Alex Laybourne's Blog, page 88

Six Sentence Sunday

I saw this post and just had to steal it. It is quick and easy, and so on a Sunday…an unseasonably warm Sunday, and the Sunday after the clock change no less, it is the perfect option.

The concept is simple. Take a manuscript you are working on, or in my case I have taken my published novel; Highway to Hell. Take six (consecutive) sentences and voila… a blog post.

To make it even easier on myself (see above reasoning) I have simply open the file, dragged the scroll bar down,and picked a paragraph. I would love to say it is because I am confident that each sentence of my novel is as good as the previous one, but to be honest it is more a matter of laziness. At least I'm honest.

So here we go, six sentences for a Sunday…

 

"Okay, those are nice names," Marcus said sarcastically. "But not what I meant. Who are you?" he asked again.

Raguel opened his mouth to answer, pausing before continuing in a tone that was one of complete surprise, as if their names alone should have been introduction enough. "Why, we're Angels of the Lord."

 Thank you to Darlene Steelman for this great Sunday post idea.

 

7 Lines from the 7th Page Meme

This came from Lauralynn Elliott

I am half asleep, and once again don't have a single free moment in which to write a post, so this idea came along at the perfect moment.  The idea is simple.

1. Go to page 7 or 77 in your current manuscript

2. Go to line 7

3. Copy down the next seven lines as they are – no cheating

4. Tag 7 other authors

The below comes from the 77th page of my current manuscript Highway to Hell – Trials and Tribulations

They were alone now, what did it matter. "Just tell me. How did you know what the writing on the pillars meant? You know exactly where we need to go and how to get there. You told me to… to cut your fucking arm off the moment that spore touched you." Richard paused. He was not out of questions, but Rasheed's face bore an expression that was human to the core. Regardless of where he was from, melancholy was one emotion that always showed the same.

"We need to move, the spirits know we are here. I will answer your questions, but only as we move." Rasheed bargained.

Okay, what 7 authors shall I tag?

1. LM Stull

2. Catherine Green

3. Carrie Green

4. Kimberly Kinrade

5. Ashley Barron

6. R S Guthrie

7. Tim Greaton

In A Rut

I don't know what is going wrong, but at the moment everything I touch seems to turn to … well nothing.

My WIP has been analyzed and comments have been welcomely received, yet I sit behind my computer every morning and every evening and never actually do a thing. I just sit and stare at it utterly lost.  I know what I need to do, what I need to change, and I guess it is partly just a matter of not knowing where to begin. Also I am slightly afraid that if I start changing too much, I will end up completely re-writing the whole novel and that was not the advice I had. It was more a case of being a renovation and not a tear down project.

I am keen to not destroy the good work I have done, but at the same time am as eagerly keen to make these changes and make my novel not just ok, but good… dare I even say great.

It doesn't help that my job has been crazy busy recently, and seems to become more and more unfulfilled as the days progress. It probably doesn't help that today should have been payday but it hasn't happened because our accountant missed her train yesterday and so never pushed the button!!!

I used to have a great rhythm with my writing. I woke at 5am and wrote until around 6 when the kids woke up, then wrote in my lunch break – all 30 minutes – and then again in the evening. Recently however, my daughter spends on average 4 out of 7 nights in our bed with us, and is awake around 5.30 about 5/6 out of 7 days and thus eliminates my morning write. I really found this woke me up for the day and got me into the office feeling good about myself. I haven't taken a lunch break in… well, I think maybe twice all year so far. So there is another 30 minutes gone. By the time I get home, and the kids are in bed, I am so tired from my day that I just cannot concentrate and seem to find myself distracted by everything when it comes time to write.

What I do get done is invariably completely forced and void of any of the natural flow I am so used to.

I sat down this morning to write a short story I have had brewing for some time, but after about 600 words, just as I was looking to start the conclusions, I realized it was a load of waffle.

Hopefully my daughter will start sleeping better soon, and I can get some regular writing done again. Until then, I will of course keep plodding away and hoping that tonight will be the night it all clicks together once again.

 

ROW80: Final Round… Seconds Out

Well, we have made it. We went the distance and with the final bell ringing in our ears we are all still standing… still swinging.

This round was not quite as fluid as other rounds, but that was not helped by a house move, and office move and also some extremely busy weeks that have seen me working early mornings before leaving for the office and into the evening once I am home.

Still, my initial targets were to read more and to finish editing my novel.  I can put a big check mark in both boxes so I have nothing to complain about. My book has been edited and Beta read. The comments have come in and my changes are being made. I have certainly read a lot more. I love reading but with the kids around I never had a lot of time, or rather I made excuses to not have time. As of the start of this year I have gone to bed a few minutes earlier and read. O, I read longer than a few minutes but feel so much better for it. Thirty minutes reading a night is better than I have done in a long time and it has seen me devour the written work with gusto. I am currently working my way through Dracula and I am loving every flowing sentence.

