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Posts Tagged ‘series’

Summer

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on June 21, 2018| 1 Comment »

Oops. Forgot to post yesterday. All I can say is that it didn’t feel like Wednesday. The last week of school is always a little nuts and yesterday was no exception.

But, as of about noon today, school is out for the summer! Two and a half months. Time to buckle down and really get some work done on BECOME: TO RIDE THE STORM.

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I’m on chapter 33 and about 62,000 words. The goal is to finish this first draft before school starts up again in September.

However, it’s already been a crazy week. I strongly suspect a nap may happen first.

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Rolling Outline

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on June 17, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Only a week ago, I posted that my rolling outline for BECOME: TO RIDE THE STORM stretched six chapters ahead of where I was at that point.

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Well, now I’m down to two, counting the one I just started. Well, three, but only because I added another new chapter before the one that returns to Kaleran’s POV.

Sometime in the course of these next three chapters, I’m going to have to extend that outline to cover what everyone does next. Of course, I know that in a general way. I need to get a little more specific about how and why.

Margan and Rose, currently at the heart of the story, have to figure out what it is they need to do–and whether they have the courage to do it. Oh, and how to do it; that would probably be useful, too. Kaleran has to make a choice, which won’t end up exactly the way he thought it would. Gaian has to start becoming what he was always destined to be–but that won’t be easy or comfortable.

And, of course, we can’t forget the antagonist. What’s Cordan up to while all this is going on? I’ve left him a very good source for finding the others before they can achieve their goals. But he can’t do that quite yet. Come to think of it, I need a Cordan chapter soon. He’s had a set back, but he’s a long way from giving up.

Discovering the story is half the fun.

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Acceleration

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on June 13, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Over the last couple of days, I’ve whipped through two and a half chapters of BECOME: TO RIDE THE STORM, including a fight scene.

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All right, granted, one of those chapters was very short. Sometimes the short chapters are harder to write. (Not this time, though.)

Writing is a lot of fun when the story comes as easily as this. Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen all the time, but I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts.

Onward to getting my characters even more confused before they finally start figuring out what they need to do–and the stakes go up.

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Chapter Multiplication

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , on June 10, 2018| 1 Comment »

I’ve explained before that I’m a modified discovery writer. I don’t outline the entire story before I start writing–though I do know the end I’m trying to reach and at least a few of the major points in between. I also do tend to have a sort of rolling outline of what’s going to happen in the next few chapters–usually three to five. But sometimes that estimate is off.

BECOME: TO RIDE THE STORM is turning out to be no exception.

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So, the chapter I mentioned in my last post ran longer than expected. Not really unusual, especially with a lot of dialog. Generally, I prefer my chapters to be no longer than ten pages. It’s a personal preference. As a reader, I appreciate a stopping place so that if I need to stop for a bit, I can easily find my place again. Scene breaks work, too, but chapter breaks are better. Some chapters are, of course shorter–even much shorter. A few just have to go longer.

But very often, there is a place to break and start a new chapter. And sometimes, that’s also a good place for a change of POV character and a slightly different outlook on the situation. So, that’s what I did with this chapter, switching from Margan (previously referred to as Impatient in that previous post) to Rose (the Neighbor).

But what was to happen at the end of the original chapter needs to be in Margan’s POV when he realizes something no one had suspected–least of all Rose. It just won’t work from Rose’s at all. So that means a third chapter, possibly fairly short, in Margan’s POV.

One chapter just became three. To be followed by the chapter in Gaian’s POV that was always intended to follow that little episode in Margan’s POV. Though, because something else has been delayed that would have happened before that.

And only then, the thing that action which was delayed, probably another chapter in Margan’s POV. The delay of this chapter helps to fill that plot hole I was worried about earlier. And, at the same time, helps to set up some action–actually a couple of pieces of action–that will occur later in the story. So win-win.

But that one chapter (which, I can see now, was always going to be too long) is now four chapters.

And all of that will be followed by another new chapter as other characters cope with what Margan and Rose got up to. This chapter will also nicely set up some later action. And then back to the original plan with a chapter in Kaleran’s POV

Not counting the finished chapter I started off from, that’s six chapters ahead. Assuming none of those decide to multiply, of course.

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Discovery Writer Problems

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on June 6, 2018| 3 Comments »

I am an unrepentant, but slightly modified discovery writer. I know I’ve said that before. I am not about to start outlining–I’ve tried that and it doesn’t work for me. Either, after about Chapter 3, I spend way too much time updating the outline to what I’m actually writing or I just ignore the outline. Either way, it doesn’t help to get the story onto the page. I do, occasionally outline, in a way, about three to five chapters ahead. That works fine for me, mostly.

So, as I launched into the current chapter of BECOME: TO RIDE THE STORM,

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I decided that the best way to catalyze a needed discussion was to bring another character, who has been in a nearby location, in. Fine. But, then, if she’s coming, maybe this other character would come with her. That worked fine for the first scene.

Then I move on to the next scene. If that second character is present, she is definitely going to come along when my least patient POV character goes over to ask a neighbor some questions. And then she’s going to want to go along when that neighbor offers to help. And . . . that ruins everything.

So, surgery on that first scene to remove the extra character and assign her lines to someone else.

Forward to the next problem, which will be to give Impatient and the neighbor a good reason not to come back–without creating a plot hole.

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Goals

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on June 3, 2018| Leave a Comment »

A post I more normally make in January, I suppose. But in this case I’m thinking in terms of very specific goals–just down to this one manuscript.

I’m at or near the half-way point in Become: To Ride the Storm.

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And I wrote most of that in the space of about two and a half months–the first part during the month I let the first draft of BECOME: TO CATCH THE LIGHTNING cool before starting revisions and the rest during the six week or so that that book was in the hands of beta readers.

