A.J. Maguire

Tag: literature

  • Graphic Detail

    As I’ve set aside my science fiction while readers are going through it I picked up Usurper again.  That’s the third book in Trenna Dyngannon’s series for those unaware.  Trenna is, by all appearances, my most popular character and I have to admit I love writing her.  She’s gritty and tough and vulnerable all at once … and funny.

    Diving back into this High Fantasy novel I noticed a stark contrast between the amount of graphic detail I provide with Trenna as opposed to my science fiction. It may be because I’ve “lived” in the world of Dyngannon for so many years that I see it more clearly, but I’m not sure.

    Science fiction … or at least space science fiction … tends to limit my graphic detail to what you can see on a space ship.  If you’re not in the pilot’s nest looking out the viewport then basically there’s just ship … more ship … and, Oh, look, even more ship … to see.  Which, I’m sure you can all imagine, can be a challenge.

    Now that I think about it, this probably explains the drastic difference in word count between my 100,000 word High Fantasy novels and the 65,000 word Science Fiction.  Reading through the manuscript again I can see how this story (the science fiction story) is more involved with the characters and their growth than my previously published fantasy novels.

    So there was really a trade-off.  What little I have involved in graphics was made up for in the personal journeys of the characters.

    That said, having written the science fiction I can now see how I am implementing what I learned about the “personal journey” into my current fantasy novel.  I believe this will make for a stronger all-around book in Usurper and am excited to see how it turns out.

    For the science fiction, I am challenging myself to take the whole book through a purely “Graphic Detail” edit.  That means I will be focusing completely on description.  I’ll probably even use a different colored pen.  (Pardon me as I squee.  I do adore having any reason at all to use different colored pens in my editing.  Red just … you know … hurts sometimes.)

  • All Part of a Balanced Diet

    In the terms of a friend of mine (L.J. Cohen, author of The Between, which I totally recommend for any YA fans out there) I managed to finish the “gut-renovation” of my latest science fiction novel.  It’s only on the second draft and is now in the hands of my Alpha Readers.  (I love you, Alpha’s!)

    As I was in the middle of this gut-renovation I found myself yanking out several info-dumps in the middle of the manuscript.  While it was necessary for the rough draft to have all that information in there because I’m not exactly a scientist (as in, my brain nearly melted during science class last semester), I knew I couldn’t keep it all in the novel.

    Info-dumps are notoriously boring.  And a boring book is nearly always relegated to propping up an uneven table or, in the case of Armageddon, kept for fuel during the subsequent nuclear winter.

    However, I did have to find new and clever ways to explain the science behind space travel and the notorious “tapped” soldiers who star in the novel.

    At least I like to think some of it was clever.  My Alpha’s will let me know here in a couple of weeks if I succeeded.

    But it really got me thinking about how novelists have to find the appropriate balance between how much information is too much information.

    Let’s go ahead and assume the novelist in question has taken a permanent marker to all the info-dumps in the manuscript, they still have to find a way to get the truly important stuff on the page.  And preferably in an interesting way.

    For me the trick came in two parts.

    Part One : Identify what the (highly intelligent, wonderful) Reader needs to know for this book in particular. 

    Tapped is the first installment of a much longer series.  It is the introduction and therefore has to set the ground rules for the rest of the books.  For those of you who are writers, you know how difficult it is to introduce a world, or in this case a galaxy, that is complete with political systems, travel considerations, scientific progress, and the impact everything has at the individual human level.

    So!  I boiled everything down to three main points of interest that the Reader would need to understand in order for the novel to make sense.

    #1) They had to know the human race was stretched across the universe and that inter-stellar travel was a regular thing.  (This was easily achieved since 3/4 of the book takes place on a “jumper class hauling ship.”)

    #2) They had to know there was a war that split the human race into two different factions; that of the Consulate, which regulates everything from Jupiter through Gliese (an earth-like planet very, very far away) and that of the League, which regulates Mars and Earth (the last bastions of freedom.)

    Author’s note:  I totally wanted to use “Coalition” instead of “League” but it sounded too much like “Consulate” and I wanted to make sure they were all separate in the Reader’s mind. 

    #3) They had to know how “tapped” soldiers were made and what they could do.  (This was also easy and fun because … yeah … most people know I love a good fight scene.)

    Part Two : Identify the least amount of information needed in any particular scene. 

