Dave's Log

[gankylosaurus]

Day 14

And now, a real update:

Writing: Done
Cleaning: Dishes done, kitchen cleaned, laundry put away, workspace organized and picked up.
Exercise: Fuggedaboutit

Wow, two weeks. You know, I'm pretty sure I had a dream recently about playing video games. I know I had some pretty vivid dreams about other things like moving into a new apartment (which is something we were talking about doing). I think I had a porn dream, too, and woke up feeling ashamed of myself. Weird shit.

I gotta say, this new method of writing is working out a lot better than expected. Fiancee ended up taking a long nap, so I wrote about an hour or so. I printed out my old outline and used that for ideas, but branched out a bit more. And now that I'm able to see the chapters in the Scrivener binder, I can make sure I'm generally hitting that 25-50-25 rule of thumb easily.

It presented an interesting challenge, too. Once I had in all the main points, it was obvious I didn't have enough for a story. So I looked at my subplots, checked for characters who were being neglected, and figured out extra scenes to flesh out the story. But I made sure they weren't just fluff. Those new scenes are either setup for later scenes or revelations related to the plot or setting.

I started writing out paragraphs for each chapter to describe further what's going to happen, but then my fiancee woke up. So while I sketch an idea for a book cover for my last finished project, I'm going to watch something on TV with her. There's a new episode of a show we follow on Hulu.

I should keep one of those feelings journals or something. I mean, I don't actually plan on doing that... but it would be interesting. Every time I finish writing (or editing, plotting, whatever) I feel really good. It's not the biggest challenge of my day, but it's the one thing that I care the most about getting done every day. And it's been going well for nine days now, and those efforts are really showing, much more than the old days when I would write whenever the mood struck. Hell, if I stick to my minimum of 30 minutes a day, then in six days I will have done the work of a three hour day. I've done those days, and they suck, and they're usually followed by a week of no work at all.

Oh yeah, and I'll run again tomorrow. Was going to work out if my fiancee was still napping when I got done writing. It's all good, though. I still feel like I'm headed in the right direction.

[Cam Adair]

It's zero percent her responsibility for you to stay committed to the things that you want to do. If she's sick and on the couch, that's on her. You can help take care of her and everything like that, but none of that falls on her if you are doing it instead of following through on your commitments like you want to. The shift that has to happen is for you to raise your standards on following through on your commitments. 100% your responsibility, nothing else.

I say this only out of love of course. I believe in you bro and you're doing great.

[gankylosaurus]

I understand that. The issue that I've run into the past few days is that whenever I want to do my own thing, she gets sad because I'm not on the couch cuddling with her. Today was a lot better, and it seemed like a conscious decision on her part. I don't want to work out in front of her unless she's working out, just as she works out only when I'm not home. So it's not about anything being "on her." It's more that it just adds to the pile.

Like, look at yesterday. When I summed up my post-work dash to make dinner and exercise at the same time, I left out some details. She'd messaged me at work saying that she'd like a root beer float because it would make her throat feel better. Then we bounced around ideas for dinner, and we came up with something in the freezer that took fifty minutes to make. I got home with root beer and ice cream and she wanted me to make dinner, and she knew I wanted to run, so she asked how long I'd be. I said forty minutes. I read the directions and she said that she didn't want to do it because she was worried about falling asleep and missing the 35-minute mark when you take it out and spoon the sauce over it.

I suggested that I just start after my run, and she said that would be too late. I didn't want to go running later, when the sun was going down or worse. So I gathered my things together and put the food in the oven, then turned it on (hoping that would buy me some time) so I could deal with it when I got home. I got home, started boiling water for spaghetti and took a really quick shower.

So, I'm trying to keep up with my own things while also dealing with her. None of that was on her. But it should all be on me, either. Of course I love her and I do what I can to help. But it would be just so much easier and refreshing to just be lazy on the couch with her. Sure, she's sick now, but she wasn't sick Sunday, and that was still a lazy on the couch TV day. And I'm trying to get myself to not be that person, just as I'm trying my damnedest not to look like a dick. It's just bad timing is all. She's off again tomorrow (this'll be day five) so hopefully she'll get better then because her Friday shift should be good money. And then next week should be back to normal.

Maybe I should have just forgone all of these other things in order to take care of her and be lazy with her (aside from my 30 minute writing break). Maybe I'd be less stressed. But the place would be even messier than it already is and I wouldn't have worked out at all. I know that it's not up to her for me to stay committed, but hopefully you see the pressure she puts me under in these situations. I end up being the one to do everything, so I have to take up the work of two people, doing all the cooking and cleaning, and I have to get my own things done, and add on top of that an eight hour work shift. It's not the best situation for anyone.

[Ed]

I'm trying my damnedest not to look like a dick.

That's a big part of your problem.  You didn't say that you're worried about being a dick.  You're worried about looking like a dick.  Unfortunately doing what's right or what needs to be done will sometimes require you to take actions that are going to make you look like an asshole.

It's not the best situation for anyone.

It's the situation that you've chosen to be in.  She's sick now, but this isn't the only time you've complained about this.  It might not be 100% your fault that you're in this situation, it is 100% your responsibility to do something about it. No, that doesn't mean you should be doing all the work.  However, the decision about the conditions you'll accept into your life is all yours.

You have 3 legitimate options:

1. Accept it
2. Fix it
3. Leave

Complaining about it will never make it better.  If you choose to just accept your situation it could be a good idea to write about the ways she lifts you up and helps you achieve your goals.  Write about all the ways she makes your life better.

If you want to make the relationship better, you're not going to do it without some conflict.  Regardless of what all the internet tough guys say, it's not easy.  No More Mister Nice Guy by Robert Glover is a book that helped me a few years ago when I was in a similar situation.

Breaking up with her is obviously not something you want.  The only question, is that because you want to stay with her?  Or do you not want to break up with her?  Questions for you to think about but not necessarily ones you should answer here.

[gankylosaurus]

Sorry, man, I just wanted to vent. That's all. We ended up apologizing to each other later, her for being useless (her words, promise! Said in a joking tone of course), and me for getting upset about an unpreventable situation. She actually knows about my efforts at self-improvement and has helped immensely. We agreed to only drink together, for one, and to cut out beer except for on special occasions. Beer is pretty bad at maintaining a sexy midsection. And for someone who's been pretty skinny their whole life, this whole "having a belly" thing is quite new. But I'm getting off-topic. Everything about our relationship is pretty great, even when we argue. It's just that sometimes I have to be more forward about my sacred writing time, like tonight. Bought Chinese food, then she said let's watch Survivor and go to bed and I was like, you're kidding, right? Turns out she's pretty tired. So she agreed to watch an episode of a show she... likes? Long story. Anyway, she's finishing it up now just as I finished up my 30 minutes of writing.

And I'm well-versed in Nice Guy Syndrome, though I haven't read that book. I acknowledge that I used to be among those ranks and am embarrassed at how long it took me to realize it.

Anyway...

Day 15

Got my writing done. Before that, had sort of a date night with Chinese food and Survivor on the couch. But now we're going to bed and I had an eight hour shift before all that, so no cleaning and no exercise. Got all day tomorrow, though. Until next time.

[Cam Adair]

Second that as a must-read book for all guys. From what you've shared, boundaries are a big part of this it seems. I know I struggled with that for a long time (still do.) Thanks for sharing your journals.

[gankylosaurus]

Day 16

At first glance, I probably look like I had the day off. But I actually have to work at 10:30 tonight, and this event is scheduled to go until 4:30 in the morning (though it rarely goes that late). So, we got a lot of cleaning done today. And we still have some things to take care of tomorrow before we have people come over. I ended up getting pretty tired, so I took a nap and failed to get around to working out.

