Rikoshi Writes

Project Updates - Summer 2011

2011-06-14T01:10:00.000-07:00

So, I'll definitely have a new book out next year. The editing process for Novel #3 is going to take place over the summer. I just need to nail down a release date.

Also, probably going to be having a novella dropping sometime early 2012 as well. I haven't written it yet, but I know the story and I think it's a cute idea that people will like.

Quick Publishing Plans Update

2011-04-22T13:24:00.000-07:00

So, here's a very vague, almost information-free update on what my publication plans are for the coming year or so.

If my current schedule holds, I should have a new novella ready to release later this year; right now, I'm aiming for November, which should be doable.

Also, I've got my current novel project. That one has been a fun struggle so far, but hey, I'm liking how it's coming along. That one is likely going to be released in January 2012, barring any more unfortunate incidents in the editing process that make me go back to the drawing board all over again.

News, Awards, and Honors!

2011-03-15T15:49:00.000-07:00

It's been an exciting week for me on the writing front!

The 2010 Ursa Major Awards finally announced their nominees, and I'm very happy to say that my work has been nominated in two of the categories. The Seventh Chakra is up for Best Novel, and The Peculiar Quandary of Simon Canopus Artyle is up for Best Short Fiction.

Competition in both of these categories is pretty strong. Still, while it may sound trite, it really is an honor just to be nominated, and I'm happy with just that.

In arguably even more exciting news, I've also been invited to Camp Feral! this coming summer to be one of their Guests of Honour. Yes, note the 'u' there; I'm going to be traveling to mystical, far-off Canada for the first time. My passport renewal application is sitting in my car right now, waiting to be mailed off.

This is a really, really exciting thing for me. Having my writing recognized on this level is beyond flattering, and I was floored when I got the invitation. It's equal parts scary and exhilarating, and I'm sure the time between now and the actual event will be like a roller coaster of anxiety and giddiness in the meantime.

So, yeah, big news all around on that front! Hopefully the good news will continue.

Project Updates

2011-03-08T13:19:00.000-08:00

My writing continues apace!

I've got a new short story called "Shadows of Novoprypiatsk" that's featured in the just-released ROAR volume 3. It's set in the same universe as my novels Thousand Leaves and The Seventh Chakra, but it doesn't directly tie in to either of them, so you can read it even if you haven't read the books. I'm really happy with how this one came out, and at least one of the characters in it is clamoring to make a return in a future piece.

My third novel is coming along nicely, as well. I'm not ready to reveal a lot about it yet, except to say that it is not related to either of my previously released novels. I know that I promised a follow-up that delves into the history of the Butterfly Islands War, and I do still plan on writing that; this other story just crept up on me when I wasn't expecting it and demanded the brainspace to be written.

I expect to have a near-finished draft of it done by the middle of Spring or so. It's already been through a few revisions already, and the current manuscript is feeling pretty solid to me. Should be pretty exciting.

Stay tuned for more info and updates!

Hello, dust-collecting blog!

2010-12-14T00:32:00.001-08:00

I really need to remember that I have this thing. I mean, how else will the webternets know what's going on with me?

Brief updates:

My "Cupcakes" novella, The Peculiar Quandary of Simon Canopus Artyle, did in fact go on sale over the summer. The response was fairly positive. A lot of folks said that they liked my whimsical departure from my more serious work, but that maybe my more serious stuff was more compelling, in the long run, which doesn't really surprise me.

It's been a good year otherwise. My name seems to be getting out there more and more, and whenever I do a book signing, I'm consistently flattered by the number of people who I don't know that go out of their way to find me and get me to sign their things. Knowing that there are even just a few people out there who read and like my books makes it all worth it.

I'm working on another project right now, too, but I can't say much about it at this time.

Update!

2010-06-04T18:48:00.000-07:00

Wow, I hadn't realized it had been so long since I'd actually updated this thing. Let's see what I need to catch up on.

First off, response to The Seventh Chakra was quite positive! The book signing at Further Confusion 2010 was a very emotional and moving for me in a way that even the signing for Thousand Leaves wasn't. I think it was because, with Thousand Leaves, nobody really knew who I was; with The Seventh Chakra, I had a ton of people come up to me because they'd read my first book, and liked it enough that they wanted a second. I don't think I can overstate how that felt.

Another thing which has been in the works for a while, yet which has escaped reference here in this blog, is that I'm now also part of the team behind "Cupcakes," which is a brand of furry novellas that me and two other authors are putting together, as sort of a unique product line. My first entry into this should be coming out later in the summer, but I don't have a definite release date yet.

Also, my next upcoming novel (title still TBD) is hopefully going to be in the works soon. It's alive in my head somewhere, but I need to hammer out a lot more details before I take my fingers to the keyboard.

Pre-Release Review of "The Seventh Chakra"

2010-01-12T12:18:00.001-08:00

I've got my first official review for The Seventh Chakra! It's over up on Weasel Wordsmith.

I'm actually really excited about this. Not only is the review very positive (which of course has me as waggy as anything), but for some reason, getting a pre-release review makes me feel more 'legit' or whatnot. Maybe it has to do with the industry I work in.

So yeah, go check it out!

The Seventh Chakra - All But in the Can

2009-11-15T02:24:00.000-08:00

At long, long (long) last, I'm pretty much (almost) done working on The Seventh Chakra.

I finished up the layout today (a grueling and not very fun process which took me about ten straight hours), and now that that's done, the guts that go into the book itself are just about ready to get sent off to the printer's.

There are a few more things I need to do, like write my epigraphs and stuff, but that's simple. The novel itself is pretty much done, now, and oh, god, that is the biggest relief ever.

According to my notes, I began writing this book in early March, 2007. That's over two and a half years of trying to get this puppy done and finished.

My hope is that the work will have been worth it, and that folks will enjoy the end result.

The Final Countdown

2009-11-03T16:26:00.000-08:00

The Seventh Chakra is slated for layout this coming Saturday.

Which gives me a few days to make any last-minute changes I want to make.

Initial editorial feedback on the manuscript itself has been very positive. Here's hoping I can get it all together the way it deserves after all this time.

Seventh Chakra - Revised Draft Completed

2009-09-06T11:09:00.000-07:00

So, after last night's scotch-enhanced writing session, I did indeed complete my revised draft of The Seventh Chakra.

For those of you who might be interested, I'll explain what this effectively means.

Back in March, I finished my first initial draft of the novel. That draft took me about two years to write (for those of you doing the math, I had begun writing it after I'd written Thousand Leaves, but before it was published; there will be much less of a gap, this time). I then sent that initial draft out for editorial feedback, sat on it for a couple of months and worked on some other projects in the meantime, and then came back to it to work on it over the summer.

This revised draft can, in some senses, be considered a "second draft" by some people's reckonings. The first third of the book was heavily rewritten, a great deal of it from the ground up. My main goal there was to quicken the pace, better establish the characters, and general tidy up a bunch of crap I wrote two years ago that just wasn't up the standard of what I could write now. This is the portion of the novel where most of the actual events change.

The middle section of the book is probably the least "changed" in the sense of "things happening differently." A lot of what I did here was just editing and polishing and fixing errors, making things sound better and flow better without altering the events that actually occurred, for the most part. I did still change a few things, narratively, but compared to the earlier section of the book, I did much less of that.

Finally, the last third of the book, including the climax, dénouement, and resolution, ended up in the middle ground between these other two sections. I rewrote a whole lot of the dialogue in the conversations that took place, not altering the gist of what was said or the information given, but mainly just focusing on making it sound less staged and theatric (there was one character, in particular, who had this problem quite grievously). There were also a number of points that I needed to fiddle with due to logical consistency issues, as well as to match some of the changes I'd made to earlier parts of the book.

(Oh, and finally-finally, I went and did a search for my "comma-then-comma" and "comma-though-comma" structures that I overuse like the dickens, and took out about 95% of them.)

But yes, so what does this all mean?

Well, the manuscript itself isn't "done" yet. I have sent it out for another, final round of editorial feedback, which I hope to get back shortly after I'm back from my trip to Seattle later this month. This feedback will feed into what will likely be my final round of revisions, the last changes I make before finally putting this thing to bed and saying, "Okay, it's done."

The types of changes still to be made are likely to be ones of stylistic choice, ones where I fix more logical breaks I didn't spot before, and otherwise trim and pretty things up. The narrative itself will probably remain unchanged in most respects.

So, yes, this is the last little spurt that needs to be made before I get to say, "I've finished The Seventh Chakra. Also happening now is all the stuff for the art for the book. I can't say much about that, yet, officially, but I'm very excited about some of the stuff that's going on there (and I'll hopefully be able to tease you all about it soon).

In the meantime, I rest my brain. I'll probably poke and play with some short stories that have been sitting around on my computer and in my head, and will put some more focus on some roleplaying campaigns I'm doing.

The Seventh Chakra - T-Minus One Furcon (and Counting)

2009-08-25T16:26:00.001-07:00

I have reached what is effectively the "endgame" stage for my manuscript of The Seventh Chakra.

My aim is to have my edited, rewritten draft of the novel done before I leave for Rainfurrest--which effectively gives me three weeks to finish up what I'm doing. Work and other life things set me back on my own personal schedule, but now that I'm working with an actual editorial schedule, it's time to get my rear in gear.

While I'm not worried that I won't have enough time, I am going to have to spend quite a few evenings dedicated to working on the book, so most nights in the coming weeks that don't involve prior commitments are probably going to be nights that I focus on writing and editing. It's kind of exciting, in a way, knowing that I've hit what's pretty much the "home stretch" of novel writing. It feels different than the first time, too, but then, the entire novel has felt pretty different, for what it's worth.

I've seen in-progress art for the cover (which looks like it'll be gorgeous, by the way), and the wheels are turning for the interior illos, too. All in all, this really is the stage where, whether I'm mentally prepared for it or not, the book is going to be done, all tidy and ready for its January 2010 release.

