Curse of a dark god

For those who haven’t noticed, I just finished chapter 40 of 60 on this draft of Curse of a Dark God. My original target was September 5th to finish the draft. I’m closer in my projections than I have been in the past, but I’m clearly not going to make that date. However, I’m going to see what I can do these next three weeks and hopefully pull it off by the end of September. 

This is possible.  Author James Maxey just finished a novel of almost 60,000 words in one week. Yes, you heard that right. ONE WEEK! Here are his tips for doing this and here was his master plan when he started. I got to read his updates a few times each day. It was simply amazing.

Of course, there’s no way I can write 60,000 words in one week. Not because I think it’s impossible. But because it takes time. James had a week off and spent like 10 hours a day at it.  I can’t take a week off.  But even if I could, I don’t write as fast as James. But hopefully I can structure things to get more time and finish it in three weeks. We’ll see. I’ve been working on this draft for the last four months and have put in about 240 hours on it, roughly 12.5 per week.  My slow 500 words per hour that I can’t seem to budge (yes, some is writing and some is revising as I go along).  I wanted to get a solid 20 hours in each week–that’s really the key–and am disappointed I haven’t managed to do this.  Of course, it’s hard with a full-time job and family and a daughter going off to college and life.  Waa, waa, waa. But I’m going to see what I can do to boost that to 25 hours per week for the next few weeks.  The good thing is that I’m really enjoying the story on the page.

As for manuscript size, the issue with the last draft, right now the manuscript is 123,000 words. The target is around 170,000. I’m roughly on track to hit that. I’m trying to keep my chapters around 2,500 words.  We’ll see how close I get.

The very observant will note that the progress bar for draf 4 of CURSE OF A DARK GOD has moved. Here’s the opening, although I’m sure it will change. We’re on our way, folks.

It was well past midnight, and they were deep in enemy Fir-Noy territory.  There were eight of them: Talen, Sugar, River, and five of Shim’s soldiers, all of them staying back in the deep moon shadows at the edge of the wood, crouching low in the dry autumn weeds that had not yet been eaten down by the village livestock.  They had to be careful.  Talen, Sugar, and River all had sizeable Fir-Noy bounties on their heads.  And even though they wore weaves of might, being multiplied didn’t make their flesh impervious to arrows and blades. 

This vulnerability had been made abundantly clear to Talen in his training.  In addition to his many fine bruises and the finger which had recently healed from a break, he wore a bandage around his arm where a soldier had cut him in practice two days ago with a spear. 

The night shadows of the clouds played over the moonlit fields and houses and road that ran through the village of Plum.  The village where Sugar’s father had been killed and her mother taken and beaten.  The village where the Fir-Noy had burned her life to the ground.  The village that was their destination.

Purity, Sugar’s mother, had hidden valuables there.  Weaves and maybe a codex of lore.  Talen and the others had been tasked to steal into the village and retrieve the items, right under the noses of the sleeping Fir-Noy.

Except this wasn’t right.  They were supposed to have come out across from the ash ruins of Sugar’s old house.  “I think you’ve brought us to the wrong end,” Talen whispered to Sugar.

“No, I’m just coming to get what’s mine first.”  Sugar pointed up the road to the entrance of the village.

Talen followed her finger.  The Fir-Noy here had begun to build a wall around their village.  A wooden palisade atop a mound of dirt.  But she wasn’t pointing at the half-finished wall with its timber supports still showing like bones.  She was pointing at a tall pole that had been erected at the gate of the village.  Something had been fastened to the top of the pole.  Talen peered closer and saw a skull shining pale in the moonlight. 

“That’s your father’s, isn’t it?”

“You’re going to help me,” she said.  “He deserves better than that.”

I just got word from my editor, and we’ve finally been able to agree on the outline!

Let us rejoice.

It took far longer than I’d planned. But I’m happy to move forward. I’ll finish up a couple of things I’m working on right now with the thriller and then begin production next week. I’m estimating I’m going to have to write about 130k worth of new material, which is basically enough to fill a normal novel. If I’m diligent, I can average about 7,500 words a week. That’s not super fast, but I do have a day job. So my initial target for delivering it is September 1st.

It then goes into the publisher machine. I’ll know in the fall what the release date will be.

This will also give me some extra time to develop the premise of the thriller. I hoped to have a rough outline by this point, at the very least the story problem. But it’s not quite there yet. So this will give me a little more cooking time. I’m still hoping to finish BOTH before the end of the year. At least two novels a year. That’s the goal.

I just turned in a 35 page chapter outline of Curse of a Dark God to my editor. This is the third iteration of the outline since December. Hopefully, at last, we have a story we can all agree on. Keep your fingers crossed.

Of course, since this back and forth has been a process of write like mad then wait a few weeks then write like mad and wait again, I’ve been working on another project during the waits. It’s a straight-up thriller.

Leon is ex-Special Forces (or an Army Ranger, but I’m leaning SF). He left the service when a colonel decided it was his job to make Leon’s life hell. He did security and a number of other things. Tried to be a plumber, but fell into bad company and then crime. And then was send to the big house and learned about a whole new theater of war. During his stay, he saw the light. Changed. He shaped up, and despite the swastika tatoos on his feet, flew straight when he got out. He had his odd jobs, but figured it was easiest to avoid all the questions and fuss that arise when you tell a prospective employer that you’re a felon. So he got himself a laundromat. Then another. Then he invested in a car wash. There’s good money in cleaning. And with the proceeds he bought himself a little ranch.

