The Mysterious August Absence of Yours Truly

In my previous post, I mentioned that I wouldn't be able to write in Tornado C for the month of August due to certain circumstances. The simple question may have crossed your mind: why?

It's a long story - but then again, most stories are. The short story doesn't exist, not really. Short stories are merely story fragments. (But I'm going on a rabbit trail, aren't I?)

In this post, I will (with multiple rabbit trails) attempt to explain why the month of August will be a non-writing month.

But first, I'll tell you in a one sentence. Then I'll explain. And what is that "one sentence"?

Between August 6-29, the entire Buller clan (including me) will be at large in the U.S. of A.

Yeah, that's a pretty decent reason to forgo writing for a month. We're visiting America - and it's going to be hectic. I'll hardly have time for sleep, much less writing. (And I don't sleep on plane flights, particularly twelve-hour ones. AND we're arriving in the morning. *headdesk*)

So why are we going to the States?

Well, if you recall, some time ago I wrote a post about why I wasn't going to America in the year of 2012. The reasons were perfectly legit: in addition to the unfortunate subject of money (and lack thereof), it would be potentially dangerous to go back before we had been here in Africa for a full year.

Why? Because we'd be tempted to stay. After all, the majority of culture shock and homesickness happens within the first year of moving to another culture and another country.

Thing is, though, you have to let go of something before you can receive it. In the same vein of "he who loses his life shall find it", we let go of our desire to go to America - and discovered that we were going to America after all. After examining ourselves - and taking away our almost insatiable desire to go to America - we found that our desires were fulfilled in the end, to the glory of Christ.

However, back to the original question—there are several reasons for this visit. First, well, who wouldn't want to visit their home country after being gone for eight months?

And second (the main reason), Mom's uncle offered to pay for our flights so that we'd be able to go to a large family reunion, which only happens every three or four years. (When I say large, think 100+ people...all related to each other.) This is important, especially since some of our older relatives are getting along in their years. So we're flying in for the reunion! :)

(Interestingly enough, in some bizarre way, we managed to get comparatively dirt-cheap tickets that were like half the starting price. We still don't know exactly how that happened.)

In addition, it's going to be insanely busy. We've got three states to visit, multiple churches to go to and update, and dozens of friends to see - all in a three-week period. And that's besides the massive family reunion.

In an excited summary: I'M GOING TO AMERICA IN A WEEK!! GAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!

No, seriously, you have absolutely no idea how excited I am, for the very good reason that you've probably never been away from your home country for eight months. (Granted, I know there's a couple MKs out there. You, of all people, would be able to understand, right? Going back "home" for a visit is fantastic, and this is my first one since moving.)

But if you consider the idea of moving to another country, and reverse the feeling, you'll have a good idea what I mean. It's more than delight - it is (as my grandpa put it, when we picked him up from the airport here in Liberia) pure, unadulterated happiness.

As the ever-present G. K. Chesterton says, "What could be more delightful than to have in the same few minutes all the fascinating terrors of going abroad combined with all the humane security of coming home again?"

But enough of that. ^_^ Suffice it to say that we're extremely happy to be visiting America again.

Oh, and if any of you are visiting the Midwest (particularly in Kansas; Wichita and Kansas City mainly) email me or something. It would be awesome if I could meet up with some "internet friends" while visiting (although it's hardly plausible). Still, God's done stranger things!

Prepare yourself, America - for the Clan is coming back!

 

Good Grief - More Tornado C!

Hullo, hullo! Time for another update. How's your writing coming along, folks?

First, the bad news. Due to certain circumstances beyond my control, I'm informally dropping my self-imposed challenge to finish Tornado C before August 15. (I'll explain my usage of the word "informally" in a moment.) There are three reasons for this:

1) Tornado C is going to be a significantly longer book than I expected. I've finished five chapters out of twenty-five and my current word count is 15,290. Continuing on this trend, my novel will be, at the least, 70,000 words, if not longer. It may well be over eighty thousand, actually. And after revisions, who knows? This is just the rough draft estimate.

For instance, I just finished writing chapter four. (I have a prologue; thus chapter four is the fifth chapter.) The outline for chapter four was a mere 87 words long, whereas the word count of the actual chapter was over four thousand.. Most of my outlined chapters are at least twice that length (200 words or so), and one or two are three times that much (300+). I'm hoping that the written chapters won't be doubling or tripling in size!

In addition, some longer chapters in my outline may have to be broken up into two or three smaller chapters, such as my story climax.

2) Life is hectic. Besides having my grandparents here (and thus limiting my time on the computer, since I want to spend as much time as possible with them), something unexpected has turned up that will effectively stop my writing at the beginning of August. In order to fully concentrate, I'll have to write little to nothing for most of the month. I'll tell you about it when I can.

3) Also, I really don't want to push myself so hard that I write pure junk. For instance, here's a pre-revision sentence from chapter four: "Then, like a wall, he realized what was different." Needless to say, I stopped writing for the night soon afterward. Junk makes for a lot of revisions, and if I were to enter Tornado C into the OYAN novel contest (granted that I had finished it at all), I'd be entering a little-revised novel.

On the other hand, however, the sour feeling I have with yielding the challenge is somewhat eclipsed with the satisfaction I have in what I've written so far. This is going to be, by far, the longest and most epic fantasy novel I've ever written. With a vibrant story world and a long history combined with one of my best plots and strongest themes, this'll be a novel to remember! :)

And besides, something good did come out of this: I managed to start of the novel with a respectable 15,000 words in nine days.

Also, I have yet to write an "epic". My longest finished novel to date is a mere 55,000 words. (The Prophecy of Einarr is unfinished and just over 50,000.) I'd LOVE to write a 300-400 page novel, but I've never had enough material to write a long one. It seems that Tornado C will be the first!

Since Tornado C is standalone, it will also be an excellent novel with which to test the traditional publishing waters. ^_^

Now, to explain the word "informal": I said that I'm "informally" withdrawing from my challenge. That means that I'll still be participating, but not "in it to win it", so to speak. I'll still be writing at any chance I get, but I'm not going to write with a NaNoWriMo-type drive. I'm setting no daily quota; my only requirement is that I write some. And who knows? Maybe I'll end up finishing it after all. We'll wait and see - my withdrawal is open-ended.

Now, for some good news! To make up for the rather disappointing news of my drop-out, here's an excerpt from chapter four to keep you happy. Keep in mind that this has had very little revision, and let me know what you think.

--

"Good night." Daren gazed at the still figures. "I still liked the fiery death idea better."

"Too late now." Elijah ran his gaze over the fields. There was no sign of Wilker and his wife. He gave a quick prayer that they would have a safe journey to Vanaro and then returned his attention to his conversation. 

"Now that this business is finished, we need to get out of here."

"Good idea. I vote south."

