OMG First Chapters Sent

Well, I held my breath and clicked "Send", then immediately yelled, "Aaaaah!" and ran around the house flailing my arms.

It's a scary thing for people to read one's work for the first time. It's like getting up in front of an auditorium of peers to play my trumpet during an All-Region Band tryout. It's like seeing your puppy for the first time and not knowing if he'll piddle on your foot. It's like...actually it's not much like that last part at all. Either way, I was actually nervous.

I'm confident in my plot, having worked some issues out with Emily, and I'm confident in my ability to not put complete crap down on paper, but this is a big project and it's a little overwhelming.

I hope you editors enjoy the reading!

Chapter 5 - FINAL

I did my final edit on Chapter 5 tonight, correcting as I read. I am pleased with it. This is good, because I'm rarely pleased with anything I write. Editing guidelines will be sent tonight.

Deadline One Approacheth!

Chapters 5 and 6 are almost ready! The proofing is complete, the PC edits are complete, the Spelling and Grammar checks are complete. All that remains is to read through one last time and address any gross concerns that jump out and then send them off into cyberspace!

I have written a document of editing guidelines for my editors to follow (just guidelines!) and will send that out very soon.

Lastly, I don't remember if I mentioned this or not, but I changed the names of my main characters. If I have mentioned it, it bears repeating.

"Michael" is now Graedin

"Brad" is now Brand.

Thanks to Em for the several hilarious non-consecutive hours of name brainstorming that led to some really funny but completely inappropriate names.

Chapter 5 - First Proof Editing Complete

Tonight I finished making the changes from my first Chapter 5 proof, and more than half of Chapter 6. Proof 2 of 5 is printed, and I transferred it to MS Word and did some minor formatting.

As of now, (and for now, as everything is subject to change) the Main Characters' names are Graedin (Michael) and Brand (Brad). I don't hate these names, and they feel less "American", so I feel it's a pretty good start.

Still on schedule for next milestone.

Good night!

Chris' Book Blog - Entry 6 - 2010 Jul 12

Pages: 87, give or take

Today I completed editing Chapter 5, section 1. That's 39 of 56 pages in Chapter 5. It's getting there.

I did add a page to Chapter 5. As I've repeatedly said, I am very dissatisfied with the first 10-ish pages. They were much older than the rest, and the writing was disjointed due to my sporadic work on the project. I replaced a 1/3-page section that I hated with about a page's worth of work that discussed one of the character's motives for a choice that he made. I am pleased with the result and I think I can apply this process to other tedious sections to keep the reader engaged.

I learned something today from Orson Scott Card's "Characters and Viewpoints" book, Chapter 1. Every character needs a motive. I intend to learn from this book, OSC is the writer I most look up to and he has a knack for making himself clearly understood, even in his writing-instruction books.

Still on schedule for July 23rd release of Chapters 5 and 6.

Chris' Book Blog - Entry 5 - 2010-Jul 08

Page Count: 87
Current Progress: Sent Summaries of Chap 1-4 to editors. Finished proofreading Ch. 5 & 6. Completed editing changes to pp 1-12 of Ch 5

So far so good! Still on schedule to release Ch 5 & 6 for review on July 23rd!

Chris' Book Blog - Entry 4 - 2010-Jun-23

Page Count: 87
Current Progress: First Draft of Chapters 5 and 6 complete and printed!

Woo hoo! Chapter 5 is 56 double-spaced pages long and Chapter 6 is 33 double-spaced pages long. To put that in perspective of my page counts above, the total length of my book so far, double-spaced, is 238 pages. Holy...cow. I don't have a really good feel for how many "book" pages that is, but I do not feel like my chapters are outlandishly long. Chapter 5 is lengthy, but Chapter 6 is pretty palatable in my opinion, and maybe even a little shorter than I'd like it to be.

Anyway these are my first "complete" chapters. I don't see the plot or character development changing much from how it already stands in these chapters, so now it's on to my initial proofreading.

My new goal is to have these chapters, as well as a summary of 1 thru 4, complete and edited at least once by myself and hopefully read by Emily before I leave for vacation on the 24th of July. I hope to be able to send it to my new editors for them to start reviewing that week.

