Casey's Just Sayin'

I know I've posted this story before, but I'm sure many of you haven't read it. After my little quip about golf vs. lawn care I thought it deserved another go. The old man didn't hear his wife when she opened the front door, barely handling the two bags of groceries in her arms as she dipped inside and kicked the door shut, scuttling to the kitchen. She never let the clerks use plastic bags at the store because the straps cut into her hands. He didn't notice her as she put away the soup cans, milk carton, chicken breasts, eggs, rice and the rest. Even though he sat less than five feet from her at the kitchen table, his attention was fully drawn out the small kitchen window. “George!” she finally yelled, which came out as a harsh screech like a child's cough. He didn't turn but grumbled and batted at the back of his head as if a fly were buzzing about. “You're being rude.” “Lady, you need to shut your trap,” he grumbled, still looking out the window. “I ...

This place always makes me calm down and look inward. I think as writers our environment often dictates how much we write and maybe even the quality of the work we do. If we are surrounded by chaos, noise, clutter, demands of our time, responsibilities to own, duties to honor, rules to follow, we might say that there is no room for writing, no room in our minds to create anything worth reading. We might say that. I know I have. I fantasize about being out there, completely isolated, riding the wave of my own creativity to see what works of art, what masterpieces materialize. We might say that. I do say that. But that doesn't make it true. For me, it's justification for the apparent unwillingness at the time to work hard to get what I want. I say "at the time" because I'm not always so quick to make excuses. I once wrote the majority of a novel lying on my stomach in our long hallway in the front of my child's door. Why? Because said child had a couple of ...

As often happens when I have a strong run of words (30,000 in November) I bail almost completely in the subsequent weeks. That has been the case for Mighty Quinn. The book is about 2/3 done and I have come to a complete halt. It makes me wonder if binge writing such as NANOWRIMO is good for my productivity. Maybe slow and steady really does win the race. Isn't he cute? But I'm not a turtle kind of guy. I type fast, I think fast, I work fast, I golf fast, I... do other things fast. I want to write my novels fast as well. But the faster I go the uglier my prose become. My mind has to sort of devolve to get into my writing brain. Maybe I need to start some sort of meditation routine before I start slapping those little keys. Isn't he cute? Regardless, these words do not write themselves. I'm very excited that Scrivener is developing an iPad app for their phenomenal writing software. But this is no excuse. Holidays? No excuse. New job? Well, maybe a little excuse. But rea...

I wanted to talk a bit about what I’ve experienced with my recent writing challenge and why I think it’s working for me. The challenge is simple enough. @sarahreede and I agreed to challenge each other to write a novel. We would commit to 750 words a day, every day, until our works were done. So you don’t need to do the math, that gives me a 100,000 word novel in about 4 ½ months. Well, a first draft anyway. Every Tuesday night we’re supposed to check in and see how we’re each coming along. The results have been nothing short of amazing. I have hit my 750 words a day, every day for the last 14 days, which puts me at just over 10,000 words or 10% of my supposed goal. 750 words isn’t a lot. I can write it in an hour if I’m motivated and like what I’m putting down, a couple if I am struggling a bit. But it seems that as I write this novel, 750 words is something more than just a goal. It appears to be the length (almost to the word) I need to do a short scene. ...

I'm feeling lopsided. parking on my novel... get it? I have hardly touched The Novel, but have been writing short-stories like crazy. Four submitted now in four weeks to four different online mags. That's a pretty good clip. I intend to continue this until I start getting rejections, which will give me a story that week to send somewhere else. A small respite. this pace is going to make me this old With four I now need a good database to keep track. Maybe it's time to add Numbers to my iPad? It looks like a good enough App. Not amazing, but decent enough for some simple spreadsheet work. let's see... carry the one... Now, back to The Novel. I can finish the first draft of a longer work in no more than three months. I have a handful of words (maybe 4,000) but I'm basically starting a ground zero today. So, three months puts me roughly at the end of September. 1,000 to 1,500 words a day. That's not much in the grand scheme. I checked. I've done this five t...

I have to give a nod right off to The Writing Show with Paula B. This podcast and its accompanying website have renewed my writing vigor, have brought the songs of creativity to the forefront of my mind and have all but forced me to recommit myself to my poetry, short-stories and novels. Thank you Paula. Your show is fantastic. Any writer is better after listening to your Slush Pile Workshops. I must also tip my hat (lock in the cliches writer boy) to JB Howick and his book "Blow Us Away" , which is filled with insanely good advice about the publishing industry. I found out about Howick through Paula's podcast. "What does this mean?" you ask, rightly so. My commitment to myself: Write and submit a new short-story each week, write a blog post about my progress (you are in that now) each week and make some real progress on my current novel each week. Poetry as it comes. My commitment to you: You'll see a newly posted poem and short-story on my blog each week...