This week has not been as productive as I would like, alas, because we're being hit with one more heat wave, and I with an hormonal migraine. All the same, we should get relief by Monday. And then we are in September....
It's the most wonderful time of the year!
(Here we pause for one of my favorite ads.)
The students are back in town. Youthful beings wander the sidewalks in packs, distracted by peer groups, optimism, and members of the opposite sex, while out-of-town SUVs packed with dorm furniture and lost parental units fill the streets. Both groups are prone to cross against the light and stray from their lanes. Drivers beware.
(NOTE TO SELF: mark football Saturdays on the calendar tonight!)
This is the first September in memory that I have been a spectator in this fall ritual. In past years, at the little community college down the road from the Big U, I would be walking the halls this week, finding and directing lost students, between bouts of crisis management and putting out fires. The welcoming/helping job is one of the main things I miss about the job.
But the rest, I'm not missing very much. I always have high energy in the lovely days of September and October, and now that energy is mine. All mine. Can I make effective use of it?
August Publications
This past month, in spite of the heat, I managed to get two new books published, and most of my old ones reformated and new versions uploaded. One of the books has finally trickled through to most vendors. The other should be making it soon.
Fables and Enchantments: Amazon.com (Amazon international stores: UK, DE, FR, IT, ES, IN, CA, JP, BR, MX.)
Barnes n Noble, Apple iBookstore, Kobo, Sony, Diesel, Smashwords
A Fistful of Divas: Amazon.com (Amazon international stores: UK, DE, FR, IT, ES, IN, CA, JP, BR, MX.) Barnes n Noble, Apple iBookstore, Kobo, Sony, Diesel, Smashwords
Keep tabs on my Book Page for updates on new vendors.
Also, prices --
This summer I played around with an Experiment in Mercenary Writing. That whole project went off the rails almost immediately. But as a part of the experiment, it was necessary to raise my prices, in anticipation of some things I was going to write. That evolved into a very different plan.
So... I've lowered my prices again. I am adjusting a few break points. I may experiment further next year. (NOTE, it can take a little bit for the prices to trickle through to all vendors.)
On The Blog This Week
On Wednesday I've got some Story Notes for A Fistful of Divas -- a little bit about small town opera houses which were one of the inspirations for the story.
Then on Friday, I'll tell you a little about a great old TV show -- Peter Gunn. It's a show which had room for banter, jazz, action and very simple crime/mystery plots, all in a very stylish package.
In the meantime, I've got to get back to my writing schedule, which got off track for a bit.
See you in the funny papers.
Daring to live life as a full time writer, with or without success.
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Sunday Upate? Oh, right....
Crapazoid! It's time for bed and I forgot to do my update.
I have a good excuse, though, I was up late playing with a cool new cover for The Adventure of Anna The Great. The concept is actually a copy of something I came up for a book I'll publish around September 12, The Ride to Save King.
This is way way way better than my previous covers for this book. It still makes use of the illo I did back in college, but with a reverse and some better typography. The only thing is that the design kinda begs for something in white across the top. With Ride, it will say "Novelette." I'm not sure what to put on this one or if I'll put anything at all. (Maybe some more cloud swishies?)
Anyway, I did say I would give my publishing schedule. (Tentative publishing schedule -- as it keeps changing as I speak. I think I've got pretty close to what I'm going to do though.)
Publishing Schedule:
NOTE: These books should be available on Amazon and Smashwords by the end of publication day. Other vendors will trickle in as Smashwords distributes. (B&N, Apple, Kobo, Sony, Diesel.)
*August 25: A Fistful of Divas, a Mick and Casey Mystery Novelette. (Approx 40 pages) (ADDENDUM: heat wave issues have postponed this to August 26th.)
*September 12: The Ride to Save King. Middle reader's novelette. (Approx 50 pages.)
*September 27: Stone-Cold Dead at the Trading Post, a Mick and Casey Mystery Novella (length to be determined. Might be a long novelette.)
*October 11: Feral Princess, a Vespero the Bandit Story. (Probably a long novelette, possibly a short novella -- 70-ish pages?)
*October 25: The Pottsville Miracles. Fantasy Western novelette (Length to be determined).
*November 15: Six-Gun Santa, a Mick and Casey Mystery novelette (Or maybe just a short story -- I don't know yet. I don't even know if it will be finished by this time. Alt Date will be in December.)
All of the above stories (some are finished, some are partly drafted) should be drafted by the end of September, and I should be able to focus on the next Starling and Marquette novel, The Man Who Stepped Up, through October and November.
I decided to put off my romantic suspense novelettes until 2014. More about some of them in some other post. I have a few other things to pull together for next year as well. I fantasy novel I have in my trunk might be suitable for serialization. (Not on the blog, but publishing it in parts.) I have a bunch of partly finished stories from my fantasy/juvenile fiction days. More fables and enchantments. Some screenplay potboilers that might go with the romantic suspense stories, or might be a little more hard edged. (But not too hard edged -- something like Harsh Climate, only with grown ups.)
See you in the funny papers... (in September.)
This is way way way better than my previous covers for this book. It still makes use of the illo I did back in college, but with a reverse and some better typography. The only thing is that the design kinda begs for something in white across the top. With Ride, it will say "Novelette." I'm not sure what to put on this one or if I'll put anything at all. (Maybe some more cloud swishies?)
Anyway, I did say I would give my publishing schedule. (Tentative publishing schedule -- as it keeps changing as I speak. I think I've got pretty close to what I'm going to do though.)
Publishing Schedule:
NOTE: These books should be available on Amazon and Smashwords by the end of publication day. Other vendors will trickle in as Smashwords distributes. (B&N, Apple, Kobo, Sony, Diesel.)
*August 25: A Fistful of Divas, a Mick and Casey Mystery Novelette. (Approx 40 pages) (ADDENDUM: heat wave issues have postponed this to August 26th.)
The rough draft of this story appeared here as a serial in the spring. More about this on September 1.
A girl and her mother evacuate their horse ahead of a hurricane by riding him to a better shelter.
*September 27: Stone-Cold Dead at the Trading Post, a Mick and Casey Mystery Novella (length to be determined. Might be a long novelette.)
When a mean man is found dead in the market, with his abused wife standing over him with a frying pan, Mick and Casey have to back a lynch mob down from hanging her. Mick better find a good outcome for the lady, or Casey won't be happy.
*October 11: Feral Princess, a Vespero the Bandit Story. (Probably a long novelette, possibly a short novella -- 70-ish pages?)
Princess Magda, the last descendant of the wild mountain kings of Prokyar, is penniless, powerless and, as her guardians groom her for marriage, now forbidden to run wild in her beloved mountains. But as she learns to juggle suitors and ride side-saddle, she still manages to help out a local bandit.
*October 25: The Pottsville Miracles. Fantasy Western novelette (Length to be determined).
When an impressive stranger is revealed to be a powerful wizard, the tiny town of Pottsville struggles between wonder and terror. As they struggle to control him, he struggles with his own conflicting desires to take power, or to be accepted in this foreign egalitarian society.
*November 15: Six-Gun Santa, a Mick and Casey Mystery novelette (Or maybe just a short story -- I don't know yet. I don't even know if it will be finished by this time. Alt Date will be in December.)
A crazy old drunk takes a bunch of orphans hostage and demands that Santa Claus meet him for a shootout at midnight. Mick is elected to put on the red suit and face him.
All of the above stories (some are finished, some are partly drafted) should be drafted by the end of September, and I should be able to focus on the next Starling and Marquette novel, The Man Who Stepped Up, through October and November.
I decided to put off my romantic suspense novelettes until 2014. More about some of them in some other post. I have a few other things to pull together for next year as well. I fantasy novel I have in my trunk might be suitable for serialization. (Not on the blog, but publishing it in parts.) I have a bunch of partly finished stories from my fantasy/juvenile fiction days. More fables and enchantments. Some screenplay potboilers that might go with the romantic suspense stories, or might be a little more hard edged. (But not too hard edged -- something like Harsh Climate, only with grown ups.)
See you in the funny papers... (in September.)
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Sunday Update - New Book!
Lots of interesting things going on. I'm easing back into blogging now. I'll do Sunday Updates for the rest of August and then... well, see below about the fall blogging schedule.
Published: Fables and Enchantments
Fables and Enchantments is a collection of seven children's stories. Two of the stories were published in Cricket Magazine back in the 1990s. One was originally sold to a publication called Story Cards, but never published. You've seen a few of them here on the blog before.
As you may notice, I decided not to do a pen name. Most of my writing for grown ups is really appropriate for children too. Where do you draw the line? I can't.
I'll talk about some of the individual stories later on in a story notes post. In the meantime, check it out!
Currently available at: Amazon.com (Amazon international stores: UK, DE, FR, IT, ES, IN, CA, JP, BR.)
Coming soon to: Barnes & Noble, Apple iBookstore, Kobo, Sony, Diesel, Smashwords.
Return to Blogging
I'll return to limited regular blogging in September. (I'll be updating on Sundays for the rest of August.) The schedule will be:
IF (and only if) things go well, I'll expand again to a broader schedule, and separate the story notes from the writing stuff. I might even bring the serial back.
