A week ago, I started reading a book I finished back in 2005. I had this idea of rewriting it from the POV of the main antagonist, and reviving her personal story arc as its own book, really delving into what it means to serve a dark god and then lose everything, including that god.
I refer to this idea in the past tense, as the reread completely killed my desire to go back to this story.
I think it's safe to say a lot of writers look back at their older work and cringe. But reading this book was like checking off a list of how not to write a novel, and I'm flabbergasted that I ever thought this thing was good enough to be published. Not joking at all here. Prologue with all kinds of mysterious portents that's too vague for its own good? Check. First chapter starts with the main character waking up from a dream? Check. Main character looks in a mirror so there's a reason to describe her?
Gods help me, check. And to go one worse, I spent half a chapter having a supposedly mysterious minstrel tell the entire backstory to an audience. I'm kind of surprised they didn't fall asleep.
I also spent paragraphs describing things like the stone and wood a town was mostly constructed of, carvings on unimportant walls, and dozens of other tiny and irrelevant details. The word count is over 177,000, and it was hard not to start cutting things out while I read. All in all, the whole thing is ridiculous, and I'd like to formally apologize to everyone who read it way back when. After three days, I gave up on rereading the entire thing and skimmed large chunks, only reading the main antagonist's POV parts.
The thing is, it's not my bad writing that makes me want to give up on this idea. It's that I'm not interested in working in this kind of world anymore. The story amounts to what Jim Butcher called "sword and horse" fantasy, and writing that bores me now. I don't think there's anything truly special or interesting about the world it takes place in, and while the history holds some good ideas, it's not enough.
Despite all that, I'm disappointed that I feel this way. I thought I had something good. I thought I would make this the second book I wrote this year, and even said I wanted to do so in an earlier entry. But the thought of facing down this dull world, this black-and-white mythology, and dealing with these characters again . . . no. Just no.
I'm done with this book, hopefully forever. And now I'm wondering what I should work on next, since I still have another month before I can start editing The Accidental Warlock.
Next entry: digging deep and desperately in search of a plot. Several plots.
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Bringing up Old Stuff, Part Two
I've been a fan and proponent of the New Adult category ever since I first heard about it. For those who don't know, New Adult deals with characters in the 18-21ish age range, where people usually leave home, find themselves on their own for the first time, and have an entirely different set of problems and issues than characters in either YA or Adult books. I've also said that I was writing New Adult before I even knew what it was.
I found some of that writing a few weeks ago, in an abandoned story from March of 2010. And it's something I want to discuss now and get back to writing someday.
The story itself deals with college, with being away from home for the first time and finding out the real world is nothing like what the main character expected. The story also deals with magic, non-human races, interplanar travel, and horrific things from worlds far, far beyond our own. While that's the kind of stuff I find incredibly fun to write, I also think it's the kind of thing the growing New Adult category needs more of.
Simply put: a lot of New Adult stuff is romance, and there have been more than a few media stories talking about NA as nothing more than YA with more sex. Granted, judging by some NA book covers, that doesn't seem too far off. I know NA that isn't romance exists; take a look at the Catalog of NA Reads over at NA Alley, one of the best resources around for New Adult. (No, seriously, take a look; the site's very well-done and this entry will still be here when you get back.) It's a good list for a growing category, but the listing is far longer for "Contemporary" than "Speculative".
This is a tremendous opportunity.
I'm only speaking for myself here, but the years that NA covers were the years that my life changed a ton. What better time to find out the world is not what you think it is, that there's worlds beyond the one you know and that there are things out there that not only beggar description but that pose a threat to existence as you know it? How do you balance the life you thought you'd have with the reality that's nothing like you expected? And how do you stay awake in an 8AM class when you're tired as hell because you were up until dawn stopping a cultist ritual from breaking a hole in reality?
Okay, it's not like falling asleep in an 8AM class would seem all that unusual. But I think the rest stands.
New Adult is still growing, but it has a listing on Amazon.com and there are some bookstores with NA sections. (Yes, I've seen pictures.) So I'm hoping that by the time I get around to writing this story, not only will there be an audience for it, but publishers who think it's going to be huge. And I'll be happy to know that I'm not the only one who thought college would only be made better with a few encroaching eldritch abominations.
