David R. Michael's Blog, page 36
February 7, 2011
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It's summer vacation and all 13-year-old Stevie Buckbee wants is to be close to her family again and to ride her horses–especially Jack Rabbit, her first horse all her own. But past tragedies threaten her plans before the summer has a chance to begin. Even as she discovers that she is somehow able to communicate with Jack Rabbit and the other horses on the family ranch, she finds she can no longer get through to her Dad and brother Blake. And what good is it to be able to run with the horses if no matter how fast and how far she runs, everything she knows and loves is lost?
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-David
Writing Progress Report
Writing progress report for the week starting Monday, January 31, 2011.
Writing Project
Words
Monday
Tween novel outlining – chapters 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
Tuesday
Tween novel brainstorming & outlining – chapters 11, 12.
Wednesday
Tween novel brainstorming & outlining – chapters 13, 14, 15.
Thursday
Tween novel brainstorming & outlining – 16, 17, 18, 19 & 20.
Friday
GoSH1 (very little; I gave a character a last name)
Saturday
Sunday
SSC2011 brainstorming.
Total
Marketing/Submission
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Updated the blog "Books" page.
Friday
Updated "Baptism" blurb on Amazon and Smashwords.
Created new giveaways on GR for TSF, HG, and DC.
Saturday
Sunday
Reading List
The Handmade Marketplace: How to Sell Your Crafts Locally, Globally, and On-Line by Kari Chapin.
February 4, 2011
Short Story Challenge 2011 Underway
I signed up for the Short Story Challenge 2011 back in early December. February seemed so far away then.
Suddenly…it's here.
So…sometime in the next few days I'll be writing a short story (max length 2500 words) with the genre "ghost story", about "claustrophobia".
Should be fun.
Here is my first, one sentence flash fiction creation:
Waking Up With Company
"Bloody hell. What do you mean I got used casket?"
Have a good weekend!
-David
February 3, 2011
Planning (Almost) Finished
I just finished my outline for the tween novel, which I will henceforth refer to as GoSH1. (Whoa. That's a great acronym and working title for the project, and I never realized it until I spelled it out just now.)
I count 14 days of brainstorming and outlining so far for GoSH1 going back to the week of Xmas. That probably comes to about 40 hours total, most of it the past two weeks. Which seems like a lot of hours spent planning. Especially since I expect (hope) it will take me only about 100 hours to write the actual book. The outline is 8300 words, which is about 10%-15% of the planned total word count. I'm pretty sure that's the longest outline I've ever made.
In any case: Here's hoping all that planning pays off.
I might start writing tomorrow. Probalby not, though. What I expect to do tomorrow is to read through the outline, start to finish, at least a couple times. I'll tweak and expand and probably write more notes about the setting and backstory. I might do that once more over the weekend, as well.
I'm excited to see how it all comes together.
Sure, sure, I know how the book comes out. But, as I like to say, paraphrasing Morpheus, "There's a difference between knowing the path and walking the path." For me, the outline is the bird's eye view of the route. The actual writing, though, is where I walk that route and see what waits for me along the way.
-David
January 31, 2011
More Planning Than Writing
I *will* get back to writing. First, though, I want to get the tween novel plotted out. As of this morning, I've plotted through chapter 7 and into chapter 8. I'm hoping to have half the book plotted before the end of the afternoon (through chapter 10).
I was planning to start writing today with what I had ready, but decided against it. I do best when I know where I'm going. So that's my current focus: Learn the path. Then I can start walking it.
Somewhat amusingly, my chapter outline summaries for this book are longer than I typically write. What's amusing about that (perhaps even ironic [to me, anyway]) is I'm planning shorter chapters for this book. I want to average about 3000 words per chapter. I'm willing to have 4000 word chapters for this book, but I don't want to go over that if I can help it. I guess I'll see how well I hit that target once the Real Writing begins.
As of last week, with the release of Demon Candy, I now have 2 novels, 3 short story collections, and 2 short stories available. That gives me an "eRace Score" of 21.
Last week was a bit scattered for me, because of releasing Demon Candy and an update of The Journal and The Journal's monthly newsletter and … and … and …
This week, I'll be more focused.
-David
Writing Progress Report
Writing progress report for the week starting Monday, January 24, 2011.
