Tag Archives: Sun-King

Writing

Word Count: 56,726

Athbhliain faoi mhaise daoibh!

Yes, this is a bit later that usual and it is because of New Years. Brigid and I are up and writing as 2014 ticks down to nothing. Today has been a good day for me. Lots of words put to page. Lots of work done behind the scenes.

Went through a rather weak chapter, I got something on the page hopefully ideas will come to me or my first re-readers will help find some ideas to strengthen it. Mostly it seems like wasting time. I can try to put some more meat to it, but in the end I am just adding more wasting time.

Speaking of time, I realized that my original dates in the book were wrong. It came to a miscalculation of timing. Essentially when I originally did the calculation I wrote “4 days” instead of “14 days.” Took about an hour to realize the error and figure out how I wanted to handle it.

After that was taken care of I came to two of my stronger chapters that were easier to copy full-sale. Having reworked previous chapters it was rather easy to pin-point any issues and correct them in these two. Character are a bit more consistent.

So that is where I am left right now. I am considering relooking over the weak chapter before I move on with that specific plot, but as of now something is on the page so good enough.

Slán abhaile!

Writing

Word Count: 50,635

Fáilte!

Wrapping up early tonight. These last few days have seen some great numbers being made and I’m very pleased with that. Today’s numbers are definitely short of yesterday’s but that is okay. There was significantly more new material for today. Went through the first half of a bumpy scene and am currently redoing another meandering scene to give it a bit of meaning and purpose.

That means taking significant steps away from what’s already on the page or knowing how to repurpose it, which takes a bit more time.

I also have a dishwasher to fight with, so there is that as well.

At this rate I’m hoping to wrap up the rewrite and get it out to the first readers again in February. That’s my hope anyway. I still have a few days left on my break so I got to use it as best as I can.

Anyway, I am getting sleepy. Might have some coffee or whiskey or both.

Sláinte, bitches!

Writing

Word Count: 46,391

Woo boy. Lot got done today. Chapter Thirteen ended up getting the axe, though I assume some bit of it will live on in later parts of the book. Meanwhile considerable headway was made into the rest of the book. All the while I wrote a huge post here. So yeah. Successful day!

Oíche mhaith!

Writing

Word Count: 20,952

I’m not going to spend too much time on this because it is getting late here.

Another 3,000 words added today. Helps make up for yesterday’s short fall. I am hoping I can add 5,000 tomorrow and bring my total up for the week to move 25,000! That would be great.

Oíche mhaith!

Writing

Word Count: 17,902

I was a little short of my unspoken 2,000 word goal, but that is okay. I wrapped up Chapter Four and moved into Chapter Five. Chapter Five is the first needing serious, serious reworking (instead of voluntary reworking) so I expect that the going is going to get slowed down.

Tomorrow I am hoping to dive back in and use the carrot of better, more “fun” chapters to come to drive me to resume that blistering pace from earlier. But a break might be in my future. I’ve never written quite this fast in my life.

Anyway, so life goes.

Oíche mhaith, bitches.

Writing

Word Count: 16,104

Today has been very successful and I am very pleased with myself. In celebration I think I’ll let myself have a good night’s rest and think about what needs to be done tomorrow.

Still in Chapter Four, working around a lot of edits and reevaluating the whole exchange within it. This chapter has very, very little carry over, even compared to some of the last chapters.

Overall I am very happy with the new work. I have a stronger vision in my head, which has been sorely needed.  Especially with how characters sound and how they talk. I like that now as I write I can hear the characters in a much more real way. I’m still having trouble with dialect though. The debate on how far to go rages on in my head and will likely see some discussion with my wife and readers.

And on top of it all I continue my Irish lessons online. What a great time to be alive!

Slán!

Writing

Late Night, Not Done Yet Thoughts

It is currently 7:30 in the evening. For me, the day is twelve hours old and I still have a few hours of writing left. I took a few hours out of my day today to test-play the new version of D&D (I play Pathfinder) and found it enjoyable, but not as good as Pathfinder. Call me stubborn.

So, at this point, I’ve effectively had seven hours to write and my current word count is quickly headed toward 15,000. I’m very confident that will be broken tonight if I don’t spend too much time on this.

