And... Here... We... Go...

 

 

Today (technically yesterday, but I hadn't sent the file) marks the start of editing on The Blood of Queens, Book 2 in The Crow's Gambit!

I'm super excited to be working with the wonderful Fiona McLaren, who was the editor for The Blood of Crows. I've attempted to take as much of her feedback from the first book into account before sending it to her, but I'm most definitely not perfect (that's where she comes in).

The biggest difference this time around being that no one other than me has even seen the full manuscript yet. I've shared bits and pieces with others, but up until now I've been the only one who knows the how this one ends.

Needless to say, I'm mildly terrified, more than a little bit anxious, and definitely excited to see someone else's thoughts on what Ren, Molly, Haim, and the rest of the gang get up to in Book 2.

The schedule with Fiona runs through December, and I'll try to keep everyone posted. TBoQ is currently on target for an early-ish 2024 release.

The Blood of Queens - The End

I've been on vacation from my day job for the past week and a half. And what does a writer do when they're on vacation? That's correct, I've been writing and revising, with a little bit of going to a big nerdy fan convention in the middle.

Late last week I typed those important words "The End" on the penultimate chapter of The Blood of Queens, Book 2 of The Crow's Gambit and sequel to The Blood of Crows. The revision I just finished is the last "major" revision prior to getting it in the hands of my editor. I'm very much hoping to work with the same editor as book 1 (Fiona, check your inbox, we need to talk schedules).

The revision itself was pretty extensive. Chapters were chucked, created, burned to the ground and rebuilt, plots were rewritten, characters were renamed (leading to me learning far more about the ins-and-outs of Tiddlywiki than I ever wanted to know), and copious cups of coffee were poured onto my brain. But in the end, it all seems to work. The heist at the climax of the book works and feels pretty exciting, and the characters all end up at a place that's very different from where they began.

While I sort things with Fiona I'm doing a polishing pass and fixing all the small issues that I can see, eliminating echoes and crutch words where I can find them. I'm essentially doing that thing that people do before the cleaner comes over, where they pick up all the odds and ends and wash the dishes etc. Then I'll be reaching out to my Beta readers to see who's interested in giving me some tough love.

All told, The Blood of Queens sits comfortably around ~107,000 words, which works out to somewhere between 340-360 pages. So it's fairly in line with the length of the first book so far.

 I'm finding that I thoroughly enjoy this little stint of being a full-time writer. Perhaps someday I'll make enough for it to be a reality, instead of what I do with my vacation from the place that makes it so I can pay the bills.

Tomorrow is the Day and I'm Not Celebrating (Yet!)

 Tomorrow is book launch day (sort of, the paperback appears to have launched early in some territories? Congrats Japan, Italy, and Estonia)... and I think I have everything sorted?

Needless to say, there won't be much in the way of fanfare or celebration in this post, because I'm saving that for tomorrow, and because I think it's valuable to hash out these last few steps. Mostly for my sake, but others might appreciate it a little.

Amazon says it needs up to 72 hours on a paperback push, so I was arguably a bit late hitting the "Publish" button yesterday afternoon, and it's still early in some territories, and completely or partially missing in others. 

Speaking with some other authors an early paperback launch isn't necessarily a bad thing, as Amazon treats both editions separately for the purposes of rankings, but allows their reviews to be combined. That could translate to a big boost for day 1 of the e-book if there are already reviews in place.

With that in mind, book 2 will likely have it's paperback published a week in advance, so my ARC reviewers have an opportunity to weigh in.

I've set up a mailing list. It's over there on the right, and currently has 3 subscribers: me, myself, and I, with different email addresses as I sorted it out. I hear that's a good way to build a community and keep people interested in future books informed (that's also the purpose of this blog). 

There's a short story featuring characters from The Blood of Crows that I'm cleaning up as a nice little give-away for signing up to an email list that will likely hit people 1-2 times a year. Will it help? I dunno, but I've got the story already.

Then there's the advertising side of things, which is 100% experimental for me. I've watched videos (by both the ad platforms and by external users). I've consulted with other writers. I've even played with a simulation campaign for the past six weeks. I can only hope the real thing is 1/100th as fruitful (narrator: it won't be).

The best advertising I think I can do is getting book 2 done and out there, so I'll be shifting into a higher gear there, though it would be a nice little bonus for The Blood of Crows proceeds to fund the editing and cover artwork if at all possible.

Book 2 is slowly fleshing out and cleaning up. I've written a few new scenes this past week, and hammered a few pointy bits off some of the existing scenes so they fit where The Blood of Crows ended up. I'll be putting in some time with it tonight in a likely fruitless attempt to not think about tomorrow being launch day and all of this becoming that much more real and tangible.

The Value of Alpha/Beta/Gamma, and Proof Readers for the Indie Author

 Your mom!

My youngest should appreciate me starting a blog post like that. For everyone else, I'm sorry, but your mom shouldn't be your only reader before you hit "Publish". 

The Blood of Crows releases this month (I'm low-key freaking out), and since the initial draft it's had what I call Alpha Readers (friends and family), Beta Readers (in my case, other writers), and a Professional Editor (the wonderful Fiona McLaren). Every step has been invaluable. They helped with the story, the characters, and the clarity of my writing. Mistakes have been caught, loop holes closed, and pacing improved. 

