A Look at 200

A week ago we rolled through a little milestone here that I wasn’t expecting. Suddenly I looked up and somehow this blog had reached its 200th post. For a guy working full time, writing on the side, and trying to maintain some semblance of a personal life, I’d say that’s not a bad run. Of course not all those posts are noteworthy. Some of them are downright trash, hastily written and posted without proofing. It happens, but just like in telling a story, I like to think the important part is getting the words down on the page at all, or the screen in this case.

I hope a few of the posts I’m made here are really worthwhile, that somewhere in this mess are a few nuggets of real truth that speak to what it’s like to want to write more than anything else a guy could spend his time doing. I think I’ll always think of myself as running an insurrection on a shoe string, so these milestones are important, especially when sales aren’t stacking up the way you’d like. It’s a battlefield of shifting sand out there. Every time an algorithm changes, you’re left wondering if anyone is even going to be able to find your stuff. Out here, a guy with a blog has a fighting chance to get noticed no matter what the big retail players do to tweak their systems.

So here’s hoping for another two hundred posts… and another two hundred past that. It’s a big world and if you don’t take the opportunity to tell your own story, someone else will, or worse yet, your story will never get told at all.

Work, Interrupted

I’ve been making steady, if not spectacular progress this week. Technically, I should say I was making stead progress before my day job unhelpfully stepped into the mix and demanded inordinate amounts of extra attention. Seriously. Who has time for that? Clearly they don’t know they’re dealing with a respected smut peddled whose creative time is valuable and already quite limited. Since they do mostly pay the bills, I decided I wouldn’t bring that up.

So, as much as I’d like to say I would be sitting down to churn through another thousand words tonight, it’s safe to say that making dinner and heading to bed are going to be the two priority items tonight. If the weekend isn’t too chaotic, hopefully I’ll be able to bring you better news on Monday. As far as writing goes, I think this post is going to be as much as I can count towards the total this evening.

Unkind Season

I’ve said it before and it feels worth saying again: Summer makes it damned near impossible to buckle down and get words churned out, especially on the weekends. I don’t have any issues convincing myself to sit down to work when it’s 25 degrees out, but let the sun come out, the pools open, or the fish start running and I’m faced with entirely too many options to say no to all of them. I suppose the lack of discipline could be considered a character flaw, but despite what I’m reading in all of the “how to be a writer” websites, I’ve never really been the type to deny myself a good time just for the sake of getting the job done. I’ve always been of the opinion that there will be time for work after a bit of fun. I’m not saying that I want to go out and raise hell 24/7, but if really pressed to the wall, I’m going to pick the good time over the hard work nine times out of ten. When the weather isn’t this nice, the good times are just more difficult to come by.

So it seems that summer will be my unkind season. I’ll be doing my best to adjust expectations accordingly and trying to shoehorn in writing in the dead spaces between other stuff. This past weekend was almost a wash, but a surprise bit of free time after Sunday dinner kept me from being completely unproductive. Thank God for small favors.

It’s Something

I had a good writing night yesterday. It might not sound like much to someone who does it full time, but I sat down in the few minutes between dinner and bedtime and suddenly found 750 fresh words on the page in front of me. It felt like taking on the world and winning. Now I’m not saying those were perfect, well formed words or anything, but the fact that they showed up at all is enough to make me happy. That brings my running total to 5,003 words to date. The funny thing is, I feel like I’m just now finishing up the scene setting part of this story.

We haven’t even gotten to the sex yet and what I’m finding is my male protagonist, despite all outward appearances, is apparently a real douchebag. It’s not in any way a BDSM story, but I think if you happen to get off on power, control, and a bit of pain, this story could end up being something you’ll enjoy.

Since the intro ran much, much longer than I anticipated my best guess is this story will probably run a bit longer than my usual affairs. This one doesn’t feel like its a wham-bam-thank you kind of deal. Each chapter from here out is going to tell it’s own story of perversion set with an ever changing cast of characters interacting – and acting upon – my female lead. I’ve dreamt up some occasionally dark stuff in the past, but this feels like it could go well beyond the ground I’ve covered before… and that’s why I really do enjoy writing these stories off the cuff. Even when I’m in the middle of them, I’m not sure myself where they are going to end up until they get there.

Taking Stock

I don’t spend a lot of time talking about sales. I don’t generally spend a lot of time checking sales, either. Sure, I keep an eye on them from week to week and sort of notice trends, what titles are outselling others, and try to develop a general sense of what my little audience is looking for more or less of in the erotica. Cracking the nut on sales, though, is something easier said than done, especially for a guy who would much, much rather write the story than update a Facebook page, Twitter feed, or spend every free moment marketing his wares. The simple fact is, I don’t actually have a marketing plan at all. The closest I come is doing my best to update this blog twice a week and otherwise go on letting the world be the world.

