Updates and Inspirations

Being unemployed has one benefit: it allows me to spend more time on writing-related stuff, and still slack off an awful lot. But as much slacking as I've been doing (too much), I have been doing a lot of writing-related work. One of the most obvious bits of progress, of course, is this blog. As you can see, I've changed the colors somewhat, hopefully making it easier for folks to read. That white on black scheme I had going looked snazzy, but it was hard even for me to read.

I know the masses aren't exactly craving updates on my works in progress, since I'm not famous or anything, but I'll share anyway. I really feel like Kricket's Song is finally going from "good" to "great." My latest attempts to recruit beta readers were actually successful, and they've provided some very helpful feedback. Miraculously, they pointed out the same flaw in the book. For those of you who've been through this process, you're probably aware that this is a good thing, because it doesn't always work like that. You get five beta readers and get five different opinions. Awesome. Which one do you go with? But when you get different people saying the same thing, now you know what to work on!

So, I'm doing a lot of revising and editing. Thankfully, the changes don't require major rewrites, just an extra short scene here and there, a little bit better description of the main character's thoughts and emotions, and improving how he interacts and relates to the other characters. The revisions have yet to go back to the betas, as I'm still working on them, but I feel like they make Kricket's Song a lot better. Hopefully good enough to at least get a nibble from some agents the next time I try querying.

I've also been doing beta reading for three other writers. It's a lot of work, but they're helping me, so I enjoy helping them, and it's getting me to read more. I'm also learning from the experience, and that's always a good thing.

I really jumped the gun with trying to query before finding good beta readers. Don't make the same mistake I did! Shop around until you find some. It will save you a lot of time and grief. And no, your family and friends don't count.

Finally, I want to just briefly mention some of the things that inspire me while writing. As with everything else I've mentioned regarding the writing process, inspiration varies greatly from person to person.

For me, it's usually music. I like to listen to it while I write, at a volume that I can hear, but not so loud as to distract me or make concentration difficult. The kind of music I listen to usually depends on the genre I'm writing at the time.

Fantasy:
Epic Score (Gabriel Shadid and Tobias Marberger)
Abney Park - For steampunk/fantasy
Future World Music
Two Steps From Hell
Jo Blankenburg

Science Fiction:
Front Line Assembly - For military sci-fi, dark, post apocalyptic
Video Game Soundtracks - Such as Halo, Deus Ex
Bjorn Lynne - Colony

Before I start writing a manuscript, pictures can also inspire me. I like to find pictures of people that look similar to major characters. I also look for pictures that inspire certain settings or scenes within the book itself. I save these in folders with the files for the WIP itself, for easy reference. It adds a little color to all the black and white notes. I also often get ideas for completely unrelated projects, which I keep for future reference.

Every writer should find something that inspires them and keeps them motivated, not just for the initial idea, but through the project as a whole. We've all experienced that initial flash of excitement, and then the motivation drains away after we start. For me, moving music helps me to keep forward progress going. Well defined characters and an interested world help me keep from getting stuck, or running into "writer's block."

I hope, if nothing else, this will inspire you to figure out what keeps you motivated for the long haul.

Writing Environment

As with so many things when it comes to writing, the sort of writing environment that will work for you will vary for each person. So it's important to keep in mind that when I talk about "what works," I'm speaking from my own experience, and maybe the comments of a few fellow writers here and there. It's by no means universal advice or a set of rules that you must follow.

I'm a guy who's fairly easily distracted. I wouldn't have it any other way. Four years in the Navy, four years as a wildland firefighter, and nine months as a defensive handgun instructor have taught me situational awareness at all times. The slightest noise or flash of movement catches my attention. I may not be 100% focused on it, but I'll know it's there and I'll be keeping an eye on it--whether I want to or not. This habit keeps me safe and aware. It also distracts the heck out of me when I'm trying to write.

Everyone is different when it comes to their attention span and their ability to focus on a particular task. Writing is supposed to be fun and enjoyable, but when it comes to your writing environment, I believe you sort of have to approach it as if it were homework. Determine what kind of person you are when it comes to attention span and focus. Are you easily distracted? Can you effectively multitask or does doing multiple things decrease the quality of your work? Can you focus 100% on one thing and one thing only, even if bombs are going off in the street?

We all want to write the best we can; that's why I believe it's important to ask yourself these kinds of questions. For many of us, writing may be just a hobby. We've got "real" jobs, and maybe a family to take care of and spend time with. But if we're serious about our writing and we want to make the best end product possible, we can't approach our commitment to that quality lightly. We have to take it seriously. We have to determine what sort of environment works best for us when we're writing.

For me, that means a relatively isolated environment. It means I'm in my room with my door closed. It means I don't have the TV on and I'm not hanging out with friends on a chat channel somewhere. I'm not watching videos on YouTube. I'm not checking Facebook. The only things open on my computer are the files pertaining to the particular piece I'm working on. I probably have music playing, but it's most likely music that inspires me for the piece (we'll get into things that inspire me in another post). This sort of environment is admittedly somewhat boring. But that's the point. It allows me to shift my focus to my writing, which gives me to opportunity to put forth my best effort. And trust me, I can definitely see the difference in my writing between the times I was focused, and the times I was not.

I encourage all my fellow writers to take a moment and look at the environments they're in when they're writing. Figure out what works best for you. Do everything you can to set yourself up for success. Sometimes people claim they just don't know what to write, or they've got writer's block. In my experience, an environment that's not conducive to writing can sometimes be the culprit.

See you next time!

Writing Productivity Tips

I frequently browse the Absolute Write Water Cooler for a variety of reasons, mostly selfish ones (i.e. I want to learn something new that will help me in my attempt to establish a writing career). But every now and then, I find someone who's been in a situation similar to mine, and I get to offer my two cents' worth of advice.

Please note, I'm not claiming to be an expert here. I'm still VERY much learning how to be a good writer, and I don't really have much in the way of publishing credentials under my belt. That said, I've been writing seriously (working toward the goal of professional publication) for several years now, which is longer than many people.

