Trey Stone's Blog, page 20

Creative Loss

What would you do if you lost all your creative powers?

My wife – whom I love dearly and wish to spend the rest of my life with – left me yesterday.

No, not in an emotional sense; only physically.

You see, we live apart for the time being. It’s because of this job I have, which is super cool, and we make up for it by visiting each other.

One of the unforeseen positive sides of the current world situation (there’s a pandemic, in case you hadn’t noticed) is that my wife suddenly doesn’t have so much work to do. Or, she does, but she’s not allowed to do it.

Due to that, our last visit got extended for quite some time. We’ve actually been together since Christmas living it up like a regular married couple doing regular married couple things all the time.

Until now.

She’s gone back, and though it might not be very long until we meet again, it always makes us feel terrible.

For me, that usually manifests in my creative side. Thing is, it’s tends to be for the positive. In the sense that I get super motivated and lose myself in my work, to fill that emotional hollowness of being away from my wife.

Except this time, it’s the opposite. I feel drained. Empty, in a bad way. Like I don’t have anything to contribute, no songs to write, no words to pour onto the page. It’s strange and a very alien feeling.

The worst part is – it’s not even true! Lately, I’ve been on a massive roll. I’ve submitted a lot of stories – both short and long – to a lot of places, and I’m starting edits on my third novel in a few days time, something I’m very excited about. Hell, as I write this I’m even expecting the last proof on a story I’m submitting tomorrow! So this feeling of uselessness isn’t even real.

But it feels like I don’t remember how to do it anymore. As if I’ve lost skills I used to have, that I was proud of, and I have no idea how it even happened. A creative memory loss, if you will.

I know it won’t last. It will pass, as it always does. My wife is experiencing a similar sensation, feeling lost and out of place in this world, so we’re in it together.

Which is how I know it will be okay – just like my wife and I – we always are.

But it’s an important feeling to recognize, I think. You can’t have ups without downs, and right now, I’m in a massive slump.

I just beg that it’s over soon, because I have a lot of amazing writing to do and I can’t me sitting around moping like this.

How are you doing these days? Finding ways to cope during the pandemic? Exploring new creative outlets or maybe dabbling with some newfound interest for physical activity? Or are you simply just surviving, like so many of us? Because that’s okay too. Sometimes that’s all we can do.

Keeping Track of Your Writing

Quick question: Do you know how much you wrote last week? Last month? Last year?

I’m sure you could figure it out – search through some documents, add up some word counts, but I’m guessing it would take you a moment and a half? Also, what would even be the point?

Here’s the thing: I love data. I like numbers and stats, and since I write a lot of different things (novels, novellas, short stories and micro fiction), I needed a way to keep track of what’s what.

So I created a spreadsheet.

It’s pretty basic. A few columns for name, genre, word count and status (whether the story is finished and not), and as it grew I expanded it. Now it has a column for whether a story is currently submitted anywhere (and the name of that place) as well as a comment section where I can keep track of rejections or multiple versions.

It’s a handy tool to have to keep track of what I’m spending a lot of time working on.

Here’s an overview of what parts of it looks like – obviously my stories have titles, I’ve just redacted them. The color-coding can mean several things – either it’s a second type of sorting by genre or it’s something important I have to remember.

So now that I know what am I spending my time on, it eventually struck me that I didn’t realize when I spent that time. I didn’t write down start or finish dates for different stories – and seeing as my memory is terrible, I find it difficult to look back at last summer and remember what I wrote then.

So I made myself a little calendar spreadsheet.

It’s not set in stone – and it’s not necessarily exhaustive – but it’s a handy tool to keep track of my efforts. Also, it works both backward and forward in time. I can use it to look back at last year, to know what I’ve done and written, and I can use it to plan the the next 3, 6 or 12 months. Next month for example, I have planned some hefty edits on my next book, and the month after that I think I need to start doing some revisions on another draft. Which means my short stories will have to take the sideline for a while.

Here’s what parts of the calendar sheet looks like. The cells obviously have text, but I’ve redacted that for my own privacy. I might write that I started a story, finished a story, sent it off to my editor, or submitted it somewhere. The color-coding is a means of visualizing all of the above.

Why am I telling you all this?

Because I realized it’s a great way to keep myself motivated and accountable.

