Hello

Following on from getting myself out of the hole I was in with the last chapter of the story I’m working on, I’m now rolling along nicely. I’ve set myself a 1000 word target each time I sit down to write and its working wonders. I did this before but stopped due to a sudden bout of uncontrollable laziness and then started again because of the following article about how to write 4000 words in a day. http://www.jeremyrobinsononline.com/2012/04/05/the-secret-to-writing-4000-words-a-day/

Now, I tried to do 4000 words after reading this article and managed 2400 words(ish) but that was only because of my Xbox forcing me to continue my successful football career on pro-evo 2012 (I’m captain of Inter Milan don’t you know) and the weather being nice for once so the need for a walk took over. It’s a pretty simple method Jeremy Robinson uses and it’s given him a grand total 17 published books last year alone. He talks about working a 9-5 shift with breaks and a dinner to get the 4000 words a day done. Although I found it informative I think I’ll stick with 1000 words each time for now and work my way up. I’d read it if you ever wanted to write a great deal and struggled to find the right method. It’s good stuff.

So, after reading this article it’s allowed me to push on with my story and I’ve gotten to a part where I’m writing an action sequence. A sequence which leads onto the beginning of the end of the story (which I already have written out in my head and notebook) our hero and his true love are racing to stop the big bad…baddy and are stopped themselves by a soon to be former friend who wants them dead. I’ve started it and because the story is from the first person perspective of the hero I need some ideas of how to put the fight across as well as possible. I have a few myself but what do you think? How should I get it across? Your thoughts are always welcome.

Well that’s my writing exploits for the past few weeks. Till next time

Hello

Well like I said the last time this one will be longer. Maybe only by a bit but still…

I’ve finally managed to get out of the hole I’ve been in whilst writing the latest chapter of my latest story. It’s about a man who is the apprentice to the leader of his city. He will eventually take over from him as is the way of the leaders of the past and the law of the city itself. The leader has some secrets and has done some horrible things in his time. Can the apprentice uncover all the leaders’ wrong doings before he leaves him a city in ruins? And who is the leader’s mysterious daughter Meredith?

That’s a short version of the synopsis as I’m very happy to have come up with such a story and if you like I can tell you more. Anyway I’ve was stuck in ‘explain as much back story as possible’ mode to set up the dramatic and already written in my head ending for months. I kept thinking of new things I needed to explain or add in that my mind began wonder if I’d ever get out of the bloody chapter I was in. It had the potential to be a twenty page monster but I’ve gotten myself out with all relevant information given.

Well hopefully I have though I need to spread the back story out over the rest of the book but I’ll do that in editing. Ah editing, I thought I’d never get there with this story. I’ve made it so full of stuff that I almost forgot to explain the why’s and where’s and who’s of it all. I both like it and hate it the process.

Also, which is better do you think, short and sweet descriptions or long and sour ones? (Sweet? Sour? Whatever) I’m tending to use both but I might change it in the glorious land of editing. Your thoughts are welcome.

I came up with the wonderful (and long overdue) idea to follow other writer’s blogs so I can gain more ideas and help. I’ve found two so far that I recommend. The first is http://www.thecreativepenn.com/ from the author Joanna Penn. Its focuses on the whole process of the writing and editing of your book to getting it published and the marketing side of things. She is very passionate about giving as much information as possible to aspiring writers and gives a lot of hints and tips. She gives you a free download, author 2.0, which gives a lot of advice on how to use web 2.0 technologies to get your work published.

The second is http://goinswriter.com/ which is by author Jeff Goins which looks at his love of writing and how to stay creative. He answers questions like how do successful writers make a living? Why do writers write? And many more which all give detailed help for aspiring authors. He also gives you a free download called ‘The Writers Manifesto’ which is by far the best summing up of why writers write I’ve ever read. I’d have a look if you can.

Right that’s it for now, till next time.

Hello again

I’ve been away for the past week and haven’t done much writing so this entry will be short but the next one will be back to normal.

The writing I did manage to do was editing my short story for the competition mentioned in my last entry. I’ve added the finished product to protagonize at the following link Since when did you care? and would like your views on it please. I’m happy and still proud of what I’ve written and may take the idea further. I had another idea about a toy dreaming he was human, thinking it was real, but then realising it wasn’t but that is for another time. I came up with that on a beach in Barcelona. Thinking about it again I’m not sure I like it.

On a beach in Barcelona a? is what you just thought or thereabouts. Maybe. I spent 12th-19th June in Barcelona and it was awesome. I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a quality getaway who would also like to discover new things. I’m not going to go into anymore detail as that’s not what this blog is about but give me a shout if you’d like more info and I will. Cos I’m good like that.

As always any comments on any of my work or any suggestions are most welcome.

Following on from coming up with a twist in town of the mountain I’m now worried I’ll start rethinking the whole thing. I’m resisting the temptation to give all the characters a twist and will endeavour to stick to the main story arc/lines/stuff.

I’ve started to put in small things which will (hopefully) get the reader guessing as to who the sword supplier is as the twist is related to this. What do you mean sword supplier? I hear your brain cry. Well dear reader, allow me to elaborate a bit. The bugbears of my story do have the capacity to learn and to be taught. This leads to someone teaching them to fight back using swords. Though they are seemingly inept with the sword it does pose a serious threat to the town and its hunters. They come to the inevitable conclusion that someone or something is training them to fight and supplying with their weapons (swords, sword supplier, get it?) Can the bugbears take over the town again as they did so many years ago? And can the hunters stop an unknown number of bugbears all of whom could be armed from destroying their town? What I’ve just written is one of the many reasons why I love to write. It gets my mind racing and all sorts of ideas come to me when I’m writing and when I’m not. Its constant awesomeness.

