Linda Maye Adams's Blog, page 15

Setting always comes first

Quick cycling pass in the morning, mostly to clean up the typos.  Let’s not give inner critic any cracks to get in.

Then I look at it and it hits me that may I need to work out the setting first.  When I learned how to write—and this is how destructive the advice out there is—I was told over and over that description was boring.  That you should keep it to a minimum.

Even now, there’s a writer who is a popular blogger who tells beginners to introduce description in “drips and drabs.”  So you get, “She tossed her blond hair” as part of a dialogue tag, vaguely somewhere.

I had to rewire my brain to put more in.  But the setting is always the first thing that hangs me up on the scene because I have to do it first.  For a while, that was a role for inner critic.  It had to nudge the creative side and whisper, “Psst.  You forgot the setting.”

After a while, if I left it out, the creative side caught it, feeling like something was missing.  Now it’s the first thing on the plate for me.  But I hang on it, trying to come up with details that aren’t simply checking the box.

So I spent some time identifying what this setting looked like at this particular time of day—sounds, smells, temperature.  This was a setting that I’d previously used, so it led me to ask, “What’s changed?”

From there, I jumped back into the chapter for about 1K.

Snow, Ice, and Black Marks on the Page

I wake up to cold and a lot of ice.  I went out yesterday to shovel off my car—would be much worse if I had to chisel it out.  Then I saw the news.  I95 was completely shut down because of the storm.  People were stranded on it for 15 hours.

I get out a few times during the day.  Beautiful day, bright and sunny with the snow covering the branches of the trees.  But lots of caked-on ice in places on the sidewalk not touched by the sun.

First contact with chapter one.  Inner critic’s already jumping in because I don’t have a clue where anything is going.  Which is fine and expected.  Beginnings are always hard while I work out what goes into the story. I stay in the chair until I get a thousand words. 

Jumping in the Deep End of Story

The story finally stopped long enough for the snowplows to clear the roads.  Still pretty icy.  Sun’s not likely to do much to dry out the sidewalks today!

I officially started on Dice Ford 2 (which actually does have a title, but I’m not telling). 

First step was to figure out the basic timeline of when the story starts in relation to the first one.  I’m borrowing from J.D. Robb here.  Most series have a book that comes out once a year, so it assumes a year has passed.  J.D. Robb’s In-Depth series has about 50 books, has been running for 20+ years, and only 3 years have passed story time.  So I wanted to make sure my timeline worked where it started.

I created a calendar in Excel—nothing fancy—and plugged in the dates of the last book and the time in between before the new book starts.

After that, I jumped into the deep end by working on the “hidden story.” This is what you can’t see happening on the page.  I use it to identify what the villain is doing while the heroine is doing a scene to keep that connection in my head.

My creative side slipped into connecting the characters in this story to the last story.  You know, things like how did they react after the dust settled.

This is the first time I’ve done anything like this before, so we’ll see if anything survives first contact with the story.  Two possible new characters emerged.  I just gave them generic placeholder names for the purpose of this.  No sense in trying to chase down names until I’m sure they’ll be in the story (though one almost certainly will).

Also a lesson learned from when I did the copy edits.  I need to nail down what new characters look like in my head so I have the tools for the tags (character tags, not dialogue tags).  My creative side hated adding those after the story was done!

My deadline for the first 20K is January 31.  I had 1K for this session.

The Hill of Doom

Yesterday, it was in the mid-60s and I got a winter storm advisory. I looked at it, and the promise of snow, and outside at the warm weather. Overnight, the temperature dropped 30 degrees. Then it snowed.

By morning, the Hill of Doom was eating cars. By late morning, it ate a bus. By early afternoon, a snowplow bit the dust. The pedestrians came out to watch the cars get stuck. The bus was stuck there for nearly six hours. The spot where the snowplow is sitting is where every car got stuck all morning.

I spent New Year’s Day getting Superhero Portal ready for preorder. It always feels like it shouldn’t take as long as it does–about half a morning–if all goes well. One of the tasks I’m struggling to remember is to make sure I update the inventory list.

