Wednesday, November 9, 2011

#ROW80 - Bring On The Turkey

Well, I've kept at it. So far this round has had a rough start. And, as the Starks say: winter is coming. In this hemisphere, that means the holidays, travel, and other interruptions to a normal schedule.  Fortunately, laptops exist.  I actually generally get a lot done when we travel.  There aren't a whole lot of distractions in the car.  I'm pretty much either reading, writing, or driving.  So I guess you could say I'm looking forward to the holidays, then, because my normal schedule has already been shot to hell.

Let's look at the goals, first:

  • Lesson Learned - Ranting is helpful.  In several ways.  I got some great comments, and (I think) provided some good commiseration.  Also, it got it off my chest, and pulled a few fanfriends out of the woodwork.  (Any writer that doesn't smile when someone says simply: "I enjoyed your book," is an alien without a mouth.  Even if they've not been able to write a review or do anything "proper," the simple comment helps.)  It may even have netted me a pity-buy.  I'll be quite honest, I'm not "too cool" to take pity-buys at this point.  Obscurity is my biggest foe, and while I'm not really on my knees begging yet, I'm not above that.  I just want people to give my story a chance.  I have no problem handing out free copies either, all you need to do is contact me.  Money helps, but I don't want it to be the hurdle. 
  • WIP - I think I was 8/6.  I wrote the final, climactic scene in my WIP on Saturday.  I polished off the chapter on Sunday and Monday.  I need to write an epilogue/tie-up chapter, and then I'm done with draft one.  It'll go to betas and editors.  Depending on their schedules, I may be able to have it out by Christmas yet...
  • Blogging - This took a hit.  When you're dialed in on the ending of a longish story, it tends to push other writing from your mind, I've found.  Also, the day job perked up and demanded my attention, so I begrudgingly gave it.  Blogging is the first to suffer, sadly.  This will likely be my only post here this week, making me 2/3, and I'm one short on the other blog as well.  Not terrible, but I'll be behind the eight-ball for next week too.
The good news is that the main project, the novel, is almost done.  That's obviously a huge goal of this round, and really the highest priority in my writing world.  Blogging is suffering a bit as my schedule gets tossed around, but I supposed that's to be expected.  My new side goal here is to get a second draft proof hardcopy that I can bring with me to Thanksgiving.  Never hurts to have a new book to pass around the family.  (Second draft would be my first read through and edits, plus some beta comments... pre-editor stuff).

After I finish writing the last few scenes, my WIP goal changes to spending an hour per day editing.  I may actually increase that to something more ambitious like 5 chapters a day.  Then, it'd take me about a week to finish the first pass edits.  We'll see, but that would get me done by next Friday and give me a shot to hit TG.  I think I need to hit Thursday in order to have the hardcopy in time, though.

Anyway, that's enough blabber for today.  I'll close with the word count glimpse:
  • Project Fiction: 2,808
  • Since last check in: 4,797
  • Grand Total for Round 4: 32,556

10 comments:

The Daring Novelist said...

I'm also working on getting mine done and ready for publication in December. (Mine should have been done by now!)

Good going on you WIP, and yes... blogging does have to suffer for the finishing of a book.

Matt said...

Isn't that always the case ("should have been done by now"). Wicked, wicked, naughty words. Poor blog.

Thanks! :-)

Anonymous said...

I'm hoping my third novella in the Libby Fox series will be finished before Christmas, too. LOL

I'm glad you're feeling better after your rant. Sometimes it just helps to get it out there, and isn't it nice to have so much support from ROW80 people?

It sounds like you're doing well now, so keep up the good work. Good luck!

Nadja Notariani said...

We're all trying to beat that Christmas deadline...
Wicked, wicked, naughty words are playing in my mind over this...Ack! (Should have been done...should have been done...shouldhavebeendone)

Glad you're back up and on the run again, Matt! We all have to face those days once in awhile. Glad yours is over for awhile...lol.

Nadja Notariani said...

Oh! I almost forgot! Thank you :} for posting up the link already. The email will be going out on how to get your book up on the list. I'm plugging away!...

(And I figured out how to get that stupid, stupid backslash and greater/than sign out of there. I see you took care of it on yours...You're so savvy :}

Matt said...

@LLE - Yep, the support is great. What a great time to be an author, that we can have virtual groups like these. I'm enough of an introvert that going to workshops or live writing groups would is difficult for me... the internet provides the perfect medium.

@Nadja - We've all gotten excited about the Christmas potential, haven't we? It's easy to see why, with all the new devices coming out and the opportunity to reach new readers.

No problem on the link. It's a great idea and I'm psyched to be a part of it. I cheated a bit and just stole the picture to create my own button. The Blogger plugin makes that pretty simple, I think.

Anonymous said...

The blog doesn't have to be "happy" all the time. Good work on your WIP.

Matt said...

Right! Bastards!

I don't know who I'm cursing there... but yeah. Heard that. :-)

Nadja Notariani said...

How did you do that? Did you simply copy and paste, then write your own code for the button box?

I uploaded the pic to my sister's photobucket account and used their 'gadgets' to snaz it up a bit. Then I simply replaced the picture html code with my pic's html code in code I learned how to write from bloggingwithamy. (does that make any sense at all?....ha!)

Once through the process, it really isn't that hard, but I couldn't have done it without having the code 'given' to me....all I had to to was change the sections necessary to make it link to my blog/pic. Where did you learn to do that?

Matt said...

There's a blogger plugin for pictures. I just saved your image, grabbed the hyperlink, and used the plugin. Pretty mundane.

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