Unpublished,…for Now

Sad Face amongst Happy Faces

This is definitely not my favorite blog post. In this article I must admit a mistake. After having started an analysis of my previous published novel, “Inheriting S.O.F.I.A.“, I’m still happy in general with the book I produced, but not happy with the quality of the product I unleashed upon the world. In my defense, writing a novel is a massive undertaking that people don’t truly appreciate, nor understand the level of work involved to make it happen. To be honest, to some extent, I have to include myself in that category. I had put in many hours to write this novel, but was only able to do it sporadically, in stints here and there, followed by long pauses do to other life demands. That’s not the best way to write a novel, by far.

I found myself having to get back on track each time I would reengage the project, which only caused things to move slower, and made the rewrite of the 1st draft much more work than it would have otherwise been. After outlining the novel initially, I decided I wanted to try some dictation software to see if I could write faster that way. I was surprised that I was in fact able to write at a much faster pace than when I typed in my ideas,.. and I’m not a slow typist. Thinking I would exponentially speed up my progress, I happily proceeded using the astounding software for many multiple chapters. The downside,.. sometimes the software would hear words that I didn’t say, or maybe didn’t pronounce clear enough for it to perfectly interpret. I was of the mindset, then, and probably still am, that it’s best to just get out your creativity on the first draft and just edit it later to a better state of coherency. That seems to be a relatively popular approach that many writers use, so I ran with it.

I believe the initial creative process is probably the most fun part of writing a novel for most people. The re-write is less thrilling, but an incredibly important part of creating a quality product that people will enjoy. When re-writing the first draft of “Inheriting S.O.F.I.A.“, I found an incredible amount of errors, at least for my taste. The voice dictation software worked very well for the most part, accurately reflecting the words I’d spoken into it. But every now and then, it would populate words that would ruin the meaning of the sentence. This left me with a manuscript riddled with minute errors to fix. Words that a writer never would have intentionally written into sentences, but which needed to be fixed.

Another aspect of the 1st Draft rewrite was the normal consequence of starting and stopping the project so many times over the years, and yes,.. I did say years. When I did a blog post that memorialized that I’d started my novel project over 4 years ago, that really hit home. At that point I was very motivated to complete the project and was in the midst of the rewrite. I found plot lines that were mixed out of order or repeated, as I didn’t remember I’d covered something the last time I’d written. Character names were interchange occasionally and phrasing was sometimes awkward. There were a lot of things to clean up, but to be fair, that’s to be expected when your first draft efforts are mainly to get that story on paper.

So I worked on the rewrite, and I fixed a lot of errors, polishing things as I went. I was able to catch a lot of issues, but discovered an interesting thing in the process. I’m not sure if this is a characteristic of my my own brain or if others experience it as well, but I would sometimes find that I would read a sentence as intended, and not as it was. I’d think that a word was there as I’d expect it to be, but it wasn’t. I’d read again and found the error. This was a rare thing to find, but when you have even a small number of such occurrences, and multiply them by 80,000 + words, you’re going to have errors that remain.

I’d considered and priced the possibility of using a professional proofreader, and would have loved to opt for this as my third phase of the project to make sure everything was in good order, but the cost was too high. The lowest cost I could find for my humble novel project was one thousand dollars. I was under no illusion that my one novel, amongst thirty million other books on Amazon.com, would become a best seller and I’d be soon fending off multiple movie option deals. Given that, it seemed too much to remove this amount from my family reserves just for my book. So I set out to do the job myself, and I corrected a lot of issues.

After that process, I was anxious to make my dream a reality and publish my book,… and so I did. And this brings me to the mistake I made. I have to admit now, with a heavy heart, that I rushed the publication process a little too quickly. After having worked on “Inheriting S.O.F.I.A.” for so long, I just wanted it out there, but I should have waited. After a reader noted they found a “do” which should have been a “due”, I was mad at myself for having missed that. He said there weren’t as many errors as he’d seen in other independent books, but it was something mentioned in his otherwise positive review. He’d actually given the book a four star review, but I knew at that moment, the product,… my novel,… was not what it should have been for that reader. So I fixed that typo, thinking it was likely just one of the many issues that I just happened to miss fixing, but the thought that there could be more, dogged me for weeks.

