U.L. Harper's Blog, page 2

What About Your Success?

This post is for all you readers out there who don’t necessarily know what it’s like to write a book.

So I finish my novel. After you finish a novel, it’s not actually done. You’ve only written to the end. You’ve only completed an eighth of your goal if you’re me. So I write to the end with a bad feeling. I knew the rewrites were going to take a little longer than usual. Three fourths into it my vision for the ending had changed, which meant inconsistencies throughout. I could live with that. Every inconsistency is fixable.

No, something else I couldn’t live with, something I’m struggling with even as I write this post is what concerned me.

Time.

Like most writers I have time set aside for writing. I have allotted approximately four hours a day to writing and research and all that stuff. What I’m running into is lack of writing energy. Yep. I’ll admit it. I get off work and the day sticks with me enough to where it effects my focus. It’s hard to admit, but it’s true.

I work with middle school kids in an after-school program, so the challenge is leaving all the emotion behind and thinking about the people who really count. My characters. I’m only realizing how much work is effecting my writing. The draft I just finished, I purposely wrote with thin characters, meaning to do a draft where I inserted the details that would make them come to life or off the page or make them do whatever cliché makes them seem worth it in this blog post. I just couldn’t write the story and fill out the characters as much as I wanted to with the energy I had.

So in the new draft, I’m finding out a certain things about my characters that I wish I knew before. I found out that, Dustin, one of my main characters, has an immense amount of integrity, regardless of the situation. For example, at one point, his girlfriend tells him, “I guess sometimes you have to go against yourself to do the right thing.” He responded by telling her, “If you’re doing the right thing, you’re not going against yourself.” Those lines might not make it into the novel, but it doesn’t change Dustin at all.

It wasn’t until the latest draft when I realized how much fear Lenny has to endure. He is the most scared person I have ever heard about. I think he’s so scared that it makes him that much more brave. It’s amazing what you learn about somebody, a character, after you’ve tried to kill them a few times. It’s like they forgive you and stick it out through the entire novel despite you.

This is what I want you to do. Go ahead and post something in reference to when you tried doing something the first time and maybe didn’t succeed the way you’d liked. Then you came back and conquered whatever it was you didn’t necessarily succeed at the first time. I know there are fantastic stories out there. These stories are what moves society forward. My little anecdote about a draft of my novel should be one of millions out there. I want to hear your stories.

http://ulharper.com/

In Blackness

All About Process

I’m going to take this time to tell you all about my publishing process. I was inspired by more than one article that came out that talked about the writer’s process. I found those articles insightful. Thought I’d give it a whirl.

Okay first off you have to get done writing the darned novel. While writing, I’m receiving feedback from my writers group, of course. Normally I’ll write a general outline and then adjust it as I go. In addition, I go ahead and pop out about 1,000 words a day 4 to 5 days of the week. I do take days off.

After the initial draft is done I go back a day or so later and read it specifically to take notes on the storyline. After I’ve taken many notes of my own and juxtaposed them next to notes from my writers group, I meditate on the vision for the story going forward. The question I’m asking myself is this: Did I achieve me goals and did I realize all the amazing possibilities in the story. I take about a week or so to think about all of this.

I do each draft with a specific focus. The second draft I fix holes in the plotline elements and setting. I might tinker with some grammar along the way but it’s not the focus. The third draft I do a sweep for character. This is when the story really starts to look full. Draft four is when I do the dirty work with the grammar and proofreading. This is the part of writing I like the least. Actually I don’t like setting too much either.

Now comes the hard part. I find my beta readers and see what they think. These people are fresh eyes. Two men and two women, and they are younger and older readers. What they say I basically take with more than a grain of salt. Really hard to listen to these people because I have to take what they say seriously. Many of times with comments you can take it or leave it, but at this point I’ve already done plenty of thinking, so everything they’re saying is stuff I haven’t thought about or I’m being negligent about.

While my beta readers are doing their thing, I send the manuscript to a professional proofreader. During all of this, I’m taking a break and outlining other stories I’m working on and begin blogging about the new novel I have coming out soon. The blog tour gets set up and advertisements get prepared. This takes a lot of time and it’s important to get it sequenced so it all makes sense together. Finally, this time around, my goal is to get my past readers involved and get my previous book off of to-read lists and onto reading lists.