I cast the net wider and wider for each round of people (except my Editor, that was laser focused). And I did that with intent. It's profoundly important to get as varied and diverse a pool of readers as you can. Each reader brings their own perspective, reading style, and likes and dislikes. And having conversations with them during and after they finish reading your book can help hone in on parts of your story that work, and parts that don't.

I don't think I'm saying anything new or revelatory here: They're even more important if your work covers any characters that aren't "you". 

I'm a firm believer in the #OwnVoices movement. I also believe imagined worlds should have room and representation for all kinds of people, and writers shouldn't completely avoid writing the "other" from themselves. But if they are writing someone of a different backround, gender orientation, sexual preference, or a character that's neurodivergent, it's imperative that they try to include representatives in kind in their reader pools.

I've seen it referred to as "sensitivity readers", and I'm certain there are places to find them if you don't know someone who is representative of what you're writing, that's also willing to be a reader for you. Though, I feel it should be noted (and this is purely my opinion) if you don't even know someone representative of what you're trying to represent, maybe you shouldn't write something that far outside your wheelhouse until you've made some more connections.

From a purely business/writerly perspective, the last thing you should want is to make a charicature instead of a character. Bad representation is arguably worse than no representation. And if you're one of those people who wants to denigrate (it means belittle, or attack) marginalized groups? Well, there's the... digital representation of a door... or something... I guess... just... go.

In the run up to the release date, I've been sending Digital ARC's (Advance Reader Copies), to a number of people in the writing circles I frequent who wanted to give it a read, and I ordered print proofs to make sure I hadn't bungled the formatting, and to catch any last-minute issues.

Those people... nay... those saintly beneficent beings of light and glory...

They...

Found...

Errors...

And not just new errors brought on by formatting in different reading apps on different devices, or introduced in that last round of edits... No... those I could live through without withering into a tiny stress-ball sized anxiety person. They found errors that have persisted in the text through all the above edits and passes. One error... in the first paragraph of the first page, has been around since 2015!!!

They're the little errors... "though" instead of "through", or little extra or missing instances of "the" or "to". The annoying little "nothing" words that our brain fills in on its own and Word's spelling and grammar checker seems to ignore (Hey Microsoft, I'm not even mad. Just... disappointed.).

Thankfully, there's still time to correct these ginormously, massive, apocalyptic disasters before they're inflicted on the people paying for a book by an author they've never met.

In the meantime, I'll be over there... trying to remember what sleeping soundly feels like...

Back From the Dead, by Popular Demand!

6 Years... 

As in exactly 6 years since the last time I updated this thing... to the day. Weird how that worked out.

So, how have you been? 

Uh-huh... That's great. Enough about you, let's talk about me.

Where have I been? Well, let's start with that title. It's a lie. I'm lying to you with that title. I was neither dead, nor is there any sort of popular demand for me to revitalize my blog. But here we are.

A lot can happen in 6 years. The latter half of 2016 was... rough, mentally speaking, and the world as a whole has been a fair bit colder, crueler, and darker as a place to live, and that's without taking an entire globe sweeping pandemic into account (and that's still here).

My literary agent left the business to chase what he wanted, that's good for him. I quit writing for a time, that's not so good for me. I didn't think I had it in me to go through the whole query and submission process again, and without a submission list, I would have had to do it all with a different book.

I didn't want to go there. So, I tinkered on and off with different stories. Poured myself into a new role at my day-job. And helped out my writer friends as much as possible with critiques, brainstorming, and in some cases just listening.

Then, the pandemic happened. 

There I was looking at Crow's Blood again and wanting to get it out there. And if that was the goal, then I might as well do it myself.

I strapped in, did a full revision pass, hired a wonderful editor (Fiona McLaren), who helped me get "The Blood of Crows" into a polished state, and an amazing cover artist (Thea Magerand), who produced a truly beautiful cover.

Now, I'm back at work on book 2, and trying to not freak out as May 26th draws nearer.

Outlining vs Pantsing: Why choose just one?

Note: This post is late. I mean waaaaaay late. But it's also not the first time I've written it. I can only hope I'm half as coherent this time around as I was last time, because you can't see last time.

First, some quick definitions:

Outlining
The process where a writer builds a framework for their story before they start writing. This can be done at the plot level, where the major points in the start, middle, and end (including a twist or two here and there) are predetermined. It can be done at the arc level, where major character and story elements are planned. And even at the scene level, where every scene is planned out from start to finish with it's own plot and arc covered.

Most outliners work at several points along that scale and at varying detail with each work. Some go heavy into their outline for specific scenes or characters, and leave side characters or less key scenes at a very high level.

There is a lot of preparation and pre-work with outlining before you even start writing the actual story. Some writers feel that outlining kills the story for them and makes them lose interest.

Pantsing
Writing by "the seat of your pants". This is the process where a writer has a vague but awesome story idea, character, setting, or theme they want to explore and they just go with it, discovering the story along with their characters.

Now, in the case of many pantsers that I've talked to, they often do have an idea of where the story will end before they start. But they don't always end up there.

I'm also told that pantsing often involves a fair bit of rewriting and editing, often to the point where more words are cut out of a work than are left in the finished product.

Well, now that that's out of the way.

