Posts Tagged ‘novel’

Snake: First Draft Done

Posted: December 16, 2012 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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I saved the best for last: a Biblical snake!

I don’t like doing online rants about gun control. It’s something I’m passionate about and that I wish more people backed, but I don’t like doing it. I prefer to talk about my writing, about the short stories and novels I write and the ideas I come up with. I love discussing the writing process and nitpicking my work and others’ work. Why else is my blog name Rami Ungar The Writer?

This is why I’m happy to say that this post isn’t about gun control or Newtown or asking people to contact their representatives. No, this post is about how I finally finished my thriller novel Snake, about a serial killer hunting mafioso in New York and the reason why he hunts them. It took me about six months and four days to write this novel, a personal best for me, and I’m really satisfied with this first draft. I think it starts out like a regular thriller in the respects of James Patterson or Stephen King, but then it morphs into something else, especially when we start to realize that the Snake, the titular killer, is actually the protagonist and not the antagonist!

How is this possible and why do I do this? Well, you’ll have to read the novel when it comes out to find out. However, that won’t be for a while; I first have to put off editing Snake for a few months. After I edit it, I’ll see if I can find someone who’ll take a look and critique it. If that happens, I’ll incorporate their suggestions into the text and then I’ll start the process of copyrighting the novel and then releasing it as an e-book online. Of course, no idea when that’ll happen, so don’t go onto Amazon looking for my name.

I enjoyed writing Snake; it was scary and exciting at the same time. The plot changed several times throughout the writing process, and it’ll probably change a bit more when I get to editing the story, but I think every change made the story better. I had the oppurtunity to write in ways I’d never written before, like writing a thriller instead of a regular science-fiction or horror novel and writing a sex scene that I planned to keep to the final draft. I also was challenged to write my female lead, whose head I sometimes had trouble getting into, and I got to practice writing fight scenes, which are not always my specialty.

All in all, this novel has a special place in my heart, and if I ever write a sequel (which I have an idea for), I will enjoy writing that too. Of course, it’ll be a long time before I write the sequel; my philosophy on sequels is to take a break and work on something else between books, or you’ll find yourself in a creative rut staying in the same fictional world for too long.

Now for the page and word count. Remember, I write my drafts in 12-point font, Times New Roman, and double-spaced. When the final version comes out, the page count will be a lot shorter. Now the Epilogue, the final part of the novel, was 23 pages and 5,164 words. Let’s add that to the other parts: the Prologue was 14 pages and 3,979 words; Part I is 41 pages and 10,177 words; Part II was 96 words and 23,801 words; Part III was 126 pags and 30,733 words; Part IV was 86 pages and 22,288 words; Part V was 29 pages and 7,576 words; and Part VI was 28 pages and 7,095 words. Total it all and…

Holy long thriller, Batman! This first draft ends at 443 pages and 110,813 words. Hope you like drawn-out storie, because I definitely succeeded in that capacity!

Well, I have to stop writing for now, because I have to get up early for work. But wait for tomorrow; I’ve got a special announcement to make. Thanks for staying with me so far and I hope to put Snake, my sci-fi novel Reborn City, and a whole bunch of other stuff, out soon.

Stephen King and e-books

Posted: December 15, 2012 in Living and Life, Writing
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Presenting the King of Horror!

While I was trolling the Internet, looking for something to listen to as a background noise, I came across these videos that feature my idol, His Royal Highness Stephen King, discussing various topics, including the power of e-books and how it’s changing the industry, with the folks at CNN Money. It was very interesting, not just because his voice is higher than I thought, but because King has some very good wisdom to share, and he was one of the first authors to get on the e-book wagon, publishing his famous novella Riding the Bullet as an e-book (and I recommend it for anyone who hasn’t read it; it’s available in print format too, if you’re interested). Now all his books are probably available as e-books, but he still says there are drawbacks to this new innovation to reading, namely what happens when you drop a Kindle in the toilet.

