The current goal is to have the second draft completed by May 15th. That gives me just over a month to work out the 100k words I expect from this draft, roughly 3k a day. That’s a manageable level I believe as I did manage that for the first 20 or days of NaNoWriMo last year. I just have to extend it out another 10 days and I’ll hit my target. There are a few changes that I’ve made to help facilitate that process. For one, I’ve removed my biggest distraction. As of midnight on Sunday, August 8th, I stripped my computer of Steam, steam games, installed games, and potential installers on my computer. I’ve already defined the date when I can reinstall these times, May 15th.

Gee, I wonder why?

The novel isn’t my only project right now. I’ve started back into work on the RPG system Andrew and I talked about. It took some doing to find the old files but I managed to dig them out. After a quick reformatting, I started work on hashing out new rules and expectations of the system. I still have a large number of organizational things to do to get the project ready for game testing, but one step at a time. I have no current project time table for the RP system until I finish the novel. Once that’s done, I’ll see where this game is and how I can complete the tasks related to it.

So project, project, project. I still have a long way to go on everything, but I’m getting focused and I’ll adjust my schedule to be able to put something quality out. I’ve said it before but 2012 is a year of change for me.

I mentioned previously the path I’m taking to get this book finished. I’ve moved onto Step 3 on that list, and have started the process of poking and picking the thing to see where the issues are. 6 chapters need to be completely rewritten. Not a terrible number with there being 30 chapters overall. Another 15-20 need updates to character names, place names, and minor reshuffling. The last 4 are okay.

Those changes are coming but they are not my focus for right now. Right now I’m working on the story bible. I’m setting into “stone” the names of everything, the timeline of everything prior to the story, and defining the rules of the world. I avoided doing too much of this prior to the first draft as I wanted the freedom to do as I pleased. It worked out, letting me do the discovery writing thing to hammer out a universe. This has to be one of my favorite things about writing a story, doing these behind the scenes bits. It harkens back to the 18 years of RPG’s I’ve managed and run campaigns: creating places, characters, plots, background lore, etc. There’s a spark there I just can’t get enough of.

Right now my goal is to have this background work completed by March 4th, which gives me 7 days at the time of this writing to get things together. Here are the key points I’m going to hit on:

• Establish Timeline
• Define Core Characters, Secondary Characters, and write 3 sentences for each one off character
• Define the rules for the interface characters use
• Define how the virii characters work
• Define the region space
• Define terminology

Shouldn’t be hard unless the universe explodes between now and Friday.

The Process

I’m feeling it out but here’s the game plan so far:

1. Finish The Novel (100%)
2. Read Through The Novel – Identify issues and inconsistencies, highlight character traits, identify key characters and find the loose threads (80%)
3. Plan The Demolition – Using the notes from 2, find the chapters to slash and burn, the ones to do plastic surgery to, and the ones with minor tweaks (0%)
4. Hack and Slash – Gut that thing and get the first edits done. (0%)
5. Give Up My Baby To Science – Turn novel over to Beta Readers (0%)

Read Through The Novel

I’m sitting here going through this thing a chapter at a time. I’ve identified terminology that I used earlier in the book but dropped after two chapters that I want to expand throughout the story. I’ve seen some flaws with a supporting character I need to correct. I’ve realized I need to rework the antagonist’s voice. I also realized I need to better define the “Rules” of the setting.

That last point is important and I think is one of the key things I need to massage. Much like a magic system in a fantasy novel, the rules of the world need to be better defined. I basically just hacked my way through the whole thing during the creation process. Now the setting needs to have a consistent reason for why things are the way they are so when I break them because of the plot it makes more sense and is more impactful.

It still feels weird reading through the work. I think it’s more the fact I’m reading it only a month after writing it. It’s the same sensation I get when I try to reread a novel only a few months after my first viewing. It comes off as awkward as my mind tries to remember where I am at a given point without thinking about the ending so much.

Plan The Demolition

The blue prints are already starting to lay themselves out during the review. I know several key chapters, especially the beginning, need to be reworked. I’m really considering the advice of cutting off the first chapter and going straight to chapter 2, except in this case I know I need to completely rework chapter 2 so that might not fly. I feel like I need those beginning chapters before the story explodes in chapters 3 and 4. The world has certain rules to expand on while the action is starting to rise.

Working on this stage is mostly just taking my notes from the Reading process and just prioritizing. I’m glad I’m using a different medium for the notes. It’s letting me look at things a bit differently than keeping everything digital. Right now all my notes for the novel are in a little steno pad I tot around. I’m surprised by just how much I’m going through that little thing keeping tabs on the work as a whole.

Hack And Slash

This is the stage I’m looking forward to. The actual rewriting and editing of the book. I know I have at least 4-5 chapters to rewrite, and a number of chapters to either expand or to split. I actually expect the book to become larger in size as I fit a few more things in and improve the role of some of the supporting characters.

