The Finish Line… Sort Of, & Other Random Thoughts

The end is nigh!

No, this isn’t a declaration of some impending apocalypse; the end, in this instance, refers to the end of the first draft of my first novel length work.  There was a time there when I felt I’d never reach the goal, where the number 105,000 looked too huge… too overwhelming. I finished my writing session last night with a little over 101,000 words on the manuscript total… 4000 more words to go, but then the real work begins.

I’m planning on celebrating the completion of the draft, but this milestone is merely the first leg of the journey — there’s still plenty of road ahead.  The real work comes after the first draft is done, because no piece of writing (unless you happen to be perfect in your execution… and I, most certainly, am not) is ready for the world in the first iteration.  I have a lot of revision and editing to do… this being the first novel I’ve ever written, I’d be a fool to convince myself that it’s not rife with problems the require careful untangling… honestly, some of it is outright shit that needs to be cleaned up, or discarded and rewritten.  I’ve earmarked a few chapters that are going to require some serious surgery because they’re clunky, or they lack the narrative punch that makes the difference between an okay piece of writing and a good piece of writing… and I’m not prepared to settle for okay… I know potential readers won’t be either.

This is my freshman attempt at writing a full length novel… I may have mentioned that already… and as such, some of this manuscript was written with boundless joy, some with bottomless deperation, some with manic obsession, and some with caustic exhaustion.  I’ve learned a lot over the ten months it has taken me to draft this book, and I have much more to learn still… volumes of knowledge and experience to rack up before I comfortably take the title of novelist… I’ll accept storyteller for now because, at least to me (and this is meant as no disrespect to storytellers out there) this is where the kernal originates.  It’s not enough to merely tell a story, the trick is in making it compelling and entertaining and I think I’ve accomplished at least that thus far.

Just because you can build something doesn’t make you a master craftsman, though, and that’s where the learning must go on because to continue to challenge yourself and strive for excellence should be on the list of goals for any artist… settling for anything less puts you in the realm of, “why do it at all?”  Creating is a struggle enough as it is, but doing it with a degree of verve takes a lot of hard work, and it’s an extreme act of ego to believe that you’re automatically at the top of your game just because you happened to have written a novel.  The first novel proves a lot; principally it proves that you have the discipline and the drive to complete the task, that you can, by an act of will (or stubbornness), write a really long piece of prose… and that, by no means, entitles you to anything.

Cross a desert, it’s you against the desert; cross the ocean, it’s you against the ocean; write a novel, it’s you against yourself — no shit, you learn a bit about what you’re made of.  It’s not physically demanding (a little, if you happen to suffer from a repetitive motion injury), but it most certainly is intellectually and emotionally demanding.  I’m beat… but I’m excited to do it all over again.  I guess we can consider this an extreme brain sport; the rush comes, not from jumping off the cliff or taking on the rapids, but from taking an abstract idea, turning it into a concept, and making it grow into a story — this imaginary Genesis, which people have likened to playing God, is where it’s at… the addictive part akin to the adrenaline rush of more physical endeavors.

I’m on the verge of finishing this thing, it’s taken me ten months, it’s been a mental and emotional roller coaster… when I knock out the last period on the draft, and turn out the lights on this leg of the project, I’m going to get really drunk and sleep for two days…

This past week, Harry Harrison, Science Fiction author/satirist, died at the age of 87.  Even if you were not a fan (and I really wasn’t, I’ve always been a more avid reader of Fantasy) it’s important to note that the man’s work will endure long after his death.  In these instances I feel it’s important to give your condolences regardless of whether or not you were a fan of the man’s stories or of the genre as a whole because the simple fact is that this man (and the genre in which he worked) contributed, via his imagination, to our cultural consciousness.  If you don’t know who Harrison is go look him up, it’s certainly worth your while.  Like I said, I wasn’t a big fan but I sure as hell knew who the man was.

