Writing Process

Book 8 Update

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Hey, did you know I was still writing novels? It’s a true fact! Another true fact is that I finished up the latest Hazzard Pay novel, Book 8, just yesterday. I sent it off to my editor, who should be able to look at it next week and then I’ll be able to make her recommended changes and then you’ll all be sorry!

Or you won’t. I dunno.

Anyway, the new book is a little different than the past ones. My other novels are all just one long, single story, but for this one I divided it up into four separate, shorter stories that all come together to form a bigger story at the end. Hey, if it’s a technique that works for John Scalzi, I’ll make it work for me, too!

So yeah, after I get the editing done and get a cover for this bad boy, I’ll release it upon the unsuspecting world. That should be…some time this summer, I guess? Wild. So expect to hear more about that soon.

Oh, Meta…

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I haven’t really talked about AI on here, have I? It’s not because I don’t have opinions on the subject, believe you me. It just…hasn’t come up, I guess.

But now, it has.

The Atlantic posted a search engine based around Library Genesis, the data Meta (Facebook’s parent company) is using to train its AI. As an author, you can go to the page and type in your name and see if they’ve used any of your books to help train said AI.

And they have:

Search results for the name Charlie Cottrell in Library Genesis. It returns four results: Crooked Halos, The Hidden Throne, The Invisible Crown, and a fourth result that is not visible in the screenshot.
You skipped book 3, Meta? But it’s one of my best!

So, let’s talk about AI for a second, shall we?

I am…not a fan of AI in practice or concept. I recognize that there are a bunch of technocratic twerps who are trying desperately to shove their multi-billion dollar boondoggles down our throats with these things, but I just do not want to use them. They are erratic, inaccurate, and soulless.

Worse yet, AI is built on theft. AI “art” is just scraped images from other, real artists that the algorithm smushes together like a five year old with a Barbie and a G.I. Joe shouting, “Kiss! Kiss!” “Oh, but it levels the playing field, allowing those who have no artistic talent to create art!” some folks may be shouting. Counterpoint: you know what else allows you to create art? Taking the time to develop the talent for it. Talent in artistic endeavors is not a thing that I think really matters all that much. What matters is mastering the discipline and practice necessary to become good at doing something. There’s that old saying in the gym, “No pain, no gain,” and I think it applies to any sort of effort or product. If you want something to come out good – whether it’s a book, a song, a drawing, a report you made for work, a meal you cooked – you have to put in the effort to make it good. That means some of your early efforts are gonna be absolute dogshit (please no one dig up my drawings from high school. They are terrible and no one wants to see them. Or my old poetry, for that matter).

AI does not “create” anything. It recombines what already exists, often in the most boring way possible. Creating takes conscience, which AI (as it exists now) does not have. Will it in the future? I don’t know. But I know that “training” AI on stolen works is not the way to go about doing things. So, shame on Meta. I’ll be waiting for my check.

23 Years of Songwriting…

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That giant stack of paper? That’s most every song Clif, my dad, Emily, and I have written over the past 23 years. Not included are Clif’s Family Familiarity work or some of the solo instrumental stuff he’s done lately, but everything else is there. It’s nearly 200 songs.

There were years where I wrote fifteen or twenty songs. There were years where I only wrote one or two. There’s probably even a year in there somewhere where I wrote nothing. But 200 songs is quite a few, I think you’d agree.

I’m not going to stop writing songs anytime soon. Neither is Clif, and I’m pretty sure Emily and even my dad have a few more in ‘em. This stack of paper will only grow bigger. Next time I print it out, it’ll probably need a new, bigger binder. Here’s hoping.

Book 7 Update

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Summer’s almost here, and I’m sure everyone would love a new book to read over said summer vacation. Well, have I got news for you!

See, I know it’s been far too long since I posted anything on here about a book I’m actually working on. I got edits done on Book 7 back in December, and they just sat there for six months as I didn’t even bother opening up the document and working on it.

That changed this week. I completed edits earlier today and I have started work on the (always tedious) formatting. Tomorrow, I’ll order the cover from my cover artist. All of this means that Book 7: The Armageddon Seed will be available probably by the end of June.

It’s been too long since the last book. Yeah, I did the short story collection late last year, but it was 2019 when book 6 came out. That’s a long time to sit on a cliffhanger.

But hey! I’ll have a cover reveal for you folks here before too long, and information on the arrival date for the book around that same time. It’s exciting! And I’m already neck-deep in the follow-up, so hopefully things will flow a little smoother from here on out. Fingers crossed!

Book Seven is with the Editor!

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I finished the initial draft quite some time ago, but I finally got Book Seven sent off to my editor this past weekend. She’s giving it the once-over as we speak, so I should probably have the edited text back within a week or so.

Of course, before I can publish Book Seven, I want to publish the short story collection I’ve put together. That will probably come out in November, and Book Seven will come out in spring of 2024. I’m excited for y’all to read the next chapter in Eddie’s story, which is a bit of a culmination of the whole kit and kaboodle.

In other creativity news, my brother has started mixing the songs for the next album, tentatively titled Middle Aged Heartthrob. It’s the coffeehouse album that I’ve definitely always had in me.

Book Progress

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Though it’s been a while since I talked about them, I do still write books. I finished up the first draft of Book 7 late last year; it’s with my beta reader right now. I also have a short story collection ready to put out, assuming I can figure out a cover and get one arranged.

