I'm Alive!

I promise! Life has just gotten in the way a little bit. Oh, and I've been doing some "research". What I mean by that is reading. They say reading is just as important as writing, but I don't really have time for both simultaneously so I have been reading these past few days.

What am I reading? Currently I am reading The List by J.A. Konrath. The book is about people who have a strange tattoo on the bottom of their foot, and they are being killed off one at a time. It's pretty good so far, but I am getting tired around 10 these days so it's even hard to fit that in.

I plan to be writing again by the weekend. Maybe I can power through the rest of The List on Friday. What are you guys reading right now?

It's Friday, Friday!

Its been a long week full of sitting in traffic on my way to work. However, when I'm sitting in my car I am able to think about my story and some of the things that would make it cool. I do a lot of my brainstorming for plot ideas in the car, and I've come up with some good stuff.

I had some original ideas for a scene in which the main character saves a girl, and I had some long drives ahead of me before I would be able to write that scene. Now, the scene is completely different, and it's almost done being written. I have about 1300 words so far, and there will be a good bit more before I'm through.

I may as well make it official that my side project is now my new main project. It's the one I would rather write, and the only one that jumps in to my mind in my highway idea sessions. I'm not really sure how long I want it to be, but I know where I want it to go. It may just make a few additional stops along the way.

Are any of you like that? Do you think about your stories in the car? When you come up with an awesome idea for a new book while thinking about your current book what do you do?

The Male Point Of View

So I enjoyed another #pvpchat on Twitter tonight with some other writers talking about multiple points of view in a story. It kind of devolved to a talk about point of view in general, and that gave me the idea for this blog post.

The point of view for my current side (maybe new main?) project is first person male. I haven't really written first person in a while, but I have been making sure I read some first person every night just to keep things fresh. The genre the book is targeted towards is most commonly done with a female main character, but I didn't want to take that challenge on my first work.

Some good things about this could be that perhaps readers of the genre would think that the viewpoint is fresh, and trust me, I know how guys think. The downside would be that perhaps the readers won't be able to relate to a "real" man, and I may have to lighten him up a bit.

When is it okay to sacrifice things that make a character realistic for things that make a character likable? What if your character is very real, and because of that, no one likes him? First person male could be quite a scary place especially in the mind of a seventeen year old male. Oh no, I've gone and said too much.

Sample Sunday

Today's entry is going to be rather short. Some of my acquaintances have published some shorts for Sample Sunday and I'd like to link them below.

Point Blank

Missing

I think that these are both examples of engaging writing that raises some questions about the story, and makes you want to know more about what happened.

Do you have a short that you want to share? An excerpt from a piece you are writing?

Back In High School

I wrote another scene in my side project today because it was what was in my mind, and I thought the idea was pretty fresh. It's a modern setting, and the first two scenes in the book take place in a high school. It was actually kind of fun to write about the high school experience even though I included only part of one class, and some dialog in the hallway. The class I used was an English class so I had them studying The Crucible.

The scene goes in a bit deeper with one of the main characters that you meet at the end of scene one, and introduces a third main character who the MAIN main character kind of likes. It was actually kind of fun to write the things that go through a guy's head in class when he likes a girl. I'm wondering how many girls would be interested in knowing exactly what it's like in our heads.

I'm trying out a slightly different structure in this project. I have a large list of about forty things that cover the main plot line, but I'm not sticking to it like a rigid outline. The first three things on the list are in the first two scenes, but I'm sure that things that aren't on the list will make their way in as well. I'm going to write what feels natural and right instead of trying to force the characters in to some predetermined sequence that may feel rushed in the end product.

I also have a tentative name fo the project that you may find if you're clever. However, it's not necessarily the name of the book. Just something to keep the project organized.

Distracted

So, I've been distracted today by another idea that I came up with. I wanted to get everything in my head down so I made up a notes sheet. Then I didn't want to stop so I made a big huge generic outline with like 40 points in it. Then I decided to knock out my daily word count on this new side project just to see if it was still going to be interesting after 1000 words.

I liked it. I think I will like writing the next chapters a bit more as the first only really had one character in it, but that's one of the things I like most about this new idea. The character scope is much smaller, the setting is way smaller, and it's in a modern era. It may actually be easier to do this first than my original project. I will have to knock out a few more words to see if this new thing starts shaping in to something cool.

In other news, I'm reading Switched by Amanda Hocking on my Kindle just to see what all the fuss is about. It's about a girl who is really a troll (or trylle?) and she was switched with a human baby when she was born. It should be an interesting read, and you know what they say, you can't become a better writer without reading. Amanda's formula clearly works so maybe I will learn something.

Anyways, do you ever get distracted and start working on a second project simultaneously?

Fight Scenes!

Everyone loves when their book opens with an awesome fight scene. You know what's cooler than reading a fight scene though? Writing one! In the scenes I was working on this morning before work I made it through some of the pre-conflict, and started the battle, but I ran out of time and had to start work.

Man do I want to finish that fight scene! I can already tell that these are going to be places that I go back over with a fine tooth comb in my revisions. I want them to be perfect. I want the reader to feel exactly what a character feels when they are fighting.

I still think that this chapter will be able to hit 5,000 words. It's sitting at around 2,200 right now, and the fighting has really just begun. I will probably work on it later even though I have already hit my daily writing goal. It should be an interesting chapter

What makes a fight scene cool to you? Lots of cool ways in which people die? Being able to envision the scene perfectly?