November was an epic month for me.
I finished the first-pass editing treatment of book three, to get a lay of the land. A few scenes need major revision and I need to write one more scene, but overall, the edits aren't as bad as I feared. Well, to get ready for beta, anyway. They'll give me a whole other set of things to fix, I'm sure.
I finished that on top of participating in NaNo. I counted my book three outlining words toward my NaNo goal, as well as some brainstorming and a short story, but that allowed me to hit 50k. I truly did not think I would be able to, but I did. And I ended up with about 40k on a new novel.
A short story I sold to a magazine went live on November 9. I subscribed to the magazine when they accepted me, and it was surreal to see my name in the subject line of their newsletter! They're a great magazine. I will definitely submit to them again. Also submitted two short stories, although one has already gotten me a rejection.
Still waiting to hear back from DAW.
I've written a few Cafe stories the last few months. Working on one for December. It's interesting how writing always turns into me working through my life stuff. The story I want to write for December turns out to be an allegory for my recent crisis of faith. My NaNo was working through grief of Kevin's passing. All of MystWatch was me working through grief over losing Mom. I asked my friends if I could ever just write something for fun, but apparently that's not how being a writer works. Oh well. What was it Greta said on that last day of NaNo? Things don't have to be real to be true. They say write what you know, and I know feelings. That's mostly what I write about.
Anyway. I'm still trying to figure out my December plans. The last couple of days I've done nothing, and it's been glorious. Although I'm deep in the post-NaNo blues where I feel like something is missing in my life, so I'd like to get back into writing again soon. I'd originally thought I might spend two weeks on Druid Wars so I could keep my promise to my brother and sister and give them something to read for Christmas. But I still don't know if I'm up for diving back into that world. I might poke at it a bit and see, but if it doesn't captivate me, then I'll push it back to next year as I'd planned last month, as I was sketching out my project timeline for next year.
I also thought about spending two weeks on SP, since December is always for "wrapping up" projects, and that is the other big unfinished one. I'm skeptical that will happen, because as I learned last year, getting anything done in December is a crapshoot. I think my one big goal is to be sure to get my Cafe story written. And if SP and Druid Wars don't catch my attention, I may poke at my NaNo novel. I also need to beta read for Amanda. I do have two weeks off at the end of the month, although there will be lots of travel during that time, so I hate to expect too much from myself. We'll see.
Anyway. I think that's it for this month, and this year! I will plan on doing the year recap and upcoming year goals in the January post. Although I did want to note real quick that I am up to almost 200k words written this year, thanks to my push for NaNo. And, stunningly, 91,500 words of that were on book three alone. That feels pretty awesome.
Anyway. Happy holidays! See you next year!
Monday, December 3, 2018
Monday, November 5, 2018
November Update: Grief and NaNo
I finally took my break after finishing writing book three. And of course by "break" I mean I didn't get my 15k words written.
I did stay busy, though.
I beta read a book for Ashley. I finished up edits for Kevin's book. I did a lot of brainstorming for my National Novel Writing Month story. And, I actually started edits on book three.
It's a very perfunctory edit. I'm tweaking minor things, but mostly I'm writing chapter outlines and adding editing notes for when I have the time and energy to dive deeply into it. Which, considering I can't stop thinking about it, will probably happen sooner rather than later. I'm really excited about it, still. I've figured out a few things I wasn't happy with. I've only made it about two-thirds of the way through at this point, but I will probably still try to juggle it with NaNo.
I've decided to follow my creative energies and have ultimately put off editing Druid Wars for sometime next year.
But, my creative energies come and go unexpectedly lately. My dear friend and colleague Kevin died a week ago. And the aftershocks of that keep hitting me. Mostly I'm devastated that I took so long to edit his book. He never got to finish it. Maybe if I'd turned it around in the two weeks I normally did, he would have.
Despite everyone assuring me to the contrary, I still can't help but have a lot of guilt about that.
And guilt is not great for writing.
Except when it is.
My NaNo project so far has been a lot of me dealing with my grief. Which, if you'll remember, was what the whole MystWatch trilogy was. And I was finally at a point in my journey, losing Mom, where I'd developed a healthy grieving process and moved on, in a way.
And now I'm starting all over.
But I think it'll go better this time. I'm balancing writing it with editing book three, so I have Diana telling me how to grieve properly. It's almost like she's speaking to my new MC through me. We're both going to be okay. It's just kinda funny to me that Diana of all characters is the one helping us through it.
Anyway. Yeah. It's NaNo. I'm writing and participating in events and active on the discussion board. But. I'm behind. Sorta. If I only count the words written toward my new novel, anyway. If I count work I've done on book three, I'm not. What I've realized is my relationship with NaNo has changed. I'm taking full advantage of the energy and other people writing and the events and all that. But at some point, maybe on day two or three, I realized I'm not actually expecting or even really aiming to hit 50k.
I have hit a point in my writing process where I write around 15k every month. I've already written 145k words this year. Back when I used to do the full NaNo experience, that 50k was about the only words I wrote a year. In the fourteen years I've been doing NaNo, I've developed a writing practice. And that's in large part thanks to NaNo, which is why I will always participate and always donate and always support people who want to throw their whole selves into it.
But the likelihood of me ever being a "winner" again is slim. I only need 25k this month to keep my monthly average at 15k for the year. More if I don't write in December, but I have no idea what I'll be up for in December yet, so I'm not making any plans. December is always my planned break month, so typically anything I get done in December is bonus.
So yeah. That's where I'm at this November. I hope I can get around 20k written on this new novel. Maybe more. More would be great. But I also want to get through my first editing pass of book three, and I need to write a Cafe story. That's enough stuff that even if I wrote 50k words this month, they won't all be on this new project.
And I've decided that's okay. NaNo is still a tool that I use. But I have learned, especially over this last year, that I need to follow where my inspiration is right now. I have the freedom to do that. Someday I will get published and have to force myself to work on X project by X deadline. But right now, I can work on what I am most passionate about.
And that varies throughout the month. I'm happier when I have more than one project to juggle each month. Also, writing 15k new words a month, whether in brainstorming, outlining, or actual stories, is extremely do-able for me. It's high enough that I have to push myself through the I-dun-wanna's but also low enough that if I have just a really crummy month, my really good months make up for it. It's also low enough that I can fit in editing and beta reading.
Some of this info would be better suited for the end-of-the-year post, but I wanted to bring it up now, so I don't forget.
That's about all I've got right now, though. Which is more than enough, honestly. I'm mostly just heartbroken about my loss of a friend. The world is worse off without him in it. He was truly one of the good ones.
I did stay busy, though.
I beta read a book for Ashley. I finished up edits for Kevin's book. I did a lot of brainstorming for my National Novel Writing Month story. And, I actually started edits on book three.
It's a very perfunctory edit. I'm tweaking minor things, but mostly I'm writing chapter outlines and adding editing notes for when I have the time and energy to dive deeply into it. Which, considering I can't stop thinking about it, will probably happen sooner rather than later. I'm really excited about it, still. I've figured out a few things I wasn't happy with. I've only made it about two-thirds of the way through at this point, but I will probably still try to juggle it with NaNo.
I've decided to follow my creative energies and have ultimately put off editing Druid Wars for sometime next year.
But, my creative energies come and go unexpectedly lately. My dear friend and colleague Kevin died a week ago. And the aftershocks of that keep hitting me. Mostly I'm devastated that I took so long to edit his book. He never got to finish it. Maybe if I'd turned it around in the two weeks I normally did, he would have.
Despite everyone assuring me to the contrary, I still can't help but have a lot of guilt about that.
And guilt is not great for writing.
Except when it is.
My NaNo project so far has been a lot of me dealing with my grief. Which, if you'll remember, was what the whole MystWatch trilogy was. And I was finally at a point in my journey, losing Mom, where I'd developed a healthy grieving process and moved on, in a way.
And now I'm starting all over.
But I think it'll go better this time. I'm balancing writing it with editing book three, so I have Diana telling me how to grieve properly. It's almost like she's speaking to my new MC through me. We're both going to be okay. It's just kinda funny to me that Diana of all characters is the one helping us through it.
Anyway. Yeah. It's NaNo. I'm writing and participating in events and active on the discussion board. But. I'm behind. Sorta. If I only count the words written toward my new novel, anyway. If I count work I've done on book three, I'm not. What I've realized is my relationship with NaNo has changed. I'm taking full advantage of the energy and other people writing and the events and all that. But at some point, maybe on day two or three, I realized I'm not actually expecting or even really aiming to hit 50k.
I have hit a point in my writing process where I write around 15k every month. I've already written 145k words this year. Back when I used to do the full NaNo experience, that 50k was about the only words I wrote a year. In the fourteen years I've been doing NaNo, I've developed a writing practice. And that's in large part thanks to NaNo, which is why I will always participate and always donate and always support people who want to throw their whole selves into it.
But the likelihood of me ever being a "winner" again is slim. I only need 25k this month to keep my monthly average at 15k for the year. More if I don't write in December, but I have no idea what I'll be up for in December yet, so I'm not making any plans. December is always my planned break month, so typically anything I get done in December is bonus.
So yeah. That's where I'm at this November. I hope I can get around 20k written on this new novel. Maybe more. More would be great. But I also want to get through my first editing pass of book three, and I need to write a Cafe story. That's enough stuff that even if I wrote 50k words this month, they won't all be on this new project.
And I've decided that's okay. NaNo is still a tool that I use. But I have learned, especially over this last year, that I need to follow where my inspiration is right now. I have the freedom to do that. Someday I will get published and have to force myself to work on X project by X deadline. But right now, I can work on what I am most passionate about.
And that varies throughout the month. I'm happier when I have more than one project to juggle each month. Also, writing 15k new words a month, whether in brainstorming, outlining, or actual stories, is extremely do-able for me. It's high enough that I have to push myself through the I-dun-wanna's but also low enough that if I have just a really crummy month, my really good months make up for it. It's also low enough that I can fit in editing and beta reading.
Some of this info would be better suited for the end-of-the-year post, but I wanted to bring it up now, so I don't forget.
That's about all I've got right now, though. Which is more than enough, honestly. I'm mostly just heartbroken about my loss of a friend. The world is worse off without him in it. He was truly one of the good ones.
Tuesday, October 2, 2018
October Update: No Rest for the Wicked
Despite thinking I'd take a break last month, I actually did quite a bit
of stuff. Lots of pictures were taken with my fancy new camera, of
course, but I also managed to find time to do some writing project
stuff.
I finally closed out my query for Tirgearr Publishing after waiting for 120+ days of no response. That was two weeks ago, so I think it's safe to say I'm not going to hear back from them.
Then, a couple days later, I took the next step. The last step, actually.
I submitted the book the DAW. I'd waffled back and forth on that, knowing in a few months all I'll probably get from them is a form rejection. But I decided I didn't care. This was a bucket list checkbox. I put together my query and sent my submissions packet their way.
And, strangely, the email I got thanking me for submitting was all I wanted from them. It gave me the fulfillment I needed. I worked hard to get to this point. Everything that first book went through. The writing, the beta readers, the editing, the second round of beta readers, more editing, struggling to write books two and three, more editing, and finally the submission process. I didn't jump in line to get here. I did each step as I laid out in my submission plan, and this submission to DAW was the final step.
It is the end of a journey. I have made it to the top of this mountain. Now, of course, I need to go scale that mountain over there, but I'm going to enjoy the view from this one for a minute.
