I’ve done no work on it this week, because I’ve had a lot of stuff that’s been more important. Some of that was sleeping. But I know that I’ve got a lot more editing ahead of me than I previously realised, and that in fact, this book could well get significantly longer. So, that’s good. I’ll keep you posted - not abandoning, just got a lot to do.
Today, I got some more charting of the plot done, and some feedback from a couple of chapter one beta readers. The feedback was great, and helpful. Also means I might be restoring a decent chunk of the opening chapter that I nixed after a BookCountry reviewer convinced me to can it.
Now, I’m going to finish The Social Network (I watch this film quite a bit) and get some sleep. Hopefully by Sunday the rest of the feedback will appear, and by next week I’ll be editing the novel and preparing it for beta readers. Laters.
Today, I sent out my first chapter to a bunch of people I know whose opinions I’d be interested in reading. They’re all writers, but not all of them write fiction - some of them just happen to read books. I’ll be watching their reactions closely, because I’d love to see how non-fiction-writer people react to it, as I have a feeling they’ll be less nitpicking. Then again they are writers, so who knows?
I think it’s good, I’ll just have to roll with the punches if they think it isn’t. And now, to wait. Dum dee dum. Oh, boy.
This was a piece I wrote about Dark Souls, in which I basically attack its treatment of narrative and its souls-as-a-currency mechanic. It got people talking, and I really enjoy throwing a spanner in the works of people who enjoy a game without nit-picking it the way I sometimes like to do.
Not that those people are flawed, in any way - I like just enjoying a game for what it is. But when going back to it in order to research my second article about it, I was miserable, and tired of it, and thought it had issues, so I brought two of them to light. Hope you enjoy it - the title of the post is the link to the article.
Today I got nothing done at all, because I slept so badly last night that I’m physically exhausted. I know some people are HARDCORE WRITERS but I’m not an idiot and prefer taking care of myself. The wonders of having a day-job, I guess. I’m consciously aware of the fact that it piles more work onto me, but that’s okay. I just need to take things one step at a time and realise my opportunities aren’t going anywhere if they’re all self-made, although novel #2 does have something of a deadline in terms of beating someone else to it.
It makes me wonder how other people feel really, if anything - some writers have this bizarre, obtuse “write every day” approach, and although I do technically do this - I’m a copywriter - I feel like that’s a completely stupid approach. You’re either inspired or you’re not. You’re either motivated or you’re not. I don’t like the concept of forcing yourself into a state or task you’re not moving into naturally. You’re a human being, not a writing machine, and this culture of HEY GUYS I STAYED UP TILL 4AM OH MAN NOW I’VE GOT TO GO TO WORK/TAKE THE KIDS TO SCHOOL LOL stuff drives me absolutely nuts.
So, yeah. No activity, but rest instead, and I need that. Laters.
Going back to a novel after four months fills me with two sensations - uneasiness (about how good it will be), and dread (because once I’m done with something I really don’t enjoy going back - a pretty major flaw in a writer).
When I went back to AYWT - I’ll talk about the title when it’s done - I discovered that not only was it actually pretty solid in structure (although I’m concerned about the order of events as it’s been so long I’m blanking, so a full-read through is in order), but it actually reads well, and I mean well to the point where I feel like it’s beyond something I could actually write.
I am not a fan of this sensation.
I think it’s mainly because it makes me feel seriously arrogant, and it makes me worry because if I say I think it’s good and people don’t enjoy it, I’m going to look like an idiot. I’m far from humble - frankly, if I couldn’t write, I wouldn’t have done as well as I have thus far - but I’m reluctant to call my novel amazing. But I really like the writing, and I’m glad that I took on board a common criticism - to strip out most if not all of the profanity.
It’s weird - I don’t swear on my blog, or on Twitter. It’s a rule I’ve held to since I was once swore on an older blog and removed the offending word(s - I don’t really remember the details). But in my book I swore like a son of a mother, because my character and everyone around him swore like sons of mothers. Or daughters. I’m trying to be equal-opportunities here.
I’m also drifting away from my theme. Ahem.
Honestly, I’m just really keen on seeing what people think of it. Getting some beta readers in will be really important, although I’m worried that as they’re probably all going to be friends of mine, they’ll be offended by the NDA I’m going to make them sign. It’s not because I’m being horrible, it’s just because I’m really passionate about keeping my ideas locked down outside the people I’ve chosen to tell - though not to the point where someone couldn’t tell their other half, as long as that’s as far as it goes.
The thing with ideas, and this book, is that I’m really keen on keeping them quiet. The literary scene is an endless sea of paranormal romance (not that I mind it, but it’s completely over-saturated the market) and generic thrillers. Original or different ideas are few and far between, and although this is a straight-up thriller with a few tweaks, novel #2 is a concept piece that I’d be devastated to see ripped off and dashed out onto the web.
At least the outline is going well, although during the chapters that needed work or, in one case, almost an entire rewrite, I started assaulting myself with CAPS IN BOLD TO INDICATE WHERE I DIDN’T LIKE SOMETHING AND NEEDED TO FIX IT. It’s a book about a weird journey, so I’m aiming to make sure it actually sounds like a journey, rather than a bloke stumbling around aimlessly, which it sometimes is, but hopefully not in a way that bores the hell out of you, the likely reader of the piece.
