A.J. Race's Blog, page 6

Rejection– Questions Week

Whether or not you’ve self published or tried to go the ‘traditional route’ we’ve all experienced rejection at some point in our lives. For those readers who follow me who may be newer authors, I feel that it’s important to discuss the topic of rejection because it can honestly be one of the most challenging experiences of being a writer, especially when you first start out.

For me, I always mention that my first ‘official’ experience with rejection was when I was about eleven. I had just completed what I thought was a full length novel, and what I thought was solid gold. I knew nothing of the publishing process or even editing, and I had basically attempted to format the book myself, it was fifty pages, I think probably double spaced, and most of the font was in 14 pt. I had included a few random clip-art pictures from WordPerfect and I sent it off to the only publisher who’s existence I knew about without even so much as a query letter as far as I remember. I feel like I must have emailed them something but for the life of me I can’t remember what.

I never heard back from them, and though the experience was a bit devastating, it taught me that if I was going to have any hope of actually being successful in publishing my novel I was going to have to learn what the process was to go about it. I found Lulu that same year and for a brief moment I even had my book available. At the time, my mother was concerned that this was a free service, and thought I should take it down, I did, and I ended up shelving the project. While this was one of my earliest experiences with a rejection of sorts, my first actual rejection came about a year or so later, when I had actually learned enough to start writing query letters and querying agents. It was an immensely emotional experience for me, and one that I will never forget. But each time has been a learning lesson, and the desire to do better, and to write a book that was better has always been my driving force.

What was your first experience with rejection like and what gave you the courage to keep going? 

Your Own Words–Questions Week

I’ve always had a particularly difficult time appreciating my own work, and I think this is true of most creative people. I’ve known a lot of artists, unrelated to even writing, and few of them have ever said I love everything I have ever created. A number of them know they are talented, but it’s difficult at times not to nitpick your work to death. That is why I think it is important to really look at some ideas or whole stories or even just one line that you are particularly proud of.

There are actually quite a few ideas and stories that I’ve really enjoyed, more ideas because they’re fairly vague and you can enjoy the concept even if you don’t necessarily enjoy every little piece of the finished product. I think though of all the concepts, if I had to really chose one, I think it would have to be a novel I wrote about an alternate reality version of America, I don’t really want to get into too many details because I haven’t quite decided if I’m ever going to go back to writing that novel in some form or another, but it was really a story that I just absolutely loved, it was something that a lot of people who read it really enjoyed, it had a sort of thriller pacing and I think I would classify it sort of as a psychological thriller, so it was really one of my favorite ideas that I’ve ever come up with and I really hope that at some point I go back to that book and work on that book again.

What is your favorite line/story/idea that you have written? 

Authors You’d Like to Meet– Questions Week

They say you can learn a lot about a person by the way they answer the question, if you could have dinner with any three people in history who would it be? For today’s questions week inquiry, I’d like to make that question a little more specific, and ask, if you could have dinner with any three authors who would they be and why?

1) J.K.Rowling– I feel like I discuss Harry Potter and J.K. a bit too much on this blog, but it’s difficult for me not too talk about it when discussing how I became a writer, because J.K.Rowling has influenced me as a writer so much. I’m not sure I would be a writer without Harry Potter, maybe I would, but it’s hard to imagine a world without this story or Ms. Rowling so it’s really difficult to say.

2) Janet Mock– For those of you who don’t know, Janet Mock is a transgender activist and writer who’s bestselling memoir Redefining Realness, I absolutely fell in love with. I’ve always been a sucker for memoirs, and for me I would love to just get her thoughts on so many pressing and important issues. She along with Laverne Cox have always been so eloquent and well spoken on the issues, and I really wonder how they manage to keep their calm under some more trying circumstances, like that whole Piers Morgan debacle Janet endured earlier in the year.

3) Hillary Clinton- This one was particularly tricky for me. There are quite a few authors I would like to meet, not the least of which are Chuck Wendig, Rachel Maddow, Lemony Snickett, Neil Gaiman, the list is pretty endless, but being the political junkie that I am, I couldn’t resist the chance to meet one of my political idols and a woman who I hope to be able to call Madam President in 2016.

