Nail on the head

I just read this article about the principles of making your novel compelling and I could not agree more. For those too lazy to follow the link, I will emphasise and reiterate what every good novel should contain:

1. A good hook - if the story doesn't grab you from page one, you're doing it wrong.
2. A strong voice - if the voice of the novel has its own style, you're half-way there to an interesting read
3. A good/interesting story - that should go without saying
4. Compelling characters - strong, relateable and believable characters (not just 16 year-olds with strong desires for centenarian vampires)
5. Commentary on the human condition - something that resonates with the reader

Maybe I have rose-coloured glasses on but I know I followed those principles when writing my novel (even if I didn't know them at the time). Feel free to disagree, though, as that's what makes us human after all :)

Dystopia by definition

Dystopia is a word that's thrown around a lot lately. The word, by definition, means:

"A society characterized by human misery, as squalor, oppression, disease, and overcrowding."

Which brings me to this video that attempts to convey dystopia through many forms of media; multimedia if you will. I think this video is interesting (but not as interesting as their slow-motion flying dogs). I think they went for a far simpler definition of what dystopia was to them (mostly over-population) my personal view is that our society is nearing the zenith of what I see as dystopia. Already, far too many people know far too much about you simply through using their services; whether directly or indirectly.

I had an interesting experience recently:

I've recently been on the lookout for a new laptop over the last few weeks, I was surprised when I started receiving emails from Amazon about cool laptops that were on sale. Without prompting by me, they knew that I was a likely candidate for a new laptop and, therefore, they were proactive in ensuring that I knew all about their clunky low-res laptops (I'll refrain from getting on my soapbox this time) . A little scary, sure. And all of this came about because I had decided to browse a few laptops on their site while logged into their system. Apparently every website that utilises facebook integration automatically collects information about your browsing habits irrespective of whether you actually click or comment via their facebook integration. They collect information just by you going to that page (while remaining logged into facebook). Unless you choose not to be very social, they are guaranteed to know quite a bit about you (even if all they're able to trace is your unique IP address).

bonus points if you know what this is from :)

Scary, indeed, but that's the price you pay for living in the information age.

Letting go

I have recently made a rather large change: I've accepted a one-year secondment in the US. Alongside this acceptance, I've also given up my apartment and (pretty much) all my worldly possessions. It is quite scary and also quite liberating to be happy to be able to travel so light but logically it made sense as well. It would have cost me a bare minimum of $2,000 to put my stuff in storage ... and probably the same amount to ship it to America. I managed to sell all my furniture, TV, PS3 and stereo for $2,000 and have now (theoretically) made about $4,000 on the deal.

I now have a suitcase full of clothes, my work laptop, roller blades and tennis/squash racquet. Everything else has been liquidated. The few personal items that I couldn't take were shipped to my parents' place and now I have the ability to start again. For those that are following my progress, I also managed to write a bit on the flight over. I'm now at about 14% (note the progress meter to the right) and having a bit more free time and minimal distractions should allow me to quickly put a sizable dent in what remains.

Tipping the balance

I am progressing nicely through the next book. I think the pacing and writing is comparable and, now that the mythos of my world has been established, I can focus more on character development and the trials and tribulations of what Zed goes through to avoid unrest-threatening situations.

I have the plot worked out and it's just a matter of painting by the numbers and hopefully injecting the same level of fun dialogue and neurotic musings that the first one did. I think if I had to put the first as a basis of five for the litmus test, I would say this next book would be a seven. There are more characters, more perspectives, more story arcs and more is seen of the world. Of course, I don't want to go all Michael Bay on this book and think, naturally, that more is always better but I do think that the story will benefit from this broader scope.

Random musing:
Feel free (for those who have read my book) to give me suggestions or ideas for what you would like Mr Zed (or Chase) to do next. You never know; I might just add it to the story (and credit you in the book) :) Alternatively, if I'm 100% enamored by your idea, you might even become one of the characters in my story!

