I was recently interviewed at Book-in-a-week . For those who do not know, Book in a Week is a great motivational writing group.  Once a month for a week it’s all about BIC HOK TAM (butt in chair, hands on keyboard, typing away madly).  The people over there are great!

Well, I broke down and joined the Twitter sensation. I wasn’t sure how much I’d like it, but so far I’ve found it to be fascinating. I’m not the kind of person who likes to give constant updates, and I’m not sure anyone cares if I went to the bathroom, or what I had for lunch.  And, I don’t really care if what other people eat or when they need to take care of bodily functions…  At least I have the option to stop following people who insist on reporting everything they are feeling, doing, or thinking about doing. I can see how there’d be a lot of TMI on something like Twitter.  Having said that though….

I see many uses for Twitter. I’ve focused my following on mainly literary agents, authors and publishers. I feel it keeps me in the loop, makes me feel like I’m part of the industry–even though I’m still an unknown and outsider. Seeing the updates keeps me focused and is a constant reminder that I’m involved in writing, that I am writer.

Along with Twitter, I obviously have my website and blog to keep people informed. If I ever manage to attract a following other than my fiance’ and the furry feline congregation at home, they will come in handy. So Twitter will be for announcements and other nonsense, and the website and blog will be for much larger ideas and updates. I like the setup, it makes sense to me now, and I’m somewhat annoyed at myself for not joining Twitter earlier. Oh well.

On another note, this weekend I’ll be heading up to North Jersey to spend time with family and friends. I’m looking forward to spending Saturday evening eating, drinking, and talking with my old high school buddies.  One of which, is also a writer, but much further along in the process than me.  His blog can be checked out here:  Traveler’s Tales. I’m looking forward to seeing him and discussing writing and what’s been going on the past eight years or so since I last saw him.

And one last thing:  I’ve completed the edits on the short story which now has a name: Shadowsphere. I’ll be submitting it soon and hoping for the best!  In a very general sense, Shadowsphere is a story of loss, loss of faith, and the restoration of faith in a science fiction setting.

Until next time–happy writing and happy living!

Alistair

It’s been a while since I last posted, but quite a few things have been happening!  First off, before I went on vacation to Novia Scotia, I finished the first draft of the fantasy novel and a first draft of a science fiction short story.

The short story I intend to enter into the Writers of the Future contest.  It’s actually the first short story I’ve ever written.  I wasn’t sure if I’d like to write short stories, but I have to say, it was quite enjoyable.  So, I’m polishing that story in order to submit it by the end of August. I intend to keep writing short stories while in revision mode on the fantasy novel.  I may just end up with a short story that begs to be turned into a novel.

Vacation was great. That trip to Nova Scotia was the first time I’d been to a foreign country since 1988 I think.  Quite a long drought huh?  Canada was a lot of fun, and during the course of the trip I got engaged to the most wonderful, intelligent, caring, and beautiful woman.  I was very lucky she said yes.  :)

It was hell coming back from Canada though…I had to be back in Virginia for the movers the morning after we got back, but the flight was delayed.  It was beginning to feel a lot like the movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles for a while.  In the end I made it home, but only had a few hours to sleep before the movers showed up.  But it all worked out.  I am now in an even better townhouse, in a better neighborhood.  My fiance’ (what a wonderful thing to be able to write) will be joining me Virginia in early October.  So for now I continue to be looked after by my two furry little friends Juniper and Woobie.

Anyhow, it’s great to be back, and there will be more updates soon!

Alistair

I spent the 4th of July in Pennsylvania with my girlfriend.  She’s been a faithful alpha reader from the beginning of the project.  Without her input and enthusiasm, my journey through the process would have been difficult, if not close to impossible.  Thank you, my lovely alpha reader.

So, after spending a little over five months on this project(piecing together the story, researching, writing, etc), I’m happy to write that I finished the first draft this evening!

I’m looking forward to digging back into the novel and seeing what worked and what fell flat, or was just plain awful.  I suspect there may be some sections that worked really well, and those will be a pleasant surprise.

I had originally planned on this book being 200k words, but based on current trends I decided to cut it down to about 115k words.  I know I’ll be able to cut quite a bit in the revision, but I may need to add as well.  I bet I’ll end up with around 110k, but we’ll see.

I don’t want to start the second book in the series until I’ve had time to do a macro edit on the first one.  So, with that in mind:  I belong to a writing group called:  book-in-a-week, it takes place once a month(usually the first Monday of each month) and lasts for, you guessed it:  one week.  The goal of the group isn’t for critique, nothing that is written gets turned in, it’s simply a way to get motivated and just type away.  You post your daily totals and also get to see how many pages other writers are cranking out each day.  It’s a great group.

