NaNoWriMo countdown

Back to writing - or at least in less than a month, I have to be ready to hit the keyboard hard for National Novel Writing Month.

What's that?  In November, a lot of people worldwide set a personal challenge to write a novel during the month.  For the math-minded among us, that's 50,000 words in 30 days, or average 1,667 words a day.

I can't let silly things like contractors losing keys to my house or the power cord to my printer distract me!  And this year should be a welcome change because I didn't have power in 2012 due to Sandy.  I wrote longhand by the light of candles and my hand-cranked flashlight (like Vanna has) while I sat in  the kitchen watching the stove while I heated the house with steam to keep me and my pets toasty.  Then I scrambled Thanksgiving weekend to type it all up so I'd have word count to stick in the validation tool.

Dubious Advice?

I should really post more about writing - that's what this blog is for.

I'm sorry that I'm more in the mood to work on Neferseshotep this month rather than more my sequel to The End of the World Sucks.  Sometimes, I need a break from Vanna and Thanos (they have issues).

Anyway, for a while I've been receiving critique advice to make Neferseshotep more like Tolkien.  The reasoning was sound.  A beloved classic where a group of characters who didn't talk over each other in conversation, that's exactly what Tolkien did.  I should have remembered there were hardly any female characters. 

Off the top of my head, I've read Tolkien, but I don't recall what he did in his writing style that made his story stand out so I plucked The Fellowship of the Ring off my daughter's bookshelf and got to work rereading it.

Uh yeah ... I hadn't gotten that far into the book, but I noticed the style dates the work.  I'm not sure it's the best approach for me and/or Neferseshotep.  There's lots of 'tell' at parts, and Gandalf is a know-it-all, answering questions at length for pages.

Here are some examples from The Hobbit .

          Insert a first person narrator to provide the reader with information (page 3) -

     Gandalf! If you had heard only a quarter of what I have heard about him, and I have only heard very little of all there is to hear, you would be prepared for any sort of remarkable tale.

The importance of communicating information to the reader may be done through omniscient narrator and quick changes of internal viewpoint, even within the same paragraph.  This is also a good section of lumping dwarves together, rather than making them distinctive (page 8) - 

... Not a ring, but a hard rat-tat on the hobbit’s beautiful green door.  Somebody was banging with a stick!
     Bilbo rushed along the passage, very angry, and altogether bewildered and bewuthered – this was the most awkward Wednesday he ever remembered.  He pulled open the door with a jerk, and they all fell in, one on top of the other.  More dwarves, four more!  And there was Gandalf behind, leaning on his staff and laughing.  He had made quite a dent on the beautiful door; he had also, by the way, knocked out the secret mark that he had put there the morning before.
     “Carefully! Carefully!” he said.  “it is not like you, Bilbo, to keep friends waiting on the mat, and then open the door like a pop-gun! Let me introduce Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, and especially Thorin!”
     “At your service!” said Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur standing in a row.  Then they hung up two yellow hoods and a pale green one; and also a sky-blue one with a long, silver tassel.  This last belonged to Thorin, an enormously important dwarf, in fact no other than Thorin Oakenshield himself, who was not at all pleased at falling flat on Bilbo’s mat with Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur on top of him.  For one thing Bombur was immensely fat and heavy.  Thorin indeed was very haughty, and said nothing about service; but poor Mr. Baggins said he was sorry so many times, that at last he grunted, “pray don’t mention it,” and stopped frowning. 

The follow-up advice when I questioned the applicability of Tolkien's style to modern epic fantasy, or the possibility that they were thinking the movies, rather than the books.  Response: read George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones series.  That's what you need to imitate, but at the same time simplify the entire story by removing characters and set up scenes so no more than two characters appear in it.

To comfort myself, I've started some new spreadsheets.

Added Appearances Calendar

Hey,

I'm working on getting out there to sign books and talk about writing, what to do with a manuscript, querying, and all the stuff that gets something from 'I got an idea' to a book.

I'm a member of the New Jersey Authors Network.  Jon Gibbs and others contact libraries and keep the rest of the group aware of upcoming opportunities to speak about their experience and maybe tell some war stories, but also to offer advice.

When I first tried National Novel Writing Month, I didn't have a project plan all laid out regarding what I actually did.  I thought that step 1 was get an agent or publisher, then changed my mind when I found out more about the length of time between acceptance and 'on the shelf'.  Also, I don't mind edits, changes, or rewrites, yet I don't want the story molded to the formula because the formula worked for Best Seller Girl.  And see, I was ahead of the curve with a New Adult heroine, rather than de-aging Vanna to a teenager.  I could be foaming at the mouth now being asked to age her back up to New Adult today.

While there, I could also learn from my fellow panelists.  Publishing is changing at a rapid pace.

