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?

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!

Inspiration Please!

Right, so everyone is settling into the Christmas spirit and the fact that holidays have/are starting. Time to relax and take a breather. You're probably looking forward to enjoying that game/movie/book/thing you've been meaning to play with/watch/read for weeks/months but have been kept from by work. Yes, I've got a (few) games I've been meaning to get to. However, I shan't be getting to them.

This holiday season for me is more about getting a break from college work so that I might have time to work on hobbies instead.
On my agenda for the next two weeks are the following:

• Edit Electrostatic Fantasy (preferably to completion).
• Finish writing Electrostatic Nightmare.
• Finish two tasks for my volunteering place.
• Finish reading about ten books or so.
• Oh yeah, and do some drawing.

There's probably more but I can't recall it right now. But actually, I'm really happy that I have a long list of stuff to do. Even though people at my college might think I'm bluffing, I've got quite a bit of trouble with laziness. The moment I know no one will be expecting me to show up on time, get up early or finish anything by X date, I turn into quite the lolling lazy chimpanzee, hanging out my monkey cave all day stinking of bananas and Fanta. Heh, well not quite that bad, but during holidays I might certainly not be the saint of hard work. And no matter how much I think I will be industrious during the holidays, I tend to be beset by the monster known as laziness.

Hence I am in need of inspiration. Not the "I'm out of ideas" kind of inspiration, but the "get off your butt and work now!" kind of inspiration. Otherwise I know, come January, I'll be completely out of the working mood and I will start off my assignments again with notable difficulty. The "I don't wanna work again" kind of difficulty. The "I don't wanna get up at 6 in the morning, me sleepy" kind of difficulty.
So this season shan't be the kicking back and relaxing all the way kind of season. It shall be the getting up at 6 anyway and working on hobbies kind of season!

Besides the above I've had some ideas for short stories. Now short story writing has been an area that has been a weak spot to me for a long time. I just seem to struggle to fit my plots and ideas into something as small as 3000-5000 words. But lately I've been reading short stories by Pu Songling and it's given me ideas on how to make this impossible task more possible. Still tinkering with thoughts but hoping to plot something down soonish.
Assuming I get any of my other tasks worked on, hah!

Wishing a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone out there!

Monkey_With_Fanta

Twilight Hour

So...

Nanowrimo is over, another year has passed victoriously and no deadlines (non-academic ones that is, *cough, cough*) are breathing down my neck. All is well, yes?

Well, no actually. Because this year was very different for me in many ways. This is the first time in many years I've been back in education. College is really opening my mind up to new ideas, and I feel like I just don't look at the world the same anymore. By no means am I saying that I've suddenly decided to drop writing and scrap it. No, the opposite: I've seen a life inside of my Electrostatic novels that I hadn't before.

EF is a story about mermaid-like beings

In 2009 I did NaNoWriMo and decided I would 'experiment' by working on a novel that I had no attachments to. None of 'my babies' would be put into the firing line, because I was too afraid that if I tried writing one of them brutally, shoving my 'inner editor' away and just typing, I would not be able to. I would break down, crumbling to my knees screaming "No! Don't kill my precious novel!" And the one-liner idea I had for a novel of some kind was to become Electrostatic Fantasy: my first complete novel draft.

Editing Electrostatic Fantasy (EF) and defining the characters up, I realised a few of them had a deeper history than I had time or chance to explore. So, true to my character, I dropped all other plans I'd been hatching for a November novel this year, and decided I would write a prequel for NaNo 2012. Electrostatic Nightmare (EN) has successfully been born and I am still writing to get the first draft done.
I had always intended for EF to be a stand-alone, strictly-no-sequels/prequels deal, but during November I realised I would probably end up writing a third book in the end no matter what I thought.

That's when I realised: the Electrostatic books have taken on a life of their own. A life that has taken its own reigns up and I can't stop it. What began as a 'sacrifice' has become something close to my heart that is demanding to be born in the world fully and completely. And even still, I've been talking about EF for too long. Now is go-time.

EF isn't far off from being ready for beta readers. It's prequel isn't quite up to that yet, but hopefully come NaNoEdMo I will be ready to push EN to the same finish line.

