Posts Tagged ‘Snake’

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.

Writing A Sex Scene

Posted: December 4, 2012 in Novel, Reflections, Writing
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Please use this photo to show people you are not up to anything salacious.

The following blog post may or may not contain sexual elements that are not suitable for younger readers. If you are a younger reader, please consult your parents before reading this blog post. If someone walks in on you reading this, please scroll up to the picture above to make it seem like you’re not some pervert. If you are ready to read this post, please make sure to look left and right with your eyes so as to make sure nobody is watching you read this post. Thank you, and have a nice day.

*      *     *

I just finished writing Chapter 76 of Snake. And as you can guess from the title, it has a sex scene in it.

A long, graphic sex scene. Which takes up about ten pages total and 2775 words, making this chapter the longest (pun totally intended) and most uncomfortable chapter I’ve written for this novel yet.

But you know what the worst part of it was? Not the fact that I’d written a sex scene and wondered what people would think of me once they read it, though that did cross my mind as a close second. No, it was the fear that what I’d written wasn’t well-written. You see, I’m no E.L. James, though I’d learned a thing or two about sex scenes from reading the works of some of those who’d come before her, namely Anne Rice and Jean Auel. Even with this sort of training, it’s not easy: men are visual thinkers who are stimulated by pictures, which is why Hugh Hefner is one of the richest guys in this nation and worldwide. However, women are more stimulated by the written word, which is why E.L. James and those torrid romance novels you see in the supermarkets sell so well. (And if you don’t believe me on this, ask any psychologist, they’ll tell you it’s true.) So with all that in mind, could I write a decent sex scene?

Well, I’m not sure. I wrote one for practice years ago, which I’ve now misplaced, and I wrote one for Reborn City‘s initial draft, but I cut it out during the edits of the second draft because it didn’t fit with the rest of the story (though when I get to the sequel, there will be sex scenes that do fit with the story). With both of those, I never had anyone look at them, never had anyone to critique them or to tell me that I didn’t know how to write erotic scenes or that something in the story was unrealistic. The only time I ever even told anyone I’d written a sex scene was when my mother was passing by while I was writng the RC sex scene and she asked how the writing was going (“Great Mom, but this sex scene is so awkward to write.” “Doesn’t surprise me at all.” I swear the conversation went something like that)!

So how does my sex scene compare with James, Rice, or Auel? Probably doesn’t compare at all.

But is it well-written? I’m probably not the best judge of that, which is why I hope that when I edit Snake, not only will I be a better writer, but I’ll also have someone very knowledgeable about thrillers looking over the chapters with me and giving me feedback. Until then, I’ve got what I’ve got and I’ll leave it at that.

Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to go take a cold shower and then sit down and watch The Dark Knight Rises, which I couldn’t watch after I watched Batman Begins and The Dark Knight the other day because TDKR hadn’t been released to DVD yet and because it has hardly any sexual elements whatsoever.

Snake & Black Dogs

Posted: November 27, 2012 in ideas, Novel, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
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Well, it’s been an interesting day for me, and I’m going to end it by watching NCIS and writing during the commercial breaks. I’ll start with the first chapter of Part IV of Snake (wasn’t that a small break?). This part is where the Snake is offered help from a powerful sponsor in his goal to bring down the mafia family he hates so much (why does he hate it? You’ll have to read the novel once it comes out).  This section is much smaller than Part III, with only sixteen chapters, but what sixteen chapters they are! The Snake doesn’t just meet allies: the family he’s fighting calls on its biggest and baddest hitman; someone comes dangerously close to the Snake’s true identity; the Snake has an episode; and there’s a sex scene. Yes, you read that right. A sex scene. It’ll be awkward to write.

WOOF!

As for the “Black Dogs” part of that title up there, I got another idea for a short story. Or perhaps the beginning of an idea for a short story. Black dogs are more than just cute; in folklore, particularly Celtic and English folklore, the black dog is a portent of death and a messenger of the underowrld. Occasionally they also double as benevolent spirits that watch over children and traverlers, but more often they are not something you want to run into on a dark, lonely night. So I’m going to write a short story based on the idea of a black dog spirit. First I’ve got to think of a context for it that’ll be exciting and not relatively used. Nothing’s come to mind yet, but I’ll come up with something; I did with the dybbuk idea.

You know, now that I think about it, this’ll make 13 short story ideas on my tackboard. What do you think? Should I create a collection of short stories and put it on the Internet as an e-book? I could write several of them over winter break. Let me know what you think.

Snake: Part III Done

Posted: November 25, 2012 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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Part III: Search and Rescue was the longest part of Snake I’ve written yet, a whopping twenty-nine chapters. I am happy to say that after I finished my homework this evening, I worked on the last two chapters for this section, and I finished it up! Can I just say, woo-hoo! There are eight parts of Snake, including the prologue and epilogue, and therefore with Part III marks the halfway point for the parts (but then again, the Parts are just for organizational purposes, so they’re no indicators of length left to go; the chapters do a better job of that, truthfully). A the end of this part, the Snake has finally gotten back what he sought out to get back when he started hunting mafioso, so he’s now got to fight to keep it, and he’ll be getting a little help along the way.

However, I think I’ll take a small break before I start Part IV: Alliance. Maybe I’ll edit a short story or two. It is about time I take a second look at Animal Child. Or maybe I’ll sit back an read a book. It’s all up to me, at any rate.

So before you click away from this post, I’d like to update you on word and page counts, like I’ve been doing after I’ve finished the previous parts (and when I say “page counts”, I mean when the pages are 8.5″ x 11″ paper, double spaced, and 12-point Times New Roman font, so take that into account before making a loud whistle). The page and word count for the prologue was fourteen pages and 3,979 words. From Part I, forty-one pages and 10,177 words. From Part II, ninety-six pages and 23,801 words. And from Part III (cue drum roll)…one-hundred and twenty-six pages and 30,733 words. In total, this leads to two-hundred and seventy-seven pages and 68,690 words.

So not yet as long as Reborn City, but it’s getting there, isn’t it? And if I’d stayed in NaNoWriMo, I’d have done an excellent first try for Part III alone.

I’ll keep everyone updated on my progress. Please continue to support me, and I’ll let you know what’s what with both RC and Snake.

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