Entropy Central

As it turns out, I have something to blog about tomorrow morning, so here is the promised Wombats comic now.

Sorry for the lack of blog posts the last couple of days. I’ve been feeling a bit ill, and along with that comes a lack of energy. I do have some interesting posts coming up. In the mean time, I’ll set up another Wombats cartoon for tomorrow.

From the Saturday Night Live stolen joke department. If you watched SNL during the first few years, you’ll recognize the parody I did in this strip back in 1994. Click for a larger version.

It was a rough and busy week, and I did not hit my word count goal a few times, including one day taking a zero. As many people know, I reach math as an adjunct at the local community college. During finals week, I have only a few days to get final grades posted, and since that directly impacts a lot of people, that has to take priority.

Still, I did make considerable progress on “A Darkling Nine,” and I broke 2000 words twice, so that made up a little bit.

For the week: 10130 words (vs target of 12250).
Project total: 20582 (of a projected 110,000).

I’ve got a month ahead without any teaching, including two weeks while my teenagers are still in school. Hoping to make some good progress during this time.

Here’s another from 1994, when Bill Clinton was still called Slick Willie, and Newt Gingrich had yet to implode.

One of the mantras you are taught early in your writing career is that you must write every day. While this has some merits, it isn’t really talking about writing every day, it’s talking about having the discipline to write when you don’t want to write.

Let’s face it, life is a busy thing for humans in this day and age. Everyone is pulling on you to do something, or to give away your money. For those not in the habit of writing regularly, life can be a huge distraction. Skip a day writing, pretty soon it’s two days, a week, a month, and then years go by.

What they really mean by ‘write every day’ is make time to write. Write regularly. It doesn’t have to be every day, but writing every day does help get projects done. When working on long fiction projects, I tend to write every day, and I push myself to meet a daily quota. Sometimes that means staying up late.

Sometimes, like the past two days, I have stuff interfere, but that’s okay. Writers have to live in the real world, too. The secret is to make a concerted effort not to allow the distraction to derail you. After two idle days, it’s very easy to allow that stretch to grow. Don’t let it.

My biggest threat to writing regularly is when I am between major projects. I have to set a target date to start the next one, or I’ll look back at three wasted months.

It’s a question of discipline, and everyone handles that in different ways. You don’t have to write every day, but you do have to write regularly, and make it a priority.

I can’t count how many times,when I tell someone that I write, they tell me they always wanted to do it, too, but they never have time. They don’t want to hear that everyone has that problem, and you have to make time or it simply won’t happen.

Of all the Wombat comics I drew back in 1994, this one has to be my personal favorite.

A lot of my readers may be too young to remember Bill Clinton’s first campaign for president. At that time, it became known that Bill Clinton avoided service in Vietnam by studying abroad, specific in London.

There are different camps out there in terms of how a writer should interact with readers. I am convinced that using social media is a benefit to writers who choose to engage with readers.

I have been on Twitter for several years. (There used to be a place on Twitter where you could find the day you registered, but I can no longer find it.) While I have been on Twitter and engaged with people for many years, I am hardly one of the early adapters. In fact, I spent several years prior to registering wondering just what the point using Twitter could be.

Engaging an Audience

One of the most useful things about Twitter is the way you get instant feedback on ideas. As of the very second I type this line, I have 477 followers, and if you are reading this, chances are pretty good you are one of them. It’s not a large number, but it isn’t shabby either. My following on Twitter has grown organically and gradually. I ruthlessly cull bots (robot followers meant only for spamming and other nefarious purposes). I don’t necessarily follow people back, though I have considered following everyone and simply listing people who I actually want to read in a list. But then, John Scalzi hardly follows anyone and has acumulted nearly 30,000 followers.

Water Cooler

By following a bunch of people with similar interests (other writers, other fishkeepers, etc), I become involved in a never-ending water-cooler discussion where ideas are exchanged, news is spread, and support for people who need support is always there.

Branding

Twitter is a place where a writer can emphasize a brand. There seem to be two camps in terms of how writers use Twitter to solidify a brand. The first uses Twitter to show one facet of their personality and expertise, magnified out of proportion to the rest of their lives. Examples of this type of Twitter authors would be Michael A. Stackpole, who uses the social media engine to proclaim the benefits of independent publishing, as well as gaming topics, and, of course, his own fiction. David Brin uses Twitter to call attention to different science articles, but rarely otherwise interacts with people. Mary Robinette Kowal uses Twitter to discuss her fiction, to educate people about puppetry (her day job), to have fun with her travel woes, and for some double-entendre wordplay (at which she excels).

The other camp uses Twitter to magnify the author’s personality as brand. The aforementioned John Scalzi uses Twitter this way. So does Scott Sigler. This is the camp I fall into, as well.

I don’t think one camp is superior to another. They are just different ways of doing things. A person will tend to gravitate toward one or the other over time. I’m sure David Brin’s use was carefully thought out is strategic to gain followers of a specific type, while others like John Scalzi just uses it to interact with his readers and have a little fun.

I don’t think there is any correct answer. Each user will gravitate to what works for them. There is nothing wrong with publicly emphasizing one aspect of a personality, nor is there anything wrong with throwing it all out there for the world to see.

Use Caution

The only thing I would warn about using Twitter is to keep some things private. Keep in mind that the internet remembers everything, even if you delete it. Once it’s out there, it’s out there. That means if you announce your pride in throwing a cat down a flight of stairs, the world will know about it, and it could come back to haunt you some day. (For the record, I have noever done this, but I did witness it and scolded the thrower.) This is like anything else online. Use common sense.

Is It For Everyone?

Of course not. Being on Twitter in the first place says something about the person. It means they want to interact with people, at least to some extent. People like George R. R. Martin maintain a Twitter account for the sole reason of preventing anyone else from using it. He has never sent a single tweet. (Not many writers could collect the same number of followers as John Scalzi by saying nothing at all!) Other authors have never even considered using Twitter. It isn’t for everyone, but it can be a boon for authors who choose to use it.

Where else can you let the world know that your blog just posted? Twitter just announced this post, and it’s likely you found this via that tweet. Twitter is fast, but it’s fleeting, but that’s a topic for another day.

Back in 1994, I was not a fan of Bill Clinton. There are several Wombats comics that reflect that. This was back before Newt Gingrich became a hypocrite.

As I have for the past three novels, whenever I’m working on long fiction, I post weekly updates on Monday. This is to keep me going by publicly proclaiming whether I’m working or doing something else, and that keeps me working. I started a new novel on May 1st, so here is the first of the updates for A Darkling Nine.

One thing to note is that I upped my daily quota from 1500 to 1750 words a day. The first two days, I blew past that to over 2000 words. The next couple of days were more difficult, crossing the finish line as late as 11:30PM.

Yesterday, I had to dig out a sprinkler head in the front lawn, and ended up with a functional irrigation system, but also a swollen hand that i really couldn’t use for typing. I tried to carry on one-handed, but that didn’t last very long. I’ve had this before and usually it’s gone completely in 3 days, but I can type now.

For the week:
10,462 words (6 days – started on Tuesday)
Novel Total
10,467 words