Tuesday 28 August 2007

Writing My Book


In between living and trying to stay alive I’m taking time to put together a masterpiece. I’m working on my book, I’m currently one chapter deep (actually a milestone) and it’s looking like a modern day classic. The first chapter has taken three attempts but I’m happy with it now and I’ve formulated fat chunky chunks of plots and twits in my head. It’s seems that my plan to read several books for inspiration has finally paid off . . . its now plagiarism time! Can I get a High Five on that?

The biggest downer to writing a book is . . . writing it of course! Who has the time and effort for that? It was hard enough coming up with an idea worth getting excited about.

I’ve worked on books in the past . . . I have more ideas than books. And of course I think all of my ideas are potential best sellers. But I have a good feeling about this one. Not that it’ll get published and be a best seller, but I actually think I’ll finish it . . . some time this century. I’ve decided to live past one hundred so it’s not a big deal.

Other than realising the mass of this challenge I’ve also come across a few other contributing factors that may hinder my progress.

Work is the biggest hitter. I always feel like working on my book whist at work . . . then by the time I get home it’s a ‘long ting’, just want to lay back and relax. There are of course the weekends, but weekends aren’t book writing days . . . weekends are actually just Friday nights and Saturdays and I’m 23 . . . even if I don’t end the night with my head pressed against a night bus I’ll find myself glued to the TV watching football . . . and then watching football highlights. So time could be made, but you know . . .

Ugh . . . my dusty laptop is another moral killer. I have to turn it on fifteen minutes before I want to use it. So it makes sense that I don’t shut it down, I always put it on standby. But this tin of tuna decides when it wants to turn off . . . and it gives no warning. Just cuts off. At 10pm, with your alarm set for 6am, you’ll question how much you really desire to get that chapter wrapped up . . . it can wait.

No worries though, I should have a new high spec PC on the way. Wide screen monitor, dual core processor, 300+ GB Memory and some other cool stuff that’ll make it great for watching movies and playing games . . . oh, and writing books as well.

I was easily distracted at school, not too much has changed. But I got good grades, give me a break, I said it’s a masterpiece.

I’m sure I’d make more progress on a typewriter . . . no MSN, Facebook or YouTube to distract me. Just me, my typewriter and a snazzy tip-ex pen . . . box of crayons for the illustrations, one picture every ten pages.

A modern day classic.

A to the . . .

12 comments:

Alex L said...

well then it looks like its back to writing on public holidays, its probably lucky you plan to live past a hundred then. Why dont you get a dictaphone or a mp3 player with a voice recorder, then you can still get your ideas down at least while at work.

Lady_T said...

Well done for getting this far. Ive written a few bits and bobs for so many different types of books and never really got past a page! Work gets in the way you see ;)

Shrink Wrapped Scream said...

I feel your pain. I've LOST a whole sodding chapter - wiped - zip! - 'cos I was too lazy to back the sod up. Talk about demotivated. Keep slogging on, my friend, if your blog is anything to go by, it'll be worth the wait! (Wink)

Xymyl said...

When you feel it... Other times it doesn't matter, but you should try to do it when you feel it.

It is difficult to be creative at work, even when creativity is your job. Yet, often the most brilliant ideas are spawned in stifling environments.

The voice recorder idea is great if you can set aside time to take down your own dictation. I have hours of stuff that I've never written down. When I listen to it I just get more ideas and have to either write them down or take more dictation.

It can get a bit frustrating, being one's own muse. I know have nobody to blame but myself, but I just can't stay mad at me.

Lastly, think about getting a mac (one of the new ones) and running Parallels or VMware Fusion. That way you can run both Windows and Mac side by side. Or just let Windows slowly fade away.

david mcmahon said...

Mate, you've written the most important chapter - the first one is where most people give up.

I'm only one comment away if you need ANY help or encouragement.

And you know I really, really mean that.

Anything, anytime ...

copper stiletto said...

(cant believe i am still on your list!) Guess whos back, missed ya ;)

Ak-Man said...

P. Terry - I build ideas in my head, it'll be quite hard to forget some of this stuff. I've got chapters planned out up there. Plus if I buy a dictaphone I'd get bored of it and it'll collect dust like my PSP.

Lady T - Jumping on the bandwagon, there's room for you here. And cheers ; )

Shrink - Wasn't you also working on a book? What's the status update? I hope the chapter you lost wasn't the only one you've done.

xymyl - So true! It's not something you can force or you'll write a heap of garbage. I guess that's another factor slowing me down.

Not too keen on Mac . . . what you got against Windows?

David - If you could review my first chapter that would be great. Tips and suggestions.

The Ghost Of Copper Stilleto

Xymyl said...

Ak-Man, (Mac v. Win?) I'll try to make this as short as possible... I don't want to be a blog hog again...

I've used many operating systems, Many Unix based and stuff like OS2 that don't really exist anymore. I use whatever is best for what I do at the time. Right now that is the Mac. For years the Mac OS was a slow heap of junk with no multitasking so I used Windows. I always wished for the stability of a solid Unix OS like BSD with a reasonably priced full software lineup. When I saw Apple switch to a Unix based OS I was sold. Of course I had to wait for the second iteration of X before jumping in.

Now that Apple uses Intel processors in all the new Mac's, you can run Mac OS and Windows independantly, side by side or run Windows as a native virtual machine in a window on your mac which is pretty nifty.

The only reason I mentioned it at all was that you were talking about your notebook shutting off w/o warning. That could be hardware (overheating, bad power supply etc...) but in most cases it's caused by the os itself. Windows is just too buggy right now for me. Although we do still keep a windows machine up and running at all times. I do all my work on Mac, I just use the PC to test to be sure that the non Mac folks can see it.

I say use whatever suits you, but you're always better off after doing a bit of research. As you can tell, I could have said much more...

Mega said...

I honestly only wish I could write. Man oh man, the things I would do.

Anyway if you haven't gotten it yet, order David's book. Its most excellent. I think I'll pimp it on my blog some more.

Shrink Wrapped Scream said...

So how many chapters are you in to yet? (Don't snarl, it doesn't become you.) Yeah, I'm still slowly and painfully slogging away.. and kicking the dog every now and then. I'm feeling vulnerable right now, I've sent more on to the agent, what if she changes her mind and decides it's all crap, after all?? Sigh.

copper stiletto said...

I have always wanted to write a book of some sort. But my inspiration is so fleeting that I dont believe that I have the right type of talent. I wish you good luck, I sure you can do it!

david mcmahon said...

I'm hanging out to hear about the book.

Something .....

Anything.....

I'm a big fan of your writing.