I feel like all three of these women would make for great political and philosophical discussions as well as creating an open dialogue as to what it means to be a female author in an admittedly male dominated industry (world, universe, take your pick it’s all the same).

If you could meet any three authors living or dead who would they be and why? 

Genres– Questions Week

The first novel I ever wrote was technically, a paranormal thriller. At the time, I hadn’t a clue that that was what this was, but in retrospect I’ve come to realize that this would probably be the genre placed on the novel. Since then, I’ve written several fantasy novels (particularly Urban fantasy), a thriller or two, one commercial/literary fiction novel with a romantic tie-in, and a few more thrillers, YA novels with unspecific sub-genres and a brief attempt at historical fiction as well as numerous half attempts at a memoir.

I’ve never liked the idea of being stuck in one genre, I like to explore and I think that in the context of my novels, most of them have bits and pieces of several genres in them, it’s almost impossible to write an interesting story these days that doesn’t have elements of everything in them. I suppose if I had to chose, I would probably have to say thriller, because I really like to keep people on the edge of their seats. I love cliffhangers, and the question of what the hell is going to happen next? I guess you could say my novels are multiple genres with elements of thriller in them.

There are a lot of genres I’d still love to try out, I’m not fully done with my attempt at historical fiction, but I can’t really picture myself writing anything in Sci-Fi or even necessarily romance. Sure stories of mine have romantic elements, but I don’t really think I’d write anything full on romance novel. I also really don’t like the whole post-apocalyptic deal or zombie obsession that’s been popular as of late so I suspect those won’t be something I write about either (even if they aren’t necessarily in themselves genres), more themes.

What is a genre you prefer to write in? What is a genre you’d never touch? 

 

The Spark–Questions Week

Earlier in the week I discussed my first writing experience, or rather when I first started writing. It took a bit of effort to not add onto that the fact that actually it had been a specific book that had made me want to become a writer in the first place. I believe there is always one book that lights the spark in a young authors mind.

For me that spark came while waiting for the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I had started reading other books to pass the time and I enjoyed most of what I read, but by the fifth grade I was already at a college reading level and so it was recommended to me that I read the newspaper (something I was not about to do at the time). I decided that rather than simply wait for the next novel, I would write my own novel instead. And so began a horror story about a serial killer that inexplicably could never be caught. I was, at the time, obsessed with what was, at the time, a new show, called CSI. In a paranormal twist to my book however, the main character was later haunted by the ghosts of his victims and dragged into the river in which he had stored their bodies. This was the novel that I had decided to send in to a publisher and was later my first experience with rejection. I’ve thought about rewriting the book many times over the last few years but I’ve never managed to get around too it.

What was the first book that put the spark of becoming an author into your mind? 

First Writing Experience– Questions Week

Keeping with yesterday’s theme of open dialogues, I’ve decided this week will follow in the theme of questions about writing… today’s topic, when did you first start writing?

I couldn’t really give you an exact date, but I know that I was about ten or eleven at the time. I remember writing a short story or two on one of my earliest computers. We had been required to have a typing course in my third grade, and this continued well on through junior high, (although by this time I was already ahead a bit because I had been doing it for so long already), so I understood the basics of computers but there were still a few things that I didn’t know. I distinctly remember, one of my first experiences with the necessity of backing up was when I was about ten and I had selected the entirety of my story to change the font (even back then I was a total font snob). I still don’t quite know what I did, I must have accidentally pressed one of the keys, because the next thing I knew the entire story was gone. My mother either didn’t know enough about computers or I something but I remember being devastated. I had no idea about Cmd/Ctrl-Z and, now I think about it most computers usually don’t let you exit the program without saving first, even back then if I recall, but either way it was there one minute and gone the next and it was the most devastating experience of my life at the time.

When did you first start  writing or realize that you wanted to be a writer? 

What Does Writing Mean to You?–Questions Week

One thing I’ve always loved about having a blog is being able to communicate with my readers. Before I was blogging (almost every day this month–with a few hiccups in between) it had been quite a while since I had been able to communicate with my readers. I still haven’t had much in the way of comments, so I thought I would use this blog to open up a dialogue about writing, and what exactly writing means to you?

