Coffee With David

“Sometimes you have to roll a hard 6,” is a poplar phrase in the re-imagined version of Battlestar Galactica. What does it mean? It means, sometimes you have to lay it all on the line—push yourself and your luck to the limit to achieve what you need to despite the odds. In my case, it is time to lay it on the line and take a gamble.

Over the last few weeks I have been studying my writing habit. My study has been more introspection than scientific, as I take who I am and what I write, probe it and ask if I am really developing myself as a writer like I want . Upon my conclusion, I have decided to adopt a philosophy to use my attention deficit/hyper active disorder to my advantage and take a page from my martial arts instructors—applying it to my writing.

I may have lost my mind, let sanity slip the leash and run off into the fog. Yet I have found myself quagmire in concepts and ideas—and banging my head on forcing out the fiction to try to close one story so I can move on to another genre I write.

As I grew as a martial artist in my belt ranks, my instructor would spend each lesson working on two or three things: kata (or forms), self-defense techniques, and/or sparring. It kept the lesson going, kept boredom at bay, and kept me growing and pushing myself. So, I take this concept and apply it to my writing as of this week.

Here’s how:
Everyday will have time dedicated to rewriting a blog and a short story or novel.
While I will still post my blogs on a daily basis, I will write all of the week’s rough drafts on Mondays.
Tuesday will now be dedicated to developing and writing horror short stories;
Wednesdays are dedicated to exploring science fiction short stories;
Thursdays will become crime drama short story days;
Fridays are now Fantasy Fridays for fantasy short stories;
Saturdays will be dedicated to writing the Novel Dark Medicine until the rough draft is done; and
Sundays will be dedicated to writing a new novel. This new novel is a science fiction titled “The Guardians.” There is a new blog on it that will be updated on Sundays along with the blog for Dark Medicine.

This may slow my writing down. I don’t think so, but it is the risk I am taking. The goal of it is to keep my art expanding, the writer in me hopping, avoid complacency, and to get out at least one short story a month in each genre. Time will tell if this gamble works, but I will be the one who defines its success.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for more information on what I am writing and other news.