So, in keeping with the theme I've been trying to establish over the past few posts, here are a few tips I offered someone the other day, when they asked how they could measure their productivity and continue to make forward progress with their work. This is by no means "expert advice," but it's worked for me over the years.

"Each person will measure "productivity" in different ways. As each one of us are different people, so each one of us will be different writers. Our level of "productivity" will vary.

For now, don't worry about "getting published." For every writer who's just starting out (and yes, having just finished your first novel, you're still just starting out), that's a long ways down the road. Realizing that can be discouraging. So don't focus on that. Some tips:

1.) You don't have to write every single day. In fact, I would advise NOT writing every single day. Your brain/mind/imagination needs a break every now and then. Holding yourself to unrealistic expectations will burn you out in short order.

2.) With the above in mind, you SHOULD try to formulate some sort of writing schedule. It doesn't have to be super ambitious to start with. Figure out what time of the day works best for you, and allot yourself a certain amount of time to write. Or, you can establish a word count goal. You may not achieve this goal every single time. That's okay. The main thing is, you got SOMETHING done.

3.) Stick to your schedule, as closely as you can with normal, everyday life. If you've already done your writing for the day, don't feel pressured to go back and write MORE. On the flip side, if you haven't done your writing for the day, you really should sit down and hack out at least a couple hundred words. You may not feel like it at the time (I frequently don't), but after you do it, you'll feel better for having done it. Also, you'll likely be more motivated to do it the next day.

Some people disagree with me on this point. "If I don't feel like writing, I can't force it. Whatever I write will be junk." Hey, let's face it, everything we write on a first draft is going to need revision ANYWAY, whether we forced it or we were the most inspired we've ever been. At least now you have it ON PAPER and that gives you something to work with.

4.) Find what motivates you to keep your schedule. For me, I keep track of how long I worked on my WIP each day, how many words I wrote, and how close I am to my final word count goal. Why? I'm motivated by charting my progress. I can SEE that I'm making ground, even when it may feel like I'm spinning my wheels. "Yesterday I was 53% of the way there. Today I'm 55% of the way there." May not seem like much. But don't worry. Tomorrow it'll be 56% or more!

I hope these tips help. They've worked for me. I've finished two novels and am working on a third, not to mention numerous attempts at query letters and synopsis writing. I've also finished a couple shorts. People are reading my stuff, so even though I'm not yet "professionally" published, it's progress!"


That's it for this time. Thanks for reading!

Putting Pen to Paper: Making the Time to Write

In my previous posts, I've attempted to make my blog actually useful to the writing community by sharing some of the processes and techniques I've learned for writing fiction. Today, I'd like to carry on that them by sharing what I've learned about making the time to write.

I often hear writers--especially those who are not yet published--say something like this: "I really should do some writing today, but I just don't feel like it. I guess it'll have to wait until tomorrow." Many people, even some who've been writing for many years, say that you can't force writing. You can't make inspiration cooperate if you're just not feeling it. Personally, I believe this is a myth. This belief is based on my own experiences in this matter. I don't feel like writing today, so it can wait till tomorrow. But tomorrow I don't feel like writing either, or the next day. Or the next day. Suddenly, it's a month later, and I've written little or nothing.

Folks, that's no way to become a published, professional author. If you want to make it big and get a book published, you have to actually WRITE. That means that sometimes, you're going to have to force yourself to do it, even if you don't really feel like it at the time. The analogy I use is that of working out, physically. I don't know about you, but I never really feel like working out. The problem is, if I don't work out, I don't get toned and cut like I want. If I worked out only when I felt like it, I might work out twice a month. But guess what? I'm still just as skinny and out of shape as I was before! No, you have to make yourself go work out. It won't be fun to start out, it may not even be fun during the workout, but afterward? You feel great! You feel like you did something! And it makes it easier to go work out the next day.

Writing is much the same. Often times, I just don't feel like. But I've learned that writing sporadically doesn't really get my anywhere fast. So I make myself sit down and write, at least five days a week. The length of time varies, but I accomplish something every day. And behold, at the end of those five days, I've written anywhere between 5,000 and 10,000 words. That's a lot of work! I'm then motivated to keep writing. And--here's the best part--I learn how to become a better writer in the process! The saying is true, "You learn to write by writing." (You also learn by reading other authors, but that's a different post.)

Keep in mind, I am not what I would consider a "professionally" published author yet. I cannot guarantee that if you always make yourself write, you'll get that three book agreement from a major fantasy publisher you've always dreamed about. But I dare say you've got a heck of a better chance if you train yourself to write regularly, rather than just following your random whims on a daily basis.

Next time, I hope to write about the writing environment that works best for me, and some of the things that inspire me to write. I hope you find this helpful. As always, please feel free to comment! I love to hear from other writers, as I'm still learning myself!

No Rest for the Writer

It's true I've been silent for a couple weeks on this blog, but I haven't been idle when it comes to writing. In fact, I've actually been a bit busier than I thought I would be. I'll break down what I've been up to recently, and then I want to share a writing tool that has helped me in my latest works in progress.

As you no doubt know by now, my science fiction short "Abyss" has been published on Amazon Kindle. I've promoted it through this blog, Facebook, friends and family, and via the Absolute Write group I'm a member of. Beyond that, I really don't know how else to promote it. I lack funding, so I can't do anything fancy. Despite the lack of promotion, it has sold 11 copies (that's a ton, I know...more than last time I posted anyway), and it has received a five-star rating after three reviews. So it may not be getting read a lot, but those who do read it like it, which makes me happy.

The bulk of my work in the past couple weeks has been on Kricket's Key, the sequel to Kricket's Song. After finishing chapter thirteen of the rough draft manuscript, I decided to finally face the issue that's been nagging at me since about chapter five: I got so caught up in making forward progress that I was forgetting to start subplots, the characters weren't acting like themselves, and the whole project was lacking the color and depth I'd wanted to give it. Eventually, I realized it was nothing like what I wanted it to be, and simply pushing ahead would only make it harder to correct in the long run. Thus, I abandoned the first draft, and went back to rewrite it.

