NaNo starts tomorrow

NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow. Actually, I just noticed it's after midnight, so it starts today. I've come up with the basic plot I want to write for it this year, although I don't have a lot planned. I mostly know how the story will begin and what its about. The ending...not so much, which is unusual for me.

Since a novel complete at 50k words (the goal of NaNo) isn't really a good length for publication, I've decided to up the word count to 75k. That's an average of 2,500 words per day. I'm pretty sure I can do it.

Planning the rest of the year

Now that I've finished Shadows and Dust, or the first draft at least, I find myself with almost too much time on my hands and an odd feeling that I'm forgetting to do something. It's been with me for long enough that I don't feel right not adding to it each day. So I decided to plan the rest of the year in regards to writing.

I'm using September as something of a break. I reactivated myself on Critters now that I have time again, and I just started critiquing a novel from there.

In October, I thinking I'll write a short story or two, just to keep my hand in that game. I've also been told that I should hear back from the magazine that is considering Percy Wallace by mid-October. If it's a rejection, I'll probably make a quick editing pass on it.

November is NaNoWriMo, and I'm going to participate again this year. However, instead of the 50,000 words required to win, I'd like to write a 75,000 word complete novel. That's 2500 words every day, which will be a good way to train myself to stretch my output.

I think that in December, I'll edit Shadows and Dust. Over two months will have passed since I finished the first draft, which hopefully is enough time for its freshness to fade in my mind. Then whenever I complete the editing, it's revision time.

Somewhere in all of this, I also plan to revisit Jack O'Lantern. I recently came up with a subplot that I think will help the novel a great deal, but it'll take almost a complete rewrite to integrate it. I've already written a basic synopsis for the expanded beginning, which should be enough to get it going.

It's going to be a busy autumn and winter.

DONE!

The first draft of Shadows and Dust is complete, at 88,554 words! It's a little shorter than I originally intended, and the plot bears little resemblance to what I envisioned at first, but I think the changes make it a hundred times better.

There's a absolute ton of editing that I'll need to do, however. The ending is pure deus ex machina, even though I planned for it for quite some time, and there's plenty of characters that I need to introduce earlier. Several scenes (at least) will suffer bloody deaths. There's tons of crappy writing, but that's okay, because it's a first draft.

It's done!

Halfway there!

Like the Bon Jovi song, I'm halfway there, and in many ways, living on a prayer: a prayer to complete the story. I've never undertaken such an ambitious project. Jack O'Lantern was ~50,000 words, and Shadows and Dust has now matched that total. The story of the first novel in this planned trilogy is nowhere near complete, however, and at times I'm staggered by how much more I have to write. But it's a good feeling, because I know I have plenty of plot and character development let to explore.

I recently looked over the outline that I threw together for S&D, and it's amazing how much it differs from the actual story that's coming out. The overall plot structure isn't changing...much...but the details, the how and why, bear little resemblance to what I originally planned. I can chalk that up to how my characters, especially Kale, the protagonist, has revealed himself--his strengths, flaws, and motivations--to me. Just today he threw me a curve when he added another group of people to his "hitlist," and it'll vastly change the way the rest of the story plays out. It's a good change, however, because it will enhance the first novel a lot, and make it stand on its own a lot better.

50k done, 50k to go.

Shadows and Dust goal

I currently estimate that Shadows and Dust will be around 100,000 words long, and I'm currently at 34,800. On 9/30, I'll be taking a trip to Vegas until 10/4, and I want to use that trip to celebrate the completion of my first draft.

This means that I'll need to average around 1,000 words every day. My current output is around 750-900 on the weekdays, and none on the weeknds. Obviously, I've got to step up my game.

Writing hurts reading

Here's a short list of things I've noticed about writing and reading and how they affect each other:

• Since I started writing that I can't read nearly as much anymore. Much of the free time I used to spend reading is now used for writing. It's odd, because I miss tearing through book after book.
• Something else that bugs me is that when I'm reading now, I'll notice things I never did before. I used to read for pure enjoyment, and while I still enjoy it, the writing tips I've picked up affect my reading. I notice "saidisms," overuse of adverbs, and plot contrivances. It's an interesting experience.
• To keep myself motivated while writing, I have to read. Reading books inspires me, even if they have nothing to do with my current WIP.

Plot changes

As I mentioned in my previous post, I wrote a synopsis for Guardian - Shadows and Dust (my new title for The Guardians) before I began writing the actual novel. I'm now several days into the novel, things are going nicely, and I decided I want to try to plan this one out more than I did Jack O'Lantern.

Except that's not accurate, because Jack O'Lantern was completely unplanned from day one. But still, the point stands that I wanted to do more planning. In the case of S&D, I have a rough idea of how long I want the first draft to be: about 100,000 words. Since I've already created a structure for this book in my mind, I figured I'd write out an outline for the three main sections, along with word count goals for each section. The sections of the book as planned:

I. Novice
II. Squire
III. Guardian

So I started the outline, and of course, the early stuff is the most fleshed out, because some of it's already written, and what isn't will be soon. Before long, I realized that I needed to add another section to the book:

I. Novice
II. Squire
III. Wanderer
IV. Guardian

I finished my outline for the first two sections, and in doing so changed a good portion of the plot. My synopsis was suddenly outdated, and I realized again that my sections weren't well designed. And hence another revision:

I. Novice
II. Squire
III. Slave
IV. Servant
V. Guardian

That's where I stand now. The first two sections are fairly well outlined, the final three not at all. The plot details have changed dramatically from the synopsis, although the overall plot and theme have not. I still know where the story is going, and the basics of how I want it to get there, but the middle two sections are the least fleshed out. It's not a coincidence, since they're also the newest. But as I looked back at my now old synopsis, I noticed that the parts I changed the most - the middle sections - are what I planned the least. It was at this point in the synopsis where I just wrote down the overall arc of what would happen, rather than the details.

The ending hasn't changed one iota, however. One thing that's been consistent in my writing so far is that I don't start a story without knowing how it will end. Jack O'Lantern is the only exception, and that's because it was for NaNoWriMo, and I had no idea what it had in store for me.

The Oddities of Ideas

Ideas for stories pop into my head all the time. I keep a notebook handy at all times for them (or when I get the urge to start writing one of those stories, NOW). A file on my PC and thumb drive dutifully receives every seed of a story idea. Many of the ideas are just crap, and I know it, but they stay there, because for all I know, they might inspire something else when I peruse the list.

I get most of my ideas in two different ways:

1) Reading. I'll be reading a book, and it will trigger something inside my brain. Suddenly, I have an idea for a new story. It could be based on what I was reading in some way, or it could be completely unrelated.

2) Driving with the radio off. I do this about 50% of the time when driving for work. It's a great time to think and let stuff percolate in my brain.

The ideas are never forced. I never try to come up with something. If I did, I'm pretty sure it would suck. My subconscious has first dibs on all creative endeavors.

Now, what's odd about the ideas that are good is that there's no telling when I'll actually start writing. New ideas that are barely fleshed out may demand to be written well before ones that have developed characters and background. For an example, I direct you to Works In Progress on the side bar. Ignore Jack O'Lantern for now (more on it in another post at some point).

There are three novel ideas in there, and they're pretty vague. I'll go into just a tiny bit of detail here.

1) Untitled (Epic Fantasy) - World building. This is my oldest novel idea. It involves a father and his two sons. I expect it to end up being a trilogy.

2) Untitled (Science Fiction) - Percolating. The idea for this novel came after #1. It's about a colony ship.

3) The Guardians (Working title) - Writing. This is another epic fantasy. I expect it to have one sequel, although there's probably room for more. It follows a boy named Kale as he joins the Guardians, an ancient order that protects the world from Evil.

Now, The Guardians is easily my most recent idea for a novel. Wait, let me correct that. My most recent idea that has grown legs and is now walking around, waiting for me to do something with it. I've been developing the Untitled Epic Fantasy much longer. I've done a lot more work with the characters in it, and the basic synopsis has been complete for months. But it's not yet demanding to be written.

A few days ago, I felt close to The Guardians. I suddenly knew the story, knew where it was going and how to get it there, as if it was already written. So I grabbed my laptop and wrote a synopsis, along with some background and world building. Sure, there are one or two points in there that need to be flushed out. But the storyline just came together and knocked on a door inside my brain. "Hi there! I'm ready!" it said.

So I started writing it. The first few thousand words I wrote ended up being cut, as I discovered I started the story too early. But I think it's starting correctly now, and I'm excited to see how writing it goes. I just find it odd that this story has come so quickly to me, compared to other ideas that are waiting for their time to come.

Editing

I've just finished reading Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print, 2nd edition by Renni Browne & Dave King, and wow, is it ever an excellent book. If there are any aspiring writers reading this post, I highly recommend picking up a copy.

