Today I named a reporter "Mike Hunt," and another one "Jenny Tulls," just because.
Another interesting thing about writing a novel is the amount of stuff I have to look up and learn about. News reporters--exactly how do they talk? Had to look that up so I can accurately write a couple of paragraphs and make it somewhat believable. This happens constantly, and I find myself reading about all sorts of things, from generators to how wounds heal to how elevator shafts are designed.
First draft is at 27,760.
Total earnings from my books is at $808.24.
Found in the meme thread posted by Nick and thought of you.
In reply to johndej :
Haha, nice.
I've had a bit of free time this afternoon and was able to put some work into my writing. I'm feeling kinda bored with writing erotica. I'll probably take another week off from it, then try something new. Also, I'd rather just focus on my "real" writing. So, I got some done on my scifi book, and I've been working on the outline and first draft to another one. Can't remember if I mentioned it before in this thread, but there's a pretty new genre known as "litrpg," which is basically like writing a fantasy book but you're character is in a video game, and they're aware that they're in a video game. For example, instead of writing about, I dunno, killing an orc or something: In a regular fantasy book, the hero would kill the orc. Maybe the orc had a cool sword or was guarding something. Whatever. In LitRPG, after the hero kills the orc, he notices he gets 400 experience, and then loots five silver coins. Later on, He'll use that experience to gain a level and put one more in strength so he does more damage. It's like narrating a video game. I've checked out some of the books and most of them aren't that great, as in the authors aren't the most skilled and I don't think they used a proper editor. It's also a wildly popular genre, and if you check the litrpg subreddit they all basically laugh about how most of the books are crappy and how they still love them. So I'm going to try one, possibly under a different pen name. We'll see. I'll try to start keeping tabs on that project as well.
Scifi first draft: 28,515 words
litrpg first draft: 2,983 words
I've made the decision to pretty much quit writing erotica. I haven't published anything in 3 weeks or so, and I just don't feel like writing. I may write another story or two in the future under the pen name that I posted in here earlier, just if an idea pops into my head, but I won't be focusing on writing a lot of stories anymore. And my other pen name, I think I'll just let that one die down. I'm still making a few bucks per day from it. I have limited time, so I'd rather put that effort into writing my real books.
Finding it a bit difficult to get motivated this morning, so I just have to take my own advice of "shut up and write." I.E., when you have writer's block or aren't in the mood, sit down and write anyways.
Scifi first draft is at: 29,095
LitRPG first draft is at: 4,641
I have not read everything. If I had seen this earlier, Id have suggested we meet at Jordancon in Atlanta and let me introduce you to several of my published author friends. My uncle wrote the Wheel of Time ( first season is on Amazon...shamess plug) and the convention for his books has helped start many authors. Tickets are sold out BUT i could still arrange some chats if Atlanta is possible over April 22, 23, 24.
Toymanswife said:
I have not read everything. If I had seen this earlier, Id have suggested we meet at Jordancon in Atlanta and let me introduce you to several of my published author friends. My uncle wrote the Wheel of Time ( first season is on Amazon...shamess plug) and the convention for his books has helped start many authors. Tickets are sold out BUT i could still arrange some chats if Atlanta is possible over April 22, 23, 24.
James Rigney, AKA Robert Jordan is probably the entire reason I started writing. I began reading the Wheel of Time back in about 1996 and I've read through the entire series probably 5-6 times. Unfortunately, Atlanta isn't possible for me at that time, with an 8-month-old and being a little bit low on PTO at the moment. Thank you so much for kindly reaching out though! In a few months I might be in a better place for something like that.
If I have to wait until next year for something like this, that's okay, as I'll be in a better place (IE, with more books written and more of a following). Again, thank you!
My 8-month-old decided that 1:45AM was a great time to wake up and want to play, so I've been up since then. I finally just came into work at 3AM, so at least I got a bit of extra time to focus on writing. He and The Wife went down around 6 for a good, long nap.
I started writing what could be described as the buildup to the climax of the novel; sort of a 3-4 chapter long action sequence that'll include lots of "oh, no!" moments. Also, I'm finding that my LitRPG is kinda fun to write. I have a very rough outline in my head, but I'm just sitting down and writing on that one. I'm not nearly as concerned about making it some kind of masterpiece, so perhaps that helps. I just try to make sure I've improved my word count any time I post here :-)
Cyberpunk first draft: 30,577
LitRPG first draft: 6,441
I've got a pretty bad sinus infection so I've been remote the past two days. With my job, that means I have a LOT of free time. I'm trying to use that time to work on my writing, but right now I'm too sick to really focus.
