Category: A Week in the Writing Life

A Week in the Writing Life, 5 November 2023: (Sort of) live from the Iowa State Fair

I’m writing this at the Iowa State Fair while participating in the 8th annual Indie Author Book Expo here in Des Moines. After more than 40 years of residence in the state of Iowa, I have finally set foot one the state fairgrounds, which means I can finally call myself a proper Iowan now. I’ve talked before how sometimes I feel like I’m not a proper Iowa author because neither of the books I’ve released are set anywhere near Iowa, so this was one more thing to cross off my list. We shared the fairgrounds today with a flea market and some sort of cheerleading event, apparently.

I had a great time at the event, making connections and meeting with fellow writers on a quiet and mild Saturday. My wife Laura actually made it to the event and it was a great treat to have her there. I appreciated the company, and she was a great help as well.

Now that I set the stage and finished show and tell, let’s talk writing.

What I’ve Been Writing

There’s been a little bit of a lull in work on The Yank Striker 2, but I do think this will pick up soon. After I get done with the section of the book I’m on (an intriguing post-game night on the town DJ and one of his teammates have), I want to really review what I consider the essential scenes of the new book to be. Right now, I’m looking to produce something around 60,000 to 80,000 words, and I think I’ll want to keep The Yank Striker 2 on the lower end of that count. Such are the advantages to writing a series.

I’m going into new territory on this sequel. If I pull this off (writing a book essentially in a single calendar year), it will be the fastest turnaround I’ve ever had for a book. I definitely want to be more productive writing and put out more books in a shorter space of time. I got a late start on novel-writing, but I want to make up for lost time.

I’m sure there are several things which could complicate the process. Cover design is something I want to take a closer look at with this book. It may be a situation where I might contract out the cover design to someone. I’m happy with the design for The Yank Striker my publisher created, but I’m thinking I want to do something more specific to the story. Obviously there will be a time commitment for the design, so I have a feeling I need to look into this sooner than later. Also, from past experience, I’m going to have to (conservatively) dedicate perhaps three to four months for the revision process to happen, and it will likely involve sending the manuscript out for a proofreader, which will be another process.

Keeping all of this in mind, I want to make sure even the rough draft is relatively shirt. Some of the best feedback I’ve gotten on this series (from more than one person) is I have to beware of making the series too much about the world of soccer. While the series will be about my main character (DJ)’s progress in growth in the sport, I want it to be about him as an individual, about his personal journey. The television series Ted Lasso was a recent example of a fictional story set within the world of sport where the story was never dominated by the sport. It’s something I definitely want to emulate with my series.

What I’ve Been Doing Having to do With Writing

Some of this I mentioned up above, like the artwork and proofreading work for The Yank Striker 2, is part of this work. I’m also researching becoming a part of some more writing groups here in Iowa. Meeting, workshopping, and networking with various authors’ groups has been a big part of my growth as a writer in recent years.

My timetable for when all this is going to happen can be an interesting situation. As usual, I’m in the middle of a school year, and full-time teaching is a massive mental commitment. Unlike with many other jobs, it’s hard to explain how you have to be “on” mentally when you have seven different classes per day and you have to be engaged with them at all times to be an effective teacher. Frankly, teachers need the summer break just to recoup and recover mentally and physically from the experience of teaching for 180 or so days. You only have a limited amount of time to handle things not school related, and those are usually not times where businesses and the people who work for them are on duty. You have to make some adjustments, naturally.

Writing Observation (Rather Than Advice) for the Week

And speaking of school, I wanted to talk about a common misconception about writing shared by many of my junior high and high school students. I believe this misconception is fueled by how they typically approach academic work and how writing is an inherently different process than other academic tasks.

For most students (with the exceptions of those who couldn’t care less about their academic success), they are motivated to have good grades. They know they can attain these grades by providing the right answers to questions, and the right product for larger project-based learning tasks. In the least honorable cases, their intent is to obtain the right answers using any means necessary, including cheating or having someone else provide those answers for them. In most cases, it involves them wanting to get their responses, answers, and projects right the first time so they get the maximum possible grade.

The problem is writing doesn’t work like that.

As I’ve mentioned enough times on this blog I’m not going to bother with links, I am of the first opinion that revision is the most important part of the writing process. For students who are used to completing a process and being done with it, being told the “completion” of a process is just the beginning of their work is something they have trouble wrapping their heads around.

They want to get writing “right” the first time, just like they do with any other learning task. But you never get writing right the first time. By definition, it’s an impossibility.

The first version of what you write is always going to be garbage, as Papa Ernest told us back in the day, and it is just as true now as it was then. The first version of what anyone writes is always going to be garbage, whether they are a thirteen-year-old eighth grader, a relatively experienced teacher and writer, or a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist or journalist. It’s only when you first get the words on the page or in the electronic file that the work truly begins.

Usually, it’s a long and gradual process to get students accustomed to this way of approaching writing. Not every student comes around to this way of thinking. However, when I see students realize they can produce something even better than they ever expected the second or third time around, it’s such a rush for me.

Writing Quote(s) of the Week

Some based commentary from one of my favorite writers growing up.

We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.

Ursula K. Le Guin

And Uncle Ernest, as usual, with the simpler and just as true thought:

The hard part about writing a novel is finishing it.

Ernest Hemingway

Where You Can Find my Books

I’ve got links to my books in paperback and ebook format in the sidebar here, but you can get them in person at these fine Iowa bookstores:

  • Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave # S1, Des Moines
  • Pella Books, 824 Franklin St, Pella. Pella Books is celebrating its 24th anniversary this month, and they’ve got more than a few events to celebrate. Go ahead and check them out.
  • The Book Vault, 105 S Market St, Oskaloosa.

All three are great independent bookstores who deserve your support.

Final Thoughts

All you writers keep writing and everyone keep safe out there. Take care.

– 30 –

While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.

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A Week in the Writing Life, 28 October 2023: A short one this week lol

The feature photo is from Red Haw State Park outside Chariton, Iowa, taken this week. Here’s a few other pics from there:

Red Haw State Park, 21 October 2023

Finally, it’s starting to feel and look like a proper fall season around here. And I was thinking I’d have to go through another weekend in the 70’s. Definitely not.

Anyway, this edition of the newsletter is going to be short because A., I had parent-teacher conferences three nights in a row this week, B., I was working on another book review to be featured here on this site (and others), and C., I realized around Friday night or so I hadn’t even started working on it until then. So, you’ll get what you get this weekend.

What I’ve Been Writing

Last week, I mentioned I was working on a couple of book reviews. The first one of these I am planning on releasing Sunday. The book review will be about Iowa author Tyler Granger and his debut book, Iowa Trouble. I’ve just gotten to know Tyler recently as we’ve run into each other at multiple book fair events around Iowa, and his debut intrigued me as I got to know more about it. I’m looking forward to sharing it with you, as well. Since book reviews are pretty common on the Internet, I’ll make that review available to everyone.

In case you are curious, my Goodreads profile page is here. Go ahead and visit it whenever you can.

Not too much progress on The Yank Striker 2 this week for all the aforementioned reasons, but I am hoping to get some more progress on it this weekend. I’ve also been doing some additional planning and sketching out for that project and the pro wrestling thing I’ve been toying around with. I’m considering doing some short stories connected to (and perhaps becoming part of) the larger series, and quite a few of those might be free posts as well. I’d like everyone to see what’s coming up and what they might want to try to read when it comes out.

