Going dry…I’m about 2/3rds through the rough draft and also let go a little physically this summer. So to spur myself into motivation on both fronts I am going dry until I finish the draft. If you catch me drinking at an event that is not a wedding or funeral I will give you 5$.
The only question remains is will I write faster or lose weight longer…
When I’m working on a TPAC novel I do all the story lines in separate documents. It helps me track where each arc is and also keeps my word counts low so I don’t think too highly of my progress.
To make sure I was on progress today I did a quick tally. 
Slightly over halfway. Means at my current rate I am a month and a half away from completing this draft and can be on track to be edited out by January.
Damn that feels good.
So it has been four years since Foamers released. I’ve learned a lot about writing and publishing since then(and even some about life). That first book was where I recognized for that this thing that many people told me was a pipe dream, was actually possible. Yeah, Dad, I still haven’t got you that beach house I promised you when I started writing at 14, but I am climbing.
So today I happened to Amazon search myself, just to see how I was doing with reviews and always curious to see my sales rank and at this very moment the, once upon a time, #1 dystopian novel on Amazon is .99 cents.
Already have your e-version? They have a new thing where you can buy it at as a gift, and who doesn’t have a friend who could use the story of Kade and crew, and if you don’t have a friend, I’ll be your friend.
Here you go: FOAMERS
And no, that is not me or my dog on the cover. I’m not that skinny and she doesn’t have a tail.
I’m not a master of writing, despite what my degrees would tell you, but I do have some success. Two books, two on the way. I’ve had a hand in publishing close to twenty titles(if not more). For a brief spell I was an Amazon #1 best-selling author.
Not saying any of this to boast, my last royalty check was 7$. Just saying this to express that I have a lot of years of experience in this writing world that is such a fickle mistress.
The one thing I’d like to talk about today, if you care to keep reading, is the quality of writing over the years. Once upon a time I was a 14 year old boy who found a love for writing. And that starry eyes little dumb ass called up his cousin who studied writing at Columbia and asked her to take a look at his stuff.
She was polite. And I will say she didn’t bash in my dreams as she likely should have. But the advice and schooling she gave me then was the same I paid a lot of money for 10 years later. Read more, revise more.(and a lot of other helpful stuff, but trying to stay on point since 75% of the people who clicked on this have already stopped reading)
But tonight, I was having a conversation about the fact that I make the same mistakes in writing I always have. I even know when I am doing them. But there are incorrect spellings and wrong grammar that flow naturally to me so I don’t fix them in the writing process.
I write as poorly as a did half a life time ago. I revise like my life depends on it. I let the red pen strike like I’ve got dragons to slay.
So if you’re out there, and you’re debating writing, remember writing isn’t the hard part. Writing is the fun part. Revising is where the work comes in, and revising is where many of us lose the will for a project. So write fast, edit slow. Get the words down. Make the mistakes. Keep moving forward. The best thing about writing is you don’t have to be perfect the first time. Enjoy the journey.
I’m back to writing. Finally. Two things happened to get me here. Real job number 3 finally reached a point I can relax, and more importantly my lady told me to ignore her while I write.
I am back to my 1000 words a day. And this is definitely the fastest I’ve ever hit my count each day.
Just don’t tell her that or she might increase my quota…
I fail…a lot. A ton even. I fail in one day more than most people do in a year.
After a recent work out I was talking with Lauren and told her I failed. Her response was “Aww Babes…come on. I don’t date failures.”
The good news is I get to keep my engf* cause I’m not a failure. I just fail. And fail well I do. My expectation for myself will always be that if a bar is low enough to reach I didn’t set it high enough. I fail at my job, my work outs, my sport, my life, and more than anything else my writing.
But as I resume work on The Primal Age Chronicles, I promise to keep failing, and to fail better each day. Cause as long as I continue to fail I am not a failure. So, let’s raise some bars.
*engf is an acronym for exclusive non girl friend since we’re both too stubborn to embrace bf/gf handles
If you are like me you prefer your bad news first. But before I get into that, have a little information to share.
A piece of advice I always passed along to the younger cohorts at Wilkes was that you always listen to your mentor. They are your boss, and even if you don’t agree with what they tell you you need to do with your project, you do it anyway. If it doesn’t work they will tell you to change it anyhow.
This past week I was at the AWP conference and had a chance to chat about the challenges that were facing me with Kade’s town and she had a number of suggestions. At first I wanted to say. that won’t work, but I try to take my own advice, so I decided to sleep on it.
I didn’t sleep. My brain went wild with the new ideas and by the time I did finally pass out I knew what had to be done.
I went to see Kaylie after her morning panel and said I have good news and bad news, which would you like first.
Bad news of course.
Bad news is I have to start from scratch on the third book.
Okay whats the good news.
I am almost done with book four.
All lined up ready to deploy. Signed books going out in the mail today. If you’d like to help me clean out the basement I’m selling Foamers and Strays at a discounted rate. $25 for the signed pair. Comment here if you’re interested.
Finished a hard copy edit of what I have so far on book3. I’ve been working out of google docs. When I work offline it doesn’t spell check. All I can say is holy shit I should not be allowed to teach college English.
Justin Kassab 