Nicole R. Murphy's Blog, page 2

Week one of self-publishing experiment

How Astrid Found Her Passion has been available on Kindle for nine days and at Smashwords for a week.

In the week on Smashwords, it's been purchased three times, and a sample downloaded eleven times. In the nine days on Kindle, there's also been three sales. I don't have the sample downloaded figures there.

So the first question – it seems clear from the data provided by Smashword that none of those sample downloads have resulted in purchases. Does that mean there's something wrong with the first part of the story? Is it not grabbing people? Or do people not buy immediately after downloading a sample because they've not read it yet. Are those samples on the various TBR piles and sales are forthcoming?

I don't know what the expected percentage of downloads to purchases is – is this too high, or is it the norm? These are all interesting questions that I shall research the answers too.

I've not done any publicity for the book, apart from the initial announcement letting people know. So this week, I'll do a couple of publicity bids for it and see what impact that has on sales. May not report in directly next week since I'll be in Melbourne and I'm anticipating very little internet connectivity, but we'll see.

In the meantime – have you bought your copy?

[image error] Astrid Summer has never been sure what her purpose in life is. On a regular trip to think about her options, she finds herself in a strange place with a multitude of options. What will she do?

My writing progress this week

I finished a book! I finished a book!

Never does this get old – finishing a draft. No matter how many novels I write, or short stories I complete, it never gets old. Nor should it – every story is a challenge, an adventure and getting to an important milestone of that journey needs to be acknowledged.

So here's where it's at – my still untitled contemporary romance currently tips the scales at 42,000 words. That will undoubtedly change – there's a lot of research I need to do, mostly of police investigations and the NSW court system for both adults and minors and I don't doubt what I discover is going to impact the book. I've written the story making major assumptions on how things work – if I'm wrong, I'll have to change it.

I also need to do a colour chart of it and see how it's going pacing and plot wise. I already suspect that I need a little more duelling between hero and heroine at the front of the book before things start to change. The important thing now is to just let it sit and mellow for a while – at least a month, maybe longer depending on future projects.

So, what next? Well, the plan was to spend the next week pottering around with things. I go to Melbourne next Friday for a few days and I'll be taking a break from all things writerly. When I return mid-the following week, the plan was to get stuck into whatever brilliant idea occurred to me in that time.

Except – brilliant idea occurred yesterday. It's funny how when you're getting to the end of a project – be it drafting or editing – your brain is there ready to point you toward the new thing to do.

And I know this is an idea that I will work on because I've not just thought of it and then forgot it. Last night, I went to sleep picturing some of the opening scenes. Today, even as I write this, I can see a bit of my brain sitting at its little desk and furiously scribbling stuff down so it doesn't forget.

So I'm going to spend the next week writing shorts, polishing stories, submitting and so on. Then I'll go to Melbourne and when I return I'll be starting my new contemporary romance, based on one of my favourite Shakespeare plays – Much Ado About Nothing.

I've never tried to re-write another story before so that will be challenging and interesting, and I'm intrigued by how strongly this particular idea has gripped me. I think it's going to be longer than the past two contemporaries – up around the 80k mark. And having overdosed on some Jennifer Cruisie on Wednesday, it's going to have a different feel to the others as well. Not Jennifer's trademark witty conversation, but things such as having multiple POVs in a romance.

That will probably be my main focus for the rest of this year – drafting that book.

A writer’s processes–Alan Baxter

Over on the official blog, Alan talks about how he creates and makes ready for submission.

http://nicolermurphy.com/post/A-writere28099s-processese28093Alan-Baxter.aspx

Week two of a writer’s habits and processes

This week it's Alan Baxter. You can find his post on writer's habits here http://nicolermurphy.com/post/A-writere28099s-habitse28093Alan-Baxter.aspx and on Wednesday we'll go into his processes.

The gadda are real?

Take a look at this website and see what you think: http://gadda.info/

My writing progress this week.

Another good week in the Nicole Murphy office! I'm having today off cause last night wasn't a good night, but I'm just 1500 words off this week's goal, so I'll polish that off tomorrow.

After the initial flush, it got a bit slow to start with. Monday I ground out the daily 3000 words, not entirely sure where things were going with the story. Tuesday I didn't write – my thoughts were all on the talk I was giving at the ACT Writer's Center that afternoon.