There are plenty of blog posts, and articles, and books on the subject of Outlining/Plotting/Architecting and Pantsing/Discovery Writing/Growing stories and why one is better than the other. Or different systems for implementing each. And there are famous (and prolific) writers on each side.

With all the people I've talked to I've seen few things more fetishized in genre fiction writing circles than Plotting vs Pantsing (except maybe choice of writing software, alcohol, and the ever-present Mac vs PC).

Some people get downright tribal about it.

Which I find surprising, because a lot of the writers I spoke to seem to fall somewhere in the middle. Plotting and outlining very loosely, and discovering their way between points.

I mean, yes, that sounds like a high level outliner. But they're not rigid in what they've outlined. Instead of points on their outline being anchors to write between, they see them more as guideposts along the trail, and sometimes they'll go for a wander.

So where do I sit?

Ok, confession time: I'm all over the place with this one. If there's one point of my process that's a hot, gooey, moist, mess, this is it. This is the biggest pain point in my writing process.

I can't write without an outline. Not anything complex anyway. Vignettes and short stories for ideas, certainly, but not much more than that. So I definitely fall on the Outline side of the spectrum. I need my waypoints. When it comes to writing, I'm like one of those drivers who can't leave their driveway to go to the corner shop without putting it in their GPS first, even if they can see it from their driveway.

But on the same token, I'm not married to my outline. My finished story is never the same one that was in the original outline. It changes and mutates often, as I explore the characters, or spot problems, or get inspired by something that explodes the little synapses in my brain. I may need to turn my GPS on to go to the corner shop, but I don't necessarily have to follow it to get there. Sometimes my trip to the corner shop for a carton of milk ends up at the dairy halfway across town because they have ice cream!

I call this: Agile Outlining.

Now if only I was better at it.

If it's a problem that puts the brakes on, that can take hours, days, and sometimes even weeks of agonizing and brainstorming to sort out, and I'm paralyzed from pushing further on that story until I sort it out... because it may have ramifications.

You see, every time I run into one of those things that make my synapses go BANG, I have to see what it does. Start to finish I have to look at the setup and impacts, the foreshadowing and payoff. I'm not so bad that I have to go back and rewrite the things that beg, nay, the things that need to be rewritten. No! That way madness lies! I go back and make notes. Wonderfully detailed notes in the handy spot Scrivener gives me for them.

And all is write with the world. (Sorry, couldn't help myself there.)

Except that it isn't. These little (nuclear) blasting caps of story don't just happen once in the writing of a book. No. They're not that decent to me. They happen all the time, leaving me with more word count in notes than I often have in my finished manuscript.

Editing is its own kind of torture.

If you know of any way to help me along in this process, or can throw any tips or suggestions my way, please feel free to do so in the comments. Sadly, I'm a teetotaler, so, while I hear it does the trick for an alarming percentage of the writing community, alcohol won't be of much use.

-Alex

This is the sixth entry in a series of posts about my evolving writing process.

Don't Ever Stop!

So... This little thing called PitchWars happened. It's what triggered this particular post, but it's not what this post is about so I'll cover it very briefly.

It's a contest where writers submit their first ~250 words and a Query to the four mentors of their choice and hope to get selected. In short (because I'm rubbish at being brief) I was selected by the Awefantabulous Renee Ahdieh.

Renee is exactly what I want and more importantly need in a mentor. Her feedback has helped me add layers of depth to CROW'S BLOOD that I knew were missing, I just couldn't see where. I've learned some of my pet phrases, identified some comma issues I have, and so much more, and I've exterminated them with prejudice.

Anyway!

Seven weeks later, our part in PitchWars wrapped on January 22nd as it went to the Agent Round. The first 250 words were posted with a 35 word pitch (here in case you're interested), in hopes of Agents commenting and making requests.

It's those requests that bring me to the point of this post. I had 0 requests. Zip. Zilch. Nada.

Let me tell you a bit about how this little writer's ego works: I'm a brash, cocky, confident bastard. Except when I'm not, which is often. The key is that I try not to let that side show to the world at large too much. The only person who sees that side of me most often (my wife) does a great job of propping me up so I can continue being the confident bastard that I am.

I'd be lying if I said getting zero requests didn't sting. It cut pretty deep. Those are my words! Right there, with that zero looking me in the eye, I could have quit. Packed it all in and reclaimed my TV and video games. I could have given up the dream and driven my wonderful wife insane.

I could have listened to the mean voice in the back of my head that kept whispering "Zero, that's how many people give a damn about your words. That's what they're worth. That's what your worth. Give it up. Go home. Loser!"

I've heard that voice before. That's the voice that comes around any time I put myself out there, whether I'm public speaking, writing, tweeting, or posting on my blog. I don't like that voice. I made the decision long ago not to listen to that voice. That voice is an asshole. The things it says aren't true and are designed to cut us where it hurts the most. That voice is borne of fear.

We all have that voice. The difference between those who go on and those who fold isn't a matter of skill, or worth, or ego. It's a matter of will.

So here's what I have to say, not only to those who didn't get requests in PitchWars, but to those who have ever queried, or submitted, or done anything that brought around that voice:

Don't. Ever. Stop.

Do what you love, whether it's writing, drawing, dancing, singing, building life-size models of X-Wings out of Lego, whatever it is, as long as you love it (and it doesn't hurt anything).

As for PitchWars... Would I do it again? In a heartbeat! I've learned so much, and met so many wonderful, dedicated, and helpful people.