More Mick and Casey On The Way
I'll talk more next Sunday about my planned publishing schedule, but I thought you Mick and Casey fans might like to know that today I beat out the plots for a couple more unfinished Mick and Casey novelettes. One might well be a novella. (I figured out what was missing, and so there's a whole level of subplot to add.)
The stories (and my hoped for publication dates):
Return of the Serial?
Wait! What was that? I might even bring the serial back? Well, MAYBE... a little later. If everything goes right.
If I do it, it will be once a week. I'll continue to tell the story of The Case of the Misplaced Baroness. But I'll ONLY do this if I get my other work done successfully, in a timely manner. Also if the story doesn't morph into something more "novel" oriented. (I'm letting the story dictate.) Also, it would help if I actually start making money at my other work.
Formatting Fun, and Smashwords
Pardon me while I indulge in a little neepery (i.e. geek-speak); I spent a week working out a new process for formatting my publishing files in html. I get to skip Word completely. Yes yes yes yes yes! If I type in "Markdown" style, I can write anything anywhere and it will not carry formatting junk from one platform to anohter. (I can even type in Word.)
This process creates beautifully formatted mobi and epub files -- very clean, no junk hidden in the files. (Or such limited junk it's easy to find and kill it.) HOWEVER....
It is hard to get a Smashwords-compatible Word file OUT of html -- and that means I will only be uploading epubs to Smashwords for a while. Smashwords will only offer other formats if you upload a Word file. One of these days, I'll work out an easy or at least semi-automated way to convert my html to a Smashwords style Word document, but until then, only my older books will have those other formats at Smashwords.
That means I won't be able to use Smashwords for coupons for a while (because I don't want to cheat the Kindle users by offering coupons that are only good for ePub users). Sigh. I was hoping to reward mailing list subscribers with coupons in every issue. Oh well. Mark Coker says that they have other formats in development. Maybe they'll be ready soon.
(UPDATE: I figured out how to get a Word file out of the process with only a moderate amount of hassle. So full features -- and coupons -- at Smashwords after all!)
Next week I'll talk more about the upcoming publication schedule. Lots of exciting stuff coming this way.
See you in the funny papers.
Published: Fables and Enchantments
As you may notice, I decided not to do a pen name. Most of my writing for grown ups is really appropriate for children too. Where do you draw the line? I can't.
I'll talk about some of the individual stories later on in a story notes post. In the meantime, check it out!
Currently available at: Amazon.com (Amazon international stores: UK, DE, FR, IT, ES, IN, CA, JP, BR.)
Coming soon to: Barnes & Noble, Apple iBookstore, Kobo, Sony, Diesel, Smashwords.
Return to Blogging
I'll return to limited regular blogging in September. (I'll be updating on Sundays for the rest of August.) The schedule will be:
Sunday Update: What I'm up to, book announcements, maybe commentary and videos.
Writer Wednesday: Story Notes and stuff about writing
Friday Favorites: Reviews and analysis of books and movies and TV shows that interest me
IF (and only if) things go well, I'll expand again to a broader schedule, and separate the story notes from the writing stuff. I might even bring the serial back.
More Mick and Casey On The Way
The stories (and my hoped for publication dates):
*A Fistful of Divas - this story was published here on the blog as a serial. I have done some rewriting, but mostly to clean it up and make it flow better. Expected pub date: around August 25.
*Stone-Cold Dead at the Trading Post - Mick and Casey get caught in the middle of a battle of the sexes when a woman is accused of killing her abusive husband. That is, Mick gets caught in the middle. Expected pub date: around September 26.
*Six-Gun Santa - A crazy old drunk takes a bunch of orphans hostage and demands that Santa Claus meet him for a shootout at midnight. Mick is elected to put on the red suit and face him. Hoped for pub date: Thanksgiving, or maybe early December.
Return of the Serial?
Wait! What was that? I might even bring the serial back? Well, MAYBE... a little later. If everything goes right.
If I do it, it will be once a week. I'll continue to tell the story of The Case of the Misplaced Baroness. But I'll ONLY do this if I get my other work done successfully, in a timely manner. Also if the story doesn't morph into something more "novel" oriented. (I'm letting the story dictate.) Also, it would help if I actually start making money at my other work.
Formatting Fun, and Smashwords
Pardon me while I indulge in a little neepery (i.e. geek-speak); I spent a week working out a new process for formatting my publishing files in html. I get to skip Word completely. Yes yes yes yes yes! If I type in "Markdown" style, I can write anything anywhere and it will not carry formatting junk from one platform to anohter. (I can even type in Word.)
This process creates beautifully formatted mobi and epub files -- very clean, no junk hidden in the files. (Or such limited junk it's easy to find and kill it.) HOWEVER....
It is hard to get a Smashwords-compatible Word file OUT of html -- and that means I will only be uploading epubs to Smashwords for a while. Smashwords will only offer other formats if you upload a Word file. One of these days, I'll work out an easy or at least semi-automated way to convert my html to a Smashwords style Word document, but until then, only my older books will have those other formats at Smashwords.
That means I won't be able to use Smashwords for coupons for a while (because I don't want to cheat the Kindle users by offering coupons that are only good for ePub users). Sigh. I was hoping to reward mailing list subscribers with coupons in every issue. Oh well. Mark Coker says that they have other formats in development. Maybe they'll be ready soon.
(UPDATE: I figured out how to get a Word file out of the process with only a moderate amount of hassle. So full features -- and coupons -- at Smashwords after all!)
Next week I'll talk more about the upcoming publication schedule. Lots of exciting stuff coming this way.
See you in the funny papers.
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Holy Moly, I used to be a pretty good writer!
I know I said I was going dark on blogging, but as soon as I cut loose of the blog, the throttle got stuck on my plans, and I've been varooming around wildly. And now I'm too excited for words..... Wait, I mean I'm too excited to NOT have words.
To quote Mr. Monk,
Here's What happened
I had this plan which I didn't fully mention to you guys, because it was in constant motion anyway. But it went like this:
1.) I've only published on thing in 19 months -- The Misplaced Hero, which is available here for free on the blog, so it kinda doesn't count. For at least 17 of those months, I've been dealing with kerfuffle, and really haven't done much of anything but this blog. So in a sense, my career has been at a standstill while I dealt with 'stuff.'
Which gave me a chance to start over.
2.) So the plan was to write a bunch of stuff and start publishing again, maybe with some of the stuff under a pen name. And not really do anything else. Let each book be the promotion for the previous book.
3.) Then I was browsing around KBoards, and I noticed a lot of people were saying the same thing: the one thing they all wished they had done from the start was have a mailing list. Most people were regretting 90 percent of the other things they did to promote books, etc. But nobody regretted having a mailing list.
And, thought I, as long as I'm starting over, I might as well start a mailing list. I gotta make over the end matter on my books anyway, so I might as well have that link there from the start of the new me.
4.) Which led me to think, golly, I really should redo the end matter on my old books. Some of those have long annoying samples. And it will give me a chance to add the mailing list link, or maybe just a link to my main webpage which will have a prominent mailing list link.... Oh, crap.
5.) That main webpage is WAY out of date. Gotta update that. Well, I'm not going to publish anything untl the end of August, so I have some time.
This is beginning to sound like a death spiral, isn't it? I mean, "I'm just going to stop everything else and write, except I'll just do this one thing, and that one other thing, which actually means I have to do these six other things...."
Except it isn't a death spiral, it's a start up chime. (It's true, a lot of my grand plans have ended with the words "Oh, right, I have to update my webpage." But not this time.)
The Restart Chime
6.) I went all zen on that "Getting Things Done" thing. My GTD System got implemented. It was all completely unconscious. I just had stuff I wanted to get done and the system sort of created itself. I created a "Job Jar" document where I put every little thing I wanted to get done that I could do while working in my office. And I numbered the items so I could use Random.org to choose a task any time I found myself dithering. I also acquired a little Mac software thingy called "Minute Timer" to time 15 minute work bouts.
It didn't work perfectly, but I found I was getting things done....
Then I accidentally hit the turbo-charge button.
7.) A long time ago I published a collection of my fantasy and children's stories -- then realized the stories didn't fit together all that well, so I unpublished it and put the grown up fantasy stories into another collection (The Bellhound), and I always meant to republish the children's collection and never did. So that seemed like a natural to add to the publication schedule. It's all ready, just needs to be redone to fit my new standards.
8.) I just had to redo the cover... and oh, wow, I really like how that came out. (You see the rough version to right. With my old pen name for children's writing - I'm considering using it for the kid stuff.)
And the collection looks really nifty. I can't wait until the middle of September to publish this. I want to do it now. Tonight.
Except with my new pricing schedule it was a little short, I thought, for a 2.99 book.
9.) I wrote a bunch of children's stories, so I started digging in my trunk for a couple more stories to fill in for the ones I had removed.
10.) Now suddenly I had two collections of children's stories to publish. Oh, and a novelette. Oh, that story would work with a little change here or there. And that one, though it sucks, would actually work if I rewrote the idea now as a children's story. Oh, crap, I forgot about that story! That's got to be the best thing I ever wrote! Why didn't I finish it? (No market. Right.)
