Writing Plans

There's always so much to write and so little time. There's also so much to read, after having picked up 14 books at WorldCon and several more since. Currently I'm writing a short story about alien detective Ek-Lo-Don, who first appeared in The Sound of Death at IGMS earlier this year. I have ideas for 5 stories in that series and I'm seriously thinking about a novel too. That may well take over from the novel I started 2 years ago that didn't get very far, which if I continue will become a trilogy. I also have ideas for a novel in the same universe as Gap Years, as well as 3 or 4 in the Galaxy's Game universe. Meanwhile I'm also writing an interactive novel related to Galaxy's Game. I'm enjoying it, but it will be a long-term background project. I have another 2 partly-written short stories, which is unusual for me as I normally write one at a time and finsih them. Both are awaiting further inspiration. Then there are the usual ideas patiently awaiting their turn on the page - at least five definite short stories lurking in the background. That should keep me busy for a while.

Promising Start

Several monts after finishing Gap Years, I've started work on Promised Land, my third novel. I've been working on the synopsis, plot summary and other supporting nformation on and off for several months, but the concept for the story has been developingin my head for so many years I don't remember when it started.

First 1000 words complete, 99,000 to go.

The Spreadsheet of Ideas

Writing and editing Gap Years has kept me busy for ages. I've also recently done some work editing my novelette for the Ancient New anthology, written a flash fiction story and completed work on a collaboration with Ken Schneyer. I'm currently working on a collaboration with several other authors, but at the moment I have nothing to write until I hear back from them.

So, with time available, I sat down to do some writing and shockingly discovered that for the first time in several years I have nothing ready to write at the moment. My great spreadsheet of ideas lists 4 short stories and 2 novels, but even the short stories are not well-enough developed to start writing yet.

So I'm doing some plotting, working on synopses of the novels, biding my time...

Gap Years Edited

Several months after finishing the first draft, the final edit of Gap Years is complete. It's also now 10,000 words shorter.

Conveniently, during a break only pages from the end, I formulated the broad plot for a sequel. Not sure when I'll start work on that...

2011 Writing Review

At the begining of the year, I had several plans for what I was hoping to accomplish in terms of writing this year. We're approaching the finale now, so how have I done?

The main accomplishment has been finishing my second novel Gap Years. After some initial editing it was read by my beta readers, then I kind of ignored it for a while, but now I'm almost done with the final edit. Definitely by the end of December...

I wrote 2 of the short stories that had been waiting for ages, plus another 2 flash fiction stories that I thought up along the way. I wrote my first complete TV screenplay and plenty of suppporting material for a potential TV series. I've also collaborated on a short story with Kenneth Schneyer and recently started on another experimental collaboration with several authors. Details on both of these will be forthcoming.

What shall I do next...

A Whole Lot of Editing to do

In the past couple of weeks I finished the second edit of Gap Years, the first drafts of a new screenplay and a new 4000 word short story and the supporting proposal to go with the screenplay. Now, I’m faced with lots of editing, reviewing and critiquing, both of my own work and of short stories I’m critiquing for others. After a first edit of the screenplay and story they will go off to be critiqued, then come back for further editing. Gap Years is now with a Reader, after which I shall work on The Final Edit.

Somewhere among all this, which will keep me busy for several weeks, a new short story is beginning to take shape and hoping to make it onto paper…

Second Edit Complete

I've finished the second edit of Gap Years, in which various critiquers point out spelling, grammar and other problems. Most of the 9 parts of the novel have been looked at by a selection of different people, and I've taken the comments I thought useful and made changes accordingly.

The next stage is a complete read-through by my First Reader. Okay, technically he's not the first, but he'll be the first to read the complete novel.

First Edit Complete

I've completed my first edit of Gap Years, in which I make sure it's in a fit state to be read by my critiquers. Another milestone reached.

Meanwhile, I've sent each section to be critiqued as I finish with them, and had comments back on over half the novel so far.

Gap Years is Complete

Last night I came to the end of my second novel, Gap Years. It's a wonderful feeling to finally write 'The End' after 96,000 words.

Almost There

Last night I finished the penultimate subsection of Gap Years. Just the finale to go...

2011 Writing Plans

We’re well into the first month of the year – time to start thinking about my plans for the year in terms of writing.

I’ve been saying this for a couple of weeks now, but I’m exceedingly close to completing Gap Years, which should end up around 94,000 words. I’ve written little else since April last year, so I’m looking forward to the relief of finishing the first draft and having time for other things. Editing and re-drafting will keep me busy for a while, but there’s less self-imposed pressure.

