War Post: May 16th Mashup and Goals

Another week another Mashup!  Good to see ya'll.  I hope that I'm able to deliver some good blogs and links for you all to be able to really enjoy.  This one will be a little long, because I'm focusing on not on blogs this week, but some good links to sites that can help you in your journey into the world of literature.  So without further ado I wish to introduce you to some of my favorite helps for writing more successfully!

Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Howard Taylor, and Hugo Award Winning Mary Robinette Kowal host a program called "Writing Excuses" that you got to check out.  I learn a ton from their weekly program and have begun using their writing prompts in my writing group.

"I Should be Writing" by Muir Lafferty is a great podcast that gets real about writing.  Some of her material is videos, other things are just sound advice for how to become a better writer.  It would do you good to check her out.

This chart does a lot for my own self esteem, I figure it might help you out too.  It is called the "Photographic Height and Weight Chart."  It has helped me to better envision characters and get their proportions right in my head without having to look at hundreds of pictures online to get the same idea. It also has changed my ideas about weight and what is heavy and what is not.  Give it a look.

This blog is run by a group of authors too numerous to share here, but they have some of the best material on the web about how to write better fiction and keep yourself sane while doing so.  Check out "Magical Words", you won't be sorry you did.

For those of you who are aching to put yourself in ridiculous amounts of pain during the months of June or August, I have news for you!  Camp NaNoWriMo!  We get to do 50,000 words while working with folks in internet cabins.  I've never the camp before, but I think it will be a lot of fun.  I'm prepping myself for it now.  Oh for the record, I will not be writing something new.  Its a chance for me to get way ahead on Crimes and let my family know what kind of writing atmosphere I'll need come November.  Join me!

For those of you getting ready to submit Query Letters a great resource to look into is "Agent Query."  It is a website with all of the agents who are in the business all in one place.  You can start your research into a good agent starting here.  It will help you to get familiar with names and what a agent represents and allow you to find out what they really like to read too.

Do you like free music?  Do you like video game music?  Do you like remixes of free video game music?  Look no further then than "Overclocked Remix."  They are a great site that has given new life to a lot of the songs from my childhood of playing video games.  It is really neat to see what people do to the music to make it bearable to listen to outside of a game.

I'll end the favorite's this week with something that might appeal to some mathhead out there.  This was a site my cousin showed me years ago, which has helped me immensely with my math.  It is called "Wolfram Alpha."  It works much like a calculator, only you can put into it complicated problems that would take you a while to solve and it will show you all the steps of how it is done.  I don't honestly know how to get the best out of it, but I figure if you like math, you'll figure it out.  Enjoy!

And for our video of the week, I couldn't think of anything better than Lindsey Stirling's trip to Africa.

This girl makes me long to hear my cousin's wife play the violin.  
This week has really been about starting to make time for my writing.  Sometimes even when I shouldn't be writing.  I've sacrificed sleep to be able to write this week.  And it has finally gotten me closer to where I really want to be.  I'm a big believer in the idea of projecting what you really want.  You might have heard the idea on the movie The Secret.  It's not that much of a secret really, envision what you want, work with all your might towards that goal, and be receptive to the myriad of ways that your dream can come to life.  You'll notice that trend as we work through the goals today.
1. Finishing Chapter Two and starting Chapter Three of "Crimes of the Umbramancer by next week.     Chapter Two is done.  And I love what has happened in this chapter.  I think it gives a nice introduction to my second character and enables me to bring her to life in a way that keeps the tension of the story.  I'm really looking forward to what will happen in Chapter Three now.  I need to switch back to the point of view of Sora, but much of the action will be around another character.  Excitement builds!
2. Write seven four thousand words per week. (Between blog & fiction.)     I fell short of this goal by about three thousand words again.  Some of that is due to the anniversary, some of it is due to just not working hard enough, but most of it is due to the fact that the goal is unrealistic for me.  I think I can handle four thousand words.  Seven is just too much with all that I have on my plate.  (Keep in mind the four thousand is only my words for the blog and my fiction, I do other writing I don't count here.)
3. Exercise five times a week.     This is one of the most challenging goals.  I made it out to exercise three times and I got a gym membership and found friends to exercise with.  As I've been working at this blessings have been consistent.  I might not make the goal of five times a week yet, but things are certainly moving in a positive direction, that much is certain!
4. Finishing up my school work from my last semester in College.

     Still not done with this one.  I'm making it my goal to be done with this by the end of the round.  I think that will make my teacher happy, and also go towards making the atmosphere of achieving goals a lot more cheerful!

5. Spending time everyday with a spiritual source.
     I've been doing really well with praying everyday.  To be honest I usually find myself getting to Morning and Evening about once a week.  I spend a lot of time reading it then.  I would like to get a morning ritual of waking up and doing spiritual study then, but I'm trying to take things slow.

6. Finishing homework from Group Therapy.
     I'm all done with the first six weeks of my workbooks for group therapy!  I'm really proud of myself for actually getting it all done.  It's been pretty hard and I've learned a lot about myself.  I'm hoping that I'm able to keep up the great work as I progress into the next phase of my program.

A while ago my son asked me, "Why do you talk about writing your blog as if it is a chore?"  And it got me thinking that I must be putting off the wrong kind of energy about the things that I'm writing and working on.  I don't want to do that, so I've worked at making my goals more positive.  And thus far it is working, I feel better about writing and I want to do it more.  Just have to figure out the right balance between writing and the rest of life.

