A.J. Maguire

Tag: nanowrimo

  • Playing With Craft

    “Are you a pantser or an outliner?”

    “What’s your favorite part of the writing process?”

    “How do you deal with writer’s block?”

    “Where do you get your characters?”

    “Do you hand write the first draft?”

    Over the last few years I’ve heard variations of these questions from different interviews and the like and I have to be honest … at the time I didn’t really pay them too much mind.

    This year, however, I’ve reached the point of my craft where I’ve begun asking precisely why I do things the way I do.

    I “pants” the first half of a novel and then I have to outline it … but why?

    Is an outline too restrictive for the beginning of my process or am I just afraid of losing that spark of inspiration if I try?

    Well, I won’t really know the answer to that question unless I try something different.

    So!

    For the last several weeks I’ve been playing with my craft. Scrivener makes this curiously easy, especially with the 3×5 card approach, so I’ve been working on an outline for a paranormal romance.

    Why not, right?

    Just because I’ve never written in that genre before doesn’t mean I can’t. I’m only limited by myself here, and I’ll only grow if I stretch those boundaries.

    And just to make things interesting … let’s try the young adult market.

    For those who follow this blog you’ll know that I cringe at the young adult market. I disliked High School while I was in it, why would I want to go back, even in fiction? (Though now that I’m working with this outline I believe most authors hated High School and that’s how they infuse the pages with all that angst.)

    Again, we’re looking at self-imposed limitations here and I’ve decided to break free of them.

    And, given that this is a writing experiment, I’ve decided that I’m going to share this process here. This is a writing blog, after all, and maybe what I learn along the way will help someone else.

    As with any experiment, I have to lay some ground rules to follow.

    1. I will post once a week on the project beginning in December.
    2. The post will consist of comparisons between what I used to do, and what I am forcing myself to try. (Example, this book will use an outline from start to finish.)
    3. The Hard Deadline schedule will not be moved. (This means that this is a side project and cannot interfere with what I already have planned for 2016. Which is plenty, just so you know.)

    Those are pretty simple rules. The Hard Deadline schedule will be discussed next month when we start looking at New Year goals, but to help clarify a bit, I’m to begin work on Dead Weight (the sequel to Tapped) on January 1st.

    Yes, this means I will essentially have two books being created around the same time. If it proves to be too much I’ll have to focus on Dead Weight, complete it, and then resume with the experiment.

    That’s the glory of a side project. It can be moved if it needs.

    In the meantime …

    Everyone participating in NaNoWriMo … you’re awesome! Keep writing!

    I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving (if they celebrate it) or just an awesome week!

     

  • Gearing up for NaNoWriMo

    Woo!

    National Novel Writing Month starts in just a few short weeks!

    For those who are unaware of the awesomeness that is NaNoWriMo, take a quick visit to their website and see for yourself. The basics: you try to write 50,000 words in 30 days on a new novel/story.

    I consistently lose but I love every minute of it anyway, and I greatly encourage any potential writers/aspiring authors/even my own kid to give it a go.

    This year I am participating in a new way. Instead of a novel I will be writing my first ever non-fiction book (How To Change The World) and, while I think it will fall short of the 50,000 word mark, it will stretch out into 7 weeks instead of just 4 due to research and things.

    Now then … I don’t think my brain can survive without fiction of some sort, so during this time I will also be editing/re-writing Usurper (particularly its ending) and I do hope to have that done within the 30-day NaNoWriMo time frame. If not, it will definitely be done before December 31st.

    I do have to shake my fist at Bioware right now since the new Star Wars Knights of the Fallen Empire game will come out at the end of this month and I’m going to have to find a delicate balance between swooshing a virtual lightsaber around and buckling down to write.

    I’m a nerd. Sue me.

  • Tossing in the Towel – NaNoWriMo 2014

    Illness struck my house last week. It started while my son was having a sleepover, the poor kid suddenly had a fever and I had to separate the boys during the sleeping portion of said sleepover to keep our guest from catching it. (Didn’t work, our guest has been sick the last couple days too.)

    Being the mother that I am I spent all night watching my son’s fever spike and level and spike and level until finally Sunday morning we were able to run out and get some more Tylenol. By Sunday evening I was sick as well. And for several days Hazen and I stayed home, nursing our illnesses with frequent naps and intermittent bouts playing Star Wars.

    And soup.

    Lots of potato soup.

    My NaNo project was left aside.

    While I could possibly rush through the next two weeks to get to 50,000 words before the end of November I know that they would be 50,000 really horrible words. Rough drafts are notoriously bad, but the abomination that would sprout from such a rush would require the entire work be thrown away and restarted in December.

    Which would be a complete waste of my time.

    So!

    I am formally throwing in the towel for NaNoWriMo 2014.