So, yeah, I'm excited. I hope that the book turns out well and that people out there like it. From a writer's standpoint, my hope is that it can be a better novel than Thousand Leaves in every regard; from a personal standpoint, I'm just happy to have another story out there to tell that folks can hopefully enjoy.

Following Rainfurrest, of course, begins the period where I get to aggressively self-market and promote myself in the months running up to release. :)

Dusting Things Off

2009-08-20T09:20:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've updated this writing blog, but at the same time, it's been a while since I've done much of significance, writing-wise. Due to a three-week business trip (which actually went really well), my editing and rewriting on The Seventh Chakra had to go on hiatus, but as of this past weekend, I've finally gotten back to it.

I'm past the halfway point of the actual manuscript, but we'll see how much of it winds up the same. The first third of the novel got reworked a fair bit, but so far, the second third has involved more "polish" than actual outright change. If you look at the novel in a three-act structure, I guess that makes some degree of sense, though part of me worries that I just can't quite tell what should and shouldn't be messed with.

I've set a (tentative, unofficial, personal) deadline of September 30 to finish this editing pass, after which point I'll probably make a few more tweaks and send it it for some final editing stuff. I'm nervous and hopeful all at the same time.

Author Page on Amazon.com

2009-06-26T18:14:00.000-07:00

So, I've got my own author page on amazon.com now!

I'm, er... not exactly sure how thrilling it's ever going to be, though. Right now, the only book I've got listed for my authorship is an anthology that I'm a part of (my own actual novel isn't listed by Amazon, so I don't even have that on there).

I'll play around with it a bit more in the upcoming days, though. See if it gets more interesting.

Darlings, and the Subsequent Murdering Thereof

2009-06-04T16:57:00.001-07:00

So, I've been doing some work on editing The Seventh Chakra for about a month or so, now. It's not going nearly as quickly or as smoothly as I'd like, to be honest, though finishing up by the end of the summer shouldn't be (too much of) a problem. I had originally had my birthday set as my target date, but I'm not sure that's quite as realistic, honestly.

By this point, the earliest chapters of the novel are ones that I wrote over two years ago, and it really, really shows as I'm re-reading things. I'm looking at sentences and thinking, "Wait, what does that even mean?" And when I'm the one who wrote it, that's a bad sign, and so out it goes. Honestly, some of it is pretty embarrassing and cringeworthy.

Character consistency has been one of the main things I've noticed. I'm looking at how all my main characters come off in these earlier chapters, and I'm alarmed at how, well, out of character they are. Again, you might think, "But if you wrote them like that, how are they out of character?" Well, just trust me: after writing the rest of the novel, I've got a much better grasp on what sorts of people these characters are, and in the early chapters, that's not who they're being. In some cases, it's actually enough to make my jaw drop, seeing how poorly-characterized some of them are ("Why does Il-Hyeong keep chuckling and smiling?!").

I also hit one of my little editing milestones yesterday: the first complete and total excision of a character from the narrative. It was just this minor side character who showed up once, was never mentioned again, and whose inclusion only served to slow down the story as I introduced him. So, instead, I conflated him with another minor character who already had a very similar (and small) role in the story anyway, and nothing of value was lost. So, yeah, minus one random skunk. Sorry, skunk-lovers. (Incidentally, the first character I stripped completely out of Thousand Leaves had a Spanish name, and so did this aforementioned skunk. I know for a fact that it wasn't intentional, on my part, but I find the coincidence kind of funny.)

Rewriting things, as I've mentioned, has been going slow and spotty, though. Chapter One got a complete overhaul, and I'm really happy with my new version. Later chapters, though, have had less sweeping changes and more just tweaks to fix poor characterization and bad writing. There's not a lot I'm cutting out, which is worrying me, because I can't tell if the stuff I already have in those cases is pretty good as-is, or if I just can't see anything wrong with it. But then, this is why I have editor-friends to look things over, too.

In the meantime, I'm starting to (annoyingly) get ideas for other stories to write, which threaten to slow down the editing process. Gah! I'm really bad at multi-tasking when it comes to writing, but I'll need to check my schedule and rate of progress before deciding anything for sure.

Back to the Grindstone

2009-05-04T16:10:00.000-07:00

Today I finally brushed the dust off of my first draft of my manuscript for The Seventh Chakra and I have begun the daunting process of rewriting.

For starters, I'm basically overhauling the majority of the first chapter (i.e., rewriting it from scratch) in order to better establish the sequence of events that follow for the next 300 pages--which, naturally, I didn't have a great grasp on before I wrote the book, first.

I've got a lot of energy and drive to do this, though. Hopefully, after two years of dragging my butt to get the first draft done, I can get the edits and redrafting done by the end of this summer.

Wish me luck!

(Also, this marks my 50th post to this writing blog. I'm actually surprised it took me nearly this long!)

Intra-Hiatus Hiatus

2009-05-03T02:46:00.000-07:00

So, earlier, I had mentioned that March was going to be my "month off," with my intention of returning to revising and rewriting my draft of The Seventh Chakra on April 1st.

Well, I tiny side-project I started on ended up taking a lot longer than I'd intended, and so not only did I take up all of March, but I took all of April, too.

Long story short, that's all done, now, and as of May 1st, I can get back to the novel thing, finally.

Sheesh!

Planning for Phase Two

2009-03-11T15:10:00.000-07:00

So, after finishing my first draft back in February, the remainder of the month was full of things like vacation time and, well, work as usual.

March has been my "month off" when it comes to The Seventh Chakra. Once April hits, I intend to begin my revisions and my first round of edits, with the intent of getting a full second draft done by the time summer is underway. Considering that the first draft took me about two years, I'm really hoping I can work a lot quicker on the second.

I've been quite excited, though, actually. Since completing my first draft and letting my brain just forget about it so that I could focus on other things (I'm working on a short story that I hope I can get finished by April!), the novel itself keeps coming into mind, offering me various hints on how I might want to consider improving it, and that's a very good sign.

I am, shall we say, cautiously optimistic, at this point. If nothing else, I don't hate the book with a seething, fiery passion like I did for a whole long time back there.

First Draft

2009-02-10T02:09:00.001-08:00

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009.
1:49 AM.

121,361 words.
17 chapters, 1 epilogue.

Done.

My brain goes on hold for a month or so, now. Then the real work starts.

Climax

2009-01-20T17:47:00.001-08:00

I'm partway through the writing of the climax scene of The Seventh Chakra.

To my surprise, there was a major change in one of the Big Moments that had been in my mind since before I'd even written the first word of the draft. It's not a change in what happens, but rather, a change in how it plays out.

In one sense, it's only a slight change, but in another sense, it's a change that completely changes the tone of the climax of the story, and one that I'm happy to have realized.

What comes after this remains to be seen. I look forward to it.

Culmination

2009-01-15T15:44:00.000-08:00

The very next scene I'm slated to write for The Seventh Chakra is the book's climax.

I'm kind of jittery just thinking about it. I've written all the things that build up to this scene, and this is where they all come together and the big, epic stuff happens and people finally get their answers as to just what the heck has been going on (people who have read early parts of my draft have said it had a frustrating, Lost-esque tendency to dump questions on top of questions without ever answering earlier ones).

But here I am, fingers perched on the keyboardy doorstep of the Big Moment, and I'm really happy that I made it this far. Happy, yet also nervous, because I don't want to "mess it up," even though logically and intellectually I know that I can go back and change and fix things afterwards.

The other thing I'm not quite sure of, yet, is the dénouement. It's looking like that might be a little on the long side, but hopefully I can make it interesting in its own right.

Hunnerd Kay

2009-01-13T10:35:00.000-08:00

Last night, while out writing at the neighborhood Starbucks with my fellow writer-friend, I finally managed to hit the vaulted 100,000 word milestone on my draft of The Seventh Chakra.

Already, this makes it longer than my first draft of Thousand Leaves, though I suspect that it might still end up shorter than Thousand Leaves did in the end (around 121K words); it may reach that length, as I think of it, though I doubt it'll be much longer, if at all.

As for the finished product, I find myself wondering how long that will be. I ended up cutting and stripping out huge chucks of my first draft of Thousand Leaves, and yet the final rewrite still ended up being 25,000 words longer. I can see something similar happening with The Seventh Chakra, for some reason.

I also feel compelled to point out that, by this point in the narrative, every major character has been shot at least once (not always on the actual page, but there you have it, all the same). Just to give you an idea of what sort of things you can look forward to.

Progressing Towards the Finish Line

2009-01-08T17:55:00.000-08:00

I mentioned previously that one of my resolutions for 2009 is to have my first draft of The Seventh Chakra completed by the end of March. Now that a week of 2009 has passed, it's looking like that should be an actual realistic goal.

Back when I was working on my first draft of Thousand Leaves, during the Spring of 2006, I was stalled around the 50,000 word mark. Then, one day, while I was at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, I had this beautiful epiphany where I suddenly just knew where all my plot threads were going and how they came together to reach the climax of the novel. To this day, it's one of the most amazing things that's happened to me as a writer. From that point, it took me just about a month to finish that draft (another 50,000 words or so).

With The Seventh Chakra, I've stalled several times, and I haven't had any more magical epiphanies (that'll teach me to rely on fickle inspiration!). At long last, though, I'm only about a chapter away from the book's actual climax, and from where I am now, I can see how the rest of the book plays out.

Well, for the most part. Today, on my way back from lunch, I actually had an idea for (what I hope is) an awesome scene with one of my characters. It's actually the very next scene in the sequence I'm writing, which goes to show how far in advance I don't plan things, sometimes. Despite having only just decided on this scene, though, it feels right, and I'm quite excited to write it.

That's the thing about being a writer that always gets me: surprising myself. It happens way more than you might think.

Farewell, 2008; Hello, 2009

2008-12-31T12:58:00.000-08:00

There's a lot that can probably be said about 2008. I'm not going to get into all that, though, because this post is just about me and my personal resolutions for the coming year.

Whatever else can be said about 2008, it was the year that I became a published novelist, something that I'd always hoped for and yet never in ~~a million~~ almost thirty years ever thought actually would happen. Not only did I write and publish a book, but as far as I know, it sold pretty well this year, and people have been mostly favorable in reviews, which hopefully means that I wrote a good book.