Next entry: rereading a book I finished in 2005. This might hurt.
I found some of that writing a few weeks ago, in an abandoned story from March of 2010. And it's something I want to discuss now and get back to writing someday.
The story itself deals with college, with being away from home for the first time and finding out the real world is nothing like what the main character expected. The story also deals with magic, non-human races, interplanar travel, and horrific things from worlds far, far beyond our own. While that's the kind of stuff I find incredibly fun to write, I also think it's the kind of thing the growing New Adult category needs more of.
Simply put: a lot of New Adult stuff is romance, and there have been more than a few media stories talking about NA as nothing more than YA with more sex. Granted, judging by some NA book covers, that doesn't seem too far off. I know NA that isn't romance exists; take a look at the Catalog of NA Reads over at NA Alley, one of the best resources around for New Adult. (No, seriously, take a look; the site's very well-done and this entry will still be here when you get back.) It's a good list for a growing category, but the listing is far longer for "Contemporary" than "Speculative".
This is a tremendous opportunity.
I'm only speaking for myself here, but the years that NA covers were the years that my life changed a ton. What better time to find out the world is not what you think it is, that there's worlds beyond the one you know and that there are things out there that not only beggar description but that pose a threat to existence as you know it? How do you balance the life you thought you'd have with the reality that's nothing like you expected? And how do you stay awake in an 8AM class when you're tired as hell because you were up until dawn stopping a cultist ritual from breaking a hole in reality?
Okay, it's not like falling asleep in an 8AM class would seem all that unusual. But I think the rest stands.
New Adult is still growing, but it has a listing on Amazon.com and there are some bookstores with NA sections. (Yes, I've seen pictures.) So I'm hoping that by the time I get around to writing this story, not only will there be an audience for it, but publishers who think it's going to be huge. And I'll be happy to know that I'm not the only one who thought college would only be made better with a few encroaching eldritch abominations.
Next entry: rereading a book I finished in 2005. This might hurt.
Monday, June 17, 2013
The book is done. Let the real work begin.
As of less than five minutes ago, I wrote the last sentence in my current book.
It's always an odd feeling, finishing one of these things. The ending never feels strong enough. Is everything that needs to be resolved taken care of? Are there massive dangling plot threads? Have I planted that sequel hook firmly enough into the readers that they'll want to know what happens next? Too much to consider, when all I really want to do right now is have a strong drink and watch a Disney movie.
Hey, I don't get on you for how you deal with writing a downer ending.
In a way, that's really how it is for this book. In most everything else I've written, things get wrapped up pretty neatly at the end. The heroes achieve their goals, the antagonists get killed or defeated or driven away, and everyone celebrates, smiles, hugs, and/or kisses over the last few paragraphs. Not in this book.
I went over my plot points before last night's writing session, and remembered that the main protagonist had to do something truly horrible to bring the story to its end. And it's even a phyrric victory, considering the destruction - both personal and property - wreaked by the antagonists.
I didn't want the story to end like that. But I knew I had to.
In a way, this feels like the most mature story that I've written, possibly ever. The characters feel more real, the plot feels tighter and better orchestrated, and the consequences feel more long- and deep-reaching. I still have a lot of editing to do; there's a pile of folded-up pages from a small yellow notepad sitting here on my desk, all story ideas I frantically scribbled down while at work. Tomorrow, I'm going to go through them and see what I implemented already and what changes I need to make.
And then, I'm going to let this sit for a month or so before getting back to it. With any luck, I'll have a readable version by the end of August, to hand out to my pre-readers. I have three people willing to read it so far, which is a great start. And then we'll see how this one goes. I have a lot of faith in it right now, but only time will tell if it's justified.
The title of the book is The Accidental Warlock. It's a YA Fantasy about a young woman who discovers she's been planned since birth to be the new body of an ancient demon. She's also falling, hard, for her brother's would-be betrothed. Her fun is just beginning, trust me.
Next entry: on digging up an old, abandoned manuscript and why I think it could be something the growing New Adult category needs.
It's always an odd feeling, finishing one of these things. The ending never feels strong enough. Is everything that needs to be resolved taken care of? Are there massive dangling plot threads? Have I planted that sequel hook firmly enough into the readers that they'll want to know what happens next? Too much to consider, when all I really want to do right now is have a strong drink and watch a Disney movie.