    The first part looked at the book as a whole, the second part looked at each individual scene while I was editing.  In this part, I really only asked what was affecting the individual characters on the page.  Because if the character’s weren’t affected by the science or politics, then the Reader didn’t need to be either.

    The result is that the characters actually interacted with the three main points I needed the Readers to understand for the book.  Which, I hope, made for a more solid and interesting book.

    Like I said, I’ll know here in a little bit if I actually succeeded at this.

  • Dead Magic Coming Soon!

    In preparation for Dead Magic’s release … which is apparently coming sooner than I’d imagined … I’ve decided to start adding some content.  You’ll noticed on the top bar that I’ve added a new page called “Magnellum” which is the world in which Dead Magic is centered.

    Also, on the sidebar (under the title Blogroll) you can see a link to a teaser/snippet page.  That will actually take you to a page with ALL my books on it.  You can click through and read teasers of each one that has been published to date.  Including a small teaser page for Dead Magic, which I will edit and make bigger after its release.  (Right now you can read the very first scene of the book.)

    When I have an actual date for its release I will start another release party.  (I can’t believe it’s been a whole year since I’ve done one of those.)  And I’ll do some Giveaway’s and throw out a bunch of free content delving deeper into the world of Magnellum.

    In the meantime, the Magnellum page on the top bar goes through a list of the noble Houses in Magnellum.  I won’t lie, the political spectrum of Magnellum was difficult to create.  We get to see the noble society at its peak in Witch- Born, but in Dead Magic I got to dive into the history behind Magnellum and really work on the mythology behind what created the Witch-Born race in the first place.

    It actually took me several passes at the manuscript before I was able to settle on something that both made sense and entertained me as a writer.  (I mean, if I don’t find it entertaining then who else will?)  I’m not going to spoil the book before it’s even come out, so don’t worry.  We all know how I feel about spoilers.

    However, as an author, mythology and world building are the two most enjoyable and most frustrating parts of the writing process.  During the first draft I’m just having fun with the characters and running through what I call the “bare bones” of the plot.  So at that point world building and mythology are a ton of fun.

    When I get into the second pass of the book and start really looking at the mythology is when I get frustrated because it almost always needs to be fixed.  That’s when the real work happens for me as a creator.  I may know the characters of the story but I don’t really know the story yet, you know?  So there are weeks and weeks of brainstorming what parts of the mythology need rewriting and — most importantly — how I can take that mythology and turn it into something intimate for the characters on the page.

    Because a neat mythology doesn’t necessarily make a great story.  That mythology has to work with the characters.  It has to shake them up somehow, and that’s what I was looking to do in Dead Magic.  I’m hoping I managed it.  We’ll see what readers say.

    As with everything I write, I wouldn’t ever publish anything because I always think something needs to be improved.

  • Dreaming Word Choices

    Well, I was have a great time editing Tapped before school got in the way.  I’ve got an Environmental Science final next week and a MASSIVE reading list for two other classes as well.  I’m going to call this a mixed blessing because I was starting to see words in my sleep.

    Yes, dreaming word choices is sometimes a problem for me.  As crazy as it sounds, I always know when I’ve been staring at the same manuscript for too long when I start arguing with my internal editor during the REM cycle.  It normally goes something like this —

    Me: “He reached for the small …”

    Enter Editor’s voice: “You mean half-inch.”

    Me: “Fine … He reached for the half-inch computer drive …”

    Editor: “Are you sure you want to say ‘computer drive’?  I thought it was a hacking device.  You should keep it standard and just call it a hacking device.”

    Me: All right, all right.  “He reached for the half-inch hacking device …”

    Editor: Well, that sounds funny.  Too many “H’s” right next to each other.

    Me: (with a growl of frustration) “He reached for the half-inch device …”

    Editor: Now that’s too ambiguous  you need to tell us what kind of device it is.

    Me: I hate you.

    Editor: Oh, and isn’t the character sore and beat up at this point?  So wouldn’t he really be straining, or stretching, or fighting past his injuries to try and get the hacking device?

    …..

    Yeah, that’s about how those dreams go.  As funny as that sounds, it’s really not very restful.  I normally wake up feeling like I’ve been working all night … and in some respects I have.  In any case, that’s why I’m thinking this whole school issue is a good thing, because I might be overwhelmed by homework, but at least I’m getting sleep.

  • The Importance of Positive Reinforcement

    Dead Magic is officially in the hands of my publisher.  (Woo!  Happy confetti is getting tossed about my apartment right now!)  I’ve also started poking around review sites to see about getting the book out there … and there will probably be Giveaways and all that jazz when it’s time for the release.