The main plot is staying entirely the same. However, I've added in a couple subplots, added a new character, and removed an old character who was no longer doing anything for the story. I'm in the middle of chapter three right now, and I'm much happier with how it's going. It shouldn't take me long to get back to where I was with the first draft, and push on into new territory.

And, as always, I'm jotting down ideas for other projects or random things that currently don't have a home.

Now let me share a tool I've been using, particularly in Kricket's Key, that has helped me with some of the shortcomings I identified in earlier works. One of the issues that was brought up by beta readers for Kricket's Song was that my settings weren't always well-described. I did well visually, but I tended to ignore the other senses. In order to combat this, I read a book on fleshing out setting, and I created a sort of impromptu "setting form" which helps me layout all aspects of an important setting. I fill out the form before I begin writing scenes that take place in the setting, so that I can refer to it as I'm writing. The main issue I have is not that I don't think about the various aspects of setting, it's just that I forget to mention them as I'm writing. This helps remind me to include them. Here is the form:

Project: (This is where I put the title or working title of the overall work)

            Scene: (For example, "Macy gets first look at the prison planet")

Overall Atmosphere (Dark, Desolate, Bright, Foreboding, etc.): (Here I put some adjectives which describe the general feel of the scene...these are "first impressions."

How the Setting Relates to the Senses: (This is where I get into the specifics as they relate to all five senses. There's no "right" way to fill this out. Sometimes I use single words or phrases, sometimes full sentences. The idea is to picture yourself in the setting you're trying to describe, and the list everything you can think of as it relates to the specific sense. I mean everything. This doesn't mean you'll actually use everything, but it will give you a pool of things to pick and choose from.)

Sight:

Sound:

Touch/Feel:

Taste:

Smell: 

So far, I've found that using this form helps me remember to include different details about settings, which creates a more thorough picture for the reader to become immersed in. It's short and to the point, and can be invaluable when you're cruising along and want to throw in a detail or two about the setting. You've already thought it out before hand, so you don't have to kill your forward momentum by starting a whole new brainstorming session.

Well, that's all I've got for now. Back to the grind!

Jumping the Gun - Again?

I didn't post in March, pretty much because I wasn't doing any serious work on my writing projects in March. Part of this was due to an increasingly busy work schedule (almost 1,000 students on property last week alone!), and part of it was due to the fact that was worn out and depressed with the whole query letter writing debacle. You may have noted I've already received one rejection for Kricket's Song, and I have one other query still out, with a response due back any time now. That's probably not a reflection on the book itself, but rather my query letter skills, which are still fledgling, I'm sure.

One of the big issues my beta reader brought up was that I don't fully establish setting in some of the scenes, and the reader is left guessing as to what exactly the physical setting is like. I read a book on how to establish setting, and now that I better understand how important it is to a novel--even a novel where the settings are mostly made-up--I'm actually a little excited to see how I can improve my settings. The key, of course, is to not go overboard with descriptions, and to somehow incorporate a vivid setting with the flow of good writing. Kricket's Song needs some work with that, and I've already done some of that.

My beta reader also brought up another issue, mainly that some of the "bad guys" really didn't seem all that believable or scary. The consequences for the main characters in encountering these bad guys aren't all that serious, and by about a third of the way through the book, the reader didn't feel all that concerned that the good guys would come out okay. That's definitely not the track I was aiming for, and I won't go into all the reasons I think it ended up coming out that way. The point is, I agree with what the beta reader has said, and now I have to figure out how to fix that.

My solution, right now, is to go back and rewrite some of the key scenes in which the main characters encounter these bad guys, and to rework some of the results of those encounters. The bad guys are going to conduct business a bit differently, and their efforts won't be as ineffective as before. A very important character is going to end up permanently maimed, and a secondary character is going to end up dead about halfway through the book. These changes will, of course, profoundly affect everything that comes after them. However, it's almost as if this new track I'm taking was really the one I had intended all along, because as I'm working these rewrites, I'm finding that all the elements I need are already there. I just have to tweak some of the details and rearrange some of the wording. Relatively speaking, these rewrites are going to be minor, I think. I'm already about 20% of the way through them, and I just started them today. We'll see if I remain this optimistic tomorrow!

All this to say, yes, I'm still working on Kricket's Song, and I think the end result will be even better than it was before. I kind of have the hunch that these issues are all that remain in keeping it from being a publishable book. But I'm still an amateur, and it's just a hunch. Time will tell. In the meantime, I won't be sending out any queries, as I want the product to be as finished and polished as I can get it before I try to sell it. And, the query letter may well be looked at again. THAT I am NOT looking forward to.

But one thing at a time, right?

So What's Up?

It's been a little while since I've posted, and even though things look quiet right now, there actually has been progress on Kricket's Song. So here's what's going on.

As you know, I've completed the initial editing/polishing phase on the manuscript. It can no longer be considered a "rough draft." It's starting to take a shape resembling what it should be when you pick it up on the bookshelf in a store. But, before you (or I) start getting excited...well, there's still a really long way to go before that happens.

I've started compiling a list of agents that I might like to query. Right now, it's just a very large and general list; I'll need to narrow it down and figure out which agents would be my top picks before I start sending out query letters. And that brings me to my next point: actually writing a query letter. I've written three drafts so far, and I've been receiving critiques on it from some of my fellow writers at Absolute Write. They've brought up some very good points and made some good suggestions. The problem is, it seems like every time I address an issue, it either raises more issues, or un-fixes an issue I'd previous thought fixed.

Also, after an initially unsuccessful appeal for some beta readers, I finally did find one person who was willing to take the first chapter. Again, he made some suggestions and critiques, and it appears I still have work to do on the manuscript itself. The good news is, this wasn't unexpected. Also, the changes should be too difficult to effect. The bad news is...well, there's still more work to do!

