Not-So-Super Sunday?

I didn’t make it to the coffee shop for my Super Sunday appointment this weekend. I was out way too late Saturday night at a Sushi Party and just could not get my carcass moving. This doesn’t mean that I didn’t write. I propped up in bed with the laptop and tried to write from home. I managed to crank out a couple of chapters, but that’s about it. Super Sunday usually includes a great deal of thinking in addition to writing. I spend a lot of time playing out the story in my head. Even if I don’t get all of it down on paper, I still feel productive because the story has advanced. That was the part that did not happen yesterday.

In an effort to speed up this process, I have decided to try and write at least a little bit every day. That’s how the great ones do it, or so I’m told. The problem for me is that I need time to sort of ‘get into character’. It’s not easy for me to just spit out a few words and then stop to go do laundry. I write best with a few uninterrupted hours to kill. I figure the daily thing is worth a try, though. I'll continue to upload on Sunday evenings. That should give Brianne a respectable amount of writing to digest on Monday mornings!

My next dilemma is about story length. I’ve read that the average novel (around 300 pages) is about 80,000 words. Right now, I’ve got around 41,000 words. That means I’m only about halfway to the finish line, right? I don’t think so. It feels more than half finished at this point. Two-thirds? Maybe. I’m not sure. Events are falling into place nicely (at least in my head they are) at this point. I think it will land somewhere between 60,000 and 70,000 words. That’s my best estimate today. Will readers think less of me if the book isn’t as thick as an ‘average’ novel? Will my not-so-average novel be taken seriously? Surely quality counts more than anything, right? I mean, I suppose I could add enough useless fluff to generate additional pages. Would that really further the story, though? I don’t think so.

In the end, it is what it is. When it’s finished, it’s finished.

Cliffhanger Alert!!

Brianne is surely going to kill me today. Super Sunday was successful (no worries there), but today’s chapters end in kind of a cliffhanger. On the one hand, it feels kind of mean. On the other hand, it was just too juicy of an opportunity. I couldn’t pass it up. I’ll make it up to her later, I swear.

Kudos to Brianne!

Brianne and I talked last week after she read my updates. As usual, she was so excited and complimentary. She truly inspires me to do my best work and hurry up about it.

This time, she did even more than that. As we were talking about different elements of the story, I realized that she had made an incorrect assumption about where I was headed on one particular topic. I didn’t mention it at the time. Instead, I mulled it over in my head. I wondered if I had been unclear, or if she had misunderstood. I finally decided that I had not been clear and immediately began reworking that chapter in my head.

Today, smack dab in the middle of my Super Sunday writing spree, it dawned on me that I liked her version better than mine! Without giving anything away, let’s just say that new information was uncovered in the chapters that I wrote today. The brilliant idea that I am blatantly going to steal from Brianne will fit perfectly into future events that are going to relate directly to that information.

Ok – enough blogging for now. Super Sunday isn’t over yet and I need to get back to the story. I have a deadline to meet, you know!

Getting Antsy . . . .

Can you believe I am anxiously awaiting the weekend? Well, I suppose that’s not so hard to believe. I think most of us probably start wishing for the weekend first thing Monday morning. What I’m getting particularly impatient about is getting back to the coffee shop so that I can crank out a few more chapters.

After I packed up the laptop and headed home last weekend, I began working through the next series of events in my head. I was trying to plan for a big scene and there was just one little piece of the puzzle that didn’t want to fit. In the end, I decided to force the awkward piece into place and be done with it – until Monday morning.

I was on my way to work and it just came to me. The awkward piece didn’t belong at all! I found the piece that did fit, though, and I was practically bouncing off the walls by the time I got to work. So, now I am anxiously awaiting the weekend so that I can write it all down.

For those of you who are reading ‘Family Secrets’, you may have to wait just a tad to read all of the juicy stuff that I’m talking about here. It’s kind of an ongoing situation and some of it will take place near the very end.

Thank You!

