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Hello, and welcome to the Grand Hill Chronicles podcast. I'm your host, Don Bishop, or known in some very small circles as T. S. Pedramon. Uh, I say very small circles, I, my Twitter account says Don Bishop writes as T. S. Pedramon. My, uh, I do have a, a Twitter profile, but it says Grand Hill Media. Uh, last week I created a Facebook profile, or maybe it was the week before, I created a Facebook profile for, uh, As author T.

S. Pedramon, so that exists and [00:01:00] has, I don't know, 15 friends so far. But anyway, yeah, I'm here and the big thing that I'm talking about today is I wrote a book. And that is past tense. And bear with me as I try to remember everything that I already said because I was recording, I was like 15 minutes into this talking and...

I realized that, uh... The microphone in my recording software had a red X, and I was not recording audio. I was only recording video. So, um, yeah, I wrote a book, Past Tense, because I finished first draft today. And I want to talk about the feelings I have, uh, the, um, the thoughts that I didn't expect to have.

And... Yeah, I hope it's interesting and, and helpful. So, [00:02:00] I wrote Nightshade Unicorn, or I, I mean that's what I'm calling the series. The first book is, you know, I've gone through a few working titles. But this first book is Nightshade Unicorn, um, oh dear, I just went blank. Um, Forerunner. And I'm thinking the next book will be called Guardian.

Um, anyway, so I, uh, I was, I was writing along and it's, it's a little over 80, 000 words, 81, 000 something words. And, uh, it took me approximately a month and a half trying to push through it every day. And Uh, well I, I started two months ago, slightly over two months ago, but then I, I [00:03:00] wasn't pushing at it full time until, uh, early September.

But, um, yeah, it's, it's October 17th now, and, uh, a few weeks ago, I thought, hey, you know, my, my beginning might not really hook a reader, so I need to write a better hook. Uh, so I wrote a new scene that... Um, chronologically and place it at the front as like, you know, this is where we're going and then it cuts back to the, the start of the real story.

I shared that with, uh, with a writer's group and kind of the consensus I got was that it's a false hook that might be disappointing to readers. And also. Um, give plot armor to characters that are there that late in the story, so that we know suddenly at the beginning that they may get that far. [00:04:00] Um, or that they're still involved that far.

So, yeah, I needed to write a new beginning. I put this scene, uh, back later in the book where it belongs. And then I, I continued on from there and I, I wrote the ending. And. Within the last week, I started writing the new beginning. And meanwhile, just pushing on every day, pushing through the middle, pushing through, pushing through.

And today, I, I wrote a few more hundred words from where I was yesterday, and I realized that the next thing that needed to come is that later scene that I wrote in the, well, that I wrote a few weeks ago. Like, we, we got here. We made it to the end. Uh, so then, uh, I was, I kinda caught myself by surprise. I didn't expect to hit that today.

I thought, probably later [00:05:00] this week. Um, and it feels kinda empty, honestly, to realize that you're there. So I was kind of in a daze when I went back and I finished writing the new beginning. Um, Actually, I wasn't certain yesterday how this new beginning was going to go. Uh, I, I posted in the Writer Dojo Facebook group yesterday, uh, asking if anybody might be available to, uh, to brainstorm a plot point.

And, I, I got a response. And I sat down and talked to somebody this morning, had a chat over a video. And, we... I, I gave him the background of, of the world and, and what was going on, where things needed to go. And now I'm like, all right, now for the beginning, what, how, how do I approach this? And we hashed it out together and kind of hashed out the different, um, [00:06:00] factors involved.

So I took that, uh, in consideration and I went over the piece that. I had written last Friday and Saturday, um, massaged it, added to it, and reached the, the jump off point from there, um, that, that leads, the, kind of leads, sets the tone for, we're

up against something, and we need to find a way through it. Um, and then I found myself facing feelings of insecurity that I did not expect. Uh, so I, I, I've been sharing, previously I've shared online, I mean starting in 2014, maybe 15, uh, pieces [00:07:00] of the Grand Hill Chronicles. And at that time I, I had very little written and I, I threw all of it online.

Um, on my own website, uh, as, as a web novel, uh, which is, uh, web, web novel is a fairly common thing these days, but I had never heard of it. Uh, I invented it my own, on, on my own. Um, I'm not saying I invented it, but I invented it as far as I knew at that time. But now, like earlier this year, I'm like, nobody knows about my website.

