Picking up and moving on

So, I’ve been sick a lot lately. I’m sure you’re all tired of hearing of it, and honestly, I’m tired of saying it.

I’m not well. I’m never well. Stupid chronic conditions. It has been worse over the past couple of months, and complicated by a nasty virus over the past couple of weeks, and it makes me want to whine and kick things (inanimate things, not living things – at least, that’s true when my frustration levels are low).

I’ve been putting things off. I’ve compromised just about everything in my life, taking time to try to get well. I’ve delayed Starwalker posts, taken time off my day job, postponed plans for other projects. Now, don’t get me wrong: I think this was the right thing to do, because health is important and without it I can’t do any of those things anyway. But that doesn’t mean that I’m not sick of it (ha ha, see what I did there?).

It’s time to get back into the swing of things. I’m only willing to put my life on hold for so long. I’m not fully over this virus yet, but if my work colleagues are anything to go by, the dregs of it are going to hang around for a couple of weeks yet. However, I’m well enough to start to do stuff again.

I’m back at work again, full time. I’m pushing myself to write the way I should be: every day on my morning and evening commutes. I managed to write this morning on the way to work, so I feel like I’m getting back on the horse.

Over the weekend, I cleaned my house. Tidied stuff up, got the bleach and the cleaning appliances out, and went nuts. It’s a testament to how off-the-ball I am that I had to split it over two days just to get it all done. (And this wasn’t doing everything on my own, either; I had family helping.) But it’s done. House is clean.

I also spent a few hours amid all that editing a 60-page business document, full of torturous legal-speak and obfuscating language that only marketing and business people with an incestuous relationship with a thesaurus can achieve. It also involved wrestling with Word’s styles, which is always an onerous task but one that I’m getting to be a dab hand at.

I got around to putting together the exercise bike I bought a couple of weeks ago while I was sicky, too. This is going to be my next attempt at putting some physical activity into my regular life, to try to drive the CFS back and generate some energy (I know, it sounds counter-intuitive, but it can work!).

I feel like I’m shaking off this fugue I’ve been in lately. Things are moving again.

I have been talking with my artist friend who did the Starwalker graphics for me about the Apocalypse Blog ebook covers, and I’m really enthused about the ideas she came back with. Can’t wait to get that going. The ebooks are currently being edited, and hopefully I’ll be able to release new and improved editions of the content over the next few weeks. Add the covers, and then all I need to do is revamp the blurbs, and see if that helps the books sales at all.

I got started with planning for this year’s NaNoWriMo, and the amount of stuff waiting for us to do there means that my mental list is filling up. But unlike those times lately when it’s all been too much, the long to-do list is making me feel enthused about getting stuff done.

It’s a lot of little things, all swirling around at once. But that’s okay: I tend to operate better when I’m multi-tasking, and having many balls to juggle in the air at once never daunts me.

I can do this. I’m still snuffling and coughing, still trying to shake off this virus, and still struggling for energy. It’s going to be a slow ramp-up to my usual levels of operation. But it has started now. This is me, determined to stop whining and get on with things.

There might be some stumbles along the way, however, I think I’m heading in the right direction. Wish me luck!

Novels and Retreats

It’s coming up to that time of year again: time to think about this year’s NaNoWriMo and all the fun stuff we want to do therein. It’s a bit early to be thinking about November, I hear you say? Never, I reply. When you are as ambitious about NaNo events as my co-MLs and I are, it’s never too early. If anything, I think I’ve been leaving things a bit late (I can’t believe it’s almost June already).

The Municipal Liaison sign-up-again forms were released yesterday. I wasted no time in filling it out and confirming that yes, I fully intend to be an ML again. And this year, it looks like I’ll have not only one, but two lovely people working alongside me in the ML role! I can’t tell you how grateful I am for them, and for all the Wrimos who offer their help and support as well. They allow me to go nuts with the stuff I want to do.

Last year was all about trying out this new ‘Writer’s Retreat’ thing and figuring out how to make it work. This year, we know what questions to ask and what we need, and I think we’re better equipped to make the Retreat even more of a success this time around.

A few months ago (before I started to get sick and had to focus on other things), the three of us MLs went up a mountain in search of a new Retreat venue. We found a truly stunning venue, with exactly the facilities we need and an inspiring milieu for transporting the stories from our heads onto the page. I can’t tell you how much I’d love to hold a Retreat up there.

Can you hear the ‘but’ coming? Because yes, there’s a but. And it is: but the price tag is a problem.

We have to be honest about the audience that we’re catering for here. NaNo crosses so many boundaries – social, economic, age, race, religion, species (well, maybe not species, but you never know who’s an alien these days) – but some things ring true for the majority, particularly for the majority of participants who get involved in events. There are a lot of people with little in the way of disposable income in that majority, for many reasons: they are students, unemployed, on benefits, or have hefty life overheads to deal with. This is just one of the things that we have to keep in mind when formulating a plan for this year’s Retreat.

We want the Retreat to be as open to our Wrimos as possible. This isn’t about being elitist or exclusionist: I want as many people as possible to feel that they can come (even if they don’t necessarily want to). And with all that in mind, we have to try to keep the cost of the Retreat as low as we can.

The mountain is beautiful, but it is pricey. My co-MLs and I have looked around at other similar mountain-bound facilities, and they all seem about the same in terms of cost.

The mountain resorts are not easy to get to, either. Another consideration that we have to keep in mind is that not all of our Wrimos drive; probably less than half. Ease of access is a necessity (or a potential headache for us MLs to sort out, and we don’t really need more of those if we can avoid it).

I really wanted to go up a mountain. But it looks like it’s not going to happen this year.

We have been looking around at many alternatives. The island was a hit last year and I’m quite happy to go back there, so we’ve investigated some options and come up with a venue that might work for us. There were a few glitches with the venue we used last year, and I’m all for trying new places to see if we can improve things, so it’s going to be a bit different.