We’re losing a very important generation in Genre, the generation that established the arena and the rules, who broke said rules, who pioneered speculative fiction with imaginations so powerful their visions resonate to this day and will most likely continue to resonate for a long time.  It is that status to which we aspire, and it’s important the we acknowledge it and that we give due respect to those that have gone before.

Rest in peace, Harry Harrison, and thank you for your imaginative stories… Say “hi,” to Ray Bradbury and Anne McCaffrey  for me…

Cheers!

Moving... Moved.

I wanted to post just a quick note to let everyone know (all two of you... Hi Leigh... and anyone else who reads but does not follow) that The Write Experience is moving... well, rather that it's moved. This is not a spot decision; I've been eyeing a Wordpress hosted blog for some time now and most likely will upgrade this to a hosted website, powered by Wordpress, sometime in the near future -- my brother is web designer (how lucky can a guy get?) and I'll most likely draft him into helping make that website/blog look real purty...

I like Blogger, and the decision to leave it behind was not an easy one... it's very convenient to have a blog attached to my Google account, and I'm giving up Google+ integration to relocate to Wordpress; however, this here was instrumental in my decision to change blog hosts:

Invasive ads on the Dashboard fail to amuse me...

The ad above actually occludes part of the Dashboard in Blogger... and that turned out to be a bit disappointing... once I had a flying watermelon moving back and forth across the screen while I wrote, and another time I had an animated, flabby belly that would shrink and grow and shrink and grow repeatedly on the screen.  Did I complain to Blogger?  Nah, what for?  They ought to know better than to permit ads like that to ruin their interface.  Granted the new Dashboard is fresh out of beta, but since I was already contemplating the move... well, they just helped me make my decision.

This blog will eventually move again, but that will be to its own site with its own domain which I will have control over, and then I won't have to worry about annoying ass ads unless I get hacked.  I'll most likely cross-post between the two blogs at least one or two more times.  Nothing about the format will change; I'll continue to document my progress on this novel and anything else I write afterward, including my progress and participation in NaNoWriMo and any other silly shit that comes up along the way.

If you read my blog, thanks -- I hope you continue with me; if you don't read my blog, shame on you -- in the near future there will be a news story about a guy who went berserk and then spontaneously combusted, and if you don't start reading my blog now you won't be able to tell people later that you used to read that nut-job's rants before he got fail-famous.  C'mon, be a pal.

Cheers!

By the way, the new blog URL is: www.thewriteexperience.wordpress.com  Bookmarks are encouraged...

The Storyboard with Pat Rothfuss... Oh Yeah, and Some Other Stuff...

I just got done watching The Storyboard, Patrick Rothfuss's new show on Geek & Sundry-- if you are at all interested in writing fiction, specifically genre fiction, I highly recommend this show.  I don't get to travel much, and I most certainly don't get to got to many conventions (I haven't been to one in a while, and there are other reasons for that... but I won't get into those in this post) which means I get to miss all of the really awesome author panels that take place at said gatherings.  Thanks to the interwebs, I can often find the panels on YouTube but the quality of the recording is typically dodgy (usually the footage is documented with a cellphone) and there's usually a lot of background noise -- so the essence of the experience is there, if you don't mind someone jawing on about some shit while the authors are responding to the questions that are posed to them.  The Storyboard takes the idea of the author panel and it shines the spotlight on the authors, not on the guy off-camera who's opening a box of Goobers and complaining about the prices.

The Storyboard aired on Tuesday night (8:00 p.m. Pacific, I think) as a Google+ Hangout, so it was live which again is in keeping with the panel style set up of the program.  In the house, talking about Urban Fantasy (a subject in which I'm particularly interested) along with Pat Rothfuss: Jim Butcher (who perhaps knows a thing or two about Urban Fantasy), Emma Bull (the godmother of Urban Fantasy), and Diana Rowland (prolific Urban Fantasy author with a lot of interesting things to say about this sub-genre).  Setting aside all of the rough edges one would expect to find in a first webisode, The Storyboard (for me, at least) was pure magic.  I, unfortunately, did not get to watch the program live on Tuesday night (I had company over, and didn't want to be a rude nerd, "My program's on!  Everybody go home!"), so I watched it on Geek & Sundry's YouTube channel.

