read: Wake Up With Purpose!: What I've Learned in My First Hundred Years by Jean Dolores Schmidt ★★★★★

Wake Up With Purpose!: What I've Learned in My First Hundred Years by Jean Dolores Schmidt
My rating: ★★★★★

This book is a breath of fresh air. You don't have to be Catholic, or even Christian, to enjoy Sister Jean's uplifting view about life and living it.

"If you’re not moving forward, you’re going to get left behind real quick."

“I still go to bed every night with a smile on my face, gratitude in my heart, and love in my soul.”

View all my reviews

My 2021 in Books

[I wrote this up on December 28, 2021 and never posted it to this blog. Better late than never? I'm not going to bother fixing up the formatting issues due to pasting from OneNote.]

According to the Goodreads 2021 Reading Challenge, I read 50 books (so far) this year. That's 26 more than my goal of 24 (208%). That sounds like an amazing over-achievement, until I reveal that 1) this year's goal was half of what I set in 2020, with an eye toward reading longer works with about the same amount of reading time, and 2) I retired at the end of April, which allowed me to spend more time reading than before (though not as much as I anticipated). 

Here are some highlights: 

 

1. Non-fiction. 12 titles of the 50 were non-fiction and several of those were focused on writing. A few stand out: 

   1. Supreme Inequality: The Supreme Court's Fifty-Year Battle for a More Unjust America by Adam Cohen - I learned a lot about how the court has impacted policy and politics and vice versa. 

   2. But He Doesn't Know the Territory! by Meredith Wilson - A fun journey with the creator of the Broadway musical The Music Man from concept to opening night. 

   3. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway - A classic. Spend time in Paris and elsewhere during the earlier part of the famous author's career. 

   4. Keep Sharp: Build a Better Brain at Any Age by Gupta, Sanjay - learn about how you learn and how to keep exercising your mental muscle throughout your life.  

 

2. Inspirational. I wanted to expand my reading of Christian literature. But I only managed one (it's pretty dense). 

   1. Knowing God by J.I. Packer - A classic with some deep thoughts about the nature of God and the Bible. 

 

3. Netgalley. My original plan was to limit myself to preview 5 or fewer titles on Netgalley this year and focus on authors I don't usually read. But with retirement, and a bunch of new books from favorite authors coming out, I was happy to post early reviews for about 10. The most notable: 

   1. A Thousand Steps by T. Jefferson Parker ★★★★★ - Having spent my high school years not too far from Laguna Beach and not too many years after the setting of the book, I was transfixed by the 16-year-old protagonist's coming of age amidst more than one family crisis and turbulent times. 

   2. The World Played Chess by Robert Dugoni - This historical look at the Viet Nam war and its impact on various lives hits the sweet spot of character and story and setting Dugoni brings to all his writing. I'm more fond of Dugoni's mystery and spy titles (I also previewed In Her Tracks [Tracy Crosswhite #8] and The Silent Sisters [Charles Jenkins #3] and recommend both). 

   3. Fan Fiction by Brent Spiner - (yes, that Brent Spiner; Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation, if you still don't know). This isn't a memoir, though he includes some personal vignettes. It's also not really noir, though there is some mystery and some dark characters. It's a good, goofy novel for fans of STTNG. 

   4. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir - The first half of this novel felt like too much work for me and I only stuck with it because I made the commitment to review it. But around the halfway point, the story really got rolling and I enjoyed the rest of it quite a bit. 

 

Some other treats this year: 

1. This Tender Land by William Kent Kreuger ★★★★★ - A delightful coming-of-age story mashing up Tom Sawyer and The Great Depression and good Midwestern values. 

2. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles ★★★★★ - A book I didn't want to end. The gentleman in question is a lesser nobleman compelled by the Soviet government to remain in the luxury hotel where he is already somewhat of a fixture. A perpetual house-arrest. We spend many years with him and his friends, adapting to changing bureaucrats and circumstances.  

3. Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson - One of those longer works I wanted to read this year, about 2,000 pages of fantasy. This is not Tolkien. But it is well-written and entertaining with wit and magic and thoughtful characters. 

4. Dune by Frank Herbert - I reread this before the new film premiered - another long work. 

 

That's not 50. You can see more of my reactions (not reviews) to books on my blog at https://perpetualreboot.blogspot.com/ And you can see my Goodreads.com 2021 wrap-up is at https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/25255662.  

