Category: Blog Of Writing +1

Distractions Abound

As a man who when he puts his mind to anything, can most accomplish that said thing, I have the amazing ability to become absorbed into the many distractions that life has. In fact when it came time to figure out what to do today I simply sat down, laptop and book in hand, and loaded up facebook and email straight out of habit. That being said today has been a busy day with a Christening and Reception, and finally seeing the litter of puppies I’ve chosen my new pup out of. My god, it is hard to choose when all of them are half a foot of adorable.

Also, puppies are now on the list of distractions. As of December 7th, I will be the proud new owner of a miniature dachshund and he is a sleepy little pup. In fact all I can think about is how awesome it will be to have him come to my house, cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war (pun intended). Although I know he will take away from the millions of other things I would love to achieve, at the same time, he is my first pet ever so it will be an interesting experience overall!

Batman has taken a back burner, as well as Pokemon… and I judge myself for not devoting more time to these games I love. Especially when I know the PS4 is coming out soon as well as the new Zelda 3DS I’ve already slapped a deposit down on. At the moment, not having kids means getting virtually everything I want, so there is no rush on that! Probably should put more focus into editing my story, but going over it with a fine tooth comb has been rough. Editing is always the hardest part and ensuring that you haven’t let anything out. I think my goal is instead of NaNoWriMo, I’ll give myself until the end of November to complete the edit and pass it off to the first person to read it: My Lovely GIrlfriend. She has been patiently awaiting the moment she is allowed to read my story, so before any editors or anything… she’s first (And she can catch the mistakes I didn’t and ask the questions I knew the answers to).

Waiting for my iBook short story to be published has been a harrowing experience as I check for myself every single day to see if my story is up. There are a few people wanting to reread it and the presentation is crisp and clear with the iBook Author program. The price is free so everyone may enjoy the story but I am hoping that because it is free that I will get much more feedback and thus make myself a better writer! (I hope it’s not soul crushing…)

Lastly my obsession with the silk bound book has reached new heights as I attempt to hunt down the final three in the “Art of” series by Watkins Publishing. I am currently hunting “The Art of Strategy, The Art of Love and The Art of the Samurai.” I am torn on the Art of the Kamasutra as it doesn’t fit in with the others in my opinion. But also, it would complete the set… so… I blame Pokemon for needing to catch em all!

Lastly I need some new music… I need to renew my free JB HI FI NOW subscription as the last one ran out, but I used that thing all the time and now I don’t know what I did without it! My latest obsession is Nero’s Doomsday from the end of The World’s End trailer (which I still have to see!) but for some strange reason I feel compelled to… exercise… damn you dubstep, damn you.

On a final note, I dreamt the other night that my free iBook took off and got a huge cult following, people loved it and eventually I was involved in making a movie out of it. In my dream I was giving an interview about why I chose to give it away for free when I said the most pompous and arrogant thing I’ve ever said, dream or otherwise: Stories should be told, not sold. Sadly, the people loved it, and then it became my thing that all my stories were free and everyone and their friends downloaded them, but I made all my money from merchandise and movie rights. Not a bad business plan, maybe I’ll stick with the concept… but drop the higher than other author attitude. No one would like that guy! Anyway feel free to check out the last few posts for a retrospective and a poll!

Creative work… coming soon…

Without Looking Back, How Can We Go Forward?

Today’s post is a bit of a retrospective on this very blog here. Some followers are new and some have been around a while, but either way this will be a post gateway into the start of projects of the past (As some may resurrect soon) so with that in mind! Let’s hop into ye ole writing DeLorean and take a journey down memory lane! Also, we will take a brief look into the (hopefully) very near future with some projects that are nearing completion as well as some that are… moving along in the direction of completion! Without further ado…

The very first post just over two years ago was one that began as a self reflection post about who I am and how I came to be this way. This culminated into an eight post series into my history and life. If you haven’t read them, feel free as you’ll learn a bit about me.

Into the Looking Glass: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight.

Then I wrote many a writing and struggling writer post for support and to reaffirm what I’d learned. Eventually that lead to the episodic content short story entitled Unbiased Law about a robot detective who was struggling to solve a crime and got in way over his head. Have a read!

