Motivation

I'm currently working through chapter 2 of the book. I had thought that working on both the rule set and novel would be difficult, but it allows me to take a break from one to work on the other. This keeps writing from becoming monotonous and keeps my motivation peaked. By working on two projects at once, I am also making progress on multiple projects that would otherwise need to be set aside for a long duration.

A lot of writers struggle with staying motivated to the end. It is obvious when a writer forces themselves to continue writing. Their work begins to grow dry and stagnant. The reader will begin to lose interest in both the material and the context of the work. It is imperative that the attention of the audience is maintained throughout the entirety of the book.

A major aspect of any creative art is taking the time to do it right. Many people assume that a writer can simply work harder to create more or better material. This is simply untrue. Creativity cannot be forced. Working harder or longer hours will not improve the quality of literature or artwork. Many writers struggle with this concept, as everyone is confronted by deadlines and time tables.

That is not to say it should take a decade to finish a book. Only that enough time should be taken for reflection and review. Many ideas that seem sufficient at first glance can be made better with additional thought. Voice is always a subject of concern and many authors struggle with making conversations flow naturally.

Despite this, a deadline or time limit can add motivation to complete sections of the work in ample time. I do not recommend a deadline that encompasses the entire work (such as the whole novel) but break it down into small pieces, such as chapters. If you know you can write a chapter a week, set aside two weeks per chapter to allow for additional time. Many authors find that a single set back can delay the entire book because they did not leave enough room to catch up.

Setting a goal for the entire book can be dangerous, because it can lead to complacency. A year is a long time, and the writer may gain a false sense of security. Smaller goals also make it easier to track progress and update the editor (if you have one). This in itself can be motivating (it felt really good to have a full chapter of 10,000 words completed in my novel).

As an example, I determine the number of chapters I want (currently 10) and the number of words per chapter I would like to achieve (10,000). I want to write roughly a chapter per week, or 10,000 words. I immediately know how far along in the chapter I am each day, and therefore an excellent idea of how the book is progressing. This is very motivational. It removes the feeling that my book will never be completed and any uncertainty as to how much longer the book will take to write.

If you are struggling with motivation, a good practice would be to pick up a second project that is similar in nature, set short and medium term goals for yourself, and allot certain times during the day to write. Take the time you need to make your literature worth reading. Quality should never suffer for the sake of quantity.

Busy Week

I've been quite busy and generally up to no good! Well, generally up to no good. I've begun rebuilding the Armory Games website, though it isn't quite ready for the civilian populace- yet. I'm still playing with the theme a bit, but I don't overly mind what I have already chosen for it. Once the website is fully live, I will most likely be migrating these blogs to it.

For those of you who have been following the Firestorm Game Dev blog, I'm sorry to say that the game system is going table top for the time being. There are several reasons for this, but the largest is that I can manage the entire production myself until interest ramps up. This means that the game will actually be completed.

In addition to this, the Firestorm Rules Set will be released in modern edition for free. That's right, free! So if you're interested in miniature war gaming, there is no reason not to check it out. I'll be posting a beta version of the rules in ~ a month. Less depending on how well everything fits together in this grand scheme of mine.

Work on the novel continues (though at a slower pace) and I should have it up for sale in less than 6 months. I'm also now involved in making instructional videos for home computing/networking and the like. These are basic videos meant for those with little or no knowledge of computing systems. In conjunction, I may very well be offering classes at the local libraries for the same things.

So, overall, I'm keeping rather busy. Idle hands are the devil's workshop, as they say.

Chapter 1 finished

I have completed the first draft of chapter 1. I'm having certain individuals look it over for me. I think I have decided to eliminate a lot of the technology descriptions. The companion encyclopedia will not only streamline the original work, but add an additional (free!) gold mine for those who live for the technology. This will be a living, breathing document, so I will update it as future publications are completed and made available.

