Midsummer Madness II - Halfway there!
Posted on July 26, 2010
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I started the Midsummer Madness II Workshop at Liberty Hall on July 5th. Now it’s July 26th. Time flies. Especially with one of the participants where their novel takes place in another dimension where Mr. Time (a former working name) lives.
What have we gone through? We’ve worked on novel concepts with 20 paragraph summaries. We’ve been working on the setting, doing a bit of worldbuilding and are now beginning to integrate the two.
It’s amazing what you find out about your novel project when you proceed to piecemeal your way to some kind of an outline. The best part are the comments. Not only are the suggestions and criticisms worthwhile, but as you read them, your creativity gets going and you end up with more ideas than you thought possible. At least that’s how it works with me.
Halfway through means there are three more weeks to go. More setting work and more work with the secondary characters. We’ll also work on scene progression leading to an outline, if the participants choose to get that detailed.
We have had some folks drop out. The workshop can be a bit intense and if you don’t have the time, it can become a burden. Nevertheless, we press on!
Map for LH Midsummer Madness II novel outline
Posted on July 10, 2010
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I like to do maps, so I decided to share this one I did as a guide to creating the journey for the main character, a 16 or 17 year old girl who’s given the greatest power in her world, but lacks the means to use it and is pursued by those who would kill her to obtain it.
When I wrote my Bellian novel, I used the same approach. Draw a map. Draw a journey. Fill in the blanks with lots of action, angst and twists and turns. I’ll do this one as well, but I will need to draw the characters more finely for the female YA audience and put in more emotion.
Midsummer Madness II @ Liberty Hall Writers
Posted on July 5, 2010
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I’ve done a lot of posting and have done a lot of challenges at Liberty Hall Writers Group. In order to give back a bit, I volunteered to conduct a workshop on novel planning. Note that I didn’t say novel writing. I would consider myself competent on novel planning having done two last year. Writing? Well let’s just say I haven’t had any takers on the two novels I’ve queried.
Anyway, this workshop is a combination of novel outlining/planning and world building. The two are interleaved. Last year LH did Midsummer Madness, novel outlining using a modified snowflake method, and Bloody August, a world building exercise. I thought that you had to do one before you did the other, but I didn’t know which to do first. So I combined them so you do both while you plan.
We’ll see how it goes. If you want a copy of the program, but aren’t a LH member, send me an email or comment below and I’ll get one to you. We started today and will end six weeks from now. For those who wish to participate in NaNoWriMo, this is a great way to get something planned so you can do more writing and less thinking during November. Think of it as a stress reducer.
I’ll post a few things as we go.
Finding a Market
Posted on June 20, 2010
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So I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately, especially after 6 rejections for Panix. I thought it was a pretty good query letter, but I don’t think the concept is thrilling agents. I know, I know my writing is still evolving, but I do want to sell a novel. I remember speaking with James Dashner at Conduit who said the hottest market is YA and that crossing age groups is nothing he’ll do for some time.
I talked to my married daughter who is a voracious reader. She said that YA is hot and female main characters draw in the full range of female readers from YA on up. My wife reads it and she’s… well let’s say she’s older than my daughter.
So, I’ve recast Bellian into a YA novel, but he needs to stay male. I’m thinking about my motes and meddles novel. Its tone is more appropriate, but it requires quite a bit of gender bending. So my approach will be to rewrite motes and meddles into a female MC as a YA. Luckily I’m only into it 30,000 words and I can still make the plot work with a young heroine.
My writing style just doesn’t come out dense enough for exclusively adults. I write with a bit more simplicity and my plotting is somewhat straightforward. So I’ll give it a try and see what happens.
I’m going to continue to query Panix to the rest of the agents on my list, but my next novel project will be Motes & Meddles. I put together a sample cover.
Shorts and Retorts
Posted on June 9, 2010
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My short stories are still floating around in slush piles everywhere. I’ve got six out at present. A few rejections have come in. I’ve been going back into my WIP and doing some rewrites of promising stories. Some are out for their fourth submission.