I used to be a freaking good writer, you know that? Why am I not writing like that any more? (Except for those other stories. I'm glad I don't write like that any more.)
Anyway, it's kind of like I stumbled into a room full of triple-fudge dark chocolate cake and ice cream, all for me. I am so utterly pleased to revive that story I didn't finish. I am still tickled about all my current stuff too.
And yeah, I'm pushing up the start of publications under my own name. I'll start with the first collection around August 15, and go with two publications a month until the middle of November. I expect, at that time, to go dark and publish some of the stuff I'm going to write under a pen name.
But for now, I'm just tickled pink to have rediscovered 3/4 of a fantasy/western story titled "The Pottsville Miracles." I bet I can beat that last 1/4 into submission. I can't wait to get it out there.
See you in the funny papers.
To quote Mr. Monk,
Here's What happened
I had this plan which I didn't fully mention to you guys, because it was in constant motion anyway. But it went like this:
1.) I've only published on thing in 19 months -- The Misplaced Hero, which is available here for free on the blog, so it kinda doesn't count. For at least 17 of those months, I've been dealing with kerfuffle, and really haven't done much of anything but this blog. So in a sense, my career has been at a standstill while I dealt with 'stuff.'
Which gave me a chance to start over.
2.) So the plan was to write a bunch of stuff and start publishing again, maybe with some of the stuff under a pen name. And not really do anything else. Let each book be the promotion for the previous book.
3.) Then I was browsing around KBoards, and I noticed a lot of people were saying the same thing: the one thing they all wished they had done from the start was have a mailing list. Most people were regretting 90 percent of the other things they did to promote books, etc. But nobody regretted having a mailing list.
And, thought I, as long as I'm starting over, I might as well start a mailing list. I gotta make over the end matter on my books anyway, so I might as well have that link there from the start of the new me.
4.) Which led me to think, golly, I really should redo the end matter on my old books. Some of those have long annoying samples. And it will give me a chance to add the mailing list link, or maybe just a link to my main webpage which will have a prominent mailing list link.... Oh, crap.
5.) That main webpage is WAY out of date. Gotta update that. Well, I'm not going to publish anything untl the end of August, so I have some time.
This is beginning to sound like a death spiral, isn't it? I mean, "I'm just going to stop everything else and write, except I'll just do this one thing, and that one other thing, which actually means I have to do these six other things...."
Except it isn't a death spiral, it's a start up chime. (It's true, a lot of my grand plans have ended with the words "Oh, right, I have to update my webpage." But not this time.)
The Restart Chime
6.) I went all zen on that "Getting Things Done" thing. My GTD System got implemented. It was all completely unconscious. I just had stuff I wanted to get done and the system sort of created itself. I created a "Job Jar" document where I put every little thing I wanted to get done that I could do while working in my office. And I numbered the items so I could use Random.org to choose a task any time I found myself dithering. I also acquired a little Mac software thingy called "Minute Timer" to time 15 minute work bouts.
It didn't work perfectly, but I found I was getting things done....
Then I accidentally hit the turbo-charge button. 7.) A long time ago I published a collection of my fantasy and children's stories -- then realized the stories didn't fit together all that well, so I unpublished it and put the grown up fantasy stories into another collection (The Bellhound), and I always meant to republish the children's collection and never did. So that seemed like a natural to add to the publication schedule. It's all ready, just needs to be redone to fit my new standards.
8.) I just had to redo the cover... and oh, wow, I really like how that came out. (You see the rough version to right. With my old pen name for children's writing - I'm considering using it for the kid stuff.)
And the collection looks really nifty. I can't wait until the middle of September to publish this. I want to do it now. Tonight.
Except with my new pricing schedule it was a little short, I thought, for a 2.99 book.
9.) I wrote a bunch of children's stories, so I started digging in my trunk for a couple more stories to fill in for the ones I had removed.
10.) Now suddenly I had two collections of children's stories to publish. Oh, and a novelette. Oh, that story would work with a little change here or there. And that one, though it sucks, would actually work if I rewrote the idea now as a children's story. Oh, crap, I forgot about that story! That's got to be the best thing I ever wrote! Why didn't I finish it? (No market. Right.)
I used to be a freaking good writer, you know that? Why am I not writing like that any more? (Except for those other stories. I'm glad I don't write like that any more.)
Anyway, it's kind of like I stumbled into a room full of triple-fudge dark chocolate cake and ice cream, all for me. I am so utterly pleased to revive that story I didn't finish. I am still tickled about all my current stuff too.
And yeah, I'm pushing up the start of publications under my own name. I'll start with the first collection around August 15, and go with two publications a month until the middle of November. I expect, at that time, to go dark and publish some of the stuff I'm going to write under a pen name.
But for now, I'm just tickled pink to have rediscovered 3/4 of a fantasy/western story titled "The Pottsville Miracles." I bet I can beat that last 1/4 into submission. I can't wait to get it out there.
See you in the funny papers.
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
ROW80 Update 9 - New Goals for August
Well, the learning experience of Summer has shifted me into a different gear. I am more focused, and more importantly, I'm focused on different things. As a result, I'm making more changes.
I'm Going Dark For August
I might crop up and post something spontaneously, but I'm going to try to resist. I also want to try to unplug a little more from the social places I hang out. I have managed to mostly pull back on the comment community at Passive Voice. But I'm now spending that time on Kboards and ROW80.
The place I will remain social and available is Twitter, because that seems to stay under control.
While I'm more or less off-line, I will be doing several things:
Getting Ready to Publish Some Things
I'm piling up mostly-finished drafts, and the only thing that will get me over the hump on some of them is to say, "Okay, I'm going to publish that next week." So, just to give me time for random emergencies, etc., I plan to publish something on August 28, and then start publishing on the 15th and 28th throughout the rest of the year.
However, some of these publications will be under pen names. Also, if I wanna cheat, I might publish a paper copy of something already published in ebook form.
I plan to start with A Fistful of Divas, which I plan to rework and expand from what I did here as a serial.
Whipping Some Business Matters Into Shape
I need to upgrade my existing books. I want to have them adhere to a more professional template -- a logline in the front matter, mention of the mailing list in the back. Not so much on the samples. Also, where possible, upload a better done ePub version to Smashwords for the distribution network.
I need to update my website, which currently says "This page is not up to date, check out my blog." Instead I want to have all my books, and maybe some breakdown of my genres and series. Also, a link to the mailing list.
I'll do some similar stuff for the blog. (As well as maybe start drafting some regular blog posts, for posting in the fall.)
I also still have some loose business matters to take care of vis a vis my savings and stocks and things. Also, I have acquired some nice little display cases for my toys. I need to dust the toys and display them properly.
Getting The Next Set of Projects in Line
I have been struggling with the MacGuffin for The Man Who Stepped Up, but I think I have finally got a handle on it. I also have one or two Mick and Casey trunk stories and some script outlines I think would make good novellas. I want to be able to keep the momentum up -- so I want to end August with a pile of projects ready to go, as well as a bunch of new drafts.
So while I might breeze through at some point, you probably won't see me until September 1. (Which begins the grandest month of year!)
See you in the funny papers.
I'm Going Dark For August
I might crop up and post something spontaneously, but I'm going to try to resist. I also want to try to unplug a little more from the social places I hang out. I have managed to mostly pull back on the comment community at Passive Voice. But I'm now spending that time on Kboards and ROW80.
The place I will remain social and available is Twitter, because that seems to stay under control.
While I'm more or less off-line, I will be doing several things:
Getting Ready to Publish Some Things
I'm piling up mostly-finished drafts, and the only thing that will get me over the hump on some of them is to say, "Okay, I'm going to publish that next week." So, just to give me time for random emergencies, etc., I plan to publish something on August 28, and then start publishing on the 15th and 28th throughout the rest of the year.
However, some of these publications will be under pen names. Also, if I wanna cheat, I might publish a paper copy of something already published in ebook form.
I plan to start with A Fistful of Divas, which I plan to rework and expand from what I did here as a serial.
Whipping Some Business Matters Into Shape
I need to upgrade my existing books. I want to have them adhere to a more professional template -- a logline in the front matter, mention of the mailing list in the back. Not so much on the samples. Also, where possible, upload a better done ePub version to Smashwords for the distribution network.
I need to update my website, which currently says "This page is not up to date, check out my blog." Instead I want to have all my books, and maybe some breakdown of my genres and series. Also, a link to the mailing list.
I'll do some similar stuff for the blog. (As well as maybe start drafting some regular blog posts, for posting in the fall.)
I also still have some loose business matters to take care of vis a vis my savings and stocks and things. Also, I have acquired some nice little display cases for my toys. I need to dust the toys and display them properly.
Getting The Next Set of Projects in Line
I have been struggling with the MacGuffin for The Man Who Stepped Up, but I think I have finally got a handle on it. I also have one or two Mick and Casey trunk stories and some script outlines I think would make good novellas. I want to be able to keep the momentum up -- so I want to end August with a pile of projects ready to go, as well as a bunch of new drafts.
So while I might breeze through at some point, you probably won't see me until September 1. (Which begins the grandest month of year!)
See you in the funny papers.