But Christmas is coming once again. Winter and autumn always make me feel like something is ending. Like something familiar is becoming something new. And maybe that is a good thing, changes can be very positive. But at the same time it also makes me kind of nostalgic. And that is the most perfect of writing moods!

Now, I know I've been really bad with updating this blog. Every time I've thought of a schedule it's come down because of how busy things are with college, volunteering, work and writing. But I think I have the perfect solution: Wednesdays! This is my goal: begin updating on Wednesday evenings. I know I have been really bad so please bare with me.

Thanks to all my readers! And I hope your Christmas preparations are going well and take it easy. :)

Monkey, out.

Simian City News! A Rare Species Spotted

'About time we heard
something from this Writer Monkey'

And now it's time for the latest news from your favourite...

SIMIAN CITY NEWS!

I'm your host, Fun. E. Chimp.

   Today there has been an incredibly rare sighting of the Writer Monkey said to have lived in the cave just south of our jungle broadcasting station. Eyewitnesses have confirmed from this that the Writer Monkey is in fact not dead and has neither been abducted by chocolate. Our on site news reporter Monkey Gone Wild is with professor What's His Name as we speak who has offered to comment on this event. Over to you Monkey.

   ~Well thank you Fun. Yes right now I'm here at the professor's study enjoying a cooling banana smoothie and speaking with him about what exactly can make a Writer Monkey disappear besides easily suspected chocolate abductions. Professor, what exactly is your opinion?

   >Well Monkey, as I see it the thing which young writer monkeys are easily prone to suffer from but which isn't as easily obvious to the casual observer are laziness attacks, the I-Can't-Think-Of-What-To-Say Syndrome and a very infectious disease known in layman's terms as "But The Game Is Just So Fun." Once contracted this horrible infection almost forces the potential writer to re-focus all of his or her attention onto a video game or other similar activity, denying them the time to focus on their writing. It's really quite tragic.

   ~And you believe the Writer Monkey might have contracted this illness?

   >I really can't say, but so far I've only found one cure for the condition, and let's just say it involves a pair of pliers, barbed wire, a sack of feathers, a rocking horse and super glue.

   ~I can't honestly say I want to hear you put all that together, professor.

   >That's strange. A lot of people say that...

   ~Anyway, now back to the studio.

   In related news there is evidence that Electrostatic Fantasy is in fact nearing completion. These statements, although deemed incredulous by some, bear out in the sense that nearly half of the novel now stands in a final form of editing.

   Our efforts to contact the Monkey have also *cough*finally*cough cough* succeeded and there is news of upcoming regular updates and an updating schedule.

   Please stay tuned for the next broadcast of SIMIAN CITY NEWS!!

Simian City News! Edits Mania

Hello and a good evening to all our human and monkey viewers alike. Now it's time for another broadcast of your favourite...

SIMIAN CITY NEWS! ;D

Today we bring you more random meshed gibberish revolving around a crazed monkey writer stuck in a cave, stories and lots of questionable beverages. Now let's get this over with, our camera guy has to be back at the zoo by 6:30. *anchor monkey adjusts his tie and coughs*

Edits Mania!

Eyewitnesses have sighted the Monkey With Fanta at her laptop often over the past week. Sources tell us that although this may easily be inferred as just another bout of procrastination, it has actually been confirmed as editing fever. The victim of the act has been identified as the first book of Arkanos. Our reporter Craz. E. Gibbon interviewed the chief of police of the Monkey Metropolitan force and has confirmed that the intended target of this attack was initially Electrostatic Fantasy. So far the MM force have discovered that as much as six chapters have been subject to the onslaught of this obsessive editing but there have been no reports of casualties. We are informed that the experts are still investigating and we will be sure to keep you up-to-date with all the latest details.

Not So Edits Mania...

In the weather forecast for the up coming days there are predictions of further edits in the region of the wrong story along with some potential attempts at writing. Residents of the Tick Tock Wonderwood area are warned to prepare for a possibly extensive drought season, while those of you living close by to Arkanos - Memorycatcher should expect heavy flooding. In the likely event of a natural disaster in Writ-Ing Land authorities are already standing by and preparing emergency rations of lattes and herbal tea for distribution.

And in seafaring related forecasts, those of you heading out to Electrostatic Fantasy oceans should prepare for heavy storms combined with fake sunshine.

And we'll bring you more of the latest weather later in the week.