Until next time, I'm going to go write and revise, because that's what I do, and I love doing it.

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me." - The Bene Gesserit

An Open Letter to all PitchWars Mentors and Mentees (from a Mentee)

For the past few years Brenda Drake has run a crazy level contest (over 2,700 submissions/675 entrants)  on her blog called PitchWars. Let me just steal some words from her description:

Pitch Wars is a contest where published/agented authors, editors, or interns choose one writer each, read their entire manuscript, and offer suggestions to shine it up for agents. The mentors also critique the writer’s pitch to get it ready for the agent round. Writers send applications (query and first page of manuscript) to the four mentors that best fit their work. The mentors then read all their applications and choose the writer they want to mentor for the next five weeks. Then we hold an agent round with over a dozen agents making requests.

Sounds pretty awesome doesn't it? Well, as someone who was cherry-picked by a ninja-Mentor this year (the AMAZING Renee Ahdieh) with CROW'S BLOOD, I can confirm that it most definitely is. I'm hard at work based on her editorial/critique notes. It's keeping me quite busy.

Here's the thing: I've seen a LOT of Mentors tweeting and commenting that they hope their Mentees don't hate them for being too harsh or nit-picky with their notes. I have a single word response to that: Impossible!

So, Mentors:

First: Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I say that from the bottom of my heart. Even if you're not my Mentor and we're technically competing against each other: Thank you! You're awesome, amazing, and wonderful people to be doing what you're doing.

Now, onto the rest of it.

Don't pull your punches! We understand that they're thrown with the best intentions (ok, so maybe that's not the greatest metaphor). Keep giving it to us straight and professional, we can handle it. We're not made of fine gossamer glass.

You have to trust that we know our work isn't perfect, or we wouldn't have entered PitchWars in the first place. Moreover we know that you know our work isn't perfect. You got a look at it before you picked us. In many cases you saw more than the 5-page sample from the original submission.

You're giving your time and effort, not to mention expertise and insider knowledge to help us get our work into the best shape possible in a limited window of time. There isn't time to pussy-foot around playing nice. We need to get the job done.

On the flip-side: Mentees:

First: Congratulations, you were selected by a Mentor as either a primary or an alternate. That means you've got some chops. Take a few moments, pat yourself on the back, and inflate your ego.

Done? Good. There's a lot of work to do.

There's a certain level of trust every Mentee should be bringing to the table. Trust that we're in good hands and that every note that comes across that table is an effort by our Mentor to improve our work.

That said, the bulk of the hard work should fall on our shoulders. It's our book. This is our shot. We can't afford to miss it. Every last one of us should be taking this opportunity and holding on to it, squeezing it for all it's worth to get at the soft golden centre.

If your mentor gives you some hard truths that's a good thing, they're paying attention. We all have our natural talents, those bits of writing that just flow, those aspects of the work that we could sink ourselves into for days (plotting, dialog, world building, description, etc.). But we all have our weaknesses that we can only compensate for with craft (Shatner Commas, making that character that we know inside and out feel real, punctuation in general >.<).

Craft = Work. In many cases Craft = Hard Work. That hard work is why you're here. If your writing was perfect you wouldn't need a Mentor. So if your Mentor shines a light on the rust and broken bits of your story, don't complain.

Roll up your sleeves. It's time to get to work.

-Alex

P.S. Renee has been fantastically professional, if the other Mentors are half as good as she is there's going to be one hell of a fine showing at the Agent round.

P.P.S. I'm aware I could use the word protege, but Mentee is a word, regardless of what my browser, word processor, or operating system say. There are many reputable sources.

P.P.P.S. At some point we need to have a long talk about split infinitives.

Thiiiiiiiis close!

The last five days have been harrowing, dreadful, bone-chilling days. With my latest revision complete and polished, and with my Query Letter and Pitch polished for #PitchMadness, I really only had one thing missing from my arsenal: A Synopsis.

Let me define that little eight-letter-word for you as best I can: 

Synopsis [si-nop-sis] (n):

1. A brief or condensed statement giving a general view of some subject.
2. An evil  creation of agents and editors for the express purpose of torturing writers.
3. A soul-sucking vampire in word form.

There's no perfect consensus in the writing world on what exactly a synopsis is but this is what I've found to be most often repeated:

• 1-5 single-spaced pages
• Block formatted paragraphs (no indents)
• Double-space between paragraphs (a single blank line)
• No smaller than 10pt font
• Outline ONLY the main plot of your book

From what I've seen, 2 pages is the standard length for an agent (at least with the agents I intend to query in my first round that require them).

Sounds easy enough right? Just take your ~60,000 - ~115,000 word (240 - 460 page) book and boil it down to ~1,000 words. Oh, and keep it interesting! Remember: You're selling your idea here!

Simple right?

ARGH!!!

So here's what I did: 

I went through my manuscript, skimming chapter by chapter, and making notes of the major points of that chapter. I tried to keep it short and ended up with around 2,900 words.

Then I went through and mercilessly cut anything that didn't directly have anything to do with the main plot. 1,900 words.

I pared, whittled, reworded, and tweaked every sentence, revising from my quickly written notes to the most sparse text I could get while still maintaining clarity and some semblance of flow. 1,300 words.