Unbiased Law:  One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty, Twenty-One, Twenty-Two, Twenty-Three, Twenty-Four, Finale.

Wow, I didn’t remember writing so many of those! Perhaps I’ll edit those and make them into a free eBook for all my adoring fans (out there… somewhere…). Either way, Episodic content became a fun addition to this blog and I enjoyed writing it so the trend suddenly started! It made sense for a blog so that way it was easier to plan my next post… also I treated it kind of like a radio drama! My next story began as the winner of a poll I had put out there to the readers. Super Zero was the story of a child going through the growing pains of attending school. Perhaps the story was too familiar or perhaps it wasn’t my most inspiring work, but it did fizzle off as something better appeared on the horizon.

Super Zero: The Start of Something New, Land of the Bullies, The “After Math”, Tale of the Green Ranger, A Cape of Courage, Girl With the Tangled Hair, After School Special, Eccentricity, Return of the Phantom in the Closet

As I continued writing I decided that the Film Noir feel of Unbiased Law and the Campy feel of Super Zero weren’t to my tastes at the moment so I started heading into a different direction. I began to write about a secret society of Super Heroes that experienced a death in the team. It was more drama than I’d really written before, so as it was my first venture into that subject matter, I don’t feel as though it was my best work.

Heroisms: Immortality, Nemesis, Sacrifice, Achilles Heel, Choice, Destiny, Impervious, Disguise, Vengeance.

Then I revisited an idea I will probably revisit a million times, the concept of a mediocre assassin trying to break into the world top ten. As a character scraping to get by, this modern day assassin is both cynical and demanding of sympathy. Everyone can relate to the everyday struggles, his are just actual physical struggles. I may bring old Sherman or Brad back out of retirement. I’d love to know what you think!

Middle Class Assassin: Tough Times, A Life of Routine, The Recruitment Process

Also there are loads of short stories and ideas and concepts littered through the hundred and some odd posts on here. If you’re new, drop me an email or comment! I’d love to hear from you!

In closing I have one last update to bring to you: My short story, Circle of Vengeance, is in the processing to be available for download through the Apple iBookstore in hopefully another week! This is hopefully the beginning of something good and either way at least it gets my name out there so when I finish my actual novel, I can link it back to that and hopefully it’ll drum up some buzz! Either way, I’ll let you all know when it hits the store and I will post again tomorrow, roughly same Battime, same Batblog. (I’ve been playing too much Batman.)

Games: Why Buy At Launch?

So, for those of you who know me… I am a gamer through and through. I buy games on launch to aid in the ever growing quest for publishers to have “great launches”. I don’t know if this legitimately helps them, but I feel better knowing I support the things I love. I do the same with movies, and this rant applies to both. As an avid supporter of the realm of media (digital or otherwise) I find myself at a crossroads where I never would have guessed I’d be.

I am slowly not buying games at launch.

Why you ask? Well I’m glad you did!

You see, it has become trend that not only do games drop in price or trade ins arrive after a game has been out for awhile but the person who picks it up on day one loses out on getting the whole package. Let’s use Skyrim for instance. I love Skyrim, so much to do, so much to explore and never quite the same experience twice. However I bought this game at launch. Got the game, no special edition, no downloadable content, not a thing extra. Then they announce some downloadable content, which after paying ninety dollars for my game they now would like an additional five or ten dollars. More content? More money. Even more content? Sweet! More money. So if you were the poor sucker who bought the game at launch and got all the content, you spent close to one hundred and twenty to one hundred and thirty dollars.

Ok, so you really loved the game. It was worth one hundred and thirty to you. Fair enough. Great game, great story. Then as a slap in the face they release everything you bought for a third of the price. Thanks for the giant slap in the face. So what I’ve been asking myself is this: Why buy a game at launch that you can buy in say a year’s time and get all the content for cheaper? I’d rather have the full experience than the expensive episodic experience.

So the problem is pretty apparent, game companies for some strange, unknown reason are slowly conditioning us to not buy their games at launch. They don’t see it now, but I can assure you I’m not the only person out there with this mentality. I have spoken with multiple people who refuse to preorder when they will wait until they can get the “full game” in a bundle or pack. Yeah, it is going swell for companies right now while people are coming to their senses… but parents are going to stop buying brand new, gamers are going to hold off and all it’s going to take is some time.

