I should probably mention that I've started the editing process for The Dragon's Egg. I've thought of some more material to increase the overall length, and hopefully give it a better plot in general. I've already rewritten two scenes, and added another, and am starting on a rewrite/edit of the last few scenes before I make some major changes to the plot.
Hopefully this won't take too long. But I'll have to take as long as necessary in order to make this book as good as possible.
I still have several scenes that need to be properly planned out, as well as several chapters worth of material that needs organizing. After I write the scenes I do have planned I'll take a break from writing in order to get a good outlined written up. Some people can discovery write; I'm not one of those people. So from here on out expect to see several Sunday posts about me planning out my book.
I'll never understand people who can just sit down with a basic idea, and start writing from there. It completely blows my mind. For me it works a lot better if I focus on thinking up a plot first, and taking down rough, or detailed notes and worrying about actually writing the book only after I've sat down and planned everything out as much as possible. Writing is a lot of work, and it is never easy (part of why I'm so bad at doing it regularly), but just because it's a lot of work doesn't meant we need to make it harder on ourselves. Some people can sit down and just let the story come to them as they write, but for me it's much easier to get a good deal of inspiration written down, and then when I finally do sit down I have a detailed list of what happens.
I still get inspiration while I write the actual book, and sometimes things go in an entirely different direction. But when the choice is between forcing myself to stick to a rigid plan, or not writing at all because I'm overwhelmed with what I'm trying to do. I'll probably go into more detail about my writing process at a later date, I need to respond to Nathan's pro-discovery writing, anti-planning post. It should be interesting, especially since I've reached this point after trying to convince myself that I was a discovery writer for the longest time. I've been going about this in a very roundabout way, but I'm slowly getting to the point where I know what I want, and how to do it. So here's to catching up for lost time. And given that I have a pretty decent WPM going for myself, I should be able to produce a lot per day if I write every single day, and work off a plan that I bothered to take the time to write out.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
And Now For Phase Two - My Current Life, Career, and Academic Plans
I've started work editing and rewriting The Dragon's Egg. While it is in fact done the finished product really is more aptly described as a twenty thousand word outline. This peeves me a bit but so far my writing group is responding well to it and giving good advice on how to improve the book. So now we start the delightful editing process.
My first goal is to print off the manuscript, it's only a little over thirty pages long, and to go over it and decided where I can lengthen this book to the point of adding at least another thirty thousand words. My biggest weakness so far is easily the fact that my pacing is pretty terrible, which is accounted for by the fact that I rushed through this book in order to just finally have it done. But now that I've put it aside for a few weeks I feel ready to look over it again and focus on only the most important parts, namely fixing the pacing issues. Hopefully this will turn out a much better book.
A lot of writers talk about how they had to give something up in order to actually write. TV is usually the most common thing that writers give up, but I haven't really watched TV in a long time. But a talk with some of my friends made me realize that while I don't waste my time on TV as much as I once did, I have another time eater that has been threatening not only my writing, but my school work and blogging as well.
So until further notice - by which I mean I intend to keep this up indefinitely - I will eschew my main past time, namely goofing off on various internet sites. The way it works is that I don't get online during the week, and save everything I would have read for the weekend. Alongside that, if I can get all my work done during the day I can have an hour or less in the evening during which to apply myself to other entertainment. This will most likely take the form of blogging (considering how far behind I am) and working on The Dragon's Egg. Keep in mind that "blogging" will generally include time spent watching the shows I review on a theoretical weekly basis. Besides starting on editing this will be the focus of my daily evening hour of internet usage.
But since I don't want to choose between blogging and writing, I will also be dedicating at least an hour each evening, after I finish school work, to working on my current book. For now that will be writing extra scenes to flesh out The Dragon's Egg, but as soon as I get that done I'll restart work on The Incredible Life of Billy Brown, aka/ the book with the best title I've ever thought of.
As soon as I get everything sorted out I'll probably post a writing schedule of all the ideas I want to work on. Currently I have plenty of ideas for books, and other various projects, that I should have no problem finding something creative to do. I'll probably never be in the situation where I have nothing to write, because I have so many ideas, including the currently abandoned ideas, that I doubt I'll be able to work my way through all of them in just a year. And the chances of not thinking of a new idea during said year are slim as well. So by the time I finally write everything I've currently thought of I'll all ready have a myriad of brand new ideas ready to go. And so on, and so forth, until they find me dead at my key board with an unfinished first draft.
And then the fans will forever wonder what masterpiece I have left unfinished.
