Tag: thoughts

Posted in blogging

Checking In on Goals

Posted on by AJ

With all the insanity that comes up when moving, I feel like my entire routine has been thrown out of the window. I haven’t managed to get much sorted out for June and realized when I made Monday’s post that I’d completely forgotten to prep any prompts for this month as well.

Since I need to get back into my routine I wanted to also take a moment to reassess my organization and where I am with my goals for the year. Admittedly, it’s not looking great, which is somewhat disappointing.

I started out the year with a self-set reading challenge of twenty-four new books. Unfortunately, I haven’t been doing so great on that score. Although I’ve read around ten or eleven books, all but three have been rereads. While I could still try and rush through and finish all twenty-four by the end of the year, I don’t think that would be wise, so I’m instead opting to cut back down to a mere twelve new books.

I also wanted to publish at least two stories published this year. Crimson and Gold came out in January, and I have another project I’m looking to possibly start discussing and showing in July. For my publication goals, I’m pretty pleased with where things stand.

Also! Crimson and Gold is available through Kindle Unlimited and will also be free on July 4th and 5th.

Although I’m not meeting all of the goals I set for myself, I’m still really pleased with where things stand for right now. There’s plenty of time to wrap things up. Although I’m missing the prompts for June it’s given me a good chance to reorganize and sort out some of my older posts and plan ahead.

How are you feeling about your goals?

Posted in blogging, General

May Recap

Posted on by AJ

It’s been a whirlwind of a month. It’s hard to believe it’s already over. There’s been a huge amount of changes, starting with: I’m moving! It’s only to the other side of the city, but it’s still a massive amount of work to get everything done.

Writing-wise I’ve got a smaller project finished and ready to go through edits. I’m really excited to see how it goes and I’m hoping to start showing it in July. Keep an eye out for more information on it!

I’m behind on tracking my word count for the month. It’s all been written down in my agenda, which got packed. As soon as I can get those numbers put in I’ll be able to get an accurate count for the month. For right now, I feel like I didn’t get a huge amount written for May.

How was your May?

Posted in General

Working Titles

Posted on by AJ

Titles are either simple to come up with, or they’re difficult. There’s not a lot of in-between about them. I’ve already gone over one of the ways to come up with and generate titles, but those suggestions don’t always feel right at first. Titles can take time, and that’s where the working title comes into play.

A working title isn’t much more than what you call your story while it’s still a work in progress. Dependent on your publishing route, an editor may suggest a title change for marketing purposes, or just based on style. It’s also possible that you’ll go through several titles before finding the one that fits your story.

You don’t need to put much thought in a working title. In the case of very early drafts when you’re still feeling out the rest of the story, you can simply use the first thing that pops to mind–the wizard boy, or the hobbit’s ring or something else to help you denote which story is which. Alternately, you can use the working title as a note to help, a la I Write Sins Not Tragedies.

You might also find it helpful to use the working title as a way to test out your actual title. It can help to put WT at the end so you can avoid attaching to any titles that don’t work for that story.

What are some of your working titles?

Posted in blogging, General

April Recap

Posted on by AJ

I think it’s fair to say that April has been a month full of stress and worry. COVID-19 continues to be a very real threat.  I hope you all are safe at home. If you’re one of the essential workers helping to keep everything running: thank you. Thank you to the firefighters, the nurses, the doctors, the police and the sheriffs helping protect and combat this virus directly. Thank you to the delivery drivers, grocery clerks, farmworkers, and sanitation workers helping our families and first responders survive this crisis.

While COVID is affecting daily life heavily, there is still some progress to be noted about the month. Here at least, numbers have begun to plateau. Although it’s likely the situation won’t resolve for months at the least, the fact that there is some positive change is at least a sign that we can and will get a handle on the situation.

Moving onto other news, I’m really pleased with how my personal challenge went this month. I had quite a few rough days where I didn’t get much writing done. If you want a day-by-day breakdown, you can check out the 30 Day Shorts Part I,Part II, Part III and Part IV. Below you’ll find the last few days of the April Challenge.

I actually really enjoyed having a challenge and I wish I had another one to do. I might see about finding another, perhaps for July.

Day 26
Two more flash-pieces done, the first titled ‘Problem Solver’ and the second being ‘Bus Tickets’. I had more ideas but unfortunately didn’t get a chance to start on any of them.

Day 27
Worked on ideas from yesterday. Finished up the selection of pieces with ‘Recruiter’ and ‘Technomancer’. I’ve actually gotten caught up somehow and am sitting on twenty-seven pieces.

Day 28
One more short, this one titled ‘She Came Through’. Ended up using the Day 27 prompts on accident.

Day 29
Ended up scrambling to get laundry done and dried yesterday since my dryer has broken. Nothing short written.

Day 30
Last day of the challenge! I ended up not working on any short stories today, meaning I finished the month out with a total of twenty-eight shorts. All things considered, even though it technically means I didn’t succeed at the challenge, I’m happy with what I ended up with.

How was your April?

Posted in Exercises, General

Your First Fan Theory

Posted on by AJ

Confession Time: You are not the only writer out there who dreams about what your fans will say and think of your work. You’re also not the only one who wonders what sort of insane theories they’ll come up with. That’s just a fact. Human nature makes us wonder what other people will think of our effort.

If you follow any of the fandoms associated with your favorite shows, you probably know that the theories others can come up with are well-thought out. A lot of them might even use some of the tiniest parts of source material to support those theories.

That can be both a good and a bad thing. As a writer it’s hard to keep every tiny piece in line while writing. So, today I have an exercise for you that will help you keep some of those tinier moments under control as well as developing the hidden backstory.

As an exercise:  Write out five to ten theories for your WIP.  Go as far out as you like! Who is secretly whose parent? Why does this character have this ability but not another? Does Character A know Character B’s secret, and if so why don’t they reveal that they know?

Then come up with the supporting evidence for each theory. This might be a line of dialogue or how a character reacts. It’s possible that some of your theories might explain why a character isn’t in a particular scene.

Optionally: You can also write out some false theories and find their evidence.