Writing
Eric San Juan
October 15, 2009
Amid all these other projects, one of my goals this year was to finish the dystopian science fiction novel I’ve been working on. My progress has been unsteady, but it is moving forward. I’m roughly 25,000 words into it. But that’s not far enough. I need to get the first draft finished by the end of this year. That’s my personal goal. So I’m calling myself out. First draft finished before the end of the year. If I do not do that, I suck. That is my deadline. First draft, end of the year. Deadline. I am committed to doing this. It is my top priority. It seems like the end of the year is a while away, but it’s actually a pretty tight deadline….
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Eric San Juan
September 22, 2009
Sometimes the words don’t come. It’s not a matter of not having ideas, it’s that the ideas won’t come out. You sit down, place your hands on the keyboard knowing you need to get something done … but nothing happens. You don’t have any words. I’ve had a few of these nights recently as I’ve tried to get back into the swing of things. Six weeks away from writing ended up being far too long. As I previously blogged, for me routine and momentum are absolutely vital in staying productive. Short breaks are fine, but those extended breaks can put a real damper on your ability to get back into a productive frame of mind. It doesn’t have to be that way, of course. With…
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Eric San Juan
September 15, 2009
After taking a long break from writing, as of last night I am officially behind the keyboard again. Or in front of the keyboard. Whichever. It’s been about six weeks, which is as long as I’ve gone in quite some time. Sure, I had a good deal of work to do on my comic anthology during that time, but by the end of the process it wasn’t writing that needed to be done, it was largely administrative stuff and layout work. So last night, after another superb episode of Deadwood, I sat down for a short writing session. Got back to work on my dystopian science fiction novel, which has its flaws but is coming together okay. When I feel a little better about where…
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Eric San Juan
July 8, 2009
One of the hardest points to reach as a writer is the point at which you’re willing to put your work in front of people and are not seeking validation. In other words, when you’re ready for real opinions rather than pats on the back. The praise of family and friends is the bane of the aspiring writer, though too often the aspiring writer does not realize this. Your mother and your close friend tell you your work is good, and you believe it because that’s what you want to hear. However, praise for its own sake does you more harm than good. It blinds you to flaws in your own work and gives you an elevated sense of where you are in your development…
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Eric San Juan
June 27, 2009
Trunk novel. Somehow I had never come across the term, only seeing it for the first time these last few days. Don’t know how it eluded me. If you’ve never heard the term, you’ll certainly be familiar with the concept. A trunk novel is an old, unpublished manuscript stuffed away in a trunk (or drawer, or closet, or box, or whatever), in most cases because it’s terrible. You pull out your old trunk novel, read it, and remember how bad you were. I can relate to that! My trunk novel — and dear god I hope I don’t build up more than, say, three of them — was an epic fantasy, the first book in (naturally) a trilogy. The delightfully bland title was The Fortress…
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