I finished my Christmas story for the Cafe, and I've made most of the tweaks to Towers of Kansas. I should be able to finish up incorporating beta reader feedback today.
However, it's going to take me more than a day to make it through the line edit, especially since a few of the dev edits I made will require tweaks throughout for consistency.
So I need to adjust my schedule a bit. It was optimistic at the outset, considering it's me and it's December, and I can go from great to awful in the space of a day.
A half NaNo is more realistic. I will aim for 25k instead of 35k, especially since I'm not adding a ton of words in this edit (and may even take some away).
Also, I'm going to have to drop a project. I probably won't work on Once We Were Witches. I may poke at an outline for it if I need a break, but since I'm behind a week, I need give up one of my projects. Witches is a low priority right now. It was a NaNo novel and NaNo is over. There may come a time when I work on it again, but I need to get back on track as far as my original goals for this year.
Which means once I'm done my line edit of book two, I will probably poke at Sally Prescott for a week or two. I know that actually finishing an adventure is optimistic, but it is possible to write 15k words in two weeks. That's 1,070ish words a day, which is along the lines of what I'm consistently capable of.
Now, if I get stuck or get bored, that's when Witches might get some attention, but any words added to it will be bonus.
And when I'm either finished the adventure or hit a done-for-now with SP, I will switch over to Scions of Mythos. I really would like to get 10k more words on it before the year is gone, and if I can start that early, there's a greater likelihood of actually getting those words, what with the holiday and possible depression.
So yeah. Doing five projects in December was a bit nuts. I'm still doing four, if you count my Cafe story, but at least that's only one project a week. That makes infinitely more sense.
I may check back in next week for an update on my progress (or other changes in plans). Hey, I do my fitness blog every week to keep accountable. Surely there's nothing wrong with checking in every week on my writing blog to keep me accountable!
Wednesday, December 6, 2017
Friday, December 1, 2017
The December Plan
Hey look! A bonus post. In December, no less.
So with the wrap-up of NaNo, and the start of December, I am, oddly, feeling more inspired and ready to work than ever. I guess one benefit of not truly participating in NaNo is not getting the post-NaNo blues.
Since I didn't burn myself out writing 50k last month, and I'm feeling motivated, I'm going to try to get some stuff done to make up for it. I'm going to try to do somewhere between 25k and 35k. That will put me closer to what I had hoped to write this year, and it will give me a chance to work toward a few of my projects I had abandoned. Maybe I can salvage some of my goals.
Here's my plan.
Week One: 5k – finish writing my December Café story, then do Towers of Kansas edits. Those are my two big obligations for December, so they come first.
Week Two: 10k – add another few chapters to Witches, while it's still fresh. I managed to get to about 10k before NaNo wrapped up, and I'm finally getting into the story. I need to build an outline based on my brainstorming document and tweak a few things before moving forward, but if I can double its word count, it will ensure that someday I will go back to this novel. I've rarely abandoned something I've put that much work into, plus I'll have a solid foundation and direction for when I want to go back to it.
Week Three: 10k – This is where I have options as far as projects. If I'm on a roll with Witches, then hey, I'll keep working. If not, then I might try to throw some words at Sally Prescott 2.1. I did promise her I'd start the first adventure in season two this year, and got stuck at 2k. If I can throw 10k at it this month, I'll at least feel like I almost finished another adventure. But. If I'm not feeling it, then I might switch over to Scions of Mythos.
Week Four: 10k – I'm off work this week (probably). I have until Friday the 29th before I head to Manhattan for the holidays. So, regardless of what I do during week three, this is the week I dive into Scions of Mythos. If I've written 10k on it already, I'll add another 10k. If I worked on something else up to this point, then it'll just be 10k. My big goal before NaNo was to get it to 60k, or approximately halfway through the book. I didn't manage it then, but if I can get it to 60k before the end of the year, I'll consider it a success.
So much for my plan to be idle in December. I've just been so idle for the last two months, I'm ready to actually do things! And there's so much to do.
