Measuring effort

One of the things that I always find frustrating with rewrites is how to measure my effort. For example, I worked for about two hours today on the rewrite of Zydeco Queen. In terms of word count, I only added about 600 new words.

If I was writing first draft, 600 words in 2 hours is shameful, at least for me.

However, that 600 doesn't count the rewriting and replacing of sentences and paragraphs. It doesn't count the thinking and planning and verifying I'm doing. I worked hard for those two hours. I know I did some good work. But there's very little product, something I can point to and say, "I accomplished that!"

This is one of the reasons why I find rewriting to be less satisfying than writing. And yet, I know I'm doing good, necessary work. I know that I'm adding a lot of quality to this book. I know that I need to do all of this work.

Still. I'm searching for more satisfaction than it will ever give me.

In other news, I'm close to being finished with Clockwork Kingdom. I spent this morning working on the cover, creating two from two different pictures. I'm going with my first idea, as opposed to my second. The first idea is more fantasy, the second is more clockwork. If I was doing a more science fiction/steampunk story, then I'd choose the second.

One other thing I've discovered is that the PoD version of a cover doesn't have to be identical to the ebook version. The lettering that looked awesome as an ebook and at the thumbnail size looks *way* too big on the paperback version.

Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.