"You would." Elijah smirked. If they headed due south from their current position, they'd be near a ford over the Vandar River and almost to Celamarian soil. "We probably should have interrogated one of the soldiers before knocking them out, but from what I overheard, they're planning on pushing us to the river. They've got a picket line farther north and scout teams scouring the area west to east and south to north."

Daren muttered a curse word under his breath. "That complicates things. How many people do they have out looking for us?"

"The officer talked like an entire half of the army was scouring the countryside, but he didn't say any numbers."

"Wonderful. So they're driving us to the river." Daren stared off into the east, as if trying to see Terrilon itself.  

"Is there any way across?"

"No. The nearest ford is dozens of leagues north."

"Even better. The narrowest point?"

"Geryon's Gorge. It's a bit south of here, but totally impassable. Terrilon passes through it and runs for twenty leagues before emerging."

"A geography fan, are you? Your company gets more and more interesting." Daren's tone was dry and sarcastic.

"Not really. My teacher drives me hard." Then Elijah added, "Besides having a decent grip on geography in all four countries, I can also quote fifth-century Meldese poetry in the original dialect."

"As much as I want to hear it, we'll have to save it for later."

--

I love dialogue. (:

How's your writing coming along, fellow writers? Give us a word count, perhaps? Maybe some snippets or quotes? I'd love to hear them. :)

Au revior, and happy writing!

--

Jake (because the signature thing was accidentally deleted)

Brief Update: Tornado C and My Strange Lack of Brevity

Hullo, hullo! I'm back, for a brief time.

First of all, how's the writing coming along, folks? Those of you I challenged to finish a novel before August 15: tired of writing yet? ;) I'm not, praise God!

All right, do you want the bad news or the good news? Well, they're connected, so I'll give them to you both at once.

The good news is, my word count is 5,586, and I plan on writing another 2k tonight. (Here's some more good news: when I say I'm going to write 2k tonight, I usually do. I have a 3/3 winning record right now. :D) The bad news is, my word count is 5,586.

How can it be good and bad, you say? Well, I'm pleased that the writing is going fairly smoothly; the words are coming along and I'm definitely interested in the story. The very best stories practically force you to write them, after all. The bad thing is, I'm still on chapter one.

Yes.

I'm still on chapter one.

I've written two of the three scenes I outlined for chapter one, so I have a good chunk yet to write in that chapter.

Granted, I have a prologue in this novel. But even with the prologue, my projected word count should be less than 4,500 at this point.

The way things are going, I'm going to end up with chapters longer than 3,000 words. While that's not bad in itself, it means that I'm going to have to write a LOT of words in a short amount of time...because I have 23 chapters left to write. I'm hoping that my shorter chapters will balance out the longer ones.

If the trend continues, however, my novel may very well end up past 80,000 words. That would be great - if I wasn't trying to write it in one month.

Eurgh.

To make matters worse, I just learned that, in all probability, I'll be severely detained past August 5th. Like, snatch-a-word-or-two-every-couple-minutes kind of detained. The kind of detained that makes writing extremely hard.

Eurgh.

Well, I've always liked challenges. Wouldn't it be glorious if God gave me the inspiration and stamina to write eighty thousand good words in a month? (:

So far, however, I haven't gotten to the I'm-going-to-drop-dead-and-my-writing-is-junk stage yet. That usually kicks in after day two or three, but I have no symptoms thus far. I'm loving the writing. Maybe it's the outline?

What about you? Are you at the do-or-die stage yet? How's the story a-coming?

Au revior - I've got to write another two thousand words yet tonight, and it's already eight o'clock here! (Looks like another late night of writing is ahead of me.)

UPDATE-1: The word count's past 6,000 now and rising. Still on chapter one, but the scene is nearing a close. I'm hoping to hit 8,000 words tonight.

UPDATE-2: The word count is 6,450 and chapter one is finished. On to chapter two!

UPDATE-3 Word count is 8,045 and I've just finished chapter two (which was, blessedly, a shorter chapter). Remarkably, I'm still not tired of the story. While I don't want to write more tonight because it's late, I still have yet to reach the I'm-writing-junk stage. But anyway, I'm going to bed. ^_^

[Post-script: This was written on the night of the 18th, by the way. Some statistics (such as my current word count) may be outdated.]

Writing Month, Anyone?

Today I had a problem. A big problem.

For some time, I've needed to start work on Tornado C, my OYAN novel for 2012. Unfortunately, a few plot problems and my general perfectionism have been hindering my outline progress (as you've read in previous posts).

It's been a general idea of mine to enter this novel into the 2012 OYAN Novel Contest once it's finished. Today, I checked the enter-by date on the contest.

August 15.

Gulp.

I have 31 days (exactly a month) to write Tornado C, revise it, and enter it into the contest. (I decided today that I was, in fact, entering....provided the novel's done.) I know for a fact that, under pressure, I can write fast enough - but finding time to revise it, too, will be a big problem. (Especially since my grandparents are visiting here in Liberia until August 1, so I will be spending precious little time on the computer.)

Sure, I've done 45k in nineteen days (my greatest literary accomplishment to-date) but churning out contest-quality work will be a problem. Still, since I have a detailed outline, I'm hoping that the plot problems that often come with hastily written novels will be somewhat diminished.

In the next two days, I'll have started Tornado C. My projected word count is somewhere beyond 40,000 words, so this will be a - ahem - a big project to undertake in just 31 days.

Still, if God is for me, what can stand against? A deadline? Psh.

So here's the deal: I'm planning on finishing this novel before August 15. Unlike NaNoWriMo, however, the only reward I'll have by the end is a finished novel - and my only motivation is the satisfaction of a good word count.

That means I need some good friends to help me along. I challenge you— *cue gauntlet-slapping* —to a WriMo of epic proportions: finish a novel before August 15. The novel can be already-started and unfinished, or it can be a completely new work-in-progress. Your choice. But the race is to the finish line, regardless of where you are on the racetrack.

If you happen to finish before me, you'll get a reward.

Well, in all technicality, it won't be much more than a hearty congratulations in a blog post and the reward of a finished novel. But hey, if Tornado C ever gets published, I'll mention all the contestants in the Acknowledgments, too!

So what say you? Take up the challenge?

Whether you're with me in pen or spirit - it's time to write!

Charge!

EDIT: I've STARTED TORNADO C. Repeat: I've finally started it! The word count is 1085 and it's time for bed. 'Night!

Writing Like There's No Tomorrow

"Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned." —Matthew 12:34b-37

Words are a pretty big deal in the Bible. With words, God created everything. With words - and His Word, the Bible - God communicates to us. Jesus himself is the Word who became flesh. Matthew 12:37 even says that by our words we will be acquitted or condemned. It is through words that we preach the good news; it is with words that we can tear up and break down.

