Caitlin McColl's Blog
September 14, 2011
The Clockwork Universe - first draft beta readers anyone?
Okay so I have done a quick first read through of my finished manuscript, and have spell checked it. But starting November I'll start proper editing - reading through it carefully and seeing if there's any inconsistencies (I know of one at least!) and see if there's anywhere I can fill out or anything like that. And of course, spell check AGAIN (and again and again!)
But... would anyone be interested in being a beta-reader for this first very rough draft to give me their thoughts on it? if you're interested, please just send me an email to: info@caitlinmccoll.ca and I'll send you a PDF version of the story and you can let me know what you think of it (remembering it is a rough first draft!).
But... would anyone be interested in being a beta-reader for this first very rough draft to give me their thoughts on it? if you're interested, please just send me an email to: info@caitlinmccoll.ca and I'll send you a PDF version of the story and you can let me know what you think of it (remembering it is a rough first draft!).
August 26, 2011
Camp Nano - Day 26 - I've finished!!
[image error] Today's word count: 7,006
6:16pm. I officially finished The Clockwork Universe.
Lookit that doozy of a word count above! 7000 words! and here I thought writing the 6,000 odd I needed to get to 80k was going to be tough. And it's only 7pm! It just flew by and it was lots easier than I thought. I took a few half hour breaks in between and wrote in approximately 1000 word spurts.
And now I'm at a loss of what to do really! 26 days of constant writing and blogging....and now... Nothing!
I'm going to take a break from it 'til November and then start on editing it as part of NaNoWriMo - I'll be what's called a NaNoWriMo rebel - i.e. not actually writing a new story during November 2011's NaNoWriMo! But since there's still a few more days left in the month - after taking a break tomorrow - I might start editing a bit (mainly just spell checking because I'm sure it's going to be full of atrocious spelling thanks to sticky keys of my Alphasmart!)
Total word count: 80,712 (without chapter headings! so with them, even more!)
6:16pm. I officially finished The Clockwork Universe.
Lookit that doozy of a word count above! 7000 words! and here I thought writing the 6,000 odd I needed to get to 80k was going to be tough. And it's only 7pm! It just flew by and it was lots easier than I thought. I took a few half hour breaks in between and wrote in approximately 1000 word spurts.
And now I'm at a loss of what to do really! 26 days of constant writing and blogging....and now... Nothing!
I'm going to take a break from it 'til November and then start on editing it as part of NaNoWriMo - I'll be what's called a NaNoWriMo rebel - i.e. not actually writing a new story during November 2011's NaNoWriMo! But since there's still a few more days left in the month - after taking a break tomorrow - I might start editing a bit (mainly just spell checking because I'm sure it's going to be full of atrocious spelling thanks to sticky keys of my Alphasmart!)
Total word count: 80,712 (without chapter headings! so with them, even more!)
Camp Nano - Day 25
Today's word count: 2,667
It's still technically today. For another 11 minutes. Seeing how I plan to finish my story tomorrow (another 5,000 words - or maybe just a little more than that) I thought I'd have a late night writing session, just to say that I've actually done at least ONE late night writing session (the latest I've had so far is probably around 10pm, but now its 11:51pm). I've had my latte about an hour ago and thankfully it hasn't put me to sleep yet like lattes usually do (weird I know! and only at home never lattes that I buy during the day while at work!).
My two protagonists have just arrived at the palace to rescue my MC (and one of them has stolen two things. Including someone's meaningful keepsake!).
And all I have to write now is the final confrontation scene tomorrow. And I'm pretty sure (hopefully!) that it will eat up the last 6,000 words in no time - that seems like an amazingly small number!
26 days of writing. 6,000 words left. A total of 80,000 words on the nose. Now, I'm sure I'll go over that slightly. But I'm thinking not by much.
Of course, when it comes time to do the dreaded EDITING in November...that'll most likely increase rather than decrease.
Writing 80,000 words in under a month now that I'm so close to finishing it seems surprisingly easy. But I think that's just because I'm so close to the finish line that I can see the red tape stretched between the two posts!
Three minutes to midnight. Bed calls and an early morning to get started on the final chapter of my story! (and then, of course, I'll have to actually add all the chapters!!)
Total word count: 73,706
Total word count left to reach 80k: 6,294
It's still technically today. For another 11 minutes. Seeing how I plan to finish my story tomorrow (another 5,000 words - or maybe just a little more than that) I thought I'd have a late night writing session, just to say that I've actually done at least ONE late night writing session (the latest I've had so far is probably around 10pm, but now its 11:51pm). I've had my latte about an hour ago and thankfully it hasn't put me to sleep yet like lattes usually do (weird I know! and only at home never lattes that I buy during the day while at work!).