 

I'm going to aim a little higher in 2022: 50 books again. I still want to reduce my TBR pile and keep up with some current titles, choosing authors I don't usually read. And I'll be sure to read some challenging non-fiction. I'll also continue to tackle those longer works and series that I've been putting off until I had more time. I've got my eye on The Expanse series. I really enjoyed the first book. 

 

Keep reading! And share a book with a friend. 

My 2024 in Books

Glossing over the fact that I'm a bad blogger and haven't done a book-year-in-review since 2021 (and I didn't even post that one), here is my summary of 2024 and a few thoughts about 2025:

According to the Goodreads 2024 Reading Challenge, I read 39 books last year. That's 9 short of my goal of 48 (I thought I was a bit closer, but discovered that Goodreads had somehow double-counted several books). I'm a bit disappointed I didn't finish stronger. But I'm not surprised, given that I read some longer works, did not mix in enough shorter works and got a little too focused on phone scrolling. As a retired person I would think I could consume a book a week without breaking a sweat (which is the other problem, I should have walked and exercised more and knocked off several audio books). 

Here are some highlights:

1. Non-fiction. Only 7 titles of the 39 were non-fiction. A few stand out:
1. The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human by Siddhartha Mukherjee ★★★★★ - One of those longer books I mentioned. But well worth it to learn more about life on our planet and in our bodies.
2. Churchill's Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII by Damien Lewis ★★★★ - Inspiration for the film "The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare" and a well-told-tale of true-life secret heroes of WWII.
3. The Swedish Art of Aging Exuberantly: Life Wisdom from Someone Who Will (Probably) Die Before You by Margareta Magnusson ★★★★ - Essays about living from the author of The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning.
4. The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman ★★★★ - I didn't realize that this was not a recently released title until I was well into it (published in 1962). Even so, I was fascinated by the intricacies of pre-World War politics and early World War I warfare and all the things I (and probably most people) I did not know about it.
   
   
2. Inspirational. I had intended to expand my reading of Christian literature. But I only managed one and it's not worth mentioning. Aging Exuberantly was much more inspiring.
   
   
3. Netgalley. I stuck to my plan to limit myself to preview 5 or fewer titles on Netgalley this year and focus on backlist books and authors I don't usually read. But I was happy to post early reviews for 4 (5 if you count The Women, which I finished last December). The most notable:
1. The Women by Hannah Kristin ★★★★★ - Did I want to relive the years of Viet Nam War? No. But the author paints a vivid portrait of a combat nurse experiencing the horrors of jungle combat and an unwelcome homecoming.
2. A Cold, Cold World by Elena Taylor ★★★★★ - A classic locked-room mystery set in a small snowbound mountain town.
3. The Martian Contingency by Mary-Robinette Kowal - ★★★★ - Twenty-or-so years after a meteor hit Earth and forced mankind to reach for the stars, the first colony, sorry, habitat on Mars is trying to settle in for the long term and discovering how difficult it is to leave the worst parts of humanity behind. Fourth book in Kowal's Lady Astronaut retro space-program series.
   
   
4. Some other treats this year:
1. James by Percival Everett ★★★★★ - An amazing book that was an easy read with difficult content, worthy of your time and the attention and awards it's been receiving. I also read Everett's dramady Erasure ★★★★ and enjoyed it.
2. Matterhorn by Christopher Reich ★★★★★ - A ripping spy story. 
3. Starter Villain by John Scalzi ★★★★★ - A preposterous scifi romp about super villains. 
4. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie ★★★★ - A classic whodunnit. Charming beyond its outdated, clunky language. 
5. Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John ★★★★ - Trippy novel unloosed in time. 
6. The Expanse (series) by James S. A. Corey - I read the last three books of the series this year. It's obvious why they were excluded from the television series: a severe time jump and huge set pieces with the main characters scattered around the galaxy. Still some very good reading.

You can read more about these and other books I read in 2024 elsewhere in Perpetual Reboot. My Goodreads.com 2024 wrap-up is at https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2024/3195690 or https://www.goodreads.com/readingchallenges/gr/annual/2024. 

I'm going to keep the same goal in 2024: 48 books. Lowering the bar would serve no purpose. I have no hope of actually reducing my TBR pile, since I keep adding titles. But I do hope to balance things out by (re-)visiting some classics, mixing in some current titles, including authors I don't usually read and pushing hard to read some challenging non-fiction. Maybe I'll even write a blog post with a more detailed plan. Don't hold your breath!