Words are important to anybody and everybody. But especially to us, the Christian writers. Words are our craft. They're our trade. Our entire business is with words. So if the above passage applies to anybody, it applies to us!

By our words we will be judged. Our words are just one of the different evidences of fruit in our lives. Jesus repeatedly talks about fruit, as do the Epistles; by the fruit you bear will you be known. Evil people bear bad fruit. Good people bear good fruit. That's the way it works.

So how does this apply to us?

Ask yourself this: what kind of fruit is evident in your writing? What kind of words are you speaking?

Every time I read this passage of Scripture, I'm drawn towards verse 36: we will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word we have spoken.

If you're like me, that hits hard. Because with words, it's so easy to say something carelessly. Granted, that's somewhat harder to do with writing, but still...everything counts. Whatever we do...we are to do it for Christ!

So if this is true, then we don't have time to waste, to put it bluntly. We can't waste our words! If Christ is not in what we write or speak, should we be doing it? If Christ can't be found in our current work-in-progress, should we be writing it? If we are not wholly devoted to Him who created the CONCEPT of words...what are we doing to rectify that?

But it's hard! The Bible has so much depth to it; how can we possibly compare? We don't. But we try anyway. We are to capture the echoes of our Gospel and the intangible joy of our Good News. That's what being a Christian writer is about.

We will have to answer for every careless word we speak - and every careless word we write. Every time we had an opportunity to share the Gospel in our stories but didn't; every time we waste words on something that will never last; we'll have to answer for that.

So what will we say on that day? That we didn't want to risk offending someone in our writing? I hope that you see the absurdity in this. Either we believe it or we don't; if God calls you to put something more "preachy" in your writing, then do it! Otherwise, do we really believe this at all? If we aren't willing to give up this novel to Him and write this novel FOR Him - then why claim the title of Christian writer?

Dear writers and fellow believers! I want to tell this to you as lovingly as possible, but I don't want to sugarcoat it. We cannot write without Him. He is the one who enabled us to write in the first place; so why would we, as Christian writers, write something without first committing it to Him? And if we've truly committed our writing to him, will we be writing fluff fiction? Or worse, fluff fiction with a cardboard God?

I'm not trying to guilt you or make you write something explicitly Christian. My question is, are you writing what God wants you to? Are you following His leading? If the answer is yes, then the Christian content in your writing is between you and God, not you and me.

However, my statement still stands: our lives are too short (and our Commission too great) to waste writing petty things.

Don't be afraid to write something that others will call preachy. Listen to this:

"'Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.' How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?" (Romans 10:13-14)

They cannot hear, and thus believe, without someone preaching to them. And if we're writing typical escapist fiction that has no depth whatsoever and no meaning to the reader...how is that preaching?

It's not!

"But what if we turn them off from the Gospel?" is a typical reply. Here's the beauty of it: God's the one who opens the hearts of those ready to receive the Gospel. Not us. Our job is to preach what God tells us to. He does the rest.

So what must we do?

We must continue to write - but write for Him and write about Him. Out of the overflow of our heart our mouth speaks and our pen writes. Let us be so overflowing with Him and His goodness that our writing is bursting! Let the overflow of our heart overflow into others' hearts - so that everyone can taste, with every word they read, the glory of our majestic King!

This is your call, Christian writer! You have to write like there's no tomorrow, no words wasted, everything committed to Him who is worthy to receive everything we are.  

Two Awards, One Blogger, and Eleven Unfortunates

Wait, did I say "unfortunates"? I meant "lucky bloggers". *chortle*

Recently I was tagged in the "Liebster Blog Award" (by Sandy at Cake + OYAN = Sandy) and thus I must pass it on. This occurrence, however, also brought to mind the fact that Timothy at Middling had also tagged me some time ago with the honorable "Thanks for Writing" award. The result is one of literary chemistry, in which I attempt to bend the rules of both by combining them into one tag/award thing.

(If you want the picture for either award, you'll have to go to the aforementioned blogs; picture uploading time is terrible here.)

Since the basic premise for the "Thanks for Writing" award is very similar to the first part of the "Liebster Blog Award", I decided to simply do the Liebster award and hope for the best. Here goes!

The rules:

--

- If you are tagged/nominated, you must post eleven facts about yourself.

- Then, you must answer the eleven questions the tagger has given you and make eleven questions for the people you are going to tag.

- Next, tag eleven more bloggers.

- Tell the people you tagged that you have tagged them.

- No tagging back.

- The person you tagged must have less than 200 followers.

--

All right, showtime!

ELEVEN FACTS:

1) I listen to a wide variety of music, including rock, classical (mainly soundtracks), worship, etc. As I write this, I'm listening to "Phenomenon" by Thousand Foot Krutch.

2) I play the guitar. Somewhat. Being in Africa has not only rusted the clasps on my guitar case (it's the salt air), but has also rusted my abilities. Sometime (when I actually have time) I need to grab some sheet music from the internet to learn and practice.

3) I draw maps. Which is about the only thing I can draw. As of right now, I have 27 hand-drawn maps, five of which have been drawn specifically for Tornado C. (My favorite is a detailed battle plan that takes place over a hundred-year period across the entire scope of civilization.)

4) (This might take a while...) Someday, I want to buy an expensive hardcover copy of The Lord of the Rings in one volume.

5) I just got a new mattress. ^_^ For the past seven months, I've been sleeping on a two-inch-thick foam mattress.

6) Settlers of Catan is my favorite board game.

7) I own a mechanical pencil exactly like the Pen of Doom. The only reason that I don't use it is because I ran out of lead ages ago and was never able to figure out what kind of lead it takes. (Now it's in America and I couldn't use it if I wanted to.)

8) I've always tried to journal but I've never gotten more than a couple days in before the project fizzled out. (The sole exception to this was during a homeschooled year early in my life in which I wrote two sentences a day in what was supposed to be a much more detailed journal. I still have it. I stopped journaling after four or five months, though.)

9) I have a moderately large nose. (Hah!) As Cyrano de Bergerac says, "A great nose indicates a great man."

10) I've eaten rice almost every day for the past seven months and I'm still not tired of it. Cassava and rice forever!

11) I once cut myself with a table knife. (Y'know, the blunt kind that can barely cut butter.)

--

Now, onto:

THE QUESTIONS:

1. What was the last book you read?

The last book I finished was Beyond the Summerland by L. B. Graham. Too bad I don't have the rest of the series. :P I only reread it because I was desperate. Luckily, I've read the rest of the series already. (The eBook copies for the rest of the series are TWELVE DOLLARS each, though. Highway robbery!)

2. How many orange clothings do you have and what are they?

I own no articles of clothing that are orange.

3. What's a hairstyle and color you'd like to have?

The one I have in the way I have it. Why do you think I have it that way now? ;) However, I would like some David Tennant-type sideburns in the future.