I for one cannot wait to start the second round of 2012, and am going to have a good long think about why my goals are going to be. I want to keep them realistic but also push myself.

What about you? How did your round go. Did you hit all those targets or did you need to move the goal posts a few times along the way?

The Second Opinion

As some of you may well have heard, this past weekend I received the comments from my Beta Reader. In short, and to risk repeating myself, they were awesome. They were constructive and will have me working like a  madman, but they are making my novel stronger. Nothing major in terms of content, and nothing major in terms of having to rip the novel apart and piece it back together, but major in the way small things often are.

So, as I mention, I am now working away on these corrections, updating my work and feeling great about it.

I have to create one whole new scene, well, kind of mini-scene actually. This can easily be slipped in (as good as) between two sentences in the novel. So it is with this that I began.

Everything was, and is going well, the scene is shaping up nicely, There is an internal conflict going on with the characters, that also serves as a refresher to their lives from the very start of the first book in the trilogy, there will be action and obviously a necessary change to the group dynamic as a result of this scene. I love it, I can't believe I wanted to skip it the first time round.

Then I got to thinking. These corrections were recommended to me by someone who took their time to not only read my new novel but to take notes. They invested part of themselves in it. What happens if I make these changes they have suggested, send it back to them and they don't approve. What if I work hard on it, but what I produce is not what they had in mind, or just not good enough?

Suddenly, there is a lot more pressure not on the novel, but on me… the writer. I know a lot of people dread sending their novel out to Beta readers, they get nervous about what they are going to say. I was, I mean it is a nerve-wracking thing having your work read by another. Especially by another writer, whose eye is always more critical. Yet now I realize, it isn't the first draft that we should fear the wrath of, but rather that of the second opinion.

What do you think? Do you feel more pressure when awaiting the initial feedback from a beta reader or their second opinion?

ROW80: At Week's End

Well the week has ended, and it has seen me floundering around again. I cannot solely blame the lack of momentum on my difficulty settling into my new project. A large portion of my week was lost to work and a tirednes of the sort I have never experienced. Seriously. On Thursday I fell asleep at 8pm. It was insane. Strangely enough it coupled with a week that saw us broke and unable to replenish my coffee store, so my caffeine levels were severely depleted. It just goes to prove that COFFEE = LIFE

That being said, I did manage to get some words written on the new book, and I am in the very least feeling more satisfied with what I am creating and the plans I have overall.

I won't bore you with my daily totals for they are neither groundbreaking nor depressingly awful. I would say rather that they are utterly mediocre and thereofre not worthy of individual mention.

The real matter at hand for me tonight, is the critique I have just received from my Beta Reader, and a person I consider to be a very dear friend, fellow author Carrie Green.

I had expected a few comments, and a bundle of grammar issues. Yet, I was not prepared for what I received. I got an honest and incredbily valued opinion of my work. It was long, that was the first thing that hit me when I opened the email. It was not filled with praise. That was the second thing I noticed. But then again, that was not what I wanted. It was instead filled with constructive advice and comments on how I can make my novel better.

As I read through the list, I relaized that everything that was listed there made sense, I had just missed it. Why? Well, I am beginning to think I should plot things out more. At least a sort of paper based framework. Currently I leave everything in my mind and trust myself to remember it. 

There are no major re-write needed, but rather a few scenes that need to be added, and some extra character exchanges are needed. More attention to detail than major plot problems. Nevertheless, it would seem that the road ahead is still a long one for Trials and Tribulations. But I have the chance to polish off my novel and make it something worthy of your time as a reader. The added bonus is that it gives me time to plan ahead for my next novel and actually come up with a bit more structure to it. I can learn from this critique and take it with me for ever, and that is the thing I love about writing and about having such a great and trusted friend. You can always learn, always improve.

 So, that has been my week in a nutshell. How about yours?

The Power of Imagination: Believe in Make-Believe

A long time ago, back when I was harboring dream - which I still have to this day – of running my own freelancing business, I interviewed a respected University Lecturer and Author on this very subject, and drafted up a rather decent article about it. Sadly, no publications I approached were interested in it. (Oh how much I have learned since then.) So here it is in post form. Why? Because it is actually a topic I believe strongly in, and something that I have seen people getting annoyed about, and even taking medicinal steps to stop it.

I am a dreamer. I always have been and always will be. I find it all too easy to just drift off into a day-dream somewhere. I have always been like that. As long as I can remember at least. I used to sit on the bus to and from school for an hour each way. I would just stare out of the window and allow my mind to have fun, to just run wild and take me to exciting places.

