I could make a lot of excuses as to why I didn't get any writing done over the holiday break, or why I didn't even update this blog at all. But let me save you the time and effort of reading all those excuses: I procrastinated. I wasn't motivated, and I was lazy. So, there it is.
There were other reasons, like my credit card company crying "Fraud!" on every little transaction I tried to make, which seriously delayed my market research efforts as I needed to make some purchases. But those were minor things and really shouldn't have stopped me. I just used them as excuses.
So, here we are with a new year, and hopefully, a new start into my ongoing writing projects. I have been thinking a lot about The Serenity Solution and what I want to do with it. There's no doubt it needs to be rewritten. There's no doubt the first nine chapters I have rewritten are better - in most respects - than the original nine. However, as so often happens with rewriting, I've found yet more ways in which I need to improve the story. The big one right now is the fact that my main character is rather two-dimensional. Aside from his professional motivations, there's really nothing about him that will make the reader actually care what happens to him. In a mundane military science fiction novel, maybe that's all that's needed to keep the reader turning pages, since action is often the primary focus.
But I'm not aiming for a mundane military science fiction novel. I want my debut to knock the reader out of his chair and keep him on the floor because he's too busy turning pages to get back up again. I want people to ask about me, "Where did this guy come from and who the heck does he think he is?" And more importantly, "Can he do it again in a second book?"
So until I feel like I've achieved that result TSS will keep getting reworked. Updates on progress as it happens. Stay tuned.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Shameless Self Promotion... Again
So it came to my attention that, while I've talked a lot about my writing, I haven't actually offered much proof as to whether or not I can actually write. And while it's up to the reader to ultimately decide whether or not an author is good, the burden of proof lies with the author.
You may recall a few posts back, I posted a link to my fan fiction on fanfiction.net. While that will certainly give you a taste of my writing, it's important to note that all those pieces were purely just for fun and skill building, and none of them went through any sort of professional editing or publishing. Further, unless you're skilled enough to get a contract with a company that owns the rights to those works, you'll never make any money publishing fan fiction.
In thinking about that, I realized I haven't shown off my one piece of professional writing yet. I'd like to say it's modesty, but in reality, it completely slipped my mind. It has been seven years since I wrote it, after all.
At the end of this post, you'll find a link to a site where you can buy a short story anthology in which I published a short story, if you're inclined to spend money. If you're not, well, at least you can see I have been professionally published - although they misspelled my first name in the list of credits. Ah well.
"The Moonstone of Kadre Maryn" (hey it's fantasy, gotta have some crazy names in there, right?) is about a former mercenary who has been hired by a city under siege by an ancient enemy. Accompanied by the ruler's daughter and a few hardy soldiers, this mercenary sets out in search of a fabled moonstone which will restore the city's magical defenses. Along the way, he will have to battle mythical foes to reach his objective.
I'd like to think my writing has progressed quite a bit since then. But hey, it's my only professional credit to date, so I'm not going to hide it. Take a look and tell me what you think. ;)
Fantastical Visions II
You may recall a few posts back, I posted a link to my fan fiction on fanfiction.net. While that will certainly give you a taste of my writing, it's important to note that all those pieces were purely just for fun and skill building, and none of them went through any sort of professional editing or publishing. Further, unless you're skilled enough to get a contract with a company that owns the rights to those works, you'll never make any money publishing fan fiction.
In thinking about that, I realized I haven't shown off my one piece of professional writing yet. I'd like to say it's modesty, but in reality, it completely slipped my mind. It has been seven years since I wrote it, after all.
At the end of this post, you'll find a link to a site where you can buy a short story anthology in which I published a short story, if you're inclined to spend money. If you're not, well, at least you can see I have been professionally published - although they misspelled my first name in the list of credits. Ah well.
"The Moonstone of Kadre Maryn" (hey it's fantasy, gotta have some crazy names in there, right?) is about a former mercenary who has been hired by a city under siege by an ancient enemy. Accompanied by the ruler's daughter and a few hardy soldiers, this mercenary sets out in search of a fabled moonstone which will restore the city's magical defenses. Along the way, he will have to battle mythical foes to reach his objective.
I'd like to think my writing has progressed quite a bit since then. But hey, it's my only professional credit to date, so I'm not going to hide it. Take a look and tell me what you think. ;)
Fantastical Visions II
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Starting Smaller
Yeah, missed last weekend's post again. But, it's hard to get motivated to post when you don't really have much to post about. But this time I do, and I thought I would do it before the holiday weekend officially kicks in.
Still haven't made too much progress on TSS. However, I've decided to go forward with trying to get my recent short story "Exequies" published. I don't know where yet. I've got some minor edits to do on it, but so far, all the reviews of it have been really good. Hopefully that means I did a good job on it, and the rigorous editing I put it through before sharing it might have done some good.
One of the things I've noticed while researching science fiction markets is just how weird many science fiction short stories are. Some of them I just have a hard time understand what's going on, who the main character is, or what they're trying to accomplish. Not because the "science" part of the science fiction is difficult to grasp, but because the writing is just... well... different. I don't want to say "bad," because in this day and age, quality is in the eye of the beholder. But seriously, when you can't even figure out if the main character - who is narrating the story - is male or female, or even human, until halfway through the story, isn't that a bad thing usually?
The only reason I can think of for there to be so many "weird" science fiction stories out there is that experimentation is a really big trend in the short story market right now. In their quest for originality, authors are pushing the boundaries of what was once considered an acceptable style or format for a story, and they're coming up with some very strange things indeed. Some of them work, and quite spectacularly. But in my opinion, most of them fall flat on their faces and there's nothing remarkable about the story except that it's impossible to figure out what's going on.
