Publishing

Greetings fellow writers. And blog readers. And people... Uhh, let me rephrase:

Hi guys. :-)

Okay, I have been bad again and skipped a few Wednesdays for blogging. I am actually going to have to change the day I blog to Friday from here on out. This is because of the day we have off from college. Thing is, trying to post mid-week is quite clearly proving to be too difficult.

On another note, as Electrostatic Fantasy is now complete I have at last pulled my socks up and cautiously peeked at the world of publishing.
One night, back when EF was still mid-writing, I had listened to an inspiring podcast on the Writing Excuses website and had decided to look into the publishing side of writing. This, I knew, wasn't entirely a good idea since there was no need to know about this side of writing until I had at least one complete manuscript (no agent would accept a work in progress, that's like buying only half a product from the store but for the full price). However, curiosity

Original picture courtesy of Chance Agrella

 got the better of me (right before killing the cat). I did not what I saw.

Don't get me wrong, I have no criticism to flaunt. What I mean is that what I saw ran a small chill down my spine. It was confusing. It was daunting. It made me think that, basically, nothing could be done to breach this field. Swiftly, I closed my browser windows and went back to writing. I decided that my reaction was due to the incomplete nature of my novel. Of course this work wouldn't get in as it was, it was incomplete after all. So research into publishing would wait until the manuscript was finished at which point the whole subject would magically take on a whole new perspective.

The manuscript is now finished. And publishing hasn't taken on a new perspective.

Agreed I have been very rushed with college work and that has provided a nice, legitimate excuse for ignoring the "post-writing" activities of my noveling. However, now that I have no such excuse I decided it was time to face the music. But I hesitated, I put it off. And I realised I scared.

I'm scared about the prospect of attempting to publish because it's a world that is so different from anything I've experienced so far. Granted, from what I've read it sounds as if job hunting and querying publishers/agents are not entirely different. In both you have to make several, detailed and accurate applications, be able to deal with rejection, learn from and improve from feedback and maintain and optimistic and determined outlook. And I was able to survive job hunting and my perseverance rewarded me with my current position.

Honestly, this is really a matter of dealing with something which is completely new. Before I started job hunting, I found the idea equally scary. Now, I think nothing of it.

So now I will begin my first leg on the road of publishing. I can't truly tell you what I expect to find; man-eating sharks, horror game monsters, angry postmen? But I will tell you this, I shall blog my findings and grindings here for sure. :-)

So here's to a new leg...hoping no shark will bite it off too quickly.

Oh dear...

I appears the Writer Monkey has forgotten about blogging this week been met with unforeseen project deadlines and realised too late that planning ahead might have been a good idea  Wednesday came and went too soon.

Please stay tuned until the weekend for a belated post.

Very sorry to make you wait. Gomen nasai! ^_^

Nightmares!

In a previous post I spoke about different kinds of sources where writers might draw inspiration from for novels. And by far my favourite source (as might have been evident) are dreams. I hope you bear with me on writing about this yet again, but I wanted to explore a different take on this inspiration source: nightmares!

As I said, dreams are my favourite inspiration source. The best ones have you moving about a world which makes sense (often in a very illogical manner) and has it's own rules and barriers. And best of all, you believe it totally. I don't know if I'm alone on this, but I've had dreams before where some idea which would sound wacky to anyone in broad daylight is the foundation of the whole world I'm seeing at night.

Flying monkeys in the sky? Why of course. Anyone would be a fool to doubt that monkeys could fly. Just like anyone would be a fool to wonder why these dimensional vortexes keep opening and closing sporadically around us for no apparent reasons.

But dreams aren't a "one size fits all". Okay, you might see a good dream which is a great idea for a book plot. However, what kind of book would it be good for?

Picture courtesy of Chance Agrella
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There a different kinds of dreams, and not all of them will fit into every genre. The kind which I described above might be good for a Sci-Fi or "Alice in Wonderland"-ish novel, but I don't think it would do much for a romance or western. You see? What scene you see often also sets your genre. And honestly, some of my most favourites are nightmares.

"Why," I hear you say, "would anyone be mad enough to like nightmares?" Excellent question. To be honest, it's purely for the plot value. I like horror movies and stories myself. No, not the kinds with blood and guts thrown all over the place and no plot. The kinds where you have that unknown, creeping horror happening! Think of The Ring and Blairwitch Project. The stuff that doesn't have you cringing from the fake blood but rather adrenaline-shot from wondering "where is the monster?" type thing.

But alas, I find horror is becoming harder and harder to write and direct. Too many are falling for the "go with the obvious" approach. Result? You're sitting there bored or, even worse, laughing and wondering why you squandered a good tenner on the two-bit piece of rubbish in front of you now. Being so hitched onto my Fantasy writing as I am, I have tried and found that writing in other genres has me crippled. It takes more work, but it feels like the harder I try to "make it go right" the more awful the text becomes!

Picture courtesy of Mark Sylvester
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Nightmares. This is where they truly come in handy. I feel  like nightmares come from the essence of fear itself, from something that actually makes you scared. And that's why they can make for some really interesting horror-story bases.
One of my favourite nightmares was one which involved a creature that looked remarkably like The Groke from Moomins. This thing, although very much a cartoon character, had scared the living daylights out of me as a kid. Especially this scene from the TV series! I mean look at it! This dark, hulking creature, that's supposed to freeze you to death if you touch it, standing motionless in front of you and just staring with eyes as white as floodlights!

Although I'd not watched the Moomin animations for years, one night I had this dream with a creature that morphed between human and Groke form and ate souls. Yes. Freaky. To me at least.
Needless to say that I felt like I'd gone through something of an adrenaline rush when I woke up. But now I had an image in my head that I knew was terrifying. Something different, but something that others too might find scary.

One of the key things about writing is not trying to please others but writing so that you are happy about your story. And I can think of no better gauge of horror-story-goodness than how fast it makes your blood race! And while there may be many people who aren't afraid of the Groke, there are still plenty of frightening things associated with the dark.

Are you a fan of horror?
What kind of sources do you draw your inspiration from for a good horror story?
Which movies and books do you think have got it right, and which ones failed the mark?

Activeness

And she's back!

Yes, I must apologise that I once again sunk into the deep dark void of where'd-she-go-ness. This time, I honestly have a good excuse for it which doesn't involve me being excessively lazy.
For once, I was actually truly so busy that sacrifices had to be made. Prioritising meant that blogging had to take a back seat for the moment or either sleep or deadlines just would not have happened. So thank goodness for half-terms and their existence, eh? So here is my recovery.

Picture courtesy of William Younger
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But to be honest, I like being active. The last three weeks or so have been 'running around like a headless chicken' style, and yes when you're in the fray all you can think of is "Oh when will it end?" And then you finish your deadlines, you turn all your work in and turn around and say, "Ah, actually that was quite fun."

That's me. I have noticed that actually, during times of quite and lack of things to do, I have a tendency to fill that void with things to do. Have you by chance ever seen the movie "Yes Man"? Well, that's more or less me. Just like Jim Carey went about as "Carl" collecting phone numbers for Korean and guitar classes (and everything else), so do I find myself collecting odds and ends to do.
Yes I would like to learn to script software programming languages.
Yes I would like to join the art society.
Yes I would like to purchase and read the entire Game of Thrones series (along with 15 other titles).

The only problem is that what often escapes my infallible logic are the needs of higher-priority commitments. The result? A pile of incomplete activities and hobbies that have had to be benched in favour of the more urgent. Yes this bothers me to a degree. I don't like having a lot of incomplete activities lying around. But I've also noticed, that I truly dislike having no incomplete tasks on my hands.

Strangely but honestly, there is nothing quite so off-putting for me as the site of a clean and neat office desk with everything in the right places, everything new and untouched. Like a field of unbroken snow that has fallen overnight. It is not disturbing if I know I'm about to use that desk and that stationary. In that case I'm just enthusiastic because I love new stationary. :-) Just as if I were about to jump into that sheet of untouched snow. But it is if I'm supposed to keep that desk looking like that. For me, a desk like that symbols a desk that is hardly used, a place in which nothing happens. A messy work space (not chaotic but with stuff littered about) for me shows someone works there and does things. And I like having stuff to do!

Picture courtesy of Chance Agrella
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The best is when I can work those hobbies into every activities. :-) Tweeting right after I get up. Reading when I get home. Noveling on the weekends. Something of the sort. It's the variety of activities that makes life interesting. Seeing new faces, talking to new people, trying new things. And you find out things about yourself that surprise you.

I found out that I'm quite an avid reader. Before I started writing, I don't think I'd managed to read a single book through. I much perfered spending my free time with my game consoles. Then I realised I had to start reading fiction to get a feel for how other writers approach their trade. Now I find myself more eager to read a good book and having to work at playing games!

