Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category

Ripple: Getting Published!

Posted: June 24, 2012 in Progress Report, short story, Writing
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Oh my God! Big news, ladies and gentlemen! I don’t know how many of you remember, but a while back I wrote a short story involving alien visitors to Earth called “Ripple”. This evening I got on my computer and saw that the editor of Nth Degree, a science-fiction magazine, had emailed me. He wrote he was going to publish “Ripple” as a featured story in the magazine’s online edition and would be letting me know soon when the story would go up.

Well, as soon as I read that, I started dancing in my room! I put on disco music on my computer and started boogie-ing down! I’m so happy write now, it’s hard for me to stay calm. Thank you to Michael Pederson, editor of Nth Degree, for accepting “Ripple”. I cannot wait to see it online!

If you want to check out the website–maybe submit something to it–the link is down below. Oh my God, so excited right now. I still can’t stop dancing! I’ll give everyone a heads-up post when the short story comes out. Have an awesome day, just like I’m having!

http://nthzine.com/

The “Snake” Outline

Posted: June 22, 2012 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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Okay, I’ve mentioned this before, but this summer I’m working on a new novel called “Snake”, and it’s about a serial killer. Right now, I’m working on the outline of the novel, becuase I prefer using an outline before starting a novel. I have to say, I’m not even done with the outline, but it’s already proven itself to be a learning experience:

For starters, while I’ve thought about Snake and what I wanted to do with him for a while, writing out the actual outline and planning out the rough draft of the plot has been kind of like going down a river: I’ve just gone where it’s taken me. Scenes I had half-planned in my head are becoming fully-formed, while other scenes are being created rifht at the moment I write them down and a few scenes are being dropped completely! It’s hard deciding what to put in, what to keep, and what to discard, but in the end I feel it’s making the story better.

Also, if you read thrillers you know that the chapters are often very short, which is because the authors want to keep the suspense up as much as they can. Learning how to do that myself has been very intersting, and I think I’m getting the hang of it. I mean, I’ve just finished Part III (these novels always come in parts) and the story is already 60+ chapters! That’s at least three times “Reborn City”! I wouldn’t be surprised if the final chapter count is in the hundreds! Oh, and did I mention that if this novel were a movie, the end of Part III would probably be about two-thirds of the way through the film?

I hope to have the outline done within the next week. By that time I’ll know what I want to do with my story and how I’ll go about doing it. So wish me luck! I’ll give you another update when I’m done with the outline.

The Lucky 7 Meme

Posted: June 17, 2012 in Novel, Writing
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Alright, here’s the latest on the blogosphere: apparently quite a few blogs are doing this thing where if you’re writing a novel or short story, you take your 7th or 77th page (depending on what you’re writing) go to the seventh line, and pull out 7 lines or paragraphs. A few of the blogs I follow did that, so I figured, what the heck? Why not?

So right now, I’m posting lines 7-14 of page 77 of Reborn City, the novel I’m currently trying to market to agents. At this moment of the story, my main character Zahara is getting a tattoo, even though she doesn’t really want to get one. Why does she have to get a tattoo she doesn’t want? I can’t reveal that here, but if you’re an agent and you’re interested, let me know and we’ll talk.

So here’s my Lucky 7 meme:

“Um…yeah, sure. Go ahead.” said Zahara. As soon as Frimms had turned his glance away from her, Zahara closed her eyes. Allah, the Most Merciful and Understanding, please forgive me for this transgression. When I leave the Hydras and return to New York I swear in the name of the Prophet that I will get this tattoo removed, she thought in Arabic. Tattoos weren’t considered cool things to have on one’s body in Sunni Islam; the Shi’ites were allowed to get tattoos, but for Zahara it was much more preferable to get henna tattoos. Zahara figured that if she asked these guys if she could get a henna tattoo they’d probably just laugh or give her a queer look and ask her why she’d want that.

Well, there you go, ladies and gents. I hope that at least whetted your appetites and made you a little more interested in Reborn City. All for now, so bye.

