Fantasy Baseball

As those of you who know me well should realize, I am a huge baseball fan. I played fantasy baseball last year for the first time. I was in two different leagues; one of which I finished 4th in, the other I was 11th. I learned a lot over the course of the season about stats and how to best predict the future outcome of the players on your team.

Or, you can trade your players for players that do already perform better. That part of the game took me a while to catch on to. I wanted to tough it out and show that the team I drafted was superior to everyone else. This, unfortunately, was not the case. In fact, there were some people on the team who had over 100 transactions over the course of the year. This boggled my mind at first, but then I realized that no one can tell the future exactly, not even the pundits out there who write on the subject and publish manuals. I have several manuals that I bought last year to try and give me the edge. was the best and most thorough, I thought.

Anyway, I wrote an article for the Simply Sports Talk guys about my favorite player in the draft last season, Josh Hamilton. Big mistake. He's a great player, his 2010 AL MVP status attests to that. But he is not first round draft material. Check out my thought process here.

Simply Sports Talk

Just wanted to point out that I have an article up on Simply Sports Talk. Tim Tebow, love him or hate him, can lead the Broncos to a big win on Sunday.

Falling in Love with the Kindle

I love the Kindle. My wife bought it for me last Christmas—despite me being skeptical about reading on a screen rather than a page. I always thought I would never read on an ereader, but the Kindle was one of the best gifts I’ve ever received. I use it non-stop. Yesterday, I finally figured out how to send things that I’ve written to the Kindle as a PDF file. 

Editing my novel suddenly became a whole different experience. I could see what it looked like on the Kindle. I don’t know if it was psychosomatic or what, but it was like reading something I had never seen before. This made editing so much easier. Typos stood out, inconsistencies that existed with the plot that I hadn’t been able to spot before came to my attention. It was a weird experience and it surprised me, but I am hooked. From now on, I will not be printing out pages to edit—everything is going to the Kindle. It’s so much cheaper than buying paper and ink cartridges. 

If you don’t own an ereader, I definitely understand skepticism. I was there once. But if you are an avid reader, the Kindle will get you books for a fraction of the price that a print copy would run you. For writers, the Kindle presents an opportunity to self-publish without having to worry about the cost of printing out books. There is no inventory with the Kindle, everything is on a computer. And with the ability to send files to your Kindle from your computer, editing is much easier. 

I thought I liked the Kindle before, but after editing with it yesterday, I think I want to marry it. Sorry Beth.

First Reading

There’s a reason for having rules. I let my grandmother read my work in progress and she finished reading it yesterday. Once I got past the fact that this wasn’t her favorite piece I’ve written, I learned a lot from this breach of rules. While she only made three notes on the manuscript, I took away a lot more. If I want to keep readers interested from beginning to end, I need to speed up the flow of action.  She ended up enjoying it, but it took her a while to get through some of the slower parts, she informed me.

At first, I was a bit disappointed. I wanted more notes, more help, and I eventually realized that I wanted more ego stroking, too. She usually loves my writing, but she was not as enthusiastic about this piece as she usually is. Ultimately, she enjoyed it—she told me that she wanted to know how it ends.

So I took a hard honest look at the beginning of the story. There is a lot of story setup in the beginning as I try to introduce the new characters and give them a basis for why they are important to the story. But I have too many characters, especially a character whose only job was to give my main character a ride when he is stranded at a gas station. I spent way too much time describing this character, her history, and how my MC knew her. It was about 2,000 words long, my character’s interaction with this Deus ex Machina character. I devoted way too much space to a character that shows up to save the day, simply because when I wrote that section two years ago, I couldn’t think of any other way to get the MC from Point A to Point B.

I cut about 2,400 words out of the beginning of the story, including the Deus ex Machina character. Cutting words always hurts—I always feel like it’s backward motion. But I woke up this morning excited about the edits. I had written down a bunch of questions that my story hadn’t answered about a week ago, but there were two that I had not yet tackled. Eliminating Sally Frieman answered both of these.

So now I am further away from my 65-68K word goal. But I am closer to having a well organized plot. A lot closer.

So I broke a rule, on purpose, by letting grandma read my WIP. It didn’t have the effect that I wanted, and that hurt a little, but it worked out the way I wanted it in the end. I need to grow thicker skin if I want to write a good story.