I did that two more times, ending at just over 1,000 words, which fit nicely within 2 pages at 10pt Arial and 10pt Times New Roman.

Then I called it a day.

Now, that ordeal is done until I've had someone other than me, who's read the last revision, go over it and tell me what I've done wrong.

I have to apologize and thank my wife and children for bearing with me and giving me the time to work on this and a sounding board for my complaints, and my friends and followers on Twitter who have had to deal with me exploding/ranting/whining/begging over the past five days. I'm sorry if I've gotten on any of your nerves.

- Alex

Doing My Homework

I have 3 full critiques back on CROW'S BLOOD, for which I must give heartfelt "Thank you!" to my Epic Critique Partners: Colton Hibbs, Clare Mitchell, and Rachel Russell.

Not only did each of you trudge your way through my last revision, you took the time and effort to provide me with detailed and insightful criticism. Some of it is so obvious now that you've pointed it out that I don't know how I didn't get it right the first time. Your notes will make my work better (if I'm up to the task), and that's awesome!

All of them (and the partial Critique I received from the lovely and talented Kat Ellis) highlighted one pretty major problem: It takes far too long to connect with my main character Flynn (and even longer in some cases to like him at any level). As he's the main POV, that's... awful.

Here's the thing: I know these characters, every one of them. You can ask me a question and I can quickly tell you how each one would answer it. What sort of things they would like and dislike. How they would react under certain circumstances. I can even describe the mannerisms, idioms, and rhythms of their speech. From my main character, down the the smallest side character, (yes, even to the one guard that sucker punches my POV character).

I can't tell you what they had for breakfast (unless it's relevant), but I can get inside their heads if the need arises.  I didn't do this by building out detailed character sheets or writing throw-away scenes with them (though I did that for some more prominent characters).

It's just something I do whenever a new character is created. I put myself in their shoes/boots/socks/sandals and work my way through them. What motivates them. What are their goals in life. It usually comes pretty quickly.

Problem is: It wasn't coming across on the page. So what was wrong?

That's where the homework came in. I've spent the better part of my evenings reading, and doing exercises from a workbook on Deep POV, while it's not perfect, and I don't necessarily agree with everything in there. It's written by a professional who certainly seems to know what they're doing (at least considerably better than I do).

The best part is the exercises. I've read plenty of websites describing and giving examples of how to give good character, and great POV, but none of them went so far as to give relevant exercises in a work-book format. Something about it all just "clicked" (I think).

So I went through that workbook (it's only 60 or so pages), did all the exercises, and took a look at my own Work In Progress. What. A. Mess. I have "tells" everywhere (something I tried desperately to avoid and clean up last pass), narrative separation/distance, and my POV character does indeed seem flat and voiceless (he's NOT like that in my head). I have my work cut out for me to reel this sucker in to a deep POV.

Needless to say, it's going to take a while for me to hit my stride on this revision pass, and I may reach out to some of my CPs earlier on (if they're amenable to looking over some small chunks) to see if I'm on the right track, or ruining what good I had. I've spent most of this evening (my first night back at revising my own work) and have only worked through the first 5 or 6 paragraphs.

Like I said, slow going. But I'm trying to be careful with my new powers, to ensure that I employ them for the forces of good.

As for copy edits, and Canadian (not "British") spelling vs. American spelling, and my blatant and continued misuse of commas... I'll get to them, once I've sorted out my critical character issues.

- Alex

Carefully Stacked and Marked Electrons.

Electronic Data. It rules everything these days. It's our money, our jobs, our entertainment, and our memories.

So much of our lives revolve around little 1's and 0's flitting about on the merry tasks we set them upon.

Well, today, I sent a meaningful and important stack of those 1's and 0's half-way around the world to someone I barely know. I finally finished my critique of a CP's work-in-progress manuscript, and I can only hope I've done it justice.

Here's the thing. I received it on April 7th. I've had it for two and a half months! I had to ask myself: Why did it take so bloody long? We're nearing the half-way point of 2013 and I've consumed 14 other books this year (1 of those is another WIP from a CP), so what was different about this?

Was it a hard read? No, it was quite enjoyable, considerably more enjoyable than what I imagine mine was for them to read. The characters were compelling, the descriptions and setting were simply beautiful, and the spelling and grammar were fantastic (you have no idea how important that is!).

So what was it? In a word: Fear. That's right, I'm a coward.

I hate making other people uncomfortable, and I know that my internal Editor is a complete asshole. I don't ever want to be as hard on other writers as my Editor is on me.

Would they hate me for pointing out how I felt about that sentence? That turn of phrase? That plot point?

Was I putting too many comments? Beating a dead horse? Nit-picking (GUILTY!)?

Was I missing things that I really ought to point out? Things that would help more than what I was catching? Things that actually mattered more than my hang-ups?

And SO much more. I was never an angsty teen. Why was this all coming out now? And over something like this?

I'm a cocky, self assured, smart-ass, bastard. Ask anyone who knows me, they'll jump right on that sucker.

Here's why: This is someone's soul. Yeah, yeah, touchy feely crap. I know! But it's true. Little known fact: Writing isn't easy.

It's a lot of hours pouring everything you have onto a page (that usually consists of those carefully stacked and marked electrons, and not so much dead trees and ink). And what you have when you're done that first round of effort is usually a great big steaming pile of electrons that need to be poked and prodded, and in many cases thrown away and replaced, before you have something you can even let anyone see.

