I would love to able to say that I’ve been “busy” lately, but that just isn’t the right word. Distracted is probably more appropriate. Between being glued to the Democratic National Convention speeches and pretending to write a novel, I just haven’t found the time to do much else besides surf and not blog. I know I shouldn’t apologize for not blogging, and I’m actually not. I’m just hanging up the “gone writin'” sign to let everyone know that I probably won’t be around here very much.

I’ve been saying that I was going to write more for a long time now; far too long, to tell the truth. Now is the time to just sit and do it. Wil Wheaton had some great advice on his blog yesterday that was timed perfectly.

1. Blog less. It’s incredibly hard to blog and write a book at the same time, because you’re using different muscles. Think of it like trying to run the 100 meter dash and do a marathon at the same time.

2. Make a deadline for yourself, then work backwards to have milestones every day or week, whichever works better for you.

3. Give yourself little rewards when you make a big milestone (5K words, 10K words, 20K words, first draft completed, etc.)

4. Don’t show your work to anyone until the first draft is done. Don’t even excerpt little bits and put them on your blog. I put about 30 words from House of Cards online, and I lost all of my momentum as a result. I’m not sure why this happens, but it really sucks when it does.

5. Find an editor who you trust to work with you. Good editors do more than just edit the draft you give them, and I know this because I have a great editor.

The first three items are the absolute best advice. I’ve been blogging less already, not because I’ve been writing, but because my mind has been focused on building the characters and the world that I plan to write within. He’s completely correct when he says that it’s difficult to shift gears and make your mind think in a blog format. As far as distractions go, I’ve finally forced myself away from Twitter, but the siren’s call of FriendFeed has been too lovely to ignore. So I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately, but very little actual writing (besides note taking and outline crafting).

Of course, to add a significant layer of complexity to this, the wife and I have also decided to seriously put the house up for sale (again – I think this is the third time) and attempt to purchase another property. So, I’ll actually either be writing or deep cleaning/organizing/packing. In any case, I won’t be here.

So there are plenty of things that I’d LOVE to talk about. FriendFeed’s new beta. Square Enix making a move to buy Tecmo. The DNC convention and excellent speeches. McCain’s abysmal choice of a VP candidate with even less experience than Obama, and twice the (alleged) corruption. But I’m not going to talk about any of that here. You can find that information elsewhere, I’m sure.

I’ve gone writin’.