Do you need more art in your life?

It is now 7:42 a.m. on a Monday morning and I'm sitting here thinking about what all I want to get done today.

It is a long list almost daunting and maybe it makes me suffer a little bit of overwhelmed.

The first thing I need to do is make some money. I could use an extra hundred dollars every day this week.

Since I don't have a nine-to-five regular job and my income is based on Amazon Audible and other online Ventures that don't pay immediately, I have to think of ways to make money today.

Let's go. Offer up. Mercari.

And don't forget Craigslist.

I also need to write and publish a new book today. 

Not necessarily the same two things.

 I need to put down 5000 words in a new project or ongoing project and I need to complete one of the 50 projects I have that have over twenty thousand words.

I owe it to the readers, and I owe it to myself. I think that might have a little bit to do with why I feel my to do list is never-ending. 

Because I start multiple projects and create these self-imposed deadlines that always loom over my head.

It feels like I hardly ever get anything done.

I bet my readers feel the same way.

Part of it is my 10 ideas a day habit.

Some of those ideas seem pretty good.

Last night I watched an Oscars acceptance speech that extolled the virtues of art, making art.

And I guess because I've identified as a blue-collar author for so long, a Pulp Fiction writer who sits ass in seat and puts fingers to keyboard, I've never considered myself an artist.

Though I think about art a lot. 

I wish that I could draw and I could paint Landscapes or portraits or something other than painting a house, and I wish that I could do all of these things.

Then I remind myself that I take a pretty great picture. 

I've been taking pictures since high school which means 30 years at least of experience.

I also trained as a cinematographer, and as an independent director for a couple of years I did win an award.

I've had some success as a screenwriter, moving to the top 10% of all screenwriters in Hollywood since I was actually working as a screenwriter and getting paid for it.

So had an idea last night while lying in bed as a thunderstorm rolled through.

I was going to print up the first page of every one of my novels and frame it.

This makes me think that it's vitally important to make sure the first page of every book is a hook, something that grabs the reader and drags them by the throat into the middle of the story so that they can't help but bump along for the ride.

That's probably good advice for any story writer.

If you looked at a piece of art that was a big blocks of exposition and text and dull and boring. 

You wouldn't spend any time staring at it.

You were just glance read the first couple of lines and walk away to go look at a more interesting piece of art.

And while it's fun to think about these things the important thing to remember is if I do print up anything today the first page of existing novel will not make me any money.

What should be my focus today. Which is why I'm experimenting with this.

This is sort of a test for dictation to see how many words I can crank out in a set amount of time. 

And then of course since these are my thoughts for my blog.

I'm going to copy paste into word then check for spelling, like just now it put the number 4 instead of the word for and vice-versa geez.

And I'll get a word count to see just how many words I can crank out in 10 minutes.

That's a good experiment which gives me data which I can use to write the book to make more money.

742 words.  If I have a good outline and can talk 700 raw words in a 10 minute sprint, and do 10 sprints a day (100 minutes) it equals 7k words.

That's not a shabby way to make a first draft of art.