I know how much effort I put into getting CROW'S BLOOD where it is now, and it still has a good ways to go (I have some Character Voice issues with my main POV to sort out, namely, I left too much of it out). Every mark I put on my partner's Word document made me cringe.

So I procrastinated. That's something that's easy, and I can procrastinate with the very best of them! And hey, no one's feelings get hurt by procrastination! Hell, I spent more time with my wife and family avoiding someone else's Word document than I think I spent with them in the entire 3 months while I was writing the first draft of my own.

Well enough of that. I needed to put on my space-marine helmet, and grab my magical sword, and get past the barrier I set for myself. I needed to find that fear and kick it's ass.

Did I mention this is also the first time I've done a full mark-up? I needed to finish it and return it on principle. The first is always the most difficult.

I can only hope I got it right, or that I can vastly improve my skill at writing carefully worded apologies.

- Alex

P.S. I didn't return a mark-up to Colten, my other CP, and dear friend, but we had a really good long talk where I outlined my thoughts and we discussed some of the finer points. I'm looking forward to what he's doing with the story and can't wait to see the next draft.

Once more, with feeling!

Ahem. So, staying in character, I've been neglecting my blog. For a while there I was easily dropping 3 updates a week. It's been nearly a month since my last update.

So a quick (hahaha, no, not really that quick) rundown of what's been so damned important that I haven't had time to even drop a few lines here.

I have a Critique Partner, the wonderful and insightful Colten Hibbs, who was kind and gracious enough to let me into his beautifully realized and deep faerie tale world. I made it my first priority, above even my own writing, to read through his draft, and provide him with meaningful feedback (which I hope I've done). He's now hard at work on his next draft, and based on our discussions, I can't wait to see this next one.

Colten was amazing enough to give me a marked up copy of CROW'S BLOOD with loads of goodies and notes that are improving my writing ten-fold  (I hope).

Going through those notes I cheered (at the parts that were important to me that he just GOT), grimaced (at my own failings and some of the gunk he had to sift through), and had some incredibly awesome revelations. 

I have to share the biggest of those revelations with you.

One of the points that's been brought to me repeatedly was that it takes too long to get attached to the MC (Main Character). Colten highlighted that he didn't begin to feel even remotely attached to (and at points wasn't even sure he liked) the MC until around Chapter 6!

That's a death sentence for a book folks. That's it! It's over! 99% of readers will drop a book considerably faster than a bad habit if they're not engaged and buying in to the MC by the end of Chapter 1. Clever blocking and world building can only get you so far.

New light was shed on this problem (which I had absolutely no idea how to fix, and maybe still don't) when Colten pointed out that I have several Spot POV Chapters, where it's the only Chapter you ever engage with that character, where I manage to do it right. They're engaging and connect you with the character, in that single chapter.

I'd like to say I had a Eureka moment and got to run down the street in little more than a towel, but alas, it's not that simple. But I had somewhere to start! It had been sitting there, right in front of me, for months... Critique Partners bring fresh eyes indeed.

I studied those chapters, making notes and everything. Then I studied them again. Then I studied them again. Ok, so that's how I do it. Fantastic. 

Now why couldn't I do it with my MC?

I, uh, don't know. Except perhaps that I maybe have too much time to spend with my MC?

I spent the first week wrestling with Chapter 1. I wanted to add more insight into the MC without killing the pace (I like the pace I've set). I think I've achieved that, and I've since moved on, all the way up to Chapter 11, making little touches here and there, and giving a little bit more of the MC (also, making him a little more consistent).

My word count is shifting a bit (getting a little longer), but I'll be ruthless in keeping it under 100,000.

Depending on where my other Critique Partners are in their read-throughs, I may ask them to go with this latest draft, or I'll just sit on it until their feedback comes in, and parse theirs too, making any changes I feel warranted.

So that's what I've been up to, and now that I'm back in the swing of the writing side of things, I'll get back to updating my blog a little more often.

- Alex

Zug Zug

Remember that little progress bar to the right? Take a peek at that sucker!

BAM! That's right. Revision 4 complete! It took considerably longer than it probably should have, but Real Life™ tends to not care what we have planned.

I put every spare moment I had into getting it done (hence the disgusting lack of blog updates). The problem being that spare moments weren't as plentiful as I'd hoped they would be. That said, in the interest of getting it done, I've learned a new skill.

I can now revise, out loud, in public places, with lots of distractions. Sure, people probably thought I was crazy, and it didn't go nearly as fast as when I hide in my writing cave, but it was time to revise I didn't have otherwise. I've now revised out loud in places such as hockey arenas, train stations, hotels, coffee shops, and book stores.

This revision was a game changer, and I have to say, I'm going to do an out loud pass on everything I write from here on out (yes, including this blog entry). It makes such a difference to the flow and clarity of the written words. There's something about engaging the speech and hearing centres of the brain that catches all the crud the eyes miss.

Take another look at that progress bar, see the numbers under it? That's 4,598 words shaved off the word count, all in the name of clarity. And it wasn't just 4,600 words dropped, it was closer to 7,000 words cut, then more words built on top.

During this process I won a 40 page critique from Kat Ellis on her blog. Her feedback was AMAZING, and I tried to take it into consideration throughout the rest of the draft. I can only hope I succeeded.

