What's On Your Mind About Your Writing?

All right, Ben...give it up. What happened? There are several doctors in the house here.

tri

I don't aim for a specific word count. I don't put any demands on myself at all.

Don't you just love when your brain tries to tell you write things you know you're utterly ill-equipped to even attempt.

I can't write serialised science fiction adventure stories, brain. Stop asking.

I have two more chapters to the end of my first novel and I can't write a single word. I wrote some skeletal scenes; but, they aren't working for where I am in the story. Of course, I can cut and save in some empty file and use if needed. I think too much.

Amazon just agreed to make the first installment of my Settlement trilogy FREE. Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!

I have high hopes for the first-hit-is-free approach, in terms of selling the second and third books. We'll see.

Everybody here: don't read it. It was my first novel. It is flawed. I am about to do much, much better

Katharine Tree said:

Amazon just agreed to make the first installment of my Settlement trilogy FREE. Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!

I have high hopes for the first-hit-is-free approach, in terms of selling the second and third books. We'll see.

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I have thoughts of doing the same. My experience is that people either love or hate my stuff, and the first book has always been enough for readers to decide. Besides, I have seven more they can pay for. Or will if I ever get 'em all finished, hahaha, I should live so long!

Katharine Tree said:

Everybody here: don't read it. It was my first novel. It is flawed. I am about to do much, much better

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All novels are flawed. Not everyone sees every flaw, and one reader's flaw is another's favorite part. And the fact that you can do better now doesn't mean what you did before wasn't good.

That's awesome Katherine! My last is free... I'm trying to decide if I should renumber them so it becomes the first. They are all stand-alone soo.... strange.

Thanks Rez, SunshineonMe. So far having a book "just free" isn't garnering the same response as having a book on a KDP Select giveaway day, but it's only been like, two hours. Give it a while to get started, I guess.

My heart tells me that it's a great concept which received a sub-par execution. Maybe some day I'll have the heart to rewrite it. Or maybe I'll just trunk the whole trilogy when I'm rich and famous.

Katharine Tree said:

Thanks Rez, SunshineonMe. So far having a book "just free" isn't garnering the same response as having a book on a KDP Select giveaway day, but it's only been like, two hours. Give it a while to get started, I guess.

My heart tells me that it's a great concept which received a sub-par execution. Maybe some day I'll have the heart to rewrite it. Or maybe I'll just trunk the whole trilogy when I'm rich and famous.

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For me, it keeps my other books at a steady level, kind of like after coming off a Book Bub ad. Give it a few more days, it should bump things up.

I've heard that one of my sci-fi prequel shorts to the Planet Janitor series just went free for a PDF. Now if I can just find out where it is!? Augh. First stop Amazon to see if there's a change there.

Sometimes Google Alerts are useless.

tri

I'm starting to notice that when I write the first version of any new scene in my WIP, it always comes out really...un-detailed or maybe even bland on paper. Like, I know which characters are involved, what they're saying and their general location, but I have trouble with smoothly integrating the location descriptions and character movements until I've let the scene sit for quite some time.

Honestly, having to wait for second, third, and fourth drafts for a scene to finally get better and look the same on paper as it does in my head tends to wreak havoc with perfectionist nature, and has given me more than my share of self-doubt issues. But at least I now know that I'm capable of improvement, I guess...

Katharine Tree said:

Amazon just agreed to make the first installment of my Settlement trilogy FREE. Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!

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I meant to ask -- do they not normally allow free?? I haven't even looked into Amazon so I have no idea.

Reziac said:

I meant to ask -- do they not normally allow free?? I haven't even looked into Amazon so I have no idea.

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No. When you set your prices in the KDP interface, the lowest allowable price is $0.99. In practice you can send them a message asking for it to be lowered--and proving that it goes for free on other venues--and sometimes they agree, but they want veto power. Also, they sometimes randomly make it un-free without notifying you.

I think I had a breakthrough today on what to write next. I've had a fantasy idea sitting around in my head for a while, but it wasn't quite working. Now I think I've realized the problem: it was supposed to be YA.

I got more excited about writing this evening than I've been in a long time.

awesome RWM!!

I'm wishing I had some quality time to spend on it.

My breakthrough wasn't really a breakthrough. While I enjoy reading YA, I don't enjoy writing it as much as I used to. Maybe it's because I'm 25 now, and I'm starting to leave the YA years behind.

It started out as a writing exercise that became a smutty short story which grew in to a gentle romantic novella and suddenly the whole future of humanity is at stake.

Got a personalized rejection today!

Finally FINALLY got past page 150 on my WIP. There are so many things I have had to wing to get through this much. My internal editor is screaming "the readers will see right through this garbage and know you're an idiot!"

But I'm one page closer to being done than I was before.

I can't seem to focus on any single project. Right now I have 4 works in progress. It's like I think of something and then I can't get it out of my brain until I do something with it. Then my attention is drawn elsewhere and nothing gets finished. Ugh! How to get past this?!

I think I'm making progress on my edit.

I looked up the seven part story structure (which I'd previously pooh-poohed because I'm a jerk) and was pleasantly surprised by how well I'd fulfilled it already. I think I do have the bones of my story figured out. It's not a huge mess. I don't have to rewrite 30,000 words.

Whew.

Mostly, that I ought to be doing some. I am revising the WIP chapter-by-chapter for betas, but not producing any fresh content. It's been going on long enough that I feel uncomfortable about it.

And to dispel the discomfort, I watch my first novel's stats on Amazon KDP. They made it permafree yesterday, and boooyyyy howdy, it's Christmas on my "sales" graph. 82 copies given away today, now ranked #11 in free colonization sci-fi, and I've sold more other books than in the whole last month combined (which was . . . precious few).

I know it won't continue indefinitely, but it's sure fun while it's happening.

Katharine Tree said:

And to dispel the discomfort, I watch my first novel's stats on Amazon KDP. They made it permafree yesterday, and boooyyyy howdy, it's Christmas on my "sales" graph. 82 copies given away today, now ranked #11 in free colonization sci-fi, and I've sold more other books than in the whole last month combined (which was . . . precious few).

I know it won't continue indefinitely, but it's sure fun while it's happening.

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I have no idea what KDP or permafree is, but everything else sounds good. Your stuff is out there and people are checking it out. That's winning in my book.