Category Archives: Writing

Preparation

I’m going along pretty good with the new novel. Mostly, though, I’m doing preparation.

I figured out this method with Blood From a Stone, my NaNoWriMo book of last year. Because I only had 2 weeks to do NaNo, I had to have a road map. I usually pants the thing, and I end up going off on tangents and side roads, getting lost. War Mage‘s first draft is a lot like that. It’s why I ended up with 6 drafts before sending it to the editor (and I know I have issues there).

So with this one, I’m doing up a main plot, and then sub-plots. I happened to be reading a book at the same time called Blueprint Your Bestseller, which describes this method that I stumbled upon. Instead of calling them “plots” the author of this book calls them “series”. You have a theme, which is the main series, and then other series that point to the theme.

I always start out with a theme. Homecoming‘s was Home is where your heart is. War Mage’s is Friends can be found anywhere. High Road‘s is It’s better to take the high road. A lot of times my titles allude to the theme. Heavy-handed, aren’t I?

There can be only one theme in the book, and every scene and series has to point to it. The first draft of War Mage showed me that I had scenes that went no where, scenes that had no place in the book, and characters that were repetitious and similar. Using the method in Blueprint, which was written for rewrites, I can tear apart War Mage and put it back together, with a main plot and subplots. (Sorry, but I’m going to use those terms instead of “series”.)

What I’ve been doing mostly is character sketches and subplots from the characters. Some of them want to be furniture, so I’m doing quick physical descriptions of them and their attitudes. When stuck, I use StoryMatic or The Positive Traits Thesaurus or Negative Traits Thesaurus to get an attitude.

Other characters want a life of their own, so they get the full treatment. I have tiny composition books I bought at Dollar Tree; they come in a package of 3 for a dollar.

char book

I have a character sheet that I downloaded from some writer’s site I don’t remember, but it goes into excruciating detail. I don’t answer all the questions – except for Brent, I really should redo his character sketch. I pick and choose some questions and put them in the little composition books. For example, one question is, “Does he want to have children?” My character, a staff sergeant, is going through a divorce according to the subplot. Does he have kids? How many? What are their ages and names? What are they like – brief traits? How does he feel about them? I fill up a small page with these answers, which spurs me on to other questions, and rinse and repeat.

From the characters come the subplots. I am an index card freak. I write out the scenes on index cards and put them on a ring. Staples has what I normally use, and they can be found sometimes for $1-$1.50. I bought oodles of them on sale, so I have a box full of them. I write out or keep in mind the subplot’s main point – the “where am I going with this” idea – and then I write out the scenes. Then I thread them among the main plot on the ring.

index card

This card is using the subplot named “Sergeant” (at the top) and goes into a scene. I don’t give a lot of details because then I’m writing the scene, I believe. I give enough to whet the muse’s appetite, or to spur on what I was thinking of at the time.

Sometimes, though, I get the urge to write. I’ve prepared the first few scenes, so I know where I’m going with those, and those are the ones I write. I’m still in chapter one, but I’m on scene three. I need to make “looking at profiles” exciting.

Off to the Editor!

On Thursday night, I passed in War Mage. I’m not happy with it For one, it’s too short, 34,000 words. It’s honestly not my best work. I’ve been worried about following so many rules that it seems like a hodgepodge of rules.

A beta reader read the second draft, and gave me some pointers, which I tried to put in. However, some things I meant to follow based on my reading of some writing books. I really wonder whether writing books are worth it. They create so many rules that I realize I’m not following, that I feel like I’m being forced to write in a box.

Take romance, for instance. I always throw in a twist. I’ve read more books on writing romance than actual romance books. On the books about romance, there’s a certain formula that does not include the twist. So does that mean I’m not writing a romance?

I’ve been reading some books on general writing, and these come up with the formula for sellable books. Maybe that’s my problem? I don’t write sellable books, but I write stories.

I started listening to a book called Crimes Against Magic. I liked the premise, a modern sorcerer/thief. The first thing that turned me off was the prologue. Is there a point to a prologue? I honestly do believe that a prologue is there because it’s a cool scene and the author has no place for it in the book. I liked the description, even if the scene was stupid and made no sense.

Then I started listening to the first chapter. The scene was just too easy, too contrived, too, I don’t know. There was  a lot of improper sentence structure that grated on me, but I listened through it. Finally, when the guy gets his object (within ten minutes of the story), and the final bad sentence I could stand, I deleted it.

And this was published by a big publisher?

Dear God, what the hell is wrong with people! There’s no accounting for taste or editorial ability.

