Digital Delta: Charting a course through the changing world of publishing.
My Writing
Articles and essays about my writing.
Writing on Glass
May 14th
No, it’s not walking on broken glass. Nor typing on broken glass, although I wouldn’t count that possibility out entirely if my three year old has anything to say about it!
I’m writing this post on an iPad, using the virtual keyboard. No external keyboard, not bluetooth. Thus, writing on glass.
I was always a little iffy about the idea of writing on a virtual keyboard. I type pretty rapidly. On a good hour, I’m putting out fifteen hundred words. Losing writing speed in any serious way would be bad for me. But I had two experiences which made me want to give it a try.
First, I bought a laptop with one of those chicklet type keyboards about a year and a half ago. I’d typed on regular key type keyboards my entire life, you understand, starting with a manual typewriter over thirty years ago. It was a big adjustment. But I very quickly got my writing speed back up to full speed.
The second was talking to a college professor I know about tech. He commented that the new thing on campus was students using an iPad. Not alongside a laptop or desktop, but often instead of another computer. Simply typing out papers and assignments on the glass screen and turning them in.
OK. In my experience, college students are something of a litmus paper (perhaps canary in a coal mine is a better metaphor) for where tech is going. If the college students have moved to typing on glass keyboards, then not only can it be done, it’s likely things are moving in that direction for everyone. On the theory that this might be an upcoming vital life skill, I decided to give it a try.
A week in, and I’m basically up to full speed typing. There is no appreciable loss of speed. Oh, my fingers still stumble on the keys sometimes. But they always did that anyway. I’m back to touch typing, watching the screen more than my keys and fingers. Getting better as I go.
Remarkable.
I’m not sure I’d have thought that was possible. But here I am. And it’s VERY freeing. With Storyist, I have a decent option for typing that I can export to my laptop. Daedalus Touch is a good program as well, but without support for RTF export there’s no way to retain formatting. Storyist retains bolds, italics, and other bits. I’ll be watching both as I go forward, as well as keeping eyes on the upcoming Scrivener for iPad.
So I can take this little pound and a half device with me anywhere, type away on it anywhere for eight or more hours, and upload it to my laptop via Dropbox when I hit an Internet connection. I’ve got a 3G iPad, but don’t have the service turned on right now. So far, I’m really liking it.
What have your experiences been with writing on tablets? Ever tried it? Thought about trying it? I’d love to hear your opinions on tablets for writing in general, and “writing on glass” in particular. I look forward to seeing what other folks are doing with these devices!
1/4 ROW80 Check In
Jan 4th
And check in number one.
A Round of Words in 80 days has twice weekly check ins, where everyone posts what they’ve done in the few days since the last check in. I’m thinking I need a new blog for this stuff, and might go grab one so it’s not mixing up my regular blog. We’ll see.
To date for this year?
1/1 1243 words and WIP converted over to Scrivener.
1/2 (official start of the ROW80 round) 1074 words.
1/3 No new words.
1/4 2068 words. Plus a MAJOR renovation to the blog that I’m quite happy with.
So far, I’m actually sitting ahead of goal a little bit, which is a minor miracle seeing as how I’m still at the in-laws, still in Boston, and still taking the kids out for excursions to places like the Boston Museum of Science (that was today – awesome traveling exhibit on Pompeii). Also still sick, and the bug has me tired out and is trying to move into my lungs, but I’m battling it best I can. The continuing saga of one Ryan Blackwell are proceeding apace, and the words are flowing well.
Going to bed now. Stuck it out long enough to get the words in and get the blog post up, but I’m tired!
New year, new look, new name, new focus!
Jan 4th
A new year, and time for a change.
I’ve updated the blog. New look – a crisp, clean website which should load a little faster and look a little more professional. I have to admit, I liked the old stonework art I used to have. It’s art I made, back when I was doing game art, so it had a little personal appeal. But I have to admit the clean white looks sharp.
When I founded this blog back in Autumn 2010, I wasn’t really sure what I was doing with myself. I knew that publishing was changing. I knew I loved writing, and that the way the writing profession seemed to be shifting had a lot of appeal. I’ve run a few businesses, and enjoy the work. Authors as entrepreneurs? Sign me up!