Sunday, July 28, 2013
ROW80 Update 8 - Started a Mailing List
I had great plans for today, but I woke up two hours late. I think I caught up on my sleep. (BTW, I am really beginning to dislike peri-menopause.)
The progress I've made has been mostly on the swashbuckler novelette, which I've decided to publish under my own name, so I might as well give you the working title:
Feral Princess
It's a romantic adventure pastiche in the vein of Zorro and The Scarlet Pimpernel, which takes place in one of those little made up Eastern European countries, like Ruritania, Lichtenberg, or Valeria, in what seems to me to be the late 18th century. (As it is a backward sort of place, it could be more recent.)
There's an outlaw hero running loose in the background, called Vespero (named after the Evening Star). In the meantime, the last descendant of the old tribal princes who used to rule the valley, Princess Magda, is under pressure to grow up, civilize herself and take a husband.
I suspect there will be more stories in this series -- all novelettes, though I expect to collect them into larger books too -- which I think I will call something like Adventures of the Evening Star, or something like that.
And, if you are intersted in being notified when I publish this story, you can sign up for my new mailing list.
(Okay, as the list is monthly, you'll probably find out quicker by following this blog, but still....)
A New Mailing List and Newsletter!
Folks have been bugging me to set up a mailing list to announce when new books have been published. I finally decided to give it a try this very afternoon. I am using MailChimp, which is recommended by a lot of writer friends.
I plan to publish a newsletter once a month, on the first of the month. In it I will announce books I've recently published, books I expect to publish before the next newsletter, things that get published around the web, sales and prices changes. I may also do a sum up of anything interesting from the blog.
Since this will be monthly, that means that you won't necessarily hear the very instant a new book appears -- if you are so eager you have to know as soon as possible, you have to subscribe to this blog.
Here's the link to the subscription page on Mail Chimp.
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter
I have added this link to the top of the sidebar, and will probably put a subscription form on a contact page some day.
I'll create a test run newsletter for August 1, which will list all of my current books, with links to various vendors. If you're interested, sign up before then so we can see if the mail gets caught in your spam filter or anything.
See you in the funny papers.
The progress I've made has been mostly on the swashbuckler novelette, which I've decided to publish under my own name, so I might as well give you the working title:
Feral Princess
It's a romantic adventure pastiche in the vein of Zorro and The Scarlet Pimpernel, which takes place in one of those little made up Eastern European countries, like Ruritania, Lichtenberg, or Valeria, in what seems to me to be the late 18th century. (As it is a backward sort of place, it could be more recent.)
There's an outlaw hero running loose in the background, called Vespero (named after the Evening Star). In the meantime, the last descendant of the old tribal princes who used to rule the valley, Princess Magda, is under pressure to grow up, civilize herself and take a husband.
I suspect there will be more stories in this series -- all novelettes, though I expect to collect them into larger books too -- which I think I will call something like Adventures of the Evening Star, or something like that.
And, if you are intersted in being notified when I publish this story, you can sign up for my new mailing list.
(Okay, as the list is monthly, you'll probably find out quicker by following this blog, but still....)
A New Mailing List and Newsletter!
Folks have been bugging me to set up a mailing list to announce when new books have been published. I finally decided to give it a try this very afternoon. I am using MailChimp, which is recommended by a lot of writer friends.
I plan to publish a newsletter once a month, on the first of the month. In it I will announce books I've recently published, books I expect to publish before the next newsletter, things that get published around the web, sales and prices changes. I may also do a sum up of anything interesting from the blog.
Since this will be monthly, that means that you won't necessarily hear the very instant a new book appears -- if you are so eager you have to know as soon as possible, you have to subscribe to this blog.
Here's the link to the subscription page on Mail Chimp.
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter
I have added this link to the top of the sidebar, and will probably put a subscription form on a contact page some day.
I'll create a test run newsletter for August 1, which will list all of my current books, with links to various vendors. If you're interested, sign up before then so we can see if the mail gets caught in your spam filter or anything.
See you in the funny papers.
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
ROW80 Update 7 - Shifting Priorities
This half week saw another flash of hot weather, and then finally a break! Whoo hoo!
Sunday, Day 21 - Figured out the character relationship arc in Starling and Marquette for the next 6-9 books. Did maybe 500+ new words on a Swashbuckling novelette.
Monday, Day 22 - Over a thousand words on the Swashbuckler. And plot work on Starling and Marquette -- a whole concept and arc for book four or five. It's perfect.
Tuesday, Day 23 - Uhhhh, didn't keep track. Quite a lot on The Man Who Stepped Up, and a little on the Swashbuckler again.
Another Series. Why'd It Have To Be Another Series?
It's pretty clear that swashbuckler which I did the first week of this dare -- which is growing right now -- is probably the first of a series. And it also seems pretty clear that it's something that belongs under my own name. It's a fictional historical country, retro-adventure tale. (This time a kind of pastiche of Scarlet Pimpernel or Zorro type story, only in a little fictional East European country maybe a half century earlier.)
And as such it seems perfect for writing more novelettes in the same series.
Like I need another freaking series.
However, this summer project is sorting out a lot of issues for me. For one thing it has revived my interest in my most commercial series, which is also the one that is the s-l-o-w-e-s-t to write -- Starling and Marquette, otherwise known as the "Man Who" series.
A couple of things in the overall character arcs for the series have busted loose, and now I see a clear path of 6-9 stories to get to a certain point in the series.
Of all the series I have, that's the one I would most like to actually focus on. Except, you know, that it's so freaking slow to write.
But I feel like something about this summer exercise has changed that, and I can maybe make that series priority one again. And that my other series now kinda make sense to fit around that -- because all of them actually kinda fit into a shorter format. (More about these other series in another update.)
When You've Got Way Too Much on Your "To Write" List
I would say that creative gridlock is probably my biggest problem. But I haven't really thought about it since I lost the Day Job. In some ways it got worse because I thought "Wheee! Now I can get at everything at once!" Um, no. I can't.
What I have discovered is that 1000 words is the new 500. It is now something I can accomplish even when I am lazy and migraine-y and obsessed with something else. That's a non-work day now.
And at 1000 words a day, I have two books and 6 novellas (or 12 novelettes) done in a year.
I should be writing 2000 words or more in a day. I can do that in the effort it used to take to do 1000. But I also have more business and planning and art on my plate.
So here is what I really want to do right now:
For the remainder of this quarter's ROW80, I am technically sticking to my original goals (though I might change them in August). I can't meet those goals without doing about 2000 words on most days. However....
I want to get outlines for the mystery aspect of the next several Starling and Marquette stories. (Mystery outlines, for me, are different than plot outlines. They aren't so much about what happens as what has happened off screen -- the killer's story.) So any day I do two hours of concentrated work on that, I will be happy with 1000 words of actual writing.
Once I feel ready with those outlines, I might just ditch the current goals altogether, or I might finish whatever I'm working on first, but then I plan to dive into The Man Who Stepped Up. I'll continue to sometimes split my time between writing and other work -- only it'll probably be publishing work on the novelettes, rather than outlines.
But even if I only write about 1000 words a day, I should be able to finsih that next Man Who book before Christmas. We'll see.
See you in the funny papers.
Sunday, Day 21 - Figured out the character relationship arc in Starling and Marquette for the next 6-9 books. Did maybe 500+ new words on a Swashbuckling novelette.
Monday, Day 22 - Over a thousand words on the Swashbuckler. And plot work on Starling and Marquette -- a whole concept and arc for book four or five. It's perfect.
Tuesday, Day 23 - Uhhhh, didn't keep track. Quite a lot on The Man Who Stepped Up, and a little on the Swashbuckler again.
Another Series. Why'd It Have To Be Another Series?
It's pretty clear that swashbuckler which I did the first week of this dare -- which is growing right now -- is probably the first of a series. And it also seems pretty clear that it's something that belongs under my own name. It's a fictional historical country, retro-adventure tale. (This time a kind of pastiche of Scarlet Pimpernel or Zorro type story, only in a little fictional East European country maybe a half century earlier.)
And as such it seems perfect for writing more novelettes in the same series.
Like I need another freaking series.
However, this summer project is sorting out a lot of issues for me. For one thing it has revived my interest in my most commercial series, which is also the one that is the s-l-o-w-e-s-t to write -- Starling and Marquette, otherwise known as the "Man Who" series.
A couple of things in the overall character arcs for the series have busted loose, and now I see a clear path of 6-9 stories to get to a certain point in the series.
Of all the series I have, that's the one I would most like to actually focus on. Except, you know, that it's so freaking slow to write.
But I feel like something about this summer exercise has changed that, and I can maybe make that series priority one again. And that my other series now kinda make sense to fit around that -- because all of them actually kinda fit into a shorter format. (More about these other series in another update.)
When You've Got Way Too Much on Your "To Write" List
I would say that creative gridlock is probably my biggest problem. But I haven't really thought about it since I lost the Day Job. In some ways it got worse because I thought "Wheee! Now I can get at everything at once!" Um, no. I can't.
What I have discovered is that 1000 words is the new 500. It is now something I can accomplish even when I am lazy and migraine-y and obsessed with something else. That's a non-work day now.
