Looking forward to November

...in the room where the giant fire puffer works, and the torture never stops...

Time taken for Granted

I'm realizing now how much I took "time" for granted in the years that I could have finished probably my entire series of novels.  While I don't regret waiting (the time in between has let new ideas grow on me, I'm even more mature with my storytelling, etc.), I'm finding that time is a precious commodity that I don't have.

With the added responsibility I've taken on at work, I'm now working voluntary overtime every week without thinking about it.  There is just so much to do.  By the time I get home, I have to either help with dinner or cleaning AND help out with our daughter AND find time to relax with her and my wife.  There is barely any time to write during the week without depriving myself of sleep (or shunning my family).


On weekends, if my wife is working then practically all my time is taken by my daughter.  I have some ideas for how I can squeeze in some writing but without my wife at home to help its really hard to get any quality time in.  And lets not talk about creative moods because usually they don't line up with my free time (and instead they always appear when I walk into the office).

Not a day went by this week that I didn't think about my novel.  I'm close to finishing the edit of the chapter I'd left off on, so I'm making forward progress.  Whether or not I can have this edit plus one more finished by July is still up in the air.  Just trying to squeeze this edit in by April is seeming less and less likely unless I take a vacation day or two.

However it ends up, I am getting the novel done this year.  I just hope its sooner than later.

Still Alive

Last year did not go the way I wanted it to.  I was hoping to have a publishing deal by now, but I'm still on my second edit.

I made a little bit of headway in 2014.  I feel I'm able to ground the story now and the minor details are filling themselves in.  There is still the "oh man this sucks" thought that comes to me every now and then.  The writing/grammar is where I'm feeling the burn, but I think as long as its bearable a publisher/editor will be able to help.

I'd say the biggest change from last year was that it has a new title.  I changed it in part because the original title was part of a series of titles and I don't think I'd be able to make it work for all seven novels.  This new title is also part of a series, but at times I think its a bit corny.  I'm going to withhold the new title for now in case I change my mind.  I don't think I will though.

Anyway, I'd love to finish with this novel before I turn 31.  I think I have a shot, but its going to require a lot of effort.  I made a promise to myself that I wasn't going to buy any more video games til this book is done.  Gaming, family time, work... these are all I have time for.  I'm hoping to put gaming on the back burner as long as possible so I can make time for editing.  We'll see.

I'm about 10,000 words into hopefully 80,000+.  The first draft ended somewhere in the 52k realm.  The first edit was hand-written, so I have no idea where the first edit word count ended up.  I'll check back in at the end of the month to gauge how long this will take.

If I can finish by July, I should have enough time to prepare an outline for novel two before Nanowrimo in November :)

2014: The Year of the First Novel?

Well its 2014 and I suppose that means I need to provide a novel update.

Not too much has happened since we last left each other in September.  Back then I claimed success over the first revision of the novel, a once-over of the plot.  I have that revision sitting on the table next to me.

The next course of action is to revise the story for grammar.  It has to come up from first grade reading level to hopefully sixth grade.  That's probably as good as I'll ever be at writing, and I don't care to grind out better grammar skills at this point in my life.  Maybe if this novel actually becomes a commercial success.

Anyway, I'm on the third chapter.  The first revision was done on paper, so in addition to making grammar edits to my digital copy I'm incorporating all of the first pass' changes.

My goals for 2014 are as follows:

• Work on the first novel for 15 minutes a day... every day... until the second revision is complete
• I aim to have the second revision completed no later than June
• By July, I'd like to hand out the novel to some beta readers and get some outside feedback
• Hopefully this will be complete by September
• Beginning in July, while the first novel is being beta-read, I want to begin outlining the second novel
• In November, I want to attempt NaNoWriMo and complete a rough draft for the second novel
• Between October and December, I want to incorporate the beta feedback for novel one and get it ready to send to an agent

So ultimately, by December 31st, 2014, I want to have novel one ready to shop around and novel two ready for its first edit.

