Tag Archives: Writing milestones

Sometimes Magic Just Works: 4 Q&As about my WIP

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Ravenswing Dress - The Dark Angel Design Company, Photography - Lunaesque

The Dark Angel Design Company, photography by Lunaesque

Time to talk about my WIP again!

I never used to do this at all, as the thought of giving the dreaded “elevator pitch” makes my stomach churn like too much greasy pizza too close to bedtime.

But like anything bearing the label “dreaded”, said dread is usually lessened over time through devoting regular thought and effort to improving at the task at hand.

In other words, I need to practice pitching and promoting myself more.

Which is why, when tagged by my blog-buddy Eric J. Baker, to answer four questions about my WIP as part of the Writing Process Blog Tour, and I agreed to participate.

The four questions are thus as follows:

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They Say It’s Your (Writing) Birthday

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Grumpy Cat's birthday greeting

I’ve now missed my writing birthday for two years in a row.

I don’t even know if a writing birthday is something other writers commonly observe, or if it’s my own unique brand of writerly madness.

Even the exact date of my writing birthday is uncertain.  I mark it from the day I commenced my first (incomplete, shelved) novel, which was sometime in early February, 2002.

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Writing a Novel is Scarier Than a Bull Moose in Rut

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Bull moose

Writing a novel is one of the scariest things I’ve ever attempted.

And I’ve done some scary things in my life:

  • I’ve moved to two different provinces on my own, both times having no prior friends or family present when I arrived.
  • I’ve come face-to-face with a bull moose during rutting season.
  • I’ve spend 24 straight hours in the woods on a fasting solo sit. (The fear in this isn’t possible animal encounters at night, but rather the act of sitting silently for hours with nothing to distract you but your own thoughts.)
  • I’ve risked – and received – rejection asking guys way out of my league out on dates.

Just to name a few.  As my father is fond of paraphrasing from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, “The brave will only die once.”

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Necessity is the Mother of (Re)Invention – Blog Changes Ahead

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Art Gallery lion

Of all the various forms of social media out there, blogging is definitely my favourite.

The ability to blog is a wonderful privilege for someone like me, for I was always the kid everyone was trying to shut up.

At school, despite being a strong student, I was constantly criticized on report cards for talking too much – both in and out of turn – and in general disrupting the class with my compulsive need to share every last idea that came into my head.

Thankfully, my father, who was a huge proponent of self-expression, told my teachers he’d much rather I talk than not talk.

Yet for someone like me, blogging is the perfect pursuit, for I get to express my thoughts (and my thoughts are usually fairly detailed, which is why I do better on WordPress than Twitter), and those who care can read it while those that don’t can tune me out entirely.

And yet, I’m not really that good of a blogger.

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Looking Forward Over Your Shoulder: Keeping sight of your progress

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Long Beach, California

Long Beach, California

There’s a question I’m often asked that I despise above all others:

I hate it more than being asked, “Are you still single?”  (The answer to which, for the record, is yes.  And when phrased that way, it almost makes me want to stay single out of spite.)

More than, “Did you ride your bike in the rain?”

(Answer: I live in Vancouver, BC.  It rains about 300 days a year here.  I love biking.  I hate public transit.  I own a good rain coat and shoe covers.  And you see me do this every single day; this should no longer come as a shock.)

Even more than, “What’s your novel about?”

(Answer: Err, well, it’s a historical fiction…)

This question for which I hold so much disdain is none other than,

“What have you been up to?”

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Line By Line, Stone By (Mile)Stone

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This past week, I reached another milestone in my novel-in-progress:

Page 200.

Except it’s not really my 200th page, for my story is a novel in two volumes (like how Lord of the Rings is actually a novel in three volumes rather than the trilogy it’s often erroneously termed).  The first volume of the story in draft form is 377 pages.

That means I’m technically on page 577.

The past two months has seen me achieve a number of writing milestones: my current page number; my one-year blogging anniversary on February 20; my writer’s birthday (which I actually missed) on February 10.

I’m now a five-year-old writer.

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Come Hell or High Water: A blogging birthday

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A rare mid-week and late-night post from me to commemorate my very first post on The Rules of Engagement, which was also mid-week and late-night.

For one year now, my blog has been online.

In that time, I’ve amassed some respectable numbers, learned a lot, and made some wonderful blogging friends.

Even more importantly, though, I’ve regained the confidence I’d lost as a failed blogger in a past writing life.

My original goal for this blog was to add one new post a week, regardless of whatever else might be on my plate.  With the exception of a conscious choice to not blog one time during the Christmas season, I’m happy to report that I’ve not missed a single week.

Consistency is the key to a successful blog, as it is with most other things in life, not the least of which includes writing.

51 posts in year one.  As is often said on the birthdays of people when they turn a year older,

And many more!

(Image source)

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Related posts:

On the Edge of Something Wonderful

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I make a point of recording certain milestones while at work on my novel-in-progress.

I do so to track when I reach certain parts of the novel, both to measure the consistency of my output and for reminiscence.  I also do it to encourage further progress and the achievement of additional milestones.

The specific milestones I’ve chosen to observe are as follows:

  • Page 50 of the novel
  • Page 100 of the novel
  • Every page that is a multiple of 100
  • The approximate midpoint of the novel
  • The end of every chapter

Currently in my novel, I’m about five words away from rolling over onto page 100.  I’m also about half a page away from the end of a chapter.  One might suppose I’m feverishly working away on achieving two milestones within such a short space of each other.

But I’m not.

Instead, I’m rather preoccupied with another pursuit.

Once I finish with this one, I’ll gladly return to writing.  In the meantime, though, I find myself on the edge of something else that’s wonderful.

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Related post: No Better Place (for Writing)