And at 1000 words a day, I have two books and 6 novellas (or 12 novelettes) done in a year.
I should be writing 2000 words or more in a day. I can do that in the effort it used to take to do 1000. But I also have more business and planning and art on my plate.
So here is what I really want to do right now:
For the remainder of this quarter's ROW80, I am technically sticking to my original goals (though I might change them in August). I can't meet those goals without doing about 2000 words on most days. However....
I want to get outlines for the mystery aspect of the next several Starling and Marquette stories. (Mystery outlines, for me, are different than plot outlines. They aren't so much about what happens as what has happened off screen -- the killer's story.) So any day I do two hours of concentrated work on that, I will be happy with 1000 words of actual writing.
Once I feel ready with those outlines, I might just ditch the current goals altogether, or I might finish whatever I'm working on first, but then I plan to dive into The Man Who Stepped Up. I'll continue to sometimes split my time between writing and other work -- only it'll probably be publishing work on the novelettes, rather than outlines.
But even if I only write about 1000 words a day, I should be able to finsih that next Man Who book before Christmas. We'll see.
See you in the funny papers.
Sunday, July 21, 2013
ROW80 Check In 6 - Back to Original Plan
Oh...kay. I am not ready to call the smut experiment a failure, but it is currently a non-success for the purposes I dove into it for. Specifically, it takes me too long to write. This may be due to the doldrums of summer or some other temporary or seasonal factor.
Current plan is to write these once in a while and save them up until I have a critical mass, and then I'll do a bunch of covers and publish them.
In the meantime, I'm back to romantic suspense and romantic adventure novelettes. Which means it will be tougher to make my goal, but maybe I'll do some short fiction in there too.
I did have a great day today working up two new suspense stories -- one adapted from a thriller screenplay I never wrote, the other inspired by a path not taken by an episode of Peter Gunn.
I'm considering turning these into post-war period stuff. They really have a bit of a retro feel, and plotting can be easier without cellphones and also when ladies weren't expected to be as independent, but people didn't find it the least bit scandalous when they were, because, you know, Rosie the Riveter.
Also, one of them just might be a great for the overarching plot of a Starling and Marquette story. (Might even do with Gwen as the woman-in-jep, as she definitely has a helpless 1940s dame vibe....)
And I'm still uncertain as to whether to use a pen name for this romantic suspense line of stories. The goal is to be consistent in appeal to the romance audience. But, since I have a tendency to turn romance expectation on it head, I might have to wait and see if bothering with a pen name is worth it.
(For these, it will be an "open" pen name and you'll know.)
See you in the funny papers.
Current plan is to write these once in a while and save them up until I have a critical mass, and then I'll do a bunch of covers and publish them.
In the meantime, I'm back to romantic suspense and romantic adventure novelettes. Which means it will be tougher to make my goal, but maybe I'll do some short fiction in there too.
I did have a great day today working up two new suspense stories -- one adapted from a thriller screenplay I never wrote, the other inspired by a path not taken by an episode of Peter Gunn.
I'm considering turning these into post-war period stuff. They really have a bit of a retro feel, and plotting can be easier without cellphones and also when ladies weren't expected to be as independent, but people didn't find it the least bit scandalous when they were, because, you know, Rosie the Riveter.
Also, one of them just might be a great for the overarching plot of a Starling and Marquette story. (Might even do with Gwen as the woman-in-jep, as she definitely has a helpless 1940s dame vibe....)
And I'm still uncertain as to whether to use a pen name for this romantic suspense line of stories. The goal is to be consistent in appeal to the romance audience. But, since I have a tendency to turn romance expectation on it head, I might have to wait and see if bothering with a pen name is worth it.
(For these, it will be an "open" pen name and you'll know.)
See you in the funny papers.
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
ROW80 Check In 5 - Writing Season
Since what I'm writing right now will be published under a pseudonym that will not be revealed, I've decided not to talk so much about the specifics of what I'm doing right now. Instead I'll do a quick update and talk about more general writing issues.
ROW80 Update 5
I can't report exactly what I did this half week. I didn't keep track. I took a little more time off, then started making adjustments to all sorts of things, and got down to work.
A lot of that work was editing. I got one story done, and another maybe a third to a half done. I have decided to wait until I finish the second to publish the first. (And since I'm writing stories in overlapping waves, I'll probably have a good chunk of a third done at that time.)
I also have a cover which only needs some tweaks. And I finally settled on a pen name for the naughty stuff. Which I shant tell you, but I will say that I chose it based on typography. More about that in another post.
For today's post, I want to talk about weather, or more specifically about seasons:
Writing Season
I hate summer.
I hate hate hate hate hate summer.
I have some reversed version of Seasonal Affective Disorder, I think. Light overstimulates me and makes me miserable and I can't sleep and yet I'm sleep deprived and can't stay awake either. My eyes and head hurt from the glare most of the summer.
And heat? I can't abide heat. I lurk in basements until nearly dawn because it's too hot to sleep, and then it's too light to sleep.
In the meantime....
I have been in school or working in an academic institution for pretty much my entire life. The academic calendar is supposed to be great for writers. You have summer to get all sorts of writing done. It's supposed to be vacation! Like being a kid, who can run FREE during the summer.
And I have fallen for that line every year of my life.
Somewhere around February, you start thinking "Oh boy when summer break comes, I'll really get something done!" And as the spring semester wears on, you look forward to it more and more and more. Boy, you're really going to see some writing THIS summer. Man, it's gonna be GREAT.
And then Daylight Savings Time hits, and sometime later in May, the days just get too freaking long, and then in June the heat starts in. And sometime in July, I'm curled up on the cool tile floor of the basement bathroom, whimpering and wishing it would just end.
And then, just as August decides to cut us a break with some cool nights and shorter days....
It's time to start ramping up for the new school year. After all, the summer plans have completely failed by then.
Fall, on the other hand....
I love Fall.
I love love love love love Fall.
September, imho, is the best of all possible months. (With the possible exception of any other month with an R in it.) The days might be balmy or brisk, but all within the perfect comfort zone. At least in Michigan. If it snows, it'll be warm the next day, and if there is a blazing heat wave, the nights will be cool.
But of course, when you work in Academia, September can be the Month From Hell.
September is when you find out just how badly an idiotic administrator can screw up critical things when nobody is around to stop him/her/it (and how well they can hide what they did until the very moment that critical thing is most needed). September is when all the new, confused and tearful students are panicking and lost (often because of the idiotic thing done by administrators over summer).
September is when academic support people are working overtime (and often off the clock) to make sure classes actually happen.
September is when academic support people don't even NOTICE what time of day it is or what the weather is, or that it's even September.
And just the other day, I realized something.
This time, for the first time in almost fifty years.... the coming September is ALL MINE! It belongs to me me me me me!
Bwa-HA-ha-hahahahaha!
If I can just survive July and crawl through August to grasp it.
See you in the funny papers.
ROW80 Update 5
I can't report exactly what I did this half week. I didn't keep track. I took a little more time off, then started making adjustments to all sorts of things, and got down to work.
A lot of that work was editing. I got one story done, and another maybe a third to a half done. I have decided to wait until I finish the second to publish the first. (And since I'm writing stories in overlapping waves, I'll probably have a good chunk of a third done at that time.)
I also have a cover which only needs some tweaks. And I finally settled on a pen name for the naughty stuff. Which I shant tell you, but I will say that I chose it based on typography. More about that in another post.
For today's post, I want to talk about weather, or more specifically about seasons:
Writing Season
I hate summer.I hate hate hate hate hate summer.
I have some reversed version of Seasonal Affective Disorder, I think. Light overstimulates me and makes me miserable and I can't sleep and yet I'm sleep deprived and can't stay awake either. My eyes and head hurt from the glare most of the summer.
And heat? I can't abide heat. I lurk in basements until nearly dawn because it's too hot to sleep, and then it's too light to sleep.
In the meantime....
I have been in school or working in an academic institution for pretty much my entire life. The academic calendar is supposed to be great for writers. You have summer to get all sorts of writing done. It's supposed to be vacation! Like being a kid, who can run FREE during the summer.
And I have fallen for that line every year of my life.
Somewhere around February, you start thinking "Oh boy when summer break comes, I'll really get something done!" And as the spring semester wears on, you look forward to it more and more and more. Boy, you're really going to see some writing THIS summer. Man, it's gonna be GREAT.
And then Daylight Savings Time hits, and sometime later in May, the days just get too freaking long, and then in June the heat starts in. And sometime in July, I'm curled up on the cool tile floor of the basement bathroom, whimpering and wishing it would just end.
And then, just as August decides to cut us a break with some cool nights and shorter days....
It's time to start ramping up for the new school year. After all, the summer plans have completely failed by then.
Fall, on the other hand....
I love Fall.
I love love love love love Fall.
September, imho, is the best of all possible months. (With the possible exception of any other month with an R in it.) The days might be balmy or brisk, but all within the perfect comfort zone. At least in Michigan. If it snows, it'll be warm the next day, and if there is a blazing heat wave, the nights will be cool.
But of course, when you work in Academia, September can be the Month From Hell.
