Now, I’m off to ship my pants!

Please share with all your friends.  Shout from the mountain tops if you have to.  Let’s try and grow this so that there will be more for us all to read in between our writing spurts.

As I get even remotely closer to wrapping up the initial writing for part 1, I have started looking at editors. Having no other person to get a recommendation for an editor, I looked to craigslist. To my surprise, there were a number of editors with ads looking to help out writers like myself. I emailed a few of them, and then decided to run an ad of my own. I worded it truthfully, and asked for experience and rates for their services. To my surprise, I received 17 replies in 24 hours. In that group of responses, the rates ranged from $60 bucks total to just over $3000! Talk about a spread, eh? There were a few that do not quote until they see the work. Those get the axe right away. If they do not know what they charge for line editing, I am not going to help them find out. I feel a good editor should know what they are worth, regardless of writing. A few asked some strange questions, even after stating that they have done all types of editing and epub work. One asked about my initial word count of 11,000 words. She said it was too long for magazine submission and too short for a stand alone novel. I am not replying to her either. If she doesn’t know about Amazon and Kindle singles, I am not going to point it out to her.

My initial feeling for the word length of my part 1, was around $125 to line edit. A number of the folks that replied were right in that ball park. Actually, the majority were plus or minus $50 bucks of that number. So, I am at ease knowing what it will cost for it. I am a little uneasy dealing with folks just over the internet though. I suppose a little faith is needed here. I wish I knew other authors that have been down this road before that could give a pointer or 2.

Anyway, my goal is to wrap up the part 1 first draft this weekend. I should be able to hit the end by end of Saturday. Maybe tinker a bit with it on Sunday, then print it out to do a read through with a few people before self editing it. I think I can have it ready to go to an editor by the end of the month. It all hinges on me getting through with it this weekend. Wish me luck!

Anyway, I made a great breakthrough on my current work in progress this weekend. I sort of been having a bit of a block that I’ve been dealing with. Not so much of a creative block as much as a block from actually completing part 1. Until this weekend, I have been have self doubt on whether part 1 would be strong enough to stand alone as a serial publication. It lacked any action to speak of. Sure, it has a lot of conflict and resolution, but not what I would call compelling enough to make you want to come back for more. That was until I had my breakthrough!

I had been noodling on how to “fix” part 1 for a good part of last week, and through the weekend. Then on Sunday, as I was creating a timeline for the story arc, it hit me. I needed something in Part 1 that would kind of tie everything together in the end, and I found it. It was actually pretty geneous if I do say so myself. Now, I just need to get my butt to writing. I have the entire part 1 blocked out to 6 scenes and 1 flashback. I have been going back and forth on the flashback so early in the book, but I think it adds to the story arc later in, say, part 5?

As to my word count, I have a goal for part 1 of 11,000 words, and part 2 of 23,000 words. That was my April goal. I might actually change that up a bit, and drop part 2 for now, and finish part one and move right into editing. The sooner I can get it published, the sooner I can grab an audience. The sooner I have an audience, the sooner I can complete all 5 parts to demanding readers.

On the whole publication note, I looked into buying my ISBN’s, and although money would dictate buying just the one for $125, I think I am going to buy the 10 pack for $250. I honestly would love to buy the 100 pack, if I truly will make a run at continuing the writing thing, but at $525, it’s a bit out of my price range. I’ll probably spring for them after I complete my first draft and lock down an editor. Any editor referrals out there?

So, yeah, I have a story to work with this a.m. I am going to rock this story! From what I gathered last night, I am going to shoot for 4 or 5 parts, and around 140,000 words total. I will publish each part as I go along, and try and stagger them about every 45 days or so. My goal for April is to write the first 2 parts and publish part 1 by the middle of May. Part 2 will be written, but I will wait to drop that one until around July 1st. In May and June, I will work on parts 3 and 4. I think I will wait for part 5 until I get into the fall, to see if there is enough interest to wrap things up. As excited as I am about the story line, I am sure it will nearly write itself. I will start working on a coherent synopsis of the story line over the next few days and post it. I need to start working on a title as well, so any suggestions after I post the synopsis would be greatly appreciated.

So, CampNaNoWriMo starts tomorrow, and I haven’t the foggiest idea what I am going to write about. I have a ton of story ideas to rol with, but not a single one of them are jumping out at me, saying “WRITE ME!”. I have a few that do keep coming into my mind, but they both need so much plotting work, that I am not sure they will play well in a 30 day writing exercise. Maybe that is the whole point – to allow unplanned direction to unlock the mind to be free. So be it. I will probably roll with the Shelter story, as that is the one that continues to invade my mind, even though I cannot seem to get a good story arc to fit the idea. I hate just writing in circles.

I had totally planned on plotting and outlining last week, but as I expected, the vacation took up most of my time. I was disciplined enough to actually write daily though, so that was good. I basically wrote about the trip and only occasionally wrote about story stuff. I did have a new story idea that I jotted down – oh great!

Now, I need to get my cameras’ memory cards cleared off and organize the photos from the trip. I am notorious at taking a few hundred photos from a vacation, and not opening them back up for some expended period of time. And with NaNo starting up tomorrow, it looks like I will be again putting off sorting those photos. The vacation was awesome though, so it will be a pleasure stumbling onto them in 3 or 4 months, and recalling the great times with my family.

So, I am off to try and work out some sort of semblance of a plot for my story. I will leave you all with a shot from our drive up the coast in California from last week.

