Tuesday, September 20th
Sep. 20th, 2011 04:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexandraerinNews For Today
Well, the new nagbox has brought in almost $100, which is great news especially since more people will see it after the next chapter goes up.
Not a lot of news-news right now because I'm very focused on the present at the moment, so I'll expand on what I'm doing a bit.
Just to go into a little more detail about the MU update schedule - it's eight "regular" chapters a month. I don't yet have a set frequency for other stories going up on the site. For now I'm aiming for one every weekend which means 12-13 new things to read a month and 2-3 every week. It might end up being more like 10-12 a month than 12-13, depending on how the side stories work out. I think these rates are pretty comparable to the ones I've best been able to sustain in the past, though usually by trying to provide more and missing the mark. Having a strategy that has better "crumple zones" for absorbing life's little shocks makes it even more sustainable.
The wording I use when talking about my four day writing cycle has caused some confusion, so I'll elaborate on that, too. It's really a development and writing cycle.
Day one is kicking ideas around. I don't have a rule that says I'll do no writing on the chapter during this day... if ideas are hot and flowing, I will totally sit down and let them out. The key is that I give myself no obligation to produce any readable words and don't feel bad if I don't. It's not a "slack day" or a "dead day" (though it doesn't throw me off completely if I have a dead day here, I've written good stories before without devoting a day to conceptual work before), it's just a day whose goal doesn't revolve around writing.
The point of this exercise isn't that I start each new chapter with no idea what happens in it. Even if the last chapter was an obvious lead-in to something, I still benefit from figuring out what all is going to happen in it... looking for ways to connect it to things that have happened before or will happen in the past, thinking about the implications of everything, etc.
Day two is when the writing officially starts. I call this "taking a stab at beginning the writing". I decided to give beginning a story a whole day because when I'm having trouble writing, this is usually where it happens. Author vs. Blank Page is frequently an epic grudgematch.
Sometimes this is about getting the pump primed. Other times it's about finding the right approach to a story... I might know that this, that, and the other thing are going to happen and I'm going to work in fact/reference/joke X, Y, and Z, but there are ways and ways of telling a story.
Now, when I talk about looking for a way to start a chapter, I mean ways to start writing it. I may or may not start writing at the beginning of the chapter itself. Way back when I began what eventually grew into my career as a writer, this was part of my codified advice to myself: "The beginning of a story is often the most difficult part to write, so skip it." A lot of times... maybe not most of the time, but a lot of times... I would find myself thinking that what I'd thought of as the beginning wasn't even necessary, and start a story more en media res. I don't do that as often with the main Tales of MU chapters, but it does sometimes happen with the standalones.
Day 2 is probably going to be apt to be one of the most variable days in terms of what I actually do and actual writing output. I'm not going to sit in front of a keyboard and push keys if nothing is happening, so it might look a lot like day 1. I might end it with very little immediately usable material written down, or I might end it with a whole day's worth of writing.
In the usual course of events, Day 3 is where the "real" writing will happen. I might basically finish a chapter off during the course of it. As long as I finish it with at least half a chapter, though, I'm in decent shape. The key is that I'm not obligating myself to have the chapter done, so if it's finished... well, I can sleep on it and if I'm sure there's no missed opportunities or missteps I can post it early in the morning the next day (assuming I'm not already ahead of the schedule) and move immediately to Day 1 of the next Cycle. And if it's not finished, no guilt.
Day 4 is for finishing a chapter, which can mean writing the second half of it or it can mean just polishing it up a little. My hope is that I get the cycle down better, there will be a strong tendency towards having the chapter nearly tied off with a bow by early on in Day 4, which will allow for more polished presentation.
State of the Me
Last night I had delayed sleep, but it was good solid high quality sleep. The tide is turning.
Dreams From Last Night
I was at a fast food restaurant with Jack. He decided to pay for an arm full of groceries he was carrying there instead of taking them to the grocery store to do so (this made perfect sense to everyone in the dream), but the fast food place didn't have any grocery bags so he sent me to the car to get some reusable ones. the car was packed to the gills with stuff, as though we were using it to move somewhere, which made it hard to find them, which stressed everyone out.
Plans For Today
I've been doing the next newsletter's outline and now it's time to write. By the way, the next newsletter is going to contain an excerpt from Working Class Villain and then I'm going to poll the newsletter readers about what my next novella project should be: Dangerous Instrumentality, Working Class Villain, or the fantasy novel. And no, "Write what you want to write." is not a valid response. I want to write ALL THE THINGS, to the point that I can't figure out which one to focus on first.
