Archive for the ‘Novel’ Category

Video Rage: Finishing An Important Chapter

Posted: September 28, 2013 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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Well I got my homework for today done, so I decided to work on a chapter of Video Rage. It was actually a chapter I started on Wednesday, but I’ve been so crazy busy lately I’ve barely been able to spend any time working on it. I finally finished it this evening while eating dinner and watching the Ohio State-Wisconsin game, showing that on occasion I can multitask (though I wouldn’t do it while in the car).

The thing is, this chapter that I just finished is a very important chapter in the book. At the end of Reborn City, I revealed something about a certain character that left a big mystery for the next book (I’m not going to say what that mystery was or what happened at the end of the book, but trust me when I say, it is big!). Here in this particular chapter I reveal the answer to this mystery, and it killed me that it took so long to write it! I mean, I really wanted to get this big-mystery-reveal down on paper! And the fact that it took nearly four days makes me want to freak out like Eminem in a feud with another rapper!

On the bright side, I did get the chapter written. It’s about 9 8.5″ x 11″ pages, and a little under twenty-four hundred words. And I think I did very well resolving the mystery. And with the completion of this chapter, number fifteen to be exact, I have about twenty-two left to write. At the current rate I’m writing, I might finish VR at some point between late December and mid-January.

Now I’m going to take a little break from writing and maybe take up Chapter Fifteen of Laura Horn later in the evening. I’m getting close to writing a very important chapter of that novel as well, though I’m a few chapters away from doing so. I hope I get to it soon, it’s going to be worthy of a blog post when it gets written.

An Idea From An Image

Posted: September 23, 2013 in ideas, Living and Life, Novel, Writing
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In a recent interview for his new book Joyland, Stephen King mentioned that one way he starts a story is that he starts with an image. In the case of Joyland, the image was of a boy on a beach with the sun setting. It took a couple of years apparently, but that image expanded to include a theme park and that’s how His Scary Highness came up with what would become a summer bestseller.

These past 24 hours I had a similar experience that allowed me to come up with an idea for a story. It started last night as I was going to bed. I was hypnotizing myself to sleep (yes, I know how to do that) and one of the commands I gave myself to help facilitate sleep was to let random images form in my head, “as if from a dream”. And among the images that formed was one that just struck me in a deep, deep way, like a line from a book that seems to resonate with you on so many levels, that for reasons you can’t understand, you find that becoming your favorite line in the whole story.

I wish I had an illustration or something to show you what I saw in my head. Unfortunately I don’t have the time to draw an illustration, let alone draw one and scan it into my computer, so I’ll try to describe it for you as best as I can: a girl, in her mid-to-late teens, with shoulder-length blonde hair and a black crown on her head with two twisting spires poking up to the sky. She wore a glittering black dress, like Glinda the Good Witch gone Goth. She stood on a glowing white staircase made of glass, and stars were shining aroundher. Her smile was warm and confident, and her eyes were alive with happiness.

Amazing what sort of things you can get from dreams. Am I right?

Well, you know me. If I can get an idea for a story, I will. So I quickly added to those hypnosis instructions, “If you see something you think you can use for a story someday, you will remember it in the morning.” When I woke up the next morning, I didn’t remember the image at first, but I did remember as the day went on. And as I had a rather unusual day (don’t ask, you don’t want to know), I had plenty of opportunities to develop a story from this image.

I thought that the image would work best at the end of the story, I had to figure out how to get this story from the beginning to the end. For that matter, I needed a beginning! Not too hard, I have a way with coming up with sh*t situations to put characters in at the start of their stories. I thought of a way for this girl in the black dress to start out, even gave her a name that I thought suited her. Then I worked on a catalyst…how about she meets a guy? No, it’s been done. Attacked by a monster? No, I’ve used that for stories before. Let’s go back to meetings. What meeting haven’t I used yet? Oh, that one will work (I can’t say what because that would give away just too much).

So what next? We’ve got a set-up. What happens after that fateful meeting? Something happens, something scary. Should I use an original mythology of my own making or taken from someone else’s mythology? Let’s go with the latter. Greco-Roman? Jewish? Celtic? Egyptian? Japanese? Native American? Okay, why not a combination? Mix and match…now we’re cooking.