Breaking the rules and loving it

Ah yes, I've decided to break the first rule of fight club - uh, I mean - the rules I set out when writing my first novel, Zed. The one and only rule was that it would be written first-person for the whole book - and now I am in the process of breaking it for the second.

I think it is already paying dividends, with the fun of multiple story arcs and the enjoyment and excitement of witnessing certain events played out from a different perspective. Of course, our grisled zombie will still be tormenting the reader with his ever-pertinent thoughts but it's just that his won't be the only perspective. It is all going according to plan and I'm loving the opportunities it affords me.

Book Two is underway

Ah yes. The second book in the Zed Trilogy has commenced. It is nice to see a beginning ... now all I need to do is see an end! The start has been unrealistically smooth, with a smooth first chapter and a pretty good introduction to the key antagonist of this book (I'm sure you can guess who if you think hard enough).

[reference]

It's all been pretty smooth and now I'm leading into the first major battle of our grisled protagonist, which should be a little trickier to orchestrate. I'm taking my time, ensuring that it plays out imaginatively and makes sense to my readers. It should be 'awesome' to use an American vernacular. And hopefully you will be on the edge of your seat and filled with, at least partially, some awe.

Anywho; It's a short post so I'd best get back to writing my book! Oh, and Happy Birthday Mom!!

An order too tall?

My mind is fickle.

On one side, I would like my next novel to be different to the zombie genre so that I stagger the Zed trilogy (and don't get pigeon-holed) to its final completion but now think that this might be the wrong strategy, and so, have decided against it. At this point in time I am aiming to write the last two books in short succession of each other over the next few months.

My view is to write, refine and release the books with a manufactured six-month delay between the two of them. I think that would be best and I think the last two books would benefit from this as I would be able to maintain a more even tone through the remainder of the series rather than having to rediscover my voice each time.

If I can pull this off I will be 'quite the hardened author' in the end. Despite the teething problems of the first one, I think that each successive book should be simpler to knock into a final polished shape. I believe I have developed an interesting story arc and this should result in a great conclusion to the trilogy. Well, here's to hoping the general public also agrees with me ... and here's to facing up to the challenge!

I am a falling tree

The famous conundrum:

"If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" 

There is a brilliant debate right here that covers a lot of different perspectives.

Up until recently, I would have said no, but now I would say yes! Since releasing my novel, I haven't had a huge amount of success getting the book out to the masses. I have tried really hard, blogging, posting and attempting to entice various people to read my novel. Very few of my friends were willing to read it (shame on you) and very few have provided much constructive feedback on my novel ... up until now.

It has taken the efforts of the good folks at goodreads to provide some constructive feedback on my novel and I appreciate it. To all those that have yet to read my novel, I would recommend using sites such as goodreads. They are invaluable for gaining information beyond simply a synopsis and it is also a pretty cool place to hang out and discuss the books and novels you are interested in.

To use a Tosh.0 quote: ...and for that we say thank you.

Not being pigeon-holed

As part of my 'master plan,' I have decided to write a book that isn't zombie-related. It might have similar themes or concepts, but it won't be about zombies. There is nothing worse than being pigeon-holed now is there?

Yes, this was an image I discovered when searching for pigeon-holed.
Fitting isn't it?

My next novel will be humorous (hopefully) and will still have a strong message that should make it an enjoyable read for those that decide to read it. I will leave this post with a twitter summary of what I aspire to write, although I am still in the process of establishing the set pieces. It's best to prepare, wouldn't you think? :)

"Manic-obsessive fish-out-of-water in the slums of a third-world country"

I think this story has legs. Apologies if the description is a little cryptic - I can't give too much away before the story has even been written!

Quality versus quantity

It took almost three times as much time to edit my novel than it did to write it. Admittedly, the whole process only took four months but I resolved to write my next story with a greater focus on quality than simply words per day.

