Thirty Days of Personal Development

Now Playing: AQUEOUS TRANSMISSION by Incubus
Just Read: HORNS by Joe Hill--A very fun and well-written dark adventure, though I thought the ending was rather curious . . . but no spoilers here, read it for yourself!
Reading Now: A CASUAL VACANCY by J.K. Rowling

I'm back in action today after dedicating my recent off-time to "personal development." That's a way of saying I've have been on almost constant vacation for over a month.

I've been to the lake with my girlfriend, nephew, and brother's family to go water skiing, tubing, and knee boarding. The Fourth of July found me in a muddy park in Augusta, GA, getting soaked and stained red from the damp clay in a spontaneous and torrential downpour (very fun!). The following week I spent in Myrtle Beach, SC, at my annual family reunion with some of the most awesome people in the world: my cousins, aunts, and uncles. Afterwards, I was home for three days of work, then thought, "What the hell?" and caught a plane to London, England, where my friend Nick was . . . . well, not backpacking exactly, but exploring for personal development. Anyway, he was in London for a week, so I decided to head out there and hang out--great decision. First time I'd ever been out of the country, and it was a blast.

Moved out of my apartment and staying with family for now, until my next adventure--hopefully in a month I'll be relocating for work to California. My trusty laptop will be coming with me, and the stories that follow will, hopefully, be many and of high quality.

Somehow, I managed to barely hang on to my W1S1 goal of one story per month by finishing a 2500-word story on July 30. I've been a bit slack on submissions, but hopefully today I'll revamp a few rejections and test some new homes for them.

You're only young for so long, you know? May as well up and go to London when you can.

R&D

Now Playing: MONEY by Pink Floyd
Just Read: EXODUS by Leon Uris--Really cool account of a monumental event that I really didn't know much about until I read this book. I didn't like some parts of it, but others were awesome, and it brimmed with future story ideas.
Just Read: HEART-SHAPED BOX  by Joe Hill--Loved it. Well-plotted, believable, and intricate, not to mention full of perfect detail and spot-on writing. Looking forward to more of his stuff.
Reading Now: TOYS by James Patterson and Neil McMahon


I had a talk with my brother last week on the lake about research as a writer. He's a mechanical engineer, and I don't know the first thing about realistic mechanics. That said, mechanics turns out to be a big part of what I write when I pen science fiction.

I'm planning out these two stories--one novel, and one trilogy of novels, both science fiction, both involving a great deal of space travel. I'm going to write the stand-alone book first. It's about a girl aboard a multi-generational space ship, one of three traveling to populate a far off world. Think Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria, except whole generations have lived and died aboard the ships.

Well, I'm not a rocket scientist, and I don't know much about the physics of space travel. So I'm reading a book now about it by a guy named Dr. Yoji Kondo (and others), who I know, actually--in addition to being a Writers of the Future judge, fiction writer, and real rocket scientist, Dr. Kondo is also one of the highest ranking aikido black belts in the world, and I've studied under him since about my sophomore year in college or so.

Anyway, this book should help to design my setting, and to make the problems I invariable put it through appear realistic. I'll do the research by studying and interviewing people who know more than I do, and I'll develop by plotting outlines as my research sparks ideas. Before too long, I'll be a jack of all trades.

One more perk to this amazing career.

Line by Line

Now Playing: STAR TREK THEME by Michael Giacchino

Ok, so during my last post I (rather extensively) commented on procrastinating my writing responsibilities, particularly editing my novel called "The Rescue of Dr. Zale." Looking back, I think the main reason is that the novel, written when I was in high school (not THAT long ago), needed extensive revision toward the end. In brief, I decided to have a character live who originally died, and I thought the main climax was too juvenile and had to be completely cut and redone.

One of my main goals was to cut cut cut it down. Compress the writing. I had edited it before, a while ago. I forget how old I was--maybe nineteen, and I'm 23 now--and it ended up 1,000 words longer. A round of query letters to agents came back fruitless. I put it in a bin and wrote another novel. Then W1S1 2012 happened.

My prime objective in dropping back to W1S1 monthly was to have the time to edit longer pieces. So I got to work right away, and then lost steam when I reached the final chapters, and completion seemed daunting. I crawled forward, word by word, line by line, and this past weekend I finally finished it.

This is what it looks like: 

 And here's a picture of a random page, to show my line-by-line editing:

In the end, the only way to do it was line by line. In all, I cut out 9,000 words. The draft in the picture is 25 pages longer than the electronic final copy. I have a lot more confidence in this version, so we'll see what the agents have to say. 

The coolest part about this project was realizing how far I've come since I wrote the first draft and edited it. Back then, I always put in far more than I took out; completing these edits with the goal of cutting really helped get my mind right, and the result is much more impressive. 

(Although it does make me wonder, If I look at it again in four years, will I think it's as bad as I thought the first draft was?)

Glad it's done! But as always, there's more work to be done. As always, on to the next project. 

Procrastinating

Now Playing: THE BOMB DOT COM V2.0 by Sleeping With Sirens
Just Read: SNUFF by Chuck Palahnuik--Totally awesome in the way that all his stuff is. Whenever I read his work, I want to write like him.
Reading Now: EXODUS by Leon Uris

There are so many things to do besides write.

