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Agony Aunt
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Today I mostly wrote ... the word count thread.
message 4001:
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Stuart
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Mar 31, 2022 03:32AM
Hi! I have barely written a thing in the seven months I've been travelling. It's been just too wild a ride! Really looking forward to exploding back into it when I get home on 9th April. Got to get it all down and done before I'm off again in September!
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Stuart wrote: "Hi! I have barely written a thing in the seven months I've been travelling. It's been just too wild a ride! Really looking forward to exploding back into it when I get home on 9th April. Got to get..."It's a great way to go about it though, stuff your brain full with experiences and then back home for a month or two to download them onto the page!
Stuart wrote: "Hi! I have barely written a thing in the seven months I've been travelling. It's been just too wild a ride! Really looking forward to exploding back into it when I get home on 9th April. Got to get..."But you had fun, which is far more important.
I tend to find I have the end, but often not the very last page which can be 'after' the end if you know what i mean
Jim wrote: "I tend to find I have the end, but often not the very last page which can be 'after' the end if you know what i mean"I fully intend to mine my universe once it's finished - Dorothy L. Sayers could have given us a whole lot more of Lord Peter than a couple of short stories.
M.T. wrote: "Alicia wrote: "1568 words, one more scene. Five to go. I had two weeks of brain fog thick as pea soup, moved some meds around, and it worked better the last two days. Can't write with the fog - I'm..."Yeah I've done that too before now. Good luck with the new direction.
Jim wrote: "I tend to find I have the end, but often not the very last page which can be 'after' the end if you know what i mean"Yes you quite often have to do a final resolution bit after the climax I find.
Pam wrote: "Jim wrote: "I tend to find I have the end, but often not the very last page which can be 'after' the end if you know what i mean"Yes you quite often have to do a final resolution bit after the cl..."
My trilogy has an actual epilogue set long enough after the end to show what happened once the major drama was over.
Alicia wrote: "Pam wrote: "Jim wrote: "I tend to find I have the end, but often not the very last page which can be 'after' the end if you know what i mean"Yes you quite often have to do a final resolution bit ..."
Good. I like to see the loose ends tied up. :-)
M.T. wrote: "Good. I like to see the loose ends tied up. :-)..."Yes, the 'end' often doesn't tie up the loose ends, you need something for that
Just under a thousand words for one of the most critical scenes in the book - and it took me a month to write. Changed meds AGAIN - I haven't been able to shake the brain fog until I did; hope it lasts.Irritating to know where I'm going, be that close to the end, and not be able to think.
Maybe it was my lovely beta reader this morning, sending me a previous chapter with great feedback, maybe it was desperation. I keep telling my brain: don't get too excited - there's another 170K novel beyond that! We're just getting to a middle.
Alicia wrote: "Just under a thousand words for one of the most critical scenes in the book - and it took me a month to write. Changed meds AGAIN - I haven't been able to shake the brain fog until I did; hope it l..."Well done. So ... More the beginning of the end but the end of the beginning? 🙂
Well done everyone for keeping going with your work. I very much admire you all. I am flying back to England today, after 222 days travelling through Spain, Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Belize, Mexico and The Azores, so can at last get into finishing The Truth About Trees!
M.T. wrote: "Alicia wrote: "Just under a thousand words for one of the most critical scenes in the book - and it took me a month to write. Changed meds AGAIN - I haven't been able to shake the brain fog until I..."One of the Save The Cat books has a very detailed script for the end, and it seems to suit me, making explicit more or less what I'd already planned.
I know I plan to end on B, and I'm at A, and there is only one logical path that will get me there, and cover every necessary point. I'm hopeless at pantsing, so this is 'a good thing.'
NETHERWORLD is finished.Except for running the last two short chapters through my beta reader, which may result in a tweak or two.
I don't know what to do with myself: so many tasks around the book to get it published, but none of them have the passion of writing attached - they're all work.
My mind is moving on to writing the next scene - the first in the third book - as an alternative, but that is going to be a rather large task, and I need to make sure my roadmaps get cleaned up a bit first, and all my calendars are accurate, and the plot points haven't been affected by what I just finished... work.
And a couple of book bloggers agreed to read PURGATORY, but they all have different requirements which I need to corral and send... work.
It's almost punishment for finishing.
Thanks, Pam. Long time coming, but I really liked how it ended - and the middle book in a trilogy can be a slump.Instead, I'm still chuckling at how the details worked out.
I seem bereft - does everyone experience that on finishing a book?My beta reader has promised the last two chapters - and I won't publish until she's had her say - and I am in suspended animation.
