Posts Tagged ‘nanowrimo’

Nov

NaNoWriMo – Day 23

Posted by: Michell in NaNoWriMo

There is a bad part of being done NaNo early. That fire that was lit under my butt is now out and it is that much more of a fight to keep going. The good thing for me (if you can call it that) is that I have two short stories that need to be done before the end of the month. That being the case, I’m still writing, albeit somewhat more reluctantly as my daily word count will suggest.

It is still freaking cold here (some wise guy started a rumour that Calgary was the second coldest place on Earth yesterday. It wasn’t but it sure felt like it.) which is sapping my motivation. It’s dark when I leave and when I get home which also doesn’t help either.

But enough of my pity party.

I would like to welcome all of you who are new to the site. It seems that my daily ramblings about my NaNo progress have been attracting interest. Thank you for coming by to read (and sometimes listen) to what I have to say.

I actually had time to read the motivational note today. It was from Lemony Snicket. I’m pretty sure it is intended to be treated with a grain of salt. It essentially says “when things get hard in your writing, you should quit”.

Yeah, right.

Let me give you my own take on motivation for writing. I’ve been writing on and off since Grade six or seven. I started adult novels when I was five. I love the written word.

I stopped writing when I went to college; there were simply too many things going on. I kept reading, but that was it. Then, things started to get hard in my life. Work was dragging me to depths I’d never visited before. I felt trapped by my job and I didn’t know of any way to get out.

I decided to start writing again hoping (foolishly) that I would be one of the lucky ones to hit it big quickly and escape the trap of my life.

As you can probably guess, it didn’t quite work out that way. But something amazing happened instead. I found my love for writing again.

The first few things I wrote took forever to finish and weren’t very good. I made a LOT of mistakes (i.e. Continuous editing of manuscript, not writing while I waited for replies to my submissions, etc.) but I kept writing and it gradually got better.

Along the way I realized that I wasn’t going to be an overnight sensation, but somehow I decided I was not going to quit. Not ever. My goal was clear: I was going to be a a published author and then I was going to keep being published until I had enough of an income that I can do it full time.

There have been a couple times that I wondered about the sanity of that decision. I had one particular time where my high hopes were dashed and then crushed. I almost quit then, but after a couple days of feeling sorry for myself I started writing again. My conviction actually became stronger.

So how is this motivating?

For those of you who know me or have followed my journey for a while, things have taken a huge turn for the better in the past months. I now have two short stories in print (e-magazines and paper. See the “My Work” section on the site for details). I have sold a third short story and I have an article in the October issue of “Scouting Life”. And I sold my first book.

All of that has happened since May.

Has it been a long haul to get here? Absolutely. Do I think all the work was worth it? Absolutely (and I say that without seeing my book in print yet).

The possibilities seem endless. That taste of success has changed my attitude about my work completely. I now EXPECT to sell everything I write because I now know it is of a quality to allow that to happen. Even if I have to edit and revise, I still know it will happen.

Am I being delusional? Is my ego too big now?

I would like to think I’m being realistic. You will note I haven’t made the claim that I can go full time yet. I hope that will happen one day, but I think it will still be years before that happens. Still, I now know it is a matter of when, not if.

That’s why you need to stick with it. Ignore the bad and keep working towards the good. It will happen if you want it badly enough.

Today’s writing breakdown:

Morning: 0

Mid day: 0

Evening: 1536 words

NaNoWriMo total to date: 52,018 words

Tags: irreverent muse, lemony snicket, Michell Plested, motivation, nanowrimo

2 Comments

Nov

NaNoWriMo – Day 20

Posted by: Michell in Irreverent Muse, NaNoWriMo

As you have seen by the results of the past few days I have been having a reduction in my writing output. Today was a refreshing change in many ways.

I was able to have a relaxing writing day. I got up after sleeping in an extra hour and spent an hour working on my writing. My son and I had some errands to run which temporarily stalled the writing, but that was fine. I worked on my stuff a bit more after I got home and spent another hour in the early evening doing more writing.

Then I had the privilege of attending the Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing 10th Anniversary Steel and Steam party. I got to talk with people I’ve met before and several I had never had the chance to meet before. It was great. I even had the pleasure of my son and daughter’s company which made the event even more fun for me.

