Just Finished Rough Draft

That’s right—I just finished the rough draft of my latest manuscript, a middle-grade dystopian book currently called The Adult Plague.  As writers everywhere know, there’s a certain feeling of euphoria that accompanies hitting those final words “the end” when finishing the rough draft.  Of course, they also know it’s still just one phase of the long process of writing a novel, but it sure feels good to get that initial draft done, even though the one I just finished is pretty short at 42,000 words long. 

Now comes the hard part—revision, revision, revision.  I’ve written down a list of things to do—things I want to accomplish before I send this bad boy off to critique partners.  The list includes stuff like add a subplot (yeah, that’ll be a big one), make sure the romance subplot is smooth/believable, incorporate a weakness for the protag’s romantic interest (she seems way too smart and capable at the moment; a weakness will make her seem more human and likable).  Anyway, I could go on, but those are some of the things I’m looking to tackle in the next phase of this story’s growth from childhood to novelhood (if that’s not a word, it should be).  Wish me luck!

A Sparse Writer

So it turns out I’m a sparse writer.  Always have been.  I guess that’s not too bad of a thing, considering I write children’s books, which tend to be on the shorter side.  But sometimes it’s a bit of a pain.  For example, I’ve just reached 25K words in my latest manuscript.  I call this a minor accomplishment, because 25K equals about a hundred pages in the publishing biz.  But, unfortunately, my story is coming down to the homestretch.  I’d be lucky just to get another fifty pages out of this draft before it all ends, and a hundred and fifty pages—for a middle-grade dystopian—not too long…not too long at all…

So…hmmmm…what can I do?  At the moment I’m not totally sure, but I do intend to go back after I finish this draft and develop at least one subplot, which should help beef up the pages.  I also want to beef up the romance between my protagonist and, well, his romantic interest.  Heck, I’d like some beef for dinner tonight! (Can you tell it’s almost evening where I live?).  Other than that, I’ll have to keep my eyes and ears open for ways to lengthen this story without adding anything extraneous.  Not always easy, of course.

When I’m totally done with this book (including polishing), I’d be happy if it reached 50K words, but I’d really like it to reach somewhere between 60K-70K, but I don’t think that will happen.  Ah, well, we’ll see.  Of course, all in all, the most important thing I need to keep in mind is that the story should be as long as it needs to be, no more, no less.

So what type of writer are you?  Sparse or—er—non-sparse?

Resident Evil 6 - It's Finally Here!

Today we will be taking a break from writing and other book-related activities to discuss—the release date of Capcom’s Resident Evil 6 for Playstation 3 (and Xbox 360 and PC)!

Man, it’s been a long time in the waiting—about three years since Resident Evil 5 came out, which, like all the numbered games I’ve positively adored.  In any case, I can’t tell you how pumped I am.  I’m a massive Resident Evil fan, dating back to the first games on the first PlayStation console in recorded history, aptly named, Playstation.  I must’ve played Resident Evil 2 and 3 in particular a bajillion times to date (that damned Nemesis monster just never dies in my mind), and have massively enjoyed many of the others.

So what makes Resident Evil so near and dear to my heart?  I mean, aside from the unending zombie-shooting, blood-splattering mayhem?  I don’t know.  I think there are too many things to mention, so I’ll settle on what might be my favorite—I love its “eerie quiet.”  You know, those parts of the game where you’re not shattering zombies’ and other viral-infected monsters’ heads, but are simply navigating about the dreary, silent terrain.  Just waiting, waiting, waiting…for that next malicious zombie/monster to pop out and attack.  It’s that mounting of tension that gets me every time—the fact you know something evil’s in the area that wants to suck your blood clean, but it just hasn’t revealed itself to you yet.

Heck, maybe I can tie this all in to writing, after all.  Sometimes that sort of thing makes the perfect villain, too.  Sometimes when you can’t see the monster (especially in horror books and movies and, well, yes, videogames called Resident Evil), it can be all the freakier, including when special care is taken in building tension before the villain’s reveal.  I should think about that the next time I put my keys to the keyboard.  But yeah.  That’s what I love about Resident Evil.  Can’t wait to purchase me a copy of the sixth installment and get crackin’ on that bad boy (and on some zombies’ heads and other grotesque limbs and body parts).

World-build Before You Start Writing

Today I’d like to share a writing tip I learned recently that applies to writing science fiction and fantasy (though I imagine it can’t hurt to give some thorough consideration to your story’s setting/world).  Also, keep in mind that I’m just one writer, and that what works for me might not work for you.

This might seem obvious to some people, but I learned the hard way that it pays to build your world, including as many of its intricacies as you can, before you even start writing your book.  In fact, I wrote two books in a row in which I failed to build a fleshed-out world beforehand.  Problem was, when I finished drafts of those books, I had to go back and add in all those world-building elements, and it took a lot of extra work because brainstorming my world opened up all sorts of plot opportunities and character developments I hadn’t seen before—and just about all of them improved the story, so I had to add them.

See, the thing about world-building—it should affect every other part of your story in some way—characters, plot, etc. (all of the elements of a book should blend together and affect each other).  For example, the world you build might influence how your protagonist escapes the villain at some point in the story—perhaps your protag jumps on a hover scooter some kid left on the sidewalk, because, you know, the number one past-time in your futuristic world is hover-scootering.  In general, your world/society should affect how your protag fits into that world, perceives that world, etc., all of which could even affect your protag’s main goal that drives them throughout the entire story.  (Whoa…I know).

So, learn from my mistake, and build your world in advance.  As a result, you’d be amazed by how many appealing plot constructs open up just pleading to be constructed, and how many characters your fleshed-out world creates and influences that will make your story richer than if you hadn’t known about them before you started writing.  At the very least, you’ll save yourself a lot of work in the long run.

Project Update

OK, so here's an update (yes, it's been a while since I've last posted on this blog) on my various middle-grade projects.

SAVAGE JUNGLE - a.k.a. my thesis for the Seton Hill Writing Popular Fiction program - I've just submitted this to my two mentors for final review. Yes, that means the manuscript will now either PASS or FAIL (cue dramatic music). The very last thing I did before I sent it was read it out loud to myself, which, as I mentioned in another post, is seriously such a great exercise. Caught lots of nice, nitty-gritty little polishing errors (or things that could be tweaked to make the language smoother), but other than that, hopefully it's ready to make the grade (keeping fingers crossed lol). I will know in about a month from now (late October).

UNGIFTED - On the backburner. I'm now aware of a few things I could do to improve the story, and a couple of them I'm not entirely sure what to do about. I've decided to let it sit on the backburner and hope that some of those issues resolve themselves in my subconscious (one of them I will be actively trying to solve, but that one can apply to all my stories). But if not, this story may forever remain on the backburner, which would be sad, because I do like it and had a blast writing it (even if I sometimes tell myself I don't and didn't)...

NEW DYSTOPIAN STORY - though really not so new anymore - I'm now back into the thick of things on this one. I'd been writing it for a while, and then had a huge spell where I had to sit back and think through some brainstorming aspects that were basically of a worldbuilding and plot nature. But now I've got those ironed out (at least for the moment), so I've plunged back into the actual writing. Wish me luck!

And that is all for the update. Carry on...

Brainstorming

So as you know, I've been brainstorming for my new MG dystopian novel, doing a lot of "preliminary" work. Though I've always been more of a pantser than an outliner, I have to admit that the more stories I write, the more of a planner I've become. Hmmm...I wonder if I'll be a flat-out outliner before long (though I tried that once and it totally killed my inspiration to write that particular book; it was no fun when I knew absolutely EVERYTHING before I started to write it).

So before I dig into the actual manuscript again (or continue from where I left off, to be more accurate), I'm working on the following "prework": character sketches, world-building, major plot points, and pitch.

Character Sketches: I've already made sketches for two major players: the protagonist and his best friend. Y'know, the whole works: their story goals, fears, strengths, weaknesses, worst day of their lives, etc. There's at least one other character I know I'll be making a sketch for as well. I'm also working on how the main character changes throughout the course of the book. I've been playing with an internal conflict based around curiosity, but maybe it's stupid. We'll see...

World-building: This is a dystopian after all, so this futuristic "oppressed world" needs to be built quite fully and with as much detail as possible. It influences the story in a huge way, obviously.

Major plot points: I find it's good to know the major moments and twists of the story in advance, that way I can be sure the stakes are gradually being raised, or that at the very least the story has a general path I can shoot for as I write. It also helps to have at least a general idea of the ending, which I do at the moment. Fleshing it out is what's going to be the hard part, though maybe I'll do that as I do the actual writing.

Pitch: This basically extends from the other aspects I just mentioned. I like to write the best possible pitch (in other words, what you'd read on the back cover of a book) I can before I write the book. That way, I can read it and see if it not only feels like a story, but one I'm just itching to read myself. Okay, I'm itching...

Back to more brainstorming...

New Project

So in a sense I'm in a lull between projects. I just finished a middle-grade science-fantasy novel called UNGIFTED, which is now on submission to agents. Regarding my science fiction mid-grade novel, SAVAGE JUNGLE, which is my thesis for Seton Hill's Writing Popular Fiction program (I could rant forever about how much I love that program), it's in its "nitty gritty/polishing" stage. I might take a little break first, but it's definitely time to kick off a new project.

I've been playing with a couple MG dystopian ideas. One of them is similar in a way to THE HUNGER GAMES, and given that book's (and movie's) immense popularity right now, I feel like it might not be the best idea to pursue that project at the moment (talk about going AGAINST the trend on that one). The other one, however, I'm equally excited about and has one of those premises that is similar to tons of stories. In fact, recently I found a couple books that use this same general premise, one of which has been inspiring. At first I was horrified. I thought I'd conceived a fun, original idea, but nooooooooo, it has been done quite a few times. Thankfully, though, the stories are still very different from my idea (I read them) and each other, so I think I'll go ahead and write mine. It's funny how so many stories can be written using the same basic premise (no, I'm not going to reveal what it is, but believe me, it's been around), yet turn out so wildly different. It's also a wonderful thing.

Anyway, I've already written some of this new book, so all I need to do is pick up from where I left off before. Should be fun, and I should be getting to that soon depending on how long my "break" is. I'll keep you updated!