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Very Hot Topic (More than 25 Replies) Welcome to the Writing Life! (Read 775 times)
Penthesilea
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #200 - Aug 30th, 2012 at 1:51am
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Still plugging away. I'm almost halfway through the manuscript and I've "lost" another page. I suspect that the final count will be around 850 pages. Smiley
  

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Penthesilea
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #201 - Aug 30th, 2012 at 6:17pm
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Working on artwork for the "cover" of Book 1 has been pushed to the top of my To Do list.

DAW took a pass and I've had it with the whole "traditional" process.
  

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Veridian Etoile
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #202 - Aug 30th, 2012 at 6:28pm
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DRATTERS. Sad Smiley At least you have a backup idea... Let me know when you're ready to roll with that and I'll get thing rolling on my end too.

Smiley Smiley Smiley Smiley Smiley Smiley Smiley Smiley Smiley Smiley Smiley Smiley
  


We creative types have to create in order to feel ALIVE... That's why I write. Without my writing, I would not be living, only existing. ~Me~

Smiley Music is essential to life. ~Me~ Smiley

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Penthesilea
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #203 - Aug 31st, 2012 at 1:00am
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I will, VE. I've got a lot of reading to do to be sure that I understand everything. Aside from that, I need to get the "book cover" designed. I'm working on the art now. Fortunately, I came up with an idea that I can execute with my limited artistic skills.
  

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Penthesilea
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #204 - Aug 31st, 2012 at 2:49am
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I've made a "fresh" Appleworks to Pages conversion and I'm going through and correcting the formatting errors. After than, I'll go through it with a fine toothed comb taking one last look to find any errors. Work on Book 3 has stopped for the moment.
  

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Penthesilea
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #205 - Sep 2nd, 2012 at 4:56am
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It looks like Book 1 is going to come in at around 362 pages which is a nice length.
Progress on the "cover" for the ebook is slow. Every time I start to work on it, the Queen parks her regal self right in the middle of things and refuses to budge....




Post # 25,852
  

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Penthesilea
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #206 - Sep 5th, 2012 at 10:41pm
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I've made some progress on the "cover" this afternoon. One design element is in place but the second one just isn't working so I'm having to rethink that part of the design.

On the "text" front, I've been working on Chapter 8 as weather permited and I think I have it fleshed out to my satisfaction. Some things just needed more detail and I've managed to do that without getting excessively wordy. So now, on to Chapter 9!
  

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Penthesilea
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #207 - Sep 6th, 2012 at 11:59pm
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I made it through Chapter 10 today -- it's shorter than most of them -- and I have 120 pages to go. I've got about an hour and a half before I start dinner and I'm going to see how much I can get done.
  

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Penthesilea
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #208 - Sep 15th, 2012 at 12:25am
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Questions about Book 4 are starting to pop into my head. That makes me think that Book 4 "Desolation and War" will be my next project.
Book 1 is printed out and I'll be proofing it this weekend. I need to hit an office supply store for a mailing box. The local Walmart no longer carries them although if I wanted an ordinary brown cardboard shipping box, I'd be in luck. No Walmart, I need a "document" box and I'll get it at Staples or Office Max!
  

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Penthesilea
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #209 - Sep 20th, 2012 at 2:39am
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Still proofing on Book 1. It's slow going because a.) I don't want to miss anything and b.) my eyes really don't like reading for more than an hour or so at a time before I have to rest them. I probably need a new prescription but that will have to wait for a while so I'll just muddle along until I get this proofreading done.
  

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Penthesilea
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #210 - Oct 5th, 2012 at 5:20am
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Manuscript preparation for epublishing Book 1 is pretty much done. I can't think of anything else to do or add. All that's left is the "cover art" which I'm hoping to have done by the middle of next week, provided that real life doesn't throw me any more curve balls.
Consequently, I started going over Book 2 tonight. I pulled out a small section that worked when I wrote it but no longer does and replaced it with something else. The whole section will need polishing to make sure the narrative moves along smoothly but what I want is there so the tweaks will be minor. I'm also working on an "insert" that features Our Heroine's brother and gives some hints about his life and... ahem.... training. That will take some thought and I don't know yet how long it will be. Book 2 is a bit shorter than Book 1 in terms of page count so I can add some without it becoming bloated. I'm still working on fixing formatting errors in Book 3 which gives me the chance to spot areas that might need more work. All in all, things are going well and ideas for Book 4 are beginning to make themselves known. It's all good.
« Last Edit: Oct 5th, 2012 at 4:11pm by Penthesilea »  

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Penthesilea
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #211 - Oct 8th, 2012 at 10:15pm
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Well, I've added a page and a half to Book 2. I decided that Our Heroine's brother needed some bedroom action. Not that he's been celibate, mind you, it has just been happening "off stage" and I thought that wasn't quite fair. So, I worked up a little scene with him and the opportunistic female who was throwing herself at him at this point in the story.
  

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Penthesilea
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #212 - Oct 9th, 2012 at 3:09am
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I've been tweaking Book 2 tonight -- adding bits and pieces here and there. My eyes have been taking exception to staring at the monitor so I'm considering printing it out for proofing.
  

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Penthesilea
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #213 - Oct 9th, 2012 at 4:41pm
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The art is photographed and now needs to be downloaded.
There are 250 shots on the camera.
This could take a while...
  

