Dan Straka

I'm posting this so my account doesn't get deleted from inactivity

2012-01-31T21:02:00.002-05:00

I'm posting this so my account doesn't get deleted from inactivity.

working update post that turns into an anti-note rant

2011-07-19T23:26:00.003-04:00

Hi Everyone.

Just wanted to post that I'm still busy working on COTD. I'm pretty excited about the work. Lately I don't like blogging or even talking about the work. Quite counter to years previous. I used to draw elaborate maps, character sketches and scenes. Hell with CMBO ( a WWII war game ) I recreated battalion-size battles for Dunes of the East to see if my battle rhythm was realistic.

Those practices had faded away over the years I suspect, because ultimately its not writing the novel, it's not refining the craft and that's what I need the most work on. In hindsight I suspect the volumes of notes and drawings were counter productive. For a hobbyist writer, for that is what I was at the time, its helped flesh out a world and story. But for writing geared towards getting published, such pre-planning tied me down. I believe because I had invested so much time, it became harder to make those editorial decisions, such has cutting a character or even the fundamentals of the work to achieve a stronger story.

COTD was been completely rewritten 3 times. After the first draft (that i admit had maps for..., just a few castles, honest) I changed the world completely. Second draft saw the deletion of half the characters. Third draft saw only 3 characters stay, if only in name, and features a vastly different voice.

So I'd warn against making too many notes. For me its important I grow the story organically. But to each, his or her own.

100 Hundred Days

2011-05-24T22:08:00.002-04:00

My wife Beth is doing a 100 days challenge. Do something artistic everyday for 100 days and blog about it. The current form of her art is paper cutting and I encourage everyone to take a look at her blog and all the other participators. A great source of inspiration. (Though I dare not attempt such a writing challenge until robotic hands and wrists are affordable.)

http://100papercuts.blogspot.com/

Interviews with other writers: Bettielee

2011-02-26T18:10:00.012-05:00

My second interview in this series is with Bettielee, who besides residing in the Enchanted Forest and is rumored to be in possession of the The One Ring, has been extremely influential with budding writers on Absolute Write. Besides starting the Fantasy Enablers Anonymous group, she's been actively promoting the awareness of other writer's blogs.

First of all Bettielee, thank you for agreeing to the interview. Hence forth, my comments will be in bold.

Q1) Unfortunately not all our time behind a keyboard is creatively spent - how goes the life of a farm cube inmate?

Well, Dan, I work in the plumbing industry... so as you can imagine, I spend a lot of time daydreaming. Everything at work is about being on the computer, being a data entry/graphic artist inmate. There is always an excuse for that surreptitious Word document being open! When I am struck in the bonnet by the muse-bee, I might dash off a word or two. Unfortunately, I have been turned in by a passive-aggressive-grunting-co-worker for writing at work, and must be extra super careful. I can only dream that she will one day rue getting in my way for world domination.

Q2) I'll agree disturbing a busy writer can be akin to poking a sleeping lion. Is it because of adult (cube) life that made you seriously start writing in your 30’s?

The funny thing is, I always wanted to write, but I didn't have the work ethic or the self-confidence to do it. They say the first step of a thousand mile journey is the hardest, and I think the first word of the first story can also be the same: it's representative of so much and the pressure you put on it can crush it to powder. I didn't think I'd ever be good enough, I didn't think I had a story to tell that would stand up to what was out there. Then I took a look around at the cube, realized it was just me in there (the cube here being a metaphor for my entire life) and no one that was going to tell on me if I sucked.

Shortly after I decided I needed to write, Stephen King published On Writing. I felt like that was the universe (and Stephen King) giving me the go-ahead. I still tell people I write because Stephen King told me I could.

Similarly some of the most liberating advice I got as a young writer was from a friend who said I didn't have to write a bestseller. That comment made me feel like a weight was off my shoulders and I was free to experiment (meaning fail ten times before getting it right, or at least better).

Q3) If Stephen King gave you the encouragement to write, have other writers similarly affected your voice or style of writing? My spies tell me you are fan of Tolkien.

Massive, massive fan of Tolkien. I am still collecting writers to be influenced by. I just read "All the Wind Wracked Stars" by Elizabeth Bear and was blown back in my chair! The thought of trying to approach these people in voice or style is very daunting. I think the people that have had the most influence on me are Stephen King, JK Rowling, Mercedes Lackey. Not that their writing is less powerful or worthy of being read because they have a straightforward, easy to read style. That's how I want my prose to be - straight to the punch, with shades of Tolkien and Kinsella in the corners.

Language, man! Language! It's a shame that beautiful language is looked down on now. Someone will shout "Purple!!" at you if you linger too long on a sunset or a tree.

Part of the skill to write simply, I think, is to deliver the description without ceremony. You hear general advice like, "don't info dump" but to those writer's that create worlds in a few lines, it can be daunting task to repeat yourself.

So true...

Q4) That being said, you participated in NaNoWriMo a few years back. (For those who don't know it is a pledge to write an entire novel in the month of November!) I have to ask was it worth it? Any regrets or lessons learned?

No regrets at all. NaNoWriMo was a vaulting point for me. I finished my NaNo novel and wrote two more the next year. I learned that writing 2k a day is do-able, and that there is nothing better for a writer than writing. Not staring at the window, waiting for inspiration, not research, not talking about writing. As Ahnold said... "Do eet!" 2k a day and you have a novel in 2 months... well, more like 6 weeks. I wish I could say I slavishly adhere to this -but when I fall off the writing wagon, it is my own fault. Life gets in the way. Worry gets in the way. Insomnia gets in the way. But I am the master of my destiny and the only way to finish a novel... is to write it. You can't sit around and wait for something to happen.

I hope this year will be the year of EDITING for me. I suck at submission. I wish there was a NoNoSubMo. The doubts and fears I overcome to write gain new strength when it comes time to sub. I'm having a new sword forged to destroy them....

I think they should make a tee-shirt that says “I participated in NaNoWriMo and all I got was carpal tunnel.” Back in my unemployed days, I wrote a 120K'er in 30 days. Wrists haven't been the same since.

*bows in submission*

Q5) Okay last question. This is the big one: Any who knows you on the net can see you have an obvious fascination with fairies, what about these creatures interests you?

The simplest reason is that I've always seen my muse as a fairy! But it's much more than that. A writer should always be ashamed when they can't put a feeling or a reason into words, but it's hard for me to put the nail on the head of what it is about fairies for me. I think they are the root of story and magic. Some people paint them with the modern brush: the beauty of artists like Selene Fenech and Jessica Galbreath. Pretty little flutterbies to look at. I think there is more to them than that. They can be dark and mischievous, selfish and vengeful, close to the secrets of the earth. Who knows what damage they would do if they were bigger? Luckily for us, they are more interested in themselves than we are. I think we're safe from their machinations as long as that attitude continues.

I will agree with you on that point; pretty little things are often very boring things in stories. For me I think their appeal is they can be contradictions. They can be good, evil, and/or tricksters... they can be ugly or beautiful... they can be outside of this world and yet they can be a part of this world. A race without unified form. There is a richness to that mysterious dynamic that is fascinating to me as a storyteller.

Who wants a Mary Jane, right?! Each generation redefines magical beings anyway. Look at Vampires. Sometimes at night, I imagine Bram Stoker rolling over in his grave. But even Bram's Dracula wasn't your typical vampire.

That's the inherent magic of being a storyteller. You can reshape the world, all with a little idea.

Thank you for sharing your insights and good luck editing! More more insights and laughter, please visit Bettielee's blog: Farseeing Fairy Tales

The fun of steampunk (part 1)

2011-02-26T17:19:00.004-05:00

I've been reading Stephen Hunt's "Court of the Air" and if you've not read it, I kindly suggest running out to your nearest Borders before it closes and snatching up a copy.

After reading so much medieval based fantasy Steampunk is as refreshing as a cold ice tea on the hot day. The vibrancy of the world in part, for me, is in the language. What Hunt does in CotA is give real things new names, but never describes them. Reading the book you'll come across what he calls a 'Sleeping Henry', which is a billy stick or cudgel of sorts, but he never tells you that. Instead he use an in-universe style of narration, forcing you to work it out on your own without bogging the story down with description.