Hopefully this change in life style is exactly what I need, and I can finally beat the chronic laziness that is keeping me from getting as good as I should be. I know for a fact that I've gotten better over the past two or three years, but it's nowhere near as good as I would be if I had gotten myself to consistently write every day during that time. Well, here's for making up for lost time, and hopefully for balancing out my University career as well.
With that said, I have to confess that I find it hard not to slip up a little and check on the websites I once frequented. But I will remain strong and stay away from distractions cold turkey for the entire week. Eventually I might even be able to keep it up for an entire month, followed by a binge at the end where I read all the things that I've missed. Maybe I'll even just stop going online for leisure entirely, and instead read my manga when I buy the volumes. I know the publishers would prefer that, but first I would need to wean myself away from the desire to keep up to date on the stories. No idea how likely that is, but it's a possibility. My current ultimate goal is to avoid going online for leisure reading entirely during a whole semester and to see if that improves my academic standing. Granted just avoiding it for a week, or a month might be sufficient, but gaining that kind of self control would do me a world of good.
And with that I sign off, because I have a mid-term to take, but taking the time to write this has definitely helped calm me down, and provided a necessary little break from studying. I just have a few more papers to go over and then I'll go take the exam. After that the true test begins, and we see if I can stick to getting all my work done before any leisure.
My first goal is to print off the manuscript, it's only a little over thirty pages long, and to go over it and decided where I can lengthen this book to the point of adding at least another thirty thousand words. My biggest weakness so far is easily the fact that my pacing is pretty terrible, which is accounted for by the fact that I rushed through this book in order to just finally have it done. But now that I've put it aside for a few weeks I feel ready to look over it again and focus on only the most important parts, namely fixing the pacing issues. Hopefully this will turn out a much better book.
A lot of writers talk about how they had to give something up in order to actually write. TV is usually the most common thing that writers give up, but I haven't really watched TV in a long time. But a talk with some of my friends made me realize that while I don't waste my time on TV as much as I once did, I have another time eater that has been threatening not only my writing, but my school work and blogging as well.
So until further notice - by which I mean I intend to keep this up indefinitely - I will eschew my main past time, namely goofing off on various internet sites. The way it works is that I don't get online during the week, and save everything I would have read for the weekend. Alongside that, if I can get all my work done during the day I can have an hour or less in the evening during which to apply myself to other entertainment. This will most likely take the form of blogging (considering how far behind I am) and working on The Dragon's Egg. Keep in mind that "blogging" will generally include time spent watching the shows I review on a theoretical weekly basis. Besides starting on editing this will be the focus of my daily evening hour of internet usage.
But since I don't want to choose between blogging and writing, I will also be dedicating at least an hour each evening, after I finish school work, to working on my current book. For now that will be writing extra scenes to flesh out The Dragon's Egg, but as soon as I get that done I'll restart work on The Incredible Life of Billy Brown, aka/ the book with the best title I've ever thought of.
As soon as I get everything sorted out I'll probably post a writing schedule of all the ideas I want to work on. Currently I have plenty of ideas for books, and other various projects, that I should have no problem finding something creative to do. I'll probably never be in the situation where I have nothing to write, because I have so many ideas, including the currently abandoned ideas, that I doubt I'll be able to work my way through all of them in just a year. And the chances of not thinking of a new idea during said year are slim as well. So by the time I finally write everything I've currently thought of I'll all ready have a myriad of brand new ideas ready to go. And so on, and so forth, until they find me dead at my key board with an unfinished first draft.
And then the fans will forever wonder what masterpiece I have left unfinished.
Hopefully this change in life style is exactly what I need, and I can finally beat the chronic laziness that is keeping me from getting as good as I should be. I know for a fact that I've gotten better over the past two or three years, but it's nowhere near as good as I would be if I had gotten myself to consistently write every day during that time. Well, here's for making up for lost time, and hopefully for balancing out my University career as well.
With that said, I have to confess that I find it hard not to slip up a little and check on the websites I once frequented. But I will remain strong and stay away from distractions cold turkey for the entire week. Eventually I might even be able to keep it up for an entire month, followed by a binge at the end where I read all the things that I've missed. Maybe I'll even just stop going online for leisure entirely, and instead read my manga when I buy the volumes. I know the publishers would prefer that, but first I would need to wean myself away from the desire to keep up to date on the stories. No idea how likely that is, but it's a possibility. My current ultimate goal is to avoid going online for leisure reading entirely during a whole semester and to see if that improves my academic standing. Granted just avoiding it for a week, or a month might be sufficient, but gaining that kind of self control would do me a world of good.