So the beta reader’s suggestions come in and the proofreader’s comments follow. I cry and then get to work. I do a draft to accommodate the new comments, and then do another sweep to take out the mistakes I might have added.

Now we wait.

I do yet another draft and then send the manuscript to my kindle for a second-to-final read. At this point I should be pretty damned proud of what’s going on. Finally, I do another sweep, this time I add chapter titles and stuff like that.
Look for the new novel coming to you soon. In Blackness: Angels of the Flesh, follow up to the In Blackness, available where all books are sold.
U.L. Harper

I Dream of Writing

My alarm is yelling at me so I wake up, and I’m simply thinking about how I’m not ready for the day. I’m never ready for the day. Once I stand I know that today is really going to happen so I have to do whatever I can to be productive and responsible. I’m in charge. I have to be on top. I have to think.

I shut off the alarm, still not ready, and I walk away in a limp. I’m not as young as I once was, but nobody is, so no excuses.

My body is more like a carcass; it still hasn’t risen from the dead completely. Yesterday looked just like today and sucked just as much and tomorrow will be the same.

The first thing I do is piss and then head to the fridge but I have no appetite. I never have an appetite when I wake up. My body has not made a decision yet. What do I want to eat? Not a damned thing. Maybe today will be different and I’ll want to eat something after I rinse off in the shower.

Not today. Once out of the shower, I have to get gone. There will be people at work waiting for me to open the door—people who have been awake longer than me who have eaten breakfast. People who like the morning.

Guaranteed, last night I took a nap at around seven, woke up and had no clue how to get back to sleep. Guaranteed, work was so on my mind that I had no room in my puny mind to maintain a creative motivation. It’s hot. I’m hungry. I haven’t been working out so I feel, I don’t know, old. I think about my story and how cool it’s going to be when I get done, but I either can’t focus or I’m going to fall asleep.

I set my alarm and it yells at me at 7:30 in the a.m.

So this morning I’m reading emails from the previous day, reminders I sent to myself. This is a to-do list. The last thing on the list says, “Today will suck.” It doesn’t really say that but that’s how I read it.

I drive less than ten minutes there, begin my day and it’s not so bad. Actually, I like it. I have a rule to not go to places I don’t want to be. I quit my last job and took less pay at my current job because I enjoy the roll but hate the summer hours.

I forget to each lunch and didn’t pack one, never got breakfast and dinner will suck and not be nourishing. Don’t believe me? Let’s move ahead ten hours and I’m forcing down something from my freezer. I mean, it’s good fish but I’m not craving it. I don’t crave food when I’m tired. I don’t feel creative when I’m tired. I’m not hungry while thinking about work. And all day and after work that’s what I’m doing.

By the time I’m ready to leave work, boy, I’m ready to leave work. I tell myself tomorrow will be better and one day it was. It’s sucked ever since. Not really suck sucked but not an uplifting experience.

I get home and think about doing some social networking but I don’t do it because it feels pointless. It will just make me more tired. Best to save my energy for writing. No, better yet. Get to bed earlier so I can get my shit together.

Dinner didn’t fill me up.

At about seven I crash.

At about nine I wake up. Can’t get back to sleep.

At about one I start worrying about the next day. Not real worrying. I just don’t want to do it, because friggin why? At about two I lay down, and then get back up for water, to check my email, to brush my teeth, to pet the dog. I have a great dog. And I lay there on the floor, actually tired but thinking about how to fix tomorrow. By three I’m turning on the sound of waves.

I set my alarm for 7: 45, an extra fifteen minutes but fifteen less minutes to get ready.

I think about my story, how the aliens have made Gaffey Street into an outdoor slaughterhouse. The power lines are sharp, so they can throw you against it and split you in half. One of the main characters is possessed by alien flesh, and another main character is just possessed. I’ll get back to it when I get a chance.

In my dreams I’m asleep.

Waking up.

And not writing.



By all means, check out this book In Blackness. I just don't see why you don't so go ahead. The summer is over. The sequel will be done soon.