I also learned that one of the anthologies I’m writing a story for has a submission deadline that is sooner than I expected. That means I now have two short stories that are due to be complete before NaNoWriMo is over. That also means I will be breaking a NaNo rule and do some editing in November but not before I hit my 50,000 words and win NaNo.

So let me talk actual project status for November before I address word count.

My original NaNoNovel is about 20 – 25% complete. I’m pretty happy with the way it is going. The plotting is complete and whenever I write on it, things flow along very nicely.

My first short story is a combination of Pirate, Magic and Steampunk that I am writing for an anthology VG Ford is putting together. I want to make sure it is as good as it can be so I’ve already stopped writing my first idea and I’m 80% of the way through a second one. I like the story but I know I’ve got some revising to do before I can submit it.

My second short story is a YA story set in the near future for another anthology. This story is about 65% finished and is going along nicely too. I’ve been thinking about the story for a couple months and it is pretty clear in my mind.

The final project is a YA Zombie novel. I first came up with the idea on the way to our last Scout Camp. After telling a much abbreviated version of it around the campfire and getting such a positive response from the Scouts I knew I had to write it. I’ve already written about 10% of the story. That percentage is where it will sit until at least December because I’ve got to really give it some attention. It feels like a great one and I want to do it right.

So, let’s talk about word count.

Morning output: approximately 200 words

Mid day output: approximately 400 words

Evening output: approximately 2300 words.

Total output for the day: 2976 words

Current NaNo total: 48,000 words.

Tags: edge science fiction and fantasy publishing, irreverent muse, Michell Plested, nanowrimo

2 Comments

Nov

The Waiting Game

Posted by: Michell in Irreverent Muse

For those of you who are new to writing or even to submitting your work, I’ve got a revelation that you may or may not want to hear: the publishing industry is slow.

Now before you cry out “Leave the poor publishers alone!” I want you to know I don’t say that as a criticism. I am simply stating a fact. Publishers, editors, agents, and yes, even writers are all human. They have a finite amount of time to try and wrestle a (seemingly) infinite amount of work into.

Take a publisher for example. The publisher has to find work good enough to put into print, then put said work under contract (which will involve some level of negotiations), match an editor to the author, get cover art and manage the entire process to eventual print. Then there is the marketing hat a lot of smaller press publishers also have to wear.

Sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? That doesn’t even mention going through ALL the submissions (of which there are dozens if not hundreds every month), sending rejections as necessary and easing the frazzled nerves of contracted authors.

Now we’re REALLY talking a lot. That, of course, totally ignores the fact that the publisher tries to have a life too.

It’s no wonder books take a long time to be published; even with help, a publisher has a great deal to do and very little time to do it because rarely is the publisher only working on one book at a time.

Whew!

Hence the title of this blog. Getting your acceptance/rejection takes a long time because there are so many for the publisher to go through. If you are fortunate enough to be accepted, you also have to consider the editor’s schedule and the cover artist’s schedule and the printer’s schedule, and so on and so on…

That’s why I’m not getting upset about my book being scheduled for a 2012 release. Sure, that could mean two years from now. It could also mean fourteen months. Either way, I know my publisher, Lorina Stephens at Five Rivers Publishing (gee I like saying that) is doing her best to ensure that the book that is eventually available is as good as it can be.

I cannot ask any more than that.

So what am I going to do while I’m waiting for the next step (it’s editing the book, btw)? I’m going to write another book. When I’m done that, I may just write another on top of that. There will be some revising in there somewhere I’m sure, but I know I’m not going to be sitting at my desk waiting for the next thing to happen. It will be ready when it’s ready.

That way, when my publisher (did I mention how much I like saying that ) asks what else I have, I can lay a half dozen finished manuscripts down in front of her to chose from. Maybe I can even find myself an agent.

It’s like the old saying goes, “Good things come to those who wait.” I’ve waited a long time and I’m seeing those good things come so I know it’s true.

Personal Update

NaNoWriMo and I are getting along famously. I’m well beyond the minimum numbers. In fact, I was put into a “Dream Writing Team” by Flying Island Press as a NaNo challenge. I haven’t seen the numbers of the Us (Flying Island Press) vs. Them (Me and five other authors) recently, but I believe we are resoundingly kicking their butts. Yay for ‘Them’.

Tags: agent, author, editor, five rivers chapmanry, five rivers publishing, flying island press, irreverent muse, lorina stephens, Michell Plested, mike plested, nanowrimo, publisher, Publishing