David R. Michael's Blog, page 16

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

Writing Progress Report

 
Writing progress report for the week starting Monday, January 23, 2012.
 








Writing Project


Words




Monday


Gunwitch2


1072




Tuesday


Gunwitch2


1095




Wednesday


Gunwitch2


1047




Thursday


Gunwitch2


598




Friday


Gunwitch2


1217




Saturday


Gunwitch2


715




Sunday


Gunwitch2


945














Total



6689




YTD Total: 28761
Project Total: 30907
Current Streak: 28 days
 








Publishing/Marketing




Monday





Tuesday





Wednesday





Thursday





Friday





Saturday





Sunday





 
Reading List

Bit Literacy: Productivity in the Age of Information and E-mail Overload by Mark Hurst.
The Killings at Badger's Drift by Caroline Graham.

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

Once More into the Middle!

 
At nearly 30,000 words (out of a planned total of ~100,000), I figure I'm approaching the end of the first act of my current novel. (Which suddenly seems like a lot of words for a "first act".)
 
So now I'm on the brink of pushing into that most horrifying and daunting of places in novel writing: The Middle.
 
It's a scary place, let me tell you. Even if you have an outline for a map. And I have an outline for a map.
 
I know where I'm going, and I know what route I'm going to take to get there. But there are a lot of words that must be written between here and there. And with two significant changes to the outline already, the accuracy of my map is somewhat in question.
 
But I will press forward. There is no way out but through.
 
Onward!
 
-David
 
Related Posts:
Planning (Almost) Finished"Done Enough"My Nano History To Date

Writing Progress Report

 
Writing progress report for the week starting Monday, January 16, 2012.
 








Writing Project


Words




Monday


Gunwitch2


1527




Tuesday


Gunwitch2
Updated Gunwitch2 outline.


528




Wednesday


Gunwitch2


609




Thursday


Gunwitch2


1777




Friday


Gunwitch2


1396




Saturday


Gunwitch2


829




Sunday


Gunwitch2


544














Total



7210




YTD Total: 22072
Current streak: 21 days
 








Publishing/Marketing




Monday





Tuesday





Wednesday





Thursday





Friday





Saturday





Sunday





 
Reading List

Devil's Lair by David Wisehart.

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