Got my writing done and this process is both discouraging and encouraging at the same time. It's a weird situation. On the one hand, I'm making forward progress day by day. Each of my outlined chapters is getting fleshed out with a few paragraphs each, which will help me write the full chapter. Not only that, but it makes it easier to see where I'm lacking in content. I'm able to see where a chapter needs even more fleshing out, and here is where I can bring in neglected characters and have them do something (or die, either heroically or tragically). And when I add these extra threads and look at other threads in place, I see even more ways to make this story seem more cohesive with better scenes to set up great revelations and such.

But at the same time this process is actually pretty slow. To be honest, once I'm in the thick of it, I think I can jam out this novel in two to three months as long as long as I stick with my 30 minutes a day rule. But planning a story is the hard part. It's the part where you conjure something from nothing and play God. But you can't just throw down some characters and have them just be there and do things. They have to encounter conflict. Interesting conflict that advances the story or reveals something about the setting or characters. Most importantly, the tension has to always be rising as more revelations are brought into play.

One of the biggest issues I had when learning to write was including conflict. I unwittingly discovered that the secret to creating conflict is to create good characters. After my first failed attempt at writing a novel, I drew up some characters that were adequately different from each other. A drunk soldier, a studious girl, her angsty brother, and a spunky kid who knows a lot more about the world than people expect. Then I wrote the outline (using the old bullet point method--a method of outlining I now hate with every fiber of my being because of its unforgiving rigidity) and set about writing it. It took me two years, from the time I was 17 until I was 19, but I wrote it. It's not great, but I think I accidentally created my first good (okay, decent) novel because I started with interesting characters.

My focus on that story was on effective characterization, and that made all the difference. I didn't actually have to think about conflict too much because it was built into the characters to clash, to have different ideas of how to advance the plot. You may have heard some writers claim that their characters write themselves. This was never more true for me than in that novel, where the characters had better ideas than I did. I let them take the reins and the effect was beautiful.

After that, I thought that I had successfully learned the art of characterization and could move onto other things while thinking less about the characters, because that part should be innate by now.

Boy was I wrong.

I definitely worked hard to ensure that I had more than enough conflict in later works, but they seemed manufactured. Like when I was writing the plot, I just realized that these characters need some conflict, so I had to invent it, mainly because the characters all seemed to agree with each other all the time. There were a few strokes of genius in there, but they seemed accidental.

So now I'm back to focusing more on characters while also trying to ratchet up the tension with more conflict. The effect this time around shouldn't feel manufactured. Or, at least, at the times when I realize there isn't enough conflict, I have a suitable cast of characters which should be able to inject that extra tension in a believable way. This is another benefit of the way I'm plotting this current project, because more than once now I've gone to end a chapter summary only to realize nothing really happened or that everything seemed to go the character's way a bit too easily.

There's one thing I can't stand more than a book where the characters are dictated by the plot more than the plot is driven by the characters. If you want an extreme example, check out Mainspring by Jay Lake. The main character is literally told to do this and go there the entire time. I got about two-thirds of the way through before I realized I was wasting my time. Sure, every chapter had plenty of conflict, but it all seemed so random. In the very beginning he loses his job but his boss gives him money to help him make his own way. Then the boss's son beats him up and takes the money claiming he stole it in the very next scene and the main character doesn't do a damn thing about it. He just accepts it and moves on. If that was an attempt at making a sympathetic character then it was a failure, because it just made him pathetic, despite supposedly being the hero of the story. 

Okay, I'm getting carried away now. I can go on and on about writing if you let me. So... until tomorrow.

[gankylosaurus]

Day 17

We have people coming over tonight so we got the whole apartment clean over the last two days. Just gotta take care of the dishes and we'll be done. Thankfully there aren't many.

After working that late shift and getting home around 4:30 in the morning, I slept in until almost 1. I read for a bit, cleaned, had lunch, back to cleaning, and then realized I need to get my writing done before people come over. I'm not going to make people sit around for a half hour while I sit there jamming on the keyboard.