Now granted, that's just my opinion. And before you think me overly critical, let me try to explain why I think the way I do. When I write a story, whether it's a novel or a short story, I'm trying to communicate something. I'm trying to actually tell a story. Whether the plot revolves around a war or just a single person's inner struggles, the plot goes somewhere and conveys some sort of message. Sometimes the message is just the plot: "Here's what happened." Sometimes I try to share some sort of moral or communicate my personal values. But the point is, writing - even fictional writing - is communication. In my humble opinion, if a reader finishes a piece of writing and goes, "Huh?" the writer has utterly failed in his or her job. If by the end of the work, the writer can't communicate something the reader can understand, then the work needs to be rewritten. Otherwise all it accomplishes is making the writer feel good about him or herself.
Writing should have purpose, and if the reader doesn't at least have an idea of what the writer's purpose was (even if it was just for entertainment), it was all for naught.
So anyway, I'll get off my soapbox now. Hopefully, "Exequies" accomplished my purpose - which is both entertainment and perhaps a hint of personal belief. If I get the manuscript back from magazine publishers with "Huh?" written on it, well, it's time to go back to the manuscript and get it figured out!
Still haven't made too much progress on TSS. However, I've decided to go forward with trying to get my recent short story "Exequies" published. I don't know where yet. I've got some minor edits to do on it, but so far, all the reviews of it have been really good. Hopefully that means I did a good job on it, and the rigorous editing I put it through before sharing it might have done some good.
One of the things I've noticed while researching science fiction markets is just how weird many science fiction short stories are. Some of them I just have a hard time understand what's going on, who the main character is, or what they're trying to accomplish. Not because the "science" part of the science fiction is difficult to grasp, but because the writing is just... well... different. I don't want to say "bad," because in this day and age, quality is in the eye of the beholder. But seriously, when you can't even figure out if the main character - who is narrating the story - is male or female, or even human, until halfway through the story, isn't that a bad thing usually?
The only reason I can think of for there to be so many "weird" science fiction stories out there is that experimentation is a really big trend in the short story market right now. In their quest for originality, authors are pushing the boundaries of what was once considered an acceptable style or format for a story, and they're coming up with some very strange things indeed. Some of them work, and quite spectacularly. But in my opinion, most of them fall flat on their faces and there's nothing remarkable about the story except that it's impossible to figure out what's going on.
Now granted, that's just my opinion. And before you think me overly critical, let me try to explain why I think the way I do. When I write a story, whether it's a novel or a short story, I'm trying to communicate something. I'm trying to actually tell a story. Whether the plot revolves around a war or just a single person's inner struggles, the plot goes somewhere and conveys some sort of message. Sometimes the message is just the plot: "Here's what happened." Sometimes I try to share some sort of moral or communicate my personal values. But the point is, writing - even fictional writing - is communication. In my humble opinion, if a reader finishes a piece of writing and goes, "Huh?" the writer has utterly failed in his or her job. If by the end of the work, the writer can't communicate something the reader can understand, then the work needs to be rewritten. Otherwise all it accomplishes is making the writer feel good about him or herself.
Writing should have purpose, and if the reader doesn't at least have an idea of what the writer's purpose was (even if it was just for entertainment), it was all for naught.
So anyway, I'll get off my soapbox now. Hopefully, "Exequies" accomplished my purpose - which is both entertainment and perhaps a hint of personal belief. If I get the manuscript back from magazine publishers with "Huh?" written on it, well, it's time to go back to the manuscript and get it figured out!
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Exequies
If you're like me, you probably have no idea what the title of this post means. It's Latin for "funeral rites" or "burial of the dead." Why the heck would I name a blog post "Exequies?" Well, even though I missed last week's blog post and I haven't been doing too much writing, I haven't been completely inactive. I've written and polished a 4,200 word short story entitled "Exequies." As for why I named it that, you'll have to read it, if I can ever get it published. It was one of those rare projects that sort of fell together perfectly after about half an hour of brainstorming and planning, and it only took me two nights to write it and a couple more to polish it up. So anyway, now it's done and I'm looking for a market for it.
In other news, last week was a crazy week for me, which is one reason why I missed my blog post. I fully intended to make it, but then I discovered that a 10-page paper I thought was due on November 30th was actually due November 11th, which at that point was only 4 days away. And I hadn't even started research on it. Plus, I had a presentation to give also on the 11th, which was as yet barely started at that point. So, any inclination I had to make posts was gone at that point. However, I made it through the week.
The worst of the semester is over for me, I think. I still have one serious paper left to write, as well as a presentation which should be given this week. Then it's just finals. Hopefully, I'll be able to get back to working on The Serenity Solution before I head home for the Christmas holiday. I'd hoped to have the rewrite at least halfway done by then, but I hadn't anticipated how hard these last few weeks were going to be. But now that those are out of the way, I'm looking forward to doing some writing again.
In other news, last week was a crazy week for me, which is one reason why I missed my blog post. I fully intended to make it, but then I discovered that a 10-page paper I thought was due on November 30th was actually due November 11th, which at that point was only 4 days away. And I hadn't even started research on it. Plus, I had a presentation to give also on the 11th, which was as yet barely started at that point. So, any inclination I had to make posts was gone at that point. However, I made it through the week.
The worst of the semester is over for me, I think. I still have one serious paper left to write, as well as a presentation which should be given this week. Then it's just finals. Hopefully, I'll be able to get back to working on The Serenity Solution before I head home for the Christmas holiday. I'd hoped to have the rewrite at least halfway done by then, but I hadn't anticipated how hard these last few weeks were going to be. But now that those are out of the way, I'm looking forward to doing some writing again.
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