Um…hi. It’s been an interesting week. I scored virtually zero on the word count meter (I added just 900 new words of fiction this week — blah!), but I kicked butt in several other areas, so I’ll take it!
I’ve been working on the blurb for Descent, the book I’ll publish in the next couple of weeks.
I also got back into Chaos Calling, the second book in my Foulweather Twins fantasy trilogy. My friend Stacey Wallace Benefiel mentioned in an interview last week that the second book in a series is the hardest — and I’m so glad she said that! I’ve felt like I was floundering with this since the middle of August. I have 50,000 words written, but for some reason have NOT been able to make myself write the rest. I need to get it written, because I’d really like to publish it within a year of the first book, which means by February 2014.
This week, with Descent off to beta readers and out of my hands for the moment, I went back in for a fresh look at my fantasy novel in progress. One day I made a lot of notes, and even added to the outline for the third book, trying to get a good sense of what remains to be done. A different day I went back through and listed the scenes that still need major work. There are only 11! Seven of those need to be written, and four need significant revisions or additions. But that isn’t bad AT ALL!! I’m very pleased. And now that I’ve taken a fresh look, it’s time to check these scenes off one at a time until I’m there. I love having a roadmap — it prevents stalling. 🙂
In other news, I read a great post a few days ago by Susan Kaye Quinn, a wonderful indie author with great resources and a wealth of advice over at her blog. This particular post was on the stages of the author life, and it really hit home with me. We each have our journey, and our individual style, goals, etc. To the best of our ability, we should strive to address that which is in our control, and IGNORE that which is not in our control. IMHO. 🙂
In the final tidbit for the week, I’m planning a MEGA-FREE promotion next week from Nov. 2nd through Nov. 6th. For five days the first THREE books in my fae-filled paranormal romance series will be free on Amazon. After that, they’re no longer going to be exclusive; I’ll get them back up on all e-retailers the second week of November. If anyone has space on their blog next week, I’d love a little help with promoting my MEGA-FREE event. See my last post for more on that.
Best of luck in the coming week, ROWers, and have a happy Halloween!
It sounds like you have had a very productive week. In the words of a writer friend of mine, it’s not about the word count, it’s about words that count! Have a great week.
I do this too. I’m working on one project and all of a sudden I’m in the beat sheet of another. I’ve learned to listen to my muse and act quickly. I doubt I’ll ever be able to work on just one project at a time.
I agree, you’ve had a productive week and you have lots of exciting things coming up. Good for you. Have a great week.
What Chris said.
Sounds to me like you did some quality work this week with planning and plotting. I’m pretty sure the reason I wrote my novel “so fast” is that there was so much done in my head before I finally put pen to paper, and it was just a manner of translating the mental images into words.
I cannot wait to read Chaos Calling! (Okay, well, I must wait and so I can wait… I just don’t want to wait!)
You may not have written a lot of words, but it sounds like you still made a lot of progress. Not all of our progress is easily tracked(something I have to remind myself of sometimes). Great job! and good luck this week.
Your beta readers need to get a move on. 😉