So just a quick note this week on how things are going. Not much else was going on this week, so it's a boring post. Sorry.
Broken Halo's out to alpha readers, who I hope will enjoy it. My writing time is currently being divided between the first draft of Eagle and the next draft of Glasswitch. Eagle is going rather well at the moment; we're about thirty six thousand words into the story, which by my estimate says we're at the one-third point. At the rate I am writing, I should be finished with the first draft in about four more weeks--again, if nothing horribly unexpected happens. Glasswitch is going rather well too--the edits I'm coming up with are definitely going to improve the story, and the pace is about what I'd hoped for. It's a smaller novel, so I'm hoping to finish this draft by the beginning of February, and then move on to the second draft of Social Contract. After Eagle, I'll do a first draft of Airships over London, the next book in the Kingsley series.
That's the schedule for the beginning of 2014! It should be interesting to see if I can keep this pace up. Missing quite a bit of sleep, but that should just improve my writing, right? At least, that's what the sleep-deprivation-hallucinations tell me. They wouldn't lie, would they?
In any case, we are on track to do quite a bit this year, and I would say that we are off to a good start. hope everyone is doing all right out there, and I'll see you around.
Monday, January 21, 2013
Monday, January 14, 2013
On Wiz War
So I'm branching out into board game reviews now. Because I am just that nerdy.
My brother-in-law recieved this game as a Christmas gift, and was kind enough to let us all play it during our vacation this year. I'd first heard of Wiz War on Penny Arcade, which has this running series called Shut Up and Sit Down as part of their maniacal, gaming culture empire. The review on that site made the game sound incredibly fun, but rather complicated to learn.
What I found was...yeah, that was pretty much right.
Wiz War has a steep learning curve. Like, running into a solid wall steep. We spent the first session with our noses in the instruction book half the time, and even during subsequent sessions we would pause and try to figure out if someone could do what they had just tried to do for a good few minutes.
At the same time, once we got into the game, it was incredibly fun. The basic mechanic of lining up combos during your turn was a lot of fun to play with. Watching a move that you had spent a bit of time planning out was a beautiful thing--there is nothing more satisfying than punching an enemy with your fire cloak, throwing up a wall of fire between you and your victim, and running away while laughing hysterically. Wiz War really helps you pull off those one-upping moments that makes good board games fun--once you figure out what you are doing, of course.
I guess I should tell you what the basic point of the game was. In Wiz War, two to four mages are competing against each other to score victory points. In the basic game, two points can give you overall victory. You get those points either by stealing one of the two treasure chests from an opposing wizard's section of the board, or by killing an enemy wizard. To aid you in your quest for blood and plunder, you can have a hand of up to seven items or spells, each of which will have a variety of effects for you to turn to your advantage. These things can also be sacrificed to give you more actions during your turn, to fuel better spells over several turns, or clear the way for more spells that are hopefully better than the ones you have.
The game was rather well balanced, with no particular spell or item giving a wizard a You Win button. I'll admit I was rather focused on combat during the game, but every game we played tended to be won by people that snuck around behind everyone else's backs to steal the treasures, though I wonder if that trend would continue if we had upped the number of victory points you needed to win. Either way, it was a really fun game that allowed you to be devious, pull off cunning traps and strategies, and enjoy yourself. All in all, a pretty good time.
So there's my two cents on everything. Hope all is going well for everyone, and I'll see you around!
My brother-in-law recieved this game as a Christmas gift, and was kind enough to let us all play it during our vacation this year. I'd first heard of Wiz War on Penny Arcade, which has this running series called Shut Up and Sit Down as part of their maniacal, gaming culture empire. The review on that site made the game sound incredibly fun, but rather complicated to learn.
What I found was...yeah, that was pretty much right.
Wiz War has a steep learning curve. Like, running into a solid wall steep. We spent the first session with our noses in the instruction book half the time, and even during subsequent sessions we would pause and try to figure out if someone could do what they had just tried to do for a good few minutes.
At the same time, once we got into the game, it was incredibly fun. The basic mechanic of lining up combos during your turn was a lot of fun to play with. Watching a move that you had spent a bit of time planning out was a beautiful thing--there is nothing more satisfying than punching an enemy with your fire cloak, throwing up a wall of fire between you and your victim, and running away while laughing hysterically. Wiz War really helps you pull off those one-upping moments that makes good board games fun--once you figure out what you are doing, of course.
