Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Finished 1st Edit

Editing Process
Words: 3 chapters
Time: 12:30 4:30 (15 min break)
Mood: Good
Impression: It's good

I finished the 1st edit yesterday. But I finished it so late that I couldn't write the blog entry. My overall impression is that the book is interesting to read, at times very funny, very informative, and you walk away with something. This is the book that people should buy if they're thinking about doing penis enlargement.

This was a little tricky to write because my basic penis enlargement technique is already posted online for free. So the book had to contain something that wasn't in the video. I accomplished that. Yes there is a little more about the jelqing process that I didn't mention in the video. But more than that is a perspective that the video by itself doesn't offer.

So as an analogy I would use is that my videos are like being given a gun. If someone hands you a gun, you automatically know that you can use it to shoot your enemies which you think will make you happier. The book is like giving you a gun with a silencer, but also an instruction manual that teaches you how to handle the gun so that it doesn't go off accidental.

Many people won't want to buy a safety manual. But a lot of those same people will have one of there kids die because they were playing with their parent's gun that wasn't safely secured. It's a rough metaphor, but accurate.

A number of people will try jelqing and completely wreck their penis. One guy emailed me saying that he wrecked his and now he's a 19 year old that might have permanent erectile dysfunction. That might have been avoided if he read this book. Seriously!

What's left for the book is a 2nd edit. After that it goes to the publisher. I will probably start on that next week. After that I need to design the cover and I'm done. And it would be about time. :-)

Friday, February 26, 2010

Hot Sex

Editing Process

Words: 2 Chapters
Time: 12:30 - 2:30pm
Mood: Pretty good
Impression: Arousing

The story moves along nicely and the sex scenes are pretty hot. The second half isn't as funny as the first half, but there are still funny moments there. I like the story, and I like the book. I think others will enjoy it to.

I think that I'm going to create a Billy Mays styled infomercial to sell this book. I think that there would be a lot of guys up late at night that might be interested in buying the book. That is still a few weeks away, but I think it's a great idea. There will of course be those that buy it because of all of my videos, but an infomercial could reach people that weren't as proactive at trying to find a solution to their problem. It could reach a much larger audience. I will think a little more about it.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

It moves along quickly

Editing Process
Words: 2 chapters
Time: 2 - 5:45pm (1hr break)
Mood: Tired
Impression: Fine

In the back of mind sits the idea that the stakes in my story aren't very high. It is simply about one man's happiness... even though that one man is supposed to represent every man. But even with that being the case, it moves along pretty quickly. I had forgotten about the first sex scene in the book. I had based the sex on an actual encounter that I had with my muse for this book. It was a little weird to read those things said by the character that says it. I have since lost contact with my muse, but I wonder what she would say about the person that says her words.

Also, I'm not going to lie to you all, I see a lot of myself in the main character. Clearly the main character isn't me, and that is probably why I feel the similarity. If it were me I would feel something else. Instead I read the situation and I relate to what's going on. I can understand what the writer is intending, and I can relate to the character as a man. I wonder if other guys would be able to relate or if it will just be me?

I have to say, although I'm not overwhelmed by my schedule right now. I certainly am juggling a few balls at once. This morning I didn't start until 2 because I was giving notes a potential illustrator for the kid's book I completed. And after that I was dealing with emails and other stuff with my online store at RememberTheBahamas.com.

We recently started selling a Bahamas soda called Goombay Punch. Because it is so extremely popular we sold 200 cans in the first day and a half. But I had calculated the costs incorrectly and we lost money on every sale. I spent Monday and Tuesday dealing with that.

Today, it was more dealing with the sodas and also dealing with the printer that is printing the postcards that I designed. It feels good to be so creatively productive, and to have so many balls in the air, but that doesn't change the fact that there are a lot of them to keep track of.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Long day of editing

Editing Process

Words: 1 long chapter
Time: 12:15 5:15pm (30 min break)
Mood: tired
Impression: It did what it was supposed to do

Today I edited the chapter that described the jelqing process. It was as longer than any 2 of the other chapters put together. It was light on story, but long on process. I think that it did what it was supposed to do and it explained it clearly.

I also put some thought into how I will get this book to readers. On that point, I haven't quite decided. I could try to get it published or I could just self publish. The advantage of self-publishing is that I would make more money per book. The potential advantage of going though a publisher is that I might sell more copies. But the question is how many more copies and will the search for a publisher end up being a big waste of time.

From everything that readers of my blog have told me, I know that I will have book buyers. But could a publisher expand that base further than I could on my own. It's a big question.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

It isn't what I expected

Editing Process

Words: 2 Chapters
Time: 11:30 4:15 (1hr break)
Mood: A little groggy
Impression: It's both light-hearted and heavy

I didn't edit yesterday because like when I started writing, I think I need to ease my way into it. Writing a book takes a lot of energy. And where as I had enough energy to write and edit the first book last year and the kid's book this year, I guess I'm running out of energy for this one.

But I have to say that this book is very different than I thought it would be when I started editing it. I have a certain voice and style when I write and this one definitely deviates for that voice and style. The writing style is very casual. The main character doesn't feel that familiar to me. He doesn't even feel like anyone I've ever knew. I don't know if I would even be friends with this guy. He's just very different from me in fundamental ways.

Having said that, I find this guy and his world very interesting. I never know what's coming out of his mouth and it makes me cringe as much as it makes me laugh. It's an interesting experience. It's a little hard to believe that I wrote this. I can only imagine what mindset I was in when I wrote this. Man! :-)

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

First day of Editing

Editing Process

Words: 2 Chapters
Time: Noon - 2pm
Mood: Hesitant
Impression: Very funny!

I'm not going to lie to you, I was not looking forward to editing the book. It was my intention to give my self enough time to forget what I had written. This time is necessary because often a writer will look at a word they wrote and see the word they intended to write and not what's on the page. So during the break I designed 5 postcards for the island of Freeport, Bahamas. I arranged for products from my RememberTheBahamas.com store to be sent to my new Amazon.com store. And I wrote a kids book. There were other small projects that I did, but these were the big ones.

And here's the truth about me. I think of myself as a good writing while I'm writing. But I think of myself as a bad writer after I've forgotten what I've written. So the more time I gave myself between writing and editing, the more concerned I got about whether what I wrote was any good. I was almost trying to find things that I could do instead of editing the book.

But yesterday after I finished sending my kid's book to agents, I knew that there no more escaping it. I had to get back to it whether I wanted to or not. And I have to say that it was frickin' funny! I can't tell whether others would think it's funny, but I laughed really hard starting at the third sentence of the book. Man I enjoyed it.

It was a pretty interesting experience reading it. I guess it is like when you reread a book that you enjoyed a few years earlier. I had an idea of where the story's going, but I don't know how it's going to get there. And how it got there was pretty good. There were more than a few sentences that I had to clean up, but overall there weren't that many changes necessary during this round.

What I also noticed was that things that I remembered as being funny when I wrote it wasn't upon reading it. These were things that I told friends about and they couldn't stop laughing. I the difference happened because I wrote sections each day, forgetting what came before it. In isolation it's a funny concept. But when everything flows together, it's not as funny. But on the other hand, things that I didn't think was funny when I wrote it, gave me a chuckle this time around.

Overall, my first impression is that even though this is about a guy with a talking, alcoholic, penis, it's a mature story. The first chapter is an introduction into this guy's life and the second is about his childhood. The childhood section kind of made me sad. Maybe it's because I know the details of why things happened to him. But whatever the reason, the chapter made me feel something.

Overall, I like what I have read so far.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Oh My God, I'm DONE!

Words: 4,162
Time: 7:45 – 12 (1/2hr break)
Mood: Happy
Impression: The book is everything I wanted it to be

My god, I’m finished! I’M FINISHED! It feels so good to be done. I didn’t end up writing on Christmas so instead I decided to put my jet lag to good use. When I got up at 5 am I decided that I would do my best to finish the book today. I was going to start at 6am, but I made eggs and bacon for breakfast and that took a little time.

But I have to say that the book says everything that I wanted it to say. Before I knew what it would be about, I talked to a lot of people about it. I had of course mentioned only the most insightful things. That was fully my intention when I sat down to write it, but I started to lose faith that that was where the story would end up. But I can now say that the book is everything that I wanted it to be.

The book is a novel for men. Yes I give detailed instructions on how to enlarge your penis within it. And I talk about other things also. But that isn’t what the book is about. The book is about happiness and what makes a person happy. And the story is told from a guy’s perspective. And the guy whose perspective it’s told through is a guy’s guy. He’s not a 2000’s guy, he’s not metrosexual, and he’s not a successful guy. He’s a guy that works, lives and strives. And although there are similarities between me and this guy, it is not me. I’m proud of this book.

So now the next step, I’m going to have to walk away from it for a little bit and then come back and edit it. In the meantime though, I have to work on getting a few of the TV shows that I’ve created on the air. That’s not going to require a lot of work. My contact just needs some more info on the ones he likes. Also, I’m going to focus on creating a few more of my RateABull videos. There are a number of topics on my white board which I can do. Some have already been shot and just need editing together.

So will I keep blogging about the process? Definitely. I found this process helpful. I probably would have snapped if I wasn’t doing it. And thanks to everyone that’s been following along. Feel free to post a comment. I would love to hear from you. Check back soon. There’s more to come.

Sincerely,
Cristian YoungMiller
author of "Happiness thru the Art of Penis Enlargement: A Novel Guide to Jelqing, the G-spot, How to Last Longer in Bed, and other Sexual Secrets"