Leon’s a big man. Knows a lot about guns (although he can’t possess one), security, and crime. He lives in Rock Springs, Wyoming. On occassion, the sheriff is known to ask for his services. On more frequent occassions, the sheriff’s wife keeps trying to set him up with an unending line of women. But he doesn’t know if he’s ready for women. He doesn’t know if he’s ready for his nephew that his sister wants him to reform.

Then two old buddies from prison show up one night. They’ve got a girl with them. They need a place to stay. But it’s clear the girl isn’t there of her own accord. He figures they’re either holding her for ransom or blackmail. He’s not sure which. He knows these boys are connected to some bad men. Then his nephew breaks her free. The excons get in their car and chase after her. Leon gets in his car and chases after them. And soon he finds himself in the middle of something bigger than he could imagine.

Or something like that. I should have the chapter outline ready to go as soon as I finish Curse. I can’t wait to write it.

Because of so many reader requests, I think it’s time to explain.

Alas, I must report that she ran off with a no-good tramp. I’m sure she’s realized her error. Either way, I’ve formed a posse. We’re hunting her down.

That’s the true story. For those that want the boring press release that obscures the facts, you may read what follows.

The first draft of Curse of a Dark God was delivered to the editor in August of 2009, two months before Servant of a Dark God was released. That draft had some issues with a few of the story lines. These issues crept (they did not run or slouch) into the text because the author, stressed about an aggressive deadline, decided to adopt the fix-it-when-you-finish-just-get-er-done-you’ve-got-a-freaking-deadline methodology of writing.

But a book of 230,000 words is a big old momma. And if something in a beginning chapter is off, it wankers a whole heck of a lot of story that follows, much like a line of dominoes. But it’s not just one story line. This book had multiple interconnected story lines. So issues in one line rippled out into others. What this meant was that the changes that needed to be made weren’t wee things that could be dealt with in a few weeks. When the dust settled, it was clear the book required a substantial rewrite, even though the draft contained gobs of cool story.

So much for that fix-it-later experiment. You can be sure the author won’t be using that on large books again.

So the author wrote another draft of 245,000 words and delivered it in August of 2010. The story rocked. Unfortunately, there was a miscommunication on size (and there’s no use in having a drama about what was said and who was at fault and why fairies are always tiny hot chicks; despite our best efforts, life is full of bumps; the best thing to do is learn from them and move forward). The book actually needed to be in the 170,000 – 180,000 word range. Same as Servant of a Dark God.

In a 10% edit, you’re tightening a story, cutting out the fluff. In an edit designed to reduce the book by 30% or more, you’re cutting off arms and legs and removing things like livers. The story can’t survive such cuts unless the thing was obese to begin with and just needed to go on a diet. Unfortunately, Curse of a Dark God draft 3 was fairly lean, given the amount of story it contained. It was NOT a candidate for Biggest Loser.

The upshot is this third draft is going to be another major rewrite. Which means, given publishing lead times, that it’s going to take a number of months to get it on the shelves.

(fricken, ricken, grumble, frag a friggen nack)

Because I’m just starting on the outline, we don’t have a delivery date yet. As soon as we do, I’ll post it.

I apologize to all of you expectantly looking forward to the next book. When I started this series, I promised myself that I would not leave my readers hanging. I was determined that my books would come out in a timely fashion. And I have been working like a devil to do just that, but sometimes things happen. What I can promise you is that this draft will go quickly. Furthermore, I already have book 3 outlined. It should go quickly as well.

I know some of you are asking why? Why, the word limit? Aren’t there are plenty of monster books out there?

There are. In fact, about half of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time books are roughly the length of draft 3. Publishers do sell fat books. However, the bigger the book, the harder it is to make it profitable.

First, bigger books cost more. There’s the cost of the additional paper and editing, but there’s also the extra money to ship and store.

Second, you can’t put as many copies out in the stores. You can’t because they take up more of the space that might be allotted to an individual book. So instead of being able to have stores stock four or five copies of a 120k novel, they can only stock two or three of a big old momma in that same space.

Third, bigger books cost you, dear reader, more money. Sure, the publisher might eat some of the additional costs, but some of those costs will be passed onto you.

So because of the increase in cost, the publisher needs to sell more copies; however, the limit on display space and the higher price make it harder to sell those additional copies and actually may lead to selling fewer copies.

Do you see the bind?

This doesn’t mean big books can’t be profitable. It just means that it’s not as easy. It’s a bigger risk. Part of me would want the publisher to take that risk. But the other part of me knows that slow and steady usually wins the race. Neither I nor the publisher want to gamble the long-term viability of the Dark God series. Now, if Tor was doing this all in paperback, this might not be such a big issue. But we’ve got the sweet hardback/paperback deal. And business projections have to be done in that world.

So the short of it is that we’ve run into some business limitations, and it’s going to take me a bit more time to deliver.

I wish I could announce a date at this time, but I can’t. I’ll finish up the outline for this draft and run that by the publisher around Christmas. Then it’s back to work. I promise that what you’ll get will be my best. And that’s what you want, anyway, even if it takes a bit longer to get it into your hands.