What are you working on right now?

[Heijan Xavier]

Working finishing a chapter ... I think I finally figued out what the heck happens, heh heh.

That will, of course, change with the next chapters.

 

[Heijan Xavier]

Is there a word for that? (General question)

confidence?

 

[Phyrebrat]

If you could guess, how many hours of writing was it, and how many hours of editing would you anticipate?

I’ll Have to check my project overview in Scrivener as that has the details Altho I’m not sure if the version of scrivener i began with tennish years ago had that functionality.


pH

 

[Phyrebrat]

Oops, late to reply to you, @Heijan Xavier, apologies. I was wrong, I can't find hours spent and as I started this in 2009 I expect any estimate would be imprecise :/

However, I do want to boast for the second time today: I have just deleted 16,772 words from my MS (in one night)!

pH

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Oops, late to reply to you, @Heijan Xavier, apologies. I was wrong, I can't find hours spent and as I started this in 2009 I expect any estimate would be imprecise :/

However, I do want to boast for the second time today: I have just deleted 16,772 words from my MS (in one night)!

pH

Huzzah. I cut 30 k off my first book in one delete. Never regretted it.

 

[Phyrebrat]

Talk about killing your darlings. I feel like a mass murderer

pH

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

I may have to kill around 30K from one of my W'sIP. I started writing the book years ago, and now I'm rewriting it - working my way through it from the beginning and the story's changed! Ooops!!!

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Luiglin]

I've done the same for one of mine. Got rid of around 10k of content. True, I only had around 10.1k to start with but those 100 are really good... hold on... that paragraph is filler... OK, those 50 words are really good

 

[Pemry Janes]

I am half way done on my third book, the first draft of the manuscript anyway. But I already know that my first round of edits is going to be extensive, especially at the beginning of the book.

 

[zmunkz]

Talk about killing your darlings. I feel like a mass murderer

pH

lol! I need to take notes. I’m rounding the finish line of my WiP but I’ll need to cut about 100k words. Trying not to think too hard about that prospect. Maybe I can make this into 2-3 books instead.

 

[StilLearning]

I had something coming in at 150k plus words, and I was unhappy with most of it. I'm splitting it into a series of ~30k each, and focussing doing a decent job on each part.

 

[Steve Harrison]

I'm having a break from my current novel to write the pilot episode for a proposed TV series based on my first novel. It would be ideal for Netflix (he says, hopefully), so I will approach some local producers here in Australia when the script and series bible are ready. It's an interesting challenge, breaking the novel up into ten episodes, each with a distinct storyline while carrying the main plot forward.

 

[zmunkz]

It's an interesting challenge, breaking the novel up into ten episodes, each with a distinct storyline while carrying the main plot forward.

If you gain any insights please do come back to share!

 

[The Big Peat]

Finished my first short story draft of the year.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Well I've got a query for you guys. Currently I have the first draft of one novel finished - Manx - which is an epic steampunk fantasy. I finished it about three or four weeks ago - then put it aside to work on the space opera I mentioned before. I figure, put one aside work on the other. It gives me fresh eyes when it comes to the redrafts. But that's not the issue.

The issue is that the space opera is based on the tale of a human abducted from Earth, escaping from his captors and trying to make his way home, getting a pilots license and then a ship and starting the search for Earth. And all of that's fine. The problem I have is with the title.

Obviously I wanted to call it Lost in Space. It just encapsulates everything. But equally obviously I can't use that. Then I thought Abductee - but his abduction is absolutely nothing like the alien abductions from the movies etc. There's no anal probing for a start! No little grey men either! And I can't use his name since it's Bill - and that immediately leads to either Bill and Ted or Bill the Galactic Hero. Which leaves me with absolutely no idea what to call it.

Anyone got a good idea for a title that fits?

Cheers, Greg.

 

[sknox]

Just the same old tired advice. Write the thing and watch in the corners for a good title. Sometimes they come late to the game. The only real issue I have is a silly one--when I begin a project, the software says I have to call it *something*. Then, when I come up with the real title, the original one is sort of embedded and I have root it out.

Good luck on the hunt.

 

[AlexH]

I'm glad I only write short stories after reading the recent posts. Cutting 10% from a 10,000-word story nearly killed me!

I was up until 3am on New Years Day to finish a submission for Writers of the Future. Excessive noise featured in the story, and ironically I had to pop earplugs in to block out fireworks that went on for nearly an hour.

I recently finished the first draft of a crazy short story set in a dystopian future where pop music (apart from Bryan Adams for some reason - I didn't want to pick on Celine Dion as usual) is banned. It came from a 24-hour challenge with another writer where we swapped object and video prompts.

I have another short story in progress alongside the occasional poem and flash.

Otherwise, I'm continuing to revise older short stories to get them into the submission-rejection cycle again. One day, the first sale will come!

 

[Stephen Palmer]

In the middle of a 2 year break.
Not expecting to write anything until December at the earliest.
This is a good thing.

 

[Margaret Note Spelling]

The issue is that the space opera is based on the tale of a human abducted from Earth, escaping from his captors and trying to make his way home, getting a pilots license and then a ship and starting the search for Earth. And all of that's fine. The problem I have is with the title.

Just from what you said, Search for Earth sounds intriguing. No idea if it's been used already, though. Or something like Adrift could be an appropriate metaphor, except I'd go with a less common version--Unmoored, perhaps. Or if you want to be a bit funny, Loosed in Space.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

I was actually thinking about Adrift - but when I checked it out someone else had used it recently. So, not sure. But thanks.

Cheers, Greg.