My two protagonists have just arrived at the palace to rescue my MC (and one of them has stolen two things. Including someone's meaningful keepsake!).
And all I have to write now is the final confrontation scene tomorrow. And I'm pretty sure (hopefully!) that it will eat up the last 6,000 words in no time - that seems like an amazingly small number!
26 days of writing. 6,000 words left. A total of 80,000 words on the nose. Now, I'm sure I'll go over that slightly. But I'm thinking not by much.
Of course, when it comes time to do the dreaded EDITING in November...that'll most likely increase rather than decrease.
Writing 80,000 words in under a month now that I'm so close to finishing it seems surprisingly easy. But I think that's just because I'm so close to the finish line that I can see the red tape stretched between the two posts!
Three minutes to midnight. Bed calls and an early morning to get started on the final chapter of my story! (and then, of course, I'll have to actually add all the chapters!!)
Total word count: 73,706
Total word count left to reach 80k: 6,294
August 24, 2011
Camp Nano - Day 24
Today's word count: 2,511
Today is my worst word count yet. Only 11 words over my minimum. It seems to be getting tougher the closer I am to the end of my story! The words are coming fairly easily, but it seems like i'm not really getting close to the end, which I kinda need to be. I just can't bring myself to write the final bits for some reason! Maybe it's a fear that when I do it'll be all over. Or maybe just 'cause it's tough!
But I can't believe I only have 3 more days of writing to go before I finish! THREE!!! This whole month has been an exhausting, draining, yet gratifying crazy month of writing! well, less than a month, really! This whole experience has been great but really tough, but super fun and I've been surprised at all the directions the s
Does anyone have any suggestions of what I can do as a reward for myself for finishing writing my second novel? (granted the rough first draft!).
In November, I'm planning on spending that month at NaNoWriMo write-ins editing my manuscript, so hopefully by December (and with the help of a Beta Reader or two!) it'll be pretty decent!
I only have two more things to write about in my story:
1) my main characters rescuers finally coming to rescue him - but almost too late!
and
2) the face off between my villain, my semi-evil Emperor, my Main character and his rescuers!
In fact, my villain (Gideon, as said before - sorry, Gideon (as in the actual person :P) is just about to hop in an airship to fly to the big final confrontation!
and my main character is about to face the Emperor for his trial!
and his rescuers are just about to reach the Emperor's palace and strike a deal with their captor!
I feel like saying 'stay tuned for next weeks episode' lol.
Total word count: 71,039
Words remaining to 80k Goal: 8,961
Today is my worst word count yet. Only 11 words over my minimum. It seems to be getting tougher the closer I am to the end of my story! The words are coming fairly easily, but it seems like i'm not really getting close to the end, which I kinda need to be. I just can't bring myself to write the final bits for some reason! Maybe it's a fear that when I do it'll be all over. Or maybe just 'cause it's tough!
But I can't believe I only have 3 more days of writing to go before I finish! THREE!!! This whole month has been an exhausting, draining, yet gratifying crazy month of writing! well, less than a month, really! This whole experience has been great but really tough, but super fun and I've been surprised at all the directions the s
Does anyone have any suggestions of what I can do as a reward for myself for finishing writing my second novel? (granted the rough first draft!).
In November, I'm planning on spending that month at NaNoWriMo write-ins editing my manuscript, so hopefully by December (and with the help of a Beta Reader or two!) it'll be pretty decent!
I only have two more things to write about in my story:
1) my main characters rescuers finally coming to rescue him - but almost too late!
and
2) the face off between my villain, my semi-evil Emperor, my Main character and his rescuers!
In fact, my villain (Gideon, as said before - sorry, Gideon (as in the actual person :P) is just about to hop in an airship to fly to the big final confrontation!
and my main character is about to face the Emperor for his trial!
and his rescuers are just about to reach the Emperor's palace and strike a deal with their captor!
I feel like saying 'stay tuned for next weeks episode' lol.
Total word count: 71,039
Words remaining to 80k Goal: 8,961
August 23, 2011
Camp Nano - Day 23
Today's word count: 2,599 (though my word document actually says 2,600!)
Well, I'm getting ever closer to the end of my book! and for some reason the word count seems to be increasing more slowly....though I know that's just my imagination. I'm still writing over 2,500 words a day - have never gone below that in the last 23 days!
The other day I figured out what happens at the end of the book. How it all comes together. Thank goodness! And I don't have all that many more words to do it in but I think it will be a perfect amount. I may have to write slightly over 80k but we'll see.
