You May Have Noticed...

Since I'm trying to get my life into an Abby Normal schedule again, I've started posting twice a week again and hopefully back to three times a week by the end of the year. The proposed schedule will be Wednesday for writer's writing and Sunday on challenges in writing after a stroke with some more excerpts. Eventually I will do a Friday blog (promotion & marketing) with interviews with other authors and reviews of movies and books I have read and/or watched. I will not do a star system but tell a brief summary, what I liked and didn't like about said book or movie. It will only be my opinion. It won't be a single category type thing because I am eclectic in all things.

I started writing again this week. So far I've added another 1,000 words bringing the total to over 17K of 75K. I've still got a long way to go, but I keep remembering the tortoise and the hare story. Don't Get Your Panties in a Wad will be completed... I just have no idea as to when. But it's a slow and steady progress thing. There is so much difference in my writing now compared to before the stroke.

 In some ways, it's learning how to write again from scratch. It is definitely a work in progress. It will be my sole effort until my neurons steadily fire around the damaged areas in my brain. Once I can master writing in a way I'm used to I'll go back to my fiction writing. Although it probably won't ever be up to ten to twenty projects at a time as before. The genius, multitasking, master juggler is gone.

Maybe a ghost writer would be a better option, but I'm stubborn. I've ghosted manuscripts in the past for others and I still have other books and novels yet to be published. One of my daughters offered to help me reedit and reformat my novels for Kindle. Which would be great except she has no idea how to do it without me standing behind her as we go from line to line. I helped her pass her college level English courses. It would takes forever. Of course I could just go back to the original manuscript and make the changes, but I realize it is beyond me right now. 

Escape from Second Eden was originally saved to a 5 1/4 floppy, 3.5 floppy, CD and finally a thumb drive. The files corruption when I downloaded my novels from Kindle are unusable. I have to go back to square one and re-release the titles under a new cover and new edition. That's the only option I see.

My daughter mentioned that she can type faster than 100WPM if I recorded the story on a tape player she could type it. The major problem is that's not how I write or tell a story. There won't be that flash of inspiration that stems from writing it yourself. Some of my greatest scenes happened while typing the basics out on the keyboard. While I've ghosted by dictation before, it's the flair of creativity has to be added. It is an option though.

That's the beauty of being an indie author. You can do what you want when you want. It can't be any worse than getting poor reviews because of a screwed up format. It's the learning curve that's tripping me up right now. By my calculation I've lost five to ten years of memory and how-to with the stroke. Even things like languages I spoke for decades is a part of my forgotten history. So the relearning process continues on. But memory is flexible and evolving constantly.

I tested my typing speed. I do it with the Mavis Beacon Typing program. I do this every Saturday to see if I'm improving. I take big and small victories where I can.While I'm still using one hand instead of two and there is improvement. I still have to look at the keys though. My corrected speed is up to 18WPM. Yeah me!

I'm still doing my exercise workouts and e-stim twice a day. I have two therapists I married last year coming in once a week and measuring progress until the new year rolls around. I'm truly blessed because I didn't know they were therapists when I married them. Only one did I know worked with my daughter at Hospice. The other one showed pictures of her wedding to my daughter. That's when the connection was made. Both volunteered their services to me. An added blessing. It's funny when you think about it. A couple talking sessions about their weddings, me officiating and paid, and usually that's it. I rarely keep extended contact with people after the ceremony.It just goes to show how things come full circle in life. The little things that you do in this life which impact others.

Keep writing and loving the Lord.