All posts by David Todd

Fifty Thousand Screaming People

How many ways can you describe baseball action

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The further I get into In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People, the more I come to realize how difficult it is to be a writer and produce a compelling novel, fresh from start to finish. I’m currently in the middle portion, where a book can easily sag and lose the reader’s interests. Last night I stopped writing at 63, 972 words. I have another 300 or 400 to go to finish the chapter.

One problem is, when I planned out the chapters from about the 3/5 point to the end of the book, I expected to be at 62,000 at the end of this chapter. Since my word count includes one later, currently disconnected scene, I will actually be at 63,300 when I get to the end of this chapter, 1300 words off target.

That’s not all that big of a problem. Perhaps a later chapter will run short. Of maybe there’s no magic to my planned length of 85,000 words. Is there any harm if I run 90,000 words? I don’t really know, other than the agent I pitched it to, who is currently reviewing the partial manuscript (first 21,000 words), said 85,000 sounded good like a book for this.

The second problem, which I’ve been having to conquer the entire book, is figuring out how to describe baseball action, or rather the progress of the Cubs through two baseball seasons, without getting boring. I sure don’t want the book to read like a radio broadcast of a game sounds. What reader will slog through 85,000 words of nothing more than game announcing? How many will get tired if I even describe each post-season game?

So, when I came to the chapter I worked on last night, with the Cubs in the post-season and struggling, I had to come up with new ways to describe the action. No, not really new ways: other ways. Because ever since I described a lot of baseball action in chapters 1, 3, and 5, I came to realize I needed alternates.

One of my alternates is to have the sports reporter for the Chicago Tribune, John Lind, comment on action. Another is to have the two Mafia Dons assess their chances of winning the bet, based on what’s happening on the field. Another is to have Ronny’s girlfriend discuss some things with Ronny.

Last night I decided to add Ronny’s dad into the mix. I had Ronny call home after a game, and discuss the game a little bit with his dad, but then to have his dad discuss it with others in the family. This is a fresh perspective. Since the dad knows little about baseball, I hadn’t used him in this capacity. To me it seemed fresh. Hopefully readers will think so as well.

So tonight I finish chapter 34, and begin chapter 35. The whole book is planned to be 46 chapters (I’m going from memory here, typing at work while my chapter list is at home).  However, I’m having trouble remembering how long it’s been since I had each of the major point of view characters in a scene. So I think the first thing I’ll do is skim the whole book and record, for each chapter, which POV characters appear. Then I can see who I’ve neglected and for how long. That may take up most of my writing time tonight. If so, it will be time well spent toward getting out of the middle chapters and into the end chapters.

 Hopefully by this time next week I’ll be beyond 70,000 words.

Documenting America, Fifty Thousand Screaming People, Writing

Writing and Publishing and Promoting

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My two e-self-published works, Documenting America and “Mom’s Letter” languish, rated lower than 366,000th and 464,000th among Kindle e-books. One sale of each will bring them up to rank around 40,000. That tells me some 320,000 or so books have sold one copy since I last sold one.

I’ve posted both to Facebook, I think two times. I have a few new friends since I last posted, but probably not enough new to justify another post. I don’t want to become a spammer.

I haven’t wanted to do much on promotion of either one until I had the paper book of Documenting America in hand and ready to sell. While e-books will remain popular and even grow in popularity, the potential is still there to sell more paper books. The places I would like to promote them will present the chance for both e-book and paper book sales.

So I’m holding off on promotion until I can get the paper book done. I’m stymied on the paper book, waiting on a necessary item that I’m getting for no charge. Of course, so far I’ve received what I paid for. Eventually I’ll pay to get the thing done.

So, while I can’t publish and therefore can’t promote, I’m writing. Last week I added over 9,000 words to In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People. The world is exhibiting very little impatience for this book, but I keep plugging away. Today marks two months since I submitted it at its 21,000 word point to an agent. I think that means I have another month to go before “no reply is a no” kicks in, though I’d better double-check on that. I’m still working toward a first half of October completion for it. After that comes at least one round of edits before I work on something else.

Fifty Thousand Screaming People

Good Progress on my Novel

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A few days ago I decided to go to the works-in-progress page on this site and update where I stand on In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People. It was September 1st, to be exact. I checked the word count, then went to the web page. To my surprise, I had last updated it on August 2nd. Here’s the comparison:

August 2nd: 26400 words
September 1st: 53,400 words
Total words written in one month: 26,400

I was surprised. I knew I was making progress in August, going to The Dungeon as often as possible and writing, doing some outlining, even re-reading and improving parts previously written. But to have added that many words—essentially doubling the amount written—in one month, was a surprise. If I can keep up that kind of progress in September, I’ll be at just short of 80,000 words, and be within 5,000 words or so of finishing.