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Penthesilea
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #214 - Oct 10th, 2012 at 6:56pm
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Yesterday was very productive in that we got the cover for Book 1 done and several chapters of Book 3 were checked for formatting errors. Tonight, after 2 am, I'll download the pre-publishing/preview program from Amazon that I need to read the book before I 'publish' it, the idea being that I find any mistakes before the public does. The download is 125 MB which is half of our download allowance, so I'll be burning the 2 am oil tonight. If things EVER settle down around here, I'll get my publishing account set up and see what I can do before I need to "preview". If everything goes well, Book 1 "could" be available for purchase by the weekend... Smiley
  

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Penthesilea
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #215 - Feb 23rd, 2013 at 2:51am
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I'm slogging through the proofreading on Book 2 and I have about 150 pages left to do. The eyes are NOT cooperating but I don't want to wait until I get new glasses to finish it 'cause I don't know exactly when that will be and I want to get the story out there.
  

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Penthesilea
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #216 - Feb 28th, 2013 at 5:42am
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I finished the proofreading on 2 tonight. Tomorrow I will work singlemindedly on correcting the copy. My goal is to "publish" on Monday, March 4th. Then I'll start getting Book 3 into shape. I want to publish it on May 5th. I'm thinking that the image I want for the cover of Book 3 might not be doable right now so I'm thinking of alternatives. Fortunately, Book 3 is, I think, in pretty good shape. 
  

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Penthesilea
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #217 - Mar 15th, 2013 at 3:38am
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Book 2 went up on schedule and I've been working on Book 3 since then. I finished the final "tweak" tonight and I'll start printing the hardcopy tomorrow. It's 456 pages so I doubt that I'll get it done tomorrow but I'll print what I can and start proofing. I still intend to publish 3 on May 5th.
  

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Penthesilea
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #218 - Mar 17th, 2013 at 3:20am
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I'm feeling a little lost right now.
I laid down the first words of Keyholder's Castle on July 7, 2005. I started the job of making the "source documents" into novels in early October, 2007 and I've been working on them pretty much constantly ever since.
The last book of the three, "Destinies" is for all intents and purposes, finished. All that's left is proofreading and epublishing. Eight years since I first started and nearly 6 of steady, non-stop writing on the novels. Now, for the first time in eight years, I have nothing "Castle" related to do and it feels weird. I'm going to attempt to take a short break but it WILL be short because the itch to find out what happens next is strong and the only way I "will" find out what happens next is to write it.
  

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Veridian Etoile
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #219 - Mar 17th, 2013 at 2:34pm
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Smiley!!!!!

You WILL get back into it, Penth... Smiley When the time is right to start writing again, you'll know. Wink

Tons of  Smiley!!!!!!
  


We creative types have to create in order to feel ALIVE... That's why I write. Without my writing, I would not be living, only existing. ~Me~

Smiley Music is essential to life. ~Me~ Smiley

I'm sunny natured with a side of EVIL...
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Penthesilea
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #220 - Mar 21st, 2013 at 1:46am
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I'm a glutton for punishment.
I just made a form for a timeline for Books 3 (which is finished), Book 4 AND Book 5! Smiley It's 80 pages long and all that I have on it so far it the dates, one line (so far) for each day. Smiley I'll fill in the dates for Book 3 first, holidays and "births" (hehehehe) and the universal holidays. THEN I'll start figuring out when the "stuff" hits the fan in Book 4.
  

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Penthesilea
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #221 - Mar 21st, 2013 at 7:05pm
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I'm starting to figure out what happens in Book 4 and a rough idea of when things happen. One thing for certain, Our Hero hasn't learned his lesson when it comes to double dealing, backstabbing, skanky females. *sigh* Our Heroine has the patience of a saint.... up to a point. After that point, there will be blood, lots of it and the readers will be cheering like fans at the NCAA championships when Our Heroine says "ENOUGH!" and gets out her sword....
  

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Penthesilea
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #222 - Apr 5th, 2013 at 6:35pm
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I'm thinking of modifying the castle design, specifically the dimensions, the number of floors and perhaps some minor additions that will make life a bit easier for the people "living" there, especially in the winter! I'll work on that project while I'm figuring out what happens in Book 4. I figure that I'll need the castle layout and the continental maps at some point. The castle's floor plan and at least part of the land maps for inclusion in Book 4 and eventually, the Complete Guide to Samgara the publication of which is a ways off in the future!
« Last Edit: Apr 27th, 2013 at 1:37am by Penthesilea »  

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Penthesilea
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #223 - Apr 27th, 2013 at 1:43am
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I'm going to make one more pass through Book 3 this weekend to be sure I have all the corrections made and then bright and (reasonably!) early on May 5, 2013 I'll get on Amazon and start the publishing process. Then, the first story arc of Keyholder's Castle will be complete and available to public. I expect my writing skills to improve -- "write and learn" after all! -- but I don't think that I'll ever write a story that will be dearer to my heart than this one.

This one's for you, DK, wherever you are. I couldn't have done it without you. Smiley
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #224 - Apr 28th, 2013 at 9:51pm
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There comes a time when you have to stop tinkering and surrender your work to the world. And I've reached that point. I've done all the proofing, correcting and tweaking that I can do. Anything more would be "overworking" the dough. So, sometime this week, I'll assemble my "publishing file." It will consist of the final draft of Book 3 in Pages, the cover illustration and the final draft exported to Microsoft Word and by this time next Sunday (May 5th) Book 3 should be well along in the publishing process and might even be available for purchase.
  

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