Various Updates – July 5, 2009

I know this is a bit out of character for me to post this close to my last post but now that I have actually been writing I feel I have some things to talk about.

I continue to bring my writing before the Lord and He keeps confirming that I should be doing this by the peace I have in my heart and the desire He has set in that place.  He has not; however, told me that I would ever be a best selling author or a selling author of any type but once I hit the “zone” I have a hard time stopping and I think about the story more and more often.  I have to say it is FUN! It taxes my brain and I have despaired once or twice but God has helped me over those hurdles. In one instant he has provided a good friend who enjoys the same genre of books I do so I have been able to explain what I want to do and he and I have talked through the issues. Twice now God has used him to help me past some sticky points. And then He uses the very imagination He has blessed me with. Sometimes to get past one of those pesky obstacles I have simply sat back and stared thinking through the possibilities and an idea forms. It has been great fun! Wouldn’t it be great to do this full time? At this point I have no religion in my story and I feel it is missing something so I would not be surprised if some type of religion pops up and gets woven into the story web, but I can’t say for sure!

The 2000 word\day mark I set for myself has not yet born the fruit I had hoped it would but I have run into more storyline problems than I had thought I had. This time has not been all wasted though! I have been able to work through some of the problems I had and I actually let my internal editor out for a little play time and he helped me to clean up some problem areas I had and redirect the plotline in the new direction. He had fun and he was so cute to watch! (I wish I had taken some pictures!) Anyway when I finally put him away I had most of my rough draft problems cleared up along with some of the confusion that was starting to creep in. It was looking like a big mess but it is all better now and I should be able to write at a faster rate, at least for a while.

I have completed thirty-six pages of rough draft as of this writing and I am not done yet tonight. Kim and I took a nice walk and I wanted to get another posting out but I would love to make the forty-page mark before I go to bed, I just don’t know if it’ll happen or not. On the plus side I am not overly tired right now. In fact, lately my mental faculties have been much better than they have in a long time. I am not smarter just seem to be able to use what I do have in a more effective manor. I praise God for this because I hate the fog I walked around in for the last 30 years! I am convinced it has to do with the fact that I have stopped drinking pop. I have no way to prove my theory but only to say that my mind’s functioning has improved since I have stopped drinking pop. (now if I could only cut back on the rest of the crap I intake!)

Alyssa leaves tomorrow for a week at Chicago to get some evangelism training. It should be a very good experience for her and I hope the Lord will use it in her life. Please pray for her in those lines and for safety for their traveling.

Logan has one more week of baseball with the 8th grade team. There have been a lot of rainouts this year, it does not seem like we’ve had a full season but it has been enjoyable.

The Holy Spirit has been having me focus on the lives of Joseph and Daniel in my Bible study times. There are a lot of parallels and some cool lessons.  I will pass on more to you as I learn.

Well, I’m getting back to my other writing!

Keep your dreams alive and work hard. Lay your plans in God’s hands and He will help you!

Bye!

Writing Update –June 28, 2009

I am praising God write now! (You’ll understand the pun later!) I finally feel that I can use this blog for what I had originally planned to use it for:Writing updates! As I mentioned in my last post I am actually writing! Hands dirty, nose to the grindstone, writing! As of this moment I have completed, in rough draft (VERY rough!) close to 26 pages so far. I even experienced a phenomena that writers say is a good sign that you have some passion, I almost cried with one of the scenes I was writing. It was a scene where the twins lost almost everyone of their family members in a brutal attack by Trogan slavers. (These names won’t mean a thing to you unless you actually read the finished product) I could feel their grief as they remember. It is very cool! Very exciting!

God has blessed me with a good friend in Chris Watson. He and I like to hike together and my prayer is that when we walk together I can encourage him as much as he always encourages me, though I know that he encourages me way more than I encourage him.

We walked yesterday. We talked about a myriad of topics and it was simply a joyous time! I then brought up the subject of writing, and as always, God used this fellow to encourage my heart and free me to be used as God intended me to be use. These talks, though not specifically about my stories but, instead, about how God could use me and writing, has freed my mind and because of that I have been able to fill more gaps in my story and I introduced yet another character, (ALWAYS cool when a new and unexpected person joins the group!) who I am afraid is an unsavory type but necessary to fill in some holes. I do not like him at all, in fact I board on hatred. That is very cool! Not that I hate but that I hate my character! He is really evil though he appears to be, at first, an angel of light. He needs to be developed more but so far he is BAD and I do not like him!

