Narration, critiques, and improving.

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The past year I worked on narration and breaking up dialogue with narration.

I have an awful habit having long streams of dialogue with the occasional bit of narration thrown in.

My wife and my writing group have called me out on this.

Fixing this in the he last few short stories and the last novel I finished have been my goals.

Knowing what’s wrong with your writing. Having a support team to tell you what’s wrong is part of the journey of writing. Sometimes their words hurt. Sometimes you’ll want to scream, but almost always, what they tell you will improve your prose.

Fifteen years ago, when I wrote my first novel, I didn’t take criticism well. After time, I realized it’s meant to help me improve.

I wish I’d had a writing group when I started. I only had my wife. She was extra cautious when critiquing because at that point, I wasn’t a very nice person.

Today, I’m better than I was. I wish I’d have learned earlier that honest critiques can be brutal. Especially if you’re not ready for honesty.

I hope your writing is going well.

Writing is like using a big flashlight.

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Finding your way through a story is like having a big flashlight with a little beam. You’re hoping to find something, but the small beam doesn’t allow you to search a wide area. So you’re stuck searching with this big flashlight. Hoping you see what you need but know you might not.

I started work on a new project. I mentioned it last week, and it was fun, but there were times I felt the flashlight wasn’t in my hands.

It’s frustrating, and I kept thinking I should move on to another story. But I loved the fear it created in my mind as I wrote, which kept me going.

I wanted to know what happened to the characters. I worried about them. And although some writers say writing is like playing God, to me it’s more like being a harbinger of Fate.

One thing leads to another. I worry about whether the characters will live or die, but as a pantser I don’t have that control, the story does.

I’ve written all different ways, but discovery, or pantsing, works best for the way my brain works.

Not sure why it’s that way, but it is.

Anyway, I finished it yesterday. It was over 5k but needed a different pace than the 86k fantasy novel I finished in December.

Either way, I finished another story.

But I hope you’re having a good day and meeting your writing goals.

A Long Week Ends and New Writing Begins.

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There are days, weeks, and sometimes months that try us. We must get through those days and on to better ones.
This past week, was one of these.
Celebrities come to this little corner during Sundance Film Festival.
Those of us in the service industry cater to them and take care of them.
Its difficult working long hours but we do it.
Over the past week I worked crazy hours, woke up tired, but I persevered.
The only thing that fell apart was my writing. My family held it together because it was Sundance.
I’m getting my writing back on track and working on a new project, something darker. The past week was a lot of fun, I served some great actors and actresses, but I’m ready for normality. Whatever that means.
I’ve worked hard to get stories ready for publication. I still plan on publishing this year, but not sure which novel it will be.
I’ll begin the read-through this weekend of the novel I finished in December. I’m looking forward to this.
Every day is a
challenge, especially when I’m tired. Depression sneaks in when I least expect it and it tried this past week.
Today, I’m a day closer to publication and working on a story idea that came to me a while ago. Now that I’m working on it, I love it and it scares me. If I’m not scared, the reader isn’t either.
Happy writing.

How Being Forced to Read Changed My Writing.

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For the last couple weeks I thought I’d try and write something different. It hasn’t turned out well.

My usual stories are fantasy of one form or another. I tried to write a Sci-Fi novel.

It was going good, as my other attempts at writing within the genre had, then the bottom fell out and I got bored.

I’m not sure whether it’s the story, the process I use, or whether I can’t write a Sci-Fi novel.

I’ve written a couple of Sci-Fi short stories in the past, no problem. When they grow longer than 10,000 words, that’s when the problems happen.

For now, I’ll be sticking to Fantasy, and its mini-genres…i.e., Epic, Sword & Sorcery, Urban, Grimdark, and the like.

But Science Fiction gives my brain fits.

I’m still not sure why this is. I can write a horror novel and be completely in love with it, same goes with Fantasy, but science fiction, I have trouble with it.

I believe that comes from the books I felt forced to read growing up.

My father would read Tom Clancy novels, I would read them. The Techno-Thriller had so much tech in it at times it bogged me down and I believe its why I can’t write similar things today.

Whenever I wanted to read something different he would look at the cover, read the blurb and decide for me whether I could read it.

Many times I would be reading a couple of books at a time, one that he chose, one that I found at the library.

It wasn’t until I moved out of his house and in with my mom and dad, that I felt I could read without judgement.

Though there were times I would have comics hidden under my bed or wherever I slept. The fear of someone finding out I liked comics, that I enjoyed fantasy novels was too great a thing for me to break from.

It took me a long time to enjoy reading fantasy and not having the fear of judgement for what I read.

Today, I enjoy fantasy and horror more than other genres. I don’t read Tom Clancy style books, though I do believe they have influenced some of my current writing.

I feel we should read and write what we’re comfortable with, though stretching ourselves can lead to great things.

Anyway, on to the next story, may it be ripe with Fantasy.

Finding my way to publishing this year.

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There are times when life warrants taking a break.

With the completion of an eight book I’m pulling the trigger this year on publishing.

This decision stalked me for the last couple of years. I knew I needed to do it but I also didn’t understand publishing very well.

I listened to various podcasts through the last couple of months to improve my knowledge. Now it comes to finding a copyeditor.

The financial means are there, but its by a skin of our teeth situation.I want to publish something others will enjoy. I also don’t want to put my family at a financial disadvantage.

When it comes to creating covers, I’m searching for affordable. Like I said, I don’t want to put my family at financial disadvantage to publish.

These are what haunt me at night.