It started off as a fun little thing-to-do-because-I-like-to-look-at-data, but now I realize it has a bigger purpose. Whenever I feel down and uninspired about my writing, I can look back at all the things I wrote in the last 6 months and visualize it, feel proud about it. And whenever I feel like I don’t know what I’m doing, I sit down with my calendar and plan the next two or three months.

Also, my list of stories keep growing, along with stats on rejections, acceptances, and total running word counts. If you like data and stats, like me, you know what I’m talking about. Just watching that tally go up a little every week is super motivating. Also – I don’t know how other people do it – but when you get to a certain amount of written works you need a system for knowing what’s what. Especially with my shorter things, after a handful of stories they start blending together. This overview becomes very handy then.

I’ve been wondering if I should add anything to my data collection system. Maybe track start/end dates for all my stories, but that would mean a lot of backtracking, and I don’t know how I would deal with when I re-write stories entirely. Also, my calendar already has records of which months I’ve spent writing short stories (though I don’t keep track of exactly which I write every month) so I’m not entirely sure if it would be worth it.

Do you keep track of your work somehow? How much you write and when? Do you like to collect data and stats? Do you have an recommendations for things I could be doing? Let me know! I’d be super interested in hearing about it.

Book Review: The Hod King by Josiah Bancroft

In the future, The Tower of Babel series will stand out as a series of books that was truly something else.

Honestly – it’s some of the best books I’ve read in forever. I probably say that a lot, but this time I mean it. This is the third book in the series and the front cover has a quote by Pierce Brown (about book 1) that reads: “It’s rare to find a modern book that feels like a timeless classic,” and I couldn’t have said it better myself. This is incredible.

In this third book, Thomas Senlin is still looking for his wife that he lost in book 1 (my review here) when they arrived at the Tower of Babel for their long-awaited honeymoon. He has spent much of book 2 (review here) finding his way through the tower and getting to grips with his new reality, making friends and enemies along the way that will either help him – or attempt to stop in – on his quest to be reunited with his wife. Now, Thomas Senlin is no longer just a man who came to visit the tower and got lost – he’s one of them, and now he knows to play by the Tower’s rules.

The cords are tightening in the third book, and all the stakes are raised. Are those we think were friends still friends? And are all of Senlin’s enemies as evil as we thought? And where exactly has his wife been all this time? As we get closer to the end of our and Thomas’ journey, the true nature of the tower starts revealing itself. Identities are revealed, conspiracies are unraveled, and the world begins transforming.

Honestly, the plot of these books is truly gripping and captivating, and the world it’s set in is just incredible. Part sci-fi, part fantasy, part steampunk, it has it all. The Tower is an incredible and immense backdrop, ripe with exciting possibilities and opportunities for fantastic characters, thrilling conspiracies, and least of all – amazing writing.

I can’t underline it enough – Josiah Bancroft has an amazing way with words – a control over language that will knock the breath out of you. As a writer myself, it makes just a tad jealous. I mentioned in my previous reviews that it can get a little bit tiring at time – because he will just churn out one amazing turn of phrase after another – but by now I’m wholly entranced by- and expecting it, and it’s just incredible. I’ve never been more in awe. Also – and this has been going on since book 1 but I don’t think I’ve mentioned it previously – every chapter is prefaced with a little quote from a fictional piece of writing which come from Bancroft’s own world, and even those are so well-crafted it’s ridiculous.

It’s an incredible thing to come across a story and a series of books that just change what you thought about writing. To find something that towers (pun intended) so high in both quality and originality over almost everything else I’ve read is truly a gift. I used to read a lot when I was younger, and then not so much when I was in my late teens, and then more again now. I had kind of expected that the writing I would feel strongest about was the stuff I grew up with, things I had deep bonds with because they were the first things I read. But I’m very happy to have found these books and will happily let them take the throne as probably my all-time favorite reads. Ever.

The next book – the fourth and last in the series – is due out in November this year, and I haven’t been more excited about anything in a very long time. And I think that as soon as I’m done with that one – I’ll start the series all over again.

I highly recommend this series to absolutely everyone – if not for the amazing world-building, then for the exciting characters and thrilling plot. If not for that, then for the incredible writing. You won’t be disappointed.