Assassin’s Creed IV just came out. It looks nifty. I’ll pick it up when it has a GOTY or Platinum Hits All included edition. I preordered the collectors edition of Batman because that statue of Batman and Joker rocked my world. That being said, give me something I can only get at launch. I know there was a statue for Assassin’s Creed IV, but frankly… what if I hated that character like I hated Ezio from Assassin’s Creed II? That’s a big risk. Replica Hidden Blade? Better.

My problem still lies in the fact that it all comes out later in a cheaper package. I think instead of buying the season pass or whatever “buzzword” they’ve marketed, it should come included at launch. Entice people to preorder for only the launch ones will have a full season pass. Then the next lot can pay ten bucks less, with no season pass. Then when the game of the year edition comes out, have it include the DLC on a disc. Have it at that original price point again or the ten dollar less one. Yes eventually that will drop in price, but it doesn’t condition people not to help you at launch.

Don’t get me wrong, gaming has changed considerably in the twenty five years I’ve been gaming. From my old Commodore 64 and Colecovision to my preordered PS4 and Zelda 3DS XL, it is fantastic to be able to get additional content for the games I love. But I just want that content to be an addition to the game, not a sore mark.

Finishing up, I love the new Batman game, but sadly I won’t get the additional DLC from the Playstation store. Same thing happened with Bioshock Infinite. I suppose as I grow older and find my ambitions higher and my time for gaming less, I’ll start prioritising how and when I spend my time and money. I mean it sucks when you buy a movie and then they release an extended edition or collector’s edition… am I right? Same thing with bands, new album, extended album with covers and unreleased tracks. Do you ladies and gents out there feel the same? Let me know via email or in the comments below.

 

New Writing Exercise – Not The Fat Burning Kind

As it currently stands I am writing 2 things per day and editing one monster. Editing is the most horrific thing ever. You go from a mode of complete and utter free creation. The only limit? Your imagination. Now head back into your beloved world, and hack at it like a machete while trying to sculpt a masterpiece. Also, good luck.

My newest exercise is co-writing a story with a friend. We have both been lacking in our commitment to writing and I suppose having a focus and a writing partner to assure you that you will write is a definite productivity booster. The plan is simple: I started the story. Set the stage, 1000 words and introduced the protagonist, a potential antagonist (or three) and a few issues. After my thousand words I left it for my partner in crime to continue the story, and he returned it thusly. We’re not very far in but it works on many levels.

  • It helps get the creative juices flowing.
  • Ensures we both write at least once every two days. 1000 words. If this keeps up for awhile, the word count will add up quickly.
  • It also challenges us both to think outside the box to throw the other guy, but at the same time keep the story moving.
  • Also it’s like a choose your own adventure novel where you write the page and that is your choice in the story. Finding it fun!

Also I just acquired my book collection for reading in the next few months. It seems a co-worker and I have the same taste in book aesthetics as well as content. I am even more interested in reading Machiavelli’s The Prince after discussing it with someone else. I think if I got my book published myself… I would want an edition that was silk covered and pressed. I love the look and feel of the books and it’s an odd feeling how these simple books appealed to me in this way. I’ve never wanted to own a book more. Strange.

Perhaps I should buy a silk bound writing book, perhaps it would make me want to write more as well. Or a day planner, so it’s something I have to use everyday!

My other writing task is this blog… I guess I will put the question out there, do you want more stories? Or more personal posts? I find it so much easier to conjure up a story about anything than to fill it with just simple words. Sometimes this becomes more of a journal than a portfolio.

Either way, I must head off as I am getting tired and I need my sleep for some decent creativity tomorrow along with the fact I work tomorrow night. Good news is Friday is Batman/Clean House/Garden/Read Art of War Day. If I can, I’ll try and push through some of my editing as well. I’ll be back soon enough!

Shortish Story Attempt: The Hunt

“I can’t believe I’m here.” A muscular young man stands at the base of a very modernly designed building, staring straight up and into the dimly lit sky. With a wave of his gloved hand, he brushed his auburn locks away from his face. “Three years I’ve hunted, can’t believe you were here all along.”

