M.m.m.m.madness!

I've been neglecting my blog. That's bad. That's one of the things I said I wouldn't do as a New Year's Resolution.

I could give all sorts of excuses: work stress, spending every free moment revising, I don't know what to say. All very valid and true, but still just excuses. I'm supposed to be some sort of creative beast aren't I? Just make it up!

Well, I'll work on that. In fact, I'm working on a topic list for myself so I can cover them any time I don't have something else to blog about. It means you're going to hear my opinions on some writing stuff, and they could be way off base.

I've been revising my butt off, and I accidentally entered an awesome after-contest by the lovely Brenda Drake (#PitMad on Twitter), where I had to fit my pitch into a tweet, minus some characters for tags etc. Call it a fit of ego, I had to see if I could pull it off. I was a bit confused when the first person favourited one of my tweets. Wait! What? They want a Query letter and pages?!?!?!

Needless to say, my MS was/is SO NOT READY! I haven't done my "out loud" pass, and I didn't even have a query letter! In a fit of madness I did a few passes on the pages and wrote a query letter. Then I let it all sit over night so I could look at it again in the morning.

I slept horribly. Took another look at it, cleaned some stuff up, and sent it off. In the 4 days since I've found all sorts of ways to clean up those pages and make them even better, all while working on later parts of the book too.

I can only hope the literary gods and those fine upstanding Agents will still talk to me in a month or so when I'm all set to send it to them again, all nice and clean.

Until then, um, sorry...

Of course, I've been pretty unbearable on the home front because of it. Last night I packed it in early with a big dose of I SUCK and went to bed.

Today I'm dropping that and digging back in. I'll re-submit to those 3 Agents with an apology when I get things cleaned up. No hard feelings if they don't read it a second time, the fault is mine.

I have 12 chapters left to brush up on this pass, then a round with CPs for plot and character consistency while I go over the dialog etc. out loud. Depending on how long that process takes (it's my first time so it may be rough) I should be ready to go on submission in March/April.

Lessons learned.

What's in a name?

...that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;

- Romeo Montague to Juliet: Romeo & Juliet by Shakespeare

Character names, book names, chapter names, pen names. They're all malleable to one degree or another and there are choices and reasons for all of them. 

I started thinking on the topic tonight because of an article on io9.com about character names that should be banned for all time (of which I have used... none!).

Spiralling into the topic of names was so rough on my overworked brain that it almost derailed my revision session this evening. 

You see, I write under a pen name: Alexander C. Pierce or Alex C. Pierce. It's not my real name, though Alexander and Pierce are my 2 middle names, which, when bookended by my first and last name sounds almost as awesomely pretentious as Benedict Cumberbatch (best name EVER!). I include the C. at this point because a Google Search on Alexander Pierce brings up such a HUGE list of results including convicts, authors of propaganda, and so much more, that I needed a bit of separation from what is apparently a very common name.

I use a pen name for a few reasons, not the least of which is that I have ideas and themes for stories that may be controversial that I don't necessarily want to blow back on my family. Nothing too outrageous, but I'd rather not put other parties at risk. I also have a long standing tendency to NOT use my real name online (outside of work, though Facebook has ruined that to some degree... thanks family and friends!).

But the subject of names goes so much further, as the article on io9 aptly points out character names can play a big part in engaging or putting potential readers off, and they're not exactly easy things to come up with. For a time I used a program called Everchanging Book of Names, which was great for secondary characters if you could figure out how to use it (it's not that hard once you read the instructions). I've come to understand Scrivener itself has a name generator built in, which I haven't used yet as my characters all have names at this point.

I couldn't tell you where half the names of my characters come from, but I haven't received any negative feedback on them yet (though I have heard some interesting thoughts on where I might have cooked some up). I only hope they're not derivative of some other work that's sitting in the back of my skull because I think they're awesome! (the io9 article points out that might be a problem too).

As for chapter names and book names... I'm flexible with those and they tend to change on a fairly regular basis at this point in the process. From what I understand if I go and get published the publisher will have a say in it as well and I'm ok with that.

What are your thoughts on the use of pen names? How do you come up with names for things? Let me know!