Writing has and always will be a form of self expression for myself, it’s a way for me to share my thoughts and feelings and more importantly a way for me to work through some of my feelings. It allows me to vent my frustrations and it’s a form of catharsis many times. I love it even when I hate it, and it’s allowed me to fully realize who I am. I have learned more about myself through my writing, than any other way I could imagine.

I often wonder, how I would answer that popular question, “What would you be doing if you weren’t doing (what you currently do)?” and the only answer I have ever been able to come up with is, I don’t really want to have to find out.

So now, I pose the question to you my readers, what does writing mean to you? 

Crunch Time

A deadline always feels further away than it actually is, doesn’t it?

I can’t really believe it’s already September 13th, it feels like just yesterday it was August and now we’re already halfway through September, and my self imposed deadline of the 20th is only eight days away. When I set the deadline it had seemed so far away and up until this morning when I caught sight of my countdown in Scrivener it had still felt like I had more time than I really do. I did manage to get a good amount written on Thursday, but the fact that it’s now Saturday and I’ve accomplished little since Thursday is a fact I’m not particularly proud of and means that I’ve got a lot of work to get done over the next eight days. 33,000 words worth as a matter of fact. Scrivener informs me that if I write 4,200 words per day for the next eight days I should make it in time, so I’m determined to try and make it in my original time frame. I’m sure I’ve written more in a shorter amount of time but it’s always interesting to see if I can meet the challenge of quite a bit of work left and little time in which to do it. I’m pretty sure 33,000 words in roughly a week is about what one accomplishes during NaNoWriMo, and this will be great practice for this year if I’m really to attempt to make 100k in the 30 days. I’m fairly confident that I’ll be able to do this in time, I’m excited to see where the story is going, considering where things have been going so far in my writing.

NaNoPrepMo

It’s that time of year again, the weather is finally starting to cool (if you live anywhere but a desert), the leaves are starting to change colors, and Pumpkin spice is the flavor on every menu and candle company within a twelve foot radius. It’s also, for those of us participating in NaNoWriMo, also coming close to the beginning of National NaNoWrimo Preparation Month or NaNoPrepMo. This generally begins in October, or if you really have a lot to get done you should probably start in mid-September which is pretty much next week. NaNoPrepMo is the glorious time of year when writers planning to participate in NaNoWriMo prepare their outlines, character sketches, and anything else they feel is important before starting their stories on November 1st (at midnight if you’re really eager).

If, like me, you still have a bit of work to get done on your current work-in-progress, then there’s a very good chance that like me you’ll end up spending NaNoPrepMo working on two projects at once (and possibly some of NaNoWriMo too).

My current deadline for my current draft of my work-in-progress is September 20th, but frankly so long as I can be finished before October 1st with my second draft I’ll be happy. That way I can spend October editing (rather than rewriting) and working on my soft/flexible outline for the sequel to my work-in-progress.

PS: This NaNoWriMo I’d like to challenge myself to a bit higher goal of writing 100k words in 30 days. This will require me to write approximately 3,333.33 words per day. It’s going to be a challenge but one I’m eager to put myself too just to see if I can do it. I’m not sure what a .33 word is but I imagine it would probably be just 33% of any given word? I was never really good with percentages.

Writing like a Reader

There’s nothing better than when you’re writing or rewriting and a scene completely takes you by surprise. You almost feel like a reader in that moment, and you can’t help but wonder, where the hell is this going to take me?

I live for these moments, these are the moments that make even the hardest fought moments worth while. These are the moments that I as an author live for. Outlining is all well and good, and it’s nice to know where the story is going on the grander scale of things, but some scenes or chapters or even paragraphs it’s kind of exhilarating to not know where your going. Your subconscious is taking you on an adventure and you can’t help but wonder if even your mind knows where it’s going. It is in these unexpected, unscripted moments that some of the best material is born.

Recently while working on my rewrite of the final six chapters, the end of chapter sixteen proved to be quite the roller coaster ride in the course of a single scene, it amps up the tension in a way that could be really be fun to delve into. Up until this point I had a mostly clear understanding of where the story was going, but now I have the opportunity to take a detour and really explore a more scenic route to get to my ultimate conclusion. I have no idea where it could take me and that’s part of the adventure, going along for the ride and letting it take you wherever it feels like.