Accountability, author's timecard, word count written, feeling lonely out there?

[Rachel Udin]

Something to add about wordpress and hosting--a lot of hosts will be set up so that they can automatically install it for you.  Something like two clicks of a couple buttons, and done.  Wordpress also lets you set up a blog on their site, but it's limited in what you can do compared to installing it on the host.  And the pricing on webhosts-from what I've seen, a lot of em have unlimited bandwidth/storage for about $10/month.  Cheaper if you do 6 or 12 month plans.  I've been looking at domain registrars lately, and I've actually not seen too many that are under $10/year.  At least none that look reputable.  Another good idea is to listen to the Writing Excuses podcast on branding yourself.  Basically says to put up a website that fits you.  My example for that would be my own site--it's sorta amateurish looking, but if it were too polished and professional, it wouldn't fit me.  And it has lots of stars.   

Godaddy.com is about 10 dollars a year.

Sometimes there are specials for 8 dollars a year, etc on websites--registrars are not important. What's important is your hosting. Most registrars you can get the domain cheap and then transfer it around aat will and get cheap registration that way. It's quick and painless.

The worst thing that can happen is that a registrar locks your account, but then you can get ICANN to lodge a complaint, which came about after Pepsi sued a large registrar and won.

Wordpress, you can set into a shell pretty easily with one line of PHP and a little deleting.

http://www.racheludin.com/ <-- that is set up into a shell. It's a basic PHP insert line.

That means I can use the template for other subpages as well.

I pay 60 dollars a year. Shared hosting, but they have lots of servers. And unlimited bandwidth, database, storage and domains. They don't do multi-access subdomains automatically, but you can get it set up with a little hassle and no charge.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

A good feeling, when you edit, pare stuff down, fix other things, and find out you came out ahead in word count.

A fair bit of my editing on this pass is going to be "thing X works in a way that is totally obvious to POV character so she would never think to explain it, but it needs more clues in there so the reader gets what's going on", which is probably why it's getting longer.  This is really one of the downsides of a single first-person POV; the Scylla of leaving vital stuff out so the reader is puzzled, and the Charybdis of stopping to explain in ways that totally break the integrity of the viewpoint.  As the first volume in a projected series, I really have gone to some lengths to construct situations and settings where she has to explain or at least think about the basics of where she's from, what she does and how she thinks; the later ones, in settings more alien to her, may make it even harder to get that in, on a "person from culture A writing memoir of culture B for assumed readers in culture A being read by readers in culture C" level. (I can't actually believe in a first-person narrative that is not explicitly written within the fictional world, and for a good reason.)

[meg_evonne]

I'm derelict in my duty, here.  Let's see...  Did my YA print copy read, waiting to change the word doc with errors that I missed.  I just don't have that razor eye.  I ALWAYS miss something.  Scares the you-know-what out of me, since a know that an editor with a really fast, sharp mind would never miss--any of them.  Still haven't mailed in to the publishing house editor, but I'm also not going to wait on sending out five queries on it. Researching agents is harder than researching for a historical piece...  *sigh*

My short story from the U of IA (1650) or so, is off to my editor friend for my annual Zoetrope All Story contest.  I never plan on winning, of course, however I consider it my year in writing craft statement of how far I've come and what I've learned this past year.  It will then go to the U of IA Anthology for inclusion in their CD.

A wonderful new YA character (12-yr old) this time is taking shape, along with a nifty plot.  Not fantasy, not sci-fi, just a wonderful dealing with life, the death of an adoptive father, a grieving mother.  It will follow a pure and simple 'hero's journey' format.  Not 100% sure that's my next project, but it is weighing in heavily against my other project ideas in my file.  It is nice to sic my mind on fresh ideas though. I've been editing so long, that I thought my muse had taken a hike in protest and disgust. 

[Kali]

Good luck with the Zoetrope entry, Meg.   And isn't it nice to exercise a whole different part of your writing brain?  By the time I was done my rough draft, I couldn't wait to edit. Then I edited. And edited. And re-edited. And now I'm writing again... which is making my editor nervous. So I use my writerly brain on the new rough, and then give my inner editor something to do by reading a few pages in the MS.

