Posts Tagged ‘November’

My Writing Goals for 2020

Posted: February 8, 2020 in Living and Life, Progress Report, Writing
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You know, I feel like I should’ve written a post like this a while ago. Like, at least a month ago. Oh well, better late than never. I’ve been thinking for a while of what I want to do in terms of writing for 2020. Which is unusual, because while I’m a huge plotter for my stories, I don’t usually plan out goals for an entire year. But I feel like, with a book published and a short story included in an anthology last year, I feel like I should try some new strategies to keep the momentum going. So without further ado, let’s talk my writing goals of 2020.

Finish Toyland

Of course, this was on here. Luckily, I’m already on my way there: as of a few days ago, I’m only six chapters away from finishing Toyland, the Gothic horror novel I’ve been working on since November. Depending on how things play out this year, I’ll probably edit it at some point. After that, perhaps I’ll find a publisher for it. Fingers crossed it goes well (and that a novel approaching ninety thousand words doesn’t intimidate anyone).

Complete the short story collection

Before November and NaNoWriMo, I was putting together a collection of short stories. As of now, there are twelve stories in the as-yet unnamed collection. Being a horror writer though, I want thirteen stories. Good thing I’m already making strides on that goal: I’ve been doing a lot of research for a story I want to write after Toyland‘s done. I think it’ll be somewhere between the length of a novelette and a novella, or ten thousand to sixty thousand words. Hopefully writing it goes well, once I hammer out the plot details.

After that, I’ll hopefully be able to find a publisher who can help me get the stories in tip-top shape. Or maybe I’ll self-publish again. We’ll see how things develop.

Write at least ten short(er) stories

Including the last story for the collection, I want to write at minimum ten stories shorter than a novel. Preferably, they’ll all be short stories, but I know that a few of them will be novelette or novella length (depends on the story, obviously). I would also like to edit most of them within a year, and get at least three or four published in some form or another. Getting a short story in The Binge-Watching Cure II last year was an amazing experience, so I want to see if I can do it again.

And of course, it’s always a good idea to polish your short fiction-writing skills.

Maybe start a new novel

I’ve known for a while what novel I’d like to write after Toyland. However, I think I’ll wait a good while until I write it. Novels are a huge commitment of time and energy, so I want to make sure I’m ready before I try my hand at a new one (and maybe get one or two others edited and/or published).

Grow my audience

I’ve been lucky to grow an audience over 8.5 years of blogging, Facebooking, tweeting, Instagramming, and occasional YouTube videos. But I’m always hoping to grow my audience just a bit more. And while I don’t have any particular numbers I want to reach, I want to draw more people in and maybe get them hooked on my particular brand of weirdness. Especially my fiction.

 

Well, those are my writing goals. Here’s to them going well in the 11.5 months we have left of 2020. I hope you’ll continue to support me during that time, and maybe even read/review my published work if you can.

Until next time, Followers of Fear, pleasant nightmares and WHO LET THE MONSTER KNOWN AS THE DEAD MAN’S STRUGGLE INTO MY BUILDING?! Now I have to either kill it or seal it away. Either way, the cleanup’s going to be exhausting.

What are your writing goals for 2020? Have you made any progress with them so far?

NaNoWriMo 2019: Week Three Progress Report

Posted: November 21, 2019 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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I’m a little amazed how quickly the month has gone by. As of today, there are only nine days left in the month. And after that, a different kind of countdown will commence.

But onto the main subject of this post. As you all probably know by now, I’m taking part in National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, this year. My project this year is called Toyland, and it’s a Gothic horror novel about a boarding school haunted by a ghost obsessed with a children’s book. And while the goal of NaNoWriMo is to write an entire fifty thousand word novel, I’d be happy to make it halfway, or even more than thirty thousand words (how much I wrote the last time I participated).

So if you read my post from last week, I was over twenty-one thousand words and six chapters into the novel. I guess it was inevitable that there would be a slow-down after getting so much done in two weeks, because this past week I only made so much progress. I didn’t even get any writing done on Monday or Tuesday, in fact, and that might’ve been the case yesterday if I didn’t wake up sick and had to stay home. Yeah, that happened. And for all I know, it may happen again (it is that time of year).

