Post NaNo

      The was originally going to be a Facebook post, but word limits are annoying.

      A bit of background on me and NaNoWriMo. My first NaNo attempt was back in 2006. Wrote 30k words and then lost steam. 2007 was about the same and interrupted by a week of the death flu. I still can't eat at a certain Mexican restaurant because of it. My first "winning" novel [2008] was a three part story that I ended up lopping off the start and ending sections and working on the middle to expand. Never finished, but I still have it for future work. 2009-2011 efforts were mediocre at best and not really focused all that well.  I could mine them for ideas, but at the basic core, not something I'd work on to expand. 2012 was a series of interconnected short stories with the theme of superhero/villain origins.

      Below is an article that came across my twitter feed [@simms.doug]. A different take on NaNo. I agree with some of what she says, but for me, it's about the approach. You aren't going to write a perfect first draft. Not everything you write is going to make it in or even survive the first edit. I'm not a professional novelist. I might never be. But I like the challenge. Sit your ass in the chair and write. I can crank out 1700 words a day. Might take me 2 hours, but I can do it. If I'm on a roll, that's an hour of work, but I'm not a fast writer. Like her, I have to stop and think about what I'm writing. I don't see that ability and doing NaNo being mutually exclusive.

      The local group had a Thank God Its Over party. One person admitted they hadn't reached the goal. Did we view that as a failure? Nope, we encouraged her to keep going and try again next year. I think she's reading too much into the encouragement that participants give out. For me, it's the effort and willingness, not necessarily crossing the finish line. It's not a given that I'll finish next year. Even if I don't, I'll have something that I can springboard off of. One of the stories in last year's effort has been divorced from the supers theme and become more of an urban fantasy story. Much darker and nasty than anything I've ever written before and since.

      One thing that I will agree upon is that it's not for everyone. Some people don't need it or aren't the right fit. For others, it's the perfect vehicle to get them rolling on an idea. I fall into the latter category and enjoy the hell out of the experience.

http://www.publishingtalk.eu/writing/the-right-time-to-write-nanowrimo

November Musings & NaNoWriMo

November is NaNoWriMo month. Fifty thousand words in thirty days. First draft material all the way. This years project is a prequel story to a previous novella. I decided to work on a character’s back story and explain how he got started as a supernatural troubleshooter. Having lots of fun with the story, which I’ve done a lot of jumping around, working on whatever scene catches my fancy. This year I’m working in Scrivener and finding it works really well in letting me jump around. Each scene is it’s own little section, letting me drag and drop as needed. I’m ahead of the game and not having to rush at the last minute for a change. Course it is the last minute, but who’s counting.

In the meantime, three more short stories were published, bringing the total to six in print, number seven due out in January, and number eight eventually. Three other stories are out to calls and I did manage to write two more short stories that aren’t due until after January 1. On a roll and hoping to keep up the pace in 2014. With a couple of years, I’ll have enough urban fantasy/fairy tale stories that I could slap together as an anthology in my own right. Need to make a bigger name for myself in the meantime.

Handed a couple of books out to some NaNo folks so they could read my stories. Best feedback was one gentlemen that wanted more and he said the opening sentence was quite “descriptive”. Bonus points for hooking them at the start. Looking at the cast of characters that are running through my head, there’s a lot of story potential out there and I want to try other viewpoints. Put the spotlight on the “supporting” characters, develop them further, and see what makes them tick. The best thing I like about writing to the short story calls is being able to pull from the stable and seeing who fits. It’s given me the chance to write a Beauty and the Beast story with a twist. When I started writing it was fantasy or post-apocalypse stories, maybe a couple of hard sci-fi tales. First story sold? Suspense. Second story? Horror. I remember sitting on a panel and one of the speaker said don’t limit yourself to a genre. Now I get it. Write to what works. Let the characters be the focus, tell their stories, and it should work out fine.

As a followup, I broke 50,000 words and won for the 6th year in a row. Still not done with the story, but got an early finish for a change.

NaNoWriMo 2013 & other musings

      It’s been a bit over a year since my first short story was published and I still can’t shake the feeling that it’s a bit unreal.  A small publisher in Delaware took a chance on a unknown author and accepted a 2500 word story about an assassin and his axe. Madame was published in August of 2012. Henri’s appeared in another anthology from Smart Rhino [Perfection in Zippered Flesh 2] and there’s hints of a sequel to Uncommon Assassins. The third story, Riot, is partially written and I’m going to revisit it once December hits. I’m leaving a copy of both anthologies with the folks I’m currently working with and have gotten some very positive feedback from them. And a few strange looks.

      In the meantime, I’ve sold 6 other stories, written twice that number, and revised my novella. Got a slew of rejections, some really good advice on how to improve my writing, and encouragement from friends to keep going. Broken Horn in the anthology Astrologica: Tales of the Zodiac was released on 1st. I can't wait to have that one in hand and to add it to the brag box. That leaves 5 more in the pipeline, a couple of which I'm hoping to see by January. The latest one was submitted and accepted in under 10 hours. To be honest, I was floored with the rapid turn around and thrilled that they liked the story.