When I was a young child, I had an imaginary dog… yes a dog. Bumpy I called him – clearly inspired by the legendary Noddy – and as I grew, Bumpy left me, but the power of dreams, never faded.

We live in a world were kids as young as 6 are expected to sit for exams every year, they are forced into becoming adults and even planning out their future careers at an age when you don't even know half of the careers or avenues that are out there. I truly believe that we are becoming a society that is doing everything it can to stop children being children. Parents don't let their kids play in the mud, climb trees or run around for fear of … an extra load of laundry, or a grazed knee. We are seeing more children with allergies and asthma, not because the world is becoming dirtier, but because homes are cleaner, parents disinfecting every surface five times a day. It is no wonder that these children are becoming sick. Not only is it good for a child to get out in the fresh air and roll around in the dirty, I honestly believe that it is healthy for them.

Yet, the point I find most startling, and the most damaging is the way we are limiting  imagination. By smothering children and throwing them into the adult world before they are ready, we are ridding them of a very crucial part of development.

Children are better being told to day-dream for an hour a day than to have homework for an hour a day after school. They should be encouraged to fantasize and dream up imaginary friends and locations. It is healthy, it is important and at the end of the day it is fun.

I have heard and read stories of parents seeking medical help because their child has an imaginary friend, or is always off in a day-dream…. Hello!! they are children.

Just imagine living in a world where make-believe no longer exists. No more tea parties or crazy jungle adventures in the woods.  Without imagination, would there still be dreams? The one place that even adults secretly enjoy escaping too. That last and only truly private place, where even the most serious and business minded of men can escape and live the life of a lost boy riding around Never-Never Land.

I can take it a step further even and say that with the state of the world as it is. A world filled were absent fathers and abuse borders on becoming the norm (and semi-accepted), what is wrong with a child making up their own heroes.

Superheroes and Comic book (or to be correct Graphic Novel) characters are more than just crime fighters, or people with magical powers. They stand for things on a deeper, yet often more simplistic level. A level that a lot of children see and take comfort in. To take that away from them and force them to face the harsh realities of the world and what it is becoming… to me, that is abuse.

Who cares if a child day dreams of being Superman, or sits on the sofa, or in the garden and just stares into space, enjoying the silent adventures his mind can create for him. It's healthier than watching TV or playing video games all day long. I mean, what are video games and cartoons if not imagination replacements.

As a collective, parents are happy to sit their kids in front of the TV, or to let them play computer games all day long. Why? "Because it keeps them quiet" or even worse the old "Because the shows nowadays are educational and help their development."  To that I saw BULLSHIT. OK, maybe the cartoons are tilted towards education in some way, but nothing comes close to allowing a child to imagine things on their own. To play!

I say let a child have an imaginary friend, set a place for him / her at the dinner table, ask them questions, and get to know them. Join in when your son or daughter is running through the house on the back of a pony, or leaping tall buildings in a single bound. Why, because it is good for them, and it would be good for you too.

You are never too old to have an imagination, and you are certainly never too old to start using it again.

ROW80: Mid-Week Update 14-03-12

Wow, we are already over the middle of the week. Where does the time go?

My week got off to an inauspicious start. My voice had deserted me. By that I mean my actual voice and not some writing based euphemism.

Then Tuesday came and went and it saw me send more than 100 emails for work. All of them work related and necessary. It was crazy.

On the writing front I wish that I could have been so productive. I don't know what it is, but I just cannot get into any sort of swing with this book. I think that maybe it is a case of wanting to write it too much. I am too keen and find myself over thinking things at this early stage. When really I should just be writing it. It's the first draft after all. As Mr. King himself says, the first draft is written for me, not for the readers.

My totals for the week so far are:

Sunday: 0

Monday: 580

Tuesday: 200

I am on course to hit my 500 word minimum today and hopefully can make up a little for yesterday if not Sunday too. I hope that by just plodding on and chipping away at project my momentum will build naturally. As I had said the other day, it has been about three years since I wrote something new, with characters I was not already familiar with. Maybe this is just how it goes and I have forgotten what it feels like.

How are you all doing with your goals this week?

No Queue Here

We live an instant world. The concept of waiting seems to be long forgotten, gone the way of good manners and basic politeness.

Thanks to the internet, we no longer have to queue up for movie tickets. We can just come online, select the theater, the movie and time of your choice and presto the seats are yours. You can now even reserve where in the cinema you want to sit. Does anybody stand in line for days on end to grab their concert tickets? No, rather they sit behind their pc and just buy the tickets. In Holland it is even worse, you can see your tickets, and keep hitting refresh to get better seats. You are told you seat number and shown its position before you make the purchase, so by refreshing the page you are constantly given new seats.

