Trey Stone's Blog, page 23

New Habits – New Writing

In a stupid COVID-19 turn of events, my life’s suddenly been turned upside down.

The thing is, I like to workout. I’ve been lucky enough to have access to a small gym that’s operated by my job. Which means that we’ve been allowed to keep it open almost continually through lockdown (with the exception of a few months when things were really kicking off).

Now however, with winter fast approaching, more and more people are wanting to use it and we all have to conform to a strict booking system.

The evening slots fill up pretty fast, so to make sure I get some regular exercise I have to get in there at 6 in the morning, before work.

That’s not a problem. My alarm rings at 05:45 anyway, and I’ll be out the door in five minutes, back at home with plenty of time to shower and eat before I go to work.

The problem is that this was time I used to reserve for writing. I turned my life around a year and a half ago (which you can read all about here) and since then I’ve never looked back. Getting up early, writing a bit every day has been my jam and I’VE LOVED IT.

Yeah, I still get to write daily, because I still have the time after work that I used to spend in the gym.

But it’s not the same. After work, after a whole day of social interaction at work and loads of time to remember all the extra stuff I should be doing, I’m more distracted. Less motivated.

I still get it done, but it feels slower and harder. The beauty of sitting down to write as soon as I wake up (at least for me) is that I’m not properly awake. I’m not thinking too hard about the story in front of me. I let my fingers do their thing, try not to think too much and suddenly writing a first draft is a dream.

There’s no need for thinking during a draft anyway – that comes later during revisions.

Though it feels good to get the workout out of the way early, I’m looking forward to the day I can turn everything back around and get my words out early. It’s the best!

How do you work best? Do you stick to strict habits or do you write when you find time for it here and there between other things? Let me know!

NaNoWrimo Update #2

According to my calculations – *pulls off sock to count on fingers and toes* – we are exactly halfway through NaNoWriMo, 2020.

What do we think of it so far?

My novella (which I think this is going to end up being) stands at 20091 words today, and I feel like I’m about halfway. I feel like I’m writing the words I’m writing pretty fast, but I probably should have set aside a bit more time to just boost the word count. I keep telling myself I’m going to do that one of these days, but then before I know it, November will be gone.

I’m very excited about it though.

[image error]Can’t you tell how excited I am?

The story I mean. It’s coming to me easily and it feels so completely and fully fleshed-out in my mind. I talked about this in Update #1.

And that’s a very good thing, I think. It makes for very strong storytelling. I feel like I have very clear vision of where I’m going, of what all my characters are doing, and even though I don’t plot or outline much, I feel like I’m much more prepared than I’m used to being.

It’s like pantsing with purpose.

I make up stuff as I go along, throw my characters into the unknown, but at the same time I am very aware of what’s expected of them.

It’s a great way to write, and I think this novella right here is changing me. Changing the way I write.

So I’m very excited to see where a new week of NaNoWriMo will take me!

How’s your story coming along? Better or worse than expected? Do you feel confident about hitting your goals? Let me know!

A State Of Despair – What Early Readers Are Saying

My second book, the psychological thriller A State Of Despair is coming December 1, and I am super excited!

A handful of readers have already had the pleasure of reading it, and I couldn’t be more thriller with the feedback I’ve been getting.

Melissa Compton at Norwich Nights Magazine left a brilliant review, stating that the “addictive storyline had us on the edge of our seats,” and concluded with saying that, “I could talk about this book all day, but in the end it’s simply an immersive, action packed read that you won’t be able to put down.“

You can check out her full review at Norwich Nights Magazine

…simply an immersive, action packed read that you won’t be able to put down.

Melissa Compton – Norwich Nights Magazine

I also sat down to talk with Joshua Gillingham about my first book, my second book, and what it’s like to write and release a sequelbook, and what I have planned for the next in the series.

The adventures of Agent Greer are high adrenaline narratives. […] how do you keep up the suspense and tension without wearing out the reader?

Joshua Gillingham

Head over to Joshua’s website to read more and get an answer to the question above!