I have packages for book reviewers who have agreed to read PURGATORY to fill in/create/assemble, and I'm stuck in amber instead.
Funny feeling - nothing left after the big push, but you have to go on anyway.
I know what you mean, Alicia. I've tried to explain that feeling to my wife, but I think it's one of those things only authors truly understand. I guess that's why I've always begun the next book within a day or two of finishing the last. Now I'm pretty much over my covid bout, I'm cracking on with the final rewrite of The Truth About Trees. Already added 2,000 words and I've only done the prologue and chapter one!
Good luck with that, Stuart.I want to start on the first scene in Book 3, which happens 10-12 hours after the end of Book 2, but have so many things I've been neglecting that I really can't get right to it, so my brain is being a child and saying it won't do anything.
Plus, I really need to straighten out all the calendars, etc., for 3 before I plunge into my system of one finished scene at a time.
It is a loss to finish a book, even when you want to.
Alicia/Stuart - Is it a bit like when your child leaves home? You wave them goodbye, wish them the best but, yippee, they soon pop up, thriving or in need of a bit of loving care and attention.
Anna wrote: "Alicia/Stuart - Is it a bit like when your child leaves home? You wave them goodbye, wish them the best but, yippee, they soon pop up, thriving or in need of a bit of loving care and attention."Very probably. I'm still having to request reviews for the first (Purgatory), while launching the second.
If I weren't so exhausted all the time, this would be fun.
Alicia! That’s chuffing awesome, well done. And yes, I totally get that. Indeed I often can’t start something new for three or four months after I’ve finished a book because I just hanker for the characters. I get too into it I guess but I write them for me. That’s why they don’t sell, of course.Stuart, welcome back! Pam and Anna, hello!
I have written nothing this week. I had covid while I was away and I am extremely post viral. There is also an HRT crisis here in the UK so no Estroegon gel. As a result the brain fog is back for … well it’s a Brexshit problem so, probably forever.
On the up side, I did get a fair bit of writing done on holiday and I’m just going to tinker a bit now …
M.T. wrote: "Alicia! That’s chuffing awesome, well done. And yes, I totally get that. Indeed I often can’t start something new for three or four months after I’ve finished a book because I just hanker for the c..."Sorry to hear about all the probs M.T.
Progress slow on the edit - wish I could do it quicker. I did re-edit 2 chapters for the other book that is about to go round on my crit group though.
M.T. wrote: "Alicia! That’s chuffing awesome, well done. And yes, I totally get that. Indeed I often can’t start something new for three or four months after I’ve finished a book because I just hanker for the c..."I thought I had problems! You need your meds to function - hope they straighten it out very soon.
Hope it doesn't take me months - I need this off my list - and I probably had the same problem last time, but that was 2015, and I don't remember. Probably have it written down somewhere.
Pam wrote: "Progress slow on the edit - wish I could do it quicker. I did re-edit 2 chapters for the other book that is about to go round on my crit group though."Do you have some things that always need editing? I have a lot of little bad habits I'm starting to get wiser about.
The advantage of working a scene at a time is that when I get to the end, there isn't all that much to fix. And I start working on my bad habits list immediately, so the next scenes are better.
And yet I keep doing a lot of them. But the editing of known bad habits goes much faster.
Thanks, I think I can get some on the ‘black market’ or I might be able to get it through McOther’s health insurance (the way I got my knee op). Just done some more writing so that’s smashing too. Also re the bad habits, yes! I have phrases I use too many times and I’ll tend to get all the expletives the same if I’m not careful - too many Arnold’s Trousers! Etc. I have 98k of this ruddy novel now, and it’s going to be about 60k when I’m done … or possibly two books. Well, it’s two books already but maybe three books.
M.T. wrote: "Thanks, I think I can get some on the ‘black market’ or I might be able to get it through McOther’s health insurance (the way I got my knee op). Just done some more writing so that’s smashing too..."
I'm about to go put a long list of overused phrases I found on a website somewhere and edited into the Personal Words feature on Autocrit, so it will flag them for me.
Hi everyone, and welcome back to those who've been AWOL.Editing - me too. I edit at the end of writing each chapter. Now, having written 'The End' many, many weeks ago, I'm on my second edit and plan (haha) to be doing a third sweep through beginning later this week. Of course, the third sweep won't find any problems... I can dream.