What I’ve Been Doing Having to do With Writing

I’ve been considering getting a new logo/profile pic for the site. I’ve settled on a couple of pics I ran through some art processing apps that don’t suck. I was considering putting up a poll to see what you guys thought, but I’m leaning toward showing them to my daughter Maddie and see what she says. She’s usually got good judgement on those things and might be brighter than me when it comes down to it.

Writing Advice for the Week

This week, it’s time to talk about the last of George Orwell’s six rules of writing, which have been a fun activity for me over the past month or so.

Orwell is a literary hero of mine, who laid down this set of rules in an essay called “Politics and the English Language.” The entire essay is worth a read.

So, number six and the last on the list is:

Break any of these rules sooner than say anything barbarous.

A few months ago, I decided rather than trying to come up with my own bits of advice (which can be hard to do on a regular basis), I decided to take a look at other bits of writing advice on the Internet and elsewhere and comment on whether they made sense or not, which was an easier lift for me. The point I’ve been trying to make with these commentaries is other than some basic ideas like capitalizing the start of sentences and adding punctuation at the end of them, most writing “rules” should be considered guidelines, things considered but not always followed under every circumstance.

I’d long thought Orwell was of a similar mind as me, and this “rule,” in my opinion, proves it. This is his way of saying do what works and what is right in a given writing situation, and not be bound to do something because a style guide insists you do it in every circumstance. Consider the situation, consider the reader, and then make the best choice for the given moment.

Writing Quote(s) of the Week

It is nice to be creative without someone looking over my shoulder.

A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul, and that, I am sure, is why he does it.

Roald Dahl

Not sure how having a Lego collection when I was a kid fits into this, but all right:

A writer – and, I believe, generally all persons – must think that whatever happens to him or her is a resource. All things have been given to us for a purpose, and an artist must feel this more intensely. All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art.

Jorge Luis Borges, Twenty-Four Conversations with Borges: Interviews by Roberto Alifano 1981-1983

Where I’ll Be and Where You Can Find my Books

Currently, I have one book event on my calendar. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 4, I will be at the Elwell Building at the Iowa State Fairgrounds as part of the 8th Annual Indie Author Book Expo. If something else comes up, I’ll let you know.

I’ve got links to my books in paperback and ebook format in the sidebar here, but you can get them in person at these fine Iowa bookstores:

  • Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave # S1, Des Moines
  • Pella Books, 824 Franklin St, Pella
  • The Book Vault, 105 S Market St, Oskaloosa.

All three are great independent bookstores who deserve your support.

Final Thoughts

Hope everyone has a great weekend, and keep an eye out for the book review I talked about up top. Take care, everyone.

– 30 –

While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.

Subscribe to my Substack here.

A Week in the Writing Life, 21 October 2023: Slow writing… but still progress?A Week in the Writing Life, 21 October 2023:

We’re deep into October, or as I like to call it, one of only two months out of the year Iowa has near perfect weather. How about we talk writing and other stuff?

What I’ve Been Writing

I’m very deep into putting together The Yank Striker 2 (working title), and that’s been pretty much all I’ve been writing this week other than this site. I feel like I’ve been making good progress on the big section I’ve been on and I’m in the process of finalizing what the bare bones structure of the book should be.

I’ve probably mentioned it before in this space, but my way of planning out the plot of my books is to string together what I call essential scenes. These are the scenes I absolutely have to have in the book to tell the story I want. Usually, I take a look at these scenes or notes on these scenes throughout the writing process and ask myself “are all of these scenes absolutely necessary?” As I am often writing these scenes not in chronological order, but in order of importance, this doesn’t result necessarily in me cutting scenes after I write them1.

It also helps streamline the revision process, for sure. I still remember having to cut down my first 150,000-word rough draft of The Holy Fool down to under 100,000, and it was a tough lift. When I used this process for The Yank Striker, it really cut down on the extraneous scenes and material in my work.

One of the paradoxes I’m running into, however, is this: the more I concentrate on the project, the slower the writing is coming for me. I continue to write on a daily basis, but my word count is not as high as it has been in previous days when I was writing more than just a couple projects.

In discussing the situation with my Des Moines writing group (the Iowa Writers’ Corner), they brought up the idea I have to spend time putting greater thought into how the story is going to go and proceed. Just because the words are not filling the paper or electronic page doesn’t mean I’m not participating in the writing process.

I would have to agree with this, now I’ve had a chance to consider this idea. It’s like I know all of the battles that are to come in a military campaign, but I haven’t exactly worked out how those battles are going to be fought. I’ve always worked on improving my word count to ensure I remain a productive writer and not just sitting around and claiming to be a writer. However, I need to keep in mind word count is not the only measure of productivity.

What I’ve Been Doing Having to do With Writing

I’m in the middle of reading projects for at least three people currently. Two of these I’m planning on doing book reviews for, and the other will be beta reader feedback.

Even being a fast reader like myself, this can be a long process even not taking the time of writing the reviews into account. However, I don’t want to let these projects sit on the back burners for too long.

As for the book reviews, I’m planning on posting those on Goodreads. My profile page is here for those curious, but I will also post those reviews here for you to read as well. I’m looking forward to you hearing about those projects, so stay tuned in a week or so.

Writing Advice for the Week

This week, it’s time to talk about the fifth of George Orwell’s six rules of writing. Orwell, the author of 1984 and Animal Farm, is a longtime idol for me. During the past several weeks, I’ve been reviewing this well-known set of rules he laid down in an essay called “Politics and the English Language.” The entire essay is worth a read.

So, number five on the list is:

Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

Orwell did title his essay “Politics and the English Language,” but this can obviously be applied to whatever language you happen to be writing in2. Since you have to assume in most circumstances you are writing for a general audience, why use words you have to take time to explain to them? Especially if using such a term isn’t necessary for the task at hand, whether fiction or nonfiction.

As always, there are exceptions to this rule. One example I recently faced in a short story I posted to the site was when I used the term “kayfabe.” Unless you happen to be a professional wrestling fan, you are likely not familiar with this term. However, I used it in the story because I wanted to take time to explain the concept to the audience through a conversation my main character had. I wanted to do this so the audience understood the term and had an appreciation for how important the concept was in pro wrestling. As with Orwell’s and all writing rules, there are always exceptions.

Writing Quote(s) of the Week

Unlike George R.R. Martin, I’d have to say I’m more of an architect. In my opinion, the best writing techniques are whatever ones get results.

I think there are two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners. The architects plan everything ahead of time, like an architect building a house. They know how many rooms are going to be in the house, what kind of roof they’re going to have, where the wires are going to run, what kind of plumbing there’s going to be. They have the whole thing designed and blueprinted out before they even nail the first board up. The gardeners dig a hole, drop in a seed and water it. They kind of know what seed it is, they know if planted a fantasy seed or mystery seed or whatever. But as the plant comes up and they water it, they don’t know how many branches it’s going to have, they find out as it grows. And I’m much more a gardener than an architect.

George R.R. Martin

Where I’ll Be and Where You Can Find my Books

Currently, I have one book event on my calendar. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 4, I will be at the Elwell Building at the Iowa State Fairgrounds as part of the 8th Annual Indie Author Book Expo. If something else comes up, I’ll let you know.

