Month: July 2013

And… I’m back!

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The logjam of laziness that has captivated my writing ambitions for the past week or so has finally broken (with a little help from my trusty sledge-hammer: Self-Discipline and a heavy application of Butt-Glue (That’s the short name. The long name is Butt-In-Chair-Glue).). Yesterday I plugged away at Descent, my alien-abduction type novel, and cranked out 4,173 words. Today I hope to do something similar with Jefferson’s Road: God and Country. Of course, even assuming I match yesterday’s effort, that will still put me significantly behind toward reaching my goal of finishing all six novels by the end of the year. And here I was doing so well!

Sigh. Nine days of writing very little works out to a loss of 18,000 words. I’d only banked 5,643 extra words with all my previous efforts to get ahead. Less than three days. True, I did manage to write 1,847 words during that time (almost a full day’s work), but that still puts me behind by 10,510 words. Yesterday, I reduced that to 8,337. Maybe I can knock it down below 6,000 today.

God willing, I’ll pull something off before my wife returns later this afternoon and wants to go out on a date. Family first, right? For now, I’ve got to grab a shower and get cranking.

Later!

Off stride a bit…

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I confess I’ve been off stride this past week. Fact is, after cranking out better than 42K the first two weeks of July, the last week has been an absolute bust. Less than 1300 words for the entire week!

In all fairness, it’s been a rather busy week at that. My Mom came up to visit us, and we’ve had some car repair issues on top of the kids needing to be ferried all over creation (okay, it’s mostly my wife who’s done that last bit – though I’ve done a little), and we’ve had get togethers on back to back Sundays. All of which conspires to almost nothing written. It’s going to take some effort to get back on track. The word counts I booked prior to this by going over my minimal word count of 2k won’t be enough to cover the loss of an entire week, so I’ll have to stretch to pull this off.

Which brings up what I think is the real culprit behind the word count fiasco. On at least two of my stories, I’ve felt the plot lines sorta getting away from me. And I’ve faced a set back on a third – meaning the heart of the story hasn’t even begun yet because I’m still dealing with leftover issues from the previous novel. It’s been a little disheartening. I suspect what I’ll have to do is sit down and outline these two books, see if I can’t get a handle on what’s supposed to happen so I can avoid any rabbit trails leading to rabbit holes.

On a side note, and perhaps related to the discouragement over all, is the realization that I haven’t approached my writing career as strategically as I ought to have. The prevailing wisdom is to write an individual series, and then release books in that series close together (like months, not years as in the traditional model) to avoid confusing the reader. Writing multiple series is all well and good, but typically this is done one at a time.

On the other hand, I can’t exactly back off on the books I currently have available to just concentrate on one series or another. Well, maybe I could, but I don’t think it would be beneficial overall.

Jefferson’s Road is the closest to being done series I have, so there’s no question I’ll keep writing that. My Janelle Becker books are the best selling series, so it makes sense to keep doing them as well. Given that Topheth has sold so little to this point, I suppose I could pull it down, rename it something more recognizable (I’m thinking of “Burning” or “The Burning”), and then sit on it until I’ve got at least two more Janelle stories ready to go.

Definitely can’t do that with the Jonathan Munro Adventures, so those books are off the table as far as this is concerned.

That leaves me also with the Dragon’s Eye Cycle – a different genre, admittedly, and the Spilled Milk books.  Would there be wisdom in pulling these books and then re-releasing them when I have the rest finished? I doubt it with Spilled Milk, but Eye of Darkness, possibly. I might consider changing the title, and then re-releasing it under a pseudonym, so that I don’t confuse readers with what Michael J. Scott writes. I haven’t sold so many that it’d make a huge dent in matters, so it’s something to consider.

Of course, Turning is still out there as well. I haven’t pushed this one at all, and there are far more to write. I could pull it and then finish more before resubmitting it.

But the real solution, I suspect, is to plan out an entire story arc for a series, write the books ahead of time, and then only release them one a month once they’re all finished, fully edited, and covers professionally done and consistent. I have two unfinished books that might serve toward that end, so I’m not exactly starting from scratch here. It will take some tweaking to make these two books – both stand alones – fit into a single series, but I believe I can pull it off.

