On Writing an Essay

Man I have to tell you, I have been struggling for twenty-one days now since the New Year with trying to write an essay. Why, you ask? Look, so, I like reading books like the Philosophy and  Pop Culture books you know, on like philosophy and Doctor Who, or Sherlock Holmes, Supernatural, all of that. Of course all of that type of writing is essentially essay type writing, and man, I really enjoy that writing, so of course I want to try and write like that.
For a week or so at first I struggled with just coming up with a subject to write about. At first I liked one and then I changed it to another. Then of course I started another idea and went all in practically, writing a title page and an introductory paragraph and even a thesis sentence. Then that all went to shit.
How do they do it, you know? The great essayists of our time. Granted they've been all studying it for forever now and writing in such a style for a long time and stuff but I figure any type of writer should be able to get into that style. I love, love, love the fact that Neil Garman, one of my favorite writers, constantly writes essay which are fascinating and structured interestingly. Even my other favorite author, Christopher Moore wrote an essay I found on the love of vampires in fiction, he may have written others too but that's the one I came across, and it was fantastic.
All in all, I'm going to keep trying.

Polyproject Making a comeback?

So along time ago I created this idea of the "Polyproject". Which was this idea to do a multitude of projects at one time. It worked for a bit. Actually no, to be honest, it didn't. I was too young or too unorganized and distracted, I don't know what. So I stopped and did a sort of sporadic working on of projects for a bit which didn't work out so well as well. Then finally these past few months I said, "No more!" and decided to focus all my attention on one project: my novel, "A Little Valentinus in your Samahain". This worked amazingly! I actually completed the damn thing and am now in the process of sending out queries to get an agent for publication. Yet now after I've finished the novel I am starting to do multiple things at once again, but more organized than before. Now for the past year and two months I've been hardcore keeping track of my ideas and need for multiple creative endeavors to get done and this has helped tremendously. So I'm almost starting to think I can introduce the "Polyproject" back into my mind-flow. I'll let you know how this goes.

Literary Agencies

One thing I am noticing is that many different agencies have different submission proposal requirements. So before you go to send out your query make sure you have these things. Of course this is all after you have finished your novel. I have of course, myself, yet I am in the way of editing still and making sure its all up to snuff. Anyway here's the stuff:

1. Synopsis
2. Outline
3. Short Author Bio
4. Publishing History

Query-ing Away

So I've been writing out my query letters recently and am loving it. I wrote quite a few queries back in the day but none at the right time. You see, I've never actually had my novel completed before writing a query out. Big mistake. Lesson number one: Write your damn book before sending out any queries! So any way I am writing out my queries and wanted to share some things I've learned.

So here we go:

                                                                         First write your name
                                                                        Address line one
                                                                        Address line two
                                                                        Phone number
                                                                        Email address

Agency's name
Address line one
Address line two
Phone number
Email address


Dear (Whoever is the agent you're contacting),

Then say something very small about yourself. Then tell them a bit about your book. After that jump right into your book synopsis.

Second paragraph tell them how grateful you are for their time. Then let them know you have the whole book done and that you'd be glad to send it.

:)

Again, this is just a theory one so far. I still must send them out but all this information is supported by many articles on the internet. Especially ones by successful Literary Agents on Writer's Digest's website.

Writing Along

Getting some good writing in these days. I am so close to finishing my novel I can taste it. I mean, really I should be writing that right now, but you know, I need a bit of break. Once I'm done with this last chapter I do wonder if I'll need an epilogue chapter? Probably.
Along with that I am helping my wife write a paper for her History of Photography class on Daguerreotype. Mostly just with research and encouragement. Interesting subject though. Technically the guy worked on it with a bunch of other guys in France and what not but he decided to name the technique after himself.
So I'm doing that and some other stuff. I recently finished with my third, I think it was my third, miniature notebook.  So I'm onto a new one and that is great! The fresh pages just waiting to be filled with innovative ideas. Its great. Also going to be drawing some great little illustrations for the season. I really have to get out and buy some illustrating board from Hobby Lobby. Things are going good and I'd like to keep it that way! Trying to post here with interesting stuff as possible. More good stuff soon.

The Works

So for those of you who are familiar with my blog, you will notice I've changed a few things here and added some things as well. I changed the layout and the design as well as the name of my blog as well, to 'The Works'. So as to be more clear as I don't actually have a production company called Fool or anything like that. It just sounds simple and more streamlined to me and plus it goes more with my URL as well.
I've added some pages and changed some around as well. Check them out in your leisure, I will be adding things to them as regularly as possible. Thank you for your patience. I hope to have some cool stuff to share soon.
Some of the new things are the Book Excerpts page which will feature the first chapter of every novel I write as well as the first short story or poem in any anthology I create. Also the Works page which will consist of pictures of all of my books that are available for purchase. I changed from having multiple galleries to just one so as to make everything more manageable as I do multiple different medias and no longer see any need to separate them. I'll post as much new stuff as I can. There is also the video portion of my blog where I post my professional work as well as my own comedy sketches that has been updated. In any case, check it all out. Leave some love and let me know what you think.

Coming Soon

Hey everyone so sorry for all the delays. More posts coming soon with updates and what not. Been busy with a few things so yeah. Coming soon.