I may or may not do my end-of-the-year post later this month. I may use January to talk about it, instead, since I still have a whole month to try to achieve my goals for the year. Some of my goals, like publication, obviously won't be possible in the next thirty days. Those were goals made in ignorance, anyway. As for the rest? Well, I'll address that when the time comes.
Happy holidays, friends. And if I don't update before then, have a safe and happy New Year.
So with the wrap-up of NaNo, and the start of December, I am, oddly, feeling more inspired and ready to work than ever. I guess one benefit of not truly participating in NaNo is not getting the post-NaNo blues.
Since I didn't burn myself out writing 50k last month, and I'm feeling motivated, I'm going to try to get some stuff done to make up for it. I'm going to try to do somewhere between 25k and 35k. That will put me closer to what I had hoped to write this year, and it will give me a chance to work toward a few of my projects I had abandoned. Maybe I can salvage some of my goals.
Here's my plan.
Week One: 5k – finish writing my December Café story, then do Towers of Kansas edits. Those are my two big obligations for December, so they come first.
Week Two: 10k – add another few chapters to Witches, while it's still fresh. I managed to get to about 10k before NaNo wrapped up, and I'm finally getting into the story. I need to build an outline based on my brainstorming document and tweak a few things before moving forward, but if I can double its word count, it will ensure that someday I will go back to this novel. I've rarely abandoned something I've put that much work into, plus I'll have a solid foundation and direction for when I want to go back to it.
Week Three: 10k – This is where I have options as far as projects. If I'm on a roll with Witches, then hey, I'll keep working. If not, then I might try to throw some words at Sally Prescott 2.1. I did promise her I'd start the first adventure in season two this year, and got stuck at 2k. If I can throw 10k at it this month, I'll at least feel like I almost finished another adventure. But. If I'm not feeling it, then I might switch over to Scions of Mythos.
Week Four: 10k – I'm off work this week (probably). I have until Friday the 29th before I head to Manhattan for the holidays. So, regardless of what I do during week three, this is the week I dive into Scions of Mythos. If I've written 10k on it already, I'll add another 10k. If I worked on something else up to this point, then it'll just be 10k. My big goal before NaNo was to get it to 60k, or approximately halfway through the book. I didn't manage it then, but if I can get it to 60k before the end of the year, I'll consider it a success.
So much for my plan to be idle in December. I've just been so idle for the last two months, I'm ready to actually do things! And there's so much to do.
I may or may not do my end-of-the-year post later this month. I may use January to talk about it, instead, since I still have a whole month to try to achieve my goals for the year. Some of my goals, like publication, obviously won't be possible in the next thirty days. Those were goals made in ignorance, anyway. As for the rest? Well, I'll address that when the time comes.
Happy holidays, friends. And if I don't update before then, have a safe and happy New Year.
Monday, November 27, 2017
November Update: No NaNo this year
Word count updates:
The slump has continued. I bailed on NaNo pretty early on. Day 10, according to the site. I regret it, now, but it's not really salvageable at this point. I just lost interest in the idea, and I couldn't connect to the character enough to actually want to see what she did next. I've poked at it a bit today just to inflate my November word count, but with only four days left, I'll be lucky to break 10k at this point.
The magic of NaNo is broken for me, clearly. I never even made it to a write-in. I went out writing with Amanda once and got about 400 words written. I meant to go to write-ins. I meant to go to the Halfway Party. I meant to write every day. But it didn't happen. Not this year. I never pulled myself out of my writing slump.
That being said, I did send out a couple of queries. One to one last agent (so I have 60 total rather than 59, because OCD), and one to my first publisher.
Query updates:
I will probably submit to two more publishers before I trunk MoL for awhile. I have plans to finish book three next year, but I still need to finish fixing up book two and do line edits so it's done for Aron next month. I'm running out of time to do that. It's not going to be perfect. Not in the way book one was. I had it as polished as I could for submission. Book two was always just going to be semi-polished, since it wasn't ever designed to hook agents or publishers. But I doubt Aron will mind.