I’ve got links to my books in paperback and ebook format in the sidebar here, but you can get them in person at these fine Iowa bookstores:

  • Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave # S1, Des Moines
  • Pella Books, 824 Franklin St, Pella
  • The Book Vault, 105 S Market St, Oskaloosa.

All three are great independent bookstores who deserve your support.

Final Thoughts

Well, I’m spending the rest of the day with my wife watching the Iowa Hawkeyes play football. Hope the week to come goes well for you all.

– 30 –

While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.

Subscribe to my Substack here.
Subscribe to my Substack here.

A Week in the Writing Life, 14 October 2023

Well, hello. Let’s get to it.

My Plans for the Weekend and How They Almost Crashed and Burned, AKA What I’m Doing Having To Do With Writing

If you haven’t heard, until very recently I was under the mistaken impression I was scheduled to do a book fair event today, right about the time this newsletter is coming out. However, I was wrong.

To be honest, I was a bit embarrassed to have thought it was today rather than tomorrow for so long. However, I’m also keeping things in perspective. It’s not like I forgot to go into school on a day I had to work, for example. And I’ll be going to the event, so it’s not like I’m missing out.

The event will be tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at MERGE, 136 S. Dubuque Street, in Iowa City, part of the week-long Iowa City Book Festival. Here’s a link to the event page. When you do get on there, I’d urge all of you to check out the other writers planning on being at the event, including an old classmate of mine from Muscatine, Juan Fourneau. It looks like there’s going to be a lot of great authors there1.

What I’ve Been Writing

I’ve been busy this week with some decent original fiction. For the first time in a while, pretty much all of the writing (except for here) has been focused on The Yank Striker 2. I’ve gotten past a main stumbling block in the rough draft and I’m moving forward with the next part of the story – what happens after my main character DJ’s first game and what eventually becomes an after party for him.

This is the part of the newsletter where I’m obligated to warn about SPOILERS for both The Yank Striker and The Yank Striker series. If you are allergic to such things, stop reading for a bit.

One of the things about The Yank Striker: A Footballer’s Beginning I somewhat regretted was introducing so many new characters briefly near the end of the book as DJ meets his new teammates at Donford at the first time. However, I still feel I stopped the book at the right time, right after DJ finally makes the choice to go to London and join Donford.

What I am really happy with is the opportunity the second book brings to talk more about Donford FC and it’s players and coaches. There’s Lexx, the Brazilian forward and fellow LGBTQ player, for example. One of the reasons DJ even gets a chance to play for Donford is because the club believes he could serve as support for Lexx, who they see as a potential world soccer superstar. Lexx is definitely unlike any other character in my fiction up to this point, and I’m really excited about exploring him further in this book.

There also many other great characters to talk about, like DJ’s fellow American transplant Gord and a Dutch player who insists on everyone calling him Jojo. There’s so much dramatic and comedic potential in these characters, which will only strengthen DJ’s story. I can’t wait for you to have a proper introduction to them.

All Right, Spoilers Over

Writing Advice for the Week

This week, it’s time to talk about the fourth of George Orwell’s six rules of writing. During the past few weeks, I’ve been reviewing the first couple of rules. Orwell, the author of 1984 and Animal Farm, is a longtime idol for me.

“Politics and the English Language” is one of his best essays, which explores the connection between the deterioration of the language and political thought. He thought politicians were obscuring their true intentions behind vague or meaningless language. It’s worth a read in full.

So, number four on the list is:

Never use the passive when you can use the active.

This is going to require some explanation, but I think you’ll get it by the time I’m done.

Essentially, this is referring to active verb versus passive verb sentences. Passive verb sentences are arranged so they run in this order: object, verb, subject. I’ll use an example I have often used when I am teaching this in front of students:

The body was dragged by Sam and Dean Winchester into the living room.

As you see, the sentence is focused on what is happening to the body, not who is dragging it. Essentially, the object has now taken the subject’s place.

Active verb sentences are arranged so they run in this order: subject, verb, and object. An active verb version of my passive verb sentence example would be:

Sam and Dean Winchester dragged the body into the living room.

Notice how direct and simple the active verb sentence. It also has the advantage of giving the same information in a fewer amount of words.

In most cases, you should use an active verb rather than a passive verb sentence. There are exceptions to this rule, however. In headlines or other areas, your reader interest might be in the actions the subjects of your sentences take rather than the subjects themselves. However, the more active verb sentences you can use, the better.

Writing Quote(s) of the Week

Anthony Trollope seems to get my idea of working small but steady. The big gesture, when it comes to writing, never seems to work with me.

A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules.

  • Anthony Trollope

I also think that Ursula K. Le Guin would vibe with Orwell concerning the importance of exact and clear language.

A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it. Writers know words are their way towards truth and freedom, and so they use them with care, with thought, with fear, with delight. By using words well they strengthen their souls. Story-tellers and poets spend their lives learning that skill and art of using words well. And their words make the souls of their readers stronger, brighter, deeper.

  • Ursula K. Le Guin

Where I’ll Be and Where You Can Find my Books

After this weekend, there’s only one book event on my calendar. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 4, I will be at the Elwell Building at the Iowa State Fairgrounds as part of the 8th Annual Indie Author Book Expo. If something else comes up, I’ll let you know.

I’ve got links to my books in paperback and ebook format in the sidebar here, but you can get them in person at these fine Iowa bookstores:

  • Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave # S1, Des Moines
  • Pella Books, 824 Franklin St, Pella
  • The Book Vault, 105 S Market St, Oskaloosa.

All three are great independent bookstores who deserve your support.

Final Thoughts

Sorry this was out slightly later than usual. In this case, I was just a bit caught up in writing something else and the deadline crept up on me.

Take care, everyone.

– 30 –

While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.

Subscribe to my Substack here.
Subscribe to my Substack here.
  1. Consider this my Reading Recommendations for the Week. ↩︎

A Week in the Writing Life, 7 October 2023: Fall finally arrives in Iowa

Hi, there.

On The Home Front

Finally, there’s some proper fall weather around southern central Iowa. I attended the homecoming game for my school district and ended up needing not only a coat but knit hat and gloves as well by the end of things. Wearing my full winter parka might have not been a poor decision either. And this weekend is sweatshirt and shorts weather. I’m hoping this past week will be the last time we see 80 degree weather in Iowa for the remainder of 2023.

Not much else is going on for me, but my son Jacob is in the final steps of earning his heating and air conditioning (HVAC) journeyman certification, and my daughter Madeline, currently in her senior year of Chemical Engineering study at University of Iowa, has begun interviewing for jobs for after graduation. I’m looking forward to their further adventures.

What I’ve Been Writing

The situation on the writing front is much the same as it was last week. I have been dabbling with a little fanfiction, but not to the extent I am not working on other items.

In fact, although I haven’t done much of a review of my writing numbers for the past year, I do get the feeling I have been dedicating my writing time more to my fully original projects like The Yank Striker 2 and this page rather than fan fiction. I do think fanfiction, as I have mentioned previously here, is a valid form of artistic expression, but I want to concentrate on getting the sequel done as soon as possible. I am doing well on the writing goals I set for myself this year, but I’ll wait until 2023 is done before talking about totals here.

