Sparks and Flame Cover Reveal

I've been toying with the idea of publishing all of my short stories in one collection for a long time. I just could never come up with a great name or cover. I named it "Danthology" at one point calling it an anthology of short stories by me, but that's not really an anthology. It's a short story collection. An anthology has a theme to all of the stories.

Most of my stories are either Science Fiction or Fantasy and so I like what I've come up with. Sparks and Flame will be the eBook and paperback edition of all my short stories packed into one book. I'm really excited to get it out there because I'm really proud of a lot of my short stories but there's no good way to publish them in a book unless I make a short story collection. This will be fun! As always thanks for stopping by!

Day 31 of Writing Every Day In March

I did it! I wrote every day in the month of March!!! My manuscript is at 40,108 words. I'm in chapter 35 of 50! My first draft is 70% done!

I'm not sure how much I wrote this month, but I think it was around 16,000 to 17,000 words. It looks like I started around chapter 21 and from there the word count in my manuscript is almost 17,000. What I can tell you is it was the best writing experience I've had so far. Not as exciting as a 6,000+ word day I had during one NaNoWriMo, but a really great method I want to continue for the rest of my life. It's simple: write every day. That's it. It doesn't matter how many words, or for how long, but you write every day. It kept my mind in the story so every time I sat down to write, even if it was for five minutes, I could crank out the words and add more to my story.

I still didn't write a ton this month considering I wrote every day, but it was a whole lot more than I would have written using my normal technique. Wait until I have a decent chuck of free time and write for a large chunk. The problem is that those times usually come only a few times a month. So I never wrote consistently. Now that I've experienced writing every day, I never want to go back. So this month of April I will write every day again, AND track my word count. I should have a spiffy graph at the end of the month. Then you will see I'm not doing anything special. My biggest days were only 1,000 - 2,000 words, but a lot of days I only wrote a couple hundred words. 

In conclusion, I'm really glad I decided to make this challenge for myself. Part of the inspiration was a story about someone who decided to just do 5 pushups every time they brushed their teeth. 5 pushups was an easily attainable goal that they knew they could do every time. They almost always ended up doing way more than 5 pushups, but with that as the goal they always did them. I had many days where I did not feel like writing. In fact, some of my best writing sessions happened when I felt like I wouldn't be able to write anything good and thought "all I have to do is write one sentence." Knowing I could do that I would get started writing. The great thing I discovered this month? Once you start you always just keep going! My days with really small word counts were just days where I only had a small amount of time to jot down several paragraphs.

The other inspiration was from Jerry Seinfeld of all people. He's a super productive dude. He takes a calendar and every time he has a day where he wrote jokes he puts a red X on it. Then he marks a red X on the next day and it looks like a chain. Then he says "Don't break the chain." You can read about it in this Lifehacker article.

I think having daily word counts to hit deadlines is a smart awesome thing. For me right now, however, with my family of 6 and full time day job - I will keep writing everyday. No matter how many words I get down, I will write every day. And the words will keep piling up! Thanks for going on this journey with me!

Day 28 of Writing Every Day In March

Well, it's the 28th and so far I've written every day this month! That is so awesome and exciting to me! It's a streak I haven't even accomplished during NaNoWriMo. I really wish I would have tracked exactly where I was in my manuscript so I could know the total number of words I will have written in March, but either way this little self-imposed challenge has been really successful so far. I'm thinking I'm just going to do it again next month - and try to keep it going for the rest of my life. Next month, though, I will be posting the word count for every day I write. Some days will be around 1,000 words or more, while others could be only a couple hundred. Below is a very rough approximation of my word count output so far this month:

Alright, here's a little progress report:

I'm just into the start of chapter 34 and at 38,247 words. The finished manuscript will probably be around 60,000 words. The story is going well and getting near the end of Act 2. Halfway through chapter 37 I'll be hitting Act 3. Then everything will ramp up and get harder and more exciting. My main character will really be pushed to try and get his goal accomplished. It should make for some exciting story. I can't wait to write it! It will be so exciting to finish this book. Writing every day this month has definitely gotten me a whole lot closer to finishing it. I'm so excited!

Day 19 of Writing Every Day In March

Yesterday was a close one. I almost didn't write! It was a very full day. I wrote a few sentences right before bed, but I wrote! I didn't break the chain of red xs on the calendar! Even though there were very few words written, it kept my head in the story and added to the pile that will someday be a novel. It's pretty clear I won't be able to finish this book in the month of March, but sometime in April seems very likely. That's still pretty exciting.

I have yet to publish a full-length novel. If this one turns out to be as fun and well structured as I'm hoping, then it will be my first published novel. I've written a few other full length novels, but they aren't publishable. There's some great stuff in them I'm proud of, but I still had a lot to learn about telling a story. I still do!

I'm also over halfway done writing another novel called "Zombie Super Powers" that I workshopped on The Roundtable Podcast, and that's what I'll be finishing next. I also finished a manuscript last year of a chapter book called "The Case of the Missing Snowman." That one is just waiting on illustrations to be finished. I'm the illustrator so I need to have a little sit down with myself and come up with a way to get those finished so I can publish that book.

If all goes well I will be publishing at least these three books this year:

1. Haunted House Flipper (previously titled Ghost Hunting Realtor)
2. The Case of the Missing Snowman
3. Zombie Super Powers

Day 15 of Writing Every Day In March

I'm currently in chapter 27 of my novel and I have passed the 30,000 word mark! The sometimes small amount of words I've been writing every day sure are piling up! I have been writing daily for 16 days now and I never want to go back! Before I was only writing when I happened to find large chunks of freetime.

I have found it so helpful to just make sure I write every day. Even if it's only for a few minutes it helps keep my brain in the story! That is so helpful. Anyways, 16 days of writing and I've written over 30,000 words in my novel now! I'm not sure on the total I've written this month but I think I was around chapter 20 or 21 when I started so I'm guessing from that it's around 8,000 words in the last 16 days.

I doubt I'll be able to finish my novel by the end of the month with the last several meager days of writing I've had, but I've still been writing everyday and I'm seeing progress everyday. It shouldn't be too long into April before I finish my first draft. I can't wait to get this book to beta readers to get feedback on it.