Those are some lofty goals, especially considering the outline for novel one began in... 2010?  It has been a long road.  I am weary from the journey, and I am ready for the journey to end, if only so I can begin a new journey with the second novel.  I know this first book inside and out.  I'm ready for the excitement of not knowing exactly what will happen to my characters to flow through me once again.

Deconstruction

Its been about five months since my last post, but I'm happy to say that I've finished the first edit of my book :)

The first edit was a content calibration.  A lot of plot details at the beginning didn't match with the ones at the end.  I went through and put a big X through a few chapters, and rewrote a couple others.
There was some grammar editing involved but for the most part I stayed away from that.  Grammar, sentence structure, word selection... I'll be concentrating on all of those in the second edit.

The second edit is going to take a long time, so please be patient.  And excited.

"Bars closed, boys.  I'm an artist!"

You Can't Fight A War Without Losing Blood

Another update on edits!

After about a month, I'm one third of the way through the manuscript.  That's pretty intense, considering the amount of time it took to write the whole thing.

Two chapters have suffered the big X of death so far, but I don't anticipate anymore casualties.  As mentioned in my previous post, the first chapter to die is being re-purposed for a future novel and the important bits for this novel have been moved elsewhere in the story.

The other chapter, though.  Yikes.  It was practically all fluff.  It served as a way to introduce a character before her main appearance.  However, having finished the first draft, I came to discover her role was not nearly as big as I had initially intended it to be.  In the end I didn't need the introductory chapter at all.  She will still be an important character, to an extent, but her bigger role in the series as a whole has been drastically reduced.

In other news, as part of the editing process, I put to paper all of the behind-the-scenes story that serves as the series plot.  A majority of it will not be revealed until future novels, but there will be hints, and it has major effects on the contained plot of this first book.  Writing it all down gave me some cool ideas that I can incorporate during this first edit.  When the entire series is complete it'd be cool to show off how I knew all this stuff from the beginning.  Lost-style.  WE HAVE TO GO BACK!

So pumped!  Lots of cool things on the horizon, including a surprise proclamation.  Going to save that for later, but it will be proclaimed sometime in the next few months.

Until next time...

Omoide wa Okkusenman!

The first round of edits continues.

I got up to the fourth chapter when I realized it was completely out of place.  It was practically all exposition/background story, save for a short action sequence at the beginning, and it disrupted the flow of the novel.  By this point in the book, the MC has already received his call to adventure, so I couldn't do a flashback.

What to do, what to do?

I tried moving the chapter up in line, but it just didn't make sense to do a flashback so early.  The chapter explained a lot of things about the universe in which the story resides, but the MC hadn't yet been solidly introduced to the audience.  It was a hard decision, but I had to slash the whole chapter.  I guess thats a sign of mature writing, but it doesn't hurt any less.

I did comb through it, however, and pick out the vital pieces of background information to be worked into conversations in other chapters.  The actual event that happened in that chapter... by the time its relevant to the story for this first book we'll be ready for Act 2.  And I'm not slowing the pace of the middle part of the story for a flashback.  It will likely be recycled for Book 2, as I planned on having a very similar scene to kick that book off anyway.

Something else that recently came up... apparently there's bias in the writing industry towards prologues.  Unbeknownst to me.  It puts me in a rough spot, because the "prologue" that I have is vital to the entire series.  It has to be the first scene, but it takes place outside of the main story, so I'm not sure if I can recategorize it as "Chapter One."  Either way, it will be the first scene in the book.  It can't be helped.

Decisions.

UPDATE:  Rowling's Chapter One of Harry Potter Numero Uno is essentially a prologue.  But its her Chapter One.  I guess I know what I'm doing, then.  Now, about the epilogue...

Setting Sail the Prairie

After a couple weeks off, I have begun molding my novel into a second draft.  I am using Holly Lisle's One-Pass Manuscript Revision as my guide.  I honestly don't anticipate finishing the novel after just one pass, but I hope to have everything related to how the characters should act, plot, etc. finalized after this go round.  The only things that (I hope) will remain will be grammar and sentence structure improvement.