Take Pride In Yourself and Your Achievements!

It’s easy to remember all the times things are going to hell. When you’re missing your deadlines, when nothing goes as it should and when you’d rather just quit everything than carry on for another second. For some reason, all those little moments are very clear in my mind.

A thing that’s not so clear, are all the times when things are going great. And I don’t mean those big celebratory moments of success – sure I can remember those – I’m talking about those days and weeks when things are just going great in general, or maybe even just fine. Days that make you smile when you wake up and when you go to bed, because you feel like you are on the right track.

So here’s to those days! They’re important to remember, maybe more so than your successes, because those can be few and far between. But days when things are going just fine are plentiful, we just tend to forget them.

This week for example, I’ve gotten some great feedback on a few stories, I’ve finished another one, I’m planning on querying one place and submitting a story to another, and in general I have a lot of things going for me. It was my wife who pointed it out one morning, when she stopped to tell me she was proud of me. I asked what for? I hadn’t done anything special, had I? That’s when she stopped to highlight it: I was doing a lot of things right and I had many things to be proud of.

So take a moment to stop and look at the world when it’s going just okay – and memorize them! And next time things are turning sour, when success feels unobtainable and incredibly far away, remind yourself that you’re on the right track – you’ve probably just forgotten about it.

Book Review: The Rats and the Ruling Sea by Robert V.S. Redick

The most intricate, perplexingly detailed and well-constructed fantasy you’ll ever read.

This is the second book in the The Chathrand Voyage series, and it’s just as good as the first book. The story follows the lives of several passengers on the massive ship, Chathrand, and details their adventures as they are pulled into a multi-leveled conspiracy that hopes to incite war, death, and doom across the world.

Our protagonist, Pazel Pathkendle is a young tarboy onboard the ship, who gets entangled into the confusing politics of conspiracy due to his magical abilities to understand any language he’s exposed to. It’s a unique and exciting kind of magic, unlike anything I’ve read before, and it gives Pazel the role of hero without making him a great warrior or strategist or anything of the sort. All he has is understanding and wits.

This is honestly one of the most complex and layered books I’ve ever read. The whole series is like this, and I said the same in my review of Book 1, which you can read here. There are conspiracies wrapped in conspiracies and the intricate politics and agency that drives all the big players make this an absolutely fascinating thrilleresque tye of fantasy novel. Also, the fact that almost the entire plot for two books so far has happened aboard the Chatrand makes this very unique. Sure, they find land here and there, and there are some brief side narratives that takes place away from the massive ship–which is the only one left of its kind–and it’s absolutely fascinating. One of the most well-crafted and exciting fantasy worlds I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading.

At the same time, the intricate and complex narrative is also this book’s downfall. The book comes across as confusing and convoluted at times, making it a chore to keep reading. I imagine a lot of people don’t even make it to book two, because the language is at often times very difficult to grasp. I can’t quite put my finger on why, if it’s the use of strange fantasy words, a confusing and complex narrative, or the way characters keep talking in each other’s mouths, but I often struggled to understand what was going on.

One hand, the author has written one of the coolest fantasies I’ve read in a long while, on the other, I feel like he’s keeping it from me. As if the book contains some secret message that he doesn’t want readers to be able to decipher, so he hides it away by writing as difficult as humanely possible.

Maybe it’s just me – and don’t get me wrong, I still love the books and I can’t wait to start book three in the series – but I wish it was more easily accessible.

And of course, if you like a challenge, and enjoy complicated narratives and complex writing, then I’m sure you’ll love this! I’d be very interested to hear what other readers think, if my description of the writing is completely unwarranted or if other people see it the same way. Either way, you want to read this for the amazing world building. It’s incredible.

Consistency is Key – Why Writing Every Day is Awesome

A few years ago I wouldn’t have been the guy who tried to tell you this, but after much practice I’ve become what I once hated the most: the guy who writes every day.

Back in the day, I hated the idea. “What’s the point of exhausting yourself when you’re not motivated? Who even has the time? You can’t force inspiration!” Those were my main arguments, and I stuck with them. Sure, I used to have some set days when I’d sit down to write, and I’d do it here and there, when I wasn’t too busy, or whenever the fancy struck me. But I really disliked idea of having to do it every single day like some kind of chore. That’s until I tried it for myself.