One great thing about this writechain thing is that it's actually become harder not to write than it is to write. It's the one thing I must do every day. And I know why I must and it's not simply because of the challenge. Practically speaking, whenever I space out the writing of a particular story over a long period of time with weeks or even months without writing, the quality suffers. Moreover, I begin to forget my own timeline of how the story's going. I forget little details that are important to get right for continuity's sake, and there's a weird little psychological phenomenon where the parts I wrote over a long period of time seem more drawn out in my head, whereas other parts that I wrote at a breakneck pace seem like they must have been rushed.

At least, I think that's all in my head. I won't know until I read through this last draft.

For now, though, I'm focused on getting this outline done. There's a newer school of thought when it comes to writing, where the point is to get the first draft done quick so that you can edit it into something great. Finish it, then edit; no editing as you go. The idea of the writer is often romanticized as one who painstakingly thinks over every word they put on the page, but that image is a thing of the past (if it ever truly was a thing to begin with). Now, if you can't finish something, you don't get paid. You just have to finish, and then you can painstakingly edit.

I'm doing the same thing with this outline. I've been building it up bit by bit, but now that I'm at the part where I'm fleshing it out, I'm able to embellish more story details and take a more free-write approach to it, which often leads to unexpected new avenues to follow. It also leads to me realizing I should probably follow up on something, like what about that enemy soldier they captured and questioned? They didn't kill him, and his guards fled, so he should probably escape and report back with information. Yes, perfect.

So once I'm done with this outline, I can look through and easily see where it gets off track and needs an extra scene or two to connect some details, and things that need to be moved around because my original outline changed the order of when this character does this or that (or when I end up using a different character altogether). Sometimes "character learns the truth of what's happening" leads to me asking myself, "okay, how?" Most likely because I wrote that note thinking I'd remember what I meant later. (Hint: I always forget)

Oh, and for those keeping track, I'm on day 12 of writing 30+ Minutes a day.

[WorkInProgress]

This time around your detox seems to go great. It's inspiring to see how you commit to your writing goals.

[Cam Adair]

This time around your detox seems to go great. It's inspiring to see how you commit to your writing goals.

+1

[gankylosaurus]

Day 18

We were up late, so we slept in late. Had people over last night for board games and beer. Good times all around. Sleepy day otherwise.

Got my writing done just now (day 13) and boy am I tired. As I was writing, I realized that I thought I had added notes for other characters that were supposed to be there, until I remembered that those notes were in the character summaries. I was going to add them in, then I remembered I was taking the write first, edit later approach on this and realized that I can go back and add those other notes in when I go back through. I'm working on the third act right now, and I'll probably be ready to go back through the outline again tomorrow.

There was a conversation at work the other night that made me think of this challenge, by the way, and how much it's already affected me. There were two high schoolers working and they started talking about games. One of them mentioned that they tried a certain game the other had recommended and didn't like it, and then they had a back and forth about competitive games and about how "you just have to practice." One of them mentioned that they probably have over 100 hours in each of the games they play regularly, and one of them had put 600 hours into one game according to his Xbox stats or something.

And I'm there thinking, it's like they're competing over who has less of a life. Kinda sad, when you think about it. Especially that whole thing about "practicing." Like, shouldn't you be worrying about things that matter more than video games? I feel like I could have justified it for them before this, but now it just sounds like a waste. Especially the kinds of games they were talking about--basically all those games that come to mind when you hear the word eSports.

I almost felt like a hypocrite for criticizing them even in my head, but at the same time, I'm just glad to be out of that stuff right now. I remember thinking I had to practice games to get better at them so I could win more matches and enjoy the game more, but I really, really don't miss it.

[gankylosaurus]

Day 19

Holy shit, so many new people I almost ended up on the second page. Good for GQ getting popularity!

So today I finished the first draft of my outline. Only the last chapter's outline reflects all the new things I added to the story. Tomorrow I'll go through and add in necessary elements to tie everything together. So it seems that the day after that I might be ready to start writing it. Kinda want to share it with a friend for his insight first, though.

I'll keep this short because I ended up writing a new entry today on my personal blog. It's about writing. Surprise.

