October Goals

Today is my first day after leaving my job, and I will be spending some time in the afternoons to write.  So I am back at it. I am pretty excited to having some dedicated time to write every day, I've never had that before.  And so I have set some goals.

• Finish edit of Knitting book by Oct 15 (1 week)
• Send out for critique, deadline the 29th (Monday) for response
• In the meantime, figure out if I want to do a kindle single or regular kindle book and how-to
• If time, start on next book
• Start final edit the 29th
• Publish the week of November 5th

Drivel or Dynamic?

Has my book ship come in, or is it sinking?

Editing started in earnest the last two days.  I've renamed most of my chapters and added a knitting quote to the beginning of each.  Being a tactile person, I printed a copy out and went to town marking it up.  And as I read, I wondered - is this drivel or something special?

One of the problems with the book so far is that some of the pieces were written to be used shared as devotionals when I was in India.  Another issue is that some of the chapters were written a few years back, while others, just days ago.  Continuity of voice is lacking, so there is some work to do.  Ugh.  I wish I was done already!  Whoever said that writing is easy, has never done it.

I really hope that critical mass happens with this book and that it turns into one of those "ahhh" moments and all falls together after looking like a mess.  Otherwise I'm screwed.

The big bad word, "formatting: is looming before me too.  My friend Amy said that she had some issues with hers, but used Calibre and it helped a lot.  I must look into this thing called Calibre.  Is it call - lee - bree?  or cu - lee - bruh?

I am a little jealous that Amy is only maybe a week out from pushing that "publish" button.  But then, she's worked a lot more hours on hers than I have.  I am truly happy for her, and I do believe she'll be quite successful.  Sarah will too, I've admired their writings for many years now.  Yes, I'm waxing poetic again on the dynamics of writing peers. 

Speaking of which, we've made a pact.  Next year, when we are successful at this ebook publishing thing, we'll use the money we made to finally meet in person for a writing retreat.  We haven't all met together before.  Amy and I have, but Sarah is across the pond.  This all means that I better get my butt glue out and write.

My new goal is to have the editing of the book done by the end of May.  Formatting to follow, then cover design, and then have a catharsis and finally get to push that "publish" button myself. 

On top of that, I have set the goal to have 3 books published by the end of the year.

*gasp*

That would seem a bit outrageous a few years ago especially since I don't know if my first one is crap yet.  .  But it is achievable or I wouldn't have set it. 

Time to work the crap out of my book, literally, and get 'er done.

In Which I Try To Discipline Myself

I have this disorder that keeps me from finishing my writing.  It's something that I've found is quite common among my writing friends, Startitis.  The symptons:

• More ideas than is healthy for a person for a storyline 
• After about 20,000-50,000 words into the story or after the first draft, you hear the siren song of yet another storyline that promises to be better than the one you're currently working on
• You sit down and listen to that siren for a little while thinking that if you ignore it, the story will be gone and end up writing more than you thought and putting your previous story on the backburner
• You wonder if the story that you're currently working on is just a dead end one and isn't the best seller you were hoping for
• You tell your friends that you started a new story last night...weekly.

You get the picture.  But what's the cure?  Finishitis.  This is a rare one and I only catch this bug once in every few stories.  Ok, maybe less than that.  The secret is to manufacture this cure with placebos such as:

• Butt glue (not real stuff but symbolic, silly)
• Plugging your ears and humming when the siren calls
• If you do hear the siren, write down the bones of it and put it away
• Make goals and keep yourself accountable 

 Ok, time to take my own advice.  I have a few stories in the works including the one started a few nights ago (but it sang so prettily!).  I am going to pick one and listen to its siren song until I can't stand it anymore and then some.  But which one?

1. The knitting devotional
2. Camping book
3. Silver hands story
4. Byte story
5. Summer series
6. My experiences in Christian radio
7. etc., etc., etc.

My goal is to write a practice book and go through the process of publishing it to work out the kinks before putting out the "good ones."  After all, in David Gerald's book, Worlds of Wonder, he said that your first million words are all practice. 

To start with (and finish) I'm going with the knitting devotional book.   This will be a series of maybe 7-14 devotions which has to relate to knitting and fiber stuff.  I already have a few finished that I shared in India and ideas for more.  There's no storyline to have to be consistent with since it's a series of short pieces.  And best of all, I already have an ending. 

Wow, the pressure is already building and I'm feeling twitchy realizing that I WILL NOT work on other stories until this one is finished.  Hold me to it, K?

From our local sheep festival