But all in all, progress is being made, so that's good. I've also been brainstorming some more for Kricket's Key and I think I'm making some progress with that particular plot puzzle. Hopefully, as I get the kinks worked out with Kricket's Song, I'll be able to turn my focus more and more to Key, but that may yet be some time down the road.

I'll keep you updated!

Those Who Should Know Better

We've all been in this position before. A book or movie you've been waiting for and looking forward to for a long time has finally come out. Or maybe you haven't really been looking forward to it, but you see it being advertised or stumble across it in the bookstore, and the cover is amazing, and you're familiar with other books in the same series or setting. And you're thinking, "Wow, this ought to be so cool." Then you sit down and read it or--in the case of movies--watch it. You get to about the halfway point, and it starts to sink in: it's not that great, and it's probably not going to get any better.

That's a real downer. Unfortunately, that's the position I've found myself in over the past few weeks while reading one of the newer books in the Halo series. Yes, that Halo, the X-Box game that is both famous and infamous the world 'round. Whether or not you're a fan of the games themselves, I'm personally a huge fan of the story behind the games. I've read all of the books, and while they weren't of the most amazing quality (few books based on video games are), they were generally well-written and entertaining, with one or two exceptions. Unfortunately, Halo: Evolutions set the bar for low quality in the series.

Evolutions is actually a collection of short stories set in the "Haloverse" by a variety of authors. Most I've never heard of before, but there are a couple of more well-known authors from the military sci-fi genre, including Karen Traviss and Eric Nylund, to name a few. Both Ms. Traviss' and Mr. Nylund's shorts were fairly good, but the majority of the other authors left me with one burning question: What criteria did they have to meet in order to get published in this book? It certainly wasn't quality of writing.

Now, I could spend an entire day going through the book and pulling out specific quotes to back up my claim, but I'm not going to do that. Also, to be perfectly honest, some of my gripes are purely subjective. My main complaint was that these authors made it painfully clear they had very little, if any, idea how professional soldiers behave on the battlefield. Sure, each soldier is different, each organization has a different level of quality. But when a pair of Spartan-IIs are bantering back and forth like a pair of 12-year-old wanna-be tough guys, it rather detracts from the business at hand, namely, slaughtering Covenant forces and protecting humanity from certain annihilation. There was also a lot of behavior that seemed very contrived, whether it was to force a plot point or a shabby attempt at characterization. One example: the Office of Naval Intelligence is always deceiving people on their own side, and always has an ulterior motive. Like the whole of ONI is comprised of nothing but scumbags.

Another distressing trend I discovered is that all the short stories ended just when it seemed things were finally starting to happen. Most often, it ended with the main character(s) getting abruptly shot in the head, stabbed in the back, or blown out of orbit. I got the impression that the authors had a good idea for their stories, but couldn't figure out how to develop it, and just when they seemed to pick up the thread and get it rolling, they realized they'd exceeded their word limit and they had to cut it off. And here's a purely subjective point for you: I get kind of depressed when 60% of the short stories end with the main character being killed or most likely killed. I understand that survival is no certain thing, especially not in the Haloverse, but I'd like to think that someone other than the Master Chief is capable of taking on the Covenant and living for at least a little while.

So, what's the whole point of this rant? I guess it boils down to poor research, lack of realistic characterization, and some poor plotting. I really expected more, especially from a franchise where the consumers are used to high quality. In today's publishing world, where it's becoming nearly impossible to get published, quality is a must. We can't afford to have shoddily written books flooding the market, when there are plenty of quality writers out there who can't get published because the numbers are against them.

Anyway, that's my two cents.

In other news, Kricket continues to progress well. I'm about two-thirds of the way done with the rough draft. I've gotten into a sort of unofficial contest with another writer from the Absolute Write Water Cooler (see links on right) to see who can finish our manuscripts first. The deadline is January 1st of next year. If I keep writing like this, I should be able to get it done by then. Here's hoping!

Boring Much?

Yeah, yeah, I know, I missed a week in there somewhere. Something about working 8 days straight--4 of them involving 42 kids and Uzi submachine guns (literally!)--kind of kills the motivation to work on the blog. But here I am, with updates on the writing projects and...something else.

It has slowly come to my attention that the content of my blog might be...well, boring. Let's get one thing straight. I didn't really set out to write this blog for the entertainment of other people. It was more a project to see if I could document some of the struggles, issues, and triumphs that I'm going through as I'm trying to become a published author. The problem is, along the way, it became nothing more than a place to post some numbers ("Yay, I wrote 1,701 words last month!"). And while I'm not trying to become the most popular blog on the web that people log onto every day to see if there's a new post, I don't want to bore people to death either. I want to provide something that's useful to the writing community. Writing should be fun, and so should blogs about writing.

I've noticed that a lot of author's blogs, as well as blogs by editors and publishers, do a lot of things like book or movie reviews, or interviews with authors, etc. Couple of problems with that in my case. 1.) I stay busy enough with my normal job that I don't get a chance to read very much. I could do book reviews, but they would happen only once every few months. 2.) I'm too anti-social to actually interview someone. I'd much rather read the book and then make snide comments about it while the author can't defend themselves. (Okay, I exaggerate slightly.)

So what does that leave me with? Well, whatever the heck I feel like at the time I'm writing my blog post. I can't guarantee it'll be orderly, and I can guarantee it won't be earth-shattering. I can promise that I will try to provide something useful to fellow writers, whether it be something new I learn, or just something that I observe that provides a point to ponder.

While movies and TV shows aren't exactly the same as writing books or short stories, they do have a lot in common. First, they all start with writing. Second, they usually involve some kind of research or technical expertise. This is especially true with military/police-themed works, whether it be historical, modern, or even science fiction. I saw something the other day that absolutely blew my mind away, in a good way. I was watching the TV show "Flashpoint," a series about a Canadian Police Special Response Unit. I've always admired the show for its technical accuracy. (Plus, it's got actors that don't look like they just strolled off the catwalk, which is a huge bonus!) But they took it a step further and actually did something that I teach students every day in the Defensive Handgun courses I work in.