In Blackness

U.L. Harper Review: Clive Barker's Abarat

One thing about Abarat. Nobody can say it’s not interesting.

In this second of five installments, Candy Quackenbush travels the islands of the Abarat trying to escape the super evil Christopher Carrion. Along the way she meet an assortment of wacky good guys in this young adult novel that very few young adults have read.

Right there is where I’ll throw down on of my two negative comments on this book. I wish it weren’t geared for young adults. It fits young adult’s fine, I think. But at several points in the story I really wished, Candy, with her multi-colored eyes were maybe her mother, someone who had lived through much more. It would have had the perspective of someone who had wasted their life, rather than someone who, I don’t know, had maybe too many opinions at such a young age. I mean I could relate, but it’s just a thought I had. To expand on that idea, I certainly felt a little lack of sympathy for the characters here. There is plenty to work with, no doubt, but then maybe too much to work with. Carrion is a fine character, as is Mater Motley. These are individuals you truly believe might exist. It’s what Barker does well. But this time around they’re not quite accessible, and once again, I attribute it to the young adult audience. Could be wrong.

Now let me say some positive. There are many moments that you want to read aloud, so others can be in the same place you’re in. Barker is a premiere world creator and he doesn’t let you down here. While reading, you know that Abarat is much more exciting than the other world in Chicken Town, Minnesota. You don’t even want to venture anywhere near the real world. At the same time, it is clear that Abarat is changing for the worse and it might be up to Candy to save it. Or is it destroy to make it better, depends on the character you listen to.

Another plus for this one is the pace of the reading, and its readability. Man, you can blast through this. No question. But there is another side to this coin. In spots, Barker, instead of letting you thrive in a scene, will sum it up for you real quick. The narration is border line amazing sometimes but here and there I would rather have more exposition, details on certain scenes. It’s as if he treats some elements as if they’re not as important as others. Although a part of me thinks Barker simply wanted to keep it within 1,000 pages. I’m just making a general comment.

This is a book that anyone can enjoy. I’m not sure if it draws you to read the third book, though I already have mine.

Why I'll Buy the Same Book Twice

I found a few reasons to buy a story twice and I think a few of you might agree with me.

Let’s talk about Fight Club, the book that inspired the Brad Pitt/Edward Norton movie. I read the book years ago after I watched the movie and loved both of them. It’s only now that I’ve decided the book is superior. The first-person present-tense narration is done brilliantly. I originally picked it up again after reading The Hunger Games. I had to see if all stories done in first-person present-tense were as stilted and of narrow a scope as “Games”. So, seeing that I lost my paper copy of Fight Club I downloaded a sample, just to see the narrative. Once again I got hooked and had to buy it.

People, it’s friggin fantastic. 200 pages of bliss. The narrative is just great. My opinion. So there I was reading Fight Club as if I’d never read anything this great in my life when I thought to myself. Damn. I want everyone to read this. I want to lend it to everyone. Lend it. Get it back. Lend it. Get it back. I want to become the Fight Club library. To say it differently, I decided I want it on my shelf. I want everyone who comes over to see what I read and I want to talk about it when they pick it up. With all that being said, yeah, I’m going to buy the paper book too.

I like the electronic copy for all its attributes. You know…changing the size of the font. Hell, changing the font. I do think it’s easier to read in bed and I can email and tweet the passages I underline. Taking my device with me is pretty cool too. It’s better than taking a book with me. I just learned to like all that stuff. And really I don’t care for the touch and feel of a book or the smell or looking at page numbers or any of that stuff. I just don’t care. But after I read the story, if I’m proud to have been part of that experience, man, I want it to be mine. All mine. Not part of “the cloud” to save space. After I really like what I read, I want it to take space. I want it to. If I like it, I don’t want it hidden on a small device somewhere; I want it in plain view, like a trophy. Like, I did that. Look at it. Look at it!

Fight Club the story, is great. Period. You don’t even have to like it. It’s great anyway. You can like the story as a paper book, or download the narrative electronically. To me they’re two different things and great on both levels. Both worth buying.

Hell. I even liked the movie.

And I'm the author of In Blackness. Check it out.