I have also set myself some writing goals that are bigger than I am currently following but it is necessary if I really want to finish my story.

Starting July 1 I will begin writing 2000 words a day. Right now that is about an hour and half’s worth of work. This does vary but in general terms I can pump out about 10000 words every forty-five minutes.

With this goal in mind I intend to be done with the rough draft by Sept.1. I will then give myself a couple weeks off to let the whole thing simmer and then I will release the beast…my internal editor! This fellow is a nuisance when trying to bang out a rough draft but he is absolutely a welcome guest during the editing process. You see, when you are pounding out the rough draft you don’t need that turkey keeping you grounded, nagging you about every mistake, every slip of the grammar wheel and every spelling error, not to mention telling you what he thinks of the ideas themselves! No, what you need to do is lock that turkey up and soar with the eagles where freedom resides. Where you are free to put down on paper whatever comes to your head instinctively knowing it may not be the best…yet…but that soon enough you will take the time and, carefully working with your internal editor, fix the problems that as a free spirit, you did not care about.

With his help I will begin the burdensome task of editing. The first pass will be to fix obvious errors in spelling, grammar, and story flow. Once I feel good about the first draft, which I have until Dec. 1 to finish, I will, gulp!, recruit some folks to read what I have and start giving me feed back.

Then around the Jan. 1 timeframe I will take the ideas I have been given, (I will be reading it too and making changes I think are needed) I will take all the ideas start draft two.

About April 1 I hope to have draft two done and from there I am not sure what I will do…

If I receive a lot of genuinely positive feedback from draft one, I may send out draft two for a second reading. If that comes back favorably, I will seriously think of getting an agent and trying to publish the thing.

I want to clarify positive feedback. Family and friends can sometimes be so gracious that they are not willing to be honest lest it hurt my feelings. I want to say now that you CANNOT HURT MY FEELINGS!

If you choose to help me, though I do not want you to be mean spirited, I do want brutal honesty. I need brutal honesty to be able to make appropriate changes. If the plot is flat or boring, tell me. If the characters lack depth and you can’t tell me which character is talking without me actually writing, “Fred said”, or “Mary said”, then tell me. I can’t improve unless I have constructive criticism

On the other hand if you like the way something is working I would love to know that too!

This is happening! This is really happening and I give all the credit to God. He has orchestrated all the details for me to come this far. I do not want to sound like what I am doing is going to sell or even be good but I don’t care. I will say that again for clarity, I do NOT care! If I gain nothing else from this it will be experience so that maybe the next time I can create something saleable. I am excited about my story, I like it but if no one else does at least I will have experience under my belt and with that, like practicing any sport or musical instrument, I will improve. I already feel I have improved somewhat and the fear I used to have is gone right now. When fear leaves freedom moves in and then you can do wonderful things! What a great ride this has been and continues to be!

For now I press onward with the strength and freedom God has granted me! If you are out there and maybe fearful of stepping out in faith to accomplish what God has in store for you, don’t wait any longer! Take the leap! Jump! You will see that fear is only, as they say, a paper tiger, it looks real but it has no power over God and His enablement! You will see that, though the road may not be smooth or without certain pitfalls, the freedom you will ride on is, well, freeing!

(After all of that do you now understand my pun? LOL!)

Come and fly! God’s waiting for you. Trust Him!

Bye!

A Slight Hesitation – June 24, 2009

I almost hesitate to mention this because if you have been a follower of this blog for very long you will note that I can spin wild tales of me actually writing something…at least something more than a blog about writing. But now I am not only going to mention it I already have some momentum built up and, it appears to me, fuel to keep the train going.

In past attempts to write my first story (I REALLY hesitate to call what I am doing a novel) I got seven pages done and had no idea where to take it from there. I slogged around and jotted down an idea or two here or there and I even have attempted to motivate myself by telling you all that I WAS GOING TO WRITE! Nothing really worked. In fact, I almost talked myself out of writing because if I wasn’t going to work at it diligently, why do it all. I just could not let go though!