And in other news...

Wait, my notes end here. Is this all the news we have? *leans back in chair and shouts to off-stage guy* Don't tell me this is all we've got for the broadcast. We've been off-air for over a week!

*off-stage guy* Our journalists are monkeys, what do you expect?

*anchor faces viewers again* Okay, well this is sufficiently awkward. Please tune in again for more exciting and random news from your favourite news program...

SIMIAN CITY NEWS!

*lights go out*

Don't tell me Chimpy forgot to pay the electricity bill again...

Double Your Time

Don't you just hate it when you've got a bunch of unfinished projects lying around and you 'just don't seem to find time for them'? Or what might be more correct on the part of myself and others who are like myself, 'I could find the time for them but I'm too lazy 70% of the time."

Yes, unfinished 'business' is the curse that follows me around in the form of paper piles almost tipping out of my top basket and knick-knacks littered about my floor. And yet it seems when I manage to finish one or two, the pile of old stuff I've been neglecting suddenly begins doing jumping jacks, demanding immediate attention.

I think you'll agree that writing a novel is one project which isn't exactly an overnight thing (or maybe it is, and if so, I envy your typing speed T_T). So among the chores and the resting up and the preparing of stuff for your next day at work, how do you manage to make a book happen?

I randomly realised that should I bring and pen and a pad with me to work I could write a ton load on the bus and during breaks. Okay, granted now that I'm getting a lift to work that system doesn't exactly work (since the trip lasts 10 minutes now), and yes if you are the one behind the wheel I would recommend not jotting while your driving down the M1. But if you commute on public transport, it's a great chance to do a bit of writing. :)

In my desperate attempt to finish E.F. before the end of May and to finally be able to send excerpts to all those people who are waiting (yes, I've actually got a list) I'm going to be ditching the reading book and bringing my edits to work. This is definitely going to be an interesting week. Some points of editing are far better done just on the electronic copy of the file (1st draft for example. It's riddled with mistakes, why waste the paper?) Others can only be done on the computer. But I can't bring my laptop to work, so I'll be reading like a maniac while I'm at home. *Sigh* All I'm worried about is my never-ending war with getting stuck on the internet. *Must stay focused!*

On another note I wanted to thank everyone for visiting the blog and for reading the first Simian City News broadcast. :-) I'm surprised at how popular it's been. The good news is I probably won't need to prod the monkeys for more Simian News...instead I'll probably just need to turn my back for a few minutes. -__- Those monkeys are always making mayhem.

I will probably post the new Electrostatic Fantasy excerpt by the weekend.

Oh! And I've added a new poll to the site. Thanks a bunch to everyone who voted on the previous one. ^_^

Now I must be off.

And I just realised with a shudder...JulNoWriMo is approaching! O_o

Simian City News -- Full Update

A good afternoon to all our viewers from Simian City News, your favourite update crew of crazy apes right here on the Monkey's Fanta World Blogspot channel!

Since our host, Monkey with Fanta, has been absent from the site for some time we are happy to announce that Simian News will be fulfilling necessary updates while the Monkey is away.

Today's broadcast will cover a full update with the Monkey's novels as well as what's scheduled for the future!

Tune in for exciting announcements about rising stars, salvaged survivors and new arrivals...as well as some sad news about a death in the Monkey's family of stories.

Let's begin!

Electrostatic Fantasy

The little first-born darling is darting fast through edits and is halfway to beta-reader stage. Nine out of the fourteen chapters have been edited to near-completion and the Monkey has recently been sighted randomly disturbing customers frequenting cafés, keeping the underwater adventure rolling! The target for completed edits on E.F. remains end of May, but our ape analysts remain sceptical as a previous estimate said the story would be completed in March. Stay tuned human friends, this promises to be a thrilling race to the finish.

Arkanos (Book One) Memorycatcher

...Has seen no progress whatsoever. However, a good few months of separation have definitely improved the relationship between this pesky story and our novice novelist and I am happy to announce that they are on speaking terms again. Our sources tell us that the Monkey won't undertake Arkanos while she's still working with E.F. (as this baby is 'quite a handful'), but once E.F. is complete the Arkanos project shall resume!