So I went and posted on red on a Royal road and some other sites. Um, the Grand Hill Chronicles, right. And other authors have, have, uh, commented that. They wouldn't do something like that. They don't want to just throw something out in the world While it's honestly still in draft form But I'm like, oh, yeah, you know, [00:08:00] it's it's not the book and I've I've said that it's it's It has yet to be finished.

Then once it's finished, it will need editing. So, this is the raw form if you want to read it. I'm glad to share it because I think I have a cool story in my head. Now, with Nightshade Unicorn, I have a story, I have a manuscript, but I'm not sure it's ready. And, so I'm gonna have to, uh, put it through the paces, uh, at the very least, I need to

go through and remove the artifacts of dictation. So I dictated a lot of the manuscript because I can type a lot faster and... I mean I can, I can speak a lot faster than I can type, and also if I, when I type a lot it hurts my hands. [00:09:00] I'm not all about having carpal tunnel syndrome. So, um, I probably dictated a little over half of the story, maybe more than that.

But I dictated a lot, and when you dictate, the dictation software doesn't get everything right. Especially like punctuation. Microsoft Word has a mode where you can, it will auto punctuate for you, but for me it's just really bad. It's, it's, it's not good. So I have auto punctuation turned off, which means that I'm saying period, close quote, new line, open quote.

You know, I'm dictating the punctuation as well. And it still gets some of it wrong, like... Microsoft Word will, will type out new line rather than putting a carriage return in there. Um, so I need to read through and catch things [00:10:00] like that. Also, dictation software, whether it's Microsoft or, or Google or Lily Speech, which Lily Speech is based on Google's engine, I believe.

Um, and Apple, actually. I, I do have an old Mac and I did a little bit of dictation on that machine. Uh, but these, these softwares don't know the fantasy names that I created, that I came up with. It doesn't know Elabva, or Nemord, or Hronimon, or Shronglin. And so, in dictation, I've replaced these words with...

With common English words that are not going to appear in my manuscript, uh, in my story. Like, Alabama. So, Alabva is the main character's name. And whenever I dictated, I said Alabama. And, you know, Namord is Nebraska. And, uh, Shronglin is shrugging. That one actually could [00:11:00] appear in the manuscript. Um. And...

Hieronymon is honeymoon. So, I need to go through and make sure I caught all of these. It's possible I might have said a labva, and then the computer types a lava. Um, and so when I do ctrl f and do a find and replace, and get rid of all instances of Alabama and replace them with a labva. Uh, that doesn't mean that all of the mistakes are gone.

Also, dictation software likes to capitalize words if you pause for a moment. And I pause for a moment, especially when I'm dictating a story. Um, I pause, and then it likes to capitalize the next word, even though it's not the beginning of a sentence. So, yeah, at the very least I need to go through those. I, I started putting the story in, in, uh, ProWritingAid.

Earlier today, and I'm not [00:12:00] really sold on that yet. Um, I might buy it. Might buy the software. Um, but it points out a lot of things that, uh, are things that you want to be careful about. And looking at some of those, it's like, try rephrasing this. And I look at it and I'm like, No, actually, it should be phrased the way it is.

And also, since it's AI based, and that's been trained on the way people talk and write, and sometimes people are wrong, it does things like suggest... Ooh, was this ProWritingAid, or was this Microsoft Word? Suggested that I change a couple days to... No, sorry. It suggested I remove the of in a couple of days.

And, maybe it's accepted to say a couple days, but that sounds wrong to me. And, at the very least, a couple [00:13:00] of days is more correct, at least in my eyes. Uh, I'll, I'll listen to a human editor, um, tell me otherwise. I might still prefer to have the word of there. But, um, yeah, as of now I'm not sold on, on... on the AI, um, editing, yet.

I might later. But, um, also, since I want to make this my day job, full time day job, uh, right now it's a full time apprentice, uh, not apprenticeship, but, um, internship, uh, if I want to treat it as a full time gig, then, I need to treat it as a full time gig, and there's no excuse for not doing the work. Um, if I'm on the clock, so to speak.

