David R. Michael's Blog, page 14
April 2, 2012
Writing Progress Report
Writing progress report for the week starting Monday, March 26, 2012.
Writing Project
Words
Monday
Copy edited GoSH1 chapter 8.
Tuesday
Copy edited GoSH1 chapter 9, 10.
Wednesday
Copy edited GoSH1 chapter 11, 12.
Thursday
Copy edited GoSH1 chapter 13.
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Total
0
Project Total: 64459
YTD Total: 62313
Reading List
The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success by Mark Coker.
Related Posts:
9 Months of Indie PublishingNow Available – "Insanity"Now Available – "The Perfect Hiding Place"
March 26, 2012
Writing Progress Report
Writing progress report for the week starting Monday, March 19, 2012.
Writing Project
Words
Monday
Copy edited GoSH1 chapter 1, 2.
Tuesday
Copy edited GoSH1 chapter 3.
Wednesday
Copy edited GoSH1 chapter 4, 5.
Thursday
Copy edited GoSH1 chapter 6, 7.
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Total
0
Project Total: 64459
YTD Total: 62313
Reading List
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain.
Related Posts:
9 Months of Indie PublishingNow Available – "Insanity"Now Available – "The Perfect Hiding Place"
March 19, 2012
It's All Fun
Brainstorming a new story is fun. Whether with new characters or characters I've already had fun writing about.
Watching the duststorm of ideas for characters, situations, and settings coalesce around and into an outline that describes the story is fun.
Writing the specific word-by-word story from that still-somewhat-high-level outline is fun.
Adjusting the outline based on how the writing progresses is fun. Mostly.
Realizing that something I've just written answers a question/solves a problem that was going to need to be answered/solved soon is fun. Exciting, even.
Counting the words and seeing the growing pile completed chapters is fun.
Writing my way out of the dreaded "middle" is grueling–but also fun.
Seeing how the ending is coming together ahead of my typing is fun.
Typing "The End" is fun. And sweet. Very, very sweet.
Ignoring the completed draft for at least a month is a *lot* of fun. Yes. Yes, it is.
Reading the completed draft, and editing it as I go, is fun.
Sending the freshly-edited manuscript to first readers is fun. If a bit nerve-wracking sometimes.
Accumulating feedback from the first readers is (usually) fun.
Editing while reading the full manuscript again, this time armed with feedback from the first readers, is fun. Because I like reading (most of) what I write (these days).
Line editing is not fun. Line editing is work. But it's good to get it out of the way.
Formatting the manuscript for print-on-demand and ebook is fun-ish. It's more fun to see the final result, though, than it is *produce* that result.
Releasing the book (at last) is fun. And also very, very sweet.
So, yeah, it's all fun. In one way or the other.
-David
Related Posts:
Editing is Not WorkGunwitch Editing CompleteGunwitch Editing Begins
Writing Progress Report
Writing progress report for the week starting Monday, March 12, 2012.
Writing Project
Words
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Total
0
Project Total: 64459
YTD Total: 62313
Reading List
Business Around A Lifestyle (First Step: How To Dream Your Perfect Lifestyle, Then Go Get It!) by Jim F Kukral.
Double Dead by Chuck Wendig.
Related Posts:
9 Months of Indie PublishingNow Available – "The Perfect Hiding Place"Now Available – "Insanity"
March 12, 2012
Writing Progress Report
Writing progress report for the week starting Monday, March 5, 2012.
Writing Project
Words
Monday
Gunwitch2
1629
Tuesday
Gunwitch2
Updated Gunwitch2 outline.
812
Wednesday
Gunwitch2
763
Thursday
Gunwitch2
5
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Total
3209
Project Total: 64459
YTD Total: 62313
Reading List
Mort by Terry Pratchett.
Related Posts:
9 Months of Indie PublishingNow Available – "Insanity"Now Available – "The Perfect Hiding Place"
March 7, 2012
Some Chapters Are Longer Than Others
Not only do I sometimes look at the next chapter in my outline and realize "I already wrote that" and cut that chapter from my outline, but sometimes I discover that the chapter I'm working on–a chapter that steadfastly refuses to end–was actually two chapters.
Dropping a chapter is less work. Sure, I have to make sure that all the story/plot/character elements the chapter was intended to convey are conveyed elsewhere in the text, but that's typically not too hard. Find a convenient paragraph, and hang a lampshade on it.
Splitting a chapter, though, can be more involved. This is the opposite of "tightening", which is what dropping a chapter feels like (and might even be). Just splitting the chapter into two consecutive chapters makes no real sense, most of the time. Why bother? Just leave it long. So splitting means that at least one other chapter, possibly already written, possibly not, will be inserted between the two chapter halves. And that has implications on story pacing, reveals, and so on.