With my decision yesterday, to write in the CampNaNoWriMo next month, I have decided to write for 30 minutes daily, non-stop. Certainly, I don’t mean my fingers are hitting keys at every second of the 30 minutes, but for 30 minutes, I have an appointment with myself and the keyboard. No phone calls. No internet or emails. No conversations. Nothing. In those 30 minutes, I am going to write about story thoughts, or portions of a scene. Whatever hits the keyboard, but I am going to try and keep it somewhat related to writing. Ie, I don’t want to write a recap of my day up to that point, or complain about work.

So, yesterday, I started things off with an explanation of what my goal was through the remainder of March. I then just gave myself one last day of complaining in the journal, as I wanted to start fresh today.

Today arrived, and although my morning was packed, I still planned on writing. My ultimate goal is to write before work starts. Today it was not possible because I had some things due out. I didn’t get to write until 12:30, right after lunch. As I sat and ate lunch, my mind thought about what I was going to write about. I came up with nuttin’. Zip – zilch. When I set my timer and started to type, I gave a few lines of gibberish to get my mind/finger connection established, and then it hit me. How do I “unplug” a backed-up story? I decided to interview myself about the story in question. I typed my question out, and then immediately answered it. I ran almost the whole 30 minutes doing this question and answer thing. Actually, I ended up running past my 30 minute timer by some 5 minutes, just to complete my thoughts at the time.

OH. MY. GOD. I was able to see through so many issues with one of ‘works in progress’. I didn’t get everything answered, but I certainly gave myself a lot of direction to take, and should be able to get to my next plot point with ease. It worked so well, I plan on “interviewing” myself again in a few days or maybe next week on a few other stories that are stalled.

After reading the WSJ article, I hopped over to Amazon and picked up Part 1.  I read it straight through in one sitting.  I think it was around 11,000 words, and it read fast.  I felt like I was right there next to Holston through his whole ordeal.  When I finished the piece, I sat there and contemplated rushing back to Amazon and picking up the remaining 2 thru 5 parts of the story.  Once I logged back into Amazon, I realized that the printed book was due out on the 12th, and that I might in fact wait to pick up a first edition instead.  I’m a book nerd like that.

I ended up not buying the ebook and sort of forgot about the whole thing for a few days.  Then, on Monday, I happened to be working on a story idea I had, and was hitting a “block”.  That’s when I happened to be messing around the internet and happened across Hugh’s blog.  I  so wish I didn’t though.  I ended up wasting more than a few hours reading some of his past blog posts.  I read about his “adventure” with getting Wool through it’s current state.  I was SO inspired, words cannot explain.

That’s about when I came across his book tour dates.  To my surprise, he was scheduled to visit Denver on Friday at The Tattered Cover.  I called the wife to see if we had plans for Friday night and she said we were clear.  It was set.  We were going to meet Hugh and pick up a first edition copy of Wool.

Fast forward to last night.  I have only been to one other author signing, and it was for Clive Cussler.  He also was at The Tattered Cover, but in comparison, the two authors paled in comparison.  Clive had been wildly successful by that point, and was quite reserved.  He showed up – sat down and started to sign books.  Hugh on the other hand arrived and took pictures of almost every step of the way through the book store.  He stopped and talked to anyone that would talk to him.  He shook hands and truly made an effort to befriend his fans.  It was truly a night-and-day comparison to the two authors.

As to not really knowing what to expect last night, we arrived about an hour early.  We browsed through the book store for 5 or 10 minutes before making our way down stairs to where the even was to take place.  There were some 6 rows of chairs set up with around 10 to 12 chairs per row.  The room was practically empty.  There was one woman sitting off to the right, and there were a few others walking around, scanning the books on the shalves along the sides and rear of the room.  I had visions of the scene from 1408 where there are like 3 or 4 people there to meet the author in that movie.

We grabbed a couple copies of the book and found a few comfy seat off to the left.  We sat and chatted about our week.  A few at a time, people started to arrive.  My daughter and I headed up to grab some coffee while the wife stayed back to hold our padded chairs.  While we were waiting for our coffees, I glanced outside and there was Hugh walking up.  He had a smile on his face, and he just looked like he was full of energy.  He walked in and promptly took a picture of himself standing next to his placard sign at the entry.  He almost immediately began to talk to people throughout the store.  I was very surprised.

We made our way back down, and some 15 minutes later, Hugh made his way down stairs as well.  He greeted a few folks standing around the back before making his way up front.  We were seated just to the left of the podium and he walked up and began chatting with us instantly.  We exchanged a few funny statements about wondering who the author was to demand the interest that he had garnered.  He introduced himself and shook each of our hands.  I was taken by complete surprise by just how down to earth he was.  It was so refreshing.  After our small exchange, he made his way through the first few rows, meeting others that had arrived.  Before long, he was at the podium, talking, and answering questions.  Before long, the question and answer time had passed.  There were many great questions, and he answered them all wonderfully.  If time wasn’t so tight, I could see him standing there answering many more questions for at least another hour without complaint.

Once the questions were over, he settled into a leather padded chair at the front and began signing book copies.  We were about half way back in the line, and before we knew it, we were up to the front.  I slid my book across to him and thanked him for being so inspiring to me, and asked exactly how.  I explained to him that i was an aspiring author, and he just said to DO IT.  Alicia was also there, but was a bit too shy to speak, so we told Hugh that she also wanted to write stories.  He signed her book with best wishes on her writing.  The wife was trying to take our picture while he signed the books, and he asked if we wanted a photo of all of us.  I asked if he minded, and he smiled and said not at all.  Again, I was a bit blown away by how approachable this man was.

All in all, it was an evening to remember for quite some time.  I will aspire to achieve the same greatness that is Hugh Howey.  I just need to actually write something that is worth a crap now.

A Map to Get Out of Writer’s Block – An infographic by the team at NY Book Editor