This advantage comes, in part, that unlike many other sub-genres, Steampunk has an established visual aesthetic. Google : Steampunk : images, and you'll see copper painted conversions of modern day devices, clothing, and images of a world blended between Victorian-era, sci-fi, and fantasy.

Back to Hunt's work; the power of renaming of things by combining preexisting words (ex: aerostat for airship) for me paints the world better than making up new ones. Very different from books full of long, made up names (that I never remember anyway) so common in fantasy. With that said, I'm going to pour myself another ice tea, or maybe call it a Tall Sweet.

Interviews with other writers: Justin

2011-01-09T19:41:00.004-05:00

I figure you all might be bored by now of me droning on about my process. So for your pleasure, I'm going to be starting a new series of posts focusing on interviews with other writers.

I'd like to do the first interview with Justin Aiello, a good friend since high school and the person who inspired and challenged me to not only start writing a novel, but also to finish it.

Justin, thank you for agreeing to my interview. And not charging me for the wisdom.

Q1) We'll start off with the basics. What genres do you write in?

I like writing in a lot of different genres as well as mixing them to keep things interesting. I do a lot in Fantasy, Sci-fi, mystery, and adventure. My novel is an attempt to mix all of those.

Q2) Seeing you writing a novel inspired me to write a novel so I wonder, what made you start writing in the first place?

I remember always enjoying stories from as early as I could remember. I would make up adventures and imaginary worlds to keep myself occupied, and it drove this desire to eventually want to be a legitimate story-teller.

Q3) In the same vein of the previous question, have you inspired others to write as well?

It honestly is an honor for you to say I inspired you to write, considering you have managed to write so much and so well. Your stories have so much life and interesting things in them (from which I've learned a lot from) that if I only inspired you to write I'd feel pretty good about myself. Others, somewhat, my sister has seemed to kind of jump on board wanting to write but suffers from the all too common problem of "I can write the first 5 pages and then nothing"

Q4) I admired your dedication to your current project, I know you've rewritten it several times. I attempting a rewrite myself now. What knowledge have you gained from the numerous rewrites?

It's cliche but rewriting will really...REALLY make it better. I can't tell you how many times I've rewritten something and had a moment where there was an idea or a scene or a line where I smile to myself because I know I nailed it, I know I got it right. It's funny how little tweaking here and there can change a story, improve it ten fold sometimes, and the scenes that really do this more often than not come around in the re-writing. Since I finished the book to where it is now it's improved 50 times.

Q5) Between each new edition, what changed the most? (i.e.: stronger characterization, more detailed descriptions, etc.)

This will obviously differ for the writer, for me it was increased and improved details, changing everything that was clunky about the original and didn't really flow well. A couple plot changes really made the mystery of the story exciting for me. One of the best scenes at the climax of the book, a scene that is absolutely necessary for the story now that I think about it, did not come around until after the first draft.

Q6) What is your "typical" writing day consist of?

Focus on one scene or an idea. Bouncing around never really works all that well (though it might for some writers) For me, personally, when I sit down to write I'm going to focus on a section and do what I can to improve it, change it, delete it even. It isn't the fastest process, but by the end of it you have covered every section in your book and did what you can to improve it.

Q7) Could you describe your writing process? Where do you start?

It is all in the ideas, you really want to have a lot of frame work in my opinion before starting your story. Know your point, where you're going, and how you're going to get there. Who are your characters? What purpose will they each serve? What is all of their relations to one another? I am very big on small details and I hate...HATE loopholes, so I want to have as clear a picture of where I'm going before I go there. I feel then the actual writing comes easier when you know where you're going. Now an important disclaimer, I'm not saying that by the time you finish that this will not all have changed, My book is very different now than where it was supposed to go when I started, but step 1 is getting the end of the first draft, so you have to make it as easy as possible for you to get there.

Q8) What was an "ah ha!" moment in your writing? When everything seemed to click.

During the rewriting process. If you do enough planning you start realizing that ideas you have NOW are supported by things you already wrote in the past, as if you were setting yourself up, looking ahead without realizing it. I find myself sometimes going, "That adds up!!" almost as if I'm reading someone else's story. I want to say "good job" to "Two years ago Justin"

Sometimes I feel like working on my project...

2010-09-15T18:28:00.003-04:00

Dare I say two blog posts within a week??

But this is too funny and sadly true:

http://www.youtube.com/AgentXPQ

Look for the project clip.

the vicious cycle that is blogging

2010-09-13T22:57:00.002-04:00

I don't blog often. After a while of not blogging I get this guilty feeling that I should blog more. But then it goes so long that I think I've got to come up with a brilliant post to make up for it. So of course I don't blog until I have a grand idea to put forth into the vast realm of the internets.

I'm the same way with thank you cards. The more overdue the thank you, the longer and more emotional it becomes. Silly really, I doubt all that many people actively read this blog and it's silly for me to labor to a phantom audience. Or at least stress myself out about it.

So here is my post, not a lot of thought to it, certainly nothing brilliant. Just a post. I'm still alive. Still writing. Almost done with COTD.

I write like...

2010-07-16T18:46:00.002-04:00

Heard about this amusing analyzer that you can paste some of your writing into, and it tells you what famous author most write like.

The original story:
The analyzer:

I got PG Wodehouse, Steven King, among others... but the most common was James Joyce.

A curious diversion! Capital... capital.

WIP update

2010-07-05T23:38:00.005-04:00

God I love 3 day weekends. You have time for family, friends and finally yourself! I spent a solid 8 hours today writing while listening to the same Muse song over and over again. I can't remember the last time I was able to dedicate so much time and if I didn't have work in the morning I would try to pull another 8.

Today was exciting, not only for the sheer amount of words I got down, but the structure of the work finally started to come together. For the past couple of months I've been writing scenes here and there, completely out of order which I would have never done two years ago. I changed the format of the WIP around a great deal after reading The Name of the Wind. What bothered me was that the flashbacks in Rothfuss' work were logical - the MC telling the story - and it made my flashbacks feel awkwardly placed. I didn't want to tell the story in a linear fashion, yet, I had very critical events in my MC's childhood that needed to be convey to the reader in order for them to appreciate his actions in the story.

Then low in behold, I figured it out. But that's for a different post.

So right now I'm at 71 K, more than half way done!

the ability to write a novel

2010-06-27T20:36:00.005-04:00

Having penned a few complete manuscripts I've learned that having the dedication to sit in front of a PC and bang away for days or months, that having the focus to edit and re-edit the same work for years, doesn't at all guarantee that the work at the end will be something worth publishing. Years ago I had the feeling that I wasn't able to write the story as I know I should.

How to explain it...

Say you wish to draw a picture of a person as realistic as possible, but when you put the pen to the paper, something is lost in the translation. There is a hesitation to your work. Lines filled with distracting stutters, places where you paused to think about where to go next. If you are able to finish, it looks more akin to a stick figure than its living breathing inspiration.

Apparently this is normal! At least for Terry Brooks it was. I was reading his forward in the Sword of Shannara and he expressed similar feelings:

"I didn't seem to know enough. I wasn't comfortable with the time or the language or the feel of things. So I floundered about in fits and starts and eventually went away to college without ever completing anything."

I think that is a critical point - having a knowledge and breath of experiences to pull from to color and add depth to your world.

Oasis - my first serious attempt at novel writing (that I finished) features an whinny, emotional teenage MC, because I was a whinny, emotional teenager. The MC was hung up on issues of girls, doing something with his life, and having sex for the first time because... well you get the picture. The range of my experiences was limited and quiet frankly, the novel shows that.

Certainly I've gotten better (and I've done more things). I can spot at times where other authors are writing outside their comfort zones and the text becomes inaccurate and awkward. But I encounter just as many stories that are written in a language quiet beyond my grasp. Perhaps I could write just a good a sentence as them, maybe a paragraph after some work, but a whole novel?

Tim Severin's Viking: Sworn Brother is told 1st and the historical setting is delivered without ceremony. Without those nerdy info dumps where the author is flexing their knowledge or a complex world building detail they are proud of. Such style leaves me speechless and quite frankly - a bit jealous.

What is an aspiring (published) author to do?