This may seem counterintuitive, but next year I might consider not even setting a word count goal for the year. In some ways, I want to make sure I’m writing so much and that I’m being productive I worry I’m not dedicating enough time to getting TYS2 project done. Sometimes that doesn’t happen without thought, planning, and pondering, and it is not always a word-intensive process. In considering the situation, it’s very likely I’ll be spending a good portion of 2024, if I am serious about trying for a June 2024 release as I’ve toyed with, in revising mode.

What I’ve Been Writing

The situation on the writing front is much the same as it was last week. I have been dabbling with a little fanfiction, but not to the extent I am not working on other items.

In fact, although I haven’t done much of a review of my writing numbers for the past year, I do get the feeling I have been dedicating my writing time more to my fully original projects like The Yank Striker 2 and this page rather than fan fiction. I do think fanfiction, as I have mentioned previously here, is a valid form of artistic expression, but I want to concentrate on getting the sequel done as soon as possible. I am doing well on the writing goals I set for myself this year, but I’ll wait until 2023 is done before talking about totals here.

This may seem counterintuitive, but next year I might consider not even setting a word count goal for the year. In some ways, I want to make sure I’m writing so much and that I’m being productive I worry I’m not dedicating enough time to getting TYS2 project done. Sometimes that doesn’t happen without thought, planning, and pondering, and it is not always a word-intensive process. In considering the situation, it’s very likely I’ll be spending a good portion of 2024, if I am serious about trying for a June 2024 release as I’ve toyed with, in revising mode.

Writing Quote(s) of the Week

I’ll go with two this week that seem to speak to me.

Your intuition knows what to write, so get out of the way.

Ray Bradbury

So long as you write what you wish to write, that is all that matters; and whether it matters for ages or only for hours, nobody can say.

Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

Where I’ll Be and Where You Can Find my Books

Now that we’re deep into fall, we are getting into what I understand to be the last phases of the book fair season before it slows down in winter.

So, here we go:

  • From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 14, at MERGE, 136 Dubuque St., Iowa City, as part of the Iowa City Book Festival that week, a week-long festival throughout Iowa City from Oct. 8-15. I’ve always been proud of my former school, the University of Iowa, cultivating a worldwide reputation as a supporter of literature, and the community of Iowa City also plays its part.
  • And from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 4, I will be at the Elwell Building at the Iowa State Fairgrounds as part of the 8th Annual Indie Author Book Expo. It will be the first time I’ve spent any time at the Iowa State Fairgrounds after more than 40 years of living in Iowa.

I’ve got links to my books in paperback and ebook format in the sidebar here, but you can get them in person at these fine Iowa bookstores:

  • Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave # S1, Des Moines
  • Pella Books, 824 Franklin St, Pella
  • The Book Vault, 105 S Market St, Oskaloosa.

All three are great independent bookstores who deserve your support.

Final Thoughts

As time goes on, I’m hoping this newsletter doesn’t become too repetitive. Please feel free to email me or talk to me in the comments about what’s working and what’s not.

Since I have something of a long weekend this weekend, I’m somewhat hopeful I might be able to get started on some new paid subscriber exclusive posts. Right now, I’m leaning toward some possible excerpts from TYS2. We’ll have to see.

Take care, everyone.

– 30 –

While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.

Subscribe to my Substack here.
Subscribe to my Substack here.

A Week in the Writing Life, 30 September 2023: Too hot on the central Iowa front

See below. Great to have all of you here.

On The Home Front

Not too much to see here. It is going to be somewhere flirting with the nineties in most of Iowa over this coming weekend and it is a travesty to have such high temperatures during the last weekend of September/first weekend of October. It reminds me too much of my wedding nearly 26 years ago when Laura and I wanted to get married on a pleasant October fall day and wound up sweating to death in a heavy tuxedo and wedding dress in 80-plus degree weather.

This is why Iceland sounds like a good idea right now.

What I’ve Been Writing

I’ve continued to work on The Yank Striker 2 this week. I took a brief break from the section I discussed last week and decided to add another scene intended to further develop the main character of the series, DJ Ryan.

I recently reviewed a book entitled The Barcelona Complex here on The Writing Life. I was hoping for at least a very good read about the history of FC Barcelona and the great players and coaches which populated that history, and I got what I was looking for. However, I had also hoped the book would be a resource of practical information on life inside a professional soccer club and prove useful in the writing of The Yank Striker 2. As it happened, there was one tidbit in the book that ended up being very useful indeed.

I continue to be embarrassed over the years regarding my ignorance of the game at times. I remember when I had a FIFA game for my PC back around 2000, choosing Manchester United as my team, and then having no idea what UEFA was or why I would be playing UEFA games that were different from the Premier League games. I was definitely a Yank back then.

I even remember this feeling when, in past years, I ended up coaching youth soccer, first for my own kids when they played YMCA soccer, and then just a couple of years ago when I did a favor for my wife and coached for our local youth city league. I knew a few things about proper technique and coaching, but there was so much I didn’t know about the game. For example, if I had done a little more digging, I would have found out about rondo exercises, like I did in The Barcelona Complex.

The rondois essentially a game where a group of players gathers around in a circle, or some other shape, and attempt to pass the ball to each other while a smaller group of people in the middle attempt to stop them. In the game, players have to work together, make rapid decisions, think creatively, and have a good touch in making passes both on diagonals and with balls through the opposition, as well as the conditioning benefits. Basically, it allows you to develop every sort of skill you would need on a soccer field except for shooting. I know if I had known more about the exercise, I would have my players doing that even more than scrimmaging.

In learning more about the rondo and the culture behind it, it called to mind a piece of advice I’d received much earlier in the development of The Yank Striker series from a friend and fellow writer from Muscatine named Misty Urban. (You should absolutely check out her site.) She reminded me it was not going to be too interesting from a character development standpoint for a lead character to be able to be good at everything they did and not have struggles. I thought my character DJ did go through some struggles – I mean, he didn’t even win all of his games in the first book – but I thought it was a very valid concern and something I needed to keep in mind since I wished to make it a series.

A few days ago, I saw a conversation with Clint Dempsey, a former forward player for Tottenham, Fulham, the Seattle Sounders, New England Revolution, and a couple others. The co-leading scorer for the US Men’s National Team, he is now an analyst at CBS Sports. He was talking about coming from Nagadoches, Texas, and not having the opportunity to benefit from great youth coaching like his broadcast colleague, the great French striker Theirry Henry. Dempsey, who all the USMNT fans knew as Deuce, said he was at peace with the success he’d had as a player, but that he’d always wondered what progress he might have made in his career if he’d had high quality coaching in his youth.

I realized DJ was in a similar situation as Deuce was at the start of his career, even though the former had more obvious physical gifts than the latter. So, I wanted to have a situation where even a great natural goal-scorer like DJ would not only be challenged by but actually struggle with. What better struggle to face than an activity where goal-scoring isn’t the point of the activity? It was then I realized I had a perfect symbol of how far he had to go before mastering his craft. Now all I have to do is manage not to butcher the scene when I write it. 😁

What I’ve Been Doing Having to Do With Writing

I should be looking over my recommendations on Substack and starting to add more to them. But to be honest, I’ve been concentrating on getting my writing quota and more done rather than the accessory stuff. Maybe I’ll get to it this weekend? Maybe during my time at this book fair this Sunday (read further down to hear more)1.

