Tag: momentum

I need a productivity boost

Yeah…today wasn’t that great.  I revised through about 2k words in Desert Stars, but none of it was new material, and I only worked on it for maybe 3 cumulative hours.  I’m working full time now, but even so, I can do better than this.

My self-imposed deadline for Desert Stars is July 9th.  That needs I need to do three chapters per week, and last week, I only did two.  Some of the later chapters are going to require tossing out everything and starting from scratch, but for the next four or five, I probably just need to shuffle scenes around without changing too much.  Hopefully, I can get through three this week, perhaps even four.

Genesis Earth continues to do well, though.  I checked it at work, and saw that 69% of the people who view the Amazon page end up buying the book.  That’s huge.  Some glitches over the weekend have made sales updates sporadic, but it’s still selling a good 1.5 copies per day.  So to all of you who have bought a copy: thanks so much!

There’s still a lot I need to do for Genesis Earth on the epublishing front, however.  Here’s my to do list for this week:

  • Send GE to +5 review sites.
  • Publish GE to the nook.
  • Get GE listed on Goodreads.
  • Do 3 guest posts / interviews for the blog tour.
  • Create an index for the blog tour.

Should be pretty straightforward…if I can balance writing time with non-writing publishing/promotion time (along with full time job time).  It’s going to be tricky, but I think I can do it.

Here’s my plan: I’ll get up at 6:30 each morning and write for at least half an hour, exercise, get ready for work, etc.  When I get  home at 5:30, I’ll eat a quick dinner and then devote myself to writing until about 7:30 (I have events going on every weekday evening that start at 7:30).  In the late night, I’ll maybe write a little, but that won’t be my primary writing time (since I never get much done when it is).

So anyways, that’s my tentative plan for this week.  Hopefully, that productivity boost will kick in soon, and I’ll be writing 3.5k words a day again.

In unrelated news, Adventures in Sci Fi Publishing posted an awesome interview of Kristine Katherine Rusch up on their podcast yesterday.  To all my writing friends: you really should check it out and listen to it.  Kris is an amazing veteran professional in the sf&f field, and has loads of good advice.  I read her blog religiously and recommend that all other aspiring writers do the same.

Which reminds me: Robin Sullivan was interviewed last week on another podcast, and this one is also very much worth checking out.  Robin runs a small press called Ridan, which is embracing unorthodox business practices and doing surprisingly well in today’s publishing climate.  I’ve said that I’m on hiatus from seeking a publishing house for the next three years…but if I could get into Ridan, I would in a heartbeat.

Finally, let me end this post with a cool trance song I discovered the other day.  Way mellow, with sweet vocals that fit surprisingly well with my current WIP.

New title and writing update

Just a quick update before I go to bed.

After much deliberation, I decided to go with Desert Stars as a title.  Thanks, Megan, for suggesting it.  It’s a little short, and doesn’t exactly wow me, but I’ll try it out and see if I grow into it.  The most important thing anyway is what the readers think.

The last couple of days have been going slow, mostly because of stupid writerly avoidance things.  It’s a lot easier for me to revise than it is to write new material, and the last couple of chapters have required a lot of new material.  But I think I’m through most of it, and will hopefully make some good progress tomorrow.

Genesis Earth has been selling a lot better than I thought it would…which doesn’t say much, but at least it says something.  For promotion, all I’ve done is the blog tour, a couple links on facebook, and general participation on the Kindle Boards.  In any case, I’m betting that writing is more important than promotion, so that’s where I’m focusing my energy.

The temp job I’m working is pretty good.  I listen to stories, writing podcasts, and lectures all day while doing data entry.  One of the most interesting ones is this presentation from Gencon, all about story structure and the hero’s journey.  Good stuff; it’s helped me figure out a lot of things with my current WIP (Desert Stars).

I’ve also been listening to a lot of trance music, especially Armin Van Buuren.  I know my Dad will think it’s crap, but hey I like it!  I think I’ll leave you with this track, where Armin teams up with the guy behind Owl City.  I’d tell you how many times I’ve listened to it, but that would be embarrassing.  So anyways…good night!

Spinning out

Just a quick post before I go to bed…and I really should, because it’s freaking late.