As a body builder goes to the gym every day, I suspect all one can do is experience life and continue to write.

The Oroborus of story construction Part 4: The Process

2010-06-24T21:01:00.000-04:00

My last entry on this series is not about looking at the parts, but rather the process.

The act of novel writing I've come to learn is like putting a 1000 piece puzzle together, except that you make your own pieces. You can start with the boarder, finding all those straight edges pieces, or start with similar shapes or colors. There are many of places to start, but only one place to end.

You can start a new project with a character, scene, or with a plot / premise. Where ever you start, you'll need to develop the others at some point. Fear not if during the writing of the book one of then change. As I pointed out in my three examples of lessons learned, sometimes it wasn't until after finishing the book that I realized I had told the story to late in the story of the world, or from the wrong perspective.

The creative process is a cycle, like the oroborus, and one that constantly needs to be fed. But while it can be frustrating to spin around in the cycle, it is also one that breathes life to new ideas.

The wonderful, and albeit frustrating thing about writing, is there is no one way to do it. It's an organic process unique to each writer. And that process can change from project to project. I generally don't like reading how-to-write books (musing because that is all this blog is really about) but this leads me to my last point:

You don't learn to ride a bike by watching someone else do it. Such an observation may give you some insight into this skill, but it's not riding until your butt is on the seat and feet on the peddle. You'll get scratches on your knees and elbows to be sure. But they're red bandages of courage.

Someone smarter than me put it best: writers write.

So what are you waiting for?

Observations

2010-06-21T21:10:00.001-04:00

Betteilee pointed out I've not blog in a while so I went back and forgot I had written all these posts and never, well posted them. So here goes!

I finished reading Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind over my week long honeymoon.

Oh yes I got married a few weeks ago. :)

One facet that fascinated me about the work was the small anti-fantasy conventions. Two examples in particular stick out to me. And without without spoiling anything I present them to you know:

1) The MC (the book is in 1st person) is talking about how he was taking a bath in a stream with a girl. She's on one side of a tree and he's on the other. The narrator makes a point of saying that if this was just a story, she would have fallen over or some excuse would have been made so he had to go see her and then... well you know. The MC points out that it isn't one of those stories, and the truth is they washed, got dressed and continued on. Well done.

2) A similar anti-convention, done with a subtle touch, is there are a few characters who pop up and the way they are presented you think to yourself: ahhhh, I bet they are going to be someone later on. At one point when the MC is in a street, all beaten up, a rich person wearing a demon makes helps him up and gives him money. My well-trained detecter thinks "ok, this guy is rich and will help the MC and... blah blah blah." Well guess what? Nothing happens! You never hear from the rich guy again. Brilliant!

Why do I like this? It's more realistic and there is tension in wondering what will happen. Well done Sir. Well done.

The Oroborus of story construction Part 3: Scenes & World Building

2010-03-29T23:17:00.001-04:00

So I've nailed down the premise and have the characters all organized. Now what? Time to remove myself from society and daylight and write. But first, I must consider the flow of the story. That's right folks it's time to talk scenes and world building. Now we all know we can't info dump. That can be a killer in a fantasy/ scifi novel. Sucks out the mystery right then and there.

I prefer to be be thrown in the pool and figure out was is going on while I'm trying to learn to swim. That is to say, have the reader experience the world within scenes.

What I've been trying to do is create scenes that satisfy more than one need for the book. That is, doing more, with less. The writer's the word count can only be so high, lower still for us unpublished lepers.

Example:

As part of my premise, here are 4 objectives I want to express within a new project:

1) I want to show culture X.
2) I want to show what life is like for the Low Caste in Culture X.
3) I want to show what life is like for the High Caste in Culture X
3) I want to show the conflict between High and Low.

We'll say that the narrator / MC is the same person, a young country noble, naive to the politics of the high court and city life who takes a trip on his father's suggestion to the capital city.

AND THE SNAKE STRIKESSSS.... itself. oUcH.

What the heck is the best way to deliver my message and themes by using this young noble?

Solution A:

1st Scene: Have the MC walk through the city of X where he sees the Low living in squalor.

2nd Scene: Then have MC get invited to by a merchant's party to see High. At the party have High talk about how it hates the Low.

3rd Scene: MC walking home runs into a group of Low's planning an uprising.

Solution B:

1st Scene: MC is invited as a friend by a merchant to tour his farms where the MC sees the Low working and suffering under grueling conditions. The High treats them like animals to show his power, and although the High doesn't notice it, the MC sees that the Low are not beaten dogs. He can see it in their eyes, an unbroken spirit breeding a steely resistance. He realizes they are merely bidding their time.

Neither solution is better than the other as it is. It all depends on the greater context in which they are used and what we're trying to accomplish. They both may do somewhat the same thing. One difference being B may require less page time.

The final solution largely depends on where you want to plant the seeds of tension that will the blossom into conflict later on.

You can control that with setting and with characters, both of which can be used to act as a metaphor or mouthpiece for the particular facet or characteristic of the caste you are trying to describe. And this could all feed into what the central conflict is or the idea behind the story.

Lessons learned:

There are too many examples to list but a great one is I originally started LDH when the Crispin, the MC, leaves school. He says goodbye to friends, adventures across the land, goes to towns, and gets lost in the desert. It was only after many
(many) drafts and help from patient betas did I realize I could condense the first 60 pages of the book, all the character development, the motivation, into 20 pages from a single day in his childhood. BAM! All that wandering around gone, all that character development that was at first over weeks became condensed into a single event that changes his life forever. Hotcha!

What helped me: Get a Beta who is a better writer than you

This is a tricky one that takes a lot of trial an error and a bit luck. I went through a stage where I wore out most of my family and friends with WIP after WIP. I started to notice that, while initially their comments were very helpful, they stopped being what I needed. I needed more in depth crits on the voice of the work, sentence structure - the real gritty stuff. This level of feedback I only got from better writers, who ripped by work to pieces.

The Oroborus of story construction Part 2: Of MCs and Narrators

2010-03-10T18:50:00.000-05:00

I got a plot / premise in mind so it should be smooth sailing for me right? Ha! I've not yet begun to get into my own head.

In a continuation of how I've been spinning my wheels when plotting a story, the next hurtle I hit was characters. First things first; I consider if the Narrator and the Main Character are the same thing.

It wasn't obvious to me at first that they are not always one in the same. A classic example is The Great Gatsby. Does anyone remember anything about the narrator Nick? Not really because he is merely there to tell Gatsby's story. In my mind, it's an issue concerning perspective, in this case if we read the story through Gatsby's eyes I fear that some of the mystery would have been lost.

Remember Part 1 oh so many months ago? I figure, the decision here is where you can bottle old wine, as they say. Most premises sound lame when you boil them down to the basic. But the characters, gives your story life.

Part 2 of this Part 2 is who the narrator and/or MC are. I didn't really learn this until I read Phillip K. Dick's "Man in the High Castle." (admittedly I sometimes need to touch the hot stove twice). If you haven't read it, first of all shame on you, but the general premise is that America lost the Big One and was captured by the Germans and Japanese. At the time I read it I would have told such a premise from the POV a young boy who joins a resistance. Boooorrriiinnngggg. How many of those stories like that are around?

Dick took the path less taken and told the story through an antique dealer who sells imitation americana. Brilliant! That blew my mind and since then, I've always taken a step back to consider.

And here comes that snake again, salting its own tail.

Lessons learned:

I wrote TOS more than 2 years ago from the POV of a somewhat mentally disabled boy who gets drafted into an army. While he is the MC, it's only in these past few months that I've come to realize that the work would be stronger if the story was told from a someone else.

Do I tell the story from his best friend's POV? The unit commander? The shaman? I've spun around several times trying to figure who is the best character to tell the MC's story.

It's like the game of Clue, but instead of asking who-dun-it, you ask who-will-do-it, and do it the best.

What helped me: Learn of people's stories

I'm sorry but yes, you will have to leave you desk for this one. There are so many characters, I mean real people, out in the world that can be of inspiration. Some of them are family and friends, but many others can be clerks at the post office or cashiers. When I go out, I make it a point to always have a conversation with at least 2 people. Even if it's only a few sentences, you'd be surprised at what people are willing to tell you.

