Weekly Update: 23-10-24
Added 2024-10-25 00:00:04 +0000 UTCHonestly, not much to update this week. Real-life has made it difficult to get to the keyboard, with very little down- or personal-time to spend on writing. Fortunately, I've got a unique opportunity coming in which to make up the lost time.
Basically, my birthday is approaching and it's one of those 'significant' numbers that end in a -0 or a -5. Consequently, I've decided to treat myself this year. I've been squirreling away some of the money that comes in from the patreon, and used it to book an AirBnB for a couple of nights, somewhere cheap and a little remote, but still reachable by train, with--and this was the key factor that made finding a place a little challenging--a work desk. I've basically arranged a little "writing retreat" for the weekend, away from the distractions of normal life.
Originally, I'd planned on using this time for starting a so-called "real" novel, but I don't think that's really possible with an incomplete story living in my brain. So instead, I'll be using the time to (hopefully) blaze a path through Constant. It may end up being an absolute disaster, in which I find myself distracted by other things, but I remain optimistic. I mean, Stallone supposedly wrote Rocky in a weekend, right? I have no expectation of actually finishing the story, but if I cranked out a solid ten or twenty thousand words, that would be pretty amazing, and bring the story that much closer to its ending. At the very least, it'll give me a little mental space to work through the remaining planning, clean up some plot points a bit, and refocus on reaching the conclusion.
Coming Week:
Monday: Sneak Peek from chapter 5-5, for all members
Wednesday: Release of chapter 5-4 (about 8.5k words) for Constant members and above
Friday: Weekly Update and Writing Retreat
Comments
Wow, that's an amazing output. I looked it up - apparently he had a special typewriter for common words like 'the' and 'and'. There's got to be something pathological behind churning out that much - it's amazing, but I quite enjoy writing; I wonder if he did? Mind, I don't imagine I'll ever get to found my own religion but then again - would I want to?
David Sanders
2024-10-30 23:08:37 +0000 UTCI remember a short piece in the back of a book by Damon Knight (I think it was him or some other sci-fi author of a similar vintage) in which he describes sitting having a drink with L Ron Hubbard and a third author - basically they bet Hubbard that he couldn't set up a made up religion... I do wonder if he ever collected on the bet!
Asklepios
2024-10-25 10:34:19 +0000 UTCA BnB writing retreat sounds like an awesome way to treat yourself as a birthday gift. I hope you get some story work done and enjoy scratching the writers itch. Apropos of the job of writing, I've just been listening to a podcast about L Ron Hubbard, the writer, conman, Bad film maker and worse religion founder. The man apparently lied constantly about pretty much everything to a level that might make Trump himself blush, but one actual irrefutable fact astounded me. While he was a working Sci Fi author churning out stories and being paid by the word he has had published Fifteen Million words between 1929 and 1941.Fifteen million published words of fiction in a bit over a decade. 500 short stories and novels. Granted most of it was pulp drivel to fill the pages of magazines that wasn't great in it's day and has aged even worse since, but wow. And when he changed careers to be become a conman/living god and commodore of a private navy he spent the rest of his life writing out his religions books and lore, the Scientology course books apparently contain 65 million words. Although since The Scientologists are the only ones with all the books to count them, I'd trust the accuracy of their numbers about as far as I could throw Xenu. But yeah. An amazing feat of 'words to paper' regardless of everything else about the man. Now I'd like to underline that I'm only telling you that as an interesting factoid about one singular freak of a man. I am NOT implying you should be hitting those numbers or even anywhere near them, but you are falling way behind on forming a bullshit religion. I hope the writing retreat works great for you, but also I hope you have a wonderful time while you're doing it.
Julia
2024-10-25 08:05:43 +0000 UTC