So I'm adding a tab up on the top for a calendar of appearances.

My Free Time

OK, so this blog isn't about what I do at work during the day or even my PT job - though they may give me inspiration to write.  This blog is about me as an author, but since it'll come up on page 1 of a Google search I thought I'd clarify some of my recent posts.

My volunteer work takes up some time, and if you don't want to scroll around to find out - I foster kittens for an animal rescue group, take them to adoption events, and will take care of them till they're adopted.  There's no expiration date so they can stick around until they find their family.  There's a limit to how many I have in my house so it's not out of control as long as I'm on top of it. 

To some, this seems a waste of time because I'm not helping people in some way.  I used to do volunteer work with children, both at my daughter's school, and when I worked at a large corporation that formed a partnership with a middle school to mentor pre-teens. 

When I chose to volunteer my time to assist animals, it's due in part to my beliefs that they need help and that there's a combination of factors involving other people that put these animals in this position.  A short list would be abuse, abandonment, and lack of spay/neuter.

And to some people, these hours I spend helping animals isn't good enough.  I can accept that - universal adoration is not my goal in life.  There will be no pleasing some people, and I am not helping animals to try to please those that will never be satisfied.  I like the baby cats.  And my own cats.  And my dogs.  And my daughter too.  Some of them may like me outside of meal times.  Win-Win.

So back to the more objectionable part of my life.  I write.  I don't watch that much television any more.  I don't travel because of the animals.  I no longer play an MMO.  And I never got the thing about dancing drunkenly in the street while talking loudly, except to commend the individuals for choosing not to drive.  (those who know the city I live in might get this - at one time, the Rand McNally "Places Rated Almanac"  listed it as having the most taverns per capita in the U.S., 1 for every 218 residents)

When there's an event like National Novel Writing Month, it gives me a goal.  50,000 words in 30 days.  Quantity, not quality.   Not even first draft ready.

After the event is over, I mold those words.  For 2011 and 2012, I wrote some fan fiction to push my word count to a greater number after working on my original novel.  I post it for free on the internet.  I make no attempt at selling it because someone else created those characters.  It's my comfort food writing, and some people like reading it.

However, I can take the original characters and turn those into publishable work.  That's going to take months, but in the end my investment could lead to some income.  It will become latent or passive income because once it's published, it's a finished product.  I don't need to make monthly updates.  The royalties are direct deposited into my account.  So writing is a third job for me, and I'd like it to replace my second job one day.  Replace my primary job?  Let's wait on that.  I'm going to need to have a backlist of books first.  That's years at the rate I'm chugging along at.

Liking the idea of a goal, the third job of writing may one day produce a list of titles that will generate noticeable income allowing me to be more particular regarding my other work.  The ability to choose is important to me.

My ability to choose also goes into writing.  I write about topics I want because chasing trends and following formulaic plots doesn't seem that interesting.  There's no guarantee that writing something that's like what's been written before will equal actual dollars.  If I did that, I'd be in ReWrite X, maybe with an agent now, who would query publishers on my behalf or a possible publication date in 2014, rather than having The End of the World Sucks out there as an indie published piece.  It's making money today, shaking with this mama gave it.

Considering writing to be a third job is putting me and my family (I die, and the rights go to my estate) before the needs of others.  When I go to my other jobs, I believe that is the same situation.  I work hourly to get paid.  When I write, it's a self-employment opportunity, and the hours invested are not translated into a livable wage.

I really don't get why people need to be so vocal about what they expect others to do when I'm not too sure what they're doing regarding making the world a better place other than giving others grief.

Cool It Nerd

Hey,

I backed out a couple of recent blog posts because I'm reentering the job market for a full-time job since my contractor job that's been extended a few times already is now out of funding :^(

I like it there and I've liked working at other places, but it's not solely up to me.

So I thought I'd better restate in politer terms what I had posted regarding National Novel Writing Month before anyone thinks I wig out.  No, there's things that go through people's minds, but they don't say or act upon them.

I think Chris Christie put it the month in perspective for those outside New Jersey -
“Now we’ve got a big task ahead of us that we have to do together. This is the kind of thing New Jerseyans are built for – we’re plenty tough and now we have a little more reason to be angry after this. Just what we need in New Jersey, a chance to be a little more angry.”

During the month of November, I was participating in National Novel Writing Month.  I did not get off to a great start because I was writing with a pen in a notebook, usually at night by flashlight and candlelight while monitoring the stove to heat up my house with steam.  I had no power for a while, but I was able to contact both jobs and get some hours.  Both are hourly, so if I don't work, I don't get paid. Sandy and Thanksgiving were not helpful to my bottom line.  I did not have much loss compared to others so I know I'm lucky. 

