Second Thoughts

This was totally supposed to be posted yesterday, but when I logged on my computer today there it was, still in the 'create a new post' window.  Oops.

Sorry for not updating yesterday... got busy with headaches and birthdays, which after thought might've made a better blog title.  Oh well.  I watched the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear this morning, and I was very happy with it, especially Stewart's speech at the end of the rally (here).  I went immediately from watching it on my couch to going out and canvassing neighborhoods with my fiance, who is a volunteer for Jon Hulbard for congress.  I feel like I've done my part for the day.  The rally was, I believe, a huge success, and I really hope that it just makes people think a bit more than they did yesterday, and realize that we are not, as Jon Stewart said, living in cable TV.  Cable television should not influence us as much as it does, and if ever we disagree with the opinions shown in myriad news networks, we can always simply change the channel.

About the book, today I finished reading the final 250 pages, and it gets so much better at the end!  Just... just so much better.  The plot, the story, the writing, everything about it, and I attribute that to when I started writing every day.  Practice, any practice, helps.  Writing blog posts helps me write novels.  Writing papers helps me write novels.  Writing novels especially helps me write novels.  If my writing improved so drastically over the course of one book, I'm very excited to read my dungeon crawl.  That's the most recent example of my writing, other than a scene I turned in for class, which when I reread it I was surprised at how tight and cohesive the writing was. 

One last thing, and then I'm out for tonight...  I met with some of my fellow Glendale NaNaWriMo writers last night at bookmans, and it was a lot of fun!  They had an exercise where you wrote your plot and everyone else wrote a twist on that plot, and that was the only thing that was a little less than fun...  I consider myself, at this point, a novelist, and I have a novel plotted out for NaNo.  I'm not one of those people that's going to be stuck wondering how ever will I come up with 50,000 words.  I already have my plot, my characters, my story.  It's the difference, and I hope no one takes this personally, between a professional and a hobbyist.  I get the idea that some of these NaNo writers only write for one month out of the year, and that's November.  I've been writing since last November, and I'll tell you what, I wrote a heck of a lot more than 50k words last month.  I'm not trying to diminish the efforts of anyone trying to write 50k words in one month.  It's a very heroic effort, especially if you don't write during the year other than that.  It just feels to me that I'm writing a novel - something that I can polish and send to publishers, while others are just looking to write anything that comes to mind, as long as it totals 50k words.  That, to me, is not a novel.

Disagree?  Please, leave a comment.  I welcome other opinions, and if I have erred in some way, I want at least the chance to fix it.  Thank you, as always, for stopping by my little corner of the internet, and I hope you're all having wonderful nights, and continue to do so tomorrow night on Halloween.  Be safe, and thank you!  See you Monday. 

First Thoughts

So I read the first two hundred pages last night.  First thoughts?  I'm pleasantly surprised by the quality of writing.  I don't remember using some of the phrasing I used, and some of it is really pretty good.  I like a lot of the lines I used.  I don't remember any off the top of my head, and I really don't have the arrogance to quote myself, but trust me =P I was surprised at how effective some of my phrasing is.  Also, even though the story was continually changing, I can see how easily I can change what came before it to fit with what was newly defined as the truth.  My rough draft reads like some really bad books I've read, honestly.  Which means two things - those people were good enough to get published, and so am I, and that it needs a lot of work.  Like, a lot of work.

The negatives?  My story is going by way too fast.  These characters are spilling their life stories after a few days of knowing each other, and while that makes sense in the context of my story, it just reads like it's going by way too fast.  I have eight main characters, a rather ambitious undertaking for a first time novelist, and now only that but each character has at least two chapters to themselves.  That number needs to be a lot higher to do the things I'm trying to do.  I need - and I hate to say it, because my fiance tells me this all the time - to iceberg it a little.  I just got to Gwenye's first chapter, and in her head she's telling us everything about how she feels, more of the past that I really need to reveal right then.  It's 200 pages in, sure, but it feels too soon.  Like, maybe a book too soon.  I don't know, is that a dangerous thought?  My book is currently just over 100k words, and I'm thinking, to make it effective, I need to double that.  There's probably a better way to do it, and I need to find it before I start editing.  I'm reading, and it feels like this is only an outline, the building blocks for a story that hasn't been written yet.  Maybe if I pick only a couple of characters this first time around, and save the others for the second and the third books?  I don't know if I need to just scrap this shifting point of view thing completely and start over. 

