Day 19: A Few Updates

I've got a few things in the works for the Dangerous Day Job, and some of them haven't seen an update here in a while. I've got a progress report on everything I've been working on ready today, so this will be a more nuts and bolts kind of blog post. Tomorrow I'll post some first impressions of the book I'm currently reading, Frankenstein. It was the first book in the book haul I wanted to read because it was published first. Maybe if I read it first I'll be able to spot the influence it may or may not have had on the other books, like some kind of literary person. The blue curtains not only indicate how sad the characters are, but the gothic inspiration from Mary Shelley's ... yeah anyway.

I mentioned yesterday that I need a new blogging strategy because I ran into a time crunch after throwing everything out in editing, so I came up with something different. Maybe this is the most obvious thing ever, but I wrote a blog post in advance, so now I can edit the current day's blog post, then work on the next day's blog post as a warmup. That should give me a bigger buffer. I believe I once read some blogging tips from Stephen King (though I can't find the quote so maybe it was someone else) and he suggested writing posts in advance for days when you just can't get to the keyboard to put something out. Since this blog is supposed to be representative of my thoughts at the time, I don't really want to do that, but one day out is a good compromise. Maybe I'll make a general post or two that I can use for a sick day as well. Again, the whole point is to give live updates to the Dangerous Day Job, or make a point that's really on my mind, so I'll try to avoid using them. Having a safety net for the post schedule is looking more essential the more I think about it though.

I haven't been able to find a writing group I'm interested in joining yet, but I'm certainly getting there. I set up a discord account so I can hop right in if I find one I like. In trying to find a writing group, I've also found an interest in the writing prompts subreddit. If you're unfamiliar, people post a writing prompt, and writers respond in the comments with a poem or story. There's a bit of a competitive aspect to it as well because the responses are ranked based on how many upvotes they receive. It looks like a great way to get my name out there, and it's a lot of fun too. Whenever I get stuck on Oneiromancer or something else, I'll probably hop over to the subreddit, pick a prompt, and use the fresh idea to shake the writer's block loose. I've also found some accounts that regularly post paid offers for articles and other content. So far, the reddit account is a success. Highly recommend starting one if you're looking for a way to spread your name as a writer.

Finally, I wanted to give an update on Demonitization, the short story I finished writing a couple weeks back. I feel distant enough from when I first wrote it to start editing now. I'll finish it off in the next few days (if nothing requires drastic rewrites that is), send it off to some publishers, and then post all the funny rejection letters here. If it actually gets published, I'll post a link here. If not, then I'll post the story here for all to see.

Thank you for reading,

Benjamin Hawley