The next big adventure, now that book three is written, is to start the self-publishing process. But I have to wait three months, at least, during DAW's exclusivity period. I mean, I will probably wait until I hear back from them, as long as its not more than 120 days (because apparently that's my limit for pretty much everywhere), but I already know who I'm going to for covers, and I'll probably get a quote from an editor Rachel recommended. So I'm ready to start the process, when the time comes.
That's the biggest news for the month. The rest of the news isn't all that exciting.
I participated in the 24-hour short story contest. The story I wrote for it isn't very good, but I powered through my doubt and disgust, finished it, edited it, and submitted it. I'm even looking forward to when they announce winners, because I think Amanda and Dianne both have good chances of winning something, if only honorable mention. And it helped me come up with a character and premise I really like that I will probably use to write a longer short story. Or maybe a novel. Hard to say at this point.
I also wrote a Cafe story for October. It's also not the best story I've ever written, but it's mainstream fiction without any fantastical elements, which I am pretty impressed with myself about, since the prompt lent itself to magic. And it had a bully in it, and it was bully awareness month or whatever, so that was timely.
I didn't have much luck with SP, but I did finally find the plot and the steps in the treasure hunt for the current adventure. And found a way to make sure more of the regular characters are in it. The first adventure in the second season is a huge deviation from the rest, but it also meant that one of the main characters only got a few lines at the end. It should be fun next time I sit down with it.
I also started a copy edit for Kevin, brainstormed for NaNo, and toyed with putting together a query for SP. I'm considering maybe floating it by Carina Press. I may change my mind, but I wrote up a very rough draft of a submissions packet. I'll make a decision on that next year.
Overall, I got my 15k words written. Most of those were within the first three days of the month finishing up book three, but in general, I did better in September than I thought I would once I wrote "the end."
This month, I plan to focus on Druid Wars and NaNo prep. I promised my siblings I'd have Ghosts of the Grove ready for them for Christmas, so no more putting off those edits. I've also got to finish up Kevin's edits and beta read for Ashes. I don't anticipate having any time leftover after all that, but if I do, maybe I'll throw a few more words at SP 2.2 I imagine it will be a low word month and a high editing hour month. Which will be fine. If I do manage to write 50k next month, that'll make up for all the months I didn't make it to 15k.
I finally closed out my query for Tirgearr Publishing after waiting for 120+ days of no response. That was two weeks ago, so I think it's safe to say I'm not going to hear back from them.
Then, a couple days later, I took the next step. The last step, actually.
It is the end of a journey. I have made it to the top of this mountain. Now, of course, I need to go scale that mountain over there, but I'm going to enjoy the view from this one for a minute.
The next big adventure, now that book three is written, is to start the self-publishing process. But I have to wait three months, at least, during DAW's exclusivity period. I mean, I will probably wait until I hear back from them, as long as its not more than 120 days (because apparently that's my limit for pretty much everywhere), but I already know who I'm going to for covers, and I'll probably get a quote from an editor Rachel recommended. So I'm ready to start the process, when the time comes.
That's the biggest news for the month. The rest of the news isn't all that exciting.
I participated in the 24-hour short story contest. The story I wrote for it isn't very good, but I powered through my doubt and disgust, finished it, edited it, and submitted it. I'm even looking forward to when they announce winners, because I think Amanda and Dianne both have good chances of winning something, if only honorable mention. And it helped me come up with a character and premise I really like that I will probably use to write a longer short story. Or maybe a novel. Hard to say at this point.
I also wrote a Cafe story for October. It's also not the best story I've ever written, but it's mainstream fiction without any fantastical elements, which I am pretty impressed with myself about, since the prompt lent itself to magic. And it had a bully in it, and it was bully awareness month or whatever, so that was timely.
I didn't have much luck with SP, but I did finally find the plot and the steps in the treasure hunt for the current adventure. And found a way to make sure more of the regular characters are in it. The first adventure in the second season is a huge deviation from the rest, but it also meant that one of the main characters only got a few lines at the end. It should be fun next time I sit down with it.
I also started a copy edit for Kevin, brainstormed for NaNo, and toyed with putting together a query for SP. I'm considering maybe floating it by Carina Press. I may change my mind, but I wrote up a very rough draft of a submissions packet. I'll make a decision on that next year.
Overall, I got my 15k words written. Most of those were within the first three days of the month finishing up book three, but in general, I did better in September than I thought I would once I wrote "the end."
This month, I plan to focus on Druid Wars and NaNo prep. I promised my siblings I'd have Ghosts of the Grove ready for them for Christmas, so no more putting off those edits. I've also got to finish up Kevin's edits and beta read for Ashes. I don't anticipate having any time leftover after all that, but if I do, maybe I'll throw a few more words at SP 2.2 I imagine it will be a low word month and a high editing hour month. Which will be fine. If I do manage to write 50k next month, that'll make up for all the months I didn't make it to 15k.
Tuesday, September 4, 2018
September Update: Done and Done
BOOK THREE IS DONE!
This is not a drill. I wrote through the climax, through the immediate sad aftermath (a phrase I coined when trying to explain the next scene, and Jack said that's officially what it should be called, haha), and all the resolutions. I found an even better last line than I had before. And I wrote THE END.
And the last line is really great. I wrote it after the climax, then had to move it. It's a great line to really hit it home that this is the heroine's journey story arc.
ANYway. Finally. After months of thinking I'd be able to wrap it up. Months of "okay, just one more month, another 15k words." It finally wrapped up at about 142,500 words, a little before noon on Labor Day. A lot of those words are awful and redundant. But. All of the sand is in the sandbox, now. My next step is to shape that sand into a well-constructed sand castle. It's going to take time, patience, persistence, and perseverance. And probably a lot of blood, sweat and tears. But these days, I do really enjoy the editing process as much as, if not more than, the actual writing.
So, while the book is "done," it's not actually done, done. They never are. I'm already thinking about scenes that need to be moved and things I need to add. It's going to be a long book, don't get me wrong. But I'm hopeful that in edits, I'll be able to get it back down around 130k-135k. But as the last book in a trilogy, I think it's acceptable to be longer than the others. I've got book one down to 119k. Book two I think is around 125k. So, yeah. Not more than 135k, I think. I hope.
I thought it might be fun to share some stats, real quick, to show how hard I worked to wrap this book up by this past weekend. I wrote 8k words over the three-day weekend. I wrote over 15k words in a week. And I wrote 15k total in August, and that was after writing about 4k in the first week, then barely writing until the last four days of the month.
It was really important to me to wrap it up over the weekend. The main reason is because August 31 is the anniversary of my mom's passing. She's been gone eight years, now. And as I've been writing this trilogy, I've realized that it parallels my journey through dealing with grief. I realized as I neared the end of book three, planning Diana's resolution, that all of these books were about dealing with the loss of my mom. I was all like "and in the end, Diana will let go of her anger and find healthy ways to grieve those she's lost and...oh. Right." It me. So yeah. Writing "the end" the weekend of that anniversary had a lot of synergy. Diana can finally be happy. And so can I. And I have been.
I also started writing this crazy trilogy in August seven years ago, so wrapping it up in August was also important. Especially since I wasn't able to finish it during Camp NaNo.
Anyway. TL;DR: book three is done and I'm happy.
And I ordered my camera. I'll get it this weekend. I'm so excited.
We'll see what the next month or so brings. It may bring me diving full speed into edits of book three, I may jump into SP, or I may try to write a Cafe story or two. I may do absolutely nothing for a month or two. I'm kind kind of just listening to myself to see what I'm up for. I'm strangely not as tired as I thought I'd be after all that. I'm more invigorated than anything. It's weird.
Also, in the last month, I've decided to table querying Druid Wars until next year. I may still work on edits for it before the year is out, but I won't plan on querying until spring of next year. In hindsight, all those rejections really did a number on me, so I'm not in a hurry to put myself out there again. It probably means burning the SFFpit like I got, but at this point, I don't care. I am not in a place where I have the energy to query and receive rejections, let alone deal with an acceptance if I happened to get one.
So yeah. My goal this month is to take it easy and work on those things I feel like working on. I might try to hit my 15k words by writing a Cafe story or throwing a few words on various projects, but if I fall short, it's fine. Next month, I will try to work on edits on Druid Wars before diving into crazy writing in November.
I have no idea what I'm writing for NaNo. And I'd like to keep it that way until a few days before it starts.
I have no idea what I'm doing this month as far as writing. I don't even know if I'll have anything worthwhile to update about next month, so it may be quiet here for a bit.
All I know is that I'll be taking some pictures for awhile.
This is not a drill. I wrote through the climax, through the immediate sad aftermath (a phrase I coined when trying to explain the next scene, and Jack said that's officially what it should be called, haha), and all the resolutions. I found an even better last line than I had before. And I wrote THE END.
And the last line is really great. I wrote it after the climax, then had to move it. It's a great line to really hit it home that this is the heroine's journey story arc.
ANYway. Finally. After months of thinking I'd be able to wrap it up. Months of "okay, just one more month, another 15k words." It finally wrapped up at about 142,500 words, a little before noon on Labor Day. A lot of those words are awful and redundant. But. All of the sand is in the sandbox, now. My next step is to shape that sand into a well-constructed sand castle. It's going to take time, patience, persistence, and perseverance. And probably a lot of blood, sweat and tears. But these days, I do really enjoy the editing process as much as, if not more than, the actual writing.
So, while the book is "done," it's not actually done, done. They never are. I'm already thinking about scenes that need to be moved and things I need to add. It's going to be a long book, don't get me wrong. But I'm hopeful that in edits, I'll be able to get it back down around 130k-135k. But as the last book in a trilogy, I think it's acceptable to be longer than the others. I've got book one down to 119k. Book two I think is around 125k. So, yeah. Not more than 135k, I think. I hope.
I thought it might be fun to share some stats, real quick, to show how hard I worked to wrap this book up by this past weekend. I wrote 8k words over the three-day weekend. I wrote over 15k words in a week. And I wrote 15k total in August, and that was after writing about 4k in the first week, then barely writing until the last four days of the month.
It was really important to me to wrap it up over the weekend. The main reason is because August 31 is the anniversary of my mom's passing. She's been gone eight years, now. And as I've been writing this trilogy, I've realized that it parallels my journey through dealing with grief. I realized as I neared the end of book three, planning Diana's resolution, that all of these books were about dealing with the loss of my mom. I was all like "and in the end, Diana will let go of her anger and find healthy ways to grieve those she's lost and...oh. Right." It me. So yeah. Writing "the end" the weekend of that anniversary had a lot of synergy. Diana can finally be happy. And so can I. And I have been.
I also started writing this crazy trilogy in August seven years ago, so wrapping it up in August was also important. Especially since I wasn't able to finish it during Camp NaNo.
Anyway. TL;DR: book three is done and I'm happy.
And I ordered my camera. I'll get it this weekend. I'm so excited.
We'll see what the next month or so brings. It may bring me diving full speed into edits of book three, I may jump into SP, or I may try to write a Cafe story or two. I may do absolutely nothing for a month or two. I'm kind kind of just listening to myself to see what I'm up for. I'm strangely not as tired as I thought I'd be after all that. I'm more invigorated than anything. It's weird.
Also, in the last month, I've decided to table querying Druid Wars until next year. I may still work on edits for it before the year is out, but I won't plan on querying until spring of next year. In hindsight, all those rejections really did a number on me, so I'm not in a hurry to put myself out there again. It probably means burning the SFFpit like I got, but at this point, I don't care. I am not in a place where I have the energy to query and receive rejections, let alone deal with an acceptance if I happened to get one.
So yeah. My goal this month is to take it easy and work on those things I feel like working on. I might try to hit my 15k words by writing a Cafe story or throwing a few words on various projects, but if I fall short, it's fine. Next month, I will try to work on edits on Druid Wars before diving into crazy writing in November.
