Writing

It's been about a week since NaNoWriMo ended, and I had the opportunity to spend time with my father face to face for the first time in years.  On November 30th I had 38046 words written in The Soul Collectors of Ian's Hollow, leaving 11954 in order to meet the 50,000 word goal.  If I had ignored everyone on November 30th I know I would have met the goal, but in my opinion family is more important than completing a 50,000 word challenge.

The time it took to develop the basis for the story, location, characters, plot and so forth was actually quite small - the entire premise occurred to me during one of many outings running errands, probably while picking up groceries.  I also managed to get sidetracked by a cool project involving the acquisition of a 1982 Pole Position arcade cabinet, and did not commit time to write each weekend like I had initially intended to do.  Again, time spent with my family came first.  Everything else came second, writing came third.

That's not to say I've given up on the project - quite the contrary.  I have, however, decided to take a short break from writing.  In the meantime I need to go through the 23 chapters that I have completed so far and look for inconsistencies and loose ends.  I'd like to establish a timeline, a character map, and some key points to the story in order to drive the thing home.  Upon completion, the next step will be the editing & revision phase, where I flesh out the story and include more detail, and possibly drop or rewrite the weaker chapters.  Once completed I am reasonably certain that I will be in excess of 50,000 words.

Here's where I'm torn.  I've intended The Soul Collectors of Ian's Hollow to be the first novel of a series.  However, in light of the rapid shift from mainstream books towards digital with the influx of iPads, smart phones and eReaders, I am reluctant to head in the direction of traditional publishing.  This reluctance is what inspired my making this novel available to anyone who chose to read it for the duration of NaNoWriMo, while it was in progress.  However, the reality of copyright theft is what inspired me to disable that free access once November came to a close.

So what happens next?

I need input - anyone out there who wishes to weigh in on this is welcome to leave a comment or contact me via email. 

I am thinking about making this novel available for digital download free of charge, from here, Scribd, Google Books and Project Gutenberg, assuming the last two will permit my submission.  The format would be ePub and PDF for the best cross-device compatibility.  I also want to make the novel freely distributable with no restrictions except financial gain without my approval.  I'm not sure what would be the best license to use for that purpose - Creative Commons springs to mind but I'd like other suggestions to review before I settle on that.

My intention is to a) determine whether anyone likes the novel and cares to spread it around and b) based on interest or lack thereof I will either start the experiment all over again with a completely different story and characters, or start sequels with the intention to monetize them.  Again I'd be focused on digital format primarily in the event that I do choose to monetize sequels, and most likely as inexpensive as I can price the book ($0.99?) depending on the venue(s) I decide to use for distribution.

Again, input would be awesome on this from anyone out there who has done this, is doing this or is researching how to do this.

In the meantime, friends and family are encouraged to contact me if anyone would like access to read the work in progress here on the website.

It's November, making it National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo) yet again.  I've been intending for years now to participate, but intentions only get you so far.  I'm a really good procrastinator; in fact you should probably call me a professional procrastinator for purposes of accuracy.  If I don't feel like doing something, I can pretty much always find something else I would rather do.

This year I've been feeling compelled to write with a stronger than usual compulsion.  I've already been trying to make an impact in how I live my life with my loved ones and reduce my bad habits, and seem to be making progress in that regard.  Consequently I felt that there was really no good reason that I could offer to explain why I should continue the avoidance of what I want to be, which is a writer.  I've wanted to be a writer for years.  The problem is that finding a quiet time and place at home to do this is nigh impossible with four girls ranging in ages from 2 to 10.  What's funny is I've been coming across my 10 year old in the middle of creative writing on the family computer.

Crap, I thought to myself.  If she can do it, why can't I?

I tend to play video games during my lunch break at work to blow off steam and try to put my mind back to a more relaxed state, but I figured there was no good reason why I shouldn't just direct my energies towrd writing during this time frame instead.  Consequently I have started the novel The Soul Collectors of Ian's Hollow, and am also taking some unusual steps.

Self-imposed rule number one:  I am writing this thing through and not stopping to make edits.  Screw that.  If I stop and edit everything I write I'll never get this thing finished - I can edit it after I get the rough draft banged out.

Self-imposed rule number two: I HAVE to get in at least 1,000 words per lunch break, and then I HAVE to get in at least 4,000 words per weekend in order for this to even have a chance to hit the 50,000 word mark.  To be blunt, I couldn't give a rats ass as to whether that makes this novel finished.  That's simply the goal that NaNoWriMo sets, and consequently that's what I'm doing.

Self-imposed rule number three: If I don't feel like writing, write anyway.  I seem to have a talent for dialogue and story flowing through my mind, the trick is to relax and let it filter down to my fingers - thankfully I can type pretty darn fast.  The day I say "oh I'll do it tomorrow" is the day this whole project fails miserably. 

