More on my wirting

I'm getting close to finishing the two novels I'm still working on and half way through revising the one I did for NaNo. I wonder what I will do when I am done. Of course it will still be two months or so but I pretty sure I will be done with all three by the time of vacation in June. I started two during vacation last year. So even though it's taken me six months longer to finish those two than planned I guess two in less than a year isn't bad. Actually three.


Anyway, when I am done I may work on short stories...got a bunch of ideas I don't have time for now. I may redo my first novel, a 320,000 word monstrosity that I did six years ago..at least. I have since split it into three novels. Since than I have learned so much about writing it would take a very long time to go over it and correct the wrong writing I did, starting from scratch would be easier.

Or I might do one of the ideas I keep getting for novels. Or work on my Angel cousin idea. I started it, two or three chapters to make sure I wouldn't forget it but since than I have come up with some ideas. The original idea would probably take less than 50,000 words mayhaps even less than 30 thousand. But if I add a few adventures like some writers do along with the main on it could work.

We will see.

An idea

I was reading a follow writer's blog and she telling how she had spent some time inventing a history of a group of people in one of her novels...a novel she had just finished. If you like to know more here is her blog  http://www.chaosandinsanity.com

Anyway, I thought that could be interesting and fun.

So I left her this note

 Almost makes me want to come up with my own history of something or another.  Maybe something different...like Trolls or orcs or ....

Now that could be interesting a family, or clan, of orcs trying to make it in our time. I would have to explain how they got to North America and when and which generation this family was. Still could be interesting and fun. 

If I did go with that I wouldn't make them all evil or mean. They tend to have tempers and many have joined the military through the years since they like to fight. Might be a YA book.

Some day I will have to see if I will do it or not, I'm not sure right now...could be a short story series.  Or I might come up with another idea. (shoulder shrug) Who knows I may do it after I am finished with my current three WIPs in a couple of months. More on that in another post.

A writing book

This writing book is different.

"The Secret Miracle" edited by Daniel Alarcon. It the Novelist's Handbook. Kinda like a panel discussion on writing novels. There's about 15 to 20 different novelists in this discussion though. The two most famous are Stephen King and Amy Tan but there are a couple other well known writers. Some of the others have done only one novel. Basically it is just questions like you would get at a panel discussion and a bunch of the writers answer each question. I say a bunch because not every writer answers every question. So far, about half way through, Amy Tan only responses to a few. King does a bit better.

It isn't what I thought it might be but I will read on. One question was what they expected from the first chapter. I didn't read every response but it sounded like they basically said the same thing for that one. It has to hook the reader. One writer said it has to punch the reader in the stomach and have him on the floor howling in pain but when he gets up he asks for it again. Another dealt with how many outline. Kinda interesting, Amy Tan seems to be the most like me in that sense. 

Still

Even though I'm still writing I still want something good to come. What I call Good News about my writing, so far none of it is Good News. Still writing, reading about writing, sending things out but still on that plateau of mediocrity. Been there way too long after I slipped back wards. I'll keep trying maybe I will get some wisdom to know what I keep doing wrong now.

My writing

Getting close to the end of two novels. In "Storm Born" I finally figured out a way to get my MC away from the werewolf he was fighting...no there's not a lot of those type of things in it. No vamps, at least in this first book, who knows about later.

Anyway, he's about to figure out where the bad guy is going to call up the demi-god and that Now is the time. That will start the last chapter.



I'm further away from the end in "New Mage On The Block" but still starting to close in on it. I would like one more chapter before NA fights the bad guy. Probably be a short one.


And I'm half way through with my revision of "Bright Lights and Chaos". I'm very eager to finish it even though that feeling usually doesn't come until the last chapter or the conclusion of a short story. Of course than I will have to start fixing all the things the people in a certain group have found in the first four chapters.

Working on a short story but I decided to redo the opening some so I am redoing all I have written so far, it was quite what I wanted. The opening still isn't but it's closer.

Writer and book

I'm finally getting around to this. I'm half way through "Soul Hunt" by  Margaret Ronald. She is very good, and this book is great. I wasn't sure I wanted to read it since I knew what the title referenced but I'm glad I did, its not what I expected.  Get this Urban Fantasy series, kind of dark. No, not kinda of, definitely dark. But Ronald's does it so good you like it being dark even if that isn't your thing. 

 http://mronald.wordpress.com

Right now she is doing a series of posts on revising her next book.