His chestnut brown eyes glanced briefly to the sign on the mirror like side of the building and he whispered to himself as he read it. “Euforia Enterprises.” He swallowed hard. “You took everything from me. Now, I return the favour.”

The door to the office building whispered open as the young man entered, his long suit jacket blowing in the slight air conditioned breeze from between the sliding glass panes. As he walked in a security guard stepped out in front of him.

“Excuse me Sir, I’ll need to see some identification.” The burly man stated, no room for misinterpretation in his voice.

“Oh. Of course.” The young man reached cautiously into his navy blue lined blazer and pulled out a singular card.

The security guard took the card and glanced at it. “Roman Firente.” He paused a moment as the light bulb came on in his memory. Before he could reach his own gun, a bullet had exited through the back of his skull.

As the silencer smouldered, Roman lowered it to his side. Disappointing… he almost didn’t remember me. Stepping over the security guard, he began to head toward the dual elevators when a sudden and all too familiar ‘ding’ sound caught his attention. Roman slinked quickly into the shadows as two men rushed out, guns drawn and ties tucked tight against their chests. Two almost inaudible whispers dropped the pair and Roman lowered the pair of guns in his hands. “Unbelievable.” He said shaking his head.

Roman entered the elevator and admired the mahogany finish and polished wood of the tiny room for transport. As he stared at the numbers his finger settled upon the top floor, floor eighty two. The ride to the top was long and filled with nothing but stereotypical elevator jazz. As the doors slid open at the destination, Roman slid quickly into the hallway,  but only silence filled the room.

“Goddamnit.” Roman said as he shook his head, “No one’s here.”

Suddenly his attention turned to a small door at the top of a short set of stairs as it clicked shut.

“Bingo.” Roman smiled. As he made his way up the rickety stairwell, he reloaded both guns. “Well, here we go.”

The door at the top of the stairs pushed open and landed with a large clang against the brick wall supporting it. In that moment of confusion, Roman fired two shots, both hitting the leader of the group and sending him to his back.

“Kill him…” The man whispered as he drew his final breath.

“Master!” As the other thirty people standing on the roof quickly turned, Roman walked calmly up the middle aisle to where the man was speaking.

“Well, that ends that.” Roman spat at his victim. He turned to the enraged masses around him. “Now folks, I have saved you from a demon… a demon who has possessed all of you. He’s turned you into slaves.”

As he spoke, the people around him began to move closer.

Backing away, Roman continued. “You are all free. He turned me into his puppet, just like he has with you.”

Suddenly a man lunged forth and Roman narrowly dodged his flailing.

“Can you not hear-” Roman stopped as he turned and realised he was at the very edge of the building. “Listen, I-”

Five of the mindless ones leapt out toward him and together they all tumbled over the edge. As Roman watched, their skin melted away and their faces turned demonic.

“Hmm, so not like me at all… Okay then.” Roman pulled the trigger on one of his guns and watched as the demon in front of him went limp and drifted away from the group. As his attention turned from the lifeless husk drifting away, he watched as the remaining people from the roof cascaded like a waterfall down toward him.

“Son of a b-” A punch cut Roman’s speech short and he returned to the other four demons clawing away and biting at him. “Fine. Have it-” Roman narrowly dodged a punch as he thrust the gun in his right hand into a demon’s belly. “-your way!” The bullet pierced two demons and with a quick elbow, demons were floating away from Roman at an acceptable rate. Suddenly more were upon him. “Damn it to hell!”

“That’s where we’re taking you… Back to Hell!” One demon hissed.

Roman paused for a moment and shook his head. “Not a damn chance.” With a few more trigger pulls, demons were limply floating into other demons. Roman pulled the trigger on another demon’s arm then turned in free fall to finish it off with a few more bullets. As new demons collided into him, Roman’s frustration grew. “Death to you all!”

Channelling his rage, Roman pushed off one demon to clear away from the pack and fired a hail of bullets into the mass of entangled demons. Then the realisation hit him. “I’m heading toward the ground at an alarming rate.” With a deep sigh, Roman closed his eyes and clenched his jaw. “I hate this part.”

Suddenly his skin embered away and when his eyes opened they were as black as night, but the iris in both eyes had turned to an array of fiery colors. As he pushed downward through the demons he flipped and braced for impact. As the sidewalk cracked beneath his landing, he took a second to recover.