So this will be the next strategy, even as I work on finishing the current series that I have. I’ll let you know if I decide to pull anything down and then release more strategically in the future.

Making Real Progress Now…

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I’ve shifted into a new gear with my writing. Still working on six books at once, but now I’m stretching myself to write no less than 2,000 words per day. So far, this is what I’ve produced for the past week.

4-Jul 2,333
5-Jul 2,502
6-Jul 2,508
7-Jul 2,031
8-Jul 2,343
9-Jul 2,568
10-Jul 2,669

As of today, I’ve written another 2,006 words, and I may crank out more later on this evening. At this rate, I will be able to add roughly 60,000 words to each of my current works in progress by the end of the year, which should mean that I finish all six books. This would be a major accomplishment for me.

My hope is, as I continue to push myself toward greater and greater productivity, that I shall soon be able to finish a book a month or less (yes, you read that right). At only 3K words a day, consistently, that’s achieved. Of course, I’m still drawing my inspiration from Amanda Hocking at this point. Girl writes an entire novel in a week. Mind-blowing. But not outside the realm of possibility.

I’ve found that working on six books simultaneously has its advantages. I can still generate my requisite number of words, even if I get stuck somewhere, merely by shifting my efforts to a different book. So long as I work consistently on the same six books, I’m able to move everything forward toward completion.  As it stands right now, my works in progress, with word counts, are:

A Glass Half-Empty 21,990
The Blood-Eater Coven 23,057
Nicholas 23,347
The Music of the Spheres 23,585
Descent 23,717
God and Country 24,756

So there you have it. I’m looking forward to seeing what’s become of this list in another five and a half months. For now, I”m getting back to work.

A Year of Milestones

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Since I first published The Spirit of Resistance in July of 2010, I’ve been marking my writing year from July to June. Thus, now that we’ve crossed the threshold into July, it’s time for a recap.

An especially helpful recap, frankly, because for the past week or so I’ve been feeling rather discouraged. No worries, though. It’s just part of being a writer, I’ve learned. There’s good days and bad days, up and down like  everyone else has.

At any rate, this year has been a  year of milestones.What are they? I’m glad you asked.

#1 –  TEN NOVELS WRITTEN

I’ve written and either published or had accepted for publication (Which is practically the same thing in my book) now ten novels. Yes. I’m officially into double digits. The Elixir of Life is due to come out in November, which puts me over the top. I don’t know if I’ll have another completed before then, given my current attempt at writing six novels contemporaneously, but it’s possible.

#2 – SOLD OVER 1,500 BOOKS

As of this writing, it’s more like 1,600, though I don’t have final numbers in yet from Ellechor (due Friday, and probably worth an update when they arrive).

When you combine these numbers with the freebies I’ve given away, I have almost 32,000 copies of some of my books floating out there somewhere.

Kboards (formerly Kindleboards) has just put up an author milestone page where my tally shows up (I have to update it. It’s on the honor system), and it’s kinda cool to see where I stand in relation to other authors. I’m definitely on the right target. It’s also highly motivational. I really want to get to that next threshold, now.

#3 – SOLD OVER 1,000 COPIES OF A SINGLE WORK

The Coppersmith crossed that threshold this past month, and I now have sold 1,003 copies of that particular story. That’s more than all my other books combined, which is kinda cool given that it’s my first born novel. Way to go, kid (hey, it’s a metaphor. Trust me: writers get it).

And while not exactly a milestone, I’m happy to report that I have now written over 100,000 words since mid February (or since the start of the year. If you remember, I took six weeks off at the beginning of 2013). While I’m convinced I can do better, it’s still something to be proud of. I’m averaging about 725 words per day at the moment. Now that I’ve got my groove back, I should be able to push the last two of my six current WIPs over the 20K threshold.

Of course, if I expect to maintain the growth of my book sales, I’m going to have to do some kind of promotion again this fall. I don’t know if I can duplicate the results of last year’s efforts, but I hope to pull something together that will at least get me close.

Some day, probably not next year or even the year after that, but someday fairly soon, I should reach the magic threshold of 1,000 books per month. That’s the magic line where a writer can earn a respectable living from his words alone. That’s the real short term goal. I guess I’m getting closer and more confident now that it’s achievable–and that is a milestone.