ISBW 4th Anniversary, Links, and update
First, I’ve been writing.
I feel like that’s the best excuse for falling behind on the podcast and the blog. I’ve written close to 10K words this week on both War and the edits on Heaven. I’m seven chapters done on Heaven, through page 72.
Get wordcount generator from Writertopia
My daughter is home this week- no camp and no school- and that’s been taking up the rest of my time. I am realizing the myth of the SUPERMOM when I realize that I can write, edit, and care for my kiddo and make dinner… and that’s about it. I don’t have the brainpower to work on the myriad administrative things or the podcasting (ISBW and WAR are suffering, I know) or the housework or email (up to 50 unanswered now, after all the spam and bac’n deletion) or the other projects.
I Should Be Writing just celebrated 4 years of podcasting, and I commemorated by recording a long episode and not having any time to edit it. I’ll get it out as soon as possible.
Some links I’ve been wanting to give you, but, well, read above:
- The fabulous tool Story Tracker is now available for your iPhone/touch. I used this tool a lot when I was actively working on short stories for many markets, and it’s invaluable. It takes a lot of work on the front end (listing your stories, the details, sales, rejections, income made, trunked status, etc, not to mention all the details for the markets you submit to) but once you have all the information it’s so very useful. Highly recommended. (Thanks to Tobias Buckell for blogging about it and alerting me to its existence. You’re reading Toby’s blog, right? RIGHT?)
- Agent Rachel Gardner wants to remind us that even if our publisher does put money into a marketing campaign for us, things don’t always turn out like we hoped. - EDIT – post removed, not sure what’s up there.
- I hope you’re reading Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s Freelancer’s Survival Guide. Her latest post is on Discipline, always a problem for me.
Hope to have the new podcast – with worldCon report – out this weekend. But the novel comes first, sadly enough. When that is done things will return to normal around here.
About the Author: 
Jason | Aug 21, 2009 | Reply
Happy 4th Birthday, ISBW! Thanks for four years of awesome advice and interviews, Mur.
I think this 4-year mark holds a really important lesson, too. And that lesson is: Marathon.
Marathons are all about averages, right? Distance over time. So let’s take a look at some numbers for ISBW. There have been roughly 160 episodes, give or take, including interviews, specials and videos. Yeah, maybe more or less, but 160 is an easy number to work with, and dammit Jim, I’m a writer not a mathematician! So 160 episodes in 4 years. That’s, on average, 40 episodes per year. 40 episodes per year means about 3 1/3 episodes per month.
Or, roughly, just under one episode per week on average over 4 years.
Do I even need to tell you how impressive that is?
In a marathon, it doesn’t matter so much if you sprinted or jogged over a given stretch. It only matters how it averages out in the end. Likewise, in the long view it doesn’t matter quite as much if sometimes we had to wait a little longer or a little shorter time for a podcast.
And don’t forget, the very most important thing about a marathon is that you finish it, regardless of your time. There’s four years worth of finished ISBW content in the archives, not even counting all your other podcasts, writing, published novel, etc. It’ll be likewise with WAR (and the Heaven series overall): pace yourself when you need it, sprint when you can, and in the end you’ll finish it in the best time you’re capable of. But most importantly, in the end you’ll finish it.
You’ve accomplished something really great here, Mur, and you should be darn proud of it. You’re in it for the long haul, and you’ve proven you can be successful over that time frame. So don’t forget to celebrate!
– Jason
Dawn Embers | Aug 21, 2009 | Reply
It’s okay Mur. As one of those emailers, I can say we forgive you.
At least you are writing.
Andrew Nicolle | Aug 21, 2009 | Reply
Thanks for mentioning Story Tracker, Mur. I hope people find it useful! One thing I wanted to clear up though — my Story Tracker is only available on the iPhone and iPod touch and it has only been out a week! I’m assuming there was a similar tool you used back in the day?
Darren Kelk | Aug 21, 2009 | Reply
Thanks Mur you are the best. I write now and one day I will be good. Can I book a interview spot on ISBW ep300 as your interviewee.
Thanks for your greatness.
darren
V | Aug 22, 2009 | Reply
(Something’s up with the agent-Rachel-Gardner link.)