Any resolutions? My only one is to get something I've written published, even if I have to do it my damn self.
I'm not one to make resolutions. I tend to treat every day like it's a new start. But new year's for sure is a time of reflection. And when I start to anticipate the coming summer!
I'm not one for new years resolutions however, I do want to complete a writing project. I have a habit of writing myself into a corner and not being able to find a way to move the story forward.
I resolve to go another year without standing on a mountain top during an electric storm while holding a spear, wearing a metal breastplate, and singing Ritt der Walküren at the top of my lungs. I've kept that resolution since 1973 and see no reason to change die Walkürenpferde in midstream.
For a change I'm making resolutions right, left, and center. Gonna swallow my pride and get hearing aids. I'm missing too much and wasting too much of other people's time asking them to repeat themselves Gonna get more sewing done, even if I don't have a big deadline for it Gonna read more physical books and keep myself out of the dead lands of Shorts and Reels Gonna finish my stupid W.I.P. and get it published In the process, I'm gonna figure out how to get Adobe Acrobat Pro working again. I'm paying a raft-ton of money for the subscription and for what? Gonna get my head back into the writing business, including attending the Pennwriters conference this coming May and updating my publisher website Gonna see if I can afford to have a maid service come in regularly to keep my house from looking like a dump. It's bad for the concentration I've thought of a few more, but that's enough for now.
Last year, I realized that the reason I was barely writing anymore was because I was too depressed and isolated, and I resolved to fix that in 2022. Now, after 12 months of going to meetups, taking classes, and spending waaay too much time on dating apps, my life is a bit more full, and while I'm still far from achieving my goal, I've laid some groundwork for things to keep getting better in 2023. So, how will I do that? 1. Enjoy writing again! I want to make time for creative work and actually finish things that make me proud this year. 2. As mentioned in the rejection thread, rack up 100 rejections! Or at least make 100 submissions so I have a chance to. 3. Keep taking improv classes and either join a team or start one with my new friends. 4. Balance my creative life with my expanding social life in a way that satisfies my needs in both areas.
I've got a few things I know I need to work on in the new year. The big ones are to take better care of myself, and to keep trying to get published despite the seemingly impossible odds. Happy New Year, writing friends ! May we all continue the struggle, and may we at least find satisfaction in what we produce, if not publishing success. Let's go get those 100 rejections !
I'm going to start publishing again - I stopped in 2020 because i was so busy working as a patrol officer during the lockdowns, however i didn't stop writing so i have about a twenty book backlog to get out there
Actually probably more than that - I started writing the first Croc book 'last gasp' based on my experiences as a patrol officer in lockdown in march 2020... there are to date 21 First rule, last gasp, hotshot, cold fury, white knight, black heart, true love, false flag, man eater, lady killer, red river, blue murder, under current, over watch, falling angel, raising cain, rip tide, cut throat, heavy duty, light fighter, and dead heat. the first two are 30k word novellas, but all the rest are full length novels averaging 80 odd k. I've also written three Red Redmayne crime thrillers set in the same setting but with the MC being criminal, The Wheelman, the fixer, the freelancer Two books about a hacker come PI called Neil Ruiz - the Code and the Breach Two books about a a guy called max maxwell who's a countryside manger but also kinda a PI (drawing heavily on mty experiences at the trust, but not the PI bits obvs) Red in tooth and claw, and All Heaven in a rage. A book about flying A1s in Vietnam called Year of the Monkey (featuring the same MC as my previous battle of britain book Day of the Eagle which I wrote in 2019) and A future dystopian war book called Quarter Horse So that's 30, i think...not counting a few started and abandoned projects. You got to remember that when i say 'written' some of these are only first drafts there's probably only about 10 that are completely ready to publish, and even they still need covers and blurbs and such When thinking about this i would say that I don't do much else...i don't have kids so my family is mrs moose and the dog (max), and aside for a little bit of photography and wood carving (and co admining this forum) i don't really do much else with my time other than my day job... generally I write every night from about 21.00 through to maybe 2.00 am , and if i'm on leave or whatever i'll probably write most of the time i would otherwise be working... for example Mrs Moose has been at her dads place since the 27th, in which time I have written 68k words. Its not that big a deal really -I've been writing about 4k most days, so 120k a month, about a book and half, that'd average out at 18 first drafts a year or 36 in two years (which when you account for the half finished projects, ongoing work etc is about right) its also worth noting that doing editors revisions, proof readers revisions, publishing, marketing, advertising etc is time consuming... i wouldn't have had time to write 30 books in two years if i was also publishing them...in 2019 for example i think i wrote 8 and published 4
Ok, there it is. I was all like "Do you write as fast as humanly possible and not edit??!!" But it sounds like you're basically saying yes, at least you haven't edited many of them yet. Ok, I can understand that. Lol, if I would have applied all the time I spent writing in here on stories, I'd probably have a dozen or so racked up. Let's see, I have 9,526 messages over the last three years, each message probably averaging a thousand words or so. Yeah, not gonna attempt the math right now, I'm a few sheets into the wind.
I don't write all that fast and i do edit as i go along, most of the 30 have been self edited a few times and in some cases beta read, the reason they've been stacking up without going to my actual editor is cost - I can't afford to pay juliannes fees and my proof readers fees if i'm not publishing and selling books. you think about it 5 hours a night to generate 4k words is 13.33 words per minute, which is nothing, a lot of the girls at work can type at 60 or even 80 wpm but thats taking dictation or writing up notes, its the actual inventing the story that takes time Anyway, its now 4am and I've finished writing for the night, so i'm going to bed... happy new year everyone
Happy New Year's, Moose-dude! Cheers from across the big pond. Midnight is coming on here (in two hours), I guess it's already 2023 for you? Or how does that work. Trying to remember how the International Date Line worked for Phileas Fogg... I see you already said it's 4 am. Is it the 31st over there, or the 1st? Guess I could google it.
The one novel I've written, which is first draft and I did a good deal of editing as I went, took me three months (perhaps ironically including November, which apparently is known as National Novel-Writing Month over here, and coincides with NanoWrimo). I was working about 30 to 40 hours a week, and spending pretty much the rest of my time writing. Man, it's hard to see how I could possibly write a novel faster than that. Maybe if I had finished a few more and got something like a system down that would speed things up.
Looks like my time zone is 6 hours behind London, so it was 4 AM on January 1st for Moose. 10 PM here on December 31st, 2022.
It definitely speeds up , my first novel - which frankly wasn't very good took 6 months to write to first draft. It also helps to write in series because you already know your characters and how they respond to the situations you put them in...its the 1st of jan for me btw