“Ow… That could definitely have gone better.” Roman shook off the pain and cracked his neck. As he began to walk forward a demon landed on the ground before him. “What the-” He looked quickly up and then hopped out of the way as another body landed just to the left of the previous body.

“Shit!” Roman ran and leapt over fallen demons, and dodged and weaved around the falling ones. “Damn, damn… double damn!” He yelled as he shot upward knocking some demons off trajectory. As the last demon landed in a heap of bodies behind him, Roman checked his gun for ammo. “Not bad, still got a couple bullets left for later.”

Walking away from the heap of disaster Roman had left before the business building, Roman felt a wild sense of accomplishment. “I’m finally a free soul.” He thought aloud as he inhaled the first breath of a new day. “I can’t believe that I have escaped that fate.”

“You haven’t escaped yet.”

Roman froze as he turned to see an extremely androgynous person standing against a nearby lamp post , picking at their nails. “Who are you?!”

“Me? That doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you’re alive.” The angel smirked and brushed the hair from its face. “I don’t think you understood the ramifications of your actions or what happens next.”

“Huh?” Roman shook his head. “No no, it was purely a quest for revenge.”

With a slight chuckle, the angel smiled at Roman’s ignorance. “That man you killed was Damian, the son of Lucifer and I don’t think that’s going to go over very well with dear old Dad.”

A New Challenger Approaches!

So because being an assistant manager in retail at Christmas isn’t stressful, or busy enough (endSarcasm); I’ve decided to take on a few projects in the coming weeks. Some of these are small like posting to this blog in one form or another. Some are huge, like edit my novel. Some will be trying, two puppies? Whaat?! And some will be downright impossible (Make sales at work while in a mall renovation? I’ll do my damned best!)

It all comes down to one thing. Routine. Obviously Christmas isn’t the best of times to start this but ah what the hell? Why not? Gotta start some time, right? Of course!

So the list of things I want to accomplish in the next two months are as follows:

Complete Edit of my Novel: Jefferson and the Magician’s Curse
Write in my blog once a day (30 minute limit)
Write 1000 words every second day, passing a story back and forth with a friend.
Beat my pile of unplayed PS3 games and Pokemon. I can do it.
Get not one, but two puppies.
Weed Back garden before dogs get here and convert to raised veggie patch.
ePublish my Circle of Vengeance story.
Insulate my attic.
Read Art of War, The Prince, The Hagakure, The Prophet and Tao-Te-Ching. Possibly the Book of Five Rings too.
Work on my portable body heat powered battery.

I’m sure there’s more but at the moment that may very well be more than enough. Anyway, 30 minutes is up (Not my best words/minute record) and I will see you tomorrow, or you’ll see my words. Or something. Ish.

Doom.

Hello, Is it me you're looking for?

Wow, time flies when you’re having fun. It is October, my book has stalemated at over 80000 words and I stare into the dimly lit corners of my room searching for answers. Have I failed? Not by any means, 80000 is huge. Have I let myself down? Absolutely. Close only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades, so as far as I’m concerned, I’m not even close.

The issue isn’t time. The issue isn’t work. The issue isn’t even that I’ve lost interest.

The issue is… I’m terrified to fail.

I’ve definitely failed before. This wouldn’t be a first, nor a second. This wouldn’t even be a tenth (University was hard while working two jobs… Alright?). This is a different kind of failure. One that someone at work nailed right on the head.

Writing isn’t just what I’m passionate about. I’m passionate about video games. I’m passionate about work. But I have a level with writing I am terrified to share. It’s more intimate than what’s beneath the clothes, it’s more intimate than what makes me cry. It’s at it’s very essence my dreams, beliefs; My imaginary moments where I am fighting the hordes of hell alone; My heroisms and my faults. It is the Hyde to my Jeckyl, the Good to my Evil, The sociopath to my extrovert. It is everything I can be, everything I want to be and everything I am all in one.

It terrifies me.

Deep stuff, right? Not really. I have a hundred ideas a day. Some of them are stories, some of them are gadgets and inventions, some of them are songs. My mind wanders nameless and faceless through the wasteland of creativity and steps over the Ideas, forgotten and discarded.

