BSP is dead before it was even born. My poor friend Brian slaved over five different sites…and I’m pulling the plug. Of course, all his hard work isn’t for nothing (well, I paid him nothing, but that’s another story).
I’m still going to use all those sites to promote my work. I’m also going to start posting all edited and professional short stories here and through my affiliated sites.
Which is why you’ll notice I’ve removed all the current short stories from this site. Because I see on my stats that one of you actually downloaded it…and it’s not very good (well, the editing is awful).
So no reading that anymore.
I’m almost finished my first short story re-edit. It’s called Dance of the Dead and it’s about lovers who are allowed to be together for only five minutes each life…and that five minutes is at the time of their death. I wrote it when I was 24 or 25, sent it out a few times, came close, then put it in a drawer.
I’m pulling it out now. I’ve already done a re-edit and have cut 3500 extraneous words, bringing it down to 5000 words. Amazing how much I’ve cut out without changing the story.
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There.
It’s out there.
It needs to be finished and edited.
October 20th.
5000 words.
The beginning of a routine. I have an outline. I have the arcs, the themes, and the characters.
Now I just have to write it.
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I’m announcing my plan to the world. I’m going to be shaping it here over the next few weeks, trying to form a cohesive manual on how I’m going to reach my goal.
Here are my first goals:
- I want my first short story accepted by July
- I want my first novel accepted by mid-2008
Okay, those are lofty goals. So here goes:
- I’ve subscribed to Tale Bones and Realms of Fantasy. I’m going to aim for those two magazines first
- buy a few manuals. The first is Make Your Words count. Them some grammatical books…so reference type books. Study them, work on them.
- attempt to setup a writer’s group in the London area. I’d prefer not to have to go to Toronto.
- I’m re-editing two short stories (Wolves at the Gates, and Dance of the Dead). Those are my first salvos to be fired. On a side note, I’ve already edited Dance of the Dead…I cut 3400 words.
- write more short stories. While quality is obviously my main goal, I’d like to write and edit one short story a month. That’s a lot of short stories, but it would be more of a numbers game if I have multiple stories (that means I’d have 9 completed stories by July…one of them would have to get published…wouldn’t it?)
- begin editing my novels. I won’t use professional editors. Rob Sawyer asked ‘would a carpenter hire someone to hammer his nails’? Fair enough.
- New Novels. Hmm, haven’t touched on those yet. Writing novels is really where I’m comfortable. When do I start the next? Should I wait, or begin working on chapters? Perhaps around Christmas.
Lots to do. I have to figure out a way to get all of this routine into my life. When? Early morning. Uggh…I don’t think I can get up early. But maybe. I’m thinking more the 9pm to midnight time. Make that my time. The difficulty with that is that’s the only time of day I spend with Kari (though she’s usually in bed by 10pm).
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…of my dreams. For one week, I was a writer. I could tell people I was a writer. I could talk about stories, and books, and characters, and arcs, and plots, and themes…and not bore people to death (well, maybe I did bore them, I don’t know).
And everyone else was just like me…also living the life of their dreams. But sadly, I didn’t really belong in that life. That was a tantalizing taste, but just a taste nonetheless.
My ‘real’ life involves computers, and e-commerce, and manufacturing…and other stuff not nearly as exciting. My ‘real’ career contains no passion or love.
So I’m depressed. Really depressed. But you know, I guess this is what I needed to re-affirm my goals, my commitment to being ‘a writer’.
Just a taste. Nothing more.
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I don’t write on ryanmcfadden.com for so long…and now I have like 8 posts in the past 5 days. Why now? Well, obviously, now my writing is in the spotlight. How am I going to succeed (how am I going to measure that success), what are my goals, how can I get there…
So this space is a great place to list my goals, my plans. So that they’re somewhere, posted, like a list so I don’t forget.
I need a game plan. I’m always trying to come up with one. It’s funny, because I actually came up with a game plan a few years ago but never executed. The game plan was simple. I based it on marketing.
My brand.
The brand of Ryan T McFadden.
Over the next few days, I’ll be posting my plan here so that it becomes official, so that I can’t duck it.
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