Rewriting is a bitch

Oh, dear.

I haven’t updated this blog since February. I’m so, so sorry. But now I plan on signing on at least once a week.

I am in the midst of rewriting War Mage. I’m stuck on the first part, “Act One” according to a handy-dandy book “90 day rewrite”. You’re supposed to take the rewrite in manageable chunks and do it there, not do line editing like I’ve been doing.

90 Day Rewrite is using The Anatomy of Story as its basis, which I think is one of the best books on story and preparing a “hit” that I’ve read. It’s mostly for screenwriters, but it’s really good for writers.

Personally, I don’t care much for the 3-act structure. Most of the writing books I’ve read talk about that. It talks about Act 1 being a quarter, Act 2 being a half, and Act 3 being another quarter. If that’s the case with my story, On page 50 should be the end of Act 1.

And lo and behold, it is.

Act 3, however, does not start where I want it.  The ending is way too short, I already know that.. Which means, I think, I need to add more stuff.  I was going to add another subplot. I’m not sure where to put it.

My goal is to finish the rewrite by May 15. Then it goes to my beta reader and editor. The goal it to publish in December, but it might end up being February of next year. Which is fine.

I am also restarting the Grimaulkin book, probably as a series. I’m writing it in the style of a memoir with magic and straight up dialogue. I’ve renamed his brother, made his siblings much older, and started in media res.

I leave you with this, a picture close to home. My son is taking up photography, and I’m proud of his picture taking ability.

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Homecoming – Wide!

Homecoming is finally out!  And amazingly enough, it’s not just on Amazon!

It’s on Kobo, and Amazon, and Smashwords, and Lulu, and iTunes and Nook!  Soon it’ll be a print version.

Go here to buy the book!

I’m so excited. You can’t know how excited I am. To be an actual, real, published author.  Who’s sold 4 copies of the book already (which is more than Grimaulkin sold in its entire year-long existence). We’ll cut the price at some point, run some sales, try and get Bookpub to run an ad at .99 (after the second book comes out)…Marketing strategies, doncha know.

I’ve done some editing on War Mage, but it seems that I’ve had to rewrite the entire thing. I’m a little under half-way through and have had to do some extensive rewrites. Almost all the pages have markups on them. That’s because book one has certain things that I need to keep consistent, now that it’s engraved in stone.

And I was going to do a book 3. I have no idea of the title. I know a little bit, like a skeleton of a plot idea, but nothing huge or final. I was thinking of adding it to this book instead. Once I get through this rewrite, I’ll see how many words I have and whether another 20-30K words will help or hurt it.

After War Mage, I might work on the extensive rewrite of my magnum opus, Grimaulkin. I also might do my 3 short memoirs (or combine them into one book). My personal publishing plan is:

War Mage (Spring)
Something? Blood from a Stone?(Summer)
Grimaulkin (Fall)

I was going to have Iron Butterfly in there somewhere, but for the life of me I can’t write the formulaic “romance novel”. It’s not the “happily ever after” part. It’s not the “helpless heroine” part. It’s the “girl + boy” part. I would bring them together, then the guy would do something to tear them apart. I don’t have a problem with fated love between guys. Call me crazy. I have the paperwork to prove it.

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!

Blocked

So far, knock on wood, I don’t really have writer’s block. I have writer’s apathy.

With Iron Butterfly, I’ve written two scenes that I know are going to get tossed. They’re not important to the story, they’re not propelling the story at all. Because of that, I’m depressed.

Right now, I don’t want to bother writing anything. Something is  blocking traffic, I know what I need to write, it’s just getting it down.   Once I get past it, everything should flow. I have a couple of stories in mind for my Champions Online fans,  an Iron Butterfly scene, editing for War Mage (book 2), and getting the gumption to go take pictures to sell my car.

I don’t know what is blocking the traffic, but all four of those things are what I need to do, and I have to find which one is in the way.

Hello, Mary Sue…

I’m so proud of myself, writing this great romance story. It’s not original, still following a template, but it’s a great idea.

Then I took the Mary Sue test.

Oh, dear.  The male lead is a definite Mary Sue, but the female one I’m trying really hard (intentionally) to make her not one. In the romances that I’ve read/skimmed (3, okay?) the girl’s a ditz, the guy’s a hero, and when they meet, sparks fly.

I’m following the rules, here!  I’m trying to get into the market, not become a literary giant. I consider my name to be the trashy romance/erotica author. Jake is the gay urban fantasy guy. That’s how i’m going to introduce myself.

Homecoming is on its 3rd edit. I have a feeling I’m going to have to describe EVERYONE in detail, not just the three main characters. However, when I read books, I don’t notice the description there. I’m trying to look to see how people are described, and I don’t even notice it. Are they that good that I’m missing it, or do they not put it in?

I described a lot in this romance. I’m up to 10K words right now. I’m going to keep going with it. It’s a good idea. It’s fun.

So what if it’s a waste of time.

“Sometimes the story isn’t there”

I finally put away the romance novel. I tried sitting down to write it, but it was so boring, that I put it away.

Following a template was a good idea, in theory. The story had written itself. I outlined like I did with NaNo, I started putting together the backstories for each of the characters. I decided to start with my vegetables first–the female lead.

All I knew about Marina was that she was scared. Of everything. Overly cautious. I wanted her to get over her fears during the course of the book. However, according to the template, the hero has to help her get over her fears. I wanted her to grow up on her own.

That’s where I realized I really can’t do this. I can’t believe women eat up this crap.

I’m starting to read books on description. I have an issue with not describing enough. I don’t describe with long passages, but I think I describe with a minimal amount of words. However, looking through book 2 of War Mage, there’s a lot  “in my head” as the Paper Angel Press editor put it. I read it, I can picture it; why don’t others? Do I need to show them everything?

I guess it’s expected.  To be a novel, you have to present a world. I can’t assume that a contemporary world is easily pictured. Especially in Afghanistan, I suppose.

Description is through all the senses. Description can be through a different point of view. Description is often compared to other things. Description is concrete, particular words. Thanks to Wordpainting by Rebecca McClanahan for clarifying that.

I’m also starting to read books with an eye to see how the author uses description. I have a boatload of trashy romance novels to do just that with. I get to see how they do it, or how badly they do it.

I don’t do romance

Writing a romance is hard.

I read a book about writing romance, that basically gave out a boiler template of how to plot your romance. Fill in the blanks and off you go.

I actually used tarot cards to figure out a plot and characters. It came up as a romance. Good, romance is good because that’s a very hot market. Paranormal romance is a really big market too, so yeah, I can see this. And YA romance? It has its own shelf in B&N. I’m in for this.

So the plot is that a girl, who doesn’t know she’s part mermaid, spends a summer in a seaside fishing town, gets in the ocean, changes into a mermaid, is seduced by the mer-prince, refuses for the human that she left on land, and comes back to land to spend the rest of her summer with the landlubber.

Beautiful.

But I can’t get the MC to get beyond a bundle of nerves and fear. She’s acting like Bella. But then, from what i’ve skimmed, most of the YA girls are either feisty bitches or dingbats. Making her feisty would overshadow the hero. Making her a dingbat would just be a Twilight ripoff.

How difficult it is to be original. I was thinking of giving it up but I haven’t gotten any other ideas.

Yet.