4. Do you like waffles?

Yes. But I don't get any here. XP

5. Do you believe in unicorns?

Uh...no. Sadly. I'm not as imaginative as I'd like to think.

6. Do you like America and why?

YES. I love America, because it's my home country, and that's so much more relevant if you've ever lived in another country. I must never take it for granted again. You don't know what you have until it's gone; and for that reason I love America.

*spontaneous chorus of the Star-Spangled Banner*

Also, the people are awesome, the government...not so much.

7. Teeth?

I have them.

8. What's your journal look like and if you don't have one, what was the last notebook you used like?

How relevant. (See number eight on my facts list.)

I have a binder for my maps and genealogies. It's black, uninteresting, and has a washed-out and faded label that says "e Buller" on it (the Jake had water spilled on it). There's a rip on the spine, making it so half the cover is about to fall off, which means I need to find a new binder sometime.

9. Are you a creeper?

Sometimes. >:D

10. Geometry or algebra?

Geometry, by far. I almost loved the first half of it, surprisingly enough. (ALMOST.) Logic chains are so fascinating. But once it got to the complicated math part, I lost interest.

11. Myers-Briggs personality type?

It's been a year since I took it, but I think I was an INTP. I was an IN-something, anyway.

--

Now...to tag some people! To combine the two tags I've received, in addition to being tagged, you are duly thanked for blogging. :) The blogs I tag are awesome; if you do not already follow them, do so! The proprietors are worthy lads and lasses.

In no particular order:

1. Eldra at A Day in Daremo

2. Pathfinder at Pathfinder's Findings

3. Nathan R. Petrie at Whispered Roars

4. Squeaks at Hidden Doorways

5. The Director at Castles, Quills, and Cameras

6. Christopher at There and Blog Again

7. Vrenith at Drawings Anonymous

8. Galadriel at The Wordsmith's Shelf

9. Star Dreamer at The Pen and the Parchment

10. Manny at Manny's Memento

11. Noah at Heavenward Reviews

And my questions? Read further to see:

1. What's your favorite place in the world?

2. What do you think about Kansas? (>:D)

3. Favorite song?

4. Favorite quote?

5. G. K. Chesterton is, to you, what? Your opinion?

6. Best speculative fiction you've read recently? In absence of speculative fiction, what's the best book you've read recently, non-fiction or fiction?

7. Best kind of cookie?

8. Your opinion of pie?

9. What color is your favorite shirt?

10. Are you procrastinating?

11. If you're a writer, what are you currently writing? If you're not a writer, what big thing have you done recently?

If you feel that you don't have much time to do this lengthy award, feel free to do just some of the tag, such as a couple things about yourself and one or two of the questions.

Adieu! 

An Analysis of Jake's Paranoid Avoidance of Female Characters

Actually, to be specific, I usually avoid young female characters. Have you read The War Horn, or anything else by me, for that matter? Ever notice that there are no female characters under the age of thirty and above the age of ten?

Laugh if you want to, but I do have something of a paranoid avoidance of said characters. Don't take offense, ye y-chromosome-challenged, I really don't have anything against you. It's just a natural manifestation of my avoidance of anything to do with romance.

Inevitably, in almost every fantasy novel I know of, if there's a young male and a young female, there's attraction, and that's something I simply don't want to write. 'Sides, it's cliche and predictable. (That's what I keep telling myself, anyway.)

So I have this abnormal avoidance of female characters as a result.

However, my sisters have been prodding me to get over my weird writing streak and write some female characters. After all, they make up a full half (or more) of my audience! They say to write what you know (and that doesn't always include the opposite gender), but sometimes you have to write something that the audience will actually understand.

So I caved. Luckily for me, I was already thinking of adding a second character to my protagonist's supporting cast (see my previous post), so I decided to switch things up a bit, like, literally. I swapped the male character for the female, and viola! Problem solved, right? No romance, either; that, I can assure you. And to the realistic-ness of that romantic absence, well, I have that problem solved too, but don't ask. It has to do with a story twist. ^_^

Interestingly enough, I've noticed that writers of the female variety have no problem with writing male characters, or even male protagonists.

What about you? Do you avoid any aspect of writing consciously or subconsciously? Do you have any reason for doing so? Or do you just write what comes to mind?

And try not to laugh at me. Really.  

Boring Updates: in which Tornado C's outline is being stubborn, and Will Vullerman is climbing out of my ear.

I have a penchant for creating grab-you-and-never-let-you-go titles, don't I? This one just screams "READ ME" like nothing else.

I'm also horrible at subtle sarcasm.

Guess what? It's update time - a time in which I shall bring you up to speed on what's going on in the writing section of my life.

So I was supposed to start writing in Tornado C. Easier said than done. I've told you guys repeatedly to write first, edit later. Now that I'm getting the hang of outlining, however, this terrible vice has come back to bite me.

How can I do that? you may ask. Well, it sounds more complicated than it is: but in essence, I'm revising the novel before I ever set pen to paper.

But not in a Doctor Who kind of way. I'm actually tweaking the detailed outline I've written for Tornado C. I originally started out with a mildly exciting outline. (My plot always gets better once I write it.) Once I had finished said outline, I had planned on starting the first draft ASAP.

One problem...I didn't think my outline was good enough.

So what did I do? I revised it.

Guess what? After I did the revisions, it was awesome. I tightened the plot and added some theme. I was so pumped to write this novel. Then I went to bed, woke up, and realized something.

It wasn't good enough.

So I revised some more, added a subplot, and generally made things better.

Went to bed, woke up, realized something.

It wasn't good enough.

Do you see the cycle? It's pretty obvious.

Now I'm working on adding another supporting character ("three's a company") and trying to figure out whether or not I actually killed off all of the remaining heirs to the Celamar throne. Gulp. That was a major plot problem. Tell you the truth, I hadn't actually realized that they were all dead until last week, even though I had killed them off (in my head) several months before. (Hey, when you're juggling half a dozen stories in your head at once, sometimes you overlook things!)

And also, the first three chapters of the novel (aside from the epic prologue) are pretty much run away, almost get caught, run away, almost get caught, and then we finally come to our senses and run away to a place that actually has to do with the plot. *headdesk* I still need to find a suitable subplot for that section. It's pretty much "butter scraped over too much bread" right now. It's trying to be more important than it is.

But that's one of the things I have found that I actually like about outlining: I can fix plot problems before I get to them. I don't have to go through the weary process of plot revision after the novel is finished; I can do it beforehand, in my head.

Except, outlining is still a major pain. If I write an idea down, I have to write down specifics, and that's something that my brain hates doing before it's time to actually write that idea into prose. Eurgh.

Aside from my fair-weather friendship with outlining, I've also been working on other writing-related things. Lately I've been shaping out the next four or five Will Vullerman short stories in my head. Included in this is the groundwork for an earth-shaking conclusion to Will Vullerman's saga, which I can't wait to write. I have no idea how many stories I'll write before I finish them off with the conclusion, but once I do, it'll be blow-your-socks-off epic.