And forget "there's always next year" - if I don't manage to meet the 50,000 word goal due to failure on my part ot meet these rules there isn't gonna be a next year - I will only do another NaNoWriMo in the event that I meet the above obligations.  This is more serious to me than a New Year's resolution - this is something that I want to do for me and me alone.

I'm taking a queue from my friend Hardgeus and letting Tyler Derdin be my inspiration to meet this goal.  In the grand scheme of things, is actually rather reasonable, even with a full time job, a six-member household with a bunch of pets to boot and various miscellaneous responsibilities.  I can do this.

To make this more interesting, I am putting up live copies of each chapter I complete as soon as they are completed, in rough draft form.  I am also enabling comments on each chapter.  What this means is that visitors have the option, if they choose to exercise it, to make critiques, editor remarks and/or suggestions as to what should happen next.

This last part is very important so I will repeat it again.  If you wish, you can make a suggestion to how you would want the plotline to progress, and there is a pretty good possibility that I will read your comment and make it happen.  Welcome to the internet, where the internet gets to participate.

I'm sure I don't need to mention what will happen should this rare offer be abused.

Of course, if it's ignored I'll simply have to come up with everything on my own, which is just fine by me.

What is The Soul Collectors of Ian's Hollow about?  Here's a quick synopsis:

Haeli Jones has arrived with her father in the town of Ian's Hollow, and is facing the usual challenges of being the new kid in a completely different community than the one she left. However, she was completely unaware of how different Ian's Hollow really is. Unexplained things are happening around her, classmates are starting to go missing and her new home is hiding the secret of a dark history. Haeli soon realises her social problems are nothing compared to the dangers lurking unseen, in the shadows, just out of sight.

In case you didn't already notice, the book is linked on the top-right corner of this website, and shall remain there even after completion.  Most likely once it has been edited and reaches a point that I would call done, I will at that time offer it in various e-reader and PDF formats for anyone who wishes to download a copy.  At the moment, however, consider it in rough draft form, with many improvements to occur after NaNoWriMo is over.

For those of you who are wondering if I am intentionally shooting myself in the foot in regards to ever being able to monetize this novel, I assure you that I have already thought this through.  In this current economy, and with the rising prevalence of ebooks and the use of ereaders, this novel would have to be pressed in gold leaf for a publisher to even consider taking on a brand new author with no prior completed works based on the novel's merit alone.  That is an unfortunate reality.  Consequently I am relying upon you, the reader, to take a moment and share this novel with your friends if you feel it has any merit.

Depending entirely upon my readership response I will then consider working on a sequel.  So now you know what to do if you want more.

In the meantime, feel free to follow my Twitter or RSS feed if you would like to receive periodic status updates.  I'll also be adding ShareThis and Google+ support as time permits (due to personal ethics, Hell will freeze over before I integrate this website with Facebook, sorry guys).

* Photo of stone cottage by Mary R. Vogt (aka Taliesin), courtesey of morgueFile.

What has it been, 18 months?  Yet still there has not been much actual text laid down.  Recently I've been working on it every day, if only in my mind, still waiting for the story to settle down, to congeal, before I dive in.

I've been sharing some details and running changes with a friend, and the process of writing about what I'm writing (or at least figuring out how to write) seems to help -- so here, I'll deliver a primer to a general audience, as much for my own process as for your consideration.

SPOILER ALERT...?

What I'm about to put on this page will reveal much of the novel's core.  If you read it now, you'll be less surprised by certain events within the story.  If this kind of thing tends to spoil your reading experience, you may want to navigate away from this page.  However it will be several months (at least) before Virtual Dreamer is completed, time enough for you to forget (then dimly recall while reading) the content of this primer.

BACKSTORY

Max McKraken had a career as a mechanic, made his way up to head mechanic at a dealership before striking out on his own and starting a shop called Harmonic Conversions -- yes, converting internal combustion vehicles run on either natural gas or propane, or (mainly) into electric vehicles.  He survived that critical first year of any new business and was doing quite well enough, thank you, before hitting the lottery -- and hitting it big.  Always a very practical man, but not without his dreams, Max bought some land in the country (a former mountaintop removal site that he found next to his ancestral home, which he went looking to 'retrieve').  He also started a second business called Parkersburg Robot, not really caring if it made money -- but what started as brick-and-mortar for an online retail outlet (a one-stop shopping experience for those looking to purchase several different kinds of robots, something Max had found a niche for) did much better than expected.  Before long, in response to many requests for products not offered on the site and unable to be located, Parkersburg Robot became a manufacturer as well.

Max was an accomplished delegator, and knew how to hire the right people.  Instead of blowing his fortune, he doubled it.

...Now here is something I've been working out just since writing the above:

When Max went back to the old family farm to see if he might be able to buy it from its current owners, what he found was that they had been severely affected by the mountaintop removal coal mine nearby.  Property values had dropped overnight, making the farm nearly worthless as equity -- so they couldn't move even if they wanted to, without taking a huge loss.  Max could see that the place meant nearly as much to them as it had to his grandparents, and upon seeing what the coal company had done to the surrounding land decided to fix it.  So, instead of buying back the family farm he found himself acquiring a much larger area of adjacent land.