Meditating A New Idea

Posted: June 17, 2012 in ideas, Living and Life, short story, Writing
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I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned it on Rami Ungar the Writer, but I’m into a form of Eastern meditation known as Sahaja Yoga. It was founded in the 70’s and the goal is to awaken the dormant spiritual energy inside you so that somebody can not just correct problems in their lives they may be having, but in order to achieve Self-Realization, a form of spiritual evolution. Sahaja Yoga is very popular and easy, and it has followers in over a hundred countries.

Why do I mention this? Because just today I had some trouble with an idea for a short story and I was able to overcome that trouble with the help of Sahaja Yoga. It happened like this:

Just this morning, I woke up with an idea for a short story in my head: what if someone had lived a life, but had forgotten that life through the interference of someone else, and started remembering their former lives after several years? I’m not sure if I’d dreamed that or if I’d come up with that idea while sort-of half-asleep, but when I was fully conscious it sounded like an excellent idea.

Just the one problem: how could I write an original, exciting story with that idea without sounding like I’d stolen someone else’s idea? I sturggled with the idea, unable to come up with an exciting take or angle to work with, until I went to meditation class today. As soon as we started meditating, my mind cleared and all of a sudden my mind was filled with ideas for the story. Eventually, by the end of the meditation, a half-formed story, with names, places, a plot, and even a few lines, was in my head. I could not wait to get home and work on it. but first I thought I’d write a post about it.

Anyone else interested in Sahaja Yoga now? If you want to, there are websites that can help you learn. It’s absolutely free-of-charge to learn, and the people who are apart of it are so nice. Oh and don’t worry, it’s not like a cult: it’s more like those clubs you went to as a teenager where people dressed up as their favorite Star Trek characters, only with potential health benefits.

I’m including a link for a website used among a lot of Sahaja Yogis, and a video where the founder, Shri Mataji, teaches you the first steps to learning to do the meditation. Try it out; you may find that it helps you in your work like it helps me.

http://www.freemeditation.com/

Writing In Summer: The Winner

Posted: June 10, 2012 in ideas, Novel, Writing
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Yeah, you heard it here first, folks; the poll is over and the winner for what novel I’ll be writing over the course of summer vacation (and probably beyond) has been decided. Of the 6 votes, 4 went to Idea #1. I don’t know how many of you are/were Math majors, but I’m pretty sure that’s the majority. And as having the most points gets you the win, Idea #1 is the winner! Somebody drop confetti from the ceiling!

Alright, for those of you just tuning into the Rami Ungar the Writer program, I’ve already written one novel–part of a trilogy–that I’m trying to market to book agents. However while I’m doing that, I’d like to be kept busy writing-wise. I don’t have short story ideas always on hand, and I don’t want to work on my novel’s sequel until after it’s been picked up by an agent. So instead, I decided I’d work on a different, unrelated novel over the summer. Problem is, couldn’t choose between 2 very good ideas, so I left it up to my readers to decide for me. The readers spoke, and I’ve got my summer assignment (lucky for me being a college student, I can decide whether or not I have summer assignments).

I already said in the post where I announced the poll, “Writing in Summer: What to Do” what the ideas were about, but I’ll give you guys a recap on the idea, with a little more information added in as a bonus. The working title is Snake and it’s about a serial killer killing off members of a certain Mafia family in New York City (if anyone reading this post is or knows someone in the mafia, I’d just like to say this is all fictional, none of the families I’ve created for this story are real, so PLEASE DON”T BE MAD!!!). The interesting thing is, you want to root for this serial killer, but why? And for what reason does he kill (don’t say psychopath, I can garauntee you that’s not it)?

Over the course of the research and writing process, I’ll be posting about the progress of Snake and even throwing in a short exerpt or two. Perhaps a literary agent or an editor in a publishing house will happen across this blog, get interesting in Snake–and my other novel, Reborn City, I hope–and get interested enough. Oh God, I hope that happens.

