Would you live in a tiny house?

By now I think everyone has heard of the tiny house craze. Some people want to know they can live in the smallest possible space. Some want to live on less than their means. Some want to save the planet by not endulging in the consumer debt trap. Some people build a tiny house as a place to vacation and get away from the rest of the world.

I have always wondered what it would be like to live in a home the size of my kitchen. It is not a lot of space. Humans don't need a lot of indoor space. We just want to live indoors where we can control the temperature. My ancestors did not have that luxury. 

My great-great-grandparents had a large family who lived in a two room cabin. The rooms were connected by a breezeway. I am sure they spent most of their day outside, only coming inside to sleep and to heal. I bet they did most of their cooking outside on a fire. They were farmers, so their diet was mostly vegetables.

I wonder what tiny houses will look like in the future. I think you will be able to buy one for a few thousand dollars. You will be able to pull it with your car and park it anywhere. 

I can see hundreds of tiny houses settled in one area. When your kids get old enough you help them build their own tiny house. They live near you then move the house to their own property when they turn 18 years old. 

I am sure most people will always want big elaborate homes but as the major population find it harder and harder to live in debt, we may have to live in smaller homes.

Finding Time to Write Everyday

Writing four books in a month can be taxing on your time. I find moments throughout the day to put words on paper. Having to work 40 hours a week and pick up kids from school and spend time with the family in the evening including making dinner and doing laundry and making sure the house is clean and taking care of the pets it can sometimes be hard to find enough time to write down 1000 or more words every day.

There are several times during the day I actually write. I find I can write about 1000 words in about a half hour to an hour if I dictate into my phone. If I take 20 minutes on my lunch break I can write a section or two. Since I'm only having to write 400-500 words at a time I can do a section on my lunch break and maybe a section before I go inside sitting in my car.

It might not be appetizing to everybody but I find a lot of my best time to write is while I'm sitting in the bathroom doing my business. A lot of people like to read while they sit on the toilet. I like to write. If you're able to write down everything you're thinking as you speak it, you can be surprised how much you can get written.

I make time whenever I can find it. If I'm sitting in front of the TV by myself, I try to notice that moment and pause the TV and write instead. The problem is making myself aware I'm sitting in front of the television doing nothing. Sometimes I don't feel like writing and I have to force myself to pick up my phone and speak a few words into the document.

I have a lot of these moments. If I'm working out in the yard, I tend to take a lot of breaks. I don't want to work hard when I'm at home. That's why I go to work. I will sit in a chair and enjoy the outdoors. The weather may be beautiful and sitting outside dictating into my phone while I enjoy nature is one of the coolest things I think anyone can experience.

The Fourth Book I'm Writing is on Twitter

I use Twitter a lot. Mostly I use it to post quotes and Haiku and information about my books. I try my best to get involved with other people who are interested in prepping or writing. 

Just like Facebook I find that Twitter struggles when I'm posting the same stuff all the time. I wondered if I could actually write a book 140 characters at a time. I know a lot of people do this. They write stories using a couple sentences at a time. They create a narrative that will make people continue to read their work.

The book I'm writing right now is about unique garden containers. I came up with 21 different kinds of containers you can use that are not traditional flower pots or your normal buckets. I thought coming up with different kinds of ideas for each one of these containers will help gardeners like myself who are trying to make things easier on themselves and cut the cost of gardening down to the bare minimum.

If I write 7 to 10 different tweets about one chapter, one kind of unique garden container, then I won't ever have to repeat myself. People can read what I'm posting and when I start a new book next month they will read new posts about a completely different subject. This means I will always have something to talk about and the information will be fresh and people will be happy that I'm not just repeating myself over and over and over again like many of the Twitter people out there do today.

The only downside to writing a book on Twitter is your wordcount tends to be a lot less than if you were writing it on a blog or Facebook. Since you only get 140 characters, you might have about 30 words total for each post. This may mean that when I go to edit the finished book, I may have to add a lot more information to help explain my thoughts and expand on the tweets.

Third Book Written on My Facebook Fan Page

I built my personal fan page about three or four years ago. I barely do anything with it. This is not good when you're a writer and you expect to keep your readers up-to-date with what you're doing or at least tell them what's going on in your life. I thought about finding a way to post on my fan page. Writing a book on it seemed like a logical idea.

I picked a subject that not necessarily goes with what I'm doing in my life other than helping the local Cub Scout pack. I thought writing a book about the different games you can play with small groups of children might help someone out there who is having a hard time coming up with things to do with their kids.

What I'm hoping by posting a short chapter on my Facebook fan page every day is to provide regular useful information. If I can give people a reason to come by the fan page, or like the fan page, then maybe they will help spread the fact that I am here and I have a fan page and the books I write are available and maybe I will get more exposure in that way.

If none of this happens, then at least I've written another book during the course of the month and the information is there on Facebook if anybody ever wants to read it. I think it would be a good habit for me to continue to write and provide new information for the readers each and every month. If nobody wants to take it that is OK. At least I am providing the information.