Area residents had already renamed the place (smaller than a town, but big enough at one time to have had its own post office) Mars, but Max decided his new 'digs' looked like a slice of Mars transported to Earth -- and so he named it the Wedge (of Mars).  Work was quickly underway -- not to bring the land back, because it just couldn't be -- to 'terraform' the Wedge.  Max found himself having to find lodgings for some of the people who worked for him there, to the point where he was setting up tents, and as he thought about how best the land could be used he realized it would become a community -- a semi-intentional community, if you will...

...and now back to what I've already established in my mind:

Max and some of his employees had been working on a line of vehicles for a new company, Tellurian Motors.  Each vehicle is equipped with an ACE device, 'ACE' for 'Aetheric (energy) Conversion to Electric'.  Having secured a spot at the SEMA (Specialty Equipment and Marketing Association) show in Las Vegas for Harmonic Conversions, they had planned to bring a couple of Tellurian prototypes and showcase the ACE along with them...  I hope you haven't gotten too attached to Max, because he's cut down -- and the trip to Vegas is cancelled.

This is where Kegan, Max's only son, is orphaned (in his 20s) and inherits everything -- and where the novel begins.

Kegan and a trio of his friends and contemporaries who are employed by Parkersburg Robot have been entrusted with a secret side-project, working on thought-command technology.  During experimentation, thoughts are not only received electronically but broadcast, and several states of altered consciousness are discovered as byproducts of the broadcast equipment.  They work out how to reliably induce a waking dream state and include electronic information exchange within the 'virtual dreaming', at first thinking it would take video games to the next level.  Before long they realize that with networking it could take the internet to the next level...

A related development is something they call 'simulated telepathic dialogue', which happens in a more wakeful state.  Between the two of these electronically-enhanced states and the possibility of networking with them, it becomes clear that their technology will change the way the world communicates...

...as well as other aspects of daily life.

Kegan is the designer for Tellurian Motors, and has used CAD for those Tellurians built as well as those still in the concept stage.  He has the idea to develop 'VD/CAD', where design can happen within a virtual dream.

The story opens up, and there are a few possibilities of where it may go.  I haven't decided yet -- but I'm probably clear enough at this point on what happens in the first half, to get back to 'actual text' very soon.  Meanwhile I'll continue to write about the story as i've done here, in private text files but as if I were writing for an audience.

This is as good a place to stop as any, and I have to go play chauffeur...

       - fil

I thought I'd take another tack at this writing thing again. Part of the difficulty, of course, is the feeling of being repressed from true expression. Writers have of course dealt with the issue of offending others for as long as writing has existed, and have done so in a manner of different ways. I am still what I consider young to the craft, and I have not yet mastered the art of tactful writing, or of using wit instead of offensive tongue, or of keeping all parties entirely anonymous. And in this day and age, especially when politics or religion come into play, writing has become an entirely dangerous form of expression.

To me, the number one problem with writing is that it is a permanent form of expression (or at least, significantly more permanent than speaking). It is much easier to get oneself into trouble by putting something down in type or print, because it can be read and reread by others.

Another significant problem is that writing is interpreted by the reader, and in many cases incorrectly. There is no tone of voice, no body language, and therefore it is up to the surrounding content and overall theme of the written work to create the total message. Poor Incorrect grammar, and typsos typos are enough to diminish or alter this message.

So in a nutshell, I have been avoiding writing because I am afraid to offend. Which ultimately is silly - writers write because it is their preferred voice (in a manner of speaking - haha). And because it is a better form of communication for them than other forms. This is true for me as well.

So now that I've written about writing - which in itself is quite silly - to catch up those who are curious:

We have had a fairly uneventful holiday. Everyone is happy and healthy, Elish is learning to speak, Autumn is learning whatever she can and still talks with a Long Island accent (even though she has never visited Long Island, NY), Willow is doing quite well in school, and Brigitte is managing to balance her day with teaching and attending to two toddlers plus basic housekeeping.

We have managed to square away our most significant financial issues, and here's hoping that 2008 will be an easier year for us as a direct result. I am hoping that we will have a good opportunity to return to New Orleans for a visit this next year as well, and that we will have the chance to visit friends and family also.

It will also be a good time for those of you who wish to visit us to do so, because we have reestablished our guest bedroom (which for a time had been converted to the computer room, which has now been relocated in the interest of a more stable series of electric outlets). Just give us some forewarning first, please.  And also bear in mind that the house still requires a significant amount of work.

To all of you who read this, I hope you have a Merry Christmas, and if you do not celebrate Christmas, I hope you have a good holiday with friends and family regardless. And may your New Year be joyous, and wonderful, and full of good opportunities.