Friday, December 01, 2006

The State of the Blog

I have been maintaining this blog for more than three years. In that time, I have not finished the story I began in my first post. Also, looking back, I don't see a huge trend of improvement in my writing, and I think the reason is that I've blown this thing off way too much. I can have a blog that I just write in sporadically whenever I feel like it, but if I do I can't realistically expect anyone, even my close friends and relatives, to read it. So from now on (and many of you will recall this is far from the first time I've made this promise) I will take on a regular update schedule. I will begin by posting every Friday.
Now like I said I've tried this before and failed, but here's why I think I'm going to succeed:
A) I've learned from NaNoWriMo. I love it and admire those who do it, but it doesn't work for me. A month of concentrated novelling is not for me. I have so far failed twice. But frequently updating a story on a regular basis has worked for me in the past.
B) I still have those unfinished novels. I will start posting them in pieces on weeks when I don't find time for original writing. So even if I have a week so busy I have no time to write anything, I have at least a few months of backlog. If this goes well, I will try to move up to twice a week. (One step at a time, people.)
[A quick note on the above: My latest NaNoWriMo is about Madison Dragonslayer, who is also a character in the Mortimer story. However, in the process of writing MD I have rewritten some of her history and she may well end up being a very different character than the one Mortimer met. I'm not yet sure how to deal with this. I may "decanonize" "Mortimer meets a Maiden" or "retcon" it (two things I've always wanted to do) or I may just ask you all to accept that the stories won't line up neatly.]
Finally, I have something to ask of you, my loyal readers:
Please comment. Whenever you possibly can, let me know you're reading and give me intelligent feedback, or just say how you feel about the characters and what's happening to them.
~o~
Just for fun, since this is your post for this Friday, timetables on the stories:
TNT: I foresee between 100 and 120 chapters at the story's end. I actually know and have known for some time what happens and how this one ends, though there are plenty of loose ends floating around in the middle.
Mortimer: I don't even think of Mortimer as a story in bits, an eventual novel. I see it more like a comic ot TV Show. There are serial elements but mainly it's the continuing adventures of Mortimer and each installment should be at least a little bit a story in and of itself. As such, it has no timetable.
NaNoWriMo 1: This story is not on this computer. But I'm 90% sure it's on a computer somewhere or in an e-mail box and somehow I'll dig it up. I can't really remember the final word count, but there's a good chunk of it already and I think I won't have too much trouble writing more. It's a silly sci-fi story in the style of Hitchhiker's Guide.
NaNoWriMo 2 (MD): Part I of the three part story is done, and this one I'll be working on as I post it. So I see this as closer to completion than anything else.

3 comments:

Erin said...

Sounds good, and whatever you do, I promise to make a more concentrated effort to read your blog promptly whenever it updates!

Evey said...

As long as you keep writing, I'm happy! I love your writing.

Lisa said...

What's a NaNoWriMo?