So, on Monday, my first novel gets published. It isn't the first novel I have written, but it is the first to see printed and bound form. Woohooo!!!!

I have to attend the launch Monday, so that is cool. It isn't a big launch, but who cares at this point? I'm officially in book form.

There is no description with the cover at the store below, so I will give one here.

Twelve year old Bradley McCormack hides from his parents ugly separation by reading fantasy novels. Despite dreaming of being the big hero who saves the world, when a portal opens up in his room to deposit an apprentice wizard in his bedroom, Bradley is not at all sure he wants the job. Through a whirlwind of events, Bradley goes from being celebrity and favorite of the queen to being a wanted fugitive. Only when things become truly dark does Bradley discover whether or not he has what it takes to tame dragons.

http://www.wynter.ca/wtstore.htm
 

I do some editing for a publishing company as my time allows, and there is something I have noticed in every single one of the novels I have gone through. So, I thought I would mention them here,

The first is telling. Each novel is narrated rather than a POV character or two allowing the reader to experience the story. Other than my article on showing rather than telling which is posted here:

ID: 943990   (Rated: 13+) Taming the 'Telling' Dragon.  Three easy ways to remove telling from your writing. All genres. by cantbelieveivebeenjaren8years

I have not posted in this blog for a long time, and I think that should change. I frequently think of things I would like to share with my fellow writers, but never actually get onto writing.com to share them. I have been busy the past ten months. Last November, I participated in a contest to write a novella in 73 hours. When we first got the subjects, I freaked because I couldn't think of a single thing to write for any of them. In the end, I chose a topic about a boy who witnessed his mother cheating. She swears him to secrecy but he tells his father a couple of days later by accident. Now, they are in the middle of an ugly separation, working toward divorce, and the mother has turned Bradley against his father. That was the topic.

I decided that Bradley had created a magical world inside his closet to deal with the ugliness around him. That idea didn't last past the tenth page because a portal opened up, an apprentice wizard (called a crysian in the book) falls out, and the book took off on its own. Turned out that Bradley was taken into a parallel world where a dragon was running amok across the countryside.

Over the course of that weekend, I wrote 25,550 words, but the story wasn't even close to finished. Still, the contest was over, so I submitted the novella and waited. In January or so, I found out that it had won. Well, co-won, as there was a tie. In the meantime, I had continued to build the world and work on scenes from how I saw the completed novel going. I told the publisher who contracted the novella that I did not want to publish a story with hunks missing out of the beginning and middle. Luckily, the editor said, go ahead and finish it.

Do, over the next seven months or so, I worked when I could, and had about 60% of the completed story figured out by September. Then the publisher says, have it done by Sept 30th. LOL A couple of weeks to finish a novel. I don't recommend it unless you have nothing else to do. I had a business to run as well. Still, with the editor screaming at me, I got it in, just over the wire by a few days.

Warning!!!! Publishers HATE it if you go over the deadline. Really, They yell. LOUD!

Anyway, it is done, even the yelling. The launch is Monday. Woohoo! I actually have an ISBN coded, not self published work to put on my CV. It can't hurt, especially when I go after the writing grants in the spring.


 

... well, except for this one. I have had an assignment to write a short story since Monday that I am still only two pages into... shame... but RL exists and money must be made, friends kept in contact with...

Anyway... you hear it all the time... writer's write. They also read... you hear that... if you want to learn to write well, you read the best and pay attention to what they do right... and what they do wrong.

I admit I don't read much. Heck, I barely have the time to write let alone read. But I do read sometimes. William Horwood is my favorite author and of his stuff, The Duncton Chronicles are my fave. If you want to learn to write prose that sings like poetry... read this man.

I am also an unashamed fan of the Harry Potter novels, and I advise anyone who scorns them as public pulp trash to ask themselves one question... would I like my novels to sell in the millions?

If the answer is yes, read these books. For all that her writing sucked in the first two... she gains skill as she goes and it is a great object lesson to those of us starting out to watch her learn her art as she goes. There is also a great deal to be said for picking apart why these books work. Why the characters draw us in, etc. It doesn't hurt to learn... ever.

One of the greatest lessons I have learned in this life is that knowledge comes from everywhere. Sometimes our greatest lessons are learned in the most unlikely places. Never stop looking. Also, if you are rejecting something, ask yourself why and then investigate it. Sometimes the reason we think we are rejecting something is not the real reason.

I also think that writers can watch. I believe there is a great deal to be learned about writing books from watching movies. There is a reason more people watch movies than read... and maybe if we take a page or two from how the movie makers pace things and tell their stories, we might just gain back a little ground.

I was talking with a writer the other day about the pacing and action in a battle sequence and found myself referring the the seige of Minas Tirith in The Return of the King. How Peter Jackson shows that battle by swooping from the large scale of seeing the thousands of enemy soldiers to let us know how grim the situation is, then in to focus on how just one person is dealing with the situation. If he stayed at the large scale for too long, we would detach from the battle. It would be like chess pieces moving about. If he stayed in to close, we would lose perspective and be worn out from dealing with the emotions of someone in that situation... we would become shell shocked as it were.

Also, while watching the second Harry Potter movie the other day, I got an idea for MY novel. Not a plagarism idea... but when I started thinking about Dobby the House Elf... I started wondering how a race that is so powerful -- he kicks Lucius Malfoy on his ass -- can be held as slaves. That related to the Battle Singers in my novel... how is it that a group of people powerful enough to literally be ruling their world is actually a race of slaves?

BAM... the theme for the third novel and a guide for the entire plot...

The lesson... knowledge and inspiration is everywhere... don't reject anything out of hand. You never know what it might turn into.