Normally I write somewhere between 250-300 words a day and move on to other projects. For this NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), I'm committing to write 500 words a day, a real stretch for me (so far, doing great!). Participating in NaNo is how my rough drafts have begun for my previous books, so I'm eager to jump in, even though I'm going right ahead with plans to publish Standing Stones before my birthday on December 6.
Already my ROW80 Goals for Round 4 have started to drift, but for the coming week, writing is the top priority:
WRITING. Write 3,500 words this week (500 words a day x 7 days) for Rivers of Stone (ROS) draft. Attend local meet-up for NaNoWriMo right here in Spokane. Research x 2 articles for ROS. Blog 4x on travel blog re Egypt and 3x on writing blog re Nano. I'm wondering if short daily updates on NaNo on the writing blog are too much. Complete the final edits for Standing Stones (that's 4 chapters a day or 28 chapters by the end of this week). Haven't begun to input any pages for Reaching.
COMMUNITY. Participate in ROW80 with twice weekly updates and reading 2-3 others each day. Continue active participation in Book Review Depot, GoodReads, Facebook, and Twitter.
CRAFT. Read Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones daily. Read 2 writing craft magazines.
MARKETING. Follow suggestions from DuoLit's Weekend Marketing Makeover and Eric Michael's Pimp My Kindle Book. Write reviews for each and report on my own marketing progress. What am I learning and what I am doing.
PERSONAL. Cherish each day with family and friends. Quilt. Exercise 3 times this week. Work on Egypt for November 18. Catch up on filing and revise timeline for public relations for WSQ this week.
A question for writers/editors who might stop by. A colleague has released a Kindle e-book. The preview reveals many, many grammatical errors and a few missing transitions. Do I simply lurk and say nothing? Do I jump in with a private note? Perhaps the wrong version was uploaded? What is a writing buddy supposed to do?
About covers. Earlier in the week, I posted a possible cover for Standing Stones. The result (illuminating for me) was that readers thought the cover was a little bland. I did review the top historical fiction covers on Amazon and fell in love with Edward Ruthurfurd's nostalgic covers, BUT he is an established name. So, as a novice, I need to 'grab the attention' of readers, and I'm not sure how to go about this.
Here are two potential covers for Mothers Don't Die, definitely not historical fiction, but still slated for release in 2014.Which do you like and maybe why?
For those of you who've accepted the NaNoWriMo challenge, how are you doing?
For ROW80 folks, may the week go well.
I like the second cover better, but I'm not really thrilled about either. Neither tells me much about the book, other than that blood is involved. :)
ReplyDeleteI would send the colleague a note with a couple of examples of errors you noticed that appeared to have been missed in editing, just friendly by the way. If he or she wants to know more, they will contact you. If their egos are too fragile to fix the mistakes, they won't, and you will know how to proceed in future. :)
Thanks, Ruth. I took your advice and sent the note. Still working on covers. I read somewhere that since a newbie author has no name or reputation, the image needs to 'shock' the reader into paying attention. Not sure about that. But you're right about the image. If there's not much blood in the story, the cover shouldn't be dripping no matter how shocking.
ReplyDeleteOf the two, I like the mystery of the second, but it still needs a little more wow factor. I am one of those creative types who knows what I like and don't, but no clue how to fix it. Wish I could help more. Wishing you all the best as a NaNo rebel. I get so frustrated with myself that I can do 2K a day roughly in November, but no other time of year. I hope to kick that habit in December and 2014.
ReplyDelete