I did not travel to somewhere else with better facilities, like a hotel, because I have pets and foster animals in my house.  In an emergency, shelters will take us in, and I do have carriers and a vehicle that can hold them all.  I am prepared to a degree, but it was easier last year with Irene to have an evac plan with an older, driving teenager in the house (at college now) and a storm that wasn't 800 miles wide.  So I lived at home, went to work, and left early enough to return while there was still daylight.

There was also the maneuvers to gas up the car.  I started with a full tank so I wasn't involved in the initial panic, but once I started travelling to work sites, I needed to pay attention to the odd/even days and get in line.

After I visited Union Beach to help with clean up at a feral cat sanctuary and the person's home, I was settling back into a schedule and that included my free time activities.  On my evenings off, I sometimes go to programs or meetings for writers.  In November, a lot were scheduled so after checking to see that a particular library was open and the program was not cancelled - I went.

I was the only person that showed up.  I went to the librarian desk at the start time and asked, and she said it wasn't cancelled and asked me to wait to see if other people showed up.

Well, there was an angry mom hanging around the library who overheard me inquire about the National Novel Writing Month event.  Her mind was made up that November as National Novel Writing Month should have been cancelled if it wasn't already.  I was a *bleep* for participating when so many people were suffering.  And there's schools that have been washed away that I should be rebuilding.

Her mind was made up without knowing anything about me, or that National Novel Writing Month is a worldwide event. I doubt she was even aware of the volunteer needs of the unnamed washed away schools because if I think it over, I would not want my child going to a school that was rebuilt the same way an Amish barn is raised.  Without planning, skilled labor and the right materials, the new building may be unsafe.  Also, what am I supposed to do in the dark to rebuild a school, or is she insisting people no longer go to work if their workplace is open? 

I also did not observe her children in tow - she was flying solo, enjoying the heat, lights and internet, but they may have been left in the children's section of the library which also rubs me the wrong way.   The librarians are there to assist, but they aren't babysitters to give mom time to go pick a fight in another part of the library.

Anyway, the result was I wasted my time and gas going there, but the thing that ticked me off more was judgmental mom who doesn't possess the ability to keep her opinion to herself.  Anything I said about sand, mud, lives on the curbs - not good enough.  If I'm not working to get her kids out of the house during the day, I'm not doing shit.

I do consider writing a third job - or some may say a hobby that produces money.  I've already heard about making the big bucks on eBay by visiting garage sales or becoming a distributor ... I'd rather write.

Less than a week till November (National Novel Writing Month)

My head's been in planning mode for November and writing more Vanna and Thanos.

November 1st seems closer than it is because I attended a NaNo kickoff party this week.  It was scheduled on Oct. 23rd by the library because there's some other events next week.

I added a NaNo counter on the site here (<- to the left), but it might not take off quickly because I've already been scheduled to work at the second job on November 1st.  I also worked both jobs last year so I think I'm good, but I shouldn't be staying up late on Oct. 31st to start writing as soon as the clock strikes midnight. 

I've also been doing some tweaking on Neferseshotep before I put him aside for the month, unless I write like the wind, complete a novel in less than 30 days, and then can return to writing super-powered fantasy.

My book signing was nice.  I didn't sell out of books, I didn't sell half my books, but I did get a bump on my Amazon rank over the weekend so was it due to me talking to someone?  I also talked about National Novel Writing Month because I had a six foot table and only one title.  I added a selection of NaNo and Young Writer Program flyers to the front side.

Since I also set-up on Friday for the Pet Adoption Fair, I picked the tablecloth color that went best with my book cover. 

Wednesday Addams

Joining me at the table were two foster cats - Miss Wednesday Addams and Mr. ZuZu.  As you can see, I wasn't kidding around about being queen of black cats.


My other fosters were on the table next to us so I could easily answer any questions regarding their awesomeness, or tell off my mama's boy for sitting around with one eye closed like a furry little drama king.

ZuZu

Writing and Publishing

I’m feeling so inspired after reading Chuck Wendig’s blog post ‘Ask the Writer: “How do I get Published?”’ 

I like the storytelling bit, or I wouldn’t have written all that fan fiction while I was unemployed.  Then NaNo came along, and I thought I could write 50,000 words in a month, even though I was back to working, and working two jobs because Day Job doesn’t pay what my Old Day Job used to pay.  To up the ante, I figured I’d write something original – new characters.  An experiment.

Well, that experiment was moving along in November 2011 when I started the month off sick, then I got cheesed off at something so I flipped my writing back into fan fic to make myself happy.   My word count jumped, besides having 4 days off with nothing to do – neither job, no relative wanting me for Thanksgiving  - and I ended on Nov. 29^th with 167,756 words.  On the 30^th, both jobs had me scheduled, so no writing.

Half of these words were the zero level draft of The End of the World Sucks. The rest was fan fiction that I posted, got some real reviews for, and then got trolled … because that’s the way fan fiction works.