I stare at my story once a day. It is the home screen on Chrome across all my devices. Everyday I stare blankly into the words of my story as it beckons for an end. It could be a quick end, painless… Happily ever after. At this point it beckons to me, simply to finish it… Even if it takes another month.

Perhaps I will give in. Perhaps I will finish it and attempt to get it published. For now, baby steps. This is the first step.

This is a return to discipline, a return to writing.

My favorite quote as of late gives me chills every time I hear it and it is fittingly for the PS4.

“Who are you to deny greatness? If you deny it to yourself, you deny it to the entire world… And we won’t be denied.”

Rantings and Ravings of a Sleep Deprived Retail Worker

The time? Eleven PM. The grumbling? I am still awake.

So this is my sporadic update, to which I will rant and rave like a man wearing a billboard that reads, “THA END IS NAER!”

I have been writing pretty consistently since my last post and am now sitting at the forty percent mark of my lofty one hundred thousand word goal. My writing has improved significantly and I am actually also working on putting together a few short stories to slap together and put out there for free in eBook form. It’s been awhile in the making, but I had set a target of twenty reviews on my Circle of Vengeance short story before I bothered to even look into it. Well, as fate would have it… whoever has been assigned my final review may have passed on, or has abandoned the website altogether.

That doesn’t bother me, I’ll just do more reviews and force some other poor S.O.B. to read my twenty five full page story. Life is great when you don’t have to care who you inconvenience on the internet!

With stocktake on the horizon for my kingdom of employment, that can only mean one thing… interruptions. I will do my best to maintain my current rate of writing, my minimum to hit my August target is six hundred and fifteen words a day. That is easy for the most part, with the occasional day where I force four hundred words, only to completely rewrite them the next day with my goal and a few hundred extra.

Getting up at five in the morning was the best decision I ever made for my productivity. It is a nice quiet time, uninterruptible by most anything.

I will be editing my short stories over my two days off this week in final preparations for eBook publishing with a teaser for Jefferson and the Magician’s Curse. Hopefully all goes well, ideally I’ll get filthy rich off this and then I can drop down to part time at work and focus solely on my writing. Oh the wonderful, wonderful dreams one may have. Anyway, if you are looking for something to do in the meantime, feel free to read my stories at the side titled: The Runner and Circle of Vengeance. Those two stories will be the ones I attempt to publish and I would love to hear any feedback! Anyway for now, it is off to bed as I have to get my taxes done tomorrow before I do anything else!

Keep your fingers crossed for me, and I’ll finish the book for you!

El Sporadic Update – The 20% Mark

So I am now officially 1/5th of the way to my target of 100,000 words. For only writing one hour a day, I am making fantastic progress! This waking up early thing has been the most rewarding and probably challenging thing I have ever done. I mean yesterday was my day off and I did four loads of laundry, three loads of dishes, cleaned the house, BBQ’d some lunch, still got in some writing and critiquing and then still cooked dinner as well! Perhaps there is some truth to all those crazy people who say wake up with a purpose and you will achieve higher levels of productivity and success! I still hate mornings (I don’t drink coffee or tea… so mornings are hard…)

That being said, I haven’t broken my story into chapters or gone back over any of my writing thus far. I am doing what some may call SOMP Writing (Seat-Of-My-Pants) with little or no planning at all. I have found this style of writing extremely rewarding. I know the direction I want to go in, so I am now ensuring that people feel the way I want them to while dropping subtle hints about who the antagonist is. For the moment, it seems magic is the evident antagonist as young Jefferson is trying to figure out how far he can push himself and good magic has its limits.

The world I have built is roughly based around travelling circuses and a time where Magicians stole the show with their tricks. However, these magicians are part of an order which secretly protects the rest of the world from the dark magics. The way magic works in my world is good magic only can draw upon the life force of the user exhausting their energy levels or depending on the power of the spell, causing harm to the user. This restricts the use of overly powerful spells, as they come at great risk. However the forbidden arts or dark magic are based off of using the life force of others and those around you. As this does not fatigue the user or harm them, extremely powerful spells can be used with little regard for the lives around them. Because of the power at no risk and the harm to others, use of magic in that way is forbidden.