Oddly, being very busy helps me get everything done! It's when I have a lot of time on my hands that I don't see to manage to get anything finished on time. Same with my novels. NaNoWriMo especially seems to go better for me and have a higher chance of succeeding when I'm busy than when I'm not. Of course then there are just times when you are so busy you don't have time to get things done, but those are few and far between in comparison.

If someone came to me and asked for help because they couldn't seem to motivate themselves to get things done, I would recommend that they get more active. It's odd how it seems to work but it does. And busy times, when I look back on them, seem to be the happiest times I have. :-)

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a book series to complete.

Your friendly neighbourhood Writer Monkey!

Postponed

Hi guys!

So unfortunately college work has overtaken me this week and I'll have to postpone today's post.

I'll try to get two posts done this week to catch up, probably will blog by Sunday latest. :-)

Thanks for staying patient, will write soon.

Monkey, out.

WT: Inspiration

Originally I wasn't planning to do another writing technique post until much later, but browsing the good blogs of fellow writers, I have had a stroke of inspiration. And thus, I wanted to make a post on inspiration as I haven't done one before.

Picture courtesy of Chance Agrella
freerangestock.com

Now you might be thinking "why don't you just call this 'busting writers block' instead?" Well, this is because working at busting writers block and inspiration are actually a bit different. Not having ideas about what to write next is just one kind of writers block, there are lots more ways to get it. I'll tackle writer's block either as a single other post, or as  a collection of linked posts. But for now, let's get inspirational!

Ideas From The Environment
Have you ever written a novel, story, poem or just a scribble that someone read and liked, then said, "where ever did you get your idea from?"
I've had that experience, and the weird part is that I don't always have a good answer. "I just thought of it." I don't really register my sources of inspiration like that.

Picture courtesy of Chance Agrella

But often, some of the best ideas come from just looking around at the stuff around you. I reckon there's a whole art to just looking at the world around from a different angle than before.

My favourite way of getting inspiration from the environment is to take a walk. That's just it: take a walk. And look! Especially into places you've not been before or don't know well. My favourite places to walk are definitely forests and anywhere near water. I don't know why but it feels so mysterious somehow. My favourite (and definitely most inspirational) time to walk about and look at things has to be nighttime.

Night is really mysterious in my opinion. Again, I have no idea why, but when I'm surrounded by darkness it's somehow incredibly easy for me to think up endless amounts of ideas. Sunset and dusk are not far off from this benchmark either.

And high-up places, from where the view stretches out as far as the eye can see! Or suburbs on snowy nights with all the lights from apartment windows peeking through the falling haze. Or the quiet shades below silver birches beside a lake on a hot summer day.
Heh, I guess my Scandic background kind of influences this.

But basically, even in cities, there are a lot of different kinds of places to go and be in and look at. There's bound to be some place that you can draw inspiration and ideas from!

Inspiration From Dreams

Picture courtesy of Lokigrl616
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Perhaps one of the best places to get inspiration is from dreams. But there is a definite downside to this kind of inspiration: it isn't something you can necessarily summon up when you need it on command.

I love getting book ideas from dreams. Sometimes I see really out-of-this-world kinds of dreams that make Alice In Wonderland look ordinary (and I'm not exaggerating when I say that).
In fact, the novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo in 2011, titled 'Elda', was conceived in this manner.

I always plot my NaNoWriMo novel in October, ready for writing in November. That year, I was planning to do a story I had been thinking up called (temporarily) Angel City.

Picture courtesy of Ian L
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But on the night between September 30th and October 1st I had a dream about a girl with magic powers trying to escape from an evil witch and white knight trying to capture said girl. The dream actually ended with the knight, very clearly screaming the name 'Elda' again and again. I woke up to that. And like that, boom!, my novel choice changed and I penned out Elda with little effort that month.

But this doesn't happen every night. More often than not I either don't see much of anything or then don't see anything special that I could write about. That's why, when I do see an interesting dream I jot it down right away.
Thing is, most dreams tend to fade from memory quite quickly. When I write them down, I also remember them better even if I lose the paper (oddly enough).

Even bringing bits and pieces from different dreams together is an idea. Keeping a notepad on your bedside table is advised.

