Weekly Update - 1/29/12

Yet another week with nothing new written. Naturally it was the perfect time for me to get a little inspiration for a totally different story that I'm not working on at the moment. I'll just commit that to notes and then get back to The Sevensong today. I wish I understood why I am struggling so much right now with making progress, or what I could do to motivate myself and get the motor running. This could be a really good book that no one ever knows about because I never write it. Hopefully I can break that wall down today.

Weekly Update - 1/22/12

Not much to report on this week as I've managed to once again waste seven good days of potential writing. That said, I'm committed to finishing the stubborn second chapter in the next 24 hours which should let me move the progress bar on The Sevensong up at least 1%. If that unlocks some major output as I get into the third chapter it may go higher.

As I said last week, I'm not hung up on what should happen, I'm just not happy with how my brain wants to describe it at the moment. I have a hard time just writing and knowing that I can come back and revise better description and dialogue. There's a perfectionist in me that wants it to be brilliant the first time, but I have to remind myself that even those whom I consider to be the best authors rarely put out brilliance in a first draft. Everyone revises and edits, and I am no different. I just need to let the words come, and worry about making it perfect later.

Weekly Update - 1/15/12

And so passes another disappointing week. I definitely think that my passion for writing is somewhat consumed by my more pressing need to find a real job. Hopefully I will have some time later this evening to start up some outlining, and then I can hit the word output real hard tomorrow morning. When progress happens, I'll be sure that everyone knows.

Weekly Update - 1/8/12

Yet another tool I will try to use to motivate me to be as productive as I can be, I will update this blog at least every Sunday. It was convenient that this year started on Sunday, making a perfect beginning for me to get this going.

Progress on The Sevensong has been almost non-existent, which is frustrating especially since that's my own fault. I don't have writer's block at the moment, I'm just not pushing myself to take advantages of the time I have. I will make it my goal to have the progress bar on the website move up a couple percentage points this week, which would be about 4k new words. The words are there, I just need to commit them to paper. Or hard drive if we're going to be technical about it.

Today I took some time to go over the path to take my books from a file on my computer to a Kindle-ready file. It's not overly complicated, but it will definitely take some practice to make sure I can do it right. Fortunately I have plenty of time, but I was able to take what I have of my first draft of Heart of Darkness and transfer it over to my Kindle. The cover image and table of contents worked, though they need some formatting, and it was fun to see my book on the device. I even tried out the text-to-speech function until it butchered a character's name, reminding me why I will be sure to make audio versions as well.

Updated Progress Bars

I took a moment to rethink some expectations for my different projects and have made some adjustments to the completion percentages on the website. The Sevensong originally started as a project for NaNoWriMo, so my expected final word count was 50,000. Dividing that up seven ways is just over 7k words, and the first chapter I wrote ended up around 2,100, so I knew that my final target needed to be a little bigger. I've upped that goal to 200k words which sadly brings my completed amount back to 1%, but it feels more realistic now.

Edge of Heaven and Heart of Darkness both have final counts of 150k, and the first book in the Talented Series has been pushed to 300k. If I really ever get around to that story, it will be three books that each have three big sections. Think along the lines of a trilogy of Lord of the Rings trilogies.

I have also rearranged the project section to better reflect the most likely order in which I will be working on/completing these books. Now I just need to get on the horse and make the top progress bar move.

The Beginning.

With the coming of the new year, one of my resolutions is to put a greater emphasis on completing some of the many writing projects I have begun in past years. With this new blog, and my new website, I hope to give myself some incentive to keep the effort up on these works by having a visible place for people to follow my progress. I hope to establish a Facebook page in the coming months, and possibly a new Twitter account as well. I'm still in the process of learning about the many ways to be an author who communicates well with prospective readers.

I will be pursuing the completion of the first draft of The Sevensong this year, and will move on to a second project if I achieve that in time. I will also need to decide on a story idea for National Novel Writing Month(NaNoWriMo) this year, though I think I have a good plan for that in the works. The ultimate goal is to work towards being able to self-publish a digital edition of my first book and see what happens. I am also going to need to work on getting into a writing group whether its online, or a group I find near home to get feedback on the things that I create.

Overall, this is very exciting for me. I've had so many ideas in my head for several years now, and participating in NaNoWriMo in 2011 gave me a lot of confidence in my writing. I look forward to sharing the journey with everyone who follows along for the ride.