The same goes for work. Since the birth of emails, clients around the world suddenly assume that because their message arrives instantly, the solution should be delivered just as quick. No longer do they sit there thinking, well there is the postage delay, then it needs to be sorted by their internal post department. Now it is, well, I sent it, it's in his inbox, why hasn't he dealt with it yet.

With writing, this is no different. The swing in the writing industry, the movement away from a world dominated by New York and traditionally published Authors opened the floodgates and once again removed a level of patience from our lives.

Being a self published author myself, I am delighted that this change happened, but, nothing comes without a price. The fact that all you have to do is type a document and upload it only a site means that anybody can now become a published author.  In my opinion, this can be broken down into three types of people.

A) The professional: It can be tough to find an agent, and a publisher to represent your work, especially in an economy as fragile as the one we are all currently part of. Costs are being cut, and risks are being taken less and less. Not because the talent isn't out there, or because the ideas are no longer as entertaining, but simply because profit is everything, and to make a profit, you do not want to be pushing some unknown author onto the public on the hope that readers enjoyed the writer's work as much as you (the publisher) did. This fact does not deter the professional. They are confident in their writing and are willing to put in the same amount of work as a full-time writer. They understand what it takes and will sacrifice things in order to make sure that their books are written well, edited with care and promoted with passion and they appreciate that things take time. A novel should not be rushed. It is this characteristic above all others that will see them become a success.

B) The Wannabe-Professional: The wannabe-professional is a writer who has all of the same qualities as the Professional, bar one. That key piece of understanding, that even self published writing takes time. It needs to be perfect. Once you publish a piece of writing it is out there, that is it. The wannabe-professional may even understand this, but are blinded by the sparkling jewel that is the published novel. Like a magpie they are easily led by shiny trinkets and before long they are finishing their manuscript, giving it a quick edit. By that I mean they check for the page set-up, check for basic misspellings and call it a day. They save their file, grab a cover and upload it, expecting success to come their way. The Wannabe-professional may even be diligent enough to put together a good and dare I say, professional manuscript, but they then expect it to sell itself. The either underestimate the promotional side of things, or they just don't want to put the work in.

c) The Speedster The Speedster is the damaging kind of writer, the kind that is a risk to both other writers and the Indie community as an idea. The Speedster is the sort of writer who, living in the modern world expect things to happen instantly (see how I managed to bring this post back around to me original theory). They expect that their writing is great off the bat. They don't bother with an edit, maybe they will take the time for a quick spell check but that is it. Thy grab a cover and upload their file the same night they finish it. They add it to Smashwords / Amazon etc, and go to bed fully expecting to wake up in the morning and find themselves top of the pile with reviews coming out of their ears. Each one singing their praises and demanding more. Which of course will be very quick in its release.

The Speedster doesn't promote their work, because their work doesn't need promotion. Perfection is perfection, and anything else just won't help it. They get angry that their books isn't on the New York Times Bestseller list and react badly, even aggressively to any negative comment they receive.

 

Of course, with life being what it is, there isn't one single definition that can be used. People change, they grow and sometimes we shrink. Let's at least be honest here, sometimes we all take a few steps back, we take our eye off the ball, or just ease up for a little while because we need a rest. 

What sort of writer are you? Be honest with yourself and then you will really be able to make those changes and take not just your writing but yourself, to a whole new level.

ROW80: A Return to the Fold

It has been a while, but I am finally back with a new ROW80 update.

 

There have been a lot of crazy changes going on in recent weeks, and to be honest with you all, I just pure forgot about the check-in each time. I remembered but always a day two too late. By which time I just said, oh well, I'll give a longer update next time around. Then I go and forget that check in aswell.

I have now started my new novel. Title was set a long time ago. Par for the Course. I am really excited about this novel, and do not want to give too much away at this point in time, but it is a much more character driven piece and focuses around two central characters and builds up to an electric final chapter / scene.

It has been slow going this week, but after so many months out editing, I expected to have to warm up a little bit.

Monday:

Tuesday: 500

Wednesday: 250

Thursday: 384

Friday: 340

Saturday: 470

As you can see I was below my standard target every day, but am still just testing the water. I have the central plot firmly in my mind now, and after a conversation with one of my most trusted friends, the fabulous L M Stull, my trepidation for the project has gone away and I am left with nothing but the limits of my imagination.

How is the round going for all of you? I have been very bad at blog reading recently, and I promise to get back to it this weekend.

The other target I set myself at the start of this round was to read more. I have happily ben able to read every day this year and have 4 books finished already. I am not the quickest of readers, I guess an average reader in terms of speed.

I am now reading Dracula, a rather lengthy novel, but I will not rush it. I am loving it until now, and despite having read it years ago, when I was around 10 or 11, I cannot remember much of the novel.It is more the Gary Oldman representation that sticks in my mind.