So back to Sucks – I had this chunk of words that I could post for free on fan fiction’s sister site, Fiction Press.  I hadn’t posted anything there, but thought about my CreateSpace coupon and the much-touted *fears* that Amazon was only using CreateSpace and the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest to steal everyone’s novels. 

Not MY fears, all the paranoid people that think they can’t pitch or query their novels because every agent and publisher is out to steal them.  200 word query = 84,000 word novel *stolen*?  Math doesn’t compute, but the logical part of my brain also calculates less people will see it if I never do anything with it.  Posting it free online will get some reviews and feedback, but this is different than fan fiction.  I don’t own those characters or settings so that’s for fun with no chance at recognition except as a quirky pen name. 

What if I wanted to do something for some money – average author annually makes $500 so I’m not thinking about my new Beverly Hillbillies lifestyle, just over time, if I write more books, I’ll sell more, and gradually make it worth the hours I invested in November.  What I didn’t realize is how many more hours I’d invest in edits and rewrites.  I spend more time doing that than writing, but I will hopefully become better when I write future zero level drafts.

I queried and entered contests.  Is it a jackpot moment to talk to an agent on the phone?  Yes and no.  I do really and deeply appreciate the call – no question in my mind that I gained something out of it.  I think I’d compare it most with a job interview.  I don’t mind job interviews so much, unless they’re clearly wasting my time.  And here’s the kicker, this happened early April 2012.  Some people query for a long time before getting THE call.  I got off the phone, bridges unburned.  If I altered my story to a genre-compliant zombie novel, I could submit my manuscript to him.  Since I now had his email address, I could have submitted it with no changes, but I understood what he was saying regarding the marketability. 

While this plum was dangling, I was reading online and going to talks regarding traditional publishing.  I work with metrics and contracts in periods of my professional career so my expectation was different from the way the publishing business works.  However, I can understand their viewpoint because they allow books to be returned by bookstores so the initial shipment does not equal sales.  They also package the author’s product and even if promotion is pushed onto the author, they do make the publication available through their distribution channels, which may have some proprietary aspects.  I can even understand the parts about the advance and it being applied to future royalties so I will not get paid again for that title until x number of books sell.  I didn’t jump into the ‘boo, hiss, they’re evil’ camp because I wasn’t learning about the inner working of publishing, just the author/publisher/possibly agent relationship. 

It didn’t sound like something that’d make me happy.  If I aspire to try to crack $500 annually with my writing, which is way less than minimum wage at the rate I write and edit, then I should go after what will make me happy with this – my plot, my characters, no mystery re: earnings.  Money would improve my outlook, but if only a handful of authors make substantially more than $500, that means that many more earn less.

Maybe it’s because I’m getting older that I consider what I would like to do after everything else is done – I went to work, did things for the pets and foster kitties, washed my clothes and now I have free time. I could watch T.V., read, or run loose in the streets yelling my drunken head off (welcome to Sharon’s street – where I see people with red Solo cups dancing around the stop sign on the corner at four o’clock on a Saturday afternoon.  

Since I’m not joining the town bacchanalia, I stay inside writing, and I’ll rewrite to bring them up to the level where others should like them.  It’s my time to waste, and if I don’t feel like writing based on a genre formula, well I guess I’m throwing money away so I won’t be cracking the $500/year threshold to make it into Big Time Authorhood.

Help for authors - a couple web sites

Wow, I might be the last person around to know about Wordle created by Jonathon Feinberg.  Dani M.of Florida mentioned it on one of the NaNoWriMo forums as a way to find overused words.

In the past, I've looked at some prowritingaid reports to correct my weak points.  Though they don't seem to understand my New Jersey ways - I love writing 'get' and 'got' in that initial draft. Got that?

I have to say - I recommend both to help authors.

Here's what Wordle did with The End of the World Sucks (yes, I see a big 'get' in there) -

I think it's a very nice representation of the book.  It has a little bit about zombies and there's a vampire, but it doesn't dominate the text.

This one's a work in progress, so Neferseshotep should have a different look later as more characters, settings and action is written.

The largest words are character names at the moment, and there's a tiny 'get'.  I'm still writing and editing so that 'now' and 'like' might disappear also.

I'm just thrilled to find these clever and free tools.  Do you mind me sharing that?

Pet Fair With Book Signing - Oct 20 and 21, Scotch Plains, NJ

I have a book signing planned in a couple weeks at Parker Gardens’ Pet Fair Weekend.  No, I didn’t write a pet book, but my foster cats will be there, and I was asked so once I also knew the other author in the group who actually wrote a children’s book about cats was invited, I said ‘sure’.  I am the chauffer for my ninja cat attack squad (most of my fosters are black cats), or maybe a better description is I drive the getaway car.

