Telling Stories

When I first started writing, I wrote primarily for myself. Success was getting the words out on paper, by pen or typewriter. Then I started posting stories with other people in forums and a blog. People liked my characters and their stories. People commented, which meant they read my stuff. Someone else actually liked what I was doing!

My level of success changed. It was to get published. Because of my fear, I sent out four, exactly four, query letters to different agents. All of them said no thanks.

Then Paper Angel came along. They offered to publish a book it took me a month to write and was my most recent novel (therefore, the one I was most passionate about), Homecoming. I’m working on War Mage, the actual novel, since Homecoming is more or less a prequel.  I have another novel that I’ve been passionate about for the last three years that I hope to get to Paper Angel. This meant I fulfilled my dream of getting published, therefore I’m successful.

Not so much. Because I raised the bar yet again. I had goals: 20 reviews and sell 50 copies in three months, being on the best seller list, whatever that means…but then reality burst that bubble (so far).

However, people who’ve contacted me about my book say it’s a good beginning. They want more. They like the character, the world I’ve created, the setup for the next book. In fact, one of my readers said, “You’ve been writing for over 30 years; what else do you have that I don’t know about?”

What was my original measure of success? To get the words out. Not the money. Not the fame–though they would be nice. I write a story that I myself would like to read. If someone else comes along for the ride, then I have done my duty. By that, I am successful.

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.

Appearances, definite dates

Welcome if you’re new. Here are my appearances in the New England area, the definite ones:

New England Author Expo, July 27 from 4 pm-9 pm, Danvers, MA
RI Comicon, November 11, 12, and 13 from 10 am to 8 pm?, Providence, RI
RI Author Expo, December 3, from 10 am to something, Cranston, RI

I’ve also started on War Mage’s third book, tentatively titled The High Road. I did the planning like I did with Blood From a Stone, my NaNoWriMo book last year. I got together index cards and wrote out the main plot. Then I wrote out the subplots and their results. I gathered all the index cards together and put intertwined the subplots in the main plot. I only have five subplots, one not very well defined, but I’ll let the muses work on it.

I will admit, this method worked really well for Blood, because I could keep on task and each index card was vague enough that they let the muses and my mind think up the details. With Blood, I dictated it, so I really didn’t have the time to stop and rewrite like I do normally.

I think with this new one, I’m going to transcribe literally from my first draft, the composition notebook that I usually use. Composition books are portable, don’t need electricity, are easy to bring anywhere and I can sometimes hide my writing at work in it. Now, my first draft isn’t perfect. But I’ve found that I refer to a lot of things in it that aren’t in the second draft. The first draft is ingrained in my memory, which is why sometimes the second draft ends up being confused. Then I have a third draft to try and get the second draft ingrained in my memory. At least, this is what happened with War Mage. I went through six drafts before finally sending the one to the editor. And I personally feel that 1) it’s way too short and 2) it’s a hot mess because I went so far off the first draft. Although another part of me thinks that the character development in the final draft is the best.

I started listening to a couple of books that I had on Audible, (Hard Spell by Justin Gustainis, Hard Magic by Laura Anne Gilman and Butcher Bird by an author I can’t read) and noticed that almost all of them break the cardinal rule of “no info dump in the first chapter.” Also, they don’t go into the detailed description of people. Some description yes, but not the detail that my editor wants. When I listened to the audiobook version of my book, I noticed that the description dragged. It’s something I need to improve.

I dumped Hard Magic because the first chapter was the main character’s in detail discussion of how she gets ready for her day and an info dump of her backstory. I didn’t bother listening to the rest. I dumped Butcher Bird because of the bad grammar and writing. Hard Spell seems like  fun, even though the author did the info dump, it was interesting and something I need to aspire to. I noticed also that all three used the first person POV, and that Hard Magic and Butcher Bird used prologues. That’s one of my cardinal rules – no prologues. I read in a writing book somewhere something like “Prologues are scenes that don’t fit in the novel, but the author thinks are too good to get rid of.” I agree with that sentiment. In fact, in physical books, I don’t read the prologues until I finish the book, and I find that most of the time, they aren’t integral to the book.

Anyway, that’s what I’m up to these days. Writing, listening to books. A book I’m reading is Blueprint Your Novel, which kind of uses my index card method but converts it into lists. I’m also reading Heretic, which is a very interesting take on the Knights Templar.

Appearances

Here’s where I plan on being in New England to promote my book and books from Paper Angel Press.

New England Author Expo, July 27, Danvers MA
Autumnfest, October 8, 9, or 10, Woonsocket, RI
Big E, Some time in September – October, Springfield, MA
New Bedford Fall Book Festival, October 15 or 16, New Bedford, MA
RI Comicon November 11, 12 and 13, Providence, RI

I’m gunning for the RI Author Expo, December 3 in Cranston, RI, but that depends if I get a spot.

As for the writing…not so much this week. I was thinking about writing, but I didn’t actually do anything. I wrote in my journal for the most part, and even then I skipped 2 days. I started to work on the rewrite of Grimaulkin Rising. That has to have extensive rewrites. I’m not looking forward to that, though I want to get it done by the end of the summer.

I also have to start work on the next book in the War Mage series, and make sure that it’s LONGER. The torture isn’t going to be all it’s about. It has to be about the other magical creatures that he meets in Iraq. More dragons? Other wizards that aren’t dicks? The Black Lions? The development of his and Chrissie’s relationship? Need to get this together, start an outline or at least some index cards.

Wish me luck – I’m going to a job interview on Tuesday for a “Communications Consultant” at my company. Not quite a step up, but it’s a step over so that I can hopefully use my talents somewhere else. If I do that, then they own my creative mind and writing time will be cut even more. Maybe. We’ll see.

I have this vision…

about my display when I go to sell books.

I have on a small easel, the Paper Angel Press logo. On the two sides of the table are two 24×32 pictures of the covers of my books, hanging from a hanger contraption that is about sic-feet tall.

On the table, which has a plain black/dark green/purple tablecloth, are six copies of both books, three or so copies of other books from the Press, business cards and some other swag that I can’t think of. Oh, and Hershey’s Kisses. (That always gets people to stop – it’s something I learned in training.)

The pictures will cost $50 to print – each. The clip hangers cost me $.99. The hanger contraption is something that is in my mind, but I don’t know if they sell them. I have to search the internet for it.

I’m have to find my list of places to go and make up my list of appearances.

God, I’m nervous.

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.