I've spent the past few days working on character arcs for Sylvarion's Challenge. I'm far enough into the writing now that I need to block out the entire trilogy in order to know where to go next in book one. And step one (at least step one for me this time through) on the way to the story arc is to block out the development of each separate character.
Outlining an entire novel--let alone an entire trilogy--is a long and tedious process and my least favorite part of writing, but it's absolutely necessary to a great story. At least it is for me. (If you happen to be one of those magically gifted people for whom an entire novel just flows from beginning to end without any planning whatsoever, then consider yourself truly blessed.)
So send me luck this week--probably this month. I'm going to need it.
As Covenant approached, he was struck by how dispossessed the old man looked. Beggars and fanatics, holy men, prophets of the apocalypse did not belong on that street in that sunlight; the frowning, belittling eyes of the stone columns held no tolerance for such preterite exaltation. And the scant coins he had collected were not enough for even one meal. The sight gave Covenant an odd pang of compassion. Almost in spite of himself, he stopped in front of the old man.
I spent Thursday of last week catching up on the routine business I'd set aside while working on the short for Sword & Sorceress. Most of Friday went toward moving into a more local storage unit. (My sincerest thanks to the stand-up guys of the Fayette County Fire Department for helping with the relocation!)
On Thursday afternoon I received an e-mail from Sword & Sorceress letting me know they were holding my story to consider it for the final line-up. Sweet!
Then on Sunday I received another e-mail, this one letting me know that they were going to have to pass the story up in favor of two or three shorter pieces. (My entry was right at the maximum of their submission guidelines.) Ah well. That's how it goes sometimes. But the feedback I received from the editor was wonderfully positive, and I'll be looking for another home for the story.
Spent the whole weekend running around from one thing to the next (including the tutoring job) and spent this morning in some much needed down time. Then more tutoring this evening, and now home and off to bed.
Went to bed late last night, high on submitting the short for Sword & Sorceress. Having put in several crazy full days, I slept in until about 11:00AM, when my brother called from the west coast, thereby saving me from sleeping the entire day away.
Spent the afternoon working on the website, adding book links from the Barnes & Noble affiliate program. Check out the new section here!
Quit by around 4:30 PM for a late-lunch-slash-early-dinner. Taco Bell. Sweet.
Came home and watched TV for a while, but got bored fast. After tons of productive days, I always have a hard time winding down, especially if I'm by myself. I have so much fun when I'm creating that it's hard for me to quit cold turkey. So I gave up trying and went back to work on the website, getting enough links in there to load the site live, which I've just finished.
Work day ends at midnight. Ready to get back to the book tomorrow.
Spent about 45 minutes on the phone this afternoon with one of my readers going over edits for the Sword & Sorceress submission. (That was my mother, as it happens - thanks Mom!)
Worked on edits.
Went to the bank, went to the grocery store (even writers have to eat once in a while), and put in my time on the tutoring job.
Finished edits and submitted the Sword & Sorceress story.
Checked e-mail. Heard back about the Barnes & Noble affiliates with a "wecome to the program" letter and a whole slew of instructions. Will go over those tomorrow and work on the web site.
I spent the entire weekend writing a short story for the Sword & Sorceress anthology. 9,000 words in three days, and that's after cutting another 3,000 + words in unnecessary scenes and revised endings. Even for me, that's a lot of writing!
Now I'm waiting for a couple of readers to get back to me with revisions so I can finish it off this week and send it in. In the meantime, I'm back to other business.
Regarding Lisa Haneberg's tour, she'll be at the Fayette County Library in Fayetteville, Georgia on June 5 at 7:00 PM. So for all you local readers, we'd love to have you come out and join us! I'm also working on making some other connections for Lisa while she's here in town, so I've spent maybe half an hour on that in e-mails and such this morning. Other than that, things have been pretty quiet around here.
Speaking of quiet, I'm still waiting to hear from Barnes & Noble about my application to their affiliate program. I was hoping to start on integrating those links into the website today, but with no news on that front, I guess it's on hold.
With the short story off my plate for the moment and most of my other current business waiting on responses, I'm finally going to have a few hours today to clean the house, do some laundry, and pay the bills before heading out to do some tutoring this evening.
I should probably mention more about the tutoring, for other aspiring authors out there...
The simple truth is that it takes a while before writing pays enough to live on--sometimes a long while. So most writers hold other jobs early in their careers to suport their writing. I'm fortunate enough to be able to work part time rather than full time at my second job, but I should mention that in the midst of my marathon writing spree this weekend, I also took about five hours out of the day on Sunday to hold two tutoring sessions, one in SAT math and the other in GRE math.
