It's finally happened: when I thought I was done with a story, it came back.
About two years ago, I wrote the first draft of a Sci-Fi novel called Bliss, with planned sequels in mind. I considered that book complete. At least, the story was complete. Part of me considered writing a novella set during the time of the novel to explore one aspect of the tale that isn't of real importance for anything else going on.
But that's not what I'm talking about here. I had that idea way back when I actually finished writing the book. I didn't actually write that novella - college will get in the way like that - but I still have it in mind.
I'm digressing. Yesterday, as I was getting ready to go to college for an exam, it struck me: a revised ending for Bliss. Don't get me wrong, I liked how it ended. It felt complete. I'll obviously have to change things a bit when I write the new ending.
Thing is, it's a whole extra section to the book. Several chapters, of actual significance.
How I didn't think of it before, I don't know. I think I was wondering how to make certain things work for later in the series when the idea actually popped into my head. I was quite proud of it, actually, but I won't know how well it works with the rest of the book until it's actually written. (I need to plan it, still, but it should be easy enough to make a natural progression from where I left off.)
Ideas don't usually come to me like this when I feel like a story has been finished. The only time an idea has ever stuck around for a while is with my many attempts to write a story with superpowered characters. I get ideas, I try to work with them, and inevitably I give up on the book.
The last time I was happy with an idea that I was working on was with The Jump, and that didn't last long. I didn't really plan the book too well to work with, or plan for sequels.
I'm planning a superhero novel at the moment - or, I was, for a while, and I need to get back to it - so hopefully that'll finally produce something close to what I've been trying to write since I started out writing. Early attempts resulted in being rip-offs of X-Men or Heroes. Even The Jump was veering on being too-close-for-comfort.
It's difficult to deal with such problems when the market already has a lot of different stories out there. However, I think what I'm working on now is coming closer to original than anything else, insofar as a superhero novel can be original.
We'll see how that works out, but for now I need to deal with the idea that won't stop hanging around for Bliss. I'm dying to actually get it written! On a related note, how did I get to be the person who writes these stories?
Showing posts with label science fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label science fiction. Show all posts
Friday, May 17, 2013
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Guest Post: How to make time to write a novel by A.B. Wells
Most people’s lives are busy. For me it’s juggling the
demands of four children under the age of twelve, and it’s true to say that
there’s little time for quiet contemplation or courting the writing muse. But
all would be writers are juggling,
whether it’s college, full time work, caring for children, sick or the
elderly there are very few that can dedicate full days to the endeavor of
writing, especially when starting out.
So how is it possible to fit in writing around our
lives? I started writing again when my youngest child was a newborn, I wrote
around his naps. Then followed a period when all the children were tiny so I
wrote when friends and family offered a babysitting hour. In the last few years
in particular though, I’ve been more methodical in how I create writing time
and since 2009 I’ve managed to complete a shot story collection, and 2.5 novels
as well as many standalone flash fiction pieces.
These are some of the ways you can create opportunities
for writing.
1)
Create a quiet, dedicated writing
space/time:. Whether it’s
in a spare room or shed, the library or a coffee shop, it helps to move away
from your normal space and its distractions. In my case I also need to find a
time when it’s quiet and I don’t have interruptions from family. I’m an early
bird so I choose to get up at 5am and write for 1 or 2 hours then, others
prefer to write into the night.
2)
Take part in writing challenges: The bulk of Housewife with a Half-Life was
written during Nanowrimo, the 50,000 words in a month writing challenge. It a)
allowed me to state my aim to my friends and family and b) claim writing time
for this special challenge. They were happy to rally round to help me achieve
the word count. I also discovered that by making myself write 1667 words per
day no matter what, some of the material (if not all!) was very useable and
even on a very busy day I could squeeze in writing time, either with early
starts, while waiting for the kids at an activity for example, or even in ten
minute bursts through the day.
3)
Join an online or real world writing group.
I joined a weekly peer
review flash fiction writing hashtag on Twitter called #fridayflas. This is a
group who post regular flash fiction and link to it on Fridays. While there’s
no obligation to post every week, being part of a community makes me want to
participate and keep involved and I’ve produced many pieces that would never
otherwise exist, some of which can be developed further. I even won a short
story competition by joining up some of the pieces I wrote for this meme. I’m
also a member of a Dublin writing group, the feedback on pieces I write is
invaluable.
