How It Works

                Hello all, and welcome to my first every attempt at live-writing a novel! I have absolutely no idea how this will go, but I do appreciate you strapping in to come along for the ride. So then, what is “live-writing” a novel I hear you already asking. Am I going to set up a Youtube page where you can watch me clack away on the keyboard for hours on end? Shit no! That would be super boring. Instead, I’m doing something that still stays true to the live-writing aspect without asking you stare at me as I bang on my keyboard like a drunken orangutan.

                Here’s how the live-writing will work:

                1. On March 31st I’m going to put my notes and outline for the story on the site. These will entail everything I wrote down before starting the novel, though not everything I’m thinking or planning. Part of that is because I want you all to enjoy the read, but most of it is because I never write down plot outlines for books this short. Alternatively, if you want to see the outline and book title now, I’ve put both it up on the Pen and Cape Society’s website here.

                2. From April 1st – April 30th I will try to hit a 50,000 word count goal. Every day that I write, the contents I create will be slapped up on the page for the world to see. I’ll also include a tracker section so that we can see how far along I am toward the goal.

                3. Along with my sloppily written words, I will include notes that I would normally take separately and post them in italics at the bottom. This will illustrate changes I know I need to make, plot-points I have to keep track of, and any other tidbits that I feel the need to add in.

                4. Once the manuscript is complete, I’ll whisk it away to land of editing, rewrites, and so much more editing. After it’s been polished, I’ll stick up next to the live-written draft so that you can see the whole life-cycle of a novel. From concept, to outline, to draft, to finished product.

                There you have it, as close to live-writing a novel as I can make it without letting things get boring. I encourage you to follow along, leave comments, and ask questions. The point of this is to shed light on the writing process, so the more information disseminated the better.

                One note before I go: What you will be seeing is the roughest of rough. Typos and continuity shifts will run rampant, and while I love you guys for keeping me accountable on the main stories I don’t want the comments to get clogged with people reporting them on this project. Thanks in advance for the restraint, and I hope you enjoy the show!