Have you ever noticed that a lot of fairy tales take place in the deep dark woods? Maybe that’s because there are creatures out there in the forest that want to eat you, and without a flashlight it gets really dark out there.
On that note chapter 4 of Vertigo is out today, and there is something in the woods, and it’s hungry.
It’s 8 in the morning. The sun is rising above the tree tops, and the squirrels have started to play across the roof. I can hear them scampering across the ceiling, or dropping pine cones from above. There is one cheeky fellow that likes to sit on the tree right outside my window and make noise. It’s a weird growly noise that I did not know could come from a squirrel. I almost thought it was in pain the first time I heard it, but now. It jumped from the roof to the tree and back again, angrily swishing its tail and me as it scampered back and forth.
Who needs coffee when you have squirrels?
I have been awake for twenty-four hours now. Sleep is starting to poke me, wondering when I’ll give in, but not yet being insistent about it. This is not unusual for me. I have no schedule, therefore I enjoy the darker hours when the nights are cooler. Texas is a hot place, after all, and I have not acclimatized. I don’t know that I will at this rate.
I should be writing. That’s why I’m sitting here at my desk with the pc in front of me. I am denying myself the video games I want to play while the page of words sits open on my desktop.
I tried to read them, and something balks. Some part of me that knows there’s something wrong with the story, and I haven’t quite figured it out yet. I want so much to finish it, but I want it to be good. I want it to be enjoyed. And maybe that’s why it’s taking me a little longer to finish this one then it should. I don’t want to fail.
But we all fail, right? The plumber who goes from house to house fixing drains and repairing sinks has failed at times. He didn’t let the glue set long enough, or he forgot his wrench, or he didn’t swerve in time to miss that thing in the road that gave him a flat tire. But his mistakes could cost a family water damage in their home, or repairs on his car. For me….it’s words on a page.
The first time I entered NaNoWriMo we talked about that. Getting the words on the page, turning off the internal editor and just writing. Even if it’s bad. Even if you know you have to rewrite it. Because even if you have to rewrite it that’s faster than not writing at all.
Lately I’ve been forgetting that. I wrote a few pieces that just seemed to flow, and the words came naturally. I didn’t have major pieces to rewrite. I didn’t write whole chapters knowing there was something wrong with them and I would have to go back and redo everything. But it’s better to write something than nothing at all.
So here I am, turning off that editor, and going to go write garbage. And maybe, probably, it will be better than I think it is. But first, the first draft.
Sometimes when you’re working on novels you can get to a point where progress seems so far away, and sometimes you can get disheartened. Even want to quite, or procrastinate.
There was a talk Adam Savage gave once where he said at some point in every project he feels like he has no business making. A man who creates amazing replicas, props, and cosplays that the world loves. A man who does one day builds that many would struggle to do in a month. Someone who has working on major motion pictures, and The Mythbusters. And he feels like he has no business making.
And that’s how I feel writing a novel. I am sure that many creatives feel like that, like they are an importer and shouldn’t even bother trying to create whatever it is you are creating. I get so far into a novel, hit that wall, and it feels insurmountable. But I keep going, a little at a time, pushing to get to the end because I know once I reach it I will have something awesome.
I’ve picked up little tricks here and there to help me get through it. One of them is writing short stories when I’m really stuck. At the moment I have been editing a few of the finished short stories I have, and trying to finish four other short stories. Since they are shorter I can usually finish one much faster than a novel, and that little boost keeps me going for the larger projects. Plus the stories I am working on currently are science fiction, while the novel I am working on is fantasy. This allows me a change of scenery, so to speak, and take a breather before going back to the novel.
Speaking of the short stories, I think I’m about ready to publish some of them. Another pass of the editors wand, and they should work well as an anthology. Oh, and a cover. The other four short stories I am still completing I already have a cover for, I just have to finish three of the shorts.