The prologue's first edit has been completed.  It was a very quick process, but the chapter itself is relatively short and it has already received many unofficial edits over the generation of the novel's first draft.

But I'm on my way!  :)

I WROTE A BOOK

As of today, April 4th, 2013, I am officially an author.  Not a published author.  And not even an author of a publish-ready piece.  But I have completed the first draft of my first novel, and in my mind that makes me an author.

HOLY CRAP I ACTUALLY DID IT!!

I'm about to reminisce; if you want to know more about the novel scroll down to the bottom.

This all started back in high school.  Specifically, my sophomore year.  There was an online contest for an AOL forum called Antagonist, INC. (ANT for short).  For the contest, you had to submit a short story fiction.  I submitted a story about a man working on a space station and, to my surprise, I actually won!  (The prize was virtual tokens used to buy random things - I bought a custom-made drawing of Gohan from Dragonball Z.).

A few weeks or so later after winning the contest, my English teacher gave us an assignment to write a two-page piece of fiction.  I happily turned in my contest submission as my paper.  When he handed them back graded the next week, he looked me in the eye and said if he ever found that I had plagiarized my homework, that he would ensure I get suspended.  He handed me back a paper with a big fat 100 on it.

That is the single most-cherished compliment I have ever received, and it stuck with me.

It was then I realized my creativity was badass.  I began writing more short stories for fun.  Eventually I decided I wanted to put my writing to use.  Back then I wanted to be a game designer; specifically, the creative story designer.  So I set out to write a story that I could later turn into the world for a videogame.

It was this "game" story that would eventually evolve into the universe which spawned this first novel.  As I went into college, I realized my story needed backstory.  I then set off to create another story, a prequel novel.  I made a full outline and wrote about 8 or 9 chapters before the fatigue of writing brought everything to a halt.

Jump to November 2009.  National Novel Writing Month.  I was eager to write a novel again.  Looking at what I had written, though, I realized I needed even MORE backstory.  So that month I began writing yet another prequel.  I only got a few chapters in before writing fatigue hit and I again gave up.

Summer 2010.  That itch returned.  Only this time I sat down and looked at the universe I was creating with a mature eye.  Not only did I need even more backstory, but I needed an entire trilogy's worth.  And so I set out to outline what eventually became the novel I finished drafting tonight.  If you do the math, that's six novels worth of story, with the original idea being the sixth in the series.

From November 2010 to today, I have been writing the first entry in the series: How They Got Their Wings.  It was a long and hard road, mostly because I really don't like to write.  I like to fantasize.  To create.  Writing is the easiest outlet for me, albeit a boring one, but one in which I can fully realize my fictional universe without thousands of hours of digital media effort (we'll save that for Hollywood, yeah?)

The first draft clocks in at 21 chapters plus a Prologue/Epilogue.  The word count is only at 52,581 words, which is 20K shy of the first Harry Potter novel (which, by the way, was the smallest novel in that series).  The word count will go up with revision.  There were lots of scenes that I rushed through without providing much detail.  The chapter count is very likely to increase as well.

And before anyone asks, no, you can't read it (yet).  My wife hasn't even read it, and I'm not letting her until I at least complete the first revision (because a lot of it is pretty unreadable).  I have no idea how long that's going to take.  It may be another few years before I'm ready to publish.  But hey, I'm 50K+ words farther along than I was 3 years ago :)

As for what its about?  Well, it is a supernatural fantasy set in a modern world with some sci-fi elements.  And its called How They Got Their Wings. It would be safe to say that I want this story to do for angels what Harry Potter did for wizards or Twilight did for vampires.  Only it will be more mature than Harry Potter and it won't suck (pun intended) like Twilight.  As for anything specific about the story, you'll have to wait a little while longer.  But know that this story/universe has been building in my mind for 13 years.  This isn't something just slapped together.  It's going to blow. your. minds.

The road to taking over the world continues...

Time Table

Sitting at 46,828 words with just under three chapters to go, then the first draft of How They Got Their Wings will be complete.  A very rough draft, but a complete one.