    But as a special treat for myself for finishing the edits and meeting the deadline, I totally got my hair done.  First time getting it professionally highlighted and all that jazz.  It was definitely an experience.

    Is it morbid that the first thing I thought about when they put me under the dryer thing was that episode of Supernatural where the lady totally got fried under one?  (Relax, those machines can’t really do that to you.  The Winchester boy’s were hunting a witch at that point.)

    Anyway, that was my positive reinforcement for meeting the deadline.  Rewards are so very important for writers.  Yes, we love good reviews (and by that I mean our hearts flutter) and finishing a book in itself can be a reward, but physical rewards are important too.

    Let’s face it, the act of writing is a solitary event.  It requires that we agonize over verbs and nouns and fighting between active versus passive voice, and it’s really frigging hard.  And most of us never really think what we’ve written is worth the paper to print it out, even if the marketing people insist that we pretend it’s incredible.

    So after weeks and months of self-imposed solitary confinement, staring at words until they burn into our retinas, struggling to make a clear statement out of messy plot complications, and fighting tooth and nail to make a believable character arc appear on the page … we writers really do deserve a reward.

    It’s all about the positive reinforcement, people!

  • Deadlines

    If you’ve been following my Blog then you know I have a deadline of March 1st for my book Dead Magic to be edited and in the (virtual) hands of my publisher.  Dead Magic is the sequel to Witch-Born and, I think, the last book in the world of Magnellum.

    Probably.  More than likely it’s the last one.  We’ll see.  I said Sedition would be a stand-alone and I’m working on its third book now.

    In any case, I am right on target for my March 1st deadline.  So don’t worry!  (Trust me, if I were worried about it I wouldn’t be pausing to write a blog, I don’t care what the Marketing people have to say.)  But the whole deadline thing got me to thinking about how deadlines have really altered my writing habits.

    Honestly, if you’re one of those writers who just writes whenever and shrugs about when they might get their manuscripts finished, then you need to start making some deadlines.  I used to be that way, too.  Until I learned that a deadline — even a self-imposed deadline — means that I really do get more done.

    Some people might groan and say that stress can stifle their creativity, but it really does work.  Sometimes we need to stress ourselves out.

    It’s almost as good as the best advice I ever read about writing.  I can’t remember who wrote the book, but the advice was to write yourself into a corner.  By that I mean, write your characters into an impossible situation.  People don’t care about run-of-the-mill situations after all, they want to see what these characters will do when they are faced with impossible situations, terrible choices, and the like.

    Best.  Advice.  Ever.

    But next up is writing with deadlines.  Contracts are fun and they make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside when you can say; “Oh, this one is on contract so I have to get it done.”  However, even inside a contract you have to make deadlines.

    Rough draft done by December.  Edits done by March 1st.

    Those are really vague deadlines, but they work.

    So!  I highly recommend deadlines.

    And, of course, writing yourself into a corner.

  • Book Review – Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie

    All right, so I’m a Crusie fan.

    Actually, so is my Dad, which I find very funny because I remember when I was a teenager he refused to read fiction and tried to impress upon me the need to only read nonfiction.  (Pffft!  Ha!  Like that worked at all!)

    As far as Romance novels go, Crusie is my favorite.  I know Diana Gabaldon is sort of listed in the romance genre, but I really view her works as “historical fiction with time travel” rather than romance.  Just look at the size of one of her books and you’ll understand.  No romance novel was ever that big.

    So Jennifer Crusie holds the number 1 position for me in the romance genre.  She’s funny.  She’s realistic.  And she gives me hope since half her characters are almost exactly like me by way of quirks and general off-beat-ness.

    Maybe This Time was very enjoyable for me.  I got through it in a day — I always go through her books in a day — and laughed through a lot of it.  Her characters really came alive for me, even the dead ones — you’ll have to read the book to understand — and there were at least three places where I was seriously not sure how the plot was going to end.  As far as stories go, it is the highest pleasure for me to be surprised in the end.

    So, if you like romance novels, I highly recommend her books.  Not just this one, but all of them.

  • Bring it on 2013 …

    As my last post talked about the goals I made through 2012 you can probably guess that this post is going to be full of goals for 2013.  And you’re right.  As I said, a friend of mine got me hooked on this and it has been remarkably helpful in my writing life.

