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.
Constantly spewing ridiculous amounts of information about my life and my work as a science fiction and fantasy writer. Keep up with my new novels, what I've been reading, and more!
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Saturday, February 18, 2012
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.
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.
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