And with that I sign off, because I have a mid-term to take, but taking the time to write this has definitely helped calm me down, and provided a necessary little break from studying. I just have a few more papers to go over and then I'll go take the exam. After that the true test begins, and we see if I can stick to getting all my work done before any leisure.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
The Incredible Life of Billy Brown - 1,500 Words
This is a project I started a few months ago, before I separated my writing blog from my media blog. It was actually my NaNoWriMo project, but that didn't get very far. I've since learned that NaNo isn't exactly my cup of tea. I'm already struggling to write every day, something you've already noticed I don't really do, given my lack of daily updates. I guess it's foolish to think that suddenly applying external pressure against an internal problem isn't working too well for me. I need to learn how to write that much just because I want to, not because I'm being told to by a contest.
It helps that I've been making steps towards understanding my writing process a lot more. It helps when I have the ending planned first, even if it isn't in incredible detail, and having planning sessions before actually sitting down to write really helps. In fact, planning right before I start to write helps the most. It's really all about getting myself in the creative mood.
That being said, this current project is something that I thought of after learning a bit about the effect faster than light travel has on time. The basic idea is that the titular character is kidnapped by aliens and forced into slavery for years. He puts together a plan to escape, but has to deal with greedy slaver aliens, crash landing on uncivilized planets, and oddly out of place homages to other works of science fiction. The latter will probably be short, given that I haven't exactly immersed myself in science fiction before.
The idea is one that I haven't been playing around with in my head for years, and as such is the perfect project for me to practice my craft. I don't have ridiculous expectations for it, and it hasn't gone through several plots. My word goal for this one is around 50,000 words or so. Possibly more. I intend to hit the average for YA books. But I'm not going to just write until I hit that word goal. It's just an estimation, I already have the basic ending planned. I'll have to go flesh it out as I go along, but it helps, as I learned with Dragon's Egg, to have the ending at least in mind.
I did actually start work on this before Dragon's Egg, but put it on hold after I realized that I had to focus on getting Dragon's Egg done first. Which was good, because Dragon's Egg is much shorter than any YA novel out there, and made for a good first real finished book. Sure it isn't as impressive as finishing a full length book, but you gotta start somewhere. And after I kept abandoning books I needed this. Now I can confidently say I finished a book, I finished an entire narrative, and I can move on to my next, longer project.
After I finish with Billy Brown I intend to pick up my Epic Heroes idea again. That one will definitely be a series, though Billy Brown has series potential. Maybe one day I'll find myself back at Avalon Locke. Who knows though, chances are I might find it cliche once I'm good enough to get published. It would probably help once I get all the scattered ideas gathered together into one overall planning file. It's not that what I had planned was bad, but the book just wasn't coming together and wasn't living up to my expectations. Not to mention that I don't have the experience I need to actually plot out and write an entire series. When I divide my attention across several books, bad things happen.
Still, it is my first baby, and I want to do something with it. I think the ideas I had for it weren't too bad, I just need to make sure that everything is concrete in my mind and I can get myself to write the entire series in one go. I think that would help me the most, if I consider the entire story as one book, and then write it as such. Not to mention it helps to have the entire thing done, that way the publishers know for a fact that the series won't just fizzle out and die after they contract me.
Either way, organization is the key. I'm not the most organized person, so I need to pay close attention to it and create a planning system that works for me. I've actually learned a few things at LTUE this weekend, and have decided to keep myself from having giant planning documents that make it hard for me to read them. I need to find a way to make myself want to keep coming back to my notes. Which unfortunately means I'll have to spend more time working on them, and less time doing straight writing, but once I get my system going it will make things a lot easier than me.
Writing a book is intimidating, and just jumping into it is even more intimidating. Some people like to discovery write, but I've since learned that bad things happen when I try it. Sometimes I come up with some good scenes, but the overall story suffers. Not to mention that it is a lot less intimidating to scribble down some notes about the plot and then develop those than trying to juggle plot, character, description and dialogue all at once. I've long since abandoned my method of writing scripts for my book before writing the prose. It did work, but normally once you get in the right mood writing good prose and dialogue happens at basically the same time.
I've been rambling for long enough, but that's what this blog is for, to give updates about my current and future projects and to record my musings about writing in general. Maybe one day I'll write something important, and maybe someone will learn something from my experience. That would be my biggest dream, not only to become a professional writer, but to also help teach the next creative generation.
Well, expect future updates on Sundays from now on. I think it would be a bit much to write something here every time that I write on my book. If I'm going to be writing I might as well add some more word count to my project. I just hope I can keep track of how much I write during the week. So instead of several shorter updates with me having little more to say than how I'm doing on my project, and nothing else, expect longer posts once a week. Should be fun. Maybe one day I'll actually be someone people care about to read their stuff. Maybe people will come to my blog and look at the first entries, years in the past then. Boy, are you future fans in for a surprise when you see how bad I write in your past.
