Writing Update - Six months
I didn't post an update on November 20th (five months since the Great Reboot) mostly because around that time I had some computer issues and frustrations were getting the better of me. Unfortunately I've had a similar problem this month to go with lots of formatting issues with older work, so this month is the first I haven't actually hit my monthly target. In any case, here's a stats update on what I've written since June 20th this year.
Name Type Word Count Status 1 The Ship Short Story 3793 Finished - to edit 2 Take me Back with You Short Story 2528 WIP 3 Take me Back with You Novel 35303 WIP 4 The Lost Train Short Story 4352 WIP 5 The Other Set of Feet Short Story 3749 Finished - to edit 6 The Hunter Novella 18783 WIP 7 Once We Were Children Short Story 2513 Finished - to edit 8 The Assignment Short Story 8802 Finished - to edit 9 Never Give Up Short Story 5111 Finished - to edit 10 Clones Short Story 1323 Edited 11 Beat Down 1 - Clones Serial Novella 19233 Published 12 Sunfall Short Story 1271 WIP 13 The Tube Riders: Exile Novel 90629 WIP 14 Beat Down 2 - The Heist Serial Novella 18533 Published 15 Beat Down 3 - Badassaur Serial Novella 19699 Finished - to edit 16 NaNoWriMo 2012 Novel 3714 WIP 17 Beat Down 4 - The Sneevla Serial Novella 4015 WIP 18 Undelivered Short Story 358 WIP Started June 21st Word Count 243709 Pages (300w/pg) 812 6 month target (Dec 20th) (183 days) 250000 Ahead -6291 Total Month One month tally: 33598 33598 Two month tally: 62217 28619 Three month tally: 119253 57036 Four month tally: 180097 60844 Five month tally: 217500 37403 Six month tally: 243709 26209
It could certainly be worse. I missed my six-month target but 243k in six months is pretty solid going. However, in October I had been hoping to break 300k by now.
The biggest problem I have had is with flash drives. I learned the hard way to make sure I back up my work after breaking a flash drive in November. However that was just the start. I actually saved that one, but since then I've had two fail on me and while I've been backing them up more regularly I still lost a bunch of words both times, most notably on my effort at NaNo, which I lost TWICE. In hindsight, taking on an entirely new project for NaNo was a huge mistake, because I overestimated the amount of writing time I would have, plus I tried to push my boundaries by writing in a genre I wasn't familiar with. While this in itself was not a big deal, I spent a lot more time writing it than I spent on more familiar projects. It all started well, then I lost six thousand words. I rewrote it, then lost it again. That kind of bummed me out so I abandoned it, although the whole experience left me feeling a little burned out and it took time to get back the motivation I had previously had.
Then there was the formatting issues I had with the paperback for The Man Who Built the World. I struggled with it for weeks before finally outsourcing it and paying someone else to do it for me, which I should have done in the first place. The sum result was that I failed to get the paperback ready for Christmas, although it should be available shortly.
In other writing, I'm plot-knotted again in Tube Riders, although I'm working through it now. My novella series, Beat Down, suffered from the flash drive failures and I had to rewrite roughly 5000 words on part three, something that was very frustrating because it is very creatively spontaneous and I think a bit of the humour was lost in the rewrite.
Overall, though, I'm pretty happy with what I've got over the last six months. In addition, after reading a blog by a pretty successful writer which encouraged us to get as much product out there as possible because you never knew what would strike a chord with the reader, I went back and took a look at a really old novel, one called Possession, which I wrote when I was 19. It's little more than a straightforward horror story and I have never so much as reread it, but I found it was a lot better than most of the stuff I've read by indie writers so with a couple of solid edits it might be serviceable. So I've started to work on that as well as the edit for a book called Head of Words, which is a (very) black comedy/horror/thriller/thing.
Right, back to it. Have a good Christmas everyone, and I'd be happy to see any comments below. And just a reminder that Tube Riders is currently free, until the 22nd of Dec. Click the links in the sidebar and grab a copy.
CW
21st Dec 2012
Name Type Word Count Status 1 The Ship Short Story 3793 Finished - to edit 2 Take me Back with You Short Story 2528 WIP 3 Take me Back with You Novel 35303 WIP 4 The Lost Train Short Story 4352 WIP 5 The Other Set of Feet Short Story 3749 Finished - to edit 6 The Hunter Novella 18783 WIP 7 Once We Were Children Short Story 2513 Finished - to edit 8 The Assignment Short Story 8802 Finished - to edit 9 Never Give Up Short Story 5111 Finished - to edit 10 Clones Short Story 1323 Edited 11 Beat Down 1 - Clones Serial Novella 19233 Published 12 Sunfall Short Story 1271 WIP 13 The Tube Riders: Exile Novel 90629 WIP 14 Beat Down 2 - The Heist Serial Novella 18533 Published 15 Beat Down 3 - Badassaur Serial Novella 19699 Finished - to edit 16 NaNoWriMo 2012 Novel 3714 WIP 17 Beat Down 4 - The Sneevla Serial Novella 4015 WIP 18 Undelivered Short Story 358 WIP Started June 21st Word Count 243709 Pages (300w/pg) 812 6 month target (Dec 20th) (183 days) 250000 Ahead -6291 Total Month One month tally: 33598 33598 Two month tally: 62217 28619 Three month tally: 119253 57036 Four month tally: 180097 60844 Five month tally: 217500 37403 Six month tally: 243709 26209
It could certainly be worse. I missed my six-month target but 243k in six months is pretty solid going. However, in October I had been hoping to break 300k by now.
The biggest problem I have had is with flash drives. I learned the hard way to make sure I back up my work after breaking a flash drive in November. However that was just the start. I actually saved that one, but since then I've had two fail on me and while I've been backing them up more regularly I still lost a bunch of words both times, most notably on my effort at NaNo, which I lost TWICE. In hindsight, taking on an entirely new project for NaNo was a huge mistake, because I overestimated the amount of writing time I would have, plus I tried to push my boundaries by writing in a genre I wasn't familiar with. While this in itself was not a big deal, I spent a lot more time writing it than I spent on more familiar projects. It all started well, then I lost six thousand words. I rewrote it, then lost it again. That kind of bummed me out so I abandoned it, although the whole experience left me feeling a little burned out and it took time to get back the motivation I had previously had.
Then there was the formatting issues I had with the paperback for The Man Who Built the World. I struggled with it for weeks before finally outsourcing it and paying someone else to do it for me, which I should have done in the first place. The sum result was that I failed to get the paperback ready for Christmas, although it should be available shortly.
In other writing, I'm plot-knotted again in Tube Riders, although I'm working through it now. My novella series, Beat Down, suffered from the flash drive failures and I had to rewrite roughly 5000 words on part three, something that was very frustrating because it is very creatively spontaneous and I think a bit of the humour was lost in the rewrite.
Overall, though, I'm pretty happy with what I've got over the last six months. In addition, after reading a blog by a pretty successful writer which encouraged us to get as much product out there as possible because you never knew what would strike a chord with the reader, I went back and took a look at a really old novel, one called Possession, which I wrote when I was 19. It's little more than a straightforward horror story and I have never so much as reread it, but I found it was a lot better than most of the stuff I've read by indie writers so with a couple of solid edits it might be serviceable. So I've started to work on that as well as the edit for a book called Head of Words, which is a (very) black comedy/horror/thriller/thing.
Right, back to it. Have a good Christmas everyone, and I'd be happy to see any comments below. And just a reminder that Tube Riders is currently free, until the 22nd of Dec. Click the links in the sidebar and grab a copy.
CW
21st Dec 2012
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