Copyright registration took me over an hour - had a hard time figuring out how to get into my account again, and their explanations didn't help much - but it's done.Now, when Amazon asks me to prove it's mine - as they did for Purgatory - I just send them a copy of the registration information. Saves the frantic search for proof that you wrote what you wrote, which usually is requested at the worst possible time.
Could NOT figure out how to register it as the second in the PC series, but it doesn't matter - this will work fine.
Does Amazon often ask people to prove that stuff is theirs?
You only see it mentioned on the FB writer pages I'm on when it happens to someone, but it happened to me - at a very bad time - and it was worth the entire registration fee to me not to have to somehow figure out how to satisfy Amazon in the few days they gave me.
Jim wrote: "Does Amazon often ask people to prove that stuff is theirs?"Yep. They are gits.
M.T. wrote: "Jim wrote: "Does Amazon often ask people to prove that stuff is theirs?"Yep. They are gits."
It happens when someone else challenges you - because they are stealing your book. I keep finding ghost sales of my one little book - mysterious somethings that make no sense in price or availability.
Alicia wrote: "M.T. wrote: "Jim wrote: "Does Amazon often ask people to prove that stuff is theirs?"Yep. They are gits."
It happens when someone else challenges you - because they are stealing your book. I kee..."
Ugh. Good luck to anyone who tries to steal my books. It really wouldn't be worth the effort.
Because some of my 'books' are collections of blog posts, I suspect that the software spots content out on the web. I've merely had to click the box again which says "Yes, this is mine" and the algorithms are happy.
Jim wrote: "Because some of my 'books' are collections of blog posts, I suspect that the software spots content out on the web. I've merely had to click the box again which says "Yes, this is mine" and the alg..."Yeh, I’ve heard of that working sometimes Jim. I think it’s different for everyone a bit of a case of ‘your mileage may vary’.
I don't know what is worse: a long list of things you HAVE to do, or a long list of things you want to do that interfere with each other, and all need work!I was so focused on the writing that I kept telling myself the publishing was a piece of cake. It isn't. Unless you mean one of those huge elaborate constructions that win cake contests.
Finally got my feedback from the Wishing Shelf award and was pleasantly surprised to discover I'd got 4 stars for my novel, The Reluctant Hero, and was only just a couple of points below the finalist cutoff point so have been awarded a Red Ribbon. As only 16 got one of those, it is better than I hoped after the disappointment of not getting through to the final judging.
Good feedback is such a treasure. Congrats!
Pam wrote: "Finally got my feedback from the Wishing Shelf award and was pleasantly surprised to discover I'd got 4 stars for my novel, The Reluctant Hero, and was only just a couple of points ..."That's great. I got feedback on one book but haven't heard about the audiobooks ... but I'm not sure if I will hear any feedback about those. I think I was well out of my league there and that they were expecting something more like a radio play.
Today I can do normal things... I've sent my draft off to treasured beta readers. I have only 3 - but boy are they good!
M.T. wrote: "Pam wrote: "Finally got my feedback from the Wishing Shelf award and was pleasantly surprised to discover I'd got 4 stars for my novel, The Reluctant Hero, and was only just a coupl..."I emailed the organiser because they had just posted on FB that they'd sent out a bunch of one star reviews and had almost finished with all the non-finalists so I was getting concerned that I'd been overlooked somehow or was going to get bad feedback. You should get feedback if you paid the higher fee for it and hopefully it might have some useful input.
Pam wrote: "M.T. wrote: "Pam wrote: "Finally got my feedback from the Wishing Shelf award and was pleasantly surprised to discover I'd got 4 stars for my novel, The Reluctant Hero, and was only..."I might ask then. I'm not sure if they're even doing feedback for the audio.
Managed to get 500 words in on Tuesday and another 800 last night! Woot! Hoping I'll get some done this afternoon, too.
I brought all my notes from the next book - the last in the trilogy - to Lake Tahoe with the kids. When they go hiking today, I will spread them all out on the big dining room table, and get going. Somehow I keep getting distracted back home. Here the distractions are loving hugs, but I have big chunks of time when they're out.
Alicia wrote: "I brought all my notes from the next book - the last in the trilogy - to Lake Tahoe with the kids. When they go hiking today, I will spread them all out on the big dining room table, and get going...."Yay! Best of luck Alicia. I always get a craptonne of writing in while the boys are skiing on our spring holiday. It's blummin' marvellous.
I have started Book #3, tentatively named LIMBO.I have a first chapter written, most of the plot figured out, and a truly terrible draft of the whole thing from 2007.
Too much wonderful family time to spread anything out, but I'm going for a nap, they're out hiking, and I know just what to read and work on first.
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