The inventory list includes:

The template I used. Superhero Portal was ST01. Once I have sample chapters for the next book (of which the initials are ST), I’ll insert that in the back. But it’ll help Future Me manage template changes as information changes.When I last updated the book. Not important for this one, but is for other ones.Where I published it, For the refreshes, I’m physically checking that, to make sure I haven’t missed anything.

And right after I pulled the trigger on the second aggregator (I use 3, plus 2 vendors), inner critic surfaced, convinced I’d introduced a continuity error into the blurb. To the story bible! Nope. I was good.

I have the idea for the next one in the series, which is just the start of the story. Being a panster, I have no idea how it would end. In fact, it would be very bad for me if I tried to figure out anything more than “main character succeeds.”

Past experience has told me that if I figure out the ending, the inner critic will grab the reins and air straight at it. It’ll leave most of the story, the plot (which is different from the story; they are not interchangeable); the characters. You know, all that stuff the readers like.

And I’m also having first pageitis. I’m a little afraid of starting. Superhero Portal was a milestone book for me because I finally accomplished something I’d never been able to do before. The story weighed it at 50K. I’ve never been able to hit that high before.

Inner critic is poking at me, doubtful if I can repeat it. And I just need to dive in and start.

Writing Projects Completed in 2021

This year was a record for me, writing-wise:

I completed 53 writing projects.I released 2 collections, 1 non-fiction book, and 11 short stories.

The complete list of writing projects:

Poem:  The Marsh in WinterPoem: Walking Towards SunrisePoem: Missed sunrisePoem: A Moment ExchangedPoem: Sunset in the RainPoem: First SnowPoem: Winter StillnessPoem: The World SleepsPoem: The Sounds of WinterPoem: Before DawnPoem: Hill on a Snowy DayStory 17: Skull Cavern (Story Collector Sorceress)Story 18: Last Gamble (Al Travers)Poem: Early Morning on the PotomacStory 19: Lost Night (Al Travers)Story 20: Time PortalStory 21: Murder in the Lodge .Story 22: CatspirationFlash Fiction:  Idea, Input, CheckStory 23: Gregg BayStory 24: Ransom (Al Travers)Story 25: Cave of Doom (Story Collector Sorceress)Story 26: Vagabond by BloodStory 27: Ship of Dream Treasures (GALCOM Universe)Story 28: Eavesdropper of the Stars (GALCOM Universe)Story 29: Ghost’s Gambit (GALCOM Universe)Story 30: Place of Shadows and Threads (GALCOM Universe)Story 31: Ghost’s Obsession (GALCOM Universe)Story 32: Aliens vs. the Spice Demon (GALCOM Universe)Story 33: Foul Play Over Pie (Catherine Mayfield)Story 34: Favor an Alien (Dice Ford, Superhero)Story 35: Superhero Convention (Dice Ford, Superhero)Story 36: Dinner with a Superhero (Dice Ford, Superhero)Story 37: Lunch with a Superhero (Dice Ford, Superhero)Story 38: Trapping a SecretStory 39: Whisper of OaksStory 40: Singing LightsStory 41: The Art of DeceitStory 42: Family PlacesStory 43: Catching MagicStory 44: A Favor For a PotionStory 45: Summer MagicStory 46: Time SinkholeStory 47: Magic CleanupStory 48: Rhapsody in the Stars (GALCOM Universe)Story 49: Rendezvous with an Alien (Dice Ford Superhero)Story 50: Ticket to a SpaceshipStory 51: Whispers of Shadows (Al Travers)Story 52: Sour LuckNovel: Superhero Portal (Dice Ford Superhero)Non-Fiction: Write Like A Pulp Writer: Lessons From Writing a Story a Week for a Year (Pantsers Rebellion Writing Guides)Non-Fiction: Write One Draft: How to Cycle As You Write Your Story (Pantsers Rebellion Writing Guides)Non-Fiction: Grocery for One: Budget Saving Strategies for the Solo Cook

The poetry was part of a collection I thought I would do, but it became challenging trying to do the poems and the weekly short stories. So not enough for a print book, but I might go ahead with an ebook.

