some people can’t get over their Resistance (Google Stephen Pressfield) and commit to writing. Their Critical Voice (Gooogle Kristine Kathryn Rusch and/or Dean Wesley Smith) is so high, they can can’t even get themselves to publish a silly little blog post.
stop making writing a “big” thing. it ain’t. it’s just words.
Do you need permission from a “real” writer? Here you go. Hit print and stick this to your wall. I now pronounce writer and blogger. yiu may kiss the bride.
“But what if it isn’t perfect?”
“I’ll do it when i’m ready.”
you breathin’? Yeah? Then you’re ready. Does it need to be perfect? heck to tha no.
trust me, if an aspiring author can write and piiblish a small blog covered in spelling errors—like failing to capitalize the 1st letter of a sentence—then you too can start blogging.
I will be re-starting the challenge tomorrow… kind of. Since this is a blog post, e.g. readable words, they will go to the total New Words of my writing journey but, if i’m honest, even this feels like cheating. I mean, it is taking time away from doing other things like not doing anything. I will share my excuses as to why i didn’t write, some a smidge more valid than the other, but in the end, all excuses all the same. First, i got my shingles shot yesterday. No, i’m not 50 yet, but i’m having a procedure where 5% (or 1 in 20) people got the shingles. And since i’ve had chicken pox and the al full-on shingles outbreak when i was 25, i took the first of two shingles vaccines. Every year like everyone else, i get my Covid vaccine and my flu vaccine. And i say everyone ‘cause stupid people don’t read my words. And, sure enough, i get a 24-hour fever. Not fun. Same here. So that knocked me out. Then there was the real reason i stopped writing; i finished a book (thanks in full part to the Kriss Relaunch Challenge) and decided to “take a day off.” Well, as you can see, that one day lasted 3 Earth days. Funny how that works. I have several self-mottos but this is the one that i can only remember with any consistency: pick your pain. Everything hurts. Everything sucks. So you gotta chose which of the sucks, which of the pains, you want. Did it feel good playing my historical war games? Heck yeah! Did it suck having the enormous boulder of shame follow me everywhere i went? An even bigger heck yeah. On top of that is the pain of me not getting to my dream of being a full-time author sooner. Sure, i’ll be enjoying living in Europe one day raising a little European family with that one crazy Mexican-American dad, but life is short, i deny myself that reality one less day. So, now when i weigh that against the “pleasure” of resting and playing historical wargames, that pain relief starts looking more and more painful, doesn’t it? Anyway, a major lesson was learned on this challenge. Momentum is massive. In life, sports. Everything. If i take a break from writing, just take it slow. Do a blog post. But never stop. Whenever you are in a state, you are likely to stay in that state. So if you’re moving, you should stay moving. If you’re staying scratching your belly, you’re gonna stay there doing that. Next time i want to celebrate, i have to remind myself, i am giving up pain for another pain. The sometimes painful act of sitting down and making stuff up (it’s actually a ton of fun) or doing the pleasurable thing and playing historical reenactments (actually painful since my guilt refuses me to live in the moment.) All right. Good night. Me going sleepy now (if the cat lets me.) I plan to do a lot and fail at most of them this month. One thing i won’t be missing, though; writing New Words.
Welp. Today is Day 8 of the Kris Spring Writing Thingy. That may or may not be the correct name of it so i’ll link to it here.
Anyway, every day we get an email update of where Kris is on her challenge and how she got there. I’ve opened every email but i just scroll to the bottom to read her word count for that day.
That woman is non-stop!
As you can see, she averaging 2,400 words a day! And with my current restart, i’m at 1,500 words a day.
Now, this is a dangerous thing for us writers. Comparing ourselves to others. Kris has published millions of words and sold millions of more copies and i just finished book nine in my writer’s journey. Full novels i should say. I’ve also started to focus more on the short story format which i’m really digging.
Anyway, if i compare myself to Kris, i can become a sad puppy. She’s writing 800 more words than me per day and has written 6,000 more words total than me.
