Author Topic: Accountability, author's timecard, word count written, feeling lonely out there?  (Read 51240 times)

Offline KevinEvans

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Went and returned to Nasfic. Attended the party at the Baen publishing offices, was shown the back room where the "extra" books are, handed bags and told to take what we wanted.... Sigh just one bag, we had limited luggage space. (Grin)

Met every one at the office, had extraordinary food, talked about our new novels.

At the con, I had the first panel in our room, at 1500 Thurs, the 5th. even so I had around 25 there. My wife’s panel "Chocolate in 1632" was better attended, but she was giving out samples.....

Road the train out and back, filled out our SFWA paperwork, met some truly fine people.

The two novels have been submitted, now is the waiting game. As little as six months and up to a year to wait, to see how they are received.

Picked up a number of projects at the con, and have two more novels blocked out....

Lots of fun,
Kevin
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Offline the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh

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A mere 2,500 words on Friday, and they were not what one might call good, as I had a vicious caffeine-withdrawal headache at the time (was off cafeine for 48 hours for various complex reasons.)

It's going to be about two weeks before I can get back to this project, so youse all had better post progress and stuff in this thread regularly in between times so it doesn't get locked; I have however figured out a couple of things that have got the longer-term direction of it on track. 

Am I the only person who wakes up in the middle of the night convinced the thing can never be made work because I've realised that I don't know how to do a scene that happens five books down the line ?

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

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once off caffeine, stay off? That's what happened to me.  I didn't realize I was so hooked on it until I had to go off it for a bit, years ago.  Since then I haven't missed it at all.  Diet Coke Caffeine Free was my best friend!

Okay, I started with something like 8500 words to revise on this last past.  By this AM I was down to 7500 or so.  Not bad for me.  I'll have a different type of pass on it once I complete this round, but it will be specific concerns driven, much more doable time wise.

Am I the only person who wakes up in the middle of the night convinced the thing can never be made work because I've realized that I don't know how to do a scene that happens five books down the line ?

I admit that as I wind down on final revisions, my mind moves on to the next work.  I've said that I feel like a guilty lover that steps out of bed into the arms of another... so trampy!  I'm learning to fight the impulse, so I write down the idea, drop it into place in the outline or the text I've already written, and get back to the original. So you are NOT ALONE. It didn't use to matter, but I'm on a definite time line on this work, as are you with your "the work I should be working on"...

Best wishes and hugs.  We'll keep the thread above water until you're back and posting again.  It's important to share those quiet writing accomplishments, don't you think?  Not so lonely that way?

We will PERSEVERE!  We will CONQUER!  And dare I say it, WE WILL GET PUBLISHED BY A MAJOR HOUSE!

eek, that's the first time I've laid down that gauntlet.  Scary. 
"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
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Offline the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh

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once off caffeine, stay off? That's what happened to me.  I didn't realize I was so hooked on it until I had to go off it for a bit, years ago.  Since then I haven't missed it at all.  Diet Coke Caffeine Free was my best friend!

I think I am comfortable with my addiction for the moment; or at least, going off it can wait until I sort out a couple of the other major stress issues in my life.

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I admit that as I wind down on final revisions, my mind moves on to the next work.  I've said that I feel like a guilty lover that steps out of bed into the arms of another... so trampy!

There are times when being a poly person is settling when one applies it to writing as well as to relationships...

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It didn't use to matter, but I'm on a definite time line on this work, as are you with your "the work I should be working on"...

Not at the moment; it got done, it went where it was supposed to go (or at least it was posted to where it was supposed to go; I would really like to hear that it has arrived.)

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It's important to share those quiet writing accomplishments, don't you think?  Not so lonely that way?

Yes, and also it's a quick way to look back and see that one is making reasonably steady progress over time.

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We will PERSEVERE!  We will CONQUER!  And dare I say it, WE WILL GET PUBLISHED BY A MAJOR HOUSE!

I'm certainly aiming for that.
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

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Writing, then recording several chapters for sound revision.
"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
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Offline belial.1980

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After finishing my manuscript I realized there were so many things I didn't know about the world I'm writing in. Being primarily a "discovery writer" I "discovered" a lot about the world as I wrote the draft, I suppose, but I realized the backstory was still pretty thin.

I'm taking some time to do a little world building and buff up the backstory of the central characters before I start on book two. Don't want to spend too much time, since I've heard about lots of writers that get stuck in world building limbo. But I realized I need more than I had for the first book. Overall plan is to world build, apply to the next manuscript. Revise the world and backstory based on what I learned by writing the second manuscript. Rinse and repeat with the third book.

I figure that by the time I've done all that I'll hopefully have a really solid backstory and know the characters inside and out. Also, hoping that my overall writing skills have improved a lot by then. At that point I'll start revisions on the first manuscript. That's the plan...for now anyway.
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Offline the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh

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While I have not got anything writtien in the past few days, I have figured out some useful stuff concerning what will be going on later in the series which, while none of it will be known to the viewpoint character in the current story, is all known to one of the other characters and will help me understand where he is coming from.  (Though I suspect one effect it might have in the long-term would be to make people rereading the first book in the light of the later books scream at me.)