I'll probably continue to work on book two cleanup through December, so I won't be completely taking my break. But since I've taken it easy the last two months, it shouldn't be a hardship. Maybe I'll poke at Witches in December, as well. Or SP. I dunno. I may be mostly idle, or I may work hard. I have no solid plans.
Except for doing my year-end post. I've really pared down what I plan to do next year. But I'll talk about that next month. Probably. Spoilers, I've already talked about it. It's as simple as one, two, three. Finish SoM, get Druid Wars prepped for beta readers, and finally edit Online Dating for Demons. That's all I'm focusing on.
It sounds like I'll have anywhere from two to four books to edit from Bottle Cap. I know I'll have at least one beta read. And I may try to do more with the Cafe (or less, depending on what the people want). And I just might edit the first season of SP. To what point and purpose, I have no clue, but hey. Maybe I can self-publish the first season for shits and giggles next year. It would throw off my entire plan, but I'm sick of plans. The publishing plan is dumb unless I'm self-publishing. If I'm going to keep trying to get agents, I'll be at their mercy, not my own.
And more and more that's kind of what I want to do. I don't think I'm cut out for self-publishing. I keep entertaining the idea because I like the idea of getting my books out there, to hell with the market, charging whatever I want, and making more. But it's a business. I'm not at a place in my life where I can start a business. I don't have enough product or the resources. Maybe a time will come someday. Maybe it won't. But. Like I have said in previous updates. I'm not going to make any plans next year. I will submit a bit, and then put it down and finish book three. Once it's completely done, I will reassess.
Yeah. That's all I've got for now. Minimal progress. It hasn't been my worst month as far as productivity this year, but it sure wasn't the month of progress I'd hoped for. I think I put too much pressure on this book. I did the same thing with book three. I have learned a lot in the last two years of NaNo attempts.
NaNo is for new, spur-of-the-moment ideas that I don't place any expectations on. I may even stop making covers, since that's held me back (intimidated me) two years now. I need to get into the community. I need to do self-care things (light box, exercise, fish oil) so I start in a better place. I need to stop going back to edit because it hinders my forward motion (although I fixed a lot of things in the first chapter that ended up enabling me to have a better book to start, so I think that may be okay).
I will remember how to do NaNo again one of these years. I wish I could go back and do it again this year, and now I have to wait a whole year.
Although not really. I can write any book I want at any point. I can kill myself to write 50k in a month any old month. I always have a writing group.
I think it more comes down to not really needing NaNo. I will always be thankful for what NaNo has done for me. And I will probably always sign up to write every year. But I don't think it matters that I'm not cranking out entire books in a month anymore, because it's not the only month I write in the year anymore. I've written over 100k words this year. And 50k of those was on one book. No, it's not done, but I've been solving problems as I've been writing rather than hoping I can fix them in editing. I think that works just as well, if not better.
The goal this year was to find out how to make writing fun again. The thing is, I do have times when writing is fun. I wouldn't have written 100k words this year if it wasn't. I had weird expectations this year, and I won't do that again next year.
But I also won't wait for next year. Between now and next November, I have every intention of writing words, finishing books, and maybe even starting a new project if it strikes me.
Despite having "lost" another NaNo, I feel surprisingly good. And maybe I'm finally past my slump. Too late to save NaNo, but hey. I'll take my writing mojo back whenever it decides to show up.
Here's to a better month next month, writing-wise.
And trying not to hurl when Aron reads my book. Hah.
- Words written so far in November: 7,263
- Words written so far in 2017: 107,427
The slump has continued. I bailed on NaNo pretty early on. Day 10, according to the site. I regret it, now, but it's not really salvageable at this point. I just lost interest in the idea, and I couldn't connect to the character enough to actually want to see what she did next. I've poked at it a bit today just to inflate my November word count, but with only four days left, I'll be lucky to break 10k at this point.
The magic of NaNo is broken for me, clearly. I never even made it to a write-in. I went out writing with Amanda once and got about 400 words written. I meant to go to write-ins. I meant to go to the Halfway Party. I meant to write every day. But it didn't happen. Not this year. I never pulled myself out of my writing slump.