But the novel is still my priority. I’ve been working at a (mostly) steady pace trying to get through the second half of the book. I’ve hit a few snags with the plot, but I think I’ll be able to untangle them. Plot holes, they are my nemesis! Funny, it used to be fight scenes. Now I have a system for the fight scenes and I have more trouble with the time line. I think that’s because the story is taking place over the course of a year and I want it to reflect that.
My daily word count goal dipped a little in august, so I’m working hard to get them back up to what I consider a good pace. I still want to hit 1000 words a day by the end of the year, which means pushing harder and making fewer excuses. But I’m working on it.
By the way, here is a really good video about why many of us procrastinate, and some great ways to fight against it.
Now… off to write about dragons.
I just broke a million words written. At least officially.
They say to be a good writer you need to write a lot, and read a lot. Somewhere along the line someone said “You need to write a million words before you start to get good.” I’m paraphrasing of course, but since I heard that it has been my goal. To write 1 million words worth of stories.
Of course I’ve been writing since I could form sentences, so I am sure that I’ve written well over a million words in my lifetime, but I haven’t been tracking them the entire time. I also didn’t think it was fair to count the words that I end up throwing away due to grammar/spelling/etc issues. I count them in my daily word count goals, but not when it came to the big number, the million words written.
In the million words I count the stories that I have finished and published, as well as the current projects I’m working on. I have another section just for ideas, dead stories, and anything that probably won’t get written any time soon.
I found that keeping track of what stories I am working on, how far along they are, and which ones are finished and waiting to be published has helped me keep on track a lot. Before I started doing this I had trouble finishing anything. It’s too easy to chase the shiny new thing instead of finishing the project in front of you.
Of the million words I have in active and published projects I have published just over half a million words. That means my next goal is to publish the other half a million. That could be six novels, or a whole lot of short stories, but I think I can get there. The question is how fast. Let’s see, shall we?
Ghostly Intentions started out as a haunted house story….with an elf, and a mage. Horror fantasy.
Conventional wisdom says “don’t cross the genres”. A little like Ghostbusters, you aren’t supposed to cross the streams, but I can’t help myself. I love fantasy, and horror (both psychological and the monster of the week kind) are some of my favorite kinds of stories. So of course I mixed them together.
It is a stand alone, with the potential for a series some day, but not in the works currently.
And this weekend it is free.
If you read Ghostly Intentions please take a moment to give it a review on Amazon. The best way to get new readers to take a chance on your writing is if it has reviews. Thank you so much for helping me in this way.
And remember you can get everything I’ve written in KU as well.
Till then, keep reading!
In school I was fascinated by Greek and Roman mythology. I tried finding, and reading, as many as I could. From Zeus and his escapades with women, to Persephone trapped in Hades. Because of those myths I love fantasy. So it wasn’t unusual that one of my first novels would be a book based on old myths.
This weekend you can get Forgotten Ones free. They thought the gods were dead, but they were wrong. An intricate blending of science fiction, fantasy, and mythology.
This is my urban fantasy series. If you like it please review it. I have several others planned, but it is on the back burner for now. I would love to dive into it further, and if you really want to see another book in this series reviews are the best way to encourage that.
Till then, keep reading!
Crissy Moss
It has been seven years since I published my first book. It was an anthology of short stories that I finally finished, polished up, and shared with all of you. I didn’t know what I was doing back then, and in all honesty I still am winging it most of the time. But that’s what life is about, isn’t it? We do our best, fumble a bit, fall down, and get back up and try again.
This weekend I’m giving that first anthology away for free. Twilight Tales.
I am also giving away the second book I published, just six months after the first. My first fantasy novella. Flight of the Griffins.
I’ve come a long way, and changed so much. My writing has gotten stronger. But it’s always good to go back to those original stories and remind myself where I came from. I hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane with me.
And please, if you read the stories I would love to get a review.
This week I’ve been working on a lot of art work. Drawing, cleaning it up, and even posting a few things on Red bubble. I also learned that Red Bubble has a few new items, so I had to go through and edit most of my pictures that are already there. Like a throw for your bed or couch. I think I’m going to have to order one of those.