Early reviews are also trickling in on Goodreads and it’s making me look more forward to the release date every day!

If you like exciting, fast moving adventures, this book is a must-read.

– Goodreads review

Rating: 5 out of 5.

I could not put this book down. I can’t wait to read more by this author.

– Goodreads review

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Interested in a copy of your own? Pre-order the ebook now to be sure to have it in your hands by December 1!

And if that isn’t soon enough, head over to here to check out how you can get your hands on an Advanced Review Copy!

NaNoWriMo Update #1

Well – this certainly took an unexpected turn.

Today we’re seven days in – and I’m at 9k words. That means that I’m going to have to pick it up if I want to be able to hit 50k by the end of the month (unless my novella is done before I reach that number), but at the same time it’s going much better than I expected.

I might not have as many words as I wanted, but I’ve written those I have extremely fast. This whole story is coming to me so quickly, so completely fleshed out and clear in mind. I’ve never experienced anything like this, and I think there’s one particular reason why this is happening.

I don’t outline my work, and I call myself a pantser, but I always keep a document with notes whenever I come up with a new idea for a story. It’s usually not very coherent, it’s just a long train of thoughts, and it’s often not very much either. Maybe just a paragraph or two. But I have to have place to jot down all those little plot twists and character quirks that pop into my head, before I have time to start the actual story. (I have at least 30 of these future stories lined up now – and only so much time to write them).

The thing I’m writing for NaNo this year came to me in September 2019, while I was vacationing in Finland. I was following my wife around in shops, and immediately pulled my phone out to write down this idea.

And then it’s been stirring in my head for fourteen months. I’ve written down more things over the years, but I’ve also just thought about it a lot. Eventually it got to the point where I didn’t need to write down the notes because I thought about it so much that it just stuck with me. The whole story, mapped out in my mind, from A to Z. (Well, not entirely, but you get the point.)

When I sat down last Sunday to begin writing it for real, it didn’t feel like drafting something new. I knew this story by heart already, I’d been thinking about it for a year! It was just matter of physically writing it down.

And when your brain isn’t getting in the way of your thoughts, it’s very easy for your fingers to just hammer out the words.

I’m looking forward to cracking on with week two of NaNo, and I hope I won’t regret what I’ve just written here. Sure, there are some parts I need to figure out, and I need to up my word count, but if it’s going to feel as easy writing the rest of this thing as it has up until now, then I’m not worried.

Are you doing NaNoWriMo this year? How are you finding it? Let me know!

Book Review: Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft

This is, by far(!), the most original story I’ve read in ages.

It’s amazing – so brilliantly written, so unique – it’s The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy meets a steampunk version of The Hobbit.

In this first book in the series, we meet Thomas Senlin and his new wife, who are going on their honeymoon to the Tower of Babel. The Tower is immense. More levels – or ringdoms, as they are called – than you can see with the naked eye from the ground, stretching forever until it disappears into the clouds. A mecca of technology, commerce, culture, and society.

Senlin and his wife only plan to have a brief stay at the tower, visiting the Baths on the second floor. But everything is turned on it’s head when Senlin’s wife disappears in the ever-changing markets outside soon after they arrive.

So – on a quest to find his missing wife – Senlin ascends the Tower.

Bancroft is one of those success stories you hear about of an indie author who wrote something brilliant and got picked up by a publisher. And his writing is truly brilliant. He has a way to form sentences, to put a spin on things with delicate, fun and playful words, and you’re just enthralled straight away. (Honestly, it’s the kind of writing that makes you hate your own a little bit – it’s just so perfect).

And the story is captivating. Senlin is a headmaster of a faraway school, and a shy and nervous fellow. Naively he trusts many of the people he meets on his journey up the tower, but of course liars and deceit is plentiful among the many ringdoms. Senlin’s journey, both physically and mentally as he learns to adapt to the harsh environment he finds himself caught in, is constantly thrilling.

