Casey Calouette's Blog, page 9
March 23, 2014
Forward Momentum
Pizza! Just kidding, 60,980 words so far on book three!
The pizza was from Friday, right now it’s just a Founders All Day IPA. The writing is going great, every day has been a 1,500 word day lately. I literally can’t wait to sit down and write more. The plot is speeding up, the suspense is rising and the stage is being set for another big fight. Land, ground, air, all of it! And our friends the razor drones are back too…
At the rate I’m going it’ll be twenty days. But in reality it’ll be longer as I have a work trip in the mix. I’ll write if I can, but Scrivener doesn’t play nice with my iPad. I might use the time to outline a few new book ideas. My fourth book is going to be something different. Still science fiction but not the same arc as A Star Too Far.
60,980 Words
60%
March 15, 2014
Exquisite Details
Every evening before I sit down to write I tell my son a fairy tale. I always ask the same question, what do you want me to tell you? And he always answers the same thing. “Scooby Doo.” So every night I tell a new story featuring Scooby Doo in some crazy adventure. So next time you’re reading one of my stories you’ll know the idea was opened by Scooby Doo.
The writing still goes well. Every day I make a sizable dent in the story. My editor is progressing well (I hope) and the cover is in the works. Solace will hopefully be out in mid April. Book #3 maybe mid May?
49,031 Words
March 1, 2014
Sick Day – Back on the horse
When I was in Iceland I had the pleasure of drinking at the Lebowski bar. It is exactly like it sounds, a bar devoted to all things Big Lebowski. I still follow them on Twitter, there’s too much nostalgia and quirkiness not to. And, just like the Dude, I abide. Even with a cold.
I set a goal to write 1,000 words every single day. Rain or shine, busy or not. I’ve gone about 120 days and not missed a single day of writing. That’s about 120,000 words. Crazy right?
Well yesterday I was sick, head fog and nose stuff. Just a nasty bit of cold. As much as I’d like to have treated it with white russians or Gull beer, I settled with Zinc tablets and a good night’s sleep. I felt more guilt about not writing. I’m sure my editor will thank me for not writing will stupid with head cold.
But it’s OK, I’m back in the saddle today. Sickness mostly gone with another 1,000 words done. I’m up to 36K words now.
36,343
February 24, 2014
Green and Edit
A bit of green to edge the cold away. As I write this I’m going into a week of barely breaking zero. Kind of a bummer. Just when it seemed like spring was coming in.
I broke 30,000 words today on book #3. Everything is coming together really well. My editor is working diligently on Trial by Ice and Edge of Solace. Yes, she’s doing both. I want to make sure TBI is polished before EoS comes out.
Lately I’ve not had much time for my normal scifi inspiration, EVE. A bit unfortunate as she’s been a constant in my life for a good many years. I still pop into chat with friends, but not to play actively. I hope that the spark is kindled again though, for EVE is a harsh mistress. Speaking of games I played Pandemic tonight with my wife, I highly recommend it.
30,247 Words
February 18, 2014
Cover Art That Doesn’t Suck
We’ve all seen the covers that look like they were drawn in crayon. In a couple of cases I think they actually were. I’m not happy with my current cover, but man, there’s some serious variance between price and quality. Why is this important? Before anything else people will judge your book by the cover.
At the low end of the scale is the DIY method. You take a stock photo, Creative Commons image, and drop it into paint, or Photoshop. At the end you may have something good, or very bad. This is the route I went. I have some Photoshop experience so it turned out OK. Not great, not perfect, but OK.
The next rung is a premade cover. There’s some sites like goonwrite.com ($40). They have picture after picture and you choose one you like. Then he adds your title and information. For $40 you get a pretty nice cover. It’ll look good, maybe not like Penguin or Doubleday commissioned it, but good. These are just manipulated stock photos with some good font choices. For my genre he doesn’t have many good covers. I tried out Fiverr, just to see what they could provide. Meh, it was only $10, but nothing too inspiring. On average though the Fiverr cover was as good as the goonwrite covers. http://goonwrite.com/#sci-fi
After this is custom covers. And boy oh boy does the variance fly. And custom is kind of vague. An example here is damonza.com. He starts at $395. They still use stock photos, like goonwrite and Fiverr but (hopefully) have better skills, designs, fonts. To me this is an odd bird especially considering the high end. I’ve seen other people doing similar work for more and less. http://damonza.com/sample-covers/fiction-samples/
Now you have commissioned art. This is the route I went. It’s going to cost me about $600. This gets me a 100% original piece of artwork done by a professional. My artist has done work for Games Workshop, Fantasy Flight Games among others. Sounds expensive up front, but this isn’t stockphotos poked in photoshop. This is custom beauty. So for $200 above a custom cover site I get beauty.
Once I have my new cover, and the fiverr cover I’ll post them for comparison.
As an add on note about the sites using stockphotos : You don’t own the image, just the rights to use it. So any other author can buy that right for the same image. You might have a different font, and a better layout, but it will be the exact same photo. So that $400 custom cover? Yah, someone else buys a stock photo for $4 and can replicate yours.
23,743 Words
February 11, 2014
More Snow
You’re probably asking yourself why almost all of my posts have snow in them? Well, I live in the frigid north! Not quite Canada, but damned close. The above photo I took on my lunch break while I was on the ice on Lake Michigan. Totally safe, 24 inches of the stuff. The boat was working like mad.
