August 2010 Wrap-up

     August was a peculiar month. With the main project out of the way, I puttered around on others. One project which I've been toying with, only dubbed Supervillain for now, seems to go in erratic spurts. I'm not sure if it will ever amount to a full-fledged novel, or if it would even be marketable if it did. So I worked bits on it, and on other, weirder things. Dusted a few things off, and saw that blowing away the dust meant a lot of work with cutting and re-writing. I had days where I couldn't write for the start up of the new semester interfered, as well as my own bizarre sleep schedule (a constant problem, I know). By month's end, though, I had come up with a concept and an outline for the next Matt Allen, and it was so insidious I had to start writing right away. Which explains the recent new first chapter.
     I also let my record-keeping go somewhat astray. I did the writing and editing, but I also didn't record those numbers until much later, and there are . . . gaps. So I'm going to make an effort to do better at that.

July 2010 Wrap-up

     Okay, so I'm late with this. It's been hanging around waiting to be done, but I've put it off. I need to make sure I remember to do these more regularly, like immediately. July was a good month, where I finished off the rough draft for The Missing Succubus which is a cracking good read if I say so myself.

March Wrap-up 2010

March's charts.

February Wrap Up 2010

Here is February.

January Wrap-up 2010

Here is the chart for January, sadly very late, and lacking much in the way of actual numbers.

Year in Review: 2009

     Year two of the grand experiment is complete, and while I did not get as much raw writing done in 2009 as 2008, I also edited a fierce amount of material. I believe 2009 was where I found my step. By alternating writing days with editing days, I feel more productive. I can get done the necessary editing, which I dread, on days when I know I won't be able to write.
     I feel 2009 was monumental. I wrote two complete novels within a year's time (NaNo seems to be a starting point for me, and since I finished the draft of Halloween Scourge before November, it is within a year's time) and these were not slim books, either. I wrote a number of short stories, made a map of famed Belport, designed a night club, and even found time for a bit of supervillainy now and again. All this while beginning my teaching career. Yes, 2009 was a very important year for me, and I can't wait to see what 2010 will bring me. Hopefully, with work and diligence, representation for my work. Until then, though, ever forward, and here are my charts for the year, and the grand total: 327,706.

December 2009 Wrap Up

     Well, December was not quite as productive as I had hoped, though I'm going to cut myself some slack because of how busy November was. I'm beginning to feel some burnout with the particular book I'm doing, and I seem to remember the same feeling with Vampire Shadows last year. I've set myself the goal to finishing The Missing Succubus soon, but then I'm going to take a break from all things Matt Allen for a time. My supervillain story is beckoning, percolating in the background, and I am to answer the call. Until then, though. The succubus still gets my attention. Here are the charts for December.

November Wrap-up

     Well, another month gone, but more than that, another NaNoWriMo complete! Yes, I reached 52k (plus change) on November 21st. The Missing Succubus is well underway, and I'm very pleased so far with how it is unfolding. As has become my habit, I don't have a detailed outline, but I do have a direction, a heading, in lieu of a fully charted course. This seems to work better for me. Wow, it feels really good to be done. If you'll pardon me for a moment, I feel the need for a short exclamation regarding the subject: Hell yeah!
     Right, back to the serious nature of this blog. Now, what with teaching three classes and NaNoWriMo, I thought my head was going to explode, but I pulled it off. I even managed to come up with new drafts for my query letter, as well as a preliminary CV to solicit (take from that what you will) myself to other colleges. Oh, and not to mention grading over 30 10-12 page research papers in four days. I really thought my brain would just shut down at some point. If I hadn't finished NaNoWriMo ahead of time, I'm sure it would have.
     Since finishing, I have treated myself to tackling two short stories which I was inspired to write, one before November and the other halfway through. I'm going to finish both of them before resuming work on The Missing Succubus. I hope to finish both of them during December. After that I will probably alternate on The Missing Succubus and giving some final tweaks to Blood and Stones that were suggested to me, and maybe even giving Halloween Scourge a once over. But that, of course, is the future.
     Here are the charts for November. You'll notice that Thanksgiving Weekend has nothing in terms of writing, and that was by design instead of tryptophan. I needed those days for grading, and gave myself a break because I had already pumped out 50k words in 21 days. Yes, all right, I will accept the title of slacker for that one.