At least we already know how to get everyone to the island; that’s a problem off our list.

Comparing it with the mountain venue, it’s about half the cost. You can see why we’re leaning towards the island at this point.

Nothing is set in stone just yet. My co-MLs and I are arranging a trip to the island next week to check out the new venue to see if it’s all it’s supposed to be, and maybe poke at some other options while we’re over there. The venues are booking up fast, so we’re going to have to make a decision fairly quickly.

The balls are rolling. The Writer’s Retreat is taking shape.

Curious about this new venue? Well, without giving too much away: it’s right on the beach, has a proper conference room for writing in, and enough accommodation to hold us all. I’ll give more details once we have them nailed down.

And what about other NaNo plans? I’m sure they’ll follow along soon. I’m starting to get my thoughts together and will be comparing them with those of my co-MLs in the near future. There are party bags to fill, write-ins to schedule, write-outs to coordinate, a Kick-off Party to plan… lots to do! Watch us go.

On a more personal note, I’ve also started to think about what I might write for this year’s NaNo challenge. No more trying to blitz through whatever web serial I’m writing at the time (as I’ve done for the past few years); this year, I’m going to do a more traditional (non-rebellious) NaNo and start something new. Will it be a novel? Maybe. Or it could be the start of a new web serial. I have a few irons in the mental fires, and I’m turning them over one by one to see which one is going to be chosen. I’ve started making notes on some of them.

As I shake off this recent bout of sickness, I’m looking forward to the next few months. To planning and preparing, and grabbing up all my lovely Wrimos so they come along for the ride. It’s time to get moving and shake it like I’ve got a purpose.

I can’t wait. How are your NaNo preparations coming?

Mountain high

I have been doing a lot of writing-centric posts lately (yay!). Here’s one about the semi-writing-related stuff I’ve been up to lately, just to mix things up and because I’m struggling to get another advice piece up at the moment.

Last week, I had a break from work. It was a good chance to decompress and take things easy, even though my to-do list was daunting. In the end, I didn’t get to most of my to-do list, but seeing as the week was intended to be a rest for me, I don’t feel bad about that.

I got the important stuff done. Like taking a drive up a mountain with my lovely NaNoWriMo co-MLs, to check out a conference centre and resort for this year’s Writer’s Retreat.

Of course, Queensland weather being what it is, we were hammered by storms early last week: there were trees down and landslips everywhere, and going up a mountain is a tricky endeavour at the best of times. Luckily, Queenslanders being who they are, by the end of the week most of the damage had been cleared away, and even my poor little car managed to make the trip up to the top (~1,000ft above sea level).

It is gorgeous up there. It’s a subtropical rainforest at that altitude, so as you go up, you pass through fields and woodlands, and then into dark avenues through the forest. Exposed rockfaces, dangerous inclines and landslip areas, ferns and palm trees. Sudden vistas of trees rippled into valleys and stretches of green to more mountains, hazy in the distance. The talk of dinosaurs was only natural in that setting (I suspect at least one of us went home and watched Jurassic Park afterwards!).

(Also, you know you’ve been playing too much Guild Wars 2 when you see a beautiful view and start wondering where the jumping puzzle to the vista is.)

We got to see so much of the mountaintop once we got up there. The lovely conference manager at the resort showed us around, which involved climbing in and out of a 4×4 to navigate the tracks and ‘roads’ (I use the term loosely). He showed us everything up there, from a little out-of-the-way BBQ shack with a dirt floor, to a precipice leaning over a sprawling view, to cows (they farm up there, wtf), to the flying fox, to the conference centre and villas.

In the resort and centre, we got to see inside all the rooms and villas, and looked at all the options available to us when we put our retreat package together. It’s lovely. I wasn’t the only one to fall in love with it all, and I can totally picture us there for a weekend, clutching our laptops, typing furiously… and taking breaks in the infinity pool that spills down towards the edge of a cliff. Plus there’s a spa in the conference centre, and a good massage never goes amiss for poor, overworked MLs.

What’s the downside, I hear you ask? Because we all know there has to be one. Well, it’s more expensive than last year’s venue. I know that’s going to impact some of our attendees pretty significantly. We’re looking at the options available to see where we can slide in some savings, as well as alternate venues, but it’s still going to come out more expensive. This is part of why we’re starting work on this so early, so we can let everyone know and they can start saving. But it’s going to be so worth it.

It’s also not the easiest place to get to. However, we have a couple of things in mind to mitigate that, like coach options. I’m sure we can work something out. (If we can get 35 people to an island and back, I’m sure we can get ’em up a mountain.)

Overall, while we still have a lot of planning to do, I’m feeling really good about the Retreat this year. It’s going to be even better than last year. Can’t wait to get moving on it!

2013: plans and dreams

I’ve done the retrospective for 2012; now it’s time to look to the future. Now is the time for possibilities and ambition.

I usually like to aim high at a time like this. I know I probably won’t do everything I put on this list, but if it’s not here I’ll never do it. I’ll most likely get to most of it and that’s all good.

Let’s get the boring, necessary stuff out of the way first.

Work

This is settling down for me at the moment. I’m hoping to stay with my current team for a stretch and make a bit of a home for myself, and the management have assured me that this is likely (as far as their current plans say, but, well, you never know with these things). Some stability would be nice.

The stress is a lot less than it was and I’ll be aiming to keep it that way.

Financial Issues

Now that our house move is complete and we’ve reduced some of our overheads, I’m hoping that this will plateau as well. We’ve got a bit of work to do on this front but, with luck, our situation should be sustainable for the next few months at least.

I’m working to worry less about this stuff.

Health

The CFS isn’t going away anytime soon, and as long as it doesn’t get any worse, it’s manageable. I’m used to dealing with it (I was diagnosed over 7 years ago), so not a big worry there.