Keep reading! And share a book with a friend.

NaNoWriMo 2022 Week 1 - A Quick Review

On the plus side, I am managing to write every day and have managed to push the story forward in what could be interesting ways.

On the other hand, I have not been able to build any kind of momentum yet.

Yet, I remain hopeful and invested in the process. I am enjoying the time I have been able to spend on the project.

My 2020 in Books

According to the Goodreads 2020 Reading Challenge, I read 45 books this year. That's a bunch of reading. But is 3 short of my goal of 48 (94%). I think the main excuse I have for missing the number is that I was stymied from listening to audio books during commute and gym time because I've been working from home for the past 300 days. I did well on my sub-goal of reading more current titles: 14 (almost 1/3) were published in 2020. Another sub-goal was more non-fiction (that also wasn't a biography or about writing): 7 titles fit that description. On the flip-side, this meant that I only read 2 titles out of my backlog of physical books. But I did manage to read a majority of physical books that I purchased via my local bookstore. Here are some highlights:

1. Non-fiction. These four really stood out:
1. The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Laren - I read this early on during the pandemic lockdown. Oddly enough, reading about what the people of London had to endure during The Blitz in WWII helped put my own situation into perspective.
2. What Unites Us by Dan Rather - I read this around the time of the election and post-election furor and I, along with many others, found it a quite comforting portrait of what the United States is really about.
3. Becoming Superman: My Journey from Poverty to Hollywood by J. Michael Straczynski - A deeply personal and moving rags-to-riches, hard-work-pays-off Hollywood story without being cloying, sensational or scandalous (by the creator of the TV series Babylon 5 and Sense8).
4. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates - made me think differently about the idea of "race" in historical and modern America.
   
   
2. Netgalley. I limited myself to previewing 5 titles on Netgalley this year, including some authors that are new to me.  I was happy to post early reviews for all of them. My favorites:
1. The Last Agent (sequel to The Eighth Sister) by Robert Dugoni - the second installment is even more thrilling than the first.
2. All We Buried by Elena Taylor - excellent first book in a new crime series by a local author that uncovers the (fictional) secrets in a small town.
3. The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal - third book in the Lady Astronaut series, which I highly recommend for fans of early space flight, NASA and good writing.

Some other treats this year:

1. Agent Running in the Field by John le Carré - His most recently published novel and le Carré at his best. Boiled down. Insightful. At turns appropriately humorous and cruel. His spies find action in inaction and waiting. In talking their way through confrontations, rather than shooting.
2. Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks (yes, that Tom Hanks) - is a fun collection of short stories that all manage to incorporate the use of a typewriter (he's a big fan and collector of them).
3. Erebus: The Story of a Ship by Michael Palin (audio book) - tells the story of one particular 19th Century ship and her crew as they explore the South and North Poles. I loved hearing the excitement in the author's voice as he read this.
4. Faster: How a Jewish Driver, an American Heiress, and a Legendary Car Beat Hitler's Best by Neal Bascomb - a quite fascinating read about the early days of auto racing and what is now Formula 1.

My Goodreads.com 2020 wrap-up is at https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/19861064

I'm planning a similar strategy in 2021. Clear out my backlog, yet keep up with some current titles, choosing authors I don't usually read. And I'll be sure to read some challenging non-fiction. But this year I will set a lower overall number and tackle some longer works that I've been avoiding in order to keep my numbers up. Who knows? I may even be able to find more time to read this year.

Keep reading! And share a book with a friend.

My 2019 In Books

According to the Goodreads 2019 Reading Challenge, I read 54 books this year. Six more than my goal of 48. One goal was to clear out my backlog of physical books. I made some progress. Several of these are actually short stories, novellas or graphic novels. Audio books helped, too. Here are some highlights:

1. Non-fiction. I gravitate toward fiction. But I also managed to keep it real:
1. Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow - Lin Manuel Miranda's inspiration for the musical. I started this in late 2018 and took almost six months to finish, but it was worth it.
2. Why We Sleep - informative and highly recommended!
3. Factfulness - also informative and highly recommended! And surprising! This will challenge how you think about the world, and your neighbors.


