Report On Quarter the Third

I began writing fiction seriously on April 9th, 2001, a little over 9 months ago. This is the third Quarterly Report I have done since then. It is complete happenstance that my quarters fall so near traditional business accounting-type quarters, although I do have to admit finding the convergence funny.

A) convergence may not be the right word, and b) I have a very strange sense of humor sometimes. Also, c) regarding the previous sentence--I am quite confused as to whether I should capitalize all three letters ( a, b, and c), since they are items in a series; only a, because it is at the beginning of the sentence; and/or whether the word convergence should also be capitalized.

I am amused by this confusion, as well.

Moving on.

I have only completed a handful of short stories since the last quarterly report. I was fairly lazy wordcount-wise in the month leading up to NaNoWriMo, as well as in the month after it. That said, I do feel like my most recent stories are some of my best, and the quality does somewhat make up for the lack of quantity. My total stories written tally stands at 34, not including my first novel.

This quarter I entered and won NaNoWriMo. It was my first year of participation (since I wasn't even writing when it was held previously.) I quite enjoyed the experience, although it was fairly brutal. It took me almost the whole month of December to write the last 6 to 8k of my novel, but I did it. It still needs editing to even be considered a first draft, but I am quite proud of myself nonetheless.

The 70k I wrote for the Zero Draft of my novel, plus the other dribs and drabs I wrote this quarter, mean than I wrote approximately twice as much this quarter as in the first two combined.

***A quick note about wordcounts--I am obsessed with them because they are the only reliable metric I have for tracking my progress as a writer. I can see progress in my writing, of course. But how to measure it? Later on, sales and income might help me to understand where I am at in my career, but I don't really have either of those yet. I write at different speeds on different days, so time spent with butt-in-chair is not exact. A Million Words Of Crap requires just that--a million words. The best way I know of to measure those million words is word-by-word.***

I already have on story published that will count towards the current quarter, "Out, De'Moan!", but I didn't manage to publish anything last quarter, despite the promising start I got off to with Tes-Nin's Elbows. I did do a ton of submitting to paying markets, and got a ton of rejections, including a number of personalized rejections. I've also come very close to selling a couple of stories (and those stories still have a decent chance of selling to the markets that are interested.)

I've also vastly improved my typing skills, as well as my ability to use a voice recorder to get more writing done when I am out and about. I started and have maintained a Daily Log, which has already shown it's value as  a personal metrics tool (yes, I just made that up. No I don't know what it means either, exactly. Except that a Daily Log comes in handy.) My punctuation and grammar have improved somewhat as well.

All in all, I've accomplished a lot this quarter. Not as much as I could have, but more than enough to satisfy me. The most important--finishing a novel (draft)--counts as not only an accomplishment in and of itself, but as proof-of-concept that I can write and finish long form fiction. I also verified the truth (for me) of what I have often heard: It is easier (at least in a wordcount outputted vs skullsweat inputted sense) to write long fiction than short.

Looking ahead: If I keep up the pace, I will likely end up with 250k or thereabouts written during my first year. More if I hit the goals I set for myself this year. I also hope to finish this first year with at least eleven titles published, a Zero Draft of a new novel, and a bunch more shorts. With some luck, I might start to make a little money off my self-epubbed stuff, and/or a few short story sales.

I've got plenty of content, now it's time to make getting it out there as much of a priority as generating new stuff.

Overall verdict: I kicked tail this quarter.

Weekly report:

I am still losing weight reliably. Nothing drastic or infomercial worthy, but I am down at least three pounds since New Year's, if not four or five. I am having no problems maintaining an improved attitude and outlook (40% improved, to be precise.) My wordcount was better this week (over 8k) but still not up to par. I do feel like I am gaining some momentum in that area, though. And I did do more (over 2k's worth) background material/Idea Bank writing.

I haven't done a self-epub for the week yet, but I am hoping to today or tomorrow. So there's a good chance I will get three out of four again this week. Things are looking good so far for the first month of this year's challenges.

Also, I am planning on doing FebuWriMo next month. If I do as good a job on wordcounts as I did during my last noveling stretch, I may have an easy March ahead of me. We'll see.

Media Breakdown:

It turns out both Superhero Squad and Transformers Prime are right up my son's alley. I like them okay as well. Not awesome, but not any better or worse (when considered objectively) than the cartoons I grew up watching (and loving.)

I've been listening to the album "All Eternal's Deck" by The Mountain Goats a lot. Not a lot of rock-n-roll, but really good, thoughtful, and emotional lyrics. Lots of bittersweet, lots of indie-acoustic vibe, a high degree of thoughtfulness and literacy. I highly recommend it.

And that's it for this week. See you all next time.

The Wind Beneath My Whine, Also Stephen King and 11/22/63

I am not entirely sure what that title means just yet, but I suspect we're going to find out.

Before I get to the self-critical moaning: congratulations are in order. For me I mean. Goofball. I finished my MS! Yippee-dippee woodlee-hoo! I am a Real Writer now, right?

Granted--and we've talked about this--it's just a zero draft. It needs some heavy edits before it's ready to be seen by anyone, and I'm sure it will want more after that. But still...

But still...

I finished a novel. I am so absolutely, ravingly, ridiculously proud of myself. More importantly, now that I have proven to myself that I am, in fact, capable of writing an entire novel, I can get started on the next one. But maybe not this month.

My current idea is to do at least two NaNo's next year, maybe three or four. Okay, I really want to do four. But I don't want to set my goals unrealistically high. If I do one in March, then Camp Nano in July, Then regular NaNo, that might work out pretty well.

My writing schedule has still been pretty slack this week, but I did manage to turn out the last chunk of the MS, most of a new short, plus a poem. Yep, first poetry I've written in nearly ten years. No idea why I haven't had anything to say in that form, but I haven't. Until now.

Still not up and running on all cylinders, but at least I'm sitting in the chair again. Which is the most important thing--apply butt to chair is all a writer really needs by way of advice on writing.

I have also been doing some reading, Stephen King's 11/22/63. I'm not far into it, so I'm not ready to make any pronouncements about the plot. But the writing is absolutely gorgeous. Not in a flowery way, or overly descriptive or ornate way. In a chunky way.

One of the flaws in my own writing is a tendency to repeat too few of the same sentence structures too many times. King's prose ducks and weaves, tending toward the long-winded but keeping things interesting by constantly breaking things up, doing things differently. I'm really digging it.

My name for it--Chunky Writing. Like peanut butter. I want my writing to be Chunky Writing.

So yeah. I've gotten to a point in my own writing where I'm definitely seeing a need to increase my awareness of grammar and punctuation, so I can vary my phrasing more. I want my Writing to show off and enhance my Storytelling, propelling it forward rather than holding it back. Which maybe isn't exactly a job for peanut butter, but whatever. Work with me here.

This new focus/area to improve/awareness can now go on the To Do pile, along with more writing by voice recorder, self epubbing weekly, writing new short fiction, and on and on and on.

If finishing my first MS is the Wind, that last paragraph, folks, is the Whine. Each depends on the other. I need accomplishments and success to keep up my pace, and I need a frenetic pace with high expectations to get anything done.

Speaking of which, I need to get back to work. So thanks for reading, and I'll see you next week.