Friday, June 29, 2012

Chunks

Home. Good times. Relaxing. Sitting at Jett Burger, possibly my favorite diner. Trucker food with a Hawaiian influence. The girl is going to her state-mandated driving course, so we've been going out to breakfast some  mornings.  It's good daddy-daughter time.


Not a lot of writing since I got home.  A very small part of that has been sending the laptop in for an upgrade.  But that gave me time to think about what I wasn't writing and why.  The words 'writer's block' crossed my mind...and I knew immediately it was a bullshit excuse.


Writing is a job.  It is not waiting for some mysterious force to smack you upside the head with inspiration.  It is a job and you do a job by working. Sit down.  Write words.  That simple.  Writer's block isn't what is going on.  What's going on is an overwhelming mass of projects.  It's like a huge pile of dirty dishes in the sink.  You want to believe that if you just don't look at them, they will magically go away.  But that's not how life works.  You do the dishes.  One at a time.  Until you are done.


The project pile is big.
- Review the Facing Violence DVD.  It's been out for a month and I haven't even seen it.  My publisher wants me to write some nice words and increase the buzz.
- Review the rough cut of the Logic of Violence DVD to make editing suggestions and see what needs to be reshot.
- The producer wants a companion DVD to the Update of the Drills manual.  I think it's ambitious, maybe unworkable, especially in one day of shooting.  There are easier, quicker projects that I think would lend themselves to video better, like, "Everything There is to Know About Jointlocks"
-The collaboration ball is in my court and I am dreading it.  The tight, concise and complete 150 page work that I sent to get some filler stories and clarification came back as a 450 page tome that reeks of insecurity and advertising.  This won't be editing so much as axe work and feelings will get hurt.
- The Curriculum is half lesson plan and half mission statement.  Maybe not for publishing.  It will include:

             Philosophy (teaching and fighting)
             Concepts (how operators think)
              Principles (the physics that make other things work)
              Building Blocks (classes of technique
             Training methods
             Teaching methods/advice

- A manual for Martial artists on how to teach LEOs
- A collection of some of the horrible stories I told my children.  To be published under a pseudonym. Not going to use my children's real names in a book.
- More articles for CCM magazine
- The secret pseudonymous nonfiction project
- Work out the mechanics of setting up 4x week-long intensive courses for next year.
-An on-line writer's course where it appears that they promised the one course I said i couldn't pull off on an e-mail format.


Lots to do.  Have to get on it.  One chunk at a time.

5 comments:

Wim Demeere said...

No rest for the wicked. ;-)

Anonymous said...

Or the good either. ;-)

Joey said...

Mr. Miller. I have to tell you, just started reading "Talking Them Through". Incredible. Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this, but I just had to comment on your book. Ex-military, Reserve Sheriff, Full time Exec. Pastor of a large church. (Doesn't matter where you are or what you do, it's all the same) All the psych and other courses, classes and stuff i've ever taken, could not have wrapped up and summarized this topic as clearly as your book. And, it provides the most practical applications and observations I've ever seen.

Every one of our safety team members will read this book. I cannot put it down. Thanks, Joe

Joey said...

Also, can't wait to look into your other books and writings. joe

Kathryn Scannell said...

What's the on-line writing course? Savvy Authors or some other site?