U.L. Harper Review: The Hunger Games

I’m going to be honest.

The Hunger Games is a good story. Katniss is a character that young girls will be able to latch onto. As a matter of fact, I’d rather young girls and young women find a place in their hearts for Katniss long before they identify with that girl from Twilight. The Hunger Games is a rather short, dare I say, sort of fun novel that begs to leave an impression on the reader. It certainly left an impression on me.

As I was saying, Katniss moves this story. And she better. It’s written in first-person present-tense so if Katniss can’t move the story, it would be dead in the water.

The story itself is built on tension, so there was that and it moved fast enough that once I actually got going I knew I’d complete it in a reasonable amount of time.

But I’m going to be honest.

I was bored most of this book. The last two or three pages were pretty good and the first few lines of chapter, I think, twenty-five. If you didn’t know, there are twenty-seven chapters in this book.

I wasn’t bored by the happenings in the story. The events weren’t wildly entertaining but that wasn’t the issue. The narrative is what made me walk away from the pages numerous times. Week sentences riddle these pages, and it’s in part due to the POV. It seemed stilted. I thought the narrative would make more sense in action sequences, but it didn’t. In turn, it lacked excitement. I partially read an article that said the previews are holding back showing the violence from the story. My thought was this: they’re not holding back; they’re just not there.

Now this might be because I’m a guy, but I thought the entirety of Part 2 should have been a blood bath. We should have had knife fights, weapons laying around that the Capitol left for them, you know, to spice things up, to help them kill each other. We should have had more intense sickness to overcome and way more suffering from dehydration, more details on killing animals for food. All this stuff is barely mentioned at best. This should have been a clinic in survival. The Hunger Games should have been The Road meets The Running Man meets—I’ll say it—Twilight.

I’m going to be honest.

I made a small sample of the type of narrative I would have liked to have seen. I'm only adding this in because this is what I did for much of the novel. I rewrote as I read to add tension. Here goes: I never murdered anyone but with the cameras rolling we shouldn’t show fear. I release the bow and watch it fly several yards and land in her temple. I don’t flinch at the site of her dropping to her knees and then to her face. I need to learn from this. This is what survival looks like.

I don’t know. Something like that.

Finally, I don’t see that Katniss or Peeta changed from their ordeal in The Hunger Games. It’s kind of hinted at, but her situation should have affected her greatly. I know many people will say I have to read the other books to see if this happened. This is because it’s a trilogy. This one book is really only the first act. Well, I’ll watch the movies. Like I stated, I like the story. The narrative is the issue. It’s kind of boring.

To recap. Katniss? Great. Story? Cool. Fun factor? Right on. Excitement? Could use more of it. I just wish the authoring was better.

Last thing. No, this book is simply not for me. It’s beyond my age group and I’m sure it’s meant for females. Males can and will like it, but it’s meant for females, I’m sure. Before anyone gets upset at me for stating the obvious, I’m going to go ahead and say, well, it is the obvious. I’m just saying, it’s literally not for me.

With that being said. If you need an example of this type of narrative done well, check out Fight Club. Seriously, it’s 200 pages of a book for men written by a man.

Thanks for reading.

U.L. Harper Review: Atlas Shrugged

I'm sure I'm breaking some kind of rule by writing a review of a novel that I didn't finish.

But it's more that I couldn't finish it rather than I didn't, is my opinion. The book in question is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

I'm going to talk about it only on a few levels. I'm not going to bring up its plot points because, well, I didn't really get that far. This is a novel of over a thousand pages in which I got merely a few hundred into. I wanted to force myself to complete it but I simply couldn't get it done. Obviously I can't talk about the rise of action and the third act. I wasn't there.

I was there for some interesting thoughts on the matter of humanity. Rand has a way of eloquently, if not in a verbose manner, letting us know when mankind is overstepping its boundaries or not doing enough to be human. She details odd moments we often find ourselves in. She draws conclusions to unflattering, repeatable, universal moments we all go through. Think of the awkwardness of not being able to fall in love because of your ego. Think of deciding to accept society as a pacifier for what you need instead of being the leader everyone needs. Think of being groomed to achieve and then finding forces, artificial paradigms of life want you to remain a cog. Rand speaks about all of these things and makes them part of the plot. It's like she shows societies entrails and says, "Don't turn away, that's you too. Look at it! Look at it!"
Yet I couldn't finish reading.