October 2009 Wrap-up

     Well, I've started NaNoWriMo, and have gotten off to an auspicious start. I'm still not sure where The Missing Succubus is going, but it seems to be going there quite well. October was an unprecedented month for me, showing me that I can handle a heavy writing load. If I hadn't finished Halloween Scourge then I would have broken 50,000 for that month as well. I'm anticipating the only problem I'll have in reaching 50,000 for this NaNoWriMo is coming up with enough material for when I need it. For now, though, things are good, so I will simply put up the charts and continue on.

September wrap-up

     The time is upon us once again. Another month down, and charts to post. I have reasserted my ability to write my thousand words a day after taking long stints of editing in between. I've realized that NaNoWriMo is fast approaching, and I need to try and finish off Halloween Scourge before undertaking a new one. So, I've got thirty-one days to finish it off.
     I'm going to try and repeat my training from last year in order to beef up my daily word count, though this year's contest is going to be much tougher on me from the added work load. I can already feel twinges of what I want to unfold in The Missing Succubus and have begun research, so hopefully I'll have enough material that I won't be struggling to find something to write.
     Well, time is precious now, so here are the charts.

August Wrap-up

     Well, on ce again I'm late getting the wrap-up in, but this time I actually have a legitimate excuse as I'm teaching again, and a little behidn on that, so it's only natural this has fallen behind as well. Blood and Stones has undergone its revisions for the Blackthorn Club, and now it's out to friends for a final perusal. I do mean final, as well. I will examine recommendations they put to me, but I'm not going to do another full read and revision of this thing unless a publisher or agent has suggestions.
     Hopefully, in about a week's time (the deadline I have given the aforementioned people) I will begin sending out query letters to see if there are any bites. I'm also looking to post the entire novel on Authonomy for some more critiquing and ideas. Likely to be followed by Vampire Shadows and eventually Halloween Scourge
     Speaking of which, the story has already well surpassed Blood and Stones in length, and will likely outdo Vampire Shadows as well. Hopefully, though, it will be finished before NaNoWriMo starts up again.
     Well, I've rambled this for longer than I intended. Time to get back to my day job. Here are the totals for August.

July Wrap-Up 2009

     Once again, I fell behind, but not nearly as bad as last year, and I have good excuses this year. I've had quite the busy summer with a vacation, visiting friend, and a wedding. Throughout it all I at least managed to edit a chapter here and there.
     It seems I'm splitting my time almost equally between writing and editing. It feels as if I'm not getting as much done, or that I'm copping out on writing, but I think I would much rather write than edit, so I'll keep embracing this urge for now.
     Even with the rash of editing, I'm still chugging away at Halloween Scourge and have hopes of finishing it up before NaNoWriMo, so I can insanely try and write yet another novel in a month. If I do manage to finish off my Scourge before All Hallow's Eve (there's a certain irony here which I both delight in and dread), I already have an idea for the next one I'll tackle, and a tentative title: Missing Succubus. I won't go into that right now, though, since I have a good two months to worry about that. Anywhere, here are the totals for July.

June Wrap-Up 2009

     I'm playing catch up, so I'm just going to post the graphs and move on.

May Wrap-up 2009

     Well, another month down, and my walkabout '09 finished. I always intended to make a post about how I was skipping town, but never had time or net access for long enough to even do it. The month ended like it started despite the traveling difficulties, and I managed a healthy mix of writing with editing Vampire Shadows. I actually managed to finish going through the entire book, too, so there is accomplishment there. Halloween Scourge is still progressing, but at a somewhat more methodical pace. There are heavy police elements in this one, so I need to go through procedures, detail crime scenes, and, well, sometimes it flows well, and other times it is tedium.
     On Walkabout I managed quite a few interesting ideas to aid my stories, including things to flesh out Belport, and elements to include plot-wise, as well. I even purchased a painting from a street vendor in NYC that inspired an entire chapter that will appear in Halloween Scourge, which helps exemplify an interesting twist in the relationship of Matt and Nikki. This just goes to show that the five words are still in effect, no matter the source of inspiration. I ended up purchasing the art, and will hopefully frame it soon.
     With the semester ended, I'm going to make a push to get a query letter done and attempt to solicit some agents. I'm also going to go through Blood and Stones one more time to see if there's anything else that needs to be done. If I plan this right, perhaps I can get myself an agent and Matt Allen will make an appearance on the shelves in the relatively near future. Until then, here are my charts for May.

