Using Scrivener

One of my good friends (who is also a writer) has been raving about a program that she uses called Scrivener. For the most part, I have used Microsoft Word to do my writing. It is a solid program and it gets the job done. My friend looked down on me for this.

So I decided that I would give her recommendation a try during Nano. Scrivener was offering a free 30 day trial, so I took the offer and downloaded the program. Now I honestly don't know why I never used it before, because it is really cool.

I don't want to go too much into what the program does because I am not reviewing it, but it does have some cool features that have gotten me quite distracted. For example, I have created my own character profiles before (it's hard to remember how I described characters previously), but Scrivener lets me do that in the book. So I did, and it was very fun. I have spent A LOT of time looking up pictures of people to use as a visual reference for some of my characters. Some of them are really good. Other...not so much. It's really difficult to find an accurate picture when you get really specific about character traits...for example, try googling "one-eyed fat man with scar" and see what you get. There's a lot of variety to say the least.

I eventually gave up finding images of my characters when I had ones for the main characters. I really only need main characters, because those are the ones that are embarrassing to forget (fun fact, I once forgot that Erik was "fair haired" and I still don't know if I ever specified his eye color).

Here is a sample of book 2

I've been writing The Outcast (book 2) for some time now and I have made a lot of progress. A lot of that was during Nanowrimo last month in November. When I created the profile for my novel on that site I shared an excerpt from the book. I figured if I did it there, I should do it here.

Hopefully this little teaser will leave you wanting more:

Rowan stumbled forward. He could tell that he was nearing his end. This land was defeating him. His throat burned for want of water and his stomach pained him. His last drink had been juices squeezed from one of the few plants able to grow in such an environment. The prickly plant had yielded much juice, but it had been tainted and now Rowan wished that he had not succumbed to the thirst.

The combination of sun and tainted juice left Rowan sick and weak. He was hungry, but couldn’t bring himself to eat. Nothing could be kept down, and he was unwilling to waste what little food he had left.

Was he even travelling in the right direction anymore? It was hard to tell.

His head spun and suddenly he could no longer tell up from down. The ground was hard beneath him, throwing up dust as his body made contact. The pain was nothing to him, barely even registering as he fought to regain his senses. Rowan allowed himself a short respite to recover, laying where he had fallen as he rested.

When he rose, it was a struggle. He wavered, finding the weight of his pack much heavier than it ought to be. After finding his balance, he took a tentative step forward. Another followed, and he slowly began to walk. He made it a short distance before his vision went white and he again found himself on the ground. This time Rowan made no effort to move.

He was so tired. He had done so much.

A shadow passed over him briefly. It belonged to one of the scavenger birds that had been following him. He knew without looking, for Lauratrea had no clouds. It was as if the sun would allow nothing else to share its sky.

Why do I fight on? Rowan wondered. He knew that if he did not rise soon, he never would. But a weakness that was not entirely physical held him down. Why do I struggle to live when my life no longer has purpose?

Rowan’s eyes closed. He was filled with an overwhelming sense of defeat, but not the kind that inspired aspirations and a need to overcome. It was the kind that left him resigned, unwilling to rise.

Baird’s voice spoke to him then.

You are more than what you have become.

“I am nothing!” Rowan cried. A surprised flutter of wings came from somewhere outside his field of vision. “I am an outcast. A wanderer. A shadow of what you—,” Rowan choked on his words. “…of what I could have been.”

You run from that which you must face. You turn your back on me.

“What would you have me do?”

Silence.

“You abandoned me!” Rowan’s voice broke. Emotions warred within him, equal parts anger and guilt. “You left me behind so that you could die, but we were supposed to fight together!”

You were weak.

“I was willing! You meant to save me, but my life means nothing now. I am lost, and there is no one to show me the way. I have nothing left.”

Silence.

“Please…answer me. I need you.” Tears streaked Rowan’s cheek, burning lines into his dry skin. He cried silently, lapsing in and out of consciousness.

The highlight of Nanowrimo

So now that Nanowrimo is over, I thought I would share my favorite/funniest and least favorite moments. Of course I enjoyed all of nano, but these are the two moments that I will remember. I'll start by revealing my shame, and hopefully you won't judge me to harshly.