Parker Gardens is located at 1325 Terrill Road, Scotch Plains, NJ.  The Pet Fair is 11am – 3pm on October 20 and 21. There will be hay rides, a hay slide, and a maze.  Also, I have been to Parker Gardens before, and they have a huge selection of fall decorations besides plants. For the Pet Fair itself, there’s the cat rescue group I’m involved with on-site both days with cats taking applications for adoptions, and I believe there will be one dog group there on Saturday, and a second one on Sunday.  There are information sessions such as pet CPR, a pet communicator, and ‘Ask the Vet’. There will be a bake sale fundraiser for us too.

My delay in posting this here, since I was asked in September, is I’m trying to get my hands on the flyer.  That would be nice, and the Pet Fair’s not about me signing my book and talking about National Novel Writing Month and the Young Writer’s Program (under 17, can do less than 50,000 words).   The Pet Fair was not ideally timed to get anyone fired up about writing in November – it’s just a happy coincidence. 

There is another event in November with the NJ Greyhound Rescue group at the Westfield Armory (in New Jersey).  I’m not iffy about attending it, but I need coming-home info from my daughter in college, in case I’m driving to pick her up.  That’s 10 hours for one round-trip – in November – during National Novel Writing Month.  Not to lay any guilt on her because if it’s when I would be at a pet adoption event, I can’t say I get much writing done at those either.

Sept. 30th already?

I've been working a lot of hours at the second job.  I do perk up when I get the result on a pay stub - paying bills and picking up a few splurge items at the grocery store.  My diet changes when I'm on the go, but I've been pretty good about not buying fast food since my daughter is away at college and no longer working with me part-time on weekends.

I'm actually down a couple pounds so I finally shed my NaNo weight from last year - hey, we meet in Starbucks and Starbucks at Barnes and Noble.  Fraps are delicious and full of calories.  One Starbucks was trying to help me kick the habit by slipping me a coffee-tainted Frap two separate times.  Seems cleaning the equipment is a low priority at that location (I'm the only coffee hater who writes?).  I'm torn - it's the closest write in location to where I live, and perhaps they've changed their filthy ways.

Speaking of NaNo - tomorrow, October 1st, I start plotting the sequel to Sucks.  I have some ideas, starting with the need to get them out of that house.  I have 30 days to expand on that concept.

In November, I hope to still be working two jobs, and my daughter will be home a week during that month.  Details aren't known about who is picking up, or if she's taking the train or bus into the area.  I may be the last to know.

With this amount of uncertainty about what's happening in November and how much free time I'll have, I'm still participating in National Novel Writing Month - are you?  Yes = good.  No = why not?

I'm not belittling the feat of writing 50,000 words in 30 days - not everyone can do that.  I've heard great ideas at the end of October kickoff party that had me sputtering into a shame spiral.  My stories are not going to change the world, unless you want to think if a traditional publisher touches my scribbles, it'll be set back to the Gutenberg days.

One day you're going to write a book?  How about starting November 1, 2012 - that day would be great.


The key is continuing to write, even when you think something has gone horribly wrong in your story (such as leaving the electricity on when you've flooded the city - my Neferseshotep doh!).  It's the word count, nothing but word count.  Start writing future scenes, back story, interviews with the characters after all is said and done ... keep writing.   In December, or maybe January or February, that's when you go back and start fixing it up.

I didn't finish Neferseshotep's first draft yet, and it's going to take time to straighten out the 50 thousand and something words I already wrote.  I actually had some contraction before I began adding words back in a hundred at a time, and I know it's slow-going because I still have the initial characters together and they're still in New York City.    Outline wise, I'm good, but there's some style-tweaking going on. I'm also trying to figure out where some test readers are settling into 'seen this before'/trope expectations that I'm having trouble seeing on the horizon.  This is just like ______, then I go look up the established work and scratch my head.   I do see some Narnia and Tolkien aspects, but since the characters are not united in a common goal (do some miss that half the characters don't give a rat's patootie?), is this a small scale Game of Thrones?  

CampNaNoWriMo

I validated my word count today because I saw I was over the 50,000 on Neferseshotep - and the novel is far from over!  So I might have plenty to write in September too.

This might also be a project that needs more time because it has big concepts.  It might be I put this down for November's NaNoWriMo to write a sequel to The End of the World Sucks and then stay working on Sucks II before picking Neferseshotep back up after it's sat for a while.

I have caught little errors as I'm writing now - but NaNo's about the writing, not the editing and rewriting - so I might be feeling a little down for not conceiving of all logistical problems as I wrote the initial draft.  How could I flood New York City and forget to turn the electricity off?

The other night I was trying to spell out some basic themes in the book - it's not just a bunch of people get together and set off on advenure (but that does help it keep moving).