After giving myself only a little break, I have indeed begun work on the next thing.  I snowflaked some of it, but it's hard to convince myself that that's actual work.  I do like that it helped me finalize some vague plot notions, but it was time for me to dive in.  I'm not keeping up my 2k/day word count that I had been using to finish up the last story, but I am going at around 1.5k/day for now.  1.5 is a nice minimum for me, it's just enough to feel like I got something done, but not so much that I feel like I'll never make the end when the words aren't coming.  And when I get the 'feel' for this story a little more, I'll bump my wordcount back up to 2k.

That's a minimum, of course.  Anytime I feel like going over, I let myself. I just don't force it if it's not there.

Tomorrow, the plan is to try and rough out a synopsis, but it'll be short on details, even for a synopsis, because I don't know all the details.  Still, I feel I should get down what I do have just so it feels a little more... I dunno, official.

During my break, I also got my website set up.  Sort of.  I'm not advertising it yet 'cause it's still rough and tumble and there's hardly anything on it.  I'm also setting up Thursdays as "Blogging Day" during which I'll make a post about the week's past writing activities and the plan for the next week.  So that'll be something to do tomorrow, too.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

through pass on the remaining fifteen chapters, fixing the small things; squeezed  an extra 500 words out of it.

Five specific things left to do; a major rewrite of two chapters, a new ending, two medium-sized things to put in and one medium-sized thing to cut, because the detail in question is possibly a major point in a later story, so I want on reflection to leave it a much smaller detail now, that will work as part of the background rather than leaping out as Significant, because leaping out as Significant and not resolving is bad, and the extra novel's-worth-o-stuff it would take to resolve it also does not fit here.

[meg_evonne]

Kali, do you check in via twitter to #amwriting?  It's a nice personal, but public, "Here, I am and I am writing." spot.  Very helpful to know I'm writing along with so many other authors at the same time.  Johanna also keeps a bio section as well. 

[prophet224]

Ok, wow - 1.5k minimum, 2k average? Geez. If I get out 500 words a day I'm happy. I don't really have writer's block or anything, it is just a matter of time. Out of curiosity, how many hours does that 1.5-2k words take you?

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Their customer service has been excellent as well, and at some point I got a free domain, I think when I renewed with them. So now I have two domains on the same web space and I've never paid extra. You can also host unlimited subdomains (i.e. my main domain is 'www.novusimperia.net', a sub-domain is 'writing.novusimperia.net').

[Kali]

@meg - Y'know, I'm almost embarassed to admit it, but I don't get Twitter.  I don't get how to sign up, I don't get where to go to get updates, or how to make them... That's largely because I'm very much an anti-social sort.  I have negative interest in social networking, so I've never done more than glance at Facebook or Myspace and I've been actively avoiding them and Twitter as well.  I just don't like the feeling of being connected to that many people all the frickin' time.  It gives me the colliewobbles.  I didn't even have a phone capable of getting texts for the longest time, until the phone died and I had to replace it, because I don't like being that in-touch.

However, it's becoming painfully clear to me that these days, it helps to break as an author if you're into the whole social networking thing.  I'm still refusing to get a Facebook page, but I do have a website and a blog I'm going to be posting in, and I suppose at some point I ought to at least look at Twitter and figure out what the deal is.

@prophet - Depends on the day.   On a good day, it only takes me an hour or so.  I type close to 100 wpm, though, so an hour is still mostly thinking and deciding, not so much actually pounding the keys.  On a bad day... it can take every spare moment.  I've been known to stay up until 2 or 3am to make my wordcount, but I do not go to bed until it's done.  That was my promise to myself, the committment I made.  The word count is the word count, rain or shine, day or night, no matter what else happens that day.  I haven't always lived up to it, but I feel *very* guilty when I don't, and even when I don't manage the 1.5k, I do still at least do some writing.

I will say I don't do "makeup" days.  If I only make 1k on Monday, I don't force myself to do an extra 500 words on Tuesday.  That way lies disaster, I think. If I have a couple of bad days in a row, I'd end up facing a day where, no matter what, I had to do 4k or 5k.  I *can* do those days, I have done them (my record is 12.5k), but that's only when the spirit really moves me.  If I *had* to do that much, I'm sure I'd give up in disgust and drown my sorrows in Ben & Jerry's Boston Cream Pie ice cream.