Anyway, since I don’t feel comfortable starting the second book in the series, I intend on using the upcoming week to write a science fiction short story that I intend to enter into the Writers of the Future Contest.  So, between now and Monday morning when book-in-a-week starts, I’ll be piecing together my ideas for the scifi short story.

Tomorrow night my girlfriend and I will be celebrating the completion of my first draft with a bottle of champagne!  I can’t wait!  This draft is significant since I haven’t finished a novel since about the 8th grade back in 1984, so it’s a big deal!

Anyway, happy writing and happy living!

Alistair

Last week began with the shocking news that I’d have to vacate the place I am renting.  A day or two of being down was followed by a busy weekend of looking for a new place to hang my hat until I move from the DC for much greener pastures. 

I found a nice place, close to where I live now, but overall I believe this is a nicer neighborhood. 

Despite the problems of last week I still managed to get some quality writing done on the book.  I finished a pivotal chapter that fought me every step of the way.  That chapter needed to be written and forced me to do some difficult things to my characters. 

That brings us to this week.

Monday night:  I’m happily BIC HOK TAM (butt-in-chair hands-on-keyboard typing-away-madly) for those not in the know, when at 11pm, I hear voices that sound as if they are right outside my townhouse.  Some neighbors that are close by have been known to throw some parties while hanging out in their driveway, but on Monday night, the racket was coming from a different place.

I decided to go to bed around 12am, but I hardly ever get to bed before then and I usually read before I go to sleep.  The noise level from these buffoons made it impossible for me to concentrate on the book I was reading.  I looked outside, and it definitely was not coming from my neighborhood; the apocolypse was coming from a different neighborhood!

Around 12:30am the police must have shown up, because it got very quiet all of the sudden, and I thought I’d have a respite.  Wrong.  About ten minutes later it started up again, and it sounded as if I was in the middle of some ritualistic sacrifice to Kong, punctuated by a scream—then a few seconds later, there was more yelling and hollering. 

I turned on the air conditioning and the TV for some homegrown noise (its funny isn’t it that if I’m responsible for the noise I can sleep through it), and I think I finally fell asleep around 3:30 am.  The alarm went off immediately, or so it seemed, and I was up at 5:55am.  I’m shocked I was able to make it through the whole day at work and then got some writing done once I got home! 

Tuesday:  I settle in for a night of writing and what do you know, right at 11pm the party starts up again.  This time I figure out where the noise is coming from.  Through the woods in the adjoining neighborhood, I see a bunch of people out on a deck yelling and screaming.  This wasn’t next door, the other neighborhood is separated by a lot of trees, and this house was probably about an 1/8 of a mile away from my townhouse.

I hop in my car and drive to the road this house sits on so I can get the address.  As I’m driving by, I can hear the savages (my windows were up).   I call the police and explain to the dispatcher the situation and how this is night #2 and they are just getting started and will probably go until 2am.  They send an officer, and at about midnight I see a light go out and the noise ceased.   Ahhhh.  It was still not a great night of sleep, but better than the previous night.

Wednesday night:  I go to bed early since I’m so exhausted from the other nights, and there was no party!  It felt so good to fall asleep, but when I woke up my neck would not bend to the right.  It hurts so bad right now.  I wish I knew why and how I could sleep in such a way that causes so much pain during my waking hours.  Damn!

Luckily, my day job didn’t have too many stressful or taxing moments this past week.  I will be getting out a little early today and do not have to go to work tomorrow!  I am planning on getting a nice jog in after work and then I’m going to settle in and write, write, write! 

Tomorrow I’ll be heading up to Pennsylvania to spend the 4th of July weekend with my girlfriend, so the writing time will be limited until Sunday evening.  It’ll be great to chill out and be with her though.  She’s been reading the chapters as I’ve been writing them providing me with advice, insight and all sorts of helpful suggestions. 

So….Thank goodness it’s thursday!

Alistair

My girlfriend recently asked me what the impetus was for my return to writing and for the current novel.  The question made me analyze my motivations for writing and the genesis of the story.

My return to writing(after a hiatus of a few years) began about a year ago, but perhaps I never stopped writing.  Discovering Tolkien as a nine year old child was enlightenin; like many people, it beckoned me to begin the journey of writing.