I have ideas for 5 short stories, some of which I have been harbouring for years. One is a piece of flash fiction that I’ll probably do first to achieve a swift sense of accomplishment.

I plan to work on a screenplay after that. Following last year’s experiment I have a much better idea of what I’m doing. I have grand plans to develop it in all kinds of directions, but one thing at a time.

I have a 6 page comic script completed, so I need to take a final look at that before sending it off. I also have vague plans for a graphic novelette, but being so new to the form I have no idea if or when I'll develop it.

After that, a new novel, Promised Land, about a lost colony ship. This is another idea that has been shaping up for years. I’m in no great hurry to start it yet. I want to work on the smaller projects first.

One Section to Go

I finished Part 8 of Gap Years last night, at 89,000 words. Just Part 9 to write - the concluding section, estimated at 4000 words.

It's so close...

End of Part 7

I've finished Part 7 of Gap Years, at 77,500 words. I'm only a couple of thousand words short of Roadmaker, and with parts 8 & 9 to write I still have 18,000 words to go.

Should be finished by the end of January.

Two Thirds

Gap Years passed 60,000 words this week, that's 2/3 of the way there. The writing is going fast and smooth at the moment. I'm not entirely sure I'll finish by the end of the year now though; January 19th is looking like the finish date. Can't squeeze any more writing time out of the day without foregoing sleep.

Novel Writing Regime

I’ve finished part 4 of Gap Years and almost reached 50,000 words. I’ve settled into the routine that I developed towards the end of writing Roadmaker. Both novels are divided into parts averaging 10,000 words, divided into subsections of varying lengths. I save each part as a separate file. I try to write each subsection in one sitting so that I start each writing session on a new scene. I wrote without looking back. Only if I’m in mid-section I read the last couple of paragraphs to remind myself where I was.

At the end of section 2 I went back to edit section 1. This is a fairly light edit consisting of:

• Spelling and grammar corrections
• Changing, adding or deleting the odd word or sentence
• Checking for inconsistencies
• Adding ideas that have developed later but need to be introduced earlier

The advantage of this is that I’m reading stuff I wrote two or three months earlier, giving me a fresh perspective.

When I have a clean draft I send it off to my writing group for critiquing. I read the critiques as I receive them, to get an overall feel for the problems that are most commonly pointed out. When I have them all I sit down and go though them one at a time, making corrections and amendments to the manuscript.

I like to do this one section at a time so that any major flaws are picked up early and I can avoid them going forward. This critiqued version is then left until I finish the novel.

After each part is written, checked, critiqued and amended I then go back to the beginning for the third and final edit, by which time there is hopefully not too much to change. I found last time that the main thing I picked up on the final edit was the unnecessary words or sentences that could be deleted to tighten up the text.

I’ve read about several authors’ methods of drafting their novels, but this seems to work for me.

Writing Schedule

I'm just about keeping up with my schedule to complete the first draft of Gap Years by the end of the year. This means that several short stories and various other projects will have to wait their turn. I've already worked out that I have enough writing to keep me busy for the whole of next year at least. After that maybe I can start on my new novel Promised Land that has been a vague outline for years.

Novella to Novel

Last night I completed part 3 of Gap Years and in so doing passed the mythical 40,000 word marker. Gap Years is now officially a novel. Projected final wordcount is 90,000 words. Still aiming to finish by the end of the year.

One Quarter

A few more thousand words on Gap Years over the past couple of days. I've now passed 25,000 words - one quarter of the projected total for the book.

Novellette to Novella

After another lengthy gap, I returned to my novel Gap Years over the past week and made some good progress. I completed part 2 (of 9 parts), graduated from novellete to novella status and passed the 20,000 word marker.

I'm hoping to keep up the momentum.

A Year of Writing

The biggest milestone in my writing this year – in fact the biggest of my writing carrer so far – was the completion of my first novel Roadmaker. I wrote ‘The End’ in March, then after much editing and revising sent it to its first agent in September. After that I started work on my second novel Gap Years and I’m over 10,000 words in so far.

The next biggest project has been Quivira, the story I’m writing in collaboration with Jonathan C Gillespie. It’s just about novella length and almost finished.

Aside from that I’ve written one flash fiction story, two microfiction stories for Twitter and my first three comic scripts. That’s a lot less wordage than usual on shorts, but it’s more than compensated for by the novel-length work.

I still have 5 short story ideas awaiting , so one of them will be starting off once Quivira is wrapped up. Plenty more to do next year then.