One of the key things I want to expand on is something I feel some fiction leaves out. I feel like I don’t have enough of the world space in the novel compared to what the protagonist sees directly before him. I’m not planning on forcing him to deal with other people he shouldn’t have within the bounds of the story, as that will come off as awkward and disruptive to him. Instead, I’m laying the ground work for traps I already dropped on him in later chapters. For example, there’s a certain item he gets attacked by near the end of the second part of the novel, and I think there’s a part where I can expand on both a supporting character and give an origin of the item prior to the character realizing it’s a threat.

Give Up My Baby To Science

At this point, I’m going to turn the second draft over to some Beta readers. I’m hoping to get back feedback on structure at this point, character opinions, that sort of thing. I’ll worry about an editing pass later for grammar and such. As of the writing of this post the novel hasn’t been read by anyone else but me. Sort of like hiding a sketch underlay of a painting to be, I’ve kept the thing to myself. I can honestly say I’m a bit worried about folk’s reactions to the novel. I’ve had good feedback in the past from beta readers for short stories and flash, but this is a much bigger beast and it’s going to take more than an hour to just tweak the work after getting feedback.

I’m looking forward to hearing the feedback though. While I’m worried about what might still be broken with the story, knowing I’m sharing a piece I created all on my own is exciting. To think the story wasn’t even a spark in my head back in September is amazing. I’m going to have another one of these to fret over before the end of 2012, so I need to hurry up and get this one going.

jdiehl

It’s a random Friday and that means it’s guest post today!

I’ve considered serial fiction in the past and it’s in my future writing plans. To find this article from writer and friend Andrew Eckhart was a nice surprise. Andrew’s the writer of the novel Last Mage, written in a serial format over the past year.  Check out his story for examples of how he handles the style and pressure of writing stories and putting it out there for the world to see, a chapter at a time.

Why Serial Fiction Works

My colleague Claudia Hall Christian has called writing serial fiction the “big leagues” and I agree with her. Serial fiction forces writers to focus and practice and produce, concepts I’ll get to in a moment, but it also allows writers to feel accomplished, acknowledged and legitimized, especially if they haven’t had the opportunity to publish before. To writers who are still on the fence about jumping into the world of serial fiction, let me lay out a few benefits that I have come to cherish about the format.

Enhanced Focus on What’s Important

Writing taps into the creative part of our brain, the part most apt to free-associate or, run off on tangents. If a writer is a “by the seat of their pants” type rather than a “meticulous planner” (two extremes on the scale), they might find themselves distracted by goings on in their story that does not enhance the story. And, when one has the luxury of sitting around with the same story for an indeterminate amount of time, that tendency is amplified.

Instinctively, we know how a story should unfold. We learn this from an early age either from Disney, Saturday morning cartoons, or stories that parents read to us before bed. The largest aspect of the entertainment industry is, in fact, storytelling. What serial fiction forces us to do is to work to a deadline, which enhances our focus on what’s important and vital in a story. When one doesn’t have the time to focus on purple prose, the story is that much more enhanced.

An Enhanced Voice

Each of us has developed our own type of storytelling, our voice. This voice is a reflection of our thought-patterns, how we see the world and how we relate to others. Sometimes, especially for beginning writers, we lose that uniqueness by over-thinking the words we put down on the page. This is not to say that we shouldn’t self-censor, but we should recognize when that censoring comes at the expense of our own voice.

The time constraint of serial fiction, the constant drive to produce, again, forces writers to consider, in their editing phase (if they have one) if reworking how something is worded is an improvement or an accurate representation of their thought at the time.

Additionally, it gives writers greater confidence in their own voice, which I’ll cover below.

 Deliberate Practice

In “Outliers: The Story of Success” by Malcolm Gladwell, Gladwell details the idea of “deliberate practice” developed by Psychologist K. Anders Ericsson. There’s a lot of psychology mumbo-jumbo going on in there, but the essential idea is this: When one practices with intensity, self-correction and goals, the quality of that practice is far and away more effective than simple rote repetition.

When you next sit down to write for yourself, think about how you feel, about how you write. Do you allow yourself mistakes, thinking you’ll get back to it? Do you gloss over important details? Do you feel invested in what you’re putting down on paper?

Compare that to how you feel and think when writing for publication, for others to see? Are your descriptions clearer? Do you take greater consideration for things to make sense? Do you develop ideas more fully?

Of course each person is different, but creating work with the explicit thought that someone will soon be reading what you’ve written fundamentally changes the sort of writing you’re doing.