I did, however, get my mailing list setup and created a basic website. For a beginner author, it's got pretty much all I need: my name, a place to sign up for my mailing list, and links to my books. I still need to add an author bio at the bottom, but I'll wait until I can take a nice author photo to include. I also have to decide what direction to go with the photo. Since my writing tends to be pretty gritty, I think I'll go with black and white, serious face.
This is my stupid website and you shouldn't click here
Dealing with the mailing list is a pain in the rear. Mailchimp claims to offer so much for free, but they really make you hunt for it, all the while telling you to upgrade to unlock the features you want.
A friend informed me of a cyberpunk anthology being put together, so I'm writing a short story for that. I'm aiming for 7K words, and get this: I'm doing a dark, gritty, cyberpunk retelling of Inspector Gadget. Yep. I'm about halfway through (2968 words at this very moment). Once I finish that, I'm going to put more focus back into my cyberpunk novel. I also still need to write and publish a reader magnet, which is just a novella/novelette published and offered for free, with a link to signup for my newsletter at the front and rear.
Hopefully I get over this sinus infection soon, because I feel like straight garbage.
I am in for cyberpunk Inspector Gadget.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
I feel like it's the perfect character to do this to; no living family other than his niece, Penny. Most of his body has been replaced with cybernetics, so there's gotta be a reason for that. Everything about Inspector Gadget just screams potential tragedy. I'm at 5K words and finishing up the end of the story right now. Once I finish, I'll do another run through the story and flesh it out with more/better descriptions and details. My ultimate goal is 7K words, which shouldn't be too hard.
What I've found is difficult is thinking of "gadgets" that aren't corny. Inspector Gadget was kinda known for the helicopter blades that came out of his head, but that's peak silliness. I'm trying to think of things that would be more realistic and "cyberpunk," so of course we've got a gun that shoots from his palm (similar to the movie Upgrade(fantastic movie, watch it if you haven't seen it)) and fingertip blades and built-in lockpicks. Weapons make sense to me, since I believe a more realistic angle to take on cybernetic limbs would be companies creating them for military use.
After a hefty dose of Sudafed, my sinus infection is dialing back a touch, which is good. Yesterday I was absolutely miserable. I should finish that short story today. Once that's done, I want to start brainstorming and rough plotting my reader magnet. I'll shoot for probably 15K words, although that'll all depend on how the story goes. Sometimes they take off on their own and become longer, sometimes they're difficult and word counts are hard to attain. Then, I need to think of a name for my cyberpunk trilogy. The book titles are as follows:
Like Shadows in the Night
Like Tears in the Rain
Like Lightning on a Wire
I'm happy with the book titles, I just need a trilogy title. I also might have an additional book published that's a collection of short stories and novelettes set in the same world. After all that, and after my cyberpunk trilogy is complete, I have a sword-and sorcery (a type of fantasy) book or two that I have planned. My first ever book, the novella "The Fallen City" is a prequel to that. Once all that is done, I can finally start on my big, big project, the fantasy epic that is the entire reason I started writing. I started writing it a year ago and then stopped when I realized I just wasn't a good enough writer to do it. So I figure after a solid year or two of writing experience I'll try it again.
First draft of my cyberpunk inspector gadget short story is done. My editor is going over it now and I'm having a couple friends read over it, then I'll be submitting it for an anthology. It's sitting at 6,174 words right now, after a round of edits I'd like to improve some descriptions and push that closer to 6500 or 7000.
I finally thought of a great idea for my reader magnet for my cyberpunk trilogy. In the first book the main character mentions something, just a single paragraph, that happened to him a few months back that he was still healing from. Last night I word vomited about 1,000 words worth of a very rough outline, so over the next week or two I'll be turning that into a proper story. I'm turning that into a novelette, and once it's done I'll give it away for free to try to attract readers, and try to get them to sign up for my newsletter. Then I'll get back to finishing my current two book projects.
I'm making good progress, but sometimes it's a little frustrating when I look at how much more I still need to do.
I've had a productive week!
I completed a prequel novelette/reader magnet for my cyberpunk trilogy, and even made some cover art for it. It turned out pretty nice:
Especially considering my last attempt at making cover art turned out pretty horribly. Once I finish editing this story, it will be released for free.
Now that I've finished this and my cyberpunk Inspector Gadget revision, I can focus on finishing my book!
I wish I could write this fast. One page in two hours is the best I can do most of the time.