[Cam Adair]

Holy shit, so many new people I almost ended up on the second page. Good for GQ getting popularity!

I replied to everything and went to dinner. Came home and there were a ridiculous amount of new posts. Amazing! Shit is poppin' right now

[Guest]

I did I was on the top of page 2 this evening.

I visited your blog for the first time and found really interesting the "Resources for Writes" page.I'm also trying to get writing as a daily habbit and some information there, will definately be useful for the future.

Edited April 18, 2016 by Guest
Accidently posted a drawing here, but fixed it :P

[gankylosaurus]

Glad to know you enjoyed my site, @gresa. Just wish I kept it up more. It's hard to really find a subject to write about consistently. Are there any specific writing issues you think I should tackle? Like, things you struggle with personally?

[gankylosaurus]

Day 20

Still going strong. Played a game with my fiancée last night, which is well within the parameters of my challenge. She kicked my ass.

Writing may have hit a slight snag. I started going back through the outline and was going to flesh some things out, tie up some loose ends, all that stuff. Then I realized I need to read back through my character and plot arcs to refresh myself on what I may have left out, which led to updating some of those descriptions and writing out some setting stuff. Plus, I had finally come up with a description for a very important setting in the story, so I wrote that out.

It's all good, though. I'm getting things all set up to be the most prepared I can be for writing this story. Hell, it's like the story's already written now. I just need to "write" it, if that makes sense.

Otherwise, had a long shift today, came home and promptly fell asleep on the recliner. Next on my list is dishes.

[Cam Adair]

Hope you have a great day tomorrow bro.

[gankylosaurus]

Day 21

Three weeks. Doesn't feel that significant. I'll keep going.

I finished my outline today. Ended up printing it out and sending a copy to a couple of trusted friends. I only expect one of them to actually get around to reading it, but it would be nice if I get feedback from both.

Regardless of what either of them say, I'll be starting with the story tomorrow. The only reason I sent them the outline was to see if there were any things about it that seemed off. I mentioned to one of them that I may have forgotten to add in some scenes to tie in two characters added in as the story required them, but what I have for them might be fine. Right now, my concern is that the chapters for the third act are so fleshed out that it's going to be really long compared to the first two acts, which could cause an imbalance. I'm sure it'll be fine, but I can't worry about it right now. Just gotta write it. Then I can worry about cutting or adding.

Only took 11 days to get that outline finished. You know, plus all the time I put in about a year ago when I first came up with the idea.

[Cam Adair]

Three weeks. Doesn't feel that significant. I'll keep going.

This is call self-minimizing. We're always quick to make our failures significant and our successes the opposite. Three weeks is awesome, be proud of that man.

[gankylosaurus]

Oh, absolutely, @Cam Adair. Don't worry I'm not really self-minimizing so much as I'm just pointing out that I don't feel all that different. I didn't expect to feel different, mind you, and I think I've already made plenty of references to ways I actually am different already. Like the conversation between coworkers about gaming that annoyed me. At this point I want to go the full 90 days partly to prove that I can. Then I'll assess how I feel and decide if I can be more responsible about gaming's role in my life. Gaming is another form of entertainment to me. I'll just need to decide if it's worth leaving it as an option, or if I should stick with reading. I admit, though, that when my fiancee has the TV on all day, it's been pretty tempting to pull up a game on the laptop to play while she watches. It's hard to read with that kind of background noise going at the same time.

Day 22

We spent the morning driving around. Had to fill a prescription and get a new tag for my dog's collar. We're going camping this weekend and the information on the tag was all out of date, so if she were to get away, someone would be calling a phone line that doesn't exist (or belongs to someone else now). It's actually been worrying me for a long time. The address being out of date was no big deal because I never expected someone to come knocking on my door with my dog in tow, but that phone number has been out of date for more than two years.

And today I started the real writing on this project. Tried to minimize the amount of time spent before writing (because reviewing notes is technically part of my writing time) but I needed to make sure I had enough things in mind so I could embellish as I wrote. Especially because I started with a prologue, which are often skippable but still add something to the story. Mine is relevant but happens quite a bit before the story starts. It's sort of just some insight into the antagonist.