Hey, I don't get on you for how you deal with writing a downer ending.
In a way, that's really how it is for this book. In most everything else I've written, things get wrapped up pretty neatly at the end. The heroes achieve their goals, the antagonists get killed or defeated or driven away, and everyone celebrates, smiles, hugs, and/or kisses over the last few paragraphs. Not in this book.
I went over my plot points before last night's writing session, and remembered that the main protagonist had to do something truly horrible to bring the story to its end. And it's even a phyrric victory, considering the destruction - both personal and property - wreaked by the antagonists.
I didn't want the story to end like that. But I knew I had to.
In a way, this feels like the most mature story that I've written, possibly ever. The characters feel more real, the plot feels tighter and better orchestrated, and the consequences feel more long- and deep-reaching. I still have a lot of editing to do; there's a pile of folded-up pages from a small yellow notepad sitting here on my desk, all story ideas I frantically scribbled down while at work. Tomorrow, I'm going to go through them and see what I implemented already and what changes I need to make.
And then, I'm going to let this sit for a month or so before getting back to it. With any luck, I'll have a readable version by the end of August, to hand out to my pre-readers. I have three people willing to read it so far, which is a great start. And then we'll see how this one goes. I have a lot of faith in it right now, but only time will tell if it's justified.
The title of the book is The Accidental Warlock. It's a YA Fantasy about a young woman who discovers she's been planned since birth to be the new body of an ancient demon. She's also falling, hard, for her brother's would-be betrothed. Her fun is just beginning, trust me.
Next entry: on digging up an old, abandoned manuscript and why I think it could be something the growing New Adult category needs.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
The Quiet Joy of Writing Romance
Yes, I haven't posted for a while. I'd apologize, but I'm writing a book, so most of my writing energy goes directly into that. Writing, for me, is oddly exhausting for something I do while sitting in a chair, but that's neither here nor there. There's something going on in this book that I don't know if I've ever done before.
This new book has a genuine, old-school, will-they-or-won't-they kind of romance in it. And it feels really weird to type that. @_@ Especially for Shiloh and Alexi, whom I've been writing in one form or another since 2002.
I've blogged about sexuality issues in my writing before (and I will again, I'm sure), such as me realizing that Shiloh needed to come out to herself in Skyborne. But I wanted to do something different in this book. I wanted to start it out with Shiloh both knowing and accepting her sexuality, so her feelings for Alexi weren't some surprising thing she had to figure out, but instead just one more thing to worry about due to a host of other issues. Family politics and arranged marriages tend to play havoc with one's life, and throwing demons into the mix only makes things worse.
So I went into this knowing it would play out differently than the books I've written with these two characters before. And you know what? It's an odd kind of delight to write someone's slowly developing feelings for another, the constant wondering, the undertone of questions and desires despite the two of them spending a great deal of time just trying not to die.
It's not that I've never written a romance before; I've written everything from simple blossoming of first feelings to long-established relationships to married couples to seductions to angry shower sex. I've just never written something that feels so much like a traditional romance.
To be honest, I've never been interested in books where the romance is the plot. There has to be something more to the story than just seeing if the characters will get together. But as I write this book, I'm slowly understanding the appeal those stories have for so many people. As much as I enjoy the rest of the story so far, I find myself really looking forward to the moments between the two main characters, and watching things play out between them is ridiculously fun.
I'm already planning to set aside a longer-than-usual writing session for the scene when things finally come together, as if there's any scene I won't be able to stop until it's done, it's that one. Can't wait. ^_^
Alternate title for this entry: "NOW KISS"
This new book has a genuine, old-school, will-they-or-won't-they kind of romance in it. And it feels really weird to type that. @_@ Especially for Shiloh and Alexi, whom I've been writing in one form or another since 2002.
I've blogged about sexuality issues in my writing before (and I will again, I'm sure), such as me realizing that Shiloh needed to come out to herself in Skyborne. But I wanted to do something different in this book. I wanted to start it out with Shiloh both knowing and accepting her sexuality, so her feelings for Alexi weren't some surprising thing she had to figure out, but instead just one more thing to worry about due to a host of other issues. Family politics and arranged marriages tend to play havoc with one's life, and throwing demons into the mix only makes things worse.
