Author Archives: joelyblack

Empire of Dirt: Writing with Scrivener and sending off the first draft

Posted on May 15, 2012 by joelyblack

At last. It’s only been six weeks but it feels like forever. Four weeks to write the draft, nearly two to edit it and make sure I had everything in order. I think I’ve earned some time in Skyrim, although … Continue reading →

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Empire of Dirt: The Xbox arrives… the death of my productivity?

Posted on May 10, 2012 by joelyblack

Let me… tell you a tale. The last time I played a computer game (until yesterday) was sometime back in the early nineties, when people either had a Sega Master System or a Nintendo thing. We had a Sega Master … Continue reading →

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Empire of Dirt: Editing begins

Posted on May 9, 2012 by joelyblack

Here we are at last. I have a finished first draft of 107,000 words, all neatly set out in Scrivener. This is where the editing starts. It might be the most difficult part of writing (aside from the final draft, … Continue reading →

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Empire of Dirt: The first draft is done (reprise)

Posted on May 7, 2012 by joelyblack

I spent all weekend off, doing crafting and learning to knit (I’ll explain about that in another post). I wasn’t happy with the last two chapters as written, and I figured I’d come back to them. I think I can … Continue reading →

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Empire of Dirt: The first draft is done

Posted on May 5, 2012 by joelyblack

When I first signed up to this little adventure, I though I’d be looking at a finished first draft of Empire of Dirt sometime around December. I’m not entirely sure why, but I decided not to put so much expectation … Continue reading →

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“My charity depends on feats of pointless running”

Posted on May 2, 2012 by joelyblack

I did a crazy thing this week. Two crazy things, in fact. I spent all weekend saying that I wouldn’t really want to run a marathon because, well, 26.2 miles? Running? I used to run a lot but I’ve been … Continue reading →

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Empire of Dirt: Halfway there

Posted on April 23, 2012 by joelyblack

I’m halfway through. It took an insane weekend of writing, to get from a third to halfway, but Empire of Dirt is now as near to 52,000 words as makes no difference. In order to get through, what with sudden … Continue reading →

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Olympic advertising

Posted on April 22, 2012 by joelyblack

Are you sick of the Olympics? I’m sick of the Olympics and there’s still a hundred days to go until they even start. But I’m sick of them. I really am. Now, let me get this straight. I’m not sick … Continue reading →

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Empire of Dirt: I can has evocative verbs?

Posted on April 20, 2012 by joelyblack

Very early on in the developmental stages of Empire I considered writing it entirely in LOLspeak. Imagine a post-apocalyptic world entirely populated by cats in search of a cheeseburger. Meanwhile, in the real world, nothing makes me more anxious than … Continue reading →

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Time to Change: We won’t talk about “why”

Posted on April 19, 2012 by joelyblack

I’m taking a day off. I’ve been working on Empire of Dirt solidly since last Friday. It’s ironic, isn’t it. I cheerfully say in a post that I struggle to work on weekdays because symptoms are worse, then go on … Continue reading →

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