As one police officer handed a confiscated pistol to another police officer to process it as evidence, the officer taking custody of the gun did a chamber check to ensure there was no round in the gun. Amazing! I have never seen this before in a movie or TV show. 9 times out of 10, they drop the magazine and then start waving the gun around like it's actually unloaded. Every semi-automatic handgun that I know of is capable of holding a round in the chamber even after the magazine is dropped. The only other times I see chamber checks is when the hero is about ready to jump out the airlock and kick some alien butt, and that doesn't really count, because who wouldn't do a chamber check when they're about ready to go up against aliens? But one thing we teach at my job is that when you pick up a weapon, give custody of weapon to someone else, take custody of a weapon, or just want to be absolutely sure of its condition, the very first thing you do is a chamber check. Guarantee the weapon is in the condition you want it to be in: loaded or unloaded.

Kudos to "Flashpoint" for getting it right.

Yeah, yeah, I know, most people don't notice or really care about these miniscule details. Many times, in books or short stories, if you took the time to run through all the correct procedures, you'd burn up way too much white space. But there are little things you can throw in here or there that add authenticity to the work. And in the case of "Flashpoint," it was one guy in the background doing a chamber check that took about a half a second. And yet, they earned my undying respect. Until they all muzzle each other in the next episode while talking over coffee...

Next week, what NOT to do to earn your audience's respect, and yes, it will have something to do with actual writing.

But no post is complete without those lovely numbers! I'm please to announce that the rough draft for Kricket's Song is over halfway complete! I've been able to do some solid writing on my days off, and the project is proceeding well. I'm hoping to have at least another 4,000 words written before I head back to work on Monday. As for the short stories, well... I haven't reached a final decision yet, but I'm probably just not going to bother with them any time soon. My heart's really not into the publishing process with them. Through research and reading the various markets, I really don't think my stories are the kind that editors are looking for right now. They're just too..."concrete?" Definite beginnings, definite endings, unambiguous morals, and *gasp* personal values!? In other words, not confusing enough to be called real writing.

Or it could be that I haven't yet mastered short story writing and I'm just a noob complaining about not being understood.

Later!

I'm Back...Finally

Well, I finally made it back to the civilized internet world. I honestly didn't think it would take me this long to get internet access back, but as they say, Murphy is alive and well... After around three weeks of languishing without internet, I finally have it back, and I can finally keep working on this blog.

I got successfully moved to southern Nevada for the new job, and I started with them in an official capacity last weekend. It's definitely going to keep me busy, and I'll most likely be on the run for the first few weeks as I try to set my pace and figure out how everything is going to work, as far as my personal life fitting in around the job itself.

That brings me back to the topic of writing. Unfortunately, I don't really have much new progress to report on that front. Thanks to staying busy and a healthy dose of procrastination, I haven't done any real writing during my transition. Kricket's Song remains my top priority, but I've also planned out a fan fiction, just so I can switch things up a bit and work on the military science-fiction side of things for a bit. Keep an eye on my fan fiction page (link on right) for that piece, if I actually ever finish it.

That's about all I've got for now. I hope to get things rolling here in the next week or so. It's good to be back!

Transition Time

Hard as it is to believe, my summer is almost over. Honestly, it feels like I've done a whole lot of nothing. True, I've had a fairly decently paying job. But as far as writing goes, I think I've completed maybe three chapters on Kricket's Song and done a bit of brainstorming for the new rewrite of The Serenity Solution. And that's about it.

I could make excuses. I could lament the lack of progress. But I've learned that's just a waste of my time. I've got about a week and a half left in my current job, and then I'm making a mad rush to get packed, and get myself to Southern Nevada, where I start my new job - and that transition time will take about four days. It's going to be nuts.

I'm going to try to work more on Kricket this week in the evenings after work. We'll see what kind of progress I make. After that, I probably won't get any writing done until after I'm settled in at the new job. The good thing about the new job is, it looks like I'll be having three days off per week instead of only two, and I will be able to come home every evening after work. Oh, I'm sure I'll find excuses as to why I can't write then, as well. But at least fewer of those excuses will be valid.

Here's hoping.

Slow Summer, Slower Writing

Sometimes sitting around and doing nothing is fun. It can be a much needed break from a hectic life, a chance to clear your mind and relax. But sometimes, it really gets on your nerves - especially if sitting around and doing nothing is ALL you ever do. Such has been my life this summer. I have had absolutely no fires to fight this summer, and while that's good for the forests and grazing lands - I'm a firefighter. If I'm not fighting fire, I'm sitting around doing nothing, essentially. For me, doing nothing tends to kill my motivation for doing anything at all. Thus, it's been hard to sit down and write, even when I do have some spare time.You may have noticed I didn't even get up the motivation to post for the last two weeks.

That's not to say that I don't want to write. It's just that, well, objects at rest tend to stay at rest. Equally, it's hard to get my brain in gear and start writing when all I've been doing is staring at the forest all day thinking "Why won't you catch fire already!?" (I jest...mostly.)

Kricket's Song finally made some progress this last week. I would say "good progress," although that won't be entirely evident in the word count. A lot of the progress was in finally resolving some of the planning and visualization issues I was having with later parts of the book, particularly around the climax and the events leading up to it. While listening to the "soundtrack" I've selected for the book, I got some good brainstorming done. Hopefully, that will translate to faster typing during those times when I can convince myself to sit down and write.

I've also been thinking on The Serenity Solution and what I want to do with the rewrite, but I don't have anything definite there yet. Short stories are pretty much on hold right now, though I have been thinking about finally finishing that rough draft of "The Abyss" and maybe revising "The Wall" again. "Exequies" is on hold as far as submissions go, simply because I'm out of touch with the entire world - internet included - while I'm out at the remote guard station. That doesn't make for prompt communication. When I'm finally relocated to my new job and have consistent internet again, I'll try to get moving on that again.