The Great Olive Oil Disaster

Dog Jack Russell Terrier and a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever by the fireplace with a Christmas tree © Anna-av

Went grocery shopping yesterday to get ahead of the Christmas rush.  Spotted organic olive oil on sale for $6 off, grabbed the jar, and continued walking around the aisles.  Stopped in the frozen food section, and when I picked up the handbasket again, a yellowish-green puddle was on the white floor.  The bottle had a tiny chip in the bottom.  I left an olive oil trail!

I’m still working on the copy edits for Superhero Portal.  It isn’t a lot—and I have to keep telling myself that. The steps I added to my cycling this time made an amazing difference in what I got back from the copy edits.  But the creative side is kicking and stomping its feet and saying “I don’t wanna do this!”  So, finalizing the copy edits is taking longer than it should.  But I’ll have Superhero Portal done by December 31.

I’m also making the rounds of refreshes of all past books, which includes all of the following:

Folder Reviews.  I’m only creating two subfolders, 1 Publishing Masters and 2 Archived Files.  Anything directly related to the publishing process goes into the first one and everything else in the second one.  I’m cleaning up the file names and standardizing them. Otherwise, the disorganization becomes a distraction.  It kind of grew on me, especially after writing so many short stories.  Now this something I have to pay attention to. Cover Updates.  Everything is getting changed to standardize it.  Most of that isn’t much work.Updated the interior.  I’ve been running all the interiors through the AI processes I used on Superhero Portal—and I’m finding issues that need correction.  Then I pop the corrected copy into a new template.  I gave the template a name, which goes on my inventory list.  This is so future self can know which stories to update.

All along the way, I’m finding a lot of little errors.  So I’m also thinking about how I can make the process less error-prone. I’m guessing it’ll be multiple checklists, one for each of the five book vendors.

On December 27:

On January 25 (not yet available for preorder, but it’s coming):

Superhero Copy Edits Back!

I woke up this morning to high winds gusting and howling madly outside. Our temperatures have been all over the place (normal for this patch of the Washington DC area). We hit the 60s during the week, and it’s in the 50s now. But that wind… the 30s.

Continuity edit/copy edits are back. Some lessons I’ve learned from it already:

My copy editing rounds cut the typos she found waaaaayyy down. I ran Microsoft Word for spell check and repeated words. Then I hit Grammarly for the commas. Then I hit ProWritingAid, both the RealTime Report and the Overused Report. A lot of changes there. It flagged passive voice and words or types of words I overused (only three types. That’s a big improvement for me). Then I ran PerfectIt and read through the entire story for typos. Copy editing produced a few more typos, mostly missing articles nothing picked up, and a few places where I wasn’t as clear as I needed to be.The above round also showed me where I was using British variations of some words and had no idea I was. Those words are part of common use. So I plugged those into my AutoCorrect in Microsoft Word so I don’t have to catch those in the future.I probably need to attempt the reverse outline for Dice Ford 2. There were continuity errors that I might have been able to correct if I had that. Some numbering agreements, part of a setting changed, stuff like that. At the point where the setting issue occurred, it was so far at the end I didn’t circle back to read what I had. That’s likely where most of my work will be, making sure those two scenes sync up.The story bible the editor built for me will be a big help. I managed to spell three different characters’ names two different ways. Sigh.The character part of the story bible identified places where I’m still writing the descriptions thin. So I’ll be circling back through another cycling pass to add those details. Since I know there’s a problem there, I’ll tag those areas for attention in Dice Ford 2.I nailed the timeline! The continuity editor said a lot of writers tended to jam too much in one day (which I’ve done in the past). For Superhero Portal, I wrote notes to myself at the top of the page with the timeline. I’d put Friday, the time of day, and the duration of the scene. Those came out later, but they were to force me to think about what was happening and to include the weekend. Dice is a working woman, after all, so she has weekends. The only place I have to fix was towards the end and a cycling adjustment where I didn’t quite nail that down.