I have no idea what I'm writing for NaNo. And I'd like to keep it that way until a few days before it starts.
I have no idea what I'm doing this month as far as writing. I don't even know if I'll have anything worthwhile to update about next month, so it may be quiet here for a bit.
All I know is that I'll be taking some pictures for awhile.
Thursday, August 2, 2018
August Update: Tough Goodbyes
Okay, bad news first.
Book three is still not done.
The good news is, I did spend most of the month working on it, adding about 20k words and moving it up so that it's very, very near the climax. The rest shouldn't take more than 10k-15k to write. So. I'm aiming to have that done in the next couple of weeks.
The second half of this month, I am really going to try to dive back into Druid Wars and at least get the dev edits done. I'm getting antsy to get that out. I'd really like to start querying this year, if at all possible, and I'm running out of months. They say most agents don't read much in December, even if they don't close, and I'm planning to focus solely on writing something new in November for NaNo. So that leaves August, September, and October to clean it up and query.
I think it'll be easier to shift focus to editing Druid Wars once book three is done. It's taking up a lot of my creative space right now, and I'm just so, so close to done that I can't think about anything else, even though some days I wish I could.
Hard to believe I started this journey seven years ago. It'll probably be eight years, all told, once I get edits and stuff done. Three books, start to finish, in eight years. That's not bad.
I would like to get more consistent though. I'm in a weird limbo where I'm working on old projects, trying to get them where they need to be. Once I settle into a write, edit, query routine, I'll be able to better put a timeline on books. Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe I'll always be all over the place.
I still need to write one more Sally Prescott novelette this year, too. I got the alien one written (although it needs a really big edit in the middle), and the opening to the forest one. It should only take a month to crank it out. It'll be hard without Camp to help me through it, though. Hell, maybe I'll spend NaNo proper writing two SPs. Or even three! That math checks out. I need 15k more on 2.2 and two more would be 35k.
I'll consider it. I think I'll be pissed at myself if I do that, but it would put me back on track. I really would like to do three a year. Hell, I'd like to do five a year, but that's probably too much. They're supposed to be fun and laid back. I can't be that silly on command that much.
No, I really think I need something brand new. Although I tried that last year, and it didn't work. I love the world and story I created, and I really want to go back and find out what happens, but not for a NaNo.
I have to admit that the last month, I've been teetering on the edge of, do I really want to keep doing this? And I know I doubt myself from time to time and always come back to writing. But I think once I finish writing Mystwatch book three and editing Druid Wars book one, I may take a break for awhile. Maybe I'll do the SP adventure, but I have promised myself the freedom to not work on anything once all my projects for this year are done.
We'll see when I get there. I might not get there this year. I may drag these lingering projects into the next year. I hope not. I'd like to wrap up this "chapter" so to speak.
I want to switch gears for awhile. Maybe just a month. But I want to buy a new camera and take some pictures. I want to switch mediums and spend my free time photowandering rather than thinking so much about writing and editing. I want to tell stories with light rather than words. Probably not forever. Just for a bit. Until I get tired of it. Until I get antsy again.
I've written consistently for the last three and a half years (or at least written a writing blog once a month since then), so I think it would be okay for me to take some time away from it. I'm strangely not worried about losing momentum or anything. I'm already so behind on all my goals. I'm ready to throw my timeline out the window. If anything, I think a break might help recharge me. Give me some new stories and some new perspectives.
This is all tentative right now. When the time comes, I may not take a break. I may not actually know how to do that, anymore. But I will take pictures, either way. When I finish writing book three, I am going to reward myself with a new camera.
I'm dragging my feet, though. In part because once it's done, that's it. The end of something huge. In part because in my mind, I already know how it ends. I've imagined the final scenes over and over since the very first chapter I wrote. But I owe it to a lot of people--my friends, my brother and sister, my main character, and even myself--to put those images to paper. The end of the end. Diana's closure.
I'll be sad to say goodbye.
But the good news is, I'm already seeing Diana and the rest of the cast of characters through Eden's eyes, so I know it's only "see you later" not "goodbye." I'm not done writing in the MystWatch world. I'm just going away for a little while. I know I can always go back to visit.
Anyway. I digress.
Goodbyes are hard. I've lost a lot of coworkers at the day job the last several months, and that's been really sad. So many of them are off to better places, so in a way, I am jealous that I'm being left behind at this weird job that isn't really editing in the strictest sense. It's hard because I'm not even looking for another job. My plan has always been to work this job until I can make a living with my writing. I'm starting to worry it won't last that long.
Case in point, I just made $50 on a short story. Which, hey, someone wanted to buy one of my stories, paying me for a story that took me two days to write! But that was after sending it out seven times, and all the rest of the stories I've sent out have been rejected (or are in limbo).
It's so hard being a writer. It's demoralizing sometimes. As is the day job sometimes. I don't want to look for something new. But I might have to, out of fear for my job security.
Anyway. Life is chaotic and I have no idea what I'm doing. And I'm not even the one who just had a baby and moved into a new house (my sister), or got a new job and am moving to a new state (my coworker).
This turned into more of a look into my personal life than just my writing life. But sometimes it's hard to pull the two apart.
Anyway. This isn't goodbye for this blog. Not now. Not yet. But if I do finish my projects and decide I need a break, I may take a hiatus from posting here. Or hey, maybe I'll just post pictures. They do say that a picture is worth a thousand words.
I guess we'll see when the time comes.
Book three is still not done.
The good news is, I did spend most of the month working on it, adding about 20k words and moving it up so that it's very, very near the climax. The rest shouldn't take more than 10k-15k to write. So. I'm aiming to have that done in the next couple of weeks.
The second half of this month, I am really going to try to dive back into Druid Wars and at least get the dev edits done. I'm getting antsy to get that out. I'd really like to start querying this year, if at all possible, and I'm running out of months. They say most agents don't read much in December, even if they don't close, and I'm planning to focus solely on writing something new in November for NaNo. So that leaves August, September, and October to clean it up and query.
I think it'll be easier to shift focus to editing Druid Wars once book three is done. It's taking up a lot of my creative space right now, and I'm just so, so close to done that I can't think about anything else, even though some days I wish I could.
Hard to believe I started this journey seven years ago. It'll probably be eight years, all told, once I get edits and stuff done. Three books, start to finish, in eight years. That's not bad.
I would like to get more consistent though. I'm in a weird limbo where I'm working on old projects, trying to get them where they need to be. Once I settle into a write, edit, query routine, I'll be able to better put a timeline on books. Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe I'll always be all over the place.
I still need to write one more Sally Prescott novelette this year, too. I got the alien one written (although it needs a really big edit in the middle), and the opening to the forest one. It should only take a month to crank it out. It'll be hard without Camp to help me through it, though. Hell, maybe I'll spend NaNo proper writing two SPs. Or even three! That math checks out. I need 15k more on 2.2 and two more would be 35k.
I'll consider it. I think I'll be pissed at myself if I do that, but it would put me back on track. I really would like to do three a year. Hell, I'd like to do five a year, but that's probably too much. They're supposed to be fun and laid back. I can't be that silly on command that much.
No, I really think I need something brand new. Although I tried that last year, and it didn't work. I love the world and story I created, and I really want to go back and find out what happens, but not for a NaNo.
I have to admit that the last month, I've been teetering on the edge of, do I really want to keep doing this? And I know I doubt myself from time to time and always come back to writing. But I think once I finish writing Mystwatch book three and editing Druid Wars book one, I may take a break for awhile. Maybe I'll do the SP adventure, but I have promised myself the freedom to not work on anything once all my projects for this year are done.
We'll see when I get there. I might not get there this year. I may drag these lingering projects into the next year. I hope not. I'd like to wrap up this "chapter" so to speak.
I want to switch gears for awhile. Maybe just a month. But I want to buy a new camera and take some pictures. I want to switch mediums and spend my free time photowandering rather than thinking so much about writing and editing. I want to tell stories with light rather than words. Probably not forever. Just for a bit. Until I get tired of it. Until I get antsy again.
I've written consistently for the last three and a half years (or at least written a writing blog once a month since then), so I think it would be okay for me to take some time away from it. I'm strangely not worried about losing momentum or anything. I'm already so behind on all my goals. I'm ready to throw my timeline out the window. If anything, I think a break might help recharge me. Give me some new stories and some new perspectives.
This is all tentative right now. When the time comes, I may not take a break. I may not actually know how to do that, anymore. But I will take pictures, either way. When I finish writing book three, I am going to reward myself with a new camera.
I'm dragging my feet, though. In part because once it's done, that's it. The end of something huge. In part because in my mind, I already know how it ends. I've imagined the final scenes over and over since the very first chapter I wrote. But I owe it to a lot of people--my friends, my brother and sister, my main character, and even myself--to put those images to paper. The end of the end. Diana's closure.
I'll be sad to say goodbye.
But the good news is, I'm already seeing Diana and the rest of the cast of characters through Eden's eyes, so I know it's only "see you later" not "goodbye." I'm not done writing in the MystWatch world. I'm just going away for a little while. I know I can always go back to visit.
Anyway. I digress.
Goodbyes are hard. I've lost a lot of coworkers at the day job the last several months, and that's been really sad. So many of them are off to better places, so in a way, I am jealous that I'm being left behind at this weird job that isn't really editing in the strictest sense. It's hard because I'm not even looking for another job. My plan has always been to work this job until I can make a living with my writing. I'm starting to worry it won't last that long.
Case in point, I just made $50 on a short story. Which, hey, someone wanted to buy one of my stories, paying me for a story that took me two days to write! But that was after sending it out seven times, and all the rest of the stories I've sent out have been rejected (or are in limbo).
It's so hard being a writer. It's demoralizing sometimes. As is the day job sometimes. I don't want to look for something new. But I might have to, out of fear for my job security.
Anyway. Life is chaotic and I have no idea what I'm doing. And I'm not even the one who just had a baby and moved into a new house (my sister), or got a new job and am moving to a new state (my coworker).
This turned into more of a look into my personal life than just my writing life. But sometimes it's hard to pull the two apart.
Anyway. This isn't goodbye for this blog. Not now. Not yet. But if I do finish my projects and decide I need a break, I may take a hiatus from posting here. Or hey, maybe I'll just post pictures. They do say that a picture is worth a thousand words.
I guess we'll see when the time comes.
Thursday, July 5, 2018
July Update: Setbacks
Nothing like finding a pattern, accepting that it changes, then having the whole thing go out the window.
At the end of May, I had the first in a long line in some health issues. Then friends and family had health issues. And, not surprisingly, all of that really sucks creativity dry. I barely had the energy to do my normal day-to-day stuff, so there wasn't anything left for writing.
Don't get me wrong. I love writing. It's a great escape. But it takes up a lot of space, both time-wise and mentally. Especially when trying to write on the level that I am.
So, when I hit the last week of June and hadn't done much at all, I adjusted my goals to be more modest. I still didn't make those goals, so now I'm just calling June my mid-year break. I think sometimes I need a slower month. Especially when life happens beyond its normal scope.
I did get a Cafe story written, and wrote a few thousand on book three, so I managed to pull out just under 6k words written for the month, with about 10 hours of editing various things (mostly my Cafe story and some tweaks to book three as I was re-familiarizing myself with characters and tone). Not too shabby, all things considered.