You can’t force inspiration!

It was kind of an accident, but what happened was that I calculated how much I would have to write every day to finish a specific project in a couple of months, and when I realized it was only around 500 words I figured that be easy. This was around the same time I started writing in the mornings before work, so it worked out pretty well. And once that project was finished, I kind of… never stopped.

Now – of course you don’t have to write every day if you don’t want to. That was another argument I used before: Sure it’s great for those who can do it – but there are many other ways to approach writing that might work just as well (and what’s that thing about changing a winning hand? Oh right: don’t!)

But I realized that writing every day comes with a couple of nice perks:

You can predict (within reason) when a project will be done. This is very valuable for keeping yourself motivated and accountable. There’s something great about know that in X amount of days, if you just stick with it, you’ll have another first draft on your hands, or that your short story will be done.There’s the promise of a certain amount of writing accumulating over time, when you look at the big picture. Whether it’s 500, 1600, or 3000 words a day, you’ll suddenly find you have a bunch of first drafts on your hands! I suppose it depends on what kind of writer you are, but whether you nit-pick over the same phrase over and over, or churn out short story after short story, time spent writing will make you a better writer 100% of the time.But the most valuable thing about ‘forcing’ yourself to work like this, is that you’ll learn to write when things aren’t feeling right. At least for me, this was a big personal triumph. Being dependent on inspiration and motivation is fine when you have both of those, but when you don’t, your deadlines get pushed back. This is probably the single biggest reason for why people struggle with writing every day. When you’re just not feeling it, it becomes so much harder. It feels like your words are working against you, like your characters are all stupid, and that your whole story is just bland. This is why we long for inspiration and motivating, because it makes it feel right. But by forcing yourself to work every day – regardless of how you feel or how easy it is, or what you think of the writing you produce – you learn to adapt. There’s no better feeling than having a really good writing day after having three really bad ones. And then looking back and realizing that you still produced something during those three days is another great feeling. (Weirdly enough, that ‘bad’ writing you did is often not as bad as you think.)

Of course, this is not to say you can’t take breaks. In between projects, for example, or just when life gets in the way. Because booooy, it sure does like to get in the way, doesn’t it? This week for example, I haven’t been able to keep writing my short story every day, because I’ve been doing other things. Editing a novella and submitting stories – things that both take up a lot of my allotted writing time. Or I’ve had to rush off to work extra early, or move things around.

Also, I’m privileged enough to be able to be very strict with my schedule. I don’t have any kids, and my wife likes to keep busy alongside me. I realize that for a lot of people, there’s not necessarily time to set aside for writing every day.

But if you can carve it out somewhere, maybe not even every day, but regularly, I highly recommend it. I used to write here and there, whenever I felt the calling, and now that I look back, I’m very happy I found the extra time. It’s changed me a lot as a writer.

Book Review: Before The Storm by Christie Golden

Welcome to the best fantasy universe ever made!

Okay, I might be biased since I grew up playing the video games – starting with Warcraft II and sending far too many hours playing Warcraft III and later World of Warcraft – and I’ve read nearly all the books now, but honestly, Warcraft tops Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, A Song of Ice and Fire, and yeah… Everything!

Before the Storm is the second-to-last book that’s out in the Warcraft universe, and I’m proud to say that I’ve nearly caught up! (a new one released since I bought Before the Storm, and I haven’t gotten around to it yet). Before the Storm ties in parts of the World of Warcraft expansions Legion – the last one that I ever played – and Battle for Azeroth, which has now been replaced by Shadowlands. That’s the beauty with these books – they fill in the gaps. They are stories in their own right of course, but they also help broaden the picture, expanding on characters and story lines you come across in the game.

That’s the reason I love these books so much – because I love the games, and even though I don’t have much time to play them anymore, it’s still one of the best game franchises ever. The books provide so much of that amazing lore and world building and compliment the games perfectly. It’s nice to get to know the characters better, to get a deeper insight into their wants and beliefs, and maybe meet some characters you wouldn’t otherwise through simply playing the game.

But! – you definitely don’t have to be a gamer to enjoy these books – though it helps. The story stands full and well on its own, and if you’re into fantasy you’re going to like this.

