Author Topic: Authors and Procrastination  (Read 16988 times)

Offline the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh

  • O. M. G.
  • ***
  • Posts: 39098
  • Riding eternal, shiny and Firefox
    • View Profile
Re: Authors and Procrastination
« Reply #45 on: June 06, 2009, 02:50:06 AM »
2,000 words already tonight, and three and a half hours or so's good writing time to go.
Mildly OCD. Please do not troll.

"What do you mean, Lawful Silly isn't a valid alignment?"

kittensgame, Sandcastle Builder, Homestuck, Welcome to Night Vale, Civ III, lots of print genre SF, and old-school SATT gaming if I had the time.  Also Pandemic Legacy is the best game ever.

Offline Uilos

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 3537
  • The Snark Side of the Force
    • View Profile
Re: Authors and Procrastination
« Reply #46 on: June 06, 2009, 03:03:26 AM »
*applauds N*

I just finished a chapter of character fiction for NYJ tonite, so I feel quite accomplished. Doing the fight choreo has actually energized me to go back to my Novel instead of tapdancing around it
Quote from: Shecky
It is by snark alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire 'tude, the lips acquire mouthiness, the glares become a warning. It is by snark alone I set my mind in motion.

Offline meg_evonne

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 5264
  • With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony
    • View Profile
Re: Authors and Procrastination
« Reply #47 on: June 06, 2009, 03:08:47 AM »
2,000 words already tonight, and three and a half hours or so's good writing time to go.
  You always amaze me!  Way to go!
"Calypso was offerin' Odysseus immortality, darlin'. Penelope offered him endurin' love. I myself just wanted some company." John Henry (Doc) Holliday from "Doc" by Mary Dorla Russell
Photo from Avatar.com by the Domestic Goddess

Offline the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh

  • O. M. G.
  • ***
  • Posts: 39098
  • Riding eternal, shiny and Firefox
    • View Profile
Re: Authors and Procrastination
« Reply #48 on: June 06, 2009, 03:15:36 AM »
*applauds N*

I just finished a chapter of character fiction for NYJ tonite, so I feel quite accomplished. Doing the fight choreo has actually energized me to go back to my Novel instead of tapdancing around it

I'm not sure I'm being overly sensible; I'm working on The Big One - currently at about 435,000 words done, probably going to be 470-500kwords in total, likely to not be really sellable because it's a) ineluctably pre-9/11, it's a novel formulated in that decade of hope between the end of the Cold War and the 2000 election in the US and the world has changed too much since and b) I have been working on it off and on since 1996 and I don't see any way it can not be uneven because of that.  I just want to get the damn thing finished, though.  There are characters in it I have had in my head for twenty-three years.

Of other projects I could be working on, the first in one potential series world is sitting with an agent and I am trying not to think about it; the first in another potential series world (of which I have two more complete and a third in progress) I have just withdrawn after too many years of it sitting with an editor who said in public it was almost publishably good but would need a lot of editing work to make it so, because it became clear that that editor, with all good will, would never in practice have the time to do that editing work; so I intend to try to fix that as the Next Project (not that I thought anything was wrong with it when I sent it in, I just also hope I am a better writer now than I was five years ago) and send it elsewhere.  There are also a few standalone things I am working on, but none completed
Mildly OCD. Please do not troll.

"What do you mean, Lawful Silly isn't a valid alignment?"

kittensgame, Sandcastle Builder, Homestuck, Welcome to Night Vale, Civ III, lots of print genre SF, and old-school SATT gaming if I had the time.  Also Pandemic Legacy is the best game ever.

Offline meg_evonne

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 5264
  • With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony
    • View Profile
Re: Authors and Procrastination
« Reply #49 on: June 06, 2009, 04:06:36 AM »
I have a 10 year project that I love, but like you mentioned I've learned so much.  Even the POV is all screwed up.  But it's MY project, so it doesn't matter.  Whether I ever go back to it--eh  50/50.  So did the agent give you an idea what type of editing they thoght it needed?  Grammar, order, cutting or any of zillion of other reasons?
"Calypso was offerin' Odysseus immortality, darlin'. Penelope offered him endurin' love. I myself just wanted some company." John Henry (Doc) Holliday from "Doc" by Mary Dorla Russell
Photo from Avatar.com by the Domestic Goddess

Offline Uilos

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 3537
  • The Snark Side of the Force
    • View Profile
Re: Authors and Procrastination
« Reply #50 on: June 06, 2009, 04:53:05 AM »
I've been working on a Novel on and off for the past three to four years now. It's my first, and also My Big One.

In the first draft, you could see the evolution in the writing just in the first three chapters, to the point where the first chapter was incomprehensible compared to the rest. I continued working on it, just to get the ground work. But by then it had developed in my imagination into a completely Monolithic creature. What was once a third person story spanning several characters were now first person narratives for several characters. The world and the people became more fleshed out. So I scrapped that draft and started a new one. The next draft was good, it flowed well. But I was taking my main character into the wrong direction. Mercifully I was only three chapters into this one, but now I need to go back.

So. Work, work, work
Quote from: Shecky
It is by snark alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire 'tude, the lips acquire mouthiness, the glares become a warning. It is by snark alone I set my mind in motion.