This month, I had originally planned on writing the next SP adventure, but at the last minute, I decided I was in the mood to keep working on book three. So now my goal is to finish it up this month. That way I can keep my Camp continuity like I wanted in April. I just broke 100k for the book, and the rest of the scenes should be fairly straightforward. We're rushing toward the climax now. I know all the scenes that need to happen to get me there. And right now, when I do sit down to write, the words come easily. So I'm optimistic I can get this done this month.
That means I might not get to Druid Wars edits. Which means I might be ruining the one agent like I got on Twitter for #SFFpit. But I don't mind too much. A like is a like, so even if I don't get around to submitting it to her until, like, October, she'd still be interested, right?
Anyway. Because of this little snag in my writing progress, I'm having to revamp my project timeline. MystWatch and Druid Wars are my big projects now. I want to get both of those done this year. Which means that, yet again, Pandemonium book one is getting pushed back. I'll work on it next year.
And that shifts everything else back almost a year. So. I might be waiting until 2021 to publish MystWatch. And that's okay. Looking that far ahead is fun, but making definite plans for the future is silly, because it's so easy to get off track and really berate myself for that. I'd rather focus on the progress I've actually made than the goals I've failed to meet.
The most important thing I think I've realized after deciding to push all my goals back is that I have all the time in the world right now. I can take two years to write a book. I can take a full year to edit a book. I don't have fans or contracts or deadlines. And right now, I really like that. I can read books and watch shows and take time off. Just because I can write 15k a month doesn't mean I have to do it every month.
I know I've realized that before, but I'm trying to remind myself of that frequently. There's no rush. I've got time. The longer I wait, the more material I'll have built up, which means the less I'll have to push myself in the future. I need lots of space and time.
I do want to query Druid Wars this year. I do. But I want to finish book three first, so I can focus on it better.
And then for NaNo, I want to write something new! I don't know what yet. But I also don't really want to think about it yet, because I got tired of my NaNo idea last year before I'd even really started. I'd love to do a real NaNo this year. Really push myself to write a crazy novel in a month. Participate in events and stuff. Not worry about markets or agents or editing or messing up continuity in a given series. I hope I can pull that off.
But I have to get everything else done this year first.
So. For July, I will aim to finish book three. That's it. In August, I'll edit Druid Wars, then once that's ready to start submitting, I'll write the SP adventure I didn't write this month. September, I'll start editing book three, maybe write Shane's short. In October, I'll finish editing book three and maybe write another SP adventure. Then, I'll be ready for NaNo in November. Then in December, I'll tie up any loose ends. If there are no loose ends, I will rest.
And that's as far as I'm planning. A year at a time, Sara. Baby steps will still get me there, in the end.
At the end of May, I had the first in a long line in some health issues. Then friends and family had health issues. And, not surprisingly, all of that really sucks creativity dry. I barely had the energy to do my normal day-to-day stuff, so there wasn't anything left for writing.
Don't get me wrong. I love writing. It's a great escape. But it takes up a lot of space, both time-wise and mentally. Especially when trying to write on the level that I am.
So, when I hit the last week of June and hadn't done much at all, I adjusted my goals to be more modest. I still didn't make those goals, so now I'm just calling June my mid-year break. I think sometimes I need a slower month. Especially when life happens beyond its normal scope.
I did get a Cafe story written, and wrote a few thousand on book three, so I managed to pull out just under 6k words written for the month, with about 10 hours of editing various things (mostly my Cafe story and some tweaks to book three as I was re-familiarizing myself with characters and tone). Not too shabby, all things considered.
This month, I had originally planned on writing the next SP adventure, but at the last minute, I decided I was in the mood to keep working on book three. So now my goal is to finish it up this month. That way I can keep my Camp continuity like I wanted in April. I just broke 100k for the book, and the rest of the scenes should be fairly straightforward. We're rushing toward the climax now. I know all the scenes that need to happen to get me there. And right now, when I do sit down to write, the words come easily. So I'm optimistic I can get this done this month.
That means I might not get to Druid Wars edits. Which means I might be ruining the one agent like I got on Twitter for #SFFpit. But I don't mind too much. A like is a like, so even if I don't get around to submitting it to her until, like, October, she'd still be interested, right?
Anyway. Because of this little snag in my writing progress, I'm having to revamp my project timeline. MystWatch and Druid Wars are my big projects now. I want to get both of those done this year. Which means that, yet again, Pandemonium book one is getting pushed back. I'll work on it next year.
And that shifts everything else back almost a year. So. I might be waiting until 2021 to publish MystWatch. And that's okay. Looking that far ahead is fun, but making definite plans for the future is silly, because it's so easy to get off track and really berate myself for that. I'd rather focus on the progress I've actually made than the goals I've failed to meet.
The most important thing I think I've realized after deciding to push all my goals back is that I have all the time in the world right now. I can take two years to write a book. I can take a full year to edit a book. I don't have fans or contracts or deadlines. And right now, I really like that. I can read books and watch shows and take time off. Just because I can write 15k a month doesn't mean I have to do it every month.
I know I've realized that before, but I'm trying to remind myself of that frequently. There's no rush. I've got time. The longer I wait, the more material I'll have built up, which means the less I'll have to push myself in the future. I need lots of space and time.
I do want to query Druid Wars this year. I do. But I want to finish book three first, so I can focus on it better.
And then for NaNo, I want to write something new! I don't know what yet. But I also don't really want to think about it yet, because I got tired of my NaNo idea last year before I'd even really started. I'd love to do a real NaNo this year. Really push myself to write a crazy novel in a month. Participate in events and stuff. Not worry about markets or agents or editing or messing up continuity in a given series. I hope I can pull that off.
But I have to get everything else done this year first.
So. For July, I will aim to finish book three. That's it. In August, I'll edit Druid Wars, then once that's ready to start submitting, I'll write the SP adventure I didn't write this month. September, I'll start editing book three, maybe write Shane's short. In October, I'll finish editing book three and maybe write another SP adventure. Then, I'll be ready for NaNo in November. Then in December, I'll tie up any loose ends. If there are no loose ends, I will rest.
And that's as far as I'm planning. A year at a time, Sara. Baby steps will still get me there, in the end.
Friday, June 1, 2018
June Update: Same Old Story
Nothing like finding a pattern in something and then have it go completely sideways on you.
My productive half of the month flip-flopped on me, so I wrote almost my entire word count goal's worth of words by the 19th. So yeah. I guess the pattern to recognize isn't that certain halves of the month are more productive, or that the moon has anything to do with it, but rather that I will sometimes hit a groove during the month and sometimes I will hit a slump. Who knows when those will come, but I'm still writing consistently each month, so that's the biggest thing to keep in mind.
I easily wrote 15k words. I even ended up at about 17k words, after throwing some words at a Cafe story and participating in ConQuesT's Story-in-a-Bag contest.
I still haven't edited Druid Wars. I edited some SP shorts instead. Those are at a point where I think they just need one more line edit each, and then proofread by someone not me. And I've actually found someone to proofread for me. So that's coming along. Now I just need to write a bunch more, and I can maybe actually start monetizing them. Probably will still be a couple years yet, but that's solidifying nicely. I'm happy with things so far. I had a friend read the first couple, and she says they are a lot of fun. That's all they're really meant to be, so she's given me the confidence to go ahead with my publishing plan for them.
I'm still writing words on book three, and I'm at a point where I know all the rest of the scenes and am excited to write it. I'm aiming to write another 15-20k in June. If all goes well, I'll be able to wrap it up before July so I can spend July doing another SP Camp NaNo.
I still haven't gotten any bites as far as short story submission. I think I have one more market in mind for my time travel flash, and then I'm relegating it to the Cafe. The others I have out I am not optimistic for. I may throw one more story out there when a specific market opens up in August, but for now, I'm done with all that. It was a distraction. It's taking energy I don't really have. It was fun at first, but the rejections are starting to bother me. I know I could always try unpaid markets, but half the reason I decided to do it was to make a few bucks. I'm at a point where I don't want to write for free anymore. So I need to let the short story thing go. I'm not a short story writer. I write them for fun. I can't expect to make money on them. If I do, great. But if not, ah well.
One thing I did do last month that I hadn't planned for was submit book one to one last publisher. Maybe they'll take a chance on me. It would be so, so nice not to have to do everything myself. So fingers crossed for that. I should hear back in a couple months.
So yeah. That's where I'm at right now. Almost done writing book three. Ready to write SP 2.2 next month. Hoping against hope I might get book one picked up. And very behind on editing Druid Wars.
For June, as I mentioned, I'd like to throw enough words at book three to finish it up. And I'd like to get Druid Wars fixed up by the time #SFFpit happens on the 28th. Same old stuff. But. I'm trudging right along. Maybe I'll have more exciting things to say for next month's update!
My productive half of the month flip-flopped on me, so I wrote almost my entire word count goal's worth of words by the 19th. So yeah. I guess the pattern to recognize isn't that certain halves of the month are more productive, or that the moon has anything to do with it, but rather that I will sometimes hit a groove during the month and sometimes I will hit a slump. Who knows when those will come, but I'm still writing consistently each month, so that's the biggest thing to keep in mind.
I easily wrote 15k words. I even ended up at about 17k words, after throwing some words at a Cafe story and participating in ConQuesT's Story-in-a-Bag contest.
I still haven't edited Druid Wars. I edited some SP shorts instead. Those are at a point where I think they just need one more line edit each, and then proofread by someone not me. And I've actually found someone to proofread for me. So that's coming along. Now I just need to write a bunch more, and I can maybe actually start monetizing them. Probably will still be a couple years yet, but that's solidifying nicely. I'm happy with things so far. I had a friend read the first couple, and she says they are a lot of fun. That's all they're really meant to be, so she's given me the confidence to go ahead with my publishing plan for them.
I'm still writing words on book three, and I'm at a point where I know all the rest of the scenes and am excited to write it. I'm aiming to write another 15-20k in June. If all goes well, I'll be able to wrap it up before July so I can spend July doing another SP Camp NaNo.
I still haven't gotten any bites as far as short story submission. I think I have one more market in mind for my time travel flash, and then I'm relegating it to the Cafe. The others I have out I am not optimistic for. I may throw one more story out there when a specific market opens up in August, but for now, I'm done with all that. It was a distraction. It's taking energy I don't really have. It was fun at first, but the rejections are starting to bother me. I know I could always try unpaid markets, but half the reason I decided to do it was to make a few bucks. I'm at a point where I don't want to write for free anymore. So I need to let the short story thing go. I'm not a short story writer. I write them for fun. I can't expect to make money on them. If I do, great. But if not, ah well.
One thing I did do last month that I hadn't planned for was submit book one to one last publisher. Maybe they'll take a chance on me. It would be so, so nice not to have to do everything myself. So fingers crossed for that. I should hear back in a couple months.
So yeah. That's where I'm at right now. Almost done writing book three. Ready to write SP 2.2 next month. Hoping against hope I might get book one picked up. And very behind on editing Druid Wars.
For June, as I mentioned, I'd like to throw enough words at book three to finish it up. And I'd like to get Druid Wars fixed up by the time #SFFpit happens on the 28th. Same old stuff. But. I'm trudging right along. Maybe I'll have more exciting things to say for next month's update!
Tuesday, May 1, 2018
May Update: Patterns and Progress
I'm only four months into this year at this point, but I'm keeping up a pretty good routine. My overall goal for this year has been to try to write around 15k words a month and spend at least a little bit of time editing each month. I spent most of January editing, but the last three months, I've been trying to find a balance. With varying degrees of success.