I have prayed about writing, at least a little, but nothing seemed to happen then I learned a definition of discipline that hit me square in the forehead (I noted it in a previous blog…there it is…just scroll down a little farther…There you go!) That has helped tremendously and I was amazed (dismayed??) that the book of Proverbs is plumb full of verses about the lazy man, the sluggard, the slothful man. If you use Chuck Swindoll’s method of personalizing scripture you get the following:

“The slothful Greg”, “The lazy Greg”, “The sluggard Greg”…Do you start to see a pattern? Me too and I did not like it. I think I’ve known it for a long time but was too proud or too ignorant (Mom always used to tell me not to say “Stupid”…Thanks, Mom!) but the Lord finally, in His eternally gracious and merciful way, helped me to face the truth. If I was ever going to accomplish anything I needed to work at it. An amazing revelation!

And then there were the two books on writing. I won’t say they changed my life because I’ve already waxed too melodramatic already but they were insightful and full of good, concise writing advice.  One was Stephen King’s “On Writing” ( I do not recommend this book because Mr.. King tends to allow vulgar language into the mix rather liberally…Be ye warned!) which came across to me as real, down to earth and actually showed some real examples. I stumbled over the language but the advice was sound.

The other book is by a guy named Chris Batey. Mr. Batey started a writing…challenge about ten years ago called NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month (or at least something very close to that.) His challenge is to start writing every day beginning Nov.1 and ending Nov. 30 an in that time frame write a 50,000 word novel!  If you faithfully write every day in November this number equates to 1,667 per day that you need to write. Not really too hard actually until you realize you kinda need to have some sort of coherent story on the other side. It is a challenge I intend to take up this coming turkey month.

Anyway, from these two books I learned to start small, work every day, and shut off my internal editor. That pesky voice that hovers over my shoulder and tells me every mistake I make such as spelling, grammar, and spelling again; and likes to critic every sentence (If he even finds something he would consider a sentence!) and generally telling what a horrible example I’m setting for the writing world.

For those of you who are now completely lost or a at least felling a little dizzy, I have 1) Found a supply of discipline and am employing it to best of my abilities; 2) Writing 1000 words (sometimes more!) per day; and 3) I have evicted, temporarily because he will be needed to for the editing process, that blasted internal editor. (When you do this you really don’t care what you have written because you know you will go back at some point and edit. (It sounds like a long and tedious process to me too!)

Employing this set of tools for the last week and a half, I now have over 14, 000 words written which is roughly 15 pages. This count is five partial scenes out of over seventeen plus as I am writing I am finding all sorts of holes that will need to be filled and there have even been some surprise new characters that I never even knew existed before I started writing! It is so exciting! Each word I lay down is a new adventure and I hate the fact I have to break into my day for things like work when I have this adventure waiting for me at home! I have never been so exited about writing as I am now! Is it hard? Yes it is mentally taxing but I find a pleasure in it as maybe a runner feels when he or she gets that runner’s high. Dare I say I feel God’s pleasure when I am writing? I think I can! Do I think this is bragging? NO WAY! I think I am doing what God has designed me to do! And now that He has been helping me begin to overcome the things that I let hinder me I feel free! Free!

There are times where the muse seems to slog along but it’s those times that discipline comes along and pushes me to the finish line! “Only 100 words?”; “Only 400 words?”; “Only ten more words to go!” “Only 990 words?” Other times its like I hit 1400 words and wonder where the time went! It’s great!

Whew! I see I’ve done it again! But that’s what happens when I let my mind go and my fingers fly!

Good bye for now!

Total Sickness – June 5, 2009

Before I get to today’s missive I need to get something off my chest.

Today, as noted above, is June 5. Friday, June 5th to be precise which means the end of another school year. This is not just any school year though but a year with a couple of milestones.

1) Alyssa is now officially a high school senior (YES THAT IS CORRECT! A HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR!); 2) Logan is officially in high school! I can’t believe it! the time has gone so fast, but here it is and I’m not sure our kitchen table can hold any more college information packets! WOW! Sigh…What will the next couple years bring?

I have had a first this week. I was home sick for four out of the last six days. Some sort of virus I think. Kim had a similar something two weeks ago so I’m sure it was the same thing I had.

I went to work Monday and yesterday but it was not fun (Monday was not bad but yesterday was a mistake.)

