I am seriously considering (drafting) a Kickstarter project to help pay to get digital (and printed) editions of Soul (Breath), Radiance (Radiant Lands), and Gone Hunting (Vardin) to be gorgeous, properly covered, and properly copywritten.
And then, I actually come up with a cover I think I like. But will my audience like it?
I'm always surprised that I end up writing the stories I do, instead of the ones I'm excited about, but it turns out that I still require a long percolation period. I'm just going to have to adjust and accept that I write and shelve until the thing finishes coming together. It's at the point when I understand what the story's about that I can actually write it, with a few notable exceptions.
But I have been writing and learning—on "Gone Hunting" of all stories. First, I've found my cross-country muse again. The one who can leave writing and return to the same story over and over while putting the rest of them on hold. In short, the one who can hold a thought. Creating new content on a planned schedule should get easier if I don't let it take a nap at the moment of truth.
Because of this, I've also decided I will be taking a new approach to my publishing, but it will take a while for everything to be implemented, particularly online. There are several main tracks I've been considering.
ORIGINAL STUFF
Discovered last night that the ebook sales that went nonexistent in the first quarter are back. Note to the scribbler: double up on getting the updates published. That's a 10+ hour project I haven't had 10+ hours to do.
Discovered new website yesterday with reviewing style I genuinely adore. I've wanted to review a lot of books and stories that really move me, but have taken a hands off approach because the rate at which I inhale fiction leaves very little time for commenting, but... Note to the scribbler: This is worth a try.
Installed a bunch of new plugins to add functionality and better organization to this site. Haven't had time to really do anything about configuring them yet. Note to the scribbler: You do need to get on that.
Finished editing a story in the world of Breath: "The Great Cat and His Soul." I'm holding onto it though until I can collect it. Note to the scribbler: Consider permitting more than just 'myths' in the collection, 'kay?
FANDOM STUFF
Watched last week's Awake. Bawled my eyes out. It's amazing. I know they cancelled the show, but oh, Lordy, I sense huge amounts of fan response brewing on my horizons. Note to the scribbler: Do wait until time opens up, please. Patience is a virtue.
Still am not reading Insurgent. It doesn't come close to the right mood/tone for the writing I need to do today. Note to the scribbler: Patience really is a virtue.
Am writing a Kyro ficlet for arliddian. Dislike my first go and still love the summary: "Kitty always did like complex mathematical equations—like solving for the 'saint' in John." I'm trying too hard to make it match the title: "The Improbability of Forever." Note to the scribbler from your muse: Two fics?
Safe has not beeen coming along, but that is primarily my fault. I've been rereading my own work exactly like we just mentioned we should not. Note to the scribbler: Stop it.
But... in the process I found a snippet I'd been looking for everywhere and thought was gone for good. Yay! Note to the scribbler: You need to work on your organization methods. Badly.
AWESOME TOOLS I USE TO WRITE
Wordle is a handy dandy for revealing all sorts of overused words and phrases. I haven't used it recently because I've been experimenting in just getting. words. down. http://www.wordle.net/
Written? Kitten! is my handy dandy for short fiction. Highly recommend. http://writtenkitten.net/
Mary Sue Tester is new to me, but it came in rather handy making sure I hadn't gone overboard when designing the katchen. (Considering altering spelling to kahtchen—unwieldy but easier to pronounce correctly.) http://www.springhole.net/writing/marysuetests.htm
Pinterest is proving to be a useful place to store writing prompts. I use this tool to add quotes. http://pinterest.com/lianamir/idea-box/
AND BACK TO YOU...
Anything exciting? New tools? New progress? Causes of lack of progress identified? Tips for acquiring patience?
So.
Y'all might have noticed that with the exception of the Insurgent countdown, I've been pretty much absent without leave. But as always, there are reasons, and I'm going to cover them in brief before resuming a semi-regular posting schedule.
So here goes, a small word on what's up in scribbler-land.
We are creating higher word count compilations of short fiction, preparing fiction and graphics to sell directly in lovely little downloads that I can make truly beautiful, and figuring out how to add extras and new fiction and new chapters to stuff that's been sitting on hold for forever.
Additionally, it's twenty days until Insurgent by Veronica Roth appears and I'm thinking of doing twenty days of fandom goodies to mark off the time. :still thinking:
I want to update my fandom site, but I'm not allowing myself until I earn more original work income. I also want to get cracking on some Awake fanwork, but this must wait until I'm done with my two meme pieces, which are coming along.