I've noticed some patterns the last few months of tracking my word count and progress. The first half of the months, even if I write every day, I don't seem to make much progress. The writing comes slowly and laboriously. I don't get lost in the world as much. But by the second half of the month, I seem to hit my stride. In April, I had more than one day where I wrote 2k words or more. Six days like that, to be exact. And while the previous two months there wasn't a substantial difference in word count from first half to second half of the month, in April, I wrote 3k words total in the first two weeks, and 16k in the second two weeks.
I don't have a good explanation for this. It could be coincidence. It could be that I expect myself to change gears right at the change of month, and it takes a week or two for my inspiration to catch up. It could be a deadline thing, where I procrastinate the first half of the month, then work to catch up the second half. Which would make sense if the level of energy for writing wasn't so drastically different. Maybe it's a new moon verses full moon thing. The day after the new moon last month, my progress skyrocketed. That's my best explanation so far, since going back and tracking progress over the last year, it seems to correspond with the moon phases. Saying that out loud sounds a bit crazy, so maybe that is all in my head. Who knows.
Regardless, it's nice to see patterns in the month. It's comforting to know that my slumps won't last forever, and that I go through them every month.
At any rate, my goals last month were to finish up SP 2.1 and edit Druid Wars to incorporate beta reader feedback.
The start to the month, like the month before, was slow. Despite sitting down to write every day that first week, I made minimal progress. But the second half of the month, things kicked into gear, and I not only managed to surpass my word count goal for the month, I actually even did manage to finish the adventure, which, until the last couple of days, I wasn't sure I could pull off. I even threw some words on the next adventure, which was fun and ridiculous, but I'm so glad I did it. It'll make Camp in July easier to get into, since I have a start. And easier to finish, since my average word count goal is 15k, and I already have 1.5k words written.
I still haven't worked on Druid Wars, though. I spent about two hours poking at it one day, and I talked to one of my writing friends about some of the edits I had concerns about, but I've not done anything substantial.
I can't put it off any longer, though. The Twitter pitch contest SFFpit takes place on June 28. I want to have this thing ready by then, so that means dev edits this month and line edits next month. My goal is to do dev edits pretty early this month and get them done, so I have at least a couple of weeks between one pass and the next. The only downside of that is I have to shift gears to go right into edits this month. I'm still bathing in the glow of the recently full moon, so it may be hard to choke off the desire to write and shift into the more analytical editing mode. Although I do need to write a scene or two, so perhaps I can focus on that.
The trouble is, I'm still not all that interested in the Druid Wars world. Last month, I attributed my hesitance to fear of having another book ready to query. After a good hard look at the book and the edits I need to make, I realized that a lot of my problem is excitement. I just don't have any for that world right now. So I'll have to make a choice. Continue with my timeline, which means I'm going to have to suck it up and do it anyway, or fall back on my new emerging idea of working on what I want to work on now while I can, since I don't have contractual obligations at this time.
Still, the editing portion of the month wasn't a total loss. I spent a day working on finishing edits to another SP adventure in the first season, so that's something. I just spent so much time working and reworking the outline for the adventure I was doing for Camp that that part of my brain was fried. Plus the aforementioned trouble with interest in what I was supposed to be editing.
The biggest thing I did last month that I didn't really plan for was short story submission. It started as kind of a procrastination technique, but it was also a nice changing of gears. Plus, I've dealt with so much rejection in the last year, I was hoping to get a short story accepted so I would have some success to speak of. Sadly, at this point, that's all been rejections, as well. Although one rejection was kind enough to invite me to submit something else during their submission period because they liked my writing, just not the story I submitted. That was very validating. I even poked at another short story to submit to them for a few days. Although the progress on that was so negligible, I didn't even record the word count on my spreadsheet. I'm sad to have missed that opportunity, but I decided, in the long run, my energies were better spent elsewhere. I just didn't have anything else for them.
Overall, I wrote 19k words in April and spent six hours editing various things. Mostly SP stories.
In May, I really have to do dev edits for Druid Wars. I'll give it a few days to see if I can get myself interested, maybe poke at other projects, but then I'll have to buckle down and force myself to do it. That's my main goal this month.
My other goal is to get back to work on MystWatch book three. Which is good. I'm feeling the pull of that story, the stirrings of inspiration to work on it. If I can throw another 15k words at it this month, I should be able to wrap it up with another 15k next month. If all goes well. If it doesn't, I can finish it up in July. But come August, I have got to put this world behind me and move on to the next big thing.
I've been feeling a bit unsettled the last month, since the two main projects I've actually worked on are projects that I will have to self-publish if I want to see them in print. Which isn't to say it's not good practice writing and editing or that someday I won't be glad to have these things. But I'm getting more and more impatient with myself. I turn 40 in less than three years, now. I can't help but feel like I'm running out of time.
Which is silly. It's not like I'm going to stop trying when I hit 40. I have an impressive body of work. I'm not limited to mainstream publishing, and everything is fodder down the line. I know I just have to keep at it. And I will. I just have to be okay with adjusting my expectations from time to time. That's why this blog is so necessary. I have to check in with myself every month, see how I'm doing and incorporate new information to my ever-evolving goals.
I'm right where I should be, doing the things I should be doing. It's all going to work out.
I've noticed some patterns the last few months of tracking my word count and progress. The first half of the months, even if I write every day, I don't seem to make much progress. The writing comes slowly and laboriously. I don't get lost in the world as much. But by the second half of the month, I seem to hit my stride. In April, I had more than one day where I wrote 2k words or more. Six days like that, to be exact. And while the previous two months there wasn't a substantial difference in word count from first half to second half of the month, in April, I wrote 3k words total in the first two weeks, and 16k in the second two weeks.
I don't have a good explanation for this. It could be coincidence. It could be that I expect myself to change gears right at the change of month, and it takes a week or two for my inspiration to catch up. It could be a deadline thing, where I procrastinate the first half of the month, then work to catch up the second half. Which would make sense if the level of energy for writing wasn't so drastically different. Maybe it's a new moon verses full moon thing. The day after the new moon last month, my progress skyrocketed. That's my best explanation so far, since going back and tracking progress over the last year, it seems to correspond with the moon phases. Saying that out loud sounds a bit crazy, so maybe that is all in my head. Who knows.
Regardless, it's nice to see patterns in the month. It's comforting to know that my slumps won't last forever, and that I go through them every month.
At any rate, my goals last month were to finish up SP 2.1 and edit Druid Wars to incorporate beta reader feedback.
The start to the month, like the month before, was slow. Despite sitting down to write every day that first week, I made minimal progress. But the second half of the month, things kicked into gear, and I not only managed to surpass my word count goal for the month, I actually even did manage to finish the adventure, which, until the last couple of days, I wasn't sure I could pull off. I even threw some words on the next adventure, which was fun and ridiculous, but I'm so glad I did it. It'll make Camp in July easier to get into, since I have a start. And easier to finish, since my average word count goal is 15k, and I already have 1.5k words written.
I still haven't worked on Druid Wars, though. I spent about two hours poking at it one day, and I talked to one of my writing friends about some of the edits I had concerns about, but I've not done anything substantial.
I can't put it off any longer, though. The Twitter pitch contest SFFpit takes place on June 28. I want to have this thing ready by then, so that means dev edits this month and line edits next month. My goal is to do dev edits pretty early this month and get them done, so I have at least a couple of weeks between one pass and the next. The only downside of that is I have to shift gears to go right into edits this month. I'm still bathing in the glow of the recently full moon, so it may be hard to choke off the desire to write and shift into the more analytical editing mode. Although I do need to write a scene or two, so perhaps I can focus on that.
The trouble is, I'm still not all that interested in the Druid Wars world. Last month, I attributed my hesitance to fear of having another book ready to query. After a good hard look at the book and the edits I need to make, I realized that a lot of my problem is excitement. I just don't have any for that world right now. So I'll have to make a choice. Continue with my timeline, which means I'm going to have to suck it up and do it anyway, or fall back on my new emerging idea of working on what I want to work on now while I can, since I don't have contractual obligations at this time.
Still, the editing portion of the month wasn't a total loss. I spent a day working on finishing edits to another SP adventure in the first season, so that's something. I just spent so much time working and reworking the outline for the adventure I was doing for Camp that that part of my brain was fried. Plus the aforementioned trouble with interest in what I was supposed to be editing.
The biggest thing I did last month that I didn't really plan for was short story submission. It started as kind of a procrastination technique, but it was also a nice changing of gears. Plus, I've dealt with so much rejection in the last year, I was hoping to get a short story accepted so I would have some success to speak of. Sadly, at this point, that's all been rejections, as well. Although one rejection was kind enough to invite me to submit something else during their submission period because they liked my writing, just not the story I submitted. That was very validating. I even poked at another short story to submit to them for a few days. Although the progress on that was so negligible, I didn't even record the word count on my spreadsheet. I'm sad to have missed that opportunity, but I decided, in the long run, my energies were better spent elsewhere. I just didn't have anything else for them.
Overall, I wrote 19k words in April and spent six hours editing various things. Mostly SP stories.
In May, I really have to do dev edits for Druid Wars. I'll give it a few days to see if I can get myself interested, maybe poke at other projects, but then I'll have to buckle down and force myself to do it. That's my main goal this month.
My other goal is to get back to work on MystWatch book three. Which is good. I'm feeling the pull of that story, the stirrings of inspiration to work on it. If I can throw another 15k words at it this month, I should be able to wrap it up with another 15k next month. If all goes well. If it doesn't, I can finish it up in July. But come August, I have got to put this world behind me and move on to the next big thing.
I've been feeling a bit unsettled the last month, since the two main projects I've actually worked on are projects that I will have to self-publish if I want to see them in print. Which isn't to say it's not good practice writing and editing or that someday I won't be glad to have these things. But I'm getting more and more impatient with myself. I turn 40 in less than three years, now. I can't help but feel like I'm running out of time.
Which is silly. It's not like I'm going to stop trying when I hit 40. I have an impressive body of work. I'm not limited to mainstream publishing, and everything is fodder down the line. I know I just have to keep at it. And I will. I just have to be okay with adjusting my expectations from time to time. That's why this blog is so necessary. I have to check in with myself every month, see how I'm doing and incorporate new information to my ever-evolving goals.
I'm right where I should be, doing the things I should be doing. It's all going to work out.
Monday, April 2, 2018
April Update: Taking My Own Advice
March started off slow, which I suppose is to be expected, since I pushed really hard at the end of February to meet my February writing goal.
But once I got going, things went pretty well. And they went really well once I read back over last month's post and reminded myself of the two valuable lessons.
Changing projects was vital to my success last month. Working on something else, even if it doesn't seem conducive to my timeline, is still progress. Following what I'm passionate about at whatever point in the month keeps me fresh and keeps me moving forward, even if it means tweaking my timeline. The timeline is fluid, designed to keep me on track and moving but with the freedom to shift things.
Also vital was to remind myself that I'm not a writer that writes every day. I do start to feel antsy if I haven't written in a few days, but it feels great once I get back to it. If I push really hard a few days, I have to take a mental break. And that's okay. As long as I keep my word count goal realistic, I can still meet it even if only write half the days in the month. And right now, I'm intentionally keeping my word counts low so I keep making that slow progress without getting burned out. Slow and steady still gets books written.
I really ought to read those lessons every time I start to get down on my progress. Which happens at least once every month.
My goals for March were to write another 15k on book three and incorporate beta reader feedback on Druid Wars, with secondary goals, if I was feeling up for it, to poke at the zombie CYOA and maybe work on a Cafe story.