I’ve got some testing coming up in a couple of months to investigate some other issues I’m having. I’m nervous about the tests (mostly because they’ll put me out and anaesthetic doesn’t get along well with me), but I’m glad at the possibility for answers and, hopefully, treatment. I won’t say ‘cure’ because I don’t believe in unicorns and there’s no way I’m that lucky. Progress is good, though, and it’s moving in the right direction.

Writing

Ah-ha, here’s the important part! Here’s the section of my life where I get to have fun, where I aim for the stars and am quite happy with landing on the moon. So, what’s on my list for 2013?

Starwalker: Web Serialising

First up, I will finish Starwalker. I keep saying that there’s still a lot to come, and while I don’t want to put a date on its conclusion, it will definitely finish this year, probably in the first quarter.

When I say ‘finish’, I mean that I’ll get to the end of Book 3, which is the end of the original story arc I planned when I set out on this journey. Will that mean the end of the web serial completely?

Honestly, I’m not sure. I don’t believe in stringing stories out for the sake of it (which is why I haven’t gone back to the Apocalypse Blog in so long: I haven’t felt like I’ve got more story to tell there). However, I’m pretty sure my readers will have something to say if I kill it completely and I’ve come to love my readers a lot.

I do have a follow-up story in mind. There has been a notecard with the name of the story-arc on it pinned to my planning pinboard for a couple of years now. I don’t think it’ll be a full novel-length story – it’s a novella at best at this stage – but maybe it’ll make a good interim story for me to tell while I ponder the future of the Starwalker and her crew.

Starwalker: Ebooks

This is something I’ve had my eye on for a while now. I’d really love to package the Starwalker saga up into ebooks and release it.

However, that’s not a quick process. Firstly, they have to be edited. I already know of some rewriting I want to do (nothing major, but it’s work that needs to be done), and I’m sure there will be more honing and polishing that I’ll do as I go through. This all takes time, and how much I continue the web serial will impact on how quickly this happens.

Next up, I need covers. That will probably cost money, which I’ll talk about later. I have some base graphics already but I want something really slick and professional for the book covers. Which means no home jobs by me (I freely admit that I suck at graphics).

The formatting and releasing parts are easy once all the above is done. I’d like to get at least one book out this year.

Starwalker: Shorts

I made a start on this in 2012 and I mean to continue it. I have stories planned for almost all of the crew (the shorts are character-focussed stories) and I’d like to get through all of them eventually.

It’s hard to have a fixed goal with this, because so much depends on other commitments. Shall we say one a month? That’s probably a bit ambitious; one every two months is more realistic.

My end goal with this is to compile them into an ebook – a Starwalker ‘get to know the crew’ anthology – and release it. Possibly for free. (Having a freebie available really helps draw people into paying for the series: this is what the Apocalypse Blog ebooks have taught me!)

Alternatively, I could release them individually, but that depends on being able to get the covers for them. On the plus side, I would be able to release them sooner if I didn’t have to wait for the anthology to be complete. Also, individual character covers would be awesome.

Vampire Electric

My goal for this year is somewhat simpler here: finish the first draft. I already have a pile of notes for the second draft, including a bit of a restructure, but I really need to get the first run-through finished. I’d love to find out how this story will end! (Yes, yes, I have something in mind, but as always with me, it’s a general, blurry picture that I won’t truly figure out until I get there.)

Tales from the Screw Loose

This is, potentially, the next web serial on my list to pick up. It’s set in the Starwalker universe and is the first spin-off that I have in mind to tackle (I have a whole list of spin-off ideas for the Starwalker universe!). You may have heard me refer to it as the ‘robot brothel story’: Tales from the Screw Loose is its proper name.

I’m not sure if I’ll get to this over the next year. A lot depends on whether or not I keep Starwalker going (as a web serial), because I have a strict rule of one web serial active at a time. I know my own limits well enough to know that both stories would suffer if I tried to keep two going in tandem.

Regardless, I still have some work to do before I can get started on this story. I have made a start on the worldbuilding (it’s set on one of the colony planets) but I need to work out the cast and some of the plot elements before I start putting fingers to keyboard.

I also need to sort out the website and I’m pondering some custom graphics/design for it. This may cost money, so is dependent on a number of factors. On the plus side, I’ve already got the domain: screwloosetales.com (yes, it’s a bit early, but I’m determined like that and I didn’t want to lose the domain while I sorted the rest of it out).

For this year, I think I’d like to have the prep all done and the story ready to go. Actual words on the page will be a bonus!

Apocalypse Blog

The ebooks are going pretty well. I’d like to capitalise on some of the good reviews and see about marketing it, but I’m pretty bad at self-promotion, so I won’t make any firm plans about this.

I would like to do paper book editions of it, however. Most likely through Amazon’s CreateSpace, which will link nicely up to the ebooks on Amazon (and it seems like a better and cheaper system than Lulu).

I’ve had a look at the work required to do this and it’s not as easy as the ebooks were. It’ll take some time to get the formatting done for printing, and I’ll also need to get the covers redone.

I’d also like to get the books re-edited, and will most likely refresh the ebook editions when I do that.

I’ve been tossing around the idea of doing an omnibus edition, at least of the ebooks, so I’ll look into this, too.

There have been many calls for another (fourth) book in the series, and a part of me really wants to satisfy this desire. However, I’m not sure what that fourth book would entail. I’m letting it rest in the back of my brain for now; if inspiration strikes, I’ll be sure to let you all know. Never say never!

NaNoWriMo

Ah, my annual nuttiness. I don’t have a huge amount planned yet, but we’re all pretty sure that there will be another Writer’s Retreat. This time, up a mountain! I’ll be heading on a roadtrip soon with my lovely co-MLs (I might have two this time!) to check out the options. I’m sure that it won’t be long before that ball is off and rolling.