Just keep in mind that I like to keep the tone of this blog conversational and informal (which means I won't have to edit my language before posting), then we can still be friends.
It helps that I've been making steps towards understanding my writing process a lot more. It helps when I have the ending planned first, even if it isn't in incredible detail, and having planning sessions before actually sitting down to write really helps. In fact, planning right before I start to write helps the most. It's really all about getting myself in the creative mood.
That being said, this current project is something that I thought of after learning a bit about the effect faster than light travel has on time. The basic idea is that the titular character is kidnapped by aliens and forced into slavery for years. He puts together a plan to escape, but has to deal with greedy slaver aliens, crash landing on uncivilized planets, and oddly out of place homages to other works of science fiction. The latter will probably be short, given that I haven't exactly immersed myself in science fiction before.
The idea is one that I haven't been playing around with in my head for years, and as such is the perfect project for me to practice my craft. I don't have ridiculous expectations for it, and it hasn't gone through several plots. My word goal for this one is around 50,000 words or so. Possibly more. I intend to hit the average for YA books. But I'm not going to just write until I hit that word goal. It's just an estimation, I already have the basic ending planned. I'll have to go flesh it out as I go along, but it helps, as I learned with Dragon's Egg, to have the ending at least in mind.
I did actually start work on this before Dragon's Egg, but put it on hold after I realized that I had to focus on getting Dragon's Egg done first. Which was good, because Dragon's Egg is much shorter than any YA novel out there, and made for a good first real finished book. Sure it isn't as impressive as finishing a full length book, but you gotta start somewhere. And after I kept abandoning books I needed this. Now I can confidently say I finished a book, I finished an entire narrative, and I can move on to my next, longer project.
After I finish with Billy Brown I intend to pick up my Epic Heroes idea again. That one will definitely be a series, though Billy Brown has series potential. Maybe one day I'll find myself back at Avalon Locke. Who knows though, chances are I might find it cliche once I'm good enough to get published. It would probably help once I get all the scattered ideas gathered together into one overall planning file. It's not that what I had planned was bad, but the book just wasn't coming together and wasn't living up to my expectations. Not to mention that I don't have the experience I need to actually plot out and write an entire series. When I divide my attention across several books, bad things happen.
Still, it is my first baby, and I want to do something with it. I think the ideas I had for it weren't too bad, I just need to make sure that everything is concrete in my mind and I can get myself to write the entire series in one go. I think that would help me the most, if I consider the entire story as one book, and then write it as such. Not to mention it helps to have the entire thing done, that way the publishers know for a fact that the series won't just fizzle out and die after they contract me.
Either way, organization is the key. I'm not the most organized person, so I need to pay close attention to it and create a planning system that works for me. I've actually learned a few things at LTUE this weekend, and have decided to keep myself from having giant planning documents that make it hard for me to read them. I need to find a way to make myself want to keep coming back to my notes. Which unfortunately means I'll have to spend more time working on them, and less time doing straight writing, but once I get my system going it will make things a lot easier than me.
Writing a book is intimidating, and just jumping into it is even more intimidating. Some people like to discovery write, but I've since learned that bad things happen when I try it. Sometimes I come up with some good scenes, but the overall story suffers. Not to mention that it is a lot less intimidating to scribble down some notes about the plot and then develop those than trying to juggle plot, character, description and dialogue all at once. I've long since abandoned my method of writing scripts for my book before writing the prose. It did work, but normally once you get in the right mood writing good prose and dialogue happens at basically the same time.
I've been rambling for long enough, but that's what this blog is for, to give updates about my current and future projects and to record my musings about writing in general. Maybe one day I'll write something important, and maybe someone will learn something from my experience. That would be my biggest dream, not only to become a professional writer, but to also help teach the next creative generation.
Well, expect future updates on Sundays from now on. I think it would be a bit much to write something here every time that I write on my book. If I'm going to be writing I might as well add some more word count to my project. I just hope I can keep track of how much I write during the week. So instead of several shorter updates with me having little more to say than how I'm doing on my project, and nothing else, expect longer posts once a week. Should be fun. Maybe one day I'll actually be someone people care about to read their stuff. Maybe people will come to my blog and look at the first entries, years in the past then. Boy, are you future fans in for a surprise when you see how bad I write in your past.
