I am, for really and for true, driving myself nuts with this book. I was shooting for 30,000 words.
Was sure I would be able to wrap it at 45,000 thousand.
Am now OVER 53,000 words, and while I AM finally way into the last chapter, I’m not yet done with the last chapter.
I want to say I’ll have the writing done this week. Today is Tuesday, that could happen.
When I’m done, I’ll get it to Matt, who’ll be content-editing, but I’m not going to rush him, and I’m not going to make a pain in the ass of myself right around Christmas, either. (I’ll save that for the New Year.)
While he’s editing content, I’ll do the demo videos and the cover art.
Once he’s edited the content and I go back through and make necessary changes, I’ll get the book to my small group of beta-testers (these folks have been on my list since they did copyediting for me on Warpaint, so this is not an open call for beta-testers).
I just want you to know that I’m pushing as hard as I can on finishing this. Today’s word-count stands as proof.
I’m close.
We’ve waited this long, we can wait another week or two or three. Given how my “holidays” are going so far – I have $0.04 in the bank account til child support tomorrow and a (short) payday Friday, plus a close relative spending the night in jail for unrelated but still unhappy reasons… and I’m just not feeling the holidays, so much appreciate something positive on the way soon.
It takes as long as it takes, and as everybody else said, readers are wonderful but family comes first–especially this time of year. In a country where “instant” is everything, it’s nice to have a chance to practice patience. Seriously.
You rule!! Worth the wait.
Worth the wait. It will work out like everybody else said, great. I would much rather wait for quality than a rushed product. Just like whisky. 🙂
Cheers!
MO
Good things take time, so take all the time you need/want.
I worked as a graphic designer for a *^%! group of ad reps for over ten years. They repeatedly submitted their orders late, yet despite their failure to hit their deadlines, they wanted me to stay on deadline for the publications they were selling for. I used to tell them, “You want it really bad, that’s how it’s gonna come out.”
We, your students, are patient. We will wait, unlike some *^$%#! ad reps.
I just want to let you know how much I appreciate everything you have done for me. I have been a huge fan of yours for about 6 years. I have looked forward to your emails about every friday ever since. I finally talked my wife into letting me purchase the HTTS Ultra course and have loved it. I am trying to get my life organized so I can write more every day. Thank you for all your time you put into all of your courses. I am looking forward to the World Clinic. Thank you.
You go girl!
Hey it is the holiday season take your time make it the way you want it all will come out in the end!
Happy holidays!
What the others have said! Not to mention, I have too much going on to dig into it right away anyway! Take your time, don’t stress yourself out over it, and don’t give yourself a headache. I’ll be looking forward to it whenever it’s ready!
Holly, we are anxious to read it but not so anxious that we want you to ruin your holidays. Take your time, we will be happy no matter when it’s done.
You mentioned asking worldbuilding-related questions. I don’t know if you mean it, but what I’m particularly struggling with right now is names. Not just people/character names (though I struggle with those, too), but names for planets, religions, animals, plants, food, minerals, countries, cities, landforms, amusement parks — you name it. No, I want to name it, but it’s a struggle. Are you covering this in your book?
Thanks for all your hard work!
And now the rest of the story of the Worldbuilding Clinic comes out…
‘Cause, see…names, and how to come up with good ones, was one of the most frequent questions I received. And because that’s such an essential part of creating verisimilitude in the world, and because my techniques for doing it were (I thought) simple and straightforward, that’s where I started…back in 2006. How To Create Good Names was supposed to be the first chapter, but it…um…expanded a little, (27,000 words), and came out—in 2006—as the first part of the Worldbuilding Course. Create A Language Clinic: WORLDBUILDING PART I.
So I thought, okay…I’ll just get everything else in the second book. Only, well…I had all these questions about building cultures and religions and philosophies and the second chapter, How To Build Cultures, overran its page budget by about 40,000 words and became ITS own complete book. Also in 2006. Create A Culture Clinic: WORLDBUILDING PART II.
All right, I told myself, so those are done, but NOW I’ll get to How To Build Worlds, which is the part of this I REALLY love…
And it turned out that while I was good at doing it, I discovered that I could not, back then, show how I did it or demonstrate how I used it. Everything was happening in my subconscious mind and on bits of paper that, back then, I couldn’t explain to my editors or my agents. I’d send in my worldbuilding, in which I could see a thousand stories and an entire career, and they would damn near die—and they could not see the stories in any of it.
And I couldn’t even SHOW them the stories in any of it.
It took me dissecting my own brain in public and pulling all my processes for fiction out of it in How To Think Sideways for me to understand what I was going to have to do to show people how to worldbuild in any meaningful way…and it took me getting Minecraft, and intentionally building a new way to worldbuild to watch myself going through the steps my mind uses (slowly and on purpose), before I knew I finally knew both how and why I do the things I do.
Finally…I can show people how to do the world part of this in a way that will give you stories and conflict and characters and allow you to build a world that will feed you stories for the rest of your lives.
I just keep remembering things I cannot stand to leave out. Because they’re cool. And fun. And, now that I’m at the end, deliciously geeky. 😀
Realized if you’re looking for doing names, might be a good idea to add the links:
Language Clinic, WORLDBUILDING I: http://howtothinksideways.com/shop/create-a-language-clinic/
Culture Clinic, WORLDBUILDING II: http://howtothinksideways.com/shop/create-a-culture-clinic-direct/
Holly, this is my long, long over due Thank You for your answer above. I had wondered if the two clinics you listed would be helpful to me, so now I will plan to buy them. Fiction writing is a very small side-hobby for me right now, and I don’t have a lot of time for it. I’m hoping to change that a bit in 2014. Thanks for all you do!
Holly, we know you are trying hard to finish this up but…it’s the holidays and your family deserves you and your time. We can wait a little longer and know we will get a wonderful course like all your others. Enjoy the season and family time, please!
Take your time, Holly. We’ve waited this long a little while longer won’t hurt. And I know it’ll be well worth waiting for.
Thank you so much for all you do to help us achieve our dreams of writing great stories.