Train Keeps On Rolling… – Day 178

As they say, the light at the end of the tunnel I mentioned earlier this week was indeed a freight train. Yes, I finished a couple of big projects this week, but picked up a couple more. And several others are still in the works. Again, I’ll never complain about being busy work-wise. But it does cut into my “me” time for novel writing.

The good news is that I did get some writing done this week and finished that scene I’d been working on for so long (though I didn’t have time to do a decent blog update).  I also got a good chunk written this evening. I was re-working a pretty major scene (they’re all major scenes, aren’t they?) that I am pretty happy with. Actually, it didn’t really take all that much re-working — some chopping and polishing, mostly. It is the longest scene I have so far, though in fairness it could be probably cut into two semi-distinct scenes. For now, I’ll keep it as one though.

I’ve now passed 20,000 words in the second draft, which was supposed to be the first quarter of my book. I was aiming for 100,000 words broken into four parts: 20,000 words for the first and last parts of the book, and 30,000 words each for the two middle parts. Seems I’ll have to re-think that. According to Larry Brooks and Story Structure De-Mystified, the first part of the book can end anywhere around the 20%-25% mark, so either I’m going to 120,000 words, or I’m tightening up the middle bits.

Sounds like a third-draft problem.

Up next: I’m gearing up for a couple of exciting scenes to round out the first part of the book, and the “climax” before the story shifts past the first setback for the characters. I’ll be starting on the lead-up to that tomorrow morning.

Some interesting things happening in the world of self-publishing I wanted to share here. Seth Godin’s “Poke the Box” was officially published on March 1. If you remember, I pre-ordered the special edition book, though it didn’t ship until March 3.

On a related note, I saw on the Loose Gravel Press website recently that Vertical the hardcover won’t be released until March 31 now. A special two-book offer with a re-issue of Sideways is due out in the summer.

So two major self-imprints, and two print delays (though one was minor). I take it as an indication that there are many things working in the background that a self-publishing writer needs to be aware of. I’ll have to find out what those are…

I have a related thought as well, but perhaps I’ll save that for tomorrow.

Oh, one last thing — I’ve been following Tom Chandler’s “The Copywriter Underground” blog for a few years now (he’s been known to comment here on occasion too). I was just over there earlier this evening and saw that he’s revamped somewhat, now calling it “The Writer Underground”. His latest post — an observation on a Mini ad and frustrated novelists — is short and hilarious. Check it out:

http://writerunderground.com/2011/03/04/are-all-mini-drivers-frustrated-novelists/

Until tomorrow,

~Graham