So how much progress did I make? As of last night, I’m in the middle of writing Chapter Eight and the novel is currently 26,746 words. Which is still good progress, but I was hoping for more by the time I typed up this report.

At least I’m close to making that thirty thousand word goal.

I’m also at the point of the first draft where I am questioning A LOT of my creative decisions. Should I include this? Should I write out that? Does that sound too preachy? Am I getting away from the point of my novel? This is something every creator goes through at least once while working on a project–I went through it every day during some of the later drafts of Rose–and it’s never fun. For the most part, I’m just trying to move past those feelings and make more progress on this novel. Because at the end of the day, even if this novel is totally bonkers, it’s my kind of bonkers, so at least I’ll be happy with it.

Anyway, I’m going to try and get some more progress on this chapter done tonight. However, I’m also going to try to go to bed early tonight, because as I said I’ve been sick recently and I don’t want a relapse.

With that said, I’ll sign off now, my Followers of Fear. The next update for Toyland will likely be December 1st, after NaNoWriMo’s done and I have the latest tally on the numbers. But don’t worry, you’ll hear from me in the meantime. And until then, pleasant nightmares!

A Word About NaNoWriMo, Toyland, and Other Stuff in the Works

Posted: October 29, 2019 in Progress Report, Writing
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So it’s about three days till National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. For those of you who are unaware, NaNoWriMo (which at this point is an international event) is a yearly challenge held every November (though some writers do it when they actually have time for it), where writers will attempt to write a fifty-thousand word novel within thirty days, or just under seventeen hundred words per day. Anyone who actually manages to get that amount wins bragging rights and a sense of accomplishment.

Anyway, I’ll be participating this year, my first time since college. And with all that writing, there’s a good chance I’ll be blogging less during that time. I do plan to post regular updates on the progress of my NaNoWriMo project, as well as any reviews of movies/shows/books I feel I need to post. And if anything pertaining to my career pops up (like something getting published or released, God willing), I’ll post about that. But in case even that’s not happening much, I’d like to leave this post so people know what’s up with me and my work while I’m neck-deep in storytelling.

It’s possibly an exercise in narcissism, to think you all are interested in that, but hell, it’s my blog. I’ll do what I want here. Onward ho!

Toyland

The one-sentence pitch for my NaNoWriMo project is, “A boarding school is haunted by a ghost obsessed with a children’s book.” It’s a Gothic horror novel with hints of the weird, and I’m very excited to be working on it. The first chapter is already half-written in my head, as well as several other scenes. I’ve gone through the outline at least seven times, so I think it’ll be free of plot holes and other issues. Whether or not it’ll be any good, we’ll see. But I’m hopeful. After all, there were plenty of times I thought Rose was terrible. And it’s doing relatively well for my first book with a publisher.

NaNoWriMo

As I’ve stated in a few previous posts, I’m taking time off from work for the first third of November to work on Toyland. The plan is to get up around seven or eight each morning, eat breakfast, write, eat lunch and read, write some more, and then knock off for the evening. Maybe see a movie if anything good is playing. Of course, I’ll adjust these plans as situations evolve. You never know when I might need a run an errand or something along those lines. Or write a blog post. Or get drawn into anime or a horror television series and binge several episodes in a row (ah, the fun of ADHD and procrastination).

After I return to work, I’ll be spending a lot of time doing catch-up and whatnot, so I may have to work late some days and not get to write some evenings while I recover my equilibrium. However, the point of participating in NaNoWriMo this year isn’t to finish the book in thirty days, but just to give me one hell of a head start. So even if during the last twenty days of November I don’t get as much as I want done, if I get plenty done during the first ten, I’ll be satisfied.

River of Wrath

Unfortunately, my beta reader has not had much of a chance lately to finish this book. And unfortunately, I need their feedback on certain subjects before I can edit this story. So it’s going to be a while till I get to edit this novel (which, coincidentally, I finished almost a year ago. October 30th, 2018 at about one in the morning. That was a fun night).

On the bright side, by the time I get to it, I’ll have plenty of energy and desire to get it done. And maybe another book or two out. I can hope, anyway.