But the next five WV stories are a 25k+ project, so I'm painfully abstaining from writing them until I actually get some prose work done in Tornado C. Gah! So much to do, so little time in which to do it!

Speaking of Will Vullerman, however, I've also been hammering out concept cover art with my sister, who does photography. We've got the cover for one of my stories (The Thirteenth Call) already finished and the rest are coming - I can't wait to show them all to you!

But cover art and, more importantly, publication, will have to wait. I have to do some extensive revisions on the stories first. And those edits come after I work on Tornado C. Blech. I've got my hands full this summer, no mistake.

But don't worry, I've gotten some solid writing done. My pen gets restless when I do nothing but brainstorming. So what did I do?

I've written and revised a 5,000 word short story titled The Flame That Does Not Burn, and yes, it tries to be as mysterious as the title implies. It's a fantasy-allegory chock full of little theme tidbits - and I tried out a new experiment. The story's narrator - and many of the other characters - use their native language pretty extensively, in little bits and pieces. If my style worked, then it'll add quite a bit of depth to the story; if not, it'll make the reader confused. Time will tell.

I sound busy, I know. But hey, it's the rainy season. Rain, rain, rain, 24/7. And it's cold. (By West African standards.) I actually have an excuse to stay inside and get some writing done!

How's your writing coming along? If you're not doing much writing (or even if you are), how is life coming along in general? I hear that it's hot! Y'know, right now, it's actually cooler here than it is in most parts of the States...

Oh, and do you have any writing topics that have been bothering you lately? I've been stumped about what sort of articles to write. I've exhausted quite a few topics and I'm looking for more.

Gotta go. Until next time!

The Villain

Among all of the characters in a novel, the villain, the antagonist, is one of the hardest to write. Sure, you can make a villain that's big, bad, and mean - but a villain with actual depth is rare.

This is something all writers struggle with, including myself. I don't have all the answers to the villain question; in this post, I'll share what I do know.

Villains are essential. Without a tangible villain, the story lacks balance. If a story portrays only good, it portrays only half of life; because life is a struggle between good and evil, between Christ and the forces of darkness.

The villain, therefore, is the embodiment of that evil, and usually exhibits one main evil trait. Hate, bitterness, immorality, revenge, greed, envy, murder, brutality; all are evil ideals that the villain might embrace. Usually, it's the opposite ideal of what your hero represents. The hero shows love; the villain shows hate. Etc.

All right, so it's easy enough to tack on a trait to your villain. But how do you give him depth, humanity, and a truly chilling presence?

That's what this post is about.

1) Don't make the mistake of making your villain single-minded. That is, don't make it to where he has just one negative ideal.

Villains, like all people, have many motivations. Aside from his main ideal, he has other desires and interests. A villain can combine hatred and revenge, greed and envy, murder and and brutality and bitterness; real villains are many-layered. They have more than one desire, and when those desires conflict, that's when we are shown the villain's true driving desires.

Edmond Dantes, in the movie The Count of Monte Cristo, is a very conflicted character. He's something of an anti-hero, which gives me a lot of fertile ground for proving my points. Nothing stands in the way of his revenge; not his wise mentor, not his money, not his former dependence on God, and not even his love. Revenge is what sustained him in prison. In one scene, he says something along the lines of, "Don't take away my hate. It's all I have."

In the same way, make your villain have one driving desire; but you have to prove that his desire really is what drives him. He has to want something so badly that he'll do anything to get it.

2) Make your character have some good in him.

The scary thing about villains is that we can see ourselves in them. The villain is who we will be if the protagonist doesn't win. The villain is mostly bad, just as the protagonist is mostly good. But the "mostly" part is what makes the struggle between the two so fascinating. To our horror, we find that, in some ways, we empathize with the villain, even as we hate him.

Give him some humanity; a tenderness that seems bizarre at first. Say one villain has a reluctance to kill priests, since a priest helped him and sheltered him as a child. Make it something that makes sense but conflicts with his evil ideals.

Even better, let what is bad in the villain come about because he did something good. Again, Edmond Dantes is an excellent example. He was an honest man who trusted everyone, even the people who betrayed him. That honesty proved to be his downfall. When he was sent to prison, however, he destroyed his trust and let revenge rule him.

3) Let us know what the villain is capable of.

If the villain doesn't come into the story until the end, then why will we fear him? But if we've seen his handiwork before the hero confronts the villain, we'll be a lot more frightened for our hero's safety. In my outline of Tornado C, I already have several instances in which the villain shows just how far he has fallen, and that makes him chilling.

Again, Dantes comes up as an example. (No, he's not a villain, but he has a lot of villainous traits up until the end.) Dantes will do anything to get revenge. When he escapes from his prison, Chateau d'If, he pulls the master of the prison with him off of a cliff. The master has tortured him for years, so...well, only one of them survives afterward. This shows how far Dantes will go, and creates a fear in us. "No, Dantes, don't do it!" we want to shout. "There's a better way! Let go of your revenge!" Every time he comes near one of his betrayers, we feel a shiver of fear, because we know the need for revenge that drives him.

This doesn't mean that you have to write something gory in order to make the villain scary. In fact, the worst fear is the fear of the unknown. Leave the details to the imagination; imagination is best at scaring itself.

4) Make him or her realistic.

In other words, not everyone is a mass-murderer. But everyone struggles with anger. Make the villain understandable, because we struggle with the same things. The difference is, the villain uses that evil and embraces it to elevate himself and his desires, rather than struggling against it.

The villain must have normal human needs as well. He needs love; but because he doesn't get it, he hates those who do. An inhuman villain becomes a supernatural villain who can wave his hand and do anything, regardless of morality and conscience. Like I've said before, a true villain is horrifying because he was once like us.

Now, before I finish this post, I have one more thing to say, and it's about anti-heroes.

I mention The Count of Monte Cristo quite a bit, and Dantes (the main character) is pretty much an anti-hero. That is, he's a hero without too many heroic qualities, at least in the middle of the movie.

Here's my advice: stay away from anti-heroes. If a hero isn't heroic, then why are we reading this story? If the tale is bad-versus-bad, why write it? Honestly, which of us has the wisdom to write a story that is steeped in evil?

The Count of Monte Cristo is one of the few stories that pulls off an anti-hero, mainly through good storytelling, superb characters, and a strong theme. It's very hard to write an anti-hero story well, at least for Christian writers. Why?

I believe that the purpose of the Christian story is to build up, to glorify God and retell the truths of the Bible. The problem is, anti-heroes make me feel dirty. It's not about good versus evil. In those stories, the character often hate themselves for their evil. I've read stories from young Christian writers that are, frankly, hopeless. That is, they're lacking the hope that Christianity offers. (There's a disturbing trend toward murderer protagonists, too.)