Inspiration From Other Art

Picture courtesy of Jan Stýblo
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Let's face it, art is everywhere. Music you listen to, designs you see in clothes, novels, illustrations in books, movies. Some movies, music and images aren't really that amazing. Some are enough to leave you speechless or send you over the moon.

Sometimes when you read a book or listen to some music, you get an idea from that. Something in that piece inspires you, gives you a thought that then you can expand into something completely original.

Don't get me wrong, just copying what you see off another person's page falls on the side of plagiarism rather than inspiration. But say you read a book about a good romance, but you think it could have been a bit better another way. You can write your own, unique romance in the way you'd like one to be with your own characters.

Or you listen to a good jazz song and it makes you think of a 19th Century club in which your hero would begin his pained journey.
Or you see a movie and think that the way the main character's hair was animated would be perfect with another character of yours. Along these lines.

I myself draw a lot of inspiration from all three of these sources. For one thing, I like to have a playlist for each of my novels. Arkanos is definitely Nina Simone dominated, while Electrostatic Fantasy was laced with Tryad and This Is My Normal State.

I think inspiration is a unique thing and what works for one person won't necessarily work for another. Someone might find inspiration in looking at cars, while for me cars are a rather dull subject. It's always a good idea to try something new.
You never know what you might find.

Do It On The Go

Ever feel that sensation of you have a lot to do and it's all due in a few days? Well, so do I. Coursework, hobbies, work reports, volunteering, blogging... But I'm actually really happy. One of my favourite things to do, also very useful in noveling, is multitasking. And honestly it's probably the most useful skill out there.

Think about it; Beerhoven probably composed several of his symphonies simultaneously; JK Rowling most likely had to juggle promotion of one Potter while still working on the next and plotting the one after; Shakespeare might have figured out the plot to his greatest plays while on the bog. Multitasking is everywhere. But is it really a good or bad thing.

It looks great on the CV for one thing. Nothing sounds more convincing than, "organised and skilled multitasker". Employer smiles sagely and knows he/she has struck gold.
But it's a bit of a hassle. There are a lot of things to handle simultaneously, oddly enough that being the whole principle behind it. And I don't know about you but when I hear the term I immediately think of a clown riding a unicycle, juggling plates and balancing an apple on his head, all while attempting to cross a tightrope to light a candle before the match between his teeth burns down to cinders. That's confusion right there! And that's often what I feel like I go through on the first few days of a new job.
My CV impressed employer gives me some tasks to complete and I faff about wondering where I find the paper clips.

Right now I feel like not just my writing, but my everything is relying heavily on some serious, but-kicking multitasking. I blog on the bus, I plot novels in class (during the boring bits), I think up ideas while I sleep. Every moment is precious.

But there's also a down side. I wasn't planning on writing the next novel in the Electrostatic series until November, but now I'm getting close to having the bare-bones of a plot down which means I'll be ready to write! I'm going to have to pen it before NaNoWriMo. Unbelievable.

But I just realised something. I haven't come up with a name for the series. I don't know about 'Electrostatic', that's a pretty long word to keep repeating. 'Electric' maybe?

Any suggestions?

Survey

Weekend update here! :-)

In fact this time I write to you not about any literary exploits, woes or worries. Instead this time I am seeking help from all of you.

As part of my college coursework, I am conducting a survey about online shopping and the impact of the retail industry on our society. And, as you might predict, this of course requires a lot of responses from a lot of people.

If anyone could spare less than a minute to answer the survey, that would be a big help. Even if you haven't shopped online before, you can still answer the questions, that's fine. :-)
The survey is anonymous and only takes a minute.

Please click the link below to be taken to the survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/32Q5CSD

Picture courtesy of Chance Agrella
freerangestock.com

Milestone 1

Something incredible has happened. Something monumental. Something so incredible it will blow your mind.
I have run out of printing ink.
And why have I run out of printing ink?

BECAUSE ELECTROSTATIC FANTASY IS DONE!!

Picture courtesy of Jared Davidson
freerangestock.com

That's right, my first manuscript is finally beta-ready. I tried to print the whole thing as the first copy but my printer disagreed with that.
After 3 years I've finally gotten to this stage. And it actually feels a bit weird.

What did I expect to feel? Untold enthusiasm; infinite excitement; incomparable success? Well, honestly I feel a bit sad. This project was something I had with me for three years. It was something comfortable and familiar, and now it's finally over. But I am glad, especially about how the ending is now solidified into something definite rather than being a vague mesh of concepts. I'm also happy that I finally know what happens to my characters, and that when I tell people 'I've finished my novel', I'm not lying. I'm not even telling an extended truth.

