Hiddennode

So in working on the story I’ve hit a kinda SNAFU… Basically I shared the story with a few folks and got some early feedback. In hindsight, I shouldn’t of done that. Should have finished it then shared it, but ah well, things happen. But I did get good feedback and I realize now not only do I have to redo all the chapters I’ve done already, but that to be where I am right now, I’d probably be closer to chapter 7 or 8 rather than 5. With that in mind, I’m debating what I should do. Should I just restart writing it (meaning I wasted a bunch of time writing), or should I just keep going as if I already wrote those other chapters and then come back to them later? I’m not positive, but I’m thinking the latter. I think I’m going to ask the writer who wrote the book I’ve been following for writing advice about what he thinks, if he’s got some time for a quick question. I think he’ll confirm that it’ll be the latter but it would be nice to just get some advice real fast.

I like that fact, by the way. The fact I know the writer’s SL name and can get writing advice (within reason). I’m not going to make it a habit to bug him daily or even weekly, but just popping a quick IM question shouldn’t be too farfetched. The fact I can be so connected to my interests. For example, besides having one of the writers I enjoy reading as a friend in SL, I also have him and several others writers I like followed on Twitter. I follow the tweets of one of the developers of the Shadowrun RPG and hear neat stuff about some of the gaming industry. I can know when there’s a live feed for a show I like, and it’s cool when I can be aware of what’s happening in my interests.

Honestly, I don’t know how many people read this blog, but if you do and you’re not on twitter, you should be. Even if you don’t tweet much (which I don’t, although my blog tweets for me sometimes), it’s nice to be able to connect to your interests and such. Heck, even if you just follow me you’ll at least get the posts when I update here. Funny is that not only do I have my own twitter feed, but the Dynamic IP super group has one too. I believe I mentioned that at one point in a previous post.

Huh… don’t know where that Twitter Advertising Rant came from…

jdiehl

This is a reupload of a post that was, well, breaking things.

So the writing is going on strong. I haven’t reached to target of 10 000 total words that’s required by the end of this week, but I’m pretty close. I just put the final touch on the rough draft of Chapter four, and I know where I’m going with Chapters five and six. After that the first quarter of the book will start to reach a very climatic point soon, before settling down into the middle plot line. A few people have gotten to see the first three chapters but that’s it as far as sharing the work before it’s done. Once I’m complete with the rough draft, I’ll share it with a few pre-readers. Then, after I leave it down for a month or so, I’ll come back to it and start the first series of edits. Target goal right now? Have the rough draft ready by the fall (two weeks in already, at least 20 total weeks to write at 5 000 words a week), then have the edits complete by the New Year.

Beyond writing, things are going slow in other areas of production. Expansion of the Dynamic IP SG is going slow, which I should have come to of expected considering the fact we don’t have too many high level characters that are on often. For that matter, none of the leaders are over level 30 yet. I think I’m going to try to push to have Nathan and Dakota each get a 50 on Victory. After that, whatever alts they want to play is their business, but if we’re going to have the group keep growing, the leadership needs to appear more like leadership. It shouldn’t take either of them beyond a month or two to get characters to 50 anyway, since both are out of work, although Nathan does have that whole school thing.

For now though, I’m happy that I’m writing. This is the furthest I’ve been when it comes to writing a real novel. Granted, I did and won NaNoWriMo last year, I hated every minute of it and mostly wrote horrible gibberish. This time, I’m at least 7000 words in and I’m loving the story. There are things that I need to adjust, that I know I need to edit, but I’m getting it done.

I wonder though, if I’m ever going to get back to working on the game project I had started. I’d like to, but I have a feeling if I start on that, I’m going to lose time with the writing. In fact, I’m certain I will because I have that habit of losing interest in the old if I start something new. Maybe that’s why I’ve stuck with City Of Heroes for so long. Because I’m not letting myself be too distracted by other games.

For those you who are interested, I’d like to invite you to come to the community website I’m hosting. www.dipsg.com is the main website of the super group, but it’s able to be much more than that. To speak the truth, I’ve been considering retooling it better to support a community outside of City of Heroes We’ll still be hosting the super group, especially while I’m still in charge, but I’d like to provide for it to be so much more in terms of gaming, interactions, and gathering. I’d like to also use it as the launching board for my writing too, to get people interested in my works involved with me and mine.

We’ll see.

jdiehl

I think the last post broke the theme… not sure why. Mental note though, don’t copy text from MS Word until I figure out why it broke the theme.

EDIT 1: Yup, it’s the last post breaking the theme. I look at this post by itself, it works fine. Time to see about fixing.

Chapters 1-3 are complete. With just starting chapter 4, we weigh in at 6,104 words so far. This is amazing to me. I’ve never been able to get this far with a novel I have planned out. The fact that I’m past chapter 1 AND I’ve made my quota for the week is awesome. Just fyi, the quota of the week is 5,000 words, starting on Saturday ending on Friday of the following week. So long as I write 5,000 words in those 7 days, I’m good. And I managed to excede it by 1,000 on my first try. Yay!

Now let me see if I keep this up in the coming 20 weeks. Shotting for a 100,000 word novel (+/- 10,000). Already have editing notes as I mentioned before, and it really is coming along nicely. I have a good feeling about this. Even if I don’t sell this novel when it’s done, when it’s done I can actually say I am a novelist. That’s important first. Selling it would also be nice, but well they say you have to write a few novels before you sell one.  Something about getting better and better and learning to write better.

I’m fine with taking my time and learning first before I can start running. Anything to make me better at the craft.

-jdiehl

Chapter 1 AND 2 are down. Chapter 3 on the way… This is the furthest I’ve ever been. Diving deeper.

And I’m not editing at all but I’ve already got 20 editing notes for down the road.