Of course, while Thousand Leaves was published in 2008, I actually did the writing itself far earlier. In fact, most of my writing in 2008 (and late 2007, actually)¹ was spent on my second novel, my working title for which has been The Seventh Chakra².

Now, I've mentioned before in this blog that this sophomore novel of mine has been... problematic. While I certainly wouldn't say that writing Thousand Leaves was at all easy, this time around, it's just much more difficult. I'm not sure if it's because I'm holding myself to a higher standard, or if it's because of the content of the novel itself, or what, but it's been fighting me every step of the way (and, in fact, I've gone months at a time without even wanting to look at the damn thing).

Well, that's all going to change. The steps have been tough, sure, but while progress has been slow, it's still been progress, and having gotten to where I am now, I can see the finish line.

My major resolution, then, for 2009, is as follows: I'm going to finish a first draft of The Seventh Chakra by the end of March, and I'm going to have a complete revised draft finished by my birthday (July 25th)³.

I think I can do it, too. I have momentum. And when you're a writer, momentum can often be the single most valuable weapon in your arsenal.

1. Checking back on my records, I actually started writing it sometime in either late February or early March of 2007. Curse you, book!

2. This is just my title for it. Currently, I have no concrete plans as to when or by whom or even if it will be published, so please don't ask for those details. Right now, my focus is solely on writing the damn thing.

3. This way, it also doubles as a handy birthday present to myself!

The Wagon

2008-11-30T00:13:00.000-08:00

I was just about to comment about how I'd once again not posted to my blog is almost forever, only to see that it's only been a month and a half--way less time than I thought it had been.

Anyhow, to update on things:

Not a whole heck of a lot of writing done lately. I wrote a few really short stories on the side, but overall, I've been really busy for the last month or so with a lot of things. I have finally gotten back to working on that pesky second novel, however.

I'm just past 80,000 total words on what's (still) my first draft. By comparison, the published draft of Thousand Leaves is somewhere around 120,000 words (with the initial draft coming in at 95,000 words, roughly).

I know I've mentioned it before, but the actual work on this novel has been going agonizingly slowly. Seeing that I've come a full 80,000 words, though, fills me with hope that an end is in sight. Really, my biggest fear is that the edits and rewrites will be just as bad to get out, but I'm hoping that once the story is out and on paper and in physical form I'll be able to 'get it' more easily and therefore fix it with more efficiency than it initially took me to write it.

Maybe the Sophomore Slump applies to novelists, too, I suppose.

Repurposing

2008-10-16T14:19:00.001-07:00

I've got a short story I've been tinkering with and tweaking, lately. One of the side-characters comes across particularly well, and the folks I've shown the early drafts to really like her and think she's pretty neat, but that she doesn't have a lot to do in the story.

My main thought, then, is, "Well, I'll give her more to do in order to justify her place in the story." Simple, right?

Some of my fellow writers, though, have suggested, "You could always just cut her and use her for a different story, instead."

And for some reason, that feels really weird to me. Intellectually, I know that if I pulled her from Story A and placed her in Story B, nobody (well, nobody who hadn't read any drafts) would know that I'd done it, and if I did it right, her place in the new story would be fine and natural and dandy.

Maybe someday I'll be brave enough to try something like that. In this particular case, though, I'm trying to get the character to work for the story she's already in, trying to justify her existence in that special way that we writers so often have to.

The Affliction

2008-10-12T00:14:00.000-07:00

After finishing a first draft of my most recent story (the one with the weird narrative structure that I mentioned earlier), I was all set to go back and edit and retool some of my other recent works that are in desperate need of such editing and retooling.

...except that, well, on Friday morning, during my commute into work, I got hit with the spark.

Yes, out of nowhere, I was hit with the idea for another new story, and over the next twenty minutes, as I went on with the rest of my commute, the ideas grew and congealed, and...

Yeah, I ended up with a full-on story idea, and I knew that I had to write it or it would drive me crazy.

Luckily, I knew it was going to be a short story, so I devoted my lunch break Friday, my free time later on and most of my free time Saturday to working on it, and now that it's just past midnight, I've managed to churn out a pretty tight first draft.

My first impression is that I'm happy with it (which, as a writer, always makes me wary). I'll probably tool with it for the rest of the weekend before finalizing it. In many ways, it's just a silly little thing, so I don't want to spend too much time on it when I've got other things to work on.

Still, for a quick story that came literally out of nowhere, I'm glad that it happened to me.

Creative Control (and lack thereof)

2008-10-02T15:35:00.000-07:00

A surprising number of short stories have been popping out of my head and onto the page, lately. This means a bit of a delay in my eventual return to novel-writing, but I'm mostly happy just to be writing. The majority of these stories are for publications and other things that have deadlines; most of them are going to require additional drafts, too. I'm happier with some of them than I am with others, but if it's any consolation to myself, the ones I'm happiest with are the ones I personally consider the most important.

I'm working on another story right now that's actually intriguing me a fair bit in that I'm not sure what I'm doing with it.

Allow me to explain: I don't mean to say that I don't know where to take it or don't know how I want to write it--I literally mean that I'm doing something with the actual writing and I'm not entirely sure what it is.

It's something artistic. Probably artistic, at any rate. It's something I doing with the narrative structure. I'm just not sure how to define it. I mean, I'm doing it on purpose, and I have a feel for what the nebulous 'something' is, but I can't put it into tangible terms, even inside my own head. It's just kind of happening as I will it to, in a subtle way, and whatever it is I'm doing, it's making it out onto the page.

When I go back and rewrite the earlier parts of the story, I hope I can keep it up, since I appear to be getting better at this 'something' the deeper into the story I get. Which, in and of itself, is kind of neat. It also furthers my belief that the compulsion to write really is something beyond a writer's control, even down to the actual stylistic level at times.

I hope it all makes sense and sounds good once it's finished. To someone other than me, I mean.

Oh, and there's another review I found of Thousand Leaves here. It's mostly pretty positive, if somewhat lacking in focus at times.

Checking Back In

2008-09-17T12:05:00.000-07:00

Haven't updated in a while, but August was a busy month for me due to moving, and September has been busy as well with both post-move stuff as well as work.

Writing has been spotty in the meantime. I haven't gotten any new work done on my novel-in-progress, but I have been poking at some short stories and getting them to come to life. While I don't have any specifics to announce just yet, it's looking like there should be a few more of my stories in print by the end of this year and early next year, which is exciting. The feeling of knowing that someone likes your work enough to spend the effort to give it physical form never really lessens even after it's happened a few times It's very self-affirming (and it keeps me from succeeding in convincing myself that my writing isn't worth the time I try to spend on it).

Right now, I'm debating whether I want to try to crank out another short story or two before tackling another chapter of my novel or not. I know that, in the meantime, other pieces of mine are going to require editing, so whatever I start will likely get interrupted anyway. I suppose I just need to put my feelers out inside of my mind so that I can see what I have the best "feel" for.

Emotional Wrangling

2008-08-01T17:09:00.000-07:00

I was talking to one of my fellow writers earlier today, and in a discussion about one of his stories, he apologized for being "manipulative" in a particularly emotion-driven scene.

Now, I suppose it could be debated whether or not it's actually manipulative to do something specifically to get an emotional reaction out of a reader. On some level, I think that's pretty much the writer's job: after all, why do people read stories at all, if not to experience some sort of emotion, be it sadness or joy or terror or even a cheap thrill?

Of course, I do think that it's possible for the writer can pull a cheap shot for no real reason other than to get a reaction that might otherwise be unwarranted, and nine times out of ten I'd probably oppose that. There are times when even that can work, though, I think (a certain character death in the second season of Buffy springs to mind). Like everything else a writer does, though, one just needs to be careful with it, I suppose.

On the whole, though, I think that the entire premise of writing "fiction" is that we take situations that need to be carefully massaged so that they can be masked as something that would actually happen. That's pretty tricky in and of itself. But in the end, the goal is still to convince the reader that what they're reading is real, and to instill an emotional response based on events and actions and people who aren't actually real.

Is that manipulative? Maybe on some level, I suppose. Perhaps one of the bigger tricks in writing is to also mask the manipulative moments so that those aren't obvious, either.

(And I still maintain that the scene in question that started this thread of thought wasn't manipulative. Or, if it was, no more than the situation demanded of it. :3 )

Stroke of Not-Quite-Genius

2008-07-30T10:14:00.001-07:00

This morning, on my drive into work, I was thinking about some of the recent work I've done of my novel-in-progress, and I had what was initially a horrifying realization: I'd accidentally introduced a glaring plot error into my most recent chapter.

What had happened, basically, is that the line between what I knew as the writer and what the characters knew had gotten blurred (this is what I get for having been away from the story for so long). So, I mentally kicked myself, and then started thinking about how I could take those bits out and smooth them over so that the error would be repaired.

And then it hit me: what if I used this to my advantage and actually let the characters deal with this information that they weren't supposed to have?

To make a long (and vague) story short, after even just a few minutes of brainstorming, I realized that I could turn this once-error into what's actually (in my opinion) a pretty awesome plot point, and one that propels this section of the story along in a way that, embarrassingly enough, makes more sense than what I'd originally planned.

I'm not sure what to make of that, if only to just let it reassert my assertion that, as a writer, you very often discover the story more than you actively create it.

Swept Up in the Currents of Creativity

2008-07-23T10:11:00.000-07:00

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I thought I'd finally gotten past whatever strange block was preventing meaningful progress on my new novel. Over these last few weeks, I've done a pretty good job of staying focused and I'm actively excited to sit down and write more of it (which was decidedly not the case for several months). Even better, the more I write, the more motivated I get, because I see that I am writing, and that makes me happy and excited and more likely to write more. Honestly, the only reason I haven't written even more than what I have in the past month is that I've been too busy to find more time.