Thank you, Doug, for the compliments! Also, a special thanks to Brianne and Gina who are always eager to read my new stuff and tell me what’s wrong with it. They also provide tons of encouragement and constantly push me to write the next chapter.

Brianne has even set deadlines for me! She has translated my Super Sundays into her Super Mondays. I have been instructed to have new chapters uploaded each week by 6:40 am on Monday so that she can read them before her kids wake up.

For anyone who wants to take a look at my work in progress, the link is http://www.authonomy.com/ViewBook.aspx?bookid=4938. I welcome any feedback.

P.S. – Keep an eye out for my website. Once we get some of the features up and running, I’ll add a link here.

Super Sunday

That’s what I’m calling them and today was the first. My new goal is to spend every Sunday working diligently on my book. Today, I went to a nearby bookstore/coffee shop and spent about three hours making some real progress. I was so pleased with my success that I’ve decided to make Super Sunday a habit. They are ALL going to be Super Sundays from now on and, before you know it, I will finish this novel and move on to the next one. If I find myself on a roll here, I may even throw in some Super Saturdays!

My self-imposed deadline for completion of this project is June. That means I have to crank out around 3,000 words every weekend for the next twelve weekends. I think that is a completely realistic expectation. I guess you will just have to check back in twelve weeks to see what happens! Or I could keep you posted on my progress. Yeah. I agree. That sounds like a much better idea.

Until next time . . . .

Twenty Minutes . . . . .

That’s all the time I have left on my lunch hour. After that, it’s back to the daily grind. I have to say, though, that this lunch hour has been a productive one. My lunch buddies abandoned me today so I spent my hour doing some research on other authors’ websites. A dear friend of mine is going to build a website for me so that I can promote my books. (Note the optimism – I’m assuming that I’ll eventually write more than one!) My web designer's name is Scott Gordy and, if you look to the left, you will find a link to his company's website.

My website research has uncovered several sites that I like. I’ve also found several others that make me think “What the ****?” Personally, I’m not a big fan of clutter. That includes the visual clutter that you find on so many websites. If I have to read for half an hour to figure out what’s going on, yours isn’t the site for me.

I’m quickly learning that there is so much more to this business of being an author than just coming up with a good story. Websites, blogs, cover art, marketing – the list goes on and on. I’ve also come to realize that finding a publisher in the current market is next to impossible. That means self-publishing and self-promotion. I guess I can work on that stuff in my spare time between midnight and four, right? Right. For writers who also work a regular job, time becomes the biggest challenge of all.

Speaking of time, my twenty minutes are all gone and I hear that regular job calling my name.

The Story Behind The Story

We’ve all had that daydream. You know the one – a wealthy relative that you never knew dies and leaves you a gazillion dollars. Well, that’s where my current novel-in-progress was born. It’s a nice little daydream. You get to keep the gazillion dollars (even though it’s probably only half of a gazillion dollars after the IRS gets its share) and you really don’t have to do any mourning because you never knew Great Aunt Myrtle (or whoever it was that left you the gazillion dollars) to begin with. Yes, it’s a lovely little daydream.

Most people would probably wile away a rainy afternoon imagining how they would spend the gazillion dollars. Not me. I’m all about the details. I wanted a little more information about this scenario. Who is this mysterious long, lost relative? Why did he or she choose me as the sole recipient of said gazillion dollars? Then my slightly warped (ok, so maybe it’s more than slightly sometimes) imagination kicks in and a story starts to unravel in my head . . . . .

The Rest of My Story . . . . . . . .

The Rest of My Story . . . . . . . this is what plagues me as a writer. No matter what I'm writing, I always reach a point where I find myself wondering 'what happens next'? It feels like I had my story all neatly put together and somehow managed to misplace part of it. Where is the rest of my story?

This is the purpose of my new, redesigned blog - to find the rest of my story. It's somewhere in my head. I'm sure of it. Unfortunately, there is a bunch of other junk in there too and none of it is as neatly organized as my kitchen cabinets. My only option is to root around in there until I find what I'm looking for.