Gonna call it early this year gang. Too many days of no-writing and I am way behind in my count. Add to that four days of vacation with the family around Thanksgiving means I am hopelessly behind schedule. But I managed 11,000 words that are not going to waste. I am, however, going back to Alchemical Adolescence for the time being and letting Destiny & Doom rest for a bit. I will pick it up later on when I have more time and a better sense of the overall plot. I think I started the novel too far into the story and need to backtrack it for it to make sense. I thought it would be fun to dive right into the action and back-fill the history of the characters, but it’s getting weird. Who knows. A break and fresh eyes won’t hurt, right.

Good luck to everyone else still NaNo-ing.

Tags: NaNoWriMo

So, I’m bouncing from computer to computer these days, depending on location and whatnot. I’ve switched to Google Docs for writing awhile back. It’s not perfect, but it works for what I need right now.

I was using OneNote for my notes, but that’s proving to be unportable. Going with EverNote right now. Seems to be working pretty good, but it’s not OneNote. Wish Google Docs had a similar tool to OneNote/EverNote.

Finally broke 12,000 words (whoopie!). Trying to push through a dry spot in the story. I’ll jazz it up later, but it’s a bit of a “training montage” part. Necessary, but not all that fun to sit through right now. Just keep swimming! Just keep swimming!

Congrats to those people that got through NaNoWriMo! I know a few people that pulled it off and I’m impressed. I need to learn to write faster and more focused.

Tags: EverNote, NaNoWriMo, OneNote, Word Count

I’m nearly done with my world map. When it’s done, I’ll throw it up for comments.

Pretty pleased that I figured out how to make maps like this in Fireworks. May have to throw up a tutorial on it, since Adobe Fireworks Tutorials are so few and far between.

Stay the course people!

P.S. Best of luck to my NaNoWriMo friends! I’m not trying it this year, but want to send good vibes to those that are.

Because I have the attention span of a gnat, I need to work on other parts of the book to keep me occupied.

Check out the revised logo and title for the book. It’s not final, but it’s closer along than the original.

Tags: Graphics, Shardlore

For my fellow authors keeping tabs on me, I’m putting the word count over on right-hand side of the blog, along with the percentage to 70,000 and the number of chapters I’m through.

Figured this was easier than a post at a time whenever I want to update my count. I’m also throwing the count up on my Twitter feed, if you’re so inclined.

Tags: Shardlore, Twitter, Word Count

Amazon has just announced a “singles” section. That is a place for lower-priced, shorter works. At first glance, it seems like a nod to our shorter-attention-span world, but they make an excellent point.

A story should only be as long as it takes to tell the story. Padding a story up an extra 10,000 words so it has the right “heft” to sell is a bad idea. Especially in an e-book world.

Read the rest of this entry »

So, I’ve got OneNote installed on the home laptop and a plan to get this book done!

Anyone else out there using OneNote as a writing tool? Normally, I’m a big fan of OpenOffice, but this is one tool that OO doesn’t have and it’s really, really nice.

Tags: OneNote, Shardlore, Tools

OK, so I’ve written up a nice two page outline, redoing the story for Embarkation and I’m feeling much, MUCH better about it. Bit of a wake-up call for me and I’m OK with it.

The original story had characters I liked. Some, I really liked. And those are back for the new story and this time, they have a real honest-to-goodness adventure to be had. Murder, mayhem, explosions, damsels in distress, and a dragon. If it sounds cliche, don’t worry, it’s part of the charm of the story. The characters are aware of just how predictable this seems and their complacence will get them in the end. Or will it?

Thanks to the gang over at community.podiobooks.com for the boost in enthusiasm. I wasn’t really down on myself or the story, just getting honest with the fact that I went in half-cocked and now I’m paying the price. I’m reminded of the many starts and restarts Patrick E. McClean had for his “How to Succeed in Evil” story. I loved every incarnation, but the final product was awesome.

So a lesson learned is a good thing, right? In the end, fear not dear readers, a story is coming and (knock on wood) 2010 sees the publication of my first novel.

So let it be written…

Tags: Shardlore

I’ve had a fair number of positive comments on the sample chapter of Crystal Tech. That said, I think I’m starting over. I’ve hit a few obsticals that are just getting me hung up and I can’t move past. I’ll enumerate them as a warning for other authors:

1. First person perspective – It’s just sloppy. I’m putting myself in place of the main character and he needs to be his own man…so to speak.
2. No outline. I had one in my head, but as the book moves along, I’m losing track of it and now the whole thing just stalled. I’d it stalled in Act II, but it just seems like it’s still in Act I and going nowhere. An outline would have helped. A lot.
3. Too many characters. I wanted to make it an ensemble thing (which is where mistake #1 is really biting me in the butt), but it’s just too much. I need to make this more personal, focus on the main character.
4. The world is epic and cool…but I leave it all behind for a sea adventure in the first two chapters. That was just stupid. This is a steampunk/spellpunk world and we don’t get to see any of it while the ship is on the run. Again, I’m dumping the ship and the crew and focusing on one character. That isn’t to say they won’t come back, but that’ll be where the outline comes in handy.

Well, that’s that. Back to the drawing board. Hope everyone had a great holiday and has a fantastic new year.

Tags: Shardlore, Word Count

Being half-done with the book seems to be making me jumpy and anxious to break out the microphone and Audacity.

Check out the AUDIO VERSION of Chapter One of Embarkation. That’s right boys and girls, a first pass at an audio version of the book.

Tags: Shardlore