Progress Update 2013.05.21

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Day 2 was better.

My word output yesterday was again low, but I spent about two hours researching topics like multidimensional physics, which was pretty interesting. Not to mention the fact that the research has helped me. Between the research and some hard thinking I have worked out some significant details about my world, it’s mechanics, etc. I still need to do more, but I’ve got a clearer picture and some better logic behind a few aspects of it. Needless to say, some things are going to change in Draft 4 as a result.

As an outgrowth of nailing down some more of the background, I have settled on a name for the series: The Beowulf Cases. It’s both from a bit of a misunderstanding around a weapon the main characte carries and a dig at his primitiveness. But I still don’t know what I’m going to call Book 1. Maybe I should have a contest to name it?

Also, I contracted with a line editor yesterday to proof Book 1! I need to be ready by the beginning of August! I think I’ve just barely got not quite enough time. It feels a little stressful and cool to have taken that step. I think I need to change my graphic on my main page to reflect that, but I’ll do that a different day as I’ve got a few other changes I want to make to overhaul my blog a bit and today needs to be about writing.

My plan for today:

  • Finish the world building (jeesh it’s Wednesday already)
  • Coalesce notes and feedback into an Editing Checklist (jeesh it’s Wednesday already)
  • Start work on editing (jeesh it’s Wednesday already)
  • Did I mention that it’s Wednesday already?

Progress Update 2013.05.20

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Day 1 was a bust.

I had plenty of distrations, most of which I welcomed with open arms. Some of which I created! :-) I was tired, had trouble focusing, and I was just in a glum mood. A big part of the mood came from reviewing my notes and realizing that what I needed to do was hard. Whoever said it would be all rainbows and glitter with chocolate chip cookies?

Essentialy, I went with glum and hard and managed to eat some junk food, not much dinner, and only do about 330 words of backstory on this one setting in my novel (this is the start of the Wiki idea). I followed that up with three consectuive episodes of Vikings, not a bad show, before going to bed. Not highly productive and certainly not to plan. I usually start out slow and build momentum, but this might be taking it to new heights.

The good news is that I slept in and I feel different today. I feel frankly irritated by my poor showing yesterday. I only have four more days to work on the book this week and I need to make the most of them. So I’ve read through my notes and feedback a couple of times and I’ve started the backstory on the location. I will finish that backstory today and start plugging away on the changes. I am essentially following the steps regarding Book 1 that I mentioned here and I think I worked out what to do for my Revised Plan (another good outcome from yesterday, so I guess it wasn’t quite as void as it felt at times), but I’ll write about that later.

When In Doubt, Peanut M&M’s

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This is purely a scientific test.

This afternoon, I posted “When in doubt Peanut M&M’s” as my FB status. In less than two hours, I had 12 Likes and the following suggestions:

  • Lindt
  • Peanut Butter M&M’s
  • Chocolate M&M’s
  • Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
  • Dark Chocolate Peanut
  • Dark Chocoalate . . . in the freezer

Since I am taking the coming week off to work on my novel(s), I suspect the main impact of this flurry of suggestions will be to help me fill out the bad portion of my Brain Food, Bad Food, Beer, and think like a bachelor novelist grocery shopping list.

That said, two days ago I made a post exploring next steps for the writing process as opposed to the junk food eating portion of the coming week. At the end of said post, I welcomed feedback and even though about 20 people have read it so far, no comments. So I am wondering whether my junk food shopping list or suggestions for my writing process list will fill faster.

Revised Plan for Book 1 & 2

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Missing my Nano goal and running out of gas the last couple of weeks has created the need for a major change in my plan. That and I’ve taken next week off to work on Book 1. So I’m going to think this through “outloud” as it were because I feel like I need a firm plan ahead of this weekend as this weekend really begins my week off to work on the book.

So roughly the plan that I was working with for Book 1 had me plotting the changes I was going to make May 1, spending two weeks editing, my vacation week doing a full reread of the novel, and finishing editing the last week of May. In June I would hand off the fourth draft to readers while working on Book 2, which theoretically would have been done around May 1. Then in July it would roughly be the same process as May with the book ready to go to an editor at the beginning of August.

Although I do intend to continue working on both books, my priority is to get Book 1 finished this year and ideally by the end of October. So any adjustments I make, I plan on making with that idea in mind.

The easiest thing to do to keep me on track is either jettison the idea of giving my fourth draft to readers, which gives me back the whole month of June or I jettison the full reread of the novel next week. That’s a tough choice. Either I spend more time with it and get less reader feedback or spend less time with it to get more reader feedback.

I had envisioned a fourth draft where I continue to make plot and character improvements, followed by a fifth draft where I still tweak plot and character but focus primarily on atmosphere. I think I’m in a spot where to stick with my schedule, I may not be able to do both of those drafts quite as I had envisioned.

