Today I mostly wrote ... the word count thread. Showing 3,651-3,700 of 4,252

[M.T.]

Nothing this week, as expected, except an idea for a possible non fiction book (all Jim's fault). Onwards and upwards.

[Anna]

Ideas are conception - nurture them and they may lead to the birth of twins!

[M.T.]

It was half term this week and I have a lot of admin some of which I did the week before half term, and some of which I’ll do after. Not much writing although the audiobooks needed a bit of primping and they are now ship shape on my own store, and Kobo, but not totally sorted on Findaway Voices. Oh hang on, or is that the other way round? Dunno. Have a work day tomorrow so I’ll check.

I did a bit on Space Dustmen but even the blog was difficult. It was alright once I got going but to start with it was like pulling teeth. Usually I sit down to write and it all pours out, this ... it just took a while to get into the groove.

Here it is if anyone’s interested. https://mtmcguire.co.uk/2021/06/06/fl...

[Alicia]

Pulling teeth seems popular lately.

It's forcing me into decisions I was hoping to postpone until NETHERWORLD was finished and published (I'm 2/3 of the way, and everything to this point is almost publication-ready), but it seems that everything in the physical world is conspiring to make that not possible.

On the other hand, it is possible that taking care of some of those growing problems might actually help - after the enormous time and energy investment it's going to require to get there. And the pain. I am NOT looking forward to more pain, but maybe getting it, and the possibility of getting over it, may compensate. Or it could all go wrong and make things worse.

Sigh.

I thought the current scene would write itself, as they almost always do at this point - and instead it has become talky, trying to condense too much into one little scene, and completely different from my usual, dialogue-heavy writing - and I hate it!

To sort things out I have to revamp, send some of the material into future scenes, and delete stuff the reader already knows. And do it with brain fog and more pain than usual.

If I wasn't committed to getting this done in my lifetime, I'd just quit, but that doesn't seem to be in my makeup, and I really like it.

Thanks for listening! I will accept metaphorical pats on the head accompanied by "There, there." (Actual listening not required.)

[Rosemary (grooving with the Picts)]

There, there.

:D

[Alicia]

Thanks, Rosemary. It helps to be heard.

[Jim]

As long as you like doing it, do it :-)

[Anna]

Yes, so right, Jim.

[M.T.]

Totally. Alicia, it's about doing it and the amazing feeling you will have when it's done, because you will finish it. And speaking as someone who took 17 years to write the K'Barthan Series, I totally get the feeling of frustration when the muse or the brain fog is misbehaving.

[Alicia]

I missed that datum: 17 years. But you got a whole series out of the time? Well spent, I'd say.

You either know brain fog - or you have no idea what we're talking about because your brain works more or less the same all the time.

[M.T.]

Alicia wrote: "I missed that datum: 17 years. But you got a whole series out of the time? Well spent, I'd say.

You either know brain fog - or you have no idea what we're talking about because your brain works mo..."

The brain fog turned up about 5 years in. Baby brain and stress fog first and then it morphed seamlessly into menopausal brain fog. It's been a lot better over the last two years since I started HRT and my father died. It's getting worse now because my mother is. On the whole, though, it's mostly a fight against the clock to squeeze writing time in among the other stuff. Hence the ten minutes a day regime. :-)

[Alicia]

So glad ten minutes works for you.

Sometimes at night after a particularly useless day, I'll insist in writing a few actual words of fiction in the current scene, and get about that much - a couple of sentences.

I always wonder what others are doing with the stress.

[Anna]

I always have to reread what I wrote the previous day before I even begin and that takes more than ten minutes!!!

[Alicia]

I go it one better: I let the robot voice from my Mac read it to me. It helps catch things I wouldn't have noticed because minds have blind spots, but the computer pronouncing 'lies' when you thought you wrote 'lives' but the v is missing.

[Alicia]

Catches accidental doubles (from editing) such as with with or the the.

[Anna]

Have you noticed how the voices are getting so much better with their pronunciations?

[Stuart]

Good going everybody! I've always thought that there's something heroic about writing books so keep on keeping on!

After a few days away in Brighton, I'm hoping to finish the final draft of the second tale in my work in progress. It involves a girl with no ears, a napoleonic war era drummer boy, a seven foot man who's had a stroke and a southern pig-tailed macaque monkey who can say "I am hopelessly devoted to you" in 167 different languages.

Just your average stuff.

[Jim]

Needs a plot twist, Stuart ;-)

[Alicia]

The impossible, I can't do this scene is now at 1484 words - it's not quite finished, and it's going to need editing and polishing, but it was zero for so long that I'm quite please. Even the robot voice likes it.

[M.T.]

Yay all ... that sounds barking mad Stuart. Well done Alicia.
Yes the robot voices are better but still bad ...

[Alicia]

M.T. wrote: "Yay all ... that sounds barking mad Stuart. Well done Alicia.
Yes the robot voices are better but still bad ..."

I would never let a robot read something for real (such as for public consumption). People can let their ebook readers read things to them, but must realize it's a choice, and give the author a break!

