Wednesday, April 11, 2012

#ROW80 - Eggciting Week

My use of egg-puns is eggregious, I know. It's been a crazy week point five. (The point five coming from the brevity of last week's check-in. I'm lumping those first few days in with this check-in for counting purposes.) I think I'm off to a good start. Or rather, I feel like I'm getting back on track. I find it a lot harder to feel like I'm progressing when I'm not actually writing on a project. Alas, editing is a vital part of the writing journey, so I cannot afford to give it short shrift. Instead, I find myself wallowing in the the red ink.

The strange but pleasant situation I find myself in is that, because of the insanity of the first few months of this year, I'm but a stones throw away from not one, but two new releases. I've blabbered on about it for months here now, so I apologize for the broken record. I'm excited to triple my public offerings, though. I'm proud of the stories. I hope you all will find them enjoyable.

Before I get too far ahead of myself, let's pay some mind to the goals:
  • Lesson Learned - Writing a short story of some sort while the last full length work is out with editors is a great idea. They end up stacking up at the end, but that actually makes the finishing touches a bit easier to do. You get out of the habit of formatting and copy-editing, so you there's always a little bit of re-learning each time you hit this road sign. Pushing two projects through (one a little shorter), provides for a sort of "warm-up" and then "main event." It's actually been nice.
  • WIP Progress - The Only Sparkle has been fully edited. It got a lighter touch, as it's a little more informal and silly than my usual novels. Still, I think the voice is consistent with what you might expect from me, and it makes for a good little read. All that's left now are the finishing touches. We're hoping to have it up by the end of the week, or early next week. *Cheer*
  • Blogging - I've been scrapping to try to keep up with this. After all, when in editing mode, blogging is the only writing practice I get. I've only made two posts on the gaming blog (gaming is sort of the first thing to go when life gets busy, and when I don't play, it makes it a lot harder to write about playing). This will make 3/3 on here, however (five if you include the half week), so I've not been completely fail. I need to do a personal post still, as well.
  • A Not Goal - I'm adding one, but it's like an anti-goal. That is, I've been reading way too much. Sounds odd, I know, but I've been sucked into the world of The Dresden Files. Great, great, great stories. I originally started them as first person viewpoint research, and I've just been scorching through them. Unfortunately, I need sleep, and I need to get things done. As any avid reader can attest, good books run directly contrary to those goals. So, my "Not Goal" is to pause in the midst of Jim Butcher's wonderful writing in order to get my own stuff out. Once I've nailed my releases, then we can get back to reading.
So yeah. Lot going on. I'm debating about pricing again, too. With the whole newsletter thing, I'm starting to feel the itch to raise prices again. The big thing I didn't want to do was penalize recurring readers. Rather, I wanted to reward those of you that have supported me, and keep the bar of entry to support low. The newsletter will let me throw codes out a lot more easily, so I can keep giving readers low prices. Then, with multiple titles out, I could play around with higher prices and sales and such and (hopefully) not annoy anyone.

Anyway, we'll see about that when I actually get these projects finished. Until then, we'll glance at the word count:
  • Since last check in: 3,713
  • New Fiction: 0 - Editing Mode
  • Round 2 Total: 3,713

8 comments:

Kayelle Allen said...

Good going. And never worry about reading. Like photography, you learn by studying great images, and learn to write by readng excellent writing.

Matt said...

True. And that's been my theory all along. Still, all things in moderation, right? Because seriously, I'm on a binge.

Dahnya Och said...

Ah, the Dresden Files. Karrin and Mouse are two of my favorite characters ever (Harry just annoys me... in a good way, I promise). The latest books have just made me mad though... Butcher has learned to end on a cliffhanger that makes it so that you MUST read the next book. I hate cliffhangers.

I like your "lessons learned" bit. I might need to give that a shot myself!

Great job on your goals and I hope you have a great week!

Matt said...

*sigh* ...shall not read next one yet... :-)

Learning is my number one priority in this writing adventure (right before the writing itself). If you're learning, you're progressing and moving forward. If you're always moving forward, eventually you'll get somewhere!

Anonymous said...

Sounds like great goals. My reading has picked up this month too, but it hasn't cut into writing; burnt up power supply cord to the laptop has done that. Sneaking this comment in at work (shh!)

Good luck with the goals Matt.

Melanie

Matt said...

Ha. That'll happen. Also, I didn't just choose On The Job Writing for the stellar acronym. :-p

Jayrod P. Garrett said...

I love the Dresden Files. I listened to all of them on Audible and loved the storytelling. They are great for a first person research project. I'd recommend the "I am not a Serial Killer" series by Dan Wells also. But don't pick that up until you have met your goals.

I love your goals. Especially your not goal, cause honestly that shows us that you care about the other things that you do need to get done. Keep up the great work and I hope that the rest of the week goes well for you, Matt. :D

Matt said...

Cool, I'll have to put that on my to-read list (Thank you Goodreads). I'm actually an avid Writing Excuses Podcast listener, and Mr. Wells is a co-host. I was sort of iffy since it's more "horror" than "fantasy" I think, but I'll give it a go when I get some time.

Yeah, sometimes it's important to reign yourself in. I'd love to be a professional fiction-I-like reader, but that position doesn't pay very well. Even if you're talking like reviewers or what-have-you, it is the writing they do that makes the money.

Plus, I won't lie, I love the writing, too. It's just a lot more work :-).

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