Although

Does that mean my final story will be less interesting? Will it have lost some of the magic by having a more quality-assured approach to my writing? Will the flow of the novel be lost in the process? I am unsure, since this will only be my second novel. I am weary of devoting all my efforts into writing it correctly the first time.

Whether I focus on quality or quantity, I know that I will have to put my novel through multiple iterations once the final draft has been completed. I think, whether you lean more towards a certain doctrine, you will always pay the ferryman during the editing process. 

...well here's to a less harrowing editing process :) 

Musings for your mind

Outside of intellect, training, an ability to stage your story and write believable characters and good dialogue, there is another tool that you need:

Imagination and hard work

There is a website that helps with the imagination part: oneword.com. As for the hard work, you will still have to look to yourself for that.

Upon logging into the site, you are prompted to write for one minute about a single word at the top of the screen. This pushes your mind into neutral, allowing your words to flow freely. By limiting your ramblings to a single minute, it forces your sub-conscious to react to the word. You don't have enough time to formulate something cohesive, but your sub-conscious does. You might think this is useless, but some of my best writing has come from these sub-conscious expeditions. Your ability to write will improve, even if what you write on this site doesn't.

I highly recommend a spending a few minutes a day limbering your mind. Your writing will improve and your readers will appreciate it :) 

Zed is alive!

I thought writing was simple - I breezed easily through writing a novel-length story - why do they make it out to be difficult? No writer's blocks, no writing into corners, no 'what do I do now' moments. Writing is a doddle - or so I thought.

Well, the devil is in the details. Writing is easy, editing your novel is hard. I think I spent about as much time editing it as I did writing it. It was harrowing, although it could simply be a reflection of my infancy within the literary world. I learned far more about the rules of grammar, punctuation and 'writing stuff good' than I did from twelve years of schooling. Is it an indictment of the education system that I was subjected to? I should damn well  hope so ... but I digress.

Oh, and by the way, I released my first novel today!

Zed is not your typical zombie. He is cursed with the affliction of thought ... although he tries to make the best of a bad situation. The goals for his unrest are simple: to improve his stride, to taste a lightly-seared pork loin once again and avoid Activists at all costs. 
His life was predictable, controlled and good until chaos crashed the party. In just one day, his world is destroyed and his ability to survive is tested. Would he be able to get through this in one piece? And would he somehow be able to survive the unstoppable force that goes by the name of Chase?

Here's the link to smashwords - you can read the first two chapters for free and it's only $2.99 to own a DRM-free copy of my novel in most e-book formats. Nice. Here's the link to Amazon - I'm Kindle-official!

I think I'm going to take a few seconds to savour the moment before I plough into my next project. It might not necessarily be zombie-related, but I have a few ideas that should make it a must-read, even if I do say so myself.

Putting on a spit-shine

Knowing when to put down your brush is one of the hardest thing to determine. When another brush stroke will detract rather than add is hard to distinguish - there is such a thing as too refined. Take Van Gogh; do you think if he revised each bluntly-applied stroke, would the final painting look as good? It would lose the impressionistic aspect that makes his work so appealing - it would look like any other painting. However, knowing that you still need to revise your work is just as hard. At what point do you define something as done?

Is it at the point that you no longer find something to criticize or is it when the rest of the world thinks it's fine even if you don't? I'm not sure. All I know is that when I revise my work it is better. Maybe at some point any change or addition will no longer be an improvement but I have yet to reach that point. I think if I am not careful I could get into an infinite loop. I hate unnecessary iterations in my code so it seems logical that I should have a predefined limit on the number of iterations I can take when revising and tweaking.

That's it. That will fix the situation I find myself in.

Now all I need to define is what my limit actually is. I can't simply define a number - a limit needs to be defined relative to context; relative to the complexity and subjectivity. Grammer Grammar and spelling should be easy to limit. Revising punctuation: trickier. Story arcs? Pacing? Plot holes? Dialogue? Character development? Factual accuracy?

