Mommy Writes Fantasy: A Writing Blog

Weekly Update & Thoughts 10/20/16

+J.M.J.+

Well, another Thursday, another blog post. I hope it finds you well! I've got some updates and a few reflections on the writing craft to share with you all!

Publishing Update

I've got my designers narrowed down to 6 finalists, who are now working towards perfecting their final product. Once time runs out (at some point today, I think, or maybe tomorrow), I get two weeks to pick my favorite cover. I intend to do some polling among family and friends so they can help me pick the one that makes them want to read it the most. They're starting to look super awesome, and I already have a couple favorites in mind.

Next week will likely start the process of formatting text files. I'll need to sit down at some point and run one final spelling/grammar check down the whole thing and make a list of last-minute quick fixes I'd like to do before I send it off for processing.

All in all, things are coming together for Kingdom, and I couldn't be happier!


NaNoPrep Update

NaNo Prep is going surprisingly well, for all I'm feeling like I can't get a spare moment to scratch my foot. I'm working on compiling a compact outline for my YA fiction novel (tentatively entitled "A Line Through The Sun") from the extended outline I wrote back in February. I've also drafted up some floor plans of important settings, such as the high school my main characters attend, and gathered floor plans and pictures of homes and marked off their rooms/where their furniture goes. I've also drafted a messy map of their hometown and where their neighborhood is in relation to the school/downtown/etc.

I almost feel like I've cheated because this story has been floating around in my head for so long, and I revisited it after a few-years' hiatus earlier this year to re-outline it, so the basic structure was already there. I'm just making it all fit cohesively and trying to strengthen a few things here and there to make it tighter and more powerful. I'm excited to start drafting in November, and I'm pretty sure I'll have time to organize all my Prep work for easy access by November 1. Pretty sure. We all know life happens, so I may end up eating my words.

Oh, and speaking of NaNo Prep, I found this super neat tool yesterday that's free until the end of October. It's called Notebook, and it's a web-app that helps you world-build by asking questions about characters, items, locations, and all that. It even allows you to link between notebook entries for easy referencing like a wiki. It'll store your answers into entries and organize them under tabs. For instance, when you create a new item, it'll ask you questions such as "When was this item created?" "Who made the item?" "Who owns it now?" And if you leave places blank, it'll prompt you with questions in the sidebar to get you thinking more in depth about a character/item/location.

You can visit the website at notebook(dot)ai and sign up for their "Eternal" membership, which allows you to create unlimited universes, characters, items and locations and is free until the end of October with promo code NANOPREP.

You're welcome.


Some Thoughts on Writing Processes

So this week, I've tried something new for a schedule. I work part-time or less from home as a freelance transcriptionist, which sounds like a dream come true. It is, and then it isn't. Haha. While it gives me AWESOME freedom and the ability to introvert my little heart out, I suck at being my own boss. So I decided, since I have the ultimate flexibility in my schedule, I need to try something other than a set amount of dollars per day. It's true, there are hours for me that are off limits simply because my husband and I get up so early each morning. And early mornings are not the best times for finding jobs in a competitive workspace. (Nor are they the best times to expect me to keep up with a rambling speaker and not want to throw the computer out the window.)

Enter my new experiment. My freelancing site puts out a weekly newsletter, and in one of those newsletters I read an interesting statistic, which I have found to be mostly true. There are more jobs available on the workspace on certain days of the week (Tuesdays through Thursdays), and at certain hours of the day (about noon to 6PM). Why not plan my days around that so I'm not sitting here, hitting refresh every ten seconds looking for jobs that aren't going to be there?

On top of that, I am most creative at certain times of the day: about right now, to be exact. From about 9 AM to 1PM, I hit my peak levels of energy and creativity. Why not schedule my writing time during those hours when I know I'll be most amped to write? And why not relegate my freelancing to the days/hours it's most productive and free up a couple days a week to be completely free from its hand-cramping demands?

My weekly quota is about $100. That's pretty low key, especially considering I WAS having to make between $200 to $300 a week. I only freelance during regular business days, Monday through Friday. Tuesdays and Thursdays are more difficult simply because my husband doesn't work his second job, and so I have to set a time limit to my writing in the morning to be sure I have enough time to freelance before dinner, so I can spend the evening with him instead of stuck at my computer.

My goal for this week was to relegate Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings strictly to freelancing and see how much I could get done. Then on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I would set a two-hour time limit to my workday, working between 3 and 5 when my husband gets home and crashes after a long day substitute teaching. That kept my mornings completely free for writing.

Only, Monday and Tuesday didn't fare so well. I made my strict quota on Monday, about $21, but I had hoped to make more. Jobs simply weren't coming in that I was willing to take (the horrid story of my freelancing site's penny-pinching robbery is one for another blog post). Tuesday I only made $12.

I wasn't too far behind, about $7, but Wednesday proved a game-changer. I got the idea that I wanted a day off every week, preferably Fridays, as my husband works his longest day of the week by far that day, leaving me in the house all by myself from about 7AM to 2AM the next morning (give or take the hour or so my husband comes home between jobs, crashes, and eats supper before rushing off again...my poor hubby.).

Don't get me wrong, I long for the day my husband doesn't have to deliver pizzas until 2AM as much as he does. But while it lasts, it creates a huge blank slate of a day, as he has the car all day (leaving me stuck at home) and I have Wi-Fi, coffee, and the whole house to myself. Usually I'll do some things around the house (which I still plan on doing even if the day is "off" from freelancing). But I'd love to just have the whole day, when I stay up a bit later than normal, to WRITE.

To make a long story somewhat shorter, I ended up making about $50 yesterday (and washing ten tons of blankets) and did hardly any writing except a review and a chapter swap with my alpha reader. Today, my goal is to make $18 by grabbing little jobs here and there throughout the day, as tonight we have to head out to Sam's Club when Hubby comes home. If I can get that done, Friday will be all mine for writing, organizing this office, NaNo Prep, and perhaps a couple chores I haven't gotten around to doing this week.

*sighs* I don't know what it is about the prospect of not having to freelance, but it does my heart good. Hence, freelancing most of the day on Wednesday was worth it to me. Good jobs were coming in, I was kept busy, and I didn't feel like it took me 10 YEARS to make a decent amount of money like it normally does. Wednesdays are peak days on my site, so I may continue that trend next week to lighten my load the rest of the week.

I'd love to eventually take Mondays AND Fridays off, perhaps making a quota of $50 on Wednesdays and $25 on Tuesday and Thursday. Can you say 4-day weekend??? Every week!!! How awesome would that be?

There'll be some weeks (week after next being a notable example) where that won't quite work. Sometimes we go out of town for Holy Mass on Holy Days of Obligation, one of which is Tuesday, November 1. Meaning I'll need to take THAT day off instead of Friday. Or work Tuesday's shift of $25 on Monday. Then come back on Wednesday, blast out $50, and make $25 on Thursday. That won't mess things up too badly and I can still take Friday off if I want to.

Oh my gosh. Okay. I've written you guys a novel and I apologize.

Speaking of novels, I'm definitely thinking of posting my NaNo Novel chapters up here. The story will sound familiar--it's based off of my ancient prologue, still in my portfolio: "Lion Heart" . I'm so excited to share it with you guys!

Anyway. Now that I've rambled to you all, I suppose I'll go check and see if there's any freelancing jobs.

How are you guys progressing with NaNoPrepMo? What about your writing in general? I'd love to hear from you in the comments!

AlyCatAuthor