In Five Years

My friend Rebecca asked a question of people, sometimes, when she's trying to get them to really think about their lives. She asked them, Where do you see yourself in five years?, not just out of curiosity, but because of what their answer means to their current situation. If you see yourself married with two kids in five years, but you're currently single and childless, you either have high expectations for the future, or you need to really start taking relationships more seriously.

If you want to be doing something in five years - mothering, publishing, travelling - you need to be working towards that now.

For me, it comes down to a happy little mix of writing, publishing and travelling.

Don't get me wrong. I don't expect to become an overnight hit in the writing department. Writing books isn't how you make money from writing. The biggest earners, aside from the big bestsellers in the publishing industry, are usually screenwriters. Of the Average Joe variety of writer, screenwriters make the most from a single piece of work. (It's also the most competitive market - fun!)

But I'd love to be doing it. I'd love to be trying my hand at screenwriting, while continuing to write my books, and attempting something of a freelance career. It's a difficult life to get started in, nearly impossible to do while in full-time education as an Undergrad. student, but it's not outside of my reach at this point in my life. I have books for guidance on screenwriting and freelancing, and I understand the book publishing sector relatively well, and it's just a case of applying everything I have to that dream.

That's what this month is all about for me, with Operation Overdrive. I want to create my work-life balance now, with an over-the-top last ditch attempt before my Masters starts in September.

And that Masters is where the second part of my five-year-dream comes in: publishing. My Masters is in Multimedia, which will help build up a skill-set in digital image editing, video production, and audio production - among other areas - which I see as being vital for publishing in the future. I have my own plans, aside from wanting to work with a major publishing house in the UK or the US or even here in Ireland (though there are fewer publishers here), and I'm confident that once I get the ball rolling, I'll be able to sort out something big.

Obviously, my explanation here will be lacking in details while they're still being worked on, but I've already started working on what I want to do, and how I want to do it, and it's just a case of getting the background work in place before I fully commit to it all - including putting my energy into the Masters.

As for the travelling, that's where things get complicated. Conventional work wouldn't allow for travel, and neither would a low income, and I don't plan on living at home when I'm approaching 30. I could tell you all of the places I want to go - and I will later in the month - but that doesn't explain how I'm going to afford it.

The travelling aspect is where I get to see the world. I know I can't afford to do it now, not while I'm saving everything I've got for the Masters (because aside from the fees, I'd like to get my own equipment, like a new laptop, and a proper camera). But if I could make the travel part of my work, if I could use it as research, or as part of a freelancing job, then it makes the money put into flights and accommodation part of the necessary expenses.

It's a child's dream, I suppose, but growing older doesn't mean that those dreams have to go away. Growing older just means that I can make more sense of those dreams, and how to make them a reality. In five years time, I want to be doing just that.

Options

You might recall my trouble sleeping the other night. I had some things on my mind. Part of it was to do with work (and my still only working weekends on minimum wage after six years in the place), and part of it was to do with September and its great big Nothingness. There's also a change in the house around then, and that's just one more thing to consider.

So, I re-wrote out my 'solutions' list, neatly, and put it away safely. I've addressed something new and exciting that came up today. And to further address the worries that September brings, I brainstormed my options.

Setting an online timer, I had three minutes to write down as many different things I could do that would affect both my work and September problems at the same time. While there's no direct need to leave the bookshop for most of the options, because most of them aren't instant-return, and don't require complete availability on my part, I did include that.

Don't get me wrong: I don't want to leave the bookshop. I just want to be able to do something more than weekends at such a low wage, and not feel like I need them more than they need me. In six years, the management haven't exactly made me feel as if I'm an essential and valued part of the team, which really sucks. It could just be me, now, at this point in my life, blowing it all out of proportion, but I don't think so. I don't even have keys to the shop, despite it being mentioned two or three times over the past couple of years that I should probably be given a set (which would make arranging hours easier, since I could open and close the shop if need be.)

So, with those niggling doubts over my value to the shop, I have my list. I need to type it up and make it official, but my options are now there in front of me.

I'll break it down for you. A lot of it involves writing in one way or another. One option is crafty. A couple are business-y. One's even a learning thing, just so I'm doing something in September (I was thinking one of those free online courses...in something.)

The value in this exercise is that, while life seems to be at an impasse, I can still make choices to change things. One thing's for certain though: I'll have to start setting an alarm and working every day at regular hours. My motivation has gone way down without structure to the day. Now I have lots of different options I can choose from. I know I'll probably get started on a couple of them sooner rather than later, too, because I can. They don't require me to do much aside from getting myself out of this chair. (Though, inevitably I'll have to return to the chair for the computer parts of these things.)

