My mid-week report to you that covers the three major commitments I’ve made: to write, to edit, and to read.
Writing
The novel outline is done! Well, the first draft of it. Removing that plotline helped, as did some advice from my writer’s group on that mid-story antagonist. Throw in a bit of conflict that’s going to go south when an unexpected Big Bad shows up, and it’s all shaking out now. Shari’s been exposed to the lore, background, and first half, and says it held her interest. So I’m going to declare victory here and move on.
I think that I am going to tackle this one as if it were four separate novellas. Not that the stories aren’t connected - they are. I think that doing it that way will be a benefit to me overall. I’ll get four passes to iterate structure, editing, etc. I’ll get the opportunity to work on plot points that span books. Marketing-wise, I’ll end up with four novellas to publish as ebooks, with a possible “omnibus” print version that bundles all four and adds some extras.
Next up: review, checking the overall structure, and then I’ll see about getting some review from my writer’s group. I’d like to get that done net month, though, so there’s no real rush, thankfully.
I’m really happy this is done. I have other projects I want to get to, including some short stories and some revisions. I felt like I needed to get this one to the point where it would let me set it aside and marinate for a bit before I could move on, though.
Editing
Shari & I are continuing on the second draft on the autobiography we’re helping to edit. Well, Shari is - I’ve been distracted by the aforementioned outline. I need to line up time to take a look at it as well this week so we can get it back in a timely manner.
Reading
Still in Dragonesque.
Yes, this is going on three weeks. Not a lot of reading time lately :(
Other
I’ve been asked to speak at a fundraising gala next month, so I’ve got some prep work to do there. Mostly getting my head around facts and figures so I can speak naturally about them off the cuff. I’ve also been making donor calls to help line up people for that event. That’s OK - it’s part of my job as a board member - but it’s not the most fund thing in the world, you know?
Life in general has settled down a bit. I’ve got my List of Stuff ™ to take care of this fall, and I’m working through it slowly. One of the things that I’ve put off is splitting wood. We don’t heat with wood - it’s purely a comfort thing for us - but I like to have a full wood shed heading into winter anyways. On the plus side, that means plenty of time for me working with my hands, which always frees up my mind to contemplate what fun thing I’ll work on next. :)
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Some great puns today! lol
Congrats on finishing the outline!