In reply to Gearheadotaku (Forum Supporter) :
It's definitely a learned skill, and there are things I do to help me squeak out more words. Write or Die can be helpful for short sprints. It gets you to stop worrying about precise grammar and word choice and just write. I try to use it for 500-word sprints in 10 minutes. If I'm writing a part of my book that I've outlined, it's usually pretty easy (to an extent).
writeordie
I'm still very far behind the schedule I had set for myself. There's nothing I can really do about it except write more. I wanted to have my second book published by now, but instead I'm only a little over 30K words. Granted, I made a basic website, setup an email newsletter, wrote a short story for an anthology and another one for a reader magnet, so I shouldn't be too hard on myself.
I'm going to wait a bit to release my reader magnet. Ultimately, I'd like to release it, and then release book two in my trilogy a couple weeks later. That's sort of the pattern successful people follow, so I'm just trying to copy them! But for now, back to writing. I have some free time today so I'm hoping I can squeeze 3K words out of myself.
What we really need is more people doing car fiction. BS Levy proved this stuff could sell.
Progress has been slower than I'd like, but I have to remind myself at times that I have a busy life. I finally surpassed 40K words on the first draft of my novel. I'm just finalizing the blurb and waiting until Monday or Tuesday and I'll publish my reader magnet. A day later (hopefully less) I'll be able to get Amazon to drop the price to free. My Cyberpunk Inspector Gadget story was submitted to the publisher of the anthology, so fingers crossed on that one.
Altogether, I wrote about 25K words in the past month. I'd much prefer that number to be double; I can't hit my goals for the year at this rate. I'll get there eventually.
Finally published my reader magnet. It's a free novelette that serves as an introduction to my cyberpunk trilogy, and hopefully gets people to sign up for my newsletter. Here's a link:
LINK
I'm at 43K words on the first draft of my current novel. I'd like to finish around 60K or a little higher. I don't think I'll have much problem getting there. Once I finish that, I need to write another short story or two for some anthologies (anthologies don't generate much income, but they can be good at getting my name out there) and then jump right into the final book of my trilogy. I don't really have any ideas for the plot other than the very final ending, so it'll be interesting to see how quickly I can think of something interesting.
infinitenexus said:
Right now I'm writing a plotline in my book where the young female character (sort of a sidekick) finds the guy that murdered her old friend. She wants to get revenge on him but that means getting close, so she's being nice and even a bit flirtatious until she gets the opportunity to kill him. He is unaware that she knows he did it. This doesn't affect the overall plot much; it's mostly for character development and to show how such a dark, violent chapter in her life affects her and changes her as a person over the course of the trilogy.
I posted that a month ago. That little side plot is finished, and wow, it is dark and violent. It definitely serves as an event that strips the innocence of youth from this character, and changes her.
Now that my reader magnet is published and free, I'm starting to get some downloads. I want as many free downloads as possible, with the obvious goal of those people enjoying the short book and moving on to purchase other books of mine. So far I've gotten about 60 downloads total, which is fair. I have a promotional campaign setup to run next Monday, which should get me a lot more downloads--my goal is at least 1,000 downloads in about a week total. I just had someone purchase one of my other books, so it's definitely working, just slowly. Also updated my website:
website
Now I just need to sign up for story origin or book funnel and do some newsletter swaps so I can get people on my newsletter. That's the #1 tool for independent authors.
When progress is slow it can be frustrating, but I have to remind myself that I am making progress. Excellent progress, in fact.
I didn't get much done last week since I was too busy with work during the week and we spent the weekend in Canada. However, my free novelette is doing very, very well. It's #1 in multiple categories on amazon and is currently #251 on the entire free kindle store. My hope is that enough people will enjoy my writing and will want to check out other books and join my newsletter. I've already gotten some nice reviews on amazon, twitter, Instagram, etc, so that feels great.
Still working on finishing the first draft of my second novel. Currently sitting at 47,406 words. I'm hoping I can finish the first draft this week; that's my goal, at least. We'll see if I have the time.
I've also been jotting down ideas for book #3 in my trilogy. I know how the last two chapters will be, but I still need to figure out the overall plot for the book. I'm sure ideas will flow in.
I found a sci-fi horror anthology that's accepting submissions, so I'm going to write a story for that as well. I've never written horror, but I tend to have a pretty dark style of writing so I think I can do it no problem.
Finally passed 50K words on my first draft. I'm guessing around 6K more words will finish the book, then I get to start revisions. During that I'll work on improving descriptions and dialogue and hopefully add another few thousand words.
