So who is getting lots of writing done?

I've been working from home for the last three weeks and, if anything, I'm working longer hours and I haven't been in the mood to do any writing.

Instead, I have been reading my unsold novels and screenplays and putting together a new submission list for the post-apocalyptic world. But as those subs will be going to the UK & US, I suspect I have plenty of time to work on my query letters.
 
This lockdown came at a sort of useful time for me, I just launched my web serial yesterday, so I had writing momentum going. Being able to stay at home and focus on my project was nice.

The hard thing is keeping social contact with people and having phone chats to keep my mind fresh. Without the opportunity to go to a cafe and do some writing I need to find other ways to shake myself out of any writing ruts.
 
I’ve avoided this post till now, but have gotten to the point of ranting:ROFLMAO: I’m still in the day job pretty much full time... I’m not even close to essential.

I work in a warehouse packing online orders. It’s a military surplus and WW2 ‘re-enactment’ business, so literally 90% of what I pack has a swastika on it, I wish I was kidding... — but you know, it’s essential for my boss that his company keeps its standing on amazon and Ebay rather than put up a notice on the website saying it might take a few days extra to get your Nazi armbands...

So, yeah, im doing a lot more writing and editing, banking on any of my projects being my way out:sick:
 
During the day I'm mostly stay at home dad, so my days aren't much different. But my wife is now home all day, so I have back up and can stay up a bit later writing at night. Currently working through the 'resources' section of the chapter on ways of redirect lung asteroids and comets. Actually, most of everything is written, it's just the resources sections which are, frankly, a bit dull to work on (though I hope they'll be useful).
 
LittleStar said:
I’ve avoided this post till now, but have gotten to the point of ranting:ROFLMAO: I’m still in the day job pretty much full time... I’m not even close to essential.

I work in a warehouse packing online orders. It’s a military surplus and WW2 ‘re-enactment’ business, so literally 90% of what I pack has a swastika on it, I wish I was kidding... — but you know, it’s essential for my boss that his company keeps its standing on amazon and Ebay rather than put up a notice on the website saying it might take a few days extra to get your Nazi armbands...

So, yeah, im doing a lot more writing and editing, banking on any of my projects being my way out:sick:
Click to expand...
Same as Littlestar: If I'm lucky enough to get the means I'll shout you the funds to start up writing full time. I've had bosses like that.
 
I’m still at work and due to staffing it’s a 4-on,4-off night shift rota. Workload has been highly variable, but I only get time to write ‘fresh’, as opposed to starting at 2am, when it cycles around to include weekends. Having said that I’ve kind of completed my WW2 rules, and yet another pass of self-editing the second novella (40k words) in the ‘Under Darker Suns’ series.
 
Hi,

Well I'm about half way, forty something K, through Barton Villa 3, and I think this fevered rush is finally starting to wind down. But maybe that's just because I'm laughing so much as I write. I just had one of my MC's Sam - a middle aged ex CIA analyst who had a small DNA splice to try and change her appearance go strangely wrong and turn her into a twenty odd year old sexy black woman - explain to her boss that she has to wear skimpy swim suits into battle because she's into psychological warfare. And because she's a middle aged white woman transformed into a smoking hot seventeen year old - and it's bikini weather!!!

Damn I love my job!!!

Cheers, Greg..
 
I'm reaching the end of this big fantasy thing - I've more or less got to a final "montage" saying what happened next - and I've got questions that I've never really run into before when writing shorter books. The main one is whether the ending is "big" enough: I think it carries sufficient weight, but after several books and goodness knows how many words, it had better be. The second one is about tying up the loose ends: I've decided to leave a few questions unanswered, but otherwise it comes together reasonably neatly. And the third is whether the ending is too bleak, too cheerful, or otherwise something that will disappoint readers, even if I liked it.

I'm coming to the conclusion that the best policy is to write what I like and see how it reads later, rather than to worry about a theoretical reader. I should add that I had a lot of this planned before the virus and the lockdown: the circumstances have given me a lot of time to write, but I'm not sure if they would have been conducive to planning a novel from scratch.
 
Hi,

I know! It sounds like a bloody football team! But still the name works for a tropical island, and it gave me the chance to nick name the people on the island as Barton Villains! so I stuck with it. Names are just so damned difficult.

Cheers, Greg.
 
Toby Frost said:
... whether the ending is "big" enough ... whether the ending is too bleak, too cheerful, or otherwise something that will disappoint readers, even if I liked it.
Click to expand...

I have this problem as well. I think it's one of the places where an author is least able to judge well; it certainly is for me.

I agree that in the end, though, we can only judge for ourselves if it works. That first. Then it's off to beta readers or editors. Or just throw the poor darling out, click Publish, and let the readers tell us. Which doesn't help at all with that worry over whether the ending does the story justice.
 
I also worry about endings being big enough, so I drew up this scale:

5k words: pun
50k words: person gets person
100k words: murder solved
200k words: kingdom restored, bad army driven out
500k words: gods overthrown by radical new metaphysics
1000k words: then I woke up and it was all a dream
 
HareBrain said:
I also worry about endings being big enough, so I drew up this scale:

5k words: pun
50k words: person gets person
100k words: murder solved
200k words: kingdom restored, bad army driven out
500k words: gods overthrown by radical new metaphysics
1000k words: then I woke up and it was all a dream
Click to expand...

I think that I've managed to use each of these as the denouement to a 75 word Challenge story!! ;)

That's an fun list, HB.
 
Hi,

Not a crit or anything, just curious - how do you not have your chapters in order? Do you write separate chapters apart? Because that would confuse the hell out of me.

Also Barton Villa 3 is done - 75K! - yee!

Cheers, Greg.
 
I'm slightly exaggerating. Because there are four POV characters, and each has ten chapters, I write chapters in "rounds", so that I'll have a file called Bad Faith 6 on my computer, which will contain A6, B6, C6 and D6, depending on which character is the POV in that chapter. The trouble is that when I go back to edit them, I've usually forgotten which order they ought to be in, ie whether A's chapter comes before B's in the plot. So it is a bit confusing. Not the most efficient method, but it's just about worked so far!
 
Hi,

Wow! I can't even imagine writing a book like that. Continuity must be a nightmare unless you have the most detailed plot outline. Me I just write a book in order. Sometimes it goes backwards as well as forwards, but there's always that straight line of story which keeps everything in order. So what made you develop your system?

Cheers, Greg.
 
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