Netflix, Azeroth and Other Distractions

Well it has happened and just in time for Nanowrimo. The dreaded Writer’s Block has come to visit me. It seems that lately, if I’m actually trying to write anything new, my mind goes completely blank. I ask myself what’s wrong, but deep down I know the answer. I just have trouble accepting it.

Pic by Blizzard Entertainment

“Writer's Block: Situation when writer cannot write: an inability on the part of a writer to start a new piece of writing or continue an existing one” – Bing Dictionary

I don’t really have writer’s block in the sense that I can’t write because I’ve lost my creativity. I do have writer’s block because I’m blocking my own creativity. I’ve filled my head with distractions. Fantasy Football, Mists of Pandaria (the awesome new World of Warcraft expansion), and the worst of all… Netflix.

The title of this post was going to be Sex, Love and Other Drugs because I finally got around to seeing that movie. I absolutely loved it, but those things fuel my writing, unlike the stuff in the title I went with.

100th Blog Post! & Lucky 7 Challenge

I’ve been challenged by Lani Wendt Young to reveal a little about myself and a little about Devil Dog. Something called the Lucky 7 MEME, and since I’m not one to pass a chance to write about myself I accepted.

The rules as I understand it are:

1. Go to page 77 of your current MS.

2. Go to line 7.

3. Copy down the next 7 lines (sentences or paragraphs) and post them as they're written.

4. Tag 7 writers and let them know.

Now for the excerpt of Devil Dog on page 77. Unfortunately it's not one of my favorite scenes or one of the most exciting, but it is a turning point in the novel where the reader realizes how the main character is about to have his whole world crash around him.

            Colonel Ramos stops walking and turns towards the pesky woman and her cameraman. He says nothing so the reporter continues on, “The Iranians are claiming he crossed their border with a squad of marines and attacked a military outpost. Destroying two attack choppers and killing close to three dozen men, some were reported as civilians. What do you say in response to that?”

            He starts to turn away again, then pauses and replies, “I believe the President is the man you want to talk to about international relations, even greatly exaggerated stories like that one. Like I said before, his mission was classified, and I will handle it as the investigation unfolds. Good day, Miss?” He waits for her to introduce herself, but she hands the microphone to the cameraman and marches back to her van without so much as a smile.

Now for the questions about me…

Write to the Death!

Some of you may know already, but for those who have not heard, my computer was attacked yesterday by a virus. It was a nasty one, real nasty, like the little growly ankle biter dog that gets your calf as soon as you laugh at its diminutive size and turn your back on it. The kind you want to take a shower after dealing with. Or stab yourself in the face for not backing up your work more frequently. Ok, so I don’t really want to stab myself in the face, not only would that hurt, but it would make it difficult to write with my brain pain split open. Don’t worry, my calf will heal, I have thick skin.

Long story short, I spent hours battling the virus to save all of my work, which included the Weapons Weekly blogs I had written for the next few weeks. So this week, I will be very late, if I post a Weapons Weekly at all. I did not win the battle and in the end, I killed the virus, but he took every one of my documents with him. All of the blogs will have to be rewritten and researched.

If not for having two flash drives that I stored a few things on previously, it would have been a total loss. The last thing I want to do is go back to square one on writing Devil Dog. It was 348 pages before today. The backed up copy is only 311, but that not too bad. I’ll have that fixed in no time. The biggest loss was losing all of my work on Devil Dog 2 and mostly everything on the Warlord.

Wrtier Ramblings: Nanawrimo!

Believe it or not, that title is not a typo.

I’ve gone and done it! I signed up for the Nanawrimo for 2011. I have no idea really what that all is other than a writing marathon, but I figure it’s a great excuse to knock out the first half of another book. Since I can’t start the writing for it till November, that rules out the horror I was going to work on, I’m still in research phase for the Back to the Future Terminator crossover fan fiction I’m planning and I’m already 12,000 words into the fantasy. So I don’t feel comfortable writing any of those for my Nanowrimo.

Lucky for me, I already have an outline set up for another project. I’ll be done with my polishing on Devil Dog pretty soon and it will be sent out to editors and beta readers this month. I’m very excited and nervous at the same time. My baby is growing up already.

So the big question is what am I going to write if I’m already going to be pretty deep into the co-written horror, the fantasy is already started and Devil Dog will be in the hands of strangers? The only real solution is Devil Dog 2! Why not, the outline is written and I have concepts and plots designed for a full seven book series. I might as well start getting the sequel drafted.

50,000 words in a month! I am very excited to attempt this and somehow my wife is ok with it. So here I come. Bring it on November because I will write you down.

Writer Ramblings: Limitless

Limitless

This movie is about a pill that opens your mind to limitless possibilities. Can you imagine the ability to see the patterns of the things around us that normally we all see as nothing but chaos? With the ability to see every pattern in every aspect of life, you could literally predict the future.