And already I'm looking to the future.  I'm tempted to give Camp Nanowrimo 2013 a shot during the April session, but I don't have anything prepared for the untitled second book.  I have a general synopsis in mind and the beginning/ending but the characters still have to figure out what happens in the middle.

Its scary, not knowing whats coming, but thats how it was for How They Got Their Wings.  And man did that first book turn out to be awesome, even as a rough draft.  Storywise it doesn't need too many changes.  I'm very, very proud of what I accomplished with it.

I think thats why the emptiness of the second book is scary.  I'm worried its going to suffer "middle book" syndrome as its the tent pole between the first book (which I know to be awesome) and the third and final book (in the first trilogy).  And man, that third book... its going to be epic.  Super epic.

The first book sets up the world.  The second book needs to take this new world and run with it, all while setting up the third book where the payoff happens.  But I don't want it to be just a tent pole.  I want the second book to be looked at as a solid entry in the franchise that has its own story to tell outside of the support it lends to books one and three.

I guess I need to get on that outline.


Genesis - Time Table

Eres Tremulent

About two years ago I began creating an outline for a novel that I had planned on writing during November 2010's NaNoWriMo contest. I never finished the outline, but I did get a dozen or so chapters plotted down. And when the contest came, I managed to bang out 18,000+ words before I finally fell victim to work schedule, fatigue and videogames.

Last year I met and fell in love with my fiance Charlotte. I remember on our first date how I told her about my dreams of writing a series of books, and how I had fared the previous November during NaNoWriMo. My goal was to pick up where I left off during the 2011 NaNoWriMo contest, but I quit before the contest even began. Skyrim was coming out. My book would have to wait. We also were engaged that November, so there wasn't a whole lot of thought placed on writing 1667 words a day.

At the beginning of this year, I made a promise to Charlotte that I would finish my novel before we were married. To ensure I met that goal, I decided to write just enough words every day until our wedding day (November) to finish the book. My thought was that by writing 100 words a day, I wouldn't get overstressed coming home from work only to spend four hours writing. I could knock out 100 words in five minutes. Cake!

We also went and bought a cork board for me to use as a wall of encouragement.   I filled it up with index cards: one for every chapter, and one for every 5000 word milestone. As I was writing the book, I would put big check marks over completed index cards with the date they were completed.

This lasted for a few weeks, but ultimately I couldn't keep up with the endurance of writing 100 words a day. "Oh, I'm pretty tired today. I can make up those words tomorrow." Five months later, and I've barely written anything else.

The good news is that during the first few weeks, I managed to increase my word count from 18K to 25K, so that's something. Also, the extra words all came in chapters I had already written. I'd expanded the word count (and the quality) of the chapters I'd already completed during that NaNoWriMo two years ago, giving my story a boost and giving me a solid shot at hitting 80K+ words with the final novel.

Now, with July on the horizon, I've decided to cut the crap and just get this book written. My first order of business is to finish my outline using this application called Storybook. It helps me keep everything organized, from chapters and scenes to characters and locations. I'm going to work on this outline from now until the end of July, assuming I need that long. Then, come August, I will begin my own version of NaNoWriMo. Being that my goal is 80K words, and I'm already at 25K, I just need 55K more. Thats 5K more than NaNoWriMo, so I'll need to write 1700 something words a day for the entire month of August.

But you know what? I'm ready for it. I'm sick and tired of starting and quitting and wishing I had finished, then starting and quitting and doing the whole cycle over and over and over again. Its been this way since high school with this novel. Well, not this novel particularly, but the whole group of novels together. I've got so much coming at me in my life. Im getting married. I have huge projects at work to complete. My adult life is REALLY going to be kicking into overdrive pretty soon, so if I want to ever get at least one novel written, then this is my last real chance.

So much for Diablo 3. :(  Here we go!


Kaddisfly - Eres Tremulent

On the first day, there was...