The talk was on the secrets of publishing – I went into the reality of the current situation, how publishing companies are set up and the acquisition process and then about how to get your work in front of an acquiring editor and get it noticed. I got great feedback at the time, and one of the participants actually emailed me the next day to thank me, so I'm guessing that meant it went really well.

That day off seemed to give me a push and Wednesday and Thursday I wrote really well. It helped that I was up to the part where the hero and heroine got into the bedroom – those scenes always flow well.

We're now up to the part where the hero is going to find out a secret about his father that will change everything. Just about to hit the 30k mark in a planned 50k manuscript, so I figure that this coming week should be when I hit the 3/4 mark 'meh I'm over this book, when is it going to end?' drag that will make it hard to work.

In the meantime, just had a short story rejection. I was so sure that story would fly. I love it, it's so much fun and does a great thing with a fat heroine. So I'm wondering whether it's worth making this story my experiment with self-publishing. Something to ponder…

Part two of weekly interview–writer’s processes

This second part tackles how writers tackle their work – do they plan or are they organic? Are short stories dealt with differently to novels? What is the hardest part of the process?

Here's where you can read Gillian's answers: http://nicolermurphy.com/post/A-writere28099s-processese28093Gillian-Polack.aspx

New series–writers’ habits and processes

Over at my official blog, I'm starting a new series of interviews with fabulous writers on their habits and processes. Monday = habits. Wednesday = processes.

First is Gillian Polack. You can find her thoughts on her writing habits here: http://nicolermurphy.com/post/A-writere28099s-habitse28093Gillian-Polack.aspx

My writing progress this week

This has been one of the best writing weeks I've had in months. The excitement of starting a new project, I guess. Or maybe the inspiration of having been with so many fabulous writer folks at Conflux. Perhaps even feeling good about the decision I've made on what to do with my career for the next few months.

The real reason for my great word count I think is the time that this story has spent in my head. I first came up with the idea for this contemporary romance around seven years ago, and it's been burbling away in my mind ever since. This year, with my decision to start writing contemporary romance, it came to the fore. With what I learnt from reading and writing "Arranged by Love", it morphed and the opening scenes started to play out in my mind, like a movie.

I work like that – I like to see the scene first, play it through, rewind and review if I need, before I write it.

A bit about the story – Sia has a secret, one that she's kept hidden for ten years for the sake of her family. Because of it, she's had to struggle to overcome a criminal past and find acceptance in the small town of Oberon. It's paid off – she's now well respected by everyone, and her dream of a career as a painter is starting to bear fruit. If only her father could stay off the grog.

Enter Todd Lansing. Sia's actions of ten years earlier hit his family hard and he's never forgiven her. When he returns to Oberon and finds that Sia is now liked and admired, he's determined to remind her of the pain she caused him – a pain he wants her to feel again.

When Todd discovers the truth, it changes everything he's known of his life and his relationship with Sia.

So here I am, having already hit my weekly aim of 15,000 words. The first ten came out in the first two days – the next five started to drag, as I started to head away from the opening to the meat of the story. Time is something that's really important for me to be able to create the best story – time each day, more time each week, time before I start a story.

I could keep writing today and built up the word count but I've decided not to – I'm going to give my brain three whole days to mull over what I've done so far and what is to come next. Hopefully by Monday morning, I'll be raring to go again.

So what will I do today? I'm going to spend days like this experimenting, learning, developing my craft. Today's activity is inspired by Matthew Farrer. I was talking to he and Donna Hanson last weekend and Matthew started talking about sestina's. I'd studied them a little during a focus on poetry I went through a few years ago and they had, quite frankly, scared the bejesus out of me. But the way Matthew spoke about them had neurons firing and today, I've decided to have a go.

The sestina is one of those poetry forms with some tough rules but those regulations often make the muse work harder and more creatively.

It has 39 lines – six six-line stanzas and one three-line to finish. The lines of the six-line stanzas must all finish with the same six words, but in differing order in each stanza. In the three-line stanza, all six words must be used again. Yet within these rules, you need to build a strong picture.

Matthew said Neil Gaiman writes beautiful sestinas – will have to find some.

As for me – today's sestina will take me back into the world of the gadda. My idea is actually to have it done as if written by Hampton Rourke – we'll see if that's TOO ambitious for a first try.

Getting started as a writer

Through Conflux, and via Facebook and the workshops I’ve been teaching, I’ve had a few questions recently on starting the journey. Rather than answer each question one by one, I thought I’d do up a blog post. Any experienced writers that want to add their thoughts or clarify mine, I hope you’ll join in.