I feel like I’ve been getting more and more busy, yet less and less productive.  It’s @%$! frustrating.  In the last two weeks, I’ve had numerous job applications and interviews (though not as many interviews as I’d like), tons of complicated paperwork for the EPIK job in Korea I’m hoping to take come September, the only TEFL course I’m taking (in which I feel I am constantly behind), and all sorts of other random crap.

Oh, and then there’s writing.  I’ve been averaging only about 1.5k words per day, which is kind of pathetic when you realize that I don’t have regular work.

I wish I could say that I’ve been spending a lot of this extra time socializing, but sadly that isn’t the case.  I haven’t gone out on a date in months, and with each passing week I drift further and further from the people in my ward.  I’ve been pretty active with Quark, though, so that sort of makes up for things, but not enough.

One of the good things, though, is that I’ve been getting up relatively early all week–and by “relatively,” I mean before 9:00 am.  Next week’s goal: go to bed by 1:00, and get up before 8:00.  The timestamp on this post can probably tell you how much of a head start I’ve got.

Oh, and I have been exercising regularly.  That’s a good thing, I suppose.  Haven’t seen many results of that, except perhaps a slightly more active lifestyle, but it’s fun and I’ll keep it up.  Running is where I catch up on old podcasts, and I subscribe to quite a few.

I don’t know if this late night rant is useful in any way, except maybe to empathize with what it’s like when you’re busy all the time but never feel like you’re getting enough done.  I guess most people feel like that at one point or another, but it’s good to look back and see what you accomplished, like I did here.  For all the spinning out, I suppose it wasn’t a total wash.  And really, it almost never is.

But yeah, the main thing that makes me angsty is that I never feel that I’m writing enough.  I hear from everyone that with the way the publishing world is changing, fast writers have a huge advantage over slow ones.  And I know I have the ability to write fast, it’s just that I never really do it consistently.

Fast, in my mind, is 4k words or more per day.  I can hit it when I’m on, but that’s fairly rare.  Most of the time, I average between 2k and 2.5k, and my personal deadlines reflect that.

At least with ITND, however, I’ve been writing consistently every day…except today, when I took time off to revamp a short story (“From the Ice Incarnate”).  But my wordcount graph  hasn’t had any huge spikes or valleys, which is good I suppose.  The novel is coming along, if slowly, and that’s a good sign.

Anyhow, enough of this rant.  Time for bed.

Momentum slowly building

I wrote about 2.2k words today in ITND–not a bad amount, but I feel as if it could have been much more.  I think I spent more time thinking about the novel than I did actually writing it, which is either 1) a sign that I’m procrastinating too much, or 2) a sign that I’m slowly building momentum.

Trouble is, it’s hard to tell the difference between the two.  When I haven’t worked on a project for a while, I’m often restless for a couple of days before I settle back into the zone.  The weird thing, though, is that while I’m pacing restlessly around, I’ll be writing out lines of dialog or paragraphs of description in my head.  Weird.

I think I’ve got a good idea where I’m going with this project, though.  The thing that hung me up on the first attempt was that I did a poor job introducing one of the viewpoint characters (Kyla Jeppson), even though I did a good job outlining her.  I’ve given that scene to my online writing group, so hopefully they’ll give me some good feedback tomorrow.  However, I still have to read the other submissions, and it’s getting late, so I’ll probably just cut this short and go to bed.

But first…what the heck, provo craigslist?

I swear, one hundred years from now, our contemporary attitudes towards women will seem as wrong-headed and despicable as the last century’s attitudes seems to us.  Honestly, which is worse: turning women into domestic house slaves, or turning them into mindless sex objects?  And we consider ourselves feminists…

…but that’s a post for another time.  G’night!

Writing update, getting ready for LTUE, & Katniss must DIE

So I’m back at work at WAFH, making slow but steady progress.  At this point, I’m throwing out about half of what’s on the page and redrafting stuff to fill in the gaps, but that’s only going to increase.

It’s not particularly hard, but it does take a lot out of me.  I’m finding that I can write for about two or three hours before my creativity runs dry.  When I’m spending more time online or playing games and less time focusing on the story, that’s a sign that it’s time to do something else to refill the well.