If I'm working, and I'm, and my working is writing, then I need to get the writing [00:14:00] out. And if I feel like, oh, I have writer's block, well, I need to step back and, and think about where I'm coming from, think about where I'm going to, and see the options. And so sometimes, at least for me, that led to, uh, several days where I was not convinced that I wanted to write this part this way.

But it was the obvious thing at the time, and I had no muse really striking me, so I pressed on. Um, and I guess this is what you do. I mean, the successful authors, they just write. Um, and I have this sign behind my desk that says, If you just write a lousy book, then fix it. Because I, uh... I don't want to get hung up and not produce the work.[00:15:00] 

And I can't fix it if it doesn't exist first. So, I press through and, um, yeah, I want to read through it carefully and, and, um, you know, I, I, I'm emailing a very successful author and I told him today, yeah, you know, I, I finished and now I want to go back through and, and make some corrections before I, uh, share it with anyone.

And he emailed back really quick and, and said, congratulations, good work. Perfection is, or he just said perfect, is the enemy of done. Um, and that's a good point. Because I'm sure I could, I could go back and nitpick and improve it for months and months. Um, but if I want to get it out in the world in a reasonable timeline, and maybe make [00:16:00] some money off of it...

Then there should be a time when it's, it's good enough. Uh, I'm not trying to write a masterpiece. I'm trying to write a good book. But, um, I'm not trying to write the most perfect book ever. Because that would take decades and I would still fail. So, yeah. I hope it's good. I can't promise that it is. I think it has, I think it's built on a good concept.

Um, there are places that I want to take it in books 2 and 3. Uh, I think it's going to be at least 3 books. It might be 4, I don't know. So, um. Yeah, there are places I want to take it, but right now the story hit a resolution, um, and it's time [00:17:00] for me to take this chunk. I mean it's, it's not, the story is not over, um, it's a fantasy story, there's some big evil threatening the world, right?

That big evil has not been conquered and that situation has not been resolved, but the first piece. leading that way is in place. So here we have a coherent chunk, I hope, and now I'm gonna work it over and once it's gotten its work over then I'll, I'll really look at, uh, publishing methods and consider how I want to Send it out into the world and hope that it does good things.

So yeah, um, like, share, and comment. If you want to help me, uh, share this [00:18:00] book with people, um, then yeah, like and share the podcast, uh, rate the podcast, give it a review, and drop me a line. Send, uh, send an email to author at thorn dot link, and I'll drop you a line back. And, uh, don't forget our contest that is still live, uh, called Fan Tasty.

Uh, you might remember several months ago when we misspoke during a podcast and decided to go ahead and, and keep it in. So, Fan Tasty is a thing. Um, send us an email or a, uh, a tweet or comment on, you know, tag us on Instagram. [00:19:00] Share us a picture of your food, uh, that you made. That you had in your kitchen or that you grew in your garden.

And that's a contest. And like I said in a previous episode, I will give you a gift card to the restaurant or the retailer of your choice. Uh, what did I say? Thirty dollars? It was at least thirty dollars. Um, maybe it was thirty five? I'll go back and check on that. But yeah, so send us a tweet, or tag us, um, at GrandHillCron on social media, or at GrandHill Chronicles, um, and, or, or email it to fantasty at thorne dot link with the subject line fantasty, and that's a contest.[00:20:00] 

So, whoops, I blacked out the wrong window. There we go. And I can't believe I almost forgot. Uh, I need to give a shout out to Max Hall. Uh, he's writing a story called Reincarnated as a Peasant, which you can find on Royal Road. And that link will be in the show notes. Uh, again, that's Reincarnated as a Peasant.

It's pretty interesting. Like, it does some, uh, some jumping between worlds and, uh... Yeah. Check it out. Alright, um, yeah, lots of insecurities now about this book. I hope it's good. And, maybe you want to be a beta reader or an advanced copy reader. I will be looking for those. Because when I do publish it, just the way things work, the algorithms, out in the world.

I'll be [00:21:00] looking to get honest reviews very soon upon publishing it and making it go live. So if you might like an advanced reader copy and you're willing to give it an honest review, uh, drop me a line at author at thorndall link. Anyway, yeah, I'll wrap it up. We'll see you next time on the Grand Hill Chronicles podcast. [00:22:00]