Tuesday, November 30, 2010

How people find me

With Blogger's new stats feature I can check and see how many people visited the blog and when they stopped by. I can also see how they got here, including which search terms directed them to me. Here is the oddest I've seen so far.

i wip my hear back and fowad

Now, Gina has deservedly chided me for my spelling in the past, but I am certain that I never wrote that sentence or wrote it that way. I am going to guess that "wip" is what keyed whoever wrote that to my blog.

A proper post is coming, hopefully later today or tonight. I've been busy since we last spoke.

Friday, November 12, 2010

... if you really take a hideous detour from the "right" track, your characters will get more and more uncomfortable. Because if your characters are any good whatsoever, they have unfinished business, and your detour is taking them away from it for no good reason.

Charlie Jane Anders at io9 on writing out of a dead end. Read the whole thing, it's good. This was the quote I chose to highlight. There could have been dozens others.

Thanks for reading

Just checked my numbers for the new version of Chasing Filthy Lucre on Scrib'd. We are at 108 so far. That's the fastest I've made it to that landmark number. So, if you are one of those 108 then thanks. I appreciate it. If you liked it, tell someone about it. If you didn't like it, you can tell someone too. Who knows, they might like it.

And if you haven't read it, click here. Or click there to read it again.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Complete second draft on Scrib'd.

I posted a completed second draft to Chasing Filthy Lucre on Scrib'd. It's here. Read it. Let me know what you think.

First draft revisions complete

Last night I finally finished the last of the revisions on the first draft of Chasing Filthy Lucre. I think what was holding me up was the fact that I had to add a section that amped up the tension in the third section. When it was all said and done, after all the adding and taking away of words I wound up with just over 21,000 words in length. Translated to actual print pages it comes out to just over 70 printed pages. That's not bad, and if I stick with my pricing plan in the beginning, seems like a fair value at $1.99. Now, consumers could disagree. In that case I'll have to make some adjustments. But that's one of the nice things about doing this on my own. I can make those changes on the fly.

I am getting ready to print the second draft in a little bit and get a jump on the second round of edits. I am eager to keep with my internal deadline of an early December release. Like I'd said previously I'd like to be out before the holiday and possibly get a few nice reviews up before all those people open their e-readers on Christmas morning and go looking for something to populate them with.

I am still working on expanding my Consider Us Even piece. And the plan I mentioned for it earlier involving Smashwords is changing some but still in the works. Hoping I can get that done soon too. Again, a pre-Christmas launch would be great.

So, that's what's happening here. Things are still trucking along.

Oh, and before I go, I mentioned previously some plans I was making for more regular content. That's still bubbling. Still thinking on that. But you have seen one thing I want to do already show up. I am going to try and do writing quotes regularly. I like them, but if you happen to think they are a waste of time let me know. Could change my mind.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Writing full, complete sentences actually slows down your reader. The longer the sentences, the more chance they will skim. All this works against a strong, steady pace.

Good advice on pacing from Ronie Kendig over at Novel Journey.