So I went into this knowing it would play out differently than the books I've written with these two characters before. And you know what? It's an odd kind of delight to write someone's slowly developing feelings for another, the constant wondering, the undertone of questions and desires despite the two of them spending a great deal of time just trying not to die.
It's not that I've never written a romance before; I've written everything from simple blossoming of first feelings to long-established relationships to married couples to seductions to angry shower sex. I've just never written something that feels so much like a traditional romance.
To be honest, I've never been interested in books where the romance is the plot. There has to be something more to the story than just seeing if the characters will get together. But as I write this book, I'm slowly understanding the appeal those stories have for so many people. As much as I enjoy the rest of the story so far, I find myself really looking forward to the moments between the two main characters, and watching things play out between them is ridiculously fun.
I'm already planning to set aside a longer-than-usual writing session for the scene when things finally come together, as if there's any scene I won't be able to stop until it's done, it's that one. Can't wait. ^_^
Alternate title for this entry: "NOW KISS"
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Starting Anew.
"Overcome fear, behold wonder." --Richard Bach
This is never easy. Hell, I don't even know where to begin talking about it, let alone how to get it across in a way that'll make sense. And I'm pretty sure it's different for everyone, yet at the same time, I think if we all talked about it, we'd all understand.
I started writing the new book tonight.
It took longer to actually get my ass in the chair and start than I'd thought. When it's time to write, there's always a dozen and more different things I can do really quick before I start, and those stack up quickly. So I had to make myself not do them. Then I had to find a song -- I've developed a kind of ritual for writing, and part of it involves finding a song that fits the story and playing that every time before I start. Since today was the first day, I had to find the song. Took a guess, found it on the first try, and it worked surprisingly well. Seemed like I was prepared. So I started.
I then spent the entirety of the first page beating down my internal editor with a mental plunger, telling myself to just keep writing, that anything bad could be fixed later. No, I didn't want to know that I was taking too long to get to the big moment of the first chapter. No, I didn't want to know about the 250-word mark that would be crucial later for queries and pitches and what-have-you. No, I didn't want to know that things were already going too slowly. Just write, I told myself, I had to tell myself. Just write.
And now, 2500 words later, I'm more than a little relieved. What I have isn't spectacular but it introduces the two main characters and the main antagonist, and most importantly, it gets the story started. Now that I've started, I can keep going. Now, when I sit down, it'll be to pick up where I left off. It's a lot easier to put one word after the other when there's already words in place.
The thing is, I knew I needed to start this tonight. My life has this tendency to go well except for the things I want most -- I've got a good job that pays me plenty, I have some of the greatest friends and family anyone could ask for, and I generally don't have too much to worry about. Except this. Except writing something that will get my career started. I know I'm exaggerating, but it constantly feels like I'm failing at the one thing in life I want most.
And three nights ago, I put Skyborne behind me for the last time, and made a wish for my success. A strong wish. A wish that won't come true without a lot of hard work on my part. So three nights later, I knew, I had to start.
Here's hoping it works.
This is never easy. Hell, I don't even know where to begin talking about it, let alone how to get it across in a way that'll make sense. And I'm pretty sure it's different for everyone, yet at the same time, I think if we all talked about it, we'd all understand.
I started writing the new book tonight.
It took longer to actually get my ass in the chair and start than I'd thought. When it's time to write, there's always a dozen and more different things I can do really quick before I start, and those stack up quickly. So I had to make myself not do them. Then I had to find a song -- I've developed a kind of ritual for writing, and part of it involves finding a song that fits the story and playing that every time before I start. Since today was the first day, I had to find the song. Took a guess, found it on the first try, and it worked surprisingly well. Seemed like I was prepared. So I started.
I then spent the entirety of the first page beating down my internal editor with a mental plunger, telling myself to just keep writing, that anything bad could be fixed later. No, I didn't want to know that I was taking too long to get to the big moment of the first chapter. No, I didn't want to know about the 250-word mark that would be crucial later for queries and pitches and what-have-you. No, I didn't want to know that things were already going too slowly. Just write, I told myself, I had to tell myself. Just write.