Though I am excited to be making progress, I am tempering this enthusiasm to make certain the proper amount of time is spent on review and improvements. As much as I want to release the book to the world, I want to do it right.

While I'm not yet prepared to start giving details about the chapters, I would like to spend a moment talking about publishing. The typical publishing process is long, tedious, and unpredictable. Authors can easily spend more than a year trying to find a suitable publisher for their book. When they do find this publisher, it will take at least another 6 months for the book to hit shelves (assuming the editor does not want sweeping changes made).

While the publisher usually advances money to the author, this money is advanced against future royalties. This means if the publisher advances $10,000, the author will need to sell $10,000 worth of royalties before they see another cent. Even with a well known publisher backing them, most authors don't sell more than a few thousand copies. This means that they don't even make back their advance. The average novel is out of print within a year of it's initial release.

Traditionally, a reputable publishing house was the only way to go. Self publishing companies (often referred to as vanity publishers) often charged a lot of money up front for a run of books. The author then had to literally sell their book door to door. Self publishing doomed any chance that a book or author had of succeeding.

This has changed dramatically in the last few years. Where mass-print publishers with an army of marketers once reigned, now stand empty buildings. The publishing houses of old are driving as fast as they can towards digital distribution. Those who refused to change are now going bankrupt. Many companies are also offering print on demand- a method of publishing that allows books to be printed as they are sold, with royalties paid to the author.

Amazon's Kindle and it's digital library make up 60% of book sales on Amazon, and a substantial portion of large retailers like Barnes and Noble. Other digital distribution companies like Scribd are seeing a massive influx of traditional publishers, who are now posting professionally published works in digital formats to save money and increase their customer base.

Considering the best deal an author can get from a traditional publisher is 15% (and that is a hard limit. You simply aren't going to earn any more), the substantial offering of 50% to 80% given by companies like Scribd and Amazon make far more lucrative prospects to Authors.

What does this mean? Well, mostly it means that publishing has become worlds easier for would-be authors. Where once they could expect only rejection letters, they now receive royalties. It also makes marketing self-published books far easier. With companies like Google and Facebook allowing cost effective advertising to millions of potential customers, the only true advantage of a publisher has been eliminated.

And to be fair, that was the only true service a publisher could offer. Writers could pay a freelance editor, cover artist, printer, and make their own website. The one thing that was of great difficulty was marketing the book to large outlets and libraries. In the digital world, everyone is equal.

There are no concerns about under printing, losing shelf space, or going out of print. Everyone has the same chance to sell. In fact, an author can discount their books substantially (heck, the publisher would only pay them a $1.50 per book anyway. Why not sell it for $2?) and severely undercut a publishing house who has substantial overhead.

While the internet is no longer a new oddity in our culture, it is still a new frontier, and an excellent place for enterprising individuals to carve a living. That is, if they know where to look and are willing to commit to hard work and constant learning. The possibilities are truly endless.

Outline

Welcome to blog update 2. I know, a new blog entry so soon? I'm going to be updating this blog every Friday for those of you who like to keep everything on a clean schedule. For those who pop in at random, come back in a week for an update.

I've completed the first draft of the outline and moved forward with the first chapter. It has been a while since I've done any creative writing (and non-technical reading, for that matter), so I felt it was necessary to gauge how well I can follow the outline before re-writing it.

So far, it seems that I am able to follow the outline without much trouble. Creating an outline is an important processes when writing a novel or series of short stories. It can become very difficult to know when to end a chapter, and how to begin another without a clear view of the big picture. It can also allow you to predetermine what is contained within each novel, creating stronger plot continuity.

But I digress. I had originally planned on writing Firestorm to fully explain the technology base of the 23rd century. I feel that this bogs down the story with mundane technical details. Instead, I will also release an encyclopedia of technology for free on Scribd.com. This allows me to focus more on character development (a much more important aspect of writing) and give gear heads additional content to read at their leisure.

That's it for this blog post. See you again next week!