No Escaping Death
C.L.Chick C.L.Chick

No Escaping Death

A rather morbid title for a blog post, I know. But this one’s personal, even more so than usual. Why? Because my mother will never read this blog post or any other again. She’ll never write another gushing, confidence-boosting comment of praise on one of my short stories, nor will she ever read my second novel, or my third, or fourth, or beyond.

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To Change the Ending or Not to Change the Ending?

To Change the Ending or Not to Change the Ending?

Book endings are a bit of a conundrum, aren’t they? You have an ending in mind that you think is pretty good. Then, by the time you get to that part of the novel, you decide that too much has changed and the ending you had in mind won’t work, or it’s not good enough and you come up with something better, or your timing and triggers are off and you’ve completely screwed the pooch and need to revamp the whole thing - multiple times.

It’s not like I’d know from…

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Answering the Publishing Question
C.L.Chick C.L.Chick

Answering the Publishing Question

As many of you know, I’m working on the end of the second novel in Zelstrason’s Saga and, of course, I’m getting excited about completing it. Because of that, I’ve been mentioning it to people now and then. Unsurprisingly, this has resulted in some asking if the first novel is coming out any time soon, and the question has come up enough times now that I thought I should address it publicly. The answer depends on how you define “soon.”

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Sneak Peek - Book 2 (no spoilers), Plus Writing Update

Sneak Peek - Book 2 (no spoilers), Plus Writing Update

Sneak peek day! It’s just a tiny look at a portion of Book 2, but still.

First, as you can see by the writing log image (can click to enlarge) I’m over 80,000 words in, so I’m in the home stretch. The goal is to complete it in fewer than 90,000 words so I have some room to beef it up if need be, while still remaining within 100K. Fingers crossed.

Also, big news -

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New Year Novel Writing Update
C.L.Chick C.L.Chick

New Year Novel Writing Update

Happy New Year! And oh happy day when progress is made.

Okay, several days, not just one day. And major progress. No, really, MAJOR progress. I’ve written nearly 12,000 words in the last 4 days alone, and January 2nd isn’t over yet. I can’t believe I’m nearly at the halfway mark.

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NaNoWriMo Wrap-up
C.L.Chick C.L.Chick

NaNoWriMo Wrap-up

I have officially experienced the bang-fizzle, which is to say I started with a bang, then fizzled after only eight days.

Bang-fizzle is my newly coined word, by the way.

Thankfully, I did get a lot done in the the eight days though, and I’m more than 28,000 words into the novel, so it’s not like it was a waste of time, not at all. It was definitely worth it.

But writing that much daily

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Why Write?
Writing, Publishing C.L.Chick Writing, Publishing C.L.Chick

Why Write?

Why write? Why not?

Well, I’ll tell you why not. The money. Yes, that’s right, the money, or lack of money if we want to be accurate. It’s shit. And when I say “shit,” I don’t mean that it sucks. No, no. I mean it’s pretty much non-existent for most authors. In fact, for many, writing and publishing is done at a loss.

Did I know this when I started writing my novel? Aww, hell no. Would I still have written it had I known?

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