Mornings

So my plan of getting up early has been working. Most mornings I get up at 5am, get around, feed the dog and let him outside, and am at my computer ready to write by 5:30am. Then I write until 6:30am, when the dog and I go pile on the bed and cuddle with The Husband for 15-20 mins.

I have to say, I really like this.

I don't have any preconceived notions of what I should be doing at that hour. (Other than sleeping, of course.) I don't feel like I should be doing dishes or laundry or other chores. It's a brand new habit. I'm finding it very refreshing.

My word count average is my usual 500/hour. I don't write fast, but I like to think I save myself time later by needing less revision.

I'm dedicating mornings to working on the next novel, and using my afternoon time and weekends for other projects or for publishing stuff. I spent this last weekend putting finishing touches on an anthology submission and getting Demon's Asylum ready for general release. This coming weekend will probably be for making a cover for next month's short story release, and possibly updating my website, which I really need to do but have been putting off.

I may not be up to my goal of 4000/week, but I really feel like I'm making progress. And I really need to start that word count log I've been meaning to do, too...

Early Bird

I've been having a devil of a time lately getting my writing time in. I'm just so exhausted when I get home from work that trying to do something requiring mental energy seems a herculean effort.

At my writing group on Tuesday, Zombie Joe mentioned that he'd starting getting up early in the morning to write before work.

I've never tried the early morning thing, myself. I love my sleep, and I have a hard time going to bed before 11pm. But I decided to give it a try this morning and got up at 5am. I took care of the dog and settled down to write.

And got almost 1000 words of outlining done.

Granted, outlining is not the same as writing fiction, but even if I settle at my usual 500/hour I will call that a win. I think what I'll do is write down the night before what I'm going to be working on in the morning. That way I don't lose time to making that decision, plus it gives my brain time to work stuff over in the background while I sleep.

But yeah, so far definitely a win. I was productive, and it came pretty easy, no struggle to get started like I often have later in the day. Plus I feel good knowing that I've already got my word count under my belt and I don't have to beat myself up over it for the rest of the day.

Workin' Workin'

My eldest niece has started texting me. I feel sort of honored - I must be cool if the 12-year-old takes the time to drop me a line now and again. :) Good thing I speak 1337.

I've started writing over my lunch breaks again. Well, at least when the TV in the breakroom isn't on. (I don't understand how people can ignore TVs. I can't even when I have no interest in what's on them.) I don't get a lot of words, but I feel better about things. And it sort of primes the pump for my after work writing time.

Like today, I sat down after work and thought, "Ugh! I don't want to write!" But I made myself plug in anyway. "You have to do at least 100 words," I said to myself. Of course, once I got started I got rolling and had 400 words by the time The Husband came to pick me up. Again, not huge, but it's progress.

I haven't been writing short stories at all, but I have been working on a non-fiction proposal. The overview and chapter outline are done: now for market research and sample chapters. It's a nice balance, because if I don't feel like working on the fiction I can work on the non-fiction, and vice versa.

Part of the problem with the short stories is most of the anthologies I'm looking at close in April, so I'm not feeling rushed. There's one that closes this week, so maybe I'll try and come up with a good idea. Problem is, it's a steampunk anthology and for some reason that setting doesn't spark for me. I enjoy watching steampunky movies, but something about it doesn't gel for me. Maybe it'll be a good exercise.

Top Image: Michal Marcol / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Bottom Image: Idea go / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

'Tis the Season Not to Overload

It's December, and I was nowhere near completing NaNoWriMo. I'm good with that. Outside of my vacation I've been sticking to my 500 words a day on Project Toadstool, the new novel. Well, except for weekends. And you know, so what? I've made writing a part of my daily schedule and I'm pretty happy with that. There's no magical ruleset that you have to follow to be a writer other than you have to write. I'm writing. That's good enough for me. December is too insane to add more stuff to do.

On the less whiny side, I've discovered the fun of pantsing it again. I really have no idea of how I'm getting from the beginning of my novel to the end I have in mind, and I'm having a lot of fun finding out. So far I've come up with a whole bunch of new characters (I started with two) and a huge subplot. In fact, I'm not sure you can even call it a subplot, it's so big. Fun! And so much less stressful than trying to force myself to outline.