...this will probably take a few revisions before I can define a steadfast set of rules.

The end is nigh

Just an update on my novel - it's nearing its release.  The basic premise of my novel is about the adventures of a zombie called Zed - I even have a cover for it, thanks to the collaborative efforts with my brother. 

Behold the mastery:

You might think this is a bit strange, but I think it's perfect. I wanted to have clear references to a zombie horror film, but with the appeal and tone of a children's book cover (like The BFG). It also works in a bit of social commentary, which is always a good thing.

Sort of George Romero meets Roald Dahl (or possibly Charles Shulz) - don't ask me who they are; shame on you if you don't know them!

Feel free to leave feedback about the cover :)

Publishing like a champ

In preparation for the 'imminent release' of my first novel, I thought I'd investigate what I can do to get the most exposure when I publish my book into the ether. I think, outside of writing something which people actually want to read (very important), the rest relies on your target audience being aware your latest 'masterpiece'. There is no point writing a book like Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, if the only people that read it are pot smokers who think it's something to do while high.

The main thing for getting the word out is, apparently, blogging (ahem), enabling the prospective customer a chance to read a portion of it, distributing to as many eBook publications as possible and getting influential book sites to review your novel.

Blogs

The blog is a good medium - you can discuss your characters, you can paste excerpts to whet their appetite. You can do a lot to promote your book, but only as long as you have a large-ish reader base.

eBook Publications

I think, outside of the well-known ones, like kindle, nook, iTunes, there is another which seems to be pretty good.

Smash Words

The first thing, which is pretty compelling, is that 85% of the revenue goes straight to you - and that ain't shabby. The second is that it supports all the major eBook readers, as well as PDF's and even plain text. The third is that you can allow your reader to read a good portion of the novel before they even purchase it - that makes things a lot easier so you know what you're getting when you plonk down your hard-earned cash. Coincidently, the majority of the story was written over the course of November, which happens to be the month of NaNoWriMo.

Book review sites

Rather than listing each one, I'll give you a link to a list of book review sites:

100 best blogs for book reviews

For popular blogs by authors, I think this is pretty compelling:

Top 50 blogs by authors

References and further reading:

A Newbie's Guide to Publishing

Amanda Hocking: How to do what I do

Bare bones guide: How to launch a new ebook for sale

The one major thing that I missed was to send out ARC's (Advanced Review Copies) and to drum up some excitement leading up to the release of my novel (shame on me). Well, lesson learned. So don't forget that no one will care if you've written the next Harry Potter if there is no lead up. Start early and drum up interest before the book is released.

Musings for life

I'm always fascinated by the the things that motivate people. I'm even more surprised by the things that motivate me at times. Writing, for me, is an organic process. Sometimes I go into a post or story without any vision of what I am about to write. It could, quite possibly, turn into a rambling incoherent mess but I'm still fascinated by it nonetheless. The thought that I'm somehow tapping into my sub-conscious rather than writing with a preconceived plan amazes me. I can't help but think that I'm a vessel for my sub-conscious thoughts. My brain is my muse, apparently.

When I was about six years old I wrote a story that was submitted for a competition. I don't think I ever thought of winning but I was going to write the best I could as I've always been competitive. The basic story revolved around a gorilla that befriends and follows me to school and then joins me in a swimming pool. I'm not sure what motivated me to write about that but my sub-conscious somehow did. I ended up writing one of the best stories for my year and was forced to read the story to the whole school.

I think, if I'd known about that, I wouldn't have written it as well. Addressing my school and telling that story was not my idea of a reward. I read it self-consciously but the students seemed to enjoy it, laughing at the point where the gorilla jumps in the pool with me. I'm not sure what my muse was for that story but it resulted in my achievements being recognised.