I’ve managed to choose an idea for my ‘And then I woke up to find it all a dream’ starting line short story. It all centres on a man committing suicide and the consequences. I’m happy to say I’m proud of what I’ve written and whether it wins or not I’ll post it on http://www.protagonize.com/ for you to read.

I’ve posted a new story on protagonize as well. The Unknown Child is the working title and centres around a child, well he’s a teenager but you only become a man when you’ve qualified in your chosen area which in this case is becoming a knight of the land, and how he struggles to find his lost memories. I’d like your opinion if you would The Unknown Child.

All comments welcome about anything I’ve said above or ever. Cheers

Hello again

I’m continuing to edit Town of the Mountain (the first chapter of which can be seen here) and I’ve managed to come up with more ideas and a twist. I’m annoyed I didn’t come up with said twist and ideas earlier asthey all seem to fit in and work a smeggin treat and it gives the story more for the reader to think about(I hope). I’ve got all the faith in the world in my story but I’d been hoping for a spark of inspiration at some point. Thankfully it arrived before I went mental waiting for it to arrive. That whole wait had been a bit of a nightmare.

Now for the dream part of the title to this entry. I subscribe to the seminal magazine ‘Writing Magazine’ which gives out valuable hints, tips, information, advice and anything else an aspiring writer could want or need. It also has competitions in it each month. These competitions are usually poetry and short story ones with this month’s short story competition being a chuffin dream. The word limit is 1500-1700 and the story can be about anything you like but it must start with ‘And then I woke up to find it was all a dream…’

Holy shit!!! How good is this?! And you can only enter it if you’re subscribed to the magazine(which can be done at the following website www.writers-online.co.uk) My friend has always joked how I should write a story that should end like this but to start with it? Awesome just Awesome.

I’ve come up with a few ideas so far but am struggling to pick one. One was something around the world being under the control of Nazi’s in the dream and real life being a lot like that (whatever that would be like) but in secret and in an obvious way. Another was an alien control idea which I crossed out as soon as I finished writing it. Another was the dream was about being a vampire and the dreamer is a vampire but doesn’t know it. Another was that the dream was about a man committing suicide but I got a bit confused with it. You reckon any of these ideas are any good?

Any comments or suggestions are most welcome.

My good friend and fellow aspiring author told me straight that she didn’t think I needed to improve on my story The End Solution and that it stands alone very well. I think I’ll take that advice for now and take a look at it in a few months time. Maybe I’ll have a concrete idea of what to do with it next after father time goes nuts.

As for what I’m doing right now, that would be editing Town of the Mountain. Now this process has allowed me to flesh out some of the characters back story and some of their front story (see what I did there). I’m currently working on Eriden, the only female of the five hunters, and her budding relationship with Clifton who used to go out with Markus’s current girlfriend Darling Bloomflower. This is giving me a bit of headache as I don’t know how much detail I should use. What do you think? Less is more or less is crap? (if that all sounded confusing READ THE STORY)

I’m also looking forward to turning one of the hunters against the rest of them. Not in a ‘he/she joins the bad guys way’ but in that eventually they will all think of him as a great hunter but as a complete arse hole when he’s not hunting and completely untrustworthy. How I get to that point should be interesting as I’m making it up as I go along.

That’s it for now and as always your comments are very welcome.

Following on from my last post, You want another chapter?!, I’ve been running over some ideas as to how I can take my short story, The End Solution(click here to see, go on….) further. Comments are always welcome.

Our hero is just about coming to terms with his new lot in life. As a man who knows who is going to commit a serious crime by just smelling them he could use this to his own ends. Why don’t you rob this bank and I will ensure you get away with your crime? He is stupidly strong as well so this would be easy for him. He could do this a few times and disappear for good. He needs to feed on the chemical to keep himself alive (which he discovers later on) and could easily feed on the people after they’ve robbed the bank for him.

Our hero discovers, after becoming very sick and desperate, that he needs to feed on the chemical to keep himself alive. I could explain how he goes about this and how it makes him feel.

Our hero goes back to his family who then become fugitives themselves for housing him. The mother sides with him and the father tries to turn him in. In effect he breaks his family apart and ultimately escapes again anyway.

Our hero becomes the countries hero. He goes around sucking the chemical out of those who need it and becomes a household name. He embraces the government and so on.

This is what I have so far. Let me know your thoughts.

So, like I said in my last post (Oh what to add in and what not to add in) I uploaded a short story to protagonize.com to see if I could get some feedback on it. Sure enough, one person gave the story 4.50 out of 5 rating which was awesome. But this one person also did something which got my head buzzing as well; they put a page marker on my story. This means that there awaiting the next chapter.

What next smeggin chapter?! It was only supposed to be a short story! Panic ensues as I throw things in the air and roll around on the floor. I could do with hoovering up this place?

However, out of this worry came more ideas. I’m currently in the planning stage of the next chapter of this story. It is a vampire-esque fable and I’d like to expand on that aspect first before the political side of the story. Maybe I should show how our hero and/or villain feeds with his new found powers?

As always, if you could have a read and give me your thoughts it would be most appreciated. The link is on my last post.

Going over my story is beginning to do two things.

One its allowing me to build on a story I’m proud of which I like but two it’s also having me rethink all parts of it and I’m beginning to worry it’ll never get finished. Though this is all part of the process I suppose. The main thing is how I can use the mountain of the title a lot more. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Anyway, I’ve received some good feedback so far and I’ve also put another story up on the website progonize(which is awesome by the way). Take a look if you will and feel free to comment either there or on here.  The End Solution

Cheers