I don’t like being a landlord, I really don’t. But, we are bouncing between these two houses and it finally is getting put on the market to sell it. The people “renting” the place (more of occupying it for me) are out of the place and we just have all the clean up left.
And that is why I’m sitting on a hotel bed in Illinois instead of obsessing about my novel in Iowa.
Fluffy and I got into talking about what we should be called. She is fond of “mom” or “mommy”, but I prefer “papa” or “Dylan”. This created an interesting discussion of what children should call their parents. I’m in favor of precision: when I heard a child screaming “Dylan”, I know it might actually be me. But, “dad” is kind of generic for me. It will be interesting to see how that wanders out.
Bouncy and Uteck showed up for the weekend, mainly to chat and socialize. I got to talk about gaming (another post) and I actually brought up the entire “dad”, “papa”, or “Dylan” thing. And, as many things happened, one thing to lead to another and I mentioned the names of the characters in my novel.
Got chapter four critiqued at Nobel Pen this week. It wasn’t what I would call really good and I seem to be having a bit of trouble getting over it. There was good advice in there, but some of it made me wonder if I’m somehow doing the wrong thing. Like missing the point or somehow creating a story with potential that never really goes anywhere. I think Wind, Bear, and Moon was in there, but I’m getting hints that Flight of the Scions might also. Its frustrating, because I really haven’t figured out what I’m doing ungood to make this story spark.
In a different part of writing, I got a short story out on Friday. The reading period ended that day, so I’m hoping that they meant 23:59:59 instead of “end of the work day”. Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. It’s an okay story, not what I would call great at this point, but it could be the shadow of the critique speaking.
It is amazing how fragile I can get from opinions of my writing. I think it makes sense, since we (writers) seem to put so much of ourselves into our writing. It will be a good story when I finish, just need to get there.
One of the technical side is I decided to learn Git at the same time I polish up my writing toolchains (series of programs that work together). So, I created a git repository for mfgames-writing toolchain which will have the various programs I use to write. Right now, I only have the beginning of mfgames-docbook for converting from DocBook 5 XML files to PDF. Eventually, it will include HTML, ePUB, BBCode, ODF, and text. I’m going to also add a few other programs, like the Creole version.
Update: Fixed link, renamed things.
Looks like the pace of writing for the next few weeks is going to be a chapter a week. I’m mostly starting to write on Friday going until Sunday, which a bit of desperate editing for the last seventeen hours or so. Overall, having a lot of fun. There are little things I’m picking up to make my writing smoother and better. I’m also noticing my writing style is changing, but I honestly can’t say for better or worse, but at least I have half a dozen people enjoying it, so it can’t entirely be bad.
For the rest of the week, I’m focusing on other smaller writing projects. Last week, I finished polishing up the editing for my commission. The commissioner loved it and only asked me to change someone’s hairstyle because it resembled a friend and the character in question ended up very dead. I can’t argue with that, I really can’t.
This week, I’m working on a short, seven thousand word, transgendered cyberpunk. It is due Thursday, which means I need to get off my literary ass and get chugging. It isn’t a sure thing, but I’m really enjoying the romance part of it and it forces me to write shorter, more concise stories. My normal average is ten thousand words, so cutting a few grand helps me improve myself.
Wow, I’ve had a very interesting day yesterday. It mostly involved me sitting on the bed (my current favorite writing spot) and working on the second round edits for my commission. I got it down and sent out, which is always a rush because I just absolutely love writing “END” at the bottom and meaning it.
I also worked on getting MG ready for eBooks. Yes, it is at the end of its effective life of being a niche novel with a small reader base, but print on demand (POD) gives me the chance to keep it out there, long after it is no longer commercially viable. Plus, I get the chance of learning how to do typesetting and enjoying all those little technical details about creating books I don’t exactly get as a writer.
I hate when books disappear. I’ve been trying to get copies of some of my favorite novels for years but for some reason don’t want to spend $80 for a banged up copy. I’d rather give the original author a few more dollars for the work they put into it. Traditional publishing might not allow that, except for the evergreens and classics. So, I went with POD for MG (and now eBooks). Someone might want it in a few years, so might as well keep it out there. Creating an eBook is something I’m willing to do, because it doesn’t take that much effort once you have the original manuscript.
Me keeping MG alive is much like my reviews. I write the reviews that I want to get. I keep MG up because I would love it if other publishing companies would do the same. No, it won’t make them do it, but if I’m not willing to do it myself, how could I ask anyone else to? I already know I’d pay for a POD book that I remember from my past, or one that simply doesn’t show up on the shelf anymore. Same with eBooks. Doesn’t mean you have to advertise them to avoid diluting the new novels, but I’d still like it to be out there.
