I can’t even begin to describe the feeling I get when I finally write “The End”. It’s just incredible. What makes it even better is to know that I’ve written the story that I wanted to write. It doesn’t matter that the book is almost twice the size of Flight. What matters is that it’s the full story I wanted to tell. The only down side is that now I have to edit the story, which is always an eye-bleeding process. Still, every time I get better and faster.
There are several close friends that have offered/volunteered to help edit the story with me and a handful of fans that are interested in giving me their pre-publishing thoughts on the overall story. Expect to be hearing from me soon. I’ve already warned my friends Patrick, Deanna and Leslie. I’m really excited to get their feedback.
About halfway through the book I just went silent and stopped sharing out my rough storyline with my friends. Not because anyone disliked the story, actually the feedback I’d been getting was awesome. No, it was because I really wanted the entire story to be read fresh. I wanted to give my friends a clean, sharp, nearly finished piece of work. Although it helps to be able to read the entire story through from start to finish to get proper feel of the story in its entirety; the other reason was to assist in the entire editing process. You can only read a story through so many times before you stop reading the words and mentally start replacing the mistakes as you read.
When I wrote my first book, Flight my friends like Patrick and Deanna really help give me the confidence to go through the entire process and let me know my story was a good, fun read. With Destiny, I didn’t need that constant handholding. Now that I know I can write, I focused on creating the best story I could. I can’t wait to get it out and share it with everyone!
Also, I plan to start blogging again now that I’ve gotten the rough draft finished. Who knows, maybe I’ll even do some videos on my Youtube channel. With everything that’s been going, I’ve had to focus on the priorities of work, family and writing first. Unfortunately, that meant blog updates took a backseat until things settled down.
Things are always happening in my life. I rarely get a chance to sit back and catch a breath, but then again I’ve never been one to just sit back and let life pass me by. I always try to remember the feeling of “Being Hungry”. That might sound like an odd statement, but it’s a feeling that I used to live with on a daily basis. Born into an abusive, dirt poor home, I grew up hungry. I grew up trying to be better than the situation I was born into. Sci-Fi/Fantasy, books and movies, I grew up with larger than life heroes and heroines who strove against incredible odds to overcome the evil they faced.
I didn’t think much of it at the time, except that I loved the stories, but as I’ve gotten older I see how those stories have affected my perspective on life. Whatever I need to do, I just do it. I don’t worry about the odds, I don’t worry if people say it’s impossible or there’s no way I can do something. Instead I find a way to make it happen.
The “Being Hungry” thing is something that I realized just recently. I was talking to my friend Domenic back in Florida one day and said to him. I try to stay hungry. If I eat too much in the evenings, I get feeling fat and happy, which means I’m less productive in following my goals. Whatever those might be at the time. Instead, I try to eat less to give me that feeling from when I was young. That needing to do whatever it takes to reach the goal I’m striving for. When I say “do whatever it takes”, I don’t mean being dishonorable. I mean, learn, do or work at whatever I need to reach my next goal.
The funny thing today is that I just had a work colleague send me an interesting video after we were on the topic of working hard and getting things done. Now what he sent me was the video: "Excuses Are For Bitches". Although the language is quite strong, it’s hits the problem most of us has faced at one time or another head-on. The funny part for me came once the video ended and I the follow-up video started playing. This was from Les Brown and his motivational speech, “You’ve gotta be hungry” video. I’ve added both below. If you don’t like a bunch of swearing or hearing it straight, you won’t want to click on the video “Excuses Are For Bitches”, but definitely check out the Les Brown video. It’ll send chills down your spine and that’s coming from someone who doesn’t get into that kind of stuff usually.
There are several close friends that have offered/volunteered to help edit the story with me and a handful of fans that are interested in giving me their pre-publishing thoughts on the overall story. Expect to be hearing from me soon. I’ve already warned my friends Patrick, Deanna and Leslie. I’m really excited to get their feedback.
About halfway through the book I just went silent and stopped sharing out my rough storyline with my friends. Not because anyone disliked the story, actually the feedback I’d been getting was awesome. No, it was because I really wanted the entire story to be read fresh. I wanted to give my friends a clean, sharp, nearly finished piece of work. Although it helps to be able to read the entire story through from start to finish to get proper feel of the story in its entirety; the other reason was to assist in the entire editing process. You can only read a story through so many times before you stop reading the words and mentally start replacing the mistakes as you read.
When I wrote my first book, Flight my friends like Patrick and Deanna really help give me the confidence to go through the entire process and let me know my story was a good, fun read. With Destiny, I didn’t need that constant handholding. Now that I know I can write, I focused on creating the best story I could. I can’t wait to get it out and share it with everyone!
Also, I plan to start blogging again now that I’ve gotten the rough draft finished. Who knows, maybe I’ll even do some videos on my Youtube channel. With everything that’s been going, I’ve had to focus on the priorities of work, family and writing first. Unfortunately, that meant blog updates took a backseat until things settled down.
Things are always happening in my life. I rarely get a chance to sit back and catch a breath, but then again I’ve never been one to just sit back and let life pass me by. I always try to remember the feeling of “Being Hungry”. That might sound like an odd statement, but it’s a feeling that I used to live with on a daily basis. Born into an abusive, dirt poor home, I grew up hungry. I grew up trying to be better than the situation I was born into. Sci-Fi/Fantasy, books and movies, I grew up with larger than life heroes and heroines who strove against incredible odds to overcome the evil they faced.
I didn’t think much of it at the time, except that I loved the stories, but as I’ve gotten older I see how those stories have affected my perspective on life. Whatever I need to do, I just do it. I don’t worry about the odds, I don’t worry if people say it’s impossible or there’s no way I can do something. Instead I find a way to make it happen.
The “Being Hungry” thing is something that I realized just recently. I was talking to my friend Domenic back in Florida one day and said to him. I try to stay hungry. If I eat too much in the evenings, I get feeling fat and happy, which means I’m less productive in following my goals. Whatever those might be at the time. Instead, I try to eat less to give me that feeling from when I was young. That needing to do whatever it takes to reach the goal I’m striving for. When I say “do whatever it takes”, I don’t mean being dishonorable. I mean, learn, do or work at whatever I need to reach my next goal.
The funny thing today is that I just had a work colleague send me an interesting video after we were on the topic of working hard and getting things done. Now what he sent me was the video: "Excuses Are For Bitches". Although the language is quite strong, it’s hits the problem most of us has faced at one time or another head-on. The funny part for me came once the video ended and I the follow-up video started playing. This was from Les Brown and his motivational speech, “You’ve gotta be hungry” video. I’ve added both below. If you don’t like a bunch of swearing or hearing it straight, you won’t want to click on the video “Excuses Are For Bitches”, but definitely check out the Les Brown video. It’ll send chills down your spine and that’s coming from someone who doesn’t get into that kind of stuff usually.
On a side note, I just ran into a music video that I just love. I ran into the song when I was driving my wife’s car. She likes to take out my music and put hers in instead. While I’m usually more into alternative or industrial generally, I do listen to a lot of different types of music. When I like a song, I usually have to look up the video. But when I checked out the video, it just made me laugh. Don’t get me wrong, the ladies are beautiful and I love the eyes of the lead singer, but the video is like an 80’s throwback, which just makes me love it all that much more. What draws me to the song itself is the driving need that underlays the whole song. Anyway, the title is “Pray to God” by Calvin Harris.
I’ve got a bunch more youtube videos, books and anime movies and I want to talk about and share, but I’ll save that for the next blog. Especially the whole new StarCraft2 Legacy of the Void that was just released, which I’ll link here too. Hope everyone has a great Friday.
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