My past two posts on writing\/self-publishing have been written on a downward note, so I think it’s about time to write something positive.<\/p>\n
A little less than a month ago I started writing the second book in my series, and it has been going spectacularly well. So well in fact, there were a few days I was convinced that what I was writing was absolute garbage–that it had to be if I was writing it as fast as I was.<\/p>\n
I’ve written several book length things <\/em>to completion, as I’ve said before, but only one of them–in my opinion–was good enough to continue working on, and call a book. <\/em>Each one was a struggle to get through, taking many months or even years to complete, but it’s gotten easier, and I think I can tell you a part of the reason why.<\/p>\n Firstly, the book that’s with the editor currently, Dreaming Beyond Gaia<\/em>, I have written a total of three times. The first time I wrote the book it took about seven months, and when I was finished I put it away and didn’t come back to it until two years later. When I did <\/em>come back, what I found was a mess, but not a disaster, and I thought I could make it work if I re-wrote the first 10,000 words or so.<\/p>\n I started to do that, but quickly found that the new stuff I was writing was much, much\u00a0better, and changed the story in such a big way that I decided to re-write the entire book. The general journey of the characters stayed the same, however, so I had something of an outline to work with, and that made things infinitely easier. Before this re-write I had never worked with an outline before. I would generally get an idea for a book, tinker around with it a bit, and then just start writing. That method produced some terribly frustrating days.<\/p>\n Quick side note, I was listening to an episode of The Self-Publishing Podcast <\/em><\/a>this morning, and they pointed out that doing continual re-writes can be a pitfall if you keep doing it over and over again as a way to never put anything out. I think that can certainly be true, and is something to watch out for.<\/p>\n Anyway, It was around this time that I discovered Scrivener<\/a>, which turned out to be one of the greatest tools\/assets I have ever discovered in all of my years of writing. This program is phenomenal for outlining and building a book to completion, and has forever changed the way I write.<\/p>\n I discovered it because of a post from author Michael J. Sullivan<\/a> that you can check out here<\/a>. It’s\u00a0a great post on the basics of the program, and how one might go about using it.<\/p>\n So last spring I took a week off from work\u00a0and spent the first entire day building a complete outline into the program, using\u00a0Sullivan’s post as a guideline, and tweaking things to better support my own needs.<\/p>\n It worked wonders, and I was finished with this new draft before the summer was over.<\/p>\n To make a long story a bit shorter, I went back through this new draft several months later, and did a few more substantial re-writes (although not another full re-write). It was much simpler using Scrivener to plan out what needed to change ahead of time.<\/p>\n Then, back in February, I began to seriously work on the next book in the series, which I’m currently writing now. I spent a solid two months doing nothing but outlining, writing histories of various things, and building maps, all of which I was able to put into my Scrivener doc. The extra time, effort, and planning has paid off wonderfully.<\/p>\n I’ve been writing for almost a month now and I’m already 30,000 words in, and show no signs of slowing down. I’ve been able to produce roughly 1,200 words a day, give or take.<\/p>\n My point is that, for me, outlining works wonders. This is the first time I’m writing a book with\u00a0one and I’m loving it. The experience is much more fulfilling, I’m having more fun, and I’m able to get a lot more on the page, in a much smaller amount of time.<\/p>\n I try hard with this blog to talk about what works for me, rather than telling other writers what they should<\/em> do.Outlining may not be the answer for everyone, but if you’re a writer, and you’re currently stuck, I’d say it’s worth a shot. Download the free trial of Scrivener, plug in what you’ve got, and make an outline for the rest.<\/p>\n It’s worked wonders for me, maybe it will for you too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My past two posts on writing\/self-publishing have been written on a downward note, so I think it’s about time to write something positive. A little less than a month ago I started writing the second book in my series, and … Continue reading