Tag Archives: Writing

NaNoWriMo day 1

Posted on by
7

Looking forward to todays word count.

First, let me just say…. I’m TIRED! We went to a Halloween party last night, and got home at a reasonable hour (11pm). But then I kept waking up. I also had to get up at 6am to drive my SO to work. I was already awake, and had been for a couple hours so I didn’t mind that. But later, sitting at my desk at work, sipping a steaming cup of coffee…. boy did I want to be home in bed.

On the plus side… I loved my costume.

imageimage2013-10-31 20.16.31

 

I have had several people encouraging me to write a full length (80k+) novel, so that’s what I’m shooting for. I’ve been mulling over this story for the last few weeks, trying to iron out some of the kinks in the plot, and figuring out sub plots to add substance, not just word counts, to the story.I am prepared, I think, for NaNo. I have a full plot, it’s all set up in scrivener for easy writing.

It is a romance set in a fantasy land with mermaids, men that turn into hawks, giant squid like creatures with massive tentacled arms, and magic, lots of magic.

This all sounds fun to me, and kind of scary to be trying something so massive so soon after finishing “Forgotten Ones”. But the end result will be so worth it!

For an 80k+ word book I will also be getting an editor, one way or another. Which means it won’t be out any time soon as I will want to take my time and do things right. But it will be out eventually, and hopefully be a the best quality product I have put out.

But… I think I’ll put the first chapter out sometime after NaNoWriMo and a complete edit. So at least you can look forward to that.

Hooray!

Posted on by
Reply

This morning I did an interview on Buddy’s Writing Show. We discussed “Forgotten Ones”, how I got into the whole self publishing biz in the first place, and a bit about my own podcast. It was a great interview, and I was really honored to be his first guest.

Keep an eye out for more episodes. Buddy already has a calendar booked with more guests.

“Forgotten Ones” is 2.99 for just a few hours more. It will be $4.99 after tomorrow. 

Also, I’m prepping for NaNoWriMo. I’m looking forward to it, but at the same time I am not very confident that I am going to finish this time.

I worked for three months on “Forgotten Ones”, a 30k word book. I actually wrote the 3000 word synopsis back in May, and it sat on my shelf till August. I actually wrote it in Aug, and Sept, and edited in October. Published it on the 18th.

So… two months to write, half a month to edit…. on just 30k words.

I think it will work a lot better with two projects going because when I get stuck on one I can work on another. That is what has usually kept me writing steadily, and when I get to the end of the month I have to finished projects.

I’m still pretty sure I’m going to work on one of my paranormal romance stories. But I’ve got a few to choose from… so we’ll see.

Forgotten Ones- FINISHED!

Posted on by
Reply

FO-sm“Forgotten Ones” is finally here!

It is on Amazon for $2.99 for the weekend. I will also have it on Kobo soon. A print book should be available by Nov.

The story of the goddesses of Fate in the modern day, fighting to save humanity from one of their kin.

This felt like it took a long time to me, but I realized this is actually the fastest I have ever completed something this long. Three months, 30,000 words. Not only written, but edited, formated, and covers done. Start to finish, less then three months.

I’ve done NaNoWriMo before. A hot sweltering mass of words tumbling out across the page. 50,000 word rough draft to show for it at the end. I’ve done it, several times.

But those are drafts. Incomplete. Unviewable by the general public. It took me another three months, after writing them, just to do the rewrites.

Once I completed “Forgotten Ones” my boyfriend showed up at my door with a dozen red roses, and a platter of sushi. If that’s what I get for finishing a short book, I can’t wait to see what I get when I publish a full length, 100,000 word epic novel!

As for the next book, I am hoping to get the two short stories I’ve been working on finished, and published, soon. One is a halloween story, and should have been up at the beginning of the month, so we’ll see.

For NaNoWriMo, starting Nov 1st, I will be working on two, or three, of my paranormal romances. They will probably be 30,000 words each, that’s why I’m doing two.

The best part about all of this is just finishing something, and being that much closer to a full time writing career… oh, and affording an editor to re-edit everything. That will be nice too.

