Writing

Working Vacation

mikemjensen Cursing Black's Gold, Porter Rockwell, Vanity, Writing Tags: , , , 5 Comments
On the deck, "working"

On the deck, “working”

Hey Kids,

Today was Monday and it was awesome.

I spent today writing.

I had vacation time from my day job I needed to take. So I used my option to take a vacation. My vacation consisted of spending the day at the apartment and writing.

I worked most of the day picking out words, fleshing out characters, and developing storylines.

It was one of the best days ever.

Do I think I should be a full-time writer?

Since I took a vacation to play one, I think yes.

Find a job you love, and you’ll never work another day in your life.

 

Day 154

Head Down

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Hey Kids,

Keeping your head down.

It’s a term I learned recently. It means staying focused, working hard, and not allowing yourself to be distracted.

Even though I learned the term, it hasn’t meant that I’ve put it into practice as much as I’d liked. But I keep trying.

My goal is to write a lot of books and unlike the movies that portray the writer’s life as do nothing but stroll on the beach, drink coffee and wine, and then, when the muse should decide, disappear into a study alone to write beautiful prows as it flows out of your brain and through your fingertips and on to the keyboard, creating words as fast as you can narrate. You print the night’s work, reading and chuckling to yourself as you bathe in the last page and final cleaver words. Sent off to the editor, you begin packing for the world wide book tour, where adoring fans will fan you with palm fronds in between your readings and their ovations. It’s not exactly so, at least based on my experience.

Writing does mean a lot of time alone, yes; but it requires dedicated work. A lot of it

Writing is hard. Not hard like digging ditches for a living, or pouring cement. No, it’s hard in that you must take a thought, turn it into words that someone else can read, and arrive at near the same thought with which you began.

OK, that’s not the hard part. That’s the craft, the fun part.

The hard part is in not letting things get in your way of forming those words (which takes more time to edit, than to write). I’ve posted before that unless you are being paid directly for your efforts by look_a_distraction_design_by_eecomics1an overseer, many people give the effort no respect. Sometimes, it’s the writer who doesn’t respect the time.

Phone calls, texts, posts, drop-ins, family functions, TV, movies, drives, etc. They all distract.

When you keep your head down, you see none of the distractions. Your eyes, pointed down, are focused on what’s at hand. Your body forms a shield about you, bent forward there’s only forward to go. You move ahead. Progress becomes assured. Progress moves you closer to completion and success. And success leads back to focus.

I apologize ahead of time to my friends and family. But I’m important to me and my head’s got to stay down for a little while. I’ll play hard and be with you all when I am. I’ll need breaks. But when I’m at work, let me work so hopefully I can drop your head down while you read the best damned books ever.

 

Day 149

Staying off the Shelf

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Hey Kids,

There was a time I thought it would pretty cool to see my books on sale on the shelves of Barnes and Noble. It was a small time but I’m coming clean, it’s how I started out thinking as the measure of success.twins

I still get asked where my books are available. “Um, Amazon.”

“But not in a real store?”

“If you don’t consider Amazon, the biggest book retailer, a real store; I guess so.”

I know there was a time that books were only sold in stores. But then again so were lots of things. I, like millions others, found the Internet and have moved past all that.

As I have learned since, wishing my books in a big box book store is like wishing I had a first class deck chair on the Titanic. Or like sitting in the pilot’s chair on the Zeppelin. Or having a low numbered boarding pass for a Southwest Airlines flight.

I’ve enjoyed not playing within the publishing world. I think I’m just fine without the rejection letters, the humiliating twitter comments from agents reviewing their slush piles, or publishers taking my work and changing it to how they believed to be more marketable.

I made a conscious choice to self-publish.

Why?

I do everything else myself. I fix my own vehicles. I tie my own flies. And I write my own books.

Are they perfect?

Of course not.

But every aspect of the job is up to me. I own my books. I choose the story, the cover, the formatting. Everything. I decide what they are worth.

And if B&N ever did want my book AND I agreed to let them; I would make like 2¢ a book. I have respect for my work and the thrill of seeing my book on their shelves, just doesn’t feel worth it. And don’t even get me started with the return policy.