And that's about it for now. Stunning revelations I know. This is the hard part about being a writer. It's all about that grinder...

Marching on the Grinder

When I was in Navy Boot Camp in 2005, our Recruit Commanders referred to the parking lots outside the barracks as the "Grinders." For the first couple weeks, I always wondered why that was. Perhaps it was because they were in poor repair, and the gravel ground up tires? I soon learned they were so named because they actually ground down recruits' morale. The Grinders were where the divisions of recruits practiced their marching skills. Over and over and over again. It didn't matter how hard we practiced or how well we did, it was never quite good enough.

Working a full time job that keeps me away from home five days out of the week (sometimes more if days off are cancelled) is kind of like the Grinder. It doesn't matter how hard I try or how determined I am to get some writing time in, it's just not going to happen as often as I'd like. And even if I do get a chance to sit down and start up the laptop, I'm constantly interrupted and distracted, and the writing I do get done is usually sub par.

But the secret to success on the Grinder in Great Lakes was to not let the less-than-perfect performance get you down. You just had to keep marching, work on making that about-face smoother, practice the left and right faces until they were sharp enough to make civilians think you knew what you were doing. And then, at the end of the day, you got the satisfaction of knowing you were going to beat the socks off the divisions who didn't practice on the Grinder every day.

Writing is kind of like that. Sometimes, I'm not going to write as well as I want to. Sometimes I'm not going to be able to write as long as I want to. Sometimes I won't be able to write at all. But that's not the point. The point is to keep doing my best to make the time, and when I write, to write as well as I can. At the end of the day, I'll have the satisfaction of knowing I made some progress and that my writing will benefit because of it. And that's about the best a writer can hope for anyway.

Over the past week, I made some more progress on Kricket's Song. Chapter 12 is done, and Chapter 13 will see our characters leaving Gryphon's Reach and heading for Amberford - the Headquarters of the Guv Navy. Yes - it's about to get crazy.

I also did an hour-long brainstorming session for The Serenity Solution. That proved to be a bit more complicated than I'd originally planned. Mostly I was focused on the motivations of the shadowy group of bad guys who wanted to take over Serenity. The original draft of the manuscript gave the indication that they wanted power over Serenity for the sake of power. That's all well and good, and indeed, real life often happens that way. But it honestly doesn't make for a very interesting story. So I was working on the motivations for such a hostile takeover, and with every idea I came up with for that, I was forced to consider and modify major plot elements and motivations for the individual characters. Definitely tricky business. But, I think I've come up with some fresh ideas that will prove interesting and possibly very far-reaching for any books that come after the first one. Time will tell.

That's about all for now. Thanks for reading!

The Challenge Continues

Unfortunately, there's not very much new to report this week. I am happy to say that I made a bit more progress on Kricket's Song this last week while out at the guard station than I did last week. I was only able to sit down and work on it one evening, but I wrote a little over twice as much as I did last time.

Working as a wildland firefighter is a time consuming and tiring job, even when I'm not actually fighting fires. Even on days that I just spend driving around, I'm usually pretty tired when my shift is up, and all I feel like doing is sitting around doing nothing. Of course, for a serious writer, that's not really a valid excuse. And so, I'll keep taking my laptop out there and I'll keep making myself sit down and write. I know I can do it at least once a week, so this time I'll try to write at least two of the evenings.

I did finish Chapter 11 last weekend while I was home, and now I'm well in to Chapter 12. Jonah and his companions are confronting a female crime boss known as "The Matushka." Jonah discovered in Chapter 10 that she has information regarding Katerina's whereabouts, but now, he realizes that Matroyna Demochev's connection with Katerina is far more complicated than he previously understood. The Matushka is no friend of the Guv, but will she be willing to help a ragtag band of would-be heroes and opportunists?

That's it for now.

Easier Said Than Done

This last week was the first week during which I lived entirely out at the remote guard station that I've been assigned to for fighting fire this summer. As you'll recall from my previous posts, I waxed eloquent about how I was going to continue writing during the evenings after I was off shift. Well, as I predicted, doing so is far easier said than done.

Of the four evenings I spent out there at the guard stations, I was only able to do any writing on one of them. I was called out on a dispatch on one of those evenings (nothing I can do about that) but the other two evenings, I was basically just being a lazy bum. So... I've got a lot of work to do.

But, I did make some progress with Kricket's Song, so it wasn't a total loss. I'm nearly done with Chapter 11, and our company of heroes are about to move on to the next set of challenges and dangers in the search for Katerina and the secret she disappeared with. Jonah knew the Guv was his enemy, but he's discovered a new enemy along the way, one that could be even more dangerous and relentless than the Guv itself. The Grounders are a fanatical sect devoted to the same Professor who wrote the journal that Jonah carries with him as his clue to finding his fiancee. And they want that journal back. Their strange powers make them formidable indeed, and they foreshadow the challenges that Jonah and the crew of the Kricket will face when they finally reach their as yet unknown destination.

So, stay tuned. I'll keep plugging away at it, and hopefully I can make some progress on the rewrite for The Serenity Solution as well. News as it happens! Or rather, when I get a chance to sit down and write about it...

Maintaining Momentum

As I briefly mentioned in my last post, I did get a job in Southern Nevada, and now my summer job fighting wildfires has started. The temptation for me (and, I suspect, for many writers) would be to say "Well, I'm busy now, I guess I'll just have to write on my days off." The problem with a job like wild land firefighting is that there's no guarantee I'll get my days off. And even if I did, that's only two days out of the week for writing. And let's face it, that sort of progress would be dismally slow if I'm serious about getting books published.

So now, perhaps more than ever, it's time for me to get serious and put the writer's age-old adage into practice: "If you want to write, you've got to MAKE the time to write."