So the most difficult part of nano is dedication to the cause. Writing 50,000 words in a month is no small task, and it requires you to be very dedicated and to write every day. That means no skipping days. So what did I do not once, but twice? I skipped days and I didn't meet my goal. Alone, this isn't really that bad. But I am. "Why?" you ask, well because I failed to meet my word count on the very first day of Nano. Off to a bad start, I eventually caught up. Only to immediately take not one, but two days off. I would argue that I wrote a couple hundred words one of those days, but it didn't make a difference. I was dedicated to the cause though, and caught up again, only to realize that Thanksgiving is a terrible time to write. I spent a full day driving and once again, I was behind. This continued until the very last day of nano, at which point I was able to buckle down and finish. But still, I kinda cut it pretty close. And my wife Carissa made me feel all of the shame (literally ALL of the shame) for every day that I did not meet my word count.

My shame, however, was not indicative of my worth though. My very favorite nano moment, which I will forever treasure, was when Carissa asked me a question: why did my profile have a halo?

To clarify, the Nanowrimo website gives a halo to your profile if you donate money. It marks you as special and superior to others. I now had one and Carissa, of course, did not. Now, had I actually made a donation and earned my halo this would be expected and she wouldn't really care. I would have paid for (and earned) my halo. But I didn't donate. Someone else made a donation in my name, so I got gifted a halo. And let me tell you, Carissa was not pleased with that. She is a very good person and fully supports nano—and perhaps it had something to do with me lording over her about how superior I was—but she called me a liar and a cheat, undeserving of my halo. It really didn't help that this was shortly after one of my "rest days."

Long story short, I now have a halo and Carissa doesn't.

I won nano

November's nanowrimo is finally over and I managed to finish as a winner with a total of 50,009 words (cutting it just a little bit close). It was a very difficult month, to be quite honest. I fell behind a few times when I traveled to see family and I accidentally slept for a day and did not write.

To get to 50,000 by the end of the month, you need to write 1,667 words every day. It really doesn't sound like a lot, and it doesn't even look like a lot (it's about 1.5-2 pages single-spaced in Word, unless you write a lot of dialogue). However, the moment you fall behind you have a lot of work to make up. I was lazy and fell behind about four times, that means there were about four days of no writing. Each time I was like "Don't worry, it'll be fine. I can totally catch up tomorrow if I work really hard." Then the next day I would curse myself and end up behind the goal for several days. I don't think I've ever hated a bar graph (how the website tracks your word count) so much since I took a math class, but at least back then it wasn't personal. When you fall behind, the bar graph showing your statistics become a mocking, taunting, ode to your failure and it likes to slap you in the face. I have a very strong dislike for it (when I am losing to it).

But despite all of the difficulty, I managed to win nano and write 50k words of my novel which brings the total word count just over 77k. That's close to half of the novel's first draft, a very good amount of progress. I plan to continue writing at this pace so that I can aim to have a draft done soon.

Nano 2015

Nanowrimo 2015 is already underway and I am currently behind my target goal by about 3,000 words. This is not good. I can partially blame the fact that I spent most of yesterday finishing a different project, and I am not counting those words towards my Nano goal.

Even though I'm behind, I have been writing daily (I already was, but now I can praise myself for doing it) and I really think that it will help me finish my second book faster. If I manage to hit the Nano goal of 50,000 words by the end of the month then I should be close to halfway finished with my book. That would be a remarkable feat.

It is much harder to work on something that I care about because it means I have to pay attention to the plot and how I write and what I am leading towards. I can't bring myself to just throw words at the page and see what happens. It might be good if I did that, but I suspect that it would result in a fairly bad book. And editing takes forever already.

I will keep posting updates and rants and stuff this month because I should. Maybe I'll even give out some spoilers or other interesting non-spoiler information. Like Rowan's new love interest (maybe) or the fact that some people I supposedly killed off are in fact still alive. So yeah, keep checking in.

NaNoWriMo 2015 is coming up

So nanowrimo (national novel writing month) is coming up. The goal of nanowrimo is to write 50,000 words (standard length of a novel) in the month of November. I've participated for a number of years and I finished twice. However, I have yet to actually complete one of my nano novels. The ones that I managed to get to 50,000 words just sort of died after nano was over and I have never had a chance to go back to them. So this year I plan to cheat (just a little bit).

