David R. Michael's Blog, page 15

Talking to Myself Blindly in the Dark

 
Anyone who's read any of my blog posts is almost certainly aware that I outline my novels first, then write them.
 
It sounds so simple. So clean. So organized.
 
I outline, then I write.
 
I assure you, though, the process is anything but simple, clean and organized. OK. It's a little organized. And it's not that complicated, I guess. And I do take my shower before I sit down to write. But all of that is beside the point.
 
First:
 
I.        This
II.        Is Not
       A.        How I
               1.        Outline
 
Hell, no.
 
The outline usually begins with me typing something like this in The Journal:
 
"So, yeah, I think I'll write me a new YA book."
 
Seriously. That's the first thing I wrote when I started taking notes for GoSH1 in December 2010. (Yes, I'm chatty with myself in my journal.) And that was all I wrote for 5 days. All I knew then was that I wanted to write a novel for my daughter (who had just turned 9).
 
After that, over the next couple months while I finished the first draft of Gunwitch and did some more indie publishing, I came back to my GoSH1 notes and added ideas and images. I do this in a way that is a lot like talking to myself.
 
For example:
 
"What if the first book really is 3 separate storylines? The girls only see each other in passing, interact only a little bit, until the end, when they see they're all working toward the same end. They don't reveal what they can do until the end. They are trying to keep their abilities secret. They will each fail unless they join together."
 
It's kind of interesting (to me) to go back and see where I started and compare it to the final story. Because that example has almost nothing to do with the final book. There are ideas in my notes that I have forgotten, but that helped me on the way. Some of the ideas might be worth pursuing in a future GoSH book, or maybe in a very different book or series. The same thing happened in the storystorming process for Gunwitch2. My earliest notes have very little in common with the outline I'm using now.
 
In the early part of the process, in a form of brainstorming, I write everything that occurs to me. I'm talking to myself, and at the same time jotting down notes about the glimpses of setting and character that I see. I'm experimenting with story structures and poking around at backstory. Everything is fluid, and I seldom delete anything I've written. If I decide something doesn't work, I just leave it as it lays and move on.
 
This goes on for DAYS.
 
I usually have thousands of words of notes before I take my first stab at a high-level outline (of sorts). By that time, I've made decisions about characters and setting and I've started to get a feel for both. Seeing even an abbreviated outline for the story exposes flaws and holes. So I go through draft after draft of outlines, copy-and-pasting so I don't lose anything, then editing from there.
 
And that goes on for DAYS, as well. Sometimes weeks. You can see an example of this in my notes for the short story, "Secondhand Coffin".
 
Ultimately, I have an outline that I figure is a good enough guide to start writing from.
 
I'm wrong, of course. I'm always wrong. The outline will change as I write, but usually not in large, storybreaking ways. Hell, the outline for my current project is now on Draft #6–and I started writing with Draft #3. Over the weekend, as I started a new chapter, I realized I didn't need that chapter at all. It had become mostly redundant. And what parts of it were still needed could be threaded into the chapter I had just finished.
 
I'm OK with being wrong about my outline, though, because even in its imperfect state it has served its purpose. Which is to help me find something visible and tangible within the empty, amorphous darkness that surrounded me when I started.
 
-David
 
PS I was inspired to write this post after reading Camille LaGuire's latest post. It's sort of my long comment to her post.
 
Related Posts:
I Can Haz Story?Planning (Almost) FinishedA Story Emerges

50 Days

 
Today marked the 50th day of my current writing "streak". 50 consecutives days of writing *something* every day. The day with the largest word count, so far, was 6 February with just over 2000 words. My two lowest days have been below 400 words, but most days I'm hitting around 1000. Which isn't dreadful considering I have to share my days between writing, developing software, and family life. But it's a bit off the pace I thought I would be setting at the beginning of the year. I might miss my first deadline (31 March) for the completion of Gunwitch2. But I still might not. That's still 6 weeks away.
 
50 days makes this my second longest streak ever (and it's still growing). I had a 41-day streak in 2006, and a 56-day streak in 2011. I expect to set my own personal streak record by next Monday. Which will be cool, if hardly celebratory outside of a very small group of people. =)
 
-David
 
Related Posts:
A MilestoneApril WrapupThe Approaching End – My Goals and Deadlines for 2012

Writing Progress Report

 
Writing progress report for the week starting Monday, February 13, 2012.
 








Writing Project


Words




Monday


Gunwitch2
Edited GoSH1 chapter 1.


1035




Tuesday


Gunwitch2
Edited GoSH1 chapter 1, 2.


1019




Wednesday


Gunwitch2
Edited GoSH1 chapter 3.


1025




Thursday


Gunwitch2
Edited GoSH1 chapter 4, 5, 6.


1422




Friday


Gunwitch2
Edited GoSH1 chapter 7.


1080




Saturday


Gunwitch2
Edited GoSH1 chapter 8.