The rest of the NaNo stuff will be worked out over the months leading up to November. No other firm plans yet, but there will no doubt be plenty of write-ins at our favourite Coffee Club, drinkies, and possibly a write-out or two.

Crowdfunding

This is an option that I’ve been looking at lately. I know other writers have had success with platforms like Kickstarter and have raised money to allow them to develop a new story, pay for covers and printing costs, and that sort of thing.

As mentioned above, some of what I want to do requires paying for services. I’ve had donations through the links on my websites and I am endlessly grateful to the donors for their generosity: they helped to pay for the Starwalker graphics I had done in 2012. But what I have in mind is going to take rather more.

Due to being based outside the US and UK, I can’t run a Kickstarter campaign. However, there are other options available: most notably, Pozible and iPledg look promising, but I haven’t gone through all the crowdfunding platforms available to me yet.

A campaign seems like a lot of work but I think I want to give it a go. I am terrible at asking for money (see previous comments about self-promotion), but I have always been astounded by the generosity and support of the online community. I approve of the notion of the rewards you can offer to supporters, too. And at the end of the day, what’s the worst that could happen?

It’s good to know that I have this option when I’m looking at commissioning covers for Starwalker, or a website for Screw Loose. All those things that require money for me to achieve could actually be possible!

Now all I need to figure out is what to ask for and what I can realistically offer as rewards. And then the time to do it all.

Other Stuff?

Wow, I’m not sure. What else might 2013 hold for me? No doubt I’m forgetting about something. These are the things that are buzzing around in my head right now. This is what I’m taking with me into 2013.

Now excuse me, I think I’m going to go away and write something.

The year that was… 2012

The beginning of a new year is not so different from any other day. It’s an arbitrary demarcation of a calendar that we give meaning to, rather like a lot of people did to the Mayan calendar (particularly, its end). It think it’s good to remind ourselves that calendars only hold the meaning we give them.

The turning of the year is a way to mark time and, hopefully, progress. It’s a chance to step back and take a look at where we were and where we are now. It’s a chance to try to gain some perspective. It’s when we look forward and think about where we want to be. It’s when we take the time to make plans, rather than the usual day-to-day we live.

So let’s start with the road travelled so far. 2012: a year of struggle for me.

Work

Necessary toil: my day job as a technical writer pays the bills and lets me do my creative writing. Plus, I get to put my writing skills to good, professional use.

Over the past year, I coordinated the delivery of:

• A major release, 2 and a half years in the making. I coordinated the entire documentation side of the project from start to end. Getting it released was a huge effort and I was glad to see if over and done with!
• 2 minor releases, both roughly 4-month projects. There might have been another one in there. I lost track; they kept turning up on my plate without any warning.

With all that to juggle, there were a lot of changes. Over the year, I changed:

• Positions twice. Once from team leader to team writer, and then back to team leader again (it’s a different role now and I’m managing developers and testers as well as writers, which is all new to me).
• Teams thrice. Lots of reasons for this, most of them positive about me.
• Desks more times than I can remember, but at least three times!

Other challenges included continuing to strive to overcome problem team members (despite no longer actually being in the same team as them) and adapting the documentation processes after a restructure as our department moved into Agile practices.

It has been stressful to say the least, and a lot of mental effort to stay on top of it all. But I did. I pulled off everything they handed to me. I made it to the end of the year without snapping and breaking down or getting myself fired. I’m still here, working away and keeping my head above water.

Financial Issues

At home, things have been tough, too. Like so many others here and around the world, our financial situation is not good. We’ve been fighting to make ends meet, and wound up moving house to reduce our costs. (It’s a good move and a lovely house, so I’m not disappointed by that, but wow it was a lot of work.)

A lot has been resting on me at home. I’m the primary breadwinner, which means those times when I’ve wanted to walk away from my job, even downgrade to something less stressful, I can’t afford to. So I’ve pushed through and done what I can to support my family while they get their own stuff sorted out.

It’s all coming along, as slowly as it always has. We’re in a more sustainable position now, which is good, and that should lift some of the pressure.

Health

Between the chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and other issues that are exacerbated by stress, I haven’t had the best of years. I’m running ragged most of the time. I’ve been sick more than usual.

I’d like to think that it hasn’t impacted my writing but I know it has. I’ve missed posting deadlines; more than once, I’ve put posts off for a week because I can’t make it. I despise that. I hate knowing that I’ve failed to keep my promises; my readers are wonderfully forgiving, but I’m not. I know that if I don’t push myself, it won’t get done at all. I don’t like letting myself or my readers down.

I don’t know if the quality of my writing has been impacted. I don’t have any real perspective right now, but I suspect that it has.

It’s just another one of those things that I’m pushing through. I’m carrying on despite it, because I refuse to let things like this stop me from doing what really matters to me. Which is:

Writing

Here’s the part that we’re all interested in: that wonderful activity that I fill up all my off-time with, the thing that gives me a break from everything else when I need it and keeps me going. The things that spurs my hopes and dreams, and spills my soul out onto pages.

Even with everything that has been going on (and still is!), even with all that clutter in my head, I have stories to tell. I have characters who want to speak. I have things to say. It has been harder than usual – writing with energy when you don’t have any is far from easy – but I’ve done my best to keep up.

Starwalker

My web serial is still going strong. I’m averaging a book a year and this year doesn’t seem to be any different (though this third book is looking like it’s going to stretch well into next year!).

I’m still loving it. Starry and her crew are so much fun to play with, even when I’m torturing them. I have a wonderful, supportive readership; checking the comments on the posts is a highlight of my week.

The visit rate has been holding fairly steady through the year, slowly creeping upwards. Currently, I’m getting over 3,000 unique visitors a month, and anywhere between 250 and 400 visitors every day. It’s easily beating the Apocalypse Blog‘s stats, which hit 200 visits on a good day if I was lucky (I think it averaged around 180 v/d).