In a strangely bizarre coincidence, I received an email today...from someone with the same name as my antagonist! And here I was thinking my antagonist's name was different, unique, and steampunk-y. So I want to just apologize in advance to Gideon of Steampunkkindle.com for my antagonist having the same name as him! LOL. I named my villain Gideon after an ancestor of mine, on my Grandma's side, I think. It sounded steampunk-esque.
I got this email from Steampunkkindle.com, and the owner Gideon, asking if I could promote a free ebook give away he is hosting on his site at the moment. And imagine my shock and surprise when I saw his name at the bottom of the email - the same name I had been writing over and over again the last few days, when I've been telling my antagonists backstory (and not using the pseudonym he's been going by since the beginning of the book)!! Weirdly strange name coincidences have been happening to me lately with regards to my characters. If I come across the name Eldon (that's the Emperor's first name) anywhere in the next few days, I'm going to freak out! lol
So, as it's steampunk, and I'm writing a steampunk novel, I promised to mention Steampunkkindle.com's little blurb in my blog. Here it is:
SteampunkKindle.com, a reviewer of Steampunk eBooks & Accessories for the Amazon Kindle eReader, is giving away some free copies of the new book "The Atomic Weight of Secrets or The Arrival of the Mysterious Men in Black" [Kindle Edition] by Eden Unger Bowditch- (part one of The Young Inventors Guild series). Young and young-at-heart readers have compared this Steampunk tale to Harry Potter's adventures at Hogwarts... with a dash of clockwork invention thrown in! No purchase is necessary to enter, and promotion details along with more synopsis of the book can be found at this webpage:
http://steampunkkindle.com/Free-Samples/win-atomic-weight-of-secrets.html
-Sounds like a tres awesome story, does it not?! So go, enter now!!
Total word count: 68,528
Words Remaining til 80k Goal: 11,472
Well, I'm getting ever closer to the end of my book! and for some reason the word count seems to be increasing more slowly....though I know that's just my imagination. I'm still writing over 2,500 words a day - have never gone below that in the last 23 days!
The other day I figured out what happens at the end of the book. How it all comes together. Thank goodness! And I don't have all that many more words to do it in but I think it will be a perfect amount. I may have to write slightly over 80k but we'll see.
In a strangely bizarre coincidence, I received an email today...from someone with the same name as my antagonist! And here I was thinking my antagonist's name was different, unique, and steampunk-y. So I want to just apologize in advance to Gideon of Steampunkkindle.com for my antagonist having the same name as him! LOL. I named my villain Gideon after an ancestor of mine, on my Grandma's side, I think. It sounded steampunk-esque.
I got this email from Steampunkkindle.com, and the owner Gideon, asking if I could promote a free ebook give away he is hosting on his site at the moment. And imagine my shock and surprise when I saw his name at the bottom of the email - the same name I had been writing over and over again the last few days, when I've been telling my antagonists backstory (and not using the pseudonym he's been going by since the beginning of the book)!! Weirdly strange name coincidences have been happening to me lately with regards to my characters. If I come across the name Eldon (that's the Emperor's first name) anywhere in the next few days, I'm going to freak out! lol
So, as it's steampunk, and I'm writing a steampunk novel, I promised to mention Steampunkkindle.com's little blurb in my blog. Here it is:
SteampunkKindle.com, a reviewer of Steampunk eBooks & Accessories for the Amazon Kindle eReader, is giving away some free copies of the new book "The Atomic Weight of Secrets or The Arrival of the Mysterious Men in Black" [Kindle Edition] by Eden Unger Bowditch- (part one of The Young Inventors Guild series). Young and young-at-heart readers have compared this Steampunk tale to Harry Potter's adventures at Hogwarts... with a dash of clockwork invention thrown in! No purchase is necessary to enter, and promotion details along with more synopsis of the book can be found at this webpage:
http://steampunkkindle.com/Free-Samples/win-atomic-weight-of-secrets.html
-Sounds like a tres awesome story, does it not?! So go, enter now!!
Total word count: 68,528
Words Remaining til 80k Goal: 11,472
August 22, 2011
Camp Nano - Day 22
Today's wordcount: 2,582
Today was a good writing day. I really got on a roll near the end. I wrote all about the antagonist and kind of a specific part of his past - involving an alternate underground version of the UK. I'm really liking my antagonists character. As a young teenager anyways so far, because he's not all evil and hasn't got into the habit of ordering people to be killed (or killing people himself).
Plus, I love his eyes. He has the same colour eyes as my dog. Coincidence? well, yes, I can do whatever I want. It's my book.
I just realized I only have 14,000 words to go to reach my goal of 80k! I can't believe it!!