So, I’m uneasy. Laters.
Sigh.
I love writing, but I don’t like editing. I enjoy it, but usually only if it’s me sat with a printed version and a pen, or reading it out loud (this is really effective, as you’ll stumble over your mistakes). Looking at a document in Word and realising I’ve got to rewrite huge chunks of the book is daunting at best, and depressing, at worst.
But it’s got to be done - it’s a good story, one I want to tell you, and one I want to publish next month. I figure the easiest way to do this is to chronicle how far I’ve gotten at the end of each day I work on it. Hopefully you’ll be curious enough by the end of the process to actually buy/sample the book itself, which will be e-published via myself, on Amazon’s Kindle Store, and soon after will become a KDP Select title, to help boost publicity and promote the book.
The moment it goes out, I’ll take a week off from writing and keep up PR, then while maintaining that little planned effort, I’ll start planning and then writing novel #2, which is going to be longer (this one stands at 50k words, but who knows, it might grow or shrink during editing) and written and published significantly faster.
Then, who knows?
—later—
Tonight, I finally went back to charting what happens in each chapter, in bullet points. I started at just after the opening of chapter eight, and finished at thirteen, with the intention of finishing it completely tomorrow, so I can start actually editing and rewriting significant chunks of it by Thursday (I’m out Wednesday night).
As far as the rewriting actually goes, I’m pretty damn happy. Looking through it from chapter eight onwards, it’s well-written and reads solid, so I’m happy that after a rewrite and an editing pass, I can give it to whichever crazy (read: insanely time-generous) people sign up to beta-read it (with an NDA of course - archaic, but stuff it, I protect my IP). I have also figured out how to rewrite the main chunk I was concerned about.
My issue with rewriting that chunk was the feeling that it was that point I should be using to effectively shoehorn in 30,000 words. No, really. My novel is, what, around 220 pages? I’m worried it’s too short, despite being a fan of (and heavily influenced by, for this novel at least) Phillip K. Dick’s novels, one of which (Androids or Scanner, one of the damn two) is about 180 pages, to memory.
I’m content with it staying short - I’ve felt that way for a while now, and this settled it.
Until tomorrow then, peeps.
Happy Sunday, peeps. This week’s episode (our eleventh!) is the second of two - because the recording was so long we thought we’d split it up into two chunks at around regular length. We each asked each other ten questions, based around each other and our gaming thoughts and habits. This week’s…
Another one I enjoyed, this time with a happier finish.
A magazine publishing house are making some money, and, according to their founder, quite a lot of money - “the same as Facebook’s”, he says of their net profit margin. His bragging is a problem, for several reasons.
If Facebook is indeed his ideal success story - and I think we can take from his comment about net profit margins that it is - then it might be worth considering that Mark Zuckerberg, aloof though he may appear through the media, sits at a randomly placed desk in the middle of their offices. There’s no wood-panelled office, no “hey, I’m mister corporate” attitude, because for all the profits, it’s arguable that Facebook cares about its staff and he happens to be just that - one of its staff.
If you’ve got profit to invest (and you should be investing it), then put it into the people generating the product you’re pushing. Sir, you look foolish, and it’s making a mockery of your company and its sites, apps and magazines. Not to the readers - but to the industry itself, and when the time comes to replace people who might just end up leaving out of sheer frustration, you won’t have anyone worth the salary left to choose from.
Something of a personal update, today - I wanted to bring you a post yesterday on something I feel strongly about, but it involves various stupid things I tend to do as often as the people I criticise, and I’d rather publish nothing at all than utter hypocrisy.
I’m working through the last stages of the RPG project this week, for a final deadline that is approaching at a reasonable pace. It’s quite a big thing, to see this all come together, and I’m happy that my editor seems to be content with what I’ve got down so far - just the formatting and rewrite bits and bobs from both the editor and the company who owns the IP we’re using to deal with, now.
I’m shifting the iPad-iBook project into the second half of 2012, which means no iPad until far later in the year. It’s actually a weight off my shoulders, if anything - I was constantly thinking about the cost (as the model I would get will be, and this is my estimate, over half a grand) and it was getting to me quite a bit. It’s a luxury item, sure, but I do want to get involved in iBooks, so it’s something worth thinking about.
That and I’d like to earn it.
I want to be able to buy it with the money I’ve made from my writing, and that’s why I’ll be starting an iPad 3 and PS Vita (c’mon, I’m a gamer) fund that I’ll dump book revenue into until two conditions are met:
This means that, realistically, I’m putting a novel out in, hmm, March? That’s a big deal, to me, and it’ll be the first time a long-form piece of fiction of mine will be in the public domain. To start with, I’m going with KDP Select, as this allows me 90 days of promotion (possibly more, actually, if I want to do a second 90) and at least five days of “it’s free” promo time. Whether I’ll do this with the other two remains to be seen - it depends how this project goes. But I’m looking forward to getting started.
The book I’ll be aiming to send out into the cold, harsh environs of reader-world in March is one I wrote during NaNoWriMo in 2010, and one I’d like to clean up, refine and get out there, as it’s an idea I like and gives me something to show people as I launch myself headlong into the ones I’ve not even started planning yet. So, here goes, I guess. Laters.