In the end I manage to come up with a pretty nice story that uses some interesting monsters from mythology, come up with some interesting ideas for characters, conflicts, and even a monster or two (or three). And I wish I could go into details here, but that would give away too much. You wouldn’t want to read the book when I actually write it.

Did I actually do something he couldn’t? Probably not. But it’s nice to think so.

But isn’t it amazing? One image, and I have a wonderful idea for a story. I wasn’t sure exactly if you could come up with a story like King said he did, but I ended up doing the exact same thing…while saving a lot of time. I mean, King took years to come up with Joyland! I’m glad I saved the time on coming up with the story. And I hope someday I can do it again.

In the meantime, I’ve got a chapter of Laura Horn to start. I seem to have all the time in the world to come up with ideas, but none of the time to actually turn them into full-length novels. I should use the time when I get it.

Has this ever happened to you? How did it work out?

Snake: One-Quarter Through The Final Draft

Posted: September 8, 2013 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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Rather disconcerting, isn’t it?

I’ve mentioned in many previous posts that I am working on a novel called Snake, about a serial killer in New York who is hunting down members of a powerful mafia family. In the most recent posts, I may have also mentioned that I am working with my friend and fellow writer Angela Misri of the blog A Portia Adams Adventure to edit Snake and make it ready for publication in Spring or Summer 2014.

As of this evening, Angela and I are officially a quarter of the way through the hundred chapter book and are getting the book done on schedule and will probably be done by New Years. I’m very happy with how speedy the process has been and how diligently Angela’s been working on looking through and critiquing my manuscript. Thanks for your hard work and taking time out of your schedule Angela!

Also, I would like to mention that just because the book’s a hundred chapters doesn’t mean you shouldn’t read it. Each chapter is less than ten pages, so I wouldn’t be surprised that by the end of this, the whole book will be less than 400 pages (we’ll see). The only reason you shouldn’t read it is if you think it’s not your type of book (follow this link to see if it is).

I’ll let you know when there’s more news on the editing and publishing front. Wish us both luck and definitely check out Angela’s blog. It is definitely worth a read.

Video Rage: First Third Done

Posted: September 5, 2013 in Living and Life, Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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I love this shot!

Normally I’d be getting ready for bed now because it’s late and I need my sleep for classes. However, I started writing this evening, and I got so much of Chapter Twelve of Video Rage done, I was like, “No way am I going to let this chapter wait till tomorrow to be finished, especially with the amount of homework I’m likely to have!”

And I’m proud to say the hard work paid off. I’m now about one-third of the way through the first draft of Video Rage, the sequel to Reborn City. Well, it’s actually a little less than a third, seeing as the book has a planned 37 chapters, but it’s close enough, so who’s going to start a protest over it? Anyway, it’s a third of the way done, and I’m very excited to announce it.

The last couple chapters I’ve written for VR were actually a lot of work. I had to go through 10 and 11 twice before I could leave them alone, And Chapter Twelve had to be written just right so that it’ll have the impact I want it to have. In fact, a lot happens in Chapter Twelve. I bring up Kony 2012 in the story, and it has an impact on the protagonists, the Hydras. Yeah, I know that video, for all its hype, didn’t lead to Joseph Kony getting caught, but it was influential, which is why I use it in the story.

Remember this video? It makes itself known in Video Rage.

I also made a reference in the chapter to an early idea for VR called Bee Colony, in which the Hydras meet a colony of giant man-bees. Yeah, it sounds ridiculous, especially when you consider how Doctor Who used the idea with Agatha Christie. I thought so too about a third of the way into the outline, so I scrapped the idea and went back to the drawing board. It wasn’t until I saw Kony 2012 that I had an alternative to the man-bee plot, and it’s worked out better than the original idea, I’m happy to say. And the honeybees make an appearance in this chapter, though they aren’t man-sized or anything.

Now for the page and word counts. In total, the number of pages I have in this draft so far is 103 (double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font, in case you were wondering), and the word count so far is 28,039 words. Jeez, this novel’s coming together. I wonder how long it’ll be by the time the first draft is done. Heck, I wonder how long it’ll be when Reborn City comes out in November!

For now though, I’d like to take a little break from writing to rejuvenate and relax, or as much as I can while still doing schoolwork and working 3 days a week. In my spare time, I’ll probably take a few days, read a book, watch my shows, sleep, celebrate the Jewish New Year, edit chapters of Snake when I get them, and make jokes that are funny about thirty percent of the time. After that, I’ll probably write an article for Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors, and then start on Part II of Laura Horn, the other novel I’m working on at the moment.

Until then though, I’m going to go to bed. Good night everybody, Happy New Year from your friendly Internet Jewish blogger and horror writer, and I’ll write again when I have the energy to do it. See you later!

Laura Horn: Part One Is Done

Posted: September 2, 2013 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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Oh, I had a productive day today. I got a ton of homework done, edited The Quiet Game after being told there were some glaring errors in the book (sorry! If you buy/download it now, there will be less errors than before), I did my weekly exercises (see last post), I came up with an idea for a short story and a book series, and–oh yeah, I finished Part One of Laura Horn, one of the two novels I’m working on right now.

I called this part of the story “That Girl’s A Mouse”, based on what one of the girls at Laura’s school describes Laura. As we read the chapter, we find out some of the reasons Laura’s like that, though some things are still in mystery. I rather enjoy writing Laura’s story, but I sometimes have trouble getting into her head. In some ways she’s still a mystery, even to me, which makes her all the more fun and intriguing to write about.

Now for pages and word counts. The prologue, which is about ten pages and two-thousand, three-hundred sixty-four words, is about three chapters long. The first part spans from chapter four to eleven and is forty-five pages and twelve-thousand, one-hundred and eighty-nine words. This brings it a total fifty-five pages and fourteen-thousand, five-hundred and fifty-three words.  With fifty-six chapters left, it’ll probably get much longer. I’m guessing somewhere around 350 pages and maybe seventy-thousand pages. It’ll be awesome when it’s done.

Tomorrow I plan to do my biology and sociology homework, then I’ll hopefully edit chapters ten and eleven of Video Rage. I’m not entirely satisfied with those chapters, so I can’t start chapter twelve until I at least give those two a look-over and see if there’s some way to fix them up a little.

Until then, have a good night everybody.

Reborn City: The Book Trailer

Posted: August 30, 2013 in Living and Life, Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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Reborn City

I don’t know if book trailers really increase book sales. I’m pretty sure that when I did the book trailer for The Quiet Game (see it here, if you dare). So when I finally had a release date for Reborn City, I had to ask myself, “Do I really want to spend an hour or two making a freaking video that probably create a viral sensation, let alone bring in some revenue for me?”

But then I discovered that you can make videos on your YouTube account. Yeah, I found that out just this week. I have no idea if that’s a new thing or if that option’s been around for a while and I’ve just been oblivious. But yeah, I sat down today, I pulled up YouTube, started creating a video on YouTube. Took me about twenty minutes and then all I had to do was upload it onto YouTube while I went to have Shabbos dinner.

This video is about twenty-five seconds long and features music by the rap group “Triple C’s”, with there song “Where Ya From?” Hey, they even have a song that uses the West Reborn dialect! I just noticed that. Also, the photo of “Reborn City” is actually a shot of the Las Vegas strip. I know, I know, but what do you want from me? I can’t afford to create my own original picture of my conception of Central Reborn. I do what I can.

In any case, I’m very satisfied with the results. Heck, I’ll try and make another video some time, see if I can improve for the next book trailer. Yes, I said the next book trailer. If I can get one done in twenty minutes, imagine what I can get done with an hour and some practice! Snake‘s trailer will be the s**t!

So, without further ado, here’s the official trailer for Reborn City. And subscribe to my channel…as it is. Comments welcome.

The Power of Bad Memories

Posted: August 20, 2013 in Novel, Reflections, Writing
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Some philosophers and psychologists will say that memory is what makes us who we are, and it’d be hard to say they’re wrong. The retention of past experiences plays a great deal in shaping our personalities, our sense of selves, and how we interpret and react to the world around us. As I’m writing Laura Horn, one of the novels I’m working on at the moment, I’m beginning to understand this concept of memory and what it has over us.