Right now I'm playing Hearts on my computer, listening to music, and I just put on gym clothes in preparation for a run, which I may or may not take depending on whether the creative juices get flowing here, or if I feel like I need another way to procrastinate.

I'm losing this Hearts game terribly, if you were wondering.

It's also a rainy Sunday, which doesn't bode well for productivity in the first place.

I've watched about an hour's worth of behind-the-scenes clips of Spartacus (one of my favorite shows of all time).

I've got this story idea in mind . . . .

Check this picture out. That's my wire bookcase, collapsed. Maybe I have too many books?

It took me too long to figure out how to upload that pic, so I went ahead and lost that game of Hearts.

Just got a can of cherry coke zero out of the fridge. I figured some caffeine could help.

Maybe I'm just sluggish from that gigantic Chipotle burrito I had for lunch. Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Speaking of gigantic Chipotle burritos, I may have to run off here in a minute before finishing this blog post and procrastinate my writing in the bathroom. You're welcome.

Total word count today: 0. But, I have successfully reviewed the requirements for story submission to Allegory Magazine! Woohoo! Props to me!

(Bathroom break.)

. . .

Hoping to see Ironman 3 later tonight after making some chili.

Think I can fit in a nap later?

Post Pub Update

Now Playing: ALL THAT'S LEFT by Thrice
Just Read: A STORM OF SWORDS by George R. R. Martin--Awesome, as expected. Just as intricate and intriguing as the first two books in the series. Can't wait to see all that on screen!
Reading Now: HEAT WAVE by Richard Castle (?)

It was a really awesome experience, having my story "Skipping Stones" published over at Daily Science Fiction. To everyone who read it and shared their thoughts, thank you so very much. I got a few tweets and followers, some comments here on my blog, and some emails about reading it on Beam Me Up podcast, who did great things with my story "Good Business, With Guns." Couldn't have asked for better, and I'm very grateful.

I posted the link on the left, so if you ever want to (re)read it, it's only a click away.

But now that it's done, it's time to move on to what's new. I barely got in last quarter's Writers of the Future contest submission before the deadline, a story about a colonized planet. To this day, it remains the only story to get a personalized rejection from Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine. Hopefully the changes I've made since then will push it into the realm of acceptable fiction.

I've got about 100 pages of young adult novel left to edit, and I've already cut over 4000 words from it. That's exciting to me--I'll post in more detail later. I've also got two 8,000-word stories to edit, one of which will probably wind up as this quarter's WotF submission. My April W1S1 story is finished, but it's short, so I'm writing a second one, about 2500 words in. I'm calling it "Firecutter," and I'm not really sure what that word means or where the story's going. I guess my characters and I will find out together.

That's all for now. I'll check back soon. Thanks again to all my recent readers; hope we become long time friends.

Ciao.

PS--Who writes the Richard Castle books, honestly? Nathan Fillion? Does ANYONE know?

First Pro Pub

Now Playing: MACHINEHEAD by Bush

My big day is almost here--my story "Skipping Stones" goes out to DSF's 6,000 subscribers tomorrow morning. Needless to say, I am stoked.

This is my first professional sale, so I'm really excited to get it out there and hear what people think. I'm probably going to tweet and post on facebook about it a lot, so be patient with me. 0:)

If you aren't a subscriber, go subscribe! It's free! They send you a story (like mine, for example!) right to your email inbox every day.

If you don't want to subscribe, though, "Skipping Stones" should pop up on the web on the 25th (next Monday). Please, go rate it and give it a comment. I'd love love love to hear what you think about it.

This is an exciting step for me in my career as a writer. It's a validation of my ambition to be more than someone who can put together some competent prose. A pro magazine accepted my story! Wow. The funny thing is, it doesn't feel like an ending at all, not even a little bit. It feels like another step on a long, tall staircase, and it makes me want to sit down and write myself onto the step above that.

Maybe I'll go and do just that.

Thanks for reading.

Footsteps

Now Playing: GIVEN UP by Linkin Park

Just finished watching the Oscars. A lot of inspiring stuff there, I have to admit. I don't usually like that kind of thing--a bit too much pomp and circumstance for my taste, but hey, if I end up there one day having written a screenplay, I'll probably love it.

The first cool thing was seeing so much talent all in one place. Those people really know how to do what they do. The elite. The upper echelon of artistic talent. It makes you want to be like them, you know? It reminds you what the goal is, who you're trying emulate as a rising young artist. It's a bit like why I do the Write1Sub1 challenge: to walk in Ray Bradbury's footsteps.

I think my favorite part though was remembering that all those actors and actresses had someone else write their scripts. My buddy Spencer is an actor, and we laugh sometimes because he says he's useless at parties without a script. Probably why he keeps me around.

One of my dreams is to write a bestselling novel that gets turned into a movie, and to be a part of the movie-making process.Film is awesome. I saw a show once (on the Weather Channel of all places) about the making of Jurassic Park (a fantastic book) in Hawaii, and the hurricane that hit and how the film crew had to adapt. I'd love to be a part of that sodality one day.

I took a play writing class in college, but I've never really written a script for TV. Spencer and I have an idea in mind though.

It's gonna be big.