Day 25: First Day Of Winning

I've officially won this year, and with not a bad word count, if I do say so myself! This is great, considering before this, I'd been in a complete slump writing-wise. I hadn't written anything all summer because I'd been at home with my parents and hadn't had any sort of inspiration around me-- except about eight thousand words of a WIP zombie-apocalypse story that I plan to revisit sometime soon-- and then in November something just clicked and I haven't been able to stop writing since! It's liberating, it really is.

The biggest issue I'm going to end up having is the fact that I now have so many WIPs and I also have so many finished novels that need a good, thorough second-draft editing, and with so many different ideas for new stories in my head, it's hard to commit myself to doing a hardcore edit of the things I've already written. This is something I've always had a bit of trouble with, though, so I'm not too surprised.

Anyway, that's my winner's bar for this year's NaNo! I'm very excited about it and proud.

Introspect: Bane of My Existence

I think the hardest thing about being a published author is looking back on work you've done years past-- published or not-- and realizing how much better you could have made it if you'd been patient enough to write the stories when you had the skill and experience to execute them more effectively.

Take Kaleb's story for example. When I wrote it, I thought it was the most intense story I'd ever written. I frequently called it my masterpiece and I didn't think I'd ever be able to top it. Then, about a month ago a reviewer pointed out that with that story, not only did I leave questions unanswered, I pulled back in the more poignant parts and wrote it like it was in a third person point of view instead of Kaleb's, and it took away some of the power of the emotional scenes. That's something I try not to do now, and I'm more aware of it because of that comment and just growing as an author, I just wish I'd waited and rewritten Kaleb's story until I had more faculties, more ability to put emotion into writing.

I learn a lot every time I publish something, and I think through publishing something I thought was my masterpiece, I found a story that was similarly worth telling without the sheer amount of angst. Kaleb's story is one angst after another until he settles down, but the one I'm working on now isn't that way. Kay's more or less just a normal young adult who, sure, had a different upbringing than most people, but it doesn't ever cause him angst.

I think it's a little bit funny that Kaleb and Kay have about the same amount of words to their stories, but Kaleb's is all in one novel and Kay's is spanning three now. I should have broken Kaleb's story up into more than one novel, because there was so much more about his life that I could have touched on, some less intense and some more. Live and learn, I suppose.

I feel the same with my novel, Phoenix. I could probably write that novel so much better now if I'd waited to publish it. I could have given Blake an intensity that I hadn't managed when I wrote it. I do have a sequel in mind for that world, but it's on the backburner. It's almost funny, how different the writing is going to be between the two sequels.

The Next Big Thing BlogHop

The Next Big Thing is a series of questions on our work-in-progress, at the end of these questions I shall then give you links to other participants of the Blog Hop, who are due to answer their questions by the 28th November, so don't forget to check them out!

I was tagged by Samantha Kay.

Ten Interview Questions for The Next Big Thing:

1. What is the working title of your book? I have three right now. One's Drawing By Heart, then its sequel Fire and Oxygen and finally a suspense thriller called Gallagher's Torment.

2. Where did the idea come from for the book? Well, Drawing By Heart and Fire and Oxygen are sequels to One Two Three, Shatter and the sequel to that in consideration right now, One Two Three, Salvation. Gallagher's Torment came out of a need to write something darker, more suspenseful and move away from the whole literary fiction/romance part of life.

3. What genre does your book fall under? Drawing By Heart is literary fiction/LGBT romance/coming of age, and Gallagher's is mystery/suspense/paranormal with a slight underlying romance.

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? I have the whole thing cast out in my head, haha. Some are musicians, others are actors. In Drawing By Heart, the main couple are Nick Matthews and Justin Chatwin and there are a literal ton of other cast characters but that could take up this whole thing! In Gallagher's Torment, the cast of characters are Jeremy 13th (Finnish musician), Elisha Cuthbert, Tyler Blackburn, Sierra Kusterbeck, Claire Holt, and James McAvoy.

