I got out of work early today and spent 3 hours reading QC and eating cherries. I could have spent that time drafting, but I didn't because this week was perfectly acceptable as it was.
I didn't write on Tuesday because of girlfriend things, but Monday I hit about 700 words, and about 500 on Wednesday and Thursday. The Sharza's crew is getting ready to meet their first Wizard, and are none too happy about it. I'm not quite at my 2000 word quota, but I'm right about where I want to be in terms of plot.
I have spent some time this week hoping that someday I'll have time to kick 2000 words per DAY instead of per week, but for now I'll take what I can get.
Regarding Battlesongs, both of my local commissions for cover art fell through, and a possible third isn't available for another month, so it looks like I'll be sourcing from a place online. Unfortunate, but the timeline waits for no one.
Training is finally getting on track now that the weather is getting nicer. I tied my PR on squats yesterday and sprints didn't kill me on Wednesday. Missed deadlift day on Monday because Little Sister came to visit, but with squats being as strong as they were, I'm pretty confident about hitting a PR on deads on Memorial Day.
Some more thoughts about drafting:
A significant portion of the words I did this week were summaries of scenes rather than complete scenes themselves. If I hadn't done this exact same thing for Battlesongs, I'd worry that I was copping out, writing a summary of a book rather than writing a book. But I remember that this is a DRAFT. There's a reason no one gets to read what I write until after the second edit at the earliest. I need CONTENT right now. I need ideas; I need a plot, and I need a general idea of what goes where. It doesn't have to be elegant, it doesn't have to be polished, it doesn't even have to be an actual narrative. It just needs to BE right now. If I can see a scene well, sure, I'll write it properly, but I can't wait to see fully formed scenes before I write them. Pictures look better if you have a frame in which to hang them, and I'm still measuring the angles on the frame.
Now, it is time for a weekend of bourbon, Rift, and Terry Pratchett. Onward!
Friday, May 27, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
On being lazy and relaxing
Wow, this has been another rough week for drafting. This week and last just have not amounted to much and I'm not sure why. I'm just not seeing things very clearly in my mind, which is a pretty sharp reversal from most of April. Maybe it's a delayed reaction to day-job stress? Things have lightened up these last couple of weeks and maybe it's made me relax? I don't know.
Although now that I say that, it seems true. I've been slack on my workouts these last couple of weeks as well; today was just the second lifting day in as many weeks, and I've been running once. Not good when I have a 5k scheduled next Sunday.
And I wouldn't be surprised if all of this is tied together. Things relax at work after a couple months of pressure, and that triggers my natural laziness. I relax on my workouts, I relax on my writing, I start thinking that I've earned to some rest and enjoyment during the week.
Which is bullshit. I haven't earned shit, and I need to remember that. Getting the timeline started on Battlesongs doesn't count for accomplishments. That's going to happen no matter what, and the only thing treating the publishing process like it means anything will accomplish is making sure I make mistakes. Best case scenario, Battlesongs gets me halfway to the goal. So with BSoH on autopilot, the most important thing right now is getting Nomad's drafted. I'm still on schedule to finish by the end of the year, but I'm starting to run out of wiggle room.
The good news today is I set a new PR on 5x3 overhead press, and would have gotten a PR in 5x1 deadlifts if I hadn't let my grip relax on rep 3, which threw off my form and made it so I couldn't pull the last two reps.
I'm starting to notice a pattern here.
It's most obvious on squats. At the bottom of the squat, something in my brain at least tells me that the easiest way out of this rather uncomfortable position is to relax my hamstrings and lower back and drive up with my quads. And it would be, if not for the fact that doing so will tear up my ASIS tendons and get crushed like an accordion when I run out of gas halfway up. We call that a "bad thing".
The lesson I have to learn, that I already know, that I have to actually fucking respect is that I am lazy by nature, and if I want to be of any use to anyone, I cannot relax. Weekdays are for work. I am supposed to get up, go to work, come home, work out, write 800 words, make lunch for tomorrow, and go to sleep. That's it. That's what my days should be like.
No sitting around for a half hour looking at email before I start lifting. No reading forums before I start writing. One thing to the next, as efficiently as possible, and no rationalizing deviations from the schedule. No cutting myself a break because of a hard day at work, no blowing off workouts because it's raining/cold, no taking it easy because I did well the day before.
If it was easy, everyone would do it.
I give myself more than enough slack already. My Fridays and Saturdays are completely free, at least until Girlfriend schedules things, and later this year I plan on spending all day on Sundays watching football. My word count quotas for Nomad's are a fucking joke compared to what I did for Battlesongs. And if I can't handle a workload this light, maybe I need to tighten things up so I don't get a chance to relax.
Tighten things up, get mad, and get ON this shit.