Writing Advice for the Week

This week I’ll be tackling the second of George Orwell’s six rules of writing. Like I said last week, Orwell has long been one of my literary and writing heroes growing up, not just for his novels, but also for his essays on language and writing itself. Along with Stephen King’s On Writing, his essays on writing were a great instructional resource as I reeducated myself in later years.

So, number two on the list is:

Never use a long word when a short word will do.

We want to have a variety of words available to us as writers to properly express our message to readers, what we want to describe and let our audience be aware of. Having a variety of tools is a very good thing. My son, the heating and air conditioning technician and maintenance man, would say the more tools you have available for your use, the better.

Whether you use all those tools on a regular basis, however, is another matter entirely. That is what Orwell is warning us about with this second rule. In the words of Ann Wright’s analysis of this rule:

Here are some examples: use “start” not “commence”, use “buy” not “purchase”, use “save” not “conserve”, use “used to” not “accustomed to”, and use “walking” not “proceeding along the carriageway”.

This is not an exhortation to use boring or repetitive language – just to avoid the impression in your writing that you have swallowed a dictionary!

In everything else, as Orwell would say, moderation is the key. It’s all right to display a rhetorical flourish every once and a while, but don’t rely on it to carry your story.

What I’ve Been Reading/General Recommendations

I already hyped this up on Notes a little while back, but this piece by Sarah Fay got me thinking about how I could improve what I’m doing online and with my writing. I’m sort of tempted to book a Zoom meeting with her myself and see what I can be doing better. If you’re writing out on the Internets, maybe you should, too.

Where I’ll Be and Where You Can Find my Books

You are probably a bit weary of me promoting my appearances, but I did want to get the word out. Today will actually be the last day I can get the word out for the first one, and when I put out my next weekend newsletter, I’ll most likely be on site at the second stop, so it won’t be as bad next week, I promise disregard this, I can’t count 😂.

So, here we go:

  • [THIS IS TOMORROW]
    From 12-6 p.m. Sunday, Oct 1, I’ll be at the Windsor Heights Book Fair, 1141 69th St., Windsor Heights. I’m really looking forward to seeing the other authors there and having a great event.
  • From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 14, at MERGE, 136 Dubuque St., Iowa City, as part of the Iowa City Book Festival that week.This is just a small part of a week-long festival throughout Iowa City from Oct. 8-15. I’ve always been proud of my former school, the University of Iowa, cultivating a worldwide reputation as a supporter of literature, and the community of Iowa City also plays its part. Go ahead and click on the link in this paragraph to check out the festival.
  • And from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 4, I will be at the Elwell Building at the Iowa State Fairgrounds as part of the 8th Annual Indie Author Book Expo. It will be the first time I’ve spent any time at the Iowa State Fairgrounds after more than 40 years of living in Iowa.

I’ve got links to my books in paperback and ebook format in the sidebar here, but you can get them in person at these fine Iowa bookstores:

  • Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave # S1, Des Moines
  • Pella Books, 824 Franklin St, Pella
  • The Book Vault, 105 S Market St, Oskaloosa.

    All three are great independent bookstores who deserve your support.

Writing Quote(s) of the Week

Well, it appears Dr. Seuss also might agree with the writing advice for this week.

It has often been said
there’s so much to be read,
you never can cram
all those words in your head.

So the writer who breeds
more words than he needs
is making a chore
for the reader who reads.

That’s why my belief is
the briefer the brief is,
the greater the sigh
of the reader’s relief is.

And that’s why your books
have such power and strength.
You publish with shorth!
(Shorth is better than length.)

Dr. Seuss

Final Thoughts

I always appreciate hearing from readers, whether its in the comments in these newsletters, in Substack Notes, or by email. Let me know what I’m doing well and what you’d like to hear.

– 30 –

  1. This is twice in a row I’ve complained about this. Don’t worry, it’s going to be the last time for a while, since you all shouldn’t have to hear me repeat myself all the time. ↩︎

While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.

Subscribe to my Substack here.
Subscribe to my Substack here.

A Week in the Writing Life, 23 September 2023

Like last week, I’m going to be spending much of this weekend on the road1. However, I got some writing done over the week, so I’ve got some stuff to share. Since things are slow on the home front stuff, we’ll get started on that.

What I’ve Been Writing

I’ve been making some more progress on The Yank Striker 2 this week. Started on a scene where DJ and a close friend of his head out on the town after a game, looking for a good time… and they’re a bit surprised to find it.

The following is a minor spoiler for The Yank Striker (which the vast majority of you probably haven’t read yet) so if you are seriously against spoilers you may want to stop reading here and totally skip this next part.

(Unless you are like me and couldn’t care less about spoilers (as I talked about in this article2), which in that case, keep reading.)3

Anyway…

DJ is not the only young LGBTQ footballer on his team, and not the best one either. He’s gone from being a star player on his father’s college football team to just another American kid looking to prove himself. But he and this other player, a Brazilian player his age, have become good friends and supporters on the pitch, and DJ also wants to watch out for him off the pitch as well. This will be the first time they’ve been out on the town together, and London is sometimes considered the LGBTQ capital of the world.

One of these party scenes is always a tricky thing to do. My view is you don’t ever want to just have a scene where people are just relaxing and having fun unless there’s another purpose for it. In this case, I wanted to see how the local LGBTQ community are paying attention to two new potential stars. I’m looking forward to the challenge.

Okay, spoilers over…

Other stuff I’m writing includes this newsletter, maybe another Poetry Night at the Writing Life entry this weekend (should I have this be a monthly thing? I’m leaning toward it), and some random fanfic to keep my productivity moving.

I’ve been getting into a good rhythm when I get home from teaching at the end of the day. If I don’t have any night meetings and get home at a normal time, my schedule looks pretty much like this:

4:45-7 p.m.: Get home, walk and feed dog, get my random things ready for the morning, and dinner.

7-8:30 or 9 p.m.: Writing and occasionally writing related things.

9-10 or 10:30 p.m.: Relaxing for the evening and settling in for the night.

I might not have as much time to be productive as some of my writing friends who are retired from their work and can do this whenever I want, but I do manage to get stuff done. That’s only because I’m compelled to do this even when it seems not too many people are reading it, and even when I’m not in the mood to write, I keep asking myself why I’m not writing. Such is my life circa 2023.

What I’ve Been Doing Having to Do With Writing

I need to just sit down one evening and curate my Substack recommendations and do more with them. There’s a lot of great writing others are doing out there and I want to spread the word about them because I know I’d want someone to do the same for me.

Of course, that would take some time for me to do, time I could be spending getting more writing done. Thus is the paradox of a writer who finds himself doing things not having directly to do with writing.

Writing Advice for the Week

At some point on this site, I need to talk a bit about George Orwell was one of my literary heroes growing up. As a kid, I was fascinated by the stories he wrote, but when I got older, I got more out of his later work on the craft of writing. If I was going to have to say who the best writer in the English language was in the 20th century, I’d likely have to settle on Orwell4.

I recently ran across an article by Ann Wright for Rough House Media back in October 2022 on the subject of Orwell’s six Rules of Writing. I appreciated Wright’s analysis and interpretation of these rules as well. From my understanding, I believe Orwell might have shared my point of view of seeing writing “rules,” with the exception of basic grammar and mechanics, as more guidelines than hard and fast rules.

