Time (part deux) and Progress Update

First, a few more comments about finding time to write.

It turns out that the only French TV show I was watching ended at the end of November. I also found out in that same week that another show I watch is going to air its last season. That’s about two hours a week I am getting back. I am taking my own advice by not replacing those 2 shows but I admit to feeling a bit of a disappointment on first hearing the news but that quickly turned to “All right, more time to write!”

What’s important to remember is that being a writer doesn’t mean devoting a minimum amount of time to writing. It just matters that you write during in the time you have. Unless you are writing a novel for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month in November) or to a deadline because you are a professional writer, it will take whatever time it takes. Age doesn’t matter to publish a book and don’t let anyone say you’re too old to write or publish. How long it takes to write a book doesn’t matter either (unless it’s to make a living).

Expect to learn as you write and as you hit different kinds of challenges, whether a writer’s block or how to fix a problem in a story. Set reasonable goals if this helps you and if life gets in the way, there’s probably something to be learned even if the words are not coming out on a page. The fourth Auros book I finished in 2015, I was going to finish it in June based on my pace. I did hit my target words but the book wasn’t finished. It took 3 more months. There’s nothing wrong with that.

For me, the further I get into my world, the easier it has been to stick to a good writing pace. But when I don’t hit my target, I don’t hate myself since it’s wasteful energy. In fact, I have to refrain from working on my sixth book or else I’ll never get the first five out there for readers to enjoy (I hope!).

The best advice I can give any writer is to reach a point where you love sitting down to write. If you can reach that point, time won’t be an issue.

Map making update

After practicing drawing and shading mountains, I worked on the map of my kingdom and started to draw the outline of the mountains.

Yikes! It made the map look way too busy even without the shading. I looked again at ways of drawing mountains and decided on a simpler mountain model.

I’m glad to say my map is looking much better with a simpler mountain style. I even improved the background by using a Plasma effect. Only the details are left to complete like representing water (I haven’t decided on the style yet), figuring out symbols for royal cities and pertinent villages, coloring, and how to show borders.

Here’s what part of the map looks like before I move on to the details. Now that I’m used to GIMP, I learned to love layers!

Not only have I progressed on the map, it was at a point where I could reread Resurgence and fix the story details to match the map. Thankfully, only minor details needed to be made, sometimes to the story, sometimes to the map. It took about a week to review by reading about 4 chapters a night.

ISBNs

I had already done some research about getting an ISBN for my book. Since I’m Canadian (and meet the criteria to get Canadian ISBNs), I can get them free. It’s a good thing I didn’t wait the day before I was ready to publish to get Resurgence's ISBN. I was attacking that today because I’ve been working on the copyright page and to finish that, I need the eBook’s ISBN.

I looked at how to get the ISBN and it turns out I need to get an account from ISBN Canada. I filled out the form (relatively simple) and submitted my request. After the submission, I got a message saying it can take up to 10 business days before my request for an account is approved and then get that first ISBN. I’m glad I started on this now. Stay tuned!

For Canadians reading this blog who want to self-publish, the Library and Archives Canada has a video giving information about ISBN Canada: What you need to know about ISBN Canada.

Book details

In my first post, I mentioned I would explain what method of self publishing I picked. To talk about the book details, it doesn’t really matter what method I picked, since this applies no matter the method of self-publishing.

Here are some of the book details relevant to Resurgence I need to finish:

• Dedication (done)

• Copyright page (almost done)

• Introduction/preface (I haven’t quite decided if I will include one but I wrote a few things down)

• Map (details left)

• Dramatis Personae (started)

• List of relevant places (started)

• Acknowledgment (started)

• Author page (started)

• Book tagline (I think I’ve got one!)

• Book back cover blurb (dreaded blurb, a few drafts, but nothing I like let alone love)

• eBook formatting (I’ve been tinkering with this)

• Excerpt of book #2 (maybe)

The above list may look daunting but once I do it for Resurgence, it will be easier for the subsequent books.

With the holidays soon upon us, I will have (already had) more distractions than normal (like holiday baking) but I will still find time to move forward with publishing Resurgence.