Here I sit, four hours away from the start of NaNoWriMo, dawdling away the rest of my evening. Unfortunately, I will not be sharing in the midnight celebrations with other Wrimos around the world. Why, oh why, did November 1st have to fall on a Monday?

No matter. After work tomorrow, I plan on starting and finishing the prologue, and then diving into Chapter 1. I have bags and bags of sugar at my disposal. I have a sweet new Samsung netbook arriving this week. I have three-day weekends for the rest of the month. I have my ambient post-rock station ready to go.

1667 words per day? Cake. Let's do this.

The Great Nothing

...nothing to do until November. Well, that's not true at all, but the anticipation has been steadily growing to write the draft. I'm going bonkers.

I never finished my outline. There's a solid three or four chapters I still need to bang out, possibly more. I purposefully left them unwritten until I had gone back through the outline again. I think I may leave them that way until I'm halfway through the first draft.

Ive been going back to the earlier chapter outlines and fleshing them out, bit by bit. An added scene here, some extended dialogue ideas there. Having finally seen what my characters will grow into by the end, I've had to go back and make sure that the seeds are planted early on. Its all about initial conflicts and making sure the characters slowly resolve them (and the successive conflicts) over the course of the book. Otherwise the reader will be bored and unsatisfied.

I'm pretty impressed with what I've come up with for the path my MC (that's "main character" for us Wrimos) has in front of him. Lots of great conflict, both on the inside and outside. The resolution of these conflicts wont be shared here (ie. positive or negative) but I'm happy with where he will be by the final page.

Man, is it November yet?

NaNoWriMo - A Writing Contest for Everyone!

In thirty short days, this year's NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) begins. Participants have 30 days (the month of November) to write a 175-page, 50,000-word novel. As you might imagine, this isnt a contest for the faint of heart. But for those of us who find enjoyment in creating written art, there is no other rush that can satisfy.

If you're interested in joining me this year, you can sign up at www.nanowrimo.org. Its free to join, and theres no penalty for "losing." Actually, theres no prize for "winning," either, except the novel you'll have in your hands. And THAT, my friends, is the whole point.

This will be my second attempt at NaNoWriMo, but only my first with preparation and determination. My outline is almost done. The novel has been tentatively titled "On the First Day." I cant wait.

Fear Through the Eyes of Madness

The past few weeks have been a bit rough. I havent stopped thinking about how the last few chapters will round out, but I havent been writing much down, either. Knowing that I'd finished the story in my mind kinda killed my motivation.

"What point is there in writing anything else down? Im just going to rewrite it all come November."

Well, thats the point. I need to write it down first to have something to rewrite. Admittedly, Im having trouble concentrating enough to get the logic down for the next chapter before the mindless action begins. However, I think I found a tool to help me out.

Its called Storybook, and it does a bunch of organizational things to help keep an outline in focus. You create scenes, which are linked to chapters. Scenes are also linked to characters and locations, which you can develop within the tool. Also, you can create "strands" or "plotlines." This way you can link scenes to a plotline, and when everything is loaded in the tool you'll be able to see if the plot needs some more detail or is too clustered. It shows how often characters are used, it plots out timelines, it does pretty much everything I need an outline to do so that I dont have to do it later.

My plan for now is to load everything into this new format, and then without finishing the last few chapters, I'm going to start editing the outline from the beginning. This will help reintroduce me to the characters and everything they go through that leads up to the end. Hopefully this will reignite in me the logic that I need to get down perfectly to finish everything off. I also expect the ending to change because of a rewrite, so it will be good to keep the ending loose for now.

The only bummer about this tool is that you cant track a word count. At this point I guess it doesnt really matter. Im over 15K and will likely hit 20K, which is almost half of the Nanowrimo goal. I dont think I'll have any problem generating 50K words. I just hope I can keep up with writing during November to get there.

What Heaven Allows

Its rock 'n' roll time, now. Having gotten past the tough part, everything has suddenly opened up and I see a clear path to the end of the novel. This is a huge breakthrough. Theres still going to be a few complicated things to work out, but I know where I'm going straight through to the end. This is phenomenal. Its the first time I can really step back and see the whole thing for what it is. I cant wait to go back through the outline once its complete to touch it up in preparation for November. The excitement train is really starting to pick up speed!

