Still here.

I'm still here.  Still writing. But slowly.  Slowly, because I need to take 6 classes instead of 5 to graduate. Slowly, because I'm working more than I intended. Slowly, because I'm trying to enjoy this season of life and that means trying to find balance. But I'm still here!

PODCAST

I DID IT! I FINALLY PODCASTED. If you'd like to give it a listen, you can find it here

Unfortunately that's all I've done this week (other than blog, still blogging strong). I am so so SO close to finishing the first draft of the novel. Still stuck on the webseries but I hope to finish this week (again).  A big reason why I didn't get much done is that my weekend was chewed up by travelling.  I am worried I won't have the discipline to carry my summer momentum into the fall.

I'm also transitioning back into French from English which makes it difficult to write in either language.

Anyway I'm trying, I am going to do better.

See you next week!

-Mack

ps. Podcast fist bump!!!!

For Real This Time

Phew! I thought I wasn't going to make it this week. It's another week of writer's block. I am so so close to being finished the first draft of the novel but getting through the last few bits has been like pulling teeth. Still no work on the web series and I really REALLY wanted to use the long weekend to try podcasting.  It's always frustrating realizing that I should've scheduled in writing.  I know this. You know this. And yet here I am at the end of a weekend with almost nothing to show for it. Ugh.

Now on to the positives! I still managed to blog on time which I am quite happy about.  I also am very excited to be almost done the first draft because it's been my most long-term project. It's been a couple years to get to this point which is exciting because I've never stuck with anything this long but also frustrating because I want results right noooooooow.

Ok so this week I am going to podcast... for real this time. And I am going to finish the first draft of the web series (also for real this time).

I'm going to do better... promise!

Have a lovely week!

-Mack

Ugh... Failure

Well... I'd call this past week a failure in terms of writing.  I hit my first real block on the web series. I was generally unmotivated  to work on the novel. I did, however, manage to do a youtube video and maintain my blog streak (yay!).

This week I would like to get back on track by finishing the first draft of the web series and recording a podcast (FINALLY) and then I hope to you the weekend to get some work done on the novel.

Sorry this is so short but I'm exhausted and there's still work to do!


Have a lovely week,

Mack

Victories and Un-victoires

Ok so let's start with the victories this week:

1. Progress on the novel.  It was awful but we worked through a bunch of plot issues and I've done some writing for the novel for the first time in at least a month.

2. I got an actual response from a beta-reader for my short story/novella/whatever-you-call-not-a-novel. After over a year they actually read the piece I sent them. It is really frustrating when people are not even interested to try to read it but I also don't chase people.  Badgering someone to read your stuff (in my humble, uneducated, unpublished opinion) won't get you the feedback you need. I won't chase people. It's given me new focus and after leaving the first draft for so long I'm excited to roll up my sleeves and get going on round 2.

3. Still going strong on the web series! I think I have a rough of the first season (it could be only but I'd like to leave it open for now) and I'm excited to do some readings with people who want to be involved.  This is a big, long term project so I'm worried I'll lose momentum on it but so far it's been pretty steady progress (excuse me while I go knock on wood).

The un-victories are:

1. My summer reading list.  I'm just going to say it: university ruined reading for fun.

2. Still nothing on podcast/anthology and I am beginning to think I bit off more than I can chew with my summer writing goals.

Still going strong! See you next week :)

-Mack

Untying Plot Knots!

This week has been a mixed bag of productivity and laziness.  I definitely didn't get as much as I wanted done but what I did get done I'm very happy with. I'm writing a novel with my Dad and he stayed with me this past week.  We're trying to get our first draft done by the end of the summer but we ran into some unexpected problems:

1. Writing a novel with two people is a lot harder than we thought (particularly when one of us is an outliner and the other one is a discovery writer.... it's me, I'll own that).  My solution to plot knots is just to keep writing and deleting and writing and deleting... my Dad's is to actually plan out the story which I find eats at my motivation. On the other hand, I don't get hung up on little stuff like character names and so I like to think I get us through the small details that might not be important right this second (in my humble unpublished opinion).  I think that we are a good writing combo because we can push each other through the parts that are unpleasant for the other.

What we didn't realize is that there is a lot of things you need to discuss which makes the process slow down -- What tense are we writing in? What person are we writing in? What timeline do we want? And the worst part is these things aren't evident until one person has written a chunk of story in third person past tense and the other has written their chunk in first person present.

2. Trying to fix plot problems is difficult to do over the phone.  Especially when we are each working off our half of the manuscript the parts of the story

We made a lot of really good progress after putting it on the back burner for awhile and I am excited to get back to writing it ( a month and a bit to go on our deadline and I think we might just make it!).

I am giving myself a pat on the back for continuing to work on the web series. Still no progress on the podcast or my summer reading list or my micro fiction anthology or any of the other stuff I said I wanted to do over the summer but I'm happy that I am getting closer to actually completing goals!

Week 3 is down for the count!

See you next week :)

-Mack

Micro-fiction

I do love me some micro-fiction! In fact, it's one of the few things I manage to finish :$ 

In all honesty, I love writing short pieces because they are sort of like snapshots.  Some of them could use some context, some of them probably don't make sense to anyone but me but I find they can paint a really powerful picture.

In the book I am currently reading, An Evening With W.O. Mitchell, W.O. Mitchell talks about how art is not a private experience and the reader's interpretation is just as significant as that of the writer. This -in my humble, relatively uneducated opinion- is a big reason why I find reading and writing micro-fiction so intriguing; the reader has so much room to interpret.

This week has been really good in terms of writing... I finished a couple episodes of my web series (first draft so still needs a bit of elbow grease). I also shot a video (probably won't post it because it's one of those funny-in-the-moment kind of things).  

Blog is still being updated regularly (I haven't bored myself yet so I think I'm doing alright). I was worried by forcing myself to blog regularly that it would get too ranty or repetitive  but 5 weeks in: so far so good (I know, not that far in, still plenty of time to get ranty and repetitive).

This next week, I'm going to hammer out some of the stale matey details of the first draft of our novel, get another episode written out (I'm grooving on this web series bit) and hopefully edit at least one of the videos I've shot. Still have not attempting podcasting but it has been rolling around in my brain a bunch :P

Week 2 we're through!

See you next week :)

-Mack