I’ve had to write a couple of stories to decide what to sent to WotF. My original was a fantasy and I chopped and channeled it after the critiques came in from Hatrack’s WotF writing group. I wrote a SF story, but my characters weren’t vivid enough for the one person who’s seen it. Perhaps I can use that next quarter with less French food (even though it’s SF, the major action takes place in southern France on old Earth.)
Flashing at Liberty Hall continues. I won last week over seven stories. I generally produce a flash with a complete story arc and that sometimes helps. After watching the Giants beat the Cinn Reds, a plot came to me and I wrote a flash. I posted it at Liberty Hall, but I don’t know if I’ll get any crits.
I sometimes wonder about continuing to write short stories and concentrate on my novels, but I still need to write a steady stream of words and deal with better character development.
Herding my cats along
Posted on June 9, 2010
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Somehow the four novels I currently have in WIP or finished form are running around in different directions. I find it necessary to herd these all together, but it’s somewhat like herding cats. They are all different and have different needs and are leading me in different directions. So I must set priorities. Still, I’ve made progress on three of my works. Bellian is the only one that still remains untouched.
I took the time to review the Meddle novel. It still had first person artifacts littered throughout. Now those are gone and some of my writing has smoothed out. I look at my current WIP as the beginning of the novel. There is an event that changes the main character’s dynamic with his environment. That point is at about where I left off. Now I have to replot to increase the length and make the novel exciting. It ends up being a bit of a thriller as do all four of my novels in process.
I sent another query (snail mail) out to a very good agent. I have to get going and finish sending out the email queries by the end of the weekend and the mail queries the week after that.
With Panix in query and Meddle tucked away for a bit, my novel writing will be world building and plot development for the rest of June for my thriller novel. My brother took a look at my initial treatment and he thought my little group of intrepid shadow CIA operatives were a cross between Mission Impossible and A-Team. I’ve got to develop a better mission for the organization, but action is action and that is the purpose behind this novel. I unwittingly named the MC Ethan. That was Tom Cruise’s name in the Mission Impossible movies. That fact must have been stuck somewhere in my cranium.
June: Subs & Queries
Posted on June 1, 2010
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So far since I started to submit again and sent out nine queries for Panix, I’ve gotten back two story rejections from big markets and two form query rejections. Nathan Bransford actually sent me two form query rejections in two days after I emailed them out. That’s fast turnaround time.
I’ve got about five short story submissions out and will add another five to those by the end of the month. I’ve got some rewriting to do. I went back through my WIP and there is some stuff to send out. Unfortunately, my short story style is a bit too light and breezy for most markets.
I pulled out Motes & Meddles and did a quick read through, changing a few POV errors and toning up the grammar. I still have to sketch out the novel. I think I’ve written the set-up. I’ve got to get the character with more skin in the game and I think I’ve found out how to do it. I only need to write twice again what I’ve written to get the length up. I do think the concept is more marketable… sort of an contemporary fantasy-thriller.
Novel Progress
Posted on May 23, 2010
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I’m getting antsy to write my thriller novel. I did a little character building today. Research is going to have to be done on this one. I imagine I’ll be using Google earth instead of a taking trips to sites. I hope Google view is still up and running when I need to look at European cities and villages.
Panix still needs to be queried before I sit down and actually write the treatment for the thriller. I feel a bit guilty putting my other two WIP novels on the back burner, but I really want to get the new genre out of my system.
Looking at Barnes & Noble, there’s not much period stuff going on. It’s mostly urban fantasy on the shelves. That might be a function of the buyer at that particular store. Anyway, I was reading a Daily Kick by David Farland this week and it talked about writing to a market rather than what you want to write. I can’t say I’m an artiste. So that’s my thriller motivation.