As a hobby author creating his work in relative solitude who, having had the experience of a writing group and all the drama that entails, generally shuns other writers (not out of any kind of conceit on my part, let me assure you; but because often these associations become less about writing and more about everyone's personal stuff... not that I'm opposed to socializing, but there's bars for that), The Storyboard is a great way to get a peek of the inside of a published author's head without a scalpel and the possibility of prison time.  Rothfuss and his panel discuss the sub-genre and their respective approaches to it, as well as the appeal and greater purpose of Urban Fantasy stories; and it's great (again, for me) to have Pat Rothfuss at the helm of this particular discussion because he's an Epic Fantasy author, but an author none the less... which means he knows what questions to ask in order to eke out the essence of his panel's knowledge while still remaining an outsider to the Urban Fantasy style itself. It's plenty good if you just happen to be a fan of Rothfuss, Butcher, Bull, and (or) Rowland because there's a substantial element of these esteemed authors talking about their stories and characters, but Rothfuss really steers the conversation toward meatier matters and these matters are brilliant brain food for the aspiring and hobby writers out there (even if you're not interested in writing genre fiction).

Because writers are foremost readers, one of the best bits of the show comes in the form of the congregated talent discussing the books they feel don't get enough attention in their contribution to the Urban Fantasy oeuvre.  Named here are authors I like a lot: Kevin Hearne (Iron Druid series), Harry J. Connally (unfortunately now defunct, Twenty Palaces series), the works of Neil Gaiman, classic works by Ray Bradbury and other authors not traditionally thought of as Urban Fantasy, and works by up-and-coming authors like Benedict Jacka (Alex Verus series).  I'm always down for new reads, and Rothfuss and Co. don't disappoint in this respect either with recommendations that include some of the authors I mentioned above as well as stuff by Thorne Smith, Nicole Peeler, and M.L.N. Hanover.

I really appreciate Patrick Rothfuss and the gang at Geek & Sundry (I'm looking at you, Ms. Day; you're the queen!) for putting this out; although I'm sure the intent was not to offer a free writers' workshop. obviously that's not the purpose of the show, but I guess is depends on the individual viewer... for me (like I mentioned above): brain food (and nothing to do with Ms. Rowland's morgue job... watch the show, you'll see what I mean)... I'll be watching every episode of this for as long as they continue.

On a far more local note: take a look at that handy word count widget thing I've got on the blog... over there in the right hand corner... notice anything?  This past week I broke the 90,000 word count mark on my first draft manuscript of the novel I've been working on for what seems like forever.  90,000 words was the original target for the manuscript, but I knew at the 70,000 word mark that I was going to need more room to tell the story, so I arbitrarily up-ed that goal to 105,000 words.  Well, I'm almost done: I have two and a half chapters left to go and I may well knock that out this coming week; the feeling is a mixture of relief held in reserve and terror... like I'm almost as afraid to finish as I am happy to almost be done... these kinds of conflicting emotions have plagued me over the course of writing the manuscript, and someone who has written a novel before assures me it means I'm doing at least something right...

So the plan goes like this:

• Finish the manuscript;
• Do a complete re-read of the manuscript;
• Begin edits;
• Send raw manuscript and survey to beta readers (by the way, if you're interested in being a beta reader send me an e-mail at dan.garciasatx@gmail.com - the pay sucks, but you get to read something for free and give your opinions which I promise not to ignore);
• Review feedback from beta readers;
• Begin revisions;
• Outline next novel;
• Complete revisions and test read;
• Do it all over again during NaNoWriMo in November.

Glutton for punishment?  You bet'cha.

Cheers!

It's August...