I remember my mother buying me a small binder and paper to begin my life as a writer.  I was in the fifth grade, and when I declared to all who would listen I intended to write a book like The Hobbit, or The Lord of the Rings it was met with enthusiasm.  Over the course of the next couple of years, two friends would assist me in the completion of this Hobbit/LOTR ripoff.  At the time, I remember thinking how great the book was, and perhaps for how young we were it was okay.  I still have that black binder filled with the Tolkien ripoff, and I smile at how bad it is.  Every writer has to start somewhere.  I was lucky to get some of my horrible writing out of the way as a child!  Having accomplished my goal, I stopped doing and creative writing during high school.

The writing bug wouldn’t hit me again until I was in my early twenties.  I had no desire to overhaul the novel Iwrote as a youth, so I decided to write a mystery.  I outlined and plotted the entire novel and talked about it so much that I got tired of it and quit.  I still have all the notes on that one, but that story was a stinker from the start.  I keep it to remind myself how bad I was back then and how much I’ve improved over the years.

A year or so later I researched, outlined and began writing an alternate history fantasy set in ancient Egypt during the reign of Hatshepsut.  Mind you, this was around 1992-1994, so the idea was fresh back then.  I had a lot of fun writing that during my tour of duty with the U.S.Navy.  I may revisit the idea of that story someday, but for now I’m willing to let that one rest.

I remained fairly active in my writing throughout the 90′s, composing music and writing lyrics as well as putting down ideas for another fantasy novel.  Around 1999 or 2000 I began to do some worldbuilding and character creation for the new fantasy novel.  I wrote maybe one hundred pages of the story and it felt so derivative that I got discouraged and quit.

That brings us to 2008; a year ago I got the bug, and got amped up to write.  I purchased a great piece of software for my Mac called Scrivener.  This is by far the best writing and organizing software I’ve ever used.  Life got in the way of writing and I moved from the West Coast to the East Coast and lost bug.

I’m really going somewhere with all of this, I promise!  In January 2009, I began to research my family tree.  I began to see interesting names of ancestors from the eleventh and twelfth centuries.  I began to research the regions my ancestors were from and I began to ask myself a lot of “what if” questions.  I knew right then the writer in me was begging to be unleashed.

I decided to dig out the research and writing on the unfinished fantasy novel from 2000 to see if there were any ideas worth salvaging.  There were a few interesting ideas, but nothing worthy of being included as plot points for the new novel.

I spent the month of February worldbuilding:  religions, government, regions, timeline, characters, etc.  I began the current novel  on February 27th 2009, and now I’m currently sitting at over 100k words.  I intend to wrap up the first draft of the first book (I am planning on this being a duology) in the next couple of weeks.  On a great day I can write 4-5000 words and on my lousiest day, 500 words.  The important thing is that I’ve written nearly every day since I began in February.  It may not always be on the current novel, but it’s writing.

The writer in me has always yearned to break free, and ideas have been incubating for years.  This novel is the culmination of many years of false starts, countless ideas, and life experience.  I could not have written this book at any other time in my life.  Just finishing the first book of the series will be a major accomplishment.  If it manages to attract any interest from an agent or publisher that is a bonus.  Maybe I’ll get published my first time out or maybe it won’t happen until I’ve written many novels. 

The result will be the same:  I am a writer.  Always will be.

Alistair

This has been a tough week for me.  My writing suffered this week.  I may have produced a fair amount of pages, but it didn’t feel particularly inspired.  To put it bluntly, I think it was because I was busy, then got news that threw me into a funk. 

I was told I have to vacate where I’m living, since the owner wants to move back into the residence.  My lease is up July 31st, but there was never an indication that this would happen.  In fact, I was led to believe I’d be able to stay there as long as I needed.  If I had known I could only stay there a year I would never have chosen this place.  Oh well.

So, I was down about that for a couple of days, and it still affects me.  A new place doesn’t bother me, it’s all the $ and planning and work that really makes me anxious.  I didn’t think I’d be dealing with this, so it’s a total shock to me.

Well, my writing suffered for it this week.  I may have put out 2 to 3 pages a day this week.  I’d feel much better if I were able to do anywhere from 6 to 10 pages a day.  I guess those weeks will happen when things just fall apart.

It’s hard trying to juggle a day job, working out, writing, and normal everyday responsibilities.  Throw in a curve ball like having to move and a little depression and it’s easy to lose motivation to write.  Maybe for some people those stressors would help them pump out some fine writing.  Not for me.  Creativity leaves me as if I were a sieve. 

Maybe I can make up for all of it this weekend and get a lot of writing done (of course I’ll be house hunting on Saturday). 