A few writers I’ve told that to say that that makes writing stressful, hard work. But here’s the thing: Writing is fun. Great writing is hard. With serial fiction we are forced to look at our work through the lens of very nearly immediately publishing it. With this deliberate practice, we develop the skills to tackle difficult passages — because we simply don’t have time to waste lamenting over how hard it is. With this goal-oriented approach, we become confident in our own ability to craft what we want how we want.

Instant Feedback

Have you ever looked back on a piece you’ve written five months ago and think “what was I thinking just then?” If you don’t, I envy you. Often I find myself flabbergasted by a passage I’ve written and the idea of having someone review that is hair-raising at the least. With serial fiction, the story is always at the forefront of your creative mind, percolating away in your subconscious or active imagination. When you release a chapter or a part, the feedback that you receive can be readily incorporated into the overall structure of your story, both conceptually in your mind and practically, in your writing.

Consider this: You’ve just written a one-hundred thousand word novel about the plight of dragons in 1950s Middle America, a la “Leave it to Beaver.” Your first reader loves it, and so you send it on to an editor, confident in the work. But when you get the manuscript back, the editor has pointed out a fatal flaw in the plot in the second act, thereby negating half to a third of your hard work.

 Instead, you’ve been writing it in serial fashion, putting it on the web about two weeks after you’ve written it. A smart observer points out that, in fact, dragons don’t film well in monochrome and it turns them evil. Right then and there you have the option to address the issue that would have corrupted the rest of your work.

This is an extreme example, but, like forgetting to hit save, it only takes once to ruin your day. Or month.

 Most importantly, serial fiction allows you to receive support from your readers. I promise you that whatever it is you’re writing: Supernatural Romance, Time Traveling Hijinks, a written reality television show based on the life of an amoeba that lives on the ear of a cat, you will find an audience that will enjoy your work. These readers will give you the courage and the confidence to continue, when you’re feeling down or unsure about your own work. If for no other reason that this, you should pursue writing in a serial format.

Whew, alright. Well I suppose that’s most of it. Serial fiction is hard work. It can be stressful, hair-pullingly annoying and make one consider the pint of slow-churned cookies and cream in the freezer a viable “snack,” but it is incredibly rewarding.

I started this novel as a NaNoWriMo project two months ago. I won NaNoWriMo on the 20^th of November, and since then I’ve slowly hammering onward. The work is around 80k right now, and I hope to have it complete in the next week. It will be my first completed novel and I’m awfully excited about the prospect of going back and reading what I’ve created. Pity that won’t happen until at least mid February. I’m taking advantage of advice from a volume of authors suggesting that you don’t start editing until after you’ve had a chance to let your creator hat for a project cool off a bit. The three or four weeks distance I’ve laid out should allow me a better view of my mistakes.

Editing will be a new skill and I do not expect to be a master as soon as I step into the ring. I’m not setting a time table for that part of the project because I need to learn the skills related to it first. Once I’ve done this a number of times, I’ll be able to better plan my strategy there.

This close to completing a novel, I’ve decided to set a new resolution for 2012. Since I’ve taken to write on a daily basis and my output is at minimum 1,000 words, I thought it would be practical to now demand that value out of me for the duration.  That said my goal is now 366,000 words of fiction dedicated to projects this year. Note those caveats: My goal is now 366,000 of FICTION (blog posts and the day job stuff don’t count) dedicated to PROJECTS (random fictional stories and daily mini-flash thingies don’t count, it must be something worth selling) this year. Non-fiction and non-project items are fine to work on, but I’m not taking them as part of my quota. It’s a reasonable goal, and is less demanding than NaNoWriMo was.

Much like NaNoWriMo, I’m keeping a visible public tally. It won’t get updated on the site daily, but every weekend I will upload last week’s score board. I’m also going to track how many words I write that are not focused to the project, just to compare the values. I’m curious to know how much is going towards the blog here and the micro-blogging on G+. I will not be tallying up Twitter or the day job. Both are just time wasting tasks that can better be spent working on the 366,000.

Between completing this first novel and the requirement for 366,000 words this year, I have a few pots going into the first this year. That volume of words can easily be 3-4 novels, or a few novels and a few short stories, novella, and flash anthologies. The writers that are making a living doing this are prolific, and I think that word count might count towards that description. I’ll be starting a new project the same day I complete this novel, so in the next week or two I’ll start talking about that, once I figure out if I’m going to try to do another novel or if I’m going to do a shorter piece.

2012 is going to be a fantastic year. I’m going to make it a new era for me, but nothing to do with Mayans, at least, not yet. Now an apocalypse! That’s something I can fit in.

 I speak, of course, of the wager between myself and one Andrew Eckhart. In the early days of August, I lay down the gauntlet to him and threaten to smack him on the head with it should he not accept. He did, once terms were decided upon.

 The Challenge? To draft and write a 100k novel in two months. He was even given a head start of 30k as an acceptable means of action.