Now, if i was to get a case of compare-a-itis, i’d feel like a big loser. Furtuanlty, my case is mild since i know that she’s sold tens of millions of books and i’ve sold tens of tens of books (hot dang, that’s a good joke i stole from that Progressive commercial).
But compare me to most would-be artists i’m actually killing it! I’m probably in the Top 1% of writers on Earth this month. Not a lie. I haven’t started Day 8 and in 7 days eg one week, i wrote 10,000 words! That’s insane.
So, yeah, i’m a little bummed that i’m not keeping up with Kris (You should go on a ski trip to Antarctica this week, Kris. Heard its beautiful this time of year 😉) i gotta be honest, this has been the best i’ve spent on myself in a long time.
Yesterday, i finished another book/short story that was 16,000 words in total! Usually, these would take me about six months. But since i’m writing a half hour to an hour a day, i finished a project in a week that otherwise woulda taken me months. And now, i get to finish and work on my second story/book. And at this pace, i see no reason why it won’t be done next week or even this week. That is wild.
So, this is just a big thank you to Kris. Kris and her husband Dean, two of the greatest writers to have graced the Earth, make writing seem easy. Kris could have chosen to keep this writing funk to herself. Remember, there is no such thing as writer’s block, just Project Block. One deserves to be a proper noun and one doesn’t, that’s how serious i am. Instead, Kris chose to go public and show that she’s—gasp!—human! And as she and her husband Dean teach in their workshops, one of the most important things to do is to be accountable. We all know the negatives of social media and i honestly believe there is next to nothing good about it, but it is a fantastic motivator. And Kris decided to open up her restart with others so we could join her.
I was going to write that they even made money on this but they’re giving everyone one credit for another class or two classes if you keep up with her. So, even though i’m not gonna get those two classes, i will be getting one. All because Kris and Dean wanted to do with me what they’re doing with other writers: making them believe in themselves and their writing again.
God i love 2024. I love how happy everything is and i think this year is God’s way of saying good job on surviving 2020.
So, tl;dr Thanks, Kris.
Okay, gotta get back to work and then get some words in tonight after the j.o.b.
As i feared, Kris hit her 2,000 words on her Wedding Anniversary. WHY WON’T she take a day off! 🤣 In all seriousness, it was worse than 2k. She hit 2,400 words! So if i do my plan of catchup by writing 2,500, i’ll now be gaining 100 words instead of 500 😔
BUT there is good news. I won’t repeat yesterday but i wrote 733 instead of not writing anything when i was in write-nothing mood.
The bad news is, this story has blown up to over 10,000 words and i’m at its end. Why is that bad? ‘Cause i need to read and edit the whole thing to make sure it all makes sense. What we writers call a continuity pass. They’re fun even if most writers don’t like it but it’ll up an hour or two of writing. I nearly always add words when i do a pass, but there’s a part that i’m going to trim down. So, not only will i be losing time, while i add 400 words doing the pass, i’ll probably lose 500 when i cut this one section. So, basically, i’m gonna lose hours and in those hours and gonna have to SUBTRACT from my work count 🤦♂️
C’est la vie. Or as the French say, « Such uhhhh iz uhhhh the life, non ? »
As i feared, i looked at today’s email and what did Kris do? Write over 2,000. Which brought her over 6,000 yesterday versus my 4,000.
To catch up with the math is easy: write 2,500 words a day. Those 500 words’ll add up.
But i am tired today. It’s 4 pm and i want to nap. So here is what 99% of the world does. They call it quits for the day, knowing tomorrow is another day and that Future You’ll kill it tomorrow. There are going to be bad days. Heck, Kris will have a day where she doesn’t write. You can catch up there.
But i refuse to be the 99%. So, i’m gonna write knowing that i’m gonna lose. But at least i’m trying. Something none of my friends and family can say.
Will it be just a hundred words? Doesn’t matter. The fact that i’m going in, full well knowing i’m going to fail means i already succeeded.
