Tag: Jefferson

In Transit: Free Writing Time!

Hello airport. Hello internet. I’d like to say it’s been too long, but…

I sit here in Toronto staring out at the tiny people on the tarmac, as they rush around like ants trying desperately to keep the machine that is the airport well oiled and moving. It is here that I finally realise I have a few hours, might as well write something.

It has been awhile since I blogged, or written for that matter, and it feels good to pound on this keyboard of the thousand dollar machine I had hoped would help me write more often and be more organised. I had brought it along for this entire two week trip, and I turned it on for roughly ten minutes at my mother’s house to show her how cool technology is. Now though, I am excited about one fact and one fact alone. Forced writing time.

When I was visiting my best friend in Edmonton, we came to the conclusion we are both absolutely terrible at finishing things. Even if we do, we move on as if we ran it over in a Ferrari. I finished my novel and my lovely girlfriend is still working on the edit. I started the second book, but have finished a single chapter. I have probably planned more of book three than of book two. This aside, he and I discussed the very problem we have and came to a conclusion: We have a problem and we need to fix it. Then we went our separate ways. Now I am emailing him almost every second day bouncing ideas off him and stirring his creative pot. The problem is even with my trilogy a third of the way to completion, I have begun building a new world around the collection of all of my ideas. Not one. Not two. But all!

The concept had come to me awhile ago when I began to get fed up with coming up with new ideas. New stories would present themselves, new characters would interrupt dialogue and new worlds would stand at the end of a pier waiting to be explored. Now, to counteract this rampant idea generation, I’ve begun changing my science fiction ideas into a fantasy setting. I have intertwined stories into lore. Characters have begun interacting with each other instead of existing in totally separate worlds. Now I have a world that gets richer every time I have a new idea. Not only that, but I have managed to tie it into my current trilogy. What this means however, is despite the world being similar to ours, now it is becoming a monster in its own right. Jefferson and crew are now building lore into the world that has apparently been brewing in my head for years. It finally feels like everything is coming home.

Jefferson and the Magician’s Curse will happen centuries before the story I will set in the created world. This has lead me to consider abandoning Jefferson (for now) in the hope that I can use the points I am aware of now to build the lore for the new world. Jefferson and Gabriel will live on as some of the first magic users (especially powerful ones) which opened up the doors for cults, schools, and the whole basis for magic in the future. Not only this but there are ramifications from their actions that still reverberate centuries later, without people realising it. Also the way that magic works in my world has distinct consequences in the Jefferson trilogy that will be branched out upon as newer forms of magic and different schools come into light. In case you didn’t notice, I’m a bit excited!

I often wonder how long it took to build consistent worlds like those experienced in Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter and how long I should work on my own before writing the story in it. I suppose as with anything it will be finished when it is finished, much to my dismay. For the meantime, I will get back into it so that I can smash that NaNoWriMo target. I am unsure as to which story to contribute to or which lore to write exactly. Something tells me if I start working on that world, fifty thousand words will be achieved within the time frame. The thing will be, forcing myself to make the time.

Until next time lovely ladies and gents! Happy writing!

Also touch base guys! Are you doing NaNoWriMo this year? What are you working on? Are you in the same boat as me? Anyone want to get back in touch for some writing updates!? I did enjoy keeping up with those of you who were interested! Talk to you soon!

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!

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!