Long time no blog

2010-03-01T09:04:00.002-05:00

Yikes! So it's been awhile.

But I have good reasons I swear! I got a promotion at work and wedding related planning.

This new busy life has had an unexpected silver lining: my writing style has changed. Since I don't get to write as much, I lost that incessant need to write every night (which sometimes got in the way of life). Now when I write there isn't a manic energy to the work until I collapse at the keyboard. What comes out is a more relaxed and intentional voice - ideal for TMT which I'm plugging away at.

Anyway, I'll get the rest of the story construction up soon.

The Oroborus of story construction Part 1: Plot (or Premise)

2010-01-06T23:08:00.001-05:00

Hello and welcome to a new four part series on why I sometimes hate my life as a writer.

For those of you just starting to write, don't let the following scare you, too much. Just allow it to make you think. To the seasoned writers, old veterans of many a hard campaign, I'm sure the endeavors I'm about to describe will be all too familiar to you. Hopefully it will be helpful none-the-less.

----------------------------------------------------

When constructing a narration there are so many possibilities that sometimes I feel like I'm chasing my own tail or my own tale?... anyway the trouble is we as writers have all these ideas, conflicts, and characters we write want to write stories for but where to begin? Unfortunately, story construction isn't as simple as using a hand grenade; pull the pin and throw quickly.

One way (certainly not THE way) is to start with a plot - or do I want to start with a premise? I suspect for some that is a chicken or the egg deal. Evolutionary derail aside, I find myself thinking up various plots and colorful characters, but it is not until I have a strong premise do I start doing some serious writing.

Here's the difference in my mind:

Premise: Boy comes of age and leaves humble origins to slay Dark Lord.

Plot: Tim grows up in a quiet village. After a bandit raid kills his parents, he's forced to leave his childhood home to find work in a nearby city. In the city he starts working for a merchant and it is then he finds out the bandits who killed his partners for the...

But getting to that premise isn't as easy as getting directions on map quest. And this is where I get in my head (echoes result) and spin my wheels. What is this story really about? Is it a story about a farmer boy killing the dark lord, or about pagans vs. monotheistic orders?? Religion, politics, fanatics oh my!

Incoming self-gorging snake!!!

The possibilities are seemingly (and sometimes annoyingly) endless.

Summing up your story in a few sentences is hard. But it is something you're going to need to do if you ever want to sell this sucker. As I mentioned before, I like writing with a premise firmly in my mind to keep the story on track and remind me what details to focus on. In later parts of this series I'm explain why this is helpful to me in more detail but I'll quickly say that when I write with a premise in mind, I know what characters have to do or events have to happen to reinforce that idea.

What helped me: Write a Query letter

Can't figure out what the heck you book is about? I thought I knew until I wrote my query letter. Even if your work is not submission ready, start writing a query letter to an agent or editor. Having to boil down the story to a few paragraphs will bring into focus what the premise of your story is. It also might reveal what doesn't need to be in there.

That's it for now, stay tuned for next week's episode where all the cliffhangers will be answered!

It's time to talk about PD

2010-01-01T23:33:00.004-05:00

Hello, my name is Dan and I suffer from PD, Post-Project Depression.

DH is on sub to agents and I'm in withdraw. I didn't realize I was suffering from PD until a few weeks ago. I noticed it after the high of submitting to agents started to wane and I sat down to write again. TMT was going well at first but something was missing. I saw the scene in my head but when I read to words back, it sucked. I was imagining the Mona Lisa, but drawing stick figures.

Chalk it up to PD. I worked on DH for 2 years, crafted an entire world (three of them in fact), characters, the works. I'm sure most of you reading this know fantasy requires a lot of upfront work. New races, places, concepts have to be introduced and for me, I over-design. There I admitted it. When I write one book, I plan out three. In DH's case... I did a few more, but that's between you and me. I made the mistake of telling a friend just how far I planned out the series and now they don't return my calls.

But my little heart aches thinking that the rest of those stories wont be told. Is it a waste of time to write them if the first doesn't ever get picked up?

"So Dan," says the voice in my head. "Why don't you take those plots and spin then into a new work?"

"What?" aghast, I say back. "And butcher all my work?"

Has this become a game of high stakes poker? Do I sacrifice those plots and characters, ripping them from their world and stuffing them into another for the stake of creating a stand alone? Is that placing a better bet or flinching?

I'd imagine most writers struggle with some sort of emotional turmoil after completing a work they've been years or decades on.

So how have I been coping? I'm been talking to my friends more, that's always good. For drinks at the bar. Just got a Wii, that's a lot fun. I've starting reading more too, but it's not the same.

If reading is like watching pornography, then writing is like having sex. For those addicted to it there are few things that can replace it. For those who sit at their desks at work, drumming their fingers, dreaming of their next scene, there is no relief except to write. And for those of us between projects, searching for the right MC or that voice, it is painful to go through withdrawal.

Oh yes, and Happy New Year.

5 Steps to creating a System of Magic - for Muggles

2009-11-30T23:03:00.005-05:00

Had a good chat at Absolute Write about magical systems and I decided to clean it up, expand it and post it here.

“Magical Systems and You”

So you want to design an original magical system for your novel? Well do you, punk? First ask yourself the big question:

1) Why does your work need magic?

Is it important to the plot? Or do you want a cool factor or a certain fantastic feel to the work? Take a stab at this before proceeding.

Fantastic Magic vs. a System of Magic

Still interested? Okay. Then if I were you, I would ask myself if I want the magic to feel fantastic (that is having no defined rules. Plus side is it can add a bit of mystery to the work). There is a scale I would say, where in some works magic just happens and there is little to explain why it does. (Like true fantasy i.e.: Alice in Wonderland.) Then there are other works where certain conditions are defined as requirements for making magic happen, but stop short of explaining its inner workings. Take the Harry Potter series. There is talk of spells and potions, but J.K. Rowling never explains why saying a few words and flicking a wand, produces magic. And that is fine because that’s not the point of the book.

Examples of Fantastic Magic:
Terry’s Brooks’ “Magic Kingdom for Sale: Sold!”
Andrzej Sapkowski’s “The Last Wish”
Glen Cook’s “The Black Company”

Or you can have a rigid system of magic with rules. As the reader starts to learn the system you lose a bit of the mystery I feel but then your characters get to push on the boundaries of the system. If you set up a logical magic system, then most likely it will become a major mechanic for driving the plot and affecting the character's decisions. It only makes sense after your spent all that time on it right?

Creating a System of Magic for Muggles and Dummies:

Now let’s say you’ve decided on the path of the magical system. This isn’t a dark side vs. light, it’s what is most appropriate for the intentions of your book. You can setup a system the quick and dirty way by following these 5 steps.

I pick apart the magical systems from the following sources as I understand them.

!!Spoiler alert!!

Robert Jordan’s “Wheel of Time”
Brandon Sanderson’s “Mistborn”
Arakawa’s “Full Metal Alchemist”*

*Although the Alchemy used is called a science, it’s more or less magic.

1) Identify the source of magic.
Whether there is a physical object that gives off magic, a type of invisible force that can be tapped into, or the character’s blood, magic has to come from somewhere. These “master” sources tend to be a resource that somehow renews itself.

Examples of sources of magic:

a) Wheel of Time: It’s an invisible force, the One Power, that spins the universe and splits into different sections of power; Earth, Water, Air, Fire and Spirit.

b) Mistborn: The magic, called Allomancy, is fueled by metals that are swallowed. Each metal gives the allomancer strength in one particular power. For example, iron allows the allomancer to push objects.

c) Full Metal Alchemist: Towards the end of the series we learn that spark that allows alchemy to happen is a human soul from the mirror world (our Earth).

2) Decide how your characters draw magic from the source.
Do they use their mind, willpower, an object (wand, staff), etc.? Part of this breaks down to how the characters learn the art. Is magic innate? (you have it or you don’t) Or is it a learned science? How they draw out the magic should correlate to the nature of the source. If the source is a rock in the countryside, doing three circles in the middle of an urban street to cast a spell doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

Examples on using magic:

a) Wheel of Time: The channelers of magic access it through mental concentration. They “touch” the “source.” This for the most part is an innate that has to be refined through training.

b) Mistborn: Once the users have the metals in their stomach, they tell their body to “burn” it for their use. This is generally an inherited talent (though a massive life change can bring it out) that requires training to attain higher levels of control.

c) Full Metal Alchemist: The user must create a transmutation circle, requiring some math, and put the raw ingredients in then activate the circle.