I borrowed it from my local library, but I have no doubt that I'll be picking up my own copy very soon. It's full of helpful tips, exercises, and new ways of looking at writing. As I it, I felt decent about most of my writing, as I avoid most of their "don't" lists. Then I got deeper into the book, and several chapters seemed to speak to me personally, pointing out the flaws that plague my writing.

But not only do they show examples of what's done wrong, and what's done right, Browne and King provide explanations, exercises, and tips on how to correct the problems. Perhaps the most useful inclusion is quotes from manuscripts before and after editing, with a discussion about what they fixed, and why.

Most "how to write" books I've read tell what not to do, and maybe provide an example or two. A few will go into a little detail about why to avoid certain pitfalls. None so far had the excellent, practical advice that Browne and King provide.

First revision of Jack O'Lantern complete

Today I finished my first pass of editing on Jack O'Lantern. It's amazing how much lousy writing I found when I read it. But at the same time, I found some real gems in there. Reading through and making the notes about what needed to be corrected was the easy part. Getting in there and actually doing the editing was difficult, and not fun. It got discouraging after awhile. Editing focuses on the bad writing, after all, and then fixing it. And so when I went through page after page, and saw the mistakes pile up, the poor sentences compound, and the just plain "what was I thinking?" moments keep coming, I got discouraged. I'd work on 20-30 pages at a time, and then just shove it aside when I hit a hard part. But the manuscript was always there, always nagging at me to get back to it.

Now I'm done with that first editing pass. And there's still so much more editing and revising to do. There's at least one whole chapter that I need to add, to flesh the story out a little. There are probably a lot of little details I could use to put in, things to make the story and world come alive. But hell, at this point, I'm happy. Another major step in the writing process complete.

Senility on submission

Now that Senility has been thoroughly critiqued, I've done a final set of revisions and edits and sent it off to the first magazine. Here's hoping they're wise enough to publish it.

Senility is a cross between Horror and Dark Fantasy. The horror elements are kept fairly light, more intellectual than your typical blood and guts stories. The title tells you at least a little about what it's about: old age. I'm not giving out any information on the plot, however. You'll have to buy the magazine that ends up publishing it.

What's kind of odd about this story, at least for me, is the responses that my test readers and the critiquers gave, compared to my other stories, The Lay of Percy Wallace in particular. I consider Percy the best story I've written, and the one I think is the most artistic, if you will. But it got very mixed reviews. Meanwhile, Senility got pretty much unanimous praise. Even the few critiquers that didn't seem to get the story said they enjoyed it, and nearly all the suggestions were fairly minor.

Don't get me wrong, I like Senility. And after re-reading it for my last revision phase, I enjoyed the hell out of it. But I don't love it like I love Percy. Yet the reactions of those who have read both favor Senility. Just goes to show that I guess I don't know my best writing when I see it.

I hope magazine editors will like it as much as my critique group and test readers did. Keep your fingers crossed!

Reading, wRiting, but no 'Rithmetic

I read a lot. Baseball forums, publishing blogs, video game forums, news stories, and humor sites. Oh, and books. Lots and lots of books. I'd say about 99% of the books I read are fiction, but it's hard to define them past that. There are a few genres I don't read: Romance, Westerns, Women's Literature. But just about everything else is fair game. I am most partial to Epic Fantasy, and speculative fiction in general. For those who might not know, speculative fiction is Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. This is the genre I write in the most. But I also enjoy a good legal drama, or mystery (sometimes even cozies), or thriller.

People always ask me how many books I read. I really can't say, because I devour them. Just making a WAG, I usually say 3-5 books a week, and I think that's fairly accurate. I love to read, obviously. This love of reading is what led me to writing. In the past 5 years or so, I kept imaging plotlines for books, wishing somebody would write what I was thinking. In the past year, I decided that nobody was going to magically pull these great ideas out of my mind unless it was me, so I took pen to paper and embarked on a journey that has already proven to be strange.

Writing is much more difficult than reading, but far more rewarding, also. The sense of accomplishment when I finished the first draft of Jack O' Lantern was incredible. Ask just about anybody on the street, and I'd wager that at least 75% would say that would like to write a novel, and believe they can do it. How many actually do? Probably something like 1-2%. I've done it, and it's a great feeling.

Of course, maybe 1-2% of those novels that are written actually get published. That's where the balloon pops and the pride goes rushing out. Will I be one of the 1-2%? I certainly hope so! But only time will tell.