Writing Update June 24 '14 E-novel--WotF-story sets-western fantasy

        I have been busy writing and doing a bit of learning on writing. Yes, just a bit this time around.

   First of all: My E-novel. I just finished the revision of ch 9 which means two more chapters to go. I am a week late on them, but I think I can get them done this next week since I am on vacation. Then comes the last spell check--that could take hours but hopefully won’t since most of the misspellings have been corrected. No, not all since I may have created new ones. 

And then also comes making a cover. I am still debating if want to try it myself. I had one idea, I think I could do but after looking over quite a few samples I may do it in a different way. I’m not sure if I can do it that way. But I’m not sure if I want to take a chance and spend one hundred to two hundred dollars on it. I could but there’s no guaranty it would sell enough copies to make it worth it. I would like to think so, but there are too many variables. Fifty to seventy-five I would do. 

And if I did use one of the cover sites it could take a month longer to get it done.

I am already thinking of the blurb. I have three ways of doing it and sometime next week I probably will type each one out and see if I can get some people to look them over.

The title--well I still don’t know.  It’s called “Two Struggles” now since my MC has an inner fight as well as the outer fight with the bad guy. I thought about “An Inner And An Outie” but I somehow I don’t think so.  :)     “Duo  Conflicts”? (Shoulder shrug)  I can almost come up with something, but it won’t quite come. 

Second of all:   Been working on my Rod tales--I think I mentioned them last time. They started out as being very short, less than 300 words, stories about Rod the mage after I decided to try a couple twitter tales. They were a bit more than 140 characters. I decided to do some more and forget about making them twitter length. However I ended  up with three--maybe four--of the 12 stories being over 1200 words. This one is most probably over 2,000. I have one I hand wrote out that will be under 500 words again but so far each story is longer than the last by quite a bit. I wanted to either post them on my blog or E-mail them out to anyone interested. I would need to collect addresses for those interested though. The stories would go out 3 or one or one half or one third at a time depending on length. I may just put them all in an E-book. But that won’t be for a while since I am still writing them. Speaking of that I did revise one and sent it out. More on that one later. And another 500 or so word one I revised and placed on Google+ community called “Saturday Scenes” designed for flash stories.  

Third of all: I am still working on the Writers of the Future contest. Not even a Honorable Mention yet.  Not with the new guy Dave Farland even though I did have a couple with the late. The one I am working on now is due June 30th. I have a second revision to do on it when I get various crits back. So far one out of four has been sent. I said I wouldn’t need them until the 22nd so since I am typing this on the 22nd none are really late yet.  The one I am doing now is different for me and was inspired by a pic on G+. We shall see if I do better on this one. There is reason to believe it is a bit better than some of my previous tries. I will start working on the final revision Monday even if I don’t have any other crits. That would give me one week to finish it while I am working on the E-novel. Some crits will come in during that time.  I have been accused of writing for Dave and I might just be too much--however he has stated what he wants. Which makes it sound like he wants us to write for him. And some of the advice he gives would work more generally, so it would be writing to make yourself better. 

Fourth of all: It’s later--that is time to mention again the one Rod tale I sent out. I wanted to send it to Beneath Ceaseless Skies but they don’t want modern fantasies. Which is about the only type they don’t want. But I had the thought of transforming it to a western--which they don’t mind. It’s short enough and the setting is right so that it would only take a very small handful of word changes to do it. Next the idea hit me to make this a second adventure of a Cowboy mage I already wrote a nice long story about. That would take a bit more work but not all that much. If I did I could still keep the original story for the Rod tales. That is I think I could. If someone did buy the Western version I wonder if there would be enough changes to make it a different story. I could make a couple more changes and see if it would be okay.

 Fifth of all: I started the revision of what I am calling themed story sets or broken novels. In other words a series of short stories about the same person. I have mentioned these before: one is a steampunk sp ops series about the Lieutenant in charge of a ten man team, one is about a different mage, one is about an alchemist. The revision I am working on is the Sp Ops series. I finished the first story and am maybe a third of the way through number two-which is 25,000 words long. The Alchemist series isn’t quite finished. The story I am working on very close to being done, but I may do one more to get the total word count up. I want each set to be at least 55,000 words, which I will E-publish. 