And if such stories do offer hope, they do it in a bad-guy-gets-saved-and-there's-a-happy-ending kind of way...which is pretty much unrealistic and cheesy.

Therefore, I cannot justify anti-heroes unless it is done as well as it was in The Count of Monte Cristo.

(SPOILERS FOR THE MOVIE: In that movie, Dantes was redeemed in the end, and that's why it was satisfying and not degrading. He found that vengeance was the Lord's, not his. He found that revenge did nothing but waste his life. He returns to the faith that he had had before he was imprisoned.

(The final image we get from the movie was rather moving: a picture from the prison cell in which Dantes was tortured. He had scraped deep into the wall, through torture after torture, GOD WILL GIVE ME JUSTICE. And on that note, the movie ends.)

So what do you think about villains? How can we, as writers, create truly chilling but believable villains? What do you think about anti-heroes?

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Publishing: My Thoughts

It's somewhere in the back of our minds. All the time, we feel it. That maybe, someday, we'll complete this novel, revise it to perfection, and publish it.

Maybe you're writing the novel. Maybe you're revising it. Maybe you're looking to publish it. Or maybe you're just a writer trying to get better. Nevertheless, we always have that little dream that we'll get our story out there. It won't be a print-and-send-to-relatives tale, but a genuine published work of art.

That's why I wrote this post. This isn't a guide to success, but rather an analysis of where and how you should publish.

In a way, you could refer to this post as another in the teeming multitude of posts on what many of us call the Great Publishing Debate.

Because really, for the young writers, there's two options. You try the hard route of getting published traditionally, which requires rejections, queries, agents, and all of that jazz. Or you self-publish, which is increasingly becoming a viable do-it-yourself option. You could even do eBook-only, which just requires basic computer knowledge.

In a way, I might seem biased. After all, I already went the self-publishing route, right? The War Horn is already on the market for any reader who wants to check it out. But still, the debate goes on, and the forces are evenly matched. For the young, unpublished writer, it's a hard decision.

Why? Listen up and I'll tell you.

At first, self-publishing looks better. After all, you get tons of money (which is debatable), you do it yourself, and more importantly, you don't have to go through the lengthy process of actually getting noticed. Getting published traditionally looks like a lot of work!

Nevertheless, traditional publishing has several advantages. First, they have reach. They're trusted. They're well-known. They can reach audiences you can never get to on your own. Christian fiction authors Donita K. Paul and Wayne Thomas Batson have each sold over a quarter million copies of their books. That's a ton of readers!

Traditional publishers also have the advantage of bookstores, which, despite online retailers like Amazon, are still a fantastic source of advertising. Even if the books aren't bought, they're seen. Physical books on a physical shelf in a physical store seem somewhat more compelling. Some people I know buy their books primarily through bookstores.

Okay, now the publishing scene sways in favor of the traditional publishers. But there's one huge problem with traditional publishers: money.

Let me show you.

On Amazon.com, the average digital Christian fiction eBook costs ten dollars to buy.

Also on Amazon, my own eBook (The War Horn) costs three dollars to buy.

Okay, so traditional books are more expensive. But wait, there's more.

One Christian author once stated that he averages about fifty cents per book he sells. That's a twentieth of the list price.

When I sell one book on Amazon, I get about two dollars. That's seventy percent of the list price. So that author's book is three times more expensive than mine, but I would make four times as much money as he does per book. Those are tough statistics!

Using those stats, it also means that even if this guy sells four times as many books as I do, we'd be making the same amount of money. If I sell a hundred books, I'd get two hundred dollars. If a this author's book sells a hundred copies, he'd get fifty dollars.

That's a big difference, and now it looks like self-publishing is in the lead.

But he makes more money than I do. Why? Because he has a big following. How did he get that? Through traditional publishing.

And just to stir things up, a third paradigm is emerging: independent publishers with high royalty rates, unlike traditional publishers. Marcher Lord Press is a high-quality Christian speculative fiction publisher that releases tons of great books. If a book has Marcher Lord Press's name on it, I'd read it. Their name is almost synonymous with great Christian fiction.

Independent publishers are spreading, too. Scott Appleton is a Christian fantasy author who started Flaming Pen Press. It's published several great books thus far, such as J. R. Parker's Kestrel's Midnight Song and the soon-to-be-released Out of Darkness Rising by Gillian Adams. Another publisher to watch is the newly-launched Magpie Eclectic Press, which was started by Nichole White, who did the cover art for The War Horn.

This is the Great Publishing Debate, and it's highly confusing and controversial. It's constantly being changed by innovations in the market, such as Amazon's Kindle Select.

Now that you've seen it, here's my stance.

Marketing is a huge advantage. I've learned that for myself. The War Horn occasionally picks up a few sales, but without a sizable following or a big name behind it, its progress is slow. Unless you've written something that has an insanely awesome plot (and an equally good synopsis) that makes it as compelling as the newest thrillers from traditional publishers, chances are, you'll have a hard time attracting random people to your books.

Still, it can be done. I know a writer named Gregory Downs who has sold thousands of copies of his eBooks after self-publishing with KDP. Again, I know another Christian writer who put his eBook up as free for one day and had ten thousand downloads. Getting your book out there takes a lot of commitment, though.

My thoughts? I've self-published The War Horn, but I had several reasons for this. First, the book is just a bit longer than a hundred pages, hardly a publishable size. Second, it's a pretty normal historical fiction with an Arthurian twist. Not the most interesting genre.

I'm going to continue my self-publishing experiment with my science fiction short stories, but again, a collection of short stories is less-than-marketable. Novels are much better for publishers.

Once I've written a book that I consider good enough - I'm hoping that Tornado C will be "the one" - I'm going to test out the waters of traditional publishing. Who knows what'll happen? Marcher Lord Press now appears to be accepting YA, and AMG Publishers is also looking open. It's worth a try. Publishers can get you an audience, and once you have an audience, self-publishing suddenly looks good again.

My recommendation to you? Wait until your book is ready to think about publishing. But once you're ready, I'd suggest trying out traditional publishing first. It has the advantage of a wide market.

So what's your opinion on the publishing debate? What do you think about this whole thing? What are you planning to do once your novel is finished and ready to be taken to the world? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Some Thoughts on Revision

I've always prided myself in having high-quality prose. In my head, I knew that good books aren't written; they're rewritten. But still, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?

Thus, I've felt that I didn't need revision quite as much as other people. I thought I could create good books without too much editing. I mean, I do use revision quite a bit, but in the case of my Will Vullerman stories, I've done little to no revision and they turned out pretty well.

Was I wrong? Absolutely.

