Where the Rabbits Write
Updates on the websites, projects, and more
Surprisingly I found time to return to Fairy Flight. I tell you close to 8000 words a chapter is painful. Seriously, fantasy is rough.
Yet progress! I can close off this “day” as I write in days and move to the next. Oh happy me. The book itself, book II, needs a bit more love and attention before I reach its end. And then there is book III, hooray! I already have plans for book III. I just need to write it.
But that is the life of an author.
Checking the date of the last post, wow that has been a while. Ah the summer went by, hot weeks, not so hot weeks. Relaxing in many ways.
Not that I haven’t written during it. Or that new projects didn’t show up. Far from.
I picked up painting. Indeed I paint now, badly, but I paint.
And I am picking up drawing, because that has to be done too.
Writing wise projects are slowly moving along. Slowly that is a given but now the summer is over and the “stay inside” weather is rising I should find more time for one mayor thing.. writing.
Also I have been “wasting” time into watching series. I don’t call it a waste as a good story can stick to the mind for later writing.
See I got multiple streaming services. And all of them cost money each month. So to make decisions if they can stay I began to start a log.
A basic log keeping track of what I watch on what service and how long those series/episodes are. Useful, so far I learned that I use HBO Max the most, which due to a grand-fathering structure I get permanent 50% off. A lot of fun little series on that service. Another thing I learned is that yes I do watch Amazon Prime, but not the huge shows… but the smaller things. I like 25 minute videos. Or 44m max. The loser here is also the most expensive, Netflix, still it has a few pretty nice series.
Amazon Prime has after a few years updated its prices too, in a sneaky way. The 4.99 I had for years [a month] now is advert based. Still have to decide if I keep it. For “only” 2.99 I can remove the adverts. Sneaky!
And Disney Plus? Long Cancelled, I hoped to get a few older Disney movies… little in that. And the newer stuff just isn’t for me. So that was an easy choice to cut many months ago. I think I still get once in a while a notice that for only 4.99 I can get Disney Plus, yeah the advert based one.
In the end it isn’t much of wasted time, progress in many areas, maybe not writing. But such can happen. Such is life.
Updates and Tribulations
Time seems trivial, this month has moved on as expected, the summer is closing in and things have been moving in place. Between the heat and the painters…
The painters outside are almost done so that is great, no more waking up too early with the sound of painters busy. You know the type of sound, the music, the talking, the sound of work. It makes life really interesting.
There have a few other things I dealt with, so real life being real right. But mostly took it mentally slower. My speed in writing and projects has slowed down as expected. Still not all was lost.
I even got back into writing/editing so that is good. Fairy Flight is back in action, editing wise. Fluffed up some areas. I did write a little further even. So that is good news. But mostly editing, and making sure things flow right and the right words are used. You have to smooth things out, but also prepare the reader for what lays ahead of them. Put little hooks and herrings in places. Such is important.
As a story grows details need to be planned, hooks to future events and knowledge need to be set. And don’t forget about the themes and so on. In short, a lot of little improvements that make a book so much nicer to read. The first four chapters are quite nice now. And I could put in it the little things that will happen in future chapters.
And the best news is that it adds more words, which you know, is great to have more words. Quality words yes, not quantity words. You could have a lot of words that do little to help the story, theme, or set up what is coming ahead and that would be just in the way.
Ah I was reading for book club, yes running a book club, a murder mystery and at a point there were just too many characters, to many “clues” that it made it impossible to keep track. I guess that is the whole murder mystery thing… but if a puzzle has too many pieces does it work? At a point I was like “Who are all these people? And why should I even know their name?”
In Fairy Flight quite a few characters have no name. Because I go by the rule of the pyramid.
Oh that is another topic isn’t it, in short the pyramid sets characters based upon their importance. The main character(s) are very important and hence need a name, details, and a lot of work in connections. The secondary characters, those directly around them, are also important so need some work yes. Then the tertairy show up, and slowly but surely you end up with the grey masses.
Because does it matter what name the guy has that sells the main character(s) ice cream? No! Or if they have kids? Not really!
But that is just my insight in it, too many characters/names and it becomes a mess. Fairy Flight won’t have to deal with that, I can tell you that.
Did I succeed to write 25k words in one month? Sure? Even with a lot of work being done at the apartment complex, think painters, fixers, and so on. Making sure that from early morning till midday silence didn’t existed. Hence why I decided on a lower then 50k word scale. I succeeded. And it was quite doable with less than 1000 words a day.
You have to adjust to the situation in the end. Nobody is at its mental top when the building sounds around you are many.