These particular insights brought to me by reading an uneven and sometimes rather good biography of Cardinal Richelieu.
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

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I took a valuable side path as well.

1.  I took some serious time to do 'writing craft' research on 'plot climax' from as many sources as I had on hand and available through the internet.  As a result, I came to understand that my climax was actually a couple chapters prior to where I thought it was.  Okay, you're scratching your head going, 'how the f****** hell can Meg not know where the blasted plot climax is after all that time!?!"  Turns out, I have one climax that births another that follows immediately after that one.  The first is a physical plot climax followed by a final massive mental/emotional climax puzzle to figure out. I'd erroneously figured that the mental section was the massive plot climax...

Decided after research that I had to make the physical climax even more satisfying for the reader and make it the top of my upside down plot chart.  Then the mental section is an odd twist that extends that height, or might even be considered to slip down and then get pushed over the top again before resolving the book. 

Might seem minor, but it put a whole new spin on how much I had to put into the physical plot climax scene...

Then 2. I've been listening to a "Great Sentence" MFA lecture.  It's a complicated, but fascinating class on sentence structures from cumulative sentences, suspensive sentences, etc.  From that reading, I ripped apart Carrie Vaughn's short story from Dark and Stormy Knights to critique when and where she used them in her work to heighten tension, build suspense, etc and also a Meg Rosoff book for the same detail.  Both use cumulative sentences in different but fascinating ways.

Both research side roads have paid off in huge dividends when I look at the overall effectiveness of my WiP.

3. An assignment on 'order', not flashback, but conscious reveal of backstory in book real time woven into the work has made three beautiful counterpoints of jewelled nuggets that simply make the emotion zing off the pages.  Thank you, BK Loren and the Univ of IA writer's festival!

Above meant more revision, a couple new scenes.  I'm so pleased with how this is working out.  I can't wait to get the final work out there.

And yes, I'm writing most mornings for an hour or more, and several evenings for an hour.  This weekend I hope to resolve those issues, and begin a final zen-reading of the entire work, breath deep, print off for a visual/tactile read through, re-print and mail.  Thank goodness I wasn't given a time table, but I can't wait to get it back, and then send out to the agent who requested to read the re-write.  Also, I've got a few agents I've held in the hopper who might wish to read it too. 

Yep, I'm really going to get off my procrastinating a** this time...   Re-reading this it makes it sound like my head has imploded, but really I'm very, very proud of this work--from the standpoint of what I've learned and applied, as well as from quality writing standpoint.
"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
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Offline the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh

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Through pass, some poking at latest couple of chapters which were joined up to make one chapter, now past 39,000 words.
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

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41,700 words and counting.  A bit worried that that's 12 chapters and my plan only has 9 left; this would be a first for me in having a novel come up shorter rather than longer than the range of what's supposedly most marketable.

It is 1.30 am and I am Going To Bed, darn it.
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

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YA revision done.  Perfect 61959 word count.  Will print 5 copies and mail one off to editor who gracously offered to read.  Anyone want to see it?  Now my reward is to read mockingjay...  sees ya later.
"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
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Offline the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh

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45,000 words.  2400 of the new ones tonight are completely new scene and going some way to ameliorate my frets about the thing being too short.  The other 1600 are run up to a really hard bit which I now need to figure out how to do.  The non-human characters have to be alien enough.

I have also come up with a cunning plan to disguise how my books always need an epilogue; which is to do it from the same POV as the rest of the book, and label it "chapter 24" rather than "epilogue".
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

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1800 more words tonight, that being 400 to prop up the previous chapter and 400 to finish the current one.  Which, i hope takes me through the really hard scene and into the nice rewarding one where I get two people I have just come through the difficult bit having a nice relieved semi-friendly but very loud argument about which of them was more of an idiot to get into the situation in the first place, they also figure out some cool stuff, and then they walk straight into one of the biggest twists in the plot.
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 Kali

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I'm trying for 2k words a day, mostly 'cause I really want this story wrapped up before November when I will again participate in NaNoWriMo.  Only this year, I'm gonna try to use the Snowflake method to do a bit more outlining, hoping to produce something that won't require a massive re-write.  I think out of 50k, I kept around 18k of the previous story.  The rest has been chucked in the trash.  I'm now back up to 66k.  I'd like to get some inspiration and have a few of those 10k days so I can have the month of October to Snowflake the next novel.

The added big scene is now written, though it had to be done twice.  I realized partway through that by adding a character I really loved, I was actually weakening the impact of the more active character in the scene.  So, goodbye Kassidy.  Some other time, you psycho.  Then was the problem of how to get Rachel out of it without making her look weak but still having Ethan in on the rescue.  Accomplished, but the means will require revisiting later when I've got some distance.

Today's 2k (or more) will shift focus to the rescue and possibly the plot twist therein.
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Offline meg_evonne

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I'm always amazed when people manage to complete NaMo (am I right on the nickname for it?) and I know you've done it several times.  Best wishes on finishing your current project and setting up the next!
"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