Imran Siddiq's Blog, page 10
April 22, 2016
Back to my First Novel
I’m coming full circle.
I set a plan to write a novel in 1999, but never put sufficient time into doing it until certain ‘other’ things fell into place around my life. All excuses ran their course in 2007, and I began writing.
Or so I thought…
From July 2007 to June 2010 – I went through a period of Stop-Start (and sometimes the Stops lasted for months … and months … and months …) It wasn’t that I didn’t have ideas (because I sure damn did), but the execution. I kept deviating into a complicated mess that was tragic. Sheer tragic.
And then – in June 2010 – I slapped myself – and made a promise to sort my act out. Lo behold, I had completed my first full novel after 6 months. And I was proud of it. And I felt creativity in my fingers. And I wanted to share it with the world. And I wanted the major big publishing deal.
Then reality kicked in. Mainly my first Festival of Writing 2011 (York – UK – that I loved by the way).
I’d written a novel where the main protagonist was a talking cat.
The length was 148k words
POV/Headhopping was all over the place – I had 8 POV in Chapter 1 alone!!
There was enough backstory to turn a Trailer into a movie itself.
I shelved it.
Since then, I’ve written 10 more novels – where I’ve learnt from the FoW and from fellow writers to hone my craft. I get it much better now than I did then.
And that brings me to why we’re here. I’m going full circle.
Novel 2 to 9 were all YA. N10 (done) and 11 (to be redrafted) are MG.
I’ve developed a respect for writing to fit the target market … and so Novel 1 – will be redone as a MG Trilogy – with a very different plot/twists/characters than what I did 6 years ago.
I’ll do what I can, and I hope I’ll have it ready for FoW16 – Sept 2016. I hope.
Well… I can try.
Circle.
April 20, 2016
Novel 10 with Agents
Woohoo!
Hit my deadline with 12 hours to go, and sent Novel 10 to a Literary Agent who has expressed interest. I just hope that the changes I’ve made are enough. Of course, there could be many more changes, and I’m ready for them.
April 18, 2016
How to Get an Agent
April 17, 2016
Novel 10 Redone as MG
Novel 10 was overhauled from 1st POV to 3rd POV, and a YA audience to MG. Let’s just have a think about that… Going from 1st to 3rd wasn’t a major hiccup for me as I’ve come to appreciate that my standard style is 3rd POV Limited.
[3rd POV Limited is told from a single character’s POV where we get to share their thoughts and see everything through their eyes, and not what they can’t see/experience.]
It was the shift from Young Adult to Middle Grade that thrust me back in time to the novels I devoured as a child. I went back to reading Narnia, Secret Seven, and many other wonderful tales to remind myself of what made me smile. And then I read on many new releases; again, gauging how they speak to the reader.
It was a fantastic learning curve.
February 27, 2016
Accessing my Novel anywhere #writing
Grammarly is not the answer and it won’t catch every fault or fully understand how we write – but it’s a nifty tool for correcting grammar and for accessing your novel/chapters anytime and anywhere on any machine.
Log in – and access your files. http://www.grammarly.com
Easy.
This post was brought to by the letter G and the number 1.
What’s my Title? #Writing
I place big importance on titles.
I do, I do, I do.
Titles come to me a the stage of plotting, or sometimes before the plot. Titles inspire me. Titles give me the essence of the novel.
BUT … Novel 11 … is simply … Novel 11. Not Eleven. Or One next to One. No … it’s just plain ole 11.
I know the title for Novel 12 that I won’t start plotting until June 2015, but can’t give a good enough ‘BAM’ to my Science Fiction Novel 11.
To have written, redrafted, and tweaking Novel 11 without a title is like smearing chocolate over white walls. A nuisance that’s what it is.
I will create a title for Novel 11. I will. And I will show you. Then laugh. Maybe cry. Damn you. Damn you all.
*Humph*
Novel 11 is almost Redrafted #writing
Novel 11 – begun in Nov 2015 – and completed by Mid December 2015 is almost at the end of its 1st Run of Redrafting.
Way to go for me!
I’ll put it aside for a month, whilst working on other projects, like finalising Novel 7 for release – and maybe Novel 10 (although some literary agents need to get back to me on that one), and some artwork.
Around April – I will leap back into Novel 11 for another dash of redrafting/tweaking.
And then … maybe … I’ll submit to agents again in June/July.
Of course – that sets me up nicely to plot Novel 12 that’s been tick-tocking away in my brain for a few months now.
Sweet!
February 15, 2016
Cover Reveal @CiaraBallintyne In The Company of the Dead
IN THE COMPANY OF THE DEAD Cover Reveal
We are pleased to present the cover art for upcoming epic fantasy, In the Company of the Dead.[image error]Genre: Epic Fantasy/Romantic FantasyRelease Date: 25 April 2016Credit is due to the cover artist, Sam Keiser.About the BookOnly a fool crosses a god, but Ellaeva and Lyram will do anything to get what they want.Chosen as a five year old orphan to be the Left Hand of Death, Ellaeva has nothing to call her own—nothing except a desire to avenge her murdered parents. Her duties leave her no time to pursue the man responsible, until both her work and revenge lead to the same place—the lonely castle where Lyram Aharris is serving out his exile for striking his prince.Lyram is third in line for the throne, and when the castle is unexpectedly besieged, he fears his prince means to remove him from contention for the crown permanently. Ellaeva’s arrival brings hope, until she reveals she has not come for the siege, but instead she hunts the castle for a hidden necromancer dedicated to the dark god of decay.Within their stone prison, Ellaeva and Lyram must fight to save themselves from political machinations and clashing gods. But as the siege lengthens, the greatest threat comes from an unexpected quarter.What to be notified as soon as the book is released? Sign-up to the newsletter here!About the AuthorCiara Ballintyne grew up on a steady diet of adult epic fantasy from the age of nine, leaving her with a rather confused outlook on life – she believes the good guys should always win, but knows they often don’t. She is an oxymoron; an idealistic cynic.She began her first attempts at the craft of writing in 1992, culminating in the publication of her debut work, Confronting the Demon, in 2013. Her first book to be published with Evolved Publishing is In the Company of the Dead.She holds degrees in law and accounting, and is a practising financial services lawyer. In her spare time, she speculates about taking over the world – how hard can it really be? If she could be anything, she’d choose a dragon, but if she is honest she shares more in common with Dr. Gregory House of House M.D. – both the good and the bad. She is a browncoat, a saltgunner, a Whedonite, a Sherlockian, a Ringer and a Whovian… OK, most major geek fandoms. Her alignment is chaotic good. She is an INTJ.Ciara lives in Sydney, Australia, with her husband, her two daughters, and a growing menagerie of animals that unfortunately includes no dragons.Twitter: @CiaraBallintyneFacebook: http://facebook.com/CiaraBallintyneWebsite: http://ciaraballintyne.com
January 24, 2016
Vlog January 23 2016 – #Writing Update
One of those long overdue things to wrap up where I am at the moment, and to shove in a few details to add to the mess.
January 18, 2016
Backstories become clear without explanation. #writing
Star Wars The Force Awakens rocked my world. Loved it. Feel assured about the future of the galaxy. Quite difficult to not reveal spoilers now, but there’s one scene that got me thinking the moment I saw it.
The moment when Chewbacca shot Kylo Ren.
Instantly, I thought: Hmm… he could have got a head shot. But Chewie chose to harm rather than destroy. The reasons are evident because there must have been a relationship between the two, many moons ago. And Chewie couldn’t bring himself to kill, even though his life-debt friend has been taken.
One scene – told me that.
The below image confirms it. Well done to the artist.