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At the end of this month, the summer break starts–two and a half months. Now, there are plenty of other things I also need to work on during that time. Things around the house and yard, mostly. But my time will be my own to schedule.

So, my goal is to finish this first draft by the first week in September. It’s perhaps a stretch goal, but I’m going to do my best. Then, again, it will have to cool a month, go through a couple of rounds of revision, go out to beta readers, another round of revisions and a polishing edit. But the first step is to get the first draft done.

Mage Storm (or new title to be determined), the start of a brand new series, is already on deck for that cooling period and the time when BECOME: TO RIDE THE STORM is in the hands of my critique partners.

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Moving Ahead

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on May 27, 2018| Leave a Comment »

I’ve now finished the read-through of what I’d already written on BECOME: TO RIDE THE STORM, including minor editing and revisions to two scenes that needed it.

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So, now it’s forward to finish this first draft.

When I stopped to get BECOME: TO CATCH THE LIGHTNING ready for publication,

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I’d left it with the next three chapters pretty well defined, so it shouldn’t be hard to build the momentum back up. The next chapter goes back to one of the principle characters of the previous book who doesn’t get many POV chapters in the sequel. (This may be the only one.)

I’m excited to finish this story. The most challenging I’ve written so far, but . . . well, I may be biased, but I think it’s going to be one of the best, too.

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Done (Provisionally)

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , on May 16, 2018| Leave a Comment »

I’ve finished the polishing edit of BECOME: TO CATCH THE LIGHTNING.

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And not provisionally.

I’ve also got it uploaded to Draft2Digital as well as Amazon. The only changes I might make to either of those would be minor cosmetic ones.

What’s provisional is CreateSpace, which is where I publish the paperback version. They didn’t like the cover because some of the text was a little too close to the edge. Not entirely surprising. I’ve had that issue before. So, I redid the cover and uploaded it. Now I just have to wait for them to tell me that it passes their tests this time and order the proof.

Meanwhile, it’s time to get back to the first draft of the sequel, BECOME: TO RIDE THE STORM.

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Starting with reading through what I’ve already written.

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Back Matter and Author Pages

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , on May 6, 2018| Leave a Comment »

I’m currently working on getting the back matter links in my other published works updated for the link to BECOME: TO CATCH THE LIGHTNING, at least on the Amazon versions.

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It’s fiddly little housekeeping stuff–which tends to mean that I do a book or two and then go off and do something else. But it needs to be done.

It also serves as a nice buffer before I turn back and start the polishing edit on BECOME: TO CATCH THE LIGHTNING. The revisions are done, but a few days of not looking at it will help me come back to that with fresher eyes.

At some point soon, I’ll have to go back and do the same for the those books that have also been published through Draft2Digital. Which, thankfully, isn’t all of them. The reason I’m not doing that at the same time I do the Amazon book–besides saving my sanity–is that I would like to include a link to D2D’s author page, which is a relatively new feature. 

First, I’ve been trying, off and on, to clean up that author page. See, D2d creates the page, allowing the author to edit only certain portions. Well, so does Amazon, come to that. But, while Amazon’s author page isn’t exactly the way I would have done it,  there’s nothing there that I really object to. (If I’d done it, I would have put the series books together and in series order, for example.)

I couldn’t say that for the D2D author page, though. See, their author page draws it’s content from both D2D and books2read (same company), which is actually good. It means they also pick up the books that are currently still exclusive with Amazon. But, there’s a hitch–or three.

The first is that if I’ve already created a custom link for a book on books2read before publishing it through D2D, D2D apparently creates a whole new link on books2read. Which means many of my books were listed twice. I think I’ve got that mostly fixed, although some (but not all) of the Dual Magics books appear both in the series group (which is a nice feature) and mixed in with the non-series works in the bottom row. I haven’t figured out how to fix that one yet. Not a deal breaker, but . . . .

I really like the series feature, especially since it puts the books in the right order. (Everything else is alphabetical.) But D2D only knows which books belong in the series based on the information provided when a book is published through D2D. Which means, for example, that there is no series grouping for the BECOME series, yet. I will be publishing BECOME: TO CATCH THE LIGHTNING through D2D when I have a final version. But I won’t be able to publish BECOME: BROTHERS on D2D until it’s exclusive term on Amazon ends at the end of June.

It also means that I can’t get “Becoming Lioness”, which is a Dual Magics short story, in the Dual Magics group. Because “Becoming Lioness” is still exclusive with Amazon and has to stay that way. Because it’s included in BY SWORD, TALE, OR MAGIC, which is a boxed set of three stand-alone novels that I’ve left in Kindle Select, for now.

But the real kicker is the one I’ve just run across. I can’t find anyway to get an external link to that author page that I can share with readers, like the one above for Amazon. Which kind of defeats the purpose of having an author page. I’ve sent an email to books2read, which is where I have to go to access the author page (took a while to figure that out).

So, that’s on hold, for the moment. No point in updating the books twice if I can help it.

 

 

 

 

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Formatting

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on May 2, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Blog post delayed by internet problems.

BECOME: TO CATCH THE LIGHTNING is now available for pre-order. Special pre-order price of only 99 cents. It releases on May 31st.

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So now it’s time to get that link into the back matter of all my published works, which is turning out to be more of a process with every new book. I know there are other, easier options out there. I may have to research them. At least I’ve already updated all the books that will be free this weekend–May 4th thru the 6th. Which are:

Meanwhile, I’ve nearly finished the last bit of the revisions to BECOME: TO CATCH THE LIGHTNING, which is a new ending suggested by one of my beta readers, taking that part of the story just a little bit farther.

 

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