What will happen if I can keep this challenge up for an entire year or even an entire lifetime? possibly nothing. There is certainly a chance that I could create some amazing stuff that nobody gives a second look. Then again, my dream is that these books I create spread like wildfire and can help and entertain many people. I'd like to increase my income through the roof to pay off all my debts and to better care for my girlfriend and my family. I want to increase my freedom to take on wild projects in film and television. If I can keep up this writing practice indefinitely, I think it could happen. I hope it does happen.
Today, I worked on some character writing prompts about emergency workers and washed-up people, along with a blog post on teaching creative writing.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Day 48: Refinement
One of the keys to a quest like this is refining your method until you have reached top efficiency. Throughout the last 48 days, I've had times where it took me until the end of the day to get enough motivation to finish and I've had moments in which the writing came easily to me. By learning what worked during those latter moments, I have been able to refine my process.
I love having a word count goal, but by having it prominently displayed in my word processor, I was getting tripped up. In addition, by jumping into each prompt as I would an improv scene at the Annoyance, they practically write themselves. Lastly, I've been listening to a fantastic compilation of 100 classical music masterpieces, which relax me no matter how anxious I am about the writing.
As a result, here I am by 10 a.m. on a Saturday, complete and ready to clean our dang apartment :). Today, I worked on prompts about senior citizens and emergency workers and I wrote a blog post about financial motivation. Happy weekend, y'all!
I love having a word count goal, but by having it prominently displayed in my word processor, I was getting tripped up. In addition, by jumping into each prompt as I would an improv scene at the Annoyance, they practically write themselves. Lastly, I've been listening to a fantastic compilation of 100 classical music masterpieces, which relax me no matter how anxious I am about the writing.
As a result, here I am by 10 a.m. on a Saturday, complete and ready to clean our dang apartment :). Today, I worked on prompts about senior citizens and emergency workers and I wrote a blog post about financial motivation. Happy weekend, y'all!
Friday, October 21, 2011
Day 47: Christmas in October
Today, I wrote a page of Christmas writing prompts for a few different reasons. No, me being in the holiday spirit isn't one of them.
Every Fall, the traffic on my website goes up astronomically due to the huge traffic on my "fall writing prompts," "Halloween writing prompts" and "Thanksgiving writing prompts" pages and I figured, why not have my Christmas page indexed and ready for December. Now, that's some Christmas planning ahead :).
I also worked on the character writing prompts book and started a Post-College Guide to Happiness giveaway!
Every Fall, the traffic on my website goes up astronomically due to the huge traffic on my "fall writing prompts," "Halloween writing prompts" and "Thanksgiving writing prompts" pages and I figured, why not have my Christmas page indexed and ready for December. Now, that's some Christmas planning ahead :).
I also worked on the character writing prompts book and started a Post-College Guide to Happiness giveaway!
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Day 46: Accented
If people commented on this blog, I imagine that they would ask me what I do on the side when I'm not writing. Well, at this current moment, I'm trying to re-learn an Irish accent for a play audition I have coming up in a week and a half. I've been asked to read for a part in Martin McDonagh's play, The Cripple of Inishmaan. It'd be pretty exciting and one of my biggest roles yet :).
On the writing front, I was able to suppress the last few days worth of procrastination that made me put off finishing until 3 or later and I was finished with the prompts by 9:30 a.m. I also wrote a blog post on improving self esteem (link is forthcoming).
I'm actually in a library that has two copies of the play listed online and I'm hoping to snag one for the audition. If I can't get one, I'll take my shillelagh to 'em!
On the writing front, I was able to suppress the last few days worth of procrastination that made me put off finishing until 3 or later and I was finished with the prompts by 9:30 a.m. I also wrote a blog post on improving self esteem (link is forthcoming).
I'm actually in a library that has two copies of the play listed online and I'm hoping to snag one for the audition. If I can't get one, I'll take my shillelagh to 'em!
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Day 45: Sharing is Caring
Today was a treat as I had the esteemed pleasure of telling the story of my success to both a teacher and a peer of mine in the acting community. One took me out to a bagel-filled lunch while the other helped me to put a desk together. In both encounters, they asked questions about how I was able to find success in self-publishing and blogging and it was a lot of fun. After all, they say you learn 90 percent of what you teach, so I might as well teach success!
In the writing world, I worked on the writing prompts book (almost to 300 prompts) and I wrote a blog post on the subject of my creative writing process. It's a rainy day here in Chicago and I have a tradition to keep myself upbeat whenever that happens. "I'm singing in the rain..."
Try it out sometime :).
In the writing world, I worked on the writing prompts book (almost to 300 prompts) and I wrote a blog post on the subject of my creative writing process. It's a rainy day here in Chicago and I have a tradition to keep myself upbeat whenever that happens. "I'm singing in the rain..."
Try it out sometime :).
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Day 44: How I Do Things
I've been experimenting with different methods for working on this, much longer than I thought it would be, writing prompts book. My current method involves getting up early to write the first sentence or two for as many prompts as I can think of. I then work on some of my freelance stuff and later come back to fill out each prompt.
Since coming up with the initial idea is typically the toughest part, getting that out of the way before I'm completely awake pushes through writer's block later on. Twenty-four of the prompts pages are now on my website along with a post I wrote today about writing motivation.
Since coming up with the initial idea is typically the toughest part, getting that out of the way before I'm completely awake pushes through writer's block later on. Twenty-four of the prompts pages are now on my website along with a post I wrote today about writing motivation.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Day 43: Case of the Fundays
I've never been one of those people who hate Mondays. Maybe this was an indicator early on that I wouldn't be working a traditional 9 to 5, Monday through Friday job :).
Today was simply fantastic as I got up early to start my 2,000 words for the prompts book, quickly finished some of my freelance work and went shopping with my lady to stock our new apartment full of goodies. I'm a big fan of shopping for food and though I haven't had as much time to cook lately, it's always fun to see what we can put together at a moment's notice.
I also spend the late morning working on a blog post, a creative writing assignment about setting and I think I may do more teacher/student related posts in the future. When you have 365 posts to write in one year, it's good to be able to diversify a bit. Happy Funday everyone!
Today was simply fantastic as I got up early to start my 2,000 words for the prompts book, quickly finished some of my freelance work and went shopping with my lady to stock our new apartment full of goodies. I'm a big fan of shopping for food and though I haven't had as much time to cook lately, it's always fun to see what we can put together at a moment's notice.
I also spend the late morning working on a blog post, a creative writing assignment about setting and I think I may do more teacher/student related posts in the future. When you have 365 posts to write in one year, it's good to be able to diversify a bit. Happy Funday everyone!
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