Man, I wish that well would stay full for longer…but in the meantime, 2.5k words per day isn’t so bad.  I’ll take it.

In unrelated news, I’m currently about a third of the way through The Hunger Games and I hate the main character, Katniss.  She’s a total attention whore, and fits all the classic characteristics of a Mary Sue.  A tortured past, a heart of gold, ridiculously well skilled, beloved by everyone and romantically irresistible, even to her enemies…blegh!  I hope she dies or gets tortured beyond all humanity.

In spite of this, I’ll probably finish the novel, just because it’s been such an influential bestselling title–as a writer, I’ve got to do my research.  However, I don’t see myself finishing the series.  There are other reasons why I don’t particularly like this book, but I’ll wait until a later post to articulate them.

In other unrelated news, LTUE 2011 is coming up, and I am so freaking excited for it!  Here are the panels I definitely plan on attending:

Thurdsay

9:00 am:
– Best and worst writing advice ever given
(Anna del C Dye (M), Mette Ivie Harrison, Tyler Whitsides, Frank L. Cole, James Dashner)

11:00 am:
– Self-Publication pros and cons
(Jessica Douglas (M), LuAnn Staheli, Sandra Tayler, Anna del C Dye)

2:00 pm:
– Writing Strong Female Characters
(Sheila A. Neilson, Aleta Clegg (M), Clint Johnson, Jessica Day George, Bree DeSpain)

4:00 pm:
– The Writing Life: how to set and keep goals, how to prioritize.
(Angie Lofthouse, Julie Wright (M), Sandra Tayler, Berin Stephens)

6:00 pm:
– Marketing and Publicity–what can you do?
(Stacy Whitman (M), Bree DeSpain, James Dashner, Dene Low, Elana Johnson)

Friday

10:00 am:
– Tracy Hickman Presentation

11:00 am:
– Main Address: Steve Keele

12:00 pm:
-Charisma is not a dump stat: The real world importance of personal appearance and social skills in achieving your creative dreams.
(Howard Tayler, Jake Black (M), Tracy Hickman)

2:00 pm:
– The Problem of Sequels
(Anna del C Dye, Mette Ivie Harrison, Larry Correia (M), Bree DeSpain, Jessica Day George)

5:00 pm:
– What You Can And Can’t Do In A YA Novel
(Mette Ivie Harrison (M), Elana Johnson, Bree DeSpain, Robison Wells, J. Scott Savage)

Saturday

9:00 am:
– What I wish I had done, if I could do it all over again – A Guide to New Writers
(Lisa Mangum, Dave Wolverton, Brad R. Torgersen (M), Kathleen Dalton-Woodbury)

11:00 am:
– Main Address: James Dashner

12:00 pm:
“Zombies and You: A guide to what does and does not constitute an apocalypse”
Ross Wolfe

2:00 pm:
– Building believable economies/politics
(Dan Willis, Eric Swedin (M), Roger White, David Ferro)

3:00 pm:
– Can your dreams pay your bills?
(Rebecca Shelley, Ami Chopine, Sandra Tayler (M), Dave Wolverton, Michael R. Collings)

There are more, but these are the ones that look most interesting to me.  As usual, I’ll record all of the panels I attend, so if you want a copy, just email me.

Man, I’m so excited!  LTUE this year is going to be awesome!

Paradigm shifts and finding balance

Yesterday, I was going to write a post about how pathetic this past week was: I only wrote about 1.5k per day (while unemployed), and spent most of my time on the internet reading blogs.

However, after reading some more of Dean Wesley Smith’s blog series, Kililng the Sacred Cows of Publishing, I have to admit that this week wasn’t a total loss.  Because of what I’ve read this week, I’m starting to have a major paradigm shift about the publishing world, and that likely will have a huge impact on my writing career, hopefully for the better.

If I can sum up how my views have changed into one statement, it would be this: that in order to succeed in this business and avoid the common pitfalls, I need to learn how the entire publishing system works as a whole, so that I can game it to my advantage.  A lot of the hard and fast “rules” of the industry are actually myths that make for bad business, for writers as well as editors and agents.  But when you look at the system from a rational choice perspective, the flaws become obvious.