If I just gave them some superpowers and problems they handled easily, that's boring.

I recall the Ancient Greeks gave their gods weaknesses and stories to make them human-like, but their problems were so much bigger.  Scooping cat litter - that's nothing, you hear about Hercules and those stables?

I am also revisting a theme from Sucks.  Everybody knows the difference between wrong and right, but what if the other guy's right is different than yours?  Vanna can't kick anything's ass, so the similarity stops there.  Here, as with Spiderman, with Great Power comes Great Responsibility - what is that responsibility?  The huge hint is all the central characters in Neferseshotep have something to do with death - death happens, people die all the time.  Would any of them feel inclined to save someone's life?  Do they even value their own lives?  And with a Valkyrie,  if you're of the Norse persuasion, the end of the world is one great big fight that we're going to lose - woo hoo!

There's also the issues of belief, not believing, and also conflict regarding that.  Then there's the possibility of conflict between the 'holy roller' types.  Just because someone looks like they have cooler powers, doesn't make their god(s) better.  There's also the groups that work based on faith alone - God/their god(s) don't need to prove anything, that's because they're God/god(s) and without Him/him/her/them you wouldn't exist.

I have to be careful with that last part because I'm not writing this to insult anyone, though I may do some additional reading about why some beliefs are labeled as 'cults'. 

Writing Progress

An August CampNaNoWriMo update -

Just a little past the halfway point in terms of days, and almost to the halfway point in terms of words.  I'm clocking in at a little over 22,000 right now.

The news is mixed because I know I'm not even at the halfway point of the plot so I have a lot more writing to go, but that also means you'll have plenty to read when it's finished.

A couple things in the back of my mind as I write

• I have too much fun writing miscommunicating dialogue.  Creating a character who speaks in tongues and also detects lying - still impossible to get a straight answer out of a teenager.
• Am I writing enough action?  My critique buddies should let me know - yet, I don't think this story's about the action.  When there's characters that are all-powerful, I want to dig into what makes them more human.
• Some of the characters need fleshing out since they're kind of cardboard placeholders at the moment.  I think that'll improve in editing as I follow each one's path.  The omniscient viewpoint should help me convey info to the reader without creating an every-being-for-itself atmosphere.
• Why did I want six sort-of-main characters in the first place?  That is a good question and I'll give that some more thought.  
• Neferseshotep is the title character, but alone he's not so interesting.  He seems powerful, but there are flaws.
• My 'from the real world' character might be too much, but I patterned her whiny self-centeredness on Sarah from Labyrinth.  I might change her name to something even more obnoxious sounding like Bettina.
• Am I doing justice to six different characters in terms of growth?  Do they all need to grow? Or better yet, do they grow in different ways? 

Enough teasing?

Anyway, you can also enjoy this sort of thing and at the best time of year - November.  November is National Novel Writing Month  It's more fun in November because the regional groups are operating so there will be a kickoff party, write-ins, encouragement, and an end of the month party.  There may even be a cake challenge in your region.  There's even a buddy system so you can take a quick look at others - including those not in your region.

It's August and I'm talking about November?  Preparation is key to accomplishing 50,000 words in 30 days.  Turning on your preferred word processing program on November 1st and staring at the cursor is not a good start.  Outline a plot, get some character names together, write some back story for them, do some research, interview your character after the end of the book.  There's all sorts of things that can be done beforehand that don't include actually writing the text of the novel.

Time & Materials for Self-Publishing

Or what I would call a T&M metric.

Actually, this blog post is more personal than that because there’s been questions, and perhaps my answers are falling short.

I’m an idea person.  For years, I would think of alternate versions of stories, shows and whatever, and when I was laid off in 2009, I read fanfiction, then wrote some.  I did not convert any of that into original fiction, but there’s some similar ideas and themes.

Then I heard about NaNoWriMo in 2011.  At the time, I was back to working full-time, and still kept my part-time job from my unemployment phase because my pay was drastically reduced.  However, I was good at spitting out large amounts of words so I was undaunted by the challenge of writing 50,000 words in 30 days.

I wrote the first draft for The End of the World Sucks in November 2011.  Some NaNoWriMo participants call it quits on Nov. 30^th – mission accomplished or not.  It’s the writing that’s important, not who sees it.

From my fan fiction, I knew that some people liked what I write (though there’s others who set up troll accounts to keep voicing their hate continually – I’m that much of a literary force?).  I could post it for free to the internet, and point people to it.

But there’s also the possibility that it was a publishable idea/story.   To ask for money though, I felt the story needed to be stronger and improved.  It’s a two-way street – I invest time into the writing and making it better, and someone pays for the diversion and hopeful enjoyment of reading it.