And now, 2500 words later, I'm more than a little relieved. What I have isn't spectacular but it introduces the two main characters and the main antagonist, and most importantly, it gets the story started. Now that I've started, I can keep going. Now, when I sit down, it'll be to pick up where I left off. It's a lot easier to put one word after the other when there's already words in place.
The thing is, I knew I needed to start this tonight. My life has this tendency to go well except for the things I want most -- I've got a good job that pays me plenty, I have some of the greatest friends and family anyone could ask for, and I generally don't have too much to worry about. Except this. Except writing something that will get my career started. I know I'm exaggerating, but it constantly feels like I'm failing at the one thing in life I want most.
And three nights ago, I put Skyborne behind me for the last time, and made a wish for my success. A strong wish. A wish that won't come true without a lot of hard work on my part. So three nights later, I knew, I had to start.
Here's hoping it works.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
The Organic Plot.
"I think people who create and write, it actually does flow - just flows from into their head, into their hand, and they write it down. It's simple." --Paul McCartney
If only everything was that simple. Or rather, if only it was that simple all the time.
So as I talked about in my last two entries, I'm hard at work on a new plot, a new story for Shiloh and Alexi. Funny thing: it's been going ridiculously well. Bizarrely so, in fact. I keep waiting to sit down and have no idea what should happen next, or to look it all over and want to delete not only the entire file but everything I've ever written as well as the word processor I wrote it on.
But no. I sit down, I pick up where I left off in the ever-growing planning document, and I keep going like I never stopped. Most of the time, I know exactly what's going to happen next, and when I stop knowing that, I stop for the night and pick it up the next day, and boom, the same thing happens. Just tonight, I finished plotting the endgame, and I started off not knowing how it was all going to play out. I went and lay down for less than a minute, and suddenly knew just what needed to happen to make everything work.
I'm not bragging, I swear. I'm honestly not used to things going this easily. It's like watching a tree grow over the space of minutes instead of years, being able to see where every single leaf and branch is going to sprout just a moment before it does, all while knowing exactly what the tree will look like once it's done. And it boggles my mind that all this is coming out of my head.
It's a weird and wonderful thing, to feel like the story is just using me to see that it's told, like I'm just channeling this thing and along for the ride. If this keeps happening when I actually sit down to write this book, I'll be grateful beyond words.
Side note to all this: the current plot is the second one I've come up with since ending work on Skyborne. The first one I had also flowed well, and I loved it, but then I talked about it with Rena and she pointed out something important. Apparently, having a main character seek out her real father is a plot better suited for middle grade, not YA. (Have I mentioned that I'm really starting to loathe categories? That's another entry.) So based on that, I scrapped what I had and came up with something quite different. This new plot is worlds better for everyone involved, myself included.
It's something I've long believed, but something I also have to be reminded of from time to time: never be afraid to make massive changes to your work. It might turn out to be the best thing you could have done.
Alternate title for this entry: "Oh Crap This Story Is Pulling Itself Kicking And Screaming Out Of My Head"
If only everything was that simple. Or rather, if only it was that simple all the time.
So as I talked about in my last two entries, I'm hard at work on a new plot, a new story for Shiloh and Alexi. Funny thing: it's been going ridiculously well. Bizarrely so, in fact. I keep waiting to sit down and have no idea what should happen next, or to look it all over and want to delete not only the entire file but everything I've ever written as well as the word processor I wrote it on.
But no. I sit down, I pick up where I left off in the ever-growing planning document, and I keep going like I never stopped. Most of the time, I know exactly what's going to happen next, and when I stop knowing that, I stop for the night and pick it up the next day, and boom, the same thing happens. Just tonight, I finished plotting the endgame, and I started off not knowing how it was all going to play out. I went and lay down for less than a minute, and suddenly knew just what needed to happen to make everything work.
I'm not bragging, I swear. I'm honestly not used to things going this easily. It's like watching a tree grow over the space of minutes instead of years, being able to see where every single leaf and branch is going to sprout just a moment before it does, all while knowing exactly what the tree will look like once it's done. And it boggles my mind that all this is coming out of my head.
It's a weird and wonderful thing, to feel like the story is just using me to see that it's told, like I'm just channeling this thing and along for the ride. If this keeps happening when I actually sit down to write this book, I'll be grateful beyond words.