With this in mind, I decided to take a look at each of Orwell’s rules in turn. Number one on the list is:

Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print

This is Orwell trying to steer us away from sounding like everyone else. If you are saying everything in the fashion many other writers use, how are you going to stand out? Why should people keep reading your work? It’s like watching a presidential primary debate in Iowa or New Hampshire and watching ten look-alike candidates agree to the very same political stances (and the same catchphrases as well). Why choose any of them?

Now, Orwell would be absolutely in favor of using vivid, original metaphors and other figures of speech. While he would absolutely caution a reader from using a metaphor needing an entire paragraph of explanation, he would be in favor of a balance of originality (as he indicates with this guideline) and simplicity and clarity (as we will see with his other guidelines later).

What I’ve Been Reading/General Recommendations

Ugh, it’s been too long since I’ve shouted out any stuff on Substack and/or WordPress. But…

From my feed on the new Substack app (and thanks to the author I’m about to plug, Erik Hoel , for letting me know about the updated app), it seems like a lot of my recommended writers here on Substack are liking this next piece. I liked his breakdown of how first Facebook and now Twitter (forget X) have moved away from being active social networks and more their own ecosystems (the walled gardens of the title). It also talks about why Substack and other similar systems like Reddit might have more durability than what Facebook and Twitter have turned into. It’s a really good read.

Where I’ll Be and Where You Can Find my Books

Here’s my upcoming appearances:

  • From 12-6 p.m. Sunday, Oct 1, I’ll be at the Windsor Heights Book Fair, 1141 69th St., Windsor Heights, and it is their second annual event. I’ll be joining 20 other local authors appearing there. This is also going to be a fund-raiser as well, a free-will donation to one of the local food banks in the area. I talked about this earlier, and I’d love to see people there.
  • From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 14, at MERGE, 136 Dubuque St., Iowa City, as part of the Iowa City Book Festival that week.
    This fair is going to be part of a week-long festival throughout Iowa City from Oct. 8-15. Among the authors and artists hosting events throughout the week are John Irving, Jonathan Lethem, and Werner Herzog. I won’t be able to make it to many of the events because it’s a school week, and I’m far to far away in south central Iowa to casually visit Iowa City. Please, click on the link in this paragraph and check out everything going on at the festival.
  • And from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 4, I will be at the Elwell Building at the Iowa State Fairgrounds as part of the 8th Annual Indie Author Book Expo. It will be the first time I’ve spent any time at the Iowa State Fairgrounds after more than 40 years of living in Iowa.

I’ve got links to my books in paperback and ebook format in the sidebar here, but you can get them in person at these fine Iowa bookstores:

  • Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave # S1, Des Moines
  • Pella Books, 824 Franklin St, Pella
  • The Book Vault, 105 S Market St, Oskaloosa.

I highly recommend all three places.

Writing Quote(s) of the Week

I haven’t done too many quotes about poetry in this space. Here’s a couple that interested me. First:

A good poem is a contribution to reality. The world is never the same once a good poem has been added to it. A good poem helps to change the shape of the universe, helps to extend everyone’s knowledge of himself and the world around him.

Dylan Thomas

I usually don’t post writing quotes I’m still trying to figure out, but it’s Leonard Cohen so I’m making an exception.

Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.

Leonard Cohen

Final Thoughts

Whoever has either left a comment or even and email, know I’ll get back to you as soon as I can5. I always love hearing from people in the comments or by email, so say hi or let me know what made you push the subscribe button or what might tempt you to do so.

– 30 –

  1. Is anyone honestly interested in what it’s like to drive halfway across the state twice in a row? I mean, there are plenty of pretty spots around Iowa, even near my current home of Chariton, but it’s not like the Rockies, California, or the Pacific Northwest. Then again, it’s not as flat as Kansas. I wouldn’t recommend driving across Kansas unless a professional is driving you because that can be a long trip. ↩︎
  2. The article is one of my paid subscriber exclusives from a year back, but it’s actually a good read, I’d like to think. I talk a little bit about my childhood experiences with an old-time movie theater was a decent read. Plus, I even revised it and everything. ↩︎
  3. The non-sequiturs in this newsletter are a bit heavy this week. ↩︎
  4. There is absolutely no way I will ever have a “best ever” short list of authors or books numbering less than two dozen in each category. And if I’m talking about all genres? 100 books and/or authors, minimum. ↩︎
  5. If I don’t answer email right away, keep pestering me. There’s a lot of newsletters flooding my inbox now. ↩︎

While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.

Subscribe to my Substack here.
Subscribe to my Substack here.

A Week in the Writing Life, 16 September 2023

I’m on the road this weekend, but let’s talk.

Home Front Stuff

It’s starting to get closer to classic Iowa early fall weather, which means you have to wear your coats to school in the morning and leave school with them tied around your waists in the afternoon. Eventually I might be able to turn off the air conditioners, but not yet.

Our family is headed back to Muscatine this weekend to attend the celebration of life for my brother in law, Rick, who passed recently. I hope everything goes as well as can be expected, especially for my sister in law and her kids. My wife Laura is quite close with her sisters and I appreciated my kids having a chance that I didn’t have, growing up near an extended family.

What I’ve Been Writing

I’ve finally gotten past the infamous sequence in The Yank Striker 2 I’ve talked about for the past few weeks where my main character makes his debut for his team. I’m also going to have to write the after party, which I think is going to be a proper night out when it’s all written down. All I have to say is the revising process will be at best an interesting process and at worst a brutal one. I’ll probably end up cutting the pre-match activities I portrayed in the rough draft by as much as two-third. Now, however, is not the time to reduce my word count, heh heh.

Many authors look at their rough drafts and want to write as much as possible. In my experiences with fan fiction, for example, there’s a tendency to write for as many words as possible, especially since there’s no cost to making your stories bigger than others online. However, I often found, even in fan fiction situations, it is a benefit to make your chapters shorter so the story doesn’t drag on forever. Breaking your story up into bite-sized pieces can help keep interest in your story. It also gives you an advantage of having a whole series of books, potentially, rather than just one big book.

(This Next Bit Could be Considered My Writing Advice for the Week)

Although this is a book based in the world of sports (specifically, the world of association football/soccer/football), one of the good questions about sports fiction is how much sport you should actually show in the story. If you base your story inside the world of sport, with athletes as main characters, it stands to reason some of this story needs to take place during either games or training for games.

However, as my friends from my writing group in Des Moines, the Iowa Writers’ Corner, put it, we read stories for the people and who they are, and not what they do. The majority of athlete’s lives are not spent either at the stadium or on the training ground, so it’s important to see them in other environments as well. One of the things I concentrated on during the revisions for The Yank Striker was trying to make the main character, DJ Ryan, into someone who was something more than just another athlete. I’d like to think I managed that from the feedback I’ve received so far, and I’d like to continue this throughout the series. So, finding a blend between all sport action (people can just watch television if they really want to see games) and no action is a delicate mix.

[HERE THERE BE SPOILERS FOR THE YANK STRIKER, SO WATCH OUT IF YOU HATE THOSE THINGS (I DON’T)]

I counted up the sports action in The Yank Striker. There’s about five different scenes of football (the gridiron/handegg kind), including both games and practices. There’s also about five scenes of games and practices involving soccer/football, as well. Most of them aren’t lengthy scenes, so that’s an advantage. So, ten scenes in all.