779




Sunday


Gunwitch2
Updated Gunwitch2 outline.


382














Total



6742




Project Total: 51210
YTD Total: 49064
Current Streak: 49 days
 








Publishing/Marketing




Monday





Tuesday





Wednesday





Thursday





Friday





Saturday





Sunday





 
Reading List

Into the Wild by Erin Hunter.

 
Related Posts:
9 Months of Indie PublishingNow Available – "Insanity"Now Available – "The Perfect Hiding Place"

Progress!

 
As of today, Gunwitch2 has accumulated 50,000 words. Which is about half done, I figure, depending on the lengths of the remaining chapters. It's possible this book will be between 110K and 120K words (about 10%-20% longer than the first book), but … well … estimates of final lengths while in the middle have seldom proven accurate for me. What seems to happen is that the chapters in the first half of the book trend long while the later chapters trend shorter. So I'm still assuming the book will finish at about 100K words. We won't know for sure until we get there.
 
Also, as of last night, I've edited about a third of GoSH1 (chapters 1-6). This is my almost-final edit, the edit that happens before the nitpicky line editing. Work on the cover has also begun. So that book is getting ever closer to being published.
 
And I'm making good progress on my next big update of The Journal too.
 
So I'm excited.
 
-David
 
Related Posts:
I Granted My Child's WishI Blog Less When I'm Writing…One Down, Five to Go

Plot Point Radio

 
I thought we were past this, but I'm reading a book where the main character, on her way to visit someone in the hospital, tunes into Plot Point Radio to get all the details of the house fire that put the someone in the hospital. Because, yeah, that sort of thing is news everywhere. And this book was written by a bestselling author in 2003.
 
Fuckin' Plot Point Radio. Available on your local radio dial.
 
-David
 
Related Posts:
Why I Gave Up On a Book This WeekNano – Subdivisions & RationalesFree Fiction – "Deadline's Curve"

Working Author

 
Every year in February my alma mater has its "Homecoming", which includes all sorts of things I don't bother with (I didn't attend the basketball games when I went to school there; why would I go now?). But on the Saturday of homecoming week, the various departments have alumni receptions. Because some of my professors are still there (hard to believe since I graduated in 1991), every few years I make a point of driving the 3-4 miles over to campus (because, yes, I still live here) and be sociable. So that's what I did yesterday.
 
To show that I've been keeping busy, I took a copy of both The Girl Who Ran With Horses and Gunwitch: A Tale of the King's Coven. Horse Girl I took because it's YA, and Gunwitch because it's recent. Both of them because they have great covers. (I did not take The Summoning Fire, even though it has a great cover, because I didn't want to scare anyone.) I also took a handy copy of The Journal 5 on CDROM, because I was a Computer Science major, after all. Gotta represent at the CS/Math reception (even if it has now been folded with the Engineering department reception).
 
Really, I was just taking 'em to show off.
 
What happened, though, is that I ended up signing and selling both books. Gunwitch to a former professor (I learned COBOL in his class) for this granddaughter who was going on vacation soon and read a lot of fantasy, and Horse Girl to a fellow alumnus who said his daughter liked books about horses. I would've just given them the books, but they insisted on paying–though they did accept discounts off the cover price.
 
So that was cool.
 
I almost wish I had taken more copies. Except, if I had, I would've been a self-promoting whore instead of just a show-off alumnus. And no one likes a self-promoting whore. Not even other self-promoting whores. EspecIially not other self-promoting whores.
 
I'm just happy I came away from the reception with a bit more cash, and a couple more sales, than I had when I arrived. And, hopefully, no one thinks I'm a self-promoting whore. Just a working author.
 
-David
 
Related Posts:
Flintlock FantasyOutline to Completed Novel Word Count RatioI Need a Bible

Writing Progress Report

 
Writing progress report for the week starting Monday, February 6, 2012.
 








Writing Project


Words




Monday


Gunwitch2


2004




Tuesday


Gunwitch2


1295




Wednesday


Gunwitch2


1011




Thursday


Gunwitch2


517




Friday


Gunwitch2


1031




Saturday


Gunwitch2
Created new editing draft of GoSH1.


618




Sunday


Gunwitch2


630














Total



7106




Project Total: 44468
YTD Total: 42322
Current Streak: 42 days
 








Publishing/Marketing




Monday





Tuesday





Wednesday





Thursday





Friday





Saturday





Sunday





 
Reading List

A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters.

 
Related Posts:
9 Months of Indie PublishingNow Available – "Insanity"Now Available – "The Perfect Hiding Place"

Piles of Words

 
Yesterday, the Gunwitch2 project rolled past 40,000 words. Which is cool. I started chapter 9 today (out of 23 outlined) and figure I'm approaching the halfway point.
 