Starwalker has made it to the top 10 of Top Web Fiction‘s lists, and has been hovering around the number 1 spot for science fiction for some months now. This makes me insanely happy and proud.

The actual writing part has been rocky. As mentioned above, I’ve had to delay posts a few times this year. Keeping it going has been a struggle at times; one that I hope hasn’t been visible to the reader, at least not in the writing itself.

I feel like Starwalker’s plot has slid sideways and meandered more than I’d like, but it’s still heading in the right direction. I still know where it’s going to end up and how it’s all going to end. I’m excited to get there, though it’ll be a little while yet. So many miles to go!

Overall, I’m really happy with where I am. The serial is over 300,000 words now and still going. All my plans are still working and I’m laying the foundations for what’s to come. It still makes me smile when I sit down to write it.

Shorts

This is usually something I keep promising that I’ll do and then never get to. But this year, not so! I made a start on some Starwalker shorts, and three of them are complete.

Not as many as I had hoped for, but it’s a start. They prompted positive reactions and I can’t ask for more than that. I have lots of plans in this area, but that’s for another post.

Vampire Electric

Ah, the elusive steampunk novel. I started off this year writing it in tandem with Starwalker, but had to take a break around March to get my breath back. It took until November for me to pick it up again. I made good progress with it, though there’s another big chunk that needs to be written before the first draft is done.

I’m really pleased that I’ve been able to keep working on it, even if my attention in this area has been sporadic. Often, it takes me a while to get back into a project – it’s one of the reasons I try not to take ‘breaks’ – but not so with this one. It still speaks to me loudly enough that I can take a few months off and still go back to writing it without any problems.

It’s not finished yet but it’s getting closer.

NaNoWriMo

The annual novel-writing craziness was a wild ride this year. I’ve written four blog posts about it, so I won’t go into details here. In brief: it was hard, I learned things, my people are awesome, and I’m completely nuts (but the Retreat was amazing).

Apocalypse Blog

This one is last because I haven’t done any actual writing in this area this year. However, there has been activity!

Early this year, books 2 and 3 of AB were released. Around the same time, Amazon realised that Book 0 was free elsewhere and price-matched it, which led to a huge up-kick in sales.

I am now getting monthly cheques from Amazon. They’re not huge, they’re not enough to pay the bills with, but they do mean that I’m a published, paid author. I still grin like a kid when I think about that. I feel like I’ve Made It, at least in the indie sphere.

The books are doing well! After some experimentation with pricing, I’m selling roughly 150 books per month. Book 0 (the free one) usually hovers in the middle of Amazon’s top 100 (in science fiction).

I’m also getting some pretty awesome reviews. People keep asking when the next (4th) book is coming out. There’s no more, not yet!

Readers like my work enough to want more. Couldn’t ask for more than that, really.

Writing Community

I wrote about this in reference to NaNo, but it’s worth saying how awesome the people around me have been this year. The group has been building for several years now, and over the past year or so, it has taken on a momentum of its own. I feel that the writers in this city have really gelled and become a wonderful, supportive community that I’m a big part of.

In fact, I’m often leading it, which is intimidating when I stop to think about it. As a NaNoWriMo ML, I naturally do a lot of the coordination, but it extends well outside November. Its monthly write-ins and weekly drinks run all year now, along with my regular writing group.

My Creative Writing Group is still going strong. It has been running for over four years now and I still have a good turnout every month. There are new faces joining and long-standing ones drifting away, but that’s the way of things. We have yet to run out of things to talk about and explore, and if I know my group (which I do pretty well now!), we won’t stop any time soon.

I’ve made many good friends through the various groups and events that I’m a part of. They’ve become dear parts of my life and I’m grateful for all of them. As years go, this one has been a winner in this respect.

Not to mention that I have an actual social life now. Who knew that would happen to me? Who could have predicted that it would come out of what is, essentially, a solitary activity?

Life is strange. And there’s so much more to come.

That has pretty much been my year. Productive, hard work, and progressive. I’m in a better place now than I was at the beginning of the year. I’m getting there, one slow step at a time.

I’m glad 2012 is almost over; I’m done with it. I’m looking forward to closing the book on this year and starting a new one. Next year will be better and brighter.

NaNoWriMo 2012 Part 4: the Writer’s Retreat

As I mentioned in Part 2, every year, I try to do something bigger and better than the year before. Just one thing, because let’s not go crazy. That’d be silly, right? Right. ‘Course.

The end of a NaNo is always a prime time to think ‘how can I top this next year?’, while we’re still caught up in the euphoria and relief of another challenge faced and beaten. Last year, I thought about the awesomeness of our write-ins: 10-hour days of writers in a restaurant, tapping away on keyboards. They’re intended to be drop-in, drop-out sessions, but the MLs aren’t the only ones who are there for the whole time. We have some very dedicated writers. And I wondered: how can we make these even better?

Of course, the natural answer was: let’s go to an island (there’s one handily nearby) and have a weekend-long write-in. Thus was born the NaNoWriMo 2012 Writer’s Retreat.

I knew it was ambitious. I’d never done something like this before; sure, I’ve organised events, booked tables and space, sent out communiqués, etc. But to organise something like a conference, with accommodation and food and transport and money – that’s a whole different ball of wax.

If nothing else, I’ve never had to sort out the payment part before. I hate asking people for money; this is why my Creative Writing Group is free and I tend to arrange events that are free to come to. It’s just a headache that I don’t need.

But screw it, I thought. I’ll have to do it if I want a retreat.

When I polled the 2011 Wrimos for interest in coming to (and paying for) a retreat, I got a positive response, so I knew I’d get people to come. When I went ‘aahhhh’ at my writer friends, I got loads of offers of help. I wouldn’t have to do it all on my own.

Okay, I thought. I’ve got support and an enthusiastic base of writers. I can do this.

