On Undawnted, Life Matters When Writing

Tonight on Undawnted...

I did a load of dishes. I fed the birds and cats. I cooked dinner. I will be putting a chicken in the oven later this evening to keep the house warm. Then I will do a load of laundry after that. 

Well, I cannot sit around and write all day! 

Did you know that motivating helps your brain? If you get stuck writing, then take a walk or do some chores. Sunbathing is nice too. That is what I do. 

With a chicken done, then I don't have to worry about cooking large meals for a few days. That is nice when you have 20K more words to write, and you don't want to break your concentration for too long. 

The notes and scenes I will be doing this week will be enough to keep my mind busy. With the paying of my last two bills in the next couple of days, I won't have any money to spend. So, good thing I am a creative writer. Everything I need is in my head. 

After Immortal Spellcaster is at my formatter on the 20th, I will be doing my Movie Reviews. Isn't that exciting? Spoilers too. (I give a warning!) I like to do five in depth reviews a month. I wanted to be a movie critic when I was a teen. Now, I am. I like how that worked out for me. 

Then the blog/book tour will happen at the end of the month. I want to also add in a Book Events through my Sonoran Dawn publishing house. 

December will begin with me finishing up Immortal Spellcaster. The break of doing reviews and tours will allow me to see my manuscript with fresh eyes. Then I will be able to correct any more mistakes that I may find and add whatever word count is left for me to do. 

If done and polished, Immortal Spellcaster will be entered into a Contest. 

Awesome! 

I would love for the story to place. If so or not, I won't know until late into 2022. If the novel is returned without being optioned, then I will do a few more polish runs before publishing it myself. A good release time would be Winter 2022-23, don't you think? 

December will see me expanding my short story, The Reality Hackers. This science fiction story will be made into a Novelette and entered into another contest. 

That is a good story. I just have to have it in the hands of the right people, and of course, no more formatting issues! When you work with old technology and software, crap happens. You have to keep pressing forward. 

I want to have a few novels and short stories published by third-party publishers in the next five years. As well as, I would like to have some original plays and scripts under production.  

This is the life of a writer. Just make sure not to forget about your real life in the process. I don't. I even add some real life experiences in my fiction to make scenes and characters more realistic. Truth is stranger than fiction... and my truth is way stranger than that. 

 Have a great and wonderful day.

On the Road Again

It's just not a Willie Nelson song.

Of course, I feel like I have traveled this road one too many times. The street names are all the same and you never cruise above 55 miles an hour. There's something wrong with this road. 

So I have to off road from time to time. I pick some unfamiliar exit and make a mad dash for it. I usually end up in some forest. 

I'm on TV! But, it's not Survivor. It's Finding Bigfoot or Call of the Wildman. 

It seems to be all about the hunt for me. Travel down a road to nowhere for only so long and you are on the prowl. Good thing in reality I do my hunting at the grocery store. 

Things could get messy if civilization wasn't so civilized. 

Still civilization has its drawbacks. We, humans I mean, don't get to nourish our primal instincts, our wild side. 

Movies, tv shows, and marketers like to psychologically target and overemphasize the sexual motivation of our species, but they do not realize that that is not the basis for our urges. It's survival. 

I know a little bit about survival. 

So the next time you write remember what drives your characters. Is it sex? Is it escape? Or, is it the basic instinct of survival? 

One of the best survival mechanisms is to know yourself, and your character. 

Have a happy haunted day! 

A Little Inspiration

Sometimes when I need to feel something, I turn to my DVD collection.

Want to be in love? Watch Kate and Leopold. Want to feel scared? Watch The First Power. If you want to be motivated as an action hero, then Witchblade should be on tap.

I used to love watching that show. Of course I refuse to watch the second season. The show went from a web of teasers and subplots to episodic nonsense. I wish someone would do as good as version here soon. I need my feminine action hero fix. Rizzoli and Isles just don't cut it for me. 

Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2 rocked the slick chick with a chip vibe.

Anyway, when you need a mood for yourself or a character you are writing, being in someone else's universe can be positive. Even music can be a mood enhancer, I know I have some favorites in the CD player.

So a little inspiration can go a long way. Just remember not to get so caught up in the external that the internal creative drive suffers. It's easy to be sucked in by Hollywood.

Now back to Witchblade.