Since it looks like epic fantasy might be in the tank nearly as much as science fiction, I might bring my urbanish fantasy into the next in line after the thriller. That one needs a plot renovation. Right now it’s in novella form (30,000 words) and it needs to be three times the length.
That leaves Bellian as fourth in line. That already has the length, but my MC is too insipid, so I’ve got to spice him up and give a bit of a bigger role to a couple of women.
My goals? Get 20+ queries out by the end of next month. My synopses are done (three lengths), the query letter is done. I’ve got to work on the first five pages to make sure they are as good as I can make them. I’ve identified the agents and what they want.
The thriller novel needs the treatment written, world building (mapping scene locations) and then my plot outline. Those should all be done by the end of July. Two months of writing and then it’s up for review and rewriting.
That’s enough for now.
Emerging: Status
Posted on May 12, 2010
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I can’t believe it’s been a month since I last posted. Since then I’ve written three or four flashes, two short stories and a query and synopsis for Panix.
I’ve had less interaction on the two boards I inhabit, Hatrack Writers Workshop and Liberty Hall. But that’s okay, I’ve been concentrating on baseball (hooray for MLB.TV) and the great season end, but quick out in the second round for the Utah Jazz.
I also did some rewrites and submitted three stories to various markets. One came back within 24 hours as a personalized rejection, but a rejection nevertheless. More to do there.
This whole getting back in the swing of things deal has shown me that it takes a lot of energy to keep everything going. Since my operations, my energy level still isn’t where it should be and I’m not staying up as late as I was writing. I need to do that.
I really want to get Panix (the guy in the picture that I made in photoshop from an actor in Foyle’s War) out there so I can work on my next three novels. Bellian, my NaNoWriMo work, is still sitting simmering with Bellian needing more salt and pepper. My Motes and Meddles novel remains about a third done. I might rewrite that as a Young Adult novel. My third novel is one I’ve only done conceptual work on. It’s not a speculative genre work, but an international thriller. The concept is a private shadow CIA operations group for hire based in Switzerland.
I want to write the thriller, but I want to finish the others, too. What’s a budding writer to do?
On the health front, I think I’m 85% recovered. I have one issue I’m dealing with that’s getting better and some lingering discomfort. I had a busy weekend and it really fatiqued me, so my strength isn’t there either. The best news is I can swing a golf club without discomfort and I’ve been able to walk a couple of miles without having to stop.
What’s up in the near future? Continue with the short story challenges on the boards, but try and get a lot of novel time in. I want to send out Panix query letters by June 1st.
Emerging from my funk
Posted on April 8, 2010
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I won (barely) a flash challenge at Liberty Hall this week. The key thing was not the win, but that I wrote 1,600 words of passable prose in 90 minutes. The ideas came and some were a tiny bit novel. It gives me confidence that I can get better. When I came home from the hospital I had no ability to write. I think there was still too many drugs working on my body. I wondered if I was going to be able to get back to writing at first. Although I wrote a few other stories since I’ve been home, I haven’t been able to come up with unique (is anything really unique in writing? … at least unique to me.) In addition, they were short… under 1,000 words. So this represents more of a return to my previous writing style.
I have a WotF story to write this weekend. I’ve already got a rough outline of the story and the ideas came pretty easily. I couldn’t have done it a few weeks ago, so perhaps my illness induced drag on my creativity is behind me.
The problem is I’ve gotten some work projects to address that will get a bit in the way of getting down to putting words down on paper. Once the story is done, I’ve got to get back to my novels. They are gathering dust (metaphorically) on my hard drive and I need to get them in the position to submit.
Speaking of submissions, another writing goal is to have ten submissions out at a time. At this point I have… none. My WotF story didn’t place, but I felt it was one of my best shorts. I have a number of good candidates to submit (and resubmit). I’ll get them out soon.
As far as my recovery is concerned, I’m getting better every day. I’ve been out of the hospital for a month today and feel fine. My strength isn’t all the way back, but that’s as much a function of lousy Spring weather (it snowed this week).
keep looking »