Of course, these aren’t polished, final words. The first 21,000 are close to polished. Those are the ones I sent to the agent on July 13, and I’d read and reread them, correcting all errors I saw, making sure of my plot consistency, worrying about and attending to all the things that could cause her to say, “Ehh, this book and this author aren’t quite ready.” So when I get those last 30,000 words added, I’ll have a couple of readings of it to do self-editing.

My wife is reading it now, only three chapters behind me. She’s marking it up with anything that doesn’t ring true to her. I’ve looked at a few of her pages. She’s marking typos and anything which seems to need explanation or that seems wrong. For example, my protagonist, the star baseball pitcher, changes a flat tire on the car that three young women parked near Wrigley Field. The three women kiss him afterwards, the first two on the lips, the third one on the cheek. But, the way I described it, I had the woman turn her head. That would be wrong if she initiated the kiss. So she’s helping me work through things like that.

Since the end of August, I’ve had little time to work on the book; in fact, just the last two evenings. Yet, despite the limited time, I added over 3,200 words and the manuscript now stands at 56,323 words. That’s incredibly good progress for limited writing time, and I’m encouraged by it. I’m at a point in the book where I haven’t outlined, though I’ve thought some things through. I have the ending fairly well in my mind, but not the in between portions. If I can maintain 5,000 words a week (actually, I’d like to do 6,000 per week), I’ll be done in the first half of October, and ready for edits.

Fifty Thousand Screaming People

The Plot is Coming Together

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Last night I added 900 words to In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People. The brings the total word count to a little over 53,100. Only 22,000 or so to go. At 5,000 a week I’ll be through with it in early October. Of course, I’m not sure I can really do 5,000 a week, every week for a month. We’ll see.

My writing last night brought me to a point where I caught up to a scene I wrote over a year ago; might even have been two years ago. That scene came to me one day. I wanted the protagonist to have a difficult encounter with the reporter who had befriended him, but who was really just out for a story. He wasn’t really a friend.

In that scene, the reporter tells Ronny that his family was involved in a financial scandal related to his college baseball scholarship. The reporter produced the documentary evidence to Ronny, and said the story would run in the next day’s paper. The scene ended with Ronny tearing out of the Cubs’ players’ parking lot, making a cell phone call.

Those 900 words I wrote last night filled in the gap between the story before it and the scene. How did it work out, joining writing from a year ago that depended on all the writing done in the last year? Not too bad. I realized I had to use names differently in speaker tags. I needed to add the part of the reporter having the documentation with him, and Ronny taking it with him. But all in all not bad.

I’ve got one more scene written ahead, where Ronny’s girlfriend learns there is a Mafia plot to hurt or kill him, and where she needs to warn him. I wrote that about a month after I wrote the other disconnected scene, but I won’t have the book to that point for a few more chapters. How will it fit together at that time? Good, I think. At least if this last one is any indication, writing ahead didn’t hurt me.

I have two or three other scenes swirling in my head, about the late chapters in New York City: Ronny on the Brooklyn Bridge, events inside Yankee Stadium, his girlfriend arriving at Yankee Stadium and trying to warn officials. So far I’ve resisted writing them. If I can keep to my production schedule, I’ll be writing them in less than a month. The scenes are impressed upon me, and I won’t forget them. I wrote the other scenes early because I was afraid I would forget them.

So, things are coming together for the young Mr. Thompson and his super right arm. Stay tuned for more updates, either here or on my Facebook author’s page.

Documenting America, The Candy Store Generation, Writing

Time: The same old, same old dilemma

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I have only so many hours:minutes a day to devote to writing. Some days are more than others. At the same time, I have only so much mental stamina:physical stamina to apply to those hours:minutes. Sometimes the two don’t align. This weekend they didn’t fully align. After yard work Saturday morning, the first I’ve been able to do since the ehrlichiosis flare-up happened, I felt good. My knees hurt a little, but not too much. I ate, rested, did a few chores inside, then went to The Dungeon to write. Alas, physical tiredness overwhelmed the gray cells, and I got less writing done than I’d hoped. This continued into Sunday.

For the weekend, I think I added somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000 words to “In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People”, bringing the word count to around 52,400. It was good to get past the milestone 50,000, but there’s still a long way to go. At 5,000 words a week, I won’t finish until around October 15. That’s just the first draft. I’ll then have rework and rework and rework to make it truly ready for submittal. Of course, by that time I hope to hear from the agent who has the partial.