Which brings me to current day. I'm writing a book and it has been almost a completely organic experience.  It has almost all been written as if I am purely an eye witness to the events, rather than following a structured set piece of preconceived ideas, story arcs and notions. I travel with the characters in my book, chronicling their journey, rather than creating it. That thought is amazing to me. Some of the best parts of the story have come to me unaided. I would like to think that there is still structure to the story, as I do massage the words and pacing, but the underlying thoughts and ideas are extracted from the ether.

Do you find yourself questioning where your motivations come from? What motivates you to do something in your life over all others? What are your muses for life?

Orchestrating aid

Self-help sites and articles - they seem to be everywhere you look for every possible issue you could have. Whether the help they provide is of any use is really down to whether you feel motivated to use it. I think if you're motivated to fix what is broken, then they've achieved their goal. If you follow their advice and it fails and you fall in a heap because of it, it's your own damn fault.

I'm not saying you 'failed' at the instructions, but 'anyone' can go to a website and write a few paragraphs that sound credible (just like me). It doesn't mean they should be qualified to be doling out advise, though (just like me).

This article seems to be an example in misdirection.

From the title, it would seem that this is to help you write a great synopsis or perfect the spruiking of your book to potential readers. It turns out that the article is actually trying to teach you how to 'sell' the scenarios in your book so your reader is willing to travel with you through the implausible scenario you've concocted. Maybe there's a title in there somewhere that you can make into a soundbite. Possibly:

'Tips on how to suspend disbelief through implausible scenarios
...oh, and make readers enjoy your book nonetheless'

This seems more representative of the article, unless I'm missing something. I'll summarise this 'lengthy' article into what those four points actually are:

1. Identify the things you need to sell and don't sell the thing that your reader is already sold on
   Which translates to 'identify the unrealistic aspects in your book and sell those'
2. Identify the things in your novel that are not coming across when read by someone else
   Which translates to 'you need to write more, or, elaborate on the cues the reader is missing'
3. Do you really need to sell the reader on those things that no one seems to understand?
   This one basically says get rid of that aspect of your story that is incapable of being saved
4. Go and actually 'sell' the concept now. Go on, my job is done. Nothing left to see here
   This is where the article should have started, in my opinion.

The previous three steps are classifying aspects of your novel and are not about 'selling'.

I would write it as this:

If it's terrible, get rid of it. If it's unclear, rewrite it and/or elaborate on it.

This seems like 'Writing 101', even for me. By the time you're at point four, it's a wonder that you still know what this was actually about. Was it about trying to sell the poorly-conceived aspects of your badly-written novel whereas, in fact, you should really just delete that crud and start again? No? That wasn't it? I actually liked some of the things written after point four. It was nice to have my ideas twisted towards the concept of writing as if you are the composer of a symphony.

Let's go through the aspects that go into composing a 'good symphony' :

(played out to an 'action-comedy theme')

• Catchy melody
  The tune needs to get stuck in your head. i.e. the concept needs to be something the reader wants to read. Something that will resonate after the book has been put down.
  e.g. 'Saving the city from destruction ... but is the evil genius really just attempting to save the world from us?' - cheesy, I know, but you get the point.
• Set the tone of the piece
  The tone needs to be established in the first chapter.
  e.g. 'The hero is walking along singing puppy love to his one-week old puppy who has a tag with 'rusty' on it and then gets into a shootout because someone doesn't think his puppy is the cutest' - Ludicrous, but it does set the tone.
• Evoke an emotional response
  It doesn't matter whether it's affection, anger, sadness or laughter. Whatever your focus is, ensure that your theme stays true to the intended emotional connection. Those that aren't emotionally invested in your 'music' won't listen to it again, or simply skip to the next track.
• e.g. 'The evil genius just killed a puppy => He needs to be punished for this act of depravity'.
• Repeat the underlying theme in various ways throughout piece
  e.g. 'Hero needs to seek revenge for the poor puppy and drinks because of it' - the cliche's keep coming!
• Continue the tone throughout the duration of the piece, although vary it
  It's perfectly fine to focus more on action in some, comedy in other, but if it turns into a grisly novel, you've lost your reader. On that point, it's probably not wise to destroy the puppy in a grisly way. It would ruin the tone of action-comedy. It needs to be both comical, action'y and villainous. So maybe the villain gives the dog an exploding chew toy or something. Action and comedy - brilliant.
• Get the pacing right
  It's important that there are lulls between action/comedy set pieces. Too much funny or action and it no longer has any impact. You sometimes need to hold off on giving what the reader wants.
• Make sure the instruments in your orchestra work together
  In other words, all the plots and characters and scenarios should combine together towards the intended tone you wish to convey.
  e.g. If you have a plucky sidekick, then don't make him work against the tone. If he's suicidal, make him a pathetic suicidal character that always fails within the action-comedy theme. You could even play off references to other action flicks like 'Loaded Weapon'.
• Solo parts
  This should fall to the hero / villain, although more than likely the hero. You want your reader to relate to him and understand the pain / comedy of his thoughts towards the evil genius.

