Writing | Progress Bars

NOTE: Progress bars have been removed in an effort to streamline the site! I'm still keeping this page up in case I decide to revisit public progress bars.

True to my word, I've added progress bars to the front page! Having these as a visualization of my work should hopefully help me keep a fire lit under me so that I can maintain a solid pace with my writing. This is the post where you can track what those percentages mean.

0-5% | Conceptualization

This is the concept stage. While it's only 0-5%, it includes some big ticket items, like world-building, storyboarding, synopsis-drafting, researching, etc. This is where I start putting together the skeleton of my story.

6-10% | Outlining

This is the stage at which I work on my outline, setting the sequence of events, defining my characters, etc. Consider this the part of the story where I start deciding how the organs are arranged.

... I guess I'm sticking with an anatomy analogy, for this. We'll go with it.

11-50% | First Draft

This is the bulk of the work: the first draft. I sit down, stare at a blank page, and then start to fill it in. Piece by piece, I work through the book until I have a roughly, barely-understandable mess.

I don't know how to compare this to anatomy... I guess this would be like, stretching muscle over the bones and organs? This is weird.

51-60% | Second Draft

My least favorite part of writing: the second draft. This stage includes my own time spent reading and notating my work, judging myself more intensely than anyone else ever could. After months of crying into the void, I have a rewrite that I can start sharing with other people.

This is the equivalent of me realizing that I put the heart in backwards, taking it out, and correcting it.

61-69% | Alpha Reading

Nice. This is the stage where I hand my second draft out to other people to read. In this horribly rough form, only a few can survive to the end of the draft. I then take all of their notes as critically and painfully as I possibly can.

It is at this point that someone else comes along and points out that I had the heart in properly the first time, but that I need to put the liver where the brain was. Also, the muscles are inside out and the thing I'm building has too many arms.

70-80% | Third Draft

Much easier than the second draft, in my opinion, this is where I take all of those criticisms to heart, I rearrange the body parts as directed, and I confidently force the creation I now hate in front of other people.

This is exactly what I said: I'm just rearranging the body parts to suit someone else's views on how anatomy should work, now.

81-85% | Beta Read

This is where I start a broader process of beat reading; I send the book to a lot more people and wait for them to tell me that it's the worst thing they've seen and that I should give up.

This is the equivalent of packaging my skinless monstrosity in white wrapping paper, signing my name on it, and mailing it to acquaintances who have no idea what they're in for.

86-89% | "Final" Draft

At this stage, I do all of the finishing touches to the story before it gets shipped off for professional editing. Everyone has read the book and, somehow, after all the work I've done, they still have problems with it.

I suppose this is the equivalent of those acquaintances shipping the body back and then saying "What is this? I don't understand it? Why is everything wrong? Do I even know you? Are you okay?" and me deciding that they must have disliked one particular thing, so I just move the eyes around or something.

90-95% | Professional Edit

Ah yes, the stage where someone whose job it is to judge me, judges me. At this part, I work with someone who has to be brutally honest with me and my prose, no matter how uncontrollably I weep. I am including all of my rewrites in this section as I work together with the editor to get the best possible product.

Man I can't believe I committed to this dumb analogy... I guess this would be like... taking my malformed creation to a surgeon and having him tell me how wicked, vile, and illegal what I did was. Then, he helps me fix it.

96-99% | Finishing Touches

Page arrangements! Formatting! Other appearance-related things! All that stuff happens, here. Whether I'm publishing it myself or preparing it as a manuscript for agents, this near-final section is where that magic happens.

Obviously, this is where I start putting skin and clothes on my creation. Neat!

100% | Ready for Publication

If I'm self-publishing, this is instant! I put my formatted work out there for all to judge openly. If I'm seeking an agent, this portion will include sending queries, meetings, touch-ups, changes, and all the fun stuff that goes along with that. In the event that I take the latter option, I'll likely just forgo the progress bar for it or I'll make a new progress bar. Guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Last part of the weird analogy! The final stage here is like taking that horrible creation I've perfected, packaging it nicely, and mass-producing it so that any weirdo in the world who wants one can get it.

Wait, no!

It's like Dr. Frankenstein bringing his monster to life.