But yeah, blah blah vague descriptions of what I wrote. It's done. About 950 words long, and I think it's quite a bit better than the original version, which I wrote before fully developing this story.

[Guest]

Writing issues hmmm... I don't find the right words to descibe what I want.

Other than that personally I'm struggling with the english-native language translation, sometimes I'll skip something I want to share because I don't feel its correct.

I started feeling so much respect for writers after trying writing.

Day 21

Three weeks. Doesn't feel that significant. I'll keep going.

Well It is, most gamers wouldn't stop gaming for three weeks to test if it helps or not.Keep going, I'm following only a week behind you.

Edited April 21, 2016 by Guest

[gankylosaurus]

Hmm... not sure I can help you much there, @gresa. You seem to be doing fine, and the more you practice the better you'll get at it. If you keep reading in English you'll start to pick things up naturally, too. I know English is one of the hardest languages to learn, though. I have a friend from Austria who speaks it fluently, but I think he was learning from a young age.

Day 23

The apartment's a mess. And I had the early shift today, so what I planned on being maybe a one-hour nap ended up being more like four hours. Got some reading done after my "nap" then picked up some groceries.

It could be worse. It's mostly just dishes. From there it's not hard to pick up the rest of the apartment, and my fiancee made the bed so I barely have to touch the bedroom. I'll get the dishes done after I'm done writing this and call it a night.

Got my writing done just now, too. I'm still in the part where I'm rewriting old chapters, which is both a good and bad thing. I made myself not re-read the original versions. I have reasons for this that I can't articulate well. I think it's because I don't want to be too heavily influenced by the old version, or I don't want to realize that the old version was actually awesome and it doesn't need re-written.

But anyway, with re-writing old chapters, I already have a clearer idea in my head of how things play out, and I'm able to improve things about them that I thought were weak. Then after I'm done with them I can go back through the old versions and see if there are any hidden gems in there I'd like to work into the new versions somehow.

The bad thing is that it doesn't feel like I'm writing anything new. Sure they're new versions but it's not new to me. It feels like I'm playing catch-up. But I don't want to just repurpose the old chapters to get to the new ones, mainly because it's been so long since I wrote this one that I think my writing style may have changed a bit. I'd rather be consistent in that regard and besides, this time I have everything planned out so I don't have to embellish as much as I did the first time.

[gankylosaurus]

Day 24

One of these days I won't have a shitty work schedule that results in me sleeping away part of the afternoon because of lack of sleep and/or a lack of a regular sleep pattern. It's one thing if I were to work at 4:30 Mon-Fri, but once a week makes it pretty hard to recover, especially when I have to work the next morning.

Plus side to being super-tired after not having coffee all day though: Coffee actually woke me up pretty easily.

Anyway, just got my writing done. My body still feels half-asleep, but my mind's up and running. That said, it wasn't the best writing day. Ended up getting 1400 words done, which is decent, and the writing wasn't bad (I think) but I realized something.

Average novel length is about 90-100,000 words. I try to aim for 90k and I managed that for the first time on my last project. I looked at my outline for this one and I have to have an average chapter length of 3,000 words to meet that number in this project. I'm currently averaging a little over 1100 words per chapter.

Hopefully this is just because these first chapters don't have a lot of detail in the planning notes. The later chapter summaries are a bit more verbose, meaning they should have plenty of content in them. I expect that means I'll hit at least 70k, which means I'd be better off taking this one the self-pub route. Which isn't bad, actually, because it's a fantasy novel and it's really hard to sell fantasy to the big houses nowadays from what I've seen. It's just that, if it's not commercial length, it's not going to be easy to sell to the commercial market.

Plus, I've been thinking that as soon as I get published, I'm going to become a lot more prolific. I want to put out at least three books a year after I get published, and then if I end up making enough to be a full-time author, I'll try to put out even more. So, as soon as I'm published, no matter how it goes down, it's on.