3) Create limitations or drawbacks to using magic.
As they say, with great power comes great responsibility. Having limitations has two uses: it establishes a framework and rules for your characters to work within and it gives you the chance to have your characters show why they are special when they can bend those rules. But that’s a later step. Examples of drawbacks are typically use it for too long and you get tired type, strain your soul, and the threat of being consumed by magic and dying. In order for the limitations to make sense, they should jive with how the characters use magic in the first place. Otherwise the limitations will feel artificial.

Examples:
a) Wheel of Time: Channelers can become addicted to the power. They get fatigued after extensive use and if the males use it too much they might buy a one-way ticket to crazy town.

b) Mistborn: Allomancers burn the metal in their stomachs and when it’s gone, so is their power.

c) Full Metal Alchemist: A transmutation circle must be drawn with the required knowledge and raw materials are required. This takes time to prepare.

4) Set a scope on magic.
Not only should you step up a limit on the scope of an individual’s magic, as in Step 3, but also a limitation on what the magic is capable of. If a character can snap their fingers and everyone dies, well that is too easy. There would be no story. Set a limitation on just what magic can do so characters are not overpowered so conflicts are not resolved too easily. I don't feel you always need to inform the reader as to this upper limit, but as the author you should recognize it if you approach it.

Examples:
a) Wheel of Time: Hard to pin this one down, it’s subject to who uses it. Certain powers are better, for example, at the healing arts than others. Men tend to be stronger in earth and fire magic.

b) Mistborn: Of the allomancers only Mistborn can “burn” all twelve metals. This effectively makes them like superheroes. Mistings can only burn one type of metal. And the amount of metal burned, such as burning iron to push a crate as opposed to a book, “burns” up more metal. There is also a balancing act; you cannot “push” something heavier than you are.

c) Full Metal Alchemist: The alchemy is based on the law of Equivalent Exchange, something cannot come from nothing.

5) Know how and when to break the rules:
But I just created all these darn rules and you want me to break them? Yes. Because it makes you character a lot cooler and creates a twist in the story.

Examples:
a) Wheel of Time: The main character is the Dragon Reborn with the ability to use the source to change fate itself.

b) Mistborn: Some characters can use both Allomancy and Feruchemy (like allomancy but the metals are not consumed but the power is stored in them.)

c) Full Metal Alchemist: Ed has seen the Black Gate and doesn’t have to draw circles, he creates the circle by clapping his hand together, thus making a long process nearly instantaneous.

Closing comments:

Now that you have your shinny new system, you don’t beat the reader over the head with it. There are plenty of good fantasy books with little to no magic too. Game of Thrones for example. Personally I think magic should enable characters to do great things, but ultimately the story will be stronger if it is human characteristics that carry the day.

Sources:

Wheel of Time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saidar

Mistborn: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allomancy

Full Metal Alchemist: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_metal_alchemist

On the desk corner

2009-11-22T15:09:00.005-05:00

I got some fun posts coming up, at least they're fun to write, so while I'm cleaning those up, I figured I do a section on what I'm reading.

On my left desk corner I always have a stack of books I'm reading. Not an idiosyncrasy of mine, merely the left corner is the only free space generally. Right now in the stack is:

The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
The Gunslinger by Stephen King
Eats, Shoots, & Leaves by Lynne Truss
Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell

Well of Ascension is fun so far. I enjoyed its prequel, Mistborn, and that will be a important example in a coming post on systems of magic.

new addiction

2009-11-17T00:19:00.003-05:00

It's not coffee. Or the hard stuff, like espresso.

It's querying agents. It’s an exciting rush and scary all at the same time. I got a two rejection letters today (not a big deal) but I got both with hours of submitting my queries. So now I’m soiled, I sit at work and when a lull comes I start to wonder… maybe I should check my email?

“No Dan, don’t do it!” says the voice in my head. “Don’t give into the urge!”

“Why?” I say back. “It’s just one more peek…”

“You said that one peek ago. Don’t do it! You’ll just psyche yourself out. Plus, you’ll go blind.”

Querying is an interesting experience. In some ways it feels good, I’m getting out there and interacting with professionals in the industry I’m trying to break into. I send another patch out, feel empowered, yes I am trying my best. Then I read the agents’ and other writers’ blogs about the state of the industry and fear and doubt seep back in. Okay I’m being a bit dramatic.

Thankfully I can keep my emotions in check. I've read the statics. Jennifer Jackson's Query Wars series: is a sobering read. But after working on that WIP for two years, a little emotion is understandable I think.

So what now? On to writing the next one. TMT is almost half way there! But in some ways it's such an evolving project I feel like I’ve just penned the first words.

New work means new approach

2009-11-06T12:40:00.003-05:00

I've renamed AQ:TM to TMT because it doesn't give the book the right tone, and its close to an 80's TV show.

With TMT I'm applying a lot of lessons learned from spending 2 years editing LDH. One is, when I write fast or I'm excited, I make TONS of mistakes and the writing suffers. Nowhere is this ever so clear than my action scenes.

So instead of typing it all out in the first around, then spending a lot of time rewriting, I'm writing just a few lines to get the gist of the scene. Later on, when I'm calmer, I'll return to write a decent passage filled with tension and good pacing. Bearing this in mind, I've gauged back the word count for the first draft to 75K, leaving me with plenty of space when I do got back to add details and descriptions to those sections.

SITREP

2009-10-27T23:32:00.002-04:00

Situational Normal.

If you've been paying close attention to my WIP ticker (which I am sure isn't all that interesting if you have) you might have noticed a few things bumping up. I'm more than half way done with the final LDH edit. When it hits 100% it's off to agents I go. Hopefully an agent can led me down that yellow brick road to the editor wizard who will make my dreams of being published come true.

Hey, a guy can wish can't he?

I'm also making decent progress in a new WIP, codenamed AQ:TM. I excited for a couple of reasons:

1) I'm setting this fantasy work in late medieval era of technology. For starters there's gun powder and arquebuses (cool), but in general it's refreshing to research a new era. Previously all my fantasies were early to mid-medieval times.

2) I've learned a lot from editing LDH and I'm excited to see that some of those lessons learned are paying off in this WIP. The first draft is much tighter. (Structurally it's a mess until I figure out where the plot is actually going.)

3) Best part of all is I'm writing new work. I spent 2nd years on LDH. In that time I also wrote DC but it's set in the same universe. It's crazy I know, but in the back of my mind I was worried that I wouldn't find a new plot and set of characters to fall in love with and then write their story.

Silly me.

Hell week doth approach (AKA Wrap it up B)

2009-10-13T23:33:00.002-04:00

The goal: Start submitting to agents by November 1st.

LDH is almost ready to go to agents. I got the query letter polished, crited, rewritten, polished again... about twelve times later it's done.

Okay, breath.

Next the synopsis is going to get the same! Haha you syno, you thought you were going to get off easy. Not so!

For the manuscript itself I'm waiting for line edits from one beta and an partial from another. For my own part I'm cleaning up the ending. Faster, better, stronger.

Got to focus. Damn my eyes for starting writing another WIP. It feels like I'm a slave to two masters, whips and all.

The Start of Stories

2009-10-12T23:09:00.002-04:00

Where does a story start? From the perspective of a novelist it can be almost everywhere. When talking about the causes of WWII, do you start at the invasion of Poland, or what happened to Germany after WWI?

For novel writing it can be much the same I'm starting to realize. If you want to write a story about a car crash, do you start at the scene of the accident or do you start when the MC woke up that morning? Then on top of that, who is the MC or narrator? Is the narrator the cop on scene or a bystander and the MC is really the person in the accident? This is all means to finding the strongest dramatic impact for the reader.