April Wrap-up 2009

     Well, my monthly wrap-up is late, but it's here, anyway. The end of April and May have been hectic and full of grading, and, as can be seen in the graphs, I had a few slips in my writing. Work really does interfere with writing, but seeing as I don't have a paying writing gig, I'll stick with it. Plus I do enjoy teaching, so it's all good. Scourge has been giving me a lot of trouble of late. It's scope is bigger (personally) than what I've done before. This one requires me to dig a little more in-depth and try and verse myself with police procedures and all that jazz. I'm trying to keep it authentic, but at the same time not get bogged down with it since my PI involves himself with the paranormal instead of the normal. I was hoping Scourge would be my way of showing how the worlds can collide. I just need to finish working out the encyclopedia of information that I have to transfer to the reader when dealing with the police and all the scientific mumbo jumbo. Anyway, here are the totals.

March Wrap-up 2009

     Well, another month gone. The time seems to go by so quickly now, and my totals seem to dwindle now that I'm also throwing revision into the mix. Also, I've had some difficulty with a cold and a sore back, not to mention my teaching, which has taken a toll in terms of time, but I'm still getting a goodly amount done.
     With all the extra things pulling at my time, it's been difficult to stay disciplined, especially on the weekends when I just want to crash. Not too long ago I just let writing for the day go after pushing it aside all day until no more time was left. I'm working on finding the time and forcing the writing out of me even on those days when I just want to veg. If nothing else, I should take that time and use it to do some revision to at least remain somewhat productive towards writing.
     I think something else I'm having difficulty with is the third book. I don't have Halloween Scourge mapped out yet---though I haven't with the others, either---and I think I need to spend some time fleshing out the story some more in an outline than blindly writing. Of course, the early parts of the stories always seem boring to me as I'm trying to set everything up, so I'll just keep plowing through until inspiration strikes.
     I've also started on another short story with my intrepid hero, which I'm having quite a bit of fun with thus far. I'll be posting it up when finished, probably in a couple of weeks.
     I've also finished the map and the short history of it. The map should be coming up soon, and I think I may slowly release the histories of each section of the city to get into the habit of more regular posting here. Until then, here are the monthly charts.

February 2009 wrap-up

     It's a bit late coming (half a month) but here's what I did in February. There were some sick days and the total will seem low because of that, but also because I went into revising Blood and Stones with gusto.
     I finished an initial revision, but there are a couple of things I'm still mulling over, such as one scene in the story where my detective and Nikki get into a highly repetitive verbal sparring match that I think needs some streamlining. I'm also still mulling over a couple of neighborhoods on the map. I think I'll have to revisit Google Maps to get some inspiration from existing cities, maybe Frisco this time.
     I've also started the third book, which I've had the idea for since about the time I started Vampire Shadows, and have decided to call this oneHalloween Scourge after many hours tossing title ideas back and forth. I've always had difficulty with titles, trying to find the right mix, and part of me still isn't sure of Blood and Stones but I've gotten used to it, for now.
     I'm waiting to hear back from a couple of friends before I start revision number two of the book, but I've also started looking at potential agents, and hope to start drafting some query letters. More to follow soon, but for now, here are the charts for February.

January Wrap-up

     Well, another month come and gone. The good news: it looks like I've finished a draft of Vampire Shadows and I'm nearly finished with the design of my PI's city. The bad: I still need to go back and revise Blood and Stones and need to come up with a name for my city.

     Along those lines, I've decided that revising a story still counts as writing, and though I may not do any actual creating, revision still gets the work closer to a finished piece. I'm going to create a category in my daily word count that will allow me to track my progress of revision through Blood and Stones to help get my butt in gear. I've also been busy with my other life, getting accustomed to teaching and its own rigors, but still managing to stay on top of things. I'd like to get in a place where I'm at least a week ahead on my class and create a kind of buffer to keep myself from feeling as frantic as I have been the last two weeks.
     And here are the totals, in a new and improved graph from last year's model! Shiny.

