So, while I was waiting for lunch to arrive today, as I worked on my lovely CAD drawings (while listening to the Portal 2 soundtrack–this is important as the music is amazing~), contemplating yet again why Architectural and MEP firms seem to despise each other and take it out on each other via transmitted drawing files we must share, I realized that, despite a recent change in attitude to take my writing more seriously, I need to be held more accountable before I fall into old habits, and my inner writing fire dwindles down to cinders.

If you know me personally you know that I have a difficult time…finishing things (the four or five last novel attempts that are sitting unfinished on my hard drive and the latch hook rug with everything finished but the last three lines can attest). One of the reasons my online comic WaM has done so well (four years of regular tri-weekly updates!) is that people comment every day and well–fans get angry when you don’t deliver. I have a set deadline come hell or high water, good or bad, three times a week or I stand to lose a chunk of my audience.

Books, don’t work like this–it can take months to write the first draft, and years to finish editing. So, while I could go serial and post it chapter by chapter (like I do when I write fanfiction) for the instant gratification, there’s a lack of quality and that complete picture that I want. With WaM, it’s fine if I make things up as I go along–it’s fun–but you tend to lack the joy of an early set-up or that little clue that leads to a smack-in-the-face-realization later that just creates that ‘awe’ moment (you know the one) that makes you go back and re-read to see all the clues you missed the first time.

(Sort of like when you finish watching FLCL and realize just how much work went into that crazy series & watch it another six times to get it.)

So, like my “Liliy is a Fangirl” segments (that I started to force regular updating to this blog), I’ve decided to start posting on Tuesday’s during my lunch break to give a status update to what I’ve worked on, what I’m planning, and just list some fun author-related things. It’ll be a nice way to watch my progress and to remind me that if I don’t get off my tail and start working, I won’t have anything to post about–and that just won’t do.

As for why I’m calling the segment “Liliy is an Author”: it gives some uniformity to “Liliy is a Fangirl” –that’s why. :D

Without further ado – let’s get started with Liliy is a Fangirl #1!

NaNoWriMo/Nonnative Ice

I owe a lot to NaNoWriMo–if not for participating last year, I wouldn’t have a finished draft for the first time in my life. Naturally, I decided to participate again this year!

As of right now I’m almost 15,000 words into my first dive into Sci-Fi, “Nonnative Ice.” And honestly–the book’s a bit of a train wreck. This was my first attempt at outlining a novel before I started – characters, settings, plot…all that good stuff. By the second chapter the book decided that wasn’t good enough and quite literally threw the outline out the window. Currently, I’m modifying my outline as I go to hopefully keep things on track to finish the draft by December–even if it is a bit everywhere drawing from two separate story lines at the moment.

Not to say it’s not salvageable, but I still have quite a way to go before taking the red pen to paper and reworking it.

Children of Hephaestus

I’ve been working on this since NaNoWriMo 2010 & if you follow my Twitter or see me on Ustream, you know that the first draft mark-ups from my (read: amazing) editor are complete. (Insert: Yay!).

So, it’s on hold while I work on NaNoWriMo to give me a good chance to clear my head before I take one last look at the draft. As soon as that’s completed, I can declare it a proper Draft 2 and return it to my lovely Editor.

But the true reason it’s on hold is that I’m in the market for a good b&w laser printer, so I can start looking at some of this stuff on paper. Hopefully I will own one before November is out so I can get crackin’ and print that bad boy out.

Children of Hephaestus 2

I figured out sometime at the end of book one, that I want CoH to be a series. There’s just too much I want to get in that won’t fit in a single book (it could, but then we’d have something the length of IT and I’m not sure that’s wise for a first novel…). If all works out, there should be 3-4 books connected, but (more or less) self-contained novels.

The second book, which I’m about 10,000 4,000 [Edit: Sorry! I way overestimated how many words I had written. Heh.] words in (I started it just before NaNo, so it got put on hold for a bit), is turning out nicely. I have an outline set that works its way into a third book, and a good grasp on my new protagonist. The goal is to have the first draft done by the time Children of Hephaestus goes into print (yes, self-publishing–we’ll cover that another day) so there isn’t too much time between books.

The title is currently pending, but I’m thinking of “Jupiter Rising” or “Logan’s Jupiter.”

Featured Tool

Scrivener. I can not even begin to express how much I love this writing software. It’s organized, it breaks the writing up into manageable chunks, and it syncs with Dropbox so I can work on it no matter where I am.

I love it so much, I want to buy a lap top so I can keep Scrivener with me wherever I write–I’m looking at you saving-up-for-Christmas money.

But, there are plenty of people out there with blogs and the like praising Scrivener, you don’t need me to go into details. But I will recommend it 100% and it’s worth every single penny you pay for it.