Getting Ahead of Myself

Years ago, when I was desperate to become the next ghost writer for Warren Murphy & Richard Sapir's awesome DESTROYER series, I wrote my own little series of adventure novels- by the seat of my pants. I took a great idea, sat down with paper and pencil and just wrote. That meant a lot of times where I was baffled.

 

I eventually gave up on being a novelist and tried screenplays. It was there that I learned about the Treatment. A swell super-synopsis of sorts where you gave out all the details of your story, but without much prose.

 

It changed me.

 

Now I plan my novels (all three of them) out ahead of time. And man, does it help. I can sit down and write and write and write until my hands & wrists hurt- or the family needs me for something. Or it's time to go to work at the day job. Or the dog needs to go outside. Or something- you get the idea.

 

I dont' get writer's block when writing a novel. I can just keep on going because I already know how the story is going to end. I'm just filling in details. Sure, along the way I might thinkof something new, and have to stop and adjust my outline/treatment. Or worse, I get ideas for the NEXT book.

 

And that is becoming a problem. In my head, for example, Book 3, Blood and Stone is done. I know how the story goes. And I've already started outlining Book 4, Shades of War. But I can't start writing that novel yet, until I finish Blood and Stone. And it's killing me. Worse, in the back of my mind, ideas are popping up for Book 5.

 

Honestly, I don't see how series writers can stay focused.

 

About 20,000 words to go on Blood and Stone. 

NANOWRIMO!

Well, it's November and that means NANOWRIMO, where all us creative writers dedicate ourselves to the insane idea of writing an entire novel in one month- or less.

I tried this once before- cheating a bit. I had a screenplay 3/4s done and decided to novelize it. Alas, that didn't work and I never finished (the novel- the screenplay is up at Amazon Studions; DEAD PREY)

I'm trying again this year- because I've been Nano-ing all summer. That is, I've been cranking out novels as fast as I can.

The first Mythical adventure took about 1.5 months to plot and write and edit. Book2 was a lot easier- just writing it took about 10 days, with maybe another two weeks for research. I did hit a bit of a slow down with Book 3. I had a promising start, cranking out 100 pages in about four days. Then life interrupted and I haven't had a chance to work on it in over a month.

This means that that I have to finish Book 3, and then slap together a rough of Book 4, all in November. Zoinks.

Luckily, I already have 4 all plotted out. While I haven't had time to work on Book 3's draft, I did have lots of research and outlining time. Since a lot of the elements in 3 lead to 4, I was able to work on both projects and plan ahead. In a series, it's important to plan events ahead, so everything is linked.

So here's wishing Nanowrimo works out for me. On day 1, all I have so far is Book 4's blurb. And I have to say it turned out pretty good for a first draft:

SHADES OF WAR

Someone is raising the spirits of the dead- imbuing them with the energy to walk in the daylight and kill the living. Can cursed supersoldier Mark Kenslir and his team of living stone soldiers find and stop the source of this ghost uprising before an army of the dead marches on Washington? And is this necromancer a new threat or someone from Kenslir's distant past?

Scary Unproductiveness

Deadlines- almost as scary as zombies. I mean, they have the word DEAD in them.

 

I had a deadline- a self-imposed one. October 5th. It was when I wanted to have Mythical: Blood and Stone done and uploaded. Alas, Fall has been scary busy.

 

I suppose if I were a full time writer, there wouldbn't have been a problem. I'd have just sat down and hammered it out in like a week. But my full time job isn't writing novels. And being a full-time dad, I need to spend a lot of time with my kids. That leaves a small sliver of time every day to unwind from work, sleep and do some writing.

 

I haven't been very productive.

 

At least with fall firmly here, the yard work is coming to a close, so I have more time inside.

 

Blood and Stone is slightly more than a third done. And I'm already outlined on the next Mythical novel, Shades of War, that'll I'll be doing as part of Nanowrimo.

 

I just need to get through Halloween. Maybe all the leftover candy will help? We're supposed to have a chilly Halloween here in the midwest, so hopefully I'll get to keep a lot of the candy and it can power me through on the late nights I see in my immediate future.

 

Sleep is over-rated.