Next on the list: rewrite of Grimaulkin.

Finished the rewrite! Now if they’d leave me alone…

I finished the rewrite, at least on paper. However, I need to transcribe it to the computer.

I don’t know about you, but writing, to me, is a solitary activity. I need to have no one in the same room as me. I don’t know why, but I need to have it absolutely solitary.

Unfortunately, my computer – the computer that’s in the cellar – is also near the only working TV in the house. My kid prefers to watch TV. So he’s downstairs watching TV, while I’m upstairs doing this instead of transcribing the rewrite.

It’s like reading. I need to be transported into that other world as fully as possible. I used to be able to put my feet in both worlds at the same time, the writing world and the real world. Then I got old and cranky, and have to deal with rules. One of those rules is to write with the proper music or in silence. Rewrites need to be in silence because I’m editing and thinking about writing.

I had planned on getting it done today, but it doesn’t look like it’ll be done today. Maybe tomorrow?

Rewrite continues; ARIA meeting results

Two chapters left to rewrite. To tell you the truth, this is where it gets fast. Things start happening too fast and I need to slow it down, describe it more, come up with more scenes. I’m probably going to put it aside and take one chapter at a time to flesh it out.  Chapter ten starts, “For the next couple of weeks…” I need to come up with a timeline. I was thinking of doing it for the chapter headings, but I don’t think that’s a good idea.

In my rewrite journal, I have a calendar. I need to write down what the dates are, when the chapters are, and how long has passed until “For the next couple of weeks…” shows up.

I went to the Association of Rhode Island Authors’ meeting. I was going to pay for my membership then but I realized they didn’t take cash. So I’ll send them a check or money order when I get a chance.

They had an editor there. She was nice but nervous. She suggested the Chicago manual of style, which I believe Laureen uses when she edits. (I don’t think that Paper Angel has its own style guide other than “anything but courier.”) I asked a question about semicolons. It seems that no one is using them these days anymore. I was told that the semicolon has been replaced with the em-dash.

Well, that pissed me off. I like the semicolon for two reasons. One: it’s a pregnant pause, something to connect two ideas but makes the person take a breath and absorb the first half of the sentence before continuing on the second idea. Two: It’s a mental health symbol. There are semicolon tattoos that mean something like, “My story isn’t finished yet.” It’s a fad, not something I would do. But, dammit, it’s there to be used.It’s more than just a blinky smile-face. So to hell with modern fiction; I’m using it.

Another thing about ARIA is that they’re out to make money. I have to pay $35 in dues. Then I have to pay upwards of $35 for a spot at their table. I mean, really?  REALLY? I have to shell out $35 for some spots, $50 for others. $250 for RI Comicon and $100 for the Big E.Paper Angel has asked if I could represent the press, too. I’m going to try, at least for some of the smaller venues; I only have one book, and it’s not necessarily going to be a big seller.

Also, there was a cute guy at the meeting. He sat behind me. Part of me wishes I could have talked to him, but the part of me that won out was “I have to get home.” I hope to see him again and I hope I have the balls to talk to him. He’s doing RIComicon. I’m not. I’ll never make that money back – I’ll need to sell 25 copies at least. And although I have Marc Durrow as my artist, I’m not sure how much pull that will be in the arena. And then…there’s people. So. Many. People.

Went shopping also for a tablecloth. You know, they don’t have the camo pattern I’m looking for? Desert pixel; how hard is that? I found something like it, but it had swirls and leaves. I might go back and get some – it will match my book as it is. However, I have to get something that will match Grimalkin’s book, too.

That book cover I’m trying to design in my head. I was thinking of having it look like a composition notebook, purple, with a hand-drawn gold pentacle in the center of it, the title beneath it, handwritten. The other option is having the entire thing be a light purple with the title written diagonally along the right side, the gold pentacle on a chain, and the sigils for Belial and Andromalius somewhere on it in silver or black,floating in space.  Not sure how that would look, or if it looks too busy.

I’ll need to see it. I’ll have Marc draw a sketch. I was supposed to have him draw Jake, but I changed my mind since I’m going to put my name on the second and third books.

So plans are: Finish the paper markup today of War Mage. Work on the computer updates between today and tomorrow.. Submit to the editor on Tuesday; print out a copy for my beta reader on Tuesday also. Start the rewrite of Grimalkin tomorrow.

When your heart’s not in it

I pulled out Grimaulkin, draft 3, and gave it to someone to read. “Other than the gay parts,” he said, “I loved it.” And he gave me the reasons what did and didn’t work, so I wrote them down and I plan on rewriting that one.