Chapters One, Two, and Three have all fallen into place. Those were three of the weaker chapters because many of the issues later reside in these three. Characters needed strengthening, motivations needed realization, a lot needed fixed. But that is in the past. Now I have to keep my focus on not slipping. Hopefully sending it past a quick first (second?) read will ensure that it is being fixed properly. Actually, just emailed it to her now. We’ll see how long it takes for her to check. She’s been busy with minecraft.

I’ve added four pages to the book already, but that seems to be holding pretty constant. Almost all of it is from the prologue which got completely overhauled. I’m coming up to the first chapter (Chapter Four) where I suggest a complete overhaul to the chapter. This is amusing to me because I feel like I’ve been focusing on complete overhauls so far.

So, we’ll see.

See you at the end of the day.

Detroit City FC, Soccer, Writing

Mid-Day Thoughts

Maidin mhaith!

Word count is climbing, I’ve been writing since 7:30, so plenty of time. Plus I still have the rest of the day ahead of me. But now is as good as a time as any to stop and write down some thoughts that I’ve been ignoring lately.

First, writing is much, much easier when you have already written it before. I find myself much more willing to rewrite than I had first expected. When I first deleted my entire first book (in a separate, new file mind you) I suspected that I’d be about 30% “new” stuff and 70% “old” stuff. I find myself much closer to 50/50 if not actually favoring to write completely new material.

And I haven’t even hit any of the “bad” chapters yet. When that happens I might run the counter all the way to 100% new! Who knows, but I feel good about the Mark III (as I’ve been found of calling it).

Unfortunately the changes might force my already paid-for cover to essentially become unusable. I’ll mull that around a bit.

 

Meanwhile, in sports, Newcastle continues to sail down the rails like an out-of-control rollercoaster headed toward disaster. All three of our keepers have been injured in the last week, the big derby is tomorrow, a keeper finally got off the bench and it is our triple fall-back. Completely blew our chance at the cup by losing to a team we had already sank this year.

Manager Pardew continues to prove that only he can be awarded “Manager of the Month” while in a four-game losing streak (for the previous month after five wins seemed to completely turn our chances around). For fuck’s sake I hate him. His inconsistent leaning toward losing. But apparently five wins and is enough to completely overlook months of constant failure and dismay, despite a return to his normal form.

I don’t know what he’s doing at training but all the fucking injuries that are coming out of that pitch makes me think he is walking around beating everyone with a cane.

 

On the Detroit side of things, perennial pain in our ass and complete failure of an owner Dan Duggan is once again promising a USL Pro team in 2016 and he’s even building a stadium in Detroit. By which I’m assuming Pontiac because he can actually afford that. I really wish he’d just fall of a financial cliff and disappear forever.

The good guys however are rapidly expanding. Season ticket sales are rumored to be coming up to a sales cap in order to ensure that tickets can still be sold at the gate. It might actually hurt our financials because season tickets are so much cheaper for us and them.

However, to help compensate, DCFC gear is going retail. A local sports chain here has started carrying gear and tickets, which is absolutely awesome. Brigid and I have talked a few times about how you know that the team is really getting acceptance and having your stuff in retail was a huge part of that.

I will admit being worried that our grass-roots movement might take a battering from corporate asshats like Duggan, but I think if we can persevere we’ll make it through the storm in the end. But sitting in the past looking forward is much scarier than sitting in the future looking back.

Word count will be posted at the end of the day. Spoiler alert, I’ll likely break into five digits.

Slán!

Writing

Word Count: 7,539

Brigid and I had some shopping to do today so we could completely avoid going within five miles of a grocery store as Christmas approaches. Currently the planned holiday meal at the Kendall residence is “frozen pizza” but that might change depending on several variables.

Got to make this quick, Brigid is sleepy from a long day at work. Most of tonight’s work from from scratch as I tried to clean up some rough spots and get it to flow. Chapter One is complete though, so my main goal has been accomplished.

Tomorrow I really hope to get through all of Chapter Two, but I have a feeling that it’ll take two days or more.

Chapter One really was a beast, though. I hadn’t noticed before. I tried splitting it into two chapters, but it still read as one chapter to me so I removed the header and so you all are stuck with one hell of a first chapter.

Hope it doesn’t suck.

Sláinte.