And that's about it. To me, this guide seems to be far more useful than pretty much everything in the article I linked above ... and I'm not even published.

The beginning of 'something'

I've never been one to keep a diary. I've never been one to read a blog. And yet, here I am.

I think the motivation for starting this was to be able to read something that interested me. And no, my words are not 'gilded with the tears of doves' and I don't have a 'grandiose belief' that I was sent down from heaven to lead the blind to salvation. Rather, I think I've grown tired of 'movie-style' books. Books written with the intent to be made into a movie. When the character's name is 'Prad Bitt', you know where the author's intentions lie. Have we become so devoid of imagination that we turn to action movies as a source of inspiration?

When it comes to authors, my tastes are quite limited. I enjoy a good Frank Herbet and Isaac Asimov can be quite entertaining, but when it comes to a fun book, I'd rather turn to an Enid Blyton or a Piers Anthony. Now Enid is probably my favourite children's author. Her books flow so effortlessly and are always chock-full of imagination spewing from the pages (pardon the metaphor). It's just when it comes to adult books, you can only have so much fun with Dick and Fanny (yes, those were the actual names).

Off topic: I'm not sure whether that was meant to be harmless and not an underlying sexual tension brimming to the surface at the point their names were chosen. It could be that combining Dick with Fanny was perfectly innocent in the 1940's, but it doesn't translate well now. Mind you, she's also the author that had Noddy sleeping in the same house as Big Ears. Scandalous!

Off off topic: In the 'revised' (AKA neutered) editions, Noddy no longer sleeps with Big Ears and Fanny is now Frannie, while Dick is Rick. Hopefully that clears things up.

Now as for my 'other' author, Mr Anthony. He's probably more of a dirty pleasure, as he seems to follow a similar path to Enid Blyton from the 'Magic Faraway Tree' days, except slightly more adult. He uses bigger words and the books are over 200 pages. But still, he has fun creating pillow trees that explode with popcorn when agitated. They live in a world of fantasy and magic and he refers to earth as Mundania. Now what's not to love about that?

A book, to my mind, is meant to be an escape from reality. Why should it reflect the next Bruce Willis or Will Smith flick? If I want action, I'll 'watch' a movie. I won't read about it. Case in point:

"..and some dude comes at me with a knife, swiping the air where my head was just seconds ago. I parry his next swipe as I knee him in the groin, keeling him over and leaving him open to be finished. I stand over him and state, 'You didn't make the cut,' as I make linguine out of his throat."

Not exactly leaping off the page, is it? Anyway, rant over. I'm hoping to 'fix' this problem in the next few months.

You have been warned.

As an addendum, it seems that Piers Anthony has some 'pedigree': 10 debut science fiction novels that took the world by storm. A few I've already read, but there are plenty on the list that looks pretty 'tasty'.