Tag: TJ Edwards

The Time Machine

Nope, I’m not here to discuss a classic Sci Fi Story. Nope. Not that.

I’m here to be all… What the hell, it’s already June!?

 

This should read, “You should be editing.”

 

The Time Machine in this sense is what I’ve been up to since my last post, apparently in March. MARCH.

So, what exactly have I been up to? Fantastic question, the short answer? EVERYTHING. The long answer is (in no particular order):

  • Trying to sort out our backyard still so we can put our fence up (bloody council).
  • Completing my citizenship test for Australia (pledge taking place 4th of July).
  • Handmade all the invitations for our pending wedding (September isn’t far away now).
  • Sourced our rings, or attempted to (waiting on a reply…).
  • Read quite a few books (Throne of Glass, The Final Empire, Sabriel just to name a few).
  • Submitted to three writing competitions (haven’t won yet…).
  • Attended a “Pitch Perfect” workshop on how to pitch my novel (which became more of a publisher Q&A).
  • Became a member of two writers’ centres and one writing society (now to take advantage of all their services).
  • Attended my first writers’ festival (met two writers and asked them all my pressing questions, got a book signed too).
  • Made a few new fantasy writer friends (If you’re reading this, hello friends!)
  • I am apparently mentoring three writers (blind leading the blind much, but I’ll coach them through to “The End”).
  • Been to one leadership training event for work, and two product training sessions. (I hate parking in big cities).
  • And last but not least, managed to rewrite the intro to my story, as well as the synopsis and two rough pitches. (*gasp*)

SO! Really not too much. Might as well go and write another one, right? Okay, no. So in less than four weeks I will be at the Kids & YA Festival where there is the potential to actually pitch to a panel of publishers. I’m only slightly freaking out because everything appears to be lining up.

What’s that?

Don’t believe me?

PROOF! (Put on your tinfoil hats kids, it’s going to be a bumpy one…)

 

Me explaining the following theory…

 

I became a member of the ASA last year, and they posted the event for Pitch Perfect early this year. As it appeared to sell out every year, I leapt at the chance (stay with me here). Then, a few weeks before I attend that event, the Kids and YA Festival comes up and releases the program for it, guess what? PITCHING. Holy crap, I think to myself. It must be fate! (Nope, still not there, but what are the odds?) THEN, to get a discount to that, I decide to join a writers’ centre near me like I was going to anyway. So bam, got both the membership and then my ticket. Fast forward a week AFTER the Pitch Perfect session, a small welcome pack arrives. What’s this? A magazine with the Director of the Kids & YA Festival in it, offering up her top tips for… what do you think it could be… oh man… PITCHING. AGAIN. With heaps of advice from not just her, but also advice from the lovely lady at HarperCollins, which is oddly enough where I’d love to end up!

So, all in all, I’m dreaming about my novel now. Thinking about it 24/7. My pitch is literally on my phone, should just make it my lock screen. ANYWAY…

I’d love for anyone’s feedback in regards to my pitch. I’ve adjusted it slightly as I will only have one minute to get the whole thing out, providing they choose my one hundred word pitch from the piles I’m sure they’ll get on the day. I’ve taken into account the winning pitch from last year’s festival and how she pitched her book, so hopefully I’ve got this… my pulse is racing just thinking about it.

THE PITCH – JEFFERSON & THE MAGICIAN’S CURSE

Born because an immortal magician travelled back in time, Jefferson is forever an outcast struggling to find his place in the world. Jefferson & The Magician’s Curse follows the boy as he is recruited into a secret society by Gabriel, the immortal magician, who is desperately trying to stop the end of the world at his own hands. While the forbidden arts begin to rise and war seems likely, Gabriel spitefully decides to infiltrate the enemy ranks after being bested by his young apprentice. As Gabriel succumbs to his alter ego and the magician’s curse, Jefferson hopes he’s powerful enough to stop him, without tapping into the power around him he doesn’t fully understand…

Jefferson & The Magician’s Curse is a 98 thousand word YA novel for readers 13 and up. With a strong fantasy element, the novel is reminiscent of the unique magic from Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn Trilogy, and invokes the strong characters from Sarah J Maas’s Throne of Glass series. Like these books, Jefferson & The Magician’s Curse offers up an intriguing world filled with rich lore, diverse characters and the possibility for a series of novels.

Let me know what you think as it’s 1 AM and I should be sleeping!

TJ Edwards or: How I Learned To Stop Procrastinating And Edit My Novel

I reread the conclusion to my novel Jefferson and the Magician’s Curse today. This is a big deal because I have now fully finished rereading the entire thing. Do you know what I noticed?

The ending was good… But it could be so much more…

What do I mean? Well, I had an ending. I edited from eighty five thousand words up to the ninety thousand word mark. Then I had an epiphany as I read through the last pages of my story.

This was all too easy, the end? Too nice. Let’s crush some souls.

I’d like to think that at the end of my story, the reader will see the signs. They’ll see them and beg, BEG the protagonist not to do it.

But then… he does.

It is perfect and completes the ultimate circle. Besides the fact I have to rewrite the final ten thousand or so words of my novel, it works on many different levels and fits in perfectly. Much like finding the diamond puzzle piece that makes it all combine together… I feel… I feel…

Liberated!

