William Amerman's Blog - Posts Tagged "sky4"
Back to work
Why am I munching cereal with earplugs (try it sometime and tell me if it isn't an interesting experience), sitting in front of my laptop?
It's because I've found that the damn "Update Report" button is MUCH more attractive (think cocaine or chocolate cake) than the 101 keyboard keys waiting to be pressed in combinations that will spit out new fiction.
While the boys play in the other room as loud and noisy as they normally are, I'm buckling down. Gearing up for the final push to complete Sky4 - [name TBD]. After gaining over a thousand new readers in 24 hours, the urgency and pressure to finish the 4th book is like nothing I've ever known. I picture this huge new crowd racing through the first book. Then on to the second. Then hopefully on to the third and if I imagine that takes a few weeks, I'd like to be able to provide them the fourth book to fall into immediately after the third.
The fourth book resumes where the first one left off and begins to get to the part of this story where we find out why the World was created, who created it and what lies in store for the World and its people in the near future. It's over-sized right now--about 130k words that will be about 145k when finished, but then hopefully pared back to 130k after 1st and 2nd edits. Which is almost enough for two books, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Off to it and thank you to everyone who helped propel Sky1 - Foundation to the best-seller charts on Amazon (#1 in Post Apocalyptic Fiction), on the front page best-seller list at Barnes and Noble (right next to Star Wars and The Martian....what a feeling that is!).
It's because I've found that the damn "Update Report" button is MUCH more attractive (think cocaine or chocolate cake) than the 101 keyboard keys waiting to be pressed in combinations that will spit out new fiction.
While the boys play in the other room as loud and noisy as they normally are, I'm buckling down. Gearing up for the final push to complete Sky4 - [name TBD]. After gaining over a thousand new readers in 24 hours, the urgency and pressure to finish the 4th book is like nothing I've ever known. I picture this huge new crowd racing through the first book. Then on to the second. Then hopefully on to the third and if I imagine that takes a few weeks, I'd like to be able to provide them the fourth book to fall into immediately after the third.
The fourth book resumes where the first one left off and begins to get to the part of this story where we find out why the World was created, who created it and what lies in store for the World and its people in the near future. It's over-sized right now--about 130k words that will be about 145k when finished, but then hopefully pared back to 130k after 1st and 2nd edits. Which is almost enough for two books, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Off to it and thank you to everyone who helped propel Sky1 - Foundation to the best-seller charts on Amazon (#1 in Post Apocalyptic Fiction), on the front page best-seller list at Barnes and Noble (right next to Star Wars and The Martian....what a feeling that is!).
Monday rain
It's Monday, first day of two weeks off from work, and the words are flowing for the fourth book. No, I'm not pretending that they are particularly inspired or beautifully wrought. No, some days writing is just laying one brick on top of the other. Knowing that I'll come back and tidy up the mortar, level things up and get it nice and neat.
One of the things I'm most thankful for as a writer is a reckoning and understanding about the writing process. Knowing where the story is going is paramount. Then having a high level outline. Then blocking out each scene. Then actually writing each scene. Then going back over each newly written scene the day after writing it and shoring it up a bit. Then once a week or so going back over the previous week's writing and shoring up even more. And that pretty much gets a book's first draft completed. After that, the rewrite process kicks in, which is where all those days of writing without inspiration are paid for, massaged, pruned, shaped into cohesion.
The reason this process works for me is I've finally realized each day's writing doesn't have to be inspired, just functional. Plenty of time to go back over it.
Unlike blog entries. Which I push out using pretty much a stream of consciousness method. Apologies for today!
One of the things I'm most thankful for as a writer is a reckoning and understanding about the writing process. Knowing where the story is going is paramount. Then having a high level outline. Then blocking out each scene. Then actually writing each scene. Then going back over each newly written scene the day after writing it and shoring it up a bit. Then once a week or so going back over the previous week's writing and shoring up even more. And that pretty much gets a book's first draft completed. After that, the rewrite process kicks in, which is where all those days of writing without inspiration are paid for, massaged, pruned, shaped into cohesion.
The reason this process works for me is I've finally realized each day's writing doesn't have to be inspired, just functional. Plenty of time to go back over it.
Unlike blog entries. Which I push out using pretty much a stream of consciousness method. Apologies for today!
Monday you gloomy besat
I left the misspelling of beast on purpose because it tickled me, like a finger in the eye of Monday. Which can't be a good sign on the first day back at "real" work in over two weeks, eh?
Rain. Wind. Monday. Work.
Sky4 pre-draft 1 is up to a hefty 142,000 words, proving that the holidays is rife with bloat all around. And that sucker's not done. The climax is within sight. The characters are assembled in their places with proper (reasonable) motivations. But I've promised my editor something around 115k words. Due date is January 29th. Fabulous progress was made during the PTO time from "real" work, but a last final push is needed to finish the first draft by this Saturday and then, now that we're done with the "binge" part of the book, get to the "purge" part. I apologize if binge and purge are trigger words to anyone reading this. I'm in a funny Monday mood.
Rain. Wind. Monday. Work.
Sky4 pre-draft 1 is up to a hefty 142,000 words, proving that the holidays is rife with bloat all around. And that sucker's not done. The climax is within sight. The characters are assembled in their places with proper (reasonable) motivations. But I've promised my editor something around 115k words. Due date is January 29th. Fabulous progress was made during the PTO time from "real" work, but a last final push is needed to finish the first draft by this Saturday and then, now that we're done with the "binge" part of the book, get to the "purge" part. I apologize if binge and purge are trigger words to anyone reading this. I'm in a funny Monday mood.