Well, yes and no. The movie takes it to a whole new level, but in reality, we can all achieve this on our own. The only limits in life are what we set for ourselves. Obviously there are still some kinds of limits. Someone paralyzed from the waist down won’t ever be able to run a marathon right? Maybe they can’t, but if they really want to, they can find a way to roll in one. No dream is unachievable, except immortality. That is even questionable depending on what you believe immortality would require. Me? Two things make me believe in immortality. The afterlife, because I believe there is one, and my writing. Long after I’m dead, someone will still be purchasing and buying my novels. Let’s hope that is still very far off though.

Writer Ramblings: A Tip From My Editor

How many writers out there finished a manuscript for the first time or just finished rewriting it for the fifth time and now you’re avoiding the self-edit and polish phase? You read over it about three or four more times to make sure you get all those kinks out and that it flows and so on and so on. You know it needs a real thorough pass through, or maybe you haven’t edited it at all because you hate grinding back through what you’ve written again. A lot of writer’s take a break and come back later. Although that helps, it didn’t make me want to edit any more than I wanted to before.

Long story short, most writers hate editing for one reason or another. I have the story memorized so when I go through it over and over, I generally know what’s going to happen and it becomes monotonous and dull to pick at. When I just read the story I’m excited, but editing is not really reading casually. I’m looking for anything I can do to improve what is already there.

I shared my disdain for such a grueling tedious task with my editor. He decided to share a method with me that could help with editing something that’s been read several times already.
He said, “Read it out of order.”
I was stunned. How you could you do that and keep on top of the story? It would just be confusing. So he explained. And once I put it into practice, I started enjoying the editing. It added a sense of adventure and mystery because I never knew what part of the story I was going to be editing next. So instead of a constant stream of the same story, I saw flashes of it, and I am learning which ones need to be more entertaining as well.

The idea is to pick a random chapter. Comb through it for all the things you want to improve on. One chapter at a time isn’t so bad and since it’s been ripped out of the middle of your book, you might catch something that doesn’t make a ton of sense or is too vague, because it was continued from a previous chapter. I found this with the first one I pulled. The first word was “She.” Ok, I looked at it and the first paragraph never mentioned a name. I knew who it was because I wrote the scene, but that sure might confuse a reader.

Once you’ve edited that chapter, write out a short summary on what occurred and any key points that were in the chapter. This is important for later. If you can’t really come up with a summary nor have any key points, then this is a good time to think hard about deleting the chapter or rewriting it.

The method I used to randomly select my chapter is index cards. I wrote down the chapter numbers each on separate cards and then shuffled them. Flipped them over and started at the top. So far I’ve increased the speed I’m editing at from one chapter a week to one a day.

Once you have completely gone through your manuscript, go back and read the summaries in the proper order to make sure the story flows at a steady pace and so on. Go back to chapters where the summary feels dull or out of place or maybe just doesn’t fit into or have a true purpose to the plot. Another good use for the summaries is titling your chapters. I enjoy attempting to create titles for my chapters and if I can come up with good titles for every chapter then I’ll keep them, otherwise I toss them all. The summary will absolutely speed up that process.

Thanks for reading. I just couldn’t keep this editing tip to myself. I hope some of you find it useful. Now back to editing.

WIP Update 8-10-11: Devil Dog and The Warlord

Just a short post this Wednesday on updates is all I have time for and there I’m pretty sure I can stuff it all in pretty quick and painless.

First update: Devil Dog is still in edit mode, but I’ve been trying out some new tricks to make it less painless. One of my editors recommended it after I complained about how much I don’t want to do it after reading the book and rewriting so many times already, but it needs to be done. I’m preparing a blog to discuss his tips as well, for those who might be interested in those. Not only are some of the tips making it easier to go through the manuscript, but they are going to verify the story flows as it should. I’ll be posting some excerpts pre-editor pretty soon on my Facebook fan page.

Second Update: I’m well into the first chapter of The Warlord. It’s been slow going, but I’m very excited about what I’ve got so far. I can already tell this book will be much larger than the Devil Dog. I’ve been building this world for twenty years. Cultures, peoples, religions, languages, history, geography, etc. have all been detailed. I’ve even toyed with an RPG rules game someday. Wrote the first 50 pages of that a few years back and saved it.

Third Update: The sequel to Devil Dog hasn’t been touched too much since I plotted out the scenes and designed the outline and characters. I’m still working on the opening line, but patience is the key and I’m sure it will come to me eventually. I have plenty else to do in the meantime.

I guess a detox update is in order. I discovered I suck at dieting/detoxing. I can’t go more than three days before giving into the call of something sweet. So I’ll just go back to working out and eating in moderation. Hope everyone is having a great week, I’ll get something more interesting up by Friday and I’ll link up another book review tomorrow.

I’m also trying to come up with a weekly special post. Something like Medieval Weaponry Mondays. That’s the front runner on my short list of ideas. Actually, I think I'm going to run with that. It's one of my favorite hobbies along with castle construction and defenses.