Sixth of all:This segment is more a potpourri part. I read on one Q+ post that someone had sent out ten stories at once for the first time. That reminded me, I could use my vacation to send out stories. One per day even though I blew that already. Which means one day will have to be two. I also am doing critiques for critters.org. An online critiquing group. They now have five or more groups with different genres. I don’t send in stories anymore but I like doing the crits. This week and next I can catch up and get a little ahead. I’ve already done one. 

And it took me a couple of days to finish this, so I am done with that Rod tale--it came in at over 4,000 words.  And I am finished with Ch 10 of my E-novel so one more to go. 

I think there was something else to say but I forget right now---if I recall there could be a PS. I haven’t had one for a while, but last month I almost added one, didn’t get to it though.  

July 9 update and Cat.

First of all we got our cat back. Someone had been looking after her for two of the many weeks she was gone and must have taken her to a certain cat hospital. I don't know the full story but she's back. Praise God and Thank Him too.  :)


I sent five chapters of Two Struggles to four readers. That feels good. now to run the other six chapters through spell checker and proofreader.

I sent out 12 stories. Was 13 but got one back from Lightspeed already. Not surprising. I keep thinking I will refrain from sending JJA anymore stories until I get another sell but the way things are going that could a looong time. I had a to resend one story because that market wants stories of 3,500 or less words. The one I sent was 3,800 and some. Oops. But I found another one that fits what they want for this month. Ran it through the proofreader. That makes the writing a touch better, but with my writing a touch doesn't do much.


Haven't worked on my work novels, actually I haven't worked on anything new for a while I need to do something new. But it's been too hot to take my laptop to work.

Yes, no more vacation for a year. I was able to finish the revising of Two Struggles but only did one chapter and a part of Two of my space opera. I was hoping to get half of it revised. I sent out a couple of stories...critted four stories for Critters.org. Wanted 14 but I can still do one more this week--if I remember maybe two. Revised a couple of stories too. One is my Q4 WotF story but evidently it still has a lot of nitpicks I just can't find them.

They have started sending out Rejects for Q2 so far nothing for me but we shall see later and tomorrow. I say started evidently it's a tidal wave more than they have sent out at once before it sounds like. But with the delay caused by Wentworth's death they are late and are still catching up.

Update June 26 PS

Okay dokey, I finished  Two Struggles. Still need to spell check it and send it through my proofreader but it's finished.

I revised it, went back added a few Boulder landmarks, added more of the five human senses to certain scenes and clarified some spots that needed it. Should have done that before though. But it's done...unless of course I think of something I want to add. I did that last night and this morning. What I added was more of the human senses so both should add to the readability of the novel.


I'm still not too sure about chapters two and three though. There's an action scene at the end of two I may switch to the middle part of that chapter. I want to see what a couple of Readers think, if I can find two or three. Plus I may have repeated a couple of comments about my MC and her best friend I don't need. Not to mention changing one person's name. I corrected the name of one relatively minor character who still has an important part to play. I gave him three names and now, I think, I have changed them all to one.

Still not one hundred percent sure if I want to E-publish this or send it out queries for the traditional way. I lean toward E-pub. That has grown very fast lately and in some ways it's better. But I would still need around 800 to 1200 dollars to get it ready for that. That includes a pro copy editor to find all the nitpicks and an artist for a cover design. I need to decide exactly who to use for those two things to be able to see exactly how much.

In either case maybe I should try to find an Alpha reader or three. They might be able to find most of the nitpicks, repeats and such. If I get one or three I may not need the pro copy editor. It doesn't have to be one hundred percent clean but at the same time it needs be close to one hundred. From experience no way can I do that myself.

And I really want a new title. Something other than struggles. Something to indicate how big her two struggles are. I say two but she really has more than two but I believe the two for the title are the major ones for the plot. They are two independent and different battles. One with the bad guy and one with herself. She had to win both to save the day.

Oh, it is now 83,922 words long. Not too bad. Originally I thought it was going to be on the very short side but from what I hear--which may or may not be true--that is not a bad length for a beginners UF novel.


Another Oh, speaking of E-pubing. I hear from two sources that pro editors do look over new E-books and sometimes will contact the writer. Not that it happens all the time but enough to say that E-publishing does not take a novel out of the running for a traditional contract. Of course saying that will happen to me is a long shot but the chances might be the same as sending out queries.  


Okay. Instead of going with my plan to start the revision of my space opera today I will be revising a story. It's written and is very short so hopefully it won't take long. I sent a story to Extreme Planets anthology. They rejected it but it sounded like they really wanted another try. I'm not sure if that was personal or just a form. But a second rejection will tell me that. I just happen to have this story I wrote a few months ago that might fit what they want. I had two new ideas for extreme planets--I really liked one of them--but neither plot would gel enough for me to write the story. Besides I was busy with the revising.