Take, for example, the “rule” that editors only accept unagented submissions.  What does that do for the industry?  It turns agents into the first tier of gatekeepers that new writers need to get past.  But agents don’t pay writers; they get a 15% commission off of the books they manage to sell (which, according to DWS, is excessive, but that’s another topic).  And they don’t get paid at all for reading slush.

So agents are spending more of their time doing things that pay less money, pressuring them to take less risks and work only with what they “know” will sell.  This leads them to ignore the fresh, unconventional voices that turn the tropes on their heads and have the power to take the market by storm.

Furthermore, because of their newly christened gatekeeper status, they make their writers rewrite their manuscripts until they read just like clones of Harry Potter or The Davinci Code.  And when the agents’ three or four closest buddies turn the book down, they come back to the writer and tell them to write something else.

It’s an extreme view, for sure, but it has a few good points.  The incentives are all in the wrong places, with too many opportunities for the gems to fall between the cracks.  And while the response from everyone in publishing is to cling to the myth and scream “the system works!” I have to wonder, does it really?

This comment from one of the threads struck me with particular force:

“The biggest mistake you can make is giving complete power over to someone who will never care as much as you do.”

Youch.  And yet, it makes so much sense.  How many writers’ careers have been ruined by doing just that?  Ceding too much power to people who simply don’t care as much as they do, all in the name of some “rule” of publishing?

Of course, that’s not to say that the publishing industry is full of cheats and sleazebags.  I’ve spent some time with professionals at World Fantasy and other conventions, and I’ve been very impressed with all of them.  It’s just to say that writing is a business, and that writers need to approach their careers in the same way as anyone who’s self-employed.  Certainly it’s important to work with other professionals, but that doesn’t mean handing over the fate of your business to them.

So anyways, what with all the business research I’ve been doing, I suppose the last week isn’t a total loss.  However, I definitely feel a need to get back into writing.  My deadline for WAFH is in two weeks, and the next 40k are going to require the biggest changes.  So here’s my plan for the next two weeks:

  • Get up at 7 am every day.
  • Write at least 2.5k words per day (500 during LTUE).
  • Fill out at least 5 job applications per day.
  • Take a week-long Halo fast.

Probably the single biggest thing killing my creativity right now is the angst that comes from money woes.  I redid my budget yesterday and realized I can get by this month without dipping too deeply into reserves, but still, that’s no substitute for a reliable source of income.  Trouble is, it’s hard to find motivation to apply for jobs when most employers don’t even respond to your application, but hopefully a concrete goal will make that easier.

As for Halo, as much as I love the game, I just don’t have time for it right now.  Personal writing deadlines are coming up, LTUE is just around the corner, and I’m falling too far behind to spend my time on video games.

I’m also going to make a concerted effort to get up earlier.  If I stay up past midnight, I’m usually just dicking around on the internet, whereas my mornings are almost always productive.  Plus, I hate sleeping in–hate it.  Gotta get up earlier.

So anyhow, that’s the plan.  Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some writing to do…

Deceptively productive day and other updates

Man, I revised through about 4k words today…and wrote a 1.5k outline for Edenfall to boot.  Not bad, considering how much time I spent putzing around reading publishing blogs and job hunting on craigslist.

Things are going well with WAFH; after a slight dropoff at the end of last week, I’m rebuilding momentum rather quickly.  But then again, I’m currently at an easy part in the draft.  Pretty soon, I’ll have to throw everything out and start from scratch.

Job hunting sucks…but what else is new?  I signed up for an online TEFL certification course, to the tune of $250 (youch!).  Hopefully, that will help land me a good teaching job in an advanced pay grade overseas.

I swear, the job market here in the states is so bad that I don’t see any other way around it but to leave the country.  Maybe if I was a CS major, or had no qualms selling people crap they didn’t need, or was willing to wipe up elderly people’s butts after they’ve defecated all over the place…no thank you.  In any case, teaching English is an adventure, and I very much look forward to it.

In the meantime, there are a few local graveyard job openings that might allow me to write on the side while I babysit a desk.  If those don’t work out, hopefully I’ll find something else before my checking account dries up sometime in March.

I’m getting really excited for Edenfall.  Last night, as I was falling asleep, I ran through the basic storyline in my head.  Fortunately, I remembered it well enough in the morning to write it all down.  It’s going to be awesome.