About my editors. I talked briefly with Mom about this, and as much as I hope everybody wants to read what I'm writing, at this point I need to keep it to only a few editors to prevent the tweaking from becoming overwhelming for me. So here are my list of editors: (first volunteers)

Em, Mom, Aunt Gina, Lauren, Derrick

Everybody else, I will DEFINITELY share my progress, but you will probably see the chapters after the editors have taken their crack at it and I have made a round of changes or two.

Emily keeps laughing at my farts as I write this. I guess I'm done.

Chris' Book Blog - Entry 3 - 2010-06-13

2010-06-13
Page Count: 81
Current Progress: Chapter 5:70%-ish.

Chapter 5 is really long. I will probably split it up into two chapters. I have learned that to fill in the necessary holes in my outline, I have to make connections that lead to fun side-plots and interesting character development. I am really pleased with how this Chapter is turning out. It involves creating necessary tension between the two main characters to set up later events in the book. It's still a fun chapter, though not quite as silly with the wordplay as earlier ones.

This chapter is a great opportunity to expand the personalities of the two main characters, as it is essentially a transition between the "Intro" chapters and the main body of the story.

Chris' Book Blog - Entry 2 - 2010-06-12

To expand on my project, Em and I think that it is likely I will break this book in two. 39 chapters are a lot, and I have many more pages than I thought I would at this point. There is a great halfway point at the end of Chapter 20, and so for now (until I decide otherwise) I will refer to the halves as "Half 1" and "Half 2" (Creative naming, I know.) with the intention of them being separate books.

I have several goals for this project:

1. Present a believable plot in a fictional place where everything "fantastic" has a plausible explanation. For example: NO MAGIC unless I can explain how it works in some way that would make the reader feel like it 'fits' somehow.

2. Avoid coincidences and contrived plot devices. I hate reading books or seeing movies that make me think "yeah right, no way that would actually happen, it's too coincidental."

3. Establish strong characters with distinct personalities. This is a toughie. The tendency is for characters to all sound like the author. I need to avoid this, and I may need help from proofreaders to point out when my characters become identical paper dolls.

4. Maintain a sense that the story is from the main character's point of view - I want to avoid the dry "third-person narrator" that describes things. Example: "The tall hill was silhouetted against the sunset" is lame. "Dick stood on the tall hill, a silhouette to Jane as she shielded her eyes against the setting sun" achieves the same purpose and is so much better to read. I want these mistakes pointed out to me.

5. I want to wipe out anything dull - if it's boring to you, then it's boring to the reader. Just say "this doesn't work for me." and present your reasons. I may argue, but I will listen. Just don't try to screw with my writing style. :)

All this is a moot point because nobody has actually read anything that I wrote yet, but I'm laying the foundation to keep myself honest.

Chris' Book Blog - Entry 1 2010-06-12

I started this blog to prove that I actually am doing a little writing. I will try to update on the progress of my book.

I'm going to count my pages using the WriteWay software's Galley Preview option. That option shows single-spaced text in two columns, as if looking at the pages of an open book. The total number of words for one of these "two-column pages" is about 750 words, give or take 20.

Current Page Count: 76.

Seventy-Six! Holy crap, I'm further along than I thought, and I have a long way to go. Briefly, I have 39 chapters outlined in detail, and have completed major portions of Chapters 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, and 39. I expect to re-write most or all of the first two chapters, and 4, 5, and 7 are those that I feel most capture what I'm trying to accomplish. I've been at this for years working now and again and am currently working from 4th Outline Revision, which was 'completed' in early 2008. I have not been religious about writing until recently, and that is completely due to the tremendous encouragement Em has given me.

Em and I have been going through my outline lately. She has shared her thoughts and is helping contribute names to characters (I am terrible at this!) and tell me when something I plan in the outline sounds contrived or coincidental. As soon as I have a chapter completed to my satisfaction I will ask her to read and comment on it. I also would like to share some vague outline thoughts and some chapters with others of you as well, and I'm taking volunteers. At this point I do not want to share the entire plot with anybody except for Em, to see if I am successful at building plot devices without giving them away. Like I said, a long way to go.

Seventy-Six! That's a great start, in my opinion. Email me your thoughts on my project.