I've also got a few short story ideas to work on, and I'm re-energized to finish my rewrite of 1794. I get to work on those as much as I want – after my 500 words are done. So far, so good.

Now if only I had more vacation time so I could get some extra writing done…

Not Quite NaNo, Plus RT and SFWA!

It’s the day of acronyms!

So I'm totally behind as far as NaNoWriMo goes, and I've decided that's ok. While I can do 1667 words a day, it's a lot of stress and pressure one me, and with us only having had The Bulldog for about a month, there's lots of training to be done that's more important to me than chasing a word count goal.

My experience so far has been that when I sit down to write, I think of that number 1667, and it's so big that I get discouraged. Whereas when I sit down to write 500 words, that feels like a good reasonable goal. It's doable, so I'm more likely to do it. Therefore, I'm back to the daily 500-words-a-day word goal. I'm really happy I made the attempt though, as it got me started into my new novel; a feat which, as some of you have seen if you've been reading this for awhile, I've been trying to get going for over a year.

I also wrote a 2300-word short story this month and submitted it, so I feel good about that too. I want to keep doing the short fiction while I work on the novel.

Speaking of short fiction, check out my first-ever review in RT Book Reviews! Six of the twenty-one stories in the anthology were mentioned in the review, and mine was one of them! Sweet! The anthology as a whole got four stars.

Graeme's Fantasy Book Review gave a very in-depth look at the anthology, and had very nice things to say about "White Knight, Black Horse." Thanks Graeme! As a whole we got eight and a half out of ten.

And last but far from least, I'm now an associate member in SFWA! Yeay! One sale down, two to go. I've wanted to be a full active member pretty much since I found out about Science Fiction Writers of America. Why? Because it's hard. A girl's gotta have goals, you know?

Top Image: Paul / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Word Goal Achieved

So I managed to get to 3500 words yesterday. It took me three hours longer than I hoped (although there was a break in there to walk the dog), but I did it. That leaves at least 6500 words to do in the next three days, and I have a job interview tomorrow morning, doggie obedience class tonight, and a birthday part tomorrow night, and dinner plans on Saturday.

So.

Write my ass off today, write my ass off tomorrow, write my ass off Saturday. And then think up a plot for the 10k+ story I want to write next week.

Tune in on Monday to see if I managed to pull this off. ;)

Conference panel discussion

First I want to direct folks over to Nathan Bransford's blog today, he's got a discussion going on people's favorite books on writing which I think is very valuable.

At the conference this last weekend was a panel discussion by four of the literary agents/managers who were there doing pitch sessions. Three do books and one does screenplays.

First off, I was surprised by the number of newbie questions that people were asking. I mean, I know that conferences are great places for people to come and ask questions, but a lot of these were things that could be learned by reading FORMATTING AND SUBMITTING YOUR MANUSCRIPT. Things like keeping your query letters short and to the point, and that you need to do your homework about the agent you are submitting to - spell their name right, make sure they still work there, make sure they represent the type of writing you are submitting. That kind of thing.

Novel length was an interesting part of the discussion. The consensus was that between 75k and 85k is the ideal length for a novel, and don't submit a first novel that is over 100k words. I'd heard this before, but I had never really realized just how deadly serious they were. One agent, with a pained look on his face, mentioned that he had a book that he had requested the full manuscript for sitting in his office waiting for him when he got back from the conference, and this book was 175k words long. The look on the other agents's faces was priceless. He himself had the long-suffering look of someone who is about to be martyred. What really stuck with me though was when he shook his head and said that even though he had known how long it was when he asked for it, he wasn't even sure he could bring himself to read it, it was so long.

I hope for that author's sake the book is another SHOGUN. I mean, the look on this guy's face really brought the point home. Short. Short is good.

When the discussion turned to the publishing industry in general the outlook was grim. "No one is buying fiction, and everything's done by committee." Publishers will do next to nothing for you unless you are already a huge name, even if they do pick up your book. The mom & pop bookstores are all closing, and even some of the major chains are looking at bankruptcy.

They also said that the internet is getting more and more important, not just in the selling of books but also in the marketing and promotion. I heard that a lot at the conference. It's particularly big with the Young Adult crowd, because the kids are all on the internet anyway and they can really feel like there is a relationship between them as the readers and the author.

The only area that the agents felt was doing well was escapist fiction. Not surprising, really.