So at one point, I grabbed a hard copy of my novel and began to reread it with a more critical eye to see if there were additional issues remaining. While there many pages without any issues, there were far too many where some remained. As I continued, I came across a “teeth” that should have been a “teach” and at that point, was starting to feel a bit demoralized. The dictation software had got me again, and when I’d reviewed it, I apparently saw what I expected, instead of the word that was actually on the page. I was too close to the project and the writing to proofread it effectively in one pass.

As it’s become clear now, I should have done one or two new passes over the book to ensure all typos and errors had been fixed. Either that, or hire a profession proofreader who would see any flaws given they were emotionally distant from the project. While I”m not exactly a perfectionist, I owe anyone who might read my novel in the future a better experience, and have thus decided to unpublish my novel for now. I’ve taken “Inheriting S.O.F.I.A.” off of all the markets it was available in for now. As there’s still some work to do, I’ll do my very best to make my novel the very best it can be and will republish it in the future.

Definitely NOT my favorite blog post.

Progress Report:
“Inheriting S.O.F.I.A.” Novel Progress: DONE, but now Unpublished [Additional proofreading project started.]

“Burt’s Bots” Novel Outline progress:
Outline:  19,742 words  (Getting the story down first)
Novel 1st Draft:  13,367 (Went back to outlining 1st though, but delayed for additional proofreading of 1st novel.)

It’s Official,… Nerdville has Arrived

So I recently discovered that my old computer glasses prescription was pretty much the same as my new one, leaving me suddenly with the ability to leave a pair at work and at home for my writing station. The old glasses were still in good shape, but the rims around the lenses were thin, although titanium.

To my surprise one day, I simply adjusted them on my head and heard a click. I soon realized what had happened when both lenses drooped to the side independently. My new found freedom of two computer glasses was literally breaking in two before my eyes.

As I sat there, holding both sides of my glasses awkwardly in my two hands, I had to laugh as the old movie “Revenge of the Nerds” came to mind and I seriously considered finding white first aid tape to fix them with. After all, no one would see me wearing them except my wife. No! I thought quickly, as I needed to still have my dignity, especially around my wife.

So what to do,.. throw away some perfectly good lenses? Heaven forbid. There had to be a better way to save these noble spectacles. Being into the SciFi genre, and having done a few electrical projects in my time, my thoughts went to a more permanent solution, perhaps involving solder. But as I soon found out, titanium doesn’t solder that easily, especially with an epoxy coating. I also realized that even if it did, it wouldn’t be that strong a bond, so I decided to add a copper wire binder to bridge the two sides together. With some help from my wife, who’s particularly skilled in the intricite art of wrapping wire tightly, I was able to solder my old glasses together again. The copper wire bonded excellently with the solder and I was back in business.

Granted,.. it’s not pretty, but it worked, and I have my home computer glasses back. My wife is still able to accept me wearing these while I work, especially since she assisted in making it happen, and my dignity is still intact,… somewhat.

Now,.. back to work.

Progress Report:
“Inheriting S.O.F.I.A.” Novel Progress: DONE, published

“Burt’s Bots” Novel Outline progress:
Outline:  19,742 words  (Getting the story down first)
Novel 1st Draft:  13,367 (Went back to outlining 1st though)


My New Scrivener, Version 3

I wrote my first novel, Inheriting S.O.F.I.A., using Scrivener Version 2 software. I’d considered using a standard word processing program like Microsoft’s Word ® but after doing some research, I found that many writer’s loved Scrivener.

