The Circus Won't Have Me (I Can't Juggle).

Ahem! So it's July. My last entry was in May. Glad to see I'm keeping on top of this blog thing!
The good news about the delay between posts is that I've been writing, and I've learned something.

There are writers out there who can write multiple stories at the same time, and there are those who can't. At present I firmly reside in the realm of Nope! Can't do it! I've tried and it's been an ongoing disaster that I've only recently started to dig myself out of.

Now, when I say "write" I do mean exactly that. I have no trouble writing one story and revising or outlining another. But if I try to actually write two stories at once? Catastrophe! Disaster! Calamity! Cataclysm! Armageddon! You get the picture. We're talking problems of the Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, and Steve Buscemi together on a rocket ship proportions.

I've been writing an Alt History/Fantasy since October of last year. I continued working on it, albeit at a slower pace, through Pitch Madness, without a hitch. I discussed where things started to get out of hand in April. Since that time I've actually been writing fairly consistently at least 300 words a day, 5 days a week. Not a great pace, but the habit is back, and that's great.

I've had a few incredible story ideas sneak up on me, as they tend to, while I got my groove back. That's great right? Awesome story ideas that just keep coming? What's there to complain about? Well, Writer's Block has never been a worry for me. I doubt I'll ever have a shortage of ideas. I worry more about a shortage of time. If they keep coming I may never have enough time to write them all in the manner they deserve.

So, those incredible story ideas. Yeah. I couldn't wait. I dug into one pretty heavily (a sci-fi, a genre I love and have wanted to sink my teeth into), and it consumed me. I wrote a barebones outline, then dug into a few test scenes and character spots. I really love the feel and scope of it. I was really rolling with it, at least until I hit the first plot hole in the outline.

I can handle that just fine normally by digging in and getting my hands dirty in the muck. But I had another story sitting around 40K words in that I could just jump over to and work on right? Lots of writers do it! It couldn't be that hard... What's the worst that could happen?

Well. I can tell you what the worst that could happen was: I'd lost the feel of the Alt History/Fantasy and couldn't keep the headspace required for the sci-fi and a new cast of vastly different characters. I hit a hard wall and lost momentum on TWO stories.

 It was a long slow road to sort myself out. I went back to the beginning of the story and worked through what I'd written from the start. Performing a mini-revision on a third of a story isn't something I ever wanted to do (especially considering the mental anguish dwelling on my early drafts causes me), but it was exactly what I needed.

So, for the time being I'm writing exclusively on the Alt History/Fantasy and only jotting outline notes on anything else.

I know writing multiple stories at once is certainly possible, and I might be able to do it someday. I'm nowhere near there yet.

Lesson learned.

- Alex

The Writer's Voice 2014

The inimitable Brenda Drake is running another contest called The Writer's Voice. I entered the Rafflecopter. I sang to it. And I got selected.

Without further ado, here's my entry:

Query

Dear Writer's Voice,

Ren is the best thief in the walled realm of Lenmar. Which is no small feat when everyone from the queen to the lowliest peasant has some level of magical ability—everyone except Ren, that is.

Instead, Ren has the rare ability to identify the kind of magic wielded by others. Given his chosen profession, this should be a boon . . . especially since everything worth stealing is protected by spells and bindings. 

Yet, he’d trade it in a heartbeat to be normal.

When one of the realm’s most powerful noblewomen is murdered in ritualistic fashion and no trace of the killer’s magic can be found, Ren becomes the prime suspect. Hunted by magic-eating Inquisitors and the Captain of the Royal Guard, Ren’s life becomes one of flight and fear in a battle to prove his innocence.

If Ren wants to clear his name and protect the people he cares about, he’ll have to catch the real killer. To do that, he needs to pull one more high-stakes heist—

And steal the proof he needs from the very people who want to catch him.