The writing has been going really well. I’ve laid out my entire novel and am confident that this one will be the best. In addition I’m working on laying out my scenes differently and working on some more character reactions. I want to liven them up, bring them out, make them people you’ll know and like.
Edge of Solace is coming together, for those of you on my email list get ready for a large sample. I’ll also stick a nice chunk on the website too.
To everyone who comes here, thank you. You guys absolutely, totally, 100% rock. Without you I’d just be a guy dreaming of spaceships.
14,729 Words on Book #3
Another note, once this book is done I’ll be starting in on a new trilogy. Details forthcoming, but I think I’ll let you, the readers, decide which trilogy to focus on.
You’re probably asking yourself why almost all of my post...
You’re probably asking yourself why almost all of my posts have snow in them? Well, I live in the frigid north! Not quite Canada, but damned close. The above photo I took on my lunch break while I was on the ice on Lake Michigan. Totally safe, 24 inches of the stuff. The boat was working like mad.
The writing has been going really well. I’ve laid out my entire novel and am confident that this one will be the best. In addition I’m working on laying out my scenes differently and working on some more character reactions. I want to liven them up, bring them out, make them people you’ll know and like.
Edge of Solace is coming together, for those of you on my email list get ready for a large sample. I’ll also stick a nice chunk on the website too.
To everyone who comes here, thank you. You guys absolutely, totally, 100% rock. Without you I’d just be a guy dreaming of spaceships.
14,729 Words on Book #3
Another note, once this book is done I’ll be starting in on a new trilogy. Details forthcoming, but I think I’ll let you, the readers, decide which trilogy to focus on.
February 7, 2014
Fine Tuning
I spent my evening watching Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 and brewing a batch of oatmeal stout. The photo above is my shiny new electric brewpot. Now I can brew indoors and not royally freeze my ass off. The whole time I was brewing, and watching giant food items talk, I was thinking about structure.
I’m currently reading Structuring your Novel by KM Weiland.
As a writer I want to tell the best possible story. So far I’m writing, and getting words down every day, but I need to fine tune my process. It’s been really interesting as I read her book to see things I’m missing out on. Little things, things that could make an interesting scene really great. Things that could, hopefully, take those scenes to the next level.
She references movies and how they have the structure of a story down pat. And she is extremely correct. Throughout Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 I could see it, pick it out, learn from it. I was excited to sit down and check my newest scenes. Sure enough, there it was, I needed to add more. Just a line here, a paragraph there, and whammo. It sang.
I still believe in the million word theory. After I write a million words I’ll have a good grasp. So far I’m at about 170k. I’ve got a long way and a lot of writing to go. There are things I can see now that I didn’t see before the first book. I’m learning to see it. Sharpening that edge. Fine tuning.
8,350 Words
February 5, 2014
Tomato Tomato – Writing with Pomodoro
When I first started writing I found many many diversions. I envied authors who typed on just Typewriters fifty years ago. There was no Wikipedia, Google News, Failblog, or Twitter to peruse and divert from writing. Though they probably were distracted by newspapers or liquor.
Once I set myself on a path to write I knew I needed to focus. Then I discovered the Pomodoro Technique. Now there’s a lot you can look into this, but I use it in it’s simplest form.
Twenty Five Minutes for one single task. In my case it’s easy. I write non-stop for twenty five minutes. I don’t tab over, I don’t change songs, I don’t even pet the cat. I just write. If I’ve laid my outline out properly this goes really well. (See Rachel Aaron’s book 2k to 10k) I do about 750-1000 words in that time. Some nights I stop, let the batteries recharge, and come at it the next day. Other days I keep going.
I got away from the Pomodoro for awhile. It bit me in the ass. I’d sit down at 8:30 or so and barely squeak out my 1000 words by 10:30. But in that time I’d check the weather, Twitter, play a round of Tanks, maybe stretch a bit. That was all time wasted. Pomodoro equals focus. Focus equals good words. Good words equal good stories.
The above timer is not mine. That came from Wikipedia. I use an online timer at http://tomato-timer.com/ on my second monitor. I do have two monitors and I love it. From my EVE Online days running multiple clients. Now my evenings go into writing, but I do miss EVE. And she is a harsh mistress.
3,653 Words
February 3, 2014
Still Editing
No, I didn’t celebrate myself to stupidity. Though the sour beer was quite tasty. I’ve spent my time editing, revising, and polishing.
I’ve been amazed how characters have progressed. This makes me happy, growing characters are interesting characters. In some cases I’ve had to go back and rewrite a bit. Things need to fit in tidy puzzle pieces with a story otherwise you, the reader, can get disjointed.
Little plot holes also came up and are being patched. Arcs that I planned early on never happened, but the groundwork was laid. Zip-not anymore. My normal method of dealing with a sticky paragraph, deletion. If I can’t wrangle it together how would you ever enjoy reading it?
That piece of advice came from Rachel Aaron and her amazing 2k to 10k book. If you’re a writer I highly advise it. She has a part that says if you aren’t excited to write it, why would someone be excited to read it?
My run and write program is back on. I run, then I write. Then I run again, and repeat. There’s a marathon in my future…