2. Novellas. These have been a way of keeping up the overall book count without investing large amounts of time. A couple of series were very enjoyable:
1. Binti, Binti: Home, Binti: The Night Masquerade - highly readable science fiction about cultures that are both foreign and alien to me
2. Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, Exit Strategy - further adventures (that starts in All Systems Red) of a self-aware SecUnit 'droid calling itself "Murderbot" that's really good at its job and doesn't actually murder


3. Netgalley. I limited myself to previewing 5 titles on Netgalley this year. All authors I already read. I still owe a few reviews. The best:
1. The Eighth Sister - darn good spy/legal novel from Robert Dugoni
2. A Cold Trail - another spot-on crime thriller from Robert Dugoni
3. The Last Good Guy - third book in a series by T. Jefferson Parker. Now I have to go read the first couple.

Some other treats this year:

1. Motherless Brooklyn is a mystery story told from a quirky point of view character. Now a movie.
2. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett was languishing on my reading list. I finally read it before I watched the off-beat television series.
3. Stumptown - the graphic novel inspiration for the new television series about a low-rent PI in Portland. The same, but different.
4. Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain (audio book). I wish I'd read/heard this while he was still alive. It sheds a different light on who he was and how restaurants work.

My Goodreads.com 2019 wrap-up is at https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2019/3195690

I'll have a slightly different strategy in 2020. I still want to clear off my TBR shelf. I'll set my Goodreads.com 2020 Reading Challenge at 48 books (4/month). But I also want to…

1. Read more current titles. I don't want to be stuck in the past, in constant catch-up mode. I want to read at least six books published in 2020 that aren't just the latest by authors I already enjoy.
2. Read more actual non-fiction. I should move beyond biographies and how-to books about writing.

Keep reading! And share a book with a friend.

NaNoWriMo 2017 Ain't Happening

This was my 13th attempt at NaNoWriMo. It is now my 3rd instance of not finishing (see 2009 and 2013). I have mixed feelings about this, as usual. I'm obviously disappointed. This is something I look forward to and boast about and enjoy. Mostly I'm relieved. What are this year's excuses?

1. I became a grandfather. We spent a week focused on family. As my wife keeps reminding me, I have the best excuse ever.
2. Statistics don't lie. In previous years, I've hit flat spots in production and had to pull out all the stops (including some 6K and 8K word days) to succeed. But this year, I had a full week of no output. And when I did get back into it, production it was not matching what I needed to push the curve to the top. I was only achieving a normal pace.

Basically, I had 30% of my words and was 60% into the month. That looks like I was halfway there. But look again. I needed to produce 70% of my words in only 40% of the month, with more holidays and family time in the mix. I can write pretty quickly. But I've never been one of the NaNoWriMo overachievers that cranks out 50,000 words (or even 25,000 words in a single week).

3. The words were not flowing. Even though I was writing in a world I thoroughly enjoy and thought I had a good story concept, that's all it was, a concept. And even that had kept shifting as I did my planning in the previous weeks. I had the protagonist. But no antagonist. I didn't have enough of a specific situation. I tried to write my way into it, like I usually do. But things were not really clicking. And my analytical brain kept me from just doing a worthless word dump (believe me, I tried). Hence, not enough words per day.
4. Besides the grandfather thing, other life and commitments were piling up and I was getting too stressed out to completely enjoy my writing time. 

On the good side:

1. I still love the world I was writing in. I will finish this story. This year's NaNo project is the third book in what I think is a trilogy. I do know what basically has to happen. I just need to break down the story better before I write.
2. My attempt to write my way in revealed holes in my world-building for the entire series that need to get repaired. I will continue to work through that during the rest of the year and then get back into writing production (I promise) after the first of the year.
3. 10 out of 13 ain't bad, ya know. I read that only 30% of those that attempt NaNoWriMo actually 'win'. I've beaten those odds. And I will again.

So, pass the remote and bring on the turkey. I have some shows to get caught up and some holidays to enjoy. I should get back to the gym, too.