Crazy how the time flies; before long it will be time for the kids to start school, and then the hectic part of the year begins. We get spoiled by the lazy summer, and the heat of this particular time of year (here in San Antonio) really makes you want to avoid the outdoors... it's the time of year when you step out your front door and feel like you've stepped in to a broiler. This can be a good thing, especially if you happen to have a hobby like, oh I don't know: writing. When you find yourself wanting to stay indoors, your excuses for not writing diminish... and when you are near the end of your first draft manuscript, you might often find yourself hunting for reasons to do the other stuff you have to do that's not writing.

I'm pretty damn close to breaking the 90,000 word count mark; in fact, I may end up doing that tonight. That was my manuscript goal when I first began writing this novel, and now it looks like I'm going to blast past that in order to tell this first story. A while back I pushed the word count goal up to 105,000 words, and then immediately regretted it because that seemed to me at the time to be an overwhelming amount of words... now it looks like it will be right on target. I may not hit 105,000 words exactly with the first draft, but I most certainly will by the time I'm done with revisions.

The big upside here is that I'm ahead of schedule... I wanted to be done with the draft by the end of September, and now it looks like I will be done by mid-August. This is exciting for me because it means I will get to spend more time editing and revising the draft, and that I'll have ample time to outline the next novel ahead of NaNoWriMo in November. And that right there is another reason to be excited: NaNoWriMo is only three months away, and I had so much fun last year (even though I broke out in the shingles) I can't wait to do it again this year... hopefully sans shingles.

The foregoing strategy will be to knock out a 50,000 word draft during NaNoWriMo in November that will serve as the basis for the first draft of the second novel in this series. This will hopefully put me well ahead of the game when it comes to writing the third novel... and that brings me to the big debate which is currently raging in my head: publication.

To publish or not to publish, that is the question... One thing I do know for certain: I will not be self-publishing. I have an extraordinary amount of respect for people that self-publish, but that ain't me, brother. I, along with a buddy, self-published a comic book for a few years and if there's one thing I took away from that experience it's this: that kind of DIY I am most certainly not interested in. I'm not a business man, and I already know I suck at representing myself... from a business standpoint anyway. I'm not a marketer, I know nothing about agenting, and despite the fact that I use social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter -- I don't have the time or will to devote to using that avenue to push my writing. There are experts out there for all of these things, the publishers have them, and that's the route I'd want to take if I decide that publication is what I want to do.

Can I get published? Sure, why not? I submit the average big box bookstore shelves as evidence, and direct your attention to the abysmal garbage you are likely to find there. My abysmal garbage could be there too... but I reserve my decision to publish until I have the first three books written... so I guess that resolves the debate. Really, the challenge will be getting an agent who will be willing to represent my work since most publishers will not accept unsolicited manuscript submissions from authors without an agent. My plan would be to come to the table with three books already written... I just need to make them the best that I can manage... or not.

Being a hobby writer is nice, primarily because there's no pressure except for what you put upon yourself. Before I went on vacation I was entertaining the idea of taking on some freelance writing if I could find a few venues that wouldn't mind paying a little cash money for a bit of writing work, and I'm still interested in doing it but not with as much gusto as before. It comes back to that pressure thing: freelance writing means deadlines, and time away from writing my novels. I have a full time job which eats up a lot of my time, but it also pays for the house and the bills and the groceries and all the rest of that necessity stuff. There's no way I can give up time from that, so the sacrifice would have to come from my writing time and that's bullshit because I have very little time to spare as it is.

If I was going to make a living as a writer I should have done it a long time ago... and I wanted to back then, but life gets in the way. Regrets? None; it is what it is. I write because I enjoy writing, because I enjoy telling stories, because I like creating characters and building worlds; I write because I can. I've always written, all my life (except for the portion when I still hadn't learned how); I was blessed with the ability to express myself through writing, and for that I am grateful to everyone who had a hand in making it so. I plan to keep doing it too, regardless of whether or not I try to get published and regardless of the fact that I'll most likely have my manuscript rejected... I can always write another story. That's the big advantage of creative expression: there's always more to come.