September is when you find out just how badly an idiotic administrator can screw up critical things when nobody is around to stop him/her/it (and how well they can hide what they did until the very moment that critical thing is most needed). September is when all the new, confused and tearful students are panicking and lost (often because of the idiotic thing done by administrators over summer).
September is when academic support people are working overtime (and often off the clock) to make sure classes actually happen.
September is when academic support people don't even NOTICE what time of day it is or what the weather is, or that it's even September.
And just the other day, I realized something.
This time, for the first time in almost fifty years.... the coming September is ALL MINE! It belongs to me me me me me!
Bwa-HA-ha-hahahahaha!
If I can just survive July and crawl through August to grasp it.
See you in the funny papers.
Monday, July 15, 2013
Higher Prices in Effect (and a Sale)
NOTE: because I'm no longer doing some of the things that motivated me to change prices, I've decided that this is a bad time to experiment in higher prices. I may run this un the spring or next fall. In the meantime, I have adjusted prices close to where they were before. It may take a while for prices to trickle in to all vendors on all books.
* * *
I decided to raise my prices to a more professional level, where I expect to keep them for at least six months to a year.
Doing this can be a lengthy process -- but I saw today that the new prices have now trickled through to all the Smashwords vendors, so I just put in for raised prices at Amazon. These prices should be in effect by tomorrow (Tuesday).
To ease the transition (for anyone who has a sample and was waiting to buy later) I timed this change to go with the...
Smashwords Summer Sale!
ALL of my books are half price at Smashwords this month. (Half off the new price, which puts it lower than the old price.)
Here is the page with all books listed: Camille LaGuire at Smashwords.
Note that when you go to the sales page they are listed at full price. You will need to use a coupon code to get the sale price. Luckily that coupon code is printed right below the list price, and just above the purchase buttons: "Use the code SSW50 at checkout for 50% off during our site-wide promotion! (Offer good thru July 31, 2013)."
But to be sure you get it: the coupon code is: SSW50
So What Are The New Higher Prices?
The price points for my new list are as follows:
6.99 - Big books (over 90k in length, of which I have none at the moment)
5.99 - regular novels between 60k and 90k
4.99 - Short novels 40k - 60k
3.99 - Novellas 17k - 40k
2.99 - Shorts and novelettes 8k-17k
As of this moment, I do not plan to publish anything under 8k, (except pen name stuff). The Curse of Scattershale Gulch is skirting the bottom end of this, and I'm considering lowering that price to 1.99.
Part of the reason I'm doing this is to bring my regular prices more in line with the prices of The Experiment. Therefore it is possible I will change my mind as this experiment develops. Therefore I may change the prices again in as little as six months... but I really would also like to see a full sales cycle at this price, so I'd rather leave it for a year.
See you in the funny papers.
* * *
I decided to raise my prices to a more professional level, where I expect to keep them for at least six months to a year.
Doing this can be a lengthy process -- but I saw today that the new prices have now trickled through to all the Smashwords vendors, so I just put in for raised prices at Amazon. These prices should be in effect by tomorrow (Tuesday).
To ease the transition (for anyone who has a sample and was waiting to buy later) I timed this change to go with the...
Smashwords Summer Sale!
ALL of my books are half price at Smashwords this month. (Half off the new price, which puts it lower than the old price.)
Here is the page with all books listed: Camille LaGuire at Smashwords.
Note that when you go to the sales page they are listed at full price. You will need to use a coupon code to get the sale price. Luckily that coupon code is printed right below the list price, and just above the purchase buttons: "Use the code SSW50 at checkout for 50% off during our site-wide promotion! (Offer good thru July 31, 2013)."
But to be sure you get it: the coupon code is: SSW50
So What Are The New Higher Prices?
The price points for my new list are as follows:
6.99 - Big books (over 90k in length, of which I have none at the moment)
5.99 - regular novels between 60k and 90k
4.99 - Short novels 40k - 60k
3.99 - Novellas 17k - 40k
2.99 - Shorts and novelettes 8k-17k
As of this moment, I do not plan to publish anything under 8k, (except pen name stuff). The Curse of Scattershale Gulch is skirting the bottom end of this, and I'm considering lowering that price to 1.99.
Part of the reason I'm doing this is to bring my regular prices more in line with the prices of The Experiment. Therefore it is possible I will change my mind as this experiment develops. Therefore I may change the prices again in as little as six months... but I really would also like to see a full sales cycle at this price, so I'd rather leave it for a year.
See you in the funny papers.
Saturday, July 13, 2013
ROW80 Check In 4 - With a Little Sex In It
Happy Bastille Day, everyone.
Changed my mind on what story I'm doing next. I am doing off the cuff short stories after all. More below. An then I changed my mind again, (see further below). First, the update:
Wednesday, Day 10 - 2168 words.
Thursday, Day 11 - 2035 words and a cover.
Friday, Day 12 - 527 words.
Saturday, Day 13 - 548 words.
But With a Little Sex In It
In the wonderful depression era comedy Sullivan's Travels, Joel McCrea plays a Hollywood director who wants to make a big, important literary movie -- something about the real experience of the downtrodden and dispossessed -- and as he tells his producer about it, the producer keeps interjecting, "but with a little sex in it." (Watch the first ten seconds or so of this clip: Sullivan's Travels Opening.)
I was having the opposite problem of Sullivan: when I tried to write erotica, the story kept breaking off into strange, quirky literary directions. Directions which made it cease to be erotica.
And this was a problem because, when it comes to the strategy of writing a ton of short stories and selling them for a premium price, erotica is king.
So my plan has been to write romance novelettes of various sorts. And on Wednesday of this week, I sat down and reviewed my work on the next novelette...
Then I took an internet break and saw an update by an erotica writer who is doing the same experiment I am. She was writing 5k stories and doing very well.
And it struck me that maybe I was trying to write the wrong length for smut. Five thousand words is still in the "take a concept and run with it" length. Novelettes demand some depth. Maybe that was my problem.
The point of this whole experiment is to see if I can make money -- you know, "Mercenary Writing" -- and finding out what I can write a lot of really fast that will sell for a premium price. So... I decided to see how many 5k stories I could write this weekend (that is Wed-Sat).
And it went amazingly, phenomenally well for two days. It went well in spite of the fact that I took time out to research the market on that length and price point, and did some cover work, and did the usual stuff with friends and family. When I wasn't doing that other stuff, I just sat and wrote.
For two days.
Third day, I crashed. Fourth day, I crashed more.
I can see burn out as an issue with erotica writing.
The Problem With Short And Hot
Is this irony, or what? Writing short erotica turns out to be incredibly easy, and also utterly exhausting. At least for me.
And it's both easy and exhausting for the same reason: It's all about intensity. This makes it very easy for writing off the cuff. You just start somewhere, and build a wave of intensity, take a breath, build another wave of intensity, take a breath, build a big wave of intensity.
It's easy because that's it. You start with a concept and run with it. It's exhausting because it starts intense, visceral and emotional, and you go more intense from there. That's why people pay big bucks for it even though they can get it free on the internet.
This week was worse because this is new to me. I burn up extra energy on "Hey, I can do this!" Excitement over something new -- especially something that could give good tangible results soon -- fires neurons. Makes you start thinking overtime, about the market, about plans, and about the writing itself. And these are all "anticipation" neurons, which are the same ones you're using to write the stuff.
And that's the worse thing -- because short erotica doesn't have plot, just intensity, thinking about it and plotting ahead can be as exhausting as writing. It's not only not necessary to think and plot ahead, it's counter productive. So the habit of thinking about the story outside of writing time is a problem too.
I expect that at least half of the energy burned was completely unnecessary -- just the usual energy of getting started, and having the wrong habits.
So anyway, on Thursday I was thinking "Hey, I could have three or four stories done by Sunday!" and today I have decent portions of two. One is really almost done, but what's left requires a functioning creative brain. I was hoping to publish one of these on Wednesday, and I still may do that, but first I have to find a way to manage my brain power.
What I'll achieve in the next three days? You'll find out on Wednesday. I do feel that, if I can get this energy management thing under control, I'll ultimately have more time and energy for the rest of my writing. I'll be able to do this in shorter sprints and batches, and then get back to my regular writing.
In the meantime, it's Bastille Day. And the day of glory hasn't quite arrived. No watering of the fields with the impure blood of tyrants yet. (Hey, La Marseillaise might sound really rousing, but man is it bloody. No wonder the Nazis shut down Rick's Cafe after the customers stood up and sang it.)
(I always watch that part of Casablanca on Bastille Day.)
(Oh, and BTW, there was a LaGuire on the committee that voted to behead Louis XVI. Just so you know. This may be why my superiors decided to treat me unusually well when they laid me off.)
See you in the funny papers.
Changed my mind on what story I'm doing next. I am doing off the cuff short stories after all. More below. An then I changed my mind again, (see further below). First, the update:
Wednesday, Day 10 - 2168 words.
Thursday, Day 11 - 2035 words and a cover.
Friday, Day 12 - 527 words.
Saturday, Day 13 - 548 words.
But With a Little Sex In It
In the wonderful depression era comedy Sullivan's Travels, Joel McCrea plays a Hollywood director who wants to make a big, important literary movie -- something about the real experience of the downtrodden and dispossessed -- and as he tells his producer about it, the producer keeps interjecting, "but with a little sex in it." (Watch the first ten seconds or so of this clip: Sullivan's Travels Opening.)
