Samuel Colbran's Blog, page 2

What to do with a boring plotline?

I completed NaNoWriMo and wrote nearly 70k words, but now I need to think about one of the plots in the Savage Rebellion. What is wrong is that the writing is becoming a chore, and I don’t know if I should continue this plotline or scrap it.

Let me point out why I am not a fan of this plot point. While it is necessary for this stage of the book, the tournament fighting arc, I have lost interest in writing about it. Not only do you have to describe a one-on-one fight, but I have to come up with different ways of saying ‘attack’, ‘ stab’, or ‘thrust’. OMG, it is driving me a little insane.

The other main plot point is more personal to one character and far more interesting. It allows me to express my usual writing style, which I find more engaging with my creativity.

However, I need the first plot point to continue because it leads to uncovering more of the series’ world-building. At the same time, the other plotline is engaging but less crucial to the whole story arc.

I am torn between pushing through the boringness or skipping to the necessary parts of the plot. What should I do?

My Next Journey as a Writer.

My journey on the NaNoWriMo has made me remember how to write again. I didn’t realise I had lost touch, as it has been nearly five years since I published my last book. So, I thought I might drop some things I have re-learned while on my writing adventure.

First, I was dragging out the words when I started the novel. I didn’t know why each sentence and paragraph was a chore. I listened to my writing music playlist, chewed chewing gum and even walked around the house to get my juices flowing. I was caught up not saying ‘he said’ or ‘she said’, so I found a few blogs to help me with alternate words. Even this didn’t help until I remembered a piece of advice from a fellow author, ‘Your first draft will always be rubbish, but you need to get the story out onto the page.”

So, with that, I changed my approach to writing the novel. Without needing to ensure I had the right words or concepts, I went into just writing. That made me go from barely keeping up with the daily quoter of NaNoWriMo to nearly tripling the number. In the last four days, I have written over 13,000 words, which isn’t my best speed but is much better than dribbling out the novel.

Secondly, I found that I was editing as I went. Some people do this, but I prefer something else to this method. Because I am getting back into it, I am obsessed with polishing the first draft as I go. That stops the creative process, as you are stopping and starting to make sure that everything is perfect or near perfect. This is fine when you do it once a week or something, but as you are writing, every hour is too much.

Lastly is simple passion. I didn’t have the passion for writing as I did with my other novels. With my mother dying a few months ago (And I being her full-time carer). Also, having to move because of her death and that I couldn’t afford the rent at my unit, it shook me. I am now scared for my future and don’t know what will happen.

So I decided to write the next book in the Journal of an Adventurer series. It was harder than I thought, grief, depression and need to be like you were before. Not only that, but the years of caring for my mother made me isolated, and I lost a lot of my support from friends and author colleagues. It makes it hard to have that passion for something when your method of writing includes interacting with the writing community. I was a part of the Gold Coast Writers Association and ran my writing group. This hasn’t improved, but I am working on this last hurdle.

So when writing a book, just remember it shouldn’t be perfect. Don’t worry about editing as you go, and find a great community to bounce ideas off. With that, you will limit your chances of giving up. Just remember that you are not alone.

My hardest decisions I have made.

Like most people, I have had to make several hard decisions that have shaped my life. I had a few choices that, through hindsight, could have led me on a different path, but I can’t change the past.
My first decision was to move states to run a kitchen. This should have been for only one year, but I stayed for the next twenty years. My boss offered me to move to organise the new kitchen, except when I arrived the manager and the staff thought I was there to fire or be the new manager. This was different, but trying to fix anything was stalled by the other employees and the manager. When the boss came to check out the kitchen, it was still a mess, and I was chewed out by him. I decided to stay at the job even though it was horrible to work there because I moved in with my sister. She had a new baby, and I wanted to stay with my family.
The next significant choice was going to university. After years of working the job, I needed to change direction and was talented in mathematics. This meant I left my job as the university was in a different city. I still wanted to work, but I need help with the travel. The drawback of the university was a social life. Being a chef, you only have a little social life, and that changed when you worked from 50 hours a week to 20 hours a week with full-time study. I then went hard hanging out with new friends, and this caused me to fail my course and get kicked out. It was my choice, and I don’t regret my path, as I also discovered that I am not much of a student.
The most recent one was choosing to become my mother’s carer and becoming an author. I still worked as a chef many years after trying to become a mathematician. This came to a head when I was doing errands for my disabled mother, but she was becoming more dependent on my help. So, I quit my job, and while looking after my mother, I started to write. During the first month of looking after her, I was kicked out by my housemate and lost my girlfriend. It took me months to get over these setbacks. I eventually moved in with my mother and became her full-time caregiver.
I finished the novel and three novellas while caring for my mother. Looking back at all my decisions, I ended up in the best place. Now, I have a new decision to make as my mother has passed away, and I decided to get training in individual support so I can take everything I learned from caring for my mother into a new career.

12 Days of Bookmas.

It is Christmas time again! Five years ago, I was part of an event called 12 Days of Bookmas, run by the brilliant author of Urban Fantasy, Rose Montague. I had so much fun with it.

I explained how the 12 Days of Bookmas event was run. It started on the 12th of December, and you brought or borrowed a book from the list every day until the 24th. You could register either as an author or a reader. If you are an author, you advertise your books on the readers’ post, and each reader was asked to choose at least 12 books on that list.

