Saturday, February 19, 2011

Work, work, work!

I have been off for the past week, and I have been throwing myself at writing my new novel. I usually try to hit a thousand words a day, but this week, I've been topping out at two thousand. In a week, I've doubled my word count! My goal is 80,000, and today I hit 20,000. Go me!

This time, I decided to converge my processes from the first four novels. My first two novels, I didn't outline, and my second two, I outlined perhaps too much. This time, I just have a very, very loose outline, that hits on the major plot points.

Also, this time, writing is going a little easier, perhaps due to the fact that I have a wealth of real life experience to draw from. My protagonist works in the mall, and he encounters a lot of customers. Not all of them are pleasant, and some of them are downright special. So, I've had a lot of tiny anecdotes to weave into my storytelling. I'm sure, at press time, nobody is going to believe that I actually experienced these things, but...

There's only one thing I've been worrying about, and that is to impugn the retail industry or the profession. I do not hate retail. I actually had a very good time in retail, and I find it to be a much better use of my talents than, say, at a desk job. I'm not the type that can just sit and stare at the same thing all day long. I need to be up and about, moving around, with different things to do and different people to meet, and for me, retail was the perfect career choice. Besides writing, of course. Someday I hope to be able to pursue my true passion. But, until then, I don't hate the fact that I work in a store.

Then again, even if I don't manage to overcome that, and end up publishing a screed against retail when I intended to write an urban fantasy novel, so what? Upton Sinclair's The Jungle isn't remembered as the Communist manifesto it was supposed to be, but as a polemic indicting the meat packing industry of the time. Not to say that I am possibly the next Upton Sinclair, of course. But, a girl can dream.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Azrael's Tale: New Project!

Word Count: 4,000/projected 75,000 (Projected End Date: March 31)

Things To Do

- Editing (Projected End Date: April 30)
- Formatting (Takes fifteen minutes; can do post-edit)
- Title Page (Same day as formatting)
- Dedication (Should get on this)
- Copyright Page (Probably only five minutes, right?)
- Query Package
- Query Top Ten Agents (Have only five agents I would gleefully kill to work with, find five more)