Scrivener was created by writers, for writers. That’s the tag line, but it really shows in how the program is set up. Both my old Scrivener 2 version and the newer 3.0 version give you the areas you need to Outline, have your character sketches handy, location information, research information, and of course, your actual manuscript. Everything is just a click away so when you need to remember what you called that thing-a-majig or what was the name of the town your main character was raised, it’s all just a click away. It is also allows you to customize the category folders as needed. In my last novel, that came in handy as I needed to keep track of quite a few different inventions so I made a special folder I could quickly go to to keep them all straight.

Here’s where I have to admit that I never really considered myself a Scrivener 2 expert. I’d use it’s features fairly well, and even go to the point in the end where I could compile my manuscript into a novel, but some of the functions weren’t as intuitive as I’d like them to have been. So when it was announced that they finally were going to offer a new Scrivener version 3,.. I was definitely interested. When I’d heard they’d done a lot of work on the interface to make it more intuitive to use, my interest was peaked, and so I bit the bullet and bought the upgrade.

Initially, this was a little nerve wracking as I already had my first novel and a lot of the second novel I’ve been working on in the version 2 software, and this was a major version change. Once downloaded, though, it converted the old files perfectly and I breathed a sigh of relief.

In Scrivener 3.0, I did find the same familiar feel to things so my writing efforts weren’t slowed down a bit, but I also did enjoy an improved interface. New features like the writing history function and a better compiling process really have made the upgrade worth it for me. They also have a lot of how to videos to walk you through the new version on their Literature & Latte site.

While I’m loving the new version, it’s not so much of a change that it’s distracting from my work, as I haven’t mastered version 3 by any stretch of the imagination yet, but I do think this will be easier to learn its many features than the older version. I’ll write more about it as I discover and utilize more of its options, but for now, I”ll just say I’m a Scrivener 3.0 believer.

Progress Report:
“Inheriting S.O.F.I.A.” Novel Progress: DONE, published

“Burt’s Bots” Novel Outline progress:
Outline:  19,416 words  (Getting the story down first)
Novel 1st Draft:  13,367 (Went back to outlining 1st though)

To Write,.. or Bike,.. How About Both?

With this new year comes a new way of furthering my writing aspirations while also benefiting me in another way as well. Part time novelists need to find creative ways to make their time count as it’s a constant battle to balance the demands of your day job, everyday life and the need to write.

One of those everyday life components is to take care of one’s health, and unless you work in a job where you get plenty of exercise, many of us need to seek this out intentionally. That’s often the rub as needing the time for other things, like sleeping, eating and writing, often competes with the need to exercise. This also provides a convenient excuse to put off exercising, if I’m honest about things, which I always am on my blog.

Enter an idea that I first looked at as somewhat goofy,.. again, being honest about it,.. but the more I thought about the concept, the more ingenious I thought it could be. What if I could exercise AND write my newest novel at the same time? Game changer,.. I thought! Two driving motivations at the same time. That early morning hour could be filled with the exercise I need for my body to be healthy, and the writing time I need to work on my next novel. One effort to preserve my health, the other to explore my creativity. Both fulfilling life needs and both motivations helping to support each other.

So off to Amazon I went, and after much consternation over which would be the right purchase for me, I settled on the Excerpuetic ExerWork 1000. I’m sure there was a 2000 version that would be even better to use, but I haven’t optioned any novel to Hollywood yet, so the 1000 version it would be. With some minor assembly required, I found a small spot in a room to set it up, with plenty of plug access, and I was in business. Apart from a small detour when we had relatives come over for the holidays, this has become a functional alternative that allows me to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.

Now that I have things put back in order again I’m going to do my best to make this a normal routine so that I can get both benefits at the same time. Another positive motivating factor to get me from point A, to the point of this whole exercise, which is to complete my next novel, Burt’s Bots. Here’s to my goal of success for me in both of these areas in the coming year.