Last week, I realized I had rolled past the 800,000 mark in total words of fiction, counted/estimated since 2003. Here's the full breakdown:

2003 – 122788 (Threads)
2004 – 20000 (Threads)
2005 – 9050 (Threads)
2006 – 230,000 (A Short Story a Day, includes The Door to the Sky and The Summoning Fire)
2007 – 107728 [48127 (The Girl Who Ran With Horses), 59601 (Gunwitch)]
2008 – 7960 (short stories for contests)
2009 – 27937 (The Girl Who Ran With Horses & Nano)
2010 – 110000 (stories + Nano)
2011 - 140,000 (Gunwitch, GoSH1, short stories, unfinished novels)
2012 – 39526 (so far)

 
Total: 815,000 words
 
If I keep up with my 2012 writing goals, I should have a much larger, rounder total number (which shan't be mentioned to avoid jinxing) before the end of the year. Also, if I keep up with my 2012 writing goals, I should (finally) exceed my previous best writing year of 2006.
 
I started that accounting in 2003, because that's when I started writing again. And when I started keeping a mostly-consistent record of how much I've written. Like most writers, I started this whole "I wannabe a writer" thing as a teenager. I have a handful of stories from my teenage years, and even a couple novels that kept not quite being finished. I still have most of that work, in one form or another (mostly typed hardcopy, some longhand), but like hell I'm going to either read it or try to count the words involved.
 
After college, I didn't write fiction so much–but I wrote (and refereed) a lot of RPG campaigns and scenarios, including a whole set of homebrew RPG rules and my own campaign worlds. I have no idea how many words all of that might add up to. One somewhat interesting side effect of my RPG hobby and many years spent running games is that I tend to plot my novels much the same way I plotted out RPG campaigns and adventure scenarios. You do what you know.
 
Those counts also do not include any of my nonfiction writing. Besides the two game development books from 2002 and 2005, I also wrote a number of tutorial-style game development Web articles (most of which are still out there, getting more and more out of date). And then there's 10+ years of writing for The Journal's mostly-monthly newsletter (tips and tricks, how-to-articles, and so on).
 
Finally, I have no idea how many words I've typed into my personal and professional journals since I started them in 1993. Last I checked, I had made over 16,000 entries in The Journal.
 
So, yeah, I'm calling my current tally 815,000. Which might seem like a lot, but it's not, not really. My fiction writing career is still quite young.
 
-David
 
Related Posts:
2011 – A Short Review by an Indie Author/PublisherOutline to Completed Novel Word Count RatioThe Approaching End – My Goals and Deadlines for 2012

Writing Progress Report

 
Writing progress report for the week starting Monday, January 30, 2012.
 








Writing Project


Words




Monday


Gunwitch2


1239




Tuesday


Gunwitch2


1023




Wednesday


Gunwitch2


1021




Thursday


Gunwitch2


1244




Friday


Gunwitch2


575




Saturday


Gunwitch2


1014




Sunday


Gunwitch2


339














Total



6455




YTD Total: 35216
Project Total: 37362
Current Streak: 35 days
 








Publishing/Marketing




Monday





Tuesday





Wednesday





Thursday





Friday





Saturday





Sunday





 
Reading List

The Sacrifice of Mendleson Moony by Mark Fassett.

 
Related Posts:
9 Months of Indie PublishingNow Available – "Insanity"Now Available – "The Perfect Hiding Place"

I Need a Bible

 
[image error] A Gunwitch Bible.
 
Otherwise, I suspect Rose's haircolor and eyecolor–and the hair, eyes, and mode of dress and speech of every other character–would become this ever-morphing mass of eventually conflicting adjectives.
 
And no one wants that.
 
It's not like I use a lot of character description, but what I put in the new book should be at least passing familiar with what I said in the previous book.
 
Only seems fair.
 
So I'm actually going to create a category in The Journal with the word "Bible" in the title. That's never happened before.
 
The tricky part will be keeping this "bible" up-to-date.
 
A big part of what I expect to do with this is copy-and-paste blocks of text from the manuscripts. Because what's in the text will be accurate (as opposed to what often gets scribbled down in my notes and outlines). And I should probably label these copy-and-paste blocks by book so I keep them straight.
 
As I add more books to this series (I have 3 planned, currently), this will become more important. Though even with this effort, I'm sure there will come a day at some convention or the other when a reader will gleefully point out how Janett became left-handed for three chapters in Book #7–and not even consecutive chapters! How could I do that? Really?
 
Anyway, there's a bible coming for Gunwitch. And, later this year, when I start the 2nd GoSH book (GoSH1 will eventually be edited, I promise), I'll have to create a bible for that series, as well. If I don't, I mind end up with some unintentional "crossover" stories. And that would be weird.
 
-David
 
Related Posts:
Flintlock FantasyOutline to Completed Novel Word Count RatioWin a FREE Signed Copy of Gunwitch: A Tale of the King's Coven