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? Drawing By Heart: When he has to make a choice between the past and the present, what will Kay X do to protect the ones he loves?
Fire and Oxygen: When something drastic and terrifying happens to Kay to create conflict on his end, how will he and his boyfriend weather that storm?
Gallagher's Torment: Craig Gallagher's mother was a woman driven insane, but he's terrified going back to the house she nearly killed him in will unlock the same madness inside him.

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? Probably self-published. I don't have an agent.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? Twelve days for Drawing By Heart. Six days to write Gallagher's Torment. I've been working on Fire and Oxygen for four days, and it's only in its infancy.

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? Oh, I have no idea, honestly. Maybe one of Scarlet Blackwell's novels.

9. Who or What inspired you to write this book? My muses. The characters themselves. My girlfriend.

10. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest? If you're already into Kaleb's world and Kay piqued your interest at the end, you'll want to see him grow up and become a man in his own right. If you like a hot couple, intense chemistry, and a solid love story weaved in with a coming-of-age tale of a young man who grew up in a home different than most people, you'll like Kay's trilogy. Also, if you like paranormal and ghost stories, you should check out Gallagher's Torment.

I don't actually have anyone to tag as of right now, but if you want to do it, you can! That's just how I roll.

Baby, It's Cold Outside (but the blog's not)

So, I decided that my blog looked a little bit cold and closed off with the monochromatic spectrum, so I added a little heat to it. Well, a lot of heat, I suppose. I like it quite a bit better now. It's more engaging, more welcoming. More me, I guess is what I'm going for. It needed something to hook the reader.

Now that I've got you hooked, I hope, I've been hard at work on Kay and Johnny's third novel, and I've got a lot of great ideas for it. Total word count for November is 92k today. I'm also looking into places to submit his first story to. I already sent it to Silver Publishing for consideration, but I think it was a bit preemptive considering I'm doing some editing on it now and it's a hot mess. It's getting better, but there are typos everywhere, stilted sentences, the works. It was sort of a NaNo on its own; I wrote the whole thing in a span of a few weeks, about 55k, back in June and July. I can't wait to introduce you guys to these boys. I'm very passionate about them.

I've only let one person read anything of theirs so far, and I got a great response. Maybe she's biased, but she's also objective when it comes to writing-- she's not afraid to speak her mind and tell me something's off-- so I take her at her word. I'm excited to pull you all into their world. To start you off, I'd say read One Two Three, Shatter for a nice, solid backstory on the universe. To buy, click on the cover in my sidebar! It won't bite. Maybe then you'll start to see what I'm babbling about, but Kay and Johnny are a whole different beast than Kaleb and Trent. Not better, just...different. I love them both to pieces, though.

In the next couple days, I'm gonna be talking about my WIPs due to the blog hop I'm taking part in, so you'll get an introduction there as well. For now, back to editing for me!

'Til next time. :)

Excerpt: One Two Three, Shatter

Hey guys, if you're looking for a taste of my novel, One Two Three, Shatter, or if you're wondering 'is this novel really for me? it sounds pretty dark and doesn't have much erotic content in it, I bet,' go ahead and check out this link for a very short, erotic excerpt from it and judge for yourself:

Behind Closed Doors: The Erotic Connection - One Two Three, Shatter Excerpt.

Check it, leave a comment, and if it teases and entices, buy Kaleb's story and let me know you did! The link to buy is at the bottom. He's a rollercoaster, he'll take you on an emotional ride you won't forget, and it'll be dark for a while there, but life, love and the human condition wins over in the end. You'll love him, hate him, and cry for him, but I think it's worth it to see him overcome as much as he has, but maybe that's just because I'm his creator. I have gotten some wonderful feedback from this novel, though. See for yourself if he lives up to my hype!

While you're there, you can check out stuff from other authors participating in the website. Check out their blurbs and excerpts. There are some talented authors over there as well.

