Looking to 2013

I may be guilty of following blog trends too closely. For example, today I'm going to go along with the "Word of the Year" thing.

First I get to decide what 2012's word was. I suppose "Transformation" would be the most fitting one. This gets into a bit more of the personal stuff, but at the beginning of the year I was content with who I was and hoping that some miracle would help me make a giant leap. It wasn't until the last few months that I decided that I had to become someone much greater, and start putting in the real work. Because of that, I actually have New Year's Resolutions this year, which I'll get to later.

Next, I'd better come up with a word for 2013. Unfortunately, I don't think the English language really has one word for going all-out, giving it everything I've got, doing everything I can without holding back. I kind of wonder why that word doesn't exist, but if it did, it would be my new word. (Correct me in the comments if there IS a word that I didn't think of!)

So that brings us to what I'm expecting myself to do with all of that. In fact, I'm expecting a lot of things, so I'm just going to make a list.

• Finish and publish both The Third Face and its sequel, The Demon's Guardian.
• Make 3 blog posts every week, including a Drabble Thursday, for at least 40 weeks of the year. (Try to get one or two in during the other 12 weeks, too.)
• Read a book every week. No exceptions.
• Beta read 4 novels.
• And all the non-writing goals too...

Yeah. It's a lot. I have some hard work ahead of me. I don't expect to accomplish all of them, but I ought to at least get pretty close. I'm going to keep at it every day. I'm serious. Like I said, no holding back.

Review: Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo

Every adventure can use a bit of comedy, some silly moments. It pops up more in movies than in books, though there are some exceptions. In Leven Thumps, silly moments are the mainstay of the story.

Although Leven, the titular character, starts off with a tragic cookie-cutter backstory (an orphan that lives with mean relatives), the laughs are quickly forthcoming. The jokes start with a simple incident of a supposed pest causing a large group of people to panic and knock each other over, but eventually the fate of Foo is resting on a talking toothpick!

Speaking of fate, it plays a huge role in the plot. Things that might normally be considered ridiculous coincidences are always pointed out as the working of fate, which always seems to be on the heroes' side. You can always count on this, so eventually it kind of kills the fear that the characters might fail, and in fact you might find that some of their accomplishments just can't be awarded to them in that light.

One might argue that this is completely necessary, though, because the characters have more than just the villain to worry about. Leven spends the entire book beset by shadows that convince him that it's not worth it to join this cause--either because he can't help, or because it's not justified. The other characters spend as much time dealing with this as they do on their quest, if not more. Although his doubts don't really originate in his own mind, it's still one of the stronger character arcs I've read.

Reading Leven Thumps is a lot like watching a children's cartoon or anime. If you can stop trying to make sense of it and just enjoy the ride, there's a lot of fun to be had.

Review: Ender's Game

Wow. Where can I possibly begin with a book like this one?

Ender is chosen, or perhaps created, by the international government's search for a fleet commander. Even in normal school, they single him out until he has to get in fights with other kids in order to make it. But the real test comes when he's only six years old, when they send him out into space to join Battle School.

There, Ender advances far faster than anyone else ever has, rarely getting even a small taste of failure. The teachers are constantly messing with things to push him to his limits. Not only does he improve himself, but he teaches an entire generation of students a whole new way of thinking that vastly improves their skills. With his genius he starts to change the nature of the no-gravity shootout games that determine students' rankings.

And it's in these games that you start to really respect Orson Scott Card's writing. At first he skims through situations because these are no challenge for Ender, but even there you can see the beginnings of strategy. In fact, the things you see Ender learning make you wonder if Card hasn't spent a bit of time in space himself! If battles seem a bit far away, it's because you're looking at them through a tactician's eyes.

This is to say nothing of the big pile of moral dilemmas and other thought-provoking questions that are hidden in the text. Is Ender anything like his calculating, pain-loving brother Peter? And if so, is it because of who he is, or because Battle School made him that way? And most importantly, is it right to want to get rid of the invading alien force at all?

Card purposely leaves all of these questions without a clear answer, and that only adds to the depth of this work. It gives an effect that I rarely see in any other book: it has that "literary" quality to it, but it's also a fast-paced adventure that keeps you reading.

So there's definitely a good reason Ender's Game is the science fiction classic that it's considered to be. It's the Book of the Month for December 2012 over at West Michigan Sci-Fi and Fantasy Fans, if that means anything. If you haven't read it yet, give it a shot--you might start to look at things in a new way.

Drabble Thursdays #3

Wow, this week's stories are overwhelmingly dark. Maybe next week I'll have some happier ones.

DISCLAIMER: Drabbles may suck.

Cover Art Contest

I've been kind of talking about doing a cover art contest for The Third Face for a while now. While I originally mentioned that I might have it right after the actual novel is finished, I decided that I want to start much sooner, to give artists more time to discover the contest and work on entries.

So, the contest officially begins today, and will last until February 24th, 2013. That's just over two months, and in that time I'd like to promote it as much as possible, so if you have friends that are cover artists, definitely invite them to enter! There's a $50 prize at stake, not to mention the fact that I'll broadcast the winner and do my best to give the artist the exposure he or she deserves. There will most likely also be free books involved.

I'm leaving the contest more or less open-ended. The site with all of the contest information includes a decent helping of information on the book itself, as well. It should give you an idea of what elements you might include. From there, though, everything from the medium to the composition is up to the artist.

 Sound interesting? Think a friend might be up to it? Here's the link. Hope to see that entry soon!

The Revision Journey

 When asked exactly what I was doing in revising The Third Face, I realized that I didn't have an answer. It's kind of like how a lot of inexperienced authors freeze up when they have to explain to someone what their novel is actually about (I had that for a long time and I'm just now overcoming it). Today, I'm going to try to actually answer that question.

Basically, I had three major goals in mind for this edition: to make it significantly longer, to re-center the book on Rasuke as a main character with clear growth, and to get rid of some other major plot issues that were bogging down the first edition.

If you're not too familiar with word counts, this might not mean anything to you, but before, The Third Face clocked in at about 25,000 words. To give you an idea, a lot of people claim that 50,000 words is barely enough to qualify as a novel. A young adult or teen novel can sometimes get away with as little as 30,000, but most readers expect more. In fact, in the paperback version, I used spacing and other cheap tricks to make the book appear bigger than it really was. That's bad, I know. Rather than hiding its skimpiness, I want to actually make it a good length, and my minimum target for it is 40,000 words. (You can see that right now on my little progress bar on the left side of the page!)

Another thing that I tried to do in earlier versions was to just not take traditional story structure seriously. At all. There's no reason for that. I just wasn't really paying attention. And it turns out that you can't just have a bunch of things happening that are related, throw in a few plot twists and lead up to a final battle and call it good. In a story like this one there is a hero, who beats personal challenges more or less at the same time as external ones. There's an overarching conflict that is built from caring what happens to this hero, and that slowly emerges at the beginning and carries all the way to the end. All subplots need to take a backseat to this. Thus, almost all of my jumps in perspective this time around function mainly to support the journey of Rasuke to self-understanding, and into his confrontation with the forces of the universe.

What else did I do to the story in the meantime? For one thing, there aren't as many major jumps in time as there were before. Whereas originally the prologue took place several years before Part 1, which in turn was a few years before Part 2, now these events are either made to happen one right after another, or presented in flashbacks. On the other hand, I eliminated a lot of the times when the characters are simply waiting around for something to happen to them, brooding on the many questions of the world and arguing with each other. Finally, I made sure that all of the main characters are properly introduced in the first ten chapters, rather than giving them only passing mentions until they suddenly appeared much later on.

It's amazing how this all comes together. There are a lot of other details that I'm messing with while I'm at it, but these important things are the focus of my work right now. I've been trying to get out a chapter every day, and to get around 1000 words out of each one. While I haven't been able to do that perfectly all the time, the fact remains that this story is hurtling towards completion faster than I could have dreamed. The end is a lot closer than you might think! I hope this post holds you over until then.

Drabble Thursdays #2

Time for a few more of these!

DISCLAIMER: Drabbles may suck.

The Bandwagon of the 12

The whole 12/12/12 thing is apparently a pretty big deal, and apparently a lot of people are doing special things as celebration. One blogger I saw had the idea of posting the 12th page of her novel today. So I thought, why not do the same? Thus, here you go, a bit of the new edition of The Third Face.