Gotta go make some rice for my dog for dinner. He has an upset tummy so need to help him get better!
Total wordcount: 65, 929
Today was a good writing day. I really got on a roll near the end. I wrote all about the antagonist and kind of a specific part of his past - involving an alternate underground version of the UK. I'm really liking my antagonists character. As a young teenager anyways so far, because he's not all evil and hasn't got into the habit of ordering people to be killed (or killing people himself).
Plus, I love his eyes. He has the same colour eyes as my dog. Coincidence? well, yes, I can do whatever I want. It's my book.
I just realized I only have 14,000 words to go to reach my goal of 80k! I can't believe it!!
Gotta go make some rice for my dog for dinner. He has an upset tummy so need to help him get better!
Total wordcount: 65, 929
Camp Nano - Day 21
Today's word count: 2,604
Okay, it's 11:36pm and we're just back from our trip down to Portland. I managed to write my daily wordcount on the way home (I wasn't driving because I can't drive!) - the majority of which was stuck in traffic through Washington - specifically just before Olympia. Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to update yesterday's blog post, which I had planned.
So I'll do today's - all thanks to some song lyrics that inspired me to write 90% of what happened during today's writing session. I focussed more on some more of the clockwork/steampunky aspects of the story.
I got 3 books in Powell's books in Portland (the largest bookstore in North America apparently) and they had an entire little Steampunk book section (I got one of the steampunk books recommended 'if you like Cherie Priest's Boneshaker - which I did). The steampunk book I got was the debut novel by Dexter Palmer called 'The Dream of Perpetual Motion' which sounds interesting. Also got a used copy (only 3.95!) of the 1st book of the Game of Thrones series by George R. R. Martin and an awesome book that I've already started reading called The Magicians by Lev Grossman - touted as Harry Potter for grown-ups!
Anyways, having a flick through some of the steampunk books also inspired me with my writing today which was good!
my plan this week is to write 5,000 words AT LEAST one day this week (mon-thurs) but hopefully more. I was even thinking 'maybe I could write 5,000 words Monday, Tuesday and by Wednesday be finished!'
Maybe not.
But definitely going to do 5,000 words one day Mon - Thursday and then my usual 5,000 words on Friday. So I should be done by Saturday at the very latest!
Exciting! and now off to bed because I have work tomorrow...
Total word count: 63,347
Okay, it's 11:36pm and we're just back from our trip down to Portland. I managed to write my daily wordcount on the way home (I wasn't driving because I can't drive!) - the majority of which was stuck in traffic through Washington - specifically just before Olympia. Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to update yesterday's blog post, which I had planned.
So I'll do today's - all thanks to some song lyrics that inspired me to write 90% of what happened during today's writing session. I focussed more on some more of the clockwork/steampunky aspects of the story.
I got 3 books in Powell's books in Portland (the largest bookstore in North America apparently) and they had an entire little Steampunk book section (I got one of the steampunk books recommended 'if you like Cherie Priest's Boneshaker - which I did). The steampunk book I got was the debut novel by Dexter Palmer called 'The Dream of Perpetual Motion' which sounds interesting. Also got a used copy (only 3.95!) of the 1st book of the Game of Thrones series by George R. R. Martin and an awesome book that I've already started reading called The Magicians by Lev Grossman - touted as Harry Potter for grown-ups!
Anyways, having a flick through some of the steampunk books also inspired me with my writing today which was good!
my plan this week is to write 5,000 words AT LEAST one day this week (mon-thurs) but hopefully more. I was even thinking 'maybe I could write 5,000 words Monday, Tuesday and by Wednesday be finished!'
Maybe not.
But definitely going to do 5,000 words one day Mon - Thursday and then my usual 5,000 words on Friday. So I should be done by Saturday at the very latest!
Exciting! and now off to bed because I have work tomorrow...
Total word count: 63,347
August 20, 2011
Camp Nano - Day 20
Today's word count: 2,706
Yay, only 20k left to go in my story! 20,000 words. That's nothing at all, really. It's 11pm, I'm exhausted so I'm gonna leave it at that for today. Lame, I know. And I apologize for pretty much not really blogging at all today. I think the heat in Portland has sapped all the non-actual writing energy out of me tonight!
I might come back tomorrow and edit this post and write more if I have time. We're heading back home tomorrow evening. A long drive. So. Yeah.
I just calculated that by next Sunday - in 9 more days - I'll have reached my 80k. And as I reward, I wi
Night All!