The Short Story Collection

I’ve been busy on that, believe me. These past couple of months, I’ve spent writing and editing short stories for the collection. I just haven’t been posting every time I finish one because I wanted some of them to be a surprise! As it stands, this collection is about ten stories long. I’d like three more, two short stories and maybe a novelette or novella. With NaNoWriMo and Toyland only a few days away though, I’ll have to put it off till I’m either done with the latter or ready for a break (hopefully done with it). Fingers crossed when that time comes, I’ll be done faster than you can say, “It was a dark and stormy night.”

Rose

Yes, I have some news on Rose. As I said above, the Kafkaesque horror story of a young woman turning into a plant creature is doing very well. In fact, I got my first sales report a couple weeks ago, and it was very encouraging. With Rose getting so many new reviews in October, hopefully this’ll continue into the next quarter.

And in the meantime, the audio book is coming along swimmingly! As I said, I’ve heard the first fifteen minutes, and it sent chills up my spine! And last week, my publisher shared with me the cover art for the audio book. The way things are going, it could be out early or mid-November. And when it is, not only will I be the first to download a copy, but I’ll be making sure everyone else knows to check it out too.

In the meantime, if you’re interested in checking out Rose, I’ll leave the links for it down below. And if you do end up reading Rose, please let me know what you think. Positive or negative, I love reader feedback, and reviews help me out in the long run.

Rose: Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Canada

 

Well, that’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. If I don’t catch you around Halloween, I’ll catch you at some point during the first week of November. Until next time, pleasant nightmares and Happy Halloween!

A Little More About “Toyland”

Posted: October 4, 2019 in Novel, Writing
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I made a little design for this year. It’s how you can tell I’m serious.

Recently I announced the subject of my next novel/my NaNoWriMo project, Toyland. And with November 1st fast approaching, I thought I’d go into the novel a bit more before I start posting once a week about my progress. Plus, I’ve had two reviews in the past week and possibly two tomorrow, depending on how close to my territory Joker lands. Gotta break things up with some variety or I just don’t feel right.

First, let’s go a bit more into what Toyland is actually about. As I said before, Toyland is a Gothic horror novel taking place in a boarding school in southern Ohio. The protagonist’s name is Mason Prather, a teenager who enjoys anime, wants to be a lawyer someday, and is the stepson of the boarding school’s headmistress. However, the autumn semester of his sophomore year proves challenging in many ways, and not just academically. Odd occurrences keep popping up at school, and people are either getting hurt or in danger of getting hurt. All this seems to emanate from a strange girl with dark hair seen around campus by Mason and his friends, as well as from a children’s book Mason finds in the school library.

I’ll give you three guesses what the name of that book is, and the first two don’t count.

Next, let’s talk about researching this novel, because that was a lot of fun. Looking back, I’m not sue when I first settled on doing this book, let alone for NaNoWriMo (curse you, slippery memory!), but I’ve definitely been becoming more familiar with Gothic fiction and its trappings for at least a year. Some of you may remember my post from last summer on what Gothic fiction is, and I’ve continued reading Gothic stories since then, including The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, Hell House by Richard Matheson, and rereading The Shining by Stephen King this past winter.

Yeah, lots of fun research that felt more like play at times. But once I decided to work on Toyland next, I started taking in a different kind of media: anime. To be specific, I watched the anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Princess Tutu, and Ringing Bell (I also tried to get Made in Abyss, but it’s not streaming anywhere, and I didn’t want to shell out for the Blu-Ray). There are two reasons why I chose to watch these anime as research, but I can only go into one without giving away spoilers. Now these anime, especially the first two, are known for their dark and surreal imagery (especially Madoka). Imagery that’s supposed to be pleasant to the eye but instead comes off as dark, strange and surreal are going to be big parts of Toyland, so I felt watching these shows would be good research.

That, and you can’t go wrong with watching these anime. They’re popular and have even won awards.

They’ll probably show up in an anime recommendation post at some point.

And now that I’ve watched all those series, as well as researched different styles of architecture for the school (I’m going with Queen Anne revival) and have watched a film I will never watch again or let my kids watch, I think I’m ready for November.

Well, almost ready. The other night after reviewing the outline and posting on Facebook and Twitter that I hadn’t “found any plot holes,” I may have found a plot hole. And I’m not sure how to fix it. I hate plot holes in my stories. I spend hours making sure my stories don’t have any (or many). So I’m at the drawing board, looking for fixes or work-arounds. Hopefully before November, something pops up.

