Story Notebook #5 (part 2)

For those of you who don’t know (or can’t remember, since it’s been so long), I’ve been doing this ongoing thing where I go through my old story notebooks.  Last time, we covered my last semester of classes at BYU; this time, we’ll cover my time in Washington DC, when I was trapped in an internship from… Continue reading Story Notebook #5 (part 2)

More thoughts on indie publishing

Since my last post on indie publishing, I’ve been thinking a lot about this subject.  I haven’t decided to take the plunge into self published ebooks yet, but I have decided to make some changes in my writing and my career strategy, in order to position myself more favorably if/when I choose to do so.… Continue reading More thoughts on indie publishing

Quarterly report

So I figure that since I want to write professionally, it would be a good idea to keep track of my writing and do quarterly updates on my blog.  Here’s the first one for this year: The red line shows my daily writing word count, the blue line a running seven day total.  The graph… Continue reading Quarterly report

Old story notebook–found!

Guess what?  Last night, when I was looking through old boxes at my parents house (looking for my old ratty copy of On My Way to Paradise, specifically) I found my very first story notebook–the one I thought I’d lost on the Jordan study abroad two years ago! Wheeeeee!!! This notebook is a real gold mine–not… Continue reading Old story notebook–found!

Major project shift

I’ve got this goal to finish my current work-in-progress, To Search the Starry Sea, by May 1st 2010.  However, the deeper I get into the story, the more I realize how many problems it has–how much it sucks, in other words. Normally, this wouldn’t keep me from dropping the project or putting it on hold.… Continue reading Major project shift

Gah! It sucks

I’m about a third of the way through To Search the Starry Sea, and my greatest fear at this point is that it isn’t as good as the last novel I wrote.  Because if it isn’t as good, that means that I’m getting worse, not better, and if I’m getting worse, that means I’m never… Continue reading Gah! It sucks

Snowmageddon! Hooray!

So for the past week, a series of crazy snowstorms has been pelting the Mid-Atlantic.  President Obama has dubbed it “snowmageddon,” and it’s so bad that all federal government offices have been closed since Friday.  With another storm hitting us tonight, it looks like we’re going to have the whole week off! Yay!!! So, for the… Continue reading Snowmageddon! Hooray!

Quick worldbuilding question

For To Search the Starry Sea, I’m writing from the point of view of a far future starfaring culture completely independent of Earth. They’ve preserved our concepts of “hour,” “day,” and “year,” but these units of time do not correlate in any way with the revolutions of the worlds on which they live (basically, a… Continue reading Quick worldbuilding question

Stuck in a scene

I’ve been stuck in the same scene the whole week, and I really wish I could get it over with so that I could move on to other stuff.  What that other stuff is, exactly, I don’t know, but I’m eager to find out. I don’t plan things out much when I write.  Usually, when… Continue reading Stuck in a scene

Trading old hangups for new ones

So I started my internship with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy last week, and it’s been quite interesting.  Trying to figure out the new routine while starting a new novel has been quite challenging, but somehow, I’ve written at least something every day (except Sunday–I try not to write Sundays now). I can… Continue reading Trading old hangups for new ones