4)
Integrate musing time into your regular
schedule. Walking is
wonderful. John Boyne discovered the plot to The Absolutionist during a 1 hour
walk. Bestselling author Murakami runs every day. Each time I go for a walk I
find phrases and ideas arrive naturally without having to search for them.
Spending time on other activities such
as reading (of course), movies, art galleries and so on is feeding the imagination
& helping make interesting associations that you can use in your writing.
The late Ray Bradbury suggested that reading a short story every night and
reading an interesting article was a great way of feeding passion and
imagination necessary for writing well about the thing you love.
5)
Get away from it all. After I had built up some short story
publications and successes I applied to a writing retreat centre and was
successful. I will have my first uninterrupted week of writing ever in July.
The arts council in Ireland and local authorities provide grants for people to
go to retreat centres such as the Tyrone Gutherie Centre and Anam Cara once you
can show evidence of your writing development.
Finding the time to write is not about finding great
swathes of time to write (although it’s great when it happens). It’s about
creating opportunities for inspiration and building up your wordcount
consistently and incrementally. A daily wordcount challenge of even 500 words
can help you accomplish that. The kind of writing that will come from these
endeavours will be more considered and of higher quality.
About A.B. Wells.
A.B.Wells is the mother of four children age 11 and under. London
born, Kerry raised, she has lived in Bray, Co. Wicklow for many years. As
Alison Wells her more literary writing has been shortlisted in the prestigious
Bridport, Fish and Hennessy Awards and she’s been published or is about to be
in a wide variety of anthologies and e-zines, including the Higgs Boson
Anthology by Year Zero, Metazen, The View from Here, Voices of Angels by Bridgehouse and
National Flash Fiction day’s Jawbreakers. She recently won the fiction
category of the Big Book of Hope ebook with a flash fiction medley and has a
litfic novel The Book of Remembered Possibilities on submission. She
blogs for the popular Irish writing website, writing.ie. and on www.alisonwells.wordpress.com
About Housewife with a
Half-Life
A Housewife's answer to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy! In this lively space comedy, Susan Strong and her spaceman guide Fairly
Dave dodge entropy hoovers, Geezers with Freezers, the Super Gnome and the
Spinner's cataclysmic converter on a mission to retrieve the lost pieces of the
housewife's disintegrating self across parallel universes. Can they save us all
from Universal Devastation?
Launch
Housewife with a Half-Life launches in Hughes and
Hughes Dundrum on Friday June 22nd at 7pm. All welcome. http://www.hughesandhughes.ie/content/book-launch-alison-wells
To win one of several prizes related to the book, check out the following competition being run on Alison's blog. The competition ends Saturday 16th June. http://alisonwells.wordpress.com/2012/06/12/official-release-and-online-launch-of-housewife-with-a-half-life-paperback/
The paperback is also available on Amazon UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/Housewife-Half-Life-A-B-Wells/dp/1475234740/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339481171&sr=8-1
and Amazon US. http://www.amazon.com/Housewife-Half-Life-A-B-Wells/dp/1475234740/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1339449342&sr=8-2
The
ebook is available on Kindle
Saturday, November 12, 2011
After a few days...
So, I started NaNoWriMo. It was originally my intent to pull out of the competition, but Bliss got the better of me. I'm now over 7000 words into the novel (added onto what I wrote during the summer - only a slight cheat in picking the same novel!) and, thankfully, less than 13K behind what I should be on. I have time to write this weekend, since I don't have anything I need to do any of my college work, and I have a rough plan. More importantly, I know where the novel is going outside of this rough plan, which has been ignored for the most part up to this point anyway.
The novel has taken on greater depths since I started writing it. For a start, the characters are a little more believable, there are more of them (the original plan called for four characters; I now have seven main characters) and they have more interesting stories behind them. Braddock is trying not to follow in his father's footsteps, while also trying to make himself known in the scientific world; Lyo is trying to start a family after leaving her own behind to marry Braddock; Alastair is trying to prove himself as a scientist in a city that praises Braddock's family; Michelle is trying to continue the research of her late parents into solar and nuclear energy; Andy is trying to prove himself to his community; Bliss is trying to find her place in whatever world she ends up in; and the Mother Muse is trying to give the world her greatest gifts, through a warped sense of delivery.