Well, if you need me, I’ll be sleeping off my exhaustion from the past few days. Until next time, Followers of Fear, pleasant nightmares.

Announcing My National Novel Writing Month Project for 2019

Posted: September 26, 2019 in Living and Life, Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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I did say I would announce this when we got a bit closer to November. And my intuition, which is right about eighty percent of the time when it comes to this sort of thing, says now is the time to make the announcement.

As many of you know, I’ve been planning to take part in National Novel Writing Month for the first time since college, or about seven years. For those of you who are unaware, National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, is a yearly challenge where authors try to write a novel of fifty-thousand words or more, just under seventeen-hundred words a day. This challenge is usually held in November, though sometimes authors will attempt to do it in another month when it’s more convenient for them (in which case, it’s known as Camp NaNoWriMo). I’ve been wanting to take a crack at it again for years, but college got busy, and things never quite added up in the years 2015-2018 for me to do it.

But since last November, just a few days after finishing a novel called River of Wrath at three in the morning on October 30th, I’ve been considering it. I even picked a novel out to write about. Since around early summer, I’ve been doing light research for this story. And in a little over a month, I’l be taking a bit of time off from work so I can devote as much time as possible to writing (and maybe de-stressing a bit while I’m at home). So without further ado, let me announce my next novel, a story I like to call Toyland.

Don’t let the name fool you, Toyland isn’t whimsical or cute at all. It’s a Gothic horror novel following students at a boarding school in southern Ohio. They start noticing some weird going-ons during their fall semester. A girl with dark hair, as well as strange creatures, are seen around the school. Several odd injuries, some close to fatal, fall upon students and even faculty. There even seems to be a world within the school, one in which the laws of reality have no say whatsoever. All of it seems to trace back to a children’s book discovered in the school’s library. A children’s book called Toyland.

How’s that for a setup? Granted, there’s a good chance it’ll veer away from Gothic fiction and straight into weird territory (trust me, I outlined the whole thing back at the beginning of the summer and have done subsequent drafts since). But I tend to enjoy writing stories that stray into weird territory, so it works for me.

Anyway, I’ve just about finished up the research for the book. I’ve even watched the 1961 Disney film Babes in Toyland just so I could make a comparison between that film and the kid’s book in the story.* All that’s left is to write it. And while I doubt I’ll get anywhere near the fifty-thousand word mark (I’m many things, but not a miracle worker), I do think when the first draft done, it’ll at least be a decent first draft. Maybe something worth publishing one day.

Well, that’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. There’s a bed calling me in the next room, and I so desperately want to sink into it for a few hours. Until next time, pleasant nightmares!

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo this year? Why or why not? Whatever you’re doing, what sort of story are you writing?

*By the way, that was my first time watching that film, and I didn’t like it at all. Yeah, the setting looked spectacular and the villains and side characters were enjoyable, but the plot was really unfocused and the main characters were really boring. Hell, you can see the boredom on Annette Funicello’s face as she plays the female lead! She’s like “Oh my God, someone get me out of here so I can go make beach party movies. Anything would be better than this shiny lack-of-substance.”

Also, one or two of the songs feel kind of sexist nearly fifty years after the movie’s release. Especially the one where Annette complains about being unable to do her finances. Yeah, there’s a song like that. It’s kind of cringey.

And no, I won’t watch any of the other movie or television adaptations of the Babes in Toyland operetta. I won’t even watch the operetta! I suffered enough watching the most famous adaptation, thank you very much!

Updates on What I’m Doing

Posted: September 2, 2019 in Living and Life, Progress Report, Writing
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It’s been over a week since I last wrote a blog post, so I just wanted to let you know I haven’t died and either become a ghost or returned to my home dimension. Of course, every blog post needs a subject, so I thought I’d update you on the many projects I’ve got going on. And believe me, it’s a lot of projects.

Rose

Now, I’m sure you’re aware that Rose has been out for about two and a half months at this point. What more could be happening with that? Plenty, actually. Firstly, there’s an audio book on the way. Yep, Rose is going to be in audio format. Now, I can’t share many particulars on that just yet, but I can tell you the audio book will hopefully be out in the next month and will be available from Amazon and Audible.