On top of all that, I’ve started work on Book 8. It’s structured a little differently than previous Hazzard stories. Rather than this being one long case, it’ll be a series of shorter cases that all build up to something bigger. I’ve finished the first quarter or so of the book, and I have the other three sections roughly plotted in my head. It’s progressing well; I’m hoping to have it finished by the summer, ready for an autumn 2023 release. We’ll see how the process goes. I still need to get Book 7 edited and a cover made for it, and all that costs money.

So. y’know, if you haven’t already, consider buying one of my books or emailing me at crooked42 [at] gmail dot com to order a CD.

Book 7 First Draft Complete!

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While I haven’t been talking about it here lately, I’ve quietly been working away on Book 7 behind the scenes for a while now. There was a long period where I didn’t get anything written, sadly, but that has given way to a burst of activity over the past few weeks. And so, it is with great relief that I announce that Book 7, The Armageddon Seed, has a completed first draft!

Of course, now I have to set about getting it edited and having a cover made. I already know what I want the cover to look like, and I already have an editor, so it shouldn’t take too long to get those things knocked out once I have the cash to pay those fine folks. With luck, maybe I’ll be able to have this book ready for a Christmas release.

Anyway, I’ll keep folks updated as more things develop with this book. I’m really excited to get it out there for everyone to enjoy. I also still have the short story collection that’s just about ready to go (it just needs a cover), so I’ll probably try to get that released before this book.

A Few Words At A Time

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I started writing again today.

It’s…been a while, I know. Months since my last post here, ages since the last time I opened up the Word document for Book 7 and put words into it. I don’t know. Blame the pandemic, blame my executive dysfunction, blame depression and anxiety, or even just blame me. It doesn’t matter. I didn’t write anything worthwhile (or anything period, really) for about a year.

And I hated it. I would open up Dropbox, look at the file folder where the Book 7 draft is, and just feel…disgusted with myself. Like I knew I should be putting words on the page, even if they weren’t the right words, just so I could knock out the first draft and go from there.

But that’s not my process. My process is more…not a process? It’s sporadic and it’s mercurial and it comes and goes in waves. I don’t know how else to put it, really.

So the document sat there, unchanged, for the better part of a year. Nothing added to it. Nothing removed from it. Nothing about it changed at all. It mocked me. It sat there, unfinished, unfinishable, and I could do nothing about it.

I’ve written about 2000 words on it so far today. I think I’ll knock out another four or five hundred before the day ends. As the blog title suggest, I just want to knock out a few words at a time, see how it goes. See if I can get back into the story. I read back through it yesterday, remembering lines that I thought were amusing, changing a word or two here and there. And it suddenly hit me: that urge to write, to continue telling the story, to crack jokes and put Hazzard in the worst possible situation and see how he gets out of it. I want to write again. It’s a nice feeling. I hope it hangs around for a while.

I guess it all happened because I started thinking about #1LineWed, a hashtag I used to participate in on Twitter every week. You provide a line from your current work in progress (or #wip, if you’re hip to the lingo). I suddenly had an idea for one last night, one that felt perfect for a Hazzard story (maybe even this Hazzard story, who knows?). And I just wanted to get to writing again.

So, here we are. Let’s see if I can keep it up. I also have an idea for a recurring weekly feature to write about here. Maybe I’ll post that tomorrow.

Book Six Is Done!

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This morning, I wrote the last words on Book 6. It is officially drafted!

This one came easily, especially compared to Book 5. I wrote it in fits and starts, grabbing a few minutes here and there whenever I could, but it flowed and came together quickly. I’m actually quite proud of this book, and can’t wait for everyone to get a chance to read it.

That’s going to have to wait, of course. I’m sending it to my editor next week, and then I’ll have to do all the formatting and setup on the paperback copy and all that. I’m thinking I might make this one available in Kindle Unlimited, and maybe even go back and make all of my books available there again (going wide hasn’t done much for my book sales, so there’s really not much point to it).

All that being said, when can you expect Book 6? Probably around February next year. And I’m already elbow-deep in Book 7. I’ve got the rough plot outline done, and I know what I want to do and what’s going to happen. It’s just a matter of getting all the words on the page in the right order now.

NaNoWriMo Roundup

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Well, November has come and gone, and I did not get my novel finished.

I’m sitting at about 37,000 words on the thing, which I feel is pretty damn good. It’s not 50,000, for sure, but I know what the rest of the book needs to cover. I’m pretty sure I can get it finished in the next couple of weeks.

So, what worked and what didn’t?

Well, writing in short burst worked pretty well for me. Most of my writing took place between classes and during lunch or right after school in five to ten minute chunks. I was usually able to get a few hundred words cranked out each time, which was awesome.

Something else that worked pretty well was doing a bit of plotting beforehand. Did I follow all that plotting? Hell no. But it got me thinking about my characters before I started writing them, and it helped steer the direction I took the story.

But what didn’t work? Well, writing at home, first of all. There are too many distractions there, and I found myself staring at the screen and writing nothing more often than not.

I also need to start keeping better track of character and place names. I spent an hour one day last month combing through old novels, short stories, and half-complete stories trying to find the name for a character, only to eventually decide I hadn’t named her. I could’ve spent that time actually writing if I had a document with my characters’ names and basic info listed.

All in all, I feel pretty good about my progress on Book 6. No, the first draft isn’t done, but that’s okay. It’s not like I was going to be ready to put it out before Christmas.

But hey, congrats to all those NaNo’ers who got their 50K written. It’s a helluva thing, ain’t it?