I registered both as a reader and author, and I did have a few sales and read some marvellous books. You try to tell people what genre you like, your age range, and other details like language or naughty scenes. 

The twelve books I read/brought to this event were:

The Rose Thief by Claire Buss, linkHand and Talon by Melonie Purcell, link; review I gave it 5 stars.Dawn of Steam by Jeffrey Cook, linkTechromancy Scrolls: Adept by Erik Schubach, linkP.A.W.S by Debbie Manber Kupfer, link The Stone of the Tenth Realm by Eva Gordon, linkThe Coven by Chrissy Lessey, linkPlaying with Fire by Cris & Clare Meyers, linkAngel: The Mithista Incident by Scott A. Borgman, linkLight in the Night by Greg Alldredge, linkThe Werewolf Whisperer by Camilla Ochlan and Bonita Maria Gutierrez, linkJade by Rose Montague, link, Review, all books 5 stars!

Each book was terrific, and I bought more of the series with multiple books. If you are an author or love to read, set up your own 12 days of Bookmas and find some new and exciting books to read. Keep an eye out on my blog as I will put up some of my reviews of these books.

Woot, Finished NaNoWriMo! 50K!

This is the first NaNoWriMo I have finished since my last book, Lake Merrin. Lucky that this book is the next in the Journal of an Adventurer series. I am so excited to keep going. I still have at least 100k to go. I’m looking forward seeing where the journey of Lone Solo and his party, the Rejects takes me.
Here is a little summary of my next book:
Book 2 of Journal of an Adventurer.
Join Lone Solo and his party, The Rejects, where they try to discover what is happening on the frontier of the County of Merrin. Could there be an underlying reason for the mass destruction of farmland and livestock?

Here are links to my books: Amazon and my website, samuelcolbran.com.

What are your favorite animals?

I do like a lot of different animals, from cats to dogs to birds, as I had all three when I was a child. Besides all this, I have a few that I love and sometimes think they could be my spirit animal.

Hello Bear

First is the bear; I think they are fantastic, but I wouldn’t go up to hug one if I could. My nickname is Brother Bear; I am big, hairy, and cuddly like a teddy bear.

Grey Wolf

Next is the wolf, as they are majestic, and I love the idea of the pack and how they feel and interact with nature. Yes, they have been the cause of deaths among livestock and human lives, but they have that intelligence that defines them in my eyes.

German Shepard Puppy

Lastly is the dog. What not to love about a dog? A loyal companion, a lovable and fluffy animal. When I was young, I had two German shepherds. They were brilliant and loveable, and a few times, they protected me from weirdos and other uncouth people.

Do I trust my instincts?

Yes, I do. There has been many times in my life that something felt off and I have stepped away from the situation.

One time I nearly was caught by the scam about a secret file on your computer and Microsoft was calling to help as they detect it. The file, I found out later, was part of the processing system. At the time I nearly gave them full access to my computer, files and passwords but something was hinky. I’m glad my instincts was spot on as the fallout would have been bad.

Nowadays, being an author makes the few offers by marketing people. I don’t mind it, but they need to research people’s books/blog/personalities to understand how to interpret that into a successful business plan for you. Trying to cold call someone because they used a hashtag or another form of exposure shouldn’t make you trust them. As my publisher said to me before I signed up, trust your gut and do due diligence.

What’s the first impression you want to give people?

A happy man with a kind heart. I prefer to be pleasant to people so that they can get to know me. I use my spare time to learn different topics and chat about anything. And if I need to learn something or someone is much more knowledgeable than me, I love to learn.
Curiosity is one of my traits. Learning about different cultures, subjects, and knowledge is one of my goals. That is what I try to do when I meet people. To be open, funny and willing to learn and listen.

NaNoWriMo! Samuel the Author is back!

Woot! It’s the 15th day of NaNoWriMo! I hope everyone is going hard at their keyboard/paper/whatever. I just hit 38k today. It is fantastic to get back into my writing. I have been on track to finish NaNo since 2016 with my 1st novel, Lake Merrin (which I am doing a rewrite too, so shhhh).

I will also try to put up some blogs as long as I don’t get behind with my writing.

Good luck with your stories, World! Wooo, NaNoWriMo #passioninspirecreate

Life, love lost and creativity.

It has been a few weeks since my last blog. This is due to surprisingly being pretty broken, and if you put your life and soul into a task (being my mother’s carer), all those little pains and problems don’t crop up. I am taking steps to correct these issues, but I still miss my mother.

So what am I up to? There was plenty of stuff watching the live-action One Piece, which was bloody brilliant compared to other live-action anime shows; this had the passion and love for the original manga/anime. I suggest anyone who loves anime to go and watch it.

Now, writing my next book, Savage Rebellion, it is a bit harder to get back into the grove. I have the premise and some of the plot, but getting back into it seems more complicated than I thought. First, I want to start at the Adventurer’s Hall Tournament, with principal and minor characters fighting to become the Champion of the Hall. Even have the breakdown of each fight, then off on to the main quest about what is causing this “Savage Rebellion”, dun dun daaa.

The thing about being a writer is don’t push yourself. Creativity is fluid and mysterious; find a way to express yourself and try not to emulate other creatives as they have found their way. That is my two bits. It took me years to realise that passion inspires you to be creative, encouraging you to be passionate.