Breaking My Own Rules

I've taken a break from my work in progress to let it escape my mind for a little bit. I am up over 48,000 words at this point--the goal is between 65 and 68K. I usually would just let it sit until I can return to it with fresh eyes so that I can see the gaps in the story line, but I gave my manuscript to my grandmother for her to read.

This goes against a lot of rules that I have for myself. One,  don't let others read a manuscript until it is finished. Two, don't let family read drafts until they are complete.

I broke these rules for a couple reasons. One, I really value my grandma's opinion when it comes to literature. She reads probably 100 books a year. I read 31 last year. She reads primarily mysteries and thrillers. My WIP is a thriller. This leads to point #2: she has a good eye for what works and what does not. I am at a point where if something doesn't work, I would need to rewrite a good chunk of the manuscript. I don't want to do work I don't necessarily need to. Point #3, I want to finish this as quickly as possible.

Maybe this is laziness on my behalf. I don't think it is, though. Well, at least I hope it's not. I've never been more excited about a piece that I've written and I think that this book has a good deal of potential. I am excited to finish it, but I have become too submerged within the story line. I know what happens in a linear order, but I didn't write the book in a linear manner, so I need fresh eyes to help me point out what eventually works and what fails completely. Could I do this myself? Of course I could. But I would need at least a month away from it. Having my grandma read it saves me a lot of time. This is a big advantage for me, so I am breaking my rules in this instance.

Two Steps Forword

Editing a manuscript is the most frustrating part of the actual writing process. I am frugal with my words, and I am struggling to get my story to the 65,000 words goal. I was up to 42,900 as of last night. Since then, I have been trying to make the story line coherent and uniform. I have four different perspectives written in third person omniscient, and the main thread of the story is written in first person limited. So juggling these five perspectives has put several holes and gaps in the plot. In going back through the story, I've trimmed many words, currently the manuscript stands at 41,200 words.

Now, basing my forward progress just on word count is very misleading. I've put hours into this manuscript so far today and have gone backward in word count. So while my plan of hitting 43,500 today is getting further away, I've actually made a lot of progress on this.

It's too frustrating to go by word count. And while I still have long term word count goals to hit, for the remainder of this manuscript, I am going to go by man hours put in, and not by the number that shows up at the bottom of the page.

Interview with Ken Hoss

I am really excited to post this interview this morning. I had an opportunity to ask Ken Hoss a few questions recently. He is a Goodreads author and is currently working on the finishing stages of his second novel. For those of you who have not yet read his debut book, Storm Rising, I highly recommend it.

Without further blabbering, here is the interview:

How long have you been seriously writing?

That’s a tough question. I started writing seriously while on active duty in the Navy. After receiving numerous rejection letters from both publishers and magazines, I lost interest. I began again about three years ago, after reconnecting with a High School girlfriend.

What do you do for a living?

In my day job, I work as an IT Analyst for a Fortune 500 company. The dream of course is to write for a living.

What are the benefits of self-publishing?

The benefit, at least in my opinion, is not having your book sit on some editor or publishers desk for two years before seeing the light of day. (If it makes it that far.) This way, I get my story out there for people to read, and hopefully enjoy.

Difficulties of self-publishing?

I would have to say the marketing. With a big house, they push your book, pay for the advertising. As an Indie, all of that is on you.

Is it hard having a woman as your main character?

Not really. There are times when I’m writing a scene and she’ll start ranting that it doesn’t work and then we get into a shouting match. Eventually, either I’ll give in, or she’ll storm out and not talk to me for days. It’s kind of like being married.

What is the importance of blogging, and other social media, as a way of connecting with audience?

Any media you can use to tell people about your work is worth its weight in gold. Blogging, Twitter, and Facebook are all good tools.

Do you have any marketing tips? What has worked for you and what has not?

I had business cards made up with calendars on the back and I hand them out every place I go. They work, though not as well as word of mouth. That is the best marketing anyone can get, no matter what you’re selling. I’m also setting up for book signings, which I hope will boost sales and get my book read.

Future goals?

Finish the second book in the series, get it published and start on book three. After that, I have another series planned, but you’ll have to wait and read about it on my blog.

Thank you, Ken! I really appreciate your time.

Thank you, Matt. It’s been fun.

http://kenhoss.blogspot.com

Twitter: @kennhoss