Which of course means I need to do a lot of work to make sure that the paperback, ebook, and audio book do well and get into the hands/devices of plenty of readers and listeners. Hopefully it all pays off.

And in the meantime, if you haven’t checked Rose out yet but want to, you can find it on Amazon, as well as on Amazon UK and Amazon Canada. Take a look, and if you enjoy the book, let me know what you think.

River of Wrath

Dante Alighieri, author of “Inferno.”

Some of you may recall that last year in the days before Halloween, I finished a novel called River of Wrath that was partially inspired by Dante’s Inferno. Since then, I haven’t touched that story once, but that’ll change soon. I have a beta reader who’s working his way through the book and says he’s going to be done soon. Once I get it back from him, I’ll get to work on editing it, with the goal of having the second draft done by Halloween. After that, I’ll hopefully be able to find a publisher for the story. River‘s a little too straight horror for Castrum Press, so I’ll have to look elsewhere. But I think there are plenty of publishers who might be interested in this one. With any luck, I could have River out some tie in 2020. Fingers crossed!

 

 

 

National Novel Writing Month

I’ve got something for NaNoWriMo this year, just wait and see.

As many of you are aware, November is National Novel Writing Month (though at this point, a name change should be considered, as it’s pretty much international at this point). During NaNoWriMo, participating authors try to write an entire novel of fifty-thousand words before November 30th, or about seventeen-hundred words a day. This’ll be my first year since college that I’ll be participating, and I’m almost done doing research for the book. I don’t expect to make the daily word count or even the final goal for the challenge (and even if I did, I doubt the resulting story would be high-quality. That’s what editing is for!). Regardless, I’m going to try and see what I can accomplish. I even plan to take some time off at the beginning of the month to help me get it done. With any luck, I’ll get enough done that by the time I return to work, I’ll have made significant progress on the story.

And as for what I’m writing for NaNoWriMo, you’ll just have to wait. I’ll announce what I’m working on when we’re a bit closer to November. Though I can tell you this: it’s going to be a very strange and unexpected story. Which I think means it’s going to be a lot of fun, both to write and to read.

A new short story collection is on its way!

You read that right. I’m putting together another collection of original short stories. And I know I’ve made that promise before, but this time I’ve made significant progress towards that goal. I already have several stories, novelettes and novellas on stand-by for the collection, and am working on finishing up a few other stories for it.

Sadly, at this stage the collection’s still gestating, so to speak, so it would be premature to state its contents, what it’s called or when/how I’ll be releasing it. However, as soon as I have that information, I’ll be sure to let you know.

Other

Castrum Press will be putting out a call for alternative history short stories for an anthology soon, so I’ll be editing up my Arthurian short story Mother of the King soon. Since I’m already one of their client, I hope that’ll help get the story in, but as you would expect, this sort of thing depends greatly on quality, timing and luck.

And here on the blog, I’m getting ready to write the next part in my series of marketing posts, as well as another anime recommendations list (because when you’re me, you devour anime like Scooby-Doo devours everything edible). Hopefully I’ll find time for both of those before the month is out.

 

Well, that’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. I think the next time I post, it’ll be after seeing IT: Chapter Two. I’m looking forward to it!

Until next time, pleasant nightmares!

Rami Ungar the Writer’s Eighth Anniversary!!!

Posted: August 2, 2019 in Living and Life, Progress Report, Reflections
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Happy Birthday to the blog.
Happy Birthday to the blog.
Happy Birthday to Rami Ungar the Writer.
Happy Birthday to the blog.

So as you can probably tell by now, today’s a special day. About eight years ago, in a library near my mother’s house, an eighteen-year-old me eager to build an audience before his first book came out created a WordPress blog on a public computer. Since then, a lot has happened. Hell, in the past year alone, a lot has happened. I got my first car; Rose went through several more drafts; I wrote a bunch of new stories, some of which may see the light of day; Rose got a release date; I went on my first vacation where I drove everywhere and had more independence and freedom to explore than ever before; I did an overnight ghost hunt at the Ohio State Reformatory; Rose got published, and started getting reviews; and so much more. It’s been an interesting time.

Oh, and stuff happened at the office that were cool, but at times also stressful. I won’t go into that stuff.