I'm still in the middle of reading the thing, so we'll see what I think of the next chapters and the ending, but for the first half I think it's going by way too fast.  It's the middle of the book, they're supposed to be on a journey that's going to take them at least a month, and they're only three or four days in by page 211.  That's a problem that needs to be fixed, and I'm really hoping it isn't by adding more words.  What is it, fantasy novels are very hard to sell over 120k?  I would believe it.  Maybe I just need to learn how to tell my story effectively within that restriction.  I'll try to finish it tonight, and I'll post my final thoughts about the story itself tomorrow, before I start actually going in and making changes. 

It's going to be a good time, folks!  I hope you're all having great mornings, and are about to have great afternoons.  See you tomorrow!

Happy Birthday, 2/3!

That's two out of three in the title, if it's hard to tell, but I'm not going to change it. Finished my second book this year last night, coming in at a respectable 58,308 words. It was finished exactly a month after my first. I started off at 11k, so I only wrote 47k for the book in the last 30 days, but add to that my short stories, my blog posts, and I'm closer to 60, 65 thousand words for the last thirty days. Puts me in a pretty good spot for NaNo, doesn't it? I don't have my word count journal right in front of me, which is probably a blessing for you readers, who don't have to listen to me regale you again and again with numbers you probably don't care about.

Second book under my belt, and it feels a lot different than the first. The first was much more of a labor of love, I guess, and my dungeon crawl was a pet project. My epic fantasy had a sadder ending, at least for me, just because of the fact that it was over. I have over a hundred pages of notes, it took ten months to finish, even though most of that time I was going about it very slowly. Long before my 10k word weeks.  I also wrote a great deal of it out by hand, at least 80 thousand words of it.  It takes up three notebooks, with notes.  I'm getting excited to write the second one, but I think I might be over that stage of writing by hand.  It's so much easier to write it on the computer and be done with it, but it takes away that chance at a brief first edit as I transcribe it.  I don't know, pros and cons.  My dungeon crawl (tentative title The Eye of Agras, what do you think?) was written entirely on computer, and I was so jazzed to write the first fifty pages I wrote about ten thousand words in three days, a feat I haven't managed to duplicate since.  Also, I'm realizing that after a certain point, let's say, next month when I finish my NaNo book, people will start expecting me to be cranking out novels once a month, and I might not get the kind of 'congratulations' that I expected when I finished the first one.  Sure, I may make it look easy (excuse me, my hubris is showing) but that doesn't mean I don't struggle daily to tell this story.  Maybe I need more writer friends.  

Also, do you know what day it is?  That's right, it's the 27th!  Time to read and start editing my first book!  I'm really very excited.  I won't get a chance today, because I have to close tonight at work and I have school up until then, but maybe tomorrow, and if not tomorrow, definitely Friday.  The editing process!  I have never, ever ever read my own book.  This will be a first for me, I will never get another chance to read one of my own books for the first time.  It will be a learning experience, I'm hoping.  If it's a total failure in my eyes, it's good to learn that now, so I can start fixing the problems I see in my writing.  After the editing (No idea when that will be, with NaNo, maybe January?  February, at the latest?) I can send copies to friends, get their input, and start making the book even better.  I just cannot tell you how exciting this is for me.  I'm nervous, and anxious, but mostly just... invigorated.  I can't wait.  I'm also looking forward to recording here what I think of the story, the characters, the writing...  I've always been a reader, and a prolific one, though that's faded somewhat with my new writing habit.  How will I read my own words?  What style do I have that I don't even know about?  Sometime in the next few days, folks, I'll know, and shortly thereafter, so will you!

I hope everyone is having as fantastic of a day as I'm having.  Write well, plan your novels carefully (if that's your thing) and just... just be happy.  Life is beautiful, and being alive is the greatest gift that was ever given to us.  See you tomorrow!

