writerly aspirations

A lot of people always say how there is no such thing as an aspiring writer. Either you’re a writer, or you’re not. Yoda logic. And maybe that’s true, but you can be a writer and aspire to something—to be a New York Times Bestseller, to sign with a Big Six publishing house, to get a great agent, to publish with an indie publisher, to win an award for your book, to sell so-many books, to self-publish, to finish a novel, to finish ten novels, to meet Neil Gaiman, to write a character that readers fall in love with, to have your book turned into a movie, and so on so forth, etcetera. These are sometimes dreams, sometimes goals, and sometimes just what if I did such-and-such; wouldn’t that be cool?—much like winning the lottery or something.

I have several aspirations as a writer. Most are goals. Others are dreams. And maybe sometime in the future, those dreams will become goals. Some of these aspirations are big and general and in the distant future, and others are specific and not so far away. But I do believe that having something to work toward is a vital part of being a writer. If you never try to be better or achieve something more, you’ll remain stagnant. And I really hate being stagnant.

plot revamp and costume making

Well, it’s Friday—thank goodness. It’s been one hell of a week.

I figured out what was wrong with my book, which is not good news. I can still use the 42,000 words that I have, but my plot needs a total revamp.  Right now, the book is rather episodic. The scenes don’t really link together, and the story jumps time a lot. Also, the two plots that I have are subplots by nature, meaning I don’t have a main plot. How I managed to plot a book without a main plot, I have no idea. That would be why I am in this situation.

establishing what is at stake

I’m drawing a blank this morning for a blog topic. I had one in mind last night, but of course, by the time I woke up I forgot it. From what I recall, it was going to be a really good post. Alas. So instead of wracking my brains for some sort of half-intelligent post about writing or yet another whiny post about how terrible writing has been going (which, actually, it’s going a lot better now), I’m going to repost an old one (from last January).

establishing what is at stake

Through the course of working as a literary journal editor, I've noticed a trend in the stories that I reject. They do a poor job of establishing the stakes of the story, and I ask myself—Why is the story being told in the first place? Why do I care what happens?

For readers and viewers to be involved in the adventure, to care about the hero, they have to know near the beginning exactly what is at stake. What does the hero stand to gain or lose in the adventure? What will be the consequences for him if he succeeds, if he fails?

writing funk

I am currently in the process of going through the early chapters of The Guild Conspiracy, the second Chroniker City book, and adding relevant story details—foreshadowing, character motivations, character relationships, location descriptions, etc. that I didn’t think of at the time of writing those scenes. It’s a tedious process, and a lot of the time, I wonder if what I’m doing is really necessary, or if I’m just finding a more productive way to procrastinate.

For the last several weeks, I’ve been in a sort of writing funk. I’m slowly starting to crawl out of it, but my average daily word count for the last three weeks has been a mere 300 words. I would really like for that to jump up to, you know, 1200, or maybe 1500. Heck. I’d be happy with 1000. For whatever reason, I haven’t been productive. It’s not for lack of trying. I sit in front of my computer for at least four hours a day, attempting to make progress on my book. But usually, when I get into one of these funks, it’s because something is wrong with the book. Either the scene I just wrote, or maybe the plot, a character’s motivation, or something in the first chapters doesn’t add up to what’s happening in the tenth. And so on so forth.

the chroniker city series

I’ve plum forgot about what I was going to blog about today. However, I did come the conclusion that half of what this blog is about is putting my thoughts on the page. It helps me think through things properly, and through Wednesday’s post, I realized that I didn’t necessarily need a completely different cover for my book. I just needed a better one. So, I spent Wednesday and yesterday morning working on covers. Not just for The Clockwork Giant. For all of them.

That’s right. I ended up going with The Guild Conspiracy for the title of the second book. I think a long time ago, I considered that title but didn’t like it for whatever reason. Well it’s back and here to stay. So thanks, internet, for helping me sort things out. I think these covers are fantastic. I hope you agree. Also, Rachel Desilets, internet friend of awesome, recommended that for the paperback versions of the book, there should be an image broken up into three columns to decorate the spine, so that when they’re put together, there will be a single image. Pretty cool idea. I want to try to do that at the very least, even though my paperback sales are minimal.

The new cover for The Clockwork Giant will go live sometime in June, when I’ll announce the release date for The Guild Conspiracy. It will be a new edition, with the first chapter of the second book at the end, and I’m considering writing a new back cover copy, or at least improving the one that I have.

I also had another thought last night. I think after I write a few more books outside of steampunk, I'm going to revisit Chroniker City and write a few novellas that follow various secondary characters from the first three books--and some new characters--taking place around the same time as the trilogy. Something I've also considered doing way down the line is rewriting the entire trilogy from Emmerich's perspective. Same-ish plot, but they would be completely different books. What do you think of that?

That’s all the relevant news on my end.

What do you guys think of the new covers?

Have a great weekend. I know mine will be nothing short of awesome.