So I did. Starting back in June 2012, I got the ball rolling. Sorted out dates, a venue, accommodation and food, and got the booking form set up. I sent the word out to my region, somewhat nervously.

After that, it trundled along pretty steadily. Bookings trickled in, followed by deposits. I continued to work details out with my travel agent and slowly got all the information together.

It was around September when I had enough bookings to make the whole thing financially viable; everything above that was a bonus, and there were still plenty of places available. I could breathe a little easier at that point, because I knew I wouldn’t have to make up any shortfall myself (it was a risk and a cost I couldn’t truly afford, and one of my biggest worries when going into this kind of thing).

Running up to the deadline for confirming numbers, I had to chase people for money (which, as I said earlier, I hate doing), and there was stress over getting it all in on time. A couple of cancellations after the deadline threw a spanner in the works, but luckily the ticket-holders found others to take their places. I got the payments in time to meet the deadlines. Everything was lining up nicely.

One of the biggest headaches I had was the transport. In hindsight, I should have left people to make their own way over to the island, but no, I had to go and try to make things cheap by filling up cars with passengers (the ferry charges per car, so splitting the cost over passengers made it cheaper for everyone). It required a bunch of logistics, including getting everyone to the port at the same time.

This is a good time to point out that there were 35 people going to the Retreat, including me (and a small child, who was coming to distract her parents from writing). 35! That number still boggles me.

I should also point out that I had help. My co-ML was a huge help with wrangling writers and running the weekend. He was tasked with meeting everyone at the port and getting them into cars and on the ferry (by that point, I was over on the island, setting up). And, to my great relief, it all went to plan.

I really don’t know what I would have done without his help. I’m so lucky to have such support.

It didn’t all go perfectly. When I arrived, I had to hurriedly organise a logistical screw-up: the venue couldn’t provide the one thing we needed for the weekend. Namely, a place we could all get together and write. I had been promised by the agent that the deck on the villa we booked would hold up to 50 people with tables, chairs, and laptop power access. It actually only held 20. We had over 30 writers, so this was a problem. You could say I was a little furious (luckily, the agent wasn’t on the island).

After some rapid negotiations with the resort’s manager, we managed to get a closed cafe for an afternoon to all get together, but for the rest of the weekend, we were split over two areas.

I wasn’t pleased (this is an understatement: I’m still pissed that the agent messed up the central requirement of the trip: that we could all write together). But the writers who came all went along with what we had happily and there was no fuss. It wasn’t a disaster in the end, so I’m happy! (However, I won’t be using that agent again.)

The other hiccup we had was the hotel we had dinner at on the Saturday of the Retreat. The agent had promised me it was a 5-minute walk up the road, really close. It was actually a 15-minute walk up a hill. It doesn’t sound like a huge difference when put into words like that, but it was a problem for some of our less physically able attendees (including the 2-year-old). I had to run around and arrange lifts back to the resort for several of them (which put a dent in my ability to drink and relax over dinner).

All of it was stuff I really shouldn’t have had to deal with, headaches I didn’t need. But we sorted it out and made it work and, more importantly, it didn’t spoil it for our attendees.

Overall, the Retreat went very smoothly (despite those things!). People arrived, were sorted into their rooms, and went where they were asked to. There were drinks and games and lots of talking and laughing. People unwound, relaxed, spun stories and played in the ocean. There was a peace train across the floor: backrubs for all! There were no dramas (except in our stories, of course), and everyone stuck to the golden rule of events I run: no hospital trips.

Better than that: the attendees all had fun. I had so many of them stop me to say what a good time they were having and how much they enjoyed it all. They thanked me for organising it and I got so many hugs. When we did the prize-giving at the end of the weekend, one of the writers prompted a round of applause to thank my co-ML and me for the weekend, and it went on for an embarrassingly long time. It’s hard to mind, though!

I was honestly pleased and surprise by the wealth of good feedback I got. The mental overhead of running it and the issues I had to deal with had given me a skewed view of how it really went (for those who are not me). I couldn’t have hoped for a better reaction to the endeavour and I am endlessly stunned by the generosity, understanding, and willingness of my writers. I couldn’t have asked for a better bunch of people to go to an island with!

Here are some fun stats for the weekend:

• Total words written: 230,407
• Most words written by a single person: 19,404
• Largest percentage increase on starting wordcount: 301%
• Most words written in a 10-minute word war: 1306
• Most words written in a 15-minute word war: 1605
• Number of people who hit 50,000 words: 5
• Number of people who hit 100,000 words: 1
• Important non-writing lesson learnt: don’t hug the jellyfish (they sting!)

So of course, the next logical question is: what shall we do for a retreat next year? And naturally, I have some ideas. We’ve done an island, so let’s shake it up again. Let’s go up a mountain, to the top where we can walk through the top of the rainforest. I know a couple of places where we can do that.

The notion was floated among friends and attendees, and the reactions are all positive. Ideas are forming already, plans sliding quietly into place. A roadtrip up a mountain to check into the facilities available is coming up in the next couple of months.

Am I insane? Quite possibly. But that’s okay.

I’m better equipped for it this time. I know what questions to ask and what to keep an eye out for. I know more about what I’m doing (and what not to do). And I know I have awesome support to help me make it fun and easy for us all.

And honestly, I can’t wait. One rocking weekend out of the way: bring on the next one.

NaNoWriMo 2012 Part 3: the wrong project

For the past few years, I have worked on my web serial for at least most of my NaNoWriMo wordcount. It’s a good way to build up that buffer of posts that I miss out on for most of the year, and power on towards the end of a story arc, or even the story.

It’s not really what NaNo is for, and I have come to the conclusion that it’s not the best way for me to use that time.

NaNoWriMo is supposed to be about starting something new, about writing that project that you’ve been putting off, or haven’t got to yet, or just can’t find the time for. It’s about kick-starting your writing and galloping on until you’ve got 50,000 words. It’s about making time in your busy life for making stories.