I've put the latest in my DropBox for my Alpha Readers, and e-mailed copies to 2 of my 3 current Critique Partners (Colten Hibbs, Rachel Russel, and Clara Mitchell). Now it's all over except for the terror... and feedback.

- Alex

Critique Partner Adventures of the Nitpickasaurus

I've been looking for a Critique Partner as I do my Out Loud Revision pass, using CPSeek.com and Twitter. Both have brought me results of a sort.

There have been a few Critique Partners that I've exchanged chapters with (usually the first 3), and I've done my best to be fair and honest while critiquing their work. I'm always afraid I'll come off as a jerk or some sort of Nitpickasaurus. Given the evidence, my specific critique style is most definitely NOT for everyone.

I'm ok with that, as long as everyone who lets me see their stuff realizes I'm critiquing the WORK and NOT them. It's a hard separation to make as a writer, as our work is so much of us laid bare. It's our time, effort, love/hate/happiness/anger/lust, and a bit of our soul on those pages.

The key, I find, is to always keep the goal of critiquing firmly in mind, both when going over someone else's work, or reading their notes on your own. That goal is to help the writer become better at the craft, and to help them make that manuscript the absolute awesomest it can possibly be. I'll throw in the odd bit of "best practices" I've picked up from others in an effort to help on some of the pain points. There are some really helpful people out there doing podcasts and articles, etc. I'll link a few at the bottom of the post.

With that in mind, I try my hardest to give a critique without stepping on a writer's voice or style. It's not my business to tell someone what to write, or even how to write. I just try to tell them where what they've written doesn't work for me, isn't clear, or doesn't flow well. I may even catch the odd bit of problem grammar or spelling (though not as often as I probably should).

Well, whether I am a jerk, or a Nitpickasaurus, or some other hell-spawn made flesh to torment other writers, I've found at least one CP who doesn't run screaming for holy water at my mark-up notes on their work!

Colten Hibbs, say hello to my thousands (x .001) of blog readers! Colton has a wonderful writing voice and a good sense of character, and I look forward to both of us helping the other develop as writers.

I have a few other CPs lined up for when they're ready, and I'm really looking forward to seeing their stuff too. I'm still quite nervous about letting others see my work, but that's part of the deal. I still have an awful lot to learn.

- Alex

Links!

• Write About Dragons Youtube Channel: A fantastic video log of Brandon Sanderson's classes at BYU
• Writing Excuses: A ~15 minute/episode podcast all about writing with Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, and Mary Robinette-Kowal
• I Should be Writing: Mur Lafferty's podcast that has launched so many others. It's the longest running writing podcast for a good reason.
• Dead Robots Society: Funny, informative, rambling, and a little bit blue from time to time, but a good resource for interviews and lengthy discussions on writing topics.
• The Roundtable Podcast: Their "20 Minutes With" sessions are invaluable insight into different Authors and their processes, and their Workshops often give real-world implementations of those processes.
• Wordplay: A wonderful series of videos and transcripts discussing just about every writing topic imaginable
• Nat Russo's Blog: Where Nat Russo does a great job explaining just about everything.
• The Daily Dahlia: Home of Dahlia Adler and where she shares her endless wisdom. 

There are many more out there if you look around (and several other people's blogs that I follow) that I haven't listed here.

The Power of Description

I've been struggling with this very concept from the start. Description is NOT my strong suit when it comes to writing. I think I do plot, character, and action reasonably well, what I tend to skim over is description of setting.

I'm conflicted on how much effort I should put into improving it, and I think I'll have a better idea once Crow's Blood (BookB) has been in the hands of a few CPs and my Alpha Readers have had a chance to go through it start to finish.

I've been trying to come up with a way to get my point across. I've been handed the perfect tool. I want you to go watch something, something that may well blow your mind. Alan Rickman making tea...

Go ahead. I'll wait.

Back? Good. Hopefully you watched the whole thing, it gets real right around 4 minutes in. Back again? Fantastic!

Now you've just watched 7 minutes of Alan Rickman making tea in slow motion. Tell me, without going back to look at it, what did the room look like? How about the wall behind him? The desk? I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I could tell you more about the look on his face, or the tea-bag, or the lemon than anything else in that video.

That's my point, and I want you to argue with me about it. If the action and the characters are compelling enough, do I need to do more than give the absolute basic framework of the surroundings? Crow's blood weighs in at ~100,000 words/~430 Manuscript pages (unedited), and it's reasonably fast paced.

I try to provide what description is necessary, while avoiding great gobs of exposition that will mess with the pacing and ultimately be forgotten. I'm sure I'll have more to discuss on this after I get finished with this revision (7 chapters to go) and work through my first round with some Critique Partners, but I want to know in the comments (if possible) if anyone else feels the same, or if I'm crossing some line in the sand of fiction?

Oh and I really just wanted everyone to watch  7 minutes of Alan Rickman making tea, because it's AWESOME!

- Alex

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.

Revision! Revision! Revision! (Alpha Readers!)

I had to travel on a commuter train today. I generally enjoy travelling on the train when I have to as it means I don't have to pay much attention to my surroundings. It takes all the stress of driving my commute and leaves them behind. At the same time, I get to sit on a crowded train with lots of people I don't know and their stinky sandwiches.