I’m grateful for this blog. So many people have followed this blog. Many have become regular readers of my work, including my published work, and have even become good friends. I’ve learned from other writers and bloggers, and their stories have inspired me as well. Plus, it’s nice to get my thoughts out to such a great audience sometimes. A lot of you have told me over the years that my reviews have been helpful or spot-on and you trust my opinion. And on the occasion where I need to write an essay on storytelling or the rare rant about problems in the world, you all listen respectfully, and even help add to the conversation.

And when I’ve suffered from anxiety, or when I expressed my fears regarding the rise in anti-Semitic incidents in the US and abroad, you’ve all been there to comfort me. I can’t thank you enough for that. It’s a great kindness, what you’ve done for me.

So what’s up for me and for this blog in the next year? I honestly don’t know. I think the blog will continue to grow and find people who want to have conversations with me about horror and writing. I can promise that since I’m doing NaNoWriMo this year, I’ll be posting about that pretty regularly once we get to November. And I’ll of course let you know what I think about the latest horror releases or if I have any thoughts or good news worth sharing.

As for me, I would like to continue writing and finishing stories. I might even figure out how to finish them in a timely manner without getting distracted or bored. And of course I would like to publish more stories. Hopefully, with Rose out and a couple of short stories coming out soon, that will happen. I want to have more amazing ideas for stories, and I want to see and read amazing stories by other creators. And I’d like to have some amazing experiences in the future, like traveling to a place I’ve never been, or meeting/impressing someone whom I’ve admired for a long time, or doing more ghost hunts.

I don’t know how much of that will happen, but I’ll try to make it happen.

In the meantime, in honor of the eighth anniversary of Rami Ungar the Writer, I thought it would be nice to have a Q&A. From today, August 2nd to Friday, August 16th, you can send any questions you have for me to ramiungar@ramiungarthewriter.com. Depending on how many questions I get, I’ll post them and the answers. Of course, any questions I deem out of bounds won’t be answered, so no asking me what my address is or for dirty stuff. But other stuff–daily life, writing, Rose, horror, etc–are free for the picking.

Anyway, that’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. I look forward to receiving your questions in the near future, and hopefully having enough to post an answer. I’ll write again soon.

Until next time, pleasant nightmares!

If Your Horror Story Stars Teenagers, Is It YA Horror?

Posted: July 13, 2019 in Reflections, Scary Stuff, Writing
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As much as we make jokes about it, young adult fiction, or YA, is a massive and popular genre. Over ten-thousand YA books were released in 2012, read by both the targeted demographic, teens, and by an increasing number of adults. And among horror, there are writers who specialize in YA horror. But that leaves a question: when is a horror story a YA horror story? Does it have to star a teen or teens? Or is there something more to it?

I ask this because I have a project for National Novel Writing Month in November where nearly the whole cast are teenagers. And while I have nothing against YA or those who write/enjoy it (the amount of anime and manga I consume is primarily aimed at teens, which says something), it’s not a label I think this story should be given.

If you ask most authors and fans (and believe me, I have), YA fiction is usually defined as having teen protagonists and including themes prevalent around the teen years: first love, friendship, identity, and growing up. By that definition, many horror novels could be considered YA, even though they’ve traditionally been aimed at adults. A good example is Carrie by Stephen King. It fits both requirements–teens are prominent in the novel, and themes such as bullying and inclusion, first love, and becoming an adult are all present in the novel.

I even asked in one of my Facebook groups if other authors considered Carrie YA. I got over fifty responses in the course of a week, and it was divided almost evenly down the line. And while the opinion was split, many people admitted they or their children read it as teenagers. I myself read Carrie as a teen. So is it YA fiction then, like the Cirque du Freak books and last year’s bestseller The Sawkill Girls? And are other novels with teens in the lead role to be considered YA?

Well, here’s the thing: the above definition doesn’t include something very important that has to come into consideration. What is that? Marketing. Who is the book being marketed to?Ā Marketing has always played a part in categorizing what is called YA and what isn’t. In fact, the demographic of YA fiction (it’s not a genre, no matter how much we think of it as one), was first defined by librarians in the early half of the 20th century who wanted to know which books were being read by the newly-defined teen demographic and why. It was later picked up by publishers when they realized how they could increase their sales by marketing certain stories to the 12-18 age group.*

So while Carrie has always been popular among teens, it was and has always been marketed at adults, as have all of King’s books. And that’s because King wrote it for adults, not for teens. Meanwhile, books like the Cirque du Freak series were always aimed at the teen demographic, from early writing stages to their eventual publication and marketing.