Why?

Here's why.

It's boring.

I have to admit that for the most part I'm part of the generation of readers that likes less to do more. I don't want to think about why Rearden wanting to have sex with Dagny. I'm fine with him wanting to have sex with her because, well, he has his reasons. I don't need or want the logic. I simply don't care. Don't bore me with the ins and outs of wanting to get laid, at least not for paragraphs at a time, for example.
What would take most authors a few lines takes Rand chapters to accomplish. I'm sure it's the details that count, but they don't do it for me.

I gathered that Rand extended some details to make points on society, points that aren't much talked about, and are worth thinking about. But story wise they simply got in the way. I wish I could write Ms. Rand a letter and tell her, "Hey, you're not such a bad writer, but I'm not stupid. Just say what you want to say, just tell the story. Stop making your point with no humor."

Yeah, that's what I think.

A good friend of mine really loves this book for what it stands for, for what happens at the end, for John Galt.

Who is John Galt?

None of what I mentioned above made me put it down. Yes, I thought it a great bore. And, yes, I thought the writing cheated a lot, which didn't really bother me. The one spot I found a real issue with was how elitist the main characters were. Not elitist in the sense that they had money and were privileged. I too want to have money and have privilege No problems there. It's that they were rich because they were supposedly not just smarter but better than everyone around them. These people only had bad days when they took into consideration the rest of the world. Dagny is upset because society doesn't want to let her save it, doesn't want to let her make money from it? But it's not really about money?

That idea being the premise is not something I'm going to read about for a thousand pages. I flat out don’t care enough. Rand makes some good points.
And.

It's like sushi. I love sushi but after I eat it I need to go get a burger because I'm hungry. Sushi tastes great and I love its preparation and I like how I feel when I'm done eating it. But after you leave the restaurant you crave something else or at least I do. Atlas Shrugged was like that for me. After each reading session I still wanted to be entertained. Realizing I was not amused or challenged by "Shrugged" I decided to drop it.
In my opinion, if you're not hooked 200 plus pages in, put it down.
Tonight I'll be watching the first part of the movie. I hear it's not bad, just a little slow.

I'm the author of In Blackness. The sequel coming out soon, hopefully. In Blackness: The Reinvention of Man.

Us Writers Who Stand Alone

Here's the question: Do you prefer a series that does not rely on the previous books or do you like a continuation?

I think we can all agree that the end of the book should leave us satisfied, no matter what. Not many of us want the story to just stop, as if the novel was really just one big chapter. Agreed? Not quite, come to find out.

As an author, I'm in the middle of writing the In Blackness Trilogy (I actually really like the sound of that). I decided early on that I wanted each book to stand alone but to not disregard the previous novel. You know, to please both the new readers and the returning audience. It seemed like a no brainer.

Then I got to thinking.

If the second book only mostly stands by itself, it might entice a new reader to read the first book, whereas that same person might not care for the first if the second is a complete stand alone. It sounds shaky at first, but I'll tell you why this might make sense. The Empire Strikes Back. After you watch it, you are definitely ready for Return of the Jedi. But if you started with Empire...it doesn't make you want to watch Star Wars. Keep in mind I say this having seen Star Wars and vowed to never watch it again.

Side note. I'm not a Star Wars fan by any means. They are horribly directed, in my opinion, and have issues with everything in regards to timing, story development, and character development.

I'll use the Bourne Series as another example, using the medium of film. Sure, you're watching the second film in the series thinking, I really don't need the first one. At least I didn't think it needed the first one to make the second one work. Not really. So using that example, shouldn't one build off the other? The answer is, yes. The question is, how much?

Which brings me to Clive Barker's Abarat, a series supposedly going up to five books. Many people might disagree with me on what I'm about say. At the end of the first Abarat--and there are three out right now, and I've read one and a half--the story just kind of stops. Not the most satisfying ending I've read from Mr. Barker, one of my favorite authors. At the same time, I didn't look at it as the end of the story. I saw it as the end of that particular part. So when the second book starts, it's pretty obvious that it doesn't stand alone. It's not even close. As a reader I actually appreciated it. I didn't want to start from scratch again. But that's just me.