Progress Report:
“Inheriting S.O.F.I.A.” Novel Progress: DONE, published

“Burt’s Bots” Novel Outline progress:
Outline:  19,416 words  (Getting the story down first)
Novel 1st Draft:  13,367 (Went back to outlining 1st though)


The Birth of My Novel

After many, many hours of work, my 1st novel, “Inheriting S.O.F.I.A.” is finally published and ready to be found by the world.  It is now published on Amazon.com, iBooks, Barnes & Noble (Nook), Kobo, Playster, Tolino and Scribd.  Amazon even allows me to offer a paperback version that they will print on demand, which is an awesome feature.  I’d ordered the proof copy to be sure that it looked okay, and found the size to be a bit large, so I created a new, smaller version that will be up online in just a few days.  I’m not sure how many people are still reading paper books, but it’s great to have that available and you know I’m going to get some extra author copies as well.  Nothing beats holding your own novel in your hand.  Mind blowing.

I must admit, although the world doesn’t much know my novel exists at this point, it’s amazing to me that I’ve published my novel.  Being able to self-publish your book is a major boon to independent authors wishing to get their work out there.  Would it be awesome to be accepted by a literary agent who would pitch and sell my novel to a traditional publisher?  You bet it would be, but what was the necessary first step to getting published years ago, is not the roadblock it once was.  Now authors can very easily self-publish and get their work into the hands of readers around the world.  A process now possible for all authors, although with wildly varying results.  Self-marketing seems to be the key to your book being discovered, so this process is now underway.

For what is a writer if no one ever reads their work?  Answer,… a sad writer.  Not wanting to be sad, I’m now working on getting the word out about my first novel.

Progress Report:
“Inheriting S.O.F.I.A.” Novel Progress: DONE, published!
1st Draft Novel:  78,198 words
2nd Draft Novel Rewrite:  Completed 2/11/2018!

“Burt’s Bots” Novel Outline progress:
Outline:  17.816 words  (Rereading outline to date now)
Novel 1st Draft:  13,367 (Went back to outlining 1st though)

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Judging a Book by its Cover

We all know the saying, which is quite wise when it comes to people, but there’s a reason this saying came to be.  Many a book has been put aside, passed over, or never read at all because of its cover and the instant impression someone had about what the story inside might be like.  So with my book about to be published soon, I needed to find a cover that would relay a part of what the story was about, so people will find it intriguing enough to at least read the description, and hopefully buy the book.

This seemed like a tall order as one my central characters was female, or at least a representation of that, and also a computer.  I did a lot of searching and had a few other possibilities, but this one seemed the best as the woman modeling for it looked the closest to how I envisioned Sofia to appear, and it included elements of both digital and fiber optics technology.  What would be an odd backdrop for other author’s books was the perfect one for mine.

I searched quite a few sites to find one that would both fit my needs and my budget.  There were more sources than I expected and found many that would allow you to work with the artists to customize your cover to meet your exact needs.  Needless to say, that came at a price.  For that kind of service and customization, it would seem worth it and a fair price to pay those artists for that work, but I needed something more economical.

I settled on a great source of many different book covers created by a plethora of graphic artists where the prices were quite reasonable.  On SelfPubBookCovers.com they had many different covers for a variety of genres, but to find the right cover, you have to put in the time to search.  I’d actually started this process a while back, so I had some time to keep looking for what would work best.  This helped as new covers get uploaded all the time.  You have the ability to save a cover, but it can still be bought by others, so no guarantees there unless you shell out the cash to make it yours.  Their site also allows for you to put in your own text, using different fonts and effects to make it look just right.  Even after purchasing, you can go back later and make edits and download the graphic again.

I’ve uploaded the cover in the Amazon Kindle Self Publishing site for my initial tests and it looked fine, so I hope that this was the right choice.  Only time will tell.

Progress Report:
“Inheriting S.O.F.I.A.” Novel Progress: DONE, publishing soon!
1st Draft Novel:  78,198 words
2nd Draft Novel Rewrite:  Completed 2/11/2018!

“Burt’s Bots” Novel Outline progress:
Outline:  17.816 words  (Added more notes to the outline)
Novel 1st Draft:  13,367 (Went back to outlining 1st though)

“Inheriting S.O.F.I.A.” Novel is Finished!