War Mage, because I’ve been staring at it for about a year now, I’m sick and tired of. I know where I want the story to go, but when I sit down with it, I say to myself, “Meh, I don’t want to do this anymore.” Because of my ADD, I want to dump it and move on to something else. But with this one, I can’t. I have fans! I have people who have actually paid to read the first book in the series, who are waiting for the second book to either answer questions or continue on where I left off. I have a duty, an obligation, to continue the series.

But I’m so frustrated with how the rewrite’s going, how I’m consolidating characters and shoehorning other characters, how I’m deleting scene after scene and rewriting or inserting new scenes…I want to toss the whole thing and work on something else. Like Grim.

Duty to my fans vs. boredom.

I’m sure a lot of other professional writers run into this issue. Do you write to the market or write to the heart? Is it true that if you do what you love the money will come? I personally don’t think so. If that were the case, I’d be rich by now.

I’m going to finish this scene, then do the fun things I want to do. (I’m procrastinating while I write this blog, doncha know.)

Next comes Jagermeister which I’m going to give to my captive audience, I’m going to have to severely rewrite it, though. I read through the first few pages and saw typical first-time writer issues that I avoided with the other two books. I know my captive audience is not going to like it.

What I didn’t do

I had hoped to have the second novel done by yesterday and off to the editor.

No such luck. My time has been distracted by work, gaming, and other methods of procrastination. I’m making some life changes, like I’m avoiding meat for the next couple of weeks because of intestinal issues that I’ve been having. I’m trying to see if that will help change things. I know that limiting milk from my diet has really helped.

I’m also working on DBT skills. In case you’re wondering what that is, it’s a type of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy that relies on “skills” or ways to think about the world. One of its central skills is something called “Mindfulness.” It’s a way of meditating, of “being in the now”. The idea is that if you practice these skills when you don’t have to, you’ll be able to use these skills when you do need them and they’ll come automatically.

So body and mind…live healtier, think healthier, and I need to work healthier. My day job is becoming stressful, mostly because, honestly, I’m doing it in a half-assed manner. This is something that I don’t usually do. I usually care deeply about my work, making sure I do it, I’m doing it right, and I’m thorough. For the past month, I’ve not cared. I’ve done stuff if asked, but as for initiating, I’m not. I don’t care. I am a simple cog in a big machine, and I don’t feel wanted or needed, just used.

This is unusual for me. It will be 10 years at this company next year, the longest I’ve ever been at a company. I don’t want to be here anymore. No matter what I do, it’s not good enough. Instead of getting pissed off about it, I just don’t care anymore.

And now…to bed.

Snowbound

This was the “mother of all storms” if you listen to the media, but it’s nothing. In my opinion, if the snow is up to the second floor of my house, then that’s the mother of all storms. We got a few inches.

While I was hunkered down for the blizzard, I did some editing for War Mage. After editing, I need another pair of eyes to read through and tell me what to describe, because I can’t tell. Even when I try to read it as an editor, I end up rewriting whole scenes instead. So I am not an editor. I am a writer.

I also finally finished “Custer’s First Stand”, the first mission with Brent and Task Force “Deuce”. This is going to be the free story that I’m giving away when people join my mailing list. I am going to eventually write the story that Mark refers to when he and Brent talk about “full contact” in Homecoming. I have done no writing to show for it in the 800 Words blog, as what I did today was finish the short story.

I attempted to read a couple of book marketing books I got on Kindle Unlimited. One of them “Book Marketing is Dead” was so full of grammar and spelling errors on the first two pages that I tossed it back. Another, about a book launch, read like a Writer’s Digest article of “top ten tips to make your book launch a success”. Another book marketing one read like a top 100 tips. I’ve also been listening to podcasts, such as The Creative Penn, The Smarter Artist, The Newbie Writer’s Podcast (which I want to be on so bad). This is in between podcasts of Fresh Air, Serial (research), The American Military History Podcast, and The Art of Manliness (also research).

The writing podcasts basically state that one of the most important things to do is to have a mailing list. So I’m trying that. On the main grimaukin.com website is (or will be) a box for you to put in your email. Now, I promise not to spam every day (like some other writing sites seem to do with the guise of “being helpful” but are actually sales pitches). I might just send you a note once a month, or when something new is happening. You’ll be the first to know. Heck, you can come here every week to see what’s new. You can also give me your email by commenting on 800 Words.

I hope to be contacting you soon. I have to mess with the setting for my Twitter, FB, and Tumblr feeds to get those straight. Don’t link from them using the icons on the page.

Update

I just noticed I missed last week, so this week you’ll get two posts.

Last week was hellacious. I had a cancer scare – yes, that’s a real possibility in my life, as you’ll find out when I write my memoir of the experience. I was on eggshells all weekend, so could hardly concentrate on anything. But I’m free and clear now.

Homecoming is coming along. I’m a little miffed that the cover I had paid for is not going to be used in its entirety. It initially had a house with a hook in the clouds. The hook was meant to be a meat hook but someone pointed out that it looked like a hay-hook. It wasn’t as important to the plot. But it is a symbol of what he’s carrying into the next book. However, it won’t work for this book. So they took the hook out entirely and now it’s a house. I’m a little bummed out, but they said they’ll use the hook for the banner ads. And when I make the poster of it, I’m going to use the hook, too. It’s supposed to make the reader wonder “What’s that there for?” so that way they read the book to find out.

The book is short (184 pgs) enough to read in one sitting. I hope that people want more, which is the point of it. It’s a prequel to War Mage, where I’ve done the research and have set it in an exotic country. I’ll put the bibliography here sometime.

I’ve still been writing scenes, a couple of Champions stories based on my muse from that game (Scott the Mage’s player). He threw me a curve ball after the “Marker” story and I’ve been trying to recover ever since.  Which is a good thing! I love when I get a challenge.

Grimaulkin, when I finish that book, is going to be dedicated to those muses.

New Year’s Resolution results

So far, it’s been almost a week, and I’ve been pretty religious about writing every day. I’ve started 3 stories and done 2 scenes.

I’m describing a lot more. I just finished reading Word Painting, which I think is an excellent book on description. I should use simile and metaphor more often when describing (simile is like, while metaphor is). Hell, I need to describe and detail things more often as well.

I’m proud of myself these last few tries at describing things. I’m going to pull out War Mage this weekend and start editing it. I know that it needs description. I just need to find the places for it.

I’m looking over the final edits for Homecoming. If I approve them, and I probably will, then we start the production.

Oh, my, scary time. Scary but exciting.

I can’t wait!

A new year, a new blog

Hello!

Real Soon Now (tm) I’ll be an actual published author. The date we’re now looking at is late February. This gives me time to have War Mage possibly read by my beta reader before going off to the editor (or should it be the other way around?).

Anyway, I have a blog right now that consists of mostly Champions Online stories. I’m going to be changing that to just Champions Online stories. I try and do other writing every day (that’s the new year’s and birthday resolution, btw), but I have no place to put it so people can see the progress.

I plan on having the webmaster create another blog for me, this time for a daily word count of 800 words, which is what the other blog was supposed to be. Thing is, most of those fans are from Champions Online, so they’re not interested in seeing stuff like Iron Butterfly or War Mage, or dips into other genres like dystopian fiction or romance, or other writing prompt exercises that I find on the web or in my many writing prompt books that I own.

I’ll link to it from this blog, of course.

Now, what else? I decided to put aside Iron Butterfly in favor of editing War Mage. I’m not doing so well with that. I find myself not editing, but reading. And although I see everything in my mind’s eye in three dimensions and with colors and smells and textures, I’m not putting it across very well on the page. Maybe I should try scriptwriting.

I’m not lyrical or flowery, it’s the journalism teaching in me. I pay attention to what people say, how they say it, not what’s around them, and that translates to the page. They’re talking heads in space. Mind you, I can keep the pace going and advance the plot, but as for the setting, or the surroundings? Not so much.

So I’m going through the manuscript, in chunks and sections, not in sequential order, to see if I’m describing everything well enough. Also doing line editing at the same time. I’ll edit for consistency on another pass.

I’m also working on trying to get together a mailing list. I’d do a newsletter once a month to let people know what I’m working on and what’s coming next down the pipeline. Maybe once I get that going, I’ll put together a Patreon account and try and get people to see if they want to patron me to write stories for them. I could do different things, like write novellas or short stories for people using characters either from Champions or from other books, Or I could do a few non-fiction pieces about the writing craft and stuff. Or I could get some artists from deviantart to do work for me. (Hmm. Anime Grim…)

This year I hope to have 3 published books, not counting Homecoming. War Mage, maybe Iron Butterfly at a different publishing house that does romance-with-a-twist, Blood From a Stone with Paper Angel…or who knows, maybe something entirely different.  What’s important this year is the marketing and getting my name out there, I think. The writing, although still daily, will be secondary.

Oh, and to blog here at least once a week, probably on my own stuff or ideas on what I’m doing to help plot/character.  Watch for my book reviews on Goodreads. This year the goal is 100 books!