Okay, let's see. Today was something of long one...
In the morning I spent a few minutes working on a blog problem and a bit more time on e-mails and phone calls about Lisa's tour dates in Atlanta. (A special thanks to the Fayette County Library for its wonderful author support and event programs!)
Then I got down to some serious writing...
Last night in researching the short fiction market, I discovered that the Sword & Sorceress anthology is currently accepting submissions. The current deadline is April 20, so I'm spending the week putting together a short story written specifically for this project.
Speaking of which, there's a terrific article posted there by Marion Zimmer Bradley herself entitled What Is a Short Story? I found the article tremendously helpful--not to mention refreshingly direct and entertaining in its own right. (Why Did my Story Get Rejected? is another good one.)
So most of my day--something like ten or eleven hours with a short break for lunch--was spent sitting in front of the computer writing about three thousand words (that was the final count after a good bit of editing).
Some days writers really do sit around writing all day.
What does a writer do all day? Just sit and write? Some days, sure. But that's not all there is to writing. In keeping with the blog's theme of sharing a writer's journey, I thought I'd start throwing in some daily journal entries so you can see more of what this particular writer's life entails.
Plus, I needed somewhere to keep my notes, and this seems pretty handy.
Today, I've spent a good bit of time working on affiliate programs for my website and newsletter book recommendations. Both Amazon and Barnes & Noble have programs that reward links to their site. (If you recommend a product and someone buys it, you get a small "finder's fee" for the sale.) I figured as long as I'm making recommendations anyway, I might as well get paid for them. And anything to augment my currently nonexistent writer's income is a bonus!
I looked into the structure of each program and discovered a few questions that weren't answered in the FAQ's. So I have an e-mail in to Barnes & Noble now. I have to admit I have a slight bias towards Barnes & Noble as both a reader and a writer--nothing beats getting physical books on physical shelves for old-fashioned browsing. And the coffee doesn't hurt either. So I suspect I'll go with that program, but it depends on the details.
Once I got that e-mail off to B&N, I turned to the task of helping a fellow author friend of mine make some useful connections here in Atlanta. Lisa Haneberg is heading out on a motorcycle tour of the country this summer to promote her most recent book, Two Weeks to a Breakthrough.
Lisa writes non-fiction books, mostly on management/leadership & personal growth, so her ultimate target audience is a bit different than mine. Thinking of appropriate connections has been a fun networking challenge. Today I researched several avenues, including spending some time on the web looking up various local entrepreneurial groups, contacting a tutoring client who happens to have connections at Emory's business school, and putting calls in to local libraries and book stores.
Here's Lisa's promotional You Tube video:
I'm also working on breaking into the short fiction market this month, so I'll be sending out one of my recent shorts today to a reader or two for feedback. (Dwayne, keep an eye on that inbox.)
While I've been composing this e-mail, B&N got back to me with the answers to my questions. Short, sweet, & prompt. Answers: affiliates get paid for any related sale on the B&N site, not just the specific products they link to; and yes, they ship internationally from the one main site so all my readers can benefit from the recommendations. B&N wins. I'll be applying for their affiliate program this afternoon.
Finally, I'm putting together a list of short fiction markets I'm interested in, so I'll be working on that this evening and tomorrow.
Not that it feels like April. What happened to my beautiful tennis weather? Last week it was 75 degrees and sunny! (That's about 24 degrees and sunny for all you Celsius fans.) But last night it was below freezing (28 F, -2 C). And two nights ago it was actually snowing. In Georgia! In April! Brrr!!!
But now that we have this brisk autumn/winter weather back again, I've been getting back to work. No more spring means no more spring fever. Major bummer, but good for the work ethic. (Is it really a "work ethic" if it only kicks in when the weather's lousy? Probably not, but let's not quibble.) I suppose I should blame it on staying in school too long. Summer vacation became something of a habit...
So okay, no more summer vacation. At least not for the time being. The April newsletter went out last week, and now it's back to writing. Come on, woman... focus. Focus! Focus...
As Covenant approached, he was struck by how dispossessed the old man looked. Beggars and fanatics, holy men, prophets of the apocalypse did not belong on that street in that sunlight; the frowning, belittling eyes of the stone columns held no tolerance for such preterite exaltation. And the scant coins he had collected were not enough for even one meal. The sight gave Covenant an odd pang of compassion. Almost in spite of himself, he stopped in front of the old man.