I was having the opposite problem of Sullivan: when I tried to write erotica, the story kept breaking off into strange, quirky literary directions. Directions which made it cease to be erotica.
And this was a problem because, when it comes to the strategy of writing a ton of short stories and selling them for a premium price, erotica is king.
So my plan has been to write romance novelettes of various sorts. And on Wednesday of this week, I sat down and reviewed my work on the next novelette...
Then I took an internet break and saw an update by an erotica writer who is doing the same experiment I am. She was writing 5k stories and doing very well.
And it struck me that maybe I was trying to write the wrong length for smut. Five thousand words is still in the "take a concept and run with it" length. Novelettes demand some depth. Maybe that was my problem.
The point of this whole experiment is to see if I can make money -- you know, "Mercenary Writing" -- and finding out what I can write a lot of really fast that will sell for a premium price. So... I decided to see how many 5k stories I could write this weekend (that is Wed-Sat).
And it went amazingly, phenomenally well for two days. It went well in spite of the fact that I took time out to research the market on that length and price point, and did some cover work, and did the usual stuff with friends and family. When I wasn't doing that other stuff, I just sat and wrote.
For two days.
Third day, I crashed. Fourth day, I crashed more.
I can see burn out as an issue with erotica writing.
The Problem With Short And Hot
Is this irony, or what? Writing short erotica turns out to be incredibly easy, and also utterly exhausting. At least for me.
And it's both easy and exhausting for the same reason: It's all about intensity. This makes it very easy for writing off the cuff. You just start somewhere, and build a wave of intensity, take a breath, build another wave of intensity, take a breath, build a big wave of intensity.
It's easy because that's it. You start with a concept and run with it. It's exhausting because it starts intense, visceral and emotional, and you go more intense from there. That's why people pay big bucks for it even though they can get it free on the internet.
This week was worse because this is new to me. I burn up extra energy on "Hey, I can do this!" Excitement over something new -- especially something that could give good tangible results soon -- fires neurons. Makes you start thinking overtime, about the market, about plans, and about the writing itself. And these are all "anticipation" neurons, which are the same ones you're using to write the stuff.
And that's the worse thing -- because short erotica doesn't have plot, just intensity, thinking about it and plotting ahead can be as exhausting as writing. It's not only not necessary to think and plot ahead, it's counter productive. So the habit of thinking about the story outside of writing time is a problem too.
I expect that at least half of the energy burned was completely unnecessary -- just the usual energy of getting started, and having the wrong habits.
So anyway, on Thursday I was thinking "Hey, I could have three or four stories done by Sunday!" and today I have decent portions of two. One is really almost done, but what's left requires a functioning creative brain. I was hoping to publish one of these on Wednesday, and I still may do that, but first I have to find a way to manage my brain power.
What I'll achieve in the next three days? You'll find out on Wednesday. I do feel that, if I can get this energy management thing under control, I'll ultimately have more time and energy for the rest of my writing. I'll be able to do this in shorter sprints and batches, and then get back to my regular writing.
In the meantime, it's Bastille Day. And the day of glory hasn't quite arrived. No watering of the fields with the impure blood of tyrants yet. (Hey, La Marseillaise might sound really rousing, but man is it bloody. No wonder the Nazis shut down Rick's Cafe after the customers stood up and sang it.)
(I always watch that part of Casablanca on Bastille Day.)
(Oh, and BTW, there was a LaGuire on the committee that voted to behead Louis XVI. Just so you know. This may be why my superiors decided to treat me unusually well when they laid me off.)
See you in the funny papers.
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
ROW80 Check In 3 - What's Next?
This is the wrap up for Experiment Novelette #1. At this point, it's hard to track word count because I'm putting the pieces together and backfilling small gaps and cutting redundancies and trying to make it all work together.
Sunday, Day 7 - Not a Clue. Today I re-outlined and knitted together what I had. I realized that the best of the material from the cut first chapter can work with Chapter 3. (I really think we have to meet the count before the end.)
Monday, Day 8 - More than 1000 words. But I really don't know how much because it's mostly knitting and backfilling. A hundred words here, fifty words there. A thousand words there, but then a eight hundred words cut.
Tuesday, Day 9 - Okay, I had a good start on my backfilling, etc., but I didn't get anywhere near as far as I wanted to. Still I'm going to work a little further on it tonight, and then stick a fork in it. I think I have a total of about 10k and it will probably end up with another 2-3k when I come back and finish it.
What Next?
Okay, I "finished" a story. It needs work, but I have declared the rough draft done. I didn't even think about what I'd do next while I wrote it. I had some vague ideas that I ought to do more of the same in this genre, and maybe this book would have a sequel or two. It has some possibilities as a series, even if it is romance.
This, I realize, could be a problem for my plan.
For the original Dean Wesley Smith plan, it's not a problem because short stories are a kind of "make it up and go" length. But that's exactly why I don't like writing that length except for microfiction. If I'm going to sit down and just write something off the cuff, I want to have it finished when I get up from that writing session.
I like novelettes because they have more plot to them, more complex movement. They have things to weave together. They require a little more thought ahead. And to successfully write 2000 or more words in a day, I have to have a sense of where I am going.
I have considered the following:
*Take the few days off to "fill the well" -- develop up a few more of these ideas and then dive in on Sunday.
Why I don't want to do that one: I'm trying to develop better habits here. I'm just getting on a roll. It is not time to take a break. That's why I'm sticking a fork in the current story! To force myself to keep moving.
*Don't give in! -- Write the 2000 words a day (Or 1500 or whatever I decide to set) on anything at all, including major novels I won't be working on for some time in the future, while I figure out what I'll do for my next project. Then dive into the next story on Sunday.
Why I don't want to do that one: This one is tempting, and was my actual plan until yesterday, but I know myself, and if I do this I will get scattered and actually accomplish nothing.
What I'm actually going to do:
*Recognize that I actually have several stories in a pile waiting to be written -- even if I had lost interest or confidence in them while writing a different genre. Even if they were turning out "too long" for this experiment.
Lost Interest? I've written something very different in between, I am refreshed for a contemporary romantic suspense again.
Lost Confidence? That's the other thing this experiment is about. It's part of the point of writing a bunch of short fiction. If it sucks, or I'm doing the wrong genre, it will be over soon, and there are a bunch more stories to write that won't suck and will be in the right genre (whatever that is).
Too long? Hey, at least they are ready to write. No need to take time off to come up with a different, shorter idea. They aren't that much longer.
When I'm done with these two stories, then maybe I'll have been at this long enough to take a few days off to brainstorm new ideas, or flesh out some partial ideas. And when I do that, I'll have three new novelettes/novellas under my belt!
See you in the funny papers.
Sunday, Day 7 - Not a Clue. Today I re-outlined and knitted together what I had. I realized that the best of the material from the cut first chapter can work with Chapter 3. (I really think we have to meet the count before the end.)
Monday, Day 8 - More than 1000 words. But I really don't know how much because it's mostly knitting and backfilling. A hundred words here, fifty words there. A thousand words there, but then a eight hundred words cut.
Tuesday, Day 9 - Okay, I had a good start on my backfilling, etc., but I didn't get anywhere near as far as I wanted to. Still I'm going to work a little further on it tonight, and then stick a fork in it. I think I have a total of about 10k and it will probably end up with another 2-3k when I come back and finish it.
What Next?
Okay, I "finished" a story. It needs work, but I have declared the rough draft done. I didn't even think about what I'd do next while I wrote it. I had some vague ideas that I ought to do more of the same in this genre, and maybe this book would have a sequel or two. It has some possibilities as a series, even if it is romance.
This, I realize, could be a problem for my plan.
For the original Dean Wesley Smith plan, it's not a problem because short stories are a kind of "make it up and go" length. But that's exactly why I don't like writing that length except for microfiction. If I'm going to sit down and just write something off the cuff, I want to have it finished when I get up from that writing session.
I like novelettes because they have more plot to them, more complex movement. They have things to weave together. They require a little more thought ahead. And to successfully write 2000 or more words in a day, I have to have a sense of where I am going.
I have considered the following:
*Take the few days off to "fill the well" -- develop up a few more of these ideas and then dive in on Sunday.
Why I don't want to do that one: I'm trying to develop better habits here. I'm just getting on a roll. It is not time to take a break. That's why I'm sticking a fork in the current story! To force myself to keep moving.
*Don't give in! -- Write the 2000 words a day (Or 1500 or whatever I decide to set) on anything at all, including major novels I won't be working on for some time in the future, while I figure out what I'll do for my next project. Then dive into the next story on Sunday.
Why I don't want to do that one: This one is tempting, and was my actual plan until yesterday, but I know myself, and if I do this I will get scattered and actually accomplish nothing.
What I'm actually going to do:
*Recognize that I actually have several stories in a pile waiting to be written -- even if I had lost interest or confidence in them while writing a different genre. Even if they were turning out "too long" for this experiment.
Lost Interest? I've written something very different in between, I am refreshed for a contemporary romantic suspense again.
