News bits

Book 12 Progress (100k words)

Hope your week has been going well. It’s been cold and snowy here. We had two feet of snow last Monday and then the temps decided to bottom out around zero. One note if you’re a writer then this would have been a wonderful time to promote your book, people  that are snowed in are looking for something to do. Today we received another couple of inches of snow, compared to two feet that is nothing.

I am reminded though of what God told Noah after the flood, he reminded us that no matter what happens that the seasons will always come. Spring will follow Winter. I will be doing the happy dance this year when Spring comes.

I have been busy helping my Dad who is recovering from his incident. He won’t call it an accident because he says with God there is no such thing as an accident.  This has kept me pretty busy, but I have kept writing, just have to find the time write. I’ll give you some more tips about doing that in the days and the week ahead.

I just hit 100,000 words for book number 12. I wanted to let you know because you and my other faithful readers are the reason that I have kept plodding on. With the Lord’s help I will continue to do so.

I wish you and your family a wonderful week.

On Writing

Writing More

I have learned a number of things over the last few months and I thought I would share some of them with you. First a little background, which may be a reminder for some of you. My dad had an accident in October, he was working with Mom in the yard, slipped on some slick leaves and fell over the hill and flat on his back on their asphalt driveway. He suffered two cracked vertebrae, four broken ribs, a bleed to his brain and a contusion to his lungs. He was in the hospital, rehab centers for a little over three months.

Before this happened I lived a pretty simple life. I make most of my money consulting for others. This is all done from a home office and all of the correspondence with my clients who are all over the world is done mostly through email and a few phone calls. I didn’t need a laptop really, but I had one for those rare times when I was away from my office for an extended period of time (like vacations).

I took the laptop to the hospital with me and soon discovered that while I could write with it, the battery lasted about ten minutes and it didn’t have the power to run some of the software that I needed to do my consulting work (mainly Adobe).

I was too busy to buy one until the end of December, I should have bought it much sooner. I have discovered that I can write anywhere…which has increased my productivity quite a bit. I’ve written in the car, library, doctor’s office, at my Mom and Dad’s kitchen table and other places too. It has helped me reach my daily goal of 2k words which I would not have been able to do without it, since I go to my Dad’s everyday to help him with his shower, get to Physical Therapy etc.

My suggestion for you if you love to write, try testing things out on a laptop, you just might be surprised how much you’re able to get done.

On Writing

How to Write More

Write MoreSomeone asked me the other day how I wrote so much. I have a very limited amount of time to write, like most of you I’m sure. Here are some tips on how I write more with the time that I have.

1. Figure out the time of day when it’s the easiest for you to write. It could be in the morning or the afternoon. It may even be in the middle of the night. I’ve found that while I can write any time of the day or night, I am much more porductive if I write before 10am. It is pretty simple to find out when your most productive time is…write at different times of the day. Set a word goal and then time yourself. Do this several times for each time period your testing. When I’m cranking in the mornings I can normally write about 2k in an hour.

2. Set a word goal and write till you make it. My goal is 2k / day or 10k each week. I have had goals as high as 3k a day.

3. Remember this is a first draft, your goal is to write and not be perfect. If you are at a loss for a location name or something similar, just put in ??? and you can find the answer / tweak it during your first round of edits.

4. When you sit down at your computer, have an idea of what you want to write about. If you outline, this should be pretty easy, but even if you’re a panster you can think about what you want to put down on the page before you begin writing.

5. If you get stuck, remember that you don’t have to write from beginning to end. For Book 12, I started out at the beginning, then moved to almost to the end, now I’m writing back from that point.

6. Some days it will be easy and others it will be hard to put one word after another. Enjoy the good days, and slog through the bad.

Have fun!

 

News bits

Book 12 Update

I’ve almost hit 60,000 words for Book 12. This book has been an interesting journey. I started the book when my Dad was in the hospital, as a way to take my mind off some things. When I started it, I had an idea for another story. The story was based in the hospital, so it was easy to write, as I wrote the story just drifted into the beginning of book 12.

I wrote the first part of the book, then I wrote the end, or almost the end, now I’m going backwards from that point. This book is different because I want to make sure I tie up any loose ends from the story. I’m not sure how long it will be, I’m thinking well over 100k words, since I know I’m not halfway finished yet. I also want to make sure that I wrap everything up in a nice package and put a bow on it for all of the people that have followed the story for 12 books.

After I finish the story – I write 2k words, 5 / days / week, I plan on going editing the books, making sure that I don’t have any plot holes and then starting the intense editing process that finishes a book. I hope that will start in the summer, but we’ll see.

Enjoy your week.

On Writing

What I’m reading…

I enjoy writing my stories, I also love to learn more about my craft. There are many different ways to do that, one of them is to read. One of my goals this year is to spend at least an hour a day reading something.

The first series of books I’m reading is Ender’s Game. One of the reasons is because it is a series to. When I started this whole process and decided that I was going to write 12 books, I thought it might be an impossible task. Now that I’m writing the 12th book, sometimes I think that maybe I should have made the series longer, or the books longer.

One thing I want to make sure that I do is wrap up all of the threads. I hate when I read a story and I still have a hundred questions about what happened. If you have a few questions, that is fine, but any big plot holes is a no no.

I hope you have a wonderful week. I’m curious what are you reading. Let me know in the comments.

 

News bits

Book 12 – The beginning of the End

A picture of my daughter Haley, Dad and me, in acute Rehab
A picture of my daughter Haley, Dad and me, in acute Rehab

Hope your New Year is going well. I’ve been writing every day 2k words, I guess I should say 2k / every week day. I am happy with that, especially since my Dad has been in the hospital since the middle of October. We have been in so many hospital rooms, I feel like I can do a Trip Advisor for best places to stay… or not stay. He is doing much better. We are in the final room (I hope) the acute rehab at our local hospital. He has two more weeks of therapy there and then we get to take him home. That will be when the real work for us starts as we get to take care of him full time, I’ll be doing the morning shift, but have my laptop and hope to get my two k in during that time.

I started a story while my dad was in the hospital in Lexington, I thought when I was writing that it would be something new, and then it evolved into the beginning of Book 12. I’m at 32k words, so things are progressing nicely.

I can tell you this about book 12, it starts out in a hospital, but it doesn’t end in one.

It’s supposed to be below zero here tonight, I like the winter, but I like it much better when its around the freezing point. I hope you stay safe and enjoy your family.

News bits

Writing Goals for 2015

I don’t make resolutions, but I do make goals. My goals for the year (with my writing) is to work on getting 10k a week. The past couple of days I’ve managed to get 6k in so that is good.

I’ve started work on book 12, 22k words. My goal is to finishe books 11 and 12, then start getting the other books edited. I hope to publish at least 3 books this year and then finish the series next year.

I’ll be sharing some bits from book 12 in the coming weeks, just wanted to post this so you guys could help keep me straight.

I want to wish you and your family a Healthy New Year!

Uncategorized

A Quick Update

popsI just wanted to give you a quick update.

On October 18th my Dad had a accident. He cracked his skull, broke 5 ribs, and cracked two vertebraes in his back. Since then he has spent some time in the local hospital, then was flown to a larger hospital in Lexington KY. He spent some time on the vent, had surgery on his back, and is now stable. Currently he is off the vent, he has a trach, and NG tube for feeding he is more alert now, but it has been a slow process and will continue to be a marathon instead of a sprint.

I am continuing to write, although the process is a bit slower. I hope that soon he will be doing his physical therapy (in patient) at a local hospital. If that happens it would make it much easier since we don’t have to travel two hours (one way) to see him.

In this month of Thankfulness, I’m thankful that he is still alive, and that we have been surrounded by a host of friends, family, loved ones who have supported us every step of the way. I can’t ask for anything more.

I will keep you posted as things happen. I had planned on having Book 6 finished, the editing for it hasn’t started yet. For those of you waiting I thank you for your patience.

News bits

Update

I’ve had a few people ask if everything is Ok. We had some very bad flash flooding around the area where we live, but everything is ok. They say that we’re in the ring of fire, but I think we’re in the ring of torrential downpours, frequent lightning and hurricane winds. We’ve had storms about every day this week, I hope that today the ring will hit a speed bump and we’ll not get anything. The streams are already full and walking my dog in the yard is like trying to navigate through a swamp. We only live close to a small stream, so we didn’t get flooded, but several people that I know (friends and relatives) were hit. I also can’t believe how hot it’s been this week. Till now we barely had a summer with temps normally in the low 80’s, this week its been all about trying to reach the 100’s. But I’m not complaining, one day all will be perfect.

We’re continuing to work on Book 11 – I will be introducing a new character that I am enjoying quite a bit.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Just another Work in Progress