Well, the new nagbox has brought in almost $100, which is great news especially since more people will see it after the next chapter goes up.
Not a lot of news-news right now because I'm very focused on the present at the moment, so I'll expand on what I'm doing a bit.
Just to go into a little more detail about the MU update schedule - it's eight "regular" chapters a month. I don't yet have a set frequency for other stories going up on the site. For now I'm aiming for one every weekend which means 12-13 new things to read a month and 2-3 every week. It might end up being more like 10-12 a month than 12-13, depending on how the side stories work out. I think these rates are pretty comparable to the ones I've best been able to sustain in the past, though usually by trying to provide more and missing the mark. Having a strategy that has better "crumple zones" for absorbing life's little shocks makes it even more sustainable.
The wording I use when talking about my four day writing cycle has caused some confusion, so I'll elaborate on that, too. It's really a development and writing cycle.
Day one is kicking ideas around. I don't have a rule that says I'll do no writing on the chapter during this day... if ideas are hot and flowing, I will totally sit down and let them out. The key is that I give myself no obligation to produce any readable words and don't feel bad if I don't. It's not a "slack day" or a "dead day" (though it doesn't throw me off completely if I have a dead day here, I've written good stories before without devoting a day to conceptual work before), it's just a day whose goal doesn't revolve around writing.
The point of this exercise isn't that I start each new chapter with no idea what happens in it. Even if the last chapter was an obvious lead-in to something, I still benefit from figuring out what all is going to happen in it... looking for ways to connect it to things that have happened before or will happen in the past, thinking about the implications of everything, etc.
Day two is when the writing officially starts. I call this "taking a stab at beginning the writing". I decided to give beginning a story a whole day because when I'm having trouble writing, this is usually where it happens. Author vs. Blank Page is frequently an epic grudgematch.
Sometimes this is about getting the pump primed. Other times it's about finding the right approach to a story... I might know that this, that, and the other thing are going to happen and I'm going to work in fact/reference/joke X, Y, and Z, but there are ways and ways of telling a story.
Now, when I talk about looking for a way to start a chapter, I mean ways to start writing it. I may or may not start writing at the beginning of the chapter itself. Way back when I began what eventually grew into my career as a writer, this was part of my codified advice to myself: "The beginning of a story is often the most difficult part to write, so skip it." A lot of times... maybe not most of the time, but a lot of times... I would find myself thinking that what I'd thought of as the beginning wasn't even necessary, and start a story more en media res. I don't do that as often with the main Tales of MU chapters, but it does sometimes happen with the standalones.
Day 2 is probably going to be apt to be one of the most variable days in terms of what I actually do and actual writing output. I'm not going to sit in front of a keyboard and push keys if nothing is happening, so it might look a lot like day 1. I might end it with very little immediately usable material written down, or I might end it with a whole day's worth of writing.
In the usual course of events, Day 3 is where the "real" writing will happen. I might basically finish a chapter off during the course of it. As long as I finish it with at least half a chapter, though, I'm in decent shape. The key is that I'm not obligating myself to have the chapter done, so if it's finished... well, I can sleep on it and if I'm sure there's no missed opportunities or missteps I can post it early in the morning the next day (assuming I'm not already ahead of the schedule) and move immediately to Day 1 of the next Cycle. And if it's not finished, no guilt.
Day 4 is for finishing a chapter, which can mean writing the second half of it or it can mean just polishing it up a little. My hope is that I get the cycle down better, there will be a strong tendency towards having the chapter nearly tied off with a bow by early on in Day 4, which will allow for more polished presentation.
State of the Me
Last night I had delayed sleep, but it was good solid high quality sleep. The tide is turning.
Dreams From Last Night
I was at a fast food restaurant with Jack. He decided to pay for an arm full of groceries he was carrying there instead of taking them to the grocery store to do so (this made perfect sense to everyone in the dream), but the fast food place didn't have any grocery bags so he sent me to the car to get some reusable ones. the car was packed to the gills with stuff, as though we were using it to move somewhere, which made it hard to find them, which stressed everyone out.
Plans For Today
I've been doing the next newsletter's outline and now it's time to write. By the way, the next newsletter is going to contain an excerpt from Working Class Villain and then I'm going to poll the newsletter readers about what my next novella project should be: Dangerous Instrumentality, Working Class Villain, or the fantasy novel. And no, "Write what you want to write." is not a valid response. I want to write ALL THE THINGS, to the point that I can't figure out which one to focus on first.