Over the next couple weeks, I'm going to try and start posting on some of my fav fiction reads. I'm not counting on it yet because I have a lousy track record with review writing. It's just not my thing, but I want to share some of the awesome stuff I've been reading. :groans: Ah, well. We'll see.
See you all soon!
Dear muse,
Just so we start phase three off on the right foot, I want you to know where we're headed in the next so long and ask for your valuable and necessary assistance (I could never live without you).
We need to earn some income. This means just four helfpul little articles a day that I can post up on Constant Content. I don't mind how you split them up through the week. It's okay to do five or ten one day and fewer or none on another. I don't really mind, just so that twenty go up for the week. Topics wide open, but I think SEO and health are two good directions to go in.
Also, we have some stories already published that need to be reconfigured, compiled, and put out there in more palatable editions. Think you can handle that? We want to make some lovely PDFs and zip packages, I think.
Last, but not least, there's this story that I owe the lovely trovia for her help with the summaries. She wants something about sports and we started down that road, but I'm hoping we can go ahead and finish that up. Then there's those other two meme-fics. I know you've given me some juice for the longer work. The shorter one is still kinda giving me head-itch, so you think you can scratch that for me?
Thanks so much.
Your loving writer,
the scribbler
In the interests of my January resolutions to produce enough words to actually reach a livable amount of earnings, I am throwing out an accountibility posting.
Resolutions! I finally made some—today. In order to make a living at writing, I have to sell 1600 words a day, five days a week, at five cents a word. So:
The Peninsula
• "Crossing the Barrier" is on submission. I haven't heard back about the art yet, so everything's still pending.
• Summerlight, "Prelude to Dance," just got an edit and an update. On the PDF. I've decided when making major updates that unless I think the original needs serious help, I won't be editing the blog posts, simply because it's harder and there are more of them. In short, I moved the second part to the front to simplify.
I have not posted a new update on Summerlight yet because it's a structural book and I just saw the big picture last week, which means I've been spending this week sketching out the ending and some key points throughout. I do hope to settle back soon into a chronological groove with the writing, but I won't be posting anything until the next part is written and betaed.
• I have a few other shorts on the back burner and a couple of I'm-not-sure-how-longs. I'm not focusing on drafting them at this time. I figure the novel is quite suffiicient to keep me.
The Mirror
So this universe has given me its overall arc a whole lot better than any other storyworld to date. It has a pretty complex history and power system, with the powers themselves being rooted in another dimension and with a rather different set of possiblities being accepted and/or used at different times in history.
What makes this storyworld so particularly interesting to me is that it's the first time where I have a clearly fantasy premise rooted in an intensely "Christian" worldview. By "Christian," I mean that this is a rather secular empire that uses the Bible and its carefully manufactured interpretation thereof to control a worldwide populace, as well as several outlying space colonies.
• Several shorts are in progress, though I'm not completely happy with any of them yet, thus the slow work. Getting the voice right is tricky. We have "Eye of the Mirror," "The Silver," and Sacred Mirror, all of which are tentative titles.
Breath
• I'm certainly learning quite a bit about worldbuilding with this one. This is a world that did not arrive fully formed and refused to shape itself. Nope. It's making me do all the heavy lifting (which is kind of fun, if I'm being honest). I'm developing a Series Bible for it and counting this as writing time because I will be putting in a PDF format and keeping it for personal use.
• I have four stories completely drafted, on paper or on the computer: "Baker of Souls," "A Pretty Word," "Lost Heart," and "The Great Cat and His Soul." I'm planning on rewriting the first three with my updated worldbuilding information and better character building on the first and the third. The fourth will be heading over to my beta once it's typed.
• I have a fistful of stories I want to write in this universe: about the Fell, a girl who brought the destruction of the Old King's regime; about Shinet, the soulless, and her reluctant comrade, Covall; about the immortal empress; about the Mavren, the Collector and former enforcer; about the old doctor out in the hills with the water estate. We'll see.
The Alliance
• This is a world from a long time ago and a different pen name, but an unplaceable drabble has inspired me to continue it. The drabble was "City of Glass," and the next piece will be entitled the same. It's a short series of drabbles set in the Alliance universe and can now be downloaded in PDF.
Unrelated Side Note
Apparently, I have an inordinate love for names beginning with the letter K.
Writing anything new? Any new world sparking your interest?
