I won’t go into detail, but it’s one of those times where Best Laid Plans are thwarted by no other reason than Unexpected Events. And this time out I have a few personal issues that have popped up that are causing stress and frustration. All I can do is deal with them, and balance them alongside these same Best Laid Plans.
It can be incredibly frustrating when this happens when you’re a writer. You don’t want to ignore the personal issues going on, but you’d rather not put your livelihood on hold, especially when you’ve worked so hard over the years to make them happen.
The most you can do is soldier on somehow, same as if your Best Laid Plans were thwarted by the Day Job, or whatever has come your way. For me, the most I can do is continue to find the time to push through these projects the best I can, despite it all.
Note to Worldcon newcomers who typed in the URL from my freebie cards: Hi there, and thanks for your interest! I talk about writing a lot on this here blog, so if you have any questions on that sort of thing, by all means feel free to ask.
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Note to self: even with the best of intentions, heading out to a major convention fifty-plus miles away the day after a ten-hour flight back from London isn’t the best of ideas, no matter how you slice it. We have been moving almost nonstop in one way or another for the last sixteen days. Lesson learned.
We’d decided to take Sunday and Monday off from everything and just relax and catch up on what needs catching up, that way we’re somewhat conscious and rested come Tuesday when it’s back to the Day Job. We’ve been on vacation for almost the entire month, having flown out of SFO on the 4th and joining the working world again tomorrow. It’s only two weeks and an extra day, but it feels so much longer than that.
While I didn’t get any new words done on any projects at 750Words, I did do a hell of a lot of reading of both In My Blue World and the Apartment Complex story (as you see from the previous fly-by posts). I focused most of my attention on the former since it’s first in the release queue, and worked my way up to about the first third of the novel. I’ll keep this up until the run is complete and then jump in on the Big Honking Revision Process.
Which brings me to the following: I’ve noticed that my revision process has definitely changed over the past five or so years. I’ve taught myself newer and quicker techniques, discarded my bad habit of flailing the story into shape, and paid a lot more attention to the details. I’m sure I still have a long way to go, but I’m definitely getting there.
That said, I’ll be back to normal on Friday with more writing insights — I gave myself some time to think about new and different subjects to blog about here, and I hope you’ll enjoy the entries when I post them!
I’m still going through In My Blue World and making notes on what needs fixing. There are two MAJOR fixes to be made: one, that I need to change the POV to omniscient 3rd person, and two, that a number of sequences need to be pasted together. It’ll be a big undertaking that I won’t be able to start for another week or so, which of course is making me twitchy.
On the plus side, the story itself is solid — it’s tight and there aren’t that many holes and continuity issues I need to fix. It’s only the prose (and the first chapter or so) that needs cleaning up. And the cover is already done! I’m still aiming for an October/November release at this time. *crosses fingers*
So…what about the Apartment Complex story? Good question. I’ll still be working on that when I can and take my time, as I purposely haven’t assigned a drop date for it. [There is also the cover art issue, but that’s another post entirely.].
Aah fudge. In My Blue World is gonna need a lot of work after all, isn’t it?
Well– maybe, maybe not. My opening chapters are always a hot mess. It’s definitely going to need a lot of TLC. From what I’ve seen up to about 3/4 through, it gets much better as it goes along.
Also: it’s stupidly HOT here in London. Thankfully our room has great AC!
Yeah, I know, I used that subject line about this time last year. I have a good reason, though — I’ve been quite busy this past weekend, attempting to get In My Blue World revised, create the freebie postcards for it (and get them ordered), and also go see Yellow Submarine at the Castro Theater! I couldn’t pass up seeing one of my favorite movies from my childhood at a local theater I’ve been wanting to go to for ages.
On the plus side, I’m still relatively on schedule with this novel, which makes me happy.
Oh — and I may be making some pre-writing notes for a future Mendaihu Universe story that I will most likely start writing later in the year. As if I don’t have enough to do right now…
I’ve said it before, I love doing covers for my books. It’s another creative avenue that I get to play around in that I don’t otherwise have much time for. Every now and again I’ll go through my own pictures and create one just for practice. [I’ve even come up with a few pseudonyms for certain styles; for instance, all my fake mystery novels are all written by Chase Johnson, and my fake lit-fic and women’s fiction is by Joanna Chase. Why? Because it’s fun!]
I’m still sticking with the above image for In My Blue World, so if I’m going to use it, all I need to do is purchase the rights from Shutterstock, fiddle around with it a bit, slap the title and by-line on it, and call it done. I still use Adobe Photoshop to crop it to the right size and adjust the image. (I’m probably going to lighten it a bit so the title and by-line will pop out more.) And I still use the PicMonkey website for the text. Sometimes it takes a short amount of time, sometimes it’ll take a few days before I get it to how I like it.
One thing I’ve learned from doing covers — aside from enjoying the process immensely — is that I should always make sure the cover ties in with the novel in a specific and important way. It’s not enough to get a badass lady with a katana on the cover…there has to be a reason for it. In this case, I chose this cover for a few reasons:
–The first half of the novel takes place in forest land.
–I didn’t want the girl to be in an Attack Mode pose, but an I’m Ready for This pose.
–I didn’t want her clothes to be stereotypically frilly or flashy (or steampunk or goth, for that matter).
–I wanted there to be at least some hint of blue sky in the background.
–It needed to have a decent amount of space for the title; in this particular instance, I like how the text not only balances it out, it intermingles with it.
