How many words did you write today?

Cool. Good to know on the promo services. I finally figured out a way to edit Mind Splitter, my All Girl Universe SFF novel, so I've been doing that, today. I'm on chapter thirteen and tired, so will prolly stop for the night. I'm finally going to publish this baby. No more stalling. And I think I figured out an easy way to fix a problem a beta reader had. Everyone in Kreidelryain is a girl (I call them femgals, instead of human) because the word "man" doesn't exist in their universe. Although they do have genders. They have femme and masc, and one of my characters is asexual and agender. I never mentioned this before until all of a sudden at the end I just kinda throw that in there and my beta was like, "huh? Why did you throw that in there?" So I've stopped using "her, and she" for this character and use (A) and ace instead. So this should get the point across naturally without it seeming to come out of nowhere.

I sympathize on the loss of family. All of my grandparents are gone, and while I do have a brother we aren't close. Of course, I don't do holiday stuff anyway, so it worked out. It is sad when all your relatives start passing on though. *hugs* And I hope you have a lovely holiday, anyway, and that you manage to get some new words down, as well!

I did write over the holidays, namely 1011 words on Christmas Day and 1485 words on Boxing Day. I also finished my Andre Norton review and hope to get back to fiction now.

Take as much time as you need, K'Sennia Visitor

I wrote 1253 words today and finally got back to my space opera WIP.

Worldbuilding is crucial writing work.

I wrote 1445 new words today.

I think you should nearly always be writing what you want. I have always had a lot of projects on the go (even if many are virtually stationary).


But this I don't agree with.

It's true that if you are selling baked beans, you're going to have a tough time without piling high and selling cheap or advertising massively.
But TUOK doesn't sound like baked beans. And, if you have something different, you do have other options. Look at the self-published Eragon (only USP - written by a 15-y-o) or Fevertree breaking into the mixer market (their mixers were genuinely better). Or Elf on a Shelf (a diferent concept - though they needed to spend money on physical products).

That gives you two paths.

Building the buzz slowly while you are creating and writing. Disadvantages: it takes a lot of time before you even have something that can be sold (though crowdfunding can help), there's a lot of pressure on being able to stick to your timetables and you need to be very confident about what your product will look like so that you can target your marketing.

The other is waiting until you have a product to sell. The big disadvantage is that it can be a lot of time with nothing happening except writing on your own, and the product has to be completely right (the slow build gives you feedback before anyone expects perfect). Getting it right is more about avoiding anything that might put off your target audience (because if they hit any of those, they'll stop reading and stop recommending); getting it more right is less important to them (though maybe not to you).

With both approaches you would replace money with a lot of targeted energy, using social media, personal contacts and contacts with groups where possible.

I just deleted every word doc that is not a scene and that is not part of TCOK. Drastic, but if I wouldn't have futzed around soooo much with plot plans and encyclopedias I might have a published series already.
The biggest choice I have to make now is whether to stick with an all-girl universe or to do something else much more complicated.

Taxes are mostly done and I wrote 1026 words today and finished a chapter on an In Love and War space opera novel that has been giving me problems. Now the nasty whipping scene comes, which I'm not particularly looking forward to writing.

Not writing today but I got a couple hundred in yesterday. I am on the last scene of my WIP so plan on finishing it tomorrow!

Hmm buildup, yes.

They did fireworks from 6 pm to 2 am last night. I heard quieter ones going off all day, today, and they've started up with the louder ones again now at 7 pm. I would like to send a Dalek to exterminate each and every one of them.

I have a new goal to publish a new story/book by Sunday at midnight. But I am tired from no sleep and my wrist hurts. *whinges muchly* Eventually, I'll get tired enough that not even an atomic bomb going off would wake me.

Good job on new words!!!

I figured out how to download every video from someone's twitch account, so that's my accomplishment for the day.

Congrats on finishing your story, writeway.

Sorry you're still having fireworks, K'Sennia Visitor. Our fireworks freak apparently used them all up, since I have only heard a very few yesterday and today. Though the burned fireworks shells are on the streets all over.

I had a really good day of 2805 words today, before a headache derailed me.

Headache is better today and I wrote a very good 3731 words on that difficult whipping scene. My protagonist got whipped, passed out halfway through and then the POV flipped to his lover who is forced to watch the whole thing. There'll be more whipping tomorrow, then I'll hopefully be done with that scene.

That was a good Babylon 5 episode. I remember that I couldn't watch it live for some reason and my VCR was broken, so I asked a friend to record it for me. And she was like, "What sort of thing are you watching? This was just torture and interrogation."

I wrote 2581 words today and finished the POV flip scene where my female protagonist is forced to watch her lover whipped. Now the POV flipped again and I'm in the POV of the whipping victim, but thankfully this scene was be shorter. Next up, my female protagonist is locked in "the box" (basically solitary confinement in a small, coffin like box), because she flipped out and called the prison warden a monster, which won't be an easy scene either. And then, I finally get to the prison break.

This novel has been really hard to write, which is probably why I have been working on it on and off since 2016 now. But once it's done, it will hopefully be very, very good.

Nope, I haven't read that, K'Sennia Visitor, though I should check it out, since it seems to be right up my alley.

On the writing front, I wrote a very good 3664 words today. My female protagonist is locked in the box now, battling claustrophobia. She's also locked up together with a teenage boy and does her best to keep him awake and alive.

And because I had to describe this small solitary confinement box, I looked at screenshots from old prison movies online (and the whole movie, if available). Because it turns out that the best images of these solitary confinement boxes are from old movies from the 1930s. I also read up about a real life case from the 1930s, where a prisoner died in one of those boxes, which caused a massive outrage at the time. Not the first time something like that happened, but this guy was white and from New Jersey, so suddenly people cared. Grim stuff, but necessary research.