2012 was not much of a year for my original writing. While I did complete the NaWriNoMo event, in November, and I’m still working on that novel (77,500 words on the first draft as of this minute)
A couple of writing podcasts say you should set goals, and that’s what this post is about — setting goals and posting them somewhere in the hope that doing it publicly will generate some internal momentum when it comes to writing.
So, my goals for 2013 in my original writing program:
1) Finish all three novels I have half-written. (Minimum of a First Draft for each one)
2) Develop the world and backgrounds on two of the other series which I have ideas for.
3) Continue learning from self-publishing websites and podcasts.
4) Try outlining and structuring a fourth novel (I’m a blank-page type of writer, but I do have an one-off novel that I can work out the novel’s structure before I actually write word one.
5) Write four to six blog posts a month on the subject of being a writer from a newcomer’s perspective.
So, those are my writing goals for 2013. Too much or too little?
Craig
(Addition: I have set my Word goal for 2013 to 450,000 words. So, here we go!)
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Monday, December 24, 2012
Holiday Toast!
To all those present, I give you a Toast!
May the coming year be full of joy and light,
May friendships and romance survive more then a night.
May you find strength, peace and health this coming year,
May no darkness, hate and sorrow fill your soul with tears.
May life grant you everything it can,
May you find the grace to help your fellow man.
With this toast I do say,
May this year be nothing but brighter days!
Toast!
Craig
May the coming year be full of joy and light,
May friendships and romance survive more then a night.
May you find strength, peace and health this coming year,
May no darkness, hate and sorrow fill your soul with tears.
May life grant you everything it can,
May you find the grace to help your fellow man.
With this toast I do say,
May this year be nothing but brighter days!
Toast!
Craig
Monday, November 26, 2012
Thursday, November 8, 2012
NaWriNoMo Report — Week #1
Like a lot of would-be writers, I am participating in the NaWriNoMo event this month.
For those of you who don’t know what NoWriNoMo is, it stands for National Write a Novel Month. The idea is simple: you have thirty days to write 50,000 word novel. That’s it. Your novel may be longer, may be a pile of crap, or an editor’s worse nightmare. But the idea is to do the most important thing: write the story. The story can be refined, grammar-checked, plot holes filled in, characters chaged and edited to death at a later time. NaWriNoMo is all about getting the raw story down in a form other than having it stuck in your own mind. It’s starting with an empty sheet of blank paper (or an new file and filling it with words)
November is the designated month for this literary marathon. To stay on pace, you have to write an average of 1,667 words a day. That means sitting your butt in a chair and punching out that many words. a day. It’s a challenge, one designed to focus your efforts into pushing yourself as a writer instead of writing a few words here, a few words there.
Now this isn’t a real competition; no one’s going to judge your work or show up to watch you work. The main competition is with yourself, with the sloth in you, or the person who says, "I would like to, but I’m too busy!" It isn’t who can finish their novel first, nor is there a limit to what you can write about. The novel doesn’t even have to make sense or be complete. This is not sitting there and taking five minutes to decide with word to use; it’s playing by the seat of your pants, hitting the keys and stringing words together to form sentences, paragraphs and chapters. It’s rolling out the story as fast as your fingers can move. It’s mining for the story ore – the refinement comes later, after the story have been removed from the mine of your mind.
This is my second attempt at this: Last year, I started with Merlin’s Trial, the second novel in my Merlin Cronicles series. (The first novel is mostly written, and being worked on to refine it.) I saw the NaWriNoMo as a chance to get a large chunk of the story onto paper (or in today’s world, into a computer file). So I sat down November 1, 2011 and started writing.
For three weeks, I pushed myself to stay on track, and I was winning the battle. But late in the month, a chance to write a short story that would actually earn me some money cam up with a short turn-around time and I was force to chose between the two projects. In the end, I chose the paying gig, and ended up falling short on Merlin’s Trial by less than 8,000 words.
8,000 words. The length of the short story I chose to write. So, in a way, I did write 50,000 words that month, just not in the same project. But I did learn something about myself. I learned that given sufficient motivation, I can write a lot in a short time.
