Current thing
Working away on Fenchurch 8, A HILL TO DIE ON, just now.
Got to this weird bit the other day where I reached the 50% mark on my outline and realised it was the midpoint. I hadn’t outlined this according to the Save the Cat template like I normally would, but I seem to have internalised that structure. Very odd.
Finding this one enjoyable, probably as it’s got a bit more suspense than the previous ones, which were heavily on the mystery side. It gets a bit wearying being in one character’s head for 80,000 words, but splitting that, even if it’s just 10%, can help with the fatigue.
Other things
Trying a new model where I write two chapters a day, rather than writing until my brains dribble out of my ears, which was my previous MO. It’s working out about 4,000 words a day, but I think the quality is better. Definitely a law of diminishing returns as I plug away at stuff, which means more pain when I come to edit my work, which is always after I finish. I’m not one of those ‘edit yesterday’s writing’ types.
Means I can focus on the business side of things, which is in desperate need of attention just now. Anyone who thinks self-publishing is a breeze, aye. Good luck with it. Nowadays, you have to pay so much attention to the advertising side of things, eating into your income. And it’s getting harder and harder to be visible.
But onwards! I prefer this way of working to the deadlines and quality gates you get with publishers, at least for now. My last few experiences were mixed, one was delightful, one was awful and one incredibly stressful and which probably contributed to my heart issues.
The other thing it’s letting me do is to work away on developing some ideas. I’ve got one that’s really promising. It scratches an itch for a project I worked on about 10-11 years ago, which I kept returning to (last time was five years ago), but there are a few things that I’ve learnt over that time which make that sort of idea much easier to develop and execute.
Next week
I’ll hopefully, fingers crossed, finish this draft, or at least be a long way towards doing that. It’ll need at least a week’s worth of polishing and tidying, with a fair number of extra words coming, but it’ll be good to get the skeleton done and road tested the outline.
Anyway, that’s me for the week. If you’ve got any questions, fire away. If you don’t like these, let me know.
Cheers,
Ed