Alistair

I have tried to write from a detailed outline in the past–and have failed miserably.  I have done extensive world-building, and created a detailed outline, and have fallen flat.  I never finished those books.

Current book:  I researched for about one month.  I assembled the world, created the main characters, religions, government, and created a loose outline.

Almost from the beginning I realized my outline would be close to useless.  I started off with the intention of following it, only to find out I’m pretty much a discovery writer.  Oh, I have a pretty good idea of where things need to go for the book to work, but sometimes the characters end up changing what I had planned.  It’s exciting when that happens, it feels more natural to me.  Following a strict outline feels too confining and artificial.

Plotting and breakthroughs:  The characters and the problems they are facing constantly float around in my mind all day while I’m at work.  I rarely have a breakthrough moment at work though, as there are too many other things happening.  My breakthroughs are either at the keyboard when a character does something I was not expecting, or while I’m working out.

While working out is hard for multiple reasons.  If I’m out on a jog (I’m usually running pretty hard, so recording my ideas would be tough) and I have a great idea of how to resolve issues in the story it’s a great feeling.  My problem is not that I won’t remember, but I want to turn around right then and go home to write it.  Plus, once I am done with the jog, I have to cooldown, take a shower, eat, and by then I feel too out of it.  The spark is gone.  After a couple of hours I feel like I can get into some productive writing, but I do feel like I’ve zapped myself.  It’s tricky because if I didn’t go for these runs I may not have these amazing breakthroughs.  I guess I just have to deal with it.  Working out is important and it is providing me with answers to problems in my story. 

If only sitting around eating cookies and ice cream provided me with those amazing breakthroughs!

Alistair

Since my girlfriend and I live in different states for the time being, I’ve found that I have a lot of free time to write.  While it’s been great having her down to visit or going to her place I find that I’m not able to concentrate on writing.  It’s easy to say “oh, just focus, block out the distractions”, but it truly is not that easy.  Since we only see each other twice a month at most I want to spend as much time with her as possible.  So, when I’m visiting her I get zero writing done, which can be good since it forces me to take a break.  My normal routine is this:  Work all day at full time job, come home, go for a jog, then write the rest of the night.  Going to visit her provides me with a break from the actual writing and allows me to think about where the plot is heading and a chance for ideas to incubate in my head.  The result when I arrive back home is a flurry of writing.  When she visits me, however, I sneak in some writing while she’s getting ready in the morning, and later at night when we’re unwinding and she’s doing her own thing.  But if she’s sitting next to me on the computer, it’s difficult to not get distracted.  Even if she isn’t saying anything, just having her near me distracts me, and for many reasons.

I’ve seen this advice given before, and I am a believer:  a writer needs a special place of their own to write, uninterrupted.  The door is closed, there will be no phone calls taken, no taking the trash out, mowing the lawn etc.  Not until the designated writing time is over.  Other writers have spelled that out way better than I just did, but you probably get the point.

For me to focus on getting any writing done I need a block of time and no interruptions.

Alistair

I wrote a few scenes last night where I felt as if I were a master of the craft.  Those moments happen from time to time, and I’ve found some characters and situations much easier to write than others.  In fact, this particular character and setting is much easier for me to write than my main protagonist. 

So how do I deal with this problem?  Is it indeed a problem at all?  Yes and no.  I know that once I’m in revision mode for this book, I’ll be able to fix problems and polish the parts I was less comfortable with.  Even the parts I thought were brilliant upon writing will probably have plenty of errors.

It’s a great feeling when the ideas and dialogue spring from my fingertips like a rapidly flowing river, but that brings its own set of problems later.  I find more grammatical errors, and if I was writing dialogue, I notice that I’ve left out a lot of description and characterizations. 

For the times when the prose doesn’t flow I have other issues.  I find that I am constantly searching for the right word in my synonym finder.  This leads me to construct sentences that are filled with expensive words.  The end result is a sentence that does not flow, or read well.

I don’t go by a detailed outline.  I have an idea of where the entire story will end, and some ideas about how I’ll get it there.  Along the way the characters tend to dictate what will happen, and at times I am surprised at the outcome.  It is when the characters take over that I know the writing session will be inspired.  The other times are more difficult, but ultimately just as rewarding since I feel I’ve learned something about the craft, or at the very least, I’ve added a few more words to my vocabulary. 

As far as the entire project is concerned, I’m happy with the progress I’ve made.  I think I’ve improved as a writer over the course of the 100k words or so I’ve written so far.

Alistair