Mars, Status Update, and Planning…
First off, happy belated 8th anniversary to the Mars Rover Opportunity! I think it’s so very awesome that it’s still going!
Status Update:
OK, so I haven’t written since Sunday, because of going away for a trade show for work Monday through Wednesday, and being too darned tired to write yesterday or this morning… But leaving that aside, I think my first month has gone very well. 
The first draft has 20,528 words, and while it isn’t *finished,* I have a good idea of how the last part of the story goes. So I’m going to settle for writing a summary of what happens next in case I come back to it later, and move on to the next one in accordance with my plan.
I definitely think I’ve learned from the experience of my first month, though nothing solid enough to really talk about. I’m looking forward to what the rest of the year will bring!
Planning:
Speaking of which, for February I’m going to try to pattern my writing as follows:
First week: Introduce the characters, the world, and the key problems, as well as complications.
Second week: The characters try to address their problems and make things worse, but there are hints of what the final resolution will be.
Third week: Achieve the final resolution and tie up loose ends.
Week four: Work on short stories, and maybe put one up for sale on Amazon. This’ll give me a chance to let go of the last long story and its pattern before starting the next one. It’ll also let me start building up a body of work for sale, for readers to find me by.
In fact, I think that’s what I’m going to work on this coming week, as January ends and February begins. I think I might take a fresh look at Changing Course.
I’ve been seeing a lot of short stories published as stand-alones for $0.99, and even bought a couple, so it seems like a more reasonable idea to me than it once did. What do you guys think? A decent way to put stuff out there for new readers to find?
Back to blogging… maybe ;-)
Reading about The Dan Plan has made me think about my own plan for this year, and how this blog might fit into it.
As I mentioned before, I’m trying to get a better grasp of longer forms of fiction than my usual 2000-5000 word short stories, and my chosen method is focused practice. I’m writing a long story each month, and trying to be aware of what I’m learning and where my challenges are as I go. It might be that blogging about that process would be interesting reading, or at least interesting writing. 
So I’m going to try to be more consistent about posting – not snippets so much as progress reports, and thoughts on writing as I learn more and play with different ideas and approaches.
For today, for instance, I can talk about some thoughts I’ve been having this week: Continue reading
10,000 Hours…
This is so cool – someone’s specifically testing the 10,000 hour idea in his efforts to go from 30-year-old commercial photographer and golfing novice to pro golfer. Dan of “The Dan Plan”started in April of 2010, and is about 2,400 hours into the project, and blogging the experience every step of the way.
His about page also says that “Through his journey Dan hopes to inspire others to start exploring the possibilities life affords them.”
Very cool!
Interesting…
This is an interesting summary and debunking of recent efforts to identify an evolutionary use for depression: Depression Defies Rush to Find Evolutionary Upside
I particularly liked the closing: “Even if depression is “natural” and evolved from an emotional state that might once have given us some advantage, that doesn’t make it any more desirable than other maladies. Nature offers us cancer, infections and heart disease, which we happily avoid and do our best to treat. Depression is no different.”
Alan Tudyk rocks!
And so did everyone else in Tucker and Dale vs. Evil 
Highly recommended for fans of silly movies and horror spoofs!
© 2010 Catherine Wechsler, used with permission.