Back when I was working on my first draft of Thousand Leaves, I had a similar experience: I was just over halfway through getting the draft on paper, a process which had taken the better part of a year, and then, one evening while I was sitting waiting for a flight at the Burbank Airport, I was struck with this bizarre epiphany that just made the rest of the book make sense inside my head. I hastily and hurriedly scribbled out a series of notes in my little writer's notebook, and I managed to write the second half of the book over the course of the next month.

With my current project, I don't quite have that level of intensity when it comes to getting it all out, but I do know that I can see the end of the story on the horizon, as well as all the plot landmarks along the way. I'll discover the individual details as I make my way through those, and it's a journey I'm excited about taking. (Of course, once that's done, I've got edits and redrafts and rewrites to worry about, but Key Point One is to get the damn story out of my head and onto paper, first.)

The catch to this (and isn't there always a catch?) is that this is all happening while I'm currently also already committed to two short stories for a pair of anthologies. I don't want to kill the momentum I've got going with my novel, but at the same time, there are still other things I need to write.

In all likelihood, I'll probably finish up the current chapter I'm working on, and then take a break to write at least one of those stories (ideally, the one that has the earlier deadline). Besides, I don't want to burn out on the novel, either, and with the end in at least semi-feasible sight, I'm not as worried about losing my grip on it a second time.

Prescriptive Descriptions

2008-07-18T10:17:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine once had a discussion with me about what one can and can't get away with it modern writing. Not in the sense of writing "rules" of style or syntax or that sort of thing, but just in terms of what readers are willing to put up with, as it were.

The example he cited was an eight-page description of a kangaroo. Now, back in the 1800s or so, when people didn't have things like television or photo guides or the Internet, an eight-page description of a kangaroo was probably a fascinating thing.

Nowadays, though, your average person knows what a kangaroo looks like, even if they've never been within a few thousand miles of Australia. We modern day folk have a mental picture in our heads of what a kangaroo looks like, and it's doubtful that any of us would want to read on for eight pages of exacting detail of something we already know.

Describing things can be a tricky thing in writing, anyway; I already know that I tend to err on the side of less description when it comes to my own work. Depending on one's style, the balance between description and narration can, in some cases, be a tricky one to strike.

What can be trickier, though, is when you need to describe something in a way that requires you to not rely on real-world knowledge that the reader already has.

I tend to write in a pretty tight third-person limited point of view, and that's how I'm also writing my current novel(-in-progress). The story doesn't take place in the real world, though, so if (just for example) I wanted to talk about how big a particular city was, I can't just compare it to L.A. or Paris, because with the tightness of the narration, even though the text itself is directed at the reader, the character perspective can't 'think' in those terms. This opens some unique challenges in making sure that you're able to convey something easily to the reader without being able to make use of knowledge even if you know the reader already has it.

In the chapter I'm in the middle of writing, I got to (or is that 'had to'?) spend a few pages describing the details of both an architectural style as well as a type of cuisine that we do actually have in the real world, but which are completely alien to the characters encountering them. Writing about that was actually a whole lot of fun, and I found it to be a gratifying and inspiring challenge. It would have been far easier to just gloss over things, but that wouldn't have been fair to reader and it wouldn't have been as honest to the narration, and in the end, I think I've got a better chapter for it.

So, yes, I'm not writing eight-page descriptions of kangaroos (readers of my books, especially, most assuredly know what kangaroos look like), but I am getting to stretch my literary fingers by showcasing something that might ordinarily be unspectacular in a spectacular light.

My Writing Journal

2008-07-07T17:03:00.001-07:00

Back in May, I started keeping a little writing journal. Not a journal that I use for writing, but rather, I journal I keep that keeps track of my writing.

Essentially, on days that I write (or, if I happen to forget to update it, after a couple of days of writing), I just make a short entry that goes over what piece or pieces I might have worked on and how I felt about the project(s) in question. I'll also make notes if there's something I should be working on that I haven't gotten around to (yet or recently).

Mostly, I guess I'm using it to keep track of myself, making sure that I'm writing as much as I might like, and checking to see if the time I do write are productive and/or enjoyable. In a way, I suppose it's like one of those journals that dieters keep in order to keep themselves motivated.

We'll see how it works, in the long term.

Reviews for Thousand Leaves

2008-07-04T17:36:00.001-07:00

It's only been a week, but already, I've got my first two actual reviews for Thousand Leaves! For an initial review buzz, they're both quite positive, and that makes me really happy.

Tim Susman has a review on his blog, and there's another review by a fellow on LiveJournal that's been posted over here.

They both offer different insights about the book and the writing itself, which is good (especially for me) in that people aren't all just saying the same thing. Also, they both get into specifics in terms of feedback and critique, which I really appreciate, since it's those specifics that help me learn what I do wrong and what I do right.

Novel Milestones

2008-07-02T12:43:00.001-07:00

This past Friday, my debut novel, Thousand Leaves, finally went on sale. The following day, I got to do an actual book signing. From what I heard and from what I saw, the book sold pretty well for its opening weekend, too--I wasn't nearly as concerned about that beforehand (I was just thrilled that the book was out, really), but now that I know that that's how it went down, I won't deny that I'm feeling a certain amount of glee.

So yeah, now I... have a book. It's still kind of weird to think about. I've already seen one review that someone wrote, and I'm wondering if, down the line, people might start sending emails and whatnot telling me what they think.

I'm finally past the crest of a big emotional wave, though, and I think I'm finally starting to settle. This is fait accompli, now; nothing can take this away from me.

What is not yet behind me, of course, is my second novel, the one I'm working on now and the one I mentioned where I felt I might be close to having an epiphany. I think I have. For the first time in the better part of a year, I'm excited to work on it. Something must have "clicked" in my head, because the words are finally flowing, for once.

I really hope I can keep this up. Hell, I did it once before; I should be able to do it again, by that logic.

Closer

2008-06-17T13:57:00.000-07:00

I think (or possibly I merely hope) that I'm getting close to an epiphany regarding the novel I'm working on right now.

It's a fundamentally different story than Thousand Leaves, and I guess that, in a lot of ways, I'll never be able to shake the fear that "it won't be as good." That being said, despite being written by the same person and being set in the same world, comparing the two is close to comparing apples and oranges.

My fellow writer Tim has given me some good advice regarding my own writing style, in that I usually include a bit of levity in my writing, even when the story itself gets serious or even dreary; in this current novel, I don't have anything like that, which might explain part of why I have a hard time connecting with it.

Whether or not that's directly related to my current brain clog, I'm not sure. I do get the sense that I'm near a breakthrough, though. My fingers remain cautiously crossed.

Godspeed

2008-05-12T15:36:00.001-07:00

Over the weekend, I gave my official buyoff to (what should be!) the final proof for Thousand Leaves.

So, this is it. If all goes well, the book will be ready to go on sale as planned at the end of July.

It's kind of trippy that this is all finally coming together. It's been a long road to get to this point, and I'm almost at the end of it.

Bookery

2008-04-21T16:15:00.000-07:00

I know I said that I'd be posting more often, lately, to get back into the swing of things, and I'm sorry I haven't been keeping up on that.

The final few steps involving Thousand Leaves are going on right now. I think I have gotten all but the last few pieces my personal input into the process, with a few remaining bits that I'll do tonight. After that, though, the book itself is very quite nearly done.

I've got a cover. I've got interior art. I've got my dedication page and my author bio; I've been through the manuscript and have done some last-minute editing changes for layout purposes, consistency, and adding some clever little hints that allude to my second novel, the one I'm currently still afraid to work on.

In just over two months, it'll be a book for real, and I'm scared and excited to know that.

Dusting Things Off

2008-03-17T13:42:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it's been over half a year since I bothered to post here. I'll confess that part of that has to do with the fact that I'm not sure how many people even read this thing, and another part of it is simply that I've been some combination of busy or lazy.

I am, however, still writing!

Tonight is the last class meeting for the most recent writing class I've been taking with my partner-in-crime, Tim. We do a lot of our writing together, and we're always bouncing our respective ideas off each other. Mostly, we take our classes together (well, I've taken all of my classes with him, though he's taken others without me). This most recent class was something of a mixed bag; I'm not sure I learned as much from it as I would've liked, and there was a lot of work to put into it, to boot, so I'm mostly relieved that it's over, more than anything else. Really, I think one of the most valuable things I learned from it was that if I was able to scrounge up the time during the week to workshop and review the stories we read, then I can scrounge up time to write during the week, too.

Work on my novel had been put on hiatus while I'd been busy with class. It's still very daunting to think about, and I might continue to take some time away from it. When I think about the story, I know I still believe in it, but I worry about my ability to tell it, still.

The good thing is that I've been cranking out short stories again, finally. Normally, I only finagle a handful of them a year, lately, but my spark seems to have come back, whether as a side-effect of frustration or just plain determination. As I mentioned above, I know that I can find the time, so it's just a matter of making it.

Part of keeping myself motivated should, in theory, involve my regularly keeping up this writing blog. Hopefully I can keep myself to that.

Style or Substance?

2007-09-25T14:15:00.000-07:00

As I've mentioned a couple of times in this blog already, I'm struggling with my second novel right now. The more I write, the harder it gets to write. You'd figure that once the words got flowing, it would get easier, but instead, it's getting more difficult, and that confuses me as much as it frustrates and disheartens me.

One of the things that makes this story a departure for me is that the focal point stays with a single character. All of my other longer works (namely, my first novel and my serial-installment short stories) jump around from character to character, in an 'ensemble cast' sort of way. I'm admittedly a fan of TV shows that follow that sort of format, where there's no single "main character," but honestly, that's just kind of the way I've written longer pieces for a while (my multiple aborted attempts at a first novel back in the day even followed that structure).

Yesterday, during one of my many, many sessions of pondering how to get my novel to work better, I began to wonder if the story wouldn't be better told if the point of view alternated between the two main characters instead of just sticking with the one. It would certainly give me more room to flesh some characterization out, and it would also let me throw in some different perspective.