Side note to all this: the current plot is the second one I've come up with since ending work on Skyborne. The first one I had also flowed well, and I loved it, but then I talked about it with Rena and she pointed out something important. Apparently, having a main character seek out her real father is a plot better suited for middle grade, not YA. (Have I mentioned that I'm really starting to loathe categories? That's another entry.) So based on that, I scrapped what I had and came up with something quite different. This new plot is worlds better for everyone involved, myself included.
It's something I've long believed, but something I also have to be reminded of from time to time: never be afraid to make massive changes to your work. It might turn out to be the best thing you could have done.
Alternate title for this entry: "Oh Crap This Story Is Pulling Itself Kicking And Screaming Out Of My Head"
Monday, April 1, 2013
Bringing up Old Stuff
I write everything down, and I never delete any of it.
Okay, that's not completely true. But most ideas I have, I keep around, even if they've faded into that ambiguous slush of things I no longer want to write. I never know when I'm going to need something I thought up weeks, months, or years ago.
And over the past few days, I've been digging up quite a bit.
As I talked about in my last entry, I'm moving on from Skyborne, but I'm still set on telling Shiloh and Alexi's story. As I also talked about in my last entry, I've been telling stories with these two for a long time, so I have more plot notes about them than anyone else. In search of this new plot, I started looking through older stuff, and found a few very useful things.
For instance, I found that the 'new' idea I had a few weeks ago was actually something I thought up back in 2009 and had forgotten about. Go figure. I've heard it's bad to rip yourself off, but hey, I don't think it counts as re-using an idea if I never actually wrote that book. ^_^ I also found a ton of character notes, some of which are invalid for the new incarnations of the characters and some of which is still very, very valid and will make them more interesting when I start writing them.
It's weird to admit it to myself, but character matters so much in making a book worth reading, and Skyborne's lack of interesting history for the main characters left them as more blank slates than I realized when I was writing it. I will fix that.
Also on my list of older stuff to reread? An entire book, one I finished back in 2005, the last book I thought was worthy of being published. Odds are good I'll go through it and cringe a lot. But I realized last month that I can go back to it, turn it inside out, and rework it, make it the tale told by one of the villains. I want to really delve into this person's head and see what it's like to serve a spirit who affects the world in warped attempts at change and blood-bound symbiotes. And I want this would-be villain to be the one who breaks the world's one great pattern.
This year, I would like to write these two books. Nine months is plenty of time for that, yeah?
oh gods what am I getting myself into
Okay, that's not completely true. But most ideas I have, I keep around, even if they've faded into that ambiguous slush of things I no longer want to write. I never know when I'm going to need something I thought up weeks, months, or years ago.
And over the past few days, I've been digging up quite a bit.
As I talked about in my last entry, I'm moving on from Skyborne, but I'm still set on telling Shiloh and Alexi's story. As I also talked about in my last entry, I've been telling stories with these two for a long time, so I have more plot notes about them than anyone else. In search of this new plot, I started looking through older stuff, and found a few very useful things.
For instance, I found that the 'new' idea I had a few weeks ago was actually something I thought up back in 2009 and had forgotten about. Go figure. I've heard it's bad to rip yourself off, but hey, I don't think it counts as re-using an idea if I never actually wrote that book. ^_^ I also found a ton of character notes, some of which are invalid for the new incarnations of the characters and some of which is still very, very valid and will make them more interesting when I start writing them.
It's weird to admit it to myself, but character matters so much in making a book worth reading, and Skyborne's lack of interesting history for the main characters left them as more blank slates than I realized when I was writing it. I will fix that.
Also on my list of older stuff to reread? An entire book, one I finished back in 2005, the last book I thought was worthy of being published. Odds are good I'll go through it and cringe a lot. But I realized last month that I can go back to it, turn it inside out, and rework it, make it the tale told by one of the villains. I want to really delve into this person's head and see what it's like to serve a spirit who affects the world in warped attempts at change and blood-bound symbiotes. And I want this would-be villain to be the one who breaks the world's one great pattern.
This year, I would like to write these two books. Nine months is plenty of time for that, yeah?
oh gods what am I getting myself into
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