Lost Confidence? That's the other thing this experiment is about. It's part of the point of writing a bunch of short fiction. If it sucks, or I'm doing the wrong genre, it will be over soon, and there are a bunch more stories to write that won't suck and will be in the right genre (whatever that is).
Too long? Hey, at least they are ready to write. No need to take time off to come up with a different, shorter idea. They aren't that much longer.
When I'm done with these two stories, then maybe I'll have been at this long enough to take a few days off to brainstorm new ideas, or flesh out some partial ideas. And when I do that, I'll have three new novelettes/novellas under my belt!
See you in the funny papers.
Sunday, July 7, 2013
ROW80 Check In 2 - Definitions of Complete
This segment of the ROW80 challenge:
Will this story be complete in the requisite 10 days? For certain loose definitions of the word "complete"... uh, yeah. (Complete with redundant, incompatible scenes and jumps and stuff. Also, the characters will have changing names.)
But I've decided to go with loose definitions of complete, and to keep bulling through as many stories as possible. Keep building momentum and better habits.
So as of the next check in on Wednesday, we'll see how close to done I am. Then I have to move on to another story.
I might do another in the same series. It's only a novelette, so there's lots of material yet to explore. Particularly since I have discovered that he villain is not only courting the heroine, but actually in love with her. (The poor guy deserves a lot more torturous development, and maybe even a redemption and a girl of his own.) And the hero hasn't even quite given her a kiss yet.
I have pretty much decided that I will be publishing this under a pen name, but I am undecided as to whether to keep this pen name a secret.
See you in the funny papers.
Wednesday, Day 3 - 1113 Words. Started well, but later in the day started coming down with either a sinus infection, or just a reaction to all the gunpowder in the air. (Turned out to be a silent migraine, actually.)
Thursday, Day 4 - Holiday - what time I didn't spend with friends and family, I spent sleeping and not breathing. So it was the day off. (Also, started playing Risk on my iPad. Mistake.)
Friday, Day 5 - 2297 words. Enough with the set up, cut to the chases and kisses and stuff.
Saturday, Day 6 -1682 words. Major final chase scene.
Will this story be complete in the requisite 10 days? For certain loose definitions of the word "complete"... uh, yeah. (Complete with redundant, incompatible scenes and jumps and stuff. Also, the characters will have changing names.)
But I've decided to go with loose definitions of complete, and to keep bulling through as many stories as possible. Keep building momentum and better habits.
So as of the next check in on Wednesday, we'll see how close to done I am. Then I have to move on to another story.
I might do another in the same series. It's only a novelette, so there's lots of material yet to explore. Particularly since I have discovered that he villain is not only courting the heroine, but actually in love with her. (The poor guy deserves a lot more torturous development, and maybe even a redemption and a girl of his own.) And the hero hasn't even quite given her a kiss yet.
I have pretty much decided that I will be publishing this under a pen name, but I am undecided as to whether to keep this pen name a secret.
See you in the funny papers.
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
ROW80 Check In 1 - Cut the First Chapter Rule
You know how they say that you should just cut the first chapter from the story, and the whole beginning will be better? Had some illustration of that this segment. (More below.)
In the meantime, I got off to a rocky start (ironic considering what I ended up writing -- more on that below too), but things moved along.
I'm aiming at 2000 words on the days I am mostly writing. While I had a story lined up to work on, I decided start with something more spontaneous, simply because I thought I could rip out the words better. So I came up with an outlaw swashbuckler.
Sunday, Day 0 - 1602 words. I had a great start, but I kinda pooped out in the evening.
Monday, Day 1 - Nada. My afternoon session ended up being a plotting session. It was useful, and given the kind of stuff I came up with, the evening session should have been fruitful.... except then a friend had a cat emergency and we ended up spending the whole evening in the Kitty ER. Kitty is fine. We think she probably ate a bug that had some really irritating substance or something.
In the meantime, friend is rewriting a class on vector illustration and needed examples to show students the right illustration styles for the form. (Many students shoot themselves in the foot trying to do Photoshop or canvas style arts.) So we had some fun talking about great illustrators, such as Milton Glaser and Saul Bass, and I found myself coming up with lots of examples of the things I've been studying. (Like WPA posters!)
Tuesday, Day 2 - 2086 words. Screwed around, made bread, and still had several good writing sessions. Here, however, is where the "cut the first chapter" rule kicked in.
That Annoying First Chapter
I started the story in the middle, as I often do, to get a sense of it. I thought I had a first half of a story in mind, and I knew the kind of things that should happen in the second half... but something satisfied me about my mid-point. Even though it seemed like an awfully unsatisfying straight-line plot. Still, shorter stories are often like that....
Until I realized that all it needed was for me to start earlier, and flesh out the set up properly. Then the end would work fine.
So today I went back and wrote the beginning. It was awkward and jumpy, and I knew there was a lot of unnecessary exposition. It was rough, exploratory writing. I wrote a thousand words and I thought, "I'm going to have to do all of this from scratch, but I've got my voice and ideas in line..."
And then it hit me -- I didn't need to rewrite it, I just needed to dump it. I had gone back too far, started too early. It would be perfect to start with the very next scene -- a horse race on rocky ground. Everything I need is there, excitement, flow, a chance to let the characters talk about expositional issues.
This is the classic "cut the first chapter" situation. When you're trying to set something new up, you have a tendency to blather, and explore in various directions, make some false starts, get used to the voice of the story. The story often only gets going in the second chapter.
Unfortuantely (fortunately?) this story is stretching out, and will probably be longer than I expected. The writing is quick, but it means I should try to up my daily quota. We'll see.
See you in the funny papers.
In the meantime, I got off to a rocky start (ironic considering what I ended up writing -- more on that below too), but things moved along.
I'm aiming at 2000 words on the days I am mostly writing. While I had a story lined up to work on, I decided start with something more spontaneous, simply because I thought I could rip out the words better. So I came up with an outlaw swashbuckler.
Sunday, Day 0 - 1602 words. I had a great start, but I kinda pooped out in the evening.
Monday, Day 1 - Nada. My afternoon session ended up being a plotting session. It was useful, and given the kind of stuff I came up with, the evening session should have been fruitful.... except then a friend had a cat emergency and we ended up spending the whole evening in the Kitty ER. Kitty is fine. We think she probably ate a bug that had some really irritating substance or something.
In the meantime, friend is rewriting a class on vector illustration and needed examples to show students the right illustration styles for the form. (Many students shoot themselves in the foot trying to do Photoshop or canvas style arts.) So we had some fun talking about great illustrators, such as Milton Glaser and Saul Bass, and I found myself coming up with lots of examples of the things I've been studying. (Like WPA posters!)
Tuesday, Day 2 - 2086 words. Screwed around, made bread, and still had several good writing sessions. Here, however, is where the "cut the first chapter" rule kicked in.
That Annoying First Chapter
I started the story in the middle, as I often do, to get a sense of it. I thought I had a first half of a story in mind, and I knew the kind of things that should happen in the second half... but something satisfied me about my mid-point. Even though it seemed like an awfully unsatisfying straight-line plot. Still, shorter stories are often like that....
Until I realized that all it needed was for me to start earlier, and flesh out the set up properly. Then the end would work fine.
So today I went back and wrote the beginning. It was awkward and jumpy, and I knew there was a lot of unnecessary exposition. It was rough, exploratory writing. I wrote a thousand words and I thought, "I'm going to have to do all of this from scratch, but I've got my voice and ideas in line..."
And then it hit me -- I didn't need to rewrite it, I just needed to dump it. I had gone back too far, started too early. It would be perfect to start with the very next scene -- a horse race on rocky ground. Everything I need is there, excitement, flow, a chance to let the characters talk about expositional issues.
This is the classic "cut the first chapter" situation. When you're trying to set something new up, you have a tendency to blather, and explore in various directions, make some false starts, get used to the voice of the story. The story often only gets going in the second chapter.
Unfortuantely (fortunately?) this story is stretching out, and will probably be longer than I expected. The writing is quick, but it means I should try to up my daily quota. We'll see.
See you in the funny papers.
Monday, July 1, 2013
Test of the RSS feed for this blog
Today Google is shutting down its RSS Reader. Many people are fearful that, unannounced, Google will shut down Feedburner -- the service that many (if not most) Blogspot users use to provide RSS subscriptions to others.
If you see this message in your RSS feed, all is well. Either Google did not shut down Feedburner, or you didn't subscribe through the Feedburner link.
If this blog has disappeared from your RSS feeds, and you are looking at this post directly on the site, you can re-subscribe with this link:
http://daringnovelist.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
That is the direct link to this blog's feed.
If Feedburner is still working, I'd rather get subscribers through that, because I can see how many people have subscribed. (However, I'd rather have readers than stats!)
If you see this message in your RSS feed, all is well. Either Google did not shut down Feedburner, or you didn't subscribe through the Feedburner link.
If this blog has disappeared from your RSS feeds, and you are looking at this post directly on the site, you can re-subscribe with this link:
http://daringnovelist.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
That is the direct link to this blog's feed.
If Feedburner is still working, I'd rather get subscribers through that, because I can see how many people have subscribed. (However, I'd rather have readers than stats!)
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