Unfortunately, to achieve that much production given the disruption in the hours:minutes/mental:physical continuum, I had to neglect other writing chores. I neglected this blog and An Arrow Through the Air. I had to neglect freelance article writing. I’ve quit proposing articles to Buildipedia.com, even though that pays fairly well. I’ve quit writing for content sites, even though that pays a little. The content sites are not a big deal. I miss the money from Buildipedia. I also miss regularly posting to the blogs.

I’ve also neglected any follow-up work to Documenting America. I started on what might be the first follow-up work, The Candy Store Generation, as well as on a second volume of Documenting America. I’ve also pretty much given up on promoting the volume I’ve e-self-published. Sales have stalled in August after a promising up-tick in July.

Then there’s all the household things that aren’t getting done because they won’t get done if I don’t do them. Such as the over that only half works. Such as the microwave that no longer gives us full power. Such as the place way up at the top of the chimney, 30 feet off the ground, where the siding has torn away. Such as the skylight that’s leaking. Such as the painting that will be needed once the skylight is fixed. Such as my various piles of papers that aren’t as neat or hidden as they need to be. Such as the pile of bills and receives that need to be filed. Such as twenty other things I’m forgetting.

Time. There ain’t enough of it. To whom much is given, much is required. Unfortunately, I may be pretty much out of much.

Harmony of the gospels

Writing Progress: Harmony of the Gospels

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So I come to work much earlier than I need to, mainly to miss the traffic. I leave the house about 06:20 and pull into the parking lot about 06:45. I make coffee, put my lunch in the fridge, have a brief devotional and prayer time, get my first cup of coffee, then begin work. Not office work, but writing work. Before 08:00 I’m on my own time, not office time. Of course, if anyone needs me for expert engineering advice, or should a desperate client or irate property owner calls, I’m here to take the call and tend to office business. But most of the time for that hour is my own.

My current project during the first 20 minutes of that hour is completion of my Harmony of the Gospels. I began this back in 2001, when I was in the early stages of writing Doctor Luke’s Assistant, and gave lots of thought to how Luke gathered his information, how his was different from the other gospels, etc. So I began taking some notes. This eventually grew into three spiral notebooks, stenno size. Beginning with the Triumphal Entry, I wrote out the parallel texts, discussed how to harmonize them, and wrote the harmony. All long hand. Okay, some of it is in my own special shorthand. On occasion, the discussion was long, mainly when the gospels appeared to have different timelines and I worked out the apparent discrepancies.

I finished the Harmony somewhere around 2005. My goal was to make one seamless text out of the four. There are a lot of parallel column harmonies around, both ancient and modern. I didn’t figure we needed one of those. I wanted to do the unified text kind. Why? Partly as my own Bible study tools, but also because I thought such a text would be useful. I had no real intention to seek publication of this. It was a labor of love, not profit. Some might think it a waste of time, and perhaps it was, or still is.

I told my former pastor about it (he’s since moved to another church), and he wanted to see it. The problem was, it was all still in handwritten manuscript. So I typed it. 104 letter-sized pages in 12 point font. I decided I should go ahead and type my notes as well. I divided them into two types: passage notes, which dealt with blending specific portions of the text; and appendices, which dealt with larger issues and timelines. I identified nine appendices needed, and quickly produced three of them. Then I jumped to the passage notes.

I quickly discovered that what I had written in the notebooks would not do for typed material. Sometimes I made flip comments, things only I would want to see, or at least I wouldn’t want someone else to see. Some were not correct. Most were in my grammatical shorthand. So I took the notebooks and began typing passage notes from them, but mostly I re-wrote them as I went along, putting them in correct grammar, expanding on concepts I must have had in my head but didn’t write in the notebooks, sometimes changing my mind. All this time I also kept re-reading the Harmony itself, looking for typos or things that seemed could be improved.

I came to a point where I had about forty or fifty pages of appendices and passage notes, printed a proof copy for me and one to give to my pastor. He later made approving comments of it.

Lately (last three weeks) I have spent those fifteen or twenty minutes each weekday morning working on an added appendix, about the trial(s) of Jesus by Jewish officials, including Peter’s denials of Jesus. The time between the arrest in Gethsemane and handing Jesus over to Pilate. It is a fascinating study to see how these harmonize, and to try to work out one or two apparent discrepancies. I completed that appendix, which ran to eight pages, yesterday, proofed it at home last night, and made the corrections this morning. I also got a start on the passage notes for this section this morning. I estimate those will take me a week or a little more to do.