Although now that I say that, it seems true. I've been slack on my workouts these last couple of weeks as well; today was just the second lifting day in as many weeks, and I've been running once. Not good when I have a 5k scheduled next Sunday.
And I wouldn't be surprised if all of this is tied together. Things relax at work after a couple months of pressure, and that triggers my natural laziness. I relax on my workouts, I relax on my writing, I start thinking that I've earned to some rest and enjoyment during the week.
Which is bullshit. I haven't earned shit, and I need to remember that. Getting the timeline started on Battlesongs doesn't count for accomplishments. That's going to happen no matter what, and the only thing treating the publishing process like it means anything will accomplish is making sure I make mistakes. Best case scenario, Battlesongs gets me halfway to the goal. So with BSoH on autopilot, the most important thing right now is getting Nomad's drafted. I'm still on schedule to finish by the end of the year, but I'm starting to run out of wiggle room.
The good news today is I set a new PR on 5x3 overhead press, and would have gotten a PR in 5x1 deadlifts if I hadn't let my grip relax on rep 3, which threw off my form and made it so I couldn't pull the last two reps.
I'm starting to notice a pattern here.
It's most obvious on squats. At the bottom of the squat, something in my brain at least tells me that the easiest way out of this rather uncomfortable position is to relax my hamstrings and lower back and drive up with my quads. And it would be, if not for the fact that doing so will tear up my ASIS tendons and get crushed like an accordion when I run out of gas halfway up. We call that a "bad thing".
The lesson I have to learn, that I already know, that I have to actually fucking respect is that I am lazy by nature, and if I want to be of any use to anyone, I cannot relax. Weekdays are for work. I am supposed to get up, go to work, come home, work out, write 800 words, make lunch for tomorrow, and go to sleep. That's it. That's what my days should be like.
No sitting around for a half hour looking at email before I start lifting. No reading forums before I start writing. One thing to the next, as efficiently as possible, and no rationalizing deviations from the schedule. No cutting myself a break because of a hard day at work, no blowing off workouts because it's raining/cold, no taking it easy because I did well the day before.
If it was easy, everyone would do it.
I give myself more than enough slack already. My Fridays and Saturdays are completely free, at least until Girlfriend schedules things, and later this year I plan on spending all day on Sundays watching football. My word count quotas for Nomad's are a fucking joke compared to what I did for Battlesongs. And if I can't handle a workload this light, maybe I need to tighten things up so I don't get a chance to relax.
Tighten things up, get mad, and get ON this shit.
Monday, May 2, 2011
The timeline starts today
This is when things start to get interesting.
Today I sent out for quotes for formatting and cover design suitable for ebooks. The plan is to release Battlesongs of Hope on Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords by the end of August.
I decided to self-publish rather than follow my one lead with a for-real-life publisher after I started following Joe Konrath. In September, I'd gotten farther with a publisher than I ever had before; they read the entire manuscript at least, and requested further edits before they could offer me a contract. Which is a rejection, but it's a qualified, not entirely final rejection.
But after I made the changes and started following Joe, I realized that even if I could get a book deal with this publisher, I may not be much better off. They are an ebook only publisher, which means no shelf space in Walmart, and they charge $5-$6 per ebook, regardless of the author. I don't know what their royalties are, but I'm willing to bet they pay a lower percentage than Amazon's 70% for a $2.99 copy.
So I'm jumping in the self-publishing world. I'm looking at $200-$500 for cover design and formatting, and plan on releasing at $1.99 per copy. Self-pub royalties scale with price, so I'm looking at about $1 per copy. If I can make $1 more in royalties than it takes to get this thing out there, I'll at least have not failed.
But however far I go past that, well, I'll find out in time.
Today I sent out for quotes for formatting and cover design suitable for ebooks. The plan is to release Battlesongs of Hope on Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords by the end of August.
I decided to self-publish rather than follow my one lead with a for-real-life publisher after I started following Joe Konrath. In September, I'd gotten farther with a publisher than I ever had before; they read the entire manuscript at least, and requested further edits before they could offer me a contract. Which is a rejection, but it's a qualified, not entirely final rejection.
But after I made the changes and started following Joe, I realized that even if I could get a book deal with this publisher, I may not be much better off. They are an ebook only publisher, which means no shelf space in Walmart, and they charge $5-$6 per ebook, regardless of the author. I don't know what their royalties are, but I'm willing to bet they pay a lower percentage than Amazon's 70% for a $2.99 copy.
So I'm jumping in the self-publishing world. I'm looking at $200-$500 for cover design and formatting, and plan on releasing at $1.99 per copy. Self-pub royalties scale with price, so I'm looking at about $1 per copy. If I can make $1 more in royalties than it takes to get this thing out there, I'll at least have not failed.
But however far I go past that, well, I'll find out in time.
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