My 2016 In Books

By the skin of my teeth and a few last minute graphic novels, I read 52 books in 2016, which was the goal I set. At times, this felt like a bit more of a chore this year (compared to last year, when I had the same goal), like I was under pressure to perform. I think there are a few reasons for this:

1. Long books. I decided to attack several longer works this year and that made it more challenging to keep up. I've been avoiding longer books in previous years in order to enhance my bottom line. Forsaking any of these would have added 1 or 2 additional works to my 'done' pile. But then I would have missed:
1. Game of Thrones (wondrous)
2. Leviathan Wakes (stupendous - 5 stars)
3. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and …the Order of the Phoenix (there's a better, shorter book inside each of these)


2. Fewer graphic novels. These have been a way of keeping up the overall book count without investing large amounts of time. I read 14 in 2015, but only 7 in 2016. My favorites were:
1. Leaves on the Wind (Serenity #4) - good follow-up to the Serenity film for Firefly fans
2. Lost in Space - The Curious Galactics - just like a TV episode (because it's based on unproduced scripts)
3. How to Talk to Girls at Parties - Neil Gaiman (need I say more? I also loved the short story)


3. Netgalley. I trapped myself into 9 titles on Netgalley in 2016 (vs. only 4 in 2015). On the whole, this was a good thing. I read a couple of titles I would have otherwise missed. But it did mean I felt the pressure to perform (and I'm still behind on posting feedback). I'm not a reviewer. I know what I like. Putting that into words does not come easily. Some surprises:
1. IQ (a quirky mystery novel that doesn't read like one)
2. Mug Shot/Whole Latte Murder (#2 & #3 in a chick-lit series that I enjoy more than I should)
3. Curious Minds (an unexpectedly dull and unfunny book from Janet Evanovich)

Some other treats this year:

1. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan is quirky and fun and marvelously performed on audio book. 5 stars
2. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ranson Riggs is also quirky and fun and worked remarkably well on audio, considering it is based on odd photographs. (What's the deal with possessive titles with P's in them?)
3. In the Clearing and The Trapped Girl by Robert Dugoni, the 2016 and 2017 releases in the Tracey Crosswhite series. The biggest benefit of Netgalley is getting to read stuff before it's generally available. I bought both of these (and his 2016 stand-alone The 7th Canon), anyway.
4. The Emperor's Revenge by Clive Cussler and Boyd Morrison took me on a completely different trip than I expected.

My Goodreads.com 2016 wrap-up is at https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2016/3195690

I'm going to keep reading in 2017, but will slow the pace a little.

1. Fewer Netgalley books. That was too much pressure and I have plenty on my TBR list already, including…
2. Finish off more series. I probably won't get through much more of Game of Thrones (actually A Song of Ice and Fire) or The Expanse. I do plan to finish Harry Potter, Old Man's War, Wool, and Cinder and get back to Mystborn (at least the 'alloy' era) and Reckoners (Steelheart). Just this list could fill up my entire year. Except I also want to…
3. Read more Young Adult titles. One reason I want to reduce the pressure on my reading is to do more writing and my current project is shaping up as YA. I need to understand the genre.

Keep reading! And share a book with a friend.

Is Through The Only Way Out?

I was trying to figure out why I don't seem to be very excited about working on my current writing project. I'm only a couple of chapters in on a Page 1 Rewrite (actually more like Page -100, since I decided it needed to start much earlier than the short first draft did). At this point I should still be enthusiastic about the new project and cranking away at it. Shouldn't I?

I think the problem is that I've spent almost three months on the outline and these first couple of chapters (and the chapters don't actually fit the outline, so it's out of date). When I work on something in NaNoWriMo, I get through an entire draft in 30 days. It's fun. It's exciting. It's nerve wracking. Without that pressure to be done with 50,000 words by a certain time, I've been doing my procrastination thing and stretching things out.

I need to just write. Today I did a skosh over 500 words and it feels a little better. But I still think I've been working on this one thing for far too long. Other projects are dancing around in my head. I've been writing them down as they come up, trying to stave them off. I'm tired of Winter and the project seems to be part of Winter, so I'm tired of it, too. It seems very appealing to take another break from the current project and start more in earnest on something new, something Spring-like.

But I'd also like to finish what I've already started. To date, since 2005, I've started a half-dozen novels and a few short stories. I've finished and submitted one short story (to a conference contest) and finished a decent draft of another short story. All of the novels are in draft-zero form, or less.

I think in order to finish something, however, I need to do it in a more compressed timeframe. Something more than 30 days, so I don't ruin my life. But certainly it must be less than four to six months. Simple math tells me that if I truly write 1,000 words a day, six days a week, I will have 72,000 words in 12 weeks, or 3 months. In that case, I would be well over half-way finished with a sizable first-draft before my week 6 malaise set in. Maybe.

