All posts by Mark

The Sacrifice of Mendleson Mooney, Writing

10 Day Novel: Day 1

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I started out a bit later than I wanted today, but it worked out alright. Between 11am and 8pm, I wrote 5770 words – two complete chapters. I took an hour out for lunch, and I took about a 10 minute break every hour or so.

The book is outlined with 19 chapters, so finishing two chapters a day will get me to the end with half a day to spare. I have a word count goal, too. 7,000 words a day. But really, that’s a guess. I don’t actually know how long the novel will be.

Is day 1 a success? I think so. I feel good about it. I could go and write some more. I have time. But I think I might just call it a day. I’ve never written that much in a single day.

The Sacrifice of Mendleson Mooney, Writing

10 Day Novel Challenge

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Starting tomorrow morning, I am going to go internet dark for ten days, except for a couple things. I will check support email for StoryBox at the end of the day, at which time I will also update the progress bar on the new project that you can see listed to the right.

I am going to spend the next 10 days writing The Sacrifice of Mendleson Mooney. “Ten days?” you ask. “That’s crazy!” you say.

Yup, ten days. And it’s not as crazy as you think. While I’m writing, I typically average about 750 words an hour. I typically sit at my computer for ten hours a day, too. I spend a great deal of that time reading the news, answering email, talking with friends (which wastes not just my time, but my friend’s time) and reading all sorts of things about writing. I’m just wondering, what if I spent ALL that time writing? What could I get done?

There are countless writers who have written books in short periods of time. Some of the most beloved books in history were written in a near blink of an eye. I read a book recently, Afterthoughts by Lawrence Block. In it, he describes, several times, writing books in anywhere between a week and a month. I wondered if I could do that.

Combine wondering what I could get done if I just wrote with wondering if I could emulate Lawrence Block in some fashion, and I end up here, at the beginning of a challenge. Write a complete novel in ten days.

I think I can do it. I have the plot mostly fleshed out. The cast of characters is set. I know (unlike some of my other works) where this one is going. If only I can keep my kids out of my office. Ideally, I’d go to some remote location and try this, but I don’t have the money.

Here I go, head down. See you in ten days.

Software, StoryBox

StoryBox 1.4.118 Released

This update includes as you type typographer’s quotes (Smart Quotes). It’s an option in the project settings. It defaults to on for new projects, but for existing ones, it remains off unless you change it.

It also fixes the two biggest problems that I was aware of with exporting ePubs for uploading to KDP (Kindle). The first is the duplicate copy of the cover (only showed up after running through KDP or Kindlegen), and the lack of a table of contents on Kindle.

In order to have a table of contents on the kindle, you have to create a blank document (can be a chapter or whatever as long as “Include in manuscript” is checked in the document properties. Then just put the 5 characters [toc] into the document. Make sure you include the square brackets. This will be converted to a hyperlinked table of contents within your book. You can put the document wherever you wish within the book (I think), though it’s probably best to put it near the front.

This will probably be the last update for at least a month, unless some really awful bug rears its head, as I will be working on a new novel, and I’ve discovered that I work best on a project when I can really focus on it and not do much else.

http://www.storyboxsoftware.com/download.htm

Questioner's Shadow, Writing

Questioner’s Shadow Draft Done

So, my edit of Questioner’s Shadow is finally done. Editing my work is not my favorite thing to do, but I think the effort improved it.

Here’s the tagline that will be on the front cover:

A fugitive with a dangerous secret discovers a town suffering unbelievable horror.

Now, it goes off to beta readers, at which point, I find out whether or not I managed to create a decent story. While I’m waiting, I’m going to try to bust out the first draft of another book.