Now, back to writing!

Day 15: December? Did I Say December?

So, a couple posts ago, I said I would revisit Kay's third novel in December. It seems to me he was not very happy with the decision he made at the end of the second novel (I will refrain from explaining because I don't want spoilers for someone who might read it in the future) because he's got me writing novel number three, Fire and Oxygen.

For those of you who have been keeping track (just me? okay) this is the third novel I've begun working on this November-- not counting the three ideas that I went through before the month even started-- and I'm almost finished with Gallagher's Torment. This is a good thing, because a couple days ago, I got a job working as a server thirty hours a week so once that starts up and then school on top of it, I'm not gonna have as much time to write.

This series is just going above and beyond anything I expected. Kay's just a character I've connected with in a way that-- shockingly-- supersedes the connection that I've felt with Kaleb. I keep saying it's a family thing, and it probably is. Kay was raised by him, so I'm not surprised they have the same alluring quality to them and this insistent need to have their stories written. After Kay's done, I'm gonna end up writing Kaleb's dad's story. It's alive and growing!

These Xander boys sure have taken me on a hell of a rollercoaster so far. Wonder what else they'll throw at me. Back to writing to find out!

Day 11: One Down, One To Go

So, finally, I finished my first novel, Drawing By Heart. You say, finally? Really? It's been eleven days! I say, yes this is true, but I also got tackled by another plot that was ten times more challenging and interesting to write because it's been so long since I wrote a suspense novel. I wasn't sure I'd be able to go back to Kay's story once I'd started Craig's.

I'm happy to report that I have given Kay's second novel a very tentative ending that I will revisit in December, albeit it's open to a third book in his series, which shouldn't be surprising. He's a very complex little muse, isn't he? I have no idea where he's going to take me next.

In the meantime, I have Gallagher's Torment, in which Craig is slowly losing his mind. It's quite fun to go back to my roots of horror and suspense writing, and I've found that I missed writing that sort of thing immensely. I don't know why I stopped writing them, because I have such a passion for the weird and the macabre. I don't know where I ended up forgoing my instincts for the darkness in favor of trying to write one-dimensional romance stories.

At any rate, I'm glad to be getting back into this groove, and while I feel like this story isn't going to breach even 25k, I can't wait to see where it ends up. Craig is a very interesting character, and the supporting characters are all great too. They're making it difficult to choose who should end up being the victim of the madness. Oh well, I'll let Craig choose once he slips from reality.

So I ask before I go back to noveling: Has anyone else ever gone back to a genre after staying away from it for so long only to feel like you're being welcomed home?

Day 9: The Case Of The Switching Muses

All right, so I hit my 50k goal, as I said in my last blog post. The novel I've been writing is sitting at 62.5k right now. I decided to take a quick break from Kay's story, one that he's been pushing me to write since I started NaNoWriMo and I started on a mystery that's straddling the line between YA and horror, depending on the kinds of supernatural things come out of the woodwork. Here's the summary:

Craig Gallagher's mother is an urban legend for the antics that she displayed right before she was committed when he was young, and the story's about his journey to coming to terms with the trauma in his past. This includes going back to the dilapidated house that he'd grown up in on Halloween and facing the demons of the past. He has no idea what awaits him and what other horrors and traumas he might encounter inside the house when the door gets locked behind him and a few friends on Halloween night.

The thing is, since I started this story a day ago, I haven't been able to go back to Kay's story at all. I've got about 4k in on it so far. I thought I'd be able to balance them, but my muses are so demanding that one eclipses the other. What happened to my ability to write a few stories at once? Am I just getting old and now I can only work on one at a time?

This is a legitimate problem. I suppose I have time to finish Kay's story since I literally just submitted the first part of his story to my publisher and I won't get a response back for a few weeks, but I really wanted to get it finished. Oh well, muses are finicky like that.

At least this story's different, and that's exciting.

