I finished the first draft of the next Reuben Conway book last night, and just felt like crowing a bit. I think I started it sometime around November of last year, but kept getting distracted by other projects. One thing I noticed was the first act was hell to plow through. To be honest, I’m not sure I know why. I think I might be more prone to writer’s block at that stage of the project, when I’m working on putting together the first few thousand words with the knowledge that I have another ten thousand to go. It can be daunting. My solution was to work on other things. I worked on the first chapter of Player Killer (More on that in another post. Soon, I promise!), looked for a job, did some web development projects, stuff like that. Sloging through it is important, though, so I always forced myself to come back and work on it a little bit each day. Once I hit the third act, the words started pushing their way out of my fingers. I found myself looking at my watch and realizing it was after nine pm. Maybe that’s just the way it goes. I’m still new at this, so I’m interested to see if the next book goes this way, too.
So, now that 1.0 is done, I need to edit the hell out of the poor thing to make it readable. Then I can hand it off to my beta readers to get some feedback. While that’s going on, I’ll be working on finding someone to create a professional-looking cover, and I have a few other things to do, mostly things I’ve learned about the indie publishing process, mistakes I made with Hero Beat that I’d like to avoid this time around, and make a decision on whether I’ll do Player Killer next or just go on to the next Conway Report title.
In the meantime, I’m determined to find time for:
- Hero Beat’s 60-day contract with Kindle Unlimited is up soon, so I’ll be publishing to the Apple Store, Kobo, and anywhere else I can think of.
- While I’m on the subject, Hero Beat could really use a professional cover. I’m proud of the one I have, it’s the best I can do, but I’m not a cover designer. A good cover by a professional designer would probably be a good investment.
- Working on this website. It’s pretty darn drab.
- Doing more networking. This will be the hardest of the bunch.
- Do more blog posts.
- Get some damned exercise.
- And, I’ll keep freelancing and looking for steady work.
So, wish me luck. If you’re interested in being a beta reader or a reviewer, let me know. I love getting feedback, and I love having people read my stuff. It’s a win-win!