Now, when I say that I am going to cheat I only mean it in the most technical sense. Don't think too poorly of me (not for this at least). I do plan on writing 50,000 words. I am going to write all of those words in the month of November. However, I am going to use a story that I have already started (the second book in the Knight's Journey series). Now this is technically cheating because you are not supposed to have started your work before nano. Even though I won't count the words I have already written. But hey, I don't get a prize if I win and I'm pretty sure that no one will actually care if I start early. I care, but that's beside the point. No one of significance will care. Hopefully.

Damn, could you imagine if at the end of nano I get approached by some big name publisher and they're all like: "You completed NaNoWriMo and we would like to reward you by offering you an awesome publishing deal! We just need to verify that you didn't break any of the nano rules." Yeah. But that wouldn't happen. But if it does, this blog is a lie and Alex would never break the rules of nano. Never.

There. I've covered my tracks.

Anyways, nano should be really exciting this year because I will not be working during that time. While no work means no money, it also means that I have a lot of free time to write (and look for jobs and do housework). And time to write is a good thing. Every other time I've participated in nano,I was either in school or I was working, so I could only write during my off hours. Now I am free to dedicate the majority of my time to writing during November. Carissa is okay with being ignored for a month (this time there is a reason) and I have no holidays or vacations planned.

I'll write more blog posts during that month too. For a writer, I find it surprisingly difficult to write short blog posts. So I will get into the habit of doing that in November.

That is all.

I made myself jealous

My wife Carissa is often telling me that I should consider publishing or posting some of my short stories. I usually disagree, since I don't feel very strongly about any of them. I prefer writing novels, and most of my shorter fiction was written for my creative writing classes in college. They aren't all bad (though most are and thus will never see the light of day), but even the good ones are just kind of "meh."

But there was one short story that I started a few years ago that I was actually invested in. I had just read a few of Brandon Sanderson's shorter works (he is my favorite author) and I was inspired to try and write something. I had also been playing some Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and decided to try a story about an adventurer who explores ancient ruins in search of treasure. I wrote furiously and did my best to pump out a complete story without stopping to think about it.

Now here is where I need to qualify something. I had alternate motivation to complete this story. It was nearing Carissa's birthday and I thought it would be unique if I presented her with a story as a present (I did have other presents for her, but this is where I chose to focus my efforts). So I was working on a deadline, because her birthday was coming up (I believe I had about 3 days, but one of those was for travel).

So anyways, I was doing my best to write this awesome story from start to finish. I was motivated and I was working very well. I managed to get almost halfway through when I realized that it was going to be a long short story. Not too long, but longer than I could probably finish (think about 20-25 pages single spaced in Word, at minimum). I'm not going to say that I failed, but I didn't finish the story. Instead I found an appropriate break and presented it as part one (Hollywood taught me this). There was more of the story written than what I gave to Carissa, but it wasn't close to being finished. Luckily, I was smart and wrote a brief outline of where the story was headed so that I would never forget.

I set the story aside thinking that I would get back to it soon, and then I never did. In my defense, this was largely due to my work on the Knight's Journey novel, which I then saw through to completion. So, yeah, I finished something at least.

Anyways, I just opened up my old short story and started reading through it. Somehow I was writing really well back then, because I kind of got hooked on my own story. It's a weird feeling when you read your own writing and you start feeling inadequate because it's really good. It's like, damn, I wrote that in two days without thinking about it at all. It shouldn't make me jealous. I'm literally jealous of myself.

So now I'm sitting at the computer and I have vowed to finish this short story because it's really good and because I want to prove that I can finish it. Thank you past me for starting this project and doing most of the work, I'll take over from here and take all of the credit.

I've started reading comics

So I've always considered myself a nerd at heart. I enjoy anime and manga, I've watched a lot of the animated DC/Marvel shows and movies, and I go to Comic Con every year.

I have a lot of general knowledge about the comic book universes, but I've never actually read the comics. I was always more interested in the backstories and overview of the plots, mainly because I thought all (or most) comics were individual issues with self contained stories. I prefer a continuous plot, so I avoided comics.

Recently I started reading the Injustice: Gods Among Us series. Let me just say, it's good. Really good. It's got the kind of story that made me read sixty issues in two days. So now everything I thought I knew about comics has been turned on it's head and I'm in full comic nerd mode. I'm furiously reading the Injustice comics (thank goodness the story is already pretty far along) and I'm watching Teen Titans and Young Justice and wanting to read books like Steelheart and Soon I Will Be Invincible.

