34. November 24, 2019: Zip. Zero. Zilch. Nada.
Hey, writers and welcome to Season two, Episode 3d of the Dark Mystic Quill podcast.
It’s nine in the morning here, on a rainy Sunday. A good day to crawl back into bed with a few good books on my Kindle. Or a good day to write. I think I’d rather do the former.
I skipped the entire week for NaNoWriMo. Dialysis kicks butt. Just sayin’. So my word count is the roughly the same as last week: 24,000 words. There’s probably no way I’m going to make 50K, and anyway, I’m bored with this project.
I’m itching to try a new novel planning workbook that I purchased, or trying to develop a “beat sheet” from Save the Cat!. I want to start something brand new, but I have no idea what. My life has been eaten up by dialysis and work, with no time or space really for creative endeavors. Heck, I can’t even think about “what ifs” for people I see on the street. I used to do that. Now, there seems to be no inspiration.
A friend suggested I read more fiction, so i tried that. The problem is I just couldn’t get into the books I read. Three urban fantasy books. The first book had a main character I didn’t like (The Paranormalist), the second book had a prologue that I skipped and then the first chapter was a backstory infodump (Nighthawks), and the third book had the typical badass female protagonist that I also didn’t like (Shadow of Doubt). Now, it’s not that I don’t give new authors a try. I have twelve hours of forced reading, but it seems that other authors’ babies are formulaic and boring. I have four more fiction books on my Kindle. Maybe I need to branch out to read—and write—some thing different than Urban Fantasy.
I keep wanting to try my hand at Romance but they all seem the same. Two characters hate each other and then grow to love each other. I’m still reading Save the Cat! to find out about the other “genres” that the authors have developed. I like the “Dude With a Problem” idea but I need to come up with something around that beat sheet.
In the meantime, my story The Band Singer seems to be going nowhere. Next weekend, I will be at a virtual write-in at paperangelpress.com/writein over Thanksgiving weekend. I’m going to probably wrap this book up more quickly than I expected. There’s stuff I need to pad it with first. If I make it to 40K, I’ll be happy.
So, if you want to tweet at me I’m @warwriter and on Facebook at L.A. Jacob. I just got a positive review of my story “Hextron, Inc.” that’s in the anthology Corporate Catharsis. All the stories in that book are really good. I’m not just saying that because I’m shilling the book, but they were really just that good. My favorite, or the one that sticks in my mind, is “Rat Race”.
I will let you know next week how NaNoWriMo ended for me. See you then!
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