I also have to revise my story for Q4 of WotF. Hopefully it won't take long but I can add some struggle and more human senses.


Plus I need to do another crit for Critters.org. I did two this week and today I want to do number three. That won't be the five I wanted for this week but it's a whole lot better than usual.

And plus work on my two work novels. I still need that fight scene in one of them. I was able to take a picture of the structure she has a fight on and now I just need to take the time to figure out how to place a pic here and what size it needs to be.

Update June 6

First: Remember Today!!!  D-Day and all the brave men who took part and planned it. Great going you all.



Now for the update:

I was able to buy those two books, found two more I wanted too. But maybe I can get the others with a coupon. As many as they give out I didn't have any for this past weekend. I finally bought one book on my Nook. I remembered yea. That makes two I need to remember to read when it's their turn.


Q3 of WotF. Three or four people suggested one major change. With that many I decided to think about it. Probably would have to work on it during Vacation and send hit in last moment, if I did it. It would mean doing away with the opening which is the reason for the story. In other words I built the whole story because of that opening.


I may have chapter six of Two Struggles revised by vacation. So that would leave me with five to do during vacation.



And with that challenge at hatrack I have complained about. I was right. out of 14 there war five places, I missed them all. From what people said more than likely I missed sixth, for the matter seventh also.

Best I did was middle again.  Things could change by next year when they do it again but as of right now I won't enter it next time. That story should have been better all around than my previous tries in all the challenges but nope.

So, as of right now no more challenges for me. They do different ones it's only this one that is once a year, but it doesn't matter, no more. Well, except the one I want to do. But it's not worth it, since I don't get better. Some of it can be fun but not enough to always be in last place or close to it.

Of course once I calm down I might feel like it again, depending on the challenge but I've done that before. I don't improve.

Update May 19

Worked on Two Struggles--finished chapter one and chapter four. That leaves nine chapters unless I divide a chapter again. Or was that on another novel. Well I do have nine chapter more at the moment.


Wrote on Stone Within. Chapter five now. I need to get to her to meet with her friend that's a crazy homeless person--thinks he's the hero Jason temporally lost from his crew...or is he crazy? Need some type of mentor for her, someone who can teach her where she gets the strength and such from. I've thought about using jason but I'm not sure.  Wish I could write more on this one even though I don't know where it's going. I have an idea for the ending but I have just the nugget of an idea who the bad guy is and what he is trying to do. Of course I could make him another friend. (Shoulder shrug) cliche-ish but it still works.

Wrote on Angel Kin. Tessa has realized she is being followed, and is about to start the digging finally. But she needs a fight on top of this very tall scaffolding--yes there is such an animal here. Must be fifty feet tall with boards between the uprights. And I need her to be chased down a certain highway twice.

Still waiting for news on WotF Q2. Not even word that it was being delayed...which is obvious because of Wentworth's death but an E-mail with some idea of how long would be nice.

Just realized that I'm not work on anything new at home. The two novels and a stream punk story are ay work. But I've just been dong revisions and crits at home. Well, one story was half way rewritten and I added a a thing or two to a couple revisions on my novel but nothing new. I need to change that. In my rejection from extreme planets it sounded like they really did want another story before the end of June-the deadline. It could have been a form rejection but a long one if it was.

Have a story in a challenge in hatrack thought it would be better than usual but not quiet sure about that. Need to start the final revision of the story for Q3. Right now I think I will be resending my first HM to Q4.  

Seems like there was something else but I can't think of it now so there might be a PS note.

Update thingie three

Been working on Stone Within at work and may switch it to home, I want to work on it more.

Haven't worked on the revision of Two Struggles for three days, since I needed to work on the crits for hatrack WotF. But I will start it up again. Thought I had a revised first chapter but can't find it so maybe I don't, I had planned on sending it out to someone I am trading crits with but can't now.


Monday I think I will start that steampunk story finally. I have an idea I want to try. I will have to work on it at work though. Less time for Stone and that means the two stores I started will have to sit longer.

Wrote a new letter to the editor and sent it out.

As far as of right now I will be E-publishing Two Struggles even though under another title, something that says the same thing but in a different way.

