeks ago, I literally (literally, I tell ya!) wanted to print the whole thing off, so that I could throw it in the garbage, light it on fire, and urinate on it.  I believe that's actually a common feeling writers have when they are working on a major revision.

Crunch Time

I looked at the calender today and screamed.  Figuratively, of course, as I didn't want to get hauled out of the workplace by the white coats again, but nonetheless, the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Conference only three weeks away.

Last post, I talked a little about the revisions I'd like to make, and I have been working on them.  I've got a much more solid opening scene, but I'm still getting the jitters.  I think it's time I shift focus a bit and dedicate every spare second to working on these revisions.  The last thing I want is to show up at the conference with an imperfect version of the novel.

Novel Revision To Do List

I'm looking forward to the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Conference this year.

I'm less than excited, however, to say that I've got a lot of work to do in the coming weeks before the conference.

At the top of the list of priorities is my novel.  While I do have a completed version of it (and I should since I had been sending out queries) I've decided that it needs more work in a couple of areas. In fact, I stopped querying after listening to The Successful Novelist: A Lifetime of Lessons about Writing and Publishing in the car to work on the revisions.

Writing Confessions and my Goals for August (and beyond!)

I have to look at why June and July weren't my best writing months.  I set some specific goals and just couldn't get them done.  It wasn't like I wasn't writing, but I wasn't working on the right things.  For example, I missed some simple goals such as finishing a synopsis in June and short story in July.

I found myself sending out queries while ignoring some major flaws in my novel only because my habit was to send out a query once a week.  I found myself resubmitting rejected stories without re-editing only because I "didn't have enough time" to read them over again.  I found myself constantly avoiding real writing by browsing listings for anthology ideas and then starting something new and working on it until I got bored and moved on to something else.

Writing Progress Report for July

Wow, let's see how many excuses I can come up with this month...

I did write a lot, but I barely accomplished anything.  Just for fun, let's blame birthdays, class reunions, the 4th of July, and sick kids.  Could be worse, I suppose, but here are my writing status for July:

The usual disclaimer still applies, and that is that I post this not to say "Hey look at me, I'm doing stuff!" but to show my highs and lows for month, as well as hold myself accountable to my goals--in theory--and give similar writers some numbers to compare to their own, hopefully inspiring them to keep writing.

The WIP Challenge

I've been writing on a schedule this year where I'd write a new short story on odd-numbered months and work on the novels on the even-numbered months.

This has been successful for the most part, since I've manged to get three new short stories written, but I still feel like I haven't made very much progress for the year.  Part of the problem could be that all three of those are flash fiction pieces, so my annual word count is an abysmally low number.

A Grammar lesson from The Great One

Credit Maxamegalon2000 under Creative Commons

... or should I say "The Weird One"?

If you're a Weird Al fan (and if you're not, you should be), you might have seen his latest video: a parody of "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke called "Word Crimes."

I don't tend to pass judgment very often on this site, but I'll don't mind going on record stating that "Blurred Lines" is the worst song ever written in the history of music, if you can even call it music, that is.

What I've Learned Since Launching Theme of Absence

Theme of Absence on its launch day

It's been a month now since I launched Theme of Absence, my attempt at an flash fiction ezine.  I originally planned to write a post about why I started the site, and what I'm hoping to gain from it, but I decided to instead talk a little about what I've learned so far.

One of the first things I learned was that I needed to do a much better job of tracking submissions, and more importantly, my correspondences with the authors.  I thought I had a pretty good system to start with.  The plan was to read each submission as it came in, and then either accept, reject, or shortlist.

YA or MG? And what it means to me!

Photo by jennnster under Creative Commons

One big mistake--or perhaps character flaw--I have is that sometimes when I don't understand the need for something, I pretty much pretend like it doesn't exist.  And I think the time is coming where it's starting to hurt me.

In this case, I'm talking about the difference between Young Adult and Middle Grade fiction.  (For the sake of simplicity, not to mention my sanity, I'll continue to pretend that the category of "New Adult" doesn't exist.)

Writing Goals for July

Photo by Jamiesrabbits under Creative Commons

And the year is half over.  I never believed it, but time really does speed up as you age.  My little guy turned 3 and his sister will be 1 soon.  Fun stuff.

So onward to writing.  After a slow June, I really need to hit July hard.

Here's is my game plan, in order of priority:

Writing Progress Report for June

Photo by Flazingo under Creative Commons

This was another crazy busy month, but I suppose I say that every month.

I came pretty close to hitting my goals for June.  The only one I really didn't make any progress at all on was rewriting my novel synopsis.

As far as other stuff went, here's the breakdown...

I resubmitted five short stories, received three rejections (two form letters, one personal.)  I didn't write any new fiction, but this month was set aside to work on the novel(s), so that's not a failure, it's just something I wanted to mention.

Take-away from Divergent

As the old saying goes, "read like a writer."  (Note: I have no idea if that is actually an old saying, or if I pulled it out of my you-know-what at the last minute.)  Either way, it is good advice.

I know I've mentioned this in previous posts, but I often listen to audiobooks during my commute to work.  Not only do they help make the hour-long drive more bearable, but I can usually learn something from them.  Most of the time, I'll choose books on money, leadership, or success, but I also try to pick up the occasional fiction as well.

Synopsis Blues

I think something like 99 out of 100 writers will tell you that editing is the worst part of writing.

They are wrong.

Yes, editing sucks.  It takes your creativity and stops it in its tracks, killing it like a rabid dog who...eh, I'm not sure I like where that analogy is going, so let's just say it take all the fun out of writing.

My fun and upcoming project

We went out of town today to visit my parents.  I always have a great time going back home and my two-year-old (good lord, he's almost three) absolutely loves playing with my Dad.

The one drawback to going out of town, however, is that when we get home he's usually so worn out and tired that he starts acting like, well, a two-year-old.  We rarely have temper tantrums in the Bougger household, but when the boy is that tired, all bets are off.

After finally getting our screaming little guy to bed, I found some time to type for a bit.

But I have to say this: I'm spent.

It got me thinking.  It's like "Damn.  We're busy."  When you work full time, have two young kids, write 2-3 hours a day, and try to hit the gym when you can, time is scare.  My wife might have summers off, but she's also got two or three side gigs keeping her busy.  It seems like there is never a moment to just sit down and breathe for a minute.

Still I wouldn't trade it in for anything.  I'm just saying that I'd be crazy to consider taking on anything new, right?

Wrong.

I've been toying with the idea of starting up an online flash fiction site for a long time and am finally pulling the trigger this month.  I've already mentioned here in previous posts, but just in case you missed it, we're launching Theme of Absence, an online magazine of speculative flash fiction, this Friday, June 13.

The current plan is to post one original piece every Friday.  The debut story is an awesome piece of sci-fi written by author Jon Wesick.  To help promote the authors involved in the site, I'll also be starting a new feature here, where I'll be posting 10-question interviews with the authors accepted to Theme of Absence to coincide with the publication of their stories.

Anyhow, it's going to be a great summer.  I plan to put my heart and soul into this project and don't plan to half-ass anything about it.

I'm fairly confident that the plan I have to balance the work between my two websites and my own fiction will work out. It will be hard, but whoever said getting to where you want to be would be easy?

So in the meantime, click on over to http://www.themeofabsence.com and give it a preliminary look.  If you're a writer and got some unpublished flash fiction, check out the submission guidelines and consider sending something in.  And if you haven't tried writing fiction before, now is the time.  Part of the reason I started Theme of Absence is to help give new writers a chance to get published or at least to encourage them to try.

And that's it.  Check back tomorrow and have a great week.