Then I had to stop and wonder whether the inclination to do that wasn't so much due to the fact that the story would be better told that way as much it was just a sign that I'm not comfortable and not experienced enough at writing longer stories from a single viewpoint. I'm left second-guessing whether my story needs to be tweaked to fit a different narrative style, or whether I'm simply not capable, at my current level of skill, of telling the story the way it should be told.

I'm still not sure which it is.

Writing Meme

2007-08-27T14:51:00.000-07:00

Taken from Tim Susman, transitively taken from Kelly McCullough at Wyrdsmiths.

What do you find _______ about writing?

Hardest? Continuing to write when I don't feel like the words are coming out exactly how I want them to. I try very hard to just write through the tough spots, but I tend to niggle. Excessively.

Easiest? Finding ideas for things to write. At any given moment, there are always a number of story ideas floating around, many of which I know I'll never even get to.

Most fun? Being surprised by the turn of events of a story I myself came up with. Oftentimes, I'll have an idea, but when it ends up on paper, things go differently than even I imagined, and it's a neat sensation when my own stories catch me off guard.

Most Tedious? Waiting the requisite amount of time to go back and look at a story with an objective eye in order to make changes. When I get a story out of my head and onto the page, I kind of want to hold it close like a baby, and I have to force myself to give it space, first and foremost.

Coolest? Knowing that I can write things that other people actively want to read.

Least cool? The fact that writing takes so much time, energy, effort and passion, and that so few people seem to realize that. Sometimes it's easy to feel jaded at being unappreciated.

Best? Knowing that a stray or silly idea can pop into my head at any point, and that someday done the line, someone else might get the chance to read and enjoy the tale that it could grow into.

Worst? The unfinished stories that I know, in my heart, I'll never go back to and finish. I think about them sometimes, and feel sad and even a bit guilty that those stories will never finish being told.

Join in below, or comment with a link to your own post...

The Errant Captive Audience

2007-08-21T16:01:00.000-07:00

Malin wrote an entry in his blog about writing for your audience. I think he makes a lot of good points, and I take a lot of that to heart, since I, too, write for what is a niche of a niche audience.

Thinking about this over the last several days, though, I'm finding myself increasingly more distraught about the reality of writing in general, and also in writing furry fiction.

Having writing as a hobby is like a two-edged sword: by definition, you need to set yourself apart from other people in order to make good on it, but people like writers. Or, at least, they profess to like writers and they claim an interest in writing. That's kind of one my sorest spots, actually.

See, when you're a writer, your friends always say stuff along the lines of, "Oh, you're a writer? That's so cool. I've love to see your stuff sometime." Except they... don't. Most of the time, your friends, even your good friends, don't actually want to read the things you've written. I've lost track of the number of times that I've specifically sent or even handed a story of mine to someone after they'd asked to read it, only to come back to them months later to find that, surprise surprise, they never bothered to.

It's extra-frustrating when you've got an pseudonym under which you write erotica. In that same period of time where you might've been hoping to have Friend A read the story you'd given for them specifically to read, you'll post an adult story online without even bringing it to their attention, but of course, they'll have read that story without being prompted, regardless of whether or not they knew said pseudonym belonged to you.

Write for your audience. That's what I'm trying to do. Furries normally latch on to anything furry with a fervor that's rarely seen elsewhere--give a TV show or a movie the faintest hint of anthropomorphics and you'll have furries lining up outside the door for a shot of Van Helsing as a sexy werewolf or to see the cat-shaped aliens or whatever. When it's the written word, though, it's like it doesn't matter what you write if you forget to include a scene where a fox gets a dick in his mouth.

I don't mean to sound like I'm griping pointlessly, but that's what I see. I see the furry fandom, pretty much the only audience anywhere who would ever want to read furry stuff, and even they don't want to read it.

So then, I look at the stuff I'm writing, and I feel self-conscious about it already in terms of content and quality, and I get to thinking, "If I pour my heart and soul into this to make it better, who the hell is even going to care?"

I am passionate about my writing. It's the thing I want to do with my life. I put so much time and effort and emotion into what I do because I have these stories I want to tell, and in the end, I have nobody to listen. I have to wonder if it's worth taking the years it takes to write and rewrite and polish and pitch and publish a novel that will fall by the wayside because it's not about animal-people having sex.

I'm usually more optimistic than this. But I'm writing for my audience, and it's an audience that I can see, and I'm writing directly at them, and they can't even see that they're being hit.

It's distressing. I don't want to give up. I don't want to not care. But I can't just write into the void. A storyteller can't sit in front of the fireplace and tell his story to an empty room.

So what do I do?

Step One: Identify the Problem

2007-07-27T16:18:00.000-07:00

...and think I have.

It occurs to me, now that I'm at a certain point in my novel, that I'm not entirely sure what the details of the next big plot point are.

Like, not the intricate, specific details that fill themselves out during the course of actually writing the scene in which these events occur. I'm talking like, on the whole, I don't know what the next logical step in the plot is or what it entails.

This is a bad sign. I know where the story goes after that, but... well, that's not much help to me in my current position, is it?

Getting the Words Out

2007-07-24T15:45:00.000-07:00

I've been letting my writing blog collect dust. That's not a good thing. If I stay out of touch with writing about writing, then what does that say about my writing? Actually, what does that say about my logic process?

Well, anyhow, I thought I should blow off the dust and get back to talking about what I'm doing, since if I know that people are looking at me, I'll be less inclined to just sit there like a tool.

I was hitting some snags with writing the novel I'm currently working on. Even when I wasn't stuck trying to figure out what to write, the actual writing was really starting to grind for a while. It's not often that the act of sitting and writing feels like a chore to me, but in this case, it was. I've looked at things and I've tried to figure out why that was, but I can't find a satisfying answer; the immediate problem seems to have resolved itself, though, and so long as it doesn't recur, I guess I don't need to fret too much about the reason.

I took a spring writing class that focused on dialogue. It was technically a screenwriting class, and so I didn't quite get the usual in-class banter that I normally find helpful in writing classes (since I didn't have a lot in common with what other folks were writing), but the instructor himself was extremely helpful and intelligent, and I got a lot of good feedback on what I was doing, if nothing else. One of the things that the instructor liked to stress, though, was the methodology of just getting your shitty first draft onto the page. That's something I can empathize with, since after writing my first novel and redrafting it several times, I've seen how much work goes into changing things, but I can also see how much work is accomplished just by getting the damn story out of the way, first.

So, even while embracing the idea that I just need to write the story even if the draft itself sucks, I was still trudging and plodding through actually writing this new novel over the last few months. It seemed kind of counterintuitive to myself, since I knew I didn't want or even expect it to be any good, and yet even just trying to fling words onto the page that got the general point across wasn't working.

But, like I already said, I seem to have somehow gotten over that, and as long as I stay gotten over it, that's fine by me.

For those curious, this first draft of this new novel is still nowhere near complete: I'm only on Chapter Six after, oh, many, many months of writing. I hope that the same thing that happened with my last novel happens with this one, where I hit the halfway point, stall for a week, and then have the most awesome epiphany ever and even up churning out the second half of the book in a frenzied month of writing bliss. I'm not sure that'll happen here, though, since the story itself is so different, and it just requires a different treatment overall. Maybe it's the "being different" part that's got me all wonky.

In the meantime, I think it'll be helpful to focus on additional, smaller side-projects. That's hard to do when taking a class (and it's what happened when I was writing my old novel last year, too). Now that I'm class-free (wait, is that how I want to phrase that?), I can probably find some time to get some short stories out of my brain on the side, too. Though actually, I do still have close to half a dozen short stories that died on the page from last year, and I'm not sure I have the heart, the mind, or the patience to go back and resurrect any of them, even if one or two of them probably deserve to be finished.

The other thing that should inspire further writing on my behalf is the fact that, earlier this month, I finally got published for legit, for real-reals!

My first story can be found in Sofawolf Press's new anthology, New Fables. I'm actually pretty proud of this story; it takes place in a fantasy world that I've accidentally continued to write in, the same world featured in my story "The Peculiar Quandary of Simon Canopus Artyle". I actually really like writing in this world, and I daresay that I find enough potential in it that I'll almost certainly write more for it.

I've got another story in Bad Dog Books' anthology ROAR, Volume 1. This is a story that takes place in the same world that the novels I keep talking about take place in. It's not directly related to either of them, but I like to think it fleshes out the setting in... well, in an admittedly unusual way. It was very much an experimental piece for me, but in the end, I'm happy enough with it.

Anyhow, that's what's been happening with me and writing, lately. I'll make a point to not let this place decay and go dead like it's been for the last few months.

Beginning Anew

2007-03-15T14:32:00.000-07:00

I've begun serious work on a second novel, now. Technically, I started another novel at the end of 2006, but I realized that I wasn't quite ready to write that one just yet, so I put it back on the shelf for the time being. At present, there are no fewer than four distinct ideas for novels in my head, and I wasn't quite sure which one I'd end up writing first; it came as something of a surprise, actually, when I decided to work on the one that I'm now writing.

I find it interesting how so much of what I'm doing feels different and how so much feels the same when I think of what it was like to write my last novel. It's certainly a long, involved, highly daunting process, but despite how timid I might still be about the whole thing, I know from experience that it's a very rewarding one. There's a story in my head, and like most of the stories in my head, I don't know precisely where it came from--I know only that it's asking to be told, and it's my job to channel it. That makes it sound like a chore, but it's not (even though, at times, the process of sitting down to type things out can feel a little bit grueling; usually it's a lot more enjoyable, though).

One of the scariest things about the whole thing, though, is facing an unwritten novel as some kind of Great Unknown. For me, the elements of my stories and the world around them are almost like things that I discover more than things I make up; so, when I'm writing the novel I am now, I need to remind myself that it's okay that I'm not 100% sure where everything is going or how all of the pieces are going to line up. The word I like to use for storytelling that goes smoothly is organic--and I forget, very often, that there was a time when my first novel was only a string of vaguely-connected ideas, and it was up to me to determine how it all went together.

Thinking about that, it's comforting to see the similarities to my current novel and my previous one, here in the planning stages: I have the conflict, I have the characters, I have the setting, a very strong visual image of the climax, and half of the ending. I have a vague idea of what's going on during the middle of the story.

