![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/1stq2010.png\" "\\"1stq2010\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe red line shows my daily writing word count, the blue line a running seven day total. \u00a0The graph starts January 1st and goes to March 31st.<\/p>\n
For the first part of January, the seven day total was high for a week because I’d just finished Bringing Stella Home 2.0.<\/em> It dropped down way low for a while because I was busy moving into the Barlow center, starting my internship, and starting a new novel at the same time. \u00a0Combining all three of those things at the same time made for very little progress, until about the middle part of the month.<\/p>\n Things progressed at a moderate rate (about 1k words per day) from the middle of January until snowmageddon, which hit us in the second week of February. \u00a0I got a lot of writing done while snowed in, and my work in progress at the time, To Search the Starry Sea 1.0,<\/em> got a lot of momentum behind it.<\/p>\n That momentum started to taper off, as I realized that the story I was writing was different than the story I had in my head. \u00a0I swear, this happens EVERY time I try to write a novel. \u00a0I tried to stick with the story in my head, but the gap got wider and wider until I realized the story just wasn’t working.<\/p>\n At the end of February, I decided to put it on the back burner and let my ideas simmer for a while. \u00a0I’ll probably pick it up again at some point in the future, but not in the short term–I need to put it away for a while. \u00a0I’m sure I’ll finish it someday, though.<\/p>\n So then, in the beginning of March, I went through all the comments I’d received on Bringing Stella Home<\/em>. \u00a0The HUGE spike you see right around the middle of the month represents all the revision notes I put together for the 3.0 draft. \u00a0I read through the entire manuscript in about a week and a half, made a detailed scene by scene outline, and figured out my strategy for the revision.<\/p>\n Things dropped off again pretty sharply the last couple weeks of March because that was right around when I was fired from my internship. \u00a0That was one hell of a stressful week. \u00a0They picked up pretty quick after that, though, because 1) I had a lot more free time, and 2) I’m REALLY excited about this project.<\/p>\n Looking ahead, I think if I push myself, I can finish Bringing Stella Home 3.0<\/em> by the end of April. \u00a0It will be difficult because I’ll be looking for an apartment and a job at the same time, but after next week I won’t have to worry about schoolwork anymore (potentially for the rest of my life…whoa). \u00a0Definitely, I’ll have it done in time for CONduit 2010<\/a>.<\/p>\n One thing I need to work on a lot more is submitting. \u00a0I’ve got a list of agents to submit Genesis Earth<\/em> to, I just haven’t got around to sending it to them all. \u00a0The responses I’ve received have been generally encouraging: all rejections, but about half form rejections, half personalized in some way. \u00a0I do think this book will find it’s way in print, though it may not be my first to be published.<\/p>\n Even though Bringing Stella Home<\/em> will probably need at least one more major revision before the full manuscript is ready to be sent out to editors\/agents, I can probably polish the first three chapters enough to shop it around sometime in May. \u00a0I’m not sure if that’s what I’ll do, but it’s an option. \u00a0It depends on whether I jump right in to the 4.0 revision after finishing the current draft, which I probably won’t do; better to let it sit for a while.<\/p>\n Instead, I think I’ll jump right in to finishing that novel I started in late 2008, Hero in Exile<\/em>. \u00a0The title will have to change (as always), but I’ve got a lot of fresh ideas for it, plus the enthusiasm to pull it off. \u00a0In many ways, Hero in Exile<\/em> is a non-linear sequel to Bringing Stella Home<\/em>, so if I get a deal with the one, I can always pitch the other as the next in the series. \u00a0That’s a huge plus–and a major reason why I’ll be enthusiastic about the project, since the two novels build off of each other.<\/p>\n Anyway, that’s what things are looking like from here. \u00a0Somewhere in the middle of all that, I’ll read a couple of friends’ novels (I haven’t forgotten about you, Jakeson and Drek!), graduate, get an apartment, get a job (inshallah), write an article for Mormon Artist<\/a><\/em>, go to a con or two, and maybe even get a girlfriend and\/or figure out what to do with my life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"