Writerly Stuff

I think I was supposed to do a post about titles this morning, but I forgot and that one should probably be written ahead of time instead of on the fly.  Right now is definitely 'on the fly'.  LOL

Amazon, in its infinite wisdom, has changed the KDP page for checking out book sales - the Dashboard.  (And even the tiny picture next to my bookmark for them is different, making it so I have to go looking for it instead of going right to it.)  Turds.  I guess, for a limited time, you can still see the data the old way, but I'm not inclined.  If you're landing there for the first time, you might see that some of the metrics have a picture of a lock on them.  Click the lock, fix your preferences, and all will be well.  (It doesn't tell you to do that.  I found out by accident.)

I probably don't need to say this, but I detest change for the sake of change.  We'll see if the Dashboard is actually better or just different.  I'm holding off on my opinion there.

I guess now I could use a sale to show me exactly how it would work in the new Dashboard. :shrug:  If wishes were fishes, we'd all eat like kings.

I don't need to tell you that sales have sucked this year.  Well, ever since I went wide, I guess.  Of course, there's been very little marketing on my part, so that might be a huge factor.  The will to market is a dry, dry well.  As is the budget for marketing.  With no budget, all things markety have to be done by me, and with a dry gumption well... Umm, yah.

Anyway, enough with my whining.  I'm making progress on Shroudlands 2.  Not great leaps and bounds, but progress.  I'm almost at 18K words now.  My brain threw a curve at me last night that I wasn't expecting, so we'll see how that plays out.  Or whether I need to trash that plot path and initiate a do-over.

How are things in your world?

Going With the Flow

 As I said yesterday, "Right now, I have to go where the inspiration takes me.  And right now, the inspiration is following reader input."  

I'm not sure why this is so, but it's reality.  Last month, a reader was commenting on one of my book posts, wishing for another SCIU book, so I worked on that.  Last week, a reader sent me an email about Song of Storm and Shroud, told me I'd done a good job writing it, and said he couldn't wait for the sequel.  And like that, my gears shifted.

Actually, that's not entirely fair.  I was getting to a point in SCIU4 where I wasn't feeling it.  I was pushing out the words instead of them pulling me.  Last week's reader was a nudge I needed to make the words pull me again.  Unfortunately for the SCIU book, they're pulling me toward a different story.  

I'm not usually that flighty.  I start writing a book and I work on it until its either finished or I'm stumped on how to proceed.  Since I'm not finished with SCIU4 and definitely not stumped, I'm guessing I'm just not feeling it right now and the reader input gave me the excuse I needed to move onto something else.  

Having said that, I am rolling along right now with Shroudlands2.  I have stuff happening.  I have a good idea where I'm going next.  I know what the main thrust of the story is going to be.  It feels right.  Right now, at least.

I can't guarantee this'll keep going on like it's been going.  I'm trying not to question it too much.  I'm just going with the flow.  If the flow dries up, I'll switch back and see if I can make that work.  The point is, I guess, I'm writing again.  And I've always said we have to write however we can to get the words out.  What works for us one day may not work the next, so we have to go with the flow.  Probably not the answer readers are looking for, but it is what it is.  I'm going with the flow.

Is It Lame?

Welcome to Wednesday, where today's topic is:  Is it lame?  Who the hell cares?  Or how to write a dirty first draft and get the damn book done.

Probably the biggest roadblock to getting words out for me is worrying whether the words I'm typing are lame... stupid... WRONG...  Well, ya know what?  Who the hell cares?  It's a first draft, for pitysakes.  The words don't have to be awesome.  Hell, they don't even have to be good.  They just have to be words.  Sure, they have to make some kind of sense, but the point here is...

EVERYTHING CAN BE FIXED IN EDITS... 

Except a blank page.  If there are no words to fix, then... well, duh... you can't fix them.  The point of every first draft is to get the damn thing written.  

Did you just write a sentence that would make even the kindest reader want to throw the book at the wall?  No problem.  No reader is going to see it yet.  

Do your characters sound wooden?  Easy peasy.  Fix it later.  

Did you use... :gasp: the wrong word?  Have typos?  Misspell something?  Forget a comma?  Use too many commas?  All of that can be fixed with your handy dandy EDIT ROUNDS.  

No matter what you've written that you think sucks, it can be fixed.  The only thing that can't be fixed is...  Well, actually there is a fix for a blank page.  It's... wait for it...

WRITING!

Set your big ass, your narrow ass, your flat ass, or your bubble butt down.  Hell, I didn't used to have a butt at all, and I could've slapped that down, too.  Now put your fingers on the keys (or your lips to the microphone, for those using a speech to text program) and write the damn story.  

So what if it's lame?  So what if you don't think anyone will ever like it?  So what if you don't like it right now?  It's your story.  Write it.  Then fix it so you do love it.  (Psst... there's not much you can do to insure anyone else likes it, but they sure as hell won't like it if you don't write it.  Eh?)

And yes, when I wrote this last night, I was thinking that what I am writing is LAME.  Ultra-lame.  Lamey McLamerson from Lameville, Lame-abama.  So what?  My ass was in the chair and I got to work writing.  It'll get unlame later.  And I'll come back to fix this lame part when I finish.  

Now, get out there and slap down some new words!  Go, go, go, go!

Update: After I wrote this and scheduled it, I laid down more words and ended up with a total of 1561 mostly unlame words.  See? You've gotta push past the lame to get to the good.

New Month, New Attitude

 It's my favorite month of the year and therefore, I am using this month to get reinvigorated and set my feet back on the path.  Onward!  

One can only wallow for so long, after all.  

To that end, I sat down yesterday with my trusty notebook and had a meeting with myself.  It went sort of like this:

'Where do we go from here?'

Then I listed all the things I could be / should be writing.  Pros, cons, etc.  The key to deciding what to move forward with turned out to be 'which one can I write the fastest that'll be the most likely to net me sales?'  Looking at it all that way, the answer was SCIU #4.  Tentatively... JUSTICE SERVED.  :shrug:  It's a working title.

Last night, I sent Hubs off to bed and then opened the file to start writing.  Unfortunately, I've been away from it long enough that I couldn't just pick up the thread.  That meant that I needed to go back and read everything I've already written.  And I fell down a bit of a rabbit hole renaming the main character.  (I really need to start searching the name before I fall in love with, ya know?  Who woulda guessed the name I had was also the name of an 'international escort'?  ROFL)  Anyway, she's got a new name that doesn't seem to also be the name of anyone famous or infamous.  And I'm ready for tonight when I will sit down and write the next scene.  (Barring acts of nature and power outages.)

The plan is to have this first drafted by the end of the month, so I guess this is a NoWriMo situation.  MaNoWriMo?  I kinda like it.  It has 'mano' in it, which is like Spanish for hand, as in mano a mano or hand to hand combat.  Heh.  Just me fighting with myself, doncha know.

Another thing I'm doing this month is ditching all negativity in its many forms.  Easier said than done, but I'm working on it.  

And now, I'd better get this posted because we've got a whopper storm coming in and losing power and.or internet here is always a possibility.

Anyone want to do a WriMo with me?  Jump on in, the water's fine.  ;o)