      This month is NaNoWriMo. 50K words in 30 days. Working on a prequel to my novella, “Fire and Frost”, going back to when the protagonist took his first steps into the world of changelings, magic, and weirdness. Sort of crap right now, but first draft and all that. Using Scrivener for writing, which lets me breakdown the story into chapters, move around parts, and get a rough outline going. And exports into standard manuscript format, which is sort of a pain as it turns all italics into underlines. Minor quibble, as all the other features make it very useful. Ahead of the writing goal at the moment and I'm aiming to “finish” before Thanksgiving, then push for another 10k. See if I can hit that 60k word goal. This is the eighth year and I've "won" five of the last seven. It's a great exercise in discipline giving me a goal to reach and then exceed. Like I need an excuse to write, but I can at least say, "Sorry, need to write" and go hunker down at the coffee shop for hours while I brainstorm a scene.

Author Bio

Time to update my bio. Six short stories sold in the past 18 months. A good record from what everyone tells me. My novella, Fire and Frost, has been submitted to a publisher and another half a dozen calls are on the list for writing projects. In the next 6 weeks, I'll be packing up and moving to Everett, Washington to pursue new opportunities of employment. Planning for NaNo on top of it all, having the vague ideas for an urban fantasy story with lots of fae, magic, and a delivery company. More introspection in a later post, as a milestone has passed and I want to touch on it. First though, my new bio:

The author lives in the Pacific Northwest and spends his time writing, cooking, gaming, and following the local WHL hockey team. His interest in books and reading started early thanks to his parents, though his serious attempts at writing only started a few years ago. From time to time he blogs about writing and other related topics at The Simms Project at http://thesimmsproject.blogspot.com/. Published works can be found in the anthologies Uncommon Assassins and Zippered Flesh 2 from Smart Rhino and the upcoming anthologies: ATTACK! of the B-Movie Monsters, Someone Wicked, Astrologica: Stories of the Zodiac, and A Chimerical World: Tales of the Unseelie Court. His current project is an urban fantasy novella featuring a group of changelings in the modern world. He can be reached on Facebook or simms.doug@gmail.com.

Female Characters

    This is a bit of personal ramble, so bear with me.

    The past few days have gotten me thinking about the various female characters that I've written into my stories. Results have been mixed, bordering on poorly thought out and otherwise bland. This came out of a conversation with a fellow writer in regards to a recent submission. The story is about a very bad man doing very bad things for petty reasons [revenge]. Everyone's a victim in some manner during the story even the main character, but the one strong woman in the story still didn't shine. After the talk, I began to look at her, the situation, and resolution, coming to conclusion that she's just another victim as written. Not a satisfying conclusion as I want to reuse her in later stories. There's some serious potential based on the events in the story. I spent a good 2-3 hours rewriting her part in the story and making her more active and less a victim. She's still a victim, but not one that just rolls over, and she stands up the main character to call him on his shit.

    This leads me to my novella and the main female character therein. One of my beta readers summed it up nicely – she's just a generic love interest. Generic. Boring. Bland. Nothing special. That's a big stumbling block and been the source of more than a few thoughts on how to change it. The solution is simple. She needs a more active role in the story. There's a few scenes early on that I could use in and show why the main character is attracted to her, other than the sex and pretty face. She needs to kick ass just like the boys. She needs to be a full person, not just a name & face or prize to be fought over. It requires a change in my thought process, both in what I write and how I act.

    There's still room for improvement. Lucky for me, I've got seriously good beta readers to keep on the path to being a better writer and a better person.

Busy weekend

    Editors have been busy the last four days. On Friday one of the beta readers sent me back a huge editing pass of Fire & Frost. Fresh eyes found a few weak points in the story & characters. Revisions are underway. Most of the weakness comes at the front of the story & that has the lion's share of my attention at the moment. Prose snipped [and saved], scenes rewritten, and characters altered. I got the dreaded, this is boring [paraphrasing], on one of the pivotal scenes about halfway through the book. That's been marked for special attention.

    I signed a contract for story #4 [details soon], a story got bumped to the next round, and got a rejection on another submission. The last one wasn't 100% surprising. Not my best prose to date. It's getting filed away & reviewed at a later date to be rewritten or incorporated into another story.

Naming the Story

...or how a simple bumper sticker will drive you crazy.

    Back in November of last year, a writing friend of mine suggested that I write a short story with a very specific theme. I hemmed and hawed, not really committing to anything for various reasons. On the way home from a hockey game, we passed a car chugging up the hill. On the rear window was a bumper sticker that read "Truckstop Darlin". My brain latched on to it and went off the rails. Holy crap did it go into undiscovered country. I had to write it. Had to. After two false starts, I finally nailed the story which turned out very different from the initial concept. A much better story given the feedback I got after sending it off to  people to read.

    But there was a problem. The story didn't fit the name any more, the characters no longer matched the concept. I've since renamed the story and sent it off to a call, but that still leaves me with the name "Truckstop Darlin" and it wants to be used.

    Ever helpful, the writing friend pointed out a horror call about dining establishments. Time to saddle up and see how terrifying I can get.