Saturday Summary, October 9, 2010

Every Saturday, The Creative will feature a brief post about my current creative efforts and how they are progressing.  If this doesn't interest you, read no further -- not only will I not be offended, I'll never know.  The usual creativity-centric posts will return on Sunday.

It's actually been a pretty crazy week for me, and the main reason is what you see right here: the redesign and unofficial relaunch of The Creative.  Moving the content from the old jasonwkrug.com site to here has taken a fair bit of time, as has learning a ton in a short time about adding feeds, email subscriptions, widgets, gadgets, and all other sorts of things I still only have the smallest inkling about.

That being said, I've still managed to keep my creative life rolling.

Music -- I'm actually in the middle of three different projects right now.  I had started an SAB choral arrangement of Fum, Fum, Fum for my wife's middle school choir before she told me it was too hard for them, so I set it aside for a while and just finished up the rough draft of it this week.  It may not work for her, but that doesn't mean it won't work for somebody else.

I also printed out an old SATB setting of the words to Have Thine Own Way, Lord.  I did this one a few years back, but the piano part needs some work, so I'm trying to fix this one to get it ready for the world.

And then, just because I can't stand to be away from handbells for too long, I started an arrangement of Come, Christians, Join to Sing, probably about a level 2 piece.  The rough draft of that one is nearly finished, and then I'll edit it.

Writing -- My main writing project for the past several years (not quite a decade but close) is a fantasy series for middle grades/young adults called The Sadonian Chronicles.  The first book is completely finished and is currently trying to find an agent.  I'm in the process of trying to revise the second book in the series, and I've forgotten how much I hate it (the revising, not the book).  Rough drafts are fun; revising is as close to torture as I ever care to get.  I'm going through, page by page, with my trusty red pen (the pen is actually a gray fountain pen filled with Widowmaker ink from Noodler's, but now I'm just being picky), fixing all the problems, tightening up the writing ... and it's awful.  I can revise about a page, maybe two, before my brain completely shuts down and I have to step away.  I had hoped to be done with the revision by November 30, but since I'm only on page 103 out of 292, I'm not sure if I'll make that deadline.  Since the first book hasn't even been accepted by an agent -- let alone accepted for publication -- the only impetus to get the second book revised is my own desire just to have it done.

I'm also trying to gather ideas for my novel for National Novel Writing Month.  Actually, I'm trying to get ideas and outlines for about three different novels.  I know I can type my 50,000 words for the month, and usually quite a few more.  My goal is to end the month with two or three rough drafts of novels, one of which I'll edit in December and early January and submit to the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest.  I entered this contest last year with the first book in my fantasy series -- The Coming of the Heroes -- and made it from the initial pool of 5,000 down to the top 250, which felt pretty good for my first official foray into the world of writing.  I figure if I get an entry around for this year's contest, the worst that happens is I get kicked out of the contest along the way with an edited novel I can submit elsewhere.

Publishing -- I list publishing separately from either Music or Writing because while Music and Writing are creative, Publishing is really all business, sales, and luck.  A few things of note have happened recently:

• Come, O Thou Traveler Unknown has shown up on the Lorenz site, complete with audio file.  It's also listed at J.W. Pepper.
• The Raleigh Ringers recorded the upcoming Beckenhorst demo this past weekend, including my pieces Answer the Call, Beneath the Cross of Jesus, and Compassion.  They're also listed on the J.W. Pepper site, but no audio files as yet.
• Hope Publishing passed on my SATB arrangement of In the Bleak Midwinter. I'll figure out where to send that this weekend.
• Lynne Latham, my string publisher, told me that my We Three Kings is going to be added to the Smart Music program.  This program lets teachers and students play their part of the piece along with the other parts, record it onto a computer, and have the computer tell them what needs fixed.  Very cool, and supposedly it usually means a bump in sales (which I won't complain about at all).

I also am going to take time this weekend to follow up with publishers on a few pieces.  I've had some that have been out for submission since February and March, which, in the world of music publishing, is a really long time.  My worst fear is I'll write and they'll say they never received them.  That's always fun, to know I wasted eight months waiting for a reply that was never going to come.


If you've read this far, then I thank you.  If you haven't read this far, then you're not reading this, which is okay, too.  I hope that, if you're struggling on your own creative journey, you'll realize you're not alone.  If reading about my journey -- the ups and downs (and sudden right turns), the highs and lows (and those awful doldrum-y middles), the goods and bads (and hideously indifferents) -- has helped you on your own creative journey, then this post has done its job.  Or, if you just like reading about what Jason Krug is up to in his creative life, well ... now you know.

If you are on your own creative journey and would like to share how it's going, feel free to drop me a line in the comment section, or fire off an email using the form at right. Tomorrow we'll talk about where creative ideas come from.  For today, get out there and make something of your day.