Review: The Amber Spyglass

I've got to review more books in this blog. In two years all I've reviewed were a textbook, and the first two books in the His Dark Materials trilogy. And only today will I get to the final book in Phillip Pullman's trilogy: The Amber Spyglass.

Although the first two books impressed me, in light of this book they served as mere introductions to it. The jump in length is appropriate, because there's so much more going on now! Now that we've met Will and Lyra, and gotten a good idea of the concepts underlying this world, it's time for a real struggle.

As predicted, the philosophical undertones of this work are pretty strong. Pullman explores the afterlife and the intelligence of matter, among other things. He even presents us with a world in which four-legged creatures have a diamond-shaped body structure, and birds have one wing on the front and the other on the back!

I was much happier with the character development here. Both characters are starting to learn what they need to do, and you can see them both in terms of each other. Their relationship is really what drives the story, alongside the twisting intrigue of the adults in the story, particularly Mrs. Coulter, who is as untrustworthy to everyone as ever.

Pullman continued to keep me hooked by pushing imagination to its limits without making anything feel the least bit implausible. I have to say, I really was not expecting the direction this story ended up going in. While everything called for the characters to hurry up and jump to the final battle, they defied that and took a different route entirely, one that kept me guessing right until the end.

Now I'm going to go a little more in-depth about this here, but be warned: the rest of this review will spoil the book!

Drabble Thursdays #1

Today we get some of the first drabbles I've written. In the beginning I obviously had no idea what I was doing, but then I started warming up to it. Have a look!

DISCLAIMER: Drabbles may suck.

Warm-Ups: Daily Drabbles

A drabble is a story that's exactly 100 words. Simple as that.

A friend of mine encouraged me to start writing them as a possible way to ease into writing communities. I don't usually write short stories, and I know a lot of people aren't going to invest their time in looking into a full-length novel unless they're sure about the author. That's where this started out: just a source of a few little stories.

I changed them into something else: a warm-up for my real writing. As I mentioned a few days ago, my intention for the next couple of months is to write a chapter of The Third Face every single day (except maybe Christmas). That mission is going rather well, and part of it is that I have started each writing day by writing a drabble.

Because each story is very short, I rarely invest a lot of time or thought into them (today's was rather silly in fact). They're just enough to say I have some amount of writing done for the day, and they get that part of my brain going just a little bit. They don't intimidate me the same way 1000 words does, and once I've done them I can't exactly say I'm taking a vacation from writing for the day!

This is a fun little thing that I definitely won't mind making a more long-term habit of. In fact, I've decided to post the results of it each week here on the blog, in a new event called Drabble Thursdays. (I chose Thursday simply because that's when I wrote the first one.) I hope to see you all here for the first week's worth!

Expanding Art

A couple of things just happened. First, Melanie Rio at Ink Out Loud (a great blog by the way) made this post about finding other ways of expressing creativity, and how valuable that is to keep away frustration while writing. Then, an old buddy of mine brought up the old days when we wanted to start a band, and he said that this time we need to actually go through with it.

Connections. I don't believe in coincidence.

For basically my whole high school career, my dream job was "Author/Musician." I had dreams of being a rock star, actually. This time it's not quite like that. I just want to make the music and produce something worth listening to. Needless to say, I've taken a step in the creative, artistic direction in that respect. Fame and fortune are right out.

That's kind of the attitude we have to have if we want to juggle more than one thing here. I believe in setting goals high, sure, but it's one thing to be focused on that goal and another to try and have two. I could be a rock star, but I'd have to put down my other ambitions and start putting my everything into that, and that's not what I want. I want my everything to be in writing, and it is. The music is just a hobby (although having that freedom of soundtrack for book trailers and such could be a perk!)

What I'm trying to say is, know where you stand, and how many tasks you can handle. Because the more you have, the greater the temptation is to give one up. Like Melanie said, don't force yourself into doing the things that are supposed to be fun. Keep them up as long as it continues to make sense for you to do so. Using limits to make things into a reward is even better, and with more than one creative outlet going on at the same time, that concept can be used even more effectively!

Don't be afraid to break away for a bit. Sometimes, that's all you need to get the thirst back.

Cycles

Someone asked me why my final blog post for NaNoWriMo was just moving on to the future like that, and why I never really stopped to reflect on how great this November was.

Hey, November has been my favorite month for the last five years, ever since I discovered this program. And I still get just as much out of it as everyone else does. Unfortunately, since I know I can't make it to a "Thank God It's Over" party, I haven't really had any encouragement to express my excitement. I guess that's always how it's been--halfway into December people go, "Oh hey did you ever finish that novel?" (Besides, I'm already being flooded by everyone else's long reactions to the month, and I don't want to be repetitive!)

It's more than that, though, I think. It has to do with my personal thoughts about progress and accomplishment. Yes, this is probably going to get a little philosophical, but hear me out.

What's just happened is kind of like a vacation. When you go on vacation, everything else in life is kind of put on hold for a bit, as best you can manage. But it's not gone. It's waiting for you as soon as you get home, and it might even be a bit tougher while you catch up to things!

Or you could compare it to getting your dream job. When that happens, you certainly feel triumphant, and you celebrate. Then after that, it's time to actually go to work. You're excited, you get a good feel for it, and then, if it really is your dream job, you probably set out to have some kind of success at it, right? You have a new goal, and you move on to it, but it builds on your last goal that you accomplished.

For me, finishing NaNoWriMo is both of these things. It's both a return to normal life from something really enjoyable, and something to celebrate in its own right, but ultimately I have to move on to the next goal beyond that. Does that mean I'll never be satisfied? Maybe. But I feel like everything I do is building up to something really amazing. One day it's going to add up to an amazing collection of books. And that's a goal worth striving for.

Endings, 2012

Well, NaNoWriMo is over. Whatever your "done" is, you're done. In a few moments it will be December in the vast majority of time zones, including the one I'm living in. (If you live somewhere that still gives you a little time, come back and read this later!)

That means it's finally okay to look ahead, and that's exactly what I'm doing. I have my writing life pretty much mapped out for the next several months, so here we go.

Starting tomorrow I'm going back to rewriting The Third Face. This time, though, I have a (working) plan for it, chapter by chapter. My goal is to write one every day, and since the plan has around 43 chapters (though I may deviate from it a tiny bit) it ought to be done in the middle of January.

After that, I'm going to start looking back into some marketing things. I'll also try and get some kind of art contest going for the new cover. This will also be some time to plan the other two books in the trilogy as fully as I've done for this one. That should keep me busy for a while, and then I'll be editing and promoting, leading up to the book's re-release on April 5th--the same day the original came out.

Even at that point I'll already be back to writing like crazy, though. That's because Script Frenzy is in April*, and though I've only tried it once, and failed (back in 2010), I'm going to do it this time without fail! The script I have planned is "adapt The Third Face into an anime," so we'll see how that goes! And as soon as I'm done with that, it'll be back to novels for the second book, The Demon's Guardian, which should hopefully be done, in draft form at least, in the following three months. Finally, in August 2013 it's off to Camp NaNoWriMo for the crazy crossover I mentioned a couple of posts ago!

The ideal scenario is that I get The Demon's Guardian published by this time next year. Optimistic? Maybe. I'll be a bit more sure of myself once I see if my schedule for The Third Face works out as well as I'd like!

What are your plans for December and beyond?

*EDIT: I just found out that the official Script Frenzy was shut down due to lack of funds. That's really sad! But I'm still going to do it anyway.

Winding Down

I know a lot of my readers here are NaNoWriMo participants, so this one's for you.

The last couple of days are where things get a little bit crazy. Many people are already finished, but the vast majority of people are still scrambling to get done. You don't hear as much from the latter, though, because they're too busy trying to write! So those of us who have finished early are the only ones here to give advice to the people who aren't done, even though we aren't experiencing the same thing.

Yesterday I considered making a blog entry about my plans for after November, plans which I've actually already gotten started on just a little. But I didn't do it, because if you're not done with NaNoWriMo yet then thinking about life after November is the last thing you need to do. (By done, it may mean getting to 50,000 or finishing your novel or just writing all the way up to the end. At this point you ought to be able to tell what done looks like for you, and it doesn't have to be the same as anyone else's!)

