For months I’ve been working on getting the first e-book in a new series for Web writers put together. I drafted it. I sent it out for feedback with several folks. I made a bunch of changes and additions. And as of yesterday, I released it! Yay!

It’s a huge relief knowing it’s finally for sale (meaning I can finally earn something for all of the time sunk into it). However, the work isn’t done yet.

Today I sent it out to about a dozen folks for potential reviews, and solicited some advice on other people who may be worth contacting in certain niches. I’ve gotten a few confirmations from those reviewers, so I’m thrilled (already more than I honestly expected).

I also still have to launch the affiliate program. I’m shooting to do that in about two weeks. I want the testimonials up before I do that, I’ll probably re-work the sales page if I have time, and I am going to have some banner ads put together that affiliates will be able to use.

All in all though, I’m ecstatic! I’ll be starting the outlining this weekend for the next e-book in the series even - don’t want to slack off, or it defeats the purpose of a series, right?

So that’s the update for now.

You can find out more about the new e-book at WebWritersGuide.com, where you can also find the TOC, an excerpt, and a sample of the templates / worksheets I’ve included in the e-book.

That hurdle is an editing obsession. I find myself second-guessing everything I write.

I do think this is a bigger problem with the comedy than it will be for other things though. Frankly, it’s hard to be funny!

I’m most in my comedic element when I’m just being myself - when I’m speaking my mind, no holds barred. My main character is supposed to have a similar dry, sarcastic kind of wit to her, albeit a bit more “obvious.” It’s very difficult to try to be like that on purpose. To do it at all, I can’t be writing - my character has to be writing (this is a first person piece), so I have to be so much in her head that her “thoughts” become my own. It’s kind of fun - kind of scary.

What sounds good when I’m “just writing” sometimes doesn’t feel right at second look. And I know the problem is that I’m taking that second look more than the actual words. I need to let her get from beginning to end of her story before I over-analyze her, and I’m very much struggling with that.

That said, I’m still in the beginning segment of the manuscript.

Something else I’ve been thinking - these 15 sub-stories are just too much. I wanted them brief in short story style, but I really think some need to go. I don’t know how many I’ll keep (I always intended to cut about 5 at the end, so maybe I should cut them before drafting, so I expand the others as I write them instead of doing major fill-in additions later). The extra stories would actually be perfect for a blog tied to the book (I was actually thinking this entire book would make for a pretty interesting fictional blog instead of book format, but I just don’t think I have a good enough marketing scheme in me to pull that kind of project off).

So anyway… things aren’t at a stand-still, but they’re not moving as quickly as I’d like. Fortunately I’m not in a huge rush on this project, but I really should soon set a deadline to have the first draft completed - that might help me get over the editing obsession if I’m feeling a bit “rushed” to get from one section to the next. We shall see.

And for today, that is all.

I’m thrilled to announce that the actual content of the e-book is finally completed! Yay!

I still have to put together a few addenda pieces (templates and outlines), but once that’s done I’ll be sending it out for a few reviews, doing a final proofread, and getting it up for sale at www.WebWritersGuide.com.

Once that’s done, I’ll be able to devote more time to my fictional projects.

Other than that though, I did make some pretty nice progress on my e-book that’s been taking me forever to finish. I got through one of the longer sections, and it’s a bit of a weight lifted off of my shoulders. I’m probably going to try to knock out another big section tomorrow, and then the rest up until the addenda pieces should be a breeze.

I’m thrilled to say that I did get started today (not a huge amount to be proud of, but getting started is half the battle with me).

I set up the manuscript - took care of basic formatting, put the cover page together, and took care of all of the chapter breaks and titles. Again, not a big deal, but I figure having it all laid out like that will make my life easier. Because Three Weeks involves an intro, and ending, and 15 “short stories” throughout the middle, this way I can just browse to whichever scenerio I’m in the mood to write about and take it from there.

On top of the formatting, I started working on the intro. I finished just the first page, and I’ll probably make changes tomorrow when I re-think it, but it was progress, which is better than doing nothing or taking a nap (although those are good too). Tonight was about trying to setup the attitude / personality of the main character and having the intro jump right into things.

If you’ve read any of my blogs (including this one), you know that I like to drag things out. So fiction is a chore for me (but also quite fun because it takes me a bit out of my element).

Something else I’m doing with this project is re-evaluating my main character’s career choice. I have some ideas, but I need to run them by a few folks (I’d like to do something that’s actually going to play into a promotional tactic for the book, but it may bring the character a bit too close to home - and there are already a lot of “me” details in this particular character). We’ll see.

1. I’ve been focusing on clients.

2. I’ve been focusing on the transition from full-time PR work to full-time writing.

3. I had a long break in there due to some Mother Nature-related damage which kind of threw my schedule off for a week.

Either this coming weekend or the following, I’ll be diving back in. I’ve decided to start drafting 3 Weeks (the most recent novel I outlined). I’m planning to handle this one a bit differently than I might otherwise. This is a first person book, broken down essentially into several shorter stories. This story revolves around a character I can get into the head of relatively easy.

So I’ve decided to start writing by recording. I’m going to be forcing myself into the character’s mind a bit, and then telling each of these short-form stories aloud into a voice recorder as though I’m actually “telling” it rather than simply writing it. I’m hoping that’s going to keep me a bit more natural. We’ll see.

Anyway, that’s the latest update on this front.

The Marshall Plan Software - The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing was the very first novel outlining system I used (and still my favorite, despite trying two other interesting plans). Evan Marshall got in touch not long ago to let me know he converted the plan into software. Cool, huh? I usually prefer doing my outlining by hand, but I’ve been starting to play with this. For now, I’m just trying to get used to it and how it works. When I get back to my writing work I’ll either be editing the outline I did under the Marshall Plan or I’ll be drafting another book. If I do the editing, I decided that I’ll move the hand-written outline into the software as I make changes to use it a bit more fully.

1001 Character Quirks - Before outlining Three Weeks I purchased a character trait / character quirk product through ClickBank. It’s essentially a huge list of character quirks (which came in handy when having to plot 15 male characters in that story). It was a lot of fun to peruse - definitely recommended.

I’ve also been spending time reading a variety of mystery writing books - nothing terribly exciting to share on that front. I’m just trying to make sure I haven’t missed important elements and such before moving on with edits to the dark mystery outline I’ve put together.

So it’s finished, and in just 9 DAYS! That includes the 78-page full outline, the abbreviated outline laid out in “scene card” format with 17 pages (actually 5″ x 8″ note cards), 16 full character sketches, character notes for more minor characters, some very minor research (this didn’t need much at all), and my setting sketches / notes.

I’m glad I didn’t follow the Book in a Month 30-day plan, and instead just used some of the resources in it to find my own way. I suppose I’m most happy that I’m getting so comfortable with the outlining process.

Now that I have three finished novel outlines sitting here, I suppose it’s soon going to be time to get on some drafting. However, I’m going to take a few weeks off from these novels for now. I want to do minor notes on my other book ideas, work on my non-fiction book interviews quite a bit, and finally get this Web Writer’s Guide e-book finished.

Boyfriends, Booze, and Broken Hearts