The other other thing is my readers suggested doing a Wiki page for one of the settings in my novel. I loved the idea, both because I could eventually post it and because it urged me to work out a detailed backstory for this setting. In a way, the setting is a character and requires it’s own backstory. Now the reason I bring this up is that it’s a big endeavor, ideal for a week off, but I’m already up against the wall with my schedule. OK new take, methinks I review my feedback Friday (after my U10 soccer team’s pizza party) and Saturday. Then I’ll put together an editing plan and maybe even start editing on Sunday. Monday I do my Wiki page, then I plug away at the editing. I think it will take me at least 2-3 days full time, but whether or not I’m right I have to plug away at it so I’ll do that and then see where I’m at by week’s end.

I may have to sleep on this one. Feedback welcomed!

Review of My Camp Nano Experience

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Or how to be disappointed by writing 58,186 words in a month.

You know I’ve drafted this several times in my head, but it wasn’t until I sat down to actually write it that I got that first sentence and frankly that sums it up! I set an outrageous goal – 68,000 words in a month, while working, being a dad, coaching soccer, having a bit of a life, and remembering to eat (most of the time). I remember the rationalization clearly — that is the pace that would allow me to finish the first draft of Book 2 in time to switch gears back to Book 1. Some back of the envelope math validated that this was a definite stretch, but achievable. So I set it as my goal.

I missed my goal and felt like crap about it for about a week. I had this really interesting internal debate about whether or not I could have used my time differently across the month and found another eight hours (about what I would have needed, but it might have been 10-12 hours). That debate was just me coming to terms with the fact that I hate missing a goal and I usually don’t miss them. The reality is that I couldn’t have done it any differently.

Here’s the funny part, the final night of it as I was wallowing in not making my goal I discovered that I could have changed my goal as recently as four days prior. Now four days prior I was still convinced that with a massive flurry of effort at the end I could still make a mad dash to my goal. Like I said, I couldn’t have done it any differently.

So ultimately I’ve got two and a half takeaways from this experience:

  1. Make your official goal the Nano suggested 50,000 words and also maintain a personal unachievable ridiculous goal.
  2. If you fail at #1 or have a bad month, change your goal before the deadline to make a change.
  3. It might be best not to sign up for this while coaching a soccer team.

With all of that blah, blah, blah out of the way here’s where I am today:  60,739 words, 283 pages, or ~76% complete of a first draft of Book 2 in my series. A book that 7 weeks ago I didn’t think I would be more than a few chapters into at this point with a completion goal of July/August. So I missed my Nano goal and I won’t get the draft complete before I switch back to Book 1 (sorry KD you’ll have to wait a bit to read the first draft), but damn! I got way more book than I was expecting. I might not have hit full on BadAss Word Ninja status, but that is still pretty BadAss and upon further review . . . I am quite pleased with it.

Progress Toward Goals – April

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Better late than never, here is my progress toward my three and a half personal goals for the 2nd quarter of 2013:

  1. Triple Daily Blog Views.  I still have no clue how I am going to do this. My previous average was 14 views per day.  For April, I managed to squeak it upward to 15. Hmm, needs some work.
  2. Finish the 4th Draft of TH1.  In April, I did no active work on it but I collected plenty of feedback.
  3. Finish the 1st Draft of TH2.  I did 60,000 words in April thanks to Camp NaNo, so not quite done yet. But great progress. You can follow my progress on the novel here.
  4. Register for the First Triathlon of the Season.  I have not registered, but I have identified one that I want to do in mid-June. It’s the right distance and close-ish to home.

As I explained here, I am doing quarterly goals.

I’ve Fallen Off The Horse

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Time to get back on!

So for those of you who have been following me, you’ve probably started to wonder where I’ve been the last couple of weeks. The short answer is, not writing. I hate to admit that, but it’s the truth. Heck, I’ve wanted to hide from that truth, but that has started to feel crappy, which in its own way creates an inertia that I am now trying to break free of.

OK, so where have I been? Well, it all started two weeks ago as the Nano came to an end. I had some bad financial news (think major tax bill), coincide with the need for some major financial decisions, and both of those required a lot of research and mental energy. Add some big stuff going on with my son and there was not a lot of time and space for writing. In fact what happened is that I felt the immediacy of the other things collapse all of my momentum from Nano. That collapse felt depressing and the more time that passed that I didn’t finish the novel, the more I wanted to avoid working on it or blogging about it (read having to admit not writing). Throw an out of town work trip in this week and I’ve been about dead in the water (mixing metaphors I know, but I’m feeling uncreative) for almost two weeks.

I got some advice from my good friend Daylin to blog tonight, which I think was the right thing to do to get writing again. So here I am. This is part update and part restart. Now that I’ve gone public with my lack of writing, it should get me writing again, but tomorrow. I’ve got a sick son on the couch next to me and I’m going to snuggle up with him, feed him some soup, and watch a movie. I’ll get up at six tomorrow, per my usual schedule, and get cranking on Book 2. I’m also going to do the following blog posts (though not necessarily in this order):

  • Progress Toward Quarterly Goals
  • Review of My Nano Experience
  • How It Went to Finally Meet the Stylish Ladies
  • Revised Plan for Book 1 & 2