For the sequel (The Yank Striker 2), I’m thinking the number of these scenes needs to decrease slightly. For one thing, (BIT OF A SPOILER HERE) with one exception, all of the sports scenes will involve soccer. Another factor is the difference in time covered in both books. The Yank Striker’s story ran over the course of more than a year. Its sequel will cover somewhere between six and nine months, so I will have less room to leisurely cover soccer action in Part Two.

After all, I can always add scenes in the revisions if I really want to.

What I’ve Been Doing Having to Do With Writing

Does anyone else on this platform feel pressure to post on Substack Notes all the time? I mean, it is useful to get the word out, even if it might not have the same reach as Twitter in the old days or even Threads1 nowadays. However, I don’t think I need to be on there every day. It’s not like I have profound thoughts to write about at all hours.

I might get used to it someday. Sometimes I just need to kick back and get on a Substack Notes binge. But I need the writing time, especially on days when it takes me a while to get a hard 500 words written before heading off to bed.

What I’ve Been Reading/General Recommendations

I’ll get back on this more eventually, but I saw this interesting three-part series starting on the On Substack page about how to create a consistent writing habit. I believe I’ve done a far better job with this than I did as a younger man, but I’m curious to hear what advice they have.

Where I’ll Be and Where You Can Find my Books

Here’s my upcoming appearances:

  • From 12-6 p.m. Sunday, Oct 1, I’ll be at the Windsor Heights Book Fair, 1141 69th St., Windsor Heights, and it is their second annual event. I’ll be joining 20 other local authors appearing there. I also need to mention this is also going to be a fund-raiser as well, as there will be a free-will donation to one of the local food banks in the area. I talked about this on Wednesday, and I’d love to see people there.
  • From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 14, at MERGE, 136 Dubuque St., Iowa City, as part of the Iowa City Book Festival that week.I really should mention this fair is going to be part of a week-long festival throughout Iowa City from Oct. 8-15. Among the authors and artists hosting events throughout the week are John Irving, Jonathan Lethem, and Werner Herzog. I’m a bit chuffed I won’t be able to make it to many of the events because A, it’s a school week for the most part, and B, I’m far to far away in south central Iowa just to bop on up to Iowa City. I’d urge anyone who might be able to make it to Iowa City that week to click on the link in this paragraph and check out all of the different activities throughout the week.
    I will be there at the book fair, and I do look forward to seeing all of you who are able to make it.
  • And from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 4, I will be at the Elwell Building at the Iowa State Fairgrounds as part of the 8th Annual Indie Author Book Expo. Shockingly, this will be the first time I’ve spent any significant time at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. After more than 40 years of living in Iowa, I’ve only really driven past them a few times. I’m not sure if that makes me a bad Iowan or a contrary one.
  • More events will be here if they come up, although they’ll likely slow down during the winter months.

    I’ve got links to my books in paperback and ebook format in the sidebar here, but you can get them in person at these fine Iowa bookstores:
  • Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave # S1, Des Moines
  • Pella Books, 824 Franklin St, Pella
  • The Book Vault, 105 S Market St, Oskaloosa.
  • I highly recommend all three places.

Writing Quote(s) of the Week

This week, how about we go with a couple of inspirational writing quotes, in a general sense. You may be familiar with them, or you may not. Here they are, anyway.

My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way.

Ernest Hemmingway

And…

Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open.

Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Final Thoughts

I always love hearing from people in the comments or by email, so say hi or let me know what made you push the subscribe button or what might tempt you to do so.

– 30 –

  1. By the way, every time I think of the word Threads, I think of the 1984 film shown on BBC television about the effects of nuclear war on Britain in a World War III situation. If you’re the person who thinks Cormac McCarthy is a bit too cheery, this is probably the movie for you. Personally, I think they should screen this for any world leader who has access to nukes. ↩︎

While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.

Subscribe to my Substack here.
Subscribe to my Substack here.

A Week in the Writing Life, 9 September 2023: My first event of the fall this weekend while I continue work on upcoming projects

[PHOTO NOTE: Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 1999. Photo courtesy of FEMA.]

Had to get this newsletter finished early this week since I’m going to be occupied on Friday and on the road for most of Saturday going back and forth from Cedar Rapids. You might have heard about it, although if this is the first time, you’ll probably be too late to get there. I highly doubt the place will be as flooded as you see here, given the recent weather.

Anyway, let’s talk writing and a few other things.

Home Front Stuff

Not much going on at home at the moment. My wife had a bumper crop of vegetables this year, especially squash, which I think received some help from the considerable sunlight and heat we got this summer. Hope the lack of water and the abundance of heat didn’t damage the big crops around here. At least we in Lucas County, Iowa, got a brief splash of rain on Tuesday which was more than overdue, and the temperatures are down at least ten degrees under what they were last weekend, which I’m grateful for.

I seem to write a little better when it gets cooler. It’s always a bit more comfortable to write when you’re huddled up in sweatshirts and a warm drink rather than sweating to death. Maybe that’s just all a result of my Scandinavian and Wisconsinite heritage rather than anything else. My current home of Chariton is just above the 41° North Latitude, and I have no desire to live anywhere south of 40°1.

What I’ve Been Writing

The longer I do this, I continue to learn more about the writing process. I have the sneaking suspicion the moment that I start to really know something a lot about the craft is the time I start reaching the end of my life. Well, I’ll worry about it later.

I’m starting to not only adjust to writing at a faster pace, but now I’m starting to consider exactly what I write on what days. I’ve recently run into difficulties during the past few weeks with promising to get newsletters done by midday Saturday and ending up getting them out Sunday night.

It occurred to me I have to prioritize what I have to write according to their deadlines. For example, yes I would like to get some writing done on my rough draft for The Yank Striker 2, but that is not as time sensitive as my writing for, say, the newsletter. This is especially the case if I want it to run at noon on Saturday and I want to make sure it is actually on time for once. It’s especially the case if I know I’ll be busy on Friday evening and I’ll be on the road for the vast majority of Saturday, and that I’ll only up for a quick write up by the end of the day. So, I get a good portion of the newsletter done earlier and serve it up on the scheduler for Saturday.

One of the disadvantages of this technique might be that you find yourself staring at a piece you know you want to write but there is something holding you back. Maybe you’re blocked, or maybe you’d rather write the “fun” stuff rather than the “work” stuff. I had a long discussion about the concept several months back, if you’d be interested in taking a look.

However, there should be a way around it. For example, there is something I wanted to include in the newsletter, but I realized it might do better as a standalone piece. If you have a new topic to work on that is timely, it can have the same sort of effect as just a fun writing piece.

We’ll have to see whether this works, but I think I’m going to give it a shot this week. The proof of whether it works will be whether this shows up on time at midday on Saturday. The other piece I’ll produce will be available for everyone, but I’ll work to put together a paid subscriber exclusive for next week.

Also, let’s consider this section doing double duty this week as your writing advice for the week. Welcome to my TED talk.