This is also why I used the cover for Meet the Lidwells! that I did; it was a straightforward concert poster-stapled-to-lightpost image that is pretty much universal for any band starting out. They say that the cover often pre-sells the book, especially if it’s eye-catching enough from across the sales floor (or legible in thumbnail online, for that matter). Don’t think of that as needing a flashy action shot, or a crafty written-in-chalk image. Look at other covers you thought were innovative or creative. Look at the ones that made you stop and pay attention to it; then look at the cover as you would a piece of art…why did it make you stop? And how can you use that on your own covers?
Just like my writing, my cover art has changed and evolved and advanced, little by little. The more I practice, the more fake covers I make, the bigger my portfolio that I can use later on if I so choose. And I would like to expand on it as well; for the Apartment Complex story I’m thinking about commissioning an artist — specifically a webcomic artist. I already have a few images in my head that could work. I’d still do the text, but I’d like a unique image this time out.
I know there’s a lot of self-publishing advice out there stating that you should never do your own cover, but I’d probably amend that: don’t do it if you don’t want to do it, or if you don’t have the ability. On the other hand, if you have the artistic chops? Go for it! It’s a hell of a lot of fun and you can get really creative with it.
As you’ve noticed, it’s nearing the end of June and I’m ever so slightly off on my deadline to get In My Blue World finished. And I’ve already decide that I’ll be spending most of July revising said novel and preparing it for self-publication.
Which means that I’ve decided to put myself in Do Not Disturb status on social media. Or as I often call it, detox. I’ll still be posting here at B-Town and over at WiS at my normal schedule, so never fear! You’ll still be getting all the twice-weekly blathering I know you all enjoy from me. I’m just going to be hiding from Twitter and Facebook for a while so I can focus purely on the novel revision and not get distracted. Especially given the news cycles lately, it’s probably for the best that I back away from the fires and keep a cooler head while dealing with this deadline of mine.
I was looking through my two blogs and I realized that a lot of the subpages — the links, the Buy Stuff and Newsletter pages in particular — are woefully out of date. I haven’t touched them for at least seven or eight months. And to add to that, I haven’t set up a newsletter in probably well over a year.
That’s gonna change. Not right now, and not overnight, but soon enough. Over the course of the next couple of months I’ll be updating those blog subpages and restarting a newsletter. That will most likely be a monthly thing, a cross between a link aggregator for my blog entries and any news and upcoming events, and maybe a special passage or two.
So how am I going to update this? Good question. Between finishing off a novel, writing a second one, revising that first one, heading to the UK for a week and a half in August and following that up with Worldcon — not to mention juggling all that with my Day Job — I’m going to be ridiculously busy. But I think I can do it.
It’ll take time, and I’ll probably be exhausted by the end of it, but I’ll do it anyway. Because come on — I’m trying to be somewhat professional here, folks! I can do better than the bare minimum here. Y’all deserve it.
The downside to having a full schedule, especially when multiple social events are added to it, is that physical and mental exhaustion (and maybe illness) can sometimes kick in, screwing things up even worse. Right now I’m trying to fight off a sore throat and exhaustion from too many things going on over the last few week.
That’s probably the best time for me to remind myself: It’s okay to take a day or two off from writing, you know. Or even more importantly: It’s also okay to call in sick to the Day Job now and again…that’s what your sick days are for. Between my stubborn will to keep to my writing schedule and my Catholic guilt for not letting my coworkers down, I can be my own worst enemy sometimes.
Sometimes all I want to do is play an entire afternoon of PC card games, watch silly cat videos, and noodle around with my mp3 collection. Is that too much to ask?
Well, no, not really. I’m not on a strict writing deadline. I can afford a day off from the Day Job now and again. As long as I don’t make it a habit. I can — and should — take a day or two off from reality now and again. I’ll be honest, sometimes I’m jealous of those people who spend the entire afternoon binge-watching TV series or playing video games. Why shouldn’t I be able to take a day off as well?
As long as I get back on track once I’m recharged, right?
COME ON LAZYBUTT, WAKE UP YOU’VE GOT WRITING TO DO
I know, I know, I’ve blogged about this before, but it’s always worth repeating, because we writers are often our own worst enemies.
Sometimes I get so into the groove of writing or revising one of my projects that I just keep going for weeks on end, and let other things fall by the wayside. Which is fine, especially if I really want to make a significant dent in my progress. Thing is, sometimes I do this for a little too long, and I’ll either burn out or I’ll lose track of other important things.
So this past Saturday, instead of doing any writing, we went on a short road trip down the coast to Half Moon Bay for brunch and a little bit of shopping, and followed it up with watching the first two Star Wars prequels. We hadn’t seen The Phantom Menace since it came out, and neither of us had seen Attack of the Clones. [Our post-movie thoughts: TPM had promise but suffered from horrifically bad dialogue and lifeless acting; AotC was miles better and actually quite enjoyable, if overlong and with a few questionable plot choices. We plan on watching Revenge of the Sith sometime this week. Noted, we’re watching these for a panel we’ve devised for BayCon in a few weeks!]
Taking a day off from writing is always a good choice, for multiple reasons. One, every now and again it feels good not to have to worry about hitting a self-imposed deadline or word count. I’m allowed a fun day off now and again, right? Two, this is a perfect time for me to switch from Writer/Editor Brain over to Reader Brain. Time to kick back, enjoy a story. Be moved or inspired by a novel or movie. Three, I get to be social with other people, including my wife. Four, it reminds me that even though I might find the writing process thrilling and immensely enjoyable, there are other things out there that are equally as enjoyable. Like going to the local zoo!
Well, hello to you too!
I think I’ve managed to get the the point in my life where I’m okay if I take a day off now and again. Writer that I am, I’ll most likely still think about whatever I’m working on, but in a passive way, making mental notes for later. It’ll still be there when I get back in a day or so.
Welcome to Bridgetown 