This is Jayrod Garrett, the First OG.  I'll be back on Friday with a post about a significant difference between the way that men and women think in my opinion.  Thanks for reading.  Much love to you all!  Peace.

War Post: 7th March Mashup & Insecurities

Learn more here.

With today's Mashup we have a special surprise.  Rather than explain my goals with ROW80 to you I thought it would be better if I shared with you an insecurity of mine.  As I'm sure you noticed today is the Insecure Writers Group and it is a wonderful forum to recognize other writers who have challenges and insecurities just like you.  So I thought today it would be best if I chose some of our Mashup folks from those blogs.  And then we'll get to why I'm insecure at the moment.





Sunny Smith shares with us how she gets through the 15 minutes of doom in: "Insecure Writers Group: March 2012."

Mark Hoopman reminds of us the difficulties of writing with children in: "IWSG: Worried about WIP."

Cherie Reich reminds of one of the most important parts of writing in:"IWSG: Believe."

Erin Shakespear brings us a boost of enthusiasm to write in: "A Strange Thing."

Ingrid shares about several of the blogs that both her and I love in: "A Little Blog Love."

I share Ingrid again (because what she has to share here every person on earth should listen to) in her post on: "When someone shows you who they are."

Bayard and Holmes share their honest feelings in: "Bayard and Holmes Cybersmack: Rush Limbaugh."

Kim Switzer shares about the process of finding direction in ones writing in: "Which Way to Where?"

Kristen Lamb shows us the similarities of the history of warfare and of writing in: "The Modern Author: A New Breed of Writer for the Digital Age of Publishing."

Morgan Dragonwillow's contest is still running!  Here a link to check it out: "Fantasy Fiction Writing Contest I: Day 16."

Team Oyeniyi gives us a taste of Autumn in Australia in: "Autumn."

Karen Sandler promoted herself (as opposed to me promoting her) in: "Tankborn Sequels."

Carl Duzette tells us all about Try/Fail Cycles in: "Why three is a magic number."

And now for some creative stalling so I don't have to tell you what I'm insecure about yet.

Okay that's probably enough stalling.  I should tell you why I'm insecure at the moment.  I've been doing a ton of writing of late.  I write emails, blogs, comments and I spend hours at this a day.  I try very hard to have a blog that is of a professional quality and content.  However, it has taken away from my time to work on my WIP: "Crimes of the Umbramancer."

Now I know how my drafting process goes when I write stories, and it scares me a lot more when I'm working on a novel that I do this.  Typically I write a certain amount of the essay or story, about a third and then I start over.  Then I write about half to two thirds and then I start over.  And then during my third attempt I finish my first draft.  Then once again I start over.  Sometime after that the final draft is done.

I hit the point recently in the book where everything inside me is saying that it is time to start over.  And I'm fighting it because I don't want to.  I've gotten about 40,000 words into this story.  The last thing I want to do right now is start over.  An essay is only a couple of thousand words.  So is a blog.  (Though my blogging process only requires about a single to two starts before I have a finished product.)  So I guess I'm scared at the moment.

To top it all off, I've been reading Larry Correia's Monster Hunter International (next month's promotional book), and I realized why I need to start over.  The beginning of my story is flawed.  I knew it was flawed when I began, but I now know why and it is bothering me day and night.  I know that I need to start over differently.  But is it wrong for me to feel this way?

Now I'm not really looking for advice.  I know the answer to this problem.  It is pretty simple.  "Write the damned book, Jayrod!"  I hear this from folks who hear the synopsis and really want to read it fairly frequently (omitting the damned part, of course).  So I am at a place where I want to be finished with the draft by the end of April, but I know I have to start over and I'm scared.  That's my insecurity this month.  By next week I'll have about six thousand words on my restart.  How do I know that?  Cause I'm depending on ya'll to keep me honest.

I know that if I share a goal like that with everyone who reads my blog they will push me to be the best me that I can be.  And part of that is getting my words down.  I know, pretty lame isn't it?  I need peer pressure to write.  Well honestly I need social interaction to write.  Which is one of the reason's the blog is healthy because it gets so much more interaction that I do when I'm doing the WIP.

I'm a social person.  I'm not your typical writer (at least I don't think I am).  I need social energy to write.  I realize to generate this energy sometimes I need to do things that are weird, such as be a part of several writing communities.  Or support writers that I think are awesome.  Or share a little bit of who I am with you.  That's part of the reason I'm giving away one bundle of books this month.  Karen Sandler's Tankborn (Did you notice her blog earlier?) and Samuel Delany's Dhalgren.  For each person who follows the blog (inclusive to those who joined since the beginning of March) I'll put your name into the contest three times.  And for each person who comments on each post for the month I'll put you down for one per comment.  I know I need interaction, I know I need to support the writers I believe in.  This really is a way for us to continue our conversation and also support those I believe in.

Next time I'll have my next blog series prepared on weapons.  Hey we aren't just about culture here, the sci-fi and fantasy kids need to get some toys too.  I just hope the ideas presented enable all writers to find tools to generate more diverse fiction.  This is Jayrod Garrett, the First OG, with just one question for you.  Do social networks help you to write?