Maybe it's worth a try. Then again, I think I'll see what chapter 3 of this work in progress holds for me tomorrow. I've heard that the "only way out is through."

Films of the Season

Just this morning I got to thinking about the quickly approaching Christmas season and the associated films and television specials I look forward to each year. I've decided to turn my mental list into an actual list (in no particular order):

• A Charlie Brown Christmas
• Ruldolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
• Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (tv)
• A Christmas Carol (either the 1951 b&w classic with Alastair Sim, or the 1984 tv version with George C. Scott; though I'm also a sucker for the 1970 musical Scrooge with Albert Finney)
• Miracle on 34th Street (1959, b&w)
• It's a Wonderful Life (b&w)
  
• Elf (new classic)
  
• A Christmas Story
• White Christmas (or Holiday Inn, or both)
• The Santa Clause (almost a guilty pleasure)

That just happens to work out to ten. Some also-rans and guilty pleasures are worth mentioning: The Bishop's Wife, Jingle All The Way (with the governator), Die Hard, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Muppet Christmas Carol, any Andy Williams Christmas Special, and if it ever makes it to video John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together.

Throwing in the towel on NaNoWriMo

This is the first time I haven't 'won' National Novel Writing Month since I gave it a try 4 years ago. This was my 5th attempt. There are still almost 4 days to go in November. So, why am I giving up now?

1. With only 4 days to go, I have just over 1/2 my word count yet to write. That's over 6,000 words per day. I've managed one 4,500 word. Even if I had nothing else happening on those 4 days (like my day job on Monday), the probabilities are against me.
2. My excuses for such a poor word count stem mainly from getting a late start. Trying to return from a long vacation and hit the ground running with a writing project was a bit over-ambitious. Then there were a couple of sick days when my brain wouldn't work. About a week ago, I figured out that I was about 10 days behind. I made up a few of those, but not enough.
   
3. My other excuse probably stems from having been writing fiction for 4 years. I just could not build up momentum because I kept paying too much attention to the characters and story. I just couldn't let go and slam stuff out.
4. As usual, I didn't have enough of my story planned out before I dove in. I kept writing my way into it and was about to get started on my third story angle. I do like this new angle. It's promising. But I want to flesh it out and give it the attention it deserves. This sort of goes back to the previous point where I couldn't just keep driving down a dead end once I saw it was a dead end.
   
5. I wanted my life back. I needed to get some stuff done this weekend that didn't involve staring at the screen waiting for words to come out of my fingers.

Am I sorry I even tried? No. As usual, I got to learn more about the writing process and my strengths and weaknesses.

Will I try it again? Perhaps. It will depend on where I am in the process next year. If I'm finally in the middle of finishing off the first draft or first (or second edit) of a story (maybe this one), I will probably stick with it until it's done (at least I hope I will).

In the meantime, I'm going to keep on reading. Nothing is more motivating for me to write than to experience a good story and think that I might be able to do that. Except maybe reading something like 'Atlantis Found' by Clive Cussler and being pretty sure that I can write better than that.

Learnings from the Weekend

This place is as good as any to catch up with myself and refocus. It's been a little over a month since my last post. What's changed and what will change? And what's a learning anyway?

Let's get that last bit out of the way first. A learning is an appalling nounification that I have repeatedly run into, am using here for the first time, and which I hope is now out of my system, never to be used again. It seems to mean something that has been learned from a class or an experience.

One thing that's been learned (earlier in the month) and changed is that I've decided not to spend any more time on screenwriting. I was not really getting any better at it. It was taking way more time and energy than can afford right now, with very little hope of ever paying off in any way whatsoever (other than a bit that I've learned about story structure). I'm going to focus on novels and short stories. I have managed to get a start on a novel, and some of the planning for it already got mentioned here in previous posts. I'm not as far as I'd like to be. But how unusual is that for anyone?

As a consequence of the shift away from screenplays, I'm no longer planning to post movie reviews of any sort here, unless of course, I feel compelled to. My previous motivation was to try to capture some of the screenwriting insights I found for future reference. Now it will probably be just because I found something particularly enthralling (or appalling).

