Drawing from the Well
As I mentioned in my brief message two weeks back, I have been dealing with my grandfather’s passing. I just got home from a week with my dad which was good for both of us. During that time, I’ve also been stabilizing and putting together as much creatively as I can. From here on in this post, let’s focus on that.
There hasn’t been much movement on publication. LLC and and cover designer are still pending. So is the website and, thereby, the newsletter. There is only one item left to tie up: a fresh head shot. That, at least, I’m working on. It’s all coming together, if slower than I would have liked.
As to active creation, Book Three’s outline is coming along. The storylines are more layered than ever before, which gets me really excited to put it all together. I know this will sound daunting, but there are seven major storylines in Book Three.
Take a breath.
I was scared of it at first too, but it works. Of those seven, five are complete and the remaining two are mostly done. Once those are done, I can dig into important characters to all seven arcs. After that, it’s settings, then “connective tissue” where necessary, and then into scene mapping. Checklists, I’ve got a few. We’ll talk about that in a future blog post.
Filling the Well
One thing I’ve done lately is plenty of reading. The short answer is below, but I’m still ahead of pace and enjoying a lot. Here’s what I’ve read since my last post.
A Sky of Spells – Morgan Rice
A Sea of Shields – Morgan Rice
A Reign of Steel – Morgan Rice
A Land of Fire – Morgan Rice
Batman: Three Jokers #1, #2, and #3 – Geoff Johns
Age of Magic – Elise Kova and Lynn Larsh
The Wish Quartet – Elise Kova and Lynn Larsh
The Sorcerer’s Ring Series continues to be interesting, though its point is getting a bit lost and strangled. I’m curious where it will go from here. Batman: Three Jokers was great, if a quick read. The conclusion of the Wish Quartet, however, was magnificent. It’s easily the best novel I’ve read so far this year and is likely in the running to stay there for Book of the Year. Moving forward, I’m continuing to listen to the Sorcerer’s Ring Series and I have it narrowed down to just a couple of choices for my next eBook. By my next post, we’ll have a winner. Hopefully, I’ll have chewed through a good portion of it.
28/100 books read for #ProjectBookworm2021
Well Chat
We’ve reviewed 2020. We’ve planned for 2021. Now, how are we going to get there?
That’s where my neuroses with numbers comes in. I’m good with math, very good. Putting numbers to things helps me make sense of them. If I can apply formulas and percentages, I can see where I’m headed. That motivates me.
It scares a lot of people, though. Numbers intimidate some people and I totally get that. Even with my strong grasp on them and intense comfort with them, when they grow too large, I can feel crushed beneath them. I deal with that in two ways: 1) I accept that the overall numbers are large and 2) I focus on the more manageable amounts that build up to the goal.
Writing a book is a lot. Even shorter genres are in the tens of thousands of words. Some of you may read that sentence and immediately give up but YOU SHOULDN’T! Big asks make big achievements, but they take a lot of work. But you can’t write tens of thousands of words. You can write tens of words. Those tens turn to hundreds, then to thousands. Eventually, it’s a book.
I track everything. I live and die by checklists. We’ll get more into that in a later blog post. How that applies to the numbers is that I have a checklist of sorts just for the numbers. It calculates how much I’ve written, how far into the book I am and how far from the end, how long the book will be, and if the overall pacing is balanced. I even use it to see how balanced my POVs are and word count changes between drafts. All of that informs my writing process, but, more importantly, it motivates me. To be able to see how much progress I’m making and how things are shaping up when I’m not looking puts the wind in my sales to keep writing. And at the end of the day, that’s what matters.
Maybe tracking the numbers in the midst of your writing hurts you more than it helps you, but don’t ignore the numbers altogether. If you know what to look for, there’s a treasure trove of information there. Feel free to reach out to me on social media if you want to learn some of the finer details I use to keep me motivated and on track.
Next week we’ll start a two-part series on how to feed all these numbers.
May the tide carry you to safer shores.
BSG