Year in Review

     This is a little bit early, but I tend to get flaky towards the end of the month (yes, November's word count was up clear throughout December), so I thought I would do this now while the thoughts are there. Over a year ago this blog and keeping track of my word count was an experiment, and I have to say it was an unmitigated success. By and large I have stuck by and become disciplined enough to write at least 1,000 words every day, which produces a staggering amount of text throughout the year (the yearly count is below). I have written a fantasy novel, which I may or may not pursue follow-ups, a PI detective novel dealing with the supernatural, of which there should be many follow-ups, and most of a second PI novel (see, told ya).
     I'm not sure if it was so much the genre change that really got me excited, but looking at a fresh idea. I had been working my fantasy series to death in my head, and it just seemed stale. I couldn't add anything new to the genre that hadn't been done to death. It's not that the story was bad, but it didn't have anything new or original to hold a reader's attention, which I know editors are looking for. With my PI, I'm putting a new twist on an old idea, and hopefully doing so in an interesting way with an interesting cast of characters. Time will tell, I suppose.
     Now, I have said it before, and I will say it again. My weakness is in revision. I need to start looking at what I write and fixing what's wrong with it quickly. While I don't think I can emulate Burgess, from whom I took inspiration for this method (see Clockwork for more on this), I believe I can take some time to examine what I wrote the day before, both to revise it and to refresh myself on what I have written.
     I think another of my weaknesses is that I do forget what came before. I will frequently have to look back at what I wrote to remember the sequences of events I've covered, and remember the placement of clues for my PI to pick up on.
     I have learned that I can't plan these out, either. Overplanning keeps me from being able to move through the story. With Blood and Stones I didn't even know "whodunit" until near the end of the story. I knew basically for awhile who my top three suspects were, and even after I decided the culprit, I had to come up with a way for my PI to figure it out. Certainly there were many clues out there, but, from reading Chandler and Hammett, there always seems to be one or two key clues that will convince the PI on which person to settle on. With Vampire Shadows I am currently tackling the latter as I figured out the "whodunit" quite some time ago. I feel good about the direction its going, and hope to finish it soon.
     The setting for my PI has been difficult. I could have written about a real location, but there were two difficulties with that. The first is that doing so requires an intense amount of research to adequately know and write about a location. The second is that I could write about my own location, but I don't really enjoy this location as a setting, nor does it feel like the sort of place my PI would reside in. I certainly know some places of local color that could breathe life into this setting, but I would prefer breathing that same life into a place of my own choosing. I decided to create my own city---which is still unnamed---and want to breathe life into it. I've had a good primer on such with the wonderful comic Astro City, which I recommend anyone pick up who has an interest in what I deem the best writing in a superhero comic; not only that, but Brent Anderson's artwork and Alex Ross's covers are amazing, making these comics shine both as art and literature. Astro City is their own creation, with elements of several major cities built into it, but it still manages to be unique with its Astro City Bank, Mt. Kirby, and Shadow Hill. I hope that my own city will have this kind of life as well, and have already created neighborhoods such as the Grind, Fairhaven, and Badon Heights, and locations such as Tony's Bar, the Blackthorn, and Kairos's Gyros. I hope to have some kind of map to the city soon, complete with neighborhoods and places of interest (the Blackthorn and Kairos's at the top of the list, obviously), and will post it up when I get something definitive. If anyone knows of a decent software that will make creating a city easier, I'm all ears.
     Aside from editing work of the previous day, I need to really dive into Blood and Stones to make it presentable to an agent. I've already purchased a guide to literary agents, but I want to make sure that my manuscript is as polished as I can make it before taking that step. To all my friends, I offer thanks and apologies for imposing on your time and talents in revising my opus.
     Well now, I've ranted for as long as I think I should, and it's time to present my year in review. Oh, and to say that I've revamped my spreadsheets and charts for the coming year to provide better and more specific information about what I'm writing. So, everyone can look forward to seeing that beginning in January.

November Wrap-up (and NaNoWriMo)

     Well, another month come and gone, along with another NaNoWriMo. It has only been my second, but I enjoyed this one much more than last year's. I think it was a combination of mindset, events, and the amount of practice I've had. Having gone a year at writing 1,000 words a day, upping that quota to 1,667 a day was not that difficult. I have pondered keeping my quota to that amount throughout the rest of the year and next, but I think it more important to focus on quality instead of quantity. Even at 1,000 words a day, I'm producing 360,000 words a year. I have no need to make more than that. What I need to focus on is revising these words. I need to set myself up to be more disciplined to go back and revise what I write as soon as I write it, to at least make it as grammatically perfect as I can. I'm certain there will always be content revisions down the road based on the directions I take plots. I hope that by working on the mechanics, I can get used to editing the work and splitting it into manageable pieces, so I won't be overwhelmed.
     Anyway, I think I've rambled enough on the previous post, so I'll keep this one short and just end it with the the word count graph Come the end of December I'll put up a chart that tracks my writing for the entire year.