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[Writing] Organization July 3, 2008

Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Writing , add a comment

Since I used to spend way too much time trying to figure out how professional writers, you know, write, I wanted to throw out a blockquote - from this post by Diana Pharaoh Francis on SF Novelists - to others who might be looking to assimilate such information.

When I write, I put the chapters in separate word files and print them out as I go. This is partly as an extra backing up device, and partly because sometimes I find it easier to flip pages looking for what I’m after than digging through computer files, trying to guess just which chapter I mentioned that particular esoteric item in. I can also mark notes on the pages for later and this prevents me from going back and revising too much before I really know what I need to revise.

I take post-it notes and write the chapters numbers on them and tape them to the beginning of each chapter so I can flip through more easily. I put them in a binder with one of those plastic sleeves on the front that let you slide in a cover sheet. I then slide in a cover sheet with the title of the book on it.

So this is what I’ve done today. I’ve emptied the recently finished book out of the binder and bundled it up with the outline that turned out to be not so useful and the pages of notes and etc. that I had made. And then I printed out a title sheet for the new book and slid it in and have printed out my chapters for it and my (eventually useless, I’m sure) outline.

I’d probably just buy a new binder to put the new book in… nevertheless, it’s good to find out how one published author does it.


[Writing] Word Count Wednesday - 7/2 July 2, 2008

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Okay, I’ve decided to revamp my WCW. So, instead of provide a somewhat humiliating day-by-day accounting, I’m going to just sum up the word counts by project. This will be humiliating in a whole different, I’m never actually going to finish anything, sort of way. But it will also allow me to include word counts from non-fiction projects so I won’t feel like I didn’t write anything.

The only bad part is, for this week at least, I didn’t actually keep track of how much I wrote in the Fantasy Draft Guide… but I did note where I started and where I was at a couple points during the writing, so I have a rough idea. So, here it is:

Fiction Writing (all projects): 0
Give Me The Rock Fantasy Basketball Draft Guide (non-fiction): ~2000

Whew. Okay, glad that’s over with.


Quick Personality Test July 1, 2008

Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Uncategorized , 1 comment so far

And now for something substantially more interactive (and less ranty):

If you split something to eat with someone - let’s use cookies as an example - so you have a half of two different cookies. One is a cookie you really like and are excited about eating. The other one is still a cookie (I mean, come on!) but it’s just you know, a cookie you’re okay with. So, which one do you eat first, the exciting one, or the okay one?

I have no results for this personality test. I’m just interested. If you’re interested in my answer: I eat the okay one. I’m sure that says something about me, and I’ll see if I can provide an explanation in a future post, but I’m more interested in knowing what other people do right now.