Second Thoughts

The First Book

I hope that I’m not that unusual in having second thoughts. The most frustrating second thought is finding better ways to say what I wanted to say in the first book! And finding mistakes in the first book, but that’s relatively easy to fix thanks to the magic of online publishing. Perhaps I can go back to it one day and create the “author’s version” with added material.

After the 2-year anniversary I may try a different cover. I’m afraid I made the classic mistake of “Wow, I think that looks really cool!” as opposed to a 2nd and/or 3rd opinion, so I’m looking for a cover artist that I like to revamp the 1st book.

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Slowly Back On Track

Groovy

As in “back in the groove” at least temporarily. Completed about 1800 words gross working on the Prologue/Chapter 1. I’m not even considering what my net word count might be. For now, it’s enough just to get back to consistently writing. The more I write into it, the more it’s beginning to beef up past what I consider a Prologue. I’m still struggling with ways to reference material from the first book without giving away too much of the story.

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Just… Wow

Taking Care of Business

It’s been a busy time lately on all fronts except keeping up with writing. During the past few months, I’ve been on travel for business, family and a few jaunts to events closer to home. As you may have gathered from earlier posts, family is very important to me, so helping the family through some medical issues took priority over pretty much everything else. Business travel is generally something that I simply have to push my way through. Even travel that’s mostly for pleasure still takes me some time to recover from and get things back to normal.

But I think I’m finally ready to get back into “the groove”. So, let’s jump right back in with a quick update!

Keeping Score (sort of)

The second book is still percolating. I decided the prologue just isn’t going to work where it is. If I assume the reader has not read Orchids Ablaze, then I need the prologue to set up the characters from the first book before I introduce new characters. So the prologue will become a “Bridge” section later in the book. While I’m working through that structural issue, I plan to put time into creating “atmosphere” pieces that show different aspects of the setting. I have plenty of notes for characters that may never get to the prime time of a novel, but can add to the flavor of The Jagged Earth.

Lots to do! I’m looking forward to getting back into a writing routine, including keeping the site up to date so stay tuned, more to come!

DDW

Plunge

As in “I took the plunge”…

… and submitted Orchids Ablaze to an online writing contest. I almost didn’t post about it at all! I thought I might wait to see how it turned out first. It was somewhat a leap of faith for me being my first effort, especially because I’m going to have to sell a lot of books to even get the entry fee back if I don’t win! Still, this blog is about the journey and it was a milestone for me, so… there you have it.

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Keeping Score: Late June

Count

After several starts and stops, and a few dozen bad words, the first cut of chapter 2 is complete! It’s currently in the 1900 word range. I’m concentrating more on narrative and action than description, so that will likely increase. After Orchids Ablaze it feels like a very long chapter! I even pulled out part of the material intended for the chapter to place into an interlude. Ultimately I think the story moves better that way.

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Practice

Exercises

One of the lessons that I’ve read and heard about writing is the need to use only the words necessary. One of my early English teachers always taught that there is one, exact, word that precisely expresses what the writer intends to convey for any specific purpose. Part of that challenge is, naturally, the breadth and depth of  your vocabulary. For that reason a thesaurus and dictionary are essential for me when writing. I own several different kinds of each I use in different situations.

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