And that’s what we need to answer my earlier question: if my NaNoWriMo project has a teen cast and incorporates certain themes relevant to teens, is it YA? While I’m sure, if it gets published, some will categorize it as YA horror, I write for an adult audience. Everything from what I include in the story (including possible sex scenes) to just the word choices and the explorations of characters’ thoughts and feelings is through an adult lens.Ā  YA, it is not.

So while a story may include teens prominently in the cast and feature themes and content relevant to teenagers, unless it’s written and later marketed for teens, it can’t necessarily be called YA fiction. Many may still slap the label “YA” on a story given its content, and they have every right to do so, if they feel that story fits their definition of YA fiction. But the intention of the story’s author will be the ultimate decisive requirement, whether in horror or any other genre.

Well, that’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. Thanks for reading this little piece I wrote just to get my thoughts out on this subject before I started writing in November. But tell me, what are you thoughts on the subject? What makes a story, horror or otherwise, YA? Let’s discuss.

Until next time, pleasant nightmares.

And look, I went an entire post without once mentioning Rose. I consider that an accomplishment–oh dammit!

*Thank you Lindsay Ellis for helping me research this article with a great YouTube video.

Prepping to Work on “Rose” Again

Posted: March 21, 2016 in Novel, Reflections, Writing
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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So I finished that outline for that new novel I plan to write for NaNoWriMo later this year. First draft of the outline, anyway. I probably will revisit it again before November, make some more tweaks and possibly add a scene or two. It’s a ghost story, and since ghost stories tend to involve the protagonist or protagonists being affected on a very personal level by the spirits involved, often by exacerbating personal problems as well as actually hauntingĀ the people involved (ghosts and ghost stories are very intimate that way, I’ve noticed), I’ll want to make sure that that’s done right in this story before I write it.

Now that that’s taken care of, I’m finally getting around to working on Rose, the novel I wrote as a thesis for my senior year of college. If you’re unfamiliar with that novel, it’s about a woman with amnesia who finds herself trapped in the home of a man who says he’s her boyfriend, her body going through astounding changes which this man says was to save her life. I started writing it in September 2014, went back a couple weeks later to rework the entire story because the direction I was going in at first just wasn’t right for the story I wanted to tell, and finished the first draft in January 2015. Not too long afterwards I did a second draft that I finished around April, and I haven’t touched it since.

So yeah, it’s been nearly a year since I worked on that novel. But between working and living in Germany, writing some original short stories and editing Video Rage twice and giving Laura Horn a much-needed second draft, can you blame me?

Okay, I might have also been a bit hesitant to approach Rose again. During my thesis defense at the end of my senior year, my advisor told me that if I were to get Rose up to the level worthy of getting it published, I would have to do quite a lot of work on it. And not just grammar and spelling, though that was mostly okay. I had to work in new scenes, space out some others, rework a couple of characters, and change a bunch of stuff in the beginning of the book. Add to that the normal work of editing, and I’ve got one hell of a third draft ahead of me. It’s a bit intimidating, almost like starting a new novel and facing a blank page asking for sixty-thousand plus words.

Yeah, the horror writer’s scared of his own creation. Make fun of him and the irony. Go ahead, get it out of your system.

But you know what? I think I’m up for the task. I took Laura Horn, which I was sure would need an entire rewrite, and the worst that it came to was a few tossed chapters and one major plot point subtly changed to better reflect actual circumstances. If I can tackle that (and LH was a much longer book, by the way), I think I can tackle Rose.

And not only that, but with this being the third draft, I think once this is one I can send it to n editor for a final look-over before I get ready to publish the book. So if we’re lucky, I could haveĀ Rose ready for publication by the end of the year. Wouldn’t that be great?

So I’m going to get two articles out of the way, and then I’m going to get straight onto Rose (unless I get the notes back on VR, in which case editing that takes precedence). Wish me luck, my Followers of Fear. I’m going to be very busy these next couple of months (though that is kind of my life in general).