What I'm saying is, while the post-college blues might be setting in, I have a way out. I have many ways out, in fact, and I think it's about time I followed through on them.

Day 7: Family Things

While I didn't reach my word count target for today, I'm not actually that fussed. In the morning, my family spent time together over breakfast, and when I got home from work, we spent time together again. I've still completed a chapter, and I've gotten over 1,100 words written for the day. It's not 2,000, and I'm not caught up, but I have a plan.

This might involve not really talking to people much tomorrow. Such is life. But here goes:

Wake at eight. Immediately shower, have breakfast, and do all those sorts of things that can hinder a day.

At twenty to nine, I write for fifty minutes, roughly. My target: 800 words.

Every hour for the next three hours, I have a target of 950 words. By lunch time, I'll have over 3600 words written for the day.

At half twelve, I record the audio track for the trailer. I'm giving myself half an hour to do this. I'll probably edit out the hiss of the microphone and the sounds of breathing while I'm at it.

I'll then take a forty minute break, for lunch.

The next fifty minutes, I'll have another target of 800 words. Every hour following, until half four, I'll have a target of 950 words. By the end of that, I should have 6350 words added to my total, which should be more than enough to complete the book. I'll be trying to avoid the Internet in all of this time, but I'll probably pop in to tweet whether I've reached word count targets.

At half four, I'll blog about the day. When I'm done, I'll be leaving for dinner with friends from secondary school to celebrate us all having completed exams. I don't know when I'll be home.

I think it's a fairly good plan, and it'll see me not only catching up on Camp NaNoWriMo, it should ensure The Hounds of Hell sees its completion. This means I can start The Blood of Leap a day early, which takes the pressure off when Tuesday comes around. I'll need to do a fair bit of artwork, then, so I don't really want any delays.

Basically, with my plan tomorrow, I can win at life a bit.

Day 2: A Cover Reveal

If you follow me on social media - and I don't know why you wouldn't - you'll know that I revealed the cover for The Hounds of Hell today. Well, a tentative design. I'm awaiting feedback, but I was happy with it when I finished it. It was a quick job, too, which I was glad about; I knew what I was doing before I started. I have known what the cover would look like since... August. Last year. That sounds about right.

What, you want to see it? Well, okay.

There it is in all it's splendour. The idea was to keep it in line with the previously published book in the Modern Irish Myth universe, Balor Reborn and Old Gods Returned. The colour is indicative of something in the book - something important, too - and I think it's freaky enough to make people want to check it out.

I don't normally create a cover for a book before I'm finished writing it. But then, I also don't do what I did today: I added three chapters to the plan of the book.

I know what you might be thinking: (a) isn't that wasting writing time? (b) doesn't that change the story? (c) shouldn't you have known about this before you started writing?

To answer those hypothetical questions, let us first entertain the idea that I know where this series is heading, right up until the very end. Can you keep that in mind? If you need convincing, I have the titles for all twelve books in the series, with an idea of what happens in each, the end of the series already in my head, and two stand-alone books entitled and in the middle of their planning stages. Okay?

So, first answer: no, it's not wasting writing time. For me, planning is an integral part of the writing process. It's also a great way for me to make sure I'm sticking to my overall aim with a book. If I don't plan, but simply intend to do something, the odds are that I'll end up stuck for ideas by the time I reach that point in the book. As it's towards the end of the book - in fact, it was at the very end of the last chapter before the epilogue that the revisions began - I would have been so looking forward to finishing up and getting on with the next book, that I wouldn't have been able to do a good job of the ending.

Just ask that one reviewer of Stepping Forward. She liked the book, but she thought the ending was weak. I agree with her. I rushed it, because I needed an ending, and I didn't want to change it, then. Bold Paul.

As for the second question I'm sure you were asking in your head, I have two words: not considerably. The book was coming to an end by the close of chapter five. At this point in my original plan, I had things sorted out nicely. When I came to writing the book, I looked ahead at the plan, and realised something: I was leaving a massive plot hole in the book. Massive. There was this huge area in the story that I was just ignoring, with the express purpose of moving on to the next book.

Pro tip: closure is a good thing.

The three chapters that I added don't pull the story away from where it needed to be by the epilogue. I think the opposite is true. I've allowed the epilogue to happen without questions being asked about the integrity of one of the characters.

And as for me knowing about this... well, I knew the ending, it was the part in between that got mixed up. Plus, when I planned the book, I didn't name a couple of people who have become more important to the story since I finished writing chapter one. I just didn't realise it at first, because I deviated slightly from the plan.