Some Updates

Posted on by
Reply

pssm

 

So a few things have happened this week.

I published “Potion Shop”. It’s available for 99 cents at the moment, but will be raised to $2.99 on Monday. You can find it on Amazon or Kobo.

I also published a few more books on Kobo. Two of them are stuck in publishing. Kobo’s tech team is working to figure out why that is, and hopefully all of my currently available titles will be available on Kobo and Amazon very soon.

FO-sm

 

Also, I have three chapters left to edit and finish writing for “Forgotten Ones”.

I am hoping it will be out this weekend as well. I’ve been sick for the last few days so it’s slowed down my writing quite a bit, but now I’m starting to feel better so I have high hopes.

Also…. Tonight is the Self Publish Round Table Podcast. If you haven’t seen it yet, then you need to! We all have a roaring good time, and the comments get pretty awesome. If you hang around after the podcast we usually have an after party and chat with all our wonderful fans.

See you tonight!

Writing Backwards

Posted on by
Reply

I had an unusual solution to an old problem today. I’m probably not the first person to come up with this, but I thought I’d share it anyway.

I was working on a chapter for “Forgotten Ones” in which the two fates, Maylin and Jadina, are walking down a tunnel in search of a particular creature that will hopefully lead them to the big bad guy. I knew how it began, and how I wanted it to end, but the middle… not so much.

So, I started writing it backwards. I read the last paragraph and thought “how do they get to this spot”, and add a paragraph describing that. Then write the paragraph, or mini scene right before that.

For example….

June is walking down a path, and knows that the monster under the bed is at the end of the path. She’s going to walk down the path, see some interesting things on the sidelines, and eventually end up at the monsters den. She goes in the den, there is a little fight, and June ends up sitting on top of the monster with the monsters feet tied up.

So, that is my beat. I write the first section with June walking through the woods, and entering the den, no problem. I am really good at that part. I write the ending with June sitting on the monster, and a little quip about the monster having too many hands and not enough brains. But in the center I just have “battle”.

Battle scenes are the hardest scenes for me to write, which is annoying since a lot of my books have them. But what are you going to do… unless I try and find myself a co-author I’m stuck for it.

So, with this particular story that I am just making up on the spur of the moment, if I try writing it backwards as I just did with “Forgotten Ones” I would think… How did she get on top of the monster? Well clearly she had to have all his hand already captured so the paragraph before would be her locking up the last hand, then swinging her leg over the beast and having a seat.

Then what happened just before that? Well, it has a lot of hands, so she is going to have to dodge them as she is tangling them up in a long ribbon. (This is where I just realize she has a ribbon to tie up the hands.)

Before that, there needs to be some tension. Maybe the monster grabs her ankle and drags her down, and she manages to get herself loose by tickling him.

And just keep going backwards until I have a full story. (On a side note, this sounds like a fun story to write as a children’s book with pictures. Maybe some day.)

In other news…..

I now have nine books available on Kobo. I have two more in queue to be on Kobo, but they are coming.

“Forgotten One” is now 25,000 words long, and I am a little half way through the final edits. Plus the two chapters with battle scenes that I have to finish… sigh.

“Potion Shop” is almost done, also. I really need to just get that out there. Perhaps this weekend.

Validation!

Posted on by
4

I got my first payment from Amazon the other day. It wasn’t much, but it was nice to actually get something for all the work I’ve put into writing.

It made me feel validated that the thing I started is actually panning out. People actually like my writing, and want to read what I have to say. Not just read it, but pay for it.

Maybe it’s because I grew up without much money. Maybe it’s because I have gone without, and worked hard to get what I have. Who knows. Maybe it’s just my own ideals about money that make me feel this way. The idea that other people not only think my writing is good, but worth paying with their own hard earned money to read it… that gives me a big boost in confidence.

I know I don’t want to pay money for things I don’t like. Or even if something is just “eh” to me. But if I really like it, or the people behind it and want to support them because I know it’s a worthwhile cause, then I’ll part with some cash.