I guess I should tell you what the basic point of the game was. In Wiz War, two to four mages are competing against each other to score victory points. In the basic game, two points can give you overall victory. You get those points either by stealing one of the two treasure chests from an opposing wizard's section of the board, or by killing an enemy wizard. To aid you in your quest for blood and plunder, you can have a hand of up to seven items or spells, each of which will have a variety of effects for you to turn to your advantage. These things can also be sacrificed to give you more actions during your turn, to fuel better spells over several turns, or clear the way for more spells that are hopefully better than the ones you have.
The game was rather well balanced, with no particular spell or item giving a wizard a You Win button. I'll admit I was rather focused on combat during the game, but every game we played tended to be won by people that snuck around behind everyone else's backs to steal the treasures, though I wonder if that trend would continue if we had upped the number of victory points you needed to win. Either way, it was a really fun game that allowed you to be devious, pull off cunning traps and strategies, and enjoy yourself. All in all, a pretty good time.
So there's my two cents on everything. Hope all is going well for everyone, and I'll see you around!
Monday, January 7, 2013
On A Year of Publishing
So as of this month, I've been an independent author for over a year. Since December 2012, I've published five books, written a few others, and have some working their way through the revisions process for this year. I'd say that is a pretty good accomplishment for a year's worth of experience.
Unfortunately, it looks like my beginner's luck has come to an end. Wolfhound was an incredible success, but it looks like I am going to have to work through some hard times before I can replicate it again. To be honest, it is a little relieving to come to that conclusion. I've always been better at working hard and building up slow rather than depending on the occasional brilliantly lucky shot. If 2013 I grind through a lot of work again with far less reward, than so be it.
So, onto the lessons I've learned as an independent author for the year 2012. Based on my wealth of experience and wisdom, of course. Heh heh.
First of all, I've learned to not sweat reviews so much. There is nothing so exciting as getting a good review; similarly, there is nothing so frustrating and maddening as getting a poor review. It's twice as hard if the poor review critiques something you feel was misunderstood, something outside the initial purpose of the book, or just mean-spirited. Initially, I tried to manage those ups and downs as they came, and made a promise to myself that I would personally respond to every review, no matter the rating. The best decision I made was to stop doing that. The reviews gave me such a rollercoaster of happiness and outright rage that it became hard to actually focus on writing. I would worry about what to say to this comment or how to respond to that critique until I was tied up in knots and couldn't continue with my current project. Of course, that resulted in a bunch of crap I had to wade through just to get to producing something again, and generally wasn't worth the effort I stuck into it. I think it's telling that the moment I stopped responding and focused on writing instead, I managed to write a full novel in about nine weeks. So, first lesson learned: when a bad review comes in, don't sweat it and go write something.
Second, I've learned what should be realtistic for me in terms of setting goals and publication deadlines. When I went into 2013, I set the goal to have one book out every three months. It sounded like an achievable goal, and it was something I put a lot of pressure on myself to do. Unfortunately, I had failed to plan for the unexpected. Those unanticipated factors (moving a thousand miles with two weeks notice, changing jobs and work schedules, my sister's wedding, ecetera, ecetera...) added up to delays I couldn't have possibly expected, but I still put loads of stress and anxiety over those deadlines in spite of it. On top of that, I'd locked myself into those deadlines by publishing them in my books. While I think publishing the fact that the books were coming was a good idea, I don't think that trying to set them in stone was a bright move on my part. Life has a way of throwing the unexpected at you, and if a major publishing house can't manage to dodge delays or disasters, I shouldn't try to hold myself to an impossible standard until I have more experience in the field. So for now, rather than month or even season specific deadlines, I think I'm going to stick to announcing which year I expect the book to be out, at the very least until the book comes back from the copy editor. Otherwise, I'm just setting myself up for stress-related breakdowns and failure--and I have no doubt that life has enough of those planned for me without my own decisions adding to the mix.
Third, sequels are really, really different from first books. That may seem a little like common-sense, but I can't stress enough how different it is to work on the second book compared to the first. The challenges are different from what you expect out of a first book. You have to worry about character consistency, development on a much larger scale, all while trying to preserve what made the first book work. The worldbuilding has to go much deeper, while remaining consistent with the first book, and that occasionally presents an obstacle all on its own if you played a little free and loose with things before. All in all, it's felt a little like I've been learning to write an entirely different kind of book, and to be honest, I'm still trying to work out the best way of doing it. Hopefully I'll get better at that formula as time goes on.
Fourth, keep your business finances separate from your personal finances. Ugly, terrible, nasty things will happen to you otherwise. Sandra Tayler gave that advice at the LDS Storymaker's conference this past year, and certain events have proven it very wise counsel. Without going into the unpleasant details, just trust me on this one. It will save you a load of grief and pain later on.
