Tag: save one

Buds: A collection of stories

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I just put together all my stories from 2016 to 2019 into a 5 x 8 paperback. It is 371 pages long and the stories that are in this book are;

  • My Cousin Megan,
  • From the Mountain,
  • The Backup Girl,
  • The Witch’s Room,
  • The Things We Do,
  • Save One.

Feet or Fins and The Dragon’s Mate are not in the collection. I called it Buds, as in plant buds, because while they are not the first stories I wrote (I have a bunch of short stories from uni), they are the emergence of my writing style. I think in a few years’ time I’ll put out another collection as I think my novelettes and novellas are not long enough for their own paperbacks.

Last draft, I promise

~ stephaniehaggarty ~ 2 Comments

Misty-summer-mountain-hills-landscape.-613864370_3000x1926 (edited-Pixlr)I’m going to finish this last draft and I’m going to do it either tonight or tomorrow. I’m just about done with this story. It’s dragged on so much that I could throw it out a window. It’s now at a point where I’m just mostly skimming the words, but my attention span is all over the place and I can’t hyperfocus. I’m halfway through it and God damn I’m done.

New cover image for Save One

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I’ve created a new book cover image for Save One. I changed because I wasn’t fully happy with the black and white one. I like colour and I think that it shows the tone of the book a little more. I’m also doing the eleventh edit and I’m hoping that this will be the last one 🙂

Save One draft 8

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Beautiful-African-Woman-174795229_2560x3835_preview4largeI’ve just managed to finish the eight draft of this novella 🙂 It’s been a long time coming. I wasn’t going to be doing any editing at the moment, but after having a talk to one of my friend’s convinced me to push myself. I did 39 pages in one day and the other 15 the next day 🙂

Overall I didn’t need to do that much to it I think it might be ready with three more drafts. I don’t know exactly when I’ll put this one out, but I want it done and dusted by July.  It is currently 32,500 words or 54 A4 pages.

Draft 6 of Save One done

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Beautiful-African-Woman-174795229_2560x3835_preview4largeIt’s been over six months since I last touched this story. I’m so glad that I’m getting back to it because I want to get this done by my birthday in two months time.

The edits I’m doing are mostly line and word edits. No larger things like scene or chapter arrangements. I’m still iffy about the title, but I’m not sure what else to call it.

Currently, it’s 33,000 words and when I first wrote it I felt that I have improved a lot since my previous works. But now I’m seeing some things that I don’t like. Like how I’ve written some scenes. Or that I’ve referenced events sometime after they’ve supposedly occurred in the book. I think it’s going to take the readers by surprise and question why I’ve written it like that. I think I might have to go back and fix those in later drafts.

General update for my other books

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I’ve gone and gotten shiny new idea syndrome and have begun a new book, but what about my other ones?

Beautiful-African-Woman-174795229_2560x3835_preview4largeSave One is mostly completed. Need a few more light drafts and it should be ready. I’ve just grown tired of it atm so I’m giving it some space.

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The Things We Do has been submitted to Tor.com as part of a sci-fi novella submission. Practically ready for release, but will have to wait to see if accepted by these guys.

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Jumpstart is also mostly done. I’m also fatigued by it and have started and stalled on the sequel Tune In. I want that story done before thinking of releasing this as part of the marketing strategy for the series.

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Beyond Calico has stalled. The first draft is not completed, but I have a rough outline of the story and need to write it up sometime.

The Chloris and the Electra has not been touched in over six months and I’m not sure when I’ll go back to it. I enjoyed writing what I have and will finish it. But I think it’s only 60% through the first draft. I think I have an idea of how it ends, but that’s flexible.

Overall I intend for the book I’m writing now to be done by the end of June. Then I might move onto another of the others I haven’t finished and try to maximise my time. I’m still heading towards my goal of 10 self-published stories by my 30th birthday, so I’m not slowing down. I’m hoping to have some stories out by the end of the year so I have that to look forward to.

 

Draft 5 of Save One complete

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Beautiful-African-Woman-174795229_2560x3835_preview4largeI was able to get Chris to have a look at Save One and give me his thoughts. He said it was good, but the ending was a little off. I know that writers shouldn’t give their work to people like spouses, friends or those they’re sleeping with (three strikes for Chris), but I know he won’t mislead me on his opinion of it.

But when I was going through it after I saw so many mistakes that he hadn’t commented on. He told me that the story read good and it makes me wonder how many mistakes people notice. Becuase when I read something I think I pick up on a lot of things, but that might be because I’ve got my editing glasses on.

You can see what I did to the text. I did a lot of line and individual word editing. I expanded some scenes, I didn’t take too much out of it. It is just under 33,000 words. Maybe this will be done by mid-year? I hope that’s the case.

saveone1saveone2

 

 

My impatience! Writing update.

~ stephaniehaggarty ~ 2 Comments

Arrrggg. I’m doing the eighth edit of Jumpstart and I’m still finding things wrong with it 😦 It just reminds me that I’m still working on the stories that I thought I’d have completed by now. I’ve got three almost ready, but I’m getting spent with them. I just want to move to other things. But the fact that they are uncompleted sit in my brain taking up space and energy. I’ve got some sci-fi stories I want to move onto.

This all has to do with the fact that I have this 10 books by age 30 goal thing. I’m turning 28 in a month and I wanted to get at least one story out months ago 😦 I’m just annoyed that I underestimate my time and talent management.

I think the only thing I’ll have done by my birthday is a short story I wrote the other month. I think it is almost done. I need to make up a cover image and do maybe 2/3 more drafts.

 

Goals for 2018

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See these three books? I had it in my head that I would have these out by the beginning of 2018. It’s not going to happen. Instead, I’m going to have them out within the first quarter of next year. I will get them out.

My next resolution is to have any two more of my incompleted stories done to the first draft stage. Maybe have the sequel to Jumpstart planned out a little bit more.

I also want to get my blog up to 400 subscribers. I’m not too sure how I’ll do that, but the 20 days of blog posts really did bring in more traffic.

So that is a rough outline of what I plan on doing during for the year of 2018.