So I'm half way through book number two of the In Blackness Trilogy (I still like the sound of it) and it will basically stand by itself. The reader will know it's book two but the title will simply say In Blackness: The Reinvention of Man, and then, Book 2 of the In Blackness Trilogy. The moments from the first book will come into play, but I'm not letting any readers get lost because they didn't read the first one, which is titled In Blackness, by the way.

Second side note. I'm a big Vonnegut fan. More times than not when I tell someone to read Slaughterhouse Five they respond by telling me they didn't even read the first four. Just throwing it in there.

I'm interested in what readers and writers really think about the subject of stand-alone versus continuing. Is it make everyone read the entire series if they want it to makes sense, which might be a lucrative ploy if it works, or make all the books work by themselves? I say make them mostly work by themselves but what do I know.

The Truth About In Blackness (part 2 of 3)

The point is to become more human isn’t it?

My upcoming novel In Blackness: The Reinvention of Man, the second installment in the In Blackness Trilogy has a central theme that kind of sits right below the surface. As you know the story follows several young adults: Saline, Dustin, and Lenny. We learn about the major changes in the world through their view points. In the first book the reader is simply wondering what’s going on, and then this question is asked to the humans: Why are you not food? This book expands the question, asking, how are you human? What makes us human and is humanity actually worth maintaining, and if so who has the job of maintaining it, society as a whole or the individual?

For this conversation we’re going to focus on Dustin. Keep in mind Dustin was beat as a child by his awkward father, and doesn’t appreciate society as a whole. He has a hard time finding his place, and always has a hard time being comfortable. He finds flaws in things almost too easily and has basically no patience. He doesn’t have a lot of friends because, seriously, as you might have guessed, he’s a bit anti-social. The alien invasion didn’t help the matter any.

It’s Dustin who questions how human people really are, with or without the alien invasion. He questions whether or not alien values are superior to human values. He doesn’t care about the planet so much but it seems that the aliens—even though they devour people—have a better sense of the world and its capabilities and maintain their way of life, seemingly effortlessly. When he gets a chance to, literally, be in their skin, to walk around in their flesh, he has a hard time continuing to respect his own flesh. Some of you might consider that a spoiler. I don’t.

I’m going to ask the general question, and it’s a real question, I think. Have you reached your potential? I mean, are you done? Are you as good as you’re going to get? So here’s the question: If something alien made you more you, made you better, would you accept it? Maybe it’s something like a bionic arm or a prosthetic leg. Maybe it’s steroids or methamphetamines. In Dustin’s case, it’s alien flesh.

Check out In Blackness wherever books are sold.

The Reinvention of Man

What if we are the aliens that we look up at the sky and look for?

Most people write this off, because why think about it? It will do you no good. But I'll give a few reasons here to think about it. If you're familiar with the subject you know that I'm only touching the surface of what might be taking place below the surface, if that makes any sense.

First of all, I want you all to think about something. Have you ever heard of the missing link? Apparently--and I'm no specialist on this--the DNA of what would become human beings changed at some point, for no particular reason. Many believe we were advanced beyond our means by visitors that did more than just visit.

Some people think these same visitors stop by every now and then and check up on us, while others believe they have never left, as they hover about the planet perpetually.

I wrote a book about it. The In Blackness Trilogy builds to this question: What if when the aliens come, they want to be us? You'll have to read the novels to find out why they'd want to be us. They don't want to just take us over. They don't want to just eat us, even though we may be food to them. They want to be in your body and feel what you feel. They think they can be more human than humans can be.

So, what if we are the aliens we look up at the sky for? What if we have become them? Or maybe the real question is this: What happens when they become us?

In Blackness is available wherever books are sold, for sure. It's also available as an ebook in the ibookstore, over at amazon.com, smashwords.com and get it on the Kobo or wherever. Don't sleep on Book two which should be out this summer.

The Reinvention of man will happen soon, if I have anything to say about it.