Cheers!

BTW: I wrote this posting on my Google Nexus 7 tablet; I got a defective tablet in my first order, and the replacement arrived this past Tuesday. Now I don't want to turn this blog into a tech review thing... I'd like to keep it focused on my writing experiences (be they good or bad); however, I told an old buddy that I would give my impressions of the tablet once I've had a good opportunity to put it through a few flaming hoops. I'll be writing that up in the near future, and posting it here since I don't currently publish anywhere else. Consider yourself warned... heh!

Post Vacation Grind

It's not easy to get back in gear after a decent vacation; the family and I had a pleasant six days to get nice and spoiled by not doing much of anything.  I casually did just a bit of outlining for the next novel, and started a story string which I will probably use for a stand-alone Urban Fantasy novel sometime in the future (I took my tablet along with me so no one would suspect that I was up to anything), but mostly what I did was relax and drink an awful lot of beer with my father-in-law.  It was nice to set the novel aside, set Scrivener aside, set work, and all the other day-to-day stresses aside and just focus on existing -- I went after the Zen of the vacation, and did pretty decent in my efforts... it's the most, honest-to-God, down-time I've had in a really long time.

But all good things must come to an end, as the old adage goes; the return to work was bumpy and the week (although it was a short week since I went back on a Tuesday) seemed to drag on... I was back performing my job duties, but my brain was still very much on the beach of South Padre Island.  The Monday of our return, I purposefully didn't jump back in to writing because I wanted to get everything completely unpacked and put away... plus I knew I'd just end up sitting and staring at the screen because of the aforementioned brain problem... which is what ended up happening to me on Tuesday night.  It's one of the dangers of putting something like a novel aside for a little while, I guess.   No regrets though: even if it felt like I was shitting lava rocks, I still managed to get my target word count out on Tuesday and again last night.  I didn't write Wednesday night because my new toy was delivered.

I got a Google Nexus 7 tablet.  Why?  Because, that's why.  Actually I got it because the price is very nice (199 bones for the 8 gig), it has a quad-core processor, the seven inch screen form factor makes it very easy to take along with me anywhere I go (I've composed some of the chapters for my novel on my Android phone which, as you might imagine, isn't exactly the easiest thing in the world to do on a four and a quarter inch screen... a seven inch screen is better), and the reviews I read (for example, this one and this one) were largely positive.  I have an Asus Transformer TF101 which I like a lot and which I took on vacation with me, but it's not exactly the lightest thing in the world.  With the keyboard dock attached it weighs almost as much as some laptops, and it's a 10.1 inch screen with a big chunk of Corning Gorilla Glass on it.  The TF101 is great, but I don't see myself tapping away on it on the bus or at a restaurant... and, honestly, the keyboard on the dock isn't great.  Mobile authorship, that's what I'm after, and the Nexus 7 is just too good a deal to pass up.

I was looking at a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 seven inch model, but they're pricey and I was already impressed by a tablet made by Asus... which the Nexus 7 tablet is, under the direct auspices of Google.  Needless to say, I got a bit excited about it... and when it arrived... I received one with a defective screen...  The upside of the story is that Google customer service was actually very nice and I have a replacement tablet on the way; the down side, of course, is that I got a taste of the device and then had to send it back...  I was so impressed by Android 4.1 (Jellybean) that I'm considering laying down the $350 for an unlocked Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone, since it will receive the update to Jellybean long before any other phones do... hell, mine hasn't even been upgraded to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)... I'm still on Gingerbread...

Wow, sorry... this posting went tangential and wound up being about tech rather than writing... but in a round-about sort of way, it's about writing since that's exactly what I intend to use my technology for.  See, this is what I'm talking about: I went on vacation figuring I'd come back focused and ready to tackle the rest of the novel with gusto... it just didn't turn out that way... but it will.  Eventually (hopefully, sooner as opposed to later) my brain will kick back into gear and I'll hit it with abandon... I'm almost finished.

Cheers!