Five Days

Blog No. 383

I’m going to try to stay on topic for this one. I’m sure no one needs to hear about being stuck inside from yet another person. We’re all in that boat together. Though, I will say, staying focused has been a challenge. I’m a creature who craves structure, so a total lack of my usual structure is challenging. That being said, I’m trying really hard to get this novella (Broadcast Wasteland) finished in the next five days. There is still a handful of cleanup to do on the story (typos be damned) the layout to finish, and the cover to put together. (Glen Hawkes did an amazing job with the image, but the interior has to be done in order to get the template from the printer, then put all the pieces together).

I’ve broken down all the steps into what I have to get done each day in order to finish on time. It’s helped me get those jobs done when there feels like an infinite amount of time to get things done (when there totally isn’t). Still, my first task has been reading over the whole book out lout to myself. It sucks so much. It’s tedious and I’ve read it so many times by now that I have nothing but loathing for the thing. All I see are the weaknesses and mistakes and I’m convinced that there are hundreds more hiding from me and I’ll never find them because I’m not good enough.

It’s a process I’ve gone through with all my books so far. Eventually, I’ll come to appreciate some aspect of the story again, but for now, ugh. It’s awful. The methodical reading out loud feels like being stuck in a boring class on a hot day near the end of the school year. I just want to zone out, but I have to stay focused, or what’s the point.

When the reading is done, I have one more beta read coming it (hopefully without many fixes because it’s so clean) then it’s on to the layout. Most of the layout is finished, since it’s the Neon Heart layout with a new story and fonts, but there’s still the tedium of making every chapter a file, importing them one by one, making sure the chapter lengths fit the pages, then triple checking the formatting. I still have the acknowledgements to write, but I think that’s all with the interior. The cover will be it’s own thing, but it’s really just dropping the right images and text into the template. Just a little finicky. Lots left, but I have to get the book finished.

There are no events to get the book finished for, but I still want to have to book out in April. Consistency is important to me and when this whole isolation thing is over, I’ll have books in hand ready to sell to eager readers. Plus, that’s the deadline. It’s self imposed, but since that’s all I have at this point, it’s important to follow through or nothing will ever get finished. More importantly, I have to get it to the printer by the end of the month in order to upload the files for free. That’s a massive savings that anyone (and specifically I) could use.

Now I have chapters 11 to 20 to read. I’ll leave the post here and get to work. Hopefully everyone reading this is comfortable, safe, and getting their own work done at a pace that works for them (or you, since I’m taking about you).