Do you ever have one of those weeks where it feels like you’ve conquered the world, and yet accomplished nothing remarkably tangible? That was me this week.
I was in a bit of writing limbo to begin with. The Storm and the Darkness (book 2) is in the hands of my betas, so I’m waiting patiently for their feedback. I won’t have my cover until next week, so I can’t get a jump on some of the early marketing.
So that meant that I could possibly do some playing and planning with books 3-5, or start outlining book 6 (for July NaNoWriMo). Never one to half-ass it, I decided to do ALL of these things.
Unrelated to the series, I wrote a post about Negative Review Etiquette that somehow took off around Facebook and the indie writing community and brought in over 1500 views just for that article alone. Crazy! If I had known it would get so much play, I might have spent more time prettifying it.
Without further adieu, here’s my House of Crimson and Clover updates:
St. Charles at Dusk (Available)
– Published an excerpt on The Community Storyboard. This would be unremarkable except for the fact that the scene I posted has never been previously shared online. It’s also a very personal scene for me.
The Storm and the Darkness (Coming July)
– Posted my first official excerpt from the book, on The Community Storyboard, to positive feedback. Getting ridiculously excited to get the cover and get this published.
– Had some TREMENDOUSLY helpful beta feedback from one of my betas who is actually sending me her thoughts as she reads. She’s so awesome I feel like I should be paying for her services.
The ILLUSIONS OF EVENTIDE (Coming JAN 2014)
– Posted a fun little WIP Update, as well as creating a few images that I can play with for Eventide-related posts until its time to buy my official cover from my awesome cover guy. Yes I know these are silly, but, damnit, I’m a writer not a graphic designer!
– Picked my “theme” color. Each of the books in my series has a color scheme with the cover. Dusk is purple, Darkness blue. Eventide will be green.
– Finished my outline. This one was the biggie. Although the book was already 50k words long, it needed a formal outline so that I could focus the story in a linear and consistent fashion.
– Moved the novel into Scrivener.
MIDNIGHT DYNASTY (Coming JULY 2014)
– Re-read the entire book (sitting at 50k words). Realized it was better than I thought, but it will definitely need the most work of ALL my drafts. Lots of POVs, lots of action, and lots of crazy plots.
– Picked a theme color. Red. Because of all the bloodshed (oooh, spoilers!).
MOONLIGHT AND MIDWINTER (Coming DECEMBER 2014)
– Re-read the entire book (sitting at 50k words). Holy crap- this is good. No, like, REALLY GOOD! I was so pleasantly surprised at how awesome this was, and I think it has to do with the fact that I had a detailed outline going into it. Editing this one is going to be so much easier than the others.
– Stepped WAY outside my comfort zone by posting a completely unedited chapter form the book on The Community Storyboard.
BOOK 6 (Coming JULY 2015)
– Book 6 is set to be my July 2013 NaNoWriMo project. With everything else going on, I was having trouble deciding on the next step in the story. But between re-reading the other books, and some brainstorming with my good friend Amanda, I think I have a story! Next step is to outline it before July.
Finally, I set some high-level writing goals for myself, for the rest of the year. With everything going on, I wanted to ensure I could stay on task with my writing and publishing goals:
May: Finish Book 6 Outline
June: Final Edits and Marketing Campaign for The Storm and the Darkness
July: Publish The Storm and the Darkness, Write Book 6 for NaNoWriMo
August-October: Editing phase for The Illusions of Eventide
November: Write Book 7 for NaNowriMo
December: Get The Illusions of Eventide to my betas
January: Release The Illusions of Eventide
(By the way, if you haven’t noticed a pattern above, I’d like to point out how awesome The Community Storyboard is. The fact that I posted excerpts- that I’ve never posted before- there before i posted them here should tell ya something. If you’re a writer, go post some of your work. If you’re a reader, go read some work. Either way, check it out!)
...and then there was Sarah 
+1 Support for the Community Storyboard! Hah, congratulations on the hits! That was a great post. Maybe just as a filler you should write short story, something completely different than you main book series. It helps me to shake things up now and again. 🙂
Thanks! It was actually not my best post, but I guess it was a hot topic! It’s a weird thing seeing big name book bloggers sharing your link across the interwebz…
For some reason I’ve never been good at short stories. Maybe because I’m long-winded. I feel like I need so much more space to get my point across! But I may start trying some of the writing prompts, to see if my mind can focus on a shorter point…
Tangible,shmangible. You got a lot of work done and should be proud. 😀
You’re right, of course. But you know how us writers like to marginalize our awesomeness 😛
We are a humble folk. 😉
Sarah, you are so organized! No wonder you are so productive 🙂 Seriously, I can only dream of being like that (and dreaming is another way I procrastinate ;))
I must be very convincing 🙂 I’m really good at making lists, but now always as good at following through on the things on them. Definitely trying though…and getting better 🙂
You for real write books? And get them published? Teach me your ways. I want to write at least one book…and it might sound silly but I don’t know how? Yea. I does sound silly. I would love some general guidelines. Advice. Suggestions. ANYTHING! Love your blog. Looking forward to reading more.
Oh, I have tons of suggestions 🙂 Mostly, you should write what you’re interested in. I’ve heard the advice before that you should “write what you would want to read,” and its one of the few pieces of writing advice that I think is really on the mark. There are quite a few websites out there with some basic structural advice if you’re wondering how to set it up and get a story developed. This one is a great one, I think, even if you’ve been writing awhile: http://www.how-to-write-a-book-now.com/
Once you have a story written…edit…share…research…and go for it 🙂 And if you have any specific questions along the way, I am always happy to help! ❤