 The terms? The draft must be done the night of September 30th, 2011. it must be equal or in excess of 100k words. it must be a finished story.

 The wager? A copy of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, to be purchased by the loser for the victor.

 At the time of this writing, Andrew is in the lead at least at 30,000 words. his novel should be about 60,000 words. My novel sits at 14,000. He might be winning. Regardless of the outcome, I look forward to both of our victories at completing a story by the last day of September. That is the heart of this challenge. I think it’s working.

 j samuel diehl

• I’m back full swing into working on the blogs. I left off the end of July with a quiet week, but August starts back with gusto. I’ll be posting daily for the remainder of this month, especially a series on Fluffy Couple/Google Plus called “The Health Road to a Con.” They cover my detail on getting healthy during the month of August before my 2^nd visit to Dragon*Con.
• The book is still in outline mode. I’m giving myself a deadline of this weekend (two days from this post) to have the outline ready. If it’s not working, I don’t want to keep wasting time on a project I like but can’t manage.
• I’ve decided I need to start working on Flash Fiction again. I feel, overall, more creative and like working on my bigger projects when I work on Flash earlier in the day. I’m not sure how I’ll manage the time but I’ll find a way. I’ll see about sharing this fiction here weekly.
• The New Podcast will be recorded tomorrow. I won’t give a solid date on its release. I’d like to mess around with formatting until I can get it kinda right. Debating still on the first big topic.

Okay, that’s it. Go write something.

j samuel diehl

My thoughts turn to blogging as I look at publishing my first work. How much I keep active, how often I post, how much I talk to those who will listen is going to affect my future activities. Thinking along those lines, starting now seems logical since I want those who find me through short story and novels to come to a series of blogs that are active and productive.

Posting consistency is now going to be a mainstay for me, but what comes next in terms of taking it to the next level? Well, that’s more of a question to ask about each blog I work on since each blog is likely to attract a different type of reader with the few wonderful people who follow the master feed. Here, as this is the focus of my writing and the thoughts and projects surrounding that profession, I can look back at the fiction I posted last year and perhaps start that up again. There’s a number of stories that could use a revamp and a series I’m sitting on that I can share. That plays into the sparking interest in my writing plan.

The other blogs might need some deeper researching on what could improve them, but I’m sure there is something of value each can bring forth.

The skill of consistency is likely the most important thing I can develop now as a writer trying to become a professional. I just have to look at my own expectations of the media I consume to realize others are going to expect the same of me. Those podcasts, bloggers, and other media that post consistently and at the same time tend to float to my focus. I share them first, and I believe anyone interested in my work will believe the same concept. Maybe not as in depth as I am thinking about it, but enough to make me want to at least appeal to my own sense of productivity.

Hearing that I better keep at it or I’ll make my inner fan unhappy and he’s a nuisance when I don’t cater to his needs.

j samuel diehl

Find better people to be first and beta readers.

I’ve meet some wonderful people with a better sense of what I’m asking when I give them one of my pieces. There’s plenty of lovely people who will give out great praise and tell me they enjoyed my story. Those are kind words and I thank each of them for what they share. Only they are not the criticism I need prior to preforming an editing pass. With trying to submit professionally I’m in need of people who will tell me my story is silly, the characters are trite, and the plot is unrealistic. In short, I need someone to tell me where it sucks and why it sucks.

I’ve earned the friendship of someone who is capable of giving me this. With the most recent piece I’ve been able to preform two additional editing passes that have tighten the story and fixed some things that were glaring to others but not to me. Is the story perfect? Not likely, but it’s close and I don’t want to flood it with too many editing passes that it never gets submitted.

Just to give a glimpse of what was fixed and why a good first reader is important, let’s look over one aspect of the story that was corrected.

In the piece, I focus on two characters, brothers, working on a quest in a fantasy/slight horror setting. In the first few passes of the story, one of the brothers goes from being overtly charming and nice to down right cruel and insulting. Transition seemed reasonable by my second editing but it was glaring to my first readers. Glaring enough that I started to peel back the personality of the character and realize my fault in his personality shift. A correction later and suddenly the character becomes very different in the current incarnation, and ends up being a better driving force for the plot too.

There’s more to it than just that one character’s change, but overall the story is better, tighter, and a stronger piece of publication.

Cross your fingers as I look for a market to submit it.

jdiehl

I’m sitting waiting for a first reader to get that short story back to me. The overall plan is to have that story ready for submission by the end of June. I have a bonus with that story in that I have a free professional review I can use. Maybe by the end of the year, I’ll be able to say I’m a paid writer by submitting that story to a magazine, internet market, or fiction podcast.

I’m proud I’ve kept this up for two weeks. Now to finish out the month, then the season.

jdiehl