Snake: Part VI Done!

Posted: December 14, 2012 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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I’M ON A ROLL!

Today, at around a quarter to four in the afternoon, I finished writing Part VI of Snake, two days after I finished the previous part! I had to cut out one chapter and combine two chapters as I was doing the writing, but that’s okay, because this part is awesome! I had an idea for a regular fight between the main antagonist and the Snake, but I changed it so that they fight not in an office or across the city, but in a controlled environment like in The Hunger Games. How did I do that? You’ll have to read the novel when I put it out to find that one out.

So now I have only four chapters in the Epilogue left, and then the first draft of this novel will be finished. Can I get a whoop-whoop?! Anyway, time to do a count-up (my favorite part of reporting the Parts are done). Remember, I write my drafts double-spaced, with 12-point Times New Roman font. When I finally publish this and Reborn City, they’ll probably be much smaller in terms of page count. Probably.

So, Part VI of Snake ends up being 28 pages and 7,095 words. Adding it to the rest of the Parts: the Prologue was 14 pages and 3,979 words; Part I was 41 pages and 10,177 words; Part II was 96 pages and 23,801 words; Part III was 126 pages and 30,733 words; Part IV was 86 pages and 22,288 words; and Part V was 29 pages and 7,576 words. Add it all up, and you get a staggering amount of 420 pages and 105,649 words. Does anyone want to place a bet on how long the first draft will be after I add the Epilogue?

Well, I’ll take a break till tomorrow. Tonight, I just want to spend time with my family and read some good books too.

Wish me luck.

Snake: Part V Done

Posted: December 12, 2012 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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Awww, isn’t it cute?

Well, that last chapter took me a while because I got distracted so many times. But I did it! I finished Part V of Snake, and I feel like partying! I only have eleven chapters of Snake left now! I just got to finish up the climax, and then I have to write the epilogue. I’m almost done!

You know, I can’t believe how quickly I’ve written Snake; when I was writing Reborn City in high school, it took me two fricking years to write the first chapter. That was partly because I believed that a novel needed to be written in years, partly because I took breaks during writing RC for homework/working part-time/Israel/writing short stories/other stuff. In any case, it took a long time to write RC, but I’ve managed to write Snake in almost six months. I feel almost like James Patterson! If given the time and the motivation and the equipment and the inspiration, I can get a novel done in a year, something I didn’t think possible for me.

So I’m going to take a short little break, veg out in front of my computer, and then I’ll see about starting Part VI.  I’m going to make the rest of this first draft simply frightening, disturbing, and slightly romantic. Wish me luck, mi compadres!

I hope that was some resemblance of Spanish. I should’ve stuck with Hebrew: Wish me luck, haverim sheli!

Oh, and before I forget, here’s the page and word count up! Part V was 29 pages total (keep in mind, double-spaced, twelve-point Times New Roman font) and the word count was 7,368 words. Now let’s add it all up: we get 392 pages and 98,346 words! Jeez louise, I’ve been busy these past six months! But it might become bestselling busywork someday.

On to Part VI, haverim sheli!

Snake: A Diagnosis

Posted: December 11, 2012 in Novel, Progress Report, Reflections, Writing
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Or lack of one, to be more precise.

I’ve mentioned it a couple times before, but I’ve been working with a forensic psychologist who’s been helping me with the police reports in Snake. I send him a description of the Snake’s latest murder, he takes a look at it and based on the information I give him uses it to try and guess things about the Snake, such as motive and who he might be. I use that information he gives me so that my FBI profiler character can give an accurate assessment of the Snake.