So I entered months of critiquing, editing and finally proofreading. Why did it take months?  It wasn’t that the manuscript was that big a pile of crap, but I have limited free time.  Besides working, I also do volunteer work, and at times, my teenager needs me for parental things.  

During this period, I tested the waters regarding traditional publishing.  I understood it would take time, but I was getting the feeling that what I had was not genre-specific enough, but drew enough on the horror elements that it couldn’t be a mainstream novel.

I’m ok with that.  I don’t feel like rewriting the story with a kick-ass, unreal hero(ine) with all sorts of mad survival skillz.  She’s intentionally normal … or somewhat normal. Vanna’s not me, but I have observed some young ladies at my part-time job that could be close (the client’s employees, not my colleagues), and I’ve also watched enough television and news stories to fill in more details.

I also did not want to rewrite the disaster that put her in this situation – Vanna hiding in her house for a month after a zombie outbreak can be dramatic, I suppose, but I was interested in what happened after that.  That’s what the story’s about. Many other tales begin with the outbreak, and then the search for other survivors.  I wanted to investigate what happens once someone survives to that point.

Also, I don’t have enough zombie action.  Since I intentionally have Vanna as the main character, and she’s rather normal, why would she want to head towards zombies?  I’m leery of storylines that have characters continually putting themselves in danger, without good reasons to do that.  I’m even more critical when during their repeated attempts to do stupid things, the skilled characters martyr themselves to save the idiot.  Good going, idiot.  Now who’s going to save you from yourself?

Then the final straw was zombies and vampires don’t mix.  I wouldn’t say they’re mixing in my book, they coexist.  I feel that zombies would present a problem to a vampire if they need living human blood to survive.  What’s a vampire to do?  That leads into a secondary problem that some people don’t like which is other characters having motivation that may not mesh with the main character.  I’m writing crazy ass plot with everyone having an agenda.  Most start with ‘stay alive’, but it diverges after that.  I don’t think that’s such a big deal because even in a simple sounding murder mystery, it’s not as easy as everyone versus the killer.

So, when I decided on self-publishing, I had to learn what was what.  I’m not in this profession, and less than a year ago, I didn’t even know people doing it.

I have to spend time on ‘the author platform’.  That means this blog/web site, Twitter, Facebook, and trying not to spend too much time on GoodReads.   I’m supposed to be talking about what I know and what I’m working on.  Well, I’m not labeling myself as a professional writer, but I don’t mind sharing what I’ve found out.  A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle.

On top of that, and getting the manuscript text polished, people started talking about costs.  I didn’t spend anything on the author platform, except my time.

I had a coupon for CreateSpace from NaNo – 5 free copies of the novel, but I needed to pay for shipping.  I won a second coupon with the same offer.  Expiration date: June 30^th.  Shipping costs $11.90, and I have ten printed copies of my novel.

Before that June 30^th deadline though, I had some other expenses like editing and proofreading, and I also wanted to have a certain look to the cover so I licensed some images from Shutterstock.  I also licensed some extras of the same female model to use because one of the writing groups I had joined suggested that I put back story for the novel on my web site.

I also opted to officially copyright.  Work is copyrighted from the moment an author writes it, but the $35 seemed a reasonable price.  It’s certainly less than buying my own ISBNs.

Once I had my cover image, I splurged on Vistaprint and ordered some business cards with my book cover and social media list, and also some postcards.  Vistaprint may be in what’s considered a dying field – business cards and other marketing items – but they’re keeping it alive with their great pricing.  If I break it down, a color postcard cost me six cents.  Between both sides, it lists my book title, July publication, a blurb, and sets the expectation that it's about 'Zombies, a vampire, and human social drama.'

That leads to the three-part question that spurred me to write this post – “How do you expect to make money as an author when you are spending so much to self-publish, especially when it takes you more than six months to get a novel to market?  Additionally, how can you consider yourself successful if no one is waiting to buy your book when it first comes out?”

I’m going to answer the second part first, since to me that seems like the no-brainer – I’m not quitting my day job, or even my part-time job because I need that income.  Once I begin making ‘real money’ as an author, I can reconsider that possibility.  I don’t believe six months is an unreasonable period of time to work on editing my first professional novel.  If I had pursued the traditional publishing route further, and was successful, it may be 18 to 24 months before the book was scheduled to be published.  I hope to become quicker as I practice good writing habits.

How do I make money with this?  Well, I have a spreadsheet listing my costs to date because if I have income, I should deduct business expenses.  Since I’m tight-fisted in this endeavor, I spent $141.  Some people may spend more, and there’s less expensive ways to do this.  I am comfortable risking this investment. 

During the first week, I sold a few copies through the kindle format, one through the Nook format.  Some people have said they ordered the paper version of the novel, but Amazon/CreateSpace is not reporting those sales yet.  My best royalty rate is roughly $2 and that’s for the Kindle version.  So if 70 kindle versions are bought, that’s my breakeven point.   I also have extra paper, physical copies in my possession that I could sell for $10 each, if I join a local author talk circuit.