Focusing on the positive, it means I get to spend 2 hours (1 way) doing just about anything else, provided I have enough battery power. I spent today's train ride starting in on a clean-up pass on my book. I've run through the first 3 chapters and surprised myself at how much I cleaned up. I was either very sloppy, or my writing has vastly improved in the last 6 weeks (both are distinct possibilities).

I'm going to drop some PDFs in the Alpha Reader Dropbox for my Alphas to pick up and take a read over. I hope they'll be pleasantly surprised with what I've done, and give me hell for anything I've screwed up or dropped the ball on. I want you guys to know that I appreciate any and all feedback as long as you're honest and clear with me. I promise I won't take any of it personally (unless you target me personally :P)

I'm going to be taking at least a week or two off from daily writing related work to put some time in on some other things, that's not to say I won't be working on it at all, but it won't be every night for the next little while. I intend to have these Alpha drops fairly frequently and I'll be doing a full run through of all the chapters before going back to work on the feedback.

Let me know in the comments if you want something other than a PDF to mark up and get back to me and I'll do my best to accomodate. If you want to be an Alpha Reader, drop me a line in there as well and we'll chat.

- Grimm

Full of Awesome and Worry.

Ok, I'll try to keep this one short, as I'm bagged and liable to ramble.

One of my secondary characters is turning out to be simply amazing. I have two that are already really strong, but the more I write about this one, the more I absolutely adore her. I worry about that. I think that it might be a bad sign, and I hope it's not.

You see, one of the things I always hear writers talking about is how they've all had to kill their "darlings". "Darlings" in this case usually refers to characters, or scenes, or purple prose that they're just so damned happy with, that their agent or editor tells them simply must go. I don't think that will be necessary in this case, but I always need something to dread.

I've written about 3,000 words today (2,998 if you listen to Scrivener), which isn't bad for the short timeframe that I had to write, this character helped with that, they just liven up the scenes they're in. Oh wouldn't that be great? If an agent or editor asked for MORE of this character? I could live with that. Not sure HOW I'd pull it off, story-wise, but I'd sure as hell try.

In short I'm enjoying writing her and having her in the book is making hitting word count goals easy.

There, see, I kept that pretty short.

- Grimm

Draft Progress and... Destilting?

I'm going to keep this blog entry short, as I'm completely bagged and need to get to bed.

I mentioned in my last blog entry that I was moving to a single Main Viewpoint Character, and that I was going to have to drop a few sub-plots.

There was one particular subplot that I really wanted to keep, as it punches up the story and really adds a level of individual conflict for a particular important character.  I think I've found a way to bring that back in and hopefully make it fantastic.  We'll see.

I know one area I'm going to have to do extensive work on after this draft is polishing my dialog.  The chapter I'm working on currently is pretty dialog heavy and I'm trying to keep it tight, but I know some of it is going to look like a train wreck in a day or two.  I don't think it's horrible, but it could certainly use sprucing up and "destilting" (despite spellcheck that is a real word, Google it).  I intend to finish this pass on the draft and use the age-old method of reading it aloud to see where it goes off the rails.

I'm nearly back up to 40K words after reworking my outline and slashing and burning a few chapters worth of material.  I still have a LOT of editing to do to the chapters that are there to clean up the story and get it all on the new track.  It'll be worth every silent little scream.

I'm setting a deadline for this draft to be done in late December or (paying job workload dependant) early January.  Then I'll do some cleanup and get it out to my Alpha Readers as a more complete book.

That's all for tonight.

- Grimm

Full Steam Ahead (and Sideways)

I slept poorly last night and it's my own damned fault.

I can't get over how much anxiety I've felt over my word count being so out of line with my goal.  I kept trying to think of solutions and items I could edit out to make the story cleaner and stronger.  Those of you who follow me on Twitter might have seen a tweet by me earlier stating that I'd found a solution and so far it's working.

I'm cutting my book to a single Viewpoint Character.  Not altogether mind you, there will still be a few short stints in other viewpoints, and it's still going to be Third Person Limited.  My target for this book is Young Adult, a category of books where a single viewpoint isn't only a regular occurrence, it's actually the norm.  So that's a big load off my chest.  Of course, it means I have a lot of work to do on this revision as I have a number of scenes where I've switched viewpoints.

What I've done to start is go back to my outline and give myself a budget.  My average chapter length is ~2000 words, some are as much as 3000, a few (the rare exception) are as short as 1000, so that gives me about 50 chapters to work with.

I took the major beats of the story and set them out, then I placed important plot points in between, trying to keep things relatively evenly spaced for pacing and progression.  A few plot points are being juggled, one of the sub-plots is being dropped altogether, and I'm still trying to find ways to work in an important plot thread that primarily followed one of my other characters.  It's not integral to this particular book, so it may get shifted to a second book.

All that said, my word count tonight actually slips back about 3K words, even though I wrote somewhere close to 3000 tonight filling some of the earlier gaps.

The next few nights I'm going to divide my focus, editing one of the earlier chapters to fit the new single viewpoint and tightened plot, and writing out one new chapter to keep the story moving forward.

This approach should help make the next revision pass a little faster, and help bring more depth and clarity to my main viewpoint character and their relationships with those around them as I can no longer rely on those characters to pull their weight.  It should also help me sleep better at night (I hope).

I'll keep you all posted.

- Grimm