I write regularly – every day, if I can. At least a post a week; sometimes more, depending on my energy levels and what projects are buzzing around in my head at any particular time. I have a routine, a habit.

Disrupting that routine to pump out enough words to meet NaNo targets is hard. It’s especially difficult when it’s the same project that I’ve been writing for months: I’m doing the same as I was before November; I’m just doing more of it. The same characters, the same story, but faster and more frantically. It’s not so much a change as a cranking-up of what’s already there. It’s difficult to really grip that November enthusiasm and run with it, and I struggle to get caught up in it the same way I used to.

NaNo is also supposed to be about turning off the internal editor and just writing. It’s freeing and wonderful for shaking off those wordy cobwebs. But when writing the web serial, I can’t switch off that editor. I can’t do all those things that NaNo encourages, like running off on a tangent or pausing to write up some exposition that’s useful for me but going to be cut before it’s published, or just chasing a plot down a rabbithole to see where it might take me.

I have to publish the web serial every week and that means I have to keep it on the straight-and-narrow. I have to write only what I intend to publish, or I suck up precious NaNo time editing them into shape – and wind up cutting many of those words that I so freely inserted. I don’t have time to explore wild tangents or ramble about a character’s childhood. I don’t want to break the good writing habits I’ve developed around my web serial writing, either. I have to write proper, publishable words.

On the plus side, I know that my 50,000 words are all useable and there’s little dross in there.

I miss the freedom of just writing for NaNo. I miss being able to throw words at a page just to see what happens. Sometimes, I feel like I’m missing some of the frenetic fun of the challenge.

In the last couple of NaNos, I have wound up switching away from my web serial to another project (the steampunk novel is coming along nicely as a result!). I get to a point where I know I just can’t continue writing anything useful, so I move on to something else. That’s the point that I’ve delved into something new, something different to what I normally write, and not something that’s going to be posted anywhere soon, so I have the freedom to let my editor sleep for a while.

That’s been more NaNo-ish for me. And I think that’s going to be my plan for next year.

Now, I’ll be clear: it’s not that I don’t like writing the web serial. I still love Starwalker, with all of its beautifully flawed characters and the plot that is careening towards the end of the story (it’s still a way off, but I have it in sight). I love writing it. But it’s just not working as a NaNo project for me any more.

That has been one of the biggest lessons I’m taking away from this year’s NaNo. Continuing with an existing, ongoing project isn’t good for me, so I need to shake it up. Next year, things will be different.

If I’m still web serial writing at that time (what will happen after Starwalker ends?? I have no idea), then I’ll have to put some effort in to build up a buffer to carry me through November. I’ll make sure that I’ve got something new all planned out and lined up (the robot brothel might be a good candidate).

And when the ball drops on NaNoWrimo 2013, I’ll start something fresh and different. I’ll let my editor off the leash and chase it out into the park. I’ll play in words like a kid in a ballpool.

Who knows, I might even get to the end of the story this time.

NaNoWriMo 2012 Part 2: it only gets better

One of the best things about NaNoWriMo is the community. It’s about connecting with other writers, with other people as insane as you are, because they’ve taken on this challenge, too. You’ll find people from all walks of life giving this adventure a try: some of them will be just like you; some will be crazier, aiming for ever more ambitious goals; some will look at you in awe for what you’re doing. But you have something in common and that’s powerful.

Writing is usually a solitary activity. It’s so easy to get lost in our lives and not talk about the stories we spin, in our heads or in text. It’s so easy to create in a void and forget that the world exists. NaNo breaks those walls down. It gets people together. It gets them talking. It gets them in a room, writing, and it’s good.

As a Municipal Liaison (ML), I’m privileged in that I get to meet and talk to many of my local Wrimos. Not all of them (there are over 3,000 in my region now!), but enough that I gain a glimpse of the breadth of the writing community we have here.

This was my fifth year in this region (my first year of NaNo was in the UK), and it has been interesting to watch the community change and grow. I’ve come to know so many people. Some have come and gone; some lingered, coming to my writing group or other writing events; some have gone away and returned, years later. Every year, the NaNo landscape changes, and I’m lucky enough to be a part of it.

The first year I was here, I had no idea what I was doing. But the Wrimos were good enough to put up with my mad scrambling to figure out this new city and everything they wanted to do (I had a couple of co-MLs that year, but they disappeared in the first week of November, never to be heard from again). I’m lucky that I don’t mind the deep end, because I keep ending up in it.

My second year here, I had a good friend co-MLing with me and a clue about where to start. We started to establish more patterns and traditions for NaNo in our region. Write-ins, word wars, kick-off parties, wrap-up parties. By the next year, we were MLing machines.

And the flock kept growing. Each year, some of them would stick around, and they’ve grown into good friends. After my third NaNo here, we decided to keep the write-ins going through the year. Just once a month: often enough to be regular and yet easy to fit into our diaries. Some of those faces we used to see only during NaNo returned to the monthly write-ins. The community settled into a new way of being.

Last year was a bit of a bonanza when it came to growth in the community. We had an influx of new blood (more than usual!) and a lot of them weren’t once-a-year novelists: they had a real desire to get stuck into the community. We had drinks meet-ups once a week during NaNo 2011, and then we just didn’t stop. They’re still going now, every week, and the group that comes is only getting bigger.

It’s a great bunch of people. This year, we’ve added some more new faces to the mix, and I hope to keep seeing that happen.

I try something new every year, to see what else we can do to keep it fresh and interesting for all of us. Writing on the city’s train system. Writing out on a lawn in the glorious sunshine. Going on a weekend retreat to an island. I’ve yet to have a flop; whatever we dish out, our writers lap it up and keep coming back for more.

