MojoWriter.com

Today ends a week of dental hell, but it finds me off the pain meds and back on the novel.

I am still buzzing from the chapter I just wrote — it’s the turning point of the story and it all starts rumbling toward the end like an avalanche from here on out.

The final third of a novel is, to me, the most enjoyable part to write.

I’m publically challenging myself to finish the first draft of this novel I’m working on in two weeks.  That’s about 45,000 words I’ll need to write by mid August.  My own mini NaNoWriMo.

I’m putting this out in public so as to make myself accountable to the world, at large.  Hopefully this will help swat back that little demon inside me that tries to convince me that every other thing in my world is more important and pressing than working on my manuscript.  I swear, my mind even tries to get me to re-arrange the furnature, rather than sitting at the keyboard and writing.

UPDATE 8/13/2008 - I’m not going to be able to finish it, partially because one of my molars crumbled resulting in me being high on codeine for the past three days.  However, I have put over 20,000 words on it so far, and will probably be able to resume writing tonight.

The other reason has to do with my subconscious full-on fighting me about it.  I’ve taken notes.  Look for an article coming up sometime in the next few weeks detailing all the things your mind will do to keep you from writing.

My current novel is about the search for the Holy Beer.

One of my websites, GroovyBrew, is also about the search for the Holy Beer. The difference is that one is fiction, the other reality.

Pictured to the left, here, is the closest thing I’ve found yet to the Holy Beer. It’s called “Chicken Killer Barley Wine Ale” from Santa Fe Brewing. It’s the not the Holy Grail itself but it’s darn close.

Reviewing beer for GroovyBrew is my research for the novel, and on GroovyBrew I also talk about my novel, which in turn is generating publicity for it even as I write it.

Over the last few months I’ve slacked off on my novel writing, concentrating more on a couple short stories and other projects, but now I’m back on it. I just gave a read through of the 37,000 words I’ve written so far, glanced over my notes, and found it to be just as compelling and fun as I did when I first started.

Even more so, as the perspective a little time gave me away from the project has enabled me to see, with fresh eyes, that it really is worth working on.

Excuse my ego here for a moment, but this story rocks. I’m writing the stuff I want to read. This is Tim Powers mixed with Philip K. Dick mixed with Hemmingway.

Like I said, excuse my ego a moment. But allow me my enthusiasm. If I didn’t feel this way, why would I bother to finish writing it?

All you writers out there, you should also feel this way about your projects. It’s perfectly okay to think you’re writing the great [American] [English] [Canadian] [South African] [Etc.] novel. For the first draft, especially, this mindset is absolutely necessary.

So go ahead. Let your ego out. Let it roar!

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you have a good one. And for those of you out there who celebrate something different, or don’t celebrate anything at all, well, I hope you have a great new year.

Group hug! Come on now! Don’t be shy!

Peace.

As many of you know, November is the National Novel Writing Month, or “NaNoWriMo” and the goal is for writers to pound out an entire 50,000 words before December 1st.

As of yesterday, my NaNoWriMo word count stood at: 0

Today, however, my word count jumped all the way up to 6. That is SIX more times the words I had yesterday! Woo-hoo, progress!

With any luck I’ll have pushed the word count up to 11 by this evening.

Even though I haven’t been doing much fiction writing lately, I still have stories in circulation, and I got word yesterday that one of them sold. My Sci-Fi parody It Came From Willy McCracken’s Buttocks will be appearing in next year’s Yard Dog Press anthology Houston, We Have Bubbas.

I am very happy to be a new member of the Yard Dog family!

Yesterday evening I received two copies of Apex SF and Horror Digest’s new issue, and inside I found my story Wall Of Delusion. Along with all this came a nice little check.

Groovy.

If you all rush out and buy a copy, which would make both me and the magazine publishers happy, just keep in mind as you read my story that it doesn’t feature my original ending. I had written the story as one of redemption. This publisher, needing a darker ending for their magazine, changed it with my permission. Now it’s more a brooding revenge story.

Still, I hope it entertains. That’s all that really matters.