But really, I think that's part of the fun of actually writing a big story like this: I get to find out for myself what happens as I fill in those blanks, and if I'm telling the story correctly, it'll all grow organically into place in order to end up where it needs to.

The other exciting thing about that is that I know that there are events and characters and happenings that are going to surprise me. There are things in store that I'm 100% unaware of, and when I figure out what they are, I will probably squeak with delight as I fervently jot down a note in my notebook or pound out a paragraph on my keyboard. I recall quite clearly the moment of epiphany that I had at Burbank Airport when I was halfway through my last novel and the events of the second half just suddenly fell into place inside my head, and I look forward to that "Eureka!" happening to me again this second time around.

Most importantly, though, I think that I have a fun, engaging, and meaningful story that folks will enjoy reading, and I'll be very happy if I can get all of those words out into a form that other people get to see someday.

Hard at Work

2007-03-08T13:49:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm still definitely writing--although I can't say I'm doing a good job of finishing a lot. I still have a lot of half-finished and just-barely-started projects in hand, and I also put a few more nails in my own coffin by starting up another novel. I'm at least doing better, lately, with forcing myself to sit down and write when the time arises (and in forcing time in my schedule to arise), so hopefully, sometime semi-soon, I'll start putting the finishing touches on some short stories.

Last month, I took a two-week seminar course on how to incorporate tension and conflict into writing, and that was actually incredibly helpful. It's hard not to keep what I learned in mind as I write, which is a good thing. After all, as much as writing might be a talent, it's also a skill, and like any skill, if you want to do it well, you can't let yourself be sloppy. In a way, the more I learn, the harder writing gets, since there's more and more to be consciously aware of while actually in the process, but I think that the writing I end up with turns out better, as a result, and if that's the case, I'm all for it.

On a more specifically-furry note, the 2006 Ursa Major Awards open voting on this coming Saturday, March 10. The nominations are already set, but we don't get to see what's up for voting until then. I'm actually kind of excited about that: I'm eligible for at least, er, one piece, I think, personally, but there are a lot of other great works of furry fiction that I had the pleasure to read last year that I hope get the recognition they deserve. Time will tell!

Summer's Fire

2007-02-06T12:42:00.000-08:00

This is a story of mine from a couple of years ago. It's a bit on the gay side, and all, so keep that in mind if you don't (or do!) want to read that sort of thing. It's not explicit or anything, but it may not leave a lot to the imagination, either.

"Summer's Fire"

The idea for this story came into being while listening to Heather Alexander's album A Gypsy's Home, and, in particular, to the song "Gypsy's Fire." I had this wonderful mental image to go with it, and I based the story on getting up to that point.

In the end, I ended up scrapping that scene entirely, which I find amusingly ironic. I also think it's a good sign, though, since it implies to myself that the rest of the story stands on its own merits.

The Peculiar Quandary of Simon Canopus Artyle

2007-02-06T12:36:00.000-08:00

First off, after some literary housecleaning, I finally seem to have broken back through into my writing groove. I've dusted off some of my older pieces that needed polishing and fixing, and while I'm far from done yet, I've gotten through at least a few, and even that amount of progress is making the rest seem a lot easier. See how cautiously optimistic I can be?

Speaking of which, seeing as this is my writing blog, I figure that I should actually direct folks to some of my writing that's available online. Granted, there isn't a whole lot of it, but what there is, I feel comfortable sharing.

The first one up here is a piece that takes place in a fantasy world of my creation:

"The Peculiar Quandary of Simon Canopus Artyle"

This is a strange piece for me, because ever since finishing my first draft of it, I've been really unsure of how to 'fix' it to get it to be presentable. Feedback on earlier drafts was very good, but also very varied, and so in the end, I just needed to get over my fears and make a judgment call. Now, I suppose it's up to you guys to pass judgment on what I've got as a result.

Further Difficulties

2007-01-29T12:04:00.000-08:00

This year just hasn't been kind to me in terms of getting writing done. For whatever reason, I'm not getting a lot of time to write, and even when I do, my motivation to do so is very low, and I get very little done.

I think a lot of it might relate to the fact that I'm doing a lot of editing and reworking of pieces and not writing anything new. I mean, I know that editing and redrafting is all still very important, but it might just be that I'm just a bit underexcited, since the pieces I am working on are all old enough that they're not firmly entrenched in my mind. It may also be one of those feedback loops where I fall further behind due to the discouragement I feel at falling behind.

I've got a few deadlines to work with on a few of my pieces, though, so hopefully, that'll help convince me to get back to the keyboard and get things done like I need to start doing.

The Groove

2007-01-11T17:09:00.000-08:00

So, I've been quiet for a while, but I've also been very busy for a while, as I imagine all of you have been, as well.

I admit to having had some difficulty getting back into the swing of things after the holidays, insofar as writing is concerned. Maybe I just need to shake out some residual brain-dust, or maybe I just need to try harder to make the time to do it. When all else fails, I can always blame work.

At any rate, I do have several projects on both my front and my back burners, so I should hopefully start churning things out soon. Um, fairly soon. I hope.

Writer's Gridlock?

2006-12-04T14:34:00.000-08:00

Lately, I've been having trouble writing. However, it's not because I can't think of anything to write, but rather because I've got too much to write.

I do always have the off-and-on problem of starting stories and then never finishing them because they end up falling short of my own expectations, at which point I have the unfortunate tendency to just abandon them forever. Lately, though, I'm stopping stories with the intent of coming back to them, while in the meantime trying to put work into numerous other stories that are either on my list or on my agenda or otherwise just floating through my head.

At present, I've got:

a novel that I am finalizing

a novel that I am just beginning

three other semi-solid ideas for novels I eventually plan to write

two short stories that require key revisions

three short stories that I am currently writing

one (very fun!) cooperative writing project

In the midst of all this, I should point out, I've randomly churned out a handful of other short stories that just seemed to appear from the ether, fly off my fingertips, and end up on the page. I don't quite know how that happened. I wish I could capture the essence of that, though, and channel it towards some of these other items on my list.

Frustration comes when my brain just can't seem to focus on whichever of the above I sit down to work on. I've wasted entire evenings getting almost nothing done on whatever it was I planned to write for, and in the meantime, instead of switching to something else that might better suit my mood, I just kind of stare at blank pages or churn out very kludgy prose that I tend to just cut away later on. I get the impression that this is a problem I need to overcome if I ever want to be the sort of good writer that I someday hope to become.

I did just start a new story today that (at least for the time being) has got my excited and interested. Time will tell if that holds up. (I hope it does, though, because I plan on trying to meet a submission deadline with it.)

Wrapping Things Up

2006-11-09T15:42:00.000-08:00

Over the last week or two, I've been doing some editing and polishing on my novel manuscript. After giving it another read-over, and then tweaking a few more bits of it here and there, I think I might have finally reached the point where I'm "okay' with it.

I'm unsure what to think, really; again, having never done this before, I'm not 100% sure what to think, but from what I can tell, I'm happy with the structure of the plot, the flow of the story, the different character arcs, the emotional content, and the resolution. I may still want to pick at a few things, here and there, and I'm sure it could use a copyedit from somebody other than myself, but overall, I don't look at it and think, "This thing needs redoing."

That's not to say that I think it's in its finished form, since I know it probably isn't. After I finished the first draft, though, while I was happy with it, I realized that I needed a redraft to really get things how I wanted. This time around, I don't think a full redraft is going to be necessary, since it looks like I've at least got the story out and on paper the way I want it to be told.

Maybe that's a mark of success: I'm content that I've written something that someone might want to read. I'm not glowing with satisfaction or anything, since I know it's too early to rest on my laurels, but I can look at my manuscript and think to myself, "Yes, that's how this story goes."

Hopefully, that means I'm close.

Patching Holes

2006-11-02T16:11:00.000-08:00

After spending yet more time away from my novel manuscript to give myself time to think and to come back to it fresh, I began to identify what I felt were some of the biggest flaws with it (thankfully, I don't think there are that many!).

This novel has a fairly large cast of characters. In particular, there are two secondary characters that don't get a lot of time on the page but who nevertheless play an important role in the story. By nature, these characters are a mysterious sort, and neither the other characters nor the reader ever get the full story behind them.

Still, I did realize (and had some folks point out) that I never did specifically call out just what it was these characters did; it's one thing to not reveal exactly who they were or why they were acting as they were, but I least needed to explain what they were doing, if nothing else. It's a complicated story, after all, and leaving a major part of it unexplained (or even if I'd just left it mysteriously implied) just wouldn't work, in this case.

I was worried (as I often am when writing) as to how I would get this information across to the reader--after all, like I said, it's a complicated bit of story, and the nature of this particular aspect still necessitated some mystery, and so I wasn't sure what to do.

The thing about writing, though, which I often forget, is that it's often very easy to get a lot of information across without necessarily having to write a whole lot.

I found a conversation right near the very end of the book. Beyond anything else, I was always a bit 'iffy' on how this conversation went, anyway, because I always thought the characters should be saying more than they did. It made logical sense, in this case, to have them discussing what they'd learned about these two 'mystery' characters, and in just a few sentences, I was able to get the relevant points spelled out in a way that made sense.

While writing these snippets, I realized that there was also one other point that was major and definitely warranted specifically mentioning, but which was also just a single thought that simply needed to be spelled out. Within the same scene I was already working in, I was able to sneak this information in, as well.

In total, the amount of new material I wrote probably amounts to less than a page, but with just those few paragraphs, I've managed to organically cover up what could have been a gaping plothole, tidied up some dangling threads, and even managed to add a touch of intrigue all at the same time.

I am very happy to have done this!

"I love it when a plan comes together."

2006-10-24T09:44:00.000-07:00

So, I've just kind of been sitting on my novel, lately, waiting to put the finishing touches on it. I'm waiting for some additional feedback on my new draft before I make any sweeping changes to it (though I have gone through and done some dusting off based on some more 'generic' editing advice that I found very helpful).