I received a critique of The Thirteenth Call the other day that was pretty critical of the story. To the critiquer's credit, he told me what was wrong with the story with fantastic politeness and respect and really did a great job. Still, it hurt a little bit. Wasn't the story "good enough"? If that story wasn't good, what was?

I think, in a way, that critique was a bit of a knock on the head from God. Learn from my experience, fellow writer: don't get so puffed up in the head that you don't see mistakes when you make them! I was feeling pretty good about myself up until then. But I'm not supposed to feel good about myself; I'm supposed to feel grateful to God that He has used me to write such stories. I need to hold my stories to a higher standard, and cut off Pride's head while I'm at it.

Now that I've had some time to mull it over, I realized my mistake: I thought that The Thirteenth Call was good enough not to revise, in addition to that silly thing called Pride.

Here's my advice: always look for places to better the story. Don't settle for "good enough". And most of all, don't think that great prose makes a great story. That was the downfall of The Thirteenth Call. What I needed to revise was my plot and character, not my prose.

Revision means looking critically at EVERYTHING in the novel, not just the prose. The pacing of the story was good, the prose was good, the dialogue was good; but that blinded me to the fact that a few of the characters were shallow and one-dimensional, and that there was very little emotional difficulty in the story.

Now that I'm finished with The Immortal Man (finished it yesterday at 8.5k), I plan to set my Will Vullerman stories on the shelf for a while, and then pull them out to revise later on. I'm planning on some pretty heavy-duty rewriting for The Thirteenth Call especially.

Take it from me, writer. Your story always needs revision, no matter how good you think it is after you finish it. Send it to people and they'll identify your flaws for you. But send it to more than one person, and don't rely on critique from your family. (I've found that their critiques often amount to, "It was good.")

And as a side note, wait 'til the story's done to revise. Otherwise, you'll get distracted.

You'll find that revision will make your story shine. It'll turn out so much better if you look at everything with a critical eye and try to find places to improve.

And a great story that's been polished is what's going to get your name out there, not a decent story with little revision.

What Is This Theme Stuff, Anyway?

What exactly is theme? Why does it matter? How do you even write it?

This is yet another of those rehashing-stuff-I've-mentioned-or-written-about-before posts. Yet every time you look at something, you get a new insight. An apple appears red at first; but then you can tell it's darker in some places and lighter in others. Then you get past the simple look and find that the inside isn't really red at all. And it tastes good, too.

My point is, theme is one of the most important parts of fiction for the Christian fiction writer, and must be studied, therefore, more than once. You get new stuff out of it with each fresh look.

What is theme?

Theme is simply the meaning in the story you write. This is not to be confused with the subcategory of theme, which I've nicknamed story-with-a-theme, partners to story-with-a-message and story-with-a-faith. (Rather confusing on my part, sorry.) In this post, however, theme simply means the meaning in a story and encompasses all three categories.

Now, theme is an essential part of every story. Without theme, a story is meaningless. It's fluff. It has no impact on your life. It's escapism. Not bad in itself, but why waste your time on a meaningless story when you could be doing something that's actually constructive?

Theme, however, is a big subject. There's a multitude of different ideas about how to do theme. I divide it into three aforementioned categories: theme (a "moral of the story"), message (a more concealed Christian theme, such as in allegories and Narnia), and faith (the kind of story in which faith in God is an integral part: Bryan Davis and Christopher Hopper's books are examples of this).

In this post, however, I'll address the action and abandon the analytics. (Alliteration. Hah!) Before you read much further, however, make sure you're in the right place. Your writing isn't yours, remember. It's God's. If you're trying to manufacture a theme without Him, and all truth is in Him, then are you really making a theme?

Now, there are many different opinions about writing theme. Writing genius Jeff Gerke, whom I respect quite a bit, suggests that story is king; you'll write a story and discover that you'll get a theme on the way. I disagree.

I am of the opinion that you need to find your theme to write it. I manage to work pretty well off the seat of my pants, but before I ever touch pen to paper, I know my theme.

How do you find your theme, then? What do you find in a theme? How does a theme work?

List time!

1) A theme must come integrally from the plot and characters. They all work together.

In my Will Vullerman short story, The Reality Ring, my character gets into a mess because he rather recklessly traps himself in an alternate reality. Why? Because he was a little bored with life. Running missions for the ASP was his life, and when that was taken away, he didn't have much left. The theme of the story was about Will rediscovering his purpose in life, and having a pretty rollicking adventure along the way. The story was tied to the theme, and vice versa.

This is why theme is often hard; because you're trying too hard. If you look closely, you'll find the theme was in there in the plot all along. All you need to do is find it and show the reader what it is. In battles, you'll find courage, heroism; in the quest, you'll discover perseverance, fortitude; in the long journey, friendship, fellowship, camaraderie; in the characters, redemption, love, and sacrifice. The themes are there, but like a diamond in the rock, you need to dig them out and make them shine.

2) A theme often involves character change.

As we saw in the above example, the theme is often found in a character change. In other words, my character learned something.

In The War Horn, my main character embarks on a quest, and the quest changes him. In the end, he can't be who he was anymore. He gives up himself and becomes a better person as a result, learning what freedom truly is. The theme drove the plot, so to speak. As Daniel Schwabauer puts it, a character changes when the cost of not changing becomes too high.

The theme quite often revolves around the character. Because in the character, we see ourselves. If we truly empathize with a character, it's because we understand him. When the character changes, we find that we can change too.

3) To show theme, thread it through the story.

Once you've discovered your theme, to make it most effective, you need to thread it through the story. Another of my Will Vullerman stories, In Stasis, had the theme of God's mercy woven throughout it. The ending was meaningful because I had foreshadowed it, so to speak, by introducing the theme in the beginning of the story. Again, in The Reality Ring, the theme was introduced from the very first page and tied up in the ending.

In The War Horn, my character repeatedly was given opportunities to truly see freedom as it must be, and not as he saw it. He failed each time, and each time the stakes grew higher. But by the end, the cost of not changing became too high, and he finally chose correctly. In that way, the theme was continued throughout the story, and finally resolved in the end. In fact, the last word of the book is free.

4) To help in showing theme, embody it in a symbol.

I first came up with the concept of a war horn after listening to an inspirational One Year Adventure Novel lecture called Symbols. In that lecture, Daniel Schwabauer explained that a theme or an ideal can be embodied in a symbol.

In The War Horn, the horn is the symbol of freedom, and also a reminder of my main character's lost father. At the climax of the story, rather than saying that my character chose freedom, I used the war horn to show my character's choice. (But for the full details of that theme, you'll have to read the book yourself!)

Symbols often make the reader dig for meaning. They create a feeling of satisfaction deep within the readers' souls that a simple statement can never do.

5) Reach out of the story and into real life.

The thing that makes a theme a theme is that it matters to us. The characters we love are the ones that spur us on. In a way, we say, "If he did it, so can I."