- Alex

P.S. Chapter update for my Alpha Readers, I've dropped up to chapter 23 and I'm starting to get feedback from multiple people! Thanks!

Ripples in the Pool

The good news: I'm up to revising Chapter 19 of Book B, Crow's Blood.
The not-as-good news: I'm updating the blog less frequently than I did writing the 0-draft while revising

The last four chapters or so have involved a good deal of rearranging and rewriting, which has considerably slowed my pace and eaten up my revision time, but I think the story is all that much stronger for it.

The little changes from the final outline that I've made while writing the ending and revising the beginning are sending out ripples that meet in the middle of the book. Those ripples are ensuring that I have a lot of clean up to do.

When I look back at the original concept of this story, and the rough and detailed outlines that followed I'm astonished at how much it's changed. All for the sake of trying to write the best story possible. I don't think the "me" that had the original idea would recognize much beyond the setting and the villain (I think villains are a strength of mine).

The main character? Changed entirely while tightening the outline! The main I've written the entire book around used to be the original main's foil in the original outline. That first main is still in the book, but as a secondary character.

The original outline had five major viewpoint characters and six vignette's (single chapters) from minor viewpoints. In reworking the outline I brought it down to one viewpoint and seven vignette viewpoints. My main viewpoint has grown a fair bit stronger as a result, and I've felt less stressed about the vignette viewpoints, which has made writing each of them as a separate character easier.

In simplifying the structure and the various side plots I've given more room for the actual characters to come through, though admittedly I do still have a ways to go on breaking out of the "white room" problem. I'm working to add more description about the characters physical surroundings with each revision pass.

This particular pass is all about plot and making sure that everything works without great big holes.

Now That's a plot hole!

I'm closing every one of those up that I find. As I said earlier, I'm finding a lot more in the middle than I did at the beginning or than I expect to at the end. This is a learning process, so who's to say if I have more sitting near the end waiting to swallow me whole?

Then I'll start letting my Critique Partners have a look at some of it (all if they think it's their thing) and I'll do a pass of line edits (not that I'm not trying to get as much of that done as possible on this pass) while they're building their massive weapons of feedback to destroy my soul. But that's getting ahead of myself, how about I finish the plot pass first?

That's where things sit right now. I'm still plugging away, for anywhere between two and four hours a night, trying not to let too much of that time escape into "the Twitter".

Just add arsenic!

The Real Life™side of things is going well, though I'm building a snuggle debt with my wife and a serious backlog of recorded TV while revising. She takes care of her photography stuff, gaming, and Facebook socializing while I grind, buff, and polish this story so it hopefully has some lustre to it.

She keeps providing me with homemade hot cocoa while I'm writing, so she still loves me, or she's poisoning me slowly and it just tastes really good.

Either way I'll keep drinking the stuff in the great big mildly disturbing Mickey Mouse mug it gets given to me in.

Oh, and I've been introduced to a band called Caravan Palace by Bridget Smith who heard them in a coffee shop and described what she was hearing on Twitter as "jazz-influenced electronica" in a genre that is apparently properly called "Electro-swing". It's not for everyone (including my wife) but I like it.

Revising Intensely

That's not to say I'm revising the word "intensely" but my revisions of late have been picking up speed.

After the debacle that was the first week of my 3 week "vacation" I felt a little pressed for time in amongst the holidays and visiting with family. I did what any (in)sane writer would do, once I got the tiniest fraction of time I hunkered down, turned off the outside world (including updating my blog), and revised.

My Alpha Readers have ~32,000 words/14 Chapters revised (sometimes 3 or 4 times) at their disposal for feedback and they get more almost every day. It's my hope that they're still captivated by the story and ecstatic about being part of my "process". So far the feedback I've been getting has really helped tighten some things and clean stuff up.

I do have one concern as I'm revising, I'm aiming for 90,000-95,000 words in the polished draft, but my word count, despite cutting aggressively, is going up as I flesh out some of the chapters that were mere skeletons before. It's sitting at ~101,000 as of this blog post.

So I've formed a plan! A devious, dangerous, and cunning (read mundane and boring) plan!

