write a book

Well, I’ve got 12 days left to finish my book if I want to meet my goal. That being the case, I figured it was time for me to write an entry saying that I’m definitely not going to make it. However, I have learned and am continuing to learn a lot during this time. Since a learning experience is essentially what I was looking for in the first place, I’m not going to count this as a loss. I just don’t have a completed book to show for it. I am still continuing to work though, just not nearly as fast as I had originally planned. There’s no doubt in my mind that I will eventually complete this goal. It just won’t be within the next 12 days.

The past couple days, I’ve been having a bit of writer’s block. Today, I got a book in the mail that I ordered off Amazon.com. The book is Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V. Swain. I have seen this book recommended a few different places. It was first published back in 1965, but good writing is still good writing, it doesn’t change that much over time. Hopefully it will help get my mind working again and break me out of this writer’s block.

Working over the past couple days, I’ve made some progress with the Snowflake Method. It seems to be helping me give some direction to my project.

I’ve done the first few steps of the snowflake, and it looks like if I stick with it and keep myself motivated I might actually meet the challenge I set for myself even though I accidentally set the challenge to the wrong date(it’ll just take more work and focus to get it done in the shorter timeline).

It’s definitely going smoother than I would have expected considering I just came up with this storyline a week or so ago. If this continues to go smoothly, I’ll definitely use the snowflake method again for future writing projects. I think it will be easier then too, because I’ll have a bit more confidence from being able to say, “I’ve already written a book.” My next goal then would be to get a book published. Sure I’ll send this one off after it’s finished, but I’m not going to jump in expecting my first book to get published.

This started as a test to see if I would want to use the snowflake method on plots that I’m more attached to, but I’m finding that, the more I work on this one, the more I’m growing attached to it. That’s a good thing though, I think it would be hard to write a good book without being attached to the plot.

Anyway, I’m gonna quit rambling now.

I decided to use the new challenge feature of this site to motivate myself to do this. I accidentally gave myself a month less than I meant to… I guess that just ups the ante a bit.

I’ve got the plot, and I plan to use the “Snowflake Method.” Google it and click the first link if you don’t know what it is. I’m hoping it will be helpful, and I’ll be able to use it on other writing projects as well.