Writing Project
Words
Monday
"Selene"
2564
Tuesday
Tween novel brainstorming.
Wednesday
Tween novel brainstorming.
Edited "Encounter".
Thursday
Tween novel outlining – chapters 1, 2, 3, 4.
Friday
Tween novel outlining – chapter 5.
Saturday
Tween novel outlining/brainstorming.
Sunday
Total
Marketing/Submission
Monday
Tuesday
Updated TSF promo thread on KB, MR & NB.
Updated HG promo thread on KB, MR & NB.
Wednesday
Uploaded Demon Candy to DTP, SW and PubIt.
Thursday
Friday
Announced Demon Candy on the blog and FB, and created promo threads on NB, KB, & MR.
Saturday
Sunday
Reading List
City of Bones by Michael Connelly.
Warmachine Prime Mark II.
January 28, 2011
Demon Candy – Now Available!
Four linked stories of Hell, and Life, and Life in Hell. Illustrated with paintings by Don Michael, Jr."Summer Breeze" – The demon Jike decides he needs a change.
"Inferno" – Undead hellcat Canto gets a night out on campus of lust and gluttony and the other deadly sins.
"Sweet Tooth" – Donut baker Ted Millet, divorced and broke, has a new customer that makes his ex-wife seem almost human.
And in the novella "Afterimage" Emily M-Something March, dead and damned for thirty years, finds herself back in her home town with a fifty-foot demon looking for her.
Demon Candy Edition
Price
Trade paperback (Amazon)
$11.95
Kindle edition (Amazon)
$2.99
Nook edition (Barnes & Noble)
$2.99
Ebook (Smashwords)
$2.99
Happy reading!
-David
January 24, 2011
Still Planning, But Also Writing
I haven't finished my planning for my next novel. That's one of my goals for this week.
In the meantime, though, I'm writing short stories. Today I wrote another "Mask Story". The somewhat-long-awaited conclusion to the story arc begun with Callisto and continued in Constellation. At 2500 words, "Selene" is longer than the previous two stories combined. I tried to keep it from getting too long. I didn't want "Selene" to overwhelm the other two stories. Maybe I'll cut it some in editing.
Not sure yet what I'll write tomorrow. One advantage of my writing goals this year: So long as they're only about 4000 words, I figure I can start and finish short stories in one day. Might do another mask story, since I don't think I can have too many of those. =)
Still, this bit of short story writing will probably reduce my overall word count for the week. Much like finishing Gunwitch rather hammered last week's production. But I'm OK with that. I'm confident I'll make up for both weeks over the course of the year.
-David
Writing Progress Report
Writing progress report for the week starting Monday, January 17, 2011.
Writing Project
Words
Monday
Gunwitch
3020
Tuesday
Gunwitch – First Draft Completed!
2135
Wednesday
Tween novel outlining.
Thursday
Tween novel outlining.
Friday
Tween novel outlining.
Saturday
Sunday
Total
Marketing/Submission
Monday
Tuesday
Received Demon Candy proof.
Wednesday
Forwarded Demon Candy proof to Don.
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Reading List
Storm Front by Jim Butcher.
January 18, 2011
One Down, Five to Go
This afternoon I typed "THE END of Gunwitch", signalling the completion of the first draft of that novel–a mere 3 years and 2 months after first starting work on it during Nanowrimo 2007.
I didn't need to finish that book. But, yeah, I did. Gunwitch, an alternate history fantasy of the early colonial period, was too good an idea to throw away. That said, it will be fun to see how well I manage to blur the line between the first half of the book, written November 2007 through January 2008, and the last half the book, written over the past couple months, during the editing I do later this year.
The finished first draft weighs in just a few words shy of 100K. Which is a far cry from what I thought the final word count would be back in early 2008 when I decided to drop the project (150K), and also less than I first thought it would be when I picked the project back up again in November (120K). Will the book grow in editing? Or shrink? Another question I look forward to answering later this year.
This gives me my first completed novel of 2011. Only five more to go reach my goal for the year.
I'm excited! Even if this means I probably won't hit 15K words this week as I try to get my next novel lined up. I'll see about writing a few short stories to "bridge the gap".
-David