So, i read the emails from Kris (the lady in charge of the writing challenge) and she’s posted her last results from the first two days. She is averaging 2,000 words a day and has written 4,000 words. So, by the day’s end, she should be at 6,000 words. I want to beat her or at least keep up with her and i have written 1,000 words. The goal for today is 4,000 words. Should be 5,000 but i once did a challenge to see what would happen if i spent all my energy writing and got 6,000 words. With a goal of 4k, i can technically “catch up” by the weekend.
No more video games, TV shows, or sports. Just writing, writing, and more writing.
Now that i sound like a Brit or an Australasian demanding that you focus, it’s actually the name of a program that is helping me focus, Focusmate.
The funny thing about finding this site is that there’s this Facebook Ad where a guy invented a similar program. But it was a ton of money. At the time of this writing, Focusmate is only ten bucks a month. It works as so.
You pick a time—half hour, hour—and then someone gets matched up with you. They can see your face and you can see theirs. It’s like Facetime but no one talks. But, man oh man, does having an accountability partner work! In the last hour, i’ve wanted to use the restroom or goof off. Instead, i edited over 3,500 words and got to writing this here article. Pretty sweet, huh? I woulda gotten up 10 outta 10 times before this. This made me stay in my chair.
(Hold on one second as the timer is about to go off and me and my partner check-in with each other. Bee are be.)
At the moment of this writing, it is May 2nd, 2024, 12:20 am. When i mark down the time of my writing, i will put the date as yesterday, the first, by saying that i started writing this post at 11:20 pm. The reason for the little white lie? I still haven’t gone to bed yet so, even though it is technically tomorrow, this is a post for today. Which is technically yesterday.
Confused. Do be. You are entering the world of Tony Hernandez. Buckle up!
Like most writers, i get into writing funks. You know, “writer’s block” or whatever other lie we call not writing. For the record, there is no such thing as writer’s block. Maybe we can touch on that in a later post.
Anyhoo, my friends at WMG Publishing are doing something special. Kris Rusch, one of the most prolific writers in the world, is in need of a push. So, she came up with this challenge that’ll start on Friday, just a few days from now.
The way i understand it is, she’s gonna write and then share her daily ups and downs and finally her word count. She hasn’t directed any of us to follow along and blog with her, but i’m gonna give it a go as well. The reason is that i want to do exactly what she’s doing, getting into the habit of writing usable words. Fancy stuff for writing fiction or blog posts. Emails and Facebooks arguments don’t count.
And, even though this starts in two days time, i want to try and write 1,000 words a day. And then pump that bad boy up.
All while having a regular job and life while i try and play and have fun too.
As i was about to hit the beddy-bye, i realized that i was going to start day one without writing a word or editing a word. I couldn’t have that. So what i did was, i did an editorial “pass” and did some 2,200 words. It only took 15 minutes ‘cause all it is is a basic spellcheck. But what i usually do, i use that spellcheck all the way until i get to the end, mark where i ended the spellcheck-voice check thingy, and then i start with the actual, real new words.
So even though i did a pass of 2,200 words, does that count as my 1,000 words? I don’t think so. I’m at over 400 words with this post and these are genuinely new words, so they’ll count.
The goal then is to write 1,600 new words or so. Again, gonna aim for 1,000 new words a day and since i’m behind, i gotta make those up tomorrow.
This is an open letter to two people. Author Steven Pressfield and, more importantly, to myself.
I turned pro.
Those three words, not I love you, have been the hardest to say. Honestly, I thought they’d never come. Mister Pressfield always talks about how you will know the moment you turn pro. It hits you. I never believed him, until today, until a few moments ago.
I have been a dilettante on a lot of things, and in particular, my writing. I have finally finished a rough draft but that has been through wishy washy commitment at best.
Then today happened.
Someone in my family just lost their job. The reality of life, money, and all that just hit me. I asked if there was anything I could do. She asked that I pray for her.
I consider myself a man of faith, but I know, in my heart of hearts, I would not share her faith in the same time of need. I would ask God why He would repay for all my faith by cutting me off. But I did as she asked, and I prayed.
Every morning and evening I try to bookend my day with prayer. In the morning, I try to read about the day’s Saint. Today, May 26th 2015, was Philip Neri’s Feast Day.
