Figure I’ll finish today. It’s going well; I had a great idea when I first woke up this morning about how I could use the very small paranormal element at a critical point in the plot; and the shape of the thing is falling beautifully into place.
Have to keep in mind a couple of things for this. I’m going to be sticking to the 2000 words/day schedule and a five day workweek if I can. With that in mind, I have a 180,000-word novel to revise and a 100,000-word novel to write, and I’d like to take some time in December off.
So I’m looking at September, October, and November, with a little padding on both ends. More specifically, there are 111 business days until the end of the year.
I’ll need 50 working days to write the Untitled Onyx Suspense Book. But I’ll also need X number of days to do a salable proposal, X being a variable we have no way of obtaining, guessing, or scheduling. (Which is why I’m working today.) In this instance, I cannot figure for X until I have accomplished X, which makes all subsequent math more than a little dicey. So for now, these numbers cannot be a real schedule. They can only be an approximation of a schedule designed to reassure me that, yes, I can do the required amount of work in the allotted time.
Theoretically, then, and with all caveats and disclaimers firmly in place, that leaves 61 working days in which to do the Hawkspar rewrite. Rewriting Hawkspar in that length of time would require daily progress to the tune of 2951 words. Say 3000. Doable even if I had to damn near rewrite the thing from scratch — and I won’t. Most of what’s in the first draft is good and will stay.
That’s the best-case scenario, then. Number compression and worst-case scenarios I’ll deal with when and if I have to.
I guess I ought to clarify the whole business with C. Robin likes it quite well as a future submission to Knopf. She doesn’t like it at all as a current submission to Onyx. It’s simply the wrong sort of book, but I knew that as I was writing it. I will definitely keep working on it — for the moment I simply have to set it aside to do a more commercial book.
I’m very, very glad I took the time I did to work on it, though. It was exactly the vacation my mind needed.
As for Hawkspar: It’s next up. I’ve had a decent time now to let it sit and get cold. When I go back in to look at it, I’ll be able to see it more clearly. With some books, I can work hot. This, however, is a vast project, and complex, and it needed the cooling-off time.
Today, though, I’m about a quarter of the way through the actual synopsis of my next Onyx proposal, and I love what I’m getting. Nor do I use the word “love” lightly. There’s a specific chemistry that Claire is looking for. Midnight Rain and Last Girl Dancing both had it in their final versions. But it took a long time and a lot of effort on both my part and Claire’s to get them to that final version. This time I’m hoping to get the chemistry right the first time round. So when I say “love,” I’m referring to feeling that specific chemistry, the same one that eventually existed in my previous two books for Claire.
There’s always the possibility that I’m wrong, of course. But that’s just part of the adventure.
Have done close to 2000 new words today on background plus synopsis. I love this story — Matt and I started kicking around ideas the day before yesterday, yesterday I went out and bought a handful of background books, and this morning things were cooking.
Whether it will go? Well, that we don’t know. But it has a nice mix of heat and suspense, with a smattering of paranormal weirdness. And modern-day pirates.
First, I guess I’ll note that my agent does not love C. She’s read the first 190 pages of it, and notes that it’s “smart — and what I call a confrontational novel. It forces the reader to think.”
This makes it decidedly not commercial, which I pretty much knew while I was working on it.
Second, if I want to present something to Claire (and I do) I have to have it in her hands so that she can approve it by Labor Day. She’ll need about a hundred pages, plus a full outline.
So C goes on the back burner, and Onyx Proposal #11-ish moves center stage.
Still feel like crap … however, I’m going to go sit in Word Wars at FMWriters.com’s chat and run back-to-back tens and post numbers, and hope that will get me through today.
Got some of the proposal done, but nothing on HAWKSPAR. Going to have to go to bed. Either call this one of my last two re-think days, or see if I can get the 3000 words later.
Woke up at 1:45 AM feeling like a cross between the buzzard’s breakfast and a bag of hammered rat turds, but writers on deadline don’t get sick days. Sleep-in-late days, yeah. But you don’t get to go back to bed until the words are done anyway, so the workday is what it is, and looking busy is useless.
Today, I’m starting at 100,110, and will finish at 103,110 or better. at 100,000, I crossed the point where I could look at the little word counter at the bottom of Word and know how far I was. Now I have to click. That’s always a nice milestone.
After those words, finishing the new romantic suspense paranormal proposal for Claire. That’s a whole lot of words — can I just say “proposal”?
TALYN has a cover posted at Amazon. This is the first I’ve seen of it — if I get anything bigger and clearer, I’ll post it on the site.
And my Chinese horoscope for the year?
Rat: 1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996
A busy and varied year, but all turns out well. Initiative is the key to advancement, but don’t fritter away your new-found wealth. You’ll have some family problems but a full social calendar.
Having no old-found wealth, new-found wealth would be a step in the right direction. I’m all in favor. And I’m not buying that bit about the full social calendar at all. I have a date with my keyboard for the rest of the year. Unless that’s what they meant.
Got a lot done, but I’m also done with typing for the day. My left wrist did something funky, and now it hurts. I’m going to go read a bunch of TALYN proofs, and put my feet up, and at some point take a nap.
4603 total words for the day.
It’s going pretty well, but I’m getting a serious case of brain burn. After a couple more ten-minute runs, I’m going to take a break (kind of) and read TALYN proofs for a while. Have already written 4338 words today, and it’s only 11 AM.