But, time to work on the new again. I owe Noble Pen chapter three by tonight, so between doing cleaning, accounting, taxes, and ripping DVD’s, I need to clean up chapters one through three and get it posted.
The rest of this is about the technical side of my writing.
Thursday has come around. This week at Noble Pen, we are going over chapters 2 and 3 for Flight of the Scions. It’s a bit longer piece (around 7k words), but I’m anxious to see if others like it. There are holes in it–I already found some, but I don’t think they are major ones.
I’m really enjoying writing this. It still has that “new writing project” smell. I’ve been distracted with my commission and got the first draft finished last night. Tomorrow, I’ll do the second, then Saturday/Sunday the third. I’ll send it out on Sunday.
If things go well, I’ll probably be writing a chapter or two for Flight of the Scions for Sunday again. If there are others that want to have something, I won’t submit anything, but I’m just having fun. I decided that I’ll only submit something if there is an empty slot.
In other writing news, I started getting my first novel formatted for an ePub. Remarkably, I had most of the tools already, my odt2text program dumped it into a format just slightly wrong. It doesn’t have the illustrations in, but I need to create reduced DPI versions for the reader anyways (72 verses 600 dpi for print). I’m also going to put the amazing cover I got for it. It will be easier than typesetting the book, but I think there is still a bit of effort to make the ePub file look “good”.
I still loving making my self-published books look good, be it in print or on screen. Just a matter of pride, but I find doing it from end-to-end to be just as exciting as doing just one part.
I said I didn’t care about the pricing issues between Macmillian and Amazon. That isn’t entirely true. I think the idea of more flexible pricing is a rather important thing in the long run, but in the short-term, it doesn’t directly affect me. I also have faith that the market will stabilize into something workable; it might take a few starts, but given what I see in the other medias, I think I have a good idea of what it will become.
So, there was some point today when I briefly answered a few things on people’s blogs that I realized I was working out my thoughts on other people’s personal space (sorry, Mr. Hines). Most of it had to deal with the Macmillan and Amazon war going on, but some rather well-thought out posts also got me thinking about digital books.
I’ve convinced myself I’m a horrible writer because of the difficulties I had with publishing Wind, Bear, and Moon. Call it the self-inflicted torture that I think a lot of writers put themselves through. Fluffy called me being “emo” when it happens (i.e. most nights that I don’t have a productive writing session… you know, most nights period).
One of the things that makes it worse is positive feedback. It might be strange, but I’ll use a co-worker for example. Yesterday, at lunch, one of my peers asked to read the first chapter of Flight of the Scions (i.e. Wind, Bear, and Moon rewrite 4). After 5-10 minutes, I got a short review.
It’s good. I liked it.
While I enjoy his company, I hate that review. I also get it from family members and friends. Well, I get the reverse from some family, as they tear it apart and tell me every little thing I do wrong.
I think that is why I’m enjoying Noble Pen, the critique group, so much. They are honest about the stuff they read. I’ve seen them pick apart some of the members stuff, but they list both the good and the bad at the same time. They talk about the higher level stuff I never think about, but also the lower level grammar I struggle with. Nothing is ever completely positive or completely negative.
So, when they say they like my chapter, it feels more real than friend’s and family’s reviews. I got some really good suggestions on making it easier to read, places to clean up the sentences, and suggestions for representing the genre better, but I came out of it feeling like I learned something and I’m not quite as lousy as I make myself to be.
I’m doing chapter two for next week, which means I need to write a lot for the coming weekend. I try to finish everything by Sunday, but I also have my commission due Tuesday after that. It’s doable and it will be fun, but it also means a very exciting weekend.
After the various struggles this week, I think I got over the hump of it. The car repair place found out how they screwed up my car (apparently the supersekrit fuse under the driver side seat) and fixed it for free. The flashing lights and stalling are part of the security system, so once the computer started talking again, everything worked smoothly. It was also an expensive week. I have to push back a few bill payments just to get through it, but I think I have a plan going forward. I even annoyed Verizon by taking off as much as possible from the phone bill to reduce the price by another $20/month.
I’m happier.
In writing, I think I’m doing good. I wasn’t planning on working on Flight of the Scions until after My Father’s Bike, but the need to have something finished today for the writing group (Noble Pen) means I went with that instead of another comedy piece. I mean, I still don’t see me as a comedy writer, but most of my publishing successes are humorous.
The new chapter is much different than the first. It builds up the main character’s personality a lot more. It also changes them from whiny to slightly bitter/frustrated, which is an emotion I can work a lot better with. Plus, I got rid of the some of the low-grade Mary-Sueism. It also reduces number of introduced characters in a single chapter from 7 to 3. Though, since the earlier chapters dictates why things happen in the later, it also completely changes the why of the novel, but with the same end result as the original.
Later this week, I need to work on the commission. So, no distractions… yeah, right.