I was hoping to be a hybrid author anyway (as in, one who publishes traditionally through a publishing house and also self-publishes) but I kind of wanted my first published piece to go traditional. There are a few reasons for this: First, it's hard to market yourself and while through a traditional publisher I might not out-sell my first print run, it would at least get my name out there. Second, I could use any advances or royalties I get from the first published novel to pay for editors and book cover designers on books I want to self-publish. Finally, in relation to the first point, continuing to self-publish gets my name out even more, and people may be more likely to pick up that first traditionally-published novel, eventually selling out the first print run, which gets me more credit with the publishing house. I believe that's called the long tail of publishing.

The advent of eReaders has had both positive and negative effects on publishing. I personally love my Kindle and it's dumb to assume that publishing hasn't been doing well because people are reading less. If nothing else, they're reading more because of eReaders. The issue right now is that there are a lot of popular self-published authors selling their content for fairly cheap and making a decent amount of money because the royalties are better. Booksellers aren't doing too well outside of B&N and Amazon. So the issue with publishing traditionally these days is that there are only a few big ones left (five, if I remember correctly) and they can each only publish so many new books a year.

With all that in mind, I'm really glad I've done a lot of research on publishing these past couple of years. I used to entertain the idea of going into the publishing industry itself, but I wouldn't dream of it now. I'm going to stick with doing what I love and try to make it on my own however I can.

[WorkInProgress]

I will definitely buy it if it's ready and I can spare the money. I love fantasy..

[gankylosaurus]

Woo! I appreciate it, @WorkInProgress. It'll probably be done in a couple months if I keep up my current pace. Then I'll have to edit it and decide where I want to go from there. The biggest hurdle is going to be buying a book cover. Also debating on whether I can afford/it's worth it to pay a developmental editor to look at the story as well as a copy editor and such. I'm pretty good at proofreading and grammar and all that, but it's nice to have an extra eye. Plus, a developmental editor will be able to pick apart the story better than I could, but they're expensive.

Day 25

True to form I got 1100 words done today on this new chapter. If I keep this up the book's gonna end up at 33,000 words, which is not good. But I'm holding out hope that this is just the nature of the opening chapters. In fact, this chapter had the potential of being a lot shorter, since it's primarily one character in pursuit of another. Once I get into bits with more dialogue and more varied actions, more words will likely be necessary. I don't like getting bogged down in description, so I try to stick with just enough to give readers an idea of the setting so they can fill in the rest. This is how I like to read books, so this is how I stick with writing them.

Can't tell you how infuriating it is to have someone pull a bait-and-switch, though. Like, they give you the bare minimum, and I get an idea of the character in my head. Then it turns out the person I've been imagining looking like Severus Snape all along ends up looking closer to Lucius Malfoy because the author just out of the blue decided to be like "Oh yeah, they also have long blonde hair," but didn't decide to tell anyone until the latter third of the novel.

But I digress.

One of the friends I gave the outline to read through it and generally seemed to like it. He started with criticisms first, which actually helped, and I tried to clarify my justification for the magic system and I think we came to an agreement there. He thinks it might be a bit anticlimactic but I disagree, and he acknowledges that it might play out better fully written out. I know it might end up falling flat as well, but I'll do my best to make sure that doesn't happen. We both know it's not going to be a masterpiece but that's not the point - it's the story I wanted to write.

Ultimately, he said that the outline I gave him made him more excited for book 2 than the current one lol. I can see what he means, too, because there's a lot of fallout at the end of this one that will have to be dealt with in the next book, including the enemy of this one becoming an ally. Plus, isn't it a good thing if a book makes you want to read the next one, even if that means the first one wasn't the strongest entry in the series? I mean, it has to be strong enough to stand on its own and attract readers to start with, but that excitement for the next installment is a great thing to have.

So all I can do for now is try to tell this story the best way I can and go from there. I have a lot of confidence in this one - so long, of course, as I can get the word counts up. Otherwise I'm going to have to add in way more scenes.