But for flow, the Mac voice is actually helpful (thought it stops in funny places sometimes), because it pronounces, however well or not, what you wrote, and not what you thought you wrote, which can be helpful if you're paying attention.

It is also a way to get myself back into a scene and thinking about how to finish when I'm having low-brain warnings.

[Pam]

Yes I use my old Kindle Keyboard to do the same robotic exercise. Am doing it at the moment as part of a total edit and it has thrown up a few transposed words and other mistakes.

[M.T.]

Pam wrote: "Yes I use my old Kindle Keyboard to do the same robotic exercise. Am doing it at the moment as part of a total edit and it has thrown up a few transposed words and other mistakes."

That's what I use. I like to put foul language in and then get the Kindle to read it so I can hear professor sir Stephen Hawking swearing from beyond the grave.

[Alicia]

It took almost three weeks, but the next one - another pivotal scene (we're practically dancing here) is finished, edited, pared to a minimum, and polished - 1988 words seems long, but it had a lot of things to do. I am pleased - and glad I'm finished.

A LOT of thinking, and almost a week lost to a doctor's appointment, held it up, but we're done, as is my wont.

Have done the obligatory victory cheer.

[Anna]

I wonder how many hours it takes to write a first draft. And how many to write, polish and edit.

[Alicia]

Mine vary all over the map in length of time.

I have records - I start a 'production file' when I start each scene, and it goes on until I write Done! at the bottom - and all the entries are dated. Cumbersome initially but now it's automatic.

It depends on how many disparate threads I have to knit together - not all colours in the tapestry go through every scene.

By the time I've gathered them all, and start just reading the material over and over, I start having inklings, and then they just gel. Very mysterious process - I'm sure the result isn't the only way to tell that part of the story, but it does the job. I don't really polish much until that point because I hate improving things I'm going to get rid of.

How about you, Anna?

[Anna]

If I checked my diary, I could tell you how many days and then do an average number of hours spent writing in those days and that would cover the whole, but today I am going to do some actual writing so I must not get distracted.

Interesting though - for me anyway!

[Pam]

M.T. wrote: "Pam wrote: "Yes I use my old Kindle Keyboard to do the same robotic exercise. Am doing it at the moment as part of a total edit and it has thrown up a few transposed words and other mistakes."

That's what I use. I like to put foul language in and then get the Kindle to read it so I can hear professor sir Stephen Hawking swearing from beyond the grave."

LOL!

[M.T.]

Pam wrote: "M.T. wrote: "Pam wrote: "Yes I use my old Kindle Keyboard to do the same robotic exercise. Am doing it at the moment as part of a total edit and it has thrown up a few transposed words and other mi..."

I'm probably a bad person.

[Anna]

Word count for this last week - 2,000+ It would have been so much more if we hadn't discovered yet more water ingress yesterday. Three hours were taken up with no sign of an expert to come and work out why and the tiny bit of creative brain got ambushed yet again by the practical side. More rain here today - lots - so the drying out is likely to have been futile. Sigh. I think if I sold millions of books, I'd hire an Interruptions Manager.

[Rosemary (grooving with the Picts)]

Anna wrote: "...Sigh. I think if I sold millions of books, I'd hire an Interruptions Manager."

A Person from Porlock, perhaps?

[M.T.]

Rosemary (grooving with the Picts) wrote: "Anna wrote: "...Sigh. I think if I sold millions of books, I'd hire an Interruptions Manager."

A Person from Porlock, perhaps?"

Yeh … that’s how it feels sometimes and I forget everything the same way.

[Anna]

Rosemary (grooving with the Picts) wrote: "Anna wrote: "...Sigh. I think if I sold millions of books, I'd hire an Interruptions Manager."

A Person from Porlock, perhaps?"

Hmm... I'd better give the idea some thought.

[Pam]

Two more chapters edited today.

[M.T.]

Nice job. I've managed to do my ten minutes yesterday and today. Woot!

[Jim]

Published four books! :-)

[Alicia]

Finally finished with some of the medical distractors, and was able to use the brain today - big chunks of dialogue for various locations are in the process of eavesdropping on the characters.

At some point I'll have enough pieces, but my list of possibles is waning. And I found a place for something I asked Patti if I could use aeons ago - and she said I could.

[Anna]

Jim wrote: "Published four books! :-)"

I tidied up two chapters.

Compare and contrast.

Sigh.

[M.T.]

I've managed to write for a couple of days this week. Short bursts, only 500 words or so but I did also discover that there are fuel cells which synthesise urine. They are mostly in use in the third world to fuel led lighting systems etc.

That's the power system for the space station sorted then.

Woot.

[M.T.]

Jim wrote: "Published four books! :-)"

Excellent. I loved the first two so I'm definitely on for those.

[Jim]

Anna wrote: "Jim wrote: "Published four books! :-)"

I tidied up two chapters.

Compare and contrast.

Sigh."

Yes, but it's the end of a road that I've been on since 2013
So if you might actually be ahead of me :-)

[Jim]

M.T. wrote: "Jim wrote: "Published four books! :-)"

Excellent. I loved the first two so I'm definitely on for those."

