{"id":780,"date":"2016-02-24T20:42:12","date_gmt":"2016-02-25T04:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/?p=780"},"modified":"2016-02-24T20:42:12","modified_gmt":"2016-02-25T04:42:12","slug":"the-state-of-my-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/?p=780","title":{"rendered":"The State of my Writing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Instead of writing a post before editing tonight, I’ve decided to take a break between chapters. \u00a0The next chapter is good, but it’s going to take some effort to clean up and bring to the level of my standards. \u00a0Now is a good time to sit back and gather my strength for the next bit of work.<\/p>\n

So, where am I with my writing?<\/p>\n

Literally, I’m at a Starbucks. \u00a0Not the one I’d been attending with Michael<\/a>. \u00a0This one is a little bit bigger, and stays open\u00a0a little bit later. \u00a0I used to like to work here back when I wanted to make Stormbreaker Software a thing. \u00a0Now, it’s a decent place to work on my fiction when I need to get out of the house and surround myself with productive white noise.<\/p>\n

The question isn’t about my physical location. \u00a0It’s about my life as a writer. \u00a0What am I doing? \u00a0Where is this all going? \u00a0Have I given up yet, or am I still plugging along?<\/p>\n

I’m continuing to edit\u00a0The Repossessed Ghost<\/em>. \u00a0The more I work on it, the more excited I get about it. \u00a0It’s a good story! \u00a0It isn’t perfect. \u00a0I don’t expect it to be a New York Times best seller. \u00a0But it’s good! \u00a0I really think anyone that likes Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files will like my book.<\/p>\n

The first draft of\u00a0The Repossessed Ghost\u00a0<\/em>came out to be a little over 60,000 words. \u00a0Too short to sell through the traditional route. \u00a0The first draft had been 24 chapters in length. \u00a0In the second draft, I’ve been expanding places and adding story elements that should have been here from the beginning. \u00a0I’m currently on chapter 25. \u00a0I think there are about 15 chapters left.<\/p>\n

What am I going to do with it when its done? \u00a0What am I going to do with myself?<\/p>\n

I’ll submit it to my writer’s group. \u00a0They’ve seen part of it already, and they seemed to enjoy it. \u00a0I’ll give it to some other readers, and make sure it is as good as I hope it is. \u00a0I’ll do another draft, though I\u00a0imagine the third draft will not be as deep as the second has been.<\/p>\n

Then I’ll need to make some decisions. \u00a0I’ll try to get an agent. \u00a0If I’m successful, and the book gets picked up, great! \u00a0If I’m not, then I’ll need to find an editor. \u00a0I’ll need to find an artist. \u00a0And then I’ll need to self-publish.<\/p>\n

I’ve already written a book that sits in a drawer. \u00a0I’m not going to do that with this book. \u00a0The Repossessed Ghost<\/em> deserves a chance to be in front of readers.<\/p>\n

That says more about where I am with my writing life than anything. \u00a0I have confidence in my work. \u00a0I’ve beaten my fears, and my inner editor.<\/p>\n

Progress is slower than I want, but I am still progressing. \u00a0And when I’m done with\u00a0The Repossessed Ghost<\/em>, I’ve got a couple of other books to finish. \u00a0And if\u00a0The Repossessed Ghost<\/em> really takes off, I’ve got sequels in mind.<\/p>\n

I don’t need to make a ton of money with my writing. \u00a0I don’t need to be famous. \u00a0But I would like this to be my career, and I really want people to enjoy my stories.<\/p>\n

So I’ll keep going, and see what the future holds. \u00a0Who knows? \u00a0Maybe I’m doing exactly what I need to do to make my dreams come true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Instead of writing a post before editing tonight, I’ve decided to take a break between chapters. \u00a0The next chapter is good, but it’s going to take some effort to clean up and bring to the level of my standards. \u00a0Now is a good time to sit back and gather my strength for the next bit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=780"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":781,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780\/revisions\/781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}