chrisschallertideaengine

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Author Oblige, the sequel

It’s working. I’m cutting down on slack time. It’s kinda funny, taking the hours of doom-scrolling and making them the downer, taking my possible writers’ block time and approaching it all friendly-like. More worthwhile achievement, quicker into flow, better feelings that encourage me for the next time. It’s working for me. Maybe it’ll work for you. Cheers!

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Non-Fiction vs. Fiction: my experience

I’m gonna come out and say that I like writing fiction, and I’m better at fiction, but I find myself writing non-fiction more because it’s easier. Eh… easier in a way. (pours a scotch) With the non-fiction writing, like I do here, I can do it in short spurts. It doesn’t require a concentrated block of time. I go as I have time, I sneak it in during breaks at work, I don’t have to worry about…

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Author Oblige: Day whatever, but it's working

To remind myself, this series has been tracking how a change in my internal vocabulary changes my actions. To whit, “I have to write something to keep up the story” (an obligation) to “I finally get to work on it!” (eager anticipation). I’ve been doing it with diet changes, so that I finally “get to have a salad” and “do I have to get eat those donuts? Can’t I get an energy boost some other…

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The Crossroads of Opportunity

The next step may be actively pursuing an audience, but for now, I am content to be at what I consider the Crossroads. I think I mentioned them a blog post or two ago… Anyways. (pours a lager) I end up a crossroads the same way anyone does: I followed one path at a time. In this case, the path was just being a polite and humble employee. Polite, in that I always try to be aware around people…

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Refocusing, Not Rewriting

So, I’m breaking down a larger story into its smaller sections, to print and sell on a micro scale. I either couldn’t, it didn’t want to with my first book, “Mather’s Odds.” Looking back on it, I didn’t want to split up a whole story, sure, but I also did not want to go through the marketing and printing and formatting process twice. But with this one? It already divides into sections write…

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Preparing to Publish

This is not a post about advertising, building interest, anything like that. This isn’t one of those books. This is not meant to ‘have a market.’ I frankly do not know if it will ever have a ‘market’ in any traditional sense. This is about what I have to look into for the printing and intellectual-property-protecting of my little booklet. Intellectual Property Protection. If I recall right, I…

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A Monthly Reminder

Get back to writing. Yes, I know, pot and kettle and all that. I’ve been neck-deep in two books I was given to read, work things to negotiate, and the stuff at church, plus recording another song and… Oh, that’s not up yet, is it? I’ll get on that. It doesn’t take much to keep the little fires off your story alive. So, put in a few minutes. Even just imagine it, if you can’t get words into…

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More Thoughts on Gatekeeping

Yesterday I mentioned my own experience with gatekeeping. It was not meant to be malicious, but it was meant to be purist. Weird, right? Purity? As if I’m the only person who owns my work and no one else can add to it forever and ever amen? No. It is more obvious and nuanced than that. (pours a line of scotches) Sit with me a while, eh? —— The focal point of gatekeeping is the Lore. The…

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Thoughts on Gatekeeping

Bear with me for a moment. When I was still developing the magic rules for my Realm stories, I was in high school. A sibling’s friend was over, and we were talking about stories, and I brought up my project. He listened for maybe ten minutes before asking, “What if there was someone who changes his shape whenever he gets angry?” I mused on that for a few minutes, testing out a few…

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The World Also Speaks?

The White Tree in Osgiliath. It begins to bloom when the king returns. It tells the story, in small part. I think about that sometimes. When you’re the author, all of the world is at your fingers. Even the weather can tell part of the story. I mean, who would have a victorious coronation in the rain? Not Tolkien. The land itself seems to breath a sigh of relief, not because peace eternal has…

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Author Oblige, day, uh, 12?

Believe it or not, it is still working. I’m running out of my initial steam, and the addicted brain wants to return to sloth as usual, but though the spirit is sometimes not willing, the technique still works. I allow myself a little slacking, but then it’s back to the races. I’m even starting to enjoy it. Maybe I ought to oblige myself to my journaling here. Hm.

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Did I Suddenly Become a Businessman?

Okay, I finished the Ariel Gore book on writing and publishing, and she mentioned publishing a short book, 50 pages or so. It isn’t long. It isn’t really even a novel. But it can be a complete story. More to the point, it is low-cost, something you can publish on your own with a little research into printing, layout, and all the rest. It is a business-starter. And for the last few days, I’ve…

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Irrational Characters

Watching my wife playing Skyrim the other day, we pondered that everyone in that country seems to overreact, or react poorly, to life’s tragedies great and small. “Then again,” I said, “if everyone reacted well and wisely to the tragedies of life, we wouldn’t have a sidequest.” That’s been bugging me for a week now. Are my characters too sensible? I’ve written before about the mistake of…

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Even Short Stories Need a Purpose

I have written purposeless stories before. I mean, the characters had no purpose. For me, I was exploring the world, writing what came to mind, practicing descriptions, taking tours. Those stories have never seen the light of day, except from behind Windows. (Get it? Because Windows computer… eh, forget it) I won’t say they were wasted. But I would not have called them interesting. And as I…

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Dialogue Theory: Your Character Can Want "Nothing"

It’s tricky to write, but I had to come to grips with this. (pours a shot of vodka) I don’t mean that the character doesn’t want anything. They can want to be left alone, and they can want peace, and they can want rest. The point is that whatever they want, must be in the hand of the person they are dialoguing with. For example. (throws back the vodka, grimaces because American vodka is…

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Author Oblige: the days are blurring together, maybe 8?

I don’t even know. However, I’ve had a few breakthroughs. Again, it’s a little easier to cut off the sugar, or at least to limit it. The real power here is that I get home and get to work on editing or music. The hard part now is that while I really want to write and all the rest… There’s things I have to get done. I’ve got to start limiting my other obligations, or actively telling people that…

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Projects, and Timelines, and Priorities

How long would it take to edit one of my extant stories into a 50-page novellette? Eh, probably a month. Throw it together, get some cover artist to art up a cover, print ten copies with ‘for more information, follow the author here’ info and hand it out to friends. Do it again in another four months. But I’m still editing my current first book in my current project list. And I cannot keep…