Before the Storm revolves almost entirely around Sylvanas Windrunner, Banshee Queen of the Forsaken and now Warchief of the Horde, and Anduin Wrynn, the young king of Stormwind and leader of the Alliance. There’s also a side plot involving some goblins, a gnome, and a mysterious substance that appears to have some amazing properties.

My wife read this before me, and warned me that “nothing happens”. I think she found it a bit boring, and I understand where she’s coming from because it is a very diplomatic book. After the war against the Legion and before the calamities of the Battle for Azeroth, the Alliance and Horde are treading very carefully. Which means there’s a lot of talking, conspiring, and resting, before an inevitable clash between the two.

Christie Golden remains my favorite Warcraft author and her book Arthas is still my favorite in the whole series. This one comes close to the top though, and even though it’s low on action, it’s engaging and exciting, and the tension between Sylvanas and Anduin is very well done. My only problem with this book was the goblin side plot that didn’t seem to be resolved, at all, unless I missed something. I was expecting a final chapter that never came, and then the book was just over.

A great Warcraft book – yet again!

Listen to me on the Cameron Journal Podcast!

My latest interview on the Cameron Journal podcast has been released! Follow this link to check it out, and listen to me talk about writing, books, my process, what it’s like living in Arctic Norway, and everything in between!

I love being invited to participate in these things and it’s always fun to talk with other authors and creators about how they do things and what they struggle with. It’s a great way to learn, to meet like-minded people and to just get your own thoughts out there once in a while – and it’s twice as fun when people tune in to listen!

If you haven’t checked it out already, you can head over to my Appearances, Interviews & Reviews page and find other podcasts I’ve been on, written interviews and talks, and even a video interview on the Writers’ Row podcast!

I’d love it if you checked it out – thanks!

I Write Too Much – But In a Good Way!

Okay, I know how it sounds – but hear me out here, and let me tell you a little bit about how I work. Of course it’s not a problem, don’t get me wrong. It’s just that I draft things faster than I can revise, edit, and polish it up for publication.

Whenever I finish something I leave it for a while. I like to let them sit, you know, to simmer. From personal experience that makes the editing easier to tackle later on – and it also gives me more time to draft something else while I wait! Sometimes, when I have someone available, I’ll leave my work with an alpha reader. That’s someone who reads the first draft – the very first – and gives me feedback on the story, the plot, the characters, and the pacing. Of course, the draft is a mess at this stage, but that’s kind of the point. It’s nice to have someone to discuss story with without having to worry about sentence structure or grammar.

Then, when I have some initial feedback, maybe I know about some parts I need to rewrite, I come back to the same project a few months later. After any potential rewrites and a few rounds of revision, it’s time for some rough editing – I try my best to refrain from doing it before, because things change when you revise and rewrite. Editing happens slowly, over several rounds. Someone described it once as sanding down wood, going over it with several passes, slowly going over it with progressively finer grit paper.

Then of course comes, developmental editing with an editor, and the use of critique partners and beta readers. Eventually, after this second round of feedback, it’s back to editing – going over everything with a fine-toothed comb and getting into nitpicking detail, before it’s sent away to an editor again for proofreading. By this time as much as six months to a couple of years might have passed, and though I’ve of course spent some time doing the rewriting, revising and editing in the middle there, the time before and after (while I wait for feedback) is spent writing.

So, naturally, the writing piles up.

But like I said – it’s great problem to have! I have a constant backlog of things to go through, revise, and edit, and it keeps me busy. I love to see how my writing evolves when I come back to things I’ve written ages ago. Though I sometimes feel like I want to rush, or that I’m working too slowly – especially when I see peers who work in completely different manners and at different speeds, publish their own writings – I know that it makes my writing stronger.

Yeah, sometimes I wish I could just write something and get it out there as soon as possible, but I also like having a few things on hold.

How do you work? Do you stick to one project and see it through to the end? Or do you have many things going at once?

The Perks Of Writing Fast – How I wrote a Novel in Two Weeks

Two weeks ago I decided I would draft another novel – last Sunday, I finished it at 84590 words.

Long story short: Due to The Covid Year of Our Lord, 2020, I was forced to take some vacation time that I had postponed for ages. When it got to early 2021, and there was still nowhere to go and nothing to do, I figured I’d take two calm and easy weeks at home.

