Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays
Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays
I hope everyone has their shopping done and is ready for Christmas. I can’t believe it’s already here. I found this little meme to the right and thought I’d share it.
No Escaping Death
A rather morbid title for a blog post, I know. But this one’s personal, even more so than usual. Why? Because my mother will never read this blog post or any other again. She’ll never write another gushing, confidence-boosting comment of praise on one of my short stories, nor will she ever read my second novel, or my third, or fourth, or beyond.
To Change the Ending or Not to Change the Ending?
Book endings are a bit of a conundrum, aren’t they? You have an ending in mind that you think is pretty good. Then, by the time you get to that part of the novel, you decide that too much has changed and the ending you had in mind won’t work, or it’s not good enough and you come up with something better, or your timing and triggers are off and you’ve completely screwed the pooch and need to revamp the whole thing - multiple times.
It’s not like I’d know from…
Answering the Publishing Question
As many of you know, I’m working on the end of the second novel in Zelstrason’s Saga and, of course, I’m getting excited about completing it. Because of that, I’ve been mentioning it to people now and then. Unsurprisingly, this has resulted in some asking if the first novel is coming out any time soon, and the question has come up enough times now that I thought I should address it publicly. The answer depends on how you define “soon.”
Sneak Peek - Book 2 (no spoilers), Plus Writing Update
Sneak peek day! It’s just a tiny look at a portion of Book 2, but still.
First, as you can see by the writing log image (can click to enlarge) I’m over 80,000 words in, so I’m in the home stretch. The goal is to complete it in fewer than 90,000 words so I have some room to beef it up if need be, while still remaining within 100K. Fingers crossed.
Also, big news -
New Year Novel Writing Update
Happy New Year! And oh happy day when progress is made.
Okay, several days, not just one day. And major progress. No, really, MAJOR progress. I’ve written nearly 12,000 words in the last 4 days alone, and January 2nd isn’t over yet. I can’t believe I’m nearly at the halfway mark.
Christmas Novel Writing Update
I’m celebrating.
Why am I celebrating? Well, I’m celebrating because Christmas brought about the right frame of mind for writing. Where are the hats and horns?
Oh wait, we have several more days before we break those out.
Regardless, the point is that I’ve spent time working on Book 2 recently.
NaNoWriMo Wrap-up
I have officially experienced the bang-fizzle, which is to say I started with a bang, then fizzled after only eight days.
Bang-fizzle is my newly coined word, by the way.
Thankfully, I did get a lot done in the the eight days though, and I’m more than 28,000 words into the novel, so it’s not like it was a waste of time, not at all. It was definitely worth it.
But writing that much daily
NaNoWriMo Status Day 8
Oh, am I having fun today.
I’m writing a scene where I need to make the reader believe the characters believe something the reader knows isn’t true. If you think that sounds like a challenge, you’d be right.
NaNoWriMo Status Day 7
One week down and I’m more than 26,000 words into my second novel! Woohoo! If I could do a backflip, I would - but I’d probably break something and it wouldn’t be nearby furniture.
Backflips and celebrations aside, we must press on.
NaNoWriMo Status Day 6
Finally hit my daily word count goal!
And then some.
Okay, okay, the “then some” isn’t excessive. Still, I wrote enough today that I’m only a day behind on my total word goal. That’s not bad.
NaNoWriMo Status Day 5
Today’s status includes mostly invisible progress with a smattering of visible progress.
What do I mean by invisible progress, you ask?
Well, even if you didn’t, what I’m referring to are things that, in my opinion, need to get done but don’t run up the word count.
NaNoWriMo Status Day 4
Progress! Progress! Progress!
Okay, maybe there wasn’t enough progress to warrant such an opening, but I’m trying to remain optimistic while consistently failing to meet my daily goal.
Today I edited the scene I finished yesterday, the one with the five new characters and the new setting - yeah, that one. I spent at least half my time editing that. And shame on me because editing doesn’t add to my word count! Or, if it does, it adds very little.
NaNoWriMo Status Day 3
Election day!
That means light progress on the novel today. I knew that going in, so no surprises there.
I did finish up the scene with the five new characters and the new setting though. So, that’s some good progress.
NaNoWriMo Status Day 2
Making progress!
But didn’t get as much done as I would have liked.
NaNoWriMo Status Day 1
NaNoWriMo has officially begun!
If you’re unfamiliar with NaNoWriMo, it’s a challenge many authors and writers undertake to draft an entire manuscript during November.
When to Stop Editing & NaNoWriMo
The benefit of self-publishing is that you can take all the time you need to edit.
The detriment to self-publishing is that you can take all the time you need to edit.
When do you stop? When do you say enough is enough?
Why Write?
Why write? Why not?
Well, I’ll tell you why not. The money. Yes, that’s right, the money, or lack of money if we want to be accurate. It’s shit. And when I say “shit,” I don’t mean that it sucks. No, no. I mean it’s pretty much non-existent for most authors. In fact, for many, writing and publishing is done at a loss.
Did I know this when I started writing my novel? Aww, hell no. Would I still have written it had I known?