When you get close to the end it's easy to fall into. You think, "Finally! I'm almost done! Soon I'll be able to do all the things I've been putting off, reward myself, and everything!" This is the point where NaNoWriMo is actually harder for people who do a lot of writing, because we can't help but think about the next project. But I think everyone kind of has that thing that they want to do once they finish and open up a large block of free time.

But if you're not done, as I mentioned above, then that free time isn't open yet. And I guarantee once you get that time, you'll have plenty of chances to relax and have all of those thoughts. The key to finishing now is to live in the moment. The memes don't say "December is coming," because that's not what's happening. You are in one of the last days in November, and that's just how it is. Nothing can happen after that unless you do your best right now.

Good luck to everyone playing catch-up, especially my buddy Duth Olec, who's racing to get 10,000 words out of the last couple of days here!

Reverse Cliffhanger Ending

This time, it's the author that's worried about what will happen next!

Well, the good news is that I finished NaNoWriMo 2012, claiming it as my fifth completion. The climactic clash went down without a hitch and my characters found themselves at a happy ending.

The problem? In doing so I accidentally left some very clear hooks for two sequels. Completely separate, distinct ones going in totally different directions. The ending pretty much calls for them in such a way that if people read this novel and I then said there weren't going to be those sequels, they'd be disappointed and possibly mad at me.

One is pretty simple. In the course of the novel, a baby is born. This baby, Oliver, is apparently the center of all of the conflict in the Bridge of Time, because removing him from time will supposedly have a large effect on the future of his world. I haven't ever mentioned how exactly, so this leaves his entire life open with a promise that it will be interesting.

Meanwhile, and much more alarmingly, a couple residents of the other timeline end up falling below the Bridge, and end up in an area I invented a while back for another novel. It's called the Paradox Slip, and it's home to everything that's ever been erased from a universe, whether that's because of time traveling matters or because I, the author, got rid of it. In fact, the place they land in is a setting that I scrapped from a story back when I was like 12 because then I already knew it was stupid.

It follows, then, that every character and story that I've ever chosen not to use or bring back, and everything that fell victim to the time travel trap (which is a surprisingly large amount of stuff in my writing!) is going to be there. This includes a villain in another novel who the heroes were only able to defeat by preventing him from ever being born, and so he's naturally taken control of this world. What I've got on my hands, in effect, is a crossover between everything I have ever written. Ever.

You can see that I'm just a little bit afraid here.

Climactic Clash: An Excerpt

The main reason it's been most of a week since I posted here is because I've been hard at work trying to juggle homework with this novel! I'm so close to being done that I can taste it, but that only slows me down, I think.

Anyway, since I'm too busy writing it to say much else, have an excerpt from the final battle. This should be just enough to leave you completely confused! (But then again, what else do you expect from a NaNo novel?)

The corpse of Anise Black rushed forward across the Bridge of Time and slammed into Ed, knocking him to the ground and causing him to drop Das Ende.
He shot her several more times, point blank, until he was out of ammunition. Then, as Eibmoz had, she disintegrated.
Ed looked up to see the blade of a sword pointed at him.
“You killed Anise,” said Aaron.
“Yes. Why do you care? Run along back to your world. She's still alive there.”
“You really are stupid, aren't you, Doctor? Here, let me make it clear for you!”
With that, Aaron yelled and came down with his blade, chopping off Ed's left hand. The pistol fell down into the abyss.
Ed rolled the other way and got up. “How did you get such strength so quickly?”
“It's me, stupid! I came up with this plan! I wanted to get close to you instead of him, so I could finish you personally! And I wanted to see Anise up close one last time before it all fell apart!”
“Oh. Doomy. Didn't expect it to be you. Right then. Just one question before we fight.”
“What?”
“What did you do with Oliver?” 

The Bridge of Time

The thing about NaNo novels is that they change.

Like, one year my novel about a prince who dreamed up the entire real world turned into a dark adventure featuring a memory-eating tower and a collection of souls in jars. Another year, it started out with a homeless guy fighting to retain ownership of his hat, and ended up as a vast, deadly game between two gods on a bet.

This one has already changed before. Let's recap: originally this was supposed to be about a depressed guy doing crazy and stupid things due to a Homestuck obsession. Then the depressed guy started getting therapy and help, and the novel was supposed to be about him becoming a better man.

It turns out that I am just naturally required to take it up a notch. And thus, what I have today.

Shortly after making Aaron attempt suicide, and seeing the consequences, I decided I wasn't too happy with them. I began an alternate scenario where he decides not to jump. Instead he murders Anise, who is oddly forgiving to him about that fate. I named this section "Timeline B" for convenience.

Then I dabbled in "Timeline A" again. Yes, apparently, I can't let go of either of them. That only leads me to one conclusion: I have to form a connection between them. Thus, I recently wrote a scene previewing the construction of this mysterious Bridge of Time, which will be used for just that purpose. The interesting thing, which I have not yet revealed, is exactly who is building said bridge...

The end is near. I'm hoping to hit 40,000 words tonight, and once I do, it'll be indisputably time to accelerate into the ending zone. I like the ending zone.

Blog-splosion

Wow, it's already been a week since my last blog entry. At the pace I've been trying to keep, that's too long. There's a reason for that, but it's personal, and I don't really want to get into it too much here, since this blog is all about writing, and I don't want to derail things.

But that doesn't mean I should hide my personal life from the world. If you want to know a bit more about me as a person, you should have that option. I'm real, living and breathing! Things happen to me, and I react in certain ways. My writing wouldn't be where it is if it wasn't for the events in my life.

So to give you that option, without forcing that information on you, I'm creating a second blog called Becoming the Catalyst (a reference to an All That Remains song that I love) and it will handle all of that stuff. At time of this writing, I haven't actually made any entries to it, but the bare bones of it are there, to be worked on over the next few days when I get the chance.

Meanwhile, I've got a couple of things going on over at Wordpress. I'll soon be doing a test run to review some video games over at Operation Rainfall, and that should give me some more experience blogging and using that particular setup. After that, it'll be time to try my hand at my own website there.

Basically, I want it to be my new writing hub, with all the information and news I share available in one place through their more advanced systems. I like Blogger a lot, but it's a bit too limited in some aspects.

That doesn't mean this blog is going to shut down, though. My plan is to set up a system so that when I post on the new Wordpress blog, a copy is automatically published here on Blogger. There's no guarantee it'll work, but it's my best shot right now.

Wish me luck keeping track of all these!

The Value of Foil

Here's one for the writers. Now I know what you must be thinking. I'm not talking about aluminum foil. I'm not talking about the old math technique. I'm not even talking about foiling an evil villain's plans. I'm talking about a character.

A foil is someone who's the exact opposite of your main character, personality-wise. It sounds simple enough. But most people roll that in with their antagonist, and it doesn't work that way. The main thing about the foil is that they have no idea that the things they're doing might actually be bothering the main character. The way this person acts just happens to highlight the main character's weaknesses and insecurities (at least within the story--you, the author, should be very intentional about it!)

If you're doing NaNoWriMo, you probably already have a foil in your story and don't even know it. In fact, this is probably one of the biggest things writers tend to do without even thinking about it. And that's great! But if you realize why you have that there, you can make it that much stronger. Not only that, but some people don't have it at all.

My novel didn't have a foil for about 20,000 words.

That's probably why the vast majority of those words were just internal monologue! My character was literally just sitting around, doing nothing except feeling sorry for himself and occasionally talking to a few girls and let them walk all over him. Sure. Great. There's his life. Could happen to anybody. Who wants to read that?

It doesn't become interesting at all until you see Ed Morse, picking up women nonchalantly and practically incapable of frowning. The only thing that he has in common with Aaron is an inner madness that occasionally creeps up in both of them, but it sends them both in very different directions.

I've hardly had time to play with this dynamic here, but it's what put the spark in a dying novel. Think about your novel for a minute. Do you have a foil in place? Please comment--I'd love to see what you have to say.

Complete Direction Change

You know all that stuff about Homestuck and all that I said about what this novel is about, and where it's meant to go?