Complete at 90,000 words, CROW’S BLOOD is a Fantasy Thriller in the vein of Robin Hood. With dementors. It is a standalone with series potential.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Alex Pierce

First 250 Words

A sharp crack echoed in the silence. Ren winced. Without special tools or a talent for Fire to heat the lead around the pane, breaking in this way couldn't be done quietly. He had neither, and that much heat might set off the binding sigils and raise the alarm. Besides, it seemed louder than it actually was. He'd tested.

He lifted the segment of colored glass and settled it to one side, leaving a gap a scene depicting the Goddess and her four Scions holding the Adversary at bay. No hordes of guards or swarms of librarians boiled out of the hole. So far, so good.

A shaft of the Other's pale moonlight lit a small circle on the intricate mosaic near the center of the floor far below. 

To Ren, it said something about the Praetorian Order. They lavishly decorated their inner sanctum—where select few ever went—while leaving their public libraries grim and barren. Stealing from them was less than they deserved.

He had a job to do. 

The silken black rope uncoiled into the opening with a whisper. Ren swept his satchel so it hung behind him and sprung into the gap, dropping along the rope's length. 

He ignored the butterflies in his stomach and their vain attempt at flapping to slow his descent. Catching the rope at the last possible moment, Ren guided it with his hands and wrapped his legs around it, halting his free-fall.

Righting himself, Ren touched down into the silence with a flourish and a bow.

I Suck at Writing: A Confession

I suck at writing. I don't mean my prose, or my descriptions, or my characterizations (though I'm sure to be lacking in a number of those areas).

I mean in my work ethic.

I haven't written a single word of real writing in ~8 weeks.

There are all sorts of excuses I could line up, between my day-job workload, to travelling, to any number of things. None of them are truly valid to the writer in me. I've had all those things going on before and I soldiered through and got the words down.  Hell, some of my most productive times have been when my day-job was demanding 12-16 hours of my life per day.

So what have I done? Well, let's see. I've read a BUNCH of books. I sort of caught up on some of the TV I've recorded. I've seen a few movies in theatres (and really enjoyed them). I've kicked some ass at The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD. And I've spent far too much money on Skylanders.

Writing related? I've cycled out a few more queries on CROW'S BLOOD. Tracked through and kept up with the blogs of all the writers I know and love. And I've re-worked the outline for my historical fantasy about six times.

Six times may seem like I've been keeping busy, but really I haven't. Not busy enough anyway. I could be doing a lot more... you know... writing.

I've been doing some much-unneeded self-examination on what exactly my problem is. Turns out it's pretty simple:

I suck at writing. This time I am talking about the prose, descriptions, and characterizations.

I worked on CROW'S BLOOD for a LONG time. I finished the first draft in November of 2011! Never mind that I completely threw that draft and story away and re-worked the entire novel from the ground up. That's more than 2 years ago!!!

It's been that long since I really dug in and worked on something new. The sense of accomplishment I felt at the end of every draft as the story and prose got tighter is gone, and the distance from that first clunky and painful draft is vast.

When I look at what I've written lately (and by lately I mean before I got into my writing funk), all I can see is the warts and garbage and things that make me want to set it on fire and walk away. It's no wonder I've re-outlined the thing so many times. Outlines are safe. I can write a REALLY cool outline. Point form mind-maps don't have to be pretty.

I've forgotten that it's OK to suck, especially on your first draft. No one has everything worked out. No one has the perfect words for every sentence. No one really knows where the commas are supposed to go!

I suck at writing. But I desperately need to remember and keep reminding myself that it's OK to suck. I'm going to keep doing it, updating my word-counts here on my blog so you can all keep score (and I can keep myself accountable).

I need to push on and get through the first draft. That first, clunky, broken, full of holes draft. I need to finish the story. I need to tie up all the loose ends. And I really need to achieve that awesome sense of finishing something.

You know why?

I'm really good at revision.

- Alex

P.S. Have any of you ever hit that wall? Let me know how you got past it in the comments.