So if this is not a commercial project, and carving out writing time every day and week is so difficult and never winds up with enough writing time, why do I do this? Because I sense I should. Because it gives me more satisfaction, in a way, than the commercial projects I work on. Because I’m learning a lot as I do it. Because it presents me with many springboards for Bible study and research. Because it is very fulfilling.

At twenty minutes a day, I’m sure completion of the passage notes and a few more appendices will required another year, maybe more. I’ll let you know. Meanwhile, since this is a harmony of the NIV, which is a copyrighted work, I can’t really share it with people. The pastor’s copy was for his personal study, not review and comment, and I dare not give away any more.

self-publishing

Publishing Saga Continues

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The PDF conversion saga may have drawn to a close today. I say may because I haven’t yet taken the step of actually uploading the file to CreateSpace. I’ll do that tonight, I hope. Today, a little after my expanded lunch hour, I had what looks like a good file: a PDF with the pages showing as 5.5 x 8.5 just as I want it.

But the gyrations I had to go through to get there! Last night I posted to the CreateSpace forums, saying exactly what my problem was, all the software I was using and what versions. Overnight one of the experts posted to say it ought to work. He suggested making a dummy file and seeing if I could create a 5.5 x 8.5 PDF out of that. If so, I would know something in my book file was corrupt. If not, I’d know the problem was in the software.

That seemed like a good idea. I created a two page dummy file and used Adobe Acrobat to create the PDF, and it created it with the larger pages. I pulled up a four page file I had on my computer and tried that: same thing with the larger pages. I was getting frustrated.

But then I saw that I had the option of creating the file in “PDF995” printer. This is an inexpensive program that does what the expensive Acrobat does, though supposedly not as well. I tried that with my dummy, and got 5.5 x 8.5 pages. I tried it with the four page file, and got 5.5 x 8.5 pages. I tried it with my book file, and got 5.5 x 8.5 pages. Yea! But wait, it turned out only the first two pages were the right size. All the ones following it were the incorrect size. In the Word document, the first two pages were defined as one section, the rest of the book as a separate section. Also, when I tried to use Acrobat following some instructions my helper gave me, it still created in the larger pages.

Back to the CreateSpace forums. The same one who helped me before did so again. He said it appeared my Word document was corrupt. It was a place to start. Also odd was that the cheaper PDF995 product seemed to be working better than the expensive Acrobat product. He had a few suggestions.

I went to the Word document and copied the Section Break to the end of the book. This created a third section, of just one page at the end. Then I created the PDF using PDF995. It gave me a book of all 5.5 x 8.5 pages, except for the last page that remained 8.5 x 11. This was becoming quite frustrating. I played with some settings, then decided what I needed to do was remove all section breaks. This would mean I’d lose the headers and footers, but so be it. So I removed the section breaks and created the PDF using PDF995. By this time I had decided to quit messing with the Adobe product. And it created the PDF with the right size pages throughout!

I put my headers and footers back in, which created two sections. I tried creating it with PDF995, and it created correctly. So, I had a PDF file I could upload to CreateSpace. Of course, I noticed a few things I had to change in the formatting. I forgot to add the ISBN numbers, had to add a half title page and blank page before the real title page. I had to take care of a couple of orphan lines, things like that. I recreated the PDF, and it still worked. It’s at 188 pages now instead of 196, which is okay.

So, tonight when I go home I get to work on the cover and the back cover copy. I don’t know how difficult either of those will be. My main concern now is that I have the interior margins too large, and the font too small, and that it’s going to look amateurish. I guess at this time I’ll let it run as is, and see at the proof stage if I have to make any corrections. Right now, if I had to make a prediction, I’d say the book will be uploaded by Sunday. Or Monday if I need to make another PDF.

So the saga is continuing. Stay tuned.

self-publishing

It’s Maddening Being Your Own Publisher

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And that’s what a self-published writer is: his own publisher.

 I got the Kindle requirements down without too much trouble, and my two books are up and available. Sales are slow, but I’m not doing a whole lot to promote it, pending having my print book available. I figured out Smashwords, and both my books are available there, and in their premium catalogue. That means they are distributed to the Apple iTunes store, the Sony Reader store, and elsewhere. That hasn’t helped me much so far as I have no sales there. Of course, I haven’t done any promotion to speak of, because I’m waiting till I have my print book available till I promote.

So why isn’t the print book available, and when will it be available? I finally began the process this week. On Tuesday I opened my CreateSpace account. This is an Amazon company for self-publishing print on demand books. Also on Tuesday I read instructions and watched the training video.