No, I’ll stick with my control, my meager sales, and my own destiny.

By myself and online.

 

Day 142

To Pluto and Back With a Few Stops.

mikemjensen Useless Observations, Writing Tags: , , , , , , 2 Comments

Hey Kids,

pluto-july-13-2015

Pluto July 13th 2015.

We reached Pluto today. We, as in our little probe droid we hurled out to space in 2006. We now await pictures of all kid’s favorite planet, next to Uranus. And yeah, I said it. Planet. I’m with Captain Picard. No matter what you say to me, there are 9 planets and 4 lights. Resistance is not fu-tile.

I’m watching a thunderstorm roll in with its lightning and all. One of the best things about the hot summer nights. I hope it’s a big one. The other day we got .99” of rain. More than our average rainfall for the entire month of July. We normally get about 14” of rain in a year so 1” in a night= big deal. Hence the blog mention.

Came home to a notice from the power company. They want some money or no more power. They’re so demanding. I quote King Theoden from The Lord of the Rings. “How did it ever come down to this?” I guess I’ll pay them tomorrow. Something anyway.

Snap Chat is pretty fun. My “handle”, User name” or whatever is writerfish. Look me up. I’m spending all my time talking to myself right now. I need some friends.

Apparently tonight is random thought night.

I’ve been playing and learning video editing lately. I feel so Hollywood. I wish I was good at it, but I’m good enough to get a crappy job done. Hope I never lose my day job. But then again, I would love to lose my day job, but only for more money elsewhere.

Enough rambling tonight. I think I need to get back to work. I need to finish this book I’m working on; its taking way too much time. Maybe my grandkids can finish it for me. I have another Christmas book that needs to get finished too, and hopefully before Valentine’s Day.

Have a great night and thanks for sitting up with me.

 

Day 141

Punch the Clock

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Hey Kids,

I thought a lot about my post yesterday and people who don’t respect a work-at-home job.

It’s not entirely their fault. We can send some mixed messages when we say we’re working. Here are some things that people who work at home can do to help those who might not see it as a real job.

1) At your day job, is your attendance optional? Can you stroll in whenever you want and then leave just as freely? Why do we act like this is how it is when you work for yourself? People understand that when you’re on a job, you are unavailable. No calls, no texts, and no visitors. Crazy, I know. When you’re working for someone else, you have responsibilities that can’t just be dismissed because mom calls. Make you at-home job a real job. Report to yourself, focus on your job, and stay that way when “on the clock”.time_clock

Letting people know when you’re going to be “off” also helps them. They learn your work hours have boundaries and they need to catch you outside of them.

2) No one cares but you. If you’re the boss, be the boss. Get that lazy butt You to work. Take his phone away. Threaten to fire him if he has people showing up on the job site to chat. Be the Boss. If you can’t keep you working or feel it’s important enough, who will? That’s right. Nobody.

3) Leave the house. I know hard to be at-home when you’re not. But it works for me. I am actually taking the time to go somewhere else. The Library, McDonald’s, Starbucks. You’re not just hanging around at the house.

4) Get dressed. No suit required, but not always pajamas. It’s hard to take anyone for real in PJ’s.

So set some hours and be serious about it. Don’t give in to “feel like it or not” Do it. And people will learn you. There will always be a certain percentage of people who’ll never get it, but most of your non-relatives will. Relatives and especially mothers, you’re on your own.

 

Day 135

 

I Don’t Mean to Be Rude

mikemjensen Vanity, Writing Tags: , , 1 Comment

Hey Kids,

If you work by the hour at a “job”, people generally leave you alone.

Work at home, not so much.JK-Rowling-Be-Ruthless-About-Your-Writing-Days2

Be a writer and your time is comical and there is no thought to infringe upon it.

I guess maybe I should tell people I got a job at Lowe’s. Or McDonald’s.

Unless you have a boss, your “work” is a hobby, an elective, extracurricular.

I apologize to everyone ahead of time. I’m going to be a little bitch at times. I have work to do.

No really.

 

Day 134

Muse to the Rescue

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Hey Kids,

It’s no big secret to anyone around me that I’m struggling to finish the book I’m working on. It just doesn’t want to come along as I had hope on the outset.