I'll be pulling eight hour days, five days a week, and if there are fires going on, I could be working as much as sixteen hours a day. In addition, I'll be spending all of my work days out in the woods in a cabin where there is no internet and the electricity is less than stable. My intent is to take my laptop out there with me and to keep working on Kricket and TSS, regardless of the situation. I plan on writing at least 1,000 words a day, except maybe on those 16-hour days (I'll need that sleep if I'm actively fighting fires). Now, planning is all well and good, but only time will tell if I can maintain my current momentum (which actually isn't all that fast right now). It's time to test my dedication to writing.

Once I transition to the other job in Southern Nevada after the fire season, I will have more regular days off (possibly as many as three a week), and it should be easier to maintain a writing schedule. Again, time will tell.

For now, Kricket's Song is progressing nicely. I reached the official 1/3 complete mark a couple of days ago. I believe it's turning out to be a fairly clean manuscript, which means at this point I don't see myself having to go back and do a lot of rewrites on it. But, that may change once I get the first draft completed and some beta readers get their hooks into it. Right now, I'm just taking it one thing at a time, and I have to get the first draft finished first. I started Chapter 11 last night; I don't know how many chapters there will end up being, but I've been pleased with the progress, especially considering all the traveling I've been doing on top of looking for work and graduating college.

As for The Serenity Solution, I've finally got a bit of progress to report on that. Following what seems to be the very successful formula for Kricket, I wrote out some detailed biographies for the main and major secondary characters for the book, just so that I have them firmly in mind when I start the rewrite. The next step is to outline the overall plot, and hopefully keep it from being too ambitious as was the last attempt. Then I'll start doing detailed outlines of a couple of chapters at a time, and it will then be time to actually start writing. I know it seems like a very structured system, but so far, that seems to be the way I work best. Once I get my skills polished up a lot more, maybe I can be more lax on the structure.

For "Exequies" and the Writers of the Future Contest, I honestly have no idea what's going on. I thought they were judging Q2 for 2011 in which the story was entered, but looking at their site, it would appear they have just finished awarding the winners for Q1. So...who knows when something will happen with that. It appears they may be a bit behind schedule right now. That's fine, I've got plenty of other stuff to be working on with Kricket and TSS.

That's about it for now. Thanks for reading!

I R Lerning

At least as far as my writing goes, it's been a rather eventful week. I'm still not sure where exactly it's all going to end up, so I won't get into too many details at the moment, but here's a brief overview of what I've been up to.

The new project I mentioned last week has started progressing nicely. After a week of brainstorming and jotting down notes (about 11 pages of them) as well as 7 pages of character bios, I finally started writing the manuscript last Sunday. So far, I've written almost 9,000 words on the project, tentatively called The Kricket's Song. Considering that prior to that I was lucky to get 2,000 words a week, that's a huge jump in activity for me. I likely won't be able to sustain that in the coming weeks, simply because I'll be so busy graduating from school, traveling, and working on that job opportunity I mentioned a few weeks back. But I'm hoping that I can make good progress on it. I've mapped out the major details of the books plot, and I'm aiming for it to be a lot shorter than The Serenity Solution was; thus, hopefully it won't take me two whole years to write it. Look for some Kricket's Song Project posts - much like I did with TSS - in the coming weeks for character information and plot teasers.

The encouraging thing about Kricket is that I seem to have learned a great deal from the debacle with TSS. I was able to get the action in the story going a lot faster, characters seem to be connecting better, and I wasn't as overly ambitious with the plot this time around. I submitted my first chapter for critiquing on Absolute Write and learned that, although I still have plenty of areas to improve, I also did a lot better this time around - at least in my opinion. So I've learned something anyway.

As for short stories, yes, I'm still stumbling through with "The Abyss." Made a little bit of progress on it this last week. I think once I finish it, I'll probably be done with shorts for a little while as I focus on Kricket and start planning and preparing for the TSS rewrite. I'll probably be doing both simultaneously, just because I don't want TSS to sit around for a year with no progress. I've learned a lot regarding how to write novels since I last tried to submit TSS to an agent, so here's hoping it will be several times better this time.

Still no word about "Exequies" with the WOTF Contest. First I was hearing that no news is good news as they send rejections out first. Now I'm hearing that they send out notification to people who got short-listed first and rejects get told about it... whenever. So now I'm confused and don't know what to think. Guess I'll just sit tight and wait till I know for sure, then go from there.

With all the ideas and projects I've got piling up right now, I need like a month off to do nothing but work on them...

Tension Rising...!

I wish I could say the tension I speak of is in one of my writing projects. Unfortunately, it's from a few different things in real life. But since this is a blog about writing, I won't go into too many details with that.

One area of anxiety does have to do with writing, however. The Writer's of the Future Contest, Quarter 2 ended on March 31st. I haven't heard anything yet, and all indications I've been able to glean from various sources say it'll be anywhere from May to June before I hear anything definitive about how "Exequies" placed. As nearly as I can tell, nobody has heard anything official yet, though I did catch rumors of someone being told they'd been "short-listed." Though there's no telling if that's for this quarter or the last one. The general consensus among fellow contest participators is that rejections go out first, so I suppose the longer it takes for me to hear from them, the better. I believe "Exequies" to be a good story and fairly well-written (my first professional-grade short since 2003), so I've got a lot of optimism for it. It's just a matter of whether or not the subject matter is what the judges are "looking for" at the time. And that's the way so much of the publishing industry runs.

The other short story I finished recently, "The Wall" may be done, but I don't feel it's in publishable form right now. Why? Well... it's hard to explain, but I don't feel it's gripping enough. I didn't quite convey the various themes and tensions as well as I wanted. So, it's sitting in the back of my mind and taking a break right now. As you may recall from one of my earlier posts, "The Wall" was an expansion from a 800-word flash fiction piece I'd done for Absolute Write's weekly Flash Fiction Challenge. Now I'm sort of wondering if it really should have been expanded; briefer might have been better for it. After I'm done with "The Abyss," I plan to pull it back out and work on it, along with trying to rework the idea for "The Unfound," a short I abandoned about a third of the way through in February.