And there's plenty more where that came from!! The next mission lies in choosing which of my stories to finish and edit next.

Funny thing I found out is: the first time you write the final line of your novel (as a first draft that may still change) is the most satisfying time. Even when I edited a bit off mine, I still didn't feel nearly as much joy and achievement as when I first wrote it.

Funny that.

WT: Editing

First of all a Happy New Year to everyone! It feels really weird now that another year is finished if you ask me. I mean it felt like 2011 became 2012 just a few months ago. It just goes by so quickly.

Well, as promised, today's post will be another one on writing techniques. Although I am cheating a little. Originally I meant for the topic to be on writing (as writing naturally tends to come after plotting after all). But as I have been working so studiously on it, I decided to dedicate today's post to editing instead. Here are some of the tips I would recommend to others with regard to getting through the editing process.

One Step At A Time
I'd say this applies mostly to longer stories. My novel is about 60,000-70,000 words long (don't know exactly since the last time I checked was a really long time ago), and so it's quite a piece of work to try and handle at the same time.
Remember, it's not supposed to be perfect the first time through. Or maybe even the second. I think I've gone through each of my chapters about 8-10 times now, and now I'm starting to feel happy with it.

Step One: Concentrate on Content
Worried about grammar and spelling? Especially if you've just finished NaNoWriMo or an equivalent, your spelling may be the pits at that point (I know mine is!). However, even if you have let your inner editor out of its cage, it's not quite time to start worrying about whether the apostrophes are in their right places.
Read over your content, pretend like this is the work of someone else and you've never seen it before. When you see something you'd like to be a bit different, then change it. See something that confuses you? Clarify until you are happy you can understand it. Main thing is to know it might take a few goes through before its good and ready.

Step Two: Break It Up
One of my favourite things to do is to separate the chapters up into separate word files. My reason for that was that the scroll bar became so tiny with it all in one file that I nudge the mouse a millimetre I jump ahead about ten pages. But it also helped me concentrate on the chapters separately. :-)

Step Three: You Are Your Audience
BIGGEST advice I would give on editing is don't try to please "people". I know when I first started writing (not even close to editing) I kept thinking 'What would "everyone" make of this sentence like this?'. Guess how much I wrote of that novel before my first NaNo? 3,000 words. In 3 years. When I first started editing I slipped into the same vein: 'What's "everybody" going to think of this?' Answer is: you don't know. And if one thing is true is that you can't please everybody. If nothing else, there's always going to be that one granny or school-yard bully out there somewhere who will imagine things up to point out of your story because they live off of making others feel miserable. So, the most important critic you have to please is YOU. Do you like the characters? Do you think the plot is good? Do you think this draft is ready for the publisher/agent/your neighbour to see? If the answer is 'yes', well, then that is what is true. :-) It's the best way to move forward.

Step Four: Take A Break
Have you ever heard of the term 'reading things into the text'? If you haven't, then this is when people read text and assume or want something to be written in and this makes them see that which they are expecting mentally rather than what is actually written. After you have stared at the same text for a while, you begin to remember more or less what was written. You start thinking in concepts rather than reading, and you miss things. After a bit of editing (especially if I think I still need to come back to the chapter for a check-up) I take a break (at least a full day) before coming back. Preferably I take a week. This way my mind is fresh to look at my text from a whole new angle. It works miracles! Bananas and Fanta help too!

Step Five: Know Your Place
Even though it might sound impossible, your novel is going to be finished one day. And if you are anything like me, you will still be looking back and thinking 'That comma should have been two words down the sentence!' There is a time and place to put the editing pen down and call it a day. For me, I've decided that when I go over a chapter and I'm doing exactly that—correcting the places of commas—I'll know I've done all I can do and then it will be over to my trusted beta readers for the next phase!

Step Six: Have Fun
A book isn't really much worth writing if you hate every minute of the experience. Best writing happens when you love what you're doing and don't stress about what other people might think. Chris Baty from NaNoWriMo was right in saying that you are the only one who can write your amazing story. And there are people waiting eagerly to read it!

These are my six tips for editing that help get me through. It's the way I've approached my own editing and so far it has been working well.

How do you like to approach editing? What's the biggest tip you would give to someone else who is facing editing a novel or story or piece of writing for the first time?

Until next time! Monkey-out!