Anyway, sinuses, sore throat, plugged ear ducts, coughing, hacking, wheezing, jumping, reading, writing…Opps! Sorry. Got a bit carried away as usual. I think you get the idea though.

The odd part is that I usually do not get sick for this long, but it happened! I guess that’s what we have sick days for, isn’t it?

The other odd thing is that I read a 285 page almost in one sitting. I couldn’t put it down! The really unusual part is that the book was by Stephen King. I can’t say I’m a fan of King’s mostly because I do not enjoy the genre he writes in but I had heard so many good things about his book “On Writing” I thought I would give it a try.

I was blown away! It was a fluent read and for some reason I could not put it down. Kim picked it up for me at the library at 4:00 PM on Wednesday and I had240 pages read by bedtime with a fine supper thrown in the mix. I just finished it.

King had some interesting things to say on the craft and his writing style is wonderful. I am considering reading one of his book just to taste it on the fiction side. But be aware! If you decide to read this book understand that King is real. He says what he means and means what he says and because of that there is a LOT of profanity and I do not mean mild profanity either! If it is a “four letter” word, it is in the book! Yes, this does bother me and most of the time when I run into too much of that kind of language I will stop reading the book but King had so many good things to say I trained my eye to “ounce” over those words when I came to them.

(When I say “real” I do not mean to say that because he uses profanity he is any “realer” then you or I but he does not pull any punches. He says what he says.)

I felt as though what he had to say really resonated with my heart. I don’t know why but it really did.

I am not recommending it just because of all the “four letter” words but the book did have an effect on me.

I have also have began to actually write my new story. Right now I have a goal of 1000 words a day and since this is my second day of doing this I have two thousand words written. They are not good words yet but I have started moving forward.

I had hoped that once I started writing I could throw discipline out the window because creativity would have stepped in and carried the day but that is not the case. Once I start writing I do enjoy it but I still must discipline myself to do it each and every day. Two down…X more to go! ;-)

Good bye for now!

An Item or Two… May 26, 2009

I see from the calendar that I have once again delved deeply into the mines of laziness and have not posted since April 19th!

Well, now I have a couple things I would like to share.

First, I have been world building for my story. It has gone OK... I know I don’t sound excited but it really is fun. The more I think about the different scenes the more holes I see that need to be filled. There are a lot of questions to be answered and I am still uncertain about the ending. I have a couple of twists I have been toying with…:-)

Though I have spent at least a few minutes almost every day for the last month or so working on it I still feel that I have not dedicated myself to the process as I should have been doing. You’re right, it’s not too late but I still bemoan the fact that I could be much farther along than I am. It can be daunting at times if not down right overwhelming! But when I think of the possibilities I can soar with ideas. In fact, I am considering adding some scars from an ancient wizard-war that could add some intriguing twists…

Discipline:

This is an area that I have admittedly been somewhat thin on…I am so easily distracted for one thing. I really hate that!  Those times that God grants to me focus I fly and good things seem to happen but the other times this lack of focus is a real enemy!

I want to leave you with a saying from a gentleman who spoke at our church for our annual Spring Bible Conference. His name was Dr. Ron Sauer and he is a neat individual. He had a wonderful series with plenty to muse over but one particular saying I have come to memorize. In fact, I have made a special print copy and hung it in my cube.

It goes like this:

Discipline: Doing what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, in the manner it ought to be done, regardless of how I feel about it.

…

The Photos – Apr. 19, 2009

Here are some of the photos I took while on my adventure on the 17th.

I was pleasantly surprised at how well they turned out (digital photography can make the most inept look good!) mostly because the little, I mean tiny, video screen I can’t see in the best of times and the sun was so bright the only thing I could see was my reflection. So what I did was point the camera at the object I hoped to capture and pushed the button. Here are the results. I hope these will entice you to setup a time to go hiking with me sometime!

 

Here is a picture of Indian Creek right off the main path.

You can see the beautiful sky and if you really squint, I mean really squint, you can see the moon. (It’s the white speck right in the middle of the picture) The day was so incredible the moon stuck around to take it all in.

One week ago Pastor Bryan and I followed this same path and the green you see in this picture was all black from he burn they did. Maybe not so impressive until you realize that it was black less than seven days ago! God’s creation is so amazing!