I signed up for the inkfort press publishing derby. In short, you get a premade cover and pen name and you write a story that matches. Once it's ready for publishing, you aren't allowed to spend any money on promotion, and you're not allowed to reveal your identity—it's all done anonymously. I think it'll be fun.
My goal to finish my first draft this week definitely isn't going to happen, but at least I'm close.
I really need to finish my first draft this week. I'm trying to finish this stuff in a timely manner and I'm a few months behind where I wanted to be this year. Granted, I'm also raising a 9-month-old and working 45 hours per week and comparing myself to people that have a LOT more time to write, but I still want to be faster. I have to make myself focus and just write, no matter what.
I have a lot on my mind this morning; Immigrating to Canada is looking unlikely, as I'm just not a well-qualified immigrant. That's depressing, as my wife and I have dreamed of moving there for two years. Reviews for my reader magnet on GoodReads are doing well, but on Amazon I'm sitting at a 3.4 star average. I received a 1 star rating and a 2 star rating as well as a couple 3 stars and multiple 4 and 5. The majority of them are 4 and 5 star ratings. 3.4 isn't too bad, and some people just like to be jerks and hit stuff with a 1 star rating, but that really hurts me on Amazon's algorithms. It also just makes me feel bad.
I selected my preferred covers for the inkfort press publishing derby. There were some nice ones, some okay ones that were clearly not in my preferred genre, and some that were absolute garbage (to me, at least). Hopefully I get a good one, then I'll have to write a 10K word minimum length story, so just a novella. I think that should be kinda fun.
My phone is full of text messages to myself from whenever I get potential plot ideas. I got an idea last night about someone hacking into a self-driving car and using it to assassinate someone. I might use that in book 3 of my trilogy. The time is rapidly approaching that I'll need to think of a plot for that book.
I finally got a couple people to sign up for my email newsletter, so I need to start crafting my first email to send out on the 1st. That's kinda exciting.
Anyways, feeling kinda down today and I need to write a lot of exciting action parts in my book, so that'll be a challenge.
Excellent news: Yesterday I finished the first draft of my second novel! It clocks in at 54,737 words. Over the next week or two I'm going to crawl through it and do some revisions, improve some descriptions, and add things like graffiti, bad breath, and forearm hair to help give it a "grittier" feel. As of now, it's a very dark book, but a lot of that darkness comes from a few violent situations the characters find themselves in. I want to ensure the setting of the book comes across as properly dark and grimy. I also have to read all the dialogue out loud to make sure it doesn't sound dumb. Once I'm done with all that, I'll send it to my editor.
I received the cover art from the artist, and I think I like it. I've asked for some feedback from a Facebook group I'm in that handles covers, but I think it'll work.
Now I can take some time to work on a few short projects; I need to write another short story (5-7K words) for an anthology and to help myself develop this world some more, and I should receive my cover for the publishing derby soon. Whatever the cover is, I have to write a short book (10K+ words) based on that cover. I'm looking forward to it.
In reply to KevinElliott :
Reading a variety of stories can be an excellent inspiration, and sometimes when writing I just read the previous chapter or so to get my mind "in the mood" and try to imagine the scene in my head so I can think of where I would like for it to go next. Hopefully that makes sense. What has helped me the most is what I call the "word vomit." No grammar, no cares about punctuation or coherency, I just type out my thoughts nice and quick. For example, in chapter three I know I need my character to drive to AutoZone to pick up a clutch for his 944. So then I start my word vomit, which might look something like this:
Jimbo turned on his truck, the old engine grumbles kinda like him because he's grumpy about the porsche clutch he drives towards the store and sees a miata on the way and thinks about how much fun the diminutive cars are and finally gets to AutoZone after waiting in line he talks to the parts guy he's in luck they have one clutch left but it's $500 for the clutch disk, he's shocked but knows he has to pay the porsche tax if he wants to drive one, reluctantly pays and gets the clutch disk then drives home
I'll do an entire book that way, obviously with more detail, but you get the idea. The idea is to let raw ideas and creativity flow without worrying about grammar or if you have the perfect wording of a phrase. Once that's all done, I'll go back and rewrite everything properly and finish the first draft.
So, some good news today. I heard back from the cyberpunk anthology I submitted my cyberpunk inspector gadget story to, and they liked it. However, they need me to change the names. I can't use Penny and Dr. Claw or any other blatant references to Inspector Gadget. In a way that kinda ruins it, but I guess I still have the basis for a good story even with different names.