Total word count: 60,743
Yay, only 20k left to go in my story! 20,000 words. That's nothing at all, really. It's 11pm, I'm exhausted so I'm gonna leave it at that for today. Lame, I know. And I apologize for pretty much not really blogging at all today. I think the heat in Portland has sapped all the non-actual writing energy out of me tonight!
I might come back tomorrow and edit this post and write more if I have time. We're heading back home tomorrow evening. A long drive. So. Yeah.
I just calculated that by next Sunday - in 9 more days - I'll have reached my 80k. And as I reward, I wi
Night All!
Total word count: 60,743
August 19, 2011
Camp Nano - Day 19
Today`s word count: 2,531
Today was tough writing. I got about 136 words written before I was tired (I had to pack things for our weekend trip to the US!) and then I went and had about a two hour nap. I woke up, and wrote about 700 words. And on the trip down in the car, thanks to my trusty handy Alphasmart 3000 I was able to finish my word count - even once the light was gone, I continued to type even though I couldn`t see what I was typing (so i`m sure there`s going to be a few spelling mistakes!). Just as we were entering Seattle I hit my over 2,500 words! whoo!
And tomorrow I`ll be over 60k - which leaves me only 20k to try and wrap up my story. Eeek! Well, of course I can write more than just 80k if I need to...but my in-laws are coming to stay and they arrive on the 31st so I`d like to have it all done and finished before then - because I think it`d be rude to write my story when we have guests. Right. That`s supposed to be a question mark after the word `right` but my keyboard is messed up again and is using alternate symbols (hence the strange apostrophes) and I can`t remember how to fix it at the moment!
Anyways off to bed now for me since its 12:30 in the morning and we`re heading off early to go to the Oregon coast! (at the moment we`re in Woodland, Washington staying overnight).
Tomorrow - onto the over 60,000 words!
Total word count: 58,036
Today was tough writing. I got about 136 words written before I was tired (I had to pack things for our weekend trip to the US!) and then I went and had about a two hour nap. I woke up, and wrote about 700 words. And on the trip down in the car, thanks to my trusty handy Alphasmart 3000 I was able to finish my word count - even once the light was gone, I continued to type even though I couldn`t see what I was typing (so i`m sure there`s going to be a few spelling mistakes!). Just as we were entering Seattle I hit my over 2,500 words! whoo!
And tomorrow I`ll be over 60k - which leaves me only 20k to try and wrap up my story. Eeek! Well, of course I can write more than just 80k if I need to...but my in-laws are coming to stay and they arrive on the 31st so I`d like to have it all done and finished before then - because I think it`d be rude to write my story when we have guests. Right. That`s supposed to be a question mark after the word `right` but my keyboard is messed up again and is using alternate symbols (hence the strange apostrophes) and I can`t remember how to fix it at the moment!
Anyways off to bed now for me since its 12:30 in the morning and we`re heading off early to go to the Oregon coast! (at the moment we`re in Woodland, Washington staying overnight).
Tomorrow - onto the over 60,000 words!
Total word count: 58,036
August 18, 2011
Camp Nano - Day 18
Today's word count: 2,551
Okay so I've moved on from the villain's story. It didn't last 15,000 words. I've gone back to my first characters - Kieran and Rue, who are on their way to help my main character who has found himself in a bit of trouble. I've also tied this part of the story back into the short story prequel to The Clockwork Universe - Ex Cineribus Resurge.
The antagonist did do something quite shocking in this latest 2,500 words and he's now on his way to where my other characters are.
Only 25,000 words of my story to go! And as always, since tomorrow is Friday, I plan to try and write 5,000 words (though I do have to go pick up some things from Walmart before we go down to the States tomorrow)
I'm going down to Portland, Oregon this weekend, and besides going to Powell's books to have a look around (and also to the coast for a few hours and walking my dog in the local parks), I'm going to be writing! i'm hoping a change of scenery will give me some more inspiration for my story!
Total word count: 55,506
Okay so I've moved on from the villain's story. It didn't last 15,000 words. I've gone back to my first characters - Kieran and Rue, who are on their way to help my main character who has found himself in a bit of trouble. I've also tied this part of the story back into the short story prequel to The Clockwork Universe - Ex Cineribus Resurge.
The antagonist did do something quite shocking in this latest 2,500 words and he's now on his way to where my other characters are.
Only 25,000 words of my story to go! And as always, since tomorrow is Friday, I plan to try and write 5,000 words (though I do have to go pick up some things from Walmart before we go down to the States tomorrow)
I'm going down to Portland, Oregon this weekend, and besides going to Powell's books to have a look around (and also to the coast for a few hours and walking my dog in the local parks), I'm going to be writing! i'm hoping a change of scenery will give me some more inspiration for my story!
Total word count: 55,506