So yeah. Hopefully I don't get so caught up in comics that I forget to keep writing my book.

My First Book Signing

This last Sunday I did something that I have always wanted to do: my very own book signing. Yay! Although I should probably clarify that it wasn't my own personal event (there were a lot of other authors there too). And it wasn't so much a signing as a sales table (hey, I still signed the books though). And no one knew who I was. But still, book signing!

I really didn't have any idea of what to expect going into the event. Carissa (my new wife) had done most of the work to find the event and submit an application and pay the fees and stuff (OK, she did all of the work). Given that this was my/our first book event on the author's side of the table, we were pretty much flying blind. Mistakes were made, but good times were had.

So we had no idea what to expect. We had given the event coordinator our information and a picture of the book cover, and she told us that we would be provided with a banner. Great. Our next step was ordering books, because those are kind of necessary if you want to have any sales. So we ordered some books (we were a little bit optimistic and ordered a lot more than necessary, but more on that later). Next, Carissa proposed that we make some bookmarks to hand out to people. "Good idea!" I said after some convincing. (For the record, I did think bookmarks were a great idea. It's just that whenever I get handed some convention freebie it usually ends up in the trash. So I was hesitant to spend money on a freebie, even though it was a sound investment). So we designed some kick-ass bookmarks and had them printed and we were set. We even showed them off to the family - who promptly pointed out a spelling error (I apparently cannot be trusted to proof-read my own work). There was a minor freak out about the spelling error, but in the end we decided to not worry about it.

Sunday morning rolls around and I am super excited. It's my time to shine. I've got my books and my bookmarks and some shiny new pens for signing my illegible signature. I even thought ahead and grabbed snacks and drinks and money for change. Carissa, thoughtful as ever, had acquired a card reader in case people wanted to purchase the book with a card. We were all set.

We drive down to Pismo where the event was being held. There were a bunch of tables set up outside and some more inside the hotel. We found our booth outside, but when we spoke with the event coordinator she offered to move us inside due to a cancellation (score!). So we move the banner and bring in the stuff from the car (pro-tip - books are very heavy and should be brought in all at once. Instead, bring in enough display on the table and a few extras for sales and leave the rest behind until they are needed). Set up went well. We met some other authors and put out the books and bookmarks. We immediately saw some of the stuff that other authors had set up on their table and quickly began making notes for next time (bring a book stand, have a map to display, make a sign with the book prices, etc.).

Anyways, the event started slowly and while it was exciting and fun, there weren't as many sales as I expected (I think in total we sold about 7 books). That was a bit of a blow to the ego, because my book is pretty awesome (in my own impartial opinion). Even so, we talked to a bunch of people and everyone seemed to like the book cover (thank you Alicia). We found that getting customers is kind of like fishing, and as two very shy people Carissa and I were not well suited to the task. But most of the time when one of us engaged a person who was interested in the book, we made a sale (except for one girl who got away, darn her).

Anyways, the event was a very long seven hours. We had plenty of books left over at the end (carrying those back to the car is a weight that I will bear for many years) and we spent most of our profits on other books because we can't be trusted with money when there are books nearby. But I had people ask for my signature on a book that I wrote and that made the day worth it.

I tried writing scenes out of order

This post is going to be about writing scenes before they actually take place. Essentially, I am writing things out of order to see how it works for me.

So when I was first starting book 2 of the Knight's Journey series, I decided to try my hand at writing scenes out of order, things that took place later in the book where I knew what was going to happen and I had some good ideas for dialogue and action and stuff. I wanted to try this as a test, because I've always written in a linear fashion. I write what happens as it happens, beginning at the start of a story and continuing until the story ends. I wanted to experiment with something new. I wanted to try writing a scene where I had nothing leading into it and no need to finish.

The first one that I did was a scene with Rowan in the desert. He had lost his way and was in a dire situation that had left him weakened. I wanted him to collapse and be forced to confront a vision of Baird. It was a cool scene, and as I wrote it I found that it was much easier to do because I could pretend that I had already built up the scene so that it is exactly where I need it to be to start writing. I didn't have to worry about the circumstances that brought it about or even how to wrap it up when I was done. I just started a paragraph with Rowan collapsing and went from there.

