All posts by Mark

Creativity, Success, Writing

This is the day where everything changes

This is the day where everything changes.

I’m not about to tell you that today is going to be an amazing progress day. Whatever progress there is will be fine. The measure of success is the effort expended and the intent followed.

Remember the goal. The goal is to give yourself choices. The goal is to produce.

Remember the plan. Work like you know you can. Enjoy the process. Focus on what’s in front of you.

Keep gratitude in mind. Others will fight you and fear you and fear for you, and that’s because they are not you. Be grateful that they care. Be grateful that you are capable of doing your thing.

Be patient. Whatever the accomplishment, it is but a step on the road. We suffer setbacks. A setback is not the end of the road, but the beginning of another step.

Creativity, Writing

What Do You Want To Do? Why Aren’t You Doing It?

I read this last week:

Mostly because a friend wrote it, but I’m also sort of fascinated by the topic.

I’m too close to it/the person to be a good judge of whether the book is good or worthwhile, but he said something in the book, and then said it again at lunch on Saturday that really sort of tweaked my brain a little bit.

Paraphrasing, “You’ve got to want it.”

I had another friend at the writer lunch who was there for the first time, so he was asking Blaze all sorts of questions (and Blaze likes to hold court). He asked Blaze how he managed to write so much, and Blaze said, “because I want to”.

And it just kind of clicked with me.

Why don’t we all write more? Because we choose to do other things.

In most cases.

I mean, I can say I want to write 4000 words a day, but when it comes down to it, do I really? If I really do, then why am I not doing it?

Some people have obligations that cut down on their available time – sick parents, kids, jobs, and the like, and, so, yeah, probably can’t write 4 hours a day to get to that 4k words/day mark.

But the rest of us could probably find the time, if that’s what we truly wanted.

And people can talk all they want about leaving time to rest/relax, etc… but without any judgement laid upon it, that’s a choice they make. It’s not good or bad, they’d just rather spend the weekend or the evening doing something other than writing.

I say I know what I want. I say I want to write, and I say I want to write a lot, but the choices I make don’t always align with what I say I want.

So what does that mean? Does that mean I’m easily distracted, or does that mean I don’t really want to spend that time writing?

I think it’s quite a bit more complex than that, but it’s difficult not to ask that question when I start thinking about what I want vs the choices I’m making.

A lot of the time, I think I’m not consciously making choices. I’m running on autopilot, and autopilot takes me where the flying is the easiest path to take in the moment, without looking further ahead to see what might end up in my way.

My goal right now is to make conscious choices about what I’m doing. I need to get off auto-pilot and start flying manual. Sure, the ride may be a little bit bumpier, but it will probably get me where I want to go, and it’ll likely be more exciting, too.

Making Up Lost Time, Writing

Making Up Lost Time

Last fall, I wrote this little superhero story called Making Up Lost Time for a bundle, but due to some mix-ups and misunderstandings, I didn’t get it in on time. It was a bit of an experiment, for me, as I haven’t written pure superhero stuff before. And while the intention was to write pure superhero, I think the mix of stuff in this doesn’t quite fit it into the comic book superhero realm.

The editor of the bundle, when he read an early draft, implied to me that it messed with his head. So you’ve been warned.

Since it was a bit of an experiment to begin with, I’m experimenting with the distribution on this one. Right now, the ebook is exclusive to Amazon. I don’t generally like being exclusive, anywhere, but I wanted to try out some of the features they let you use if you go exclusive with them, including having the title be part of Kindle Unlimited. It won’t be exclusive forever, and I know it might upset some of you that use other platforms, but it’s something I have to try.

You can get both the ebook and the paperback from Amazon.

TrackerBox, Writing

Where I’m At!

Today, I finished up porting over all the importers for TrackerBox Mac. I start on the interface on Monday. There were a lot more of them than I remembered (Amazon KDP has 9 importers all by itself), and a few of them required some very specific support code.

In my afternoons (after busting away at TrackerBox in the mornings), I’ve slowly been working on getting a new novella ready for publication. Making Up Lost Time is the first of what I hope to be multiple stories published this year. I know I’ve teased this shit in the past, over and over, but I really have some hope that I’m coming out of this long slow period. I won’t be spoiling what I’m planning to work on, or how much I hope to get done, but I can assure you, it’ll be more than I got done last year (at least when it comes to writing).

StoryBox, TrackerBox

In-App Problem Reporting Tool May Be Going Away (And Kickstarter News)

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As I write this, there are 72 hours left in the TrackerBox Mac Kickstarter, and it’s just shy of $9500 in total funding. I am continually amazed and humbled at all of your help. Please keep helping spread the word, though. This is the last time you’ll be able to get TrackerBox for $75, and it’s also your only opportunity to get in on the beta for the Mac version.

Now, on to the meat of this post.

I learned today that FogBugz is getting rebranded as something called Manuscript. I also learned that the free tier I’ve been using to have the form in the app you can fill out when you have a problem will be going away. There’s no information about it on their new site, and the pricing doesn’t make sense for me. It’s not expensive, exactly, but as the only user of the system, it doesn’t bring me enough value at that price point.

So I’ll be trying a few other things to see how they work while I wait to get definitive word on whether the solution I already have is actually going away. At the moment, I’m hoping that it sticks around long enough that I can finish TrackerBox Mac before having to tackle the problem directly.

TrackerBox

TrackerBox Mac Kickstarter Reached the Goal

TrackerBox Mac - Track Your Book Sales on OSX -- Kicktraq Mini

 

I pretty much said everything in this update on Kickstarter, but I’ll repeat some of it here:

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

There are still nine days to go, and while we reached the goal, the goal was basically the minimum necessary to make the product. Additional funds will help me get some additional features I have planned for BOTH versions done sooner than they would be done, otherwise.

Why else should you back it now?

The discount! $14.99 off the regular price (more if you back the combined package).

Also, Beta! Only Kickstarter backers will have access to beta versions. There may be a pre-order (I have to figure out if this is possible with my shopping cart provider), but it will not be discounted, and there will not be a public beta.

Again, my thanks go out to everyone that’s backed the campaign, or that has told their friends about it, or have posted or shared on social media. It wouldn’t have happened without you!