Through Glass

This particular story had to be rushed to the ER after a bout of high fever and a severe limp. We've been informed that the plot doctors are doing their very best to locate the source of the problem, but they are not expecting a rapid recovery. Our on-site reporter Craz E. Gibbon did his best to get an explanation out of them, but the only statement they gave was that it was something to do with lack of tension and the absence of an antagonist. Rest assured that the good monkeys at Simian City News will keep you updated on the situation as it develops.

The skAI Butterfly

We are sad to bring you the news that there has been a death in our literary family. It seems that this butterfly flew too close to the planet PANTS and had it's pretty little wings burned. We contacted the Monkey for a statement and she said,

"The pantser approach for me is more about beating writer's block and instilling inspiration that it is about creating a masterpiece. The day that a pantsied novel does not make the bin-and-rewrite list will likely never rise. The plot-problem monster attacked my house and swallowed my laptop whole. Now where's my latte?!"

Being the youngest addition to the team, The skAI Butterfly will have to wait a while to be addressed and as such will not be returning into our ranks soon. However, the funeral has not been arranged yet and the Monkey is reportedly working on an evil spell to rise it from the dead. This to be continued.

Tick Tock WonderWood

And just a week ago a story which was thought lost overseas was rescued and returned to its place in the random pile of budding novels. It's rumoured that this new story is centred around elves from the distant past, rebellion and the dangers surrounding revenge. The WonderWood won't be added to the site just yet. But the loyal Simian News gang will keep their eyes peeled and ensure you are right at the edge of the action.

There have been rumours floating about that the Monkey is thinking of adding another snippet from Electrostatic Fantasy to the Excerpts page in the near future, as well as E.F. art.

Thanks for watching and tune in again for more excitement from your favourite show...

Simian City News!

Maybe It's Time...

...To get out of the slump.

Man, I thought employed life was supposed to improve your writing production, not reduce it. But hey, guess I read the wrong manual on my way to the interview. It's really been a long time since I blogged. A really long time. And it's also about time I got up and out of it.

Yes, when I get home from work it's so much easier to slump down with a good video game and think four things: Can Not Be Bothered. At first this was my preference. I was tired. I'm not used to standing for 8 hours on end, and the mere thought of thinking once I got home was too exhausting. But it's surprising what it takes away from you, the not writing at all that is. Life becomes...sort of empty, and less colourful. I didn't really notice it until I was reminded of the

thought of exciting adventures in fantasy worlds and sitting for hours in the same spot at a café typing away at your laptop. :D With a good cup of tea and...

Okay, straying off the subject a little. You get what I mean though. :)

Alright, I wanted to thank everyone who has voted on the poll in the top right-hand corner of the page. Looking at it I see photos/pictures for the blog as well as writing techniques are on the wishlist. I will definitely work on getting some more photos up here. Mind you they might be random photos I've shot sometime whilst half-asleep. I'll have to ask you to excuse that.

I'll also add a writing techniques related post as well, now that I'm at the computer. I'll post it separately though.

But E.F.'s edits are moving. At last they are moving! And boy am I happy. :D

And it's good to be back in business. Or blogging...whichever fits better.

Take A Leaf From Someone Else's Book

Isn't it interesting that before you actually go out and do something in practice that there are some questions and difficulties about said subject that just won't occur to you beforehand? I definitely learned that when I came to fighting my first fight scenes. Well granted it was NaNoWriMo time and of course the rule there will be "WRITE IT, no one cares about the quality." It's wonderful to just be able to write anything that pops into your head since you're confident that this version will never see the light of day anyway. But oh the woe when editing comes about.

So a friend of mine suggested the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson, said the fight scenes are well written. I finally managed to buy the first book, and I'm loving this!

Okay, so I might be at a bit of a disadvantage since I've never really been good with thick books (and now I've got myself a two-incher). But text is so addictive XD

On a similar note, I made the mistake of taking in the date and...screamed. NaNoWriMo 2010 is just around the corner, and I've got to get plotting! And I'm definitely going to win this year, because it's a nice and lovely even year. I'll be completing Arkanos, the story that I had to drop back in JulNoWriMo 2010.

Although, armed with Brandon's Mistborn and a few example style tips from the text, I should be able to write fight scenes easier. But hey, it's NaNoWriMo. So push come to shove, I'll just hum and tap the keyboard aimlessly!