8/08/21 – Sunday
First, on this day in 1984 (37 years ago), I left my hometown north of Chicago and moved to Southlake, Texas. (I no longer live in Southlake…left in 1987, but still live in the general area.)
It was a good writing day, with enough pushing on “Godspeed, Crazy Mike” to see where the plot breaks. Things like imagining something happening at a particular time or day in the story, only to change it. Mentioning some plant growing or a flower blooming, and realizing it contradicts other plot points or the season.
And in the process of all this, the suspects in the story just seem to happen naturally.
Obviously, I know who did it, but if I didn’t, I’m not sure who I’d suspect…
For those interested, here’s the opening…
(And no, I don’t write stories by hand…unless I have a job that requires me to be in the office. Then I do write by hand on lunch break.)
8/09/21 – Monday
The morning was mostly spent sharing online what other people I know are up to. Some charity stuff and some things people I know are up to and making. I may not get to writing until after dinner today.
“Calling Out of Time” has been out for a full week, and it has 46 listens at this point. That’s solidly average for the show. But…I’ve heard from quite a few people about the story, and it means a lot to me that it a fair amount of listeners always show up.
I thought about September this morning. Each September, I take a month-long social media break. But…I know social media is one of the ways people find out about new episodes of Not About Lumberjacks. And if all goes as planned, “Godspeed, Crazy Mike,” will be a September release.
Part of me wants to now wait until October, but I think I’ll break the social media hiatus to post about the story when the time comes next month…
8/10/21 – Tuesday
I have never been the biggest fan of the “kill your darlings” philosophy when it comes to writing. I get that sometimes you can become attached to something that doesn’t work, but if you can see that something works and is something you love, the thought of killing it if it doesn’t serve some grand purpose is weird to me. (But then, the same people who say, “Kill your darlings!” often say, “Write the book you want to read!” They regurgitate advice that often contradicts other things they spew.)
But sometimes a thing you loved doesn’t work.
8/11/21 – Wednesday
And then, sometimes the thing you thought you were going to remove does work. Not even forcing it in there because I like it…it serves its purpose, and I know it’s the kind of thing listeners and readers will like.
That’s the thing: sometimes it’s important to put something in a story for the sake of joy. Even in short fiction, not everything must drive the story forward. Often, my favorite moments in stories are those that don’t drive plot, but perhaps serve a different purpose–even if it’s just appreciating a turn of phrase.
The bit I thought I’d remove, but ended up keeping, does give listeners and readers information about the protagonist’s personality. But I could have just as easily left it out.
But I know listeners often love those little scenes that are the same scenes many others would tell me to cut.
Why, it’s almost as if people have different tastes…
8/12/21 – Thursday
With the plot laid out and tested, it’s now a matter of going in and finishing sections.
While I usually finish stories in Word—just out of habit and because there’s something about it that helps me know the story better when it’s one big, scrolling thing—I build things in Scrivener. It allows me to set up each scene in a chunk that’s easier to see.
If a new scene needs to be made…in it goes. If I need to remove something, I can set it aside until I’m sure it’s not needed.
It’s easier for me to see progress this way, even though—in the end—I’ll compile all the sections and export to Word. There, I make sure the flow works and that it’s more than just plot points completed and called done.
(The polishing done is Word is where the story really comes together for me.)
8/13/21 – Friday
Wrote a bit this morning, and then—during lunch—I dug around on Epidemic Sound for music to accompany the story.
In my first pass with music, I use Epidemic Sound’s filters to find music that fits the mood of a story, and then sample things. Anything that sounds good gets placed in a folder. (I may not use some musicians for the episode, but if I have another story with a similar mood, I can peek into something older and see if there was music fitting for what I’m working on at the time.)
I typically try finding one or two artists for each episode. Because Epidemic Sound is a paid service, I don’t have to list the music I used, but I like including it in my show notes and end credits in case someone wants to seek out something they liked.
While I don’t know which tunes I’ll use in “Godspeed, Crazy Mik,” I know it will open with Moorland Songs’ “The White Birch.”
Because I tend to use instrumental pieces, it’s not unheard of for me to listen to the tunes I save to my music folder on Epidemic Sound while writing and working on a story. While I prefer writing in silence, when the day begins and there’s some noise around that might distract me, there are worse things to listen to than music you feel embodies what you’re working on.
8/14/21 – Saturday
Today was the big season-opening day for the English Premier League.
The team my wife and I support, Leicester City, won their season opener.
We had a few beers (Rahr Oktoberfest), and then enjoyed a rainy afternoon being lazy.
After dinner, we watched some science shows and went to bed early.
I didn’t even think about “Godspeed, Crazy Mike” or any other stories until much later in the evening when I saw a tweet on Twitter than gave me a story idea worthy of jotting down in my big Evernote file of story ideas.
“Calling Out of Time” would not have been written without seeing something on Twitter that gave me an idea, and maybe something in 2022 will be the second story inspired by the site…
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