So, now I’m back for another with Merlin’s Courtship, third book in the some series. This time around, I decided instead of trying to stay on average, I would write as much as possible every day. Front-load the novel, so to speak. That way, if something comes up like last year, I would be in a position to stay on track without needing to devote as much time to the project. I started a spread sheet, tracking my total word count, my average daily written word count, my actual word count per day, and how many words I had left. As I write this blog entry on November 8th, I have the following stats:
Words written: 16,794 (33.6%)
Words left to reach 50,000: 33,206
Average words per day: 2,399 words (143% of average)
So, after one week, I’m a third of the way to my goal and I have yet to do any writing in this project today. A good start, but now is not the time to coast. Now is the time to double down and see if I can duplicate the totals above for this time next week. Which means I’m shooting for a minimum of 33,588 words. A loft goal, and one to shoot for.
To give you an idea if how much writing you have to do per day, this blog post, including title, is 846 words long, 50.7% of the NaWriNoMo average per day, about a page and a half on my word processor program and I threw this post together in less than an hour. So, if you can write about three pages a day, then you can write 1,667 words a day. As for me, I’m trying to stay in the NaWriNoMo fast lane, and will update eveyone next week on my progress.
Good Luck!
Craig
For those of you who don’t know what NoWriNoMo is, it stands for National Write a Novel Month. The idea is simple: you have thirty days to write 50,000 word novel. That’s it. Your novel may be longer, may be a pile of crap, or an editor’s worse nightmare. But the idea is to do the most important thing: write the story. The story can be refined, grammar-checked, plot holes filled in, characters chaged and edited to death at a later time. NaWriNoMo is all about getting the raw story down in a form other than having it stuck in your own mind. It’s starting with an empty sheet of blank paper (or an new file and filling it with words)
November is the designated month for this literary marathon. To stay on pace, you have to write an average of 1,667 words a day. That means sitting your butt in a chair and punching out that many words. a day. It’s a challenge, one designed to focus your efforts into pushing yourself as a writer instead of writing a few words here, a few words there.
Now this isn’t a real competition; no one’s going to judge your work or show up to watch you work. The main competition is with yourself, with the sloth in you, or the person who says, "I would like to, but I’m too busy!" It isn’t who can finish their novel first, nor is there a limit to what you can write about. The novel doesn’t even have to make sense or be complete. This is not sitting there and taking five minutes to decide with word to use; it’s playing by the seat of your pants, hitting the keys and stringing words together to form sentences, paragraphs and chapters. It’s rolling out the story as fast as your fingers can move. It’s mining for the story ore – the refinement comes later, after the story have been removed from the mine of your mind.
This is my second attempt at this: Last year, I started with Merlin’s Trial, the second novel in my Merlin Cronicles series. (The first novel is mostly written, and being worked on to refine it.) I saw the NaWriNoMo as a chance to get a large chunk of the story onto paper (or in today’s world, into a computer file). So I sat down November 1, 2011 and started writing.
For three weeks, I pushed myself to stay on track, and I was winning the battle. But late in the month, a chance to write a short story that would actually earn me some money cam up with a short turn-around time and I was force to chose between the two projects. In the end, I chose the paying gig, and ended up falling short on Merlin’s Trial by less than 8,000 words.
8,000 words. The length of the short story I chose to write. So, in a way, I did write 50,000 words that month, just not in the same project. But I did learn something about myself. I learned that given sufficient motivation, I can write a lot in a short time.
So, now I’m back for another with Merlin’s Courtship, third book in the some series. This time around, I decided instead of trying to stay on average, I would write as much as possible every day. Front-load the novel, so to speak. That way, if something comes up like last year, I would be in a position to stay on track without needing to devote as much time to the project. I started a spread sheet, tracking my total word count, my average daily written word count, my actual word count per day, and how many words I had left. As I write this blog entry on November 8th, I have the following stats:
Words written: 16,794 (33.6%)
Words left to reach 50,000: 33,206
Average words per day: 2,399 words (143% of average)
So, after one week, I’m a third of the way to my goal and I have yet to do any writing in this project today. A good start, but now is not the time to coast. Now is the time to double down and see if I can duplicate the totals above for this time next week. Which means I’m shooting for a minimum of 33,588 words. A loft goal, and one to shoot for.
To give you an idea if how much writing you have to do per day, this blog post, including title, is 846 words long, 50.7% of the NaWriNoMo average per day, about a page and a half on my word processor program and I threw this post together in less than an hour. So, if you can write about three pages a day, then you can write 1,667 words a day. As for me, I’m trying to stay in the NaWriNoMo fast lane, and will update eveyone next week on my progress.
Good Luck!
Craig
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
My Other Fantasy Series
As Promised in yesterday's note. . . .
