A List - Writing Update by Greg Luti
Updated: Oct 8
A writing update built around the small systems that keep the work moving. In “A List,” Greg Luti talks about jotting weekly notes, pulling back from social media, fixing a site problem, and making daily progress on the novel Hit of Henry.
Writing a List During the Week
I have been writing up these updates about what has been happening with my career for some time now, and when I sat down to write up the current one, I noticed that I really didn’t want to go back in time and try to remember every little detail about my week. Time goes fast, and sometimes I sit there and have to wonder what I was writing. I then realized I don’t have to do that. I know, shocker. But I can write up what I do for this update during the actual week.
So for this update, I did something I didn’t do for the other ones, and that is I am going back to a list of stuff I did during the week. If you are going to post updates on your writing, or anything for that matter, take my advice, and write down a list of the update during the week, so you are not stuck sitting at your desk, wondering if you spent the entire week actually working or on social media.
Did I sneak some advice into this update piece? Yes, yes. I did.
Social Media Addiction
Also, can we all agree how addictive social media is? You don’t need to know much about drugs to know that the sites are really made to have you be on them all day. There is one thing you like, so you view it. Then there is another thing. Then there is something you are not really sure you will like, but you view it. Then there is an image that catches your eye. And you know you have to check out the latest headlines, so you view them too. And what happens? Two hours went by, and you didn’t really do much at all. We have all been there.
The whole situation makes me wonder if the social media sites will ever be held accountable for making sites or apps that are clearly trying to take advantage of the user. If you put a habit that is likely to cause an addiction into something, but people are not really seeing the harmful effects of the habit, is it still wrong to push that habit? I don’t know. It is not like we are talking about smoking or something that is clearly bad. The person is consumed with something not interesting and is not thinking for a long period of time. People don’t need social media to not think. I hear people say that social media or phones are the modern cigarettes, which is interesting, since no one really smokes today.
Focusing on Hit of Henry
The major thing that has been happening to me this past week is that I am finally getting around to looking at my latest book, Hit of Henry, every day and making that a part of the writing schedule. See, I like to get to the blog and other things, and then I forget about the actual book I am working on until I just don’t get to it. Because Little Fires is no longer happening, I can now devote time to Hit of Henry.
Here is the lowdown of the book so far: It is going to be about 200 pages or so. Maybe a little more or less. I have divided the book into 9 different parts, and each of those parts has chapters. When I mean parts, I mean major events that happen in the story. I am at the point where I am bringing the entire story together. There are some scenes that still need to be written, but I am really at the phase where tying it together is key. The book originally had 10 parts, but there was a late part I decided to get rid of since it was not needed in the story.
I don’t know what book I am going to work on after Hit of Henry, because there are a few outlines that may work. For now, I am going to continue on with this book. As I said before, I am trying to focus on one book at a time, rather than writing all at once.
The Search Bar Problem
I had a problem with the search bar on this site because Wix had the search configured in a way that broke it. I had to take some time one evening to actually solve the problem. What is funny is how you are never told those sorts of problems when it comes to being an indie author. Sure, every author wants to talk about their book and their progress. But no one wants to explain to you how the search bar is not set up properly on the site, or how the SEO needs to be altered. That is a part of being a writer, I suppose.
The Author Without a Website
A while back, I was teaching a student, and in the article was an author who didn’t have a site or social media page, and apparently this guy sold a bunch of copies of his books. I don’t remember his name, but looking at it now, the article may have missed the part that he either had a great agent, business connections from his writing job or other business experience, or help through a familiar acquaintance. Presenting someone’s success as though it is magic is a bit deceiving. Anyway, I think I was teaching about noun-verb agreement, and sometimes when I write up about the site and other boring things that I have to handle, I think about that one guy who didn’t have a freaking site and sold a lot of copies of his books. Here I am slaving away at my site, and this guy didn’t even have one.
Writing Thinking Brain
When I wrote the recent poem, Thinking Brain, I didn’t really have much to even write. I sat at my desk, and literally thought to myself, “Shoot. I need to write up something for the site, and I have nothing.” I told you a while back about advice where I use a generator to help me out. This was one of those moments. I got a style and a few words and… I didn’t like any of them. The generator gave me a style of a writer to base the piece on, and two topics. I got Shel Silverstein, which is not bad, since he is a fun poet to emulate, but not one I want every poem to be like. Then I got two words, and no, they were not thinking or brain. They were God and beginning. Yeah, I was not in the mood to write up something with Shel Silverstein’s style about God and the beginning. I then tried again to get two other words, and I don’t remember what they were, but I rejected them too. I decided to take a break, and that was when the silly rhymes came out of me, and the poem came to be what it is.
A Better Way to Edit on Paper
A big issue I have with writing on paper is editing. I have developed a good system where I annotate the parts so that I don’t really lose where I am. If you have ever tried to edit something, you know that after a while you are writing up the page, and you can barely read what you wrote. I stopped doing that. I write the first draft. I then go back, and as I edit, I put down a letter for wherever the edit belongs. At the end of the original piece, I then write whatever I think goes in the spot. This system helps the entire piece remain cleaner than I used to. I may even write up an advice piece on this, to give you all an example of what I am talking about.
Write Things Down
Don’t underestimate writing things down in the middle of them. There are some things you won’t remember, and you will be happy that you had a reference to look back on at a later time. The list I wrote did help me write up this update.
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