That being said, I did send out a couple of queries. One to one last agent (so I have 60 total rather than 59, because OCD), and one to my first publisher.
Query updates:
- Rejections: 40
- Closed (no response): 19
- Outstanding: 2
I will probably submit to two more publishers before I trunk MoL for awhile. I have plans to finish book three next year, but I still need to finish fixing up book two and do line edits so it's done for Aron next month. I'm running out of time to do that. It's not going to be perfect. Not in the way book one was. I had it as polished as I could for submission. Book two was always just going to be semi-polished, since it wasn't ever designed to hook agents or publishers. But I doubt Aron will mind.
I'll probably continue to work on book two cleanup through December, so I won't be completely taking my break. But since I've taken it easy the last two months, it shouldn't be a hardship. Maybe I'll poke at Witches in December, as well. Or SP. I dunno. I may be mostly idle, or I may work hard. I have no solid plans.
Except for doing my year-end post. I've really pared down what I plan to do next year. But I'll talk about that next month. Probably. Spoilers, I've already talked about it. It's as simple as one, two, three. Finish SoM, get Druid Wars prepped for beta readers, and finally edit Online Dating for Demons. That's all I'm focusing on.
It sounds like I'll have anywhere from two to four books to edit from Bottle Cap. I know I'll have at least one beta read. And I may try to do more with the Cafe (or less, depending on what the people want). And I just might edit the first season of SP. To what point and purpose, I have no clue, but hey. Maybe I can self-publish the first season for shits and giggles next year. It would throw off my entire plan, but I'm sick of plans. The publishing plan is dumb unless I'm self-publishing. If I'm going to keep trying to get agents, I'll be at their mercy, not my own.
And more and more that's kind of what I want to do. I don't think I'm cut out for self-publishing. I keep entertaining the idea because I like the idea of getting my books out there, to hell with the market, charging whatever I want, and making more. But it's a business. I'm not at a place in my life where I can start a business. I don't have enough product or the resources. Maybe a time will come someday. Maybe it won't. But. Like I have said in previous updates. I'm not going to make any plans next year. I will submit a bit, and then put it down and finish book three. Once it's completely done, I will reassess.
Yeah. That's all I've got for now. Minimal progress. It hasn't been my worst month as far as productivity this year, but it sure wasn't the month of progress I'd hoped for. I think I put too much pressure on this book. I did the same thing with book three. I have learned a lot in the last two years of NaNo attempts.
NaNo is for new, spur-of-the-moment ideas that I don't place any expectations on. I may even stop making covers, since that's held me back (intimidated me) two years now. I need to get into the community. I need to do self-care things (light box, exercise, fish oil) so I start in a better place. I need to stop going back to edit because it hinders my forward motion (although I fixed a lot of things in the first chapter that ended up enabling me to have a better book to start, so I think that may be okay).
I will remember how to do NaNo again one of these years. I wish I could go back and do it again this year, and now I have to wait a whole year.
Although not really. I can write any book I want at any point. I can kill myself to write 50k in a month any old month. I always have a writing group.
I think it more comes down to not really needing NaNo. I will always be thankful for what NaNo has done for me. And I will probably always sign up to write every year. But I don't think it matters that I'm not cranking out entire books in a month anymore, because it's not the only month I write in the year anymore. I've written over 100k words this year. And 50k of those was on one book. No, it's not done, but I've been solving problems as I've been writing rather than hoping I can fix them in editing. I think that works just as well, if not better.
The goal this year was to find out how to make writing fun again. The thing is, I do have times when writing is fun. I wouldn't have written 100k words this year if it wasn't. I had weird expectations this year, and I won't do that again next year.
But I also won't wait for next year. Between now and next November, I have every intention of writing words, finishing books, and maybe even starting a new project if it strikes me.
Despite having "lost" another NaNo, I feel surprisingly good. And maybe I'm finally past my slump. Too late to save NaNo, but hey. I'll take my writing mojo back whenever it decides to show up.
Here's to a better month next month, writing-wise.
And trying not to hurl when Aron reads my book. Hah.
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