OFF TO ANOTHER VENUE

Having met some wonderful people who I would like to keep in touch with at the Nebulas, I have targeted LiveJournal for my somewhat daily ramblings.

Short writing activity update:
* ACDT first draft feedback received from multiple sources, including a significant one. Revising and writing a synopsis.

* First chapters of 07338 submitted to the Project A-Kon writing workshop. Revising and working on outline.

* First chapter of ToSR completed. Outline in development.

* One short story out for consideration.

* First incarnation of story that popped into mind while driving to work and refused to let go typed into computer and possible outline forming.

FAVORITE BOOK

I met a former co-worker at the grocery store the other night and wanted to pass along what he shared with me while we listened to the thunder and rain in the produce section.

He bought a copy of my children's book Bud the Bunny for his daughters. The youngest latched on to it in a mighty way. Recently, having been named 'star of the week', she has shared with her class at school some of her favorite things ... including Bud the Bunny.

As a self-published adventure through Lulu.com, Bud the Bunny sales are not spectacular. And because I have been focusing on ACDT, I have not had a dealer's table at a con, nor do I intend to for at least this coming year. Therefore, Bud is not hopping around much offline these days either.

But the fact that Bud is someone's favorite book, and he got to visit a room full of kids at a school, warms my heart in a way massive sales wouldn't. Massive sales would help pay my gas bill, but that's a different kind of warmth.

Thank you to everyone who has bought a Bud, online and off. We appreciate your support.

WRITEiTnOW

When I began ACDT, it was as a Microsoft Word document. After the first 20,000 words, it became unwieldy and I grew to dread opening the file, as I knew I would spend more time scrolling through it than I wanted to, looking for the appropriate places to add the words I wanted to write.

I investigated several different 'novel writing' software websites, and decided to try out WriteItNow. It is simple, easy to use, and make my first draft of ACDT possible.

I thoroughly enjoy and appreciate the easy of use of the left pane, which lets me organize my thoughts, written bits, chapters, characters, locations, events and more. It exports to text and RTF, and you can choose what pieces of your creation you want to exports. Once I found out how to change the spell check to reflect the colonial tongue instead of the imperial one, it was truly a wonderful experience to work with this piece of software.

ACDT - BETA

After incorporating 75% of the alpha comments, I made the executive decision to let it go and start printing. This was also influenced by the fact that one of my beta readers was coming by to pick up his copy at 6 pm.

Beta word count is 99,338 words, which in standard manuscript format, means 402 double-side pieces of paper, printed over 1.5 hours.

That seven times means I will be able to watch the sunrise tomorrow morning.

Oh, joy.

ACDT - ALPHA

98,076 words and my first novel, ACDT, is complete. There was a sparkling grape juice and cake celebration, a dance of joy in the living room, and an amazing sense of accomplishment. From its humble beginnings as a 2006 NaNoWriMo attempt that stalled out half-way through the month, to a revised first 30 pages submitted to the 2007 Project A-Kon writer's workshop, to a completed manuscript of over 98,000 words, ACDT is my finest written accomplishment to date.

Now the real work begins.

ps. Happy New Year!

SPINNING

As productive as yesterday was, today was almost the exact opposite. I ran up to over 83,500 words and then cut it back to just under 82k (81,958). Everything I wrote was 'on outline' however the characters were sitting at the table discussing the same thing five different ways, the sixth of which I was finally satisfied with.

Sitting and spinning over the same scene for over six hours was less fun than writing has been up to this point. It was, however, more fun that best day I have ever had working for someone else.

To date, I have eliminated almost 10,000 words due to changes in the story, adjustments to existing copy to conform it to the final outline, and things that didn't make sense or move the story along. ACDT is better for it, and all of those discarded words may find a home in the second novel. Fear not, they will be taken care of.

80,000 AND COUNTING

ACDT has passed the 80k point and I am most pleased. Today was the most productive day I have spent on this novel, going from 74,182 words to 80,000 words.

This is a significant number for me in that it is the least amount of words a new novelist can sell for. The max is 100k. My target is 90k to allow room for expansion and editing, although it is now much less about the word count and all about finishing the story.

I am also pushing the beta delivery date to January 4th, so that I can incorporate the first pass of edits from my alpha reader. This way the beta readers will have less typoes and gross inconsistencies to deal with.

ps. Merry Christmas!

DELAYED

Life happens.

Which is an insightful way of letting people know I am being distracted from my novel by forces beyond my control. Once my life has re-settled into its new form, I will be back up to a respectable daily four digit word count, and the first draft of ACDT is estimated to be due to beta readers by end of December.

For those morbidly curious, here are my daily word counts, complete with notes:
10/18 - 27,715
10/19 - 27,828
10/20 - 28,587
10/21 - 32,111
10/22 - 34,262
10/23 - 36,111
10/24 - 38,040
10/25 - 0
10/26 - 38,347
[reset to outline = 32k]
10/27 - 35,043
10/28 - 38,441
10/29 - 39,102
10/30 - 41,052
10/31 - 42,520
11/1 - 0
11/2 - 44,290
11/3 - 45,040
[1/2 way mark - do the happy dance]
11/4 - 48,022
11/5 - 49,154
11/6 - 0 [need sleep]
11/7 - 51,900
11/8 - 53,125
11/9 - 54,175
11/10 - 54,781
11/11 - 55,000
11/12 - 57,845
11/13 - 59,176


ps. for those of you doing NaNoWriMo, best wishes!

ACDT - 1/2 WAY THERE

For all of the blog posts that are not here, words have been added to my novel.

Today, I have over 45,000 words, on target with the outline, in chapters. With a goal of 90k, this is officially the half way mark.

Break out the sparkling grape cider, a celebration is in order.

HALF WAY MARK

For all of the blog posts that are not here, words have been added to my novel.

Today, I have over 45,000 words, on target with the outline, in chapters. With a goal of 90k, this is officially the half way mark.

Break out the sparkling grape cider, a celebration is in order.

07338

So while working on ACDT, this brusque, first-person character starts clamoring for my attention. The bastard took up my entire lunch break and while he has quite the story to tell, the current novel needs to be completed first.

I sent him to the back of the queue, but last time I looked, he had already muscled his way past the G trilogy, Roy Roger's pony and the ToSRS to be next in line. It took a few minutes to find the LP short story, as she had gone off under a table to cry.

If only my ACDT characters were so demanding right now ...

STILL PLODDING

and plotting.

Evening writing time has been sporadic as the day job consumes more and more of my free time, or just wrings me dry so that I come home, eat, sleep, and gain enough energy to go back to the cube again.

When the weather and meetings allow, I eat lunch outside at a local park with my ACDT* notebook and do my impersonation of an author at work. In addition to new characters or story aspects, I have now added mustard, ketchup, and french fry grease to my notes.

* working novel title