While I’m working on my Death Throne novel, I’ve been working on and off on another project of mine for years, a Urban Fantasy series (Yes, series -- I have two half written novels and a completed short story so far, so yes a series). It’s about a normal guy who suddenly finds himself in the position of taking the family business — Merlin’s Heir. Now, a word from the main character:
My name is Roger Merlin, and I am the fortieth person to assume the mantle of Merlin’s Heir. Yes, that Merlin. I didn’t want the job — hell, I didn’t even apply for it. But it’s mine, and like it or not, I have to do it.
Why? Because someone needs to help defend humanity against those things that go bump in the night. and there’s plenty of them. Demons, evil spirits, werewolves (Fur, fangs, and really bad breath), vampires (Non-sparkly and vicious to boot) and nearly anything you can think of. I have my teacher, my snarky familiar and the best intelligence network on the planet to help me and Allies of Light (Pretentious title I know, but most of the other good ones are copyrighted) to call upon and be called on to help.
So, assuming I can get this all written down and translated into readable English, I will see about getting them published. In the meanwhile, if there’s a monster under the bed, don’t worry – sooner or later, I’ll be in the area.
That’s the series in a nutshell. I'm 90,000+ words into the first novel and I attempted to write the second one during the NaNo WriMo event (I failed, but did get 42,000+ words of the first draft down.) I also have a short story done that I may extend into a novella sometime down the road. Still working out the details, as I bounced through the series I have planned. Now back to writing!
Craig
While I’m working on my Death Throne novel, I’ve been working on and off on another project of mine for years, a Urban Fantasy series (Yes, series -- I have two half written novels and a completed short story so far, so yes a series). It’s about a normal guy who suddenly finds himself in the position of taking the family business — Merlin’s Heir. Now, a word from the main character:
Why? Because someone needs to help defend humanity against those things that go bump in the night. and there’s plenty of them. Demons, evil spirits, werewolves (Fur, fangs, and really bad breath), vampires (Non-sparkly and vicious to boot) and nearly anything you can think of. I have my teacher, my snarky familiar and the best intelligence network on the planet to help me and Allies of Light (Pretentious title I know, but most of the other good ones are copyrighted) to call upon and be called on to help.
So, assuming I can get this all written down and translated into readable English, I will see about getting them published. In the meanwhile, if there’s a monster under the bed, don’t worry – sooner or later, I’ll be in the area.
That’s the series in a nutshell. I'm 90,000+ words into the first novel and I attempted to write the second one during the NaNo WriMo event (I failed, but did get 42,000+ words of the first draft down.) I also have a short story done that I may extend into a novella sometime down the road. Still working out the details, as I bounced through the series I have planned. Now back to writing!
Craig
Monday, February 27, 2012
Still Slogging
I manage to double post a blog entry, and I have a lot on my plate, but I will have something new tomorrow, promise!!
Craig
Monday, February 20, 2012
Background: The Kingdom
The Kingdom is surrounded on all four sides by natural barriers – mountains to the east, west and south, while a large body of water to the north. These barriers, combined with the Kingdom’s well-trained and armed Army and Navy have kept both the Empire and Dominion from taking the county. It is a prosperous country, with a strong merchant fleet and plenty of natural resources. There isn’t major blights of poverty-stricken people, no rebellions, no major strifes. In short, a nice place to live.
As I envision it at the start of the story, The Kingdom is a bit of a misnomer, as there hasn’t been a ruler for some sixty years. We have a missing ruling family. Now, why hasn’t anyone else taken the throne?
The answer is in the title of the (Hopefully) series: The Death Throne. For the past sixty years, anyone who has tried to take the Kingdom’s throne for themselves hasn’t lasted a month. Most have died, either from accident or assassination and a couple have gone mad and fled the country. After a while, the idea of taking the throne is consider suicide.
All it takes for someone to Claim Kingdom’s Throne is to sit in the King’s Throne, a massive chair in the Throne room on the Citadel’s capital city. It is said that any person who claims the throne who is not of the ruling family will not last a lunar month.
So, who’s running the country? A council handles the overall running of the country, while several nobles handle their own lands. It’s a lash up, but it’s working.
But while neither the Empire nor the Dominion have been able to take Kingdom with force of arms, they’ve been trying to subvert the Kingdom with spies, assassins, and bribery. Things are beginning to come to a head. Both the Empire and Dominion are gearing up for war and the Kingdom is looking to be the battlefield.
More later!
Craig
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