Second Book Written Here on My Blog

The second way I intend to write a book is through posts on my blog. You're reading this here because I have posted each chapter as a separate post. I figure if I can write a chapter each day, post it on my blog then I will have a book within a month. My books tend to be about 24 to 30 chapters long.

I'm trying to post everyday so I can provide my readers something they can read. If I can post every day for a month I'll have a book but I will also have given quality information to the people who like to read my blog. Because I'm writing about the same subject they will be more likely to read every day. 

I discovered if I try to write a blog while I'm trying to write a book, one, if not both of them suffer. I think about one and start writing, then forget about the other. If I don't focus on a certain project then the information I have on that project will start to suffer. Writing a book seems to give me the drive to create content for my blog. If I can focus on that information then I will be able to go onto the next part of the book the following day

Having constant content for my blog will also draw traffic. If people see that I am constantly writing something new, they may bookmark it and come back often. I have an RSS feed which means they may subscribe to that feed and my blog posts will be automatically forwarded to them. This particular blog has an email sign up which will send each post to your inbox whenever I post something new.

I try to think about new things or alternate parts of the same subject. Like tomorrow, I will be talking about Facebook. I want to talk about how I'm using that platform to write another book. So I'm giving information to the readers on how they might have the ability to do the same thing on their different platforms.

First Book for this Month Written on Google Docs

I'm going to attempt to write for books this month. When I say books, I'm talking about 10,000 words or so for each of them. That means I'll be writing about 40 to 50,000 words this month between the four books. I think I can write all four of them at the same time using different platforms.

The first book I will be writing I intend to write on Google Docs. The reason I want to use Google Docs is because it is online, on the cloud. I can use my cell phone or the computer to write it and not worry about transferring the document. The other reason I want to write this on a program that is not seen by the public is so when I post it on Amazon I can set it as a KDP Select publication. It will be a book specifically published on Amazon and nowhere else. In a perfect world this would mean Amazon would help me promote it even if only a little bit.

I've already started this book and I'm several sections into it. I'm hoping to have it done by the end of March. I outlined this book in 21 sections plus an introduction and a conclusion. I should be able to finish it by the end of the month. The hope is to be ready to start four more books in the month of April. 

When I write a book on Google Docs I start by outlining a one-page synopsis for the entire book in my hand written notebook. I use one line for each section. Each section ends up being about 200 words. I average between 4 to 7 paragraphs. I try to make it short enough to get the point across but long enough to feel like the information is adequately presented. 

When I use Google docs I write with my cell phone most of the time. I like using the dictation feature on my iPhone. I find I can write 10 times faster than typing it. I also don't have to bring out the entire laptop and try to find a comfortable place to sit down and type. All I have to do is dictate into my phone. 

Challenging Characters

I have designed many stories around an idea, around a concept, an event. Then I build the characters to fit that story. This makes for a great story, but sometimes the characters suffer. The story steals some of the depth from them. This is when outlining your characters might be a good idea.

I have tried several ways to flush out specific characters. I find if I don't, they all start to sound the same. My favorite way to learn details about the life and personality of a character is to interview them. I will ask them questions about their past and how they will react to the events going on in the story. I might ask them about their feelings about other characters in the story. I always find interesting aspects to them I never knew was there.

Other ways to get to know your character is to outline the lifetime of that character. Decide what needs to be to make the story work.

BRAINS: Do You Really Need Them to Write

This past week I have been reading the book called, "The Power of Positive Thinking" by Norman Vincent Peale. A lot of the words he writes is higher-end, Very educated. The book was published back in the 50s when being an author was reserved for the most educated people.

I don't think we need that kind of education these days when it comes to writing. Most people want to read books that are on their level. If we write above that level, we begin to lose readers and the majority of people will not read past what they don't understand. 

When I was growing up we were taught if we came across words we didn't understand, we should look them up in the dictionary. I don't know if they suggest that anymore. Many people will ask Google what something means if they don't understand a word. I think the majority of people just ignore words they don't understand. 

When we're writing books, it is fun to play around with words and phrases. It is fun to challenge your readers. But I think they have to be few and far between otherwise your reader will put down the book. I'm not sure if this is true for everybody but I think the general consensus will be the same.

Awesome Author Ambition

My goal at the beginning of the year was to write, edit and publish a 10,000 word book every 2 weeks. This would mean I would have 2 new books published on Amazon KDP every month.

I was able to publish one book in January and I think I will have a second one published tomorrow on March 2nd. Procrastination is a big problem in my world. I find any excuse to ignore my writing. 

I have notebooks full of outlines. I have the time now that my schedule has changed. I just need to spin an hour or two consistently everyday and get the writing done. I know I have things to say. No one will hear me if I don't get it down in the iPhone screen. 

I think this daily blogging in April will be an awesome way to get my thoughts down, to write something to get myself started. The posts don't need to be long. They just need to have a good nugget people will want to read. Here is to a great month.