Well, that's all gone out the window. My original concept is gone. I realized a while ago that the "hilarity ensues" part was not happening, and it just took me until now to see that everything I was talking about actually wasn't going to be a big part of my novel. Sure, I talked about Homestuck at length, but Aaron's obsession with it only led to the way things are right now.

Naturally, once the breakup happened, Aaron was crushed. He took solace in the online adventures, but his desire to find a "moirail" (someone who calms you down when you're doing something crazy) led him to the idea of attempting suicide. Now he's jumped off a building and just about everything in his body is broken. Lovely!

So now he has a therapist, a really kooky guy named Ed Morse who embraces insanity and embodies confidence. (If you get the connection in that character, hats off to you.) This is where he becomes a role model for Aaron, and suddenly the older man is giving him tons of dating advice. Coincidentally, and unbeknownst to Aaron, Anise is also going to Ed for dating coaching!

The result of this, and the way Aaron grows up and becomes someone worth respecting, is the new future of this novel. Almost halfway in and I just now figured that out! He could still do something crazy and self-damaging again, but I doubt it. Looks like after 20,000 words I'm finally making this depressing  book into something positive. And that's just a good thing for everyone, now, isn't it?

Time Shenanigans

I went to another write-in tonight. At first it was quiet, and I typed silently along with everyone else. Then, a couple more people arrived, and suddenly we were all talking. Amazingly, I still got a day's work in, even though I felt like I spent more time there talking to everyone than anything else!

It's even more amazing because, for the first time, I hit a roadblock. Aaron is currently in a coma and neither his dreams nor the actions of anyone else are really that interesting--they're just filler right now. Of course that filler has gotten me up to 20,000 words already, so when I complained about my problems people looked at me funny. Oops! It sounds kind of arrogant that way, doesn't it?

Anyway, I wanted to stay longer, but I didn't have internet, and I really wanted to make sure my word count was updated before midnight. So I left at 11:00... and immediately got lost. Soon I was driving by a school I'd never heard of and through a residential area with no sign of where I was. I thought I'd never get home!

Then I had a sudden epiphany: I had my phone! I parked somewhere for a minute, pulled it out, and found to my relief that I had 3G. Quickly I rushed onto the NaNoWriMo site and updated my word count from there. Success! Oh and then I also looked up directions to get home.

Yup. I clearly have all my priorities straight.

Sudden Fiction

The crazy thing about this November is juggling NaNoWriMo with work, school, and my other responsibilities. For one of my classes, I've been asked to write a short piece of "sudden fiction" based on the prompt: "Your character reveals his or her secret." I then got a second part to that prompt, the secret itself. Hopefully that will come through when you read the story below (which has no title at the moment).

The writing revolves around the concept of body language as a big part of communication. I wanted to see if I was capable of using that effectively. If I was successful, then you should be able to piece together a couple of things that the characters aren't actually saying.

“Why are you telling me this?” he said.
She stared at his eyes, which were fixed on the window. His mouth was covered by his clasped hands, muffling his words.
“Because I thought…” She choked on her words.
She looked down and drew back, hugging herself. She let out a breath, and brought one back in. One more time she looked up at him. Eye contact.
“I thought you would give me a chance,” she said. Her tight fists trembled.
He held her gaze for a long time. “Why would I?”
“Maybe I could be better for you. I know she’s making you happy, but maybe I could...”
When she said she’s making you happy, he finally looked away, down to the side.
There was a long silence, and her gaze fell too.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.
“Huh?” She leaned close towards him.
He didn’t respond for a minute, lost in thought, it seemed. Then he stood up, looking down at her, frowning. “Don’t throw the word love around. It’s a mistake.”
With that, he turned away and walked out the door.
Once he had left, she let go and cried.

First Milestone

In my last full-length post, I talked about how my experience and techniques helped me to increase my word count dramatically. In fact, I've consistently gone into half-hour chunks of time and come out with close to 1000 words--and now, on Day 3, I've already hit the 10,000 mark.

This is where I have to start to think about something. You see, according to the structure workshop I mentioned in an earlier post, my "first plot point" should be somewhere around the 20%-25% mark of the novel. Assuming I finish the novel in 50,000 words, that means it's roughly somewhere between now and about 12,500 words.

The "first plot point" is where you transition from illustrating the character's normal life to getting into the actual conflict and subject matter of the book. In fact, I spent this entire 10,000 words illustrating just how bad Aaron's life is, and why he's so depressed. Actually, I have to wrap that up pretty soon, because I want it to culminate in a low point. That's when he'll discover Homestuck, as I mentioned in my summary.

So what's the situation so far? Starting from a massive breakup (which draws heavily on my own experience), Aaron already feels pretty worthless. Worse, another girl that he thinks is interested in him turns out to already have a boyfriend, and when he asks her on a date they go as "just friends." This is awkward and reinforces the idea that nobody likes him that way.

That's when things get complicated. Aaron finds himself with Anise Black, a girl that's much too young for him, to the tune of 13 years old to his 17. Ouch. She's about as depressed as he is, and the two of them become close by reassuring each other and helping build one another's self esteem. This may seem like a good thing, but Anise is very interested in getting sexual, and Aaron is not.

Meanwhile, because of their age difference, their relationship is secret. In order to help cover it up, Aaron starts a "fake" relationship with Shelly, an old friend of his, who's in a similar situation. As you might suspect, he becomes closer to her than he planned, and Anise is extremely jealous. She gets angry, and in turn Aaron shares that problem with Shelly, since she's the only one who knows about Anise. Things are spiraling out of control, and in my next scene it's all going to come crashing down.

Quick Announcement

Just wanted to note--my word count, as updated on the NaNoWriMo site, is now featured on the right side here. There are a couple of other minor changes I made to make the blog more accessible to people who want to keep up with it, too.

Since I'm here--things haven't slowed down. It's going great!

Expertise

The kickoff party last night was amazing! There was a lot of talking and sorting things out as midnight crept up, and we exchanged a lot of advice. The energy was high, probably due to the presence of LOTS of Halloween candy.

There was one thing that happened that felt strange to me, though. A new novelist came in and asked how many people were doing NaNoWriMo for the very first time. Of course, a couple of hands went up. Then people started sharing how many years they'd done it, and how many wins they had accumulated.

Confidently, I said that this year would be my fifth. Everyone stared. I might have been the youngest person there, but suddenly I commanded a strange respect, the quiet guy that hardly anyone had noticed before. People started asking me questions, like whether it got easier the more times you did it. I said no, it's always difficult. Which, in my experience, has always been true. You can't get through this without a fight. It was the most honest answer I could give. Or so I thought.

One other thing I did, which I feel is relevant: I confessed that this year would probably produce my worst novel yet. And I was okay with that.

As midnight approached, someone began to count the minutes. With thirty to go, I had my first sentence in my head and my fingers above the keyboard. I channeled my inner insanity: tilted my head, widened my eyes, and made a giant grin. My brain got the message.

 The instant I heard zero I was on the rampage that I had anticipated, my keyboard the machine gun, with no worries of running out of ammunition. Oh, and there's no doubt that I did indeed massacre that kickoff: after half an hour we stopped and compared word counts. I heard 250, 300, 500, 800. I didn't want to tell them mine, but I did. It was something like 1100 words.

I had spent that entire time recounting events from my own life, skimming them and deliberately leaving out the happy parts to leave a picture of a very depressed young man to begin with. I was sure it was the wild anticipation that had done it, but once again I channeled my crazy, and by 1AM my total word count was 2276. I managed yet another half hour just this evening, with similar results.

Who knows? Maybe I am really good at this now after all. Obviously part of it was my statement, my worst novel ever, which killed all quality control outright--something we're told to do time and time again. But I think just as important were the madness that drove me, and the method of listing things very specific and personal to me. I think everyone can do those things, at least. We're all a little crazy. Otherwise we wouldn't be doing this. And putting in a bit of yourself comes with the trade--it might be tough if your novel is really "out there," but you can always find a way.

Whew! Too bad this blog post isn't part of my novel--I spent another half-hour working on it. Ah, well, I'm off to do more of my absolutely insane writing--and you should, too!

BwaHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAhahahahahahhahaaHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAA

New Beginnings

While I try not to let on in this blog--due to the fact that it's really not the subject of this blog to discuss such things--I've been in kind of a slump. There are reasons for that, and most are emotional, and rather personal, in nature. I won't get into it too much, but it slowed my writing to a crawl, nearly a halt.

