I have a lot of tech set up to help me write more, write better, and get more done. And even so, I recognize that all of the bells and whistles aren't what matters. Especially when I see a post like the recent one in a writer's group I belong to where the author suggested it was time to quit.

Over at the Octave Thanet Project, I've been working my way through the primary texts in the order of publication. Part of that has involved using Google Play Books versions of those texts because:

1. ​The Google Play versions are the scanned pages of the text. While I can get a Kindle version, I lose the page numbers, footnotes get placed in odd spots (and Octave loves a good footnote on dialect and terminology--in Expiation there are something like seven footnotes explaining Arkansas dialect in the first few pages). Also, there's something special about seeing the text as the first edition readers would have.
2. Highlighting and annotation are a breeze! Google Play Books are incredibly user friendly. Not only are they easy to highlight and make notes on, but the notes and highlights auto-sync to your Google Drive. What this means is that you can easily edit and share those notes. Once I've created a copy of my overall notes, I then go back through and do searches for specific things and create notes for those items. For instance, I'm keeping track of and highlighting instances of racist language and terminology, as French's representations of race are one feature often pointed to as to why her texts are not typically anthologized and why her work fell out of favor.
3. Creating this as a web project has several bonuses. One reason I decided to work on the project in real time as a blog is that is the fastest way to share what I find. (The first reason is that it means I constantly work on it--I don't want the blog to just sit here).  Not only is there an immediacy, but the ways in which I can use category tags in posts is automatically creating an "click and go" index. As the project progresses, I'm sure the index will continue to grow. The idea is that later if I do turn this into a critical biography of French I can easily use those tags to write essays about specific themes in her work, for instance. 
4. Academic non-fiction is not a money maker for the creators. I don't necessarily think it should be--but I do think that the prices and access issues that graduate students and independent scholars are faced with for published academic texts mean a lot of research and ideas never get published and those that do don't get read because the cost to the researcher is prohibitive. Because there's no "loss" to me by creating this project as an OER, why not? If one graduate student or casual reader finds my project and benefits from it, that's a great thing.

Ultimately, this type of work is what my PhD trained me to do. And so far I'm having a blast. 

While I certainly was influenced by Dr. Paul Reuben's Perspectives in American Literature site, I have to think that were it not for Dr. Salda, I might not be approaching this project in this particular way. Realizing that the work he did on those three archives is gone, I am also considering how to ensure that even once I'm gone, the resources will remain. On the bright side, you can still view snapshots of all three (see urls in the top for easy searching--the links in the snapshots do still work, so if you get to one, you can get to them all) on the WayBack Machine on the Internet Archive.​

I thought that I needed some community to get things going; the problem is that as with most things that involve more than one or two people, massive groups of aspiring writers wind up in sniping wars or discussing everything but the actual writing.

So, one of the things I'm doing today is putting all of my writing related social media groups on silent.

November is National Novel Writing Month, AKA NanoWriMo. I finally hit on a project that I wanted to work on and that had potential to be a longer work. In the days between leaving my job and November 1st, I even managed to get an outline together, as well as a character list and some specific scenes down. When November 1 got here, I was off and writing. ​

As a birthday present to myself, I registered for the Self-Published Small Press Book Fair this year.  If you didn't get a chance to visit the Book Fair, be sure to keep an eye out for it in 2019.

So, I'm not going to do a lot of big posts this month, most likely, but I will be posting on occasion to keep accountable and to let you know my progress on NanoWriMo 2017.

In preparation for this year's event, I have outlined the novel so I know the time frame (it takes place over a long weekend) and the setting, as well as the four main characters. The basic plot is this--in 2012, four college best friends reunite after 20 years over Labor Day weekend. It's Chick Lit, and it's character driven.  The lame (?) tentative title is Long Weekend.

There's also a tie in to Elegant Freefall, as one of the minor characters from that novel (which is in my desk drawer at the moment, waiting for revision), is one of the four main characters in the NanoWriMo novel.

I've also been listening to old episodes of The Story Grid Podcast in preparation for this project, and love the episode titled "The Mathematics of Story Telling."  It's somehow oddly comforting to know that I need 1/4 for the opening hook, 1/2 for the middle build, and 1/4 for the conclusion. There's also some great advice here about positive/negative balance for the characters.

How's your first day?  

Total word count at the moment for day 1:  2185
Projected end date at this rate:  November 23*

End date = 50K words. There's no guarantee that'll be the actual end of the novel.

So, I keep getting the questions:  "Where are you going?" and "Have you got a new gig?" I wanted to share a little here, as it seems that even though my email that went out to faculty indicated I am going to focus on my writing, I still get the odd instant message asking me what my plans are.

​Jenna Moreci's video is not only entertaining (with some NSFW language) but it's chock full of some great tips for both the writer and the beta reader.  Here are some tips for you if you decide to ask me to beta for you.

I don't care what type of writing you want to do or even if you are just someone who enjoys talking about literature--listen to The Story Grid podcast.  I even recently suggested it to my students of academic writing.  

The video above doesn't tell me anything I don't already know; heck, I tell my students this all the time. 

One of my goals for this year (not resolution, mind you) is to have a clearer production plan.  Part of this involves daily writing, and I've started mandating a two hour block in the morning.  Hey, I'm up at 4:45 am right now and even once Dr. D's schedule changes to clinic hours, I will still be able to move from my writing laptop to my teaching laptop before 8 am.  I don't have a length requirement, but I do set my stopwatch on my phone for two hours and I'm focused on writing during that block.  

If you're interested in production plans and why they are important for writers, there is a great podcast over at The Author Biz with Elizabeth Spann Craig.  You can listen on Stephen Campbell's site or grab it on your phone (this was my walking podcast today).   Not only is this a great listen for the production planning advice, but Spann also talks about her use of WattPad and the Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX).