Guns & Magic

The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss.

 

-David

 

 

Writing progress report for the week starting Monday, January 18, 2010.

 

	Writing Project	Words
Monday	Short story (probably gonna be a novel chapter), unfinished	1016
Tuesday	Short story (probably gonna be a novel chapter in Demon Donut Candy), finished	1063
Wednesday	Demon Donut Candy outline
Thursday	Demon Donut Candy outline
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Total

 

	Marketing/Submission
Monday	Horse Girl publisher list, pass two (unfinished), went through more markets, found another 1st-round submission
Tuesday	Horse Girl publishser list, pass two (finished)
Wednesday	Horse Girl publisher query letter, first draft
Thursday	Horse Girl publisher query letter 1-paragraph synopsis, drafts 2-ridiculous
Friday	Horse Girl publisher query letter 1-paragraph synopsis, draft ridiculous + 1
Saturday
Sunday

 

It’s enough to make me wonder when I’ll really start writing in 2010.

 

-David

 

My Life in France by Julia Child.

 

Before that, I read…

 

Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and his Revolutionary Comic Strip by Nevin Martell.

 

-David

 

 

While I had some more good ideas for the Demon Dunot Candy project, I didn’t write anything today either.

 

I’ve just spent the last 45 minutes or so, though, trying to write the query letter for Horse Girl. I have it written…except for the part that summarizes the book in an interesting way.

 

I think my problem is that I’m “too close” to the material. I keep trying to stuff in details, when I should be working in broad strokes. But then I think I go too far the other way and make it too simple.

 

I figure the query summary should introduce the main character and the main conflict in a way that hooks the reader. Sounds easy enough. There’s a knack to summarizing, I think, and I have yet to develop it fully.

 

I’m not looking forward to writing the synopsis either, though at least for that I can use more than a couple paragraphs. And I still have the outline I wrote from. So maybe it won’t be too bad.

 

-David

 

 

…but I think I now have a good, if still skeletal, structure for the Demon Donut Candy project. I don’t have a lot of details in my so-called outline, but I have a workable “order of battle”. I expect to start writing the next chapter tomorrow.

 

I also put some time into creating a first draft query letter for Horse Girl. The tough part for me is adequately, and interestingly, describing the book in 1-2 paragraphs. To assist me with that, I’ve asked two of the people who’ve read it so far to please, please tell me what the book is about. In 2 sentences or less.

 

As I worked on the query, I stumbled upon the coincidence that both The Girl Who Ran With Horses and The Summoning Fire weigh in at 64,000 words. At least, I don’t remember noticing that before. My target for Demon Donut Candy is 90,000 words, that being considered (I hear) the more typical novel length.

 

Currently, Demon Donut Candy is just shy of 10,000 words. Which doesn’t seem too bad for a project I just started.

 

-David

 

 

I finished the 2nd pass through my list of potential markets tonight. I winnowed my starting list of 50 potential markets down to 20. Of those 20, 4 of them seem really promising. Those 4 will be among the first submissions I send out.

 

Remaining publisher hunt tasks:

 

Regarding the new “submission rider” for my revised 2010 goals: for Horse Girl, I’ll exhaust that list of 20 publishers. Then, if there’s been no interest, I’ll publish the book myself. That seems reasonable.

 

Late last year, as I was floundering my way through November and Nanowrimo, I decided that I would self-publish Horse Girl. I might even have mentioned that here on the blog. To that end (among others), I picked up Adobe Acrobat and Serif PagePlus and got to work.

 

While I was turning the Horse Girl manuscript into a PDF, though, I started seeing it as a book. A real book. A book that deserved an honest, actual try to get it published.

 

So the publisher hunt began.

 

And it continues…

 

-David

 

 

And that finishes up the odd little short-story-probably-gonna-be-a-chapter I’ve been working on.

 

So far this year, what writing I’ve done has been very much in the “winging it” vein. I’d like to get a bit more structure happening.

 

Last night, I dug through more potential publishers for Horse Girl. I found another promising 1st round submission target.

 

-David

 

 

1016 words

 

I’m still in the same short-story-probably-going-to-be-a-book-chapter that I started last week. I’m using the story-maybe-chapter to explore a possibility for how to make a novel out of the two Jike stories I wrote back in November.

 

I think I’ll call it the Demon Donut Candy project.

 

-David

 

How to Become a Famous Writer Before You’re Dead: Your Words in Print and Your Name in Lights by Ariel Gore.

 

I stumbled onto this book by accident, while searching the library for something completely different. The title amused me and I had to give it a go.

 

-David

 

 

I’ve decided that I need to re-tool my writing goals for 2010. I’m an adult, so I figure I can change my mind if it seems warranted.

 

The biggest change is backing away from the ambitious 1500 words/day goal. This change ripples through the secondary and tertiary goals…but that’s OK. That’s why those goals were 2nd and 3rd tier.

 

My new writing goal is to write 1000 words of fiction each day, 5 days per week (at least 200 days in 2010)

 

Why the change? Mostly because I don’t think I’m at a point where I can easily carve 3 hours or so (2 hours of writing, an hour or so for submission) per day, 5 days per week to focus on writing. I do, however, think I can manage an hour of writing and 30 minutes or so of submission/marketing. Later in 2010 (particularly after Q1), if my situation changes, I can adjust my goals again to match.

 

My submission goals remain the same, but pick up a new rider:

 

This concept came at me from 2 different directions this week. First from a fellow writer-in-progress, and then again from a book I started reading this week.

 

I Truly Hate-Despise-Loathe wasting my time. If I think something I’m working on will never see the light of day, I see no reason *NOT* to stop working on it. In fact, I congratulate myself for doing so. Sadly, my current view of the publishing business is none too positive, so it becomes hard for me to think I’m writing something that will actually see print. With a promise to myself that I’ll at least self-publish the books I write, I can get past that. I hope.

 

Tomorrow is the first day of a new week of writing. Onward!

 

-David