My protagonist and titular character Laura Horn is a victim of sexual assault. Her dark experiences have never been dealt with and she’s still affected by not only the experience of what she went through, but by the memories she has of the assault.

I think for most people, good memories tend to sleep below the surface of our consciousness, always there but not at the forefront of our thoughts until we need them. For example, someone could be driving down a road they hadn’t traveled down in a long time could remember the last time they travelled down the road, maybe with a lover or someone they really liked and what they did that day. Immediately they may feel happy. less stressed, or more excited about their life and their day as the memory returns to the sea of our consciousnesses.

Bad memories though, tend to act like monsters. Fresh memories or those that were formed relatively recent, tend to be worse. They latch onto your consciousness with their teeth and claws, reminding you of their presence, of dark experiences and horrible mistakes, and they never let go, upsetting your day and causing you terror, anger, anxiety, and other negative emotions.

I have more than a few memories I would rather forget, and this is reflected in the way I write Laura’s interactions with her memories. Whenever her memories surface,  she tries to push them away and berates herself for bringing those memories forward in the first place. I feel the same way whenever my bad memories surface, though I learned that instead of pushing them away and berating myself over them, I’ve learned it’s just much healthier to accept the memories as they are and not get too upset over them.

Like I said, Laura hasn’t dealt with her experiences and her memories of those experiences, let alone how to healthily deal with her memories. Because of this, she’s still very stuck in the state of mind she had when she was attacked. She’s terrified of the world around her and most of the people in it. She wishes for the past to change and to return to a happier time, even though she knows this will never happen. Her life is dark and she is terribly unhappy.

I’m hoping as time goes on and I continue writing, I hope I can help Laura move past her experiences to a happier state. To me, this story is more like Laura telling me what her story is about rather than me making up events as I go along, so I’m hoping as time moves along, our collaboration on her tail will yield some positive results.

Until such a time, I have to examine how Laura interacts with her memories of her assault and how those memories be affected as she gets ever closer to the main events of the story, which will change her life forever. And maybe, while doing so, I’ll come to understand my own life and experiences, especially the bad ones, a little bit better.

Video Rage: One-Sixth Of The Way In

Posted: July 30, 2013 in Living and Life, Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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I was hampered by a little writer’s block today, but after a pasta dinner, a nice walk and a shower, I was able to get a lot of writing in. And I’m happy to say, I got through Chapter Six of Video Rage, the sequel to Reborn City. Like I’ve stated previously, Video Rage takes place about two or so weeks after RC ends and a lot has changed for the characters. People are pushed in ways they’ve never been pushed before, secrets are revealed, and the whole world is after them now. It’s a pretty crazy trip, but it’s fun writing.

Writing these first six chapters has been a lot of work. I had to re-immerse myself into the world of Reborn City, and since the plot of this novel takes place outside of Reborn City, I had to invent a lot of new aspects in terms of that universe’s society and culture. It was a little difficult at first, especially writing a good hook for the opening, along with showing what the Hydras have been up to and how they’ve changed since RC closed, but now it feels almost natural to go back into that world. Kind of like jumping down the rabbit hole, I guess.

I also had to split up Chapter Four into two parts while I was writing it. I realized that as a chapter it would be packing too much in, so I had to split it into two separate chapters. In terms of character development and storyline, I feel it was the right thing to do. I still have 31 more chapters to write instead of 30 like the original outline intended, but it’ll be 31 better chapters thanks to the split, if you ask me.

Tomorrow I hope to start Chapter Seven, if I can get through Chapter Six of Laura Horn quickly. Working on two novels at once has its drawbacks, but I’m getting a lot of work done, and I’m having fun with it. If I can, I’d like to make a habit of working on two novels at once from now on, if I can. Of course, when senior year comes around and I have a thesis to write, I may have to focus on just one novel! Good thing that’s a year away, right?

I hope to have more good news tomorrow. In the meantime, good night and have a lovely sleep.