Don’t ask! It feels so good to have crushed the ending I had with this new, Ending Version Two, Superior. This does put me a bit behind now though. I thought, edit some words… finish it today. Editing fifteen thousand words is easy once you get going. Just do it, I told myself. Then suddenly without warning, this comes through and despite the ending of the story already being written, I decided to rewrite it. I still want my book to be over one hundred thousand words. But now, it feels whole. Now it has things like foreshadowing, suspense, drama, action (which have been spit shined and polished) and now it has this moment. The moment the whole book has been building up to and is executed so perfectly it makes my mouth twist into an insane sort of grin smile. I think this might be called winning.

So now that I have to rewrite the final ten thousand words, I’ve set myself a deadline of the end of December. This is a near impossible target as in retail I work many hours, and then followed up by everyone wanting to see us over the holidays I think I may have to start overlapping mundane tasks (Brushing teeth and Showering, Eating and Writing) or get up earlier and go to bed earlier (which is hard when social events run until nine to eleven at night). If anyone can figure out how to write while they sleep… there is money already in the bank for you.

But the reason I decided to smash into it today was because I reread some of Ray Bradbury’s “Zen in the Art of Writing”. Mr Bradbury has so much energy and passion that immediately after reading any portion of it, you leap up and run to your computer to write. It is most disappointing that this man is gone as he will never know how much he influenced me from his small pocket sized book of writing suggestions. If you are a writer, go find this book and give it a read. I’d love to discuss it and when I eventually get published, he will definitely get a mention.

Also, procrastination is so easy. Pick up the challenge of eliminating all of these distractions we have at our fingertips and focus on what matters most to you. I put my phone away, used an app to limit my access to the internet and told myself to get to ninety thousand and read the rest. Now, things have changed… the story is going to rock and once I end the novel, it is then on to my partner to read. I just hope she enjoys it as much as I do!

Anyway get out there and write. Also, what is everyone writing right this second? Fantasy Novel? Story of a boy and a girl? I’d love to hear from you!

I've Landed! …in the iBookstore!

So after spending one night typing, copying and pasting over my Mac keyboard, I have finally found myself actually submitting a short story (thirty six pages of short) through the iBookstore and seeing it “published” to the masses. By masses, I mean Apple Users. By Apple Users, I mean only those who own an iPad. Well, lesson learned. I’ll work on getting it into more places as the process was interesting enough to learn and simple enough for anyone to complete. 

In case you’re interested in the finished product, click this link and remember… only available for iPad. Not sure if its available for Mac as well, so please if you download it to one of those… let me know!

Currently making some decent headway on the novel of doom… I’d rip the remainder of my hair out, but I’m already bald. There are some definite gaps and some actual moments of decent writing. I originally was worried, but some spans of writing are quality. After reading a bit, I forgot I was supposed to be editing and just kept reading. Hopefully that’s a good sign! Either way, that’ll hopefully be ready for the end of the month, if not then the new year!

Also, it appears my PDF version has gone live as well (Whoo more exposure!) but the ePUB version is broken virtually beyond repair (It took 37 pages and turned it into 1373 pages… I’m definitely not editing that). That link is over here and if you like it, please share it freely. After all, I made it free so I could get more feedback on my writing style (and to see if I have one).

Well, once again, it is past that midnight mark and I am growing tired. Looks like tonight was no time spent on the ole novel of doom, however I did watch Thor (which was awesome) and got my story more audience. All in all? Win! I just have to stay away from eBay… that place eats not only time, but money too! Take care out there, and thank you for your kind support! Also, if there is a format you’d like to see for future (or this) story, let me know!

Opinions: You Have Them, I Want Them

Alright, so I just wrote what I think is a lovely piece for my IGN blog and it got me thinking. I love creative writing. So today’s post here will be a number of things I would like to throw out an idea, and see if I should turn this blog in a different direction than it’s been going. Not that I don’t like this blog, however it gets harder and harder to come up with new stuff everyday. Where the game industry is abundant with creativity and ideas, I find it easier to write a journal entry because this blog is… well for a word… I have no idea what to actually make this blog.

My hope was that this blog would be the gateway to what I do on the internet and for companies. Almost like a portfolio, but a nice laidback portfolio that shows my hard work and devotion to writing. I would also like it to show my personality and where I came from, but in all honesty… how does one build such a thing?

As I continue to write this blog, I find it challenging to manage. However, the big idea I’d like to throw out is would anyone out there read say a fife hundred to one thousand word story piece a day? Almost like I do my short story writing, I would read the posts before and continue. I would have to try and make it almost like some kind of drama and leave off on a cliffhanger (since I don’t have commercials to sell the next post) just to keep you ladies and gents coming back!

Imagine a radio drama… with no radio… and potentially not much drama… are you picturing it? Good. I swear it sounds worse than it really would be! If anyone had any requests for a world or theme, I’d be willing to take it! For now I will think up some story ideas and perhaps post them in the coming days or just start on one! I was also considering picking up some freelance work this week. Either way, I would love to have more people commenting on my blog and sharing their ideas and opinions about not just my previous writing but my future writing as well! For now I leave you with these to think about! Also as a side note, learning to convert a story to a script is not as easy as it originally seemed. That one may actually not be posted this week. The short story is still going to be posted this Saturday, on my first day I wrote over two thousand words and three pages! I really like the circumstances and characters in the story! Anyway for now, take care and thanks for reading!