That's not a bad thing, either. By not taking everything into account before a single word was written, I've surprised myself. I've become excited about these additional chapters in the book. Plus, I think I'll actually reach my desired word count now.

See, I've had this idea in my head that I need to reach about 20,000 words with each of these books. Right now, after just over 4,000 words in Camp NaNoWriMo, the book is about 9,000 words long. This is with a start made on chapter four. Four of what had been five. Can you imagine how long those last two chapters would have had to have been to reach my target? More importantly, how much longer than the previous three chapters? Ridiculous, right? Now I have three more chapters, which can help spread things out a bit more, include a few important scenes, provide closure, and be on my merry way to The Blood of Leap.

Jolly good.

And so ends another day at Camp NaNoWriMo, where the word counts soar, the insanity rises with it, and I answer hypothetical questions. This is going to be a long month.

Future Mind-Set

In the grand scheme of procrastination, I've begun focusing a lot more on life after the Dreaded Exams.This has meant that I think a lot about how to live my life, how to make money, when to do things, etc. This has largely taken form in two things:

1. A Timetable

Admitting to myself that the odds of full-time employment are not necessarily high in the foreseeable future, I've drawn up a timetable for myself. It's divided quite simply into: morning, mid-morning, noon, afternoon, late afternoon, evening and night, with the acceptance that in setting particular times to do particular things I was leaving out a meal per day, and all the household tasks that are necessary for living.

To this timetable, which includes my standard weekend hours at the bookshop, my cinema trip each week, New Comic Book Day's requisite to get into the City Centre every week, blogging on a daily basis (which I have found to be a worthy uptake) and responding to particular emails and duties as they come along, I have added generic tasks. These, being more relevant with particular projects than to the foreseeable future as a whole, are put down as: Non-Fiction, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Poetry and Script. It's not equal, but the timetable doesn't include anything like cover design, keeping up with social media, reading, or the making of book trailers.

I couldn't just remove an hour of work in a particular area for the sake of another task that would occur on an irregular basis and take an unforeseen amount of time, so I've opted to merely designate chunks of the day to the different media of writing.

This is then matched with the second object of focusing on the future:

2. A Daily Review

This requires that I ask myself certain questions (Is the timetable working? Did I do X, Y and Z?) that focus on achieving long-term goals. These long term goals are specified on the same sheet, so I can't just ignore them. They also help in the setting of the next day's tasks.

Setting tasks for the next day will then provide the actual list of things I need to write during the day. This could mean writing a particular novel, working on a task sheet from the New Year, writing haiku on a particular topic, or writing a flash story about a particular myth (because that's my thing.)

Why?

Because life is scary and uncertain and I've been living on a timetable for most of my life. Because I need some sort of structure, and I need to continually remind myself to do something worthwhile every day, or I'll fall into the habit of arsing around the house until it gets to the point where my parents would feel guilty about wanting to kick me out, but really needing me to stop living at home for my own good. Let's face it, if I'm not working (at all), I'm not doing anything to change that.

At least by writing (and publishing), I can work towards actually earning something. Not much, but something. A pittance is better than nothing, anyway.

Plus, I need to remind myself to write across a number of different projects, and not just focus on one. I can easily set it up that I don't exhaust myself with writing every day. My tasks will be written the night before, so I'll know how much time I have to do something. I'm not going to say "Write 5000 words of this novel...3000 words of that Non-Fiction book and... yeah, let's add twenty pages of a script." No. That's insane. That's asking for trouble.

While I have written what I believe is the equivalent of that before, in a single day, I don't think it's worth attempting too often. It's exhausting, and I plan on this being suitable for a long-term arrangement, if need be. That means making sure I don't pass out from tiredness after a week of doing it, and keeping my work varied and interesting. Otherwise, I won't actually enjoy it.

I've set it up so that I should enjoy it, though. I should also find some degree of success (i.e. to the degree I've set with my goals) from it, if I keep it up. I don't see it as a bad thing to have a back-up in place in case I really am virtually unemployed. It's not just a fail-safe, but an option to live according to certain standards.

Plus, given the amount of time I'll need to spend at home to do all of this work, I'm less likely to spend money on lunches out (alone...), just because I happen to be out. I'm less likely to spend money I don't really have, because I won't be able to, easily. That is a fail-safe.

I think I can manage this lifestyle. I think having an idea of what to do if there's "nothing to be done" is going to help when the exams finish. It'll be an emotional enough time without having to add despair to the list of emotions I'm experiencing.