I did, in fact, write 15k on book three, which brought me up to 80k on the book. That feels really good. I'm not sure I'm completely happy with the last 30k words I've written, but at least I'm feeling my way through the story so I know what happens, even if it's not written all that well yet. It's a first draft. As people have said, the first draft is just putting sand in the sandbox. Editing is where I'll shape it into an amazing castle. I will admit that I wish I could write cleaner first drafts so I didn't have to work so hard editing. But. These days, I'm better at editing than actually writing (and seem to enjoy it more), so I let myself write sloppy prose and waste a lot of words figuring out what happens. I've stumbled on some good stuff that way, so it works, and I have faith in my abilities to fix it up in editing.
My second main goal was Druid Wars, and if I'm totally honest, I let that one completely fall of the radar. I didn't even open any documents, although I did spend some time thinking about some scenes. I pushed my beta readers so hard to get it read, then didn't even do anything with it. I do feel kinda bad about that, in some respects. But I'm not ready to do it yet. Which does put me behind on my project timeline a bit. By a month or two. I just couldn't face it. This is the next one I want to query. I am still feeling kind of kicked and sore from querying my last book. I am not quite ready to dive into that madness again, especially as I watch Dianne going through it now, too. That's a lot of it. The rest is fear. Of failure, yeah, of course, although I have my backup plans for failure. What I don't have is a plan for if I succeed. I'm almost more afraid that this book will get picked up. What then? Then I'm not a hobbyist anymore. Then come commitments. Contracts. An editor. Potentially readers. I probably won't get to choose what projects I work on at any given time. I might not have the freedom to change projects if I get frustrated or stuck. It's terrifying to think of the expectation that comes with being a published writer. So...maybe I'm not in as much of a hurry to do that as I thought I was. Which isn't to say I won't edit and query this book this year. It's stupid to stop because of fear. But it turns out I'm okay with taking an extra month or two before I start editing and querying.
Still, the editing portion of the month wasn't a total loss. I followed my own advice and let myself work on a different project. After a delightful afternoon spent with the folks of Bottle Cap Publishing, I got excited about Sally Prescott again. Rachel wants to read the first season. Yipes! So, I spent a few days polishing the first adventure within an inch of its life and sent it her way. Then I edited the second one. Then I poked at the third, fourth, and fifth ones. The last three need some work more, but there's a ton of good stuff there.
So after all that, I was fully immersed in the Sally Prescott world, so I changed my Camp Nano project for April from finishing up book three to finishing the first adventure of the second season.
So much for the poetry of finishing up book three during Camp, eh?
But that's okay. Looking back at the last few months, I realized that expecting myself to write 30k in a month is too daunting. It's setting myself up for failure. I can take two months instead of one to finish up book three. I'm already taking extra time for Druid Wars, so it doesn't really set me back that far, anyway. And will allow me to immerse myself in Pandemonium edits for two consecutive months rather than trying to work on it several months apart later this year.
I also need a break from book three. It's eaten my soul for two months, and I am banging my head against walls. I am excited about SP, so it makes sense to do the next adventure for her now. I have to do two of those a year at least if I ever want to put those out, and Camp are the perfect months to commit to that. That guarantees I'm working on them at least twice a year, and should, in theory, be able to finish them in the months I work on them (although theory and practice often drastically differ).
So, to sum up, my achievements last month were to write 15k on book three and spend 20 hours editing the first two SP adventures. I also wrote 6k words on a brainstorm for a young adult high school romance story, which may never go anywhere but it was fun to lose myself in that world for a few days. I had a really good month. In March. Which is typically pretty grim. I'm very pleased with my progress, and I hope I've found a good balance between writing, editing, brainstorming, and relaxing that I can keep this up each month going forward.
My goals for April are to write 15k on the next SP adventure, hopefully finishing it off, and then actually do the Druid Wars edits. That way, I can take May to put some space between those edits and the line edit, which I will try to do in June so I can start querying in July. May and June will also be finishing up book three, and July will be another SP adventure.
And then I will transition into Pandemonium in August! And I can work on that and maybe some Cafe stories (and a Writers Weekly contest) until NaNo hits.
I know that's looking pretty far ahead, but I'm excited. I'm getting all this stuff figured out. I truly believe I can do this.
But once I got going, things went pretty well. And they went really well once I read back over last month's post and reminded myself of the two valuable lessons.
Changing projects was vital to my success last month. Working on something else, even if it doesn't seem conducive to my timeline, is still progress. Following what I'm passionate about at whatever point in the month keeps me fresh and keeps me moving forward, even if it means tweaking my timeline. The timeline is fluid, designed to keep me on track and moving but with the freedom to shift things.
Also vital was to remind myself that I'm not a writer that writes every day. I do start to feel antsy if I haven't written in a few days, but it feels great once I get back to it. If I push really hard a few days, I have to take a mental break. And that's okay. As long as I keep my word count goal realistic, I can still meet it even if only write half the days in the month. And right now, I'm intentionally keeping my word counts low so I keep making that slow progress without getting burned out. Slow and steady still gets books written.
I really ought to read those lessons every time I start to get down on my progress. Which happens at least once every month.
My goals for March were to write another 15k on book three and incorporate beta reader feedback on Druid Wars, with secondary goals, if I was feeling up for it, to poke at the zombie CYOA and maybe work on a Cafe story.
I did, in fact, write 15k on book three, which brought me up to 80k on the book. That feels really good. I'm not sure I'm completely happy with the last 30k words I've written, but at least I'm feeling my way through the story so I know what happens, even if it's not written all that well yet. It's a first draft. As people have said, the first draft is just putting sand in the sandbox. Editing is where I'll shape it into an amazing castle. I will admit that I wish I could write cleaner first drafts so I didn't have to work so hard editing. But. These days, I'm better at editing than actually writing (and seem to enjoy it more), so I let myself write sloppy prose and waste a lot of words figuring out what happens. I've stumbled on some good stuff that way, so it works, and I have faith in my abilities to fix it up in editing.
My second main goal was Druid Wars, and if I'm totally honest, I let that one completely fall of the radar. I didn't even open any documents, although I did spend some time thinking about some scenes. I pushed my beta readers so hard to get it read, then didn't even do anything with it. I do feel kinda bad about that, in some respects. But I'm not ready to do it yet. Which does put me behind on my project timeline a bit. By a month or two. I just couldn't face it. This is the next one I want to query. I am still feeling kind of kicked and sore from querying my last book. I am not quite ready to dive into that madness again, especially as I watch Dianne going through it now, too. That's a lot of it. The rest is fear. Of failure, yeah, of course, although I have my backup plans for failure. What I don't have is a plan for if I succeed. I'm almost more afraid that this book will get picked up. What then? Then I'm not a hobbyist anymore. Then come commitments. Contracts. An editor. Potentially readers. I probably won't get to choose what projects I work on at any given time. I might not have the freedom to change projects if I get frustrated or stuck. It's terrifying to think of the expectation that comes with being a published writer. So...maybe I'm not in as much of a hurry to do that as I thought I was. Which isn't to say I won't edit and query this book this year. It's stupid to stop because of fear. But it turns out I'm okay with taking an extra month or two before I start editing and querying.
Still, the editing portion of the month wasn't a total loss. I followed my own advice and let myself work on a different project. After a delightful afternoon spent with the folks of Bottle Cap Publishing, I got excited about Sally Prescott again. Rachel wants to read the first season. Yipes! So, I spent a few days polishing the first adventure within an inch of its life and sent it her way. Then I edited the second one. Then I poked at the third, fourth, and fifth ones. The last three need some work more, but there's a ton of good stuff there.
So after all that, I was fully immersed in the Sally Prescott world, so I changed my Camp Nano project for April from finishing up book three to finishing the first adventure of the second season.
So much for the poetry of finishing up book three during Camp, eh?
But that's okay. Looking back at the last few months, I realized that expecting myself to write 30k in a month is too daunting. It's setting myself up for failure. I can take two months instead of one to finish up book three. I'm already taking extra time for Druid Wars, so it doesn't really set me back that far, anyway. And will allow me to immerse myself in Pandemonium edits for two consecutive months rather than trying to work on it several months apart later this year.
I also need a break from book three. It's eaten my soul for two months, and I am banging my head against walls. I am excited about SP, so it makes sense to do the next adventure for her now. I have to do two of those a year at least if I ever want to put those out, and Camp are the perfect months to commit to that. That guarantees I'm working on them at least twice a year, and should, in theory, be able to finish them in the months I work on them (although theory and practice often drastically differ).
So, to sum up, my achievements last month were to write 15k on book three and spend 20 hours editing the first two SP adventures. I also wrote 6k words on a brainstorm for a young adult high school romance story, which may never go anywhere but it was fun to lose myself in that world for a few days. I had a really good month. In March. Which is typically pretty grim. I'm very pleased with my progress, and I hope I've found a good balance between writing, editing, brainstorming, and relaxing that I can keep this up each month going forward.
My goals for April are to write 15k on the next SP adventure, hopefully finishing it off, and then actually do the Druid Wars edits. That way, I can take May to put some space between those edits and the line edit, which I will try to do in June so I can start querying in July. May and June will also be finishing up book three, and July will be another SP adventure.
And then I will transition into Pandemonium in August! And I can work on that and maybe some Cafe stories (and a Writers Weekly contest) until NaNo hits.
I know that's looking pretty far ahead, but I'm excited. I'm getting all this stuff figured out. I truly believe I can do this.
Thursday, March 1, 2018
March Update: Valuable Lessons
Despite a few days of complete inability to write more than a hundred words on anything, I am very, very impressed with my progress in February. It was touch-and-go toward the end. I had to write like mad for a few days, but I got very close to my 15k word goal on book three. And wrote another two thousand words on a completely unrelated project. Go me!
I also managed to get Druid Wars off to beta readers. One of them read it straight through in six hours and told me it was phenomenal. So that's heartening. It also means that I spent a lot of last month researching agents for this book. As always, cart before horse, but in some ways it's good. Future Sara, when she's ready to submit, will be glad that groundwork has been laid. I even have a crappy draft of a query. And an even crappier draft of a synopsis. But. Progress!
My plan right now is to split March into editing Druid Wars and writing more on book three. With my writing goal only being 15k words, I should be able to do both. That way, by the end of March, I'll be ready to go full speed into (hopefully) finishing up book three in April. I'd really, really like to finish book three done in April. May at the latest. I kind of want to finish it during a Camp Nano, though, since this series began in a Camp Nano. There's a certain amount of poetry there.
Either way, I can do an in-depth line edit of Druid Wars in May so that by the end of May, hopefully, I can start querying. If all goes well and according to plan (although when does it ever?). I've got 35 agents lined up that I'll submit to in batches of seven. I haven't decided if that's seven a week or just seven at a time, sending one back out for every rejection I get. Either way, it shouldn't take more than five or six months to get all that out and back, which leaves me at the end of this year ready to try publishers for Druid Wars. I'll cross my fingers that Apex and/or Angry Robot does open subs again, but if not, I will do Tor, Daw, Red Adept, and maybe even Ant Colony (a new, local KC press that liked tweets for Druid Wars awhile back).
That'll take me through about this time next year, which is when I'll be working to get MystWatch ready to put out into the world myself. I am pretty sure which cover artist I'm going to use. I still haven't found an editor, but I still have time. I won't worry about that this year. It's cart before horse, as I so often do.
I have to remind myself that this month, all I need to do is write 15k words on book three and edit Druid Wars book one. That's all I have to focus on. Because if those two things do not get done, the rest of my five-year plan can't happen.
Although I will say that I sat down and calculated that if I were to write at least 5k words a month the rest of the year, book three would be done by the end of this year anyway. I'd like to write it faster than that, obviously, but that was a nice realization. It will get done this year. I can write that much on anything in a month. Even bad ones.