As I read his autobiography, I wasn’t even paying attention. My mind was in another place, obviously. My heart was aching for my loved one but I continued on reading about the Saint. He was a good, pious man who received lots of attention from everyone around him. Like many Saints, this story is told several times over. Basically what I’m trying to say is, coupled that story with my mind on other matters, I wasn’t really paying attention to the biography.
As I got to the end, there was a quote from the Saint, “Let me get through today, and I shall not fear tomorrow.”
And that’s when it hit me, God has been listening. This Saint’s story that I didn’t think was different, was. Every Saint’s story is particular if you know how to look. I wanted to stop reading, I wanted to give up. Out of respect for the Saint since I was not giving his life’s story the proper attention it deserved. And then finally, that quote.
I prayed to the Saint to pray for my loved one and myself. I looked out the window and smiled. In a rush it all came to me. If she was on the chopping block, I could be next. I had to do something. Something not just for me, but for her, but for all my family.
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”
–Marianne Williamson
First, let me apologize if the final sentence of this paragraph comes off as arrogance. When I do come off as overly confident, it is almost always masking some form of insecurity. Having said that, I do consider myself a bright guy and people always compliment me on how smart I am.
What makes me so smart? Is it genetics? My mom’s a bright gal, but I do not believe that a culture or race has better attributes than the next; be it physical or mental aptitude. Is it education? Absoultly not. I only have a GED and have never received a single college credit. And if Bernie Madoff and the nightly evening news has taught us anything, it’s that some of the brightest people are in prison. And I know more than my fair share of trust fund kids and these are some of the dumbest people on Earth. Some of them become, what I call, “career students”. I guess they hope that the more letters they get next to their names the more prepared and easy it will be to enter the real world. It won’t.
So what makes a smart person? It’s not a genetic die roll. And it’s not the free time that a parent or student loan provided for a frameable receipt. It’s several things.
One, it’s an attitude. The ability to have different perspectives on things is not a logical product, as we have been led to believe, as much as it is an emotional one. To see all avenues – and more importantly, to create new ones – takes a person who is willing to let go of common belief in the face of ridicule, try new things in defieance of one’s own common sense, and enjoyment (which breeds creativity) in the problem when others can only embrace frustration. These are things that do not belong to any race or classroom.
Another, is motivation. We as humans all have certain characteristics. Most of them good; some of them bad. One of these is the feeling that the world and life owes us something. It doesn’t. If you feel your family should love you just because you share the same blood, you are wrong. What a lonely world that would be. It’s an extremely selfish and lazy way to think. I am no different. I would like to say, “I am different”, but I find myself falling into the self-pity trap to this day, although I am getting better! Everyone says they would love to start their own business, learn a new language, play an instrument, be able to read X amount of books, etc. But how many people actually get beyond the initial research? After that, you have to plan and then implement. And even if you get that far, then comes the highest hurdle: failure. If you dream of getting fit, you may read the exercise articles online, you may buy the running shoes, but after that first tough mile; will you be back? Odds are you won’t. And to blast though that, and gain mastery in whatever subject or task takes a motivated individual. And this also does not belong to any race or classroom.
The main difference, I find, between a smart person and a stupid person is excuse making. I grew up poor and isolated. I grew up rich and isolated. I had a terrible parent(s). I did not have a parent(s). I’m too young to do that. I’m too old to do that. I can’t do it now, but I’ll do it later. (And once the later becomes now) I can’t do it now, but I’ll do it later.
Excuses are great. It shifts blame and it let’s you escape responsibility. But don’t expect to get any new results or reach any of your goals. Instead of learning new things and expanding your mind, you’ll be in an endless episode of, “Why me?”
I have bad news for all you “stupid people” and excuse makers. You’re not stupid. You just refuse to apply yourself. You want the world. And guess what? You can have it. You just refuse to try. Don’t look to me and others to inspire you. Be your own inspiration. Be your own challenge. Be your own sense of pride and accomplishment. Create your own dynamic world of interests and hobbies.
I know you’re smart enough. And what scares you to death, is that you know you’re smart enough too.
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.’ We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
Tony Hernandez dot co 