So... this is it. Coming to the end of those student days. Coming to the end of when they're fun, too. I have one more week off before exams, and a lot of it will be spent studying. Fun, right? At least it shouldn't be so bad afterwards. In fact, I think things will actually work out well. I'm not dreading June and what it stands for anymore. Funny, that.

Superheroes

I'm on a superhero buzz at the moment. Like, more so than usual. I've been mulling over an idea for a book for a while now, thinking through the plot and the characters and the way the universe works, and eventually it led to me picking up a book I'd bought a few months (or a year) ago, called The Physics of Superheroes. It's a surprisingly interesting read, though, of course, it combines two of my favourite interests: superheroes and science. (Is it bad that I like science so much while studying at God College?)

Anyway, one thing led to another, and I started looking up different books about superheroes. This is to add to my physics book, and the books I have about various superheroes from the Marvel universe, and the vast history of comic books and plots I've picked up over the years (and that I can acquire from the Internet).

So, I'm reading up on superheroes a lot more than usual. I suppose this is my way of compensating for the failure what was World War X. The story, I liked. My execution, however, was sorely lacking. As in, I didn't write anything after a while. There was so much to focus on, such a large world to build, and I didn't feel like I owned any of it.

This time around, I'm going back to my roots and utilizing some ideas that were mine from the start. The story is much more exciting and dynamic than the World War X plot, though I always have the possibility of using some of the characters and ideas I was coming up with for that story. I can put my own personal spin on things, and explore the humanity behind the superhero complex, along with the ethics and morals and the great big ideas of heroism that people support in their minds when they feel like they have the power to do the right thing.

It's a massive bundle of crazy at the moment, still only in the planning stages and developing wildly of its own accord. That planning is going well, though, and once I have my reading done for the book I'll be able to develop a massive system within which to develop the best possible superhero novel I can come up with.

In my opinion, it's going to be awesome.

But then, that's slightly biased. Okay, more than slightly. It's biased by the combination of superhero fun and, you know, my decidedly high opinion of myself (because I don't always have to be self-deprecating.)

Anyway, I think this story stands to be enjoyed by a lot of people if it ever makes it out into the wide world. It's not just about superheroes and superpowers, but about the effects these powers have on what had been otherwise stable lives, the opportunities offered, the problems that arise; in short, it's about the people behind the powers.

Plus, if it was a movie there would be lots of bright lights and flashy explosions. That's always fun.

Now I just need to plan the book and do all my reading for it. Then I can actually start writing it!

Unexpected Results

It is with some excitement that I find myself writing a book on planning. That seems weird, mainly because planning can so often seem like a boring process. 

Oddly, I don't think so. I think it's an applicable process that can save time and effort in the long run, especially when the plan is detailed enough to cover all major areas of a project. In my case, my plan almost doubled in size from when I first drew it up, so that rather than write ten articles on planning (which was initially supposed to be one), I'm now working towards eighteen short chapters of an ebook.

I'm pretty damn happy with it. Obviously it'll need some editing before it's ready for publication, not just to change the word article to plan, but to make sure the whole thing flows correctly. However, I am confident that what I am creating, while sticking to my New Year's Resolution, is a book that can be used by writers no matter what project they are picking up.

Even better, the book looks to be ready by mid-February. It's not the quickest turnaround, but with my teaching placement taking up most of my time, I'm happy with it.

How did I manage this? Simple: I wrote every day this year so far. Half of this time was granted to the planning book, and the other half to poetry and blog posts. The end result is that I have been able to keep in touch with the online world to some extent, get creative with my poetry and still manage to produce something I think is worth selling.

It's also helping to make writing something more manageable in the process. Because I'm writing the book on planning, I'm having to think about my own plans. I'll need to get the sequel to Balor Reborn out soon, obviously, and keep working on that series, but now I'm in a position where I can easily keep up with my various projects by using my own advice on planning. Planned project: unexpected results.

So, excited. I have lots of other stuff in the pipeline, too, though I haven't yet announced most of it. I literally told my Unofficial Board of Directors about my next big announcement, the one that will change my life, I think. Them, and my brother. But not my parents or any of my friends, or anyone else for that matter. I've kept most people in the dark, because I'm excited about this, but partially afraid of what will happen when I actually go public with the details.

I'm waiting until placement is over before I do much more else with it, so I at least know where my head is at for the project, and I have some time to put in some serious work on it ahead of public intentions being announced. I have a lot of background work to do on it.

I guess I had better start planning it all properly soon. But then, I should be used to that at this point.