Alright, now that I’ve announced the winner, I think my first little present to you, my friendly readers, bloggers, and people-who-happen-upon-this-blog-through-sheer-random-websurfing-and-have-stayed-more-than-five-seconds-and-gotten-interested-enough-to-read, shall be a list of things I will research and who/what I might consult for this research (if you have any suggestions, let me know!):

1. An FBI profile of the serial killer (I think I’ll consult some professors versed in clinical psychology at OSU and other colleges; I don’t think the FBI BAU would like me sending them a fake profile, and I’m afraid my knowledge of my killer might get in the way of writing the chapters involving the investigation)

2. Streets/places/homes/apartments in New York City and the Hamptons (I’ll probably talk to a real estate or travel agent, they’d know more about this than I would)

3. The structure and history of various mafia syndicates (there’s gotta be a book on that somewhere, someone’s got to have gone to the trouble)

Actually, that’s it for now, if there’s something else I might insert in a post later. Gotta go now, it’s my brithday today, and I plan on writing a post about it after I’ve had my birthday fun. By the way, woo-hoo! I’m 19! I still can’t legally drink in the US, but it’s still awesome.

Thinking Up Stories

Posted: June 4, 2012 in ideas, Writing
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Well, it’s June 4th. Six days left for the poll I set up in “Writing in the Summer: What To Do” (once again, if you haven’t participated yet, please head there now and vote before June 10th; your votes will help me decide which novel I work on during the summer). And as it gets closer to the 10th, I find myself thinking about the current lead. Actually, I’m thinking about it a lot.

Why? I think the answer to that is obvious; writers write. But in order to write, we have to have an idea of what we want to write. And if there’s one thing in writing I can be one-hundred percent guilty of, it’s that I like to dwell on and come up with scenes and plot points and character issues and a whole plethora of other things for a single story…even when I’m not working on said story. I mean, for both choices in the poll, I have quite a few points in the story fleshed out in detail, from character names to life-shaping events, to individual scenes and plot twists, and on one of the stories I’ve analyzed over and over why I’ve given one character the name he has (trust me, his name says a lot about himself and about the people who may read this story in the future).

So yeah, I’m thinking about choice number one a lot. I’m coming up with certain scenes in my head, dividing up chapters, I even planned out two verbal confrontations between characters at different points in the story while taking a shower last night. I’m also thinking about research and the best options to go with (OSU’s Psychology Department; street maps of New York; interviewing a medical examiner who specializes in forensics), and the inner workings of each character, particularly my anti-hero protagonist.

And until I see choice number two leading in the poll, I’m still going to think about choice number one, though certainly not when I’m doing exams or something important. See you at the end of the poll, when I say who won and give you guys what would probably be the blurb on the end of the paperback version.

Writing in the Summer: What to Do?

Posted: May 27, 2012 in ideas, Novel, Writing
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Alright everyone who reads this blog or comes across it, I’m going to need your help. Wait, don’t click away! This is very easy. You just need to give me your opinion. It’s simple, it’s painless, all you need do is read the post and then answer a question. Not so scary now, huh?

Well, I’m trying to get my novel Reborn City picked up by an agent, and I’ll have some time to write this summer. However, I don’t want to start RC’s sequel yet, not until the book has at least been picked up by an agency, and I don’t always have ideas for short stories on hand (if only I did!). So I’m going to spend the summer working on a novel. Problem is, of all my ideas I’m having trouble choosing between two of them. To me, they’re both really good ideas, the characters would be awesome to work with, the research would be fun for me, and it’d be a way to polish my skills while I’m out of classes.

I just need to choose! So I’m leaving it up to you, oh-so helpful blog readers and writers. I’m having trouble setting up a poll with WordPress, so you guys are going to have to leave comments down below to participate. I’m counting on you. I also don’t mind if you tell me your reasons for picking that answer.

Here are the options:

1. A serial killer is roaming New York City and going after the mafia. Why is he doing this, and why do we want to root for him? That’s the intrigue to this story that’s inspired by Taken and inspired heavily by slasher films.

2. A young girl with a horrific past becomes the center of a manhunt when she discovers a secret plot involving some of the nation’s top intelligence officers. How does she become embroiled in this serious plot, and how does it hearken back to her dark past? I can’t remember what inspired this story, but I definitely have a soft spot for the main character.

Alright folks. Vote away. The poll ends June 10, my birthday and the day summer vacation officially starts for me. I won’t accept any comments after that. Good luck and thank you!