On Wednesday I began the process of getting my book, Documenting America,  printed. I created the book in the CreateSpace system, got an ISBN for it (the freebie kind), and pulled up my MS Word file and did the reformatting needed to go from e-book to print book, including changing the page size to 5.5 x 8.5 inches, one of the CS standard sizes. Finally I was ready to upload my book to CS. I learned it had to be converted to PDF first, and here I was stuck. I only have the Adobe Reader, not Adobe Acrobat, the program that lets you create PDF files. Getting that I soon learned would set me back $139 or $179.

I was aware of several low cost or no cost alternates, but rather than go to the trouble of finding and downloading them (it was getting kind of late), I decided to e-mail the reformatted book to my office and see if I would be allowed to use our office software to create personal PDF files. This morning I learned I could use it, and so created the file on my noon hour. Problem was, it didn’t create 5.5 x 8.5 inch pages. It created 8.5 x 11 inch pages, with the print limited to the middle 5.5 x 8.5 inches less the internal margins I set.

So I did what I normally do when faced with a problem like this. I read some of the help and experimented with the menu system. I soon saw where I could convert the PDF writer to write to 5.5 x 8.5 inch pages, and created a new PDF file to overwrite the other one. Except, the new file still had 8.5 x 11 pages. Did it twice more to make sure I hadn’t made a mistake, with the same results.

So I did what I normally do when faced with a problem like this. I went to look for CreateSpace forums, where members help themselves work through problems. Found the forums, joined them, and began reading. I found the question I had asked several times in a couple of threads, but never answered. Some of those threads run twenty pages or more. At the moment I haven’t the heart to read the twenty pages. Maybe I’ll start a new thread.

So I did what I normally do when faced with a problem like this. I went and got my lunch and ate it, along with some chips I’m not supposed to have. Through all this time, I set aside writing in favor of publishing. I’d rather be writing. But writing won’t necessarily lead to books in print, sales, and readers. So do the publishing thing I will.

Somehow I’ll get some help with this PDF conversion, and get it right. I suspect that in 2 weeks to a month I’ll be holding books in my hand and have them available to sell. And I’ll rejoice.

Writing

The Other Part of To Do Lists

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In my last post I mentioned how having a plan for my novel helped me when I came to a point where I wasn’t sure what to do next. I made a plan and then began following that plan.

That doesn’t mean the plan was perfect. Already I’ve made two adjustments as I went. I consolidated two chapters and shifted the order of two others. But the plan has kept me going, and I continue to make almost daily progress on the book.

But, what I don’t have, or I should say what I haven’t done a very good job on, is developing a to-do list system for my writing. At work I print out a daily log sheet, where I record major activities, people I interact with, log my calls, and sometimes log my e-mails. Instructions from clients, instructions to contractors–all goes on the sheet.

One part of the sheet has a list of my current projects, which I change as I need to, and a space for me to write my to-do list. I’ve never done the best job with the to-do list, but I generally use it. On the left side I write things for the office, and on the right side I write personal items (pay this bill, call the plumber, etc.). As I say, I’ve never done the best job at keeping and following a to-do list.

However, about two years ago, maybe not that long, I heard about a system where you put only four things on your to-do list. I suppose the idea is you can concentrate better on those things. If you get them all done, add four more. I’ve been following that, and I think it’s helped. Although, sometimes I see that list with only four items on it and think that’s all I have to do, and tend to slack off a bit. So I’ve taken to drawing a line after the four and adding two or three more things, just to remind myself that there’s more that I must do.

Well, for writing I have never been able to develop that kind of system. I tried listing all my works-in-progress, and drawing a to-do list from them. That hasn’t worked real well, partly because my works-in-progress keep changing. I’m working on a new system now, and I hope within a week or two to be able to report back that I’ve found something that works.

Without a to-do list, I forget things. I forgot to check back with my Smashwords dashboard after I uploaded Documenting America to see whether it was accepted to the premium catalogue. It wasn’t, and it sat there for a couple of days without my checking it. Then, after I learned that, I took a couple more days to get to it. Finally I made the corrections, only they weren’t the right corrections, and it still wasn’t accepted. Even this time I failed to check the dashboard daily, and consequently was a few days late getting it corrected and accepted.

Same thing with doing the work needed to get the paper edition of Documenting America out. I need to do some study at CreateSpace, and see how to turn my manuscript into print. I actually think it’s fairly easy, but I never seem to get to it. Perhaps having a to-do list will help.

Anyway, I’m working on it. As I say, hopefully in a couple of weeks I’ll have something that works.