Still, what feedback I have gotten so far has (thankfully enough) jived with a lot of my own thoughts about what flaws still remain in the manuscript. That's definitely a good thing, insofar as it lets me know that I'm probably focusing on the right things; the bad thing, though, is that it mostly centers on the 'wrapup' portion of the story.

Now, I knew from the beginning of writing this novel that I was writing a fairly convoluted story, with a number of characters and plot threads to keep track of; I hope that it's not too confusing by the time one gets to the end, and initial feedback shows that, yes, readers are at least still able to follow and enjoy it. The problem with things are they are now, though, near as I can tell, is that there's still a pretty big mix of key information points that go explained and ones that go unexplained.

The tricky part of storytelling, in that regard, is that all of the 'relevant information' to the mystery behind the plot all exists in my head, and so when I sit down and think of the story, I know how it all goes and how it all ties together. I do not, however, have my manuscript itself 100% memorized, so in turn, I'm not 100% sure what all is and is not explicitly stated or even strongly hinted at. It's for that reason that I know I'm going to need to actually re-read the manuscript itself (it's been a while since I've written my latest draft, thankfully), and really try to look at it from the point of view of someone who doesn't know how it all ends, and see in which ways the ending does or doesn't make sense.

In my first draft, the story went on a big too long after the climax, plodding along clumsily after the story should have been tied up and packed away. For the second draft, I figured that I'd end up overcorrecting for this problem by making the end now too short, and it sounds like that's exactly what I did. Still, knowing that that's where one of my biggest problems lies is very helpful in letting me know where I need to focus my energies first when it comes to finishing this thing up.

Info Dump

2006-10-12T01:31:00.000-07:00

When I'm not writing ("You mean you do other things with your spare time, heathen?"), one of the things I like to do is play video games. Lately, the time I get to spend playing them is kind of sparse, though, so when I do play a game, I kind of consider it an investment, and so I like making sure that I get my time's worth.

Usually, this means that I end up playing games that come with a big, enjoyable story.

Well, one of the biggest, most convoluted, most... bewilderingly-complex of stories for a video game in recent history is probably that of the Xenosaga series. After a few months of plodding, I finally finished the third and final installment, and I was doing some reflecting on it (as one tends to do when finishing up a story).

Now, say what you will about pretentious Japanese storytelling (and the general bogged-downedness of Xenosaga in particular): there's still a lot of information, there, and it's clear that the people behind it put a lot of thought into it. The third game goes so far as to include a database (a pretty honkin' huge database), containing just about every bit of encyclopedic detail one could ask to have about the series.

I was thinking about this database after I was done with the game; it contains an awful lot of information that would just be too awkward to shoehorn into the actual storytelling of the game, or which wouldn't ever be relevant enough to warrant mentioning on its own. Even so, it's still there in the database, almost as if to say, "Hey, in case you care or are curious, this is the deal with X." And for some reason, the inclusion of this database resonates with me.

In creating my own worlds for storytelling, I do try to put a lot of thought into them, and how they work. Most notable is probably the world in which my current novel-in-progress is set: I've spent the last several years thinking up more and more details on how the world works, what the political situation is, what different cultures are like, what took place in world history... basically, it's a lot of stuff that is helpful to me in forming a setting that I can write into, but which is a lot more information than I'd ever force a reader to slog through just in order to get through a single story, even a novel-length one.

I guess what it comes down to is that, when all is said and done, only a very small percent of what I think up is ever going to get into something the reader sees, and part of the fun of writing, I guess, is in picking what portions of this world are worth sharing and worth reading about--and, to a different extent, in finding ways to slyly include other bits of information into the story in a way that the reader might not notice until afterwards, because its inclusion was just so subtle and organic that it never drew attention to itself.

Even so, the idea of putting together a big encyclopedic database like the one in Xenosaga does make me smile, just because I'd be flattered by the notion that someone would care enough to want to know that much about that which I'd created.

Then again, I guess the next best thing (or, really, the better thing) to do would just be to keep writing more and more novels in said setting, so that I could make the place as real as possible for the people who wanted to spend time there.

That Which Fuels the Fires

2006-10-04T19:32:00.000-07:00

So, I've learned that the coffee shop that I frequent has its own blog and webpage.

This is where I do a good portion of my quality writing, including my novel writing. I thought that maybe some of you might be interested in seeing where the magic happens.

Progress and Deterrence

2006-09-25T13:40:00.000-07:00

So, last night, I completed my second basic draft of my novel.

Strangely enough, I don't really feel any sense of accomplishment for having done so. More than anything, I just kind of feel mentally tired from it. I mean, I know I tried hard, and I know that I made some good changes, but from what I can tell, completing a second draft doesn't feel at all like completing a first draft.

The other thing about it is that it sort of makes me not want to even think about writing for a good long while, now. The inherent difficulty of novel writing seems to have just accentuated the inherent difficulty of writing, period, and so the prospect of working on even a short story, right now, seems very daunting.

It's kind of like how I imagine I'd feel if, for two months straight, I'd been forced to eat chicken parmesan for dinner every night—every night, chicken parmesan, unable to stop until the big huge freezer I had was empty—and then, when I'm finally done, the next night I get offered chicken tetrazzini. Sure, technically, it's different and it's a change of pace, but the last thing I want at that point is more chicken.

Maybe (hopefully) this is all just some predictable writerly malaise. I'd hate to have to feel this way for long. Especially since I still have a lot of work to do.

Complications Through Simplification

2006-09-20T13:49:00.000-07:00

In redrafting my novel, one of the primary aims I've had since the beginning has been to trim things down to make the story itself more streamlined. There was a lot of stuff that was either extraneous or which just made things more complicated than they needed to be for the story to be told. I think that I identified most of those points early on, and so from the beginning of the redrafting process, I'd been taking correctional steps.

Now that I'm getting towards the end of the novel (I'm redrafting it from beginning to end in one big, long sweep, first), I'm finding that I'm doing a lot more rewriting because of those simplifying changes. Basically, because certain plot threads were removed or retooled, now that the plot is coming together, there's a lot that needs to be accordingly changed so that these old references aren't still in the way.

At first, I was kind of dismayed, mostly because it just made for a lot more work on my part. After thinking about it, though, I think that it's an indication that the plot of the novel has formed very organically; if by changing something on page 30, I accordingly have to change something else on page 170, then that's a sign that I've kept something coherent together. Thinking it about it still more, I'd be worried if I could swap out some episode in the middle of the novel with a completely different scene and have that interchangeability not have any repercussions on what comes after it.

My hope is that I'll be able to get through the rest of the manuscript by the end of this coming weekend. As I get closer to the end, though, there's a lot more hands-on redrafting to be done, beyond just simple editing and tweaking, so it might be a longer process than I think (after all, having never written a novel before, I don't have a lot of experience to help me gauge this sort of thing). Then again, I have a mostly blank weekend ahead of me, as near as I can tell, so I should be able to devote a lot of time if I need to.

Write What You Know (Or Can Reasonably Pretend To)

2006-09-18T17:05:00.000-07:00

One of the things that you hear a lot is that most folks' first novels are autobiographical to some extent (sometimes to a larger extent than others). I can sort of understand why this would be the case: after all, the old axiom is to "write what you know," and the one thing that folks should know better than anything else is themselves (in an ideal world, at any rate).

I'm looking at my own novel, now, and I'm glad that it's not very autobiographical at all, because that would bear with it the implication that some truly horrible things have happened in my life, both to me and the people I care about. I'm pretty sure, though, that such a text couldn't ever really be mistaken for autobiographical, in this case, first novel or not.

I was thinking about the whole "write what you know" thing, and when I looked at my novel-in-progress, I started wondering to myself where I got off on attempting to write about things that I certainly hadn't ever experienced myself (like getting involved with government conspiracies or living the life of a billionaire).

When I looked more closely, though, I realized that the things that really held the book together from an emotional point of view (or which, in theory, should hold it together), are themes that I can certainly identify with very closely, like friendship and social acceptance and self-sacrifice. I'd also like to think that readers would be able identify with that, too, and maybe, in a way, that's where the 'meat' of the story comes, in terms of what's thought-provoking and what leaves an impression.

Besides, if we're going to limit ourselves only to things that we know, thennobody would be writing books with gun-toting animal-people having a helicopter chase.

Addition and Subtraction

2006-09-01T16:18:00.000-07:00

As I've mentioned, I'm in the middle of redrafting my novel. It's a pretty unique experience, I have to say; I don't feel like I'm writing a new story even if I am writing a lot of new material.

I think that's a good sign. On the other hand, I am putting in a lot of new material, and I'm not even halfway through the main story, yet. There's a lot of action that happens later on in the course of the book, and part of me fears that I might be delaying things from 'happening' by sticking too much in the front; conversely, there's also a lot near the end that I think I'm going to just rip out wholesale (but, then again, I'm probably going to replace it with something else).

It's been pointed out by folks who read my original draft that I have a story that's driven by an ensemble cast. I'm not sure why I tried writing a novel without one single "main" character, but
looking at the story, I think it would be hard to do tell it the same way if I just had a main protagonist (for you videogamey types out there, trying thinking of Final Fantasy VI). With that in mind, I am a little less worried about developing things more thoroughly in the beginning, because I intend it to be an emotional story, and so I want to reader to care about the characters and to understand them and their motivations. It's probably going to be a longer story, and while I don't think that longer necessarily means that something is better, in this case, I think it'll turn out that way.

I'm also surprised by how little preexisting sections need to change in order to account for the more sweeping changes elsewhere. Naturally, there are some major things I do need to change, but comparatively-speaking, I expected that the tweaking would be more extensive. My fundamental story hasn't changed all that much, though, so maybe it makes sense that a lot of what I've already written can stay the same. Perhaps the second half of the redrafting process will see some very different changes, though; I expect that the path to the story's climax will change pretty drastically, and the dénouement and resolution will need to change accordingly.

All in all, it's a rewarding experience, albeit an unusual one that I'm definitely not used to. I'm under the assumption that it's going well, but I don't think I'll know until I'm finished if it's gone as well as it seems to be going now!