It’s OK. The trick is to stay on it. chalkboard_quotes_mann

Today sitting in my office, the ideas of what is wrong with the story and how to fix some of the issues flooded my brain. I quickly wrote them down.

And now to get after it and get this story done. Please excuse my brevity this evening. My story needs fixing!

 

 

Day 133

June 9, 1878

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IMG_20150609_160415_400Hey Kids,

Riding home, I had the thought to stop by the Salt Lake City Cemetery and see my old buddy Porter Rockwell. I’m in a spot where the storyline of my work in progress about him is not working for me, something is wrong. A visit with my main character seemed a good idea; see what he thought about it.

It had been a little while, at least the other side of the winter, since I last stopped. I never know what I’ll find there. I’ve seen empty bottles from someone sharing a six-pack, coins, and a guitar pick. There’s a picture on the internet of someone leaving a .45 caliber cartridge at least once. Often, there’s flowers and the grass in that spot is worn out. Obviously, I’m not the only one who visits.

I should’ve already known this, but when I looked at the headstone, it was 137 years to the day that he passed. June 9, 1878. I try not to be spooky but it seemed an odd coincidence.

IMG_20150609_160437_391137 years after I die, I doubt anyone will be visiting my grave.

And that’s where the reality of what I’m doing hit.

He’s not just a character in my book, Porter Rockwell represents something to a lot of people. Even after 137 years.

It’s not just his rebellious spirit. It’s not just his bad assedness. It’s not just his loyalty. And it’s not just his Wild West Marshalling stories. It’s all of it put together. And that is what’s not setting right with me. In my story, I’m not maintaining the whole man. Even in fiction, he’s larger than life.

I think in my first book I got it right. But somewhere in the “artistic license” of the sophomore project, I strayed from what he means to me, and strayed from his 137 year-old legacy. I strayed from the reason people share a beer with him, share their music, bring him flowers, and leave him bullets. I missed the mark the straight-shooting, dead-eyed, gun slinger had set.

In the spirit of the man, I need to redo it, stretch higher, and dig deeper. This work is not just for and about me, it’s about Porter and for the people who, like me, still find inspiration and strength from a man that has long since moved on.

Thanks Porter. You’re still amazing.

 

Day 106

 

100

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Hey Kids,

As you might notice, the note at the bottom of this page reads Day 100. But why?1024px-Usdollar100front

I believe in following good advice.

In this case, it’s the advice or example of Seth Godin. I make no excuses for it. Seth shares advice, wisdom, and insight freely and I have found it valuable.

He writes a daily blog. One blog post per day. Every day. For years now. Somewhere in his daily posts, he challenged others to try it. I have. For 100 days now.

On a daily basis, it has likewise challenged me to look around me and find something worthwhile to write. My wish is that others enjoy it, but I admit that the primary goal was to force me to look deeper into each day to find something to share, and about which to write.

As you may have also noticed, I start each post with “Hey Kids”. I share with all, but to help me remember the value of those who take time to read my writings, I address the posts to my kids. The five of them. I hope that when the dark time of our separation is ended, my thoughts of what I wished I had shared with them is left as a receipt for them to read.

Not a day goes by that I don’t think of them, and this blog gives me release of those thoughts and stretched end to end- I hope this blog illustrates who I am, or was.

My goal is to continue this blog till it is no longer possible. I invite all to follow along. I know you may not be able or willing to drop in everyday, but know that every day I’ll be here and you’re invited.

And now, on to 101.

 

Day 100

Always Two Halves

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Hey Kids,

My chair I use to write most of the time when I’m home was becoming pretty well worn. There was a bar that would cut across my back and make it very uncomfortable very quickly.

We talked about replacing it, but where in the budget does that come from? Where?

Today we decided to cruise through the “more affluent” side of Salt Lake City. We like to look at how the other half lives and think what life will be like when we “make it”.

We past a chair on the curb with a sign that said “Take me please”.

We stopped and inspected.

The 4Runner had enough space.

Say hello to my new writing chair.IMG_20150530_214503_918-1

And this blog is its first product.

That’s how “this half” lives.

 

Day 96