Chapters Outlined: 13
Rough Word Count: 14,726

Eastern Glow

It was an incredibly difficult decision, but I ended up having to rewind and throw out two chapters. It only set me back a couple thousand words, being that they were only outlines, but Ive spent over two weeks in this particular area of the story and just now finally managed to get through it.

In the end, I know this was all a good thing, but it was pretty tough to do. I was confused, myself, what it was I was trying to say. There was a lot to say in these two chapters, and I had to find the right way to explain it to the reader while at the same time having it make sense for the characters. It was tough, but I think I managed to pull it off, and the story is much better for it.

The story of the crazy/ridiculous chapter from last week got scrapped entirely. A character briefly summarizes the events in a new scene I developed, but the event no longer includes the over-the-top stuff I'd written out in the scrapped chapter. I was going for quantity, not quality, and at this point everything hinges on quality. I can do quantity much later after this first book sets the ground rules. No point in going all out just yet, although the climax of this book will certainly be intense.

So yeah... new numbers below... :(

Chapters Outlined: 12
Rough Word Count: 13,144

February Sun

Finally hit a wall. Im about to go into heavy-dialogue territory, so in order to outline this right I really, really need to know what the hell it is I want the characters to talk about. Unfortunately, this is the point where I had to step back and design part of the society that wont really come into play until much later, but it was necessary in order for me to understand what the characters needed to say. Seven of nine... items... have now been fleshed out. Hopefully I can continue forward with this chapter now.

Thanks For Being Away

I just finished a chapter that, of all the ones Ive outlined so far, is easily the most ridiculous. Perhaps its because, until recently, everything in the story has been as "normal" as plot goes in this particular setting. But man, I cant help but feel I went a bit over the top with this.

I dont know, it could be a good thing. Im going to leave it in the outline and see how it presents itself in rough draft form. I cant help but feel, though, that Im going to have to cut it. Or, at any rate, give it a real good scrubbing. The chapter does serve a purpose, and I do need something that works similarly to what goes on here, but Im not sure if the idea I chose suits the realism Ive been shooting for. But then again, maybe it does? Maybe its so crazy that it just might work? At any rate, I was able to round off the chapter with some intentional symbolism that I think works very well with one of the themes/messages this story conveys.

Im a little nervous that Im starting to lose sight of where I was going with the ending. I know how it ends, and I know which direction to go for the next few chapters, but theres a gap inbetween that Im drawing a blank on. Hopefully the next few chapters will shed light on where Im supposed to go from here.

Chapters Outlined: 12
Rough Word Count: 13,659

Reciting the Airships

The past week has seen my outline finally cross into Act 2 territory. The plot has opened up and a bunch of different characters are now screaming at me for their turn in the limelight, and still others are showing up to the party hoping to get through the door.

The belly of the beast.

In a way its like Ive restarted, because the plot has shifted focus from the main character to a larger conflict. The difference is that at this point, the characters that have already been introduced are now moving around with three-dimensional personalities. Rather than being character-building, the chapters are now character-driven. Plot-driven, too, but the characters are starting to uncover themselves, driving the story forward in ways I hadnt thought of.

Before starting this outline, I was scared I wouldnt be able to write a 50k word novel. With all of the ideas that keep flooding onto my screen, Im beginning to think I may cross that finish line two times over.

The next couple weeks are going to be slightly tougher than recent ones. Im going to have to climb the Act 2 ladder until I reach the top and can slide back down to the start of Act 3 (the Final Act). But its going to be fun! Act 1 was the hardest. Act 3 should be the easiest, since its the last push to a complete outline. But Act 2, I think, is the most important. Its what keeps your interest past the initial "wow" factor of Act 1, and its what makes the outcome of Act 3 so impactful.

Chapters Outlined: 11, 12th one started
Rough Word Count: 12,697