The awful truth about writing...
Okay, this is the post that hindsight will no doubt turn into a 'if only I'd known...' kinda thing.
First of all I am a dabbler. I'll admit it now, and I'll admit it loud. I run my own company, and the amount of time I spend dabbling tends to depend on how busy and how strapped for cash I am. I can and do work 18 hour days when I need to. I can and do work 2 hour days when I can ;-)
Now, for the on-topic topic... On the right hand side of this blog, I have a list of "progress counters" that I cunningly installed back in... ohh Jan 18th this year.
Back then, my list of projects went...
Vampire
New Hunt Story
Old Hunt Story
Kai
Stacey
Fantasy 001
Poppy
"Done"
Abacus
Vino
Now for the scary part... because, after months of opening word documents, typing, chatting, reading, plotting, character and world building, where am I at?
Well....
New stories begun...
Eclipse (inferno)
Fly in the Mud
Cat (fantasy)
Eton (rock vamp)
Continuing on from that post...
Vampire
Vampire - Ch1 short sub for Enchanted Ramblings
Vampire - now + subsequent storyline
New Hunt Story - untouched
Old Hunt Story - untouched
Kai
Kai - now (untouched since march)
Stacey
Stacey - now
Fantasy 001
Fantasy - 2nd attempt
Fantasy - 3rd attempt
Fantasy - 4th attempt *active*
Poppy - original version as in January - unchanged
Poppy - 2nd attempt - 3836 words
Poppy - 3rd attempt - 5208 words
Poppy - 4th attempt -dispairing - 820 words
"Done"
Abacus
Vino
Now, I'm looking at that list and seeing... ooh 11 unfinished stories, and a total of... *counts* 72898 new words. That's a friggin' book!!! Two, in the ebook world!!! What the heck am I playing at???
Epiphany, where the hell are you???
First of all I am a dabbler. I'll admit it now, and I'll admit it loud. I run my own company, and the amount of time I spend dabbling tends to depend on how busy and how strapped for cash I am. I can and do work 18 hour days when I need to. I can and do work 2 hour days when I can ;-)
Now, for the on-topic topic... On the right hand side of this blog, I have a list of "progress counters" that I cunningly installed back in... ohh Jan 18th this year.
Back then, my list of projects went...
Vampire
New Hunt Story
Old Hunt Story
Kai
Stacey
Fantasy 001
Poppy
"Done"
Abacus
Vino
Now for the scary part... because, after months of opening word documents, typing, chatting, reading, plotting, character and world building, where am I at?
Well....
New stories begun...
Eclipse (inferno)
Fly in the Mud
Cat (fantasy)
Eton (rock vamp)
Continuing on from that post...
Vampire
Vampire - Ch1 short sub for Enchanted Ramblings
Vampire - now + subsequent storyline
New Hunt Story - untouched
Old Hunt Story - untouched
Kai
Kai - now (untouched since march)
Stacey
Stacey - now
Fantasy 001
Fantasy - 2nd attempt
Fantasy - 3rd attempt
Fantasy - 4th attempt *active*
Poppy - original version as in January - unchanged
Poppy - 2nd attempt - 3836 words
Poppy - 3rd attempt - 5208 words
Poppy - 4th attempt -dispairing - 820 words
"Done"
Abacus
Vino
Now, I'm looking at that list and seeing... ooh 11 unfinished stories, and a total of... *counts* 72898 new words. That's a friggin' book!!! Two, in the ebook world!!! What the heck am I playing at???
Epiphany, where the hell are you???
posted by TeeBee at
8:37 pm
8 Comments:
Make a list of the ones you really want to finish.
Pick one.
And finish it.
It's working for me... mostly ;-)
I agree with Kim. Although often that's easier said than done - The Phoenix Song hasn't been touched for six months, not because I don't want to work on it but because I am easily distracted by other things. Honestly, I used to have a WiP folder of 75 pieces. Now it's only 14 or so, some of which I *know* will never get finished.
It's definitely opened my eyes to see that many people consider 20,000 words a 'book'. Before I found e-publishing there's no way I'd have written anything less than 80,000 words before sending it out - but in the last year I've written about five novellas, just because there's an obvious market for them.
So, why not see if any of the ones you've got on the go will work as a novella rather than a full-scale novel? Then you can cap it at 25-30,000 words. If it goes longer, then all the better: but if you aim to make it a novella, you'll feel more of an achievement when you reach your word-limit.
Midnight Showcase do 90% of their business with anthologies, and they'll contract for their digests based on synopsis. I got in with them that way and I've found them very author-friendly. The fact that I had a deadline to meet worked wonders - it was the first time I'd sold on synopsis and I wrote the novella in a week on sheer panic. It gives you a kick up the bum, knowing there's a 'real' deadline. So if you were determined to finish one thing then enquire about openings in their future digests. Just a thought!
Otherwise, when I get bogged down, I write all the WiP titles on bits of paper, put them in a hamster ball and pull one out. I write whatever gets picked. Or I decide I hate it and junk it and choose the next one. Okay, maybe this isn't the best method after all...
What sort of company do you run, btw? *is nosey*
Or you could have short stories at 12k
Or shorter short stories between 4-8k
Most of my fantasy stuff is turning out at this length - well the stuff that I'm finishing is, anyway.
You could also try the Amber Quill comp for Jan again. That's 10-18k this year
And yes, we'll now bug you till one of those stories is finished.
I want the vamp one *grin*
If the vamp one is the follow-up to the story in ER #4 (was it 4?), then I second Kim!!
Yup, it's that one!
*gnaws lips*
You two are great :-D
... but *eep* the pressure! I'll... *considers what promises she might keep*... open up the vamp one for nano (not committing to the 50k, mind ;-))... *gulp*
...thank you thank you thank you...
oh! and 'web development' kinda, sorta. Databases and hosting, that kind of thing - no pretty stuff, unfortunately :-)
My website is pretty... hehe
And I'm making no promises about reaching 50k - it would be nice... but my plot may not reach that far, LOL
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