I'm excited to say I started seriously writing a new manuscript. 20K words in 6 days so far. What is fun about this project is I created a world that I want to write in but I realized that I've not started in the best place for the reader to experience that world. TOS was the first work in this world and I can to understand that leading off with TOS is like telling the story of WWI by starting off with the Battle of Berlin. That approach has its merits to be sure, but the reader is missing out on so many amazing and powerful stories that lead up that moment.

So I've trunked TOS, scratched out NB and started AQ:TM. Here's goes something (I hope.)

Sweet dreams or... ?

2009-09-29T22:42:00.002-04:00

During my daily commute I often think of my writing while listening to the radio. The other day this pop song came on and got me thinking. Now I typically don't analyze Beyonce songs, but this one line struck me: "You can be a sweet dream or a beautiful nightmare"

In terms of nightly mental theater, I wondered, which do I prefer? I certainly enjoy having sweet dreams, but do I ever remember them for more than a few days? Or even hours? Yet after all these years, I can still vividly recall so many nightmares, that while disturbing, did have a sort of horrific beautify to them, like a cinematic horror film.

In that hall of horrors my greatest fears, ones I wasn't even conscious off, came to surface. Upon waking I'd often see the truth, what those hidden symbols and meanings were really trying to tell me. Why were my parents always skeletons in my childhood nightmares? I was afraid to loose them. Do we gain more insights into our minds with nightmares than dreams? Or do nightmares just reveal aspects of ourselves that are harder to see?

As they say, Misery makes men poets.

Just pull the trigger Frank

2009-08-31T20:44:00.004-04:00

After being posted on the wide world of the web, my new query has generated a mixture of crits. Some find it funny, others say it's blah and dissected it to pieces. Both views are encouraging and while I certainly appreciate strangers taking their time to dig into my writing, part of my mind thinks, “What does it take to please you freaking people!?”

Now the query needs improvement, I'll be the first the admit that and the comments have helped point the way but it made me realize I’m never going to please everyone with my query, or my writing in general. But for now, all I have to do is please one person; an agent. And the query just has to spark interest in their minds to request a partial. And who knows what their mindset or tastes really are.

Therefore all I can do is take the crits people have given me and do my best. Sounds corny but I can edit and rewrite the damn query forever and never submit. At some point I do my best, trust my gut, and pull the trigger.

Which comes first; the plot or the premise?

2009-08-10T12:02:00.005-04:00

I love / hate writing query letters. They're fun, but at the same time a HUGE pain. How do you take a 120K of work that you've been pounding away on for a year(s) and boil it down to a few tight paragraphs interesting enough to tempt an agent who sees dozens of queries a day?

I've gone through 9 completely radical drafts for DH. I can't say I've nail it, but the process has made me question the book in general. My latest draft I feel is very good. I sat back and thought "damn, that sounds like a good story." Then the voice of doubt: is that really what my story is about? Did I stretch the story a little bit to make the query sound good?

So I think; why can't my book be more like that?

Answer is there is no reason why it can't be. I've been struggling to figure out how to trim down the manuscript and writing the queries has helped me focus on what really needs to be there and what doesn't. After some cutting at the undergrowth with a machete like Michael Douglas in Romancing the Stone, I think I'm on a good path to that drugged fill plane and potential romance with a publish / agent. Maybe it's still a pipe dream* but at least the work is advancing.

Some people go to the gym and say, "I've lost ten pounds." Now I can say, well I just trimmed off a 10K. Booya!

*as always, pun intended.

A proverbial bitch slap

2009-08-10T11:48:00.006-04:00

Sometimes, you’re in the trenches so long you forget that you're covered in mud. Not that I’ve fought trench warfare. But I was a boy I pretended to be in wars. I've died countless times for real and imaged countries. Slayed dozens of imaginary soldiers and lost an equal number of imaginary friends.

I’ve been editing DH for almost a year straight. I gone through times where I can’t see what needs to be done to advance to work to a higher level of polish. "It’s great!" I say. "No way can I trim another 10 K of words with greatly damaging the pace and plot!"... Then I have a beta reader smack me in the face with comments. Thankfully. Because I need that. A good slap makes me blink and see that the manuscript isn’t pristine, but dotted with mud.*

So when you find a beta that is not afraid to slap you in the face, do you best to keep them.

*on that note, I've now rewritten the DH beginning. For the 5th time? Something like that.

What my fingers have been up to

2009-07-21T00:38:00.003-04:00

I'm happy to say I'm now working on the 6th draft of DH. I got 2 new betas who have very different perspectives than I so that is exciting. I believe if I can get non-fantasy reading people to like it, then I've at least done a decent job creating interesting characters. Or they have low expectations. I also rewrote the beginning 15 pages after chatting with one beta and the intro is much tighter now. Now I just need to trim another 2,500 words off and I should be about done... maybe.

As for my other works, everything is basically on hold until DH is out to agents (which I hope will be early fall). DBW and NB I'm thinking about too, but after learning so much from DH, I'm hesitate to really commit to either of those works until I have a firm understanding of what I'm trying to do with the work. The intriguing question is who should tell the story?

It reminds me of Philip K. Dick's, Man in the High Castle. He could have told the occupation of America by Nazis and Imperial Japan from the perspective of a soldier, but he instead told it from that of an antique dealer. That alone created a much more memorial story. Genius.

Dangers of Writing I: Body Damage

2009-05-24T09:15:00.000-04:00

A writer's life isn't all champagne, groupies, and crazy parties. It has its dark side too. Here's a series about the dangers of writing way too much. Consider it a cautionary tale.

/me clear throat

When I was unemployed I had an enormous amount of time to myself for the first time since high school summers.

The first few weeks I took a break, visited friends, played some computer games and generally watched way tio much anime. But after that cool down period I got back to the business of writing. This is when I wrote DH in about 30 days. To quote and earlier post, "...that’s an average of 6.86 pages a day. The actual word count is at 118,585. So that’s 3952 words a day."

The end result was decent first draft, but my wrists were locked up to the point where I could only type, maybe, forty words a minute. I tried changing the position of the keyboard, putting books under my hand, anything to ease the pain. Then came the heart palpitations, that would literally take my breath away for a moment. Turns out I had been hunched over my keyboard so long I pulled a major muscle in my back that connects to the muscles in my chest.

Beth bought me a real office chair and I got me a ergonomic keyboard and all was well. Remember kids, everything in moderation.

Ted, where do thoughts come from?

2009-05-20T00:14:00.000-04:00

After I gave a friend the low down on a new idea they asked, where the hell do your ideas come from?

While Ive commented here and there on my writing process, I've not shared my thought process.

First I do a my fair share of general reading: news articles, novels, journals etc. From these I note or remember ideas or themes that I find interesting. Another source of inspiration is in daily life. Being introspective I'm constantly considering my own reactions and motivations to events / people around me. I also watch them and note stories people share and ticks.

Now from this big pool of information, themes and ideas that have some value to my mind float to the top. Ideas of novels are formed about these themes or some that are just floating out there are sucked into the novel. These novel concepts grow in my head over time until they one day demand to be written down. The notes can change as more time is give to the idea. TOS evolved from a simpler story called THR. But now even TOS, completed, feels like its made up of more than one story and I thought about breaking it apart into NB and EC.

Proof Positive

2009-04-21T19:40:00.003-04:00

Here's more ammunition for the argument against writing to be rich:

The-reality-of-a-times-bestseller

It can be a real eye opener but it's important to know what to expect. Also this feeds into the truth that most writers can't afford to write full time until they have a backlist of 4 or 5 books bringing them income.

Keeping it real (ie: swallowing that bitter pill called reality)

2009-03-29T23:40:00.007-04:00

I've been talking to a few people of late who are interested in writing to make money. Perhaps because of the economy, people are putting on their creative hats to make up a few extra bucks. And everyone loves stories so it makes sense right? Well, without trying to sound like a jerk, I try to point out the obvious difficulties to their scheme. They agree and know its unlikely, but I can still see that gleam of hope in their eyes...

Now I don't mean to crush people's dreams, I just want them to go forward with realistic expectations. And honestly, if they get bummed from my little advice, its unlikely they'd ever have the drive to finish the novel in the first place.