NaNo Day 7: Where Are You Now?

So, NaNoWriMo authors, we've been at this for seven days. Exactly one week. Where are you supposed to be? I think the word count is somewhere in the 11k range-- just checked, it's supposed to be 11,666-- but not me. Oh, no, of course not. I have persistent muses and too much time on my hands. So, you ask, where am I right now? What is my word count on the seventh day of November, when most are just hitting the 10k mark?

I just passed 58,000 words. You know why? Because my muses are slave drivers, that's why. Today, I think I'm going to take a bit of a break from writing-- if they let me, that is-- and spend some time doing other things.

I will say that this writing has been causing slight problems. I've been ignoring people I love and care about in favor of writing, and that's part of the reason I've been going slower than normal these past few days. My partner's doing this too, but she has school and homework, so her word count isn't as high as mine. I'm sure her writing is better than mine, though. She's such a talented author, and I hope one day people will be able to read her work as they can read mine: published.

I digress. Today is a day of rest, especially considering I've already written about 2k words today. I'm going to try and step away from the little-- okay, big-- world I've created and live in the real world for a while.

Wish me luck!

The Effects of Sprints

So this year for National Novel Writing Month, I am way over my word count especially for this just being the third day, and that mostly has to do with all the sprints I've been doing over at the Facebook NaNoWriMo page. I can't stress enough how amazing those are to just let go of any lingering trace of your inner editor and just let the words come to you. There's time for editing later and as both my editors will tell you, there have been a lot of editing needed on both of my published NaNo novels because I did just this. Admittedly, I should have done a better job editing myself the first time around, but they were great sports about it.

I've also met a bunch of great people over there. I'm not usually the most social guy, and in fact I'm a bit of a hermit and that sort of hurts my sales because I'm not the type to put myself out there, but this month I've been more involved with the word sprints and the discussions over there than I ever have been before. It shows in my word count, too, considering I'm almost halfway to 50k and it's only the third day. Sprinting is a brilliant thing if you're hung up on editing yourself or you just think you're not cut out for this. Just shut your editor off and write for fifteen, twenty, thirty minutes. However long the sprint is, you just write. It's an amazingly liberating experience.

This story has taken me on a rollercoaster and I'm not quite sure where it's going to end, but this set of characters does that to me. Kay and his friends have always told me to expect the unexpected-- hell, this story had me merging an entire other world from one of my other novels with this one to expand the amount of characters exponentially-- and that's what I love more than anything about it. I'm excited to introduce this other cast of characters, and that's my next step.

I look forward to what else they pull out of their hats for me to write. Now, I'm back to writing. Happy noveling!

The beginning of NaNoWriMo

So today is the first day of NaNoWriMo and I decided to change what novel I'm working on, and put Tempestuous Heart on the back-burner with about six other different novel ideas. I decided to write the third installment of the Xander Series since I just sent the publisher the second one for submission a few days ago. It doesn't have a title yet, but it will, I'm sure, by the end of this month.

This is the widget I have selected to put on here, so people know my progress and can tell if I'm slacking or not. Haha.

As you can see, today's been a good day writing-wise and I feel like this weekend will be just as prolific, because I plan on doing nothing but buckling down and writing, with lots of soda and junk food to keep me awake. I love this time of year, because it challenges me, and I do some of my best work for NaNo. Fun fact: Both Phoenix and One Two Three, Shatter started out as NaNoWriMo novels. That's probably why my poor editors had a slew of mistakes to correct even after I'd gone through it a couple times!

My food of choice right now is Runts and Rockstars, and my music of choice is old Get Scared, before they switched singers. They're a great inspiration for this novel. Originally it was called, tentatively, Best Kind Of Mess, and we'll see if that title sticks, but as of right now it's open for naming.

All right, I've probably eaten up my word count for the day in this blog post, so I'm going to go back to writing. Happy NaNoWriMo to all oter writers participating with me, and good luck!