And I'm bound to have at least some good ones if history is any indication.
Although as I showed last month, a few bad days or even a bad week doesn't equal a bad month. I had only written about eight thousand words on book three when I got stuck. I hated everything I'd ever written. I couldn't even power through. That only resulted in a hundred words or so each day and me hating writing even more. Thankfully, my zombie apocalypse choose-your-own-adventure sparked my interested, so I worked on that for a couple days, which seemed to have recharged me.
I learned two pretty valuable lessons this month.
First, sometimes I just have to change projects. If I hadn't worked on Druid Wars and Suddenly, Zombies! I might not have found the creative energy to write as much on book three as I did. Other projects can recharge my creative batteries, so I should never feel bad about working on something else, even at the risk of not reaching a monthly project goal.
And second, I am not the type of writer who is going to write every day. I know that so many "real" writers tell you to sit down and knock your words out every day, like you go to work every day. And I can do that sometimes. NaNo, namely. But then I have to take a month or two off. On months that I take a few days off between big spurts of writing, I am able to more consistently write. Even September last year, by far my best non-NaNo month ever, I took a few days off here and there, and nearly a week at the end.
Sure, I could probably start publishing sooner, and make more money once I do, if I were to push myself to write more than 20k words a month. But honestly? I think I'd burn out so much faster if I didn't give myself time to breathe. Pushing harder on creative endeavors doesn't actually equate to more product. Besides, 20k a month for ten months a year equals 200k words. I'd say that's two books and some shorts, wouldn't you?
Right now, my goal is to get 15k words a month somewhat consistently. I can work my way up from there once I start actually publishing. It's going to vary month to month, especially if I get a lot of freelance work. Or we travel. Or I'm depressed (although I've managed my depression a lot better lately...that's no guarantee for future success). Or if I'm having a stellar month. Or a NaNo month. Or a massive rewriting of an old draft month (see Online Dating for Demons when that comes up later this year). I think, though, that taking all that into account, I could probably average 15k words a month.
Anyway. As always, TL;DR: my goal this month is to write another 15k words on book three (putting me at 80k words total) and to incorporate beta reader feedback into book one of Druid Wars. I may poke at my zombie book, too, if I get to feeling bored or tired. I may even write a Cafe story. The prompt interests me.
And my achievements last month were: getting Druid Wars off to beta readers, putting together an agent list and drafting a query for it, writing 14k words on book three, and poking at my choose-your-own-adventure novel.
I also put together a 10-year plan for my publishing career. It's equal parts terrifying and do-able. That's why I put so much stress on myself to meet my goals last month. I want to stay on pace so this amazing plan can actually work. It may not. I even toyed with the idea of pushing it all back a year to give myself some breathing room. I still might, but for now, I'm keeping it as-is. My long-term plans are always flexible.
I also found my quarter-hourglass I bought for NaNo a few years ago. Well, I found it awhile back, but I actually used it to push myself to write the last few days of February. There was a night my friends convinced me to commit to writing for 15 minutes before gaming the other day. I did about 20 minutes, writing 750 words. Not too shabby for a short little spurt! After trying this out with my quarter-hourglass a few nights, I discovered that if I think about what comes next in a scene and know where I'm going before starting a timer, I can write about two thousand words over three fifteen-minute sprints. It just takes some focus, a glass of whiskey, some bumping tunes, and my quarter-hourglass a few times. Seems to be a recipe to push through the "I don't wanna's" and get the words written.
We'll see how that works this month and if it continues to work for Camp NaNo next month. Even if I just do one sprint a day, that's progress. Good progress. So yeah. Days I need to write and can't seem to focus, that's what I'll do.
But I'll also give myself breaks some days, too. Breaks so I don't break. Breaks so it stays fun.
Because Jack reminded me that I don't have any contractual obligations at this point, so writing can still just be fun. It should be fun. These may be the precious few years it's still fun. I need to fully embrace that. I lose sight of that a lot of the time, but when I let go and stop pushing, writing is still magic for me.
I also managed to get Druid Wars off to beta readers. One of them read it straight through in six hours and told me it was phenomenal. So that's heartening. It also means that I spent a lot of last month researching agents for this book. As always, cart before horse, but in some ways it's good. Future Sara, when she's ready to submit, will be glad that groundwork has been laid. I even have a crappy draft of a query. And an even crappier draft of a synopsis. But. Progress!
My plan right now is to split March into editing Druid Wars and writing more on book three. With my writing goal only being 15k words, I should be able to do both. That way, by the end of March, I'll be ready to go full speed into (hopefully) finishing up book three in April. I'd really, really like to finish book three done in April. May at the latest. I kind of want to finish it during a Camp Nano, though, since this series began in a Camp Nano. There's a certain amount of poetry there.
Either way, I can do an in-depth line edit of Druid Wars in May so that by the end of May, hopefully, I can start querying. If all goes well and according to plan (although when does it ever?). I've got 35 agents lined up that I'll submit to in batches of seven. I haven't decided if that's seven a week or just seven at a time, sending one back out for every rejection I get. Either way, it shouldn't take more than five or six months to get all that out and back, which leaves me at the end of this year ready to try publishers for Druid Wars. I'll cross my fingers that Apex and/or Angry Robot does open subs again, but if not, I will do Tor, Daw, Red Adept, and maybe even Ant Colony (a new, local KC press that liked tweets for Druid Wars awhile back).
That'll take me through about this time next year, which is when I'll be working to get MystWatch ready to put out into the world myself. I am pretty sure which cover artist I'm going to use. I still haven't found an editor, but I still have time. I won't worry about that this year. It's cart before horse, as I so often do.
I have to remind myself that this month, all I need to do is write 15k words on book three and edit Druid Wars book one. That's all I have to focus on. Because if those two things do not get done, the rest of my five-year plan can't happen.
Although I will say that I sat down and calculated that if I were to write at least 5k words a month the rest of the year, book three would be done by the end of this year anyway. I'd like to write it faster than that, obviously, but that was a nice realization. It will get done this year. I can write that much on anything in a month. Even bad ones.
And I'm bound to have at least some good ones if history is any indication.
Although as I showed last month, a few bad days or even a bad week doesn't equal a bad month. I had only written about eight thousand words on book three when I got stuck. I hated everything I'd ever written. I couldn't even power through. That only resulted in a hundred words or so each day and me hating writing even more. Thankfully, my zombie apocalypse choose-your-own-adventure sparked my interested, so I worked on that for a couple days, which seemed to have recharged me.
I learned two pretty valuable lessons this month.
First, sometimes I just have to change projects. If I hadn't worked on Druid Wars and Suddenly, Zombies! I might not have found the creative energy to write as much on book three as I did. Other projects can recharge my creative batteries, so I should never feel bad about working on something else, even at the risk of not reaching a monthly project goal.
And second, I am not the type of writer who is going to write every day. I know that so many "real" writers tell you to sit down and knock your words out every day, like you go to work every day. And I can do that sometimes. NaNo, namely. But then I have to take a month or two off. On months that I take a few days off between big spurts of writing, I am able to more consistently write. Even September last year, by far my best non-NaNo month ever, I took a few days off here and there, and nearly a week at the end.
Sure, I could probably start publishing sooner, and make more money once I do, if I were to push myself to write more than 20k words a month. But honestly? I think I'd burn out so much faster if I didn't give myself time to breathe. Pushing harder on creative endeavors doesn't actually equate to more product. Besides, 20k a month for ten months a year equals 200k words. I'd say that's two books and some shorts, wouldn't you?
Right now, my goal is to get 15k words a month somewhat consistently. I can work my way up from there once I start actually publishing. It's going to vary month to month, especially if I get a lot of freelance work. Or we travel. Or I'm depressed (although I've managed my depression a lot better lately...that's no guarantee for future success). Or if I'm having a stellar month. Or a NaNo month. Or a massive rewriting of an old draft month (see Online Dating for Demons when that comes up later this year). I think, though, that taking all that into account, I could probably average 15k words a month.
Anyway. As always, TL;DR: my goal this month is to write another 15k words on book three (putting me at 80k words total) and to incorporate beta reader feedback into book one of Druid Wars. I may poke at my zombie book, too, if I get to feeling bored or tired. I may even write a Cafe story. The prompt interests me.
And my achievements last month were: getting Druid Wars off to beta readers, putting together an agent list and drafting a query for it, writing 14k words on book three, and poking at my choose-your-own-adventure novel.
I also put together a 10-year plan for my publishing career. It's equal parts terrifying and do-able. That's why I put so much stress on myself to meet my goals last month. I want to stay on pace so this amazing plan can actually work. It may not. I even toyed with the idea of pushing it all back a year to give myself some breathing room. I still might, but for now, I'm keeping it as-is. My long-term plans are always flexible.
I also found my quarter-hourglass I bought for NaNo a few years ago. Well, I found it awhile back, but I actually used it to push myself to write the last few days of February. There was a night my friends convinced me to commit to writing for 15 minutes before gaming the other day. I did about 20 minutes, writing 750 words. Not too shabby for a short little spurt! After trying this out with my quarter-hourglass a few nights, I discovered that if I think about what comes next in a scene and know where I'm going before starting a timer, I can write about two thousand words over three fifteen-minute sprints. It just takes some focus, a glass of whiskey, some bumping tunes, and my quarter-hourglass a few times. Seems to be a recipe to push through the "I don't wanna's" and get the words written.
We'll see how that works this month and if it continues to work for Camp NaNo next month. Even if I just do one sprint a day, that's progress. Good progress. So yeah. Days I need to write and can't seem to focus, that's what I'll do.
But I'll also give myself breaks some days, too. Breaks so I don't break. Breaks so it stays fun.
Because Jack reminded me that I don't have any contractual obligations at this point, so writing can still just be fun. It should be fun. These may be the precious few years it's still fun. I need to fully embrace that. I lose sight of that a lot of the time, but when I let go and stop pushing, writing is still magic for me.
Tuesday, February 6, 2018
February Update: Always Shifting
The writing group I'm a part of has stopped doing monthly meetings. This is mostly a good thing, as it was the same 3-5 people saying the same things over and over. Mostly the meetings were to schedule things, and all of that now happens through the FB group. Overall, it's been nice having the first Sundays of the month back.
The one thing we're missing is the monthly accountability. Going around the room saying "hey, my accomplishments last month were these, and I hope to get this done this month." We've started doing a FB post for that, as well, but it doesn't feel quite the same.
That being said, I seem to have shifted to doing my writing blog updates closer to the beginning of the month the last few months. And while I thought it might be good to have a wrap-up of a month at the end of a month, I realize that these blog posts might be a nice way to bridge that gap.
So. At least for this month, I'll talk about what I did in January and what I hope to get done in February.
I'd planned on writing most of last month. All of that changed when an amazing dark sci-fi/fantasy magazine opened up submissions for novels and novellas in January. I'd already subbed to another publisher that had open submissions at the end of last year, so since I decided this has sort of become the year of publisher submissions, I'd throw my hat in the ring.
Trouble was, their word count limit was 120,000 words. Monsters of Lawrence was nearly 125,000. So, I spent January doing intensive edits on book one. It was fantastic. I cleaned up all of the clunky language that had made me cringe for years. I cut a lot of inside jokes from when I first wrote it nearly a decade ago. I fixed some of the lore that has evolved since writing another book and a half.
And at the end of January, I had a sleek, stunning, 119k-word novel. Even if it doesn't get picked up by the publisher, it was an overhaul it desperately needed. I hadn't done an intensive edit like that in about a year. It was going to have to happen to self-publish anyway. I am now ahead of the game (and with a much cleaner, tighter draft for when I sub to other publishers this year).