The kicker was the other night when my primary computer shut off, permanently. I'll survive, but that kind of prevents the Halloween art I was going to post up here as a fun little thing. My characters were going to be in costume and it was going to be great. Ah, well. One of these days I'll upload it anyway, though the surprise will be ruined.

Anyway, back on subject here, today was kind of a turning point for me. Again, getting a little personal, but I'll just say that my to-do list is a heck of a lot shorter than it was yesterday. That helps a lot, because I was getting to where I just didn't think I could do it. I considered dropping out of NaNoWriMo for the first time in 5 years.

Pfft! What was I thinking. Back down now? On the very brink of what promises to be another insane, amazing, fun, silly, harrowing adventure of a month?! Now that I'm going it with a lot more friends than ever before?! When I already made plans to make it to the kickoff at midnight, despite working at 10 AM the next morning?!

I think not. No way. If there's one thing I know I'm capable of, and that's yet still a really impressive feat, it's finishing a NaNoWriMo. Where else am I going to get my confidence back? Also, because my character this year has a few shades of my inner self, it'll be therapeutic in that sense, too. Once I come out of my day-long coma December 1st, I should have my drive back in full force.

Look at Me!

Everyone on the internet wants attention. That's just how it is, right? Whether you're an author scrounging for an audience or just some random person posting your thoughts somewhere, it's all turned into a complicated popularity contest. Luckily, it's perfectly fine--even a good thing--to share victory. Now, I don't exactly have any victory to go around, but we all start somewhere, right? Maybe it's the same for you. Either way, I think we can all learn something from each other if we just share our thoughts on the matter. So here are mine.

The way I see it, attracting people who consistently look at your content, time after time (the most valuable kind of attention you can ask for) is a bit of a balancing act. Yup, time to roll out the three-point system, bane of essays and speeches everywhere.

First, you have to have some kind of general subject matter that you stick to pretty consistently. In my case, that's writing, specifically sci-fi and fantasy (what else do you expect?) It's a continuous look at what influences my work day-to-day and how I respond. I pretty much never deviate from that. That's the easy part, to me at least.

Building on your subject, you then need to offer content that's either useful or entertaining in some way. Entertaining might mean you have a short story or video every week or two that keeps the people's attention (this is how most YouTube channels get their followings.) As for being useful, I think that's the thing that a lot of people have trouble with. They think they don't have any new or interesting information to present to the world. I certainly haven't done a good job at this aspect up until now, but I think that because everyone has a unique take on everything, it's a matter of getting creative.

Finally, make sure to add a personal touch. Nobody wants to read something written by a faceless robot (except maybe to see how faceless robots write, but once the novelty wears off they'll lose interest.) If you're a writer and you have a developed voice in your work, by God please use it. I've had enough boring reading. Yes, think about how you write, and also, find places where you can hint about other aspects of your life.

Okay, now in case you're not exhausted of all blatantly working too hard to take my own advice, it's example time. In fact, this is what got me thinking about this topic. I was reading my philosophy textbook for college, and all of a sudden the author brought up his dog. Apparently the dog's growing and shedding of fur perfectly illustrated the theory we were talking about. We were still on the topic of philosophy, it turned out, so he didn't violate that. Not only that, but it helped in understanding what I was trying to learn. And, of course, I now know a little bit more about the textbook author (who I didn't really think of as a person before.)

Funnily enough, I pretty much did the same thing by citing that example, didn't I? But if I bring that up then I have to point out that I'm still doing it and now we start getting into an infinite loop and okay I think it's about time to wrap this up! It was kind of a long post but I wanted to not only tell you guys what I think but also have lots of chances to use those techniques myself. Thanks for being so patient, and for actually reading my blog in the first place for that matter. I'd love to see what you guys think about this, too, so please feel free to comment.

Awkward Romance

So, NaNoWriMo is coming up, and like many years I have a pretty bare-bones type of plan in mind for it. One that could go anywhere, has potential to be silly, and, most importantly, does not compel me to believe the resulting novel will actually do anything for my writing career. (This last condition is the trump card against my inner editor.)

The way it does this? By blurring the line between fan fiction (something based in another creator's work) and originality. My novel, tentatively titled "The Lifey Thing," is rooted in an intellectual property that is now not only a story but an entire culture. This culture, which can now be seen filling conventions everywhere, is where the main character resides.

Yes, like me, my character Aaron is a big fan of the hit hybrid-media webcomic Homestuck. Actually, he's a bigger fan. Instead of just buying some cards and throwing together a cheap Halloween costume to show his love for it, he discovers it and then immediately becomes obsessive. To the point where he starts taking all the quizzes out there to find what character role fits him, and then does everything he can to follow it.

Not only that, but he gets into things like "troll romance," in which love is divided into four quadrants that are symbolized by playing card suits. Hearts is pretty much what you expect, while diamonds and clubs are more or less platonic. It's spades that makes this really weird stuff. Spades represents the kismesis, a person you hate passionately but are somehow still very attracted to. Aaron believes that he'll only be satisfied if he can somehow get both a traditional romance (which he never had any success with in the first place) and a kismesis.

Needless to say, the people around him have no idea why he's acting the way he does. It makes no sense. He may throw away reason and the things that are best for him just to get into this. Is there even the slightest possibility that his extreme attitude would ever pay off? That's what I'm setting out to explore this November.

Ready for NaNoWriMo?

Oh, boy. This is going to be a tough month.

As you all already know, I've got college and work going on, and it's been a tough juggle. Trying to update this blog and make even a little bit of effort on The Third Face each day has been about all I could do.

So basically, when November rolls around, I will never have a spare minute.

If you're new to my blog and you don't know what NaNoWriMo is, back up a bit. Read this a sec. I'm trying to write a novel in a month here. Craziness by itself, but I've done it before. (You should too.) It was tough every time. I didn't have this kind of workload back then, though.

The problem is finding those spare hours, every day, and actually having the will to use them. It's about still wanting to work on something when I've already been at work all day. It's about still being able to type after doing homework for hours. It's about still having some energy after taking classes until 9 at night and driving home. Every. Single. Day. For 30 days.

Can I do it? We'll see. You'll definitely know whether I do or not. As usual, when I'm in the midst of something big like this I can't help but share what's going on with it through this blog. In fact, next time I'll tell you exactly what I have planned for this year.

Novel Planning: How Much?

If you're as serious about novel writing as I am, then you've probably gone out of your way to find the best advice there is. How can you write a novel that people will love, and that will actually sell?

There are a lot of different opinions on it. I see a pattern where some writers call for a lot of planning. One site claimed that you should outline your novel so thoroughly that you have a paragraph explaining every single chapter, and then write the actual thing as fast as you can with minimal editing. Yeah, I'm SURE that will solve everything.

More recently I had a look at Storyfix.com, a blog by author Larry Brooks that suggests there are certain areas of any novel (or film) which all need to work together to make it great. Like many others, Larry Brooks advocates a planned structure: four parts with their own specific functions, and several key points that either highlight or separate them. It's a very involved, disciplined way of looking at things.

The question is, is this overdoing it? Is it going to kill the novel-writing process? I guess that depends on what you want most out of it, and how close you feel to having it right yourself. I know I'm still not happy with the way mine is written, so to me, it's worth a try.

Still, there's a full-page checklist on there and after an hour's concentration I'm still working on the opening sequence here. This thing is asking a lot! But it seems to me that there's a lot of merit to at least answering these questions, and using them to write the novel--whether I decide to actually go with the structure prescribed or not.

Basically what I'm saying is, I'm going to give the techniques in that blog a try. Some day I'll let you guys know how that came out. First, though, I have NaNoWriMo--look out for talk about that next time.

The Man in the Brown Bandanna

Today you get a free short story that doubles as an introduction to The Third Face. Enjoy!

Art Attack

Good storytelling is a visual thing. The whole idea of it is to engage your reader's senses in your events. To do that, the author has to have those images very vividly in his or her mind as well.

The more strange or abstract that world is, the more it helps to have backup for the words on the page. Usually that means art.

Needless to say, I like drawing. I don't consider myself a great artist, but all the character illustrations that went with the release of The Third Face were mine. To the left here is another drawing of those characters that I did a bit more recently.