I’ve ended up doing quite a lot more than that now, though. Yes, I’ve been writing, and yes, I’ve been publishing that work. But to date, I’ve earned more income from formatting work for other writers, and done more work advising others on how best to go about doing things in this new world. I’ve listened to some of the best in the business, and I’ve participated in, even run, some intensive studies of the changing publishing marketplace.
In the process, I’ve created a blog which is fairly scattered. And as a very bright person pointed out to me earlier today, that’s not really the best way to go about things. So this is a moment of refocus. The old blog name was centered around me, my learning, my SF and fantasy writing: “Swords and Starflight: Exploring the worlds of writing and publishing”.
The new blog name is “Digital Delta: Charting a course through the changing world of publishing.”
Appropriate, because that’s what I’ll be writing about here. Yes, I’ll talk some about my own writing still. But the majority of what I put up here will be detailed information and analysis about the publishing industry as it exists today, and as it is likely to exist in the near future.
Because we’ve seen enormous change over the last two years, monumental change just over the last twelve months. But I think we’re still at the tip of the iceberg, and there’s much more to come. We’re still collectively working to find ways of coping with just these first steps of the digital publishing revolution, but the deeper changes won’t happen for a while yet. I predict that the next three years are going to be a rollercoaster of events as retailers, publishers, agents, writers, and everyone else involved in the industry work overtime to keep up.
Change can be scary. Folks, change can also be a lot of fun. Change can mean endings, but change can also mean new beginnings, new opportunities.
Let’s find them together.
And Day One of 2012.
Jan 1st
Completed 1243 words of new fiction today. Also pulled all the files over from Ashes Ascendant into Scrivener, so I can finish the project there. Since I already had a bunch of the novel done, I had a lot of copy/paste and outline setup to accomplish, but I think it was worth it. Already feeling pretty good about using the software – I’ve used straight LibreOffice for writing for some time now, but picked up a Scrivener license now that the Windows version has been released (and hey, I had a half off coupon from completing NaNoWriMo, so why not?).
I’ve gone through and entered chapters for each chapter, and broken those chapters into scenes, so I have a rough outline of every scene. Then I pasted in the scenes from the LibreOffice document. Took a couple hours of work, interspersed with watching TV with relatives, so I wasn’t working at peak performance. Not a huge time sink, and it’s nice to have the outline sitting there on screen so I know what’s coming next. Still a few holes to fill in, but the book is proceeding apace.
Most important, I think – I started off the year right. It was a busy day, with a birthday party, my wife and I sick and two of the kids just recovering from being sick yesterday (thankfully, seems to be a quick but nasty fever/congestion bug). All sorts of excuses to miss a day. But I had an urge to kick things off properly regardless, so I made sure to make time to do so. ;)
I won’t report on this sort of progress daily. I don’t want to bore you all! But as a ‘getting launched right’ post, I thought it was worth telling you about.
Hope your New Year’s Day went well, too!
2012 Writing Goals
Jan 1st
I don’t really feel like running out new predictions right now. Maybe tomorrow.
Instead, I thought I’d take a look at 2011, and then ahead at 2012, and set some goals.
Dean’s written some amazing articles on goal setting. He’s done similar articles before, but these just rock. Excellent reading, and very timely – hey, we’re all looking ahead at the new year, right? Check them out:
http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=6062
http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=6111
http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=6140
2011 was a good year. I published three short stories and a novel. I met a ton of really amazing people, and learned a great deal. But it’s time to push things to the next level. Now, I’ve got a lot of changes coming down the pipe. This is going to be a huge year, with a lot going on. So goals – real, achievable ones – are going to be critical.
1. Write more.
I have a brand new book; a little moleskin pocket sized planner. Aside from tracking dates and schedules in it (the obvious), it’s going to be used to track my writing. When I write, how much I produce, what frame of mind I was in. I’m going to use that to figure out when and where my best times for writing are, and build a better schedule for getting more done. I’m going to track every new word of salable fiction and nonfiction, and I’m going to make sure there are a lot of them.