Add to that the ecological and ethical issues that various characters face, the struggle of faith in the world, and the impending desecration of a world without love, and you've got Bliss. I was proud of my ability to actually plot the novel, initially; the first plan was based on the singles of Muse played in order. That has, obviously, changed, since most of the elements of that plan no longer make sense: Lyo wasn't part of it then, and she's important now. That's what I'm more proud of: actually altering my novel to write something worth reading, something more creative than the novelization of twenty four singles.
I have a lot of work ahead of me, though. As much as I love the novel, it will require a lot of perseverance to actually write 50K in 20 days. 30 is difficult enough! However, I think I've already beaten my fail of a 2010 attempt, so that's a plus.
Building on my Camp NaNoWriMo experience is definitely the only way I'm going to get this done. I have to take advantage of the fact that I get into college about two hours before lectures, bring my laptop in every day with my charger and my plan that I will ignore, and block out all sound with music for at least an hour. Every day I have Drama or a workshop, I have to stay behind in college, anyway. At lunch time, I will go to the library and get my assignments done. There are only three for the main modules left, so that won't be too bad.
The real problem is this teaching programme we have to do in college. That'll take up a lot of time, I think. Especially since I can't find anything about the assignment we're expected to do. No deadline date, no details on what we're actually supposed to do, nothing.
Can I scream? I think I'm going to scream. Or drink tea.
Anyway, back to the novel. After a few days, I'm well under way to getting this done. If I'd started at the right time, I wouldn't be in any trouble. With So much to write before I'm even caught up, I have to write an average of 2250 words per day to finish on time. Otherwise, at the rate NaNoWriMo think I'm writing (as in, if I'm writing from day 1), I'll finish in January.
That feature is always fun for me. The more I write, the closer than date gets. It makes it look like I'm doing a lot more work when an hour of writing knocks off a month of time it should take for me to finish.
Anyway, my plan is to just keep on writing. I want to finish, mostly because I wanted to finish the book before Christmas anyway, and partially because I want to get the five free copies CreateSpace are offering to winners. I love incentive, I really do.
I'll still be writing my pep talks - Week 3 is the week people hate their novels and feel like giving up - but I'll have to focus a lot more time on writing fiction. If I can catch up, I'll also have to write a short story for something in college. There's a day of NaNo gone out the window! I might write it on my way to Croagh Patrick on Wednesday.
Only a few hours before I can get back to writing Bliss. It's going to seem like such a long time...
PS You can track my progress here.
The novel has taken on greater depths since I started writing it. For a start, the characters are a little more believable, there are more of them (the original plan called for four characters; I now have seven main characters) and they have more interesting stories behind them. Braddock is trying not to follow in his father's footsteps, while also trying to make himself known in the scientific world; Lyo is trying to start a family after leaving her own behind to marry Braddock; Alastair is trying to prove himself as a scientist in a city that praises Braddock's family; Michelle is trying to continue the research of her late parents into solar and nuclear energy; Andy is trying to prove himself to his community; Bliss is trying to find her place in whatever world she ends up in; and the Mother Muse is trying to give the world her greatest gifts, through a warped sense of delivery.
Add to that the ecological and ethical issues that various characters face, the struggle of faith in the world, and the impending desecration of a world without love, and you've got Bliss. I was proud of my ability to actually plot the novel, initially; the first plan was based on the singles of Muse played in order. That has, obviously, changed, since most of the elements of that plan no longer make sense: Lyo wasn't part of it then, and she's important now. That's what I'm more proud of: actually altering my novel to write something worth reading, something more creative than the novelization of twenty four singles.
I have a lot of work ahead of me, though. As much as I love the novel, it will require a lot of perseverance to actually write 50K in 20 days. 30 is difficult enough! However, I think I've already beaten my fail of a 2010 attempt, so that's a plus.
Building on my Camp NaNoWriMo experience is definitely the only way I'm going to get this done. I have to take advantage of the fact that I get into college about two hours before lectures, bring my laptop in every day with my charger and my plan that I will ignore, and block out all sound with music for at least an hour. Every day I have Drama or a workshop, I have to stay behind in college, anyway. At lunch time, I will go to the library and get my assignments done. There are only three for the main modules left, so that won't be too bad.
