Day 73: Results

I have accomplished a lot of great writing over the course of these 73 days so far. One of the only things I haven't seen a lot of is results. We live in such an automatic worlds these days when you can reach anybody immediately through so many different channels and where you can watch or listen to anything you want to with the click of a button. As a person who has been immersed in this world, I can't help but expect something to happen right away from my efforts. Of course, this doesn't mean that it will :).

The first book I wrote during this challenge, The Post-College Guide to Happiness only has three reviews so far and it's the kind of book that probably needs more than 50 to do some serious business. I did the writing and want the results, but it will probably take a lot more effort to get the reviews I need to get this book out to a larger audience. The second book I completed, and my longest ever, 1,000 Character Writing Prompts, Part 1, hasn't even been edited yet, in part, because I've been really busy. So, it's impossible for me to get any results out of that project yet.

I have increased the traffic on my website a great deal, which is quite encouraging. These are the results I'm going to need to focus on at times that I feel like quitting or putting my writing off till later in the day. If I keep pressing ahead, the results will come, they just might not be completely visible for months if not years. Sooner or later, my hard work will pay off.

Today on the writing side of things, I did some work on Ted Saves the World, including this gem:
"Ted, many people are saying that you are beaming alien signals through your nipples to gain your powers. Is this true?"
Dhiraj and Ted both stopped for that one.
"What are your sources?" Dhiraj asked.
"The Internet."

I also wrote a blog post of elementary writing prompts for the kids. Happy hump day, all!

Day 64: Direction

When I was in college, there was this awesome moment during which I really fell in love with directing. I haven't done it as much lately as I think I should, which is why I was really fortunate to be able to direct a commercial yesterday. I was in the hallway of the Center for Dramatic Arts when a friend of mine asked me to come in and watch him perform a scene with a partner. I gave the two of them a little advice and the next day he told me he knocked it out of the park.

After I gave the directing advice, I felt like I'd come upon something of a calling. I've directed some shows here and there since, but I'm often caught up in the producing side of things and I can't focus. Yesterday, working with the cast of Jersey Shore: The Musical was awesome and I hope that what Brian Sly and I come up with will be something special, whether it wins the Crash the Super Bowl contest or not.

On the writing side of things, this morning I worked on Ted Saves the World, including a scene where our hero has to catch a thief while wearing nothing but his boxers. On the blog, I wrote about how to recover from procrastination. While I'll be writing most of the day, I'll be buzzing with anticipation until I see some of the footage from yesterday. Woo hoo!

Day 63: Quality and Quantity

I've had more than a few people ask me during this challenge if I was going for quantity over quality. This is a perfectly legitimate question, because it's obvious that I'm spending a whole lot of time on writing, which may be cutting into my editing time. In actuality, I've always been a quick editor and I'm happy to hand off some of the duties to my editor and friend, Ashley Daoust. By making sure I have someone on hand to help me through the important process of re-writing, I hope that I can strike a good balance between quality and quantity.

Today in writing, I continued to work on the beginning of my new full-length novel version of Ted Saves the World. I also created a page of middle school writing prompts. Off to shoot a Doritos commercial!

Day 62: On a Whim

Last night I decided, on a whim, to scrap my plans for adding content to Writer on the Side for the time being because I was inspired to turn my novella, Ted Saves the World into a full-length novel. It was my initial research for Writer that made me realize I've been spending too much time helping others to be creative without giving myself enough of an outlet.

I was a little rusty at first at bringing my fantasy action-adventure back to life, but I really got into the swing of it with Ted and the rest of the good guys. I've pegged the book as my homage to Joss Whedon and mixing the witty, the hilarious and the tragic in equal measure. I'm really excited to do what I can to make it a jam-packed book with humor, action and general craziness :).

On the writing blog today, I created a page of journal writing ideas to give people a different perspective on writing about their boring, routinized days.