None of this is a major change. The biggest is that setting issue since it will involve removing the rocketship I put in and inserting a castle and adjusting the action around that. Everything else is a sentence insertion.

I’m also doing some refreshes since none of my older stories have my current newsletter link in them. A lesson learned here, too: I’m labeling the template so I know what I need to update in the future. I’m thinking about ways to cut down on the errors on this. I’ve found one where I updated the cover on Draft to Digital and Smashwords and didn’t do it on Amazon or my website. Another wasn’t even on the site. So I’m checking through everything to verify, verify, verify.

Write Like a Pulp Writer: Lessons from Writing a Short Story a Week for a Year is available for preorder (still populating vendors, so if you don’t see yours, wait a day or two). This will be out on December 27.

Crazy Week

I finished off Write One Draft: How to Cycle in Your Story as You Write, ahead of the December 31 deadline I’d set for it (yay! Another win on the deadline front). This book scared me a bit as I was writing it. My inner critic, since he’s always got to show up at some point, was afraid there wouldn’t be enough material for a book.

Instead, I was surprised at the amount I did get, considering that the resources that discuss it give it a blog post-length treatment. I also redid it and the cover for the first one because I realized while I liked the dogs, probably not a good choice in the long run.

This is set for a January 25 release,

I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop with my continuity edits for Superhero Portal, which should be this weekend. Next week could be interesting! I wanted this type of edit because I’m likely to see some patterns of what I do and I can work on offsetting them as I cycle.

I do have an idea for the second Dice Ford, Superhero book. Not telling anything yet. Inner critic was most reside himself though, a little panicked that I was going to have deadlines and no story…

I also did two refreshes of stories last week. Those will be in the Time is on the Loose collection, so I did double duty with my time. Having an inventory list is really important! One of the stories threw me for a bit because I did one thing differently with it and didn’t do it again. I noted that on my inventory list and also on the blurb/keywords page as well.

Thinking of a third Pantser Rebellion Guide on finding ideas.

December Releases

These two books will be out on December 27:

Write Like a Pulp Writer

This is a look at all the challenges I faced working this challenge, including time management, inner critic (never get rid of him!), and getting ideas.

Time on the Loose

This is a collection of six stories about time travel, including:

Time Sinkhole (Great Challenge Story #46)Late So SoonNothing Town (from the challenge Writing in Public)Blink of a MomentTime Drop (flash fiction)Time Portal (Great Challenge Story #20)

52 Stories in a Year Done

I woke up to find the fire hydrant sitting on the lawn, bits of fiberglass and headlights scattered around. That hydrant gets hit periodically, always in the middle of the night. What impressed me was that I slept right through it. Never heard the crash.

A county truck came by later in the morning to retrieve the fire hydrant and then a second one came by fifteen minutes later to put a cone on the spot where the hydrant was,

I wrapped up Write Like a Pulp Writer: Lessons From Writing a Story a Week for A Year. I planned for it to be a part of a series, so I decided on the series title as “Pantser Rebellion Writing Guide.”

The most interesting lesson learned was on time management. I’ve read the books for years (and for a while bought it into trying to find the right system to solve my problems). The time management books talk about how to manage time for your career goals from your day job. Personal time is generally treated as a nuisance on the side where you aren’t doing your goals. Sleep? Yeah, shave off an hour, do more on your goals.

Books on time management for writers talk about how to grab time in the evening or while you’re waiting for doctor appointments. Grab the Scrivener app and write while you’re standing in line at the grocery store. But neither book mashes them together–you know, managing your time when you have a day job and are writing on the side. I’m thinking that’s going to be a future book in this writing guide series.

Look for Write Like a Pulp Writer: Lessons From Writing a Story a Week for A Year to be published December 27. One of my goals for 2022 is to be more intentional about release dates.

Since I’m done a little early (and met my deadline with time to spare), the next one will be Write One Draft: How to Cycle in Your Story As You Write.