Now, I promisedmy friend/consultant that when the profiler character figured out the Snake’s identity, so would he. Granted, the profiler character figured it out using evidence that can’t be used in a warrant, much less a courtroom, but she figured it out, so I sent the identity of the Snake to my consultant, giving him a detailed history of the Snake, his personality, and why he became a killer. I also asked what sort of diagnosis the Snake would be given. This is the reply I got:

“He doesn’t have a diagnosis.   Certainly, he has some psychiatric traits – like psychopathy, etc. – but nothing diagnosable.   A diagnosis signifies that either some impairment is occurring, or there is clinically significant distress present.   I don’t see either in his case.   It’s clear that he’s not truly a psychopath, and it’s evident that he’s done what he’s done in order to seek revenge and ***********.   While extreme in his methods, he’s quite noble in his cause.   I wouldn’t burden him with a diagnosis.”
By the way, the ************ means there’s something in that paragraph I don’t want revealed yet, so I had to cut it out and replace it with something else.
Bottom line though is that I set out to create a unique serial killer the literary world had never seen before, and it looks like it worked, becuase I’ve never heard of a serial killer without a psychological diagnosis. Psychopaths, schizophrenics, mood disorders, paranoids, even a few conditions that cause mental retardation and facial dysmorphia, I’ve seen them all used with serial killers in movies and books. This is a first for me though, so I’m kind of happy that my own work is where I’m introduced to it.
Anyway, thought I’d share that with you. Have a good evening, I’m off to dinner.

Snake: Reducing Chapters

Posted: December 11, 2012 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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Look out! It’s going to bite you!

As I’ve gone about writing chapters of Snake, I’ve sometimes combined two chapters in the outline in order to make the story move along more smoothly. Last night I finished Chapter 86, and today I’m about to start Chapter 87. However as I was reading the description I put in the outline for this chapter, I thought it seemed a little short, like something was missing from it. So I went over the next chapter; that too seemed shorter than what a chapter required. So did the next one, and the one after that. After looking at all four though, I realized that together they would make an awesome chapter. So I did what any sensible writer who wants what’s best for his work would do, and I combined Chapters 87-90 into one big Chapter 87. Already it’s looking like an awesome chapter, so I can’t wait to start writing it. It may be a litle longer than some of the other chapters in this story, but I still think it’s going to be awesome.

Also, this reduces the number of chapters I have left down to thirteen, meaning I’ll have less than 100 chapters when I finish Snake. But hey, I think it’ll end up being an awesome novel when it’s done, so what’s a few less chapters? Besides, I already combined several other chapters together at various points of writing this novel, although I’ve never combined four together at the same time. So really, it’s no big deal.

Well, that’s all for now. I’ve got to get on Chapter 87 and write it up. I’m definitely finishing this book by the end of December! Woo-hoo!

Snake: Starting Part V

Posted: December 9, 2012 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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I’m definitely becoming the sort of person who just isn’t comfortable unless he’s done some writing during the day. In fact, I had a little free time before my meditation class today, so I ended up starting Part V: “Coiled” of Snake, just because I had the time and I felt tlike writing. I didn’t finish the chapter, but I’m going to do that right now, if only to just get it out of the way. Afterwards I’ll study for my final on Wednesday, which somehow through luck or random chance or God’s decision-making process, is my only final. After that, I might work out or go for a long walk. And after that…maybe I’ll start the next chapter. Depends on my mood.

Okay, now that I’ve talked about my day, I’ll get to Snake and what goes on in Part V. This section of the novel features a huge fight scene, where the Snake and his allies take on some of the worst of the family the Snake has been hunting. The Snake goes up against Frissora, the nasty mercenary I mentioned a few posts back, and after that, some crazy stuff happens that gets resolved in Part VI.

After I’m done with this part though, I’ll be in the home stretch to finishing the first draft of Snake. After that, I’ll leave it alone a while so that when I go to edit it, I’ll be looking at it with fresh eyes. And in between getting my critiques on individual chapters of Reborn City, I’ll work on short stories, which I may or may not turn into a collection of short stories.

But for now, I’ve just got to keep writing, one chapter at a time. Thankfully I won’t have to write any more sex scenes or anything like that; that would be awkward!