I’m also starting to rethink my philosophy on writing direct sequels.  I used to follow Sanderson’s line of thought; it doesn’t make sense to finish the series, because if a publisher rejects the first book, they won’t be interested in the others.  However, with ebooks and self publishing becoming more accessible and lucrative, the ability to put out a complete trilogy all at once is a great strength.

I’m thinking very seriously about putting Genesis Earth out there, but it’s the first book in a trilogy, and it would probably boost sales of all three if I could put them all at once.  Aneeka gave me a good suggestion today: put out the first book for free, while selling the other two at a competitive price.  Sadly, it will probably be a year or two before the others are ready…but my writing skills are constantly improving, so maybe I’ll be able to produce them a little faster.

Which brings me to a very interesting post I read on Dean Wesley Smith’s blog yesterday about writing speed.  Thus far, I’ve been shooting to produce one polished book per year, but after reading that post, I wonder if I should shoot for more.  Can I write two books a year and still maintain a high level of quality?  I’m not so sure; GE and BSH both required five rewrites before I got them fully polished, and Mr. Smith’s numbers don’t seem to take the revision process into account.

This year, though, I’m hoping to produce two polished books: Bringing Stella Home, which I’ve already finished, and Worlds Away from Home, which is my current WIP.  I’m only on the second draft, and there are tons of story issues, but I’m working through them fairly quickly.  I’ll probably put in another two or three rewrites before the end of the year, and still have time to finish a couple of other rough drafts–Edenfall and The Stars of Redemption (third book), potentially.

Of course, if I land a job, that might throw a kink into things–as will traveling overseas.  But as with all things, I’ll take those eventualities as they come.

(image shamelessly lifted from this site.)

Looking for alpha readers and planning the next project

Worlds Away from Home 2.1 is going along well.  I had a hard time switching from Bringing Stella Home back to this other project, but I’ve got some good momentum going and assuming no major interruptions, should be able to do about 3k words a day for the rest of the week.

Then again, if I get interrupted by work, that might be a good thing…

The second draft is going to be pretty rough, but good enough to start sending out to alpha readers.  Anyone want to volunteer?  It’s basically a far future love story on a planet with desert-dwelling tribal nomads who drive micronuclear powered dune buggies and centuries-old arcologies under giant continent-sized domes.  Earth is an ancient, mythical legend, and roving bands of starfaring nomads stand poised to crush the galactic empire.

I hope to be finished with the second draft by March 1st, and I’d want to get feedback no later than the end of April.  If you’ve been one of my alpha readers before, or if we’re friends IRL, let me know if you’re interested.

So earlier today, I was thinking about the project I want to do after WAFH–a sequel to Genesis Earth.  I’ve been toying with the idea of releasing GE as an ebook, but I don’t want to do that until I have a sequel in the works.  Anyhow, I was thinking of ideas for the title, and out of the blue, it struck me:

EDENFALL.

Kind of plays on the subtle Adam and Eve theme of the first one (and no, Genesis Earth isn’t technically a sci-fi Adam and Eve story…but it kind of evokes one).  I like it because it fits well with my ideas for the story, which basically center around shattering the Edenic paradise that Michael and Terra reach at the end of GE.

I’ve got a lot of ideas for this book, and I think they’re reaching a critical mass.  Just last month, I came up with a great name for the main female protagonist: Estee.  She’s the eldest daughter of Terra and Michael, and kind of takes after her mother’s personality.  The male protagonist will be a young soldier from the military force sent out by panicky Earth officials to neutralize any threat on Icaria–which gives the commanders of the expedition a broad mandate to do whatever the hell they want. As you can imagine, conflict ensues.

I know how this story begins, and I know how it’s supposed to end (and thereby set things up for an awesome third book in the trilogy), but I have no idea how to build things up to the crazy twist ending.  It’s going to require some serious worldbuilding, and that’s going to take some time.  Daydreaming is such hard work, after all.

Anyhow, I should be ready by the time I finish WAFH 2.1.  As an experiment, I’m going to write the rough draft entirely in longhand.  Am I crazy?  Perhaps.  But I also want to spend some time in the Utah wilderness for inspiration while I’m writing it, so pen and paper is probably the best medium for that.