I've blocked out the rest of my year as far as publisher subs. I've got two more lined up, and then, I just may chuck it at one last one at the beginning of next year, depending on how everything else goes. Book three should be done by then. Written at least. Maybe ready for beta readers. I may decide at that point I do want to do it myself and not bother. Although on the other hand, I may send it just to say I did. It's the first time I've done any of this. I want the full experience from start to finish. I want to be able to say I did everything I could with it before either trunking or self-publishing.
At any rate. I didn't work on book three at all in January. That ended up working out, though. I got reacquainted with all my friends as I cleaned up book one, let the world sweep me up again. And while I was there, I figured out a lot of things I was getting hung up on with book three. And while there are still some issues, I've filled in some blanks and fixed some plot holes, so I'm ready to move forward.
Or I was, until I got the flu.
But I got better. And as of today, I've written about two thousand words on it, getting past the scene I was stuck on and figuring out what comes next.
My goal for the next 22 days is to write about 15,000 words. I'm excited about the things that are happening. I really love a few of the scenes I've written. I'm so excited to share this with my friends and family. I'm so excited to be done with it so I can read it!
Ideally I'll spend the next three months putting words toward it, finishing it up in May so I can spend the rest of the year doing edits. That being said, I may need a break before then. It took me most of last year to write 50,000 words on it. I fully anticipate getting stuck at some point.
But when that happens, I will probably go back to Druid Wars and get that off my plate. I haven't come up with the best way to fix the opening chapter yet, but the rest should be fairly easy to fix. For beta readers at least. It doesn't have to be perfect yet. Although I won't lie, the high praise I got on book two was nice. I'd love to be able to do that again.
And then I'll have to stare down Online Dating for Demons. But that's for Future Sara to worry about sometime closer to the end of this year.
Sally Prescott may not get any attention this year. Although I have figured out that the invention of the translating device dovetails nicely with her losing her wish at the end of the series. I haven't given up on her completely, but she's still rather back burner for now.
But that could change. My plans are always shifting. If I suddenly became unemployed, I might consider throwing season one out there just to make a few bucks. I could write an adventure a month if it suddenly became a way to make money. Hopefully it never comes to that. Sally deserves better.
Anyway! TL;DR: I spent January working on book one. I will spend February working on book three.
Here we go.
The one thing we're missing is the monthly accountability. Going around the room saying "hey, my accomplishments last month were these, and I hope to get this done this month." We've started doing a FB post for that, as well, but it doesn't feel quite the same.
That being said, I seem to have shifted to doing my writing blog updates closer to the beginning of the month the last few months. And while I thought it might be good to have a wrap-up of a month at the end of a month, I realize that these blog posts might be a nice way to bridge that gap.
So. At least for this month, I'll talk about what I did in January and what I hope to get done in February.
I'd planned on writing most of last month. All of that changed when an amazing dark sci-fi/fantasy magazine opened up submissions for novels and novellas in January. I'd already subbed to another publisher that had open submissions at the end of last year, so since I decided this has sort of become the year of publisher submissions, I'd throw my hat in the ring.
Trouble was, their word count limit was 120,000 words. Monsters of Lawrence was nearly 125,000. So, I spent January doing intensive edits on book one. It was fantastic. I cleaned up all of the clunky language that had made me cringe for years. I cut a lot of inside jokes from when I first wrote it nearly a decade ago. I fixed some of the lore that has evolved since writing another book and a half.
And at the end of January, I had a sleek, stunning, 119k-word novel. Even if it doesn't get picked up by the publisher, it was an overhaul it desperately needed. I hadn't done an intensive edit like that in about a year. It was going to have to happen to self-publish anyway. I am now ahead of the game (and with a much cleaner, tighter draft for when I sub to other publishers this year).
I've blocked out the rest of my year as far as publisher subs. I've got two more lined up, and then, I just may chuck it at one last one at the beginning of next year, depending on how everything else goes. Book three should be done by then. Written at least. Maybe ready for beta readers. I may decide at that point I do want to do it myself and not bother. Although on the other hand, I may send it just to say I did. It's the first time I've done any of this. I want the full experience from start to finish. I want to be able to say I did everything I could with it before either trunking or self-publishing.
At any rate. I didn't work on book three at all in January. That ended up working out, though. I got reacquainted with all my friends as I cleaned up book one, let the world sweep me up again. And while I was there, I figured out a lot of things I was getting hung up on with book three. And while there are still some issues, I've filled in some blanks and fixed some plot holes, so I'm ready to move forward.
Or I was, until I got the flu.
But I got better. And as of today, I've written about two thousand words on it, getting past the scene I was stuck on and figuring out what comes next.
My goal for the next 22 days is to write about 15,000 words. I'm excited about the things that are happening. I really love a few of the scenes I've written. I'm so excited to share this with my friends and family. I'm so excited to be done with it so I can read it!
Ideally I'll spend the next three months putting words toward it, finishing it up in May so I can spend the rest of the year doing edits. That being said, I may need a break before then. It took me most of last year to write 50,000 words on it. I fully anticipate getting stuck at some point.
But when that happens, I will probably go back to Druid Wars and get that off my plate. I haven't come up with the best way to fix the opening chapter yet, but the rest should be fairly easy to fix. For beta readers at least. It doesn't have to be perfect yet. Although I won't lie, the high praise I got on book two was nice. I'd love to be able to do that again.
And then I'll have to stare down Online Dating for Demons. But that's for Future Sara to worry about sometime closer to the end of this year.
Sally Prescott may not get any attention this year. Although I have figured out that the invention of the translating device dovetails nicely with her losing her wish at the end of the series. I haven't given up on her completely, but she's still rather back burner for now.
But that could change. My plans are always shifting. If I suddenly became unemployed, I might consider throwing season one out there just to make a few bucks. I could write an adventure a month if it suddenly became a way to make money. Hopefully it never comes to that. Sally deserves better.
Anyway! TL;DR: I spent January working on book one. I will spend February working on book three.
Here we go.
Wednesday, January 3, 2018
January Update: 2017 Accomplishments and 2018 Goals
Here we are. Another year of my writing blog. I've made some amazing headway in the last seven years. Three more years to reach my ultimate goal--the goal I started this blog for. I feel like I'm on the right track. I just need to quit putting the cart before the horse and quit rushing. Slow and steady will get me to my goal. And the baby steps along the way make it all possible. My yearly goals are the key to that.
So, speaking of goals, for 2017, my goals were to do the following (I've added in parenthesis the degree of completion for each):
I had a lot of lofty goals, and while not all of them were 100% completed, I feel really, really good about where I'm at, especially since I battled depression most of last year. I mean, look at what I accomplished.
In 2017, I:
I learned a ton about querying and self-publishing. I've developed something of a system for editing, so now I almost enjoy the editing parts more than the writing parts. I completed a full year of tracking my writing and editing habits, so I have a more realistic idea of what I can do in a year. Which means I have a better plan going forward.
Those goals are, notably, in order of importance, and the first three are the ones I absolutely must do. The others I will let slide if it comes down to it, but those three are the core of this year. Oh, except for the blog posts here. Those keep me accountable, keep me motivated, and keep me apprised of the big picture. Without the big picture, without looking back to see what I've accomplished on a small and on a large scale, the momentum would peter out and I'd be dead in the water. Even if I have nothing to report, it's still important for me to update this blog.
So, speaking of goals, for 2017, my goals were to do the following (I've added in parenthesis the degree of completion for each):
- Write Scions of Mythos (wrote roughly half of the book)
- Sell or self-publish Monsters of Lawrence (I queried it a lot, but didn't sell)
- Send Towers of Kansas to beta readers and incorporate their edits (done)
- Finish the first season of my adventure novellas (done)
- Start the second season of my adventure novellas (done)
- Write at least six stories for the Cafe and keep the Cafe running (done)
- Edit Druid Wars Book 1 for beta readers (didn't finish, but made good progress)
- Start writing Druid Wars Book 2 (have decided to put off writing second books in series until I get a book picked up)
- Do dev edits for Online Dating for Demons (pushed this back a year)
- Help run Reader Con in October (con was canceled, sad face)
- Write a blog update every month, even if I have nothing to report (done!)
I had a lot of lofty goals, and while not all of them were 100% completed, I feel really, really good about where I'm at, especially since I battled depression most of last year. I mean, look at what I accomplished.
In 2017, I:
- Finished editing Towers of Kansas (and sent it to my brother and sister to read)
- Finished writing the first season of my adventure series
- Started the second season of my adventure series
- Did most of the edits on the first book in the Druid Wars series
- Wrote over 10k words on a new project during NaNoWriMo
- Wrote a flash fiction for the 24-hour writing contest
- Wrote six stories for the Confabulator Cafe
- Wrote over 50k words on Scions of Mythos
- Won the story-in-a-bag contest at ConQuest
- Brainstormed nine ideas for short stories and novels
- Managed the Cafe so that it had at least four stories most months in 2017
- Sent out 60 queries for book one (and got two partial requests)
- Wrote blog posts every month this year
- Beta read two novels for writing group friends
- Overall, wrote 115,636 words on various projects and spent 101 hours editing
- And in addition to all of that writing, I also had three different freelance editing clients, where I edited two novels, one novella, and three short stories in an anthology.
I learned a ton about querying and self-publishing. I've developed something of a system for editing, so now I almost enjoy the editing parts more than the writing parts. I completed a full year of tracking my writing and editing habits, so I have a more realistic idea of what I can do in a year. Which means I have a better plan going forward.
No more writing full series all at once. I'll finish up book three of MystWatch then self-publish it, but I need to write more first books and query those. When they get through the querying process with no luck, then I can focus on writing additional books for self-publication, but right now it is frustrating that my best book to date is the second book in a series.
So I guess what that means is, I'd like to be able to write two books a year: one for querying, and one for self-publication. As long as they aren't massive 125k-word books like the MystWatch books, that should be do-able. I averaged around 115k words a year the last two years, which isn't quite two books, but once I start publishing, I'll buckle down and push that a bit. It's like doing a budget. You have to spend some time analyzing your spending before you can implement spending goals.
My goals aren't as lofty this year, but they're pretty serious. I need to get them done so I can stay on-track. I've been wishy-washy about these projects for awhile, but now it's time to buckle down and do them. And I have a whole year to do them without too many other projects as a distraction.
Here are my goals for 2018:
- Finish writing Scions of Mythos
- Send Druid Wars to beta readers, incorporate feedback, and hopefully start querying it this year
- Edit Online Dating for Demons
- Write at least four stories for the Confabulator Cafe (and keep it running)
- Start a brand new project for Nanowrimo
- Finish the first adventure in season two and start the second adventure for Sally Prescott
- Volunteer at ConQuest
- Write at least one blog post a month here.
Those goals are, notably, in order of importance, and the first three are the ones I absolutely must do. The others I will let slide if it comes down to it, but those three are the core of this year. Oh, except for the blog posts here. Those keep me accountable, keep me motivated, and keep me apprised of the big picture. Without the big picture, without looking back to see what I've accomplished on a small and on a large scale, the momentum would peter out and I'd be dead in the water. Even if I have nothing to report, it's still important for me to update this blog.
I also know I will be editing at least a few books from Bottle Cap Publishing. I'm not sure if I'll have any other freelance clients, but BCP should keep me plenty busy outside of my own work. And I will probably have beta reads from my writing group friends, which I always enjoy.
So that's it. Here's to a brand new year of writing, and another few steps closer to getting published.
What a journey it has been.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)