Snake: Part IV Done

Posted: December 8, 2012 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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Ladies and gentlemen, I am making progress! I just finished Part IV after finishing my last paper for the semester, and let me tell you, I really enjoyed working on this part. Not only did I get it done much faster than the other parts–about 2 weeks after finishing Part III–but I noticed some fundamental differences between Part IV and previous parts, the most glaring of which is that the chapters in this part were longer and had less action than those of previous parts. This was a part where relationships were forged and explored, and even a few new characters were introduced. Oh, and there was a sex scene as well, that was pretty long too (once again, pun intended).

So, now for the count-up of pages and words, and let me remind you that when I type out drafts, it’s on 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper, double spaced, and with 12-point Times New Roman font. So in total, the number of pages in Part IV is 86 pages, and the word count is 22,288. Let’s add that to the totals of all the other parts now. For the record, the Prologue is 14 pages and 3,979 words; Part I is 41 pages and 10,177 words; Part II is 96 pages and 23,801 pages; Part III (the longest so far) is 126 pages and 30,733 words. This brings the total now to (drum roll please)…363 pages and 90,978. It’s close to Reborn City‘s length now. And it’ll probably be longer, too.

Wow. Did not expect Snake to exceed RC. That’s something else.

Well, next I’ll be working on Parts V and VI, followed by the Epilogue. The last two Parts will have the climax of the story, and the Epilogue will tie up the loose ends. Looks like I’ll be making my New Year’s deadline with this one, ladies and gentlemen. Wish me luck.

An Update on Frissora

Posted: December 6, 2012 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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For those of you who might have been wondering, I went over the chapter wehre I introduced my character Frissora, a hitman from the pits of Hell…or maybe North Africa. I don’t really have a character history for the guy yet, only that he’s a scary bastard with facial scars and he’s going to give the Snake all sorts of trouble.

As I was saying, I went over the chapter where I introduce Frissora and I actually didn’t have to change as much as I thought I would have to change. I just added a few lines and changed how the chapter ended. I still think Frissora is scary as hell, adn I plan to keep that up in later chapters. I may even give some hints as to how Frissora came to be, thsoe sort of obscure hints where the reader gets a small idea of what created Frissora but still has a lot to imagine because those hints are vague and probably only make sense to Frissora…and me.

Well, I’ve made my update. If I have anything else, I’ll let you know.

Onto Chapter 79!

Introducing the Bullseye Character

Posted: December 6, 2012 in Novel, Scary Stuff, Writing
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Careful, there’s a character like him in “Snake”.

In the movie Daredevil, based on the famous Marvel comic book, Bullseye is the character Daredevil has to face before he can go against the Big Boss, the Kingpin. Bullseye is a hired killer, totally psychopathic and deadly as hell. This character totally freaked me out when I was 11 and first saw Daredevil at a friend’s birthday party. To this day I still think that Daredevil, particularly the Bullseye character and the murders he committed, influenced my writing and gave me a taste for killing (fictional) people in all sorts of horrible ways.

So I’m happy to introduce the Bullseye of Snake, Frissora, a brutally scarred man with a past shrouded in darkness and the ability to be suave while carrying out heinous acts. In a way, he’s like Bane as played by Tom Hardy in The Dark Kngiht Rises, intelligent and strong and not someone to be messed with lightly…wait, that’s Bane in nearly every adaptation of Batman he’s been in. But you get the idea, right? Frissora is dangerous, and the Snake will have to face him before he faces the head of the mafia family he’s been hunting.

I created Frissora as a way to weaken the Snake and give him a challenge. I also didn’t want the Snake to have too much of an advantage when he finally fought the mafia boss, who is a dangerous fighter as well, so Frissora was necessary. I’m going to enjoy working with this character as he fights the Snake, but I may have to go over Chapter 78, where Frissora is introduced, to make sure I get his character across like I want to.

I hope I can give Frissora the power and depth I wish to give him, and which I hope the reader will be able to feel. Because honestly, it would suck if he just seemed like another thug in a line-up of thugs.

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