Done!Just a quick post to memorialize the day I finished editing the 2nd draft of my novel, “Inheriting S.O.F.I.A.”!  It’s been far too long from when I started this whole process to this day, but I’m finally finished.  Just a bit of polishing for e-book and print formats, as well as cover and publishing page design, but the re-write is done.

The final pages went amazingly fast.  A few changes here and there that made me feel better about the prose, but before I knew it, I was done.

Now comes the next phase of the process.  It will involve query letters to Literary agents, of course, but these days, it will also involve the very act of self-publishing as well.  The reality today is that aspiring novelists, like me, can publish an e-book themselves on Amazon, Nook, iBooks, etc.  My first novel coming soon.

Progress Report:
“Inheriting S.O.F.I.A.” Novel Progress: DONE!
1st Draft Novel:  78,198 words
2nd Draft Novel Rewrite:  Completed 2/11/2018!

“Burt’s Bots” Novel Outline progress:
Outline:  17.816 words  (Added more notes to the outline)
Novel 1st Draft:  13,367 (Went back to outlining 1st though)

3 Homes in 1 Year

Looking to thwart the progress on your new novel?  I would suggest that you live in 3 different places in the same year.  That was my unexpected experience in 2017.  My wife and I had intended to live in our newly rented apartment for at least a year before we started looking for a new home to buy, but a very noisy bar down the street and neighbors above us who must have had feet the size of the Flintstones changed our minds.  When we found the perfect little house, emphasis on the little, that we could actually afford, we made our move.

This was our second move in a year, and the third place we’d call home in that year, as well, but it was worth the effort.  The rehabbers who fixed up the place did a pretty good job in most parts of the home, but cut a few corners in other ways that weren’t too bad, but did require us to make some changes.  Being an older home, it had some things we just had to get fixed like the lack of ground wiring on our electrical sockets, and an oddly placed electrical panel that would have been blocked by the washer.  I left that to a professional, but took on other projects, like creating 13 window screens which were MIA when we bought the place.  Multiple other projects also ensued for a base level conversion to make it our little place.

On this last move I secured my first novel draft with much more dignity, having learned from my last mistake, and have recently found some time to continue the rewrite.  With all of our must do home projects done, I delved back into the “Inheriting S.O.F.I.A.” novel and found, to my surprise, that I’m very close to it being done.  I expect to have this completed by the end of next month.  A dangerous thing to say publicly, considering the amount of time this has taken me, but writing a novel is quite a lot of work.  I work hard in other areas of my life so this has been a bit of a balancing act.  Unfortunately, the novel has had to be prioritized down the list, at times, given it’s more of a dream of mine that isn’t producing any cash flow, as of yet.

After the final push this month, I’ll need to quickly immerse myself into the business of self-publishing and promotion.  I’d done some research before, but need to firm up my plan of action.  I’ll blog more on this as I get into the process as the information I’m finding is all over the place.  Amazon has good information on the technical process of bringing your book to life on their platform, but little on the other aspects of the journey.  Questions still abound as to how I structure the business aspect.  I found a good book on the promotion part and think I also found a good book cover, but there is still much to decide and act upon.  More to follow soon, as I’m determined to finish my first novel so I can start writing the next one I already have planned.

With no more home moves planned for at least the next ten years, I’ll have more time to work on this life goal of mine.

Progress Report:
“Burt’s Bots” Novel Outline progress:
Outline:  17.816 words  (Added more notes to the outline)
Novel 1st Draft:  13,367 (Went back to outlining 1st though)

“Inheriting S.O.F.I.A.” Novel Progress:
1st Draft Novel:  78,198 words
2nd Draft Novel Rewrite: Up to page #320 of 351

A New Place to Write!