So, I’ve been extra productive this week. I will have all of my books out on Kobo by the end of the month, and hopefully three more stories (two shorts for Halloween, and then “Forgotten Ones”). One short is complete, just doing a final revision. “Forgotten Ones” is close. And the third, a YA Halloween short story, is half done.

The best news… I figured out how they beat the bad guy in “Forgotten Ones”. I was having a bit of trouble with that, but once I figured it out everything started flowing together.

So, to recap:
Paying for books is good.
It makes authors feel appreciated, and liked.
It encourages them to be more productive.
And reviews also help LOTS!

So go review or buy a book from your favorite author. They will really appreciate it. (Especially if it’s an indie where every sale/review counts.)

Around the Web

Posted on by
Reply

I stopped doing “Around the Web” segments on my blog because I started doing the “Self-Publishing Round Table”. Once we started focusing on writer related news it no longer made sense to also do a blog post.

But, I then stopped linking the show to my blog. I shouldn’t have stopped.

On that note… if you’d like to see the video you can get it here, on youtube. The video is also available to watch, along with the community commentary, on our podcast website.

If you’re only interested in the news, here are the links we talked about this week. 

 Tom Clancy died on Tuesday…

New global online bookseller that has ships worldwide, and has free shipping.

 Random Penguin says it’s still about the books…

Jeff Bezos shows shows off a new video tech support. (Kindle Fire)

The Alliance of Independent Authors warns about publishers using unscrupulous practices. (again!)

 Author pleads for readers to buy his books direct from publisher, not Amazon.

How KDP select might still work in some circumstances.

Why char-langs are so interesting, and fans LOVE them. (video)

Kobo on track to be a billion dollar company. I believe that is news.

 Scribd, Harper Collins team up to be an ACTUAL Netflix of books.

A blog that tracks indie book sales/placements.

 

And one we missed from the actual show:

What if writing was a competition?

Forgotten Ones

Posted on by
2

forgottenonesminiI am down to the final edit of “Forgotten Ones”, and adding in the last few scenes.

So I finished the cover.

Thank’s to David Wright for pointing me in the direction of Font Squirrel, and the twenty-eight fonts I downloaded last night. The one I used for the title and this cover is “Griffin”. An unusual font, to be sure, but I found it eye catching.

The cover depicts “the all seeing eye”, which is appropriate since “Forgotten Ones” is about the goddesses of Fate who share an eye. (Not literally, but we’ll get to that in the story.)

I will be so happy when this one is finished. It is 22,000 words long at the moment, and I still have a few thousand to go before it’s done. That puts it at short book status, and I will be putting out an ebook and a paperback, on the new Kindle Matchbook program. So if you buy the paperback you’ll get the ebook for free. It will just take a couple weeks longer for the print book to be available as I go through for a third edit, then format, and finally set up the printing. (And the Matchbook won’t be available till October, but if you buy print copies before October you still get them once Matchbook takes affect.)

I know, I know… so much of this must be fascinating.

Know this… This time all three fates are in the fight, and they learn something about themselves they had forgotten in their attempt to survive the rise of humanity. Something that allows them to defeat a god who has regained a lot of his former power.

Writer FAQ: Where Do You Get Ideas?

Posted on by
Reply

One of the most commonly asked questions out there, “Where do you get ideas?”

The simple answer: Live…

It sounds simple, but really, that’s it. Sometimes I will think all my ideas have dried up, then my boyfriend will say his mechanic has some sort of black magic touch, and I’m off and running on a new idea.

Live. Read. Watch documentaries. Read some more. Take a class. Watch people. Play games. Read even more. Experience life. Draw on those experiences.

And the next step is learning to recognize those bits and pieces, and having some form of notebook with you always so that you can jot them down. (I use a notepad on my cell).

The only real difference between a writer with lots of ideas, and everyone else, is that the author knows when a great idea will make a good story, and he takes the time to write it down.

So many people around us, with so many fantastic ideas. They tweet them, make funny gifs, talk about them. But a writer takes the time to develop it into something more. Then the writer seeks out new information, so that he can boldly incorporate it into his writing like no other author has done before.

Now THAT is where ideas come from.