April plans

Next week I will be cutting back on revising and writing new stories. I want to revise one more for sure because I want to send another to Fantasy and Science Fiction next Saturday. It would be the fourth in a row. I have ten to fourteen stories written that need revising so I may just continue. If it doesn't take too much time away from what I plan to do--- more on that down below. 

Reminds me of a couple of years ago. I had something like ten weeks in a row- more than once- to F&SF. A couple of times there were one or two weeks I skipped but it still needed up with eight to twelve stories before I had to stop for a few weeks. I'm surprised JJA didn't get tired of seeing my writing. I thought about him thinking "I wish he would learn to write".


I worked on Two Struggles-, I took out and saved some stuff about my MC's background, it will probably go in another chapter even though I have no idea where. So I'm now past that section I've gone over four times in this round but I may need to go over at least part of it to make sure it all fits with the empty space from that section I took out. But it's nice to be able to finally go on. The rest of the chapter may not need that much rewriting--- and I'm using rewriting not revising on purpose. I am rewriting that section.


Anyway, back to what I am planning.


I've got three finished novels that need revising--including Two Struggles which just needs a bit of rewriting. But I haven't touched them for a month or so. One has been even longer then that.

So:

I've threatened this before but I think I will be take April off from writing and just work on revising. That doesn't count at work and any WotF Q3 writing-revising-crits and maybe a challenge for hatrack, I want to do. I would wait for that last but I've already waited since Christmas. We shall see about that. 


I had thought to wait 'till my vacation to do the revising but that isn't until the end of June. If I can have at least one book done I can use that time to E-publish it or send it out. 

Another update thing

Okay I finished "The Sweet Scent of Blood" by Suzanne McLeod.

It wasn't quite what I expected from the beginning. I said I didn't like the world she invented but I might be able to live with it. In other words there's a chance I would read the next one, have to wait until it actually comes out and I can look it over. Suzanne is a great writer and story teller.


I think I finished the series of stories I was doing based on the hatrack challenge I mentioned earlier. I said, "I think," because I counted ten stories all together and there should have been eleven. Either I forgot one I was going to do or I miscounted. I will get around to counting them again. Now to decide what to do with them. Sounds obvious but my original idea was to sell them online as a set. 15,000 to 16,000 words with 11 stories but I may decide to try sending some out individually.

Worked on my next WotF story. I went back and added some background for the MC, reading Volume 27 they seem to like that in stories. (shrug) still my writing so who knows.

Have yet to hear about last quarter's WotF story. They might be getting close to deciding who gets to go to the next level. I have gotten Honorable Mentions- lately only with the help of the good people on hatrack- before so it is possible but it is also possible that I will last 'till the last cut. Or even go on.

Started next quarter's WotF story but I don't know. It's a different type of story for me and even though I know some of what happens in the opening and some of which happens in the end I need to come up with some of what happens in the middle. Well, all that happens that is. I will keep working on it but as I said I don't know. I have another story I might be able to add a bit to and I have a UF story I've sent out a few times but with help from the bunch at hatrack it might serve. Not sure if they like UF but so far no one has stated they don't.

Finally making some headway on that second chapter of New Mage or Two Struggles. Not much but at least it's going in the right direction. Now if I can figure out a more sophisticated title than Two Struggles but that would say the same thing.

Inner And Outer, maybe.  :)

First chapter challenge

I may have joined a new challenge on hatrack. I say may have because I’m having problems getting a chapter down to the right length. 3,000 words, ugh most of mine are over 5,000. And (Looking to the right and left and behind me to make sure no one is listening) I don't see why it has to be only 3,000. It's easy to figure out why it shouldn't be long and even why all should be about the same size but 3,000 words-- it's a novel, maybe 3,500 to 4,000 instead. But it's not my challenge so I go by the rules. 

I tried to get New Mage- New Title Two Struggles-- down to 3,000 but no way. Not even close. So now I am working on the first chapter of my new novel Stone Within. Only have to cut 1,600 words or so. I think I can do that even if I have to cut it past the bone just for this challenge. 

Still need to check the length of the First of Angel Kin though.

I must say that both New Mage and Stone With chapters needed cutting so this isn’t a waste of time it will improve both novels. Especially New Mage--Two Struggles. As I’ve said that one is done, I am trying to rewrite chapters two and three to get things ready for publication one way or another. Of all my UF novels I still think it’s my best over all. Now Chapter one is even better. I may not have much more to do it outside of commas and nitpicks of course. 

Oh a PS I really need something better than Two Struggles but at least that describes the tale better.