Unfortunately, my blog about completing my first novel is going off topic again as a big life change has delayed my final edit of “Inheriting S.O.F.I.A.”  I hate that so many of my recent posts have been on why I’m not working on the novel, but selling our condo and finding a new place to live has been a major life event to deal with.  My wife and I have basically been flipping our own condo, updating hardware, paint, flooring, HVAC, etc., and that alone was a tremendous amount of back-breaking work.  We gave about a third of what we owned to charity, and put another third in storage, in order to give our place a very light and airy feeling.  At one point, while moving a massive amount of boxes to storage, we came back and found that we’d left one lone box on the side of the building courtyard, completely exposed to anyone walking by.  To my horror, I looked and found it was labeled as containing my second draft novel!  Needless to say, my heart sank as that became a metaphor for how I’ve been neglecting it lately.  Thankfully, it had not been disturbed and I quickly secured it under lock and key until the moment I can move it to our new place and get back to work.

The next stage to come was the staging and selling process, which was also involved.  Those who have sold their properties know what it’s like to live an unnaturally perfectly clean lifestyle, knowing at any minute, someone may want to check out your home. Thankfully it all worked out well as we got multiple offers and settled on one of them.  Now, since we accepted an offer, it’s all about the moving process.  Complicated by staging furniture we’ll give away and new furniture we’ll buy,.. there’s still a lot on my plate.

My life is currently one big checklist of things to do, get and complete to make this move happen.  And my special box with my 2nd draft novel waits for me to get this move done and unpack it.  I believe I marked it with a very big star, so finding it among the thirty or so boxes should be easy,…right?

God willing, my next post will be about how productive a writer I’ve become from our new home.

No Progress:   🙁
“Burt’s Bots” Novel progress at Camp NaNoWriMo:
Outline:  17.816 words
Novel 1st Draft:  13,367 (Went back to outlining 1st though)

“Inheriting S.O.F.I.A.” Novel Progress:
1st Draft Novel:  78,198 words
2nd Draft Novel Rewrite: Up to page #213 of 351

Yikes!,…. 3 Years Almost Here!

Amost 3 years in the making

“The bad news is time flies. The good news is,.. you’re the pilot”
Michael Atshuler

Well,… it appears I’m approaching the 3 year mark of working on my first novel “Inheriting S.O.F.I.A.” which isn’t a milestone I was looking for.  True, my second draft and proofreading process is getting closer to completion, but this is much longer than I’d anticipated to finish this project.  Yes,.. I do write part time, and do have periods where I’m not actively working on the project, so that’s likely the main culprit, but there’s another problem too.

The process of the first novel took so long that my idea for the second novel got me interested in diverting some time to that.  So here I stand with one novel approaching the finish line and the second novel outline about a third done.

But three years is far too long.  I’m motivated to complete this so I don’t go over this period by very long at all.  I’m about 166 pages away from completing the second draft and then must decide if I’m ready for self-publishing while looking to obtain an agent, or do I go to the expense of hiring a professional proofreader.  While I’ve tried to be very careful on the 2nd draft to find any typos and grammatical errors, I’ve no doubt probably missed some things.   Spell Check and Grammar check have helped as well, but I’m not sure if I should risk putting out the book when there still might be issues.  But the old term, “analysis paralysis” comes to mind and I’m feeling I’m more likely to run with what I’ve produced than to come up with another excuse not to publish yet.

Being my first novel, it’s highly unlikely to be perfect anyway, but I think I’ve gotten it to a point that I feel good about it, so I think it’s time to soon give birth to my book.  I hope I did my job well, but only time will tell.  I’ll be praying strongly that I’ve written a book that people will enjoy and honors my faith as well.  Hopefully my next post will be not too long after September 9th, 2016, which will be exactly 3 years since I started this journey.  “Inheriting S.O.F.I.A.” needs to become a novel.  Stay tuned.

“Burt’s Bots” Novel progress at Camp NaNoWriMo:
Outline:  17.816 words
Novel 1st Draft:  13,367 (Went back to outlining 1st though)

“Inheriting S.O.F.I.A.” Novel Progress:
1st Draft Novel:  78,198 words
2nd Draft Novel Rewrite: Up to page #213 of 351