I think that the last two are as good. The last book also has the gentle winding down and making sure that everything is 'finished'

[M.T.]

Even more excellent, Jim.

I wrote just under 1.5k yesterday. Was dead cuffed with that. This is a new series and I intend to have written three or four books before I bother publishing the first one. Because the world is still building itself it's taking a while ... you know ... does the station run on fuel cells that synthesise power from wee (actual existing thing) or is it the ship that runs on wee? Stuff like that.

It's all a bit amorphous at the moment but there's enough going on to start writing. I began it before and got 40k in but it was more of a sweeping epic, the baddie was bad, the stakes were high and there was a definite arc across the series that lasted about four books.

Right now I need to do things I can write in shorter instalments so while the sweeping epic was happening, it wasn't happening very fast and I know they don't sell, or at least, not mine. Reading comedy books from people who do manage to sell them, it seems that they are a) a lot more slapstick and less sophisticated, b) the plots are simpler. I can't really do slapstick and less sophisticated because I can only do it the way I do. I have no idea if it's funny or not when I write things, the trick with my comedy has always been more about making it look deliberate.

However, I can simplify the plots a bit, drop the multiple character POVs and make each book more like an instalment in a situation comedy. Or to put it another way, make it less of a Lord of the Rings style epic with added jokes and more like Porridge in Space.

The advantages of doing it like that are that I can probably include more world building as it goes on and the humour will be in the side characters, the surroundings, and our hero's continued battle to get one over on a Mr Machay type of overseer who has taken against him. I dunno how many I can do, which is why I'm not going to publish the first one until I've written a few.

Then I'll sell it as straight sci fi which will be way, way easier than trying to sell humorous sci fi, which has become a sub genre of romance, therefore rendering my books invisible.

Anyway, I'll see how it goes.

[Jim]

M.T. wrote: "humorous sci fi, which has become a sub genre of romance..."

Good grief.
I confess I hadn't realised. Mind you I do see questions in various facebook groups about "whether I should include a 'love interest' in my SF story?"
My first thought is to say 'no' because if they make a film of it, they'll include on anyway

[Anna]

And today's interruption to my writing time?

A suspected gas leak. The gas detector (a professional's) detected gas. I was sent to sit in our car parked around the corner with whatever I could grab as I exited quickly. Kindle. The photographs were upstairs.

Two hours later - false alarm (I hope).

[M.T.]

Anna wrote: "And today's interruption to my writing time?

A suspected gas leak. The gas detector (a professional's) detected gas. I was sent to sit in our car parked around the corner with whatever I could gra..."

Yikes! That sounds a bit of a worry. Hope it was a false alarm and glad you managed to get back inside.

Jim wrote: "M.T. wrote: "humorous sci fi, which has become a sub genre of romance..."

Good grief.
I confess I hadn't realised. Mind you I do see questions in various facebook groups about "whether I should i..."

It's not as bad as fantasy I don't think but it's definitely beginning to appear. A lot of it is that Romance is such a huge juggonaut, with such a huge amount of churn that a 100k novel a month is slow for some of them and their sub genres swamp the original ones they are in because there are just so many of them.

[Jim]

M.T. wrote: "It's not as bad as fantasy I don't think but it's definitely beginning to appear. A lot of it is that Romance is such a huge juggernaut, with such a huge amount of churn that a 100k novel a month is slow for some of them and their sub genres swamp the original ones they are in because there are just so many of them."

If it's not one damned thing it's another. Mind you 100k is a frightening number of novels a month! Admittedly they have a lot bigger market (perhaps the biggest with the most voracious readers, but still)

Surely a lot of those books are going to struggle to be read? I wonder if riders are spreading out into other genres in a desperate attempt to find new markets?

[Anna]

And today's interruption? Someone left some keys on my doorstep. Not mine but I guess someone dropped them on the pavement nearby. What to do? I looked up the nearest police station - I was aghast, it said it was closed until Monday. What? Did I read that right? OK, next nearest. That meant passing a house we look after until the owner returns next month. Garden to water, etc. Well, it's Saturday - I shouldn't be writing on a sunny Saturday anyway, well that's what I told myself. Some hours later, I returned and gave up - not in the mood.

As for marketing - I've been wondering the same: I feel so sorry for those trying to get started now. The market must surely be saturated.

[Alicia]

I wonder that people don't get tired of some genres - and I hope those who like them will look for meatier novels.

I haven't figured out my marketing because I know who my readers are, and have no clue how to get to them.

Meanwhile, writing is physically difficult right now, and I'm doing it anyway, but even slower than usual. Funny, because I know exactly what it needs to be, but I need a brain for it to gel into something - like an actual scene. Sometimes even my pointillist technique isn't small enough.

[Alicia]

There are 535 words sitting in the beginning of the new scene. Some of them are already in the right position.

Getting to the starting line and putting a few in was the work of today - the first day in ages I've had no interruptions until I got some writing done, and my brain was clear. It feels SO good.