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.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
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.
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.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
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.
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.
Monday, January 2, 2012
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.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Predicament
Out of all the fancy certificates and stuff that the National Novel Writing Month offers after the fact to winners, there's only one thing that I find to be useful at all. A special code to CreateSpace allows 5 free paperback copies of the winner's finished novel. Needless to say, I'm planning on taking advantage of it. Not for the novel that I wrote this year, but rather The Third Face.
The problem is that I still don't think I've revised The Third Face enough to even show 5 people. There are some pretty big problems with it, mainly the near-absent setting descriptions and the overwhelming rush through a seemingly disjointed plot. Its main villain just suddenly appears in the last few chapters without fanfare, and the conflict that set off the story is not resolved, but rather conveniently escaped by the heroes.
This would all be okay if I was still willing to revise it. But as things stand, I don't even like The Third Face that much anymore. After 5 drafts of overthinking everything, I'm just kind of sick of it. I contacted someone for help, then realized I couldn't even bring myself to write a simple outline to share because I didn't want to go back through my work anymore.
The code I got is good until June 30th of next year, so it's not like I'm in a huge hurry to get this done, but I also know that I take a very long time to get done with most tasks, and tend to just forget about them if I've been neglecting them for too long. That's not a good formula in this case at all. Okay, it's never a good formula. I should probably do something about that problem, but what? How can I approach this? It's hard to get started on anything in the face of the holiday season, and I just kind of feel stuck.
The problem is that I still don't think I've revised The Third Face enough to even show 5 people. There are some pretty big problems with it, mainly the near-absent setting descriptions and the overwhelming rush through a seemingly disjointed plot. Its main villain just suddenly appears in the last few chapters without fanfare, and the conflict that set off the story is not resolved, but rather conveniently escaped by the heroes.
This would all be okay if I was still willing to revise it. But as things stand, I don't even like The Third Face that much anymore. After 5 drafts of overthinking everything, I'm just kind of sick of it. I contacted someone for help, then realized I couldn't even bring myself to write a simple outline to share because I didn't want to go back through my work anymore.
The code I got is good until June 30th of next year, so it's not like I'm in a huge hurry to get this done, but I also know that I take a very long time to get done with most tasks, and tend to just forget about them if I've been neglecting them for too long. That's not a good formula in this case at all. Okay, it's never a good formula. I should probably do something about that problem, but what? How can I approach this? It's hard to get started on anything in the face of the holiday season, and I just kind of feel stuck.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Oh Right
National Novel Writing Month ended a week ago. Before, I was constantly making blog posts about my writing, but after my lull in productivity in the novel, a similar lack of work went into this blog.
Unlike the blog, however, which has gone without a single post since then, my novel did pick back up, and I managed to finish it just in time to win! I was very excited, just as I have been each year before, and it felt great to let out the customary giant sigh of relief. There are few things more joyous than the finishing of another brand-new novel, and it never gets old, either.
After the euphoria stage came the relaxation, this idea that since the novel was finished, I could just sit back and do nothing. With no school or work, only projects that I choose to do are there to occupy me. Thus, I played video games and then spent three straight days with my girlfriend before finally coming back to reality last night.
It wasn't until a few minutes ago that I realized that, in addition to the things I had been catching up on (like steadily working out more pages for my Pokemon webcomic and uploading more gaming videos to my Youtube channel), I still had this blog to update. Naturally, I came right to it and began typing up an entry. Then I got distracted and it took another good hour to get it finished, and I still haven't gotten to any of the other things that I was about to do before I thought of this. Man, task management is hard.
Unlike the blog, however, which has gone without a single post since then, my novel did pick back up, and I managed to finish it just in time to win! I was very excited, just as I have been each year before, and it felt great to let out the customary giant sigh of relief. There are few things more joyous than the finishing of another brand-new novel, and it never gets old, either.
After the euphoria stage came the relaxation, this idea that since the novel was finished, I could just sit back and do nothing. With no school or work, only projects that I choose to do are there to occupy me. Thus, I played video games and then spent three straight days with my girlfriend before finally coming back to reality last night.
It wasn't until a few minutes ago that I realized that, in addition to the things I had been catching up on (like steadily working out more pages for my Pokemon webcomic and uploading more gaming videos to my Youtube channel), I still had this blog to update. Naturally, I came right to it and began typing up an entry. Then I got distracted and it took another good hour to get it finished, and I still haven't gotten to any of the other things that I was about to do before I thought of this. Man, task management is hard.
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