Although I don’t let the numbers drive me in one direction or another, I can tell you honestly that June has been a bleak month so far. Barnes & Noble is usually my best retailer and for the month so far I’ve sold about a fifth of what I usually do by the middle of the month. Amazon is running a little higher than normal and Smashwords came in about average. What I’m trying to say is that unless you’re watching it full time and living with the numbers, they don’t always make sense. I’m not even sure they make sense to half the people who claim to know what they mean.

Through good months and bad, I keep plugging away. I’ve read plenty of articles that say the marketplace is simply flooded with people writing and publishing their own stuff. With no quality control to speak of, I can see how this might turn off a reader to ever picking up another independent piece. I still think there’s a market out there though, even if the days of freebooters setting the place on fire are finished. Even as I’ve doubled the number of stories I have available, I’ve seen my average monthly sales fall by almost half from two years ago. God knows I can understand how that might seem awfully discouraging for the aspiring writer. I know it’s given me a fair share of discouraging moments. That’s when I try to remember that I have a day job that’s paying all the bills and that even if this never turns more than $25 a month profit, it’s still giving me an unprecedented opportunity to be actively engaged in something I truly love doing. The stories really are the important part. Everything else is delicious gravy on top.

Working Title

Despite the best efforts of the universe to keep me off balance, I’m able to report that things are on track with my current work in progress. This week I’ve been able to work on it fairly consistently to drag the word count up over three thousand. I’ve even give it a working title – Whored Out.

Given some of the direction this story is taking I’d estimate that I’m about a quarter of the way through the first draft. I can see this one going very easily past 12,000 words. I’m not writing with a final word count in mind, so I’ll just keep at it until it ends wherever it needs to end. As always, my real goal is to write a piece that will get a reader hot. In my own humble opinion, I do that best when I’m not worried about how many words each chapter ends up having. It’s far more important to set the stage and try my best to create as realistic a scenario as I possibly can. Your opinion may differ, but I’ve always been a fan of stories that feel just real enough that you think that might have more than a little basis in reality. I like my porn the same way and judging by how much “amateur” material is out there a fair number of people agree with my way of thinking.

That’s all the update I have for the evening… because now it’s time to get back to work and see if I can burn through a few hundred more words. As much as I like blogging, spending time working on a story that’ll get your rocks off is really where my heart is.

Best Laid Plans

This past weekend was supposed to be all about the writing. However, it turned into an exercise in home improvement and small engine repair as one piece of equipment after another gave up the ghost. Fuel lines, spark plugs, filters, carburetors. Instead of my hands getting busy with the keyboard, they were busy getting reacquainted with wrenches and screwdrivers. I’m seriously starting to wonder if my hands will ever not smell like gasoline again.

Alas, that seems to be the latest effort by the real world to divert attention away from writing and towards issues needing immediate attention. I wasn’t planning on spending my weekend mostly on my back tinkering with the garden tractor… or weed whacker, or any of the other bits of equipment that decided not to work sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning. It was unfortunately unavoidable and it did put a seriously non-productive kink in my weekend.

That being said, I know the only solution is to get back on the horse and ride, get the routine back in place, and keep writing. These little diversions are the ever-present bane of the writer’s existence. There’s nothing to be done for them other than to deal with them as best you can and then get back to work. That’s on the agenda tonight… unless something else with a pressing claim on my limited amount of free time jumps up and demands attention.

No matter how well laid your plans, life has a bit of a knack for reminding you that you’re in no way actually in charge of your own time. That doesn’t necessarily make learning the lesson over and over and over again any easier.

1500 Words

I’d have a hard time complaining about the progress I’ve been making these last few days. For the time being at least this story just seems to be flowing right onto the page without any real trouble other than the times I have to stop to do other things – like blogging, fixing dinner, and going to my day job. I don’t want to jinx myself, but if those are the big obstacles, June is going to be a good month.

I wish I had something more interesting to tell you by way of an update, but that’s really it. My protagonist is in the process of making her life altering decision. By the time tonight’s writing session is finished, her fate will most likely be sealed.

For tonight, I’m shooting to end up with 1500 words on my way to something like 11-12,000. One of the many things I’ve learned from writing is to savor the small milestones along the way. It makes the big milestone of getting to a first draft so much easier to reach.

Planned and Unplanned

Due to some unplanned family obligations, this weekend was not as literarily fulfilling as I had hoped. Nevertheless, I managed to at least carve out some time to review my notes, make a few tweaks, and sort of figure out where this whole thing is headed. That’s miles ahead of where I am most of the time when I sit down to start the 300-word a day grind. I’m satisfied that I’m starting this project in a good place. Since at some point in the process I’ll despise and loath every word of it, I’m glad to get this moment of zen.

Once I get through the day job today, I’m shooting to sit down and get back to work. Having some planned and unplanned time off between projects is going to make it damned hard to get back to the routine. At some point I hope I’ll learn the lesson that no matter how busy life gets, it’s always worth it to sit down and get some words on paper – even if the words are bad, never see the light of day, and are put there through glazed over eyes and numb fingers. There’s absolutely nothing harder for me as a writer than sitting down and doing it on a beautiful spring evening when every fiber of my being wants to be outside playing.