Laura Horn: Prologue’s Done

Posted: July 24, 2013 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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Looks like all of my goals for today are done. I stopped by the library, saw The Conjuring (and really enjoyed it) and I finished the Prologue section of Laura Horn. Not a bad day’s work, considering I slept in late.

I’m not sure if I write prologues the same way as other writers do. Most only use a single chapter, but I use several chapters, each no more than 10 pages, to tell a short scene that sets the mood for the novel. In this case, I wrote three chapters, about ten pages total, to start the mystery that is at the center of Laura Horn and will affect our heroine later in the story. It worked very well for Snake, so I’m doing the same thing here, but I still wonder what other people–especially other writers–make of my use of prologues.

Did I mention Laura doesn’t show up in the Prologue? It’s true, she doesn’t make an appearance till Chapter Four, and we don’t see things from her perspective till Chapter Five. Why do I do that? Well, I guess she didn’t need to appear in the story till that point, and in order to understand Laura, it’s best we find out what happens to her in Four before we see things through her eyes, which I save till Chapter Five. Besides, if Harry can wait to appear till the third chapter of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, why can’t Laura Horn make her first appearance four chapters into her own novel?

Just saying, is all.

Anyway, I’m satisfied with the Prologue. I may have to take a couple more looks at Chapter Three, I feel like something’s missing from it, but I’m not sure what. Chapters One and Two are pretty good though. Very dark and very informative about what’s to come in the novel. Just need another run-through on Chapter Three when I get to editing the first draft.

Tomorrow I’ll switch back to Video Rage, work on a chapter that includes some nasty character conflicts. After that I’ll start Part I of Laura Horn, which is where things start to get moving. I’m enjoying being busy with two novels. Perhaps it’s something I should make a habit of. Could lead to faster publications, at any rate.

And by the way, what do you think of the picture above? I personally like it, and I think Laura would like it too. She’d draw it herself…if she was good at art and wasn’t so badly traumatized. If we had the former, her subject matter would definitely be more dark, and if we had the latter…where would the story be for me to write?

Characters Taking Over The Story

Posted: July 22, 2013 in Novel, Reflections, Writing
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I belong to a group of suspense and thriller writers on Facebook, and occasionally the subject has come up in discussion on characters taking over the plot of the story and acting in defiance to the author’s expectations for the story. Until recently, I had no idea what that meant, though I may or may not have said that I did. With my stories, especially my novels, I wrote an outline, then I wrote the story. The characters mostly followed the outline, and any changes, such as certain areas of the climax of Reborn City, I felt were my own creative decision.

It wasn’t until this morning, waiting for the bus to work, standing in the pouring rain, that I had a little epiphany of the subject. I remembered when I first started writing the outline for Reborn City, back in high school when publishing a book was still just a very far-away dream. Originally I’d planned for bad-boy Rip to be the star of the show, and Zahara Bakur to be the deuterogamist (secondary protagonist for those of you who don’t know that term). But as I started outlining the novel, I saw that Zahara was taking up more of my attention and more of the story than Rip was. Consequently as time went by, Zahara went from deuterogamist to co-protagonist, and by the end of the outline, she’d gone to leading lady, with Rip being the deuterogamist.

Reborn City

And you know what? I thought the novel benefited from that. Sure, the Hydra leaders have a plethora of problems, and having Zahara around doesn’t exactly make them easier. But I think they benefit in some ways from Zahara, and she’s the one who goes through the biggest transformation of all. Heck, I’m only two chapters into the second book of the series (three if I can stay on track for tonight), and I’ve already noticed that she has a confidence that wasn’t present in the first book.

Sure enough, my characters are having more of a say in how the story turns out than I am. If anything, Zahara’s dictating her story to me, rather than I’m coming up with it. It’s a weird feeling, but it’s also kind of fun and exciting, and I get to experience my characters’ growths, decisions, and tribulations with them. And isn’t following a character through all that just the reason we pick up books in the first place and read them?

I’m looking forward to see what happens from here on out. I’m also hoping to see if I’ll write any more stories where the characters do more of the dictating than I do. If I do, it’ll probably be sometime soon, especially since I’m working on two novels at once!

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