    So!  In 2013 I want to …

    1) Submit my edited copy of Dead Magic to DDP on my deadline of March 1st. — This shouldn’t be a problem.  Honest.

    2) Finish Usurper. — This might be a problem.  Could take me the whole year to do with school and all that.

    3) World Build and (hopefully) complete Tapped. — This shouldn’t be that much of a problem.  There are only 6 or 7 chapters left … though the plot sorta exploded in my face last week and I have to revamp the ending.

    4) Climb 2 Mountains.  — I lowered it from three because, let’s face it, I never make it up three no matter how much I want to.  Plus, I have an internship that starts June 1st and runs through the summer, so my time will be limited.

    That’s it.  Those are my goals for 2013.  Anything else that happens will be icing on the cake.

  • Twas Four Days Before Christmas …

    Merry Christmas!  Well, four days early anyway, but I have no intention of being online on Christmas so I thought I’d better say it now.

    A friend of mine started me on this whole yearly goals thingy a while ago and I’ve found that it works wonderfully.  So!  Let’s see how I did last year …

    1) Submit Deviation to TOR.  — I did this.  It was scary, but I did it anyway.  They sent me a very polite rejection letter, but at least I had the guts to send it out, you know?

    2)  Record Deviation in preparation for releasing it as a free podiobook. — Uh … yeah.  I didn’t do this.  I didn’t even come close to trying to do this.  

    3)  Complete Dead Magic. — Totally did this.  Dead Magic was finished just a couple weeks ago.  It is DONE!  My Alpha readers have it and the publisher wants it by March 1st. 

    4)  Take a huge bite out of Usurper. — I actually did this too.  It’s in the last half of the book now.

    5)  Kick my schoolwork in the batoosh every semester. — Ahem … I managed to do this too, thank you very much.  Because if there’s one thing I am Miss Awesomepants with, it’s school stuff.  

    6) Climb 3 Mountains — … Well … you see … my whole State sorta caught fire over the summer.  I literally couldn’t climb any mountains because I might have been turned to cinders if I’d tried.  I did manage to go up in the Spring, so I climbed a whole one mountain.  But in the words of Gandalf the Grey; “A single solitary peak” was still a peak.  (Alas, no Thorin Oakenshield was there to greet me, but, hey, you can’t have it all.)

    And that’s it.  That’s my end of the year review.  Writing-wise and School-wise, I did pretty darn good.  And since the world didn’t end today like everyone had planned, I’m looking forward to another productive year in 2013.

     

  • Haunted Houses

    One of the first stories I ever wrote was about a haunted house.  I’m afraid I need to qualify that statement with the fact that this story was written while I was still in grammar school.

    By the way, I’m not sure why people call it “grade school” since every school has grades.  To me, grammar school has always signified that period of time when learning how to read and write were still relatively new.  The moment we step up into the higher grades we start focusing on more abstract thoughts.  So!  When I say grammar school I mean somewhere in the fifth or sixth grade.

    Anyway, the story was terrible.  The grammar was horrifying and my inability to fully understand how POV (Point of View) worked left me with a page full of chaotic voices.  It was called Noises Next Door and it was written in pencil on a single subject notebook.  And as awful as it was, I can point to it as one of the moments where I fell in love with writing.

    I took all of my friends and put them through an adventure, investigating a strange house that — you guessed it — made noises at night and sat right next to the home of our hero … Which, sadly, was me.  (Oh, come on.  I was like ten when I wrote it.  Give me a break.)  But everyone had their part to play in this little story.  I know I shoved my brother into a labyrinth with our cousin Peter.

    Yes, yes.  I went the parallel universe route with the house.  But I did have a witch behind it all, so it was quasi-haunted.  If you can make the leap that ghosts are actually remnants of a parallel universe trying to call for help.  (Again, I was ten.  I threw everything under the explanation of magic back then.  No rules.  Just big, unfathomable magic.)

    I did write it during the month of October and ever since then Fall has been my time of particular inspiration.  From October through December there is something in the air that spurs my muse into writing.  Maybe it’s the colors, or the changing of seasons, I don’t know, but I get excited in the middle of September when I see it coming.  Even over the last year and a half, as my plate has been full with school, I have had to keep 3×5 cards close by to record ideas and thoughts that hit me during these months.

    This week instead of new ideas I was reminded of that first story about a haunted house and a witch.  I couldn’t help smiling, remembering the excitement and my maladroit attempts at plotting.  It really was terrible, but it started me on a path that would forever shape my life.