So those are my plans.  To close, let me link to this awesome cover of “Something About Us” by Daft Punk.  Now that’s some sweet theremin action…enjoy!

Encouraging realizations

So today I realized something about my writing process that encouraged me quite a bit.  With every project so far that I’ve finished, revised, and polished (or will soon be polishing), I went through a depressing period where the draft absolutely sucked and I questioned whether I was just wasting my time with the whole project.  I went through it with Genesis Earth, I went through it with Mercenary Savior, and I’m going through it right now with Worlds Away from Home.

None of that is new, of course; what’s new is the realization that this phase is an essential part of my personal writing process. In other words, it’s not a distressing thing that I’m going through this phase–it’s actually a sign that things are normal.  The story has potential but needs a significant overhaul, so until I complete that overhaul I’m only going to see how much it sucks.

The trick, of course, is keeping momentum.  I’ve found that if I consistently write 2,500 words per day, my mind is so absorbed in the story that I can make good headway on it.  I only revised through about 1.4k today, but I cut off at least another 2k of useless fat, so I suppose that works.

I also submitted Genesis Earth to two agents, so overall, today was quite productive.  I’ll probably count those as my submissions for this week, to allow people time off for the holidays.  Of course, I won’t stop writing!

Out of it

Man, I feel like I’ve been so out of it recently.  I’ve been getting up around 9 am or 10 am every day, going to bed every night around 2 am or 3 am, and running around so much that I hardly seem to have time to write.  Life is good, and between plasma and phone book deliveries I’m earning enough to get by, but my days are very unstructured and that’s not good for my writing.

So here’s what I need: a stable job that facilitates my writing.  For the past year, I’ve been working random odd jobs and temporary jobs, and while they pay enough to get by (just barely), the variability and lack of long-term security is just too much to juggle on top of writing.  I’ve got to find something else.

Trouble is, I’m afraid that if I settle for a dead end job, it’ll put such a stigma on me that I won’t be able to get a better job later if the writing career doesn’t take off.  I’m pretty confident that I’ll eventually be able to make a living off my writing, but I don’t know how late or how soon that’s going to happen.  The last thing I want is to end up as a wage-slave without a future.

Anyway, despite the lack of daily structure, I really love the flexibility that this phone book delivery job is giving me.  Pay is on a per route basis (like newspaper delivery), and the supervisor is really awesome and easy to work with.

If I want, I can take the mornings easy, do personal chores for a while, deliver a couple hundred phone books and write in the evenings.  That’s basically what I’ve been doing these past three weeks.

I really hate going to bed and waking up late, though.  That’s not sustainable.  If I come to my writing only at the very end of the day, it’s going to be a wash.  I might get a thousand words in, but if I’m not consistently crossing the 2.5k threshold every day, my heart really just isn’t in to it.

In any case, WAFH 2.0 is coming along fairly well.  I’ve got a good idea where I want the story to go, and the characters seem to be working out.  Also, I think I’ve found my big reason for wanting to write this story–I’ll write more about that in a later post.

This next draft isn’t going to be perfect, but hopefully I can get rid of all the major story problems (and there are a TON of major story problems!).  I suppose my goal at this point is to make it good enough to send out to my first readers.  The rough draft is so full of crap, I wouldn’t let anyone read it if they paid me.  Blegh!

Also, I know it’s only been a month, but I think I’m going to do another cover to cover revision of Mercenary Savior in the next few weeks.  I really want to get it polished enough to start sending it out–preferably by the end of the holidays–so that’s probably going to take priority. If it goes as fast as Genesis Earth 5.0, I should have the entire manuscript done in about three or four weeks.

And another thing–I’m going to set a new goal: submit at least one thing to an agent/editor every week.  Right now, I tend to go on splurges where I’ll send out half a dozen queries, then sit around for a month without really doing much to try to break in.  I feel like I need to be more consistent on that front, because submitting is definitely one of my greatest weaknesses.  They say everything comes better with practice, so I might as well send stuff out more regularly.

Anyhow, that’s how things are going right now–disjointed and all over the place, but somehow things still get done.  I just wish I could get more done, but who doesn’t?  Anyhow, there’s always next week–may it be better than the last.