But she has publish gobs of short stories with about every pro market you can think of. Don't think WotF is included though. Anyway she has three or four books publish in the Hound series. Her magic makers are not called wizards, they work with the undercurrent. Compared to wizards in other books they are rather weak I think, with a couple of exceptions.

But her storytelling ability is out of this world. I must say that I am in love with her storytelling while at the same time, as I have mentioned before, she is one of the very few writers I'm jealous of. Well, litely jealous. Is there a word for less than jealous? That's not envious, seems like there is.

Anyway, one reason for this is that about the same time I discovered Beneath Ceaseless Skies, after my first or second rejection, I check out her web page. There, on a list on the side, staring me in the face is BCS...and Analog and Asimov and F&SF to name a few.

I know why she made it all of those...and why I haven't.

And back to "Soul Hunt"

Just finished a scene where the MC has to swim in a reservoir to find a memory town. You have to read it to see what I mean, even though that's my term so as not to give away too much. Its her third book. Her MC is a Hound, she can smell out anything or anyone. There's a reason for that even if she doesn't know it at first. I will say that magic smells like gunpowder. 

Easter--"Beautiful Messes"

A part two here on Easter,

or a few things I thought of today.

As I mentioned or implied in the first note, God loves us. No matter what we have done, who we are, what we have not done. It’s all because of who He is that we are right with Him. We are “beautiful messes” as more than one song says, but He still Loves us. His death and physical resurrection shows this. He died for all of us and each of us individually. Hope is a big part of Easter. Not only for salvation from Hell and of an Afterlife but for His love, His life changing Power. To paraphrase one song; We are more than our past mistakes, we are remade, not the sum of our mistakes.  A couple of songs say that we have been remade. No matter how many we have failed.  

And a few more songs. “I am New” by Jasom Gray, on “Everything Sad is Becoming Untrue”, “Sunday’s On It’s Way”, and “This Blood” by Carman, on “Carman: The Absolute Best” “It is Finished” by Petra on “Beat The system” “He Came, He Saw, He Conquered” By Petra on “This Means War”, “Healing Hand Of God” by Jeramy Camp On “Speaking Louder Than Before”, “You’re Beautiful” by Mercy Me on “The Generous Mr. Lovewell”. 

And you can listen to some of these songs on these two radio stations. Plus you can contact them both to learn more about Jesus: His Life, Death, Resurrection and all that means for you. 

Joy and Peace as well as forgiveness. 

http://www.klove.com

http://www.spirit889.com

Some of both DJs are on facebook and you can send E-mail to both stations.

Special Easter Or Resurrection Day post

This is a special time of the year. Easter or as many Christians call it Resurrection Day. Jesus physically rose from the dead after talking our place on the cross. This is important for three reasons. The Bible says that if Christ has not risen that our faith is in vain. It’s worthless that is. 

Second: It shows His power; he defeated Death and the devil, like no one has before or since. 

Third: And this os probably the most important reason. For it shows that Jesus Christ’s sacrifice was accepted. That His blood atones us--we are forgiven just as if we had never sinned.

Yeah, I know what some pagans and others say about the name but that is one reason as I said many Christians like to call it Resurrection Day. Personally I’m not bothered by using that name  so much because God is in the habit of converting or reusing things. He does this most with people, but He also does it the talents of the people He saves and even places so why not names. Plus these days most people know what we are celebrating on Easter. To me it doesn’t matter if we know the exact date or just the time of year. It happened. 

Some songs that I think help to express this are: “Children of God” By Third Day on “Move”, “You Love Me Anyway” by Sidewalk Prophets on “These Simple Truths”,  “Jesus Saves” by Jeremy Camp on “We Cry Out” and “Born Again” by the Newsboys on “Born Again” and  another “Born Again” by Third Day on “Revelation”, and “Glorious Day” By Casting Crowns on “Until The Whole World Hears”. Just a few of the many songs that tell of the story of what the Resurrection of Jesus Christ means to us individually. Of course salvation is the very top on the list but having a relationship with God the Creator, who doesn’t hate us nor wants the worse for us- is top also. Hope is up there also.

And here is just one link to a place- http://vccfresno.org/welcome.html  -to find out more information or leave a note.   

More Ideas

I'm working on a short story with a non-human MC. "He" wakes up at the beginning of the story. And today, might have been last night, I had an idea about a novel.

That is doing a whole book about this character. Of course the action would be all in or very close to one place since he can't move but that would make it challenging and hopefully a bit different from the other UF novels. Of course to really make it different I should rearrange the plot too but not sure rearrange it how. Have the bad guy win? But that isn't really mixing it up. Oh well, that is for later, if I do it at all.