[Starbeam]

@meg - Y'know, I'm almost embarassed to admit it, but I don't get Twitter.  I don't get how to sign up, I don't get where to go to get updates, or how to make them... That's largely because I'm very much an anti-social sort.  I have negative interest in social networking, so I've never done more than glance at Facebook or Myspace and I've been actively avoiding them and Twitter as well.  I just don't like the feeling of being connected to that many people all the frickin' time.  It gives me the colliewobbles.  I didn't even have a phone capable of getting texts for the longest time, until the phone died and I had to replace it, because I don't like being that in-touch.

However, it's becoming painfully clear to me that these days, it helps to break as an author if you're into the whole social networking thing.  I'm still refusing to get a Facebook page, but I do have a website and a blog I'm going to be posting in, and I suppose at some point I ought to at least look at Twitter and figure out what the deal is.

@prophet - Depends on the day.   On a good day, it only takes me an hour or so.  I type close to 100 wpm, though, so an hour is still mostly thinking and deciding, not so much actually pounding the keys.  On a bad day... it can take every spare moment.  I've been known to stay up until 2 or 3am to make my wordcount, but I do not go to bed until it's done.  That was my promise to myself, the committment I made.  The word count is the word count, rain or shine, day or night, no matter what else happens that day.  I haven't always lived up to it, but I feel *very* guilty when I don't, and even when I don't manage the 1.5k, I do still at least do some writing.

I will say I don't do "makeup" days.  If I only make 1k on Monday, I don't force myself to do an extra 500 words on Tuesday.  That way lies disaster, I think. If I have a couple of bad days in a row, I'd end up facing a day where, no matter what, I had to do 4k or 5k.  I *can* do those days, I have done them (my record is 12.5k), but that's only when the spirit really moves me.  If I *had* to do that much, I'm sure I'd give up in disgust and drown my sorrows in Ben & Jerry's Boston Cream Pie ice cream.

On Twitter--the main reason I made an account was because I met Anne Sowards (Jim's editor), and there are other editors and agents on there.  Although right now, I only follow Anne where those are concerned.  I also found it really useful to follow the authors I read cause they tweet a lot about when the next books are coming out.  It's also somewhat inspiring, too, in an odd way. 

[jeno]

I get about 3k or more when I write, but I don't write every day.  And it's not all prose I can just stick into a chapter.

[prophet224]

Interesting... ok, that makes me feel a bit better. You have set a pretty high goal for yourself - 1.5-2k words per day is, from everything I've read, considered ambitious. So good for you!

I usually run on 500/day, but have modified to 5k per week. Going well so far. I usually get stopped up by research, but I've been pretty good about just putting things like <rank insignia> in that I can follow up on later.

[Starbeam]

I can manage around 500-2000 words a day, depending on when I write and if I'm having trouble with the scene or not.  If I write just at lunch, I can get at least 500 during the last half hour, and then more, depending on how much time I have between work and dinner.  I got just over 1k yesterday after work, although part of that was letting myself get a bit distracted by the chat room.

[Kali]

For really impressive word counts, neuro is my personal deity.  I look like a slacker!

I like the idea of a weekly word count.  That means if you have one really good day, you can give yourself a break on a bad day or even take a day off from writing.  I myself wouldn't take a day off the story, but there's always stuff to be done that's not actually writing; synopsis, blurb, more character sheets, always stuff to do!

Today, I actually have managed 2300 because I knew the high points of the scene.  This scene goes on, but I know what bits I want to hit in the rest of it, so tomorrow might also be a good day.  I also got the blog post done, though not the synopsis.  I might work on that tonight if I feel the urge, or I'll poke at it tomorrow.  We'll see.  Definitely this week!

[jeno]

I heard that Brandon Sanderson can get 20,000 a day when he's finishing a novel.  I'm really not sure I believe that.

[Kali]

Good gravy.  My fingers felt all noodly after 12k.  I can't imagine doing another 8k on top of that.  I'd have blisters!