My mid-week report to you that covers the three major commitments I’ve made: to write, to edit, and to read.
Writing
Once again, AI art that isn’t quite exactly what I envisioned, but I love it! I wrote about 1800 words for “Blue as Sky, Black as Sin” this week, including three versions of the opening scene. Kind of like Goldilocks: the first scene was too hard, the second scene was too soft, but the third scene was just right (I hope!)
I got some incredibly helpful critiques from the Alpha Mercs and my wife, did all the usual manuscript cleanup, then mashed the “Send” button to ship it off to Cannon Publishing for their High Caliber contest. After triple-checking to makes sure that I had, in fact, actually attached the manuscript.
Meanwhile… One October Night is out! The print edition is up on Amazon. We’ve hit a snag with the Kindle edition (because of course we have), so that’s still pending. I’ve got actual, real-life photographic proof that it’s shipping and out there in the wild, though!
It’s currently hovering at about #1000 in Science Fiction Anthologies and Fantasy Anthologies - though we did get up into the low couple of hundreds at some point. I am thinking about doing an advertising push after Christmas. You know, when the Kindle edition is out (hopefully!) and people have Amazon gift cards in their hot little hands!
Editing
This week was taken up by the novella. Earlier this year, I plopped down some cash for the premium version of ProWritingAid, and I’ve not been disappointed. It’s been a tremendous help with my editing this month.
One of the really interesting things with it is that it has flagged a bunch of instances where I prefer to use British English (lept instead of leaped; towards in place of toward; gray instead of grey; etc.) Apparently I’ve absorbed a lot of those conventions via some sort of osmosis. Which tells you how much British literature I’ve read over my lifetime!
Back to ProWritingAid, though. One of the thing I really appreciate is that it can open and work with Scrivener files or Word documents. Since my editing process includes both, that makes it really easy to include it in my writing workflow.
“What is your writing workflow, Sam?” I pretend to hear you ask. Let me tell you!
Now, keep in mind that I am a software developer, first and foremost. One of the reasons that I love working in Scrivener is that it is, essentially, a programmer’s editor for writing. Which is why I took to it like a duck to water. The programming cycle looks a lot like:
Write → Compile → Run → Debug → Re-Write
At a high level, I’m creating something; generating a format that can be examined by myself or others; checking to see that there’s no horrible, obvious problems; then checking to see that it does what it’s supposed to, and take notes about what needs to be fixed. When all that’s done, I go back to the first stage and start the cycle all over again.
With Scrivener, my writing cycle looks like:
Write → Export → Spell/Grammar Checks → Critique → Re-Write
You can see it’s very similar. I start with my text in Scrivener, and export to Word. Then I run various spelling and grammar checks (using Word, ProWritingAid, my own eyeballs, etc.) to make sure there’s no horrible, obvious problems. After that, I run it past a few folks who are willing to do critiques, to make sure that the story’s doing what it’s supposed to do, and take notes about what needs to be fixed. When all that’s done, I go back to the first stage and start the cycle all over again.
Sure, it’s a little more convoluted than “Just write it in Word!” I end up having to go back to Scrivener to make changes. That’s what I’m used to doing as a programmer, though, so it’s not a terrible imposition. Especially since if I’m sending out and getting back critiques from multiple people, I’d have to do it anyway - I would just be doing it in a Word document.
The only time it gets titchy is when a publisher sends me back a marked-up Word doc for review. And at that point? Folks, it’s been accepted, and I am more than willing to make a little effort to make sure those changes migrate back into my Scrivener doc!
OK, I’ve blathered enough about my writing and editing process. Moving on…
Reading
Given all the demands on my time lately, I am still making my way through Self-Editing for Fiction Writers. Ironically, now that I’m done editing a book and a novella, I’ll have time to finish it. Oh, and get to some reviews that I really want to do for the Alpha Mercs! Those folks are writing machines!
Those reviews aren’t even a job, really. I love reading most of their stories, and watching how they are shaped and changed over time is fascinating. Plus, they;re all good enough that I know they’re going to get picked up somewhere. So when that happens, I get to feel smuggly hipster-ish online when I tell people, “Oh, yeah, Matt’s story is going to be in Moggies Back in Space! Man, it is really good! You’re going to love it! I know because I’ve read it already, y’see. ;-)”
Other
Root canal is holding up. I have a follow-on visit with my dentist to get the crown replaced next month.
On my birthday.
Next year, I’m going to ask for socks.
Other than that, things are well. Kiddos are back from school and enjoying their time home. When they’re not working, or out with friends, or going on dates, that is. Christmas is going to be a lower-key affair this year, with not as much prep and cooking; I appreciate that for my wife’s sake, since she’s the one who mostly worries about that stuff.
Sadly, we did not make as much progress as we had hope with the project on the Day Job. Fortunately, it wasn’t an us problem! Turns out that there’s some configuration switches we were not aware of that need to be tweaked just so. After we fill out the right forms. In triplicate. Across three different computer systems. Oh, and once on paper, and once on a stone tablet in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. Sigh. Hopefully, by the time we’re all back next year, it’ll have been processed and we’ll be ready to start the next leg of this journey.
On the non-profit side, I spent some time working through those tech issues for one agency, and I think they’re all squared away. I haven’t actually written any donor thank-you cards for the other agency, but I did make some phone calls to thank people for their support! I do have the thank-you card now, though, and they’re pretty snazzy. I’ll likely get them out this week - maybe even today, since I have a few quiet hours at home alone.
Next week: a year in review. I honestly have no idea where that’s going to go, because it seems my sense of time is more than a little bit skewed. Probably by the fact that it has been an intensely busy year all around. Tune in as I look back at the year and mutter “Wait… that was only three months ago?” to myself repeatedly. It’ll be fun!
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