Date:Posted By:Comments:7 CommentsCategory:Songbird NewsTag:, ,

Yes, I know…

I said I’d try to update you with news once a week, and I’ve already slipped on that target. So, this is your first bi-weekly update! 😛

Editing conitnues on Hunters.

Nikki is still helping with the final edit (I say helping, she’s actually doing ALL the heavy lifting. For which I’m very grateful. Esepcially as she really SHOULD be working on her own books at this point…d’ya hear me, Nikki? Get back to work on ‘Closure’!) and it’s going really well. We’re well over halfway through the book now, so it’s starting to feel like we’re on the home stretch!

Note: Nikki has her website up and running now. Find a link over to it on my LINKS page! Go and check it out. It’s AWESOME! AND you may find an interview with yours truly over there.

Once the edits are in the bag, I want to give it to my friends for a final beta-read. I need to see if what we’ve done on the edit has made it read smoothly and see if anyone spots any errors or continuity issues we’ve missed.

P.S. Once again, if you’re reading this and fancy being a beta-reader too, then let me know. 🙂 The more the merrier!

Book 2, Blood to Earth (or B2E as it will henceforth be abbreviated to!) is proceeding apace, too.

I’ve had some slow moments over the past couple of weeks…but we’re back on track.

Some personal issues with family have really held me back a little bit, but now that they’re under control I’ve managed to get back to the writing again and I’m enjoying it. There are now 48 chapters of B2E in a finished or near-to-finished state. The book is looking to be around 92 chapters, so that pushes me nicely past the halfway point.

Additionally, the chapters that are done are all the KEY ones. So, it’s really now more a case of filling in the gaps. Creating the bridges that take us from one key plot chapter to the next.

I have to say…I’m really, really enjoying writing this one. Since Hunters established the world I’m writing in, B2E lets me continue the story and introduce some new characters and locations without having to give the reader too much exposition.

I can’t WAIT to put the final draft of this book into the hands of my friends and beta-readers.

In other News…

Those flashback ‘The 137th Hunters Mission Logs‘ are still on my to-do list. The second volume is pretty much (kinda) done, but before I can put that one out there for anyone to read, I need to sort out the first volume…which is barely even started.

Whereas the second volume of these tales will focus on the team’s early missions, the first volume will kind of work as a companion piece to Hunters.

In Hunters, we will deal with Gayle coming back to the Human Fae Alliance Academy, where she spent her own formative years. This time, she’s back as a teacher. Volume 1 of the Mission Logs, will detail those formative years. How the team first came together.

I’m actually looking forward to it!

On a Personal Note…

Lastly…

Normal(ish) service has resumed.

Things still aren’t great, but after taking a week off to get things straight we seem to have got it all back on track!

I have been on a bit of a graphics binge lately, because it helps chill me out. I’ve been doing a few logos here and there for other peeps, and also doing art assets of the flags for the nations of my new world. Check them out on the New World page. I’ll keep adding more as I do them.

I’m also currently working on a new map of the world to replace the one at the bottom of the page…and I’m quite pleased with the results thus far. Hopefully I’ll be able to share that with you soon.

Until next week (or two!)

Love & Books

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7 Comments

  1. DesireeS

    Wait, is that how most writer’s write a book? By writing a bunch of chapters but not in a row? You know, like just getting things on paper and then going back and writing the in between chapters? I find that pretty interesting but I guess I never knew that is how it was done.

    Congratulations on getting more than half done!

    • Jon Ford

      Oh my! Don’t take my word for how the process works for ‘Professional’ authors. I’m very much an amatuer till I get published (fingers crossed!).
      This is simply how I find it easier to write.
      My reasoning:
      My sage (and ergo the books themselves) all hinge off key moments in the story. The moments that change the game, or provide the gut punch. So I like to write these moments in first, because often they’ll directly impact how the rest of the book builds up.
      For example: Let’s say I’m writing a murder mystery (which I’m not, but hear with me!), then I’d probably write the scene where the detective reveals how the deed was done first, even though it would be at the end of the book. Knowing the end point then allows me to write towards it by planting the clues along the way.
      At least that’s how it logically works in my head.
      I’m also a ‘kitchen sink’ writer. In other words I throw everything and the kitchen sink into my first draft and then prune away the stuff I don’t want until I arrive at my book. Think of it like carving a statue out of a starting block of stone. I know some other writers prefer to start with a skeleton and then flesh out, kind of like making a statue out of clay.
      The first draft of Hunters was 260k words in it’s ‘Kitchen Sink’ draft, before I chiselled it down to 142k
      I imagine every writer has a different process though. 😀

      • Liam

        That’s interesting, Jon. Granted, I cannot write fiction to save my life, I always make an outline for my nonfiction pieces before I get started.

        I love your mystery-writing analogy.

        How do you decide how many chapters you’re going to have ahead of time? Do you set yourself a goal and work towards that or do you just guess how long the book might be based on the defining moments you put into it?

        • Jon Ford

          I have the Spreadsheet of Doom™ and start plotting the story. I put in all the key plot points as chapters (my books have short, snappy, character based chapters so it’s fairly easy).
          Take Book 2 – Blood to Earth, there are about 10 or 11 key moments that turn the narrative in the book. All the other chapters are build up or bridges to those moments.
          So I start writing in brief chapter synopsis notes for each linking chapter, in order to plot how to get from A to B to C etc. I don’t have a chapter count in mind, it’s more simply a case of how many I need to get logically from point to point.
          For B2E, that process has ended up with 92 chapters total. For Hunters is was 82.

          Don’t be scared off by the chunky chapter count though. As I said, the chapters are pretty short on the whole. The average chapter weighs in around 1700 words I think, or thereabouts. The KEY chapters can be much bigger, up to around 6-7000.

          The reason I decided to write like this was two fold…
          1) I have multiple protagonists. For books 1 and 2, I’m mainly following the stories of about 6 main characters.
          2) And many of these characters are in different locations globally, different timezones and the chapters take place at different times.

          It made sense for me to break the book up and head each chapter with the character name, the place, and the day. I think it makes it easier for the reader to follow. For instance, the first couple of chapters on Hunters are:

          – 1 –
          LONDON
          – Gayle Knightley –
          – Monday – London, England –

          and:

          – 2 –
          ONE WAY OR ANOTHER
          – Zarra Anderson –
          – Monday – Havana, Cuba –

          etc

          Hope that makes sense? LOL

          • Liam

            That makes a lot of sense.

            Now, for the different times, is it during the same time period (within the same week) or different time periods (like 18th versus 19th century)? Do the characters, times, and places ever end up converging somewhere?

  2. Nikki Anderson

    Look here, you…I AM working on Closure (thanks to you!)! Songbird is just my happy place. Like a comfort zone. Editing for you is easy because it’s such a good story. And editing with you is fun! 😀
    Everyone definitely needs to come check out your interview. It’s a very insightful look into your background, process, and writing. Can’t thank you enough for doing that, love! xoxo

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