Day 21 of 90
Small progress this morning. I clocked in with about 1300 words. Not too bad, but I think Cmdr. Drake’s through-line is a bit thinner than Emerald’s or Leena’s. And this is a good thing. The hero and...
View ArticleDay 22 of 90
Not a lot of notes today. I’ve decided I have enough now to start piecing things together. I compiled my 55k worth of notes out into a manuscript this morning. Most of what I’ll do this week is go...
View ArticleDay 23 of 90
No new story revelations at this point. I’m still organizing notes, shoring up a few character motivations, and organizing possible chapters in Scrivener. This will likely be the progress for the rest...
View ArticleDay 24 of 90
Wow, kind of late with today’s post. Sorry about that. I had to work late doing day job stuff last night, so I slept in later than normal (but I created a really kick-ass map thingy for work). I was a...
View ArticleDay 25, 26 of 90
For the second time in the writing of this novel, I have an outline (for reference, this is the first time) and it is a thing of beauty. Clearly, I need to dedicate a longer amount of time to the...
View ArticleFirst Draft of “Night Witches” Complete
I managed to complete a short story today. It’s tiny, coming in at around 1700 words. It’s a WW2 horror story, very much in the style of an old Twilight Zone episode. It was hecka fun to write, despite...
View ArticleDay 30 of 90
Yeah, I skipped a couple of days in the process. I think that’s acceptable, I’m not working on actual prose that will be the first draft of the novel. Let me tell you, that feels like real progress. I...
View ArticleDay 31 of 90
Chapter 1 is complete! Chapter one is about 5 scenes with a total word count of about 6k. Here’s my fancy word count meter: The process is working well, so far. I wake up, review yesterday’s writing...
View ArticleDay 32 of 90
Scene 1, Chapter 2 is done! Ha, that’s kind of deceiving, isn’t it. That word. Done. In the software development world we have a concept called done-done, because developers, no matter what you ask...
View ArticleDay 33 of 90
Chapter 2, Scene 2 is done, but not done-done! Okay, that joke is going to get old. Well, I made good progress this morning. Speaking the story into the Olympus is getting easier. I still need a short...
View ArticleDay 34 of 90
Writing is puking in your typewriter in the morning, and then cleaning it up in the afternoon.
View ArticleOn Keeping Your Mouth Shut
You’re allowed to not comment. It’s true. If there’s a public discourse, and someone says something you disagree with, nothing compels you to speak. I have to remind myself of this fact when I hear...
View ArticleDay 37 of 90
Day 35 and 36 were spent at FenCon. It was a lot of fun this year, more so because my daughter Katarina was in attendance. It was her first real full weekend con. We went to a few panels together, and...
View ArticleDay 38, 39, and 40
I’ve gone off track with my daily writing routine. Early mornings are difficult when the world stays up past 9 pm. Despite numerous distractions over the past few days, I’ve still managed to maintain a...
View ArticleDay 41 of 90
Word count is steadily rising. The last few days have been difficult. I’ve fallen out of the routine of waking early. I think that’s both hurting my productivity, and I just don’t think the scenes are...
View ArticleDays 42-51 of 90
I let myself fall behind in my updates. However, the wordcount continues to steadily climb. I had a slight mental setback. Well, that and I was distracted by a short story. I worked through enough of...
View ArticleSubmission Stats & Strategy
Write as many great short stories as I can, get them revised to a point where they aren't a total embarrassment, send them to the highest paying, eligible publication, and keep sending them rejection...
View ArticleThe Never Ending Short Story Ends
The science fiction short story I worked on all weekend finally came to an end. I closed it out at about 5k, which is a good size, if I can keep it. This is one of the first stories I’ve taken from a...
View ArticleThe good, the bad, and the not so ugly
As you may have noticed, there haven’t been many novel updates. That’s because there haven’t been any updates to the novel. Upon reevaluating my story, I’ve come to the conclusion that my heroine was...
View ArticleMore short fiction in the works
It looks like short fiction will be my game of choice for a while. I’m now incredibly jealous of people who can finish a novel. I’ve started a few. I’ve only reached the last page with a couple, but I...
View ArticleLatest short story complete
I put the finishing touches on “The Ghost of the Crooked Tower”. It came in at around 3.5k, which is about the length I’m aiming for these days. I’m happy with this one. It went on the page exactly how...
View ArticleDay 11 of 90
I managed about 2500 words of notes today. Most of these were focused on what sprung from the daily writing exercises. Today it was apparent I need to work more on the secondary characters. Today I...
View ArticleDay 12 of 90
Very productive morning. I managed a good hour’s worth of recordings. More protagonist and antagonist studies along with some thoughts on the second act. Again, lots of notes. I also worked on my...
View ArticleDays 13, 14, and 15 of 90
I didn’t post this weekend, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t stick to my daily writing goals. In fact, I think I put down about 10k in notes. And I’ve gotten better with the transcribing. Hopefully, I...
View ArticleDay 16 of 90
Good stuff today. If I’ve learned anything big from the 90 day novel it’s this, during a story’s early brainstorming stage, hold the story together in your head loosely. This has been a tremendous help...
View ArticleDay 17 of 90
This is the end. Well, at least I worked up to the ending with my loose story concept. I have through-lines now to explore for each of my main characters. I’m still a bit in the shade when it comes to...
View ArticleDay 18 of 90
Great progress on some character work today. I’ve dived back into Leena’s (my main character) point of view. Revised some earlier thoughts on her motivations and social interactions based on her...
View ArticleDay 19 of 90
Today’s progress amounted to a pass through Leena’s throughline. I’m doing this for each of the characters. Emerald, the big moth creature, who is the closest thing to an antagonist is next. This whole...
View ArticleDay 20 of 90
I’m sitting at about 55k in 0 draft material. So what is a 0 draft? I think it’s different for each writer, but what seems to be a universal truth about the 0 draft is that it is shared with no one....
View ArticleHonorable Mention and Other Writing News
Well, I made Honorable Mention in the 4th quarter volume 31 Writers of the Future contest. This is good news. It means my fiction is reaching closer to professional quality. But it’s not good enough to...
View Article
More Pages to Explore .....