Just keep in mind that I like to keep the tone of this blog conversational and informal (which means I won't have to edit my language before posting), then we can still be friends.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Dragon's Egg: 3,351 Words
I'm really bad at updating this when I write something. Or I'm really bad at writing. You decide. Either way, I'm going to try and make a habit of updating this blog every Sunday, with a total word count for the week. Hopefully this won't be completely depressing.
I decided to do my best to finish this book today. And Hallelujah I did it! This marks the first officially completed book I've ever written. Yes it isn't the longest book out there, but it's middlegrade and those tend to be on the shorter side anyway.
Technically I have finished one book before this, but it wasn't one I'm proud of, and the ending was just me giving up on it. So as far as the Derek Bown Canon is concerned, The Dragon's Egg stands as my first completed novel. Or novella...
Well, either way this is an exciting night. I'm sure as I go to edit this book I won't be so smug about it as I am now. But for now I'll just relish the high I'm getting off of finishing this book. Now I can buy my ticket for world fantasy, now that I have something to show editors and agents.
I decided to do my best to finish this book today. And Hallelujah I did it! This marks the first officially completed book I've ever written. Yes it isn't the longest book out there, but it's middlegrade and those tend to be on the shorter side anyway.
Technically I have finished one book before this, but it wasn't one I'm proud of, and the ending was just me giving up on it. So as far as the Derek Bown Canon is concerned, The Dragon's Egg stands as my first completed novel. Or novella...
Well, either way this is an exciting night. I'm sure as I go to edit this book I won't be so smug about it as I am now. But for now I'll just relish the high I'm getting off of finishing this book. Now I can buy my ticket for world fantasy, now that I have something to show editors and agents.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Dragon's Egg: 2,189 Words
Well, I wrote 2,189 words today. While I may not be writing as often as I'd like, at least I'm getting a decent amount written when I do write. I'm a little under 3,000 words away from my word goal for this book. Well, my second word goal. Originally it was going to be 30,000 words, but then I decided to save on printing cost I'd cut it down to 20,000 (that and it would take less time to finish it). Though I am close to the word count goal it will probably be a bit longer than I anticipated. We're close to the final showdown, an event I imagine will take a little longer than another 3,000 words.
So we're close, very close. Then I'll just have to proof read it, and make a few changes so that it's ready to take to the printer.
Well, here's hoping I finish it either tomorrow, or sometime this weekend.
So we're close, very close. Then I'll just have to proof read it, and make a few changes so that it's ready to take to the printer.
Well, here's hoping I finish it either tomorrow, or sometime this weekend.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Dragon's Egg: 531 Words
I only got 531 words done today. But I wrote again, so that's something. I'll try to write at least something every day, even if it is only 500 words. Though I'd rather write a lot every day.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Dragon's Egg: 1,484 Words
I got the rest of the book planned last week, and have since not gotten around to finishing it quite yet. But I'm slowly getting there. I'm really excited, because I have the ending all planned, so I know what I'm going to work towards, and this will be my first really finished book. At least the first that actually counts.
I wrote about 1,484 words, and we are rapidly approaching the climax. Can't wait to get there. This has been an education for me, as I've relearned the importance of having an outline for me. At the same time I've also learned that while I have the important stuff planned out, and a lot of the minor stuff, I need to adapt my planning style to flesh out everything in a plan before I write it out. Though I should probably keep myself from going overboard.
Well, it was a bit of a rough session this time, I didn't get nearly as much done as I hoped, but I got something done, and should be finishing this book soon. It'll be good to have one done, and I'll be able to carry what I learn on to the next book. Here's hoping I get to the point where I can write longer books.
I'll probably be able to pull it off, once I perfect my planning method, and am able to get the creative juices flowing well enough to do some discovery writing for the stuff in between. Mostly I need to work on my transitions from scene to scene, and I'll be much better off.
I wrote about 1,484 words, and we are rapidly approaching the climax. Can't wait to get there. This has been an education for me, as I've relearned the importance of having an outline for me. At the same time I've also learned that while I have the important stuff planned out, and a lot of the minor stuff, I need to adapt my planning style to flesh out everything in a plan before I write it out. Though I should probably keep myself from going overboard.
Well, it was a bit of a rough session this time, I didn't get nearly as much done as I hoped, but I got something done, and should be finishing this book soon. It'll be good to have one done, and I'll be able to carry what I learn on to the next book. Here's hoping I get to the point where I can write longer books.
I'll probably be able to pull it off, once I perfect my planning method, and am able to get the creative juices flowing well enough to do some discovery writing for the stuff in between. Mostly I need to work on my transitions from scene to scene, and I'll be much better off.
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