Bancroft truly has a way with words that could make a thesaurus envious, but if I had to find a weak point with this novel, it would be that that’s not always a good thing. It can occasionally be a tad tiring. Sometimes you just want a simple piece of candy, not a whole chocolate fountain, get what I mean? Beautifully crafted and well-worded phrases can only stand out if they’re spread among other, not so beautiful phrases.

But again, this is the most brilliant, original, well-craft piece of fiction I’ve read in years. Five stars – no – ten stars! Maximum stars! I would recommend this to anyone who want a different kind of steampunk/fantasy book.

Oh, and there’s like four books in the series. I’m super excited.

Preparing for NaNoWriMo!

It’s finally here! NaNoWriMo 2020 is upon us! Tomorrow, all hell breaks loose…

I’m super excited. No, really. The first year I did it (2018) I was testing myself. I bent the rules and wrote as much as I could in a week rather than a month. The next year I tried to do it properly and ended up rewriting an old novella I was working on.

This year, I’ve come prepared!

If you don’t know what NaNoWriMo is, you can check it out here, but the premise is simple: Write a book in a month. The actual goal is 50 000 words of a first draft, but I change it up. I write novellas. The first time around that meant 40k words, the second time I did it it was somewhere around 27k. It varies, and that’s okay.

I have two good reasons for writing novellas:

It’s easier to think that I’ll finish (Yeah, I know, I’m cheating)I have loads of novellas floating around in this giant, hairy head of mine and NaNoWriMo is the perfect excuse to know that I have time for them in between everything else.

Also, it’s just plain fun. It’s fun to take a month of out the year to try and write something awesome, stressing about the time and the word count along the way. Sure, I’ll probably regret it a little bit in two weeks’ time, when I’m in the middle of all the chaos, but at the same time I’m really looking forward to doing this story!

This year, I’m doing a very specific story I cooked up while following my wife around in shops in Helsinki. None of that is in any way related to the story, it just happened to all fall into my head at that time. I remember exactly where we were as well, in a grocery store, looking at various Finnish snacks, when it came tumbling down.

“This is going to be the perfect NaNoWriMo novella,” I thought to myself.

Also, this year I’m doing something different. For the first time in my life, I’m doing an outline. I’m used to pantsing when I write, meaning that I just sit down and let the words flow instead of working from a chart or plan. (Sure, I have a basic idea of what I’m going to write about, but little to no plan).

To me, outlining has always seemed as twice the work. How can I know and decide what’s going to happen in the book before I write the book? And if I knew those things, then why write them down at all? Why not just write the book instead?

Anyway, I’m trying it out. So far, I have a few characters planned out and a few ideas of what’s going to happen when. But this outlining thing is definitely not as easy as some people make it out to be.

I’m excited to see if it will help the end result though. Will my 2020 NaNo project be a success? Will it be easier or more difficult than the previous ones? Is plotting better than pantsing? And most importantly: Will this story be as amazing as I hope?

Bring it on!

Interested in a Free Ebook?

My second novel, A State of Despair is due to be released on December 1. It’s a gripping psychological thriller that sees a standard FBI operation go horribly wrong when an agent disappears in the aftermath of a terrible accident. Friends are pitted against each other and lines are crossed to solve the case in time.

I’m super excited. It’s been too long since my first publication and there’s been so many delays on this second one that I was beginning to think that it was never going to happen. But now it’s finally here!

Writing and publishing a second book is another beast entirely. I’d like to think that’s mostly because I’m… well, better at it now, to put it bluntly. When I wrote and published my first I didn’t think about what to do when it was out, which wasn’t a great marketing strategy. (Though, I was pretty relaxed about the whole thing, which might have been a small victory).

But back to the second book! As part of the release, I’m handing out Advanced Review Copies to eager readers. That means you get to read the book before everyone else, before it’s even released, so if you’d like to get your hands on one, head over to my Advanced Review Copy page and learn how!

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Book Launch – A State Of Despair

It’s finally here!

My second book, the psychological thriller A State of Despair launches on December 1, 2020.

It will be available in paperback and ebook on Amazon and the good news is that you can pre-order the ebook today!