Another thing that's been learned is that I'm still dissipating my time on watching way too much television, trying to follow too many blogs and other Internet beasties, and stimulating my mind with meaningless puzzles to be a writer. I thought I could control this, but it is out of control. These activities completely absorbed my weekend, other than a few household chores and some errands, leaving me feeling completely fruitless, despite having written several hundred words on Saturday morning.

So, thankfully Stargate: Universe appears to a be a non-starter and will not be added to my television menu. Likewise, I'm not feeling the buzz for NCIS: LA. Heroes is still feeling a little iffy, but I'll have to go with Jurgen Wolff on this one, where's the drama in a show where noone stays dead and time travel is possible?

Learnings? Less TV, more writing. Less blog reading, more real reading (and writing). And, given what the scale was telling me this morning, less dessert, more exercise. Not all at once, mind you. But I have removed SGU from the DVR and unsubscribed from at least 1/3 of the blogs. These are my commitments to myself.

For now, it's time to get to my day job and work on commitments for that place, too.

Once Again, I Have Been Remiss

Blogging is hard. So is writing. Trying to do either one on a fine summer day is even harder, as I'm obviously finding. Trying to do either one, while keeping up with everyone else's blogging and writing is also difficult. Something needs to be ignored. Alas, for me it has been both this blog and my writing.

Mind you, I have actually worked on a couple of new projects. Just a little. I've captured a few bones of the skeleton of one novel and the idea for another. What hasn't happened is the actual committing to characters and plot and launching into the writing. That needs to happen soon. I'm pretty sure it can happen soon. This week? Let's assume so.

A new month starts tomorrow. It's as good a time as any. Then again, a new day starts tomorrow. It's also as good a time as any. Lest I forget, a new day started today. It was also as good a time as any. Too bad the morning is gone and my day job beckons. Tonight is another chance.

Quick, Good, or Cheap. Pick Two

I was recently reminded of this old project planning adage and it got me to wondering if it applied to my current occupation as a part-time writer. I've seen it worked out time and again in various software projects at the places where I work full-time. Please stay with me as I think this through.

Good + Quick = Expensive

This makes sense to me. In order for a writing project to get done quickly and well, you need one or more experienced writers focusing on it full time. The bigger the project or the quicker you want it, the more (or better) writers you'll need (although there is certainly a point of diminishing return, as shown by Brooks in The Mythical Man-Month). This is probably why most television shows use a small army of writers to get a teleplay written every week--divide and conquer. Plus, the more experienced the writer the more expensive (in theory) they will be.

This doesn't preclude, of course, the serendipity of an experienced (or even inexperienced) writer singlehandedly pouring out a complete and polished first draft in an amazingly short period of time. But from what I've been reading and experiencing, that is the exception and not the rule.

Good + Cheap = Slow

This seems to be where I am at, no matter how much I'd like to change it. Since there is only one of me and I am still learning how this writing stuff works and I have only so many hours in the day (of which many are filled by my day job and other obligations and desires) and I want what I write to be good, it's taking me a while to get things done. I've been working on the outline for a new screenplay for over a month now and it's still not quite there. Likewise the planning for a couple of novels. I did manage to whack out a first draft of a short story in a week. But it still needs a rewrite or two (or more) before it's ready to submit to anyone other than my wife and friends.

On the other hand, there is a hidden cost to constantly not having finished a project (or at least a step of the project). There is a point where (A) it's just got to be done (no more procrastinating) and (B) it's good enough. This is the battle I'm fighting.

Quick + Cheap = Inferior

As I wrote above, there are probably times where a single writer can finish a great work in a short amount of time, even if they are inexperienced (I've read that Mickey Spillane wrote his first novel, I, The Jury, in nine days, disregarding any arguments about how great it is, it's certainly been influential). But again, that's the exception, and not the rule, and is not what should be expected of most writing most of the time. If I were to bang out a novel in nine days, it would probably be crap. Heck, I've knocked a novel in 30 days during National Novel Writing Month, and all four times it's been crap. But I've learned about writing and about my writing. And now I've at least got four (almost) book length manuscripts saved to my hard drive.

Where does that leave me? I'm a part-time writer. I'm just way too practical and settled in my lifestyle to walk away from a high paying job and write full time. But I've been bitten by the writing bug, so I'm going to keep on writing. I just have keep my perspective and not expect to have a novel or screenplay pop out of my computer every few months. I also have to read more books, read less Internet nonsense, and write more words.