 

The Best Lines I’ve Heard In A Movie So Far

Posted: May 22, 2012 in ideas, Writing
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“Imagine you knew you were going to do something great. Something amazing. Perhaps the greatest thing anyone has ever done. Only there’s a catch: something terrible has to happen.”

Those lines are direct from Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, which I’m watching right now on my computer for the first timem and I may have gotten them a little mixed up in the translation, but what they say rings true: whether you know or you don’t know that you’re going to be a hero or a savior or just a protagonist in a story, something terrible has to happen to you. It’s true of so many literary characters: Harry Potter loses his parents and vanquishes Voldemort (twice!); Alex Cross has to take down the worst psychopaths imaginable, albeit risking the lives of his friends and family, and his social life, with every case; and Van Helsing, John Harker, and Mina Harker have to defeat Dracula, risking their lives and their humanities along the way.

Truly, the lines above ring true in so many stories. Heck, in many of the stories I plan to write (and am currently writing) terrible things happen before the hero rises up to save the day. God, I wish I could tell you the things in my stories that happen, both what the protagonists do, and the terrible events that precede what they do. Unfortunately, telling you what happens would give away the plots of too many stories, so that’s out. Still, the fact that the theme above is in so many stories, whether they be mine or someone else’s, proves how important this theme is to writers across time and space.

I’d like everyone’s thoughts on this subject, along with other examples where something terrible must happen before a character can become a hero (can be a book, TV show, comic book, or movie character, I don’t really care).

Helpful Feedback

Posted: May 21, 2012 in Writing
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As a writer hoping to be a professional, there’s one thing you must absolutely have, and that is feedback. We all hate it, we never like it when someone takes something we have poured our hearts and souls into get torn apart by someone else, usually someone who doesn’t have the same kind of experience with the art of storytelling we do. However, when you can find the right person to critique you, they can be a gold mine of help.

I have a few people whom I rely on for help with my stories. Just today I was talking to one of them on the phone about a thriller story I’d written and he pointed out things that I’d forgotten, hadn’t considered, or suspected about the story that kept it form being the best it could be. Regardless to say, in just those few short sentences, my eyes had opened up and I thought of things that could be done to improve the story. So tonight, if I can find the time, I will edit the story and hopefully have it in better shape than the rough draft.

After all, I enjoyed writing this story and I have high hopes for it. Perhaps then it’ll be ready for publication.

Oh, and to all of you whom I regularly rely on for feedback, thanks for the help. I can’t say it enough times, how your critiques are essential to my writing craft and how much they improve the plot of the stories I write, My metaphorical hat is off to you.

A Novel Idea Part 2

Posted: May 14, 2012 in Living and Life, Writing
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It’s unusual for me to publish two posts in a single day, so three might be a sign of the apocalypse, but I’m going to write this one anyway, so if you would kindly not hide in your basement for fear of meteors and aliens and earthquakes, I would be grateful.

If you remember a few months ago, I attended an event funded by the English Undergraduate Organization (EUGO) called “A Novel Idea”, which was for studnets who wanted to publish novels to sit down and hear from professors with publishing experience. The event was so successful that tonight they held a “Part 2”, which I was just at. We heard from a professor who worked on reference books for librarians trying to find the best of certain genres, and we discussed the pros and cons of self-publishing, the revolution of e-books (there’s a post two back that also covers this topic), and other topics. One of the things I learned was that with the emergence of e-books, publishers are now more willing to tlak to authors who aren’t represented by literary agents. Since I don’t have an agent (yet, anyway), that definitely got my interest, so maybe tonight I’ll see if there are any publishers that don’t mind a writer without an agent.

We also discussed the use of publishing short stories before publishing a novel (still relevant, especially with e-mags) and books that have defied the usual statisitcs associated with breaking away from the usual publishing process (50 Shades of Grey being the most talked about).

So, now that I’m back in the dorms, I’ll finish what homework I have, and then do a little work on getting Reborn City into book (or e-book) form. Wish me luck, and if you have any suggestions or helpful ideas, let me know.

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