Interested in receiving a free Advanced Review Copy before anyone else? Head over here to learn how to do that!

Check out the book trailer and the official blurb below!

«I need to finish this now. I’ve crossed so far over the line I can’t even see it anymore.»

A simple drug bust. That is what the Critical Response Unit thinks they’re dealing with.

It goes horribly wrong when shots are fired, an explosion goes off, and a fire breaks out. Chaos erupts and the unit is left shocked when the dust settles.

One agent is dead.

Two hospitalized.

One missing.

Agent Greer is prepared to do anything he can to catch up with the case and find the people responsible.

Anything.

How far would you go to save a friend?

Would you risk losing another in the process?

Book Review: Pet Sematary by Stephen King

I like reading horror – yet I rarely find it scares me. It’s a weird kind of irony, I know. Pet Sematary was never on my radar, but it was suggested to me on Twitter once when I asked what book scared people the most.

A lot of people voted for Pet Sematary – and I can see why!

The plot probably doesn’t need an introduction, but in short terms: a family of four, a married couple with two young kids move to a new house. There’s a local pet cemetery in their back garden. Horrifying horror ensues.

In many ways, this is the perfect King book. It has that the brilliant style of writing that pulls you into a whole lifetime of characters, to the point where you know, and feel, and experience their every thought. At the same time, it doesn’t have that insane length that makes you want to shake the book so vigorously that you hope the author feels the ripple effects tear through his very soul while you shout, “Get on with it, man!” (No? Just me?).

Also, it is terrifying. I’ve read a small collection of King books over the last couple of years, including IT and The Shining which are often said to be among his scariest. I think this tops that – but that could also very well be because I didn’t know much about this one before I read it. Going in blind often makes the experience that much better with King books I find.

Because, I realized, I had no idea what this book was about. I thought I did, to some degree, but no, it turns out. No I didn’t.

I’m on a quest to read many of King’s books that have caught my eye over the years (and if I live to be a thousand, maybe I’ll have time for all of them). This is definitely one I’d recommend to someone who wants to be terrified in a way that only King can do – and maybe especially if you find his thicker books to be a bit daunting.

NaNoWriMo – What Is It & Why Should You Do It?

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and according to the internet it is this:

“An annual Internet-based creative writing project that takes place during the month of November. Participants attempt to write a 50,000-word manuscript between November 1 and November 30.”

Basically, you try to write a novel in a month. It’s a challenge, it’s a process, it’s fun and it’s starting very soon. You can read all about it here.

I’ll be honest with you; when I was first introduced to the concept in 2018, I spent half that year thinking, “What the hell is the point?” Just write what you want, when you want to, right? What’s the deal with setting aside a month to do this specifically?

I figured if you’re a writer, you’re going to be writing whenever you write anyway, so why is this any different? What is it that makes people want to do this?

But then I did it myself, and I was sold.

My approach is a little bit different, because of how I ended up doing it in 2018. Basically, I ended up being off work for a week in November, so instead of spending the entire month, I tried to write a book in a week. You can check out how that went here.

What I ended up with was a 40,000 word novella, and I realized that NaNoWriMo is the perfect break in my regular scheduled writing, be it editing, revising, or drafting, and it’s perfect to write novellas.

Last year, I ended up rewriting something I had started before, and wrote a 27,000 word novella. You can read about that here. NaNo is perfect for this. Sure, write a 50k novel if you want, or do something else like me, but the point is that it’s great to take a break from what you’re doing normally and just try something else. Also, the fact that much of the rest of the writing world is doing it at the same time, is really motivating. On the official website, you can even make an account and keep up with your friends and see how they’re doing. I’ve never tried it, but it sounds like great fun.

NaNoWriMo is perfect for taking a break from your regular writing.

I’m planning on writing another novella this year. It’s a story that came to me when I was in Helsinki last September, just walking around a grocery store behind my wife as she was browsing around, and it all just fell into my head. I knew right then that it would have to be my next NaNoWriMo project.

This year, I’m going to be super prepared – and super excited. Bring it on!