My business plan is to wait for positive reviews and word-of-mouth.  I believe the early orders are from people that know me, but I have no definitive proof except for the person who has the novel on her Nook.  The forward-looking part is if there are no sales through Smashwords, and B&N/Nook is stagnant, I will opt to go exclusively with Amazon for a 90-day period.

And BTW, I think that line of questioning is a deterrent to everyone considering in investing in a better, self-published product that saw them posted @Sharon because I recommended self-published authors invest time and money in editing and proofreading.

Back to Work (Writing Work)

So back to writing again – what am I doing?

Web page wise, I need to finesse a page for the book that looks like I seriously want to support it in a creative way. In the works, and I want it finished prior to the paperback version going live on Amazon.

For August’s CampNaNoWriMo, I think I’m starting a new novel, Neferseshotep.  It’ll be another world is in trouble scenario, but follow characters that can actually affect the outcome, instead of hiding and worrying about staying alive like Vanna Ames in The End of the World Sucks.

Neferseshotep has been on the Astral Plane for millennium protecting souls from soul eaters as they travel to their final destination.  Back in the day, he was a priest of Anubis.  He still believes he’s working for the ancient Egyptian god of the dead.

His fellow adventurers will be a Valkyrie, a newbie Reaper, and three more humans who have been working on the Astral Plane for their religions protecting the faithful – one Celt and two Maori. 

I have some characters.  I need to work on an outline so I can crank out another zero level draft  in 30 days. (NaNoWriMo is a novel in a month challenge – it’s words in quantity, but not quality.  Write, don’t edit, for the entire month)

For November, I might write a sequel to The End of the World Sucks.  Back when I originally wrote it, there were no romantic goings-on.  When I was working on the edits, it was strongly advised that any novel with a vampire include some romantic elements because readers expect it.  So it’s present in the story now, but I haven’t lived with it long enough to have enough material in mind to outline a sequel.

On top of that, I have a couple other ideas.  One involves historical research, so I’ll probably delay that idea for a while.  The other won’t involve the end of the world in any way, but I’m out to kill fictional people with a devious main character.

CampNaNoWriMo, June Session begins

CampNaNoWriMo is here, and since I’m still editing The End of the World Sucks, I’ll be writing all sorts of things for word count (NaNoRebel) besides a new novel.  I got some ideas, but I don’t want to be sitting on a new pile of manuscript on June 30^th without getting this one completed.  I believe I’ll be writing a new novel in August for the second session of CampNaNoWriMo, and that’ll give me two months till November 1^st.  It’ll be a lonely two months because my baby girl is going away to college, and I’ll be left talking to the cats.  I’d talk to the dogs, but they’re only dogs.

During this past week, I did have baby girl (she scored higher than me on SAT verbal) look over my manuscript because I paid for her car’s oil change. Yes, I know, it’s torture, but she could have bought her way out of it.

I’m waiting on money again (my life story?  I’m owed a good chunk of change and can’t pay my bills) so I can get a pro copyedit for a reasonable rate - I’ll have to audition someone on a short section first because stylistically, I’m not universally loved.   If writing fiction was like a spreadsheet, I’d be kicking ass.  Alas, it’s not, so all the (contradictory) expert advice needs to be painted onto my story to make it presentable.  Like my car, the tale’s not black, white or silver/gray.  What’s wrong with people not wanting cars of color?  What’s wrong with people not accepting that not every story follows the same formula, changes the character names, and sticks them in … Asheville, NC.  BTW, one reviewer did object to my use of Asheville.  Real locations = bad fiction.  Well, I like Asheville.  Have you seen photos of those lovely mountains?  I’ve done the drive through Shenandoah National Park and Blue Ridge Parkway in my younger days.

Anyway, I’ve weighed that advice against more than this one book.  I have future plans for causing havoc in New York City - wait, NYC is fiction central, along with romantic London.  How did London steal that title from Paris or the Scottish Highlands? Damn bodice rippers.  Anyway, I think Asheville’s staying. 

After a while, I get tired of searching for things to change based on impressions.  And yes, one reviewer blanketed characters with change all names so are all named something unique so they don’t create impressions.  I did respond that I did choose the name Vanna intentionally. 

Ever see Clueless?  Cher was already taken – and man, can the original Cher keep going and going?  I saw her in concert seven years ago, and The Village People opened for her. That was back in the days when my daughter and I went to shows – she picked Cher.  She also picked Equus for her birthday, and yes, I took my middle-school aged daughter to see Daniel Radcliffe.  We also saw Phantom that same day, but the school-age peers were more impressed that she saw all of D.R.