Other than this, though, I haven't drawn a thing in months. Time to fix that! There's another major character I want to introduce that way, and a bigger project that would be great to have done by Halloween.

So yes, expect images on blog posts to be a much more common thing from now on.

Review: The Subtle Knife

One of my first ever blog posts was when I reviewed Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass. Why it's taken me almost two years to get to and read through the sequel, The Subtle Knife, is anyone's guess.

The first book took place in a world where everyone has a daemon, or spiritual animal, alongside them. Witches, shamans, and other strange cultures stand alongside an all-powerful church that worships "The Authority." There are always little names and places that hint at it being very similar to our world, but it feels like a fantastical parallel that Pullman has used in place of Earth.

That all goes out the window when we meet Will, who lives in the real world. Somehow, though, he manages to find a gap in reality that takes him to other worlds, and these "windows" are the focus of this book. Like Lyra, Will has an internal struggle to deal with while he learns the art of using a powerful tool. The call of childhood comforts constantly pulls at his need to fight, to win, to kill in order to survive.

I said in the first book's review that you can kind of ignore the religious undertones in it. That, too, has completely changed. The flight of the Angels and the impending war to destroy The Authority are pulling that into light, and I can expect to see this issue take over completely in The Amber Spyglass.

There are other things that have changed, which I don't like so much. Lyra seems really dumbed down here. While she and Will fight a bit early on, after a while she decides she's just going to do what he says. Where's the strong-willed, clever girl with the savage mind I grew to love in the first book? Other characters acknowledge the change, but only in passing.

Because of this closeness that gets established between the main characters, Pullman likes to jump between them freely, revealing the thoughts of both in the same breath. While this could have to do with Lyra's apparent powers of perception, it's still kind of an unfocused view. I felt a little detached at times, and the narrative, filled with vague thoughts, sometimes bored me even though I was rabidly eager to find out what happened next in this amazing plot.

Still, the things I'm unhappy about are certainly not enough to make me drop a story as daring as this one. One thing that still hasn't changed: Philip Pullman is not afraid to take risks, and that is where his work shines.

WeMiSciFan... Fans?

Gah that is hard to try and abbreviate.

What I mean to say is, West Michigan Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans. That's quite a mouthful, isn't it? But it's the only thing that can properly describe the group I recently started over on Facebook. Maybe we should come up with an entirely different name... hmmm...

Anyway, yeah. I invited my friends who fit the description, and they invited some of their friends, and we're definitely off to a good start for a week-old Facebook group that doesn't have another organization behind it. It's nothing fancy and there aren't really any rules or anything, but who needs that stuff anyway? Not unless we see some huge growth in membership...

Still, we're doing quite a few cool things already. The main thing, of course, is plain ol' discussion, where we debate about zombies and bring up our favorite (and least favorite) pieces of sci-fi and fantasy. In addition, there's already at least one piece of writing that a member has put on the table, a science fiction poem he wrote. Other events we're getting started with are Book of the Month and Friday Reads (in which everyone brings up what they're reading on Friday.)

Sound good? It's an open group, and the "West Michigan" part is not a hard border on who and who cannot join. It's more like a phrase that I include so that I'm not trying to be competitive with groups on the national or international level, because this is a smaller group. The point is, anyone is welcome!

If you're interested in joining,

Back to Reviews: Textbook Edition?!

I'm not an academics fan. The phrase "Power Point" triggers a groan reflex. Despite being on my second semester of college, I don't actually know how to study or take notes. Math teachers complain because I'd rather take shortcuts than show work.

Because of that, I've been getting a lot of disbelieving stares lately. People are just not prepared to accept what I'm going to say in today's entry.

I love this textbook.

The Practice of Creative Writing by Heather Sellers is the first time in a long while that I've heard something new about writing. This book isn't going to repeat "show don't tell" mantras and pour reasons on your head like it's trying to exorcise you of your bad writing habits. There's no repetitive grammar exercises, either.

Instead, the book is a fast track for a person who's already capable of putting words on the page, to become a real writer. If you're thinking about making something that a lot of people will actually want to read, these are the things you need to know. You're going to see all the pieces that activate the real power in any piece of writing. It shows you how to master energy and tension, where to find the beats in the story, how to make scenes matter and skip the ones that don't.

This textbook is my #1 motivation for going back and rewriting my book, from the beginning. All these techniques will really make it something amazing! It made me really excited to tear the whole thing apart and build it back up again, making it the best it can be.

This book has that kind of power, and I really think any serious writer needs to read it. Where nonfiction goes, it has my highest recommendation.

More Blog!

As of this writing, the header for this blog begins, "Constantly spewing out ridiculous amounts of information..." Would you say that's right? No? Me neither. I should be more honest, don't you think? Well, rather than change that right now, I think I'm going to try and actually live up to it.

The main reason is actually that I have a lot of things to talk about all of a sudden. I had a tough decision to make on which subject I wanted to blog first--there are at least 2 more important ones nagging at me right now, so expect those pretty soon.

Before this, my goal was "try to get 2 entries a month." That's hardly anything and I still didn't do it, because it didn't seem like anything important was happening. Well, this time I'm going to try to open up to the public a bit more. You'll find the books I'm reading, the writing articles I found helpful, events, and of course, novel updates!

So what's my new goal? Every other day. I'm not going to beat myself up if I don't do it perfectly, or if I happen to be gone every once in a while, but that's the ideal here. I mean, remember when The Third Face was first coming out and I posted every single day--sometimes more than once? If I can do that, I can do this.

Check back soon.

The Tarot Method

Just the mention of the word "tarot" might make some readers turn away. It's one of those mystical things associated with psychics and gypsies and all that. Let's set aside the debate about whether the cards can tell the future and such. In this post, I'd rather present them as an author's tool.

Every tarot card has a significant amount of symbolism behind it. The name is just a label, and to understand it you have to know a little bit about the picture on the card, the history of the card, and its place in the set. What I'm getting at is, the cards are complex, and they're not always what meets the eye--much like a good character.

So, the tarot method is this: for each main/major character, choose a tarot card that sounds like him or her. Assign that card to the character. Now, whether you know the cards or not, look into the meaning of the card, and apply that meaning to the character.

For example, I might look through the names of cards and say, "Well, Lina certainly acts like (and is sometimes referred to as) a queen. She must be The Empress!" But I know that The Empress is actually a motherly, nurturing figure--nothing like Lina at all! Could that be a hidden side of her that gives her a bit more dimension? Certainly. Bam, character development.

I have 11 major characters, and I assigned them each two cards, one at random, the other through my choice. That leaves me with a lot to consider, perfect for expanding on what's already a complicated story--I have to keep this up for a whole trilogy, after all!

Exploring Characters

So what exactly can you expect from the second edition of The Third Face? I kind of hinted that I want it to be longer, but besides that there's really been little about the actual content of this update.

First and foremost, I want to take a look at each of my characters. Some of them have had plenty of time in the limelight, and others didn't appear at all until the last few chapters. It seemed as if I did that with no rhyme or reason other than what made sense with the flow of the story.

But the book could grow significantly if I gave all those other characters their own sides of the story, in full. I mean, there's been a lot of just vaguely mentioning what people were up to, and that kind of continued in The Demon's Guardian, admittedly. I don't think that's really necessary, because there's definitely a lot of room for expansion with such a short book!

Not only do I want to spend more time on each character, I want to add some smaller things to help them come alive. What's the character's worst fear? Does he or she have a nervous tic? What foods do they like best? I won't just add these things in for their own sake, but when I get the chance I'd like to demonstrate some of them over the course of the trilogy.

There's one other way I want to expand on my characters, but I think that one deserves its own entry, so check back in about a week for that!

Rewrite

Now for the most overdue post in the history of this blog: the one where I announce the thing I've already announced everywhere else.

If you haven't bought The Third Face yet, get over to Smashwords and grab it for FREE this week! On September 29th, the version I originally published is going to disappear forever.

That's because I've decided it needs a complete rewrite. Spending a couple of hours in Creative Writing class, combined with my regrets about the story, confirmed that for me. I mean, in that class, I actually LIKE reading the textbook! It's a good class, and even though we're completely focused on poetry, it all applies to novel writing, too.