Almost, Not Quite

I was going to finish my book last night. I really was! I was trucking along, typing frantically, getting to the end, when the virus that's been plaguing me and mine decided to shut down Word, killing and eating my last forty minutes of work. =( <-- sad Lee. I hate it, HATE IT when that happens. The way I write something is the way I want it written, and having to go back and try to recapture those same words... Frustrating. My word count ended up being much lower than the actual words I put on paper, just because I didn't check to see where I was when Word crashed unexpectedly and I didn't want to artificially inflate my count. Blegh.

Getting ready for NaNoWriMo, in that I've been thinking that I need to start world building, and going over the synopsis that I have for the first three chapters to iron out my plot. Also working on my sci-fi short story, might do a bit more of that tonight. Not much is going on with me, it seems. Might not get a chance to read the book tomorrow, even though it's the one month anniversary, should probably get a chance to do that on Thursday, and then trust me, I'll have something to talk about. It'll either be, 'oh dear God, why did I write this?' or, 'hey, this isn't so bad.'m If it's the former I might retire my blogging career earlier than I expected... Just kidding. You're stuck with me.

Sorry I don't have anything of importance to say today... Get ready for NaNo, all of you out there who are writers, and the rest of you have a great evening, and a wonderful day tomorrow =)

Ants

Not a very creative title, I know, but they're scurrying across my desk as I'm typing.  Where are they coming from?  I have no idea.  Lessons learned?  Don't eat at my desk.  There was only one there yesterday, but as you all know, there is never only one ant.  This is a mantra that is stuck in my head more often than I would care to admit, usually whenever I see an ant.  I know, I’m creative.  Some phrases are like that, and now that I’m trying to think of one I can’t, as is often the case with any anecdotal evidence I try to provide – you probably know what I’m talking about.  Little phrases, strings of words attached to verbs or nouns that you come across in daily life, little catchphrases, if you will, but only in your mind. 

Words are delightful, aren’t they?  The reason we write, to play with words?  I was having a conversation with a friend about how we think, us two, and she was astonished to hear that I think in words.  Not pictures, not usually, it takes a lot of effort for me to picture something in my mind – well, okay, not a lot of effort, but it doesn’t come naturally.  I think in words, black typeface on a white background, a lot of the time I spell each word mentally as I think it.  Or I get stuck on words, a little loop, before my brain can keep going.  Huh, I think.  That’s interesting.  I-n-t-e-r-e-s-t-i-n-g.  Interesting.  I-n-t-e-r?  T-e-r-e-s-t-i-n-g.  T-e-r-e-s-t.  Rearranged, that could be T-e-s-e-r-e-t.  That might be a good name, I should write that down somewhere.  Sound strange?  Good, because whenever it happens I feel like a crazy person.  I came up with a name, Latricera, originally Laptricera, until my fiancé mentioned that it was a little too much of a mouthful, by thinking of what words the suffix ‘-tops’ is affixed to.  Laptops (have you ever thought about how strange of a word that is?  Taken letter by letter?  Say it to yourself.  Again.  Again.  Until it loses all meaning.).  Triceratops.  Huh, Laptricera.  That’s a cool name, I should write that down somewhere.  ß Most of my daily reflections, folks.  “I should write that down” is going to be emblazoned on my headstone.  That or ‘oops’.

Sorry for the lack of an update on Friday, I was just as tired then as I was Thursday evening when I posted.  Not much new to report, really.  Almost done with the new book, still untitled, by the way.  Going to finish that up either tonight or tomorrow, just in time for the one month anniversary of finishing my epic fantasy.  Then it’s going to be me, my manuscript, a couple of days and a couple of red pens.  I’m totally psyched!  And yes, I was growing up in the nineties, what gave me away?  I’m really trying to get a science fiction collaboration going between a group of my friends, I’ve decided my first story is going to be about the first major act of aggression that ended up starting the Earth Peoples’ Republic of China rebellion, both in the colonies and back on earth.  I might be more excited to reference this later than to actually write this part of it…  Oh well.  It’ll be fun either way.  Then, after I finish the book, I have a couple days of some serious editing of my EF and world building for my NaNoWriMo story.  Woo Hoo!  If only I didn’t have to work, my life would be even more awesome.    

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!  If anyone out there cares to follow my word counts once November starts, this is the place to do it.  I’ll post that a couple more times on here between now and November 30^th, so don’t stress if you don’t click it now.  It’s not that interesting yet anyway.  See you all tomorrow!

Collaborative Efforts

I am exhausted tonight, so this isn't going to be much of a post, I apologize in advance.  For some reason or another I have not been able to get enough sleep this week.  Tomorrow, sleeping in is definitely something I'm going to be doing.  I was just thinking about collaboration, specifically about many authors working on one project, or different stories set in the same world.  I have a wonderful teacher in one of my classes, my history of Science Fiction class.  He was talking one day about this very concept, about a group of sci-fi authors creating a universe, and all of those stories having a place inside that universe.  Myself, my fiancé, and one of our friends made up our own universe today - think a setting a bit like colonial earth.  I'm excited to be writing short stories, as I plan to write quite a few inside of this universe.  It doesn't take me too long to write one, either, less than two hours' work for a substantial idea.  I'm thinking about writing more short stories and trying to get them published.  I am absolutely a better writer now than I was at the beginning of all this, when I started writing  my novel last year.  My short story writing abilities have improved as well, if this story is any indication.  We each have a short story 'due' by the time we get together at Borders this Sunday.  I'm excited to see what they come up with.  I'm excited to see what I come up with too!

Have any of you out there started and completed a collaborative effort?  How did it go?  What did you learn?  If you have any fun stories, or warnings, feel free to post.  I hope everyone is having a great night =)  See you tomorrow.  

Tired and Title-less

So tired.  I hate Tuesdays, and Wednesdays.  I work late both days, and I don't have time to write at night, or the desire to write in the mornings...  Some people say they write wonderfully while tired.  They say it gives them a chance to write without the benefit of self-censorship, giving themselves a more free experience of letting their creative sides take over.  I call bullshit!  How can you concentrate?  I'm trying to write and my fingers can't find the keys and I don't want to press backspace when I make a typo because it feels like too much effort.  I left the house this morning without having a cup of tea and I am zonked.  I was going to get some at school, but it costs money at school, and it was raining, and blah blah excuse excuse...  /rant.

Not much to say, or report, I guess.  Gearing up for NaNoWriMo, wondering how much world building I have to do for my new story, if any, and thinking about the genre.  I'm awful at genres.  It's kind of a science fiction horror survival, and I don't know if it has elements of fantasy in it or not...  It's about a little girl whose parents are both eminent scientists in their fields, and so their daughter comes with them on a scientific expedition to a frozen island where there exists a material that is quite possibly the solution for the energy crisis.  And then, after all that back story, scary things start happening - imagine the beginning of a video game.  Oh no, the grid went down!  We should probably send a team out to investigate!  Oh no, where did everyone go?  The island has a secret, the scientists probably have a secret... I put it on my NaNo page as 'Lost meets Lovecraft', and I think that fits it pretty well.  My only hope to escape a terribly cliched story is the fact that I have a little girl as my protagonist.  I have the first three chapters outlined, but I don't know how much of a sci-fi story I want vs. fantasy.  Probably more science fiction, my first two books are fantasy and I don't want to get typecast, so I need to come up with the back story that will make it more scientific than fantastical...    

Still working on my dungeon crawl, which is still unnamed, as is my epic fantasy story.  Hey, there's a topic.  Names.  At what point in writing do you give your work in progress a name?  I usually refer to my WIPs my acronym, for example DC for my dungeon crawl, EF for my epic fantasy.  I have pages of names for my fantasy, because the book has been done now for close to a month, and it's about time.  But nothing I come up with fits.  I've played with languages, random generators, and I don't have a clue what I'm going to call this thing.  I mean, it needs a name, right?  I can't imagine sending this off to a publisher as 'Epic Fantasy 1' - it'll get tossed out without a second look.  My dungeon crawl needs a name, too, but mostly because I have plans for some spiritual sequels, more of a serial underlying idea, whereas my EF is a trilogy.  No idea what to call it. 

How do you do it?  Where does the title come into play?  I even had trouble naming this blog, I had to dig through my notebook for ideas, I made up words, I played around with my name, I used random generators...  naming things is not one of my strong suits.  Characters, either.  Random generators all the way, or, my favorite, playing with a word, backwards, forwards, taking out a letter or adding a letter, until it's a fun new word.  I love words, I just can't love one enough to stick with it.