What I’ve Been Reading/General Recommendations

I’ve finally been getting online to check out all of these writers and trying to give them shout-outs, because there’s so much good writing. Don’t consider this a case of sucking up, but Hanne Winarsky, the head of writer A&D at Substack, put together this interesting analysis of podcasts having a different feel on this platform rather than on others.

I have to say I’m slightly intimidated by trying to start a podcast on Substack itself. I’ve been experimenting a bit on Anchor but it can take a lot of effort to put together a professional sounding podcast episode. I also find it a bit awkward Substack doesn’t have audio-editing capabilities on its platform like Spotify does. I’ll have to consider it, but I’m more busy writing online than talking online.

Where I’ll Be and Where You Can Find my Books

Here’s my upcoming appearances:

  • From 12-6 p.m. Oct 1, I’ll be at the Windsor Heights Book Fair, 1141 69th St., Windsor Heights.
  • From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 14, at MERGE, 136 Dubuque St., Iowa City, as part of the Iowa City Book Festival that week.
  • And from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 4, I will be at the Elwell Building at the Iowa State Fairgrounds as part of the 8th Annual Indie Author Book Expo.

The Holy Fool and The Yank Striker are available in paperback and ebook formats. The links for those books are on the sidebar here and in my author’s profile.

They’re also available at these Iowa bookstores:

  • Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave # S1, Des Moines
  • Pella Books, 824 Franklin St, Pella
  • The Book Vault, 105 S Market St, Oskaloosa.

I highly recommend all three places.

Writing Quote of the Week

I’m not sure my readers need to know too much about me. 🙂

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

G.K. Chesterton, Heretics

Final Thoughts

I always love hearing from people in the comments or by email, so say hi or let me know what made you push the subscribe button or what might tempt you to do so.

– 30 –

While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.

Subscribe to my Substack here.
Subscribe to my Substack here.

Footnotes:

  1. 40° South Latitude might be a different deal. I’d be all right retiring in Argentina or New Zealand. ↩︎

A Week in the Writing Life, 3 September 2023: Summer’s wrapping up, but unfortunately the summer weather is not

[PHOTO NOTE: What I got when I searched Pexels for “Labor Day”.]

Let’s talk about writing and a few other odds and ends.

Home Front Stuff

Well, it was pretty decent weather we had this week, comparatively, but it’s going to get into the nineties today and won’t cool down until next weekend, at least. And I think we’re not going to be getting any rain for the foreseeable future. You wonder about how all this wild weather is going to eventually have an effect on the crops in Iowa.

Labor Day weekend in Iowa has seen my wife and I watching the Iowa Hawkeyes starting their season at home, but we were happy to watch it on the television. We don’t want to sweat to death when the weather will be in the nineties, and those benches at Kinnick Stadium are actually pretty narrow.

Getting on with the writing portion of our program, however, I decided to tackle something I haven’t really touched on as of yet.

What I’ve Been Writing

Not to talk numbers here, but I think I’ve seen something of an improvement over this past week. I usually try to meet a quota of 500 words per day of fiction or nonfiction written totally out of the context of my working life1.

I feel confident I have been at least a little more active on The Yank Striker 2, especially beginning to fill out a scene that happens to be [SLIGHT SPOILER TO The Yank Striker] young DJ Ryan’s debut match with Donford FC. Once I actually properly revise that scene, I think it’s going to be a funny highlight of the book, once I actually give it a good revising.

I’m hopeful I can put together a rough draft of The Yank Striker 2 by the end of this year or the early part of next year. With some sufficient revising and editing, and keeping ambitious for deadlines, I would love for a release date on this project sometime just before June 2024.

This would be the most ambitious completion timeline for any of my novels to date. I was probably writing out the first notes for The Holy Fool back in 2010, but it did not head out for publication until 2019. And I was seriously thinking about how I would put together a fiction book based in the worlds of American college football and English soccer a good decade before The Yank Striker was published this year. So, completing a book in a signle year is a bit ambitious. However, I do know my productivity as a writer has increased considerably since the days when I first started writing those books. In addition, since this is the second book in a series, much of the leg work for the book already has been completed.

I also think I need to review my outline notes to the book. I want to make sure I just add the essential scenes to the story and leave out pretty much everything else. I get the feeling if I do this, I might wind up with a shorter book than what I anticipated. However, that’s not the worst thing. I have the feeling a book set during the course of a soccer season might get repetitive if I showed everything I could show.

Photo by Mario Cuadros on Pexels.com

Also, I’ve been reading The Barcelona Complex, a 2021 book by Simon Kuper. It’s a study of the history and culture of FC Barcelona, the former club of Lionel Messi and many others. I’m glad I’ve had the chance to read it as part of the continuing research I’m doingh for the The Yank Striker series. You will see a full book review of the book tomorrow here on Substack and on Liegois Media.

Where I’ll Be and Where You Can Find my Books

Here’s my upcoming appearances:

  • From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9, I’ll be at the Groundswell Cafe, 201 3rd Ave. SW, Cedar Rapids, for an Indie Author Book Expo.
  • From 12-6 p.m. Oct 1, I’ll be at the Windsor Heights Book Fair, 1141 69th St., Windsor Heights. It’ll be my first time at this event, so I’m looking forward to it.
  • From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 14, at MERGE, 136 Dubuque St., Iowa City, I’ll be participating in the book fair as part of the Iowa City Book Festival that week.
  • And from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 4, I will be at the Elwell Building at the Iowa State Fairgrounds as part of the 8th Annual Indie Author Book Expo.

The Holy Fool and The Yank Striker are available in paperback and ebook formats. The links for those books are on the sidebar here and in my author’s profile.

If you want to go into a bookstore in Iowa and pick up one of my novels, you can go to:

  • Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave # S1, Des Moines
  • Pella Books, 824 Franklin St, Pella
  • The Book Vault, 105 S Market St, Oskaloosa.

All of the above are fantastic locations for an afternoon of book hunting.

Writing Advice for the Week

For this week, maybe just check out the section on What I’m Writing, especially the bit about how I’m concentrating on just a few essential scenes in the story for the rough draft. This prevents you from having a bloated rough draft, helps propel your story forward, and if you need to add some additional scenes, you can always include these during the revising process. I’m going to be honest, though, a lot of those scenes really aren’t necessary.

What I’ve Been Reading/General Recommendations

I might make some further recommendations during Labor Day on Substack Notes if I can think of it heh heh.

For now, check out this article from Jackie Dana, one of the first people I ran into when I got onto Substack, where she has a good suggestion for fighting writing burnout2.

Writing Quote of the Week

This rings true for me.

Which of us has not felt that the character we are reading in the printed page is more real than the person standing beside us?

Cornelia Funke

Final Thoughts

Sorry I was late again. I’m going to start writing the next edition, like, tomorrow, on top of everything else.

I have a shout-out to Georgia from Substack tech support who helped me figure out exactly why my photos weren’t showing up on social media posts. It was a weird problem I had for about a month until the support people finally clued me in to what was happening, so thanks to her.

Hope you have a great Labor Day weekend. I always love hearing from people in the comments or by email, so say hi or let me know what made you push the subscribe button or what might tempt you to do so.

– 30 –

While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.

Subscribe to my Substack here.
Subscribe to my Substack here.

Footnotes:

  1. For example, I don’t count lesson plans or special education documents in my daily writing count. ↩︎
  2. Feel free to consider this some additional writing advice, as well. ↩︎