You can see one of the snobbish musk rats in the picture. He likes the limelight and so I got him in the middle. He was not so amiable when I asked him to tea. How rude!

Here we have the curious Mr... Turtle. He is just one of four that I saw and he was watching me as closely as I was watching him, in fact I think he may have had a camera too as I swear I saw a flash once in awhile. I’m probably being posted on his blog as we speak. (If you run across it let me know. I’d like to see if he got my good side.)

Here we have the melodious red wing black bird. Although not overly friendly, they were curious.

These are the last three photos I will submit for now. This has become one of my favorites. It is a wetland down in a little valley and at this time of year, has an abundance of water. It is just a peaceful and beautiful area.

Let me know know if you would like to see these up close and personal. I would be overjoyed to take you on an in-person tour!

For now…

BYE!

Trying Something New – Apr. 19, 2009

Since it’s been awhile since my last post I decided to go big and try something new. I decided to do a photo journal.

On Friday the 17th, I took our digital camera and my binoculars; my walking stick and notebook and hit the Indian Creek Nature Trail.

It is not unusual to see walkers on the path but I thought, I had hoped, I would not see many people this day because I wanted to be able to catch some wildlife. I also intended to get some scenery shots but it was not as important for there to be less people because the scenery seems to be not quite as skittish around people.

The day was absolutely perfect. Mid 40’s upheld an almost spotless blue sky with just the hint of a breeze. I could not have asked for more. Well, maybe one thing more…

As I parked the car and got my equipment together I could not keep my feet in line as they were most excited to get on the trail. (I had a hard time keeping up with them!)

As I got closer to the tributary path I that would take me to the prairie I started hearing a sound that caused the sun to dim and blue sky to fade to a bright gray…construction work. At this time I had come to the hard decision to not let this…this…noise…ruin my day, but it was not easy. In fact, I was surprised that this little thing had hit me as hard as it had. I finally talked myself into growing up and stop acting like a baby!

I found my turn off and wandered down the path and found to my horror, that the construction was actually taking place on the prairie!

There was a bulldozer tearing up the ground and two lumbering dump trucks waiting to remove the carnage, all the while aiding to the trampled affect. I consoled myself with the story that they were probably adding a pond…

I’m afraid that I can’t tell you how much area this prairie covers but it makes for a good walk. There are ground hog mounds and other areas of concern that one should endeavor to avoid so that the ankles and knees can maintain their created functionality without the aid of man-made supports, you know, sprained ankles, twisted knees, and varicose  veins. I have flexible knees and ankles, plus an implanted GPS system so that I am able to skillfully avoid these pitfalls. Nevertheless, there are enemies on the prairie that the most skillful of outdoorsmen fall into or step into…In all of the vastness of the prairie I found and stepped in, the only pile of doggie pooh within a hundred leagues. Of course…

One thing I like to do is try and keep track of the critters that Gods puts in my path. I love the discoveries that are within three miles of my house. Very cool!

I saw: A turkey, not just a turkey but a turkey in flight, that is almost frightening, two deer, four vultures (YES, Virginia, Iowa does have vultures! How do you think all the dead animals get cleaned up?), a myriad of birds, including one of my local favorites, Red Winged Black birds! The colors are so vivid, and their songs are enchanting. I was privileged to encounter two musk rats, they were not as thrilled with the encounter as I was as they swiftly swam away, four turtles, and three red headed wood peckers. These guys have a wonderful voice as well. I saw four painted turtles, and to my delight, they were almost as interested in me as I was in them. It was most delightful and peaceful to just look for the awakening of nature.

Now recall my rant about the people and technology that I discovered and forget about it as I share with you one oddity in this regard. There are train tracks that run just to the south of the prairie area. These tracks are the self same tracks that run through downtown Ames, IA which gives me an unusual connection to my home town!  BUT the odd thing is that as the trains go through, they seem almost as natural as the vultures or musk rats. I don’t know why this is so but I do not mind the trains and the wildlife seems ok with it too.

Well, I have broken the rules of blogging and created a monster but it was so much fun!

I will do a second posting and post the pictures, or at least some of them, in that post.

If you want to go hiking with me, let me know! It is one of my greatest joys to take people around this area and spend time in fellowship. Let me know!

Bye!