The Missing Link
In case you haven’t followed this blog, I’m currently working on the rough draft of The Missing Link. This is book 9 of the Daphne Blazefire series. I’m currently wrapping up Act 2 and will be spending most of the day working on scenes in Act 3. Monday is President’s day and I have that day off, which means… More Writing! Woot!
I’m hoping to get further ahead. Right now, I’m about 2,000 words ahead of my projected rough draft progress. I usually count weekend days as 3k words per day productivity. But, I have been known to slam down 5 to 12k in a single day. Either way, I’m looking at the schedule, and I see that there are only about two more weeks of rough drafting to do. Then I’ll start editing.
It usually takes me a week or two to edit a book, then there’s the Read-Out-Loud weekend, where my wife and I alternate reading chapters out loud to identify weak story points, bad grammar, confusing sentences, etc. Usually, we wrap that up on a Sunday, and I edit the things we found and publish the book on a Sunday night. My books have worked out that way for the past three or four years, so I’m confident that I can get this one out on a Sunday night, as well.
What this means is that I could publish as early as March 8th, though I have a few extra weeks built into my schedule (primarily because I know it normally takes 2 months to write a Daphne book). Dust Bargain ran into our vacation, Halloween, and Thanksgiving. That book was actually ready for the Read-Out-Loud on the weekend before Thanksgiving, but we needed to get the house cleaned for guests, pushing the publish date out two weeks.
Would you like to see the spreadsheet I work from? Why, yes, you would:
As you can see by the “Projected” column, I schedule myself 2k words on weeknights and 3k words on weekend and holiday days. I highlight the day (red text) when my total words come out past 70k. That’s my normal stopping point. That doesn’t mean the book will end at that point. No, what happens is I’ll write scenes and use the words as an estimate of my completion rate. When I finish the last scene, it might come out over 70k or under that amount. If it’s under by too much (like it comes out at 60k), I’ll have to come up with a minor sub-plot to weave into the story. It has to be something that enhances the overall story; otherwise, I’ll just leave the book short. If it goes over the 70k, I just let it go.
So, what happens if I finish this book early? Well, I publish it, then adjust my expected publish date for the next book and roll right into that project. At my current rate, I might be able to squeeze an extra book in this year. Seven books instead of six.
To End the Silence
I already have ideas for this book rattling around in my head. This story might be more closely linked to The Missing Link. There will be a few “unresolved” subplots from The Missing Link, and those are going to get wrapped up in To End The Silence. I hate it when I start thinking about the next book, because I have to reel myself in and say: “Hey! Stay on task!” In other words, keep my head in the current WIP1. Of course, I’m always more excited about the next book and how crazy it’s going to be than I am about the current one, where the story has hit a few brick walls I have to solve to make it work. Ah, life as an Indie author.
Other Projects
I’m trying my hardest not to commit to anything else. It’s difficult to do. Once I start working on To End the Silence, I have to get covers for the next one or two books. I’m tempted to order a dozen covers and just plow through, but I could change my mind by the time I get the next two books completed.
If you’ve read the Robot Whisperer series, you’ll notice that I left book 2 on a cliffhanger. That means that book 3 will happen. What’s the title? Not sure yet. My original plan was to alternate between The Chronicles of the Robot Whisperers and Daphne Blazefire, but the Daphne series has a lot of reader interest, and the Robot Whisperers is too new for people to pick up and read. Some day, I’ll have at least 4 or 5 of those books completed, and I’ll see if it gets any interest. If it has a reader base, then I’ll add more books to that series. By then, I’ll probably have started a new Daphne series.
Did you say Daphne? Yes, I did. Just because I have current plans to end this series at 10 books doesn’t mean I won’t just extend it to 12. Either way, I’ll be starting another Daphne series with a slightly new theme. I haven’t decided what that theme will be, yet. I have an idea to start the new series with her getting a big payout (yes, at last), and trading up her ship for something big. Something that needs a crew.
The only downside to having a crew and a large ship is that the stories will have a different feel. I can probably hammer some of the same tropes, like RUSTY losing his head, her getting captured by bad guys, etc. But I have to think hard about who will be in the new crew. They’ll have to be characters that fans love. Maybe another robot to contrast with RUSTY and some other dysfunctional crewmembers that cause mayhem.
OK, I gotta get back to putting down words that count…
- Work in Progress ↩︎