My initial plan was to write a few short stories, submit a couple, and maybe edit some things I have laying around (on top of actually having some time off, going for walks and playing some Nintendo) – but then I though Hang on a minute! I could write something new?!

I tweeted about maybe writing a book, kind of as a joke, then someone took my word for it and challenged me and off I went.

And this is the story of why it’s a great idea to try and write a book fast.

Let me just start of with telling you I’m not a plotter or an outliner. I do what I call discovery writing (also known as pantsing). Which means that I have a basic idea of a story and some characters, and I just sit down and see where it takes me. I do however – because I tend to have loads of idea for stories – keep a document with some notes. I wouldn’t call it an outline, but whenever I think of something I know I want to use for a specific story I jot it down. It could be something like, Main character has x-ray vision, or it could be four paragraphs on the intricate relationship between the villain’s step-siblings who is in reality married to the cousin of the neighbor of the main character.

Anyway, they’re just ideas. When I started the story I wrote this time, I had about two pages worth of bullet points, and if you think that’s outlining, so be it I guess.

I knew the genre and feel of the book, and decided to call it a sci-fi thriller. I predetermined a roughly estimated word count of 80k words, and knew I had to average 6k a day to hit that in 2 weeks.

Then, with my bullet points at hand, I went for it.

Now, I’m used to writing regularly, so I already had habit down. I write every morning, before work. But I usually stick to 500 words on average in a slow period, and between 1000-1500 if I’m writing “a lot.” 2000 if I’m going crazy for a while. So writing 6k a day felt like a big obstacle to surmount. The first day I think I spent all day, and only hit 5k. I was tired, exhausted, but generally happy about how easy it was to kick off my story. The following day I wrote 6k in the same 6-7 hours. The next day, 6k in 5 hours. At my best, I wrote 6k between 07:00 – 10:30 in the morning, then went about enjoying the rest of my vacation.

It, was, glorious!

As you can see, I was writing this at an incredible speed comparatively to how I normally write. I’m sure loads of people write loads of words daily like this, but to me, this was exemplary. My record for daily word count is 8.5k or something, which was when I wrote a 40k novella in 6 days a few years back. It was absolutely exhausting, and I was very glad it only lasted for 6 days.

But now, this time around, it felt different.

I thought maybe my writing would suffer from being forced out this fast. That it would be difficult to keep up the speed, and that whatever I might produce would be incomprehensible nonsense.

In fact, I realized the exact opposite happened.

I write best when I don’t think too much. When I can just let my fingers to the work and not think too much about what comes out. Sure, it takes some editing and revision later, but I feel like my thoughts get in the way if I pay too much attention. It’s one of the reasons I like to write in the mornings before I’m properly awake. My mind stays out of the way, letting my subconscious and my hands to the work. It’s a pretty decent setup.

It was the same with this novel. Once I got into the habit, letting myself disappear in the flow, it was easier than usual, not harder. I could just write and write. There were a couple of days where I struggled to hit the last 1000 of the 6k, but usually I got there without even noticing.

And the best part is, the story seemed to take advantage of it as well.

As a pantser, I’m often left wondering where I should take things. What happens now? What would my MC do in this situation? But when I wrote like this, this amount at this speed, it just came falling out of me. It was easy, and more importantly logical. The story progressed naturally, and looking back, sure I have a new bullet points list of notes that I need to go through, edits that I know I need to implement, but a lot of it actually ended up making sense and falling into place. There are a couple of really cool twists in there that just happened, entirely on their own.

Also – I have always been a chronic underwriter. I can’t for the life of me describe things, so I always have to go back through and revise, adding scenery and landscapes and character descriptions and the things that make a place come to life in people’s minds. But with this method, I seemed to be cured of that. I managed to hit my 80k – actually, even going over it – with ease. I’ve never experienced this before.

The novella I mentioned writing a few years ago, that I also wrote really fast, has gotten me feedback that it feels different. That it might have come well out of being written so fast. I hope it’s the same with this novel.

If you’re a steady, low-word-count writer like me, I would highly recommend trying to write something fast like this, just to see where it takes you. You might surprise yourself. I’m not sure I can say anything to teach you how to do this – but try to not let your thoughts get in the way. That’s what I do.