Their enthusiasm and trust gives me the confidence to try different things, to aim high, and maybe to be a little bit crazy. Their willingness to help lets me stretch myself, knowing that I don’t have to do it all on my own. Their support lets me be ambitious. I’m learning new things every year, making new contacts and new friends, and having fun at the same time. NaNo isn’t just for November: if you let it, it’ll seep into every part of your year.

Writing doesn’t have to be a solitary endeavour; NaNo helped me to see this. Now I’m doing my damndest to help other writers come to the same conclusion. It’s the kind of work I love to do, so I’ll keep doing it, for as long as I have wonderful writers around me.

NaNoWriMo 2012 Part 1: the hard slog

This was my sixth NaNoWriMo, both as a writer and an ML, organising the local community and events. There’s so much to say about it that I’ve split it into four parts. Here’s the first instalment!

Firstly, let me tell you, it was hard going this year. This has probably been the most difficult one for me to get through so far.

November seems to be the month when everything converges. I had a huge changeover at work in the first week: dissolving the team I was running, relocating (packing up my desk and shifting everything to a new one), and setting up a new team. Once all that was done, it was a mad scramble to get the new team up and running before I went on leave for 3 weeks, to finish NaNo and then…

On top of that, shortly before November started, my family and I made the decision to move house in the first week of December. So I was also viewing houses and organising stuff around that through the NaNo period. I was determined not to do any serious work (like packing) until after NaNo was over, but there were still a lot of other things that needed to be done.

Then there was all the ML coordination around and before NaNo itself: finalising the calendar; sorting out co-hosted events with the QWC; arranging prizes and competitions; making up the giveaways packs; arranging the Writer’s Retreat (more on this in Part 4); and generally making sure everything was set up. During the month, there was the management of everything to keep on top of: the forum; the regional emails; attending and running the events; dealing with a few headaches that cropped up; and generally making sure that the whole month ran smoothly for our writers.

All of those things were buzzing around in my head – personal stuff, work stuff, NaNo stuff – competing for brain-space. I was lucky enough to have a lot of help again this year, including a wonderful co-ML, so I didn’t have to do everything myself. All the same, altogether, it was a lot.

Oh, and also, don’t forget to write 1,667 words per day. Don’t forget that we’re all gathered together to write a novel (50,000 words). Don’t forget to be creative and spin wonderful tales for your readers. Don’t forget that you can’t cheat; it has to be good enough to edit and post (more on this in Part 3!).

It’s no wonder that I fell behind after the first weekend. I don’t think I’ve been behind for so long before; I tend to be so motivated by the wordcount progress graph that I catch up pretty quick and strive to stay ahead of the curve. But not this year. This year, I struggled behind the goals and didn’t catch up (and cross the line) until the final day of the month.

I’ve never switched projects so much during NaNo before, either. You’re not really supposed to do it, but I’d rather switch to a different project than continue in one that I know isn’t working. My main focus was on Starwalker this year, and I got a good chunk of it written before I needed to take a break (over 30,000 words).

When I ran into a wall with Starewalker, I started a short story that was born of a weird dream, but I wasn’t sure where that one was going, so I soon switched over to a project that I’ve been wanting to start for ages. That one needs more planning and prep, though, and I struggled to get it started as a result. Instead of beating my head against it, I switched over to the steampunk novel I started last NaNo, and that carried me to the end of this year’s adventure and 52,000+ words in total.

It was a hard, winding slog, but I made it. I’m proud of what I achieved this year. There have been so many distractions, so much going on, and I haven’t been in a great state emotionally or physically. But I made it. I’ve made progress on several projects, and all of the pieces I wrote will be good and useful in the long run. I’m still getting done what I want and need to get done, and that’s something worth remembering.

NaNoWriMo is a great challenge and every year I learn something new: about me, my writing, and how I work best. I don’t regret an ounce of the effort I put in, and I fully intend to do it again next year.

Why, you ask? When it’s such hard work and takes so much out of me? When I burn out on a project and have to switch?

Well, the answer to that lies in one of the important learnings that I had this year, which I’ll talk about here soon (see Part 3). I know some of what I need to do to make next year easier on myself. It lies in the wonderful community (see Part 2). And it lies in its ability to be bigger and better and more challenging for me, as a writer and as an organiser.

Just because something is hard, doesn’t mean we should stop doing it. Every year I am reminded that it’s hard, but it’s worth it.

Plus, NaNoWriMo is giving me a cool pen with my name engraved on it. What’s not to love?

Swamped

It has been a ridiculous time since my last post. In that time I have felt better and got some of my creative mojo back, and fallen sick with a horrible virus that I’m still trying to get rid of.

The writing is still struggling on, and I’ve been trying to branch out and do some more Starwalker shorts. When I was too sick to write, I offered my lovely readers the opportunity to vote on which shorts will come next, and that has given me a list to work on. The first of that list is almost done!

In other news, things at home might be calming down, especially now that I have a new PC to replace the blue-screen-happy one I’ve been struggling along with. Many thanks to those who helped me with sorting that out – your help and support is much appreciated.

Work is, for once, blessedly low-stress. I am working to rip out as much of those factors as I can, and this is currently working pretty well. The day job is ticking along pretty well.

Which leaves me with some mental space to fret over the organisation for this year’s NaNoWriMo. I had an ‘omg it’s October already’ moment last night, and I am feeling woefully under-prepared this year. However, when I sit down and think about it, we’re actually in pretty good shape. Just a few things to do in the next 3 weeks and we’re good. And I have a lovely new co-ML who is helping with everything, so it’s fine.

Definitely feeling that I would like to stop and catch my breath, but that’s not going to happen for a while. I’m looking forward to this year’s NaNo, and also for it to be over so I can relax and sleep. It’s all worth it, though. Can’t wait to get going.

Also need to go over the draft posts on this blog and see what I can put up. I was in the middle of at least one when I got sick! Hopefully I’ll get to that over the next week and sort it out.

In the meantime, hope this year’s treating everyone well, and I hope you’ll hear from me again soon.