New Year Catchup, Patreon and Writing!
Hey Wordplayers!
I truly hope you all had a great holiday and New Years, whatever you were doing. I took the time to spend Christmas (as I do every year) with the family, and decompress from the year a little. I'm lucky that our company closes from just before Christmas Eve and doesn't come back until the New Year, so it was a nice long break from work.
I did complete NaNoWriMo 2019, coming in at just over 50k words, and looking at the statistics from previous years I seem to have a consistent pattern of writing. Getting off to a flying start and getting ahead of the targets, then keeping ahead until about the 3rd week and then falling behind a little, with a final push at the end. I think writing solidly for 3 weeks just wipes me out, not taking weekends off etc.
Regardless, I did it again! That's three years in a row now that I've completed a fifty-thousand-word first draft manuscript! The sci-fi novel I started for this NaNo has potential, but I need to sit down and plan the 2nd and 3rd acts out before I dive into them any farther, as it's getting complicated.
I also (as previously mentioned in my Patreon) submitted the Lichfield Ice Cream King manuscript to my editor for a developmental edit, which came back just before Christmas. Emma (Emma's Edit) did a great job and I have some work to do. I did manage to bring emotion to the story, but there are several areas that I need to improve. My tense (as always happens) skipped from past to present in places, and a couple of characters need some work. She did scold me for killing off a character and not giving him a death scene, but that's something I plan to rectify! Hehe, sorry, Emma!
I've also been thinking about Patreon. I set it up initially, because I wanted to get ahead of the fees changes, but didn't really go at it with a plan. My patrons have been awesome and supported me so far, and I've tried to keep posting content, but I did slack off somewhat (sorry!). If you're interested in supporting my writing on Patreon, you can find it here:
https://www.patreon.com/paulchallis
For 2020, I'm going to break my work down into smaller tasks and focus on one at a time (another bad habit of mine). My first order of business is to attack this developmental edit from Emma and get L.I.C.K into better shape, ready for a final edit and then querying.
I will schedule a night on my calendar, once a month (maybe twice if I feel brave) to write a random short story for my patrons (go sign up if you want to read them). If anyone has a suggestion or idea for a 500-1000 word short, just let me know in the comments and I'll see what works.
I'll also aim to write a post on here, once a week, even if it's not about much, I'll try and say something :)
That's about it for now. I hope 2020 is going off with a bang and if you're writing your first draft, the tenth draft, plotting or editing, here's me giving you a virtual kick in the pants and wishing you all the best!
Paul
I truly hope you all had a great holiday and New Years, whatever you were doing. I took the time to spend Christmas (as I do every year) with the family, and decompress from the year a little. I'm lucky that our company closes from just before Christmas Eve and doesn't come back until the New Year, so it was a nice long break from work.
I did complete NaNoWriMo 2019, coming in at just over 50k words, and looking at the statistics from previous years I seem to have a consistent pattern of writing. Getting off to a flying start and getting ahead of the targets, then keeping ahead until about the 3rd week and then falling behind a little, with a final push at the end. I think writing solidly for 3 weeks just wipes me out, not taking weekends off etc.
Regardless, I did it again! That's three years in a row now that I've completed a fifty-thousand-word first draft manuscript! The sci-fi novel I started for this NaNo has potential, but I need to sit down and plan the 2nd and 3rd acts out before I dive into them any farther, as it's getting complicated.
I also (as previously mentioned in my Patreon) submitted the Lichfield Ice Cream King manuscript to my editor for a developmental edit, which came back just before Christmas. Emma (Emma's Edit) did a great job and I have some work to do. I did manage to bring emotion to the story, but there are several areas that I need to improve. My tense (as always happens) skipped from past to present in places, and a couple of characters need some work. She did scold me for killing off a character and not giving him a death scene, but that's something I plan to rectify! Hehe, sorry, Emma!
I've also been thinking about Patreon. I set it up initially, because I wanted to get ahead of the fees changes, but didn't really go at it with a plan. My patrons have been awesome and supported me so far, and I've tried to keep posting content, but I did slack off somewhat (sorry!). If you're interested in supporting my writing on Patreon, you can find it here:
https://www.patreon.com/paulchallis
For 2020, I'm going to break my work down into smaller tasks and focus on one at a time (another bad habit of mine). My first order of business is to attack this developmental edit from Emma and get L.I.C.K into better shape, ready for a final edit and then querying.
I will schedule a night on my calendar, once a month (maybe twice if I feel brave) to write a random short story for my patrons (go sign up if you want to read them). If anyone has a suggestion or idea for a 500-1000 word short, just let me know in the comments and I'll see what works.
I'll also aim to write a post on here, once a week, even if it's not about much, I'll try and say something :)
That's about it for now. I hope 2020 is going off with a bang and if you're writing your first draft, the tenth draft, plotting or editing, here's me giving you a virtual kick in the pants and wishing you all the best!
Paul
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