This has made some battles interesting and good characters will fall victim to the evils of the world. More so than the bad guys. In this sense I am writing a story in which of course the good guys win, but at what cost? I have been enjoying the characters I have brought into the story thus far and I feel it is moving along at a decent pace. Will this turn into a trilogy? No. I sincerely doubt it. The plot kind of goes as such: Jefferson gets recruited. Jefferson becomes integral to recruiting new members. Antagonist appears. Jefferson builds order to fight Antagonist. Good triumphs, but who survives?

So at the moment I have just begun my second plot point where for the next 20000 words will be recruiting and adding a few more members to the order, while staging the appearance of the antagonist. I already know that those 20000 words will be roughly the hardest points for our protagonist which strengthen his resolve to build the order stronger in the next 20000. The final 20000 will start off with the end, and then the aftermath. Maybe if I still love writing about this world, I can toss in the possibility for a second story.

In the meantime, as a sidebar to this story I have been involved in critiquing the works of others on a website called Review Fuse. In order to get three reviews, I must give three reviews. This type of reading and editing all for my own benefit has been both fun and challenging. Sometimes people will have fantastic writing skills, but have written the most boring story ever. Character developments fall flat, moments which could be epic run dry and I actually read a story that had none of the following: A plot, Characters, A setting, Dialog. It was eight paragraphs of this writer telling me things, about names with no people attached and I don’t think I could have cared less. He introduced drugs, killed one of them off and apparently no one in his story noticed or cared that the guy had died. I guess I felt as empathetic as they did. Not at all.

Still, everything counted, I am writing at least 2000 words a day between my story, my blog and my reviews. It has felt great to get back into it and with the resolve to finish this story. The earlier I finish, the more time I have to edit. Also I have another million ideas to write about after this, so I guess I will continue to get up at five in the morning to write until I am a millionaire telling stories to the world. If I can get paid to write, there is no greater honor and that is the dream!

For everyone out there, I’d like to thank you for supporting me. Whether you are family, friend or total stranger. If you’re a writer yourself or know one, pass this blog along as I would love feedback on the existing stories I have out there and the past work I have done. I’m hoping to get my final three reviews on Circle of Vengeance so I can slap it up on the iBooks store (it’ll be free!) and perhaps even the kindle store! That’s the near future, hopefully if everything goes well and smoothly it will be up by the end of the month. Maybe it’ll be up in time for my birthday! That would definitely be the best birthday present ever! Until the next sporadic update, adios amigos!

Week 1: Progress, Meet Challenge

At five in the morning for the past week, my alarm has sounded and I have grumbled my way from my bed. The beginning of this week was the biggest challenge, changing from waking up at six-thirty to five. You may ask why, but then again you may not care. Either way the reason is I havent been able to actually get to sleep before eleven. Even if I went to bed at ten, I’d be wide awake until then. However I’d be lying if I said the labours weren’t worth the rewards!

Jefferson & The Magician's Curse
Cover by Fena over at http://pheeena.com/

The total word count for my story is roughly fourteen thousand words which is fourteen percent of my goal. The thing that keeps driving me now is the wonderful cover above, I was able to get when I took part in NaNoWriMo last year. I accomplished a fifth of my target because my routine got shot about halfway through. The only way to survive that is to set aside an uninterruptible time where you can focus solely on your writing.

Snowflake Method, Where?
Which one is the Snowflake Method?!

Although I keep hearing about some wondrous snowflake method that helps with planning out novels, it doesn’t seem there are any extensive articles on its use in practice. If anyone can find one, I’d love to see it. The best thing I’ve seen is Scrivener for organisation, but it almost has too many bells and whistles which distracts from the actual act of writing. Lately I’ve just been using and abusing Google Docs and when I create a new area or character or touch on history, I simply make a new document in a themed folder and place as much information in there as I can. I suppose in retrospect I’ve written considerably more this week then I can recall, especially across blog posts, tweets, emails and planning.

Also I think this week I will get my final three reviews on Circle of Vengeance and if they go well I will publish it as an eBook. What is the worst that happens? It fails and no one notices it? Fair enough. Such is life! I will post when that becomes available on the various eBook stores. I will make it free to get myself out there!

Anyway as for the end of my blog post today, I must get back to it!