1. Finish this revision process, cutting and adding as "needed".
2. Get it to myself in a "new format" either print it out, throw it on a tablet. Really anything so I can take it to a different "space" and mark it up. My Alpha Readers will get it in various formats as well (electronic, if you want dead trees, be responsible for them yourself)
3. Merge in changes/cuts/fixes.
4. Find a Critique Partner or group of said individuals.

Number 4 is where it gets a little dicey, as that will involve not only having my work critiqued by someone who's actually interested in doing so (scary), but also critiquing their work (terrifying). CPSeek.com should help with the whole "finding people" part, it's the rest that bothers me.

What if I have several critique partners who don't like my work? What if I don't like theres?

I'm not good with confrontation.

Happy New Year 2013

For so many of us today is the first day of a new year, and a time for new beginnings and the putting away of old things. For some, it's just Tuesday, and in some cases, it's a Tuesday with a wicked headache and a desire to watch the world burn.

Every year many people make no resolution or plans for the coming year. I used to be one of those people, but I realized that there was no harm in making plans for the future and planning to have a future gives its own sort of hope and drive.

We do these things on January 1st, but it doesn't have to be done on any particular day. You can make a resolution any hour of any day as long as you have the drive to stick to a commitment.

2 years ago at the end of February I resolved to get myself in better shape by going to the gym. I'd hit a plateau in getting healthier that changing my eating habits wouldn't get past and I needed to kick things up a bit. 2 years into that resolution I'm still going to the gym at least 4 days a week and still improving (albeit slower than I would like). It wasn't a New Years resolution, but it was a new ME resolution.

I started making resolutions after a long hiatus last January 1st. Succeeding in the gym and changing from the 104kg (230lb) blob that I was to the 69kg (152lb) man that I see in the mirror convinced me that I could do things when I set my mind to it.

January 1st 2012 I resolved to write a novel from start to finish. I've wanted to be a writer (or a master thief) since I was a child and it certainly seemed like an attainable goal. I did it. Crow's Blood is currently in revision at 103,000 words and it's been a blast.

This year I'm getting a little more detailed in my resolutions, but I will still strive to meet every one.

First and foremost, the writerly side of things.

I do not resolve to get an agent or get published in 2013. That will happen when it happens and I won't let its lack stop me from writing and working my hardest to improve my craft.

I resolve to:

• Write good stories. Be they short or long, I will write them to the best of my ability.
• Work out how to get the humour and wit into my stories that I find so effortless in conversation. For some reason it disappears when I'm following a plot.
• Get better at revision, because right now it's kicking my ass and making me feel that my writing is all manner of suck.
• Revise Crow's Blood (BookB) enough to get it out to some Critique Partners, who's advice I will use to better my craft.
• Work better with my Alpha Readers. They're doing this for me and getting little more than gratitude in return. Make it easier for them.
• Refine my Pitch, Synopsis and Queries and the processes that generate them.
• Submit Queries to Agents and learn from each rejection.
• Write at least two more Zero-Draft books in 2013.
• Read more. I've broadened the genres and catagories that I read in 2012, I'm going to do MORE of that in 2013.

Now on the personal side of things.
I resolve to:

• Continue trying to be the best Husband and Father that I can be. I'm far from perfect and I'll never be perfect, but I can always try to be better.
• Continue to advance and put out the best work I can at my day job. Something has to pay the bills until I have a few best-sellers under my belt ;-)
• Be a good friend. I know this writing thing I'm doing has isolated me a bit from the people I used to hang out with and talk to every day. I want to keep those connections alive and some of them are in pretty bad shape.
• Eat even better than I did in 2012. It helps that every time I've gotten into junk food over the holidays I've felt truly dreadful afterwards.
• Push myself even further in the gym. Not only do I want to work harder, I want to make sure I'm doing everything I can and doing it right.
• Face at least one fear and overcome it. I don't know what this is yet, whether it will be writing related or otherwise, but I will overcome at least one fear I have in 2013.
• Watch lots of movies!
• Have fun!

That's about it. It's an extensive list in a public place. 2013? Bring it on.

P.S. I've updated the Movie List with last night's movies.