If you’d like to see some of the art I’ve been doing you can follow me on instagram. I try to do a couple of posts a week, but it depends on what else is happening. I’m currently working on editing book two of my Half Blood Sorceress series so I can get that out soon.
I’ve also been setting up some free promos for books over the next couple of months, and planning some more drawings. I still want to do some sort of figurine, but I’m still designing something. Right now the books take priority.
But I’m exhausted so I’m off to bed now. If you’re interested in taking a look at the new designs please check them out here. And look forward to the free book promos in the coming weeks.
I always loved stories about the things that go bump in the night. That gurgling noise, or the tapping in the darkness that your imagination makes much worse than reality.
This weekend I have two short stories out for free. Both with that spooky feel.
Footprints: The demons inside are sometimes worse than those outside.
The Camera: This cursed item has blood in its gears. A Tales from the Crypt style short.
And if you love fantasy adventure, and or RPG games, don’t forget to check out The Hub World series.
Quick announcement: I will have a short story free every weekend for a while, so if you follow me on Amazon, or here, or join my newsletter, you can get information about the free short stories. I will be trying to get a few new, never before seen, short stories out soon as well, so look for those.
Now on with the regularly scheduled blog post:
I decided to catch up on some files today and see what I’ve been doing. It’s the middle of the year, and the third month into my “writing for a living” adventure, so it seems fitting. I think I’m doing more check ins since going full time, but this helps me gauge how well I’m doing with the word count and keep things in perspective.
Sorry but this is going to have a bunch of numbers. There will also be a summery at the end.
Since 2012 I have published 33 short stories, 6 novellas and 5 full length novels. (Novella is 10-49k, shorts are less, novels more.) That’s just over half a million words published. Of course many of the short stories are in anthologies so I only have 24 books out, but… that’s a lot of stories that I’ve completed. It’s hard to see how many things I’ve completed since I am often working on a single book for months at a time with no end, so it’s good to remember that I can, and have, completed stories.
This year has also had it’s busy moments with moving twice (in Feb and May) slowing me down a bit. But I’m still getting a steady stream of words out, and so far this year I’ve written 79,000 words. April has been my best month to date with 22.6k words written, and of course Feb, the month we moved to Texas, was the worst. Considering we packed for two weeks straight then drove for five days I’m glad I got any work done at all in Feb.
For a little bit of comparison, in 2017 and 2018 I wrote a total of just over 100k words each year. That’s all twelve months, including my attempt at NaNoWriMo which I failed both years. This year, and it’s only the first week of June, I’m already at 80k, and I should hit the 100k mark by end of month. Most of that writing has been since March so I’m on track.
My average daily word count has gone up from 300 to 900 words a day. It fluctuates, of course, but I try to get at least 500 on the days when we’re busy with things, like moving. So far it’s worked. The goal is to get to 2k a day by the end of this month. Eventually I’d like to get to 5k a day, but that’s going to take some stretching of the muscles.
These averages are written words on days that I write. I try not to skip days, but there are always days when you’re inundated with other things, like doctor appointments, travel, sickness, or the like. That is why I want to keep getting that average word count up, because I know days off happen and I want to offset them. I’ve set a monthly goal of 20k words at the moment, but I want it up to 30k soon. I’ve got to keep stretching. Keep working harder.
I haven’t done a lot of marketing. Right now my boyfriend and I agree that I just need to complete novels. Marketing can be so much easier if you have that back log of books to go through. Plus my strongest suit is in writing, not marketing, so if I have a lot to work out I will feel like I can take some time off writing to figure out the marketing bits with less issue.
I’ve also been posting a lot of artwork over on Redbubble as stickers, mugs, and things like that, as well as posting a bit more on instagram. Drawing has always been a way for me to relax and have fun, so I will be continuing to do that. I even have a coloring book out.
Summery: I’ve written a lot over the last few years, but this year has been a great increase and I’m working to get even more done. Also look for those free short stories on the weekends going forward, and a few new ones to be added.
Author Crissy Moss 