Tag: novel writing

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GKP Writing News

New Ventures

As of now I have published 14 books which sit on various platforms ignored by almost everyone. I’m not wanting to be a mega author, just one people like to read. It’s time for some new ventures in search of these people.

Time and knowledge are my two big stumbling blocks. The third is a dislike of the main social media platforms. How can I work around these?

Website Considerations

First comes my website. It’s still a work in progress as I am not that knowledgeable about building a website. I can set up pages, put up posts and monitor comments, if any appear.

Much of the background analytics and set up are beyond me. It takes weeks for me to puzzle them out. One of my new ventures will be finding someone to help with these.

Second come my various author pages too often ignored for months. Every platform my books are found on has an author page. This puts one on Kindle/Amazon; Smashwords; Ingram Sparks; and National Novel Writing Month. That leaves me updating each once a month.

cover for "The City Water Project" by Karen GoatKeeper
Water is fascinating, so much more than the water cycle. This science activity book explores this, yet is ignored. Would it be more used as digital science units?

Writing Plans

Third relates to my writing more directly. I love creating my science activity books. As a former science teacher, I target the entire book toward teaching the subject thoroughly. And they are ignored.

Another of my new ventures will be to break these science books up into units and offer them as science units on a teacher/homeschooling site. “The City Water Project” will debut in April or May. This includes “The Chemistry Project” now being worked on scheduled for July.

There are two novels I would love to complete and publish this year. I suppose these can be considered new ventures as well.

My target for the first is publishing in March this year. I’m trying to convince myself I can do this. It does still need a title.

“The Carduan Chronicles: Arrival” has a target of this fall, preferably October. That will leave me open to more new ventures in November for NaNo.

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GKP Writing News

Draft Considerations

The fun part of writing is doing a draft. I can make things up as I go. Afterwards, draft considerations descend with a vengeance.

November was my carefree, write drafts time. That is the great thing about participating in NaNo (National Novel Writing Month). Getting 2000 words a day down on a draft leaves no time for careful research, corrections or rewriting.

I worked on the ends of two novels. One is finished. One is not. I’ve discovered that 25,000 words is only a third of what is needed to complete the thing.

Nature Book? Scifi Book? Both?

The Carduan Chronicles has been challenging from the first. It was a simple survival scifi idea. A spaceship drops out of a worm hole in the middle of a February ice storm and lands in an Ozark ravine.

draft considerations include settings
Ship Nineteen in The Carduan Chronicles ends up in an Ozark ravine. The Carduans must find a place to call home. It needs to be defensible, have building possibilities as they would rather not live in their spaceship forever, have ready access to food and water and have growth potential. Since the spaceship is 30 inches long and eighteen inches high and wide (The Carduans are four inches tall.), a ledge such as this one along my road might be perfect. Knowing the setting is essential to writing about Ship Nineteen and how they learn to live in this alien place so full of dangers.

I wrote that draft one November. Except it wasn’t complete. There had to be a second ship.

This ship drops out of a worm hole about the orbit of Jupiter and must go over the sun to get to Cardua. There are many events happening on the ship during the fifteen weeks it takes.

I wrote that draft one November. Except the two accounts were two takes on the same time frame, the same people and they merged near the end. Enter another draft.

This is the draft I am trying to complete in between several other projects now that November is over. Reality has returned. Draft considerations are now top of the list.

How Many Manuscripts?

There is the completed novel draft. I need to do lots of research for that one and get it rewritten. My deadline is a March release, so I better get busy.

The Chemistry Project has taken a new turn. I need to complete the book, yes. However, my science books are mostly ignored. I hope to release them as units on a teaching site.

And the Dent County Flora needs attention. Draft considerations for this massive mess are mostly backing up the pictures from this year and identifying all the unknowns I can. Then I can fill in more pages.

But Cardua still calls. There are five weeks left in their journey to write about to finish this draft. The hardest part for it is yet to come. Draft considerations for this close to 200,000 word project will take months as I need more descriptions of Cardua, making sure everything is believable for four inch tall aliens and cutting down the size of this monster.

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GKP Writing News

Writing Fear Procrastination

Many writers have this little voice inside that says their writing stinks. I have that plus a legacy of being told I couldn’t write anything worthwhile. These blossom into a writing fear procrastination that kills books.

At present there are four writing projects begging to be worked on. Two are nearly ready for a final rewrite as soon as I finish up another twenty to thirty pages of draft. One is a new attempt to finish up an old idea for a science activity book. The last is my Dent County Flora, a project I have little hope of ever completing.

I do love to go hiking and taking pictures. The Flora project encourages me to do both. It’s easy to immerse myself in this project, especially in the spring and summer when so many plants are blooming. This year alone has added at least a dozen new plants and completed the picture series for even more.

passion flower lure away from writing fear procrastination
Passion flowers are one of many Ozark wildflowers luring me away to go hiking and taking pictures instead of working on my novels. It’s so easy to justify writing fear procrastination.

Except there are 2,000 plants to find in Dent County. Many grow in places some distance away from home where I have difficulty getting due to time constraints.

This should be a fun hobby, not my main writing project.

All summer I have done little except the website posts and the Flora pages. My two novels have been ignored. Even worse, I see my writing fear procrastination in full force when I even think about them.

There is a cure, sort of. Nothing really makes those little voices go away. However, they can be shoved into a corner and ignored.

The cure? Sit down at the computer. Open the novel file. Find where I left off on the draft. And write 500 words every day. In two weeks the draft will be done.

Except today I have to finish the two posts for the website for tomorrow. This means downloading pictures. So much for another hour.

And writing fear procrastination wins for another morning.