All of which to say, yes, I spent yesterday splitting a chapter and rippling the changes throughout the updated outline. I ended up adding 2 chapters to the outline, bringing the total for the book back up to 25. One of the new chapters won't be especially long, but I think it will give me a chance to provide more interaction and maybe even some hints of backstory. So it's all good.
I'm reasonably certain that I will not be finishing this novel by 31 March, my first deadline for 2012. Right now, I'm estimating mid- to late-April to type "The End" on the first draft. I'm also estimating the completed manuscript to be about 115K words, about 15% longer than my original planned length. Of course, those are just estimates, and could be way, way off, one way or the other…
-David
Related Posts:
Nano – Day 8Nano Day 15More Planning Than Writing
March 5, 2012
Writing Progress Report
Writing progress report for the week starting Monday, February 27, 2012.
Writing Project
Words
Monday
Gunwitch2
Edited GoSH1 chapter 15.
1038
Tuesday
Gunwitch2
Edited GoSH1 chapter 16.
1110
Wednesday
Gunwitch2
882
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Edited GoSH1 chapter 17, 18, 19, 20, 21.
Sunday
Total
3030
Project Total: 61250
YTD Total: 59104
Reading List
Discover Your Inner Economist by Tyler Cowen.
Shotgun Opera by Victor Gischler.
Related Posts:
9 Months of Indie PublishingNow Available – "Insanity"Now Available – "The Perfect Hiding Place"
March 3, 2012
Editing is Not Work
Not the way I do it, anyway.
What I call "editing" is reading through my work and doing one or more of the following as I go:
Correcting typos
Fixing word choice
Excising extraneous, unnecessary verbiage
Clarifying the prose
And, on the final read-through-edit, addressing issues brought up by first readers
Note the lack of "story fixing" in that list. I don't consider that part of editing. Getting the story right is writing, and that happens long before editing.
This process takes time, and a bit of effort, but I don't consider it work. It's actually fun. Almost relaxing. I'm reading something I wrote and (usually) happy with how much it doesn't suck. I'm enjoying my own creativity while I make it slightly better. How could that be work?
What I call "line editing", though, is not fun. It is very much work. I run the draft, a chapter at a time, through the Serenity Editor software and review its line-by-line recommendations. It's tedious as all hell, but it catches the bulk of the remaining typos and tightens the prose.
Today I finished primary editing of GoSH1. Which means it's all work-work-work from now on. Next week I'll start the line editing. After that, the formatting for ebook and POD.
Have a great weekend!
-David
Related Posts:
Learn to Edit Your Own WorkGunwitch Editing BeginsPublishing Seemed Less Work When I Didn't Know Any Better
February 29, 2012
The Wall
Marathon runners and other endurance sports participants talk about "hitting the wall". The wall is the point where the exhaustion becomes overwhelming and continuing becomes a matter of will.
I think I've found my own wall, at least for novels. It's around the 60,000-word mark. I have enough novels behind me now that I can see the pattern developing.
The cure for hitting the wall (and, really, for avoiding the wall) in sports is proper diet during the event (lots of carbs, for example) and a reduction in intensity level.
I think for writing, the only way past the wall is … well … willpower. You either continue or you don't.
The wall in writing novels doesn't have the physical component, of course. And I haven't exactly been pushing that hard with a target of 1000 words per day. But after 59 consecutive days of writing (in addition to working 5-6 hours/day on The Journal), I'm beginning to feel the strain of continued effort.
I'll get past it. I always do. Eventually.
That said, I'm seriously considering (read that, "99% sure") letting my streak come to an end on Friday and taking the weekend off. Because a short rest is another way past (or around) the wall. And I haven't had a weekend off all year.
-David
Related Posts:
Writing Short Stories Considered UsefulWhy I Keep Bringing That Up…Lookit! I Did a Cover!
February 26, 2012
Writing Progress Report
Writing progress report for the week starting Monday, February 20, 2012.
Writing Project
Words
Monday
Gunwitch2
Edited GoSH1 chapter 9.
1514
Tuesday
Gunwitch2
Edited GoSH1 chapter 10.
1005
Wednesday
Gunwitch2
1532
Thursday
Gunwitch2
Edited GoSH1 chapter 11, 12.
601
Friday
Gunwitch2
699
Saturday
Gunwitch2
Edited GoSH1 chapter 13, 14.
1004
Sunday
Gunwitch2
655
Total
7010
Project Total: 58220
YTD Total: 56074
Current Streak: 56 days [ties previous streak record]
Reading List
Soul Music by Terry Pratchett.
Related Posts:
9 Months of Indie PublishingNow Available – "Insanity"Now Available – "The Perfect Hiding Place"
