Update: Path to Publication

 

Hey there, 

In my last post I mentioned I would (probably) be releasing a update on The Path to Publication. Here it is, plus other updates. Huzzah.  

Path to Publication

It looks like the original plan is all being pushed back by a month or two. I'm not giving up on it in the slightest, and have no issue following this plan through some extra months. 

The hardest part with Roslyn, story-wise, is the fact that it's so very... big. The first draft is around 106,893 words and yet the story still feels very young. I have a whole other part of the book that will likely take that count to 200k or so, but I'm not entierly sure how that will go. 

Given that fantasies are known to be bigger, this is a first draft, I refuse to split this into two books, and this will be self-published, I'm not too stressed over the word count (though I am still endlessly confused as to how it's that big) so much as I am the pacing. Pacing is something I need to work on, for sure.  

After the holidays I will (hopefully) get back into full swing with writing Roslyn, and may even share some excerpts some time soon. Maybe. We'll see. 

In the mean time, I'll continue writing little bits here and there.

NaNo

As you may recall, I didn't do Roslyn for NaNoWriMo. I had been pressing myself to finish the draft by October so I could read it through during Oct. and then write the second draft during NaNo. But I talked to some friends and listened to common sense and decided not to do that and switched to another story for the month. 

So how did I do on that story? 

Well, it wasn't good. 

Daily tracker:

As you can see, I was doing really well for eight days, and then the struggles began. Then my motivation chord was pulled and I flatlined. Yaaaaay. 

Stats:

Story experience:

MoTWW was alright. I enjoyed the parts that I actually wrote, but I really wasn't feeling it. Writing just hasn't been the most fun of late, but that's okay. This story is fun, and I know I'll enjoy it when I'm more in the swing of things.  

Final word count:

In the end, my final word count was 16, 481. Some of that may have been for another story, too (because I ended up missing Roslyn too much and would occasionally work on it instead), but the majority of it was for MoTWW. 

General Writing

My overall writing lately has been nonexistent. I've written a few poems and worked a very small amount on a short story for a secret Santa swap in my writing group, but outside of that I've written nothing. 

I have edited Roslyn a bit, as well as some other stories of mine that have never and likely never will see the light of day. 

Reading

I have been reading a lot today, which is wonderful. Currently my leading reads are...

Healer's Bane by Hope Ann

It's very short, but due to the next book I've yet to finish it.

I'm really enjoying it so far, especially the atmosphere of the story, and look forward to writing a review for it. 

Dragons' Hope by Melody Jackson

I recently finished re-reading Dragons' Bane and Dragons' Might by Melody Jackson in preparation for the third book. DH (Dragons' Hope) has been out for two years as of the 15th, but I'm only just now able to read it. 

So far I'm loving it as much as I do the first two books, and really look froward to getting deeper into it (as right now I'm not even a third of the way in). 

My minor reads:

The Naming by Alison Groggon

I'm a little deeper in this than I am DH, but have halted it for DH. It's a great story so far and I'm really enjoying the world building (from what I can tell, it's wonderfully vast). 

The Icebound Land by John Flanagan

This is book three in The Ranger's Apprentice by John Flanagan (aka one of my favorite series every even though I'm only three books in). I'm over halfway through with it, and absolutely loving it.

This is a minor read because I'm buddy-reading it with a friend of mine, and we aren't in the same timezone so finding a time to read it together can be a bit tricky. 

The next books on my list: 

The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg

This book has been pretty high up on my TBR for a while, so I was thrilled to finally get my hands on a copy. It's a pretty thin book, so I imagine it won't take me too long to read. 

Echos by Miranda Marie

This book is a thick one, so it may take me some time. But Echos has been on my TBR for years now and it's high time I read it. I've also heard amazing things about it, and Marie's other works (The Fire Rain Chronicles) were wonderful, so I'm sure I'm going to love this one. 

Though I hear it's a really painful read, so we'll see if I survive. 

The Battle for Skandia by John Flanagan

This is book four in The Ranger's Apprentice,  and if the name is anything to go off of... I fear how book three will end. 

Bleeding Ink 

Lastly comes Bleeding Ink. I have one change coming to it soon, which I'm really excited for. It may take me until around January to make public, given the holidays and that I have a few more things I need to do before it's ready, but I'll get it up here as soon as I can. 

This update is something I'm really excited for, and I hope will be a great benefit to my audience and writer friends.

Other than that, BI is staying the same, inconsistent, messy corner of the world that it is.

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Alright, I think that's everything.  That's my writing/reading life right now. If you have any questions, thoughts, comments, etc., I'd love to hear from you. 

 - Edna

P.S. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I have a GoodReads now.