How many? I’m going to shoot for 366,000 words. (It’s a leap year, 1000 per day.)
I’ve never even come close to that before. It’ll be a huge challenge, from the perspective of history. But then again – since I write about 600-800 words in a 25 minute sprint, it’s not really that much per day. In the back of my mind, of course, is the idea I might be able to exceed that, but life has a funny way of breaking in, so let’s just keep it there for now.
Specifically, on the writing front, I plan to publish Ashes Ascendant, finish Dead In Winter, and publish that. Those will finish off the first three Blackwell Magic books. I also still plan to produce the serial fiction work. I got a great start on that in November, but need to re-examine how I can approach the genre. It was my first try, and there were a lot of flaws (primarily, because I wrote a novel instead of a serial!). I will also finish the rewrite of Accord of Honor – which my wife assures me needs a new title, so it might get one. 
Science fiction in the not so distant future, this is a “lost book” of mine, or almost was anyway. The file was lost in a hard drive crash, but I had a paper copy, so I’ve been retyping it into the computer, rewriting as I went. The resulting story is not the same as the first one was – there are big chunks simply scrapped and rewritten – but it’s much improved from the first attempt to tell the tale, and I’m very pleased with how it’s coming.
I’ve also had a lot of requests for basically a “step by step guide” to the mechanical parts of self publishing. Where to upload. How, exactly, to convert. How to do a basic POD book. All the basics, all in one book. I know there’s a few out there, but when I queried one LinkedIn group in a half joking post, I had a bunch of replies back saying yes, please do! So the outline is done on said book, and I’ll be cranking it out this year.
2. Follow Heinlein’s Rules.
A while back, Dean wrote a blog post where he mentioned the book those rules came from. It’s a great little volume, “Of Worlds Beyond: the science of science fiction writing”. I got a copy of the original 1947 edition for Christmas this year. It felt vaguely like getting a copy of the Gutenberg Bible. ;) I mean, this is THE BOOK. The source of the rules which spawned the careers of so many writers. And I was holding an original edition in my hands. How cool is that? I may love ebooks, but hey, some print books have value as a symbol beyond the actual words contained within the spine.
For those who don’t recall, Heinlein’s Rules are simple:
Heinlein’s Rules for Writing
- You must write.
- You must finish what you write.
- You must refrain from rewriting, except to editorial order.
- You must put the work on the market.
- You must keep the work on the market until it is sold.
In this new age of publishing, those rules are still valid. Only the market has changed. The rules themselves are still as simple – and simply powerful – as ever. So I intend to follow those rules. I will write. I will finish each piece. I will rewrite based on editorial suggestion. I will get that work up for sale as soon as is possible, and keep it there so that it sells.
3. Business building.
I’ve begun formatting and editing for other writers. Doing ebook and print book formatting, and copy editing manuscripts. So far, I’ve had a bunch of really happy people, and I plan to continue working in this venue into the new year. I watch all the time as writers are caught by this or that questionable – even scammy – operation that sucks them for every cent it can. I feel firmly that hiring folks for basic one-time fees is the best way to go, and I put my money where my mouth is. I’m making those services available to writers at fees that are reasonable – complete with a free set of revisions, and phone-walkthrough assistance in the upload process if necessary. I’m enjoying the work, it’s extra income I can certainly use, and it’s helping writers become successful publishing their work. I don’t intend to set a goal for how many of these I will do, but I will continue to make the services available so I can help writers achieve their own goals.
There’s a lot to do. It’s going to be an amazing year, in so many ways, for so many people! I look forward to the challenges ahead, and the work ahead, and the new experiences and things to learn. 2011 was remarkable.
2012 stands ready to be incredible!
And done. NaNoWriMo Novel competed with time to spare!
Nov 30th
Well, that was certainly interesting. I did 44,000 words in three days, 24,000 words on the last day.
And I’m done.
I had a little time to spare – about a half hour. Thanks, everyone who stopped by and said hello. Thanks for the retweets, the Facebook comments, and especially for the comments here. All the encouragement was welcome, and I’m enormously grateful!!