Offline Quantus

  • Special Collections Division
  • Needs A Life
  • ****
  • Posts: 25216
  • He Who Lurks Around
    • View Profile
Re: Authors and Procrastination
« Reply #51 on: June 09, 2009, 08:55:38 PM »
I have now translated one of my projects into a setting for a Scion (white wolf system) rpg that Im going to run for my local group.  It fits the rules remarkably well, and it lets me milk my friends for character ideas  ;)
<(o)> <(o)>
        / \
      (o o)
   \==-==/


“We’re all imaginary friends to one another."

"An entire life, an entire personality, can be permanently altered by just one sentence." -An Accidental Villain

Offline meg_evonne

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 5264
  • With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony
    • View Profile
Re: Authors and Procrastination
« Reply #52 on: June 10, 2009, 09:07:24 PM »
I have now translated one of my projects into a setting for a Scion (white wolf system) rpg that Im going to run for my local group.  It fits the rules remarkably well, and it lets me milk my friends for character ideas  ;)
 

Brilliant, but how do you draw the line between your material and theirs?  Can you tell that I've never rpg'd? 

As to your evolution--super isn't it?  And for some reason it doesn't seem to frustrate the hell out of me either!  I think you are a wolf at heart, that grabs hold with your teeth and just keep shaking it until you've conquered it!
"Calypso was offerin' Odysseus immortality, darlin'. Penelope offered him endurin' love. I myself just wanted some company." John Henry (Doc) Holliday from "Doc" by Mary Dorla Russell
Photo from Avatar.com by the Domestic Goddess

Offline the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh

  • O. M. G.
  • ***
  • Posts: 39098
  • Riding eternal, shiny and Firefox
    • View Profile
Re: Authors and Procrastination
« Reply #53 on: June 11, 2009, 02:53:21 AM »
heh.

I'm not a wolf at heart; I am a patient spider, building my webs and letting the words come to me.

2580 tonight; writing on Wednesday in a break of the usual routine because this weekend is Fringe.
Mildly OCD. Please do not troll.

"What do you mean, Lawful Silly isn't a valid alignment?"

kittensgame, Sandcastle Builder, Homestuck, Welcome to Night Vale, Civ III, lots of print genre SF, and old-school SATT gaming if I had the time.  Also Pandemic Legacy is the best game ever.

Offline MiM

  • Lurker
  • Posts: 5
  • I don't believe in faeries!!
    • View Profile
    • my livejournal
Re: Authors and Procrastination
« Reply #54 on: June 12, 2009, 02:40:51 AM »
I procrastinate more than I write, if it was a career, I would be a millionaire. I've been working on my novel in it's varying forms for seven years now... almost as long as it took Bram Stoker to write his vampire novel!

I really need to stop finding excuses, and just write

Offline Lord Rae

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 3787
    • View Profile
Re: Authors and Procrastination
« Reply #55 on: June 12, 2009, 11:12:43 PM »
My latest bout of procrastination has me pondering just how many words are in most books anyway?

Anyone know? I didn't look too hard on the internet cause I'm at work... but when I get home I bet I won't check anyway. Anyone have a rough estimate?

Offline Murphy's Stunt Double

  • Needs A Life
  • ***
  • Posts: 20870
  • Tiny... but fierce!
    • View Profile
Re: Authors and Procrastination
« Reply #56 on: June 13, 2009, 05:52:35 AM »
Best device I've ever found to get myself writing.... Set a deadline for something else you absolutely HATE to do.

That way you'll write to avoid doing it.
If you are up to no good, please do no good for me too, okay?   ;D

Offline the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh

  • O. M. G.
  • ***
  • Posts: 39098
  • Riding eternal, shiny and Firefox
    • View Profile
Re: Authors and Procrastination
« Reply #57 on: June 13, 2009, 06:43:31 PM »
My latest bout of procrastination has me pondering just how many words are in most books anyway?
Anyone know? I didn't look too hard on the internet cause I'm at work... but when I get home I bet I won't check anyway. Anyone have a rough estimate?

From the published novels I have seen in pre-published e-forms that I could do word count on, I would guess about 90,000 words; that's for books around about the length of Dead Beat or a little shorter.
Mildly OCD. Please do not troll.

"What do you mean, Lawful Silly isn't a valid alignment?"

kittensgame, Sandcastle Builder, Homestuck, Welcome to Night Vale, Civ III, lots of print genre SF, and old-school SATT gaming if I had the time.  Also Pandemic Legacy is the best game ever.

Offline the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh

  • O. M. G.
  • ***
  • Posts: 39098
  • Riding eternal, shiny and Firefox
    • View Profile
Re: Authors and Procrastination
« Reply #58 on: June 13, 2009, 06:45:16 PM »
Brilliant, but how do you draw the line between your material and theirs?  Can you tell that I've never rpg'd? 

This is pretty much exactly why I almost never roleplay any more fwiw. It feeds on the same energy as writing.
Mildly OCD. Please do not troll.

"What do you mean, Lawful Silly isn't a valid alignment?"

kittensgame, Sandcastle Builder, Homestuck, Welcome to Night Vale, Civ III, lots of print genre SF, and old-school SATT gaming if I had the time.  Also Pandemic Legacy is the best game ever.

Offline Lord Rae

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 3787
    • View Profile
Re: Authors and Procrastination
« Reply #59 on: June 13, 2009, 07:40:37 PM »
From the published novels I have seen in pre-published e-forms that I could do word count on, I would guess about 90,000 words; that's for books around about the length of Dead Beat or a little shorter.

Ah cool... I'm about a quarter of the way into my story and I'm at 24,000... so I guess I'll be alright. I was just wondering if I was padding too much.

Thanks N.