We Interrupt Your Regular Broadcast (Personal Update/Novel Progress)

I'm standing by a table right now!
Image description: TV "Please Stand By" broadcast.

Really Rough Draft  

Raw unfettered shit-  34, 809 (Last week 30,396) [Just this week- 4413]   

Slightly polished turd- 29,688 (Last week18, 242)  [Just this week- 11,246] 

*Reminder slightly polished turd is usually soft revision I've done to help jump start me into the next day's writing. It's no where close to a second draft, but it's a bit more polished than my raw copy. But a blank page is a hard start.

Personal Update

Abysmal word counts this last week (although a strangely high amount of turd polishing–seems I was having a hard time getting going), but at least I've figured out why my word counts have been so these last few weeks.

This week when I went to do my monthly budget for October, I discovered that I didn't need to draw any money from my Kickstarter funds. It should be somewhere around $450. What happened? Well since my teaching never changes, and I didn't get any unexpected donations, somewhere in there I must have watched The Contrarian for an extra 30 hours. It was just an extra shift here or an extra couple of hours there, but apparently it added up. It explains why I felt vaguely busy, addled, and constantly like I didn't have quite enough time to write this whole month.

It also cut pretty hard into my writing time. The bad news is that I'm behind, and I don't want to be behind. Especially since getting a book from draft to finished product in a year is already a pretty fucking tight schedule. The good news is that if I end up going over next year, I'll have the money to keep going for another month.

Upcoming Week

The next week is going to be very different from our usual fare.

First off, Pancreas Man and The Spleen got punched into next week by Timefist. (I mean they LITERALLY got punched into next week.) Sonic Gal has gone to cover some of their patrols while they're in flux. (Literally IN flux.) Uberdude needs some tag ins to help with T.C., so I'm helping out a little extra for the next week.

I also have a number of "business" bits that need to be taken care of. Our first round of Kickstarter rewards are going out and an e-mail list made of the $50 or greater donors so I can put out the first of the "Inside Scoop" mails. I also need to clean up a lot of links and menus here on the blog.

I also just got off the phone with the advice nurse complete with an epic finger wagging that I have to be resting more or my bronchitis is going to turn into walking pneumonia.  I better take that one seriously or it's going to be a lot more weeks of even FEWER word counts.

In an effort to keep my word counts from tanking again (despite the week), I'm going to be running a bunch of guest blogs and shuffling around our regular schedule to keep me as bed resty as I can. You know me though: there will be something going up.

Here's my "lesson" for the week. I want people to really understand that trying to write for income involves a lot of steps that AREN'T WRITING. The idea that an agent will just whisk away your manuscript and replace them with royalty checks while you don't miss a keystroke is not even true for Stephen King or JK Rowling–they give a lot of time to book signings, talks, interviews, and such. So if you decide you want to be a writer for a living, be ready to do a lot of other work that hasn't a damned thing to do with actually writing. Just part of the cost of doing business.