I’m doing an excellent job with the output. I was churning about 2k words per hour today. And while not all of it is perfect prose, it feels pretty good. Now, of course, the challenge is the same as every year: maintain. Continue working, now that NaNoWriMo is over.
NaNo gives us all an excuse to write. A chance to do something different once a year. But if you want to BE a writer, then that’s not enough. It shouldn’t be enough – should feel like it’s not enough, somewhere in your gut.
One hour a day for me is at least five hundred thousand words a year. How could I possibly agree to settle for anything less than that, and still feel like I’m taking writing seriously? Easier said than done. But honestly, if one is serious about something, is an hour a day too much to ask?
New year challenges and goals forthcoming later in December. It’s going to be a fun, fun year. =)
For now, though, this challenge is won!
EDIT PS: I’ll put up another article, either tomorrow or the next day, talking a little more about process, method, anything I think might be useful to someone else from the experience. But for now, fingers need a break! Brain too… =)
The Final Push: NaNoWriMo 2011
Nov 30th
Can’t waste too many words here – sorry – not much time, and much to do!
I have about seven hours left. I have about 12,000 words left to write. I’m producing almost 2000 words an hour though, fingers flying, words spilling onto the page.
The challenge started with three days and almost 44,000 words to write. Today has been insane, but it’s almost over. I am SO taking a day off tomorrow.
Thanks, any of you who’ve been sticking with me through this. I’ll report back at about midnight with the final tally.
NaNoWriMo Wrap Up for 11/29/11
Nov 30th
So I’m at 25.456 words right now. That’s only 24,544 words remaining.
The good news is, I made about 13,000 words today. And I’ve got a great outline for the next 12,000 or so words, which means they will flow *really* fast. I’m finding that if I have a paragraph blurb for each scene, I’m closing on 2000 words an hour.
Tomorrow is going to be the real test. That’s at least twelve or so hours of typing left to go. And to maintain that speed, I’ll have to take periodic breaks. Spend a half hour at some point writing the rest of the rough outline. And playing with the kids often enough that they don’t sneak up behind me and strangle me with my headphone cables.
Off to bed now. Early rise, and back to work. At this point, I have less than 24 hours remaining to finish NaNoWriMo.
Anyone started a betting pool yet?
First Update
Nov 28th
Got a late start. I’m at 9669 words right now, which is about 3900 words better than I was going into today. Only 40,331 words left to go, and 56 hours left to do it in.
I made 907 words in my last 25 minute sprint, which is one of my best times yet. Getting ready to do another!
NaNoWriMo 2011: or “Oops, I did it again.”
Nov 26th
Every doggone year, I want to do NaNoWriMo right. I want to get out there, and write not just 1600 words a day – but more than that!
And every doggone year, it seems like things just explode around me every November. Instead of getting more work done, I get less. Instead of having more wordcount accomplished by the end of the month, I find myself wondering if I can actually finish NaNo at all.
In 2009, I had to write 20,000 words in the last day, in order to finish the book in time.
In 2010, I wrote just over 25,000 words on November 30th, in order to finish By Darkness Revealed. Yes, that was a NaNoWriMo novel. Yes, the second half of the book really was written that fast. No, that was not a very fun day. Although it was exciting. And I noticed that the writing from that day was overall more crisp, more clear, and LESS in need of editing that the first half. Go figure.
So this year I’m sitting at something like 6000 words done on the 26th. I have work tonight, and work tomorrow night. If I’m lucky, I might be able to pull out a couple thousand words before Monday. Which leaves me three days.
About 72 hours.
To write maybe 42,000 words.
I’m off from work all three days.
Yes, I’m going to do this.
And as penance for being a dummy AGAIN this year, I’m going to let you all watch.
I’m going to update this blog at least daily, at least briefly, with little bits about how I’m doing. I’m also going to tweet progress on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. So you can root for me – or mock me, if you prefer – on Twitter if you want to follow my feed there.
Forty two thousand words.
Three days.
Signing off for work now. I’ll see you on Monday. ;)