Thus, this book is going to be completely unavailable for, perhaps, a few months. But it will be completely worth it for the places I'm going to take it--this time, I can rightly refer to it as a novel, rather than the novella it really is. At least, that's my hope.

Change of Plans

Every writer, at some point, has to deal with their "normal" job and/or education getting in the way. I'd say that point is going to come for me pretty soon here.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, instead of just the occasional class here and there, I'm suddenly taking 13 credits this semester, and art isn't one of them. That wouldn't be a problem if I didn't also have a job. I made sure I don't have work and class on the same days, but the homework load is going to be a bit of a problem.

That starts in September, which is the month I was thinking about starting on a second draft of The Demon's Guardian (not to mention some extras for the series that are still under wraps). Needless to say, that's pretty much going out the window. I'm not even sure if I'll make NaNoWriMo this November, which would be a crying shame after winning 4 years in a row.

In fact, my secret goal was to release The Demon's Guardian as early as December, but my college semester doesn't even end until then. So, if I want to write, I'll have to squeeze it in with whatever moments I get. That probably means there will be even less time for this blog, but it's okay. I'll keep you updated with whatever is happening.

Or I'll try. I probably should have mentioned that my first draft was done on the 4th as scheduled. Belated hooray!

Multiple Personalities, Multiple Stories

Yes, I've thought of yet another novel idea that I may or may not ever write. Like The Third Face and its coming sequel, it's a story that features multiple personalities.

1000 years in the future, people are packed into bodies, not homes. Childbirth is restricted, and most population increase is done by artificially creating new personalities within existing brains. The rich get their minds transplanted into good-looking or athletic people, while the poor are relegated to crippled or diseased bodies.

This setting is all I have for the story so far, but I think it's an interesting enough approach. It's definitely not a thing like The Third Face, that's for sure. It'll take some extensive character designing in order to actually work. I hope I get the chance to write it, because it seems exciting to work all that out.

I don't know why I keep having these ideas, because I've never met anyone who actually has multiple personalities. The most exposure I've ever gotten to it was in a high school psychology class. There has been no movie or book I've ever looked at that covered this at all. It's actually a complete mystery.

First Look: The Demon's Guardian

In The Third Face, we met Rasuke. We learned what he's like, and why. We watched him become part of Redhand, an organization that desperately needs him and yet leaves him ignored until the last minute. We watched him make best friends and bitter enemies, and we saw some of them leave suddenly.

In the sequel, The Demon's Guardian, we see an entirely new world for Rasuke and friends to explore. It's a world completely unlike any they've ever seen, a world of space travel and laser guns. It's also a dangerous place for our heroes to live, because it's completely lacking a substance that they need to survive. They have a week's supply of it on hand, but they'll have to get back home by then. It's kind of like they're stuck in the bottom of the ocean and only have so much oxygen.

Meanwhile, back home, Redhand is looking the worse for wear. Weakened enough by the loss of the kids, it's suddenly under attack by enemies both old and new, those who've been around constantly and those that you never thought would be back. All those seemingly unimportant characters from the past are rising to bring it down. If Rasuke and friends die, Eibmoz's hope of finding the good in the lowest of creatures dies with them.

Of course, that's just scratching the surface. But if I tell you all about the romance, the horror, and the comedy that live beneath this tale, I'll be at this all day. Suffice to say, this book ought to be even better than the last.

A New Goal

The first draft of The Third Face's sequel has been going pretty slow. I consider myself about one-third of the way through it, even though I started writing it only a couple of days after The Third Face was released, over a month and a half ago.

That's why today, I decided that I want to finish it by August 3rd. It sounds like an arbitrary date, but it's perfect for personal reasons. It's also great because I can write one scene each day and I'll be at about the expected length for this new novel, which will be a bit longer than The Third Face.

One last thing. I've finally figured out the name for this new novel: The Demon's Guardian. Expect to see a little more information about it by the end of this week!

Getting Reviews

I always like it when someone not only wants to read my novel, but upon finishing it actually decides to talk to me about it. I can clearly see when this happens that someone really cared about it.

When The Third Face came out, I have to confess that I was actually surprised by how few people actually bought it, based on statistics. But that really doesn't tell the whole story at all. When I started actually talking to people, I discovered that most of the copies were actually being passed around among friends and family. That was because those buyers were the kinds of people I mentioned above: they actually care a lot about my book! That means a lot more to me than sales figures.

One person who received a copy was my favorite English teacher from high school. She shared it with her students, and recently I received an e-mail from her with comments from 5 of them. I'm so pleased with these that I'd like to share them with you now.


"It was a very thorough piece. [...] Although I typically am not a fan of fantasy-esque work, this kept me engaged."
 
"It was clever.  I am a big fan of element bending."

"This was a fresh approach.  It was interesting, even though the plot lost me in a couple of spots early on."
 
"Wow!  This was a lot of work for a high school student!"
 
"It felt like it was written by someone older.  It was pretty serious!"

While I can never thank the individuals who said these things directly (since they were all anonymous), I want to express my gratitude in general to anyone who's given their thoughts on it to anyone. When you do that, you're doing me a personal favor. That's something I thoroughly appreciate.

What's next?

Well, I've given The Third Face its time: nearly a month and a half. Surprisingly, I even backed off from my ceaseless promotion of it! To some it might seem as if I've actually forgotten about it, especially now that, I'm happy to say, I've just gotten a job.

The reality of it is that I decided to focus on more books. I've spent the majority of my free time lately reading series that I never got to completely finish when I was younger, and much of the rest on writing. Those who have read The Third Face to the end will be excited to know that I'm starting work on the sequel right now.

What can you expect from the next book? Without spoiling the ending of The Third Face, I can say that a lot of questions it posed will be answered, only to be replaced with new ones. New characters will make their way onto the scene. Others will return that you never expected to see again. The pace is about to pick up, as the main cast discovers their limits and fights to survive.

I really wish I could settle on a title right now, so I could at least give you that much. For now, just know that I'm hard at work developing the ideas to expand upon the world I've created.

Mass production is a weird thing.

So if I stop to take count, I suppose I've seen seven copies of The Third Face out there. Four of those are in my house; of the others, two are signed, and one of those two has a page in it declaring that it's a proof copy.

But there's really nothing distinguishing them besides that. Those differences are on the inside, and when I just look at them, they're all identical. Since it was released so recently, they're all basically in perfect condition, too. Seeing the same thing every time with no differences at all is tricking my mind into thinking that there's just one in existence and that it somehow is magically just moving to all of these different places.

It also doesn't help that my family, after taking breaks from reading, is leaving their copies in random places around the house. I never know when I'm going to see one next.

This probably sounds very silly, but it's starting to get to me.

Kindle Release

With all the promotion done for now, it's time to make one last announcement, in case anyone who reads this blog wants to buy the Kindle edition of The Third Face.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007REILGM

After this, things are going to simmer down considerably. I'll most likely be writing a draft or two of Hopedead, as well as reading quite a few books.

Order Paperbacks Now!

It's a couple days early, but you can start ordering paperback copies of The Third Face now!

https://www.createspace.com/3798675

This is a huge thrill for me, and I just couldn't wait any longer. For the Kindle edition, you'll have to wait for the announced date. The main reason I'm doing this is to allow for shipping times.

Interview by Duth Olec

Quick note: The Third Face's website is now up with tons of information on it.

Now to the actual entry. Duth Olec is a fellow author and a close friend of mine. I was surprised earlier today when he initiated an interview with me about the publication of The Third Face, but I'm glad to share it with everyone.

Duth: How are you publishing the book? Is it the same place you got the 5 free copies?

Me: Yes. That special offer is through CreateSpace, and once I got everything ready to print those 5 copies I realized it was a good way to publish it.

Duth: And after those first five you're paying for the publishing of each one?

Me: Not exactly. The process is not your typical publishing. Basically, when a person orders the book, Createspace prints a copy for that person, and the manufacturing cost is paid for as part of the price of the book. They also get a further cut for their service, and the rest goes to me as royalties.

Duth: And would an e-book cost less due to there not really being a manufacturing cost?

Right. E-books typically cost between 99 cents and $3, whereas the paperback edition of The Third Face is set to be priced at $6.99. I haven't decided on the e-book version's price just yet.

Duth: Does this count as self-publishing?

