Monday, February 11, 2013

The Obessive Writer

Okay, you've probably noticed a drop in both the frequency and quality of my blog entries these last couple of months. This is because I've been so obsessed with writing my next book that I've curtailed pretty much all other activities. It was the same way when I was writing Part 1 of the series. I don't know if it's just these particular books or if I've become this type of writer for everything, but I find myself really stewing over every detail and word choice as I type. It takes me a long time to write a relatively short amount of text, and since I try to turn out a full chapter each week, I don't time for many other things. I haven't even been keeping up with The Hobbit lately because I'm so busy working on my own novel. An author who hardly ever reads; ironic, right?

This raises the question of what's more important: writing or editing? Ernest Hemingway once said that "the first draft of anything is shit,"so no matter how good you may think your manuscript is, it's going to need a lot of editing before publication. With that in mind, is it better to write your first draft as quickly as possible knowing that it will need to be fixed up anyway, or should you try to write the best first draft that you can in the hopes that editing will be easier?

I guess there's really no right answer to that question. However, I have been leaving a lot more notes about possible changes in between the paragraphs while writing Part 2. It helps me move along through a chapter a little bit quicker, but I don't see myself beig able to writer by the minute any day soon.

It didn't take me nearly this long to write fanfiction...

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Writing and Selling

I got a bit of feedback yesterday from my cousin who's reading Part 1 of my sci-fi/fantasy series. She said she's 3/4 of the way through the manuscript and she'd been hooked on it from the beginning. She never mentioned being confused by anything in the story, so that's even more good news.

Just the same, I've been going back to Part 1 and making notes to adjust little things here and there. I still think a few aspects of it are confusing, so I'm trying to better explain or simplify the more problematic ones. I'll have to see how Part 2 goes before I know exactly what to do with Part 1 though.

Speaking of Part 2, my writing progress has slowed a bit lately. I'm still getting at least a page done every day, but other matters in my life have been getting in the way this past week. Whether or not I'll get the current chapter done on schedule remains to be seen.  

In the meantime, I've already managed to make four sales on Kindle this month. Better yet, those sales include one of each book I've published. I don't know if that's the result of my recent free download day, but it's good to see those numbers on my account regardless.

All in all, good times.