In news: The National Novel Writing Month website is gone. People were warned about this by the organization itself. The organization is now really closing down. Just think of how many people gotten their first footsteps into writing through such. And how many are published now, even self published yes. Still the idea was great, and still is great so the spirit remains through other things.
I remember finding out about it and trying it, 50k words in one month seems simple. Right… still I did hit the mark many times. And have written a lot of trash that way. Still some stories have reached a status of “this could be good” so are in being revised, reworked, and most important checked if there is even a market for it. But that is a whole other topic.
Ah, the forums, the different groups, the other writers you would meet. Many of which were not writing to get published that is fair. Or would publish on places like Wattpad or Archive of our Own.
Good times. Good memories.
NaNo did a lot of good, and a few pretty bad stupid things. Let’s retain that spirit of a good idea and keep it moving along.
Writing month has started! A non National Novel Writing Month as we gave it our own spin.
I have written myself in on only 25k words? Should be doable. I might even count the words I am writing right now to that goal. Why not?
And as expected the first two days were interesting!
First day I had to deal with a goblin, I won’t tell the whole story, but I am part of a group where I have a leading function. Me and others, and we had a troublesome new member. Because of course. That was great… ate up a whole day of our time. The Iron Shoe of Bootkicking became handy again.
And the day after, planned power outage. They were working on the power in the area. A planned power outage so that morning there was no power. More than time enough to do other stuff, right? Besides making the whole house ready for no power for a few hours. I tell you FUN. At least one gets to test out the emergency supplies, and if one has enough batteries in the house. It was a cozy relaxing morning listening to the radio and all was fine.
And there were many hot days. Free Sauna in the house! Ah, hear me complain right. Shit happens when something is just starting. But there is a whole month to go, so let’s use that. LIFE has a way of making things happen. Keeps it interesting, if they go smooth and nothing goes wrong that is the odd thing out.
Still, all in all. I still got to my goals. With only 25k in a month the goal is quite doable. Less than 1000 words a day? I would have written myself in on 50k if I had a big project. But even Fairy Flight has slown down. And other potential stories have been put on the backburner. There is always enough to do, but sometimes what needs to be done is the little stuff.
And I returned to Fairy Flight. So that is good news. It feels right to return to that story, to put the emotion in the characters, and set things up for the future.
25000 words isn’t much but if this month is going to behave like this? It is perfectly fine. It still pushes one forward to get sh*t done.
Yeah, the great idea behind NaNo of course was 50k words in one month. Some writers are experienced and write 100k a month. Others are just beginning and are happy with 10k…
In the group we even have a 12.5k goal. A lot of fresh writers who want to take the short marathon. And that is fine, it gives them a reason to try, any goal is a goal.
Personally? It is also very nice to have other authors and spar with them. Writing can be a very solitary thing to do. And that probably won’t change much, but hanging out with other authors, sharing good and bad times. Sharing ideas and asking questions. And giving advice where needed? That is what makes it worth it in the end.
YES, it is your novel, but you are not alone. Others are in the same situation and can guide one to progress and give that last push.
And whom else is going to accept your word jokes?
I must say that little progress has been made. Sadly, mostly due to real life doing its thing. I had a death in the family, and you know how that goes. For other projects I needed to spend time and energy. There is a book club book, two! Keeps you busy. And I got a whole stash of digital classic comics that I was suggested to read.
I also decided to take a month vacation from Fairy Flight. At a point you need a break.
And since National Novel Writing Month, or NaNo is burning down officially I also need to prep to join our own local replacement. In short, busy times. Indeed, a month of writing lays ahead if it is officially NaNo or not.
But I picked up some tools. http://trackbear.app to track the writing. And I redownloaded Obsidian [http://obsidian.md] to help tracking things.
Ah Obsidian is like a local mini wiki. Lacks support for pictures but it weaves a web of connections. And that is good.
Back to the preparations. A good slow month, ha I hope that in the summer I can make real progress in BIG projects.
Bleh, Blurbs. Just how much should you give away and how much should you keep so the people will read your book?
Give away too much information and they will guess it all.
Give away too little though and you are bound to have people walk off.
I wonder how other authors do that. The desire to tell too much is always there, to welcome people into your world. Yet the business side is all about products and trying to get readers.
How do authors survive this alone? But then I am not alone in this battle. It helps to share your troubles with other authors. Shared Experience is pooled.
And the books are not at the point yet that the blurb pages need to be published. So good times.
Oh how far they are? Book One is in second/third stage revisioning. Oh yes revisioning, the bane of all writers. You want to produce something of quality you need to rewrite, revise, deal with grammar and spelling, make sure there are not plot holes and. Ah that is another topic.
Day two of setting up the website, test test. Is it working? Is this thing on?
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