Sorry if it sounds vague I don't want to give it all away.




But another idea is a weredragon.  Actually I came up with the idea of weredragons in a short story I did few years ago...of course no one wants it...but that one is straight sword fantasy. This idea would be about a guy, maybe twenty, who starts getting an itch besides each shoulder blade. Later it turns into a real pain.  turns out he's half or so dragon.  I don't want him too young, after dragons age slower then humans, but haven't quite decided yet. Well, I said a dragon but actually its a weredragon. His mother and to a lesser degree his dad both have weredragon genes. 


Maybe it will be the next book after one of the ones I am doing now. But more about that on a later post.


and I have an idea for a space  opera story...it might be rather long.. 


and a sort of idea for a space opera novel.--actually two or three of those sort of ideas.

Okay, another book not finished

I fee posts ago I mentioned a writer whose books I chose not to read. This past weekend while and B&N I was tempted to think about about buying the next book in that series anyway but I remembered what I had decided...but that isn't what this post is about.

There's another book, can't find it off hand and I don't recall the title or writer, right now but it's a Urban Fantasy CSI story. The Main Character works for a certain police unit. This was the second book in the series, which I finally gave in and bought because I couldn't find the first one even after months of looking. Anyway, I got maybe one forth of the way through the story. The writing was good but I didn't really like the MC all that much. The mystery was intriguing enough to keep me reading though. And the MC wasn't that bad... until she smoked crack. I decided I didn't want to read more about a crackhead even though she didn't smoke it every day, evidently not even every week. But she gave the same excuses as someone who was becoming addicted if she wasn't already. I will say that I'm not that crazy about MCs that get drunk either but so far most of those I read do it very rarely if at all.

I might go ahead and zip through the rest of it though to find out whodunit. Some lady that died decades ago is involved it looks like.

That Plateau again

Just a bit of venting today...

I was commenting on a post in the hatrack writing forum and I mention that the way I have been writing lately I needed a lot of practice.

That got me thinking, I do seem to be slipping backwards at the moment...maybe getting lazy or have some kinda subconscious “why try” feeling.

But more importantly it reminded me that I have been stuck on a writing plateau for a long time. I’ve mentioned it here a time or two but not for a while. It’s been three year or so with no real improvements, I’ve read writing books, read online comments by pro writers, had scads of stories critiqued and if there was something a few to a lot of people said or had been repeated with different stories I tried to make a change. Nothing. Some people have said just write the way you want to but that doesn’t get me anywhere either. I like to think I’ve made minute improvements but there’s no way to see if that is just wishful thinking. I’ve tried experments-that seems to work for some writers- but again nothing. 

I made a comment on Dean Wesley’s Smith’s blog about trying to find a sliver bullet or rule that will get me going forward again but there doesn’t seem to be such an animal. 

I suppose I will keep trying maybe I will get some revaluation that will show me I’m trying too hard or the two or ten things I keep doing wrong-obviously I can’t do it on my own-but so far nothing.

I may give up and just write for me. I’m sure there will be some readers online who will like what I write. Of course that number will probably be small but at least someone will be reading my stuff and enjoying it.   

I do need some type of writing breakthrough though.

A couple of misc. things

First I have a third Follower  Good and thanks. I don't recognize the family name but that's okay.

Second.

I tried to send my first five chapters of "Bright Lights And Chaos" to a publisher that was having an open moth. Evidently they are one of the publishers that really are strict about no one without an agent can try them. I hear from some pros that not every publisher that says that really means it. Anyway, Angry Robot wanted the first five chapters and a two page or so synopses thingie. March 30th was the last day. I almost sent it in early but discovered they had a second page of what they wanted which was more more complete than the first page I had been going by. So I ended up redoing part of my synopses changing the font on the five chapters. That took me to the 30th. And I found out they are in England. Oh boy I wasn't sure but figured they would be a day ahead of us here in the US. But since I had everything ready I decided to take a chance and send it it. No confirmation which probably means I was late and/or I did something wrong.

But at least it was good practice.

and third,

WotF is having their awards ceremony early this year, I would love to go, all kinds of pro writers could be there. I say could be because I don't think they all go probably just most. I don't know if Dean Wesley Smith will go this year. He tried to go last year but had a mishap with the weather. It's all on his blog. But it will probably be cooler in May that last August last year or I forget what he said about it but he could try to fly. Maybe.  If he was going I would want to go even more.