First of all; novel writing can be an laborious task. It's an uphill fight to finish the damn thing. And unfortunately, time served slaving over a keyboard is no indication of success. Then you have to get and agent, then a publisher... all in a slow economy! I started LDH a year ago, and if I submit now, and say I'm (very) lucky enough to pick up a agent and publisher in a month... I could get an advance but I wont see checks from sales for another year or more.

Consider too that many writers finish several books before one of them is publishable. I believe Brandon Sanderson wrote 4 before his 5th got picked up. Furthermore, most writers aren't able to live off their writing until they have 4 or 5 books published.

My point is, if you treat writing as means to an end, your time might be better served doing something else. Like getting second job. If you don't love or at least enjoy the act of writing, it's going to be tough going to create a work that is commercially successful.

4h Draft completed and now... I need some space. It's not you, it's me...

2009-03-29T13:53:00.003-04:00

Just to give an update, perhaps only for archival reasons down the line, but I just finished my 4th read through of the LDH. The first pass was a basic read through when I finished the manuscript about a year ago. (Looking back in the blog the time stamp is Tuesday, April 8, 2008 - hey this blog thing is paying off!) The next two versions were mostly small corrections. The 4th version is where the biggest changes came from. I hand rewrote many scenes, expanded the characters, added tension, cut and rewrote the beginning based upon beta feedback and as a result the work blossomed up to the 150K count, shooting past the 120K recommended for new authors by agents. I think is a much richer work because of it.

Now the book is out to 1 beta, and Beth is starting her line editing. It feels good to finally be done with this latest draft, as it has gotten to the point where I can't look at it anymore. Like a bad girlfriend, "It's not you LDH, it's me, I need some space and time alone." But to keep the ball rolling on the project I've writing a few drafts of the synopsis and will continue to polish the query letter. Looking at a late spring submission to agents.

Writing Synopsis

2009-03-29T13:42:00.003-04:00

I actually enjoy writing a synopsis. Using third person present tense is refreshing. But if you don't have some perspective on your work, I can see writing a synopsis being very hard. What you are essentially doing is boiling down your work down to the key ingredients that drive the story. The major characters, the major conflict, and the antagonist (villain, society, disease, etc).

From my research there seem to be different standards in terms of length. Some suggest a synopsis to be 1 page per 25 pages of the novel. For my projects these tend to be 10 to 12 pages and I know I can do a decent one of these. What was giving me trouble was boiling it down even further to 2 to 3 pages.

For DH which I'm getting ready submit to agents, what I ended up doing was taking the table of contents, and wrote a paragraph for each chapter. Some chapters I combined together and dropped out lesser characters and plots and BAM! It suddenly worked much better. Now I'm just going back in and tightening the writing and better highlighting the central themes.

Note to Self: Always write in Courier New

2009-02-17T20:47:00.003-05:00

So I finally switched over to writing only in Courier New when I'm in word. I was printing a section of DH out for a new beta today and I realized, it's easier to read! My eyes can catch more types when the typography is linear and simple.

This is #33 of things I've learned after writing creatively for the past 9 years.

Warning: Betas may explode if overloaded

2009-01-22T23:23:00.003-05:00

When you finish a work, whether it be a short story of a novel, one the the first things you'd want to do is share it and get feedback. The later is a much more taxing endeavor and as you can see from my WIP list, I got a lot of manuscripts and over the past few months I've noticed I've started to burn out my betas. This is in part due to people understandably having lives and not a lot of free time, but I offer a words of caution concerning betas. OR maybe I just need new friends.

Anywho here are some lessons I've learned:

1) Qualify your beta!

This is important. A lot of people fancy themselves "word smiths" and they might very well be, but it takes a great deal of patience and time to edit or read a rough manuscript. If someone says "hey I like reading..." don't be so afraid to take a pass on their offer. What you can do is quality them with a test. Instead of dumping the mother load on them, give them 5 pages. One, it will test how fast they can turn around the read and two, it will give you some insight into the quality of their feedback. If it looks good, give them a bit more or the rest.

2) Give your betas "polished" work

It's tricky to say what is polished. In my case, and I suspect most other writers, you are constantly learning just how unpolished your supposedly polished work is. Early on I gave betas first drafts of Oasis. This was a good choice at the time because I had no real idea what I was doing. I needed feedback on the big stuff; tension, timing, plot, and characters. Now that I have more confidence on those, I'm refining the small things, sentence structure and voice. So I wont give betas a read until I've go through it 3 or 4 times. (This spares them a little headache of dealing with typos)

3) Understand that not all betas are created equal

I recognized early on that certain betas were good at helping with typos, others were good for plot issues, etc. Everyone has their talents so as an author I think it's important to identify their area of comfort or expertise and have them focus on that to get the best results.

4) Not all constructive criticism is correct

I got a lot of flak about that statement in college when I was going to art school. Some crits I had people say very unhelpful things, which I ignored. Its not an arrogant thing, and you should listen carefully to your readers, but you don't have to take their comments as golden. It is your book after all. One beta who read Oasis said it was rather "nerdy" to have "lasers" in the story. I countered with what about star wars? He said my point exactly. Well they were not the best fit for that project but still they came up with helpful suggestions. For LDH I have 5 people read the first 20 pages to get a more general survey. 3 of out of the 5 hated it, 1 was maybe, and 1 loved it. I looked again at the general complaints the 3 had, and boiled it down to the root problem then rewrote.

5) Alllllways thank your betas

They are gold in of themselves. And make sure you thank them. That goes double if they rip apart your work with honestly. Those are keepers.

Writing prompts

2008-12-14T00:05:00.003-05:00

So Beth and I are doing these daily writing prompt were we have to use a word from others prompt in our next one. At first they were just a few sentences, but now have grown into small passages. Some of the more amusing ones of mine I'll post here.

Here's the first one amusing enough to post:

“You’re not what I ordered.” I blew out a cloud of smoke at the hooker. She didn’t cough.

“Come on baby, I’m worth it.” She gave me her best dazzling smile, the kind a used car sales man gives ya when he’s selling you a piece of shit.

“I asked for a red head.”

“Come on! All you American boys love blondes.” She pushed her way into my haggard apartment. Her once lascivious eyes narrowed in blatant judgment. “Baby, you sure you got the money for these?” She squeezed her tits to emphasis her point.

“Is that your sales pitch?”

“Come on, am I blowing you or what?” Apparently the flittering was over and it was all business now.

“Fine.” I threw the money at her. She counted it with the aptitude of a veteran bank teller. I careened back onto my bed, sinking into the broken mattress and rattling its supporting cinder blocks. She undid my pants and yanked them down sharply. As hooker did her trick, I took another drag, and thought of her.

Writing... with my hands?

2008-11-19T21:07:00.002-05:00

I've not hand written more than a few pages since I wrote this novella in Spanish class junior year of high school. Besides the fact the work was terrible, I don't even count it on my manuscript list nor do I remember the name, it was difficult to read because my handwriting was so dismal. I hated it because I wrote too slow for the words flowing out of my mind.

Yet a few weekends ago, I found myself waiting for my girlfriend to get her hair cut. Without a PC handy, nor any printed pages to edit, I was stuck on what to do. I had an idea for a scene so I yanked out a pad and pen and started hand writing it. It was a refreshing experience. My slower hand writing allowed me to form more meaningful sentences. I can bang out a book in a month with Word and a keyboard, but much of it is redundant from a sentence to sentence level.

I suggest anyone who writes, to try hand writing. I wonder if the next book I work on I might start handwriting from the beginning?

Writing, what a pain

2008-11-03T22:55:00.002-05:00

Recently I had the intro to DH ripped apart again. It's the third beta who has had serious issues with it so that means time for a rewrite. After rewriting it, I believe it's a much stronger intro which gets to the action in 8 pages, not 22.

This rewrite has opened a good can of worms I suppose. Now its though I'm wearing these glasses with special lens that enable me to see all* the problems in my story. For one this is a good development, where I need to work the most isn't in the overall plot, but the individual sentences that make up a story. Yet with any wisdom gained seems to be coupled with an understanding of how far I still have to go. The product is getting better, but the finish line is further away. I keep finding sections of lost potential, where more tension could be injected. Paragraphs where I'm telling, not showing.

So I write this as the hour gets later, and the rings under my eyes become darker. Back to editing.

