While I may not be the rather fractious father of the gods, I certainly acted like I was last night. I spent about three hours re-doing The Mars Betrayal in its entirety. After really getting down how my main character acts and his motivations and flaws, as well as the other characters and antagonists' motivation and flaws, I realized that the plot devices I was using were not springing from the world and characters, but really just from my own desires for coolness.
So now there's no bacteria missile. The ending is happier too. If any of my writing group reads this, please check out the synopsis I uploaded yesterday and let me know if I am completely missing the mark.
Today I have quite a lot of ChartedCourse work to do, but I will be able to get to writing by 4PM, if not a little earlier. I will do some final tweaks on the synopsis and send it on to the editorial team so I can have my self-esteem smashed again. Or not. We'll see.
This morning I did the Y hike again, from my house. Yeah, it's not getting any easier yet. Whew. This is the second time I did the hike, although on Monday I started at the trailhead.
My garden grows well, by the way. I think I have finally succeeded in keeping pests away from my cucumbers to the point that they will make it. My only remaining pumpkin plant is doing well also. I do have a completely unidentifiable patch of something growing between my squashes, so I guess I'd better do some reasearch to figure out what it is.
But now I must work. I'll report later.
Showing posts with label revise. Show all posts
Showing posts with label revise. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Thursday, January 17, 2008
It's still Thursday, January 17th in my world. How about yours?
Alrighty then. Here's the story of my 139th day of my year writing.
That's right, today has been the 139th since I quit my job and started writing as full time as I could. It's going well, ain't it? Did you know that if you Google me, six of the ten results on the first page are actually me? Now that's fame.
Just kidding.
Anyway, today went pretty well. I got up with the kids and fed them in order to allow Annemarie some extra sleep. She's been putting in late hours at night this week with her Japanese translation.
When she got up, I headed to the Rec Center to exercise. Then I got home and showered, ate, and got to work.
I spent some time on www.helium.com, where I wrote these two articles:
http://www.helium.com/tm/802688/thinks-therefore-thats-there
http://www.helium.com/tm/802868/maybe-destiny-maybe-ovaltine
I also rated and browsed some other articles.
Then I got to work on Mars Betrayal. I am now about halfway finished with chapter 6. Things are heating up and I am having fun. I am feeling pretty good about it and I hope that the language is okay. I find myself checking more rare words quite frequently on the word lists I was given.
Something I am not sure I understand: my contract said the first installment would come on contract signing. I signed the contract almost four weeks ago.. and yet no installment has come. I think I will dash an e-mail off to the contracts guy at the publisher.
Anyway, I really feel as if I am pushing through the silly malaise that would come over me when the time to write would approach. Sure, having a looming deadline is useful for this, but I feel like I should be able to ride this momentum into some real productivity on The Cabin.
So here's the current plan:
1. I will finish, revise and submit the first draft of The Mars Betrayal by the 31st. I have exactly two weeks. After I finish the initial draft, I will outline my next proposal for the graded readers project. Then I will do the revision and send off The Mars Betrayal. Then I will send off my next proposal.
My goal is to sell at least two more of these graded readers this year.
2. While I wait for word from the team about The Mars Betrayal, I will get into The Cabin, big time. I may also have work to do for Charted Course during this period.
3. I will also try and get my new website: www.foodnflicks.com going. I own the domain and server space, but I have nothing there yet, because I don't know how to build websites and I haven't had time. This will be a collaborative effort between me and a good friend.
My writing goals for the year are:
1. Sell at least two more graded readers and finish writing them this year.
2. Finish The Cabin, with all of its revisions, by the end of February. (Big ambition here).
3. Sell The Cabin this year.
4. Get back to work on Brothers in Arms and have it ready by the end of April. This means fully ready for a general audience and well edited. Depending on the acceptances of Graded Readers proposals, this deadline may have to get pushed back a month here or there.
5. Break 1000 articles on Helium by the end of the year.
6. Increase my residual web earnings to at least a steady minimum of $100/month. I have done this for about six of the last ten months. I would really like to hit $200/ month.
7. Sell at least one picture book (hopefully It's Not Apple Sauce)
And that's all I have for now. I may change them. We will see. I'll be back tomorrow.
That's right, today has been the 139th since I quit my job and started writing as full time as I could. It's going well, ain't it? Did you know that if you Google me, six of the ten results on the first page are actually me? Now that's fame.
Just kidding.
Anyway, today went pretty well. I got up with the kids and fed them in order to allow Annemarie some extra sleep. She's been putting in late hours at night this week with her Japanese translation.
When she got up, I headed to the Rec Center to exercise. Then I got home and showered, ate, and got to work.
I spent some time on www.helium.com, where I wrote these two articles:
http://www.helium.com/tm/802688/thinks-therefore-thats-there
http://www.helium.com/tm/802868/maybe-destiny-maybe-ovaltine
I also rated and browsed some other articles.
Then I got to work on Mars Betrayal. I am now about halfway finished with chapter 6. Things are heating up and I am having fun. I am feeling pretty good about it and I hope that the language is okay. I find myself checking more rare words quite frequently on the word lists I was given.
Something I am not sure I understand: my contract said the first installment would come on contract signing. I signed the contract almost four weeks ago.. and yet no installment has come. I think I will dash an e-mail off to the contracts guy at the publisher.
Anyway, I really feel as if I am pushing through the silly malaise that would come over me when the time to write would approach. Sure, having a looming deadline is useful for this, but I feel like I should be able to ride this momentum into some real productivity on The Cabin.
So here's the current plan:
1. I will finish, revise and submit the first draft of The Mars Betrayal by the 31st. I have exactly two weeks. After I finish the initial draft, I will outline my next proposal for the graded readers project. Then I will do the revision and send off The Mars Betrayal. Then I will send off my next proposal.
My goal is to sell at least two more of these graded readers this year.
2. While I wait for word from the team about The Mars Betrayal, I will get into The Cabin, big time. I may also have work to do for Charted Course during this period.
3. I will also try and get my new website: www.foodnflicks.com going. I own the domain and server space, but I have nothing there yet, because I don't know how to build websites and I haven't had time. This will be a collaborative effort between me and a good friend.
My writing goals for the year are:
1. Sell at least two more graded readers and finish writing them this year.
2. Finish The Cabin, with all of its revisions, by the end of February. (Big ambition here).
3. Sell The Cabin this year.
4. Get back to work on Brothers in Arms and have it ready by the end of April. This means fully ready for a general audience and well edited. Depending on the acceptances of Graded Readers proposals, this deadline may have to get pushed back a month here or there.
5. Break 1000 articles on Helium by the end of the year.
6. Increase my residual web earnings to at least a steady minimum of $100/month. I have done this for about six of the last ten months. I would really like to hit $200/ month.
7. Sell at least one picture book (hopefully It's Not Apple Sauce)
And that's all I have for now. I may change them. We will see. I'll be back tomorrow.
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