Now many writers still like to write in the old ways. George Lucas is famous for writing every one of the screenplays for his Star Wars saga in a notebook before having them typed up and printed. Stephen King famously wrote many of his novels on a typewriter until just a few years ago when he made the change to word processors. That is to me the beauty of it- there are no rules on what tools you want to use to write.
Of course, word processing is just plain more convenient and easy. You type it up, can save it to your hard drive or online and when ready you can send it electronically to a publisher. Although many publishers prefer you to send your manuscripts by mail still.
Anyway, I am getting off topic. My purpose for this post is to say that I finally went out and bought Microsoft Office 2010 this weekend. Included in that group of programs is the aforementioned Word. I have to say that Office is incredibly expensive. Luckily for me my wife is a student. So for the privilege of owing tens of thousands of dollars in student loans I get to save a couple hundred bucks on Microsoft Office. Fair trade I would say..umm.
Moving on...So now that I finally have the tools I need to get writing I have no more excuses. Quite right! The next order of business was a writing schedule.
As written about in my previous post, I wanted to establish a writing schedule. Structure is a good thing for a writer and especially for one as prone to procrastination as I. Over the past several days I have thought to myself what schedule would work best.
Would a weekend schedule work? One where I only write on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. This idea is not new and in fact I found a book at Barnes and Noble that teaches you how to write a novel only on the weekends and complete it in one year. Seems rather far fetched to me, but the idea intrigued me nonetheless.
I also thought about a staggered approach, one where I write every other day. But that seemed kinda tough as I never quite know what each night will bring with the kids.
So here is what I have come up with after much thought and debate:
I am going to write for sure on Tuesday and Friday nights. Then I am going to have a rotating schedule when I throw in a Wednesday orThursday nights, in addition to the mandatory Tuesday and Friday nights, depending on how things play out. Saturday and Sunday nights will be wildcards. That means I may write on those nights and I may not, it will all depend on what I do on those days and how I feel. I wanted to leave the weekend open as I feel it is important to spend some of that time with my wife and kids.
So what does this all mean to you my loyal readers: Well it means that starting this week I will be writing a regular post under this topic, Writing Sucks, every Wednesday night and Saturday. To start, over the next few weeks, these posts will not be terribly exciting. Now wait, before you sprint away from this blog and never return- understand that they will get more interesting as time goes on. But just to start they will consist of alot of my thought process as I work to translate years of rough notes into somewhat coherent storylines.
These early posts will also consist of a great deal of me sharing avenues I have found that have aided me in the early writing process. Resources like books, websites, and any other item I find useful. My hope is by sharing these items with you that they will aid you in writing for the first time or with the next writing project you may be tackling.
I want to make it clear: These blog posts are meant to be a participatory exercise. So, feel free to comment, offer up advice of your own, or provide me with insights from your own writing experience. I want these entries to help you if needed but I also am open to and desire any help you wish to offer me as I struggle to write my first stories in years.
Ok, loyal readers we have taken another step this weekend in securing the tools needed. We aren't running yet, but we are sure starting to walk! Until next time friends.
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