Category: Writing

Magenta feelings take up shelter in the base of my spine

So between my work schedule and my sleep/wake cycle, lately I’ve been having trouble getting much work done, especially on the weekends (when I’m prone to sleep through entire days). I realize this is gonna sound late and redundant, but I feel like I need some accountability again.

He says, as if time is real and anyone but my dad is reading this…

GOAL 1) Publish The Atheist’s Inferno

  • My clear target is: Publish The Atheist’s Inferno
  • My reachable deadline is: June 30, 2023
  • My working days are: Wed-Fri
  • My method of measuring progress: Steps completed, page or scene count when possible, otherwise time or estimation, I guess
  • My end goal: Slam that publish button
  • My daily goal, and number of available days: 1 hr a day min (page/scene count will vary, depending), 3 days a week, at least one step completed each month
  • My leverage — WHY I need to do this: Well, it’s not gonna publish itself. XD
To break this down a little further, the essentials I need are:
  • Title – Already done.
  • Cover – Nailed it.
  • Copy – This is the description blurb that goes on the Amazon sale page. Should be cake.
  • E-book – This can be further broken down into: completing the editor’s revision (my current task), proofread and/or final edit, and formatting the e-book.
  • Keywords & Categories – No one really sees these but me, but they are super-duper important to Amazon. Keywords are unfortunately a super-duper pain in my ass. Categories are a breeze by comparison, so I’m not even really counting it as separate.

Thankfully, a lot of the hard work I put into this site, and researching publishing and marketing for The Atheist’s Prayer, means less work for me now to publish The Atheist’s Inferno. I know where to find the resources I need, and I’m already on the other side of “What if?” (In fact, I may go against the grain here and not even bother with the email list stuff this time, or just go minimal on it.)

So. 7 items, down to 5 left to complete, with just over 5 months to do it. Makes the math real easy, even if a couple of those items can, and most likely will, be done in under a week. Realistically, the end of June is probably way more lenient than I need to be, but. Nothing wrong with being early.

I do what I can, but sometimes I don’t make sense

Finally got all of Audrey’s notes transferred to sticky notes on the printed manuscript. And after some emails back and forth with her, I’ve planned out the most extensive part of this edit. The fix I finally came up with is quite a bit more work than I originally wanted to do, so it’s gonna be a painful process, but it’s gonna fix so many problems in its wake, and the book’ll be so much better when I’m done.

Running on fumes, what can I do?

Got the manuscript back from Audrey on Friday and spent all night reading her notes and comments. Then I spent Saturday and Sunday helping a friend, yadda yadda… I did reprint the MS last night so I can do the edit, and I’ve come to the conclusion that I really need a hole punch with a higher sheet capacity. I know what I’m getting for Christmas…

Anyway, I’m so glad I spend the money for a good developmental/content edit. After reading the thing over and over during revision, I get way too close to see the big picture. I mean, I have my inklings, and I was definitely moving in the right direction with the revision, but I didn’t quite hit the mark like I wanted. Didn’t take the fix far enough and unfortunately still ended up with a sizable plot hole.

So I’ve been mulling over her comments, knocking around some ideas, and I’m gonna run my thoughts past her and try to hammer out how to fix what I broke. Then, of course, the fun will be… fixing it.