As for "The Abyss," it's still progressing. It's currently in nothing approaching professional-grade either. I think I've got the story down well enough, but characterization and thematic development are both proving a challenge. Also, what little science I do have involved doesn't really seem all that plausible. I need to tweak that a bit and clean it up. But, this is all practice, and I'm learning. The idea with all this short story writing isn't to have a professional, publishable piece with every attempt. It's to explore ideas, hone my skills, and above all, keep writing. Yes, I do hope to be able to publish several of these stories in the not too distant future, but above all, I don't want to let my skills rust while I'm waiting for my beta reader to finish The Serenity Solution. That goal, at least, is being accomplished. Any writing is better than not writing at all.

Now for a couple of side notes. First, I just wanted to mention this blog has been running for about ten months now. That's the longest I've ever had a blog going for, while posting regularly. That's a pretty big accomplishment for me; likely because writing is about the only thing I'm passionate enough about to actually talk about on any sort of regular basis.

Also, I've been toying with the idea of starting another blog that would be strictly for me to post a weekly flash fiction piece, apart from the pieces I do off and on for AW's FFC. The idea here would be to give me a variety of things to work on, aside from my short story projects. Plus, if I have the idea of a weekly goal or deadline, it might help motivate me more. I'm thinking it would be a project where, once a week, I take a one word prompt and try to write a piece that's under 1,000 words on that prompt. It doesn't have to be a complete story, but it should be a complete scene at the very least.

So my question to my myriad readers is, what do you think of that idea? Feel free to leave a comment, and if you're just dying to offer some sample prompts, go ahead! Perhaps it will motivate me to write some more. More is always good. I spend too much time sleeping as it is.

Life Beyond Writing

Believe it or not, I do have a life outside of my writing. I almost never talk about - mostly because it's so boring it's almost lethal. But it seems that it may soon be intruding upon my writing, more than it already does. The last thing I want is another "hiatus" the likes of which I took late last year; it was well into February of this year before I could get myself out of that idle state, and as a writer, down time of that length is wasted time.

I will finally be graduating from college early this May. It's been an effort a long time in the making. I started classes in fall of 2002, attended a year, then took a year off. Then I went back for the fall of 2004. After that, I did 4 years in the Navy, and wasn't able to get back to classes until fall of 2009. But now, finally, I'm a month from being done.

I also have some job opportunities opening up. Right now, the plan is to go back to work in my usual summer job, but there may be other opportunities as well. They're in the works. Suffice it to say that the entire month of May is probably going to be a no-go for writing, simply because I'll be so busy traveling around the country on trips related to school and work, and I'll be attending work-related classes and courses.

All this to say, if I drop off the face of the earth in May, don't worry, I'll be back.

If you've been keeping an eye on my project tracker, you'll see I've been making some slow progress on "Abyss." I'm still working on it, and I hope to get some more writing done on it this afternoon. I've got a ton of ideas for it; the challenge now is to make them fit together into something that is both interesting and coherent without getting bogged down in all the little details. And that, my friends, is what I have trouble with in my writing: avoiding detail overload. It's a common problem among writers who are struggling to make the transition from amateur hobby writers into published professionals, but it's a heck of a problem to get fixed. Especially when every detail I come up with is "just so interesting." Hopefully I can learn some thing with "Abyss."

More as it happens.

When You Realize You Goofed...

...You have to face it. It's no good trying to patch the problem up. You have to stop pushing forward, and fix the problem at its source.

That was a lesson I learned this last week. It was a suspicion I'd had for some time, but without any hard facts, I thought it was just a fear without any reason behind it. Now I know for sure: The Serenity Solution in its current form is about 79,000 words too long for any self-respecting agent to even bother looking at it.

That's right, you can write a manuscript that is just too long to be marketable, especially if you're a beginning author, like me. I realized the manuscript was a little long, but I had no idea that it was way beyond the bounds of reasonable. Then I discovered that most agents look for a new writer's book to be somewhere between 80,000 to 100,000 words long. Anything much longer than that, and they start getting nervous. Why? Well, quite simply, you have yet to prove that you can deliver. The fear is, if your book is too long, it's possible that most of it is just a bunch of fluff, and attempt to shore up a weak plot or an inability to concisely describe what's going on with the action.

To be honest, I probably suffered a bit from both of those problems in the TSS manuscript. Thankfully, the error was pointed out to me by some good folks from the Absolute Write Water Cooler (see last week's post for link), before I scared off too many agents - hopefully.

Basically, I decided that if I really wanted to get this book on the market, I was going to have to rewrite it. Not an easy decision, seeing as I have already put 2 years into this project. But it was either that, or abandon it, which was absolutely out of the question. It seemed like an overwhelming project to rewrite something which I already thought was good; however, once I sat down to study the problem objectively, I discovered I had a few advantages.

1. The basic plot was sound. The excessive length in the manuscript was more a result of my being too ambitious in what I wanted to cover in the book, rather than a lot of fluff - although there was definitely some fluff that needs to go.
2. I already had the setting and back story well established. All I need to do is figure out how to work it into the action of the book.
3. Characters are already well established. I don't have to sit around and figure out how they're going to interact with each other, as that was already taken care of in the first write.
4. Some chapters and scenes are well written. Furthermore, beta readers have told me that hook at the end of the book is very well done. Because of this, some of the rewrite will be a simple copying of the good parts and pasting them into the rewrite, then polishing them to make sure they fit well.

So, that's where I'm at right now. I've stopped sending out query letters, since the manuscript is once again "incomplete." I've trimmed down the plot, and created a new outline. New target length for words is about 99,000, though I think it's going to end up significantly shorter than that, possibly as low as 90,000 words. I'll keep you updated.