    I wish everyone the best of luck who is continuing to plug away at their NaNo novels. You’re all awesome. You can do this. Keep moving forward!

  • National Novel Writing Month – 2014

    That’s right. I’m one of those crazy people, the one’s who take November and turn it into a month-long marathon with words.

    I went grocery shopping and stocked up on caffeine, chocolate, and popcorn. I made sure my son had a new Wii game to entertain himself while my brain is occupied in all things Dead Weight. (Yes, that’s the title of the new manuscript.)

    I revisited the series Bible — because this is the second book in a much larger series — and plucked out the items I want to explore in this book.

    … and since the first book hasn’t come out yet I’m not allowed to share any of them with you. Cause … you know … spoilers.

    I can talk about theme’s, though!

    Complicated, fun, themes!

    So … Tapped, the first book, is centered on the theme of family. Real easy to spot. You’ll see it when the book hits virtual shelves in January. (January 13, 2015. No, I haven’t forgotten. Yes, I am still playing with formatting and such.)

    Dead Weight’s theme is “letting go.”

    I know, it’s not one word. We’re supposed to try and filter everything down to a one-word theme and all that but … No. Screw the rules. That’s my theme.

    I don’t have a word count yet because it’s all handwritten but I’ll make sure to post such a thing on Friday. Until then … I’ve got writing to do.

    Go, NaNo-People! Let’s get this done!

  • Prepping for NaNo!

    Woo! NaNoWriMo is right around the corner! For those of you who STILL don’t know what NaNoWriMo is, go HERE and check them out because they will overload you with pure awesome!

    I have been all sorts of excited for this year’s NaNoWriMo because it’s the first year I won’t be in school. Which means it’s the first year in a long time where I can actually participate rather than quasi-participate in accordance ajmaguire-ResidualHaunting-COVERwith homework schedule and what have you.

    (To those of you following along with Residual Haunting, don’t worry! I have an 11 week buffer so the novel will continue to be posted as scheduled until its completion.)

    All year long I’ve stared at November on my calendar and wondered just which novel I would work on for my month of play. At first I said I would re-write Primal into my 1920’s investigator-runs-into-dragons idea but as the date drew closer I became more and more obsessed with my Civil War/Western, The Abolitionist.

    And then I thought I would use the month to be a NaNo Rebel and complete a project rather than begin a new one.

    For realz, it’s a mess in my head most days. I’ve got so many plots and characters and novels mapped out it’s a miracle I’m still sane. 

    Here we are midway through October and I’ve changed my mind again. But this time I’ve committed to the project by actually placing it in my NaNo profile. So!

    I’ll be writing Dead Weight in November.

    I only wrote a little of this novel back when I originally completed Tapped but I’m scrapping all of that and starting fresh. This is primarily because a lot of that original draft has to change to accommodate changes made during the edit of Tapped.

    Note to self: Never start a sequel until the edits are complete on the first novel.

    I considered putting the blurby thingy up here in celebration of the upcoming project but I fear it would give spoilers to the yet-to-be-published Tapped, which would sort of be like shooting myself in the foot. Instead I will leave you with a vague idea of what the novel will touch on.

    Hopefully Spoiler-Free Blurby Thing

    A call for help draws the crew of the Zephyr to Saturn and directly into the path of the Consulate. When the ship is damaged they (because I can’t tell you WHO survives the first book, now can I?) are forced to dock with an abandoned station deep inside Saturn’s atmosphere. But there’s more to this station than meets the eye (Oh, shut up, I know it’s cliche. It’s hard to be vague and enticing all at once) and the crew soon learn that the station isn’t quite as abandoned as they’d originally assumed.

    And there you have it! That’s what I’ll be working on in November.

    Unless I change my mind again.

    Which is entirely possible.

  • Attack of the Plot Bunnies!

    So I was sick for a couple days and I spent a great deal of time in a medicine-induced semi-coma on my sofa. One would assume my brain would have been numbed by the medicine and therefore incapable of creativity, but I fear that wasn’t the case. In fact, I think there’s something in NyQuil that slams my muse into overdrive.

    Muse: What do you mean you’re too sick to be at the computer? (insert maniacal laughter here) Look at all my shiny, pretty ideas! Don’t they make you want to leap out of bed and start hammering away at the keyboard?

    Me: My head is going to explode …

    Muse: … From all my awesome new idea’s, amIright? Don’t answer that. I know I’m right. Now … are you getting all of this?

    Me: mmmph!

    … Ahem.

    The truly irritating part of this ambush of plot bunnies (remember, plot bunnies are fuzzy story ideas that attack when you least expect them) is that none of them … NONE of them … have any bearing on the current project. Residual Haunting is coming along nicely in spite of my furlough into NyQuil and all things ill. Chapter Three will be up as scheduled tomorrow morning.

    These plot bunnies are in reference to Dead Weight, the sequel to Tapