Sunday, April 15, 2012

Update: Now For Something Completely Different

Things are not working, and it's been not working for long enough to know I can't keep pushing -- I have to change things up.

This morning (Saturday) I discovered something that my brain wanted to do.

I want to work on an ebook collection of top posts from this blog.

This is ironic, because one of the things I don't feel like doing right now is blogging. But I do feel like organizing and messing about with stuff. "Cranking Widgets" as David Allen calls it. It's time to organize the spice rack, and file the junk on my desk... and sort through old posts to make a cohesive book. Or maybe even two - but start with just one.

So that is the ROW80 goal until my brain rebels and wants to go back to writing. (Which will probably be next week.)

So, for now I have a list of 28 posts which focus on surviving the writing life in this changing world. I also have about 45 related posts which I have to sort through and see if I want to include them. (Or rewrite two similar posts into a Super Post.)

I will be rewriting many of these -- either to update them or to make them clearer for those reading out of context. Here is the main list, in approximate order:

What it is to be a writer
eBook as Artifact, William Morris and Me
What does Artisan Mean to You
Mastery Comes First, Not Last
Heinlein's Rules series (to be updated)
On Hatchlings And Neo-Pros
The Times That Try Writers' Souls

The Writer in the New World of Publishing
Books Are Not Commodities! They're...Pastrami on Rye!
Editorial Standards, Pulp Fiction and eHow
How Readers Find Books These Days
How To Stop Worrying and Love The Algorithm
Search Engines, eHow, and Fiction Writing
Marketing and the Physics of Water
Volume vs. Quality, a False Dichotomoy

Finding Your Voice
Sophistication Ain't Everything
In Praise of Mary Sue (intro, +3)
The Value of Boredom
Konrath on Being Deliberate
The Leap From the Lion's Mouth
Genre and Soy Sauce
Why Did I Self-Publish?
Be Brave, Be Fair, Do Good Work (rewrite from scratch for a conclusion)

When I'm done reworking these, and writing additional material, I suspect I'll decent little book, worth $2.99.

This will be my ROW80 goals, and I'll go back to counting minutes as my main goal for a while. I'll probably increase the quantity, since these are things that absorb me for longer than it should. But I'll announce that with next week's post.

ROW80 Update

Wednesday Day 10 - Taxes

Thursday Day 11 - Taxes

Friday Day 12 - Reading

Saturday Day 13 - Epiphany! I started out thinking about how I want to change my life this summer, ended up thinking about what I want to do RIGHT NOW.

Here's the list of This Weeks ROW80 Participants...

See you in the funny papers.

5 comments:

Rick said...

What a great idea! I'll buy a copy.

The Daring Novelist said...

Thanks, Rick.

I notice from my stat counter that I get people who regularly come poking around and reading back posts, but there are hundreds and hundreds, and a lot are updates, and other less interesting in retrospect stuff.

So I might as well make it easy for people to find relevant posts.

Tom Simon said...

Sounds like an excellent idea to me. Still better, you could do an Asimov or Expanded Universe: publish each piece as originally written, and then add a headnote or endnote telling something about how and when that post was written, and what (if anything) has happened since that changed your views on the matter.

We’d get, not a series of snapshots of your thoughts and opinions and particular moments, but a moving picture — diachronic, not synchronic, as the linguists say. I’d happily pay for that.

Anonymous said...

That's not a bad idea, getting organized. I've seen other writers like Chuck Wendig do the same sort of thing with a decent amount of success. I hope it works out for you. Best of luck!

The Daring Novelist said...

Tom:
I've considered that -- but I'll have to dig into it to see. Some of the posts are suited for that kind of thoughtful revisit, but some are just sloppy, or incomplete and would be better off rewritten.

I might do a combo.

Ryan:
Yeah, sometimes reorganizing gets you somewhere, really charges you up. Sometimes, though, its a zen exercise -- just something to do for it's own sake. I seem to be in the mood for zen activities.