Yes. Createspace is handling the printing, shipping, and transactions for me, but I have to do all of the actual promotion of my book myself. That's why I've been making a lot of blog posts, putting up a website and Facebook page for it, and even making a Twitter--I want people to start noticing it before it comes out.

Duth: Do you think you'll still try to get The Third Face picked up by a publishing house?

If it gets noticed and I get a really good offer from a company that can promote it effectively, then I'll gladly accept. But I don't see myself sending any more query letters any time soon.

Duth: One last question--what are your plans for this summer?

Well, I'm still looking for a job, but I hope to have done quite a bit more reading and writing by then. I'm in the middle of the Inheritance Cycle and The Hunger Games Trilogy right now, and as for the next book I write--well, I've got a half dozen here waiting to get going!

Duth: Thanks for answering a million questions.

The Road to Self-Publishing

Since my last entry on this subject, a month has passed. I've been working constantly to perfect all the details of my book, because although I never intended to make more than 5 copies, I wanted them to be the best they could possibly be.

Somewhere in the process, I made a lot more of The Third Face public than I ever have before. I asked for some basic advice on the cover, and suddenly I was getting tips on all of the colors and details used on it. Then, when I ordered a proof copy to help perfect the layout, everyone who saw it started to get excited. It seems that when you say "I'm writing a book," most people don't really care beyond the conversation. But when there's something visible about it, everyone takes notice.

That's why even though I had pretty much lost interest in The Third Face, it's becoming something much more important now. I'm spending more time focused on it, and its direct sequel, which remains unnamed for the moment, is actually beating out other novel ideas in my mind for once. This isn't just that novel that I've been working on for way too long anymore. It's a real thing, and it's finally about to take its place in the market.

The next proof should be error-free, and at that time I'll be able to approve it, thus finally releasing The Third Face to the public, both in paperback via Createspace and as a Kindle e-book. To allow sufficient time to make sure that absolutely everything is going to be exactly the way it needs to be, the official release date is going to be Thursday, April 5th. I'll update pretty often with the status of things as that date approaches, but for now, enjoy the cover:

Voices, twisted memories, and accusations torment Rasuke, the lone human in an alien world. He can't explain his thoughts or actions, and when the pressure becomes too much to bear he's forced to escape his village. A risen demon and a crazy old dead man hold the pieces to the explanation Rasuke seeks, but he is merely a pawn in a higher war. To find the truth, prove his worth, and survive a battle decades in the making, he must confront the very messenger of his god, and win.

Larger view

New Concept: Assumptions

Authors often talk about discovering a story through writing it. These people say that while they have plans in their minds, their characters usually refuse to cooperate, and the story goes drastically off track and becomes something else entirely.

I have a feeling I've got a special case of that here. You see, this newest idea of mine comes straight from my subconscious, apparently with a fair amount of development. It came to me in a dream, complete with several characters and even a title. I don't know what the title, Assumptions, has to do with the rest of it yet, but if I start writing it, everything should become clear eventually.

The opening scene is set in some kind of college. The protagonist, Samuel, is struggling to make sense of the paperwork and find his first class, either Metalworking or Eyes and Vision (he forgot). When he tries to ask the nearest instructor for help, he finds himself waiting in a very long line that runs along a large circle of chairs, stuck behind a chubby, boastful man and a quiet young boy.

What really catches his attention is the appearance of a young woman with huge, strange eyes and sharp fangs. He's terrified by this Ziziere, but what's worse is the hissing instructor who scolds her for bothering him. This, it turns out, is the Eyes and Vision instructor, Mr. Oovalid. He demonstrates his ability to produce visions of a person's inner demons by performing on Samuel. But to his horror, he sees not just any creatures, but a massive army.

This is definitely something I want to explore. I've essentially revealed everything I know about this story, and I'm even more hooked than I would be if I'd read this as the beginning of someone else's work. If I can motivate myself to write every day, then this and Hopedead will keep me very occupied for a long time. And that's not even talking about my main series. I have my work cut out for me, and it's going to be done.

Self-Publishing?

Well, sort of. As I mentioned in a previous entry, I get 5 free paperback copies from Createspace just for having done NaNoWriMo. It took some doing, but I added just enough scenes to tie the plot together a little more and satisfy myself. Then I finally decided to get to work on the process of getting my copies printed.

It's a good thing I did. A paperback novel is very different from a Courier New manuscript, and making it look like a professional book is actually pretty difficult. It took me a day just to make the preliminary pages that come before the actual chapters. The Table of Contents was a headache of its own, and that was without the page numbers, which could only be determined after hours of formatting each and every chapter of my manuscript.

Not only that, but I have to come up with a cover. Now I've been drawing characters from this since I came up with the story early in high school, but since I haven't really taken any art classes or anything, I definitely don't trust myself to do this so easily. This is the first time I'm even going to draw more than one draft of the same drawing, and it'll probably take at least a couple of weeks just to get that part right. Then I have to scan it, add color as well as I can, and then add all the elements that make it a book cover.

Doing all of this makes me realize that what I'm doing is completely different from simply printing out the pages. I may only be making 5 copies, but all of this amounts to self-publishing. I'm learning all the elements of creating a book from scratch, and all Createspace is doing is printing copies for me. That's pretty exciting, and it's hard to believe that soon enough I'm going to be holding a professional-looking copy of my book, 100% made by me.

With lots of homework, the constant job search, and some other projects taking up my time, I can't believe that I even had a free moment to make this blog entry. Life is getting surprisingly busy.

New Concept: "Hopedead"

You know, it's very frustrating to try to edit an old novel to a deadline when you have little time to work on it and your head is filled with ideas for new novels. Maybe they're worth pursuing. Maybe not. But they shouldn't be forgotten, I think. So from now on, whenever a new plot pops into my head, I will do my best to record it to this blog.

Many fantasy stories and games start out with a basic plot that's some variant of "Something evil is trying to take over the world, and there is only one hero, chosen and/or destined to stop it." A good story these days does away with this old cookie-cutter idea. Only a few take it as a base and mangle it enough to find something compelling.

The idea of saving the entire world singlehandedly and facing impossible odds, while cliché to read about, is frightening to actually consider. If it's well-known that you're the chosen one, suddenly you're famous for something you haven't done. You're seen for what people expect of you with zero room for error and no recognition for your actual accomplishments. The heroic image starts to replace your humanity while the pressure builds around you. It's enough to drive someone insane.

In fiction you almost never see a hero lose it. Even one that's perfectly capable of becoming hysterical when things go wrong in his or her quest is really only mildly unsettled by the fame. It's quickly put out of mind to deal with something else. But what happens when one hero just can't take it anymore? What happens when the quest is over before it even begins?

Hopedead is a story of survivors, in a world whose hero has been driven to suicide.

Memo: College

A year ago, I was typing furiously at a very different blog full of very silly things like the girls I was dating and whether I liked my high school teachers or my mom at the time. I also wrote several posts about how a broken fire alarm influenced my decision to hate school and want to never ever go to college.

As you can see, all of this was very irrational of me, and I am now very glad that it is separate from this writing blog, since it's much more available to the public. My only wish is that I had the willpower to delete the old one from existence. But that's entirely beside the point.

It took me a very long time to finally change my mind and try my hand at college courses. My main problem was that something wouldn't let me realize that an unreliable prospect is the last thing you want as your backup plan. This world is pretty risky as it is, and it's only because I'm very lucky that I continue to live in any amount of comfort, let alone with the little effort I've put into my life so far.

So today, when I finally went into my very first college class, it was definitely something different for me. Funnily enough, though, even though I had put off going I was still the youngest person in the room. Most had gone to college for a while before, gone off to work for a few years, and were now coming back for further education. I felt weird for reasons much different than I was expecting.

Unfortunately, I have to admit that it hasn't been terribly exciting. We were introduced to the course, and then I learned how to write a memo. Obviously this blog post isn't a memo despite the title, but there's really not much else to say about what I actually did today. This semester will consist mostly of homework, but that's alright. The deceiving but great thing about homework is that you can do it pretty much anywhere.

New Year's Resolution

Get The Third Face revised enough so that I'm finally actually happy with it and willing to look for and send it to an agent or something. I can't just sit back and wait for my mind to come up with some sort of brilliance anymore. This is getting rather ridiculous.