Thus, a theme shows us something that matters in actual life. In The Thirteenth Call, yet another Will Vullerman short story, Will comes to the conclusion that he can't do his mission alone. Time has run out and he has a slim chance of saving his friends' lives; and all the time he is haunted by the failure from his past. That's relevant to all of us, because we all have failures in our past that haunt our present, and we all need to know that there is Someone who is sovereign over it all.

Ultimately, our job is to point to the greatest Author of all. We reach out of our tale and show our reader that the God of this story is the God of their story. He's the Author of the saga of this world, and His gospel can be traced throughout the world's bloody history, the light in this otherwise dark tale. And He can take the darkness in each of us and transform us in His light.

So what do you think about theme? Are there any other ways you can think of to write theme? Can you think of any great themes in books you've read? Theme's one of my favorite subjects, after all. Let's talk.

Thousand-Dollar Writing Advice

A blank screen, a blank page

And a blank mind as well;

If this life of mine's a stage

Where is inspiration's well?

—"Writer's Block?" (A recent poem of mine.)

Sometimes I think that the bane of a writer's existence is a fella named Procrastination. You'll remember him. He's shadowy, dark (at least since he lost his plastic raincoat), and makes smileys on his swords.

However, dramatizing Procrastination will do little-to-no-good if you're trying to get out of his grip. In fact, I'd say that by writing this post, I'm procrastinating. It's sad but true.

Here's a thousand-dollar piece of advice for ye olde writers: write. Always write. The more you write, the less you procrastinate. Sometimes you'll write junk, but the more you write, the less junky your junk writing will get. Don't procrastinate. Turn off the internet if you need to. If you really want a kick in the pants, do NaNoWriMo (and take it seriously).

Because you can't sit around and wait for inspiration to show up. You have to go looking for him if you're ever going to find him.

Obviously, I haven't yet mastered this piece of advice, which is one of the many reasons why I don't have a thousand dollars. Actually, I'm pretty much being a hypocrite by writing this post while I'm supposed to be working on the Immortal Man.

So my wise and pithy saying for today is, in essence: go and write.

There's not much more to it than that.

Have fun. I need to go work on my story. Feel free to give me a kick in the pants if I don't have two thousand words written by this time tomorrow.

POST SCRIPTUM, approx. 1 1/2 HOURS LATER:

I wrote a thousand words. Hurrah for not-procrastinating! ^_^ Here's a snippet from a character I really like, while he and my MC were playing word games:

--

"You're smart. Brave, maybe, if that means anything."

"Thanks." Will eyed the man's stun rod. "You're quick."

"Maybe that's not as flattering. You can't exchange a compliment with a compliment?"

"I haven't had an opportunity to find a redeeming trait."

A hoarse laugh erupted from the hooded man. "All too true. I doubt you'll find much to compliment in me."

Something about the man's voice unnerved Will. He tried to put on a more bold face. "You're calm and collected. Aloof and analytic. Is that part of your mysterious aura?"

"I dislike alliteration, if you don't mind."

Will answered with another question. "Do you ever let anyone see your face?"

The hooded man stopped. Will thought he saw the glitter of the man's eyes in the shadows. "Only when they're about to die."

--

I'm going to go now, but remember: always write. Keep writing. Don't stop for trivial things.

And watch out for Procrastination.

Writing Plans: What's Now and What's Next

Hullo, blog readers! Read on if you're of the curious sort. This post is entirely about my writing, so there's not much constructive about it. Still, it may prove to be interesting reading!

All right, so here's what's happening: in this post, I'm going to attempt to explain my current (and ambitious) writing plans. This is partially for your benefit and partially to organize my chaotic thoughts. You'll note that there are a lot of occurrences of "probably" and "hopefully". Most everything on this list is tentative, but that's the way writing works, right?

Okay, here goes!

Today is 10th of June. I have, max, until late August to concentrate completely on writing; August is when school will come back and I'll have to put writing in the backseat. So I have two and a half months, give or take, to focus on these projects. Afterward, my writing will probably be restricted to evenings and late nights.

So what's first up?

Foremost on my list is completing, revising, and publishing my Will Vullerman short stories. I'm 2k into The Immortal Man (and procrastinating), which is the last of the WV stories in the foreseeable future. Afterward, I'll revise them and then format them for Kindle. Since that's a fairly small project in comparison to the actual writing of the stories, I can probably multitask and combine my time with another project. (Once my revision is done, however, keep your eyes peeled for a Will Vullerman post; I'm planning on offering to send the stories to whoever wants to read them, first come first served.)

Next up is my newest novel, codename Tornado C. Work will begin as soon as I finish my outline, which will only take a couple of days or so once I set my mind to it.. I probably won't start writing in it, however, until The Immortal Man is finished.

The time required to write Tornado C is a mystery, however. I'm aiming for 50k+ words with twenty-four outlined chapters, but the story may take some unexpected turns or decide to be stubborn. We'll see. If I'm REALLY lucky, I'll have it finished by the end of the summer. Once it is finished, I'm hoping to submit it to the 2012 OYAN Novel Contest.

This is where my schedule begins to blur. However, here's what's most likely: I'll revisit The Prophecies. While one of the core concepts of the series is cliche and originality is sorely lacking, I can't stand leaving the story and the characters unfinished. And it's pretty good, other than that concept. The Prophecy of Einarr, for instance, has some of my best writing in it. It's an extremely fun series to write, too!

We'll see what I'll decide to do with the series, but I'll probably finish The Prophecy of Einarr sometime before November and then write book #3. (Actually, I have this sneaking suspicion that book #3 will be my 2012 NaNoNovel. After all, the previous two books were a result of NaNoWriMo, so I should probably follow the pattern!)

Somewhere along the line, I'd like to also revisit Revolution, a story I began some time ago. I love the concept, which is somewhat allegorical; and the style of writing is alluring. (It's highly narrative and dramatic with an emphasis on vivid description. A joy to write, but sometimes a pain to read.)

And if the Will Vullerman stories are well received with my readers, I'd like to write more of those, too. I've even got the first inklings for a grand-finale type ending to these sci-fi stories somewhere in the very distant future. Pun intended. (I've already started foreshadowing this ending in my current stories, though. Mwahahahaha!)

In ADDITION to this (almost done!), I'm also mulling over several other opportunities which may or may not work out. One of them is a nonfiction work. (Gasp!)

As you can see...I'm going to be really busy (as a writer) for the remainder of this year. :P We're looking at hundreds of thousands of words waiting to be written. Now that I look at it, it seems a lot more massive. But we'll see, eh?

However, having big plans leaves little room for procrastination. You guys need to keep me accountable, all right? As often as you can, you need to bother me to go and write.

So what are YOUR writing plans this summer? What are your summer plans in general? Anything particularly awesome coming up on the calendar? I love hearing from you all, so make sure and comment if you have something to say. :)