How to Write a Novel

2006-08-27T16:27:00.000-07:00

I came across this rather terrific list of guidelines for how to write a novel. It includes such great pieces of advice as:

Alcohol is a writer's best friend. It provides inspiration and confidence, it allows your fingers to fly fluidly across the keyboard; it cheers you up when you're down. It worked for Edgar Allen Poe, it worked for Stephen King and I just bet it will work for you.

Indeed, distraction is what life is all about. If you use a computer for writing your book then make sure you've got a good internet connection, and stay permanently connected. The internet is an invaluable research tool and every time you surf you will find hours of non-stop inspiration.

No one likes it when bad things happen. Only write about the happy stuff.

"But this is how it really happened..."

2006-08-23T11:13:00.000-07:00

I believe it was in Stephen Koch's Modern Library Writer's Workshop
that I was first exposed to the notion that nobody, not even the writer, can know a story before it has been told. This is one of those pieces of advice that, while I always thought was interesting, is also something that I never fully appreciated until I saw firsthand how true it really is.

When I was writing the first draft of my novel, I knew pretty much how the story was going to go: I knew the beginning and the setup, I knew the key plot points, and I knew how it was going to end. Over the course of several months, as I went about actually writing it, the spaces in between started to fill themselves in, as of course they are supposed to. Even so, when I was about halfway through the draft itself, there was one moment where I was sitting in an airport, scribbling away halfheartedly with my pencil, when I was suddenly struck with some kind of epiphany, where I just kind of saw how the rest of what I needed to write fit together. It's not that I didn't know (at least roughly) what was going to happen; rather, I just now better understood why my brain had put it all there in the first place.

This is not to say, however, that because I had this magical thought that I suddenly had the perfect course for the rest of my book. I did manage to complete the draft in a frenzy of excitement (which was a wonderful experience, I must say), and when the draft itself was 'done,' I had told my story.

So, yes, now I had told my story; having told my story, I now knew what the story was.

It is from this point that I began my new journey: finding a way to tell that story better. The basic idea is the same, of course, and the plot itself isn't going to change in any drastic sense from what I've already created, but in the telling are the details, and the details are what make the story interesting. I know the story, now, and so now I'm equipped to tell it in a way that is more enjoyable, in a way that makes it a more entertaining read, because I know where it needs to go and (I think) I have a fun way of getting there.

I count myself lucky in that I had an attentive 'test audience' for that first draft. They were helpful enough to validate my idea (by letting me know that I had a story worth telling), and they had their own suggestions which I, in turn, have been working with, seeing what I've already written and then deciding, on my own, how to best tell the story I've already told, again--as if 'for real' this time. It's a very hands-on transformative process.

You can almost draw parallels to telling anecdotes. We all have stories that we tell people, time and again, at parties or gatherings or when you first start getting to know someone--stories about things we've experienced, that we know, and that we want to convey to others. But I'm also sure that all of us, in the course of telling and retelling these anecdotes, quickly refine them in the way that we tell them, and probably have set ways that we phrase certain points of those stories to get across what we think is the best effect in the telling.

That's a lot like what redrafting my novel is like, I think. The only difference is that it's fiction from the beginning, so I can change the 'facts' themselves without cheating. It's still the same basic prinicple, though, of retooling the telling of a story that I (now, at last) already know, just spicing up the right points and leaving out the duller bits so that the audience gets the most out of what I want to tell them.

Reworking

2006-08-21T16:00:00.000-07:00

Back in June, I finished the first draft of a novel. I sort of underplay this accomplishment, even to myself, though in the back of my mind I realize that it is is an accomplishment, since it's the first time I've ever done that.

I'm not sure if you could technically call it a manuscript, since it was never put into official manuscript form, but rather, just done up as a print-friendly PDF for my editor-reader-writer friends to peek at. I call it a manuscript, though, since that's a term that people understand, and it also sounds better than just saying, "I wrote a novel," when, as of this moment, I don't actually have an actual novel of which to speak (I am, of course, working on that, but everything in its due time).

After taking a couple of months away from said first draft (along with getting some very good feedback from a small but dedicated group of readers), I have begun, as of last week, to rework things into a second draft. The prospect is brutally daunting, and altogether very different from retooling and smoothing out revisions for a short story. I'm in good spirits about it, so far, but that doesn't exactly keep it from remaning the daunting task that I know it is (I'm tentatively giving myself until the end of September to complete this new draft, which seems like a reasonable goal, given a steady work pace).

There's a well-known bit of writers' advice about needing to "murder your darlings" (which comes from a saying that's been attributed to just about every writer known for his witicisms, but which seems to really be something said by Arthur Quiller-Couch). For those of you who might not know what this means, this is a bit of 'tough love' advice for a writer, urging him or her to suck it up and deal with the fact that, when redrafting a work like a novel, there are going to be things that they'll want, in their heart, to keep, but which, in the end, need to be taken out. That was always something that was lurking in the back of my mind, and as I look at this draft I already have, I can see how very, very true it is.

I have entire character arcs, actually, that I have lined up on the chopping block, ready to tear their spines out wholesale. What had once been important plot points in my mind as I initially developed the narrative are now, in retrospect, a tad bit unnecessary, and shall be either eliminated or transformed as necessary. On the whole, I'm only about four chapters in on a rough pass, but already, I can see where things are going to end up looking a lot more streamlined and a lot more coherent (and I haven't even begun the major work, yet).

So, daunting, yes, but still something to look forward to, overall, because I know I'll end up with something better for all the work.

Then we'll see about charging all my friends to read it.

A Simple Introduction

2006-08-21T14:55:00.000-07:00

I should probably start with some sort of introductory post.

I'm a writer. I think I've always been a writer, really, which is something I'm willing to bet a lot of writers will say they have in common. It's only been over the last six or seven years, though, that I really started taking myself seriously, and even within that time, it's probably been only three years since my serious side has taken itself seriously.

Back in 2000 or so, I made a failed attempt at writing a novel. I kind of liked the idea, though, so I tried retooling the same premise and then tried writing again. Once more, it failed (with less progress made than my first attempt). A third attempt yielded still less. I was discouraged.

In my frustration at my inability to complete any of these novel drafts, I decided instead to try my hand at short stories, just so I could experience the satisfaction of saying that I'd finished something. In the back of my mind, I think I'd always thought of short stories as a "lesser" form of storytelling, and so I never gave them much credence. So, for a while, my idea was to spend time "dabbling" with short stories until I shook the whatever-it-was in my brain loose so that I could go back to writing "real" fiction.

Well, it didn't take very long for me to realize how wrong I was about the validity of short stories. Maybe it's just because I hadn't read very many; maybe it's because I just fell into the assumption that bigger was better. Whatever the case, I eventually got over that misguided notion, and once I got an appreciation for what a short story could be, my ability to write them probably went up accordingly. And so, from then on, for the next many years, I continued to write such stories, enjoying it quite a bit.

I think I first heard about NaNoWriMo in 2003. It struck me as something I should probably do, just so I could say that I did it, and to say that I put a bunch of words down on paper. Well, November came and went that year and I didn't do anything. The same happened in 2004 and in 2005. I guess I just wasn't motivated to write a big huge piece just for the novelty (no pun intended) of having written it--again, the ironic twist of actually enjoying and appreciating my own short stories came back at me.

When I did finally get the idea for a novel that I wanted to write (in a novel-writing sense, not in a '50,000 random words that happened to be written in November' sense), I was struck with the new notion that I didn't actually know how to write a novel. This would explain, in retrospect, why I was never able to get it right the first time, but even before attempting again after having hit my writing groove, I knew instinctively that the process of writing a novel wasn't the same as writing a short story and just making it longer. I don't know if I can explain it to someone who's never written much, but it is both a very different mindset and a very different constructive process that goes into it.

So, I've come a long way, I've learned a lot, and I know I've still got a long ways to go. I've heard people say that you can't really be a writer until you're thirty; if that's the case, I still have three years to go, and I'd be very impatient for all of them. Still, I do recognize that a lot of what I do is far from polished, and I hope that in those next three years I make a lot of progress.

Hopefully, this here blog will help me chronicle some of that, and hopefully, the things I say will be of some interest to the folks out there in the outside world.

Rikoshi Writes

Project Updates - Summer 2011

Quick Publishing Plans Update

News, Awards, and Honors!

Project Updates

Hello, dust-collecting blog!

Update!

Pre-Release Review of "The Seventh Chakra"

The Seventh Chakra - All But in the Can

The Final Countdown

Seventh Chakra - Revised Draft Completed

The Seventh Chakra - T-Minus One Furcon (and Counting)

Dusting Things Off

Author Page on Amazon.com

Darlings, and the Subsequent Murdering Thereof

Back to the Grindstone

Intra-Hiatus Hiatus

Planning for Phase Two

First Draft

Climax

Culmination

Hunnerd Kay

Progressing Towards the Finish Line

Farewell, 2008; Hello, 2009

The Wagon

Repurposing

The Affliction

Creative Control (and lack thereof)

Checking Back In

Emotional Wrangling

Stroke of Not-Quite-Genius

Swept Up in the Currents of Creativity

Prescriptive Descriptions

My Writing Journal

Reviews for Thousand Leaves

Novel Milestones

Closer

Godspeed

Bookery

Dusting Things Off

Style or Substance?

Writing Meme

The Errant Captive Audience

Step One: Identify the Problem

Getting the Words Out

Beginning Anew

Hard at Work

Summer's Fire

The Peculiar Quandary of Simon Canopus Artyle

Further Difficulties

The Groove

Writer's Gridlock?

Wrapping Things Up

Patching Holes

"I love it when a plan comes together."

Info Dump

That Which Fuels the Fires

Progress and Deterrence

Complications Through Simplification

Write What You Know (Or Can Reasonably Pretend To)

Addition and Subtraction

How to Write a Novel

"But this is how it *really* happened..."

Reworking

A Simple Introduction

"But this is how it really happened..."