I wrote a few other scenes like this, but I like this one because it was my first attempt at writing a scene out of order and because I just reached the point in the novel where that scene takes place. I actually used it, I just copy-pasted the whole thing word for word into the chapter and went with it. I was relieved to have it while writing because it made writing the setup for the scene easier. It allowed me to work on building into something existing so I knew exactly where I was going. I hit a point where could place the scene in, and then I had it and it worked very well.

So I think I am going to try to continue this. I have a bunch of scenes where I know what will happen or how I want a specific conversation to go. I can write these scenes and set them aside when I am finished. It will help me establish areas where there is rising or falling action, or where I want to have a big hook or a reveal. So far it has been a fun exercise, and it has worked out well for me. We'll see how it goes when I reach the next scene.

Upcoming Book Signing

So I am going to have a booth at the upcoming Central Coast Book and Author Fair on September 20, and I am getting really excited and really nervous. It's really cool to finally be exhibiting my book, and I will (hopefully) fulfill my lifelong dream of signing a book for someone (it doesn't really count when you know the person). On a side note, I am a very shy person sometimes and one of the most awkward things in the world is being asked about my book. For some reason, my brain freezes at that question and I just kind of stutter some words that may or may not make sense. It is very problematic to have written a book and yet be too shy to talk about it.

So moving on, because we (me and the wife) have never done anything like this, we are totally at a loss about what to expect. How many books should we order? Do we print freebies to hand out? Will there be a lot of people or just a few? These are the things that I have never really thought about when I visit exhibitor booths. But now that I need to purchase the products that we are going to sell and prepare all of the stuff, it is a mystery how anyone ever does this without messing up. I'm sure that we'll figure it out and everything will go well, but until then I will freak out and try my best not to mess anything else up (I already spent hours making printable bookmarks only to find a grammatical error after spending ~$30 on printing - never let a writer edit his/her own stuff because it will only end in shame and error).

Anyways, if anyone happens to be in the Pismo Beach area on September 20, then come by the CC Book and Author Fair and say hi.

Re-reading Steelheart

I've been wanting to read Firefight by Brandon Sanderson for a while (I had to wait for Carissa to finish it). So while I waited I re-read Steelheart (previous book). I had read it once before, when I received an advance reader copy at Comic Con, but it's been a while. I honestly forgot how good that book was, and now I am super excited to read Firefight. I honestly finished Steelheart in two days (if I didn't need to sleep it probably would have been one day).

If only this book could be made into a movie. I think that would be amazing, especially with all the superhero films being made (looking at you Marvel).

Book sale

Hi everyone, my book (A Knight's Journey: The Apprentice) goes on sale for the Kindle tomorrow on Amazon (http://amzn.com/B00RYHOXUK). If you haven't already bought it, you should check it out. It's a fantasy novel about a young boy named Rowan and it will be on sale for only $0.99.

Fans

So I was looking at the pages for my book on Goodreads and Amazon (I know, I'm vain) and I found that I have fans/followers. I am irrationally excited about this and it's super cool. To those of you out there who have read The Apprentice, I am grateful. Someone even asked when they could expect a sequel, to which I responded that I am going to have a draft done by the end of the year. That may be optimistic, but I like to be optimistic.

Anyways, it's really cool to know people are interested in the series and it's really fun to be able to talk to fans. So if you've read my book and make comments or ask questions in a thread on Goodreads or Amazon, I will probably respond. Also, for those who are interested, I posted a world map on the Goodreads page.

New storytelling game

A while ago I picked up a copy of Winter Tales, a storytelling board game by Fantasy Flight. For those who don't know, a storytelling game is one that relies heavily on the players to create and tell a story to give the game life. It's a really fun mechanic that is quite approachable.

Anyways, I originally picked up the game because it had some great artwork and a really cool theme. Winter Tales is all about two warring factions (Winter and Spring) trying to gain control of Wintertown. I recently sat down with some friends and played the game, and it was really interesting. We created a great story involving subterfuge by the old woman Dorothy and a failed bromance between the Tin Man and Pinocchio.

I played the writer, a role that tries to make the game evenly balanced and keep the story on track. It was a fun experience and I expect I will play again. Maybe next time I'll record the story that we create.