The real problem is this teaching programme we have to do in college. That'll take up a lot of time, I think. Especially since I can't find anything about the assignment we're expected to do. No deadline date, no details on what we're actually supposed to do, nothing.
Can I scream? I think I'm going to scream. Or drink tea.
Anyway, back to the novel. After a few days, I'm well under way to getting this done. If I'd started at the right time, I wouldn't be in any trouble. With So much to write before I'm even caught up, I have to write an average of 2250 words per day to finish on time. Otherwise, at the rate NaNoWriMo think I'm writing (as in, if I'm writing from day 1), I'll finish in January.
That feature is always fun for me. The more I write, the closer than date gets. It makes it look like I'm doing a lot more work when an hour of writing knocks off a month of time it should take for me to finish.
Anyway, my plan is to just keep on writing. I want to finish, mostly because I wanted to finish the book before Christmas anyway, and partially because I want to get the five free copies CreateSpace are offering to winners. I love incentive, I really do.
I'll still be writing my pep talks - Week 3 is the week people hate their novels and feel like giving up - but I'll have to focus a lot more time on writing fiction. If I can catch up, I'll also have to write a short story for something in college. There's a day of NaNo gone out the window! I might write it on my way to Croagh Patrick on Wednesday.
Only a few hours before I can get back to writing Bliss. It's going to seem like such a long time...
PS You can track my progress here.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
One Week In
So, I'm a week into the website, and a week into college. Well, third year of college. That makes me feel older. A lot older. The past two years have gone by so quickly, and so much has changed since then. But that's a story for another day.
So, the website hasn't had much added to it since the novella excerpt, the short story, the poems, the articles and the Doctor Haik-Who. I've added two more haiku and one more poem, but right now the list of new material on the site is lacking. This will change, over time. There will most definitely be more short stories over the next few months. For the time being, I'm trying to get a couple of them submitted to different publications. Others will find their way directly online. That's just the way it is.
Quick question though: what genre of story would people like to read?
So, the website hasn't had much added to it since the novella excerpt, the short story, the poems, the articles and the Doctor Haik-Who. I've added two more haiku and one more poem, but right now the list of new material on the site is lacking. This will change, over time. There will most definitely be more short stories over the next few months. For the time being, I'm trying to get a couple of them submitted to different publications. Others will find their way directly online. That's just the way it is.
Quick question though: what genre of story would people like to read?
- Fantasy? (Including Urban Fantasy)
- Science Fiction? (Including Speculative Fiction and Superhero Fiction)
- Horror? (Including Dark Comedy - something that should both make you laugh and disturb you a little)
- General fiction? (Like the story already on the website, Dear World)
Cast your vote for the genre of your choice and I'll write the story. Voting closes September 29th. I have a few ideas, so I'll just go with whatever people want to read with this one. (Vote in the comments below, please. You don't need a Blogger account to do so.)
Poems and articles will find their way to the website more easily. Some articles will require a lot more effort than others, so they will take a little bit longer to write, but they will make it there!
As for college... When did it get so tiring? This further emphasises the pain of feeling older. In first year, I was able to sit through lectures quite easily. Now I'm struggling to stay awake. While I have all 10am starts (much better than a 9am start!), I'm also in quite late. The earliest I'm off, aside from Fridays, is 4.30pm. But then other days I have lectures until 6pm. We haven't even started with clubs and societies yet!
I think my main issue is my sleeping pattern. I'm staying up too late, even if I still go to bed relatively early. My other issue is laziness. Fact.
It's been a good first week, back, though. While I haven't been able to talk to some people as much as I'd wanted to, I've survived our first assignment (that felt like homework...) and I'm very happy with the optional modules that I got. I'll be off to France for a few days later in the year for one of them! How cool is that?
Of course, everything will get even busier once the second week starts, but with the way everything is timetabled, it'll be Christmas before we know it! Which is frickin' scary, on account of Teaching Practice in January. Before I know it, then, it'll be my birthday and I'll definitely be old! (Or, eh, old enough to legally drink in the US...)
A good first week overall, for the website and college. I'm hoping more people will find their way to the website, soon, though. I think it's getting lonely. For now, cast your vote for the story and if you have time, download the sample chapters of Stepping Forward! I'm looking for reviews! There may even be a competition in that, sometime soon!
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