865 words today.
Thanks everyone for the feedback on the challenge. I’m looking forward to it as well as ways I can up the ante. More to come.
I got on the bike again today and dictated about 865 words in 20 minutes. I quickly finished my writing for the day—I just had a couple chapters for Indie Author Confidential so it was an easy writing day.
I currently don’t have anything to write right now other than Book 2 of my Good Necromancer series.
I found myself in the position of figuring out what the new urban fantasy series would be for the exercise challenge.
I have a small idea. Not sharing anything publicly right now because the idea is still forming. But I spent the majority of the day doing research to validate my idea. I’ve had it in the back of my head for a while, but I need to figure out what the market fit is, if there even IS one. I’m fairly certain there is—or at least, there will be.
This idea is likely one of those ideas that people will read and say “Oh, interesting. Why HASN’T this been more prominent in urban fantasy? It makes perfect sense.”
Of course, friends, that is also a recipe for trouble. So far I can find no comparable books to mine, and I have a pretty broad understanding of the genre. I can only think of a character in a series that is similar, but not quite. That’s a challenge. But also an opportunity. Will I write to market or end up following the passion? You guys know it’ll be the latter. But no matter what happens, I’ll be doing it with clear eyes. If the series won’t sell, I’ll know it from the beginning…and I’ll still have a ton of fun writing it, because personality and good storytelling always win out in the end, even if you have a bad book launch.
Every series I write is just a brick in the foundation. I’ll eventually write enough urban fantasy that SOMETHING will catch, and then hopefully readers will delve into my backlist. It’s one of the reasons I started a new pen name—so I could start from scratch and “mold” my destiny in urban fantasy, so to speak.
This new series would fit in quite nicely with The Good Necromancer series. It’s a totally different kind of story, but just as dark and thought-provoking. As with all urban fantasy, it’ll depend on how well I can execute the hero’s paranormal type, the magic system, and the world building.
Anyway, I’ll stop teasing. But I’m setting a deadline of this time next Saturday to be done with research.
I’m following the advice I gave in my book How to Write Your First Novel about research. There are two types of research: foundational research and just-in-time research.
Foundational research is the research you must do to write the first page. In other words, you can’t even start unless you understand certain things. Foundational research can and should be pretty extensive, but the key is not to get sucked in.
Just-in-time research is everything that comes up between the time you start writing. There are just too many things that you won’t know before you start writing. It’s foolish to spend months researching things you’ll never need. Far smarter to research what you need when you need it. Saves you time and effort.
Anyway, I spent a LOT of time on YouTube today watching videos on National Geographic and documentary videos. I also grabbed two nonfiction books about the type of character I’ll be writing about to make sure I understand how to position the POV.
I may do something I’ve never done before, which is talk to some experts.
Still deciding if I’ll do first person POV or third person. First person is a mainstay of urban fantasy, and some argue it’s required. But you’re very limited with what you can do. Third person has a far bigger toolbox. I’m itching to write a third person story again to test out some of the techniques I outline in my Writing Craft Playbook, plus a few more I’ve picked up from mega bestsellers. We’ll see what I decide.
LESSON LEARNED & EXECUTED
No ad work today. I’m super profitable though. Turning out to be a good weekend.
