Cephus' Corner

A Place for my Geeky Side

The Fear of the Amateur

February 13th, 2022

Now that I’m sort of kicking around Facebook again, and trust me, I’m doubting that decision every single day, I’m starting to see different perspectives and different ideas and, at least some of the time, it’s starting to look very similar to what I’ve faced before.

Take this as an example, something that’s going on right now. It’s really one of the problems that writers face and why so many people never actually  go anywhere.

The Search for Smart People Continues

February 9th, 2022

So I finally gave up and created another personal Facebook account, thinking that it had to be better than Reddit, at least if I stuck to the more “professional” sounding groups and yeah, it really isn’t.

What the hell is wrong with people to day? Here’s yet another story.

2021 Writing Recap

February 4th, 2022

So we’re finally at the point where I know my exact numbers for 2021, after all of the books have been written and all of them have been edited, at least through the beta-stage and I have a good handle on what I actually accomplished last year.

Let’s go over it and I’ll let you in on a couple of things that are going on for 2022, for anyone who is interested.

How Can I Do It Right While Doing It All Wrong?

January 12th, 2022

This is one that just bugs me, mostly because amateur writers tend to be so absurdly touchy about just about everything. They will ask for advice and when you offer it, no matter how delicately you do so, they will freak out because they don’t want to do what you’ve suggested. They want to continue doing all of the “bad” things they’ve been doing, they just want a “good” outcome.

Reality doesn’t really work that way!

I Can’t Take a Vacation Either!

January 6th, 2022

I tried. I really did. Then everything went wrong!

I said, back when I was tracking the last book, that I was planning on taking a well-deserved week-long vacation between Christmas and New Years. It seemed like the perfect time to do it. My wife would be home two of the five days anyhow (I was off the whole week) and I wasn’t going to get anything done regardless. Therefore, time to take it easy, right?

Yeah, not so much.

The Creative Process

January 5th, 2022

This morning, I got up and created a new series. It’s been something that’s been rattling around in my head for a week or so and I tend to follow the wisdom, “if it sticks with you, it’s probably worth paying attention to.”

However, I hadn’t done anything with it because I was still rolling it around in my head and it hadn’t reached a point where I had a firm idea of the outline or the characters, just a vague idea that I thought sounded good.

All that changed this morning though and I finally pulled the trigger. So here’s why.

The Tale of a Book, Week 4

December 15th, 2021

So here’s where it all ends. This is the end of the 8th book I’ve written for 2021. Everyone says “you can’t do that!”, yet I do it regularly. I’ve never hit 8 before but if I pushed myself, I figure I could do 9 for 2022. I don’t know if I’m that crazy. I guess we’ll have to see.

The Tale of a Book, Week 3

December 10th, 2021

Just finished off week three and I’m really impressed by how it’s going.  Everything is flowing and I could just keep writing through the end if I let myself. I just don’t have that much time.

So here’s where I’m at right now and what my goals are for the last week of work. Let me know if you have any questions, I’ll try to help.

The Tale of a Book, Week 2

December 3rd, 2021

We’re back for another weekly wrap-up and things went very well this week. Overall, I got through about 33k words and nearly 120 pages and an awful lot of chapters. I’m not even sure how many because I didn’t pay attention to where I started. So far, I’m completely satisfied.

So let’s break it down.

Writer Flow State

November 27th, 2021

This is one question that I get all the time, especially when I start talking about how productive I can get. What’s really going on here, as any productive author will tell you, is that I’m getting into a flow state where I can write for a long period of time and just pour my words onto the page without having to screech to a halt and think about it.

In my opinion, it’s really what writers ought to be trying to train themselves to do. So here are some details, at least in my case.