Fifth, and final, I think I have refined my ability to revise. Going into this, I had thought that my revision techniques had already gotten as good as they were going to get, but I was wrong. I've managed to identify a bit better what steps I need to go through to end up with a good story, and I am looking forward to employing them in the new year.
So there you have it, my incredibly deep and probably boring post on lessons learned in 2013. The next year looks like it may be a hard one, but I am looking forward to it. Every challenge brings an opportunity to grow, and as difficult as the past year might have been, I think I have a lot more to learn. At the very least, the journey should be interesting. I hope everyone is having a good start to their new year, and I'll see you around.
Unfortunately, it looks like my beginner's luck has come to an end. Wolfhound was an incredible success, but it looks like I am going to have to work through some hard times before I can replicate it again. To be honest, it is a little relieving to come to that conclusion. I've always been better at working hard and building up slow rather than depending on the occasional brilliantly lucky shot. If 2013 I grind through a lot of work again with far less reward, than so be it.
So, onto the lessons I've learned as an independent author for the year 2012. Based on my wealth of experience and wisdom, of course. Heh heh.
First of all, I've learned to not sweat reviews so much. There is nothing so exciting as getting a good review; similarly, there is nothing so frustrating and maddening as getting a poor review. It's twice as hard if the poor review critiques something you feel was misunderstood, something outside the initial purpose of the book, or just mean-spirited. Initially, I tried to manage those ups and downs as they came, and made a promise to myself that I would personally respond to every review, no matter the rating. The best decision I made was to stop doing that. The reviews gave me such a rollercoaster of happiness and outright rage that it became hard to actually focus on writing. I would worry about what to say to this comment or how to respond to that critique until I was tied up in knots and couldn't continue with my current project. Of course, that resulted in a bunch of crap I had to wade through just to get to producing something again, and generally wasn't worth the effort I stuck into it. I think it's telling that the moment I stopped responding and focused on writing instead, I managed to write a full novel in about nine weeks. So, first lesson learned: when a bad review comes in, don't sweat it and go write something.
Second, I've learned what should be realtistic for me in terms of setting goals and publication deadlines. When I went into 2013, I set the goal to have one book out every three months. It sounded like an achievable goal, and it was something I put a lot of pressure on myself to do. Unfortunately, I had failed to plan for the unexpected. Those unanticipated factors (moving a thousand miles with two weeks notice, changing jobs and work schedules, my sister's wedding, ecetera, ecetera...) added up to delays I couldn't have possibly expected, but I still put loads of stress and anxiety over those deadlines in spite of it. On top of that, I'd locked myself into those deadlines by publishing them in my books. While I think publishing the fact that the books were coming was a good idea, I don't think that trying to set them in stone was a bright move on my part. Life has a way of throwing the unexpected at you, and if a major publishing house can't manage to dodge delays or disasters, I shouldn't try to hold myself to an impossible standard until I have more experience in the field. So for now, rather than month or even season specific deadlines, I think I'm going to stick to announcing which year I expect the book to be out, at the very least until the book comes back from the copy editor. Otherwise, I'm just setting myself up for stress-related breakdowns and failure--and I have no doubt that life has enough of those planned for me without my own decisions adding to the mix.
Third, sequels are really, really different from first books. That may seem a little like common-sense, but I can't stress enough how different it is to work on the second book compared to the first. The challenges are different from what you expect out of a first book. You have to worry about character consistency, development on a much larger scale, all while trying to preserve what made the first book work. The worldbuilding has to go much deeper, while remaining consistent with the first book, and that occasionally presents an obstacle all on its own if you played a little free and loose with things before. All in all, it's felt a little like I've been learning to write an entirely different kind of book, and to be honest, I'm still trying to work out the best way of doing it. Hopefully I'll get better at that formula as time goes on.
Fourth, keep your business finances separate from your personal finances. Ugly, terrible, nasty things will happen to you otherwise. Sandra Tayler gave that advice at the LDS Storymaker's conference this past year, and certain events have proven it very wise counsel. Without going into the unpleasant details, just trust me on this one. It will save you a load of grief and pain later on.
Fifth, and final, I think I have refined my ability to revise. Going into this, I had thought that my revision techniques had already gotten as good as they were going to get, but I was wrong. I've managed to identify a bit better what steps I need to go through to end up with a good story, and I am looking forward to employing them in the new year.
So there you have it, my incredibly deep and probably boring post on lessons learned in 2013. The next year looks like it may be a hard one, but I am looking forward to it. Every challenge brings an opportunity to grow, and as difficult as the past year might have been, I think I have a lot more to learn. At the very least, the journey should be interesting. I hope everyone is having a good start to their new year, and I'll see you around.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)