*All implies all mistakes detected these current pair of glasses

Long time no blog

2008-10-03T21:10:00.003-04:00

It's been a while since I spilled my cyber guts. I've moved, work got crazy, and I've been sucked into reading the manga Berserk. Holy hell is that a dark manga.

In the meanwhile I've put AV on hold, started writing NB, and have set a self deadline of the New Year to submit LDH to agents.

So its safe to say, I've been busy. In fact I don't ever remember being so busy in my life. Commuting certainly doesn't help, but not even in college did I have so much work to do. I've not played a PC game in weeks for Geek's sake!

Characters that go the extra mile

2008-08-03T21:16:00.004-04:00

When I was writing Oasis, I had whole units of soldiers and detailed what their function was. Certain characters handled communications, logistics... and so forth. I wrote it as a military unit would actually function, but it drrraaagggggssss the story down. While watching Battlestar Galatica (the remake which I highly suggest) a few years back I noticed they used a staff of characters to pretty much do everything.

Is this realistic? No. You would not have your ace pilot lead a ground mission on the surface of a planet. Do you see air force pilots doing things a navy seal can? No because such training is very specialized and they are to valuable just to throw away like that. But for the sake the story not to be bogged down that's one trick I've noticed.

Genre this, genre that

2008-07-27T21:27:00.004-04:00

More lessons learned about the business of writing. Tell me, how would you define "urban fantasy?" I started off an interesting thread at the Absolute Writer's water cooler asking this very question. Some say UF has to be contemporary, I've read the city it takes place in has to take on a persona that goes beyond just being a setting.

A guy over at AW who goes by SPMiller came up with this equation: "Urban fantasy = here + now + city + magic"

With that logic in mind, solve for X:

X = ([medieval + renaissance] - earth) + city + magic

Figure that out and you'll know a little bit more about my latest batch of work. Do you have to care as a reader? Not really. Again its the sticky business of writing and how to market one's manuscript to agents & publishers.

PS: Who would have thought I would ever use Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally when determining the genre of the work?

City Slicker

2008-07-23T00:16:00.004-04:00

Got approved for our new apartment today. It's small but cozy and reminds me of what Palahniuk said in Fight Club, a filing cabinet for young professionals. Its not really that though, in fact its an old corset factory. I excited to move not only near a city, but in a city. Bars, museums, bookstores are now all within walking distance baby! Now I can take my laptop and sit in Starbucks drinking coffee.

What's what real writers do after all, right?

WIP it, WIP it good…

2008-07-21T00:44:00.003-04:00

To the right and down a bit, you’ll see a list of my current works-in-progress (WIP). Oldest works are at the top. I’ve refined / altered my process extensively since I finished Oasis in 2002. Here is my system at this time. Hopefully it might give you an insight into one way of writing novels or illustrate how much of a pain it can be.

1) Finish first draft – sometimes the most fun part, but the writing is generally very poor and inconsistencies run amok like crazed children on sugar. 90% of the time I write the story from beginning to end. This allows my characters to grow organically on the page before my eyes. Dunes of the East I recall writing out of order, but I wrote the character specific arches in order, then later put them together.

2) First read through – This is a general read through to catch the above mentioned plot and character inconsistencies. Basically making sure all the names are correct, it isn’t day in one paragraph and night in the other, the villain has a knife in his hand and not a rubber chicken. Also some minor spelling and grammar work. This completes the 2^nd draft.

3) Alpha readers – Alpha readers are people who read the 2^nd draft to give me back their impressions. “I love character x, I hated this scene…” That sort of rough feedback basically focusing on the “bigger picture” of the book.

4) Third draft – This is were I earn my pay… well not yet, but this draft is just as important as step 1. Here I fix or modify the work based on the feedback from the Alphas. Then I print out every page and go thru line by line with a pen fixing mistakes. If a paragraph or scene has too many corrections or just isn’t working, I rewrite it rather than try to rework it. Here I’m focusing on spelling yes, but also the nuts and bots of the manuscript, sentence structure and the overall “voice” of the work.

5) Beta readers – These lucky people, who I’m very thankful for, get to read the polished edition of draft #3 and will do more critical editing. They’ll comment on lines, paragraphs – correct spelling as well as plot. Their task is much more labor intensive and for that they are indispensable. That’s why I’m dating one of my betas.

6) "Final" draft – I’ll get the corrections back from the betas, fix the mistakes, then send the new draft out to a second wave of betas (if I have them lined up). This is a long process and you have to be patient with people. Everyone has busy lives and you can easily burn people out reading your crappy work. My g/f didn’t have the energy to read any of my stuff for years after line editing Oasis… yes it was that bad. First attempts usually are. (You’ll noticed Oasis as since been trunked)

7) Agents- Once it’s polished I’ll leave it alone and write up an outline, synopsis, and query letter to start the long process of trying to get an agent.

Sound long? Yes it’s very long. I wrote Oasis for 3 years, spent another 2 editing it, and got its first rejection letter in 2007. Now admittedly I write and edit my work much faster now but still there is a reason they say novel writing is a “long siege.”

What's your process like?

Reviewed: The Last Wish

2008-07-17T08:04:00.007-04:00

As part of my writing training regime, I've committed myself to read way too much. For a while I was reading a book a week, but I've slacked off a bit since. Right now I'm focusing the fantasy genre. Anyway, thought I'd share some basic impressions I've gotten from the works I've read.

I finished reading The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski. A very refreshing dark fantasy from a Polish writer. They’ve also produced a computer game based on it called The Witcher. It’s a collection of four or so short stories, strung in-between one continuous story line focusing about a monster hunter, a Witcher, named Geralt. I’ve heard it called “dark” and “adult” by some, and while it does have a few gory scenes and some sexuality, it’s not as dark as I thought it would be but rather I feel like it’s done with taste and without ceremony which is important on an emotional level. The beginning is a bit rough, as if the translator was doing a direct translation, writing what Sapkowski said, not what he meant. Within 5 pages or so it smooths out to some very well written passages for the remainder of the work.

It's non-linear story telling is refreshing though it may frustrate some readers. Each short story starts as Geralt often wanders into a new (hopefully) paying job. The jobs are a blend of realism mixed with characters living in a classic fairy tale. While Geralt is a true bad-ass monster hunter, what makes him particularly interesting is that he rarely resorts to the sword to complete the job. He solves other people’s problems through a clever understanding of the world and how it works. As his true thoughts are never revealed to the reader, you’ll not always see the solution coming which made it a page turner for me. I highly recommend it.

1,000,000 words later...

2008-07-14T19:50:00.004-04:00

Yesterday at 9:45 pm, with my neck stiff, achy back, dry eyes, and an overall drained feeling I finished penning manuscript #6. So since this blog of sorts, or want-to-be-blog, seems so far to be based on statistics I shall continue the trend.

Having now completed work #6 I did a little math and realized that since I started writing “serious” creative work during junior year of high school up until now, I’ve written 1,000,000 words for these novels. Now as much as I love writing, I’ve never done anything else 1,000,000 times and still only have a vague sense of what I’m doing. Though I’d like to think my spelling and grammar have gotten marginally better. My first novel was more like a sequence of interesting events (it as since been trunked), the second one a sequel of ungodly long proportions (653 pages typed single space) it to has been trunked.

In fact it’s only with my 5^th that I think I’ve just started get a handle on crafting a good work. It’s not so much the plotting, it’s the nitty gitty words and sentences that give the work a consistent voice. Which is surprisingly much harder than it sounds.

Finally done with my 5th manuscript

2008-04-08T19:42:00.002-04:00

Last night around 2:30 am I finally finished my 5th novel, having drank a half a bottle of wine while jamming out to Spacehog's "In the Meanwhile." Ah the thrill of writing were my proudest moments I'm alone, in my boxers and looking like an idiot.

But there is come cause for celebration, #5 has been the fastest work I’ve ever written.

How fast you ask? Well I wrote 206 pages in 30 days, granted... I was unemployed. Don't judge me.

Still that’s an average of 6.86 pages a day. The actual word count is at 118,585. So that’s 3952 words a day. All this equals that fact that my freakin' hands are about to fall off. Hello carpal tunnel syndrome.

Now comes the fun part.... editing.