R.W. Ridley's Blog, page 6

Kinda sorta NaNoWriMo update day 14

Today was one of those days that you power through. Most of the 1,680 words I wrote today will go through significant changes. There was a lot of complicated military and battle field situations to unravel and put back together again. The great thing is that Lee has incredibly detailed journals to work off of and he’s just an email away if I have questions, which puts me way ahead of the curve. If I didn’t have the journal or access to him, I probably wouldn’t even be at the writing stage yet.  I’d be conducting interviews and getting background information.  The plan is to write the first draft and then do the interviews I need to fill in the holes.

Tomorrow I’m in an all day workshop where I’ll be working on a scene from my play Never Living with a director and some actors. I’m pretty stoked. The workshop may cause a hiccup in my NaNoWriMo production, but I’ll find a way to catch up.

Kinda sorta NaNoWriMo update day 13

Should hit the halfway mark by Saturday.

Kinda sorta NaNoWriMo update day 12

And we keep rollin’, rollin’, rollin’!

Kinda sorta NaNoWriMo update day 11

Today was a long, long day, but I managed somehow. Onward ho!

Kinda sorta NaNoWriMo update day 10

Gulp! Today was one of those days that will stick with me for as long as I live.  I will be forever haunted by what I wrote today. It’s not like the fiction I write. I’ve written some pretty horrible things happening to make believe people, but what I wrote today actually happened to somebody, and there’s no way in hell it ever should have actually happened.  Nevertheless, I powered through and finished my word count for the day.  I seriously need to decompress.

We interrupt this blog…

I promised to do something that I have been putting off doing, and I have to be honest, I have never disliked doing something so much in my life.  I’ve been asked to convey in a public manner how proud I am of my accomplishments. By whom and for what reason isn’t important.  This may seem self-indulgent, but it is more coerced-indulgence.

I tend to fixate on where I want to be, not where I am, and I know that is a terrible way to feel grateful.  I have seen other authors talk about how great their work is, or how their latest work is their best work, and I just can’t bring myself to do that.  I don’t think I should do that.  I find flaws in everything I write.

So I’m hoping I’ll be allowed to take the following approach.  I’ve decided to tell you what I feel the most comfortable doing, and what gives me the most professional joy.  I am comfortable in stating that I know how to structure a story. This is something I have learned and embraced over time.  I’ve written somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 long form narrative projects. Logic dictates that after that many times a bat, I’m going to find my stroke somewhere along the way.

I feel comfortable writing dialogue.  With very few exceptions, I am awkward and quiet in social situations, so I spend a great deal of my time listening to people.  I’ll spend times alone repeating conversations I’ve heard in public.  I’ll use different dialects.  I’ll essentially rewrite the dialogue to fit in different situations.  I spent ages 10-14 with very few friends, so I learned to create people I could talk to.

In general, I have a high comfort level with the writing process.  There are things on which I need to improve, and there are things of which I am privately proud. There are times when I speak in public that I have to give my credentials and my stomach ties in knots each time I do.  It just feels wrong.  My mother didn’t raise a braggart, and I don’t think she should have.

We live in an age of personal brands, and I think that gets misinterpreted to mean that we have to create public personas that represent who we are.  I don’t want a public persona.  I just want to be a guy who writes for a living, and I am grateful that’s what I get to do.  Do I want to be more successful?  Absolutely.  But, that doesn’t mean I’m not proud of the books, screenplays and stage play I’ve written thus far.  I’m comfortable with saying I am proud of that.

Promise fulfilled.

Kinda sorta NaNoWriMo update day 9

The day is done. Tough day writing about a Foley catheter. Yikes! Now I’m off to the first ever reading of a ten minute scene from my play Never Living. Double yikes!

Kinda sorta NaNoWriMo update day 8

Day eight. Whoa! Here come the double digits. Where has the time gone? So, I’m only tracking the word count for the NaNoWriMo push of the writing. The total word count for this first draft is over 25,000 words. That’s one of my celebratory milestones. Yay me.

Kinda sorta NaNoWriMo update day 7

It’s Friday and I’m done with my word count early. I hope I’m doing this story justice. Lee Deckelman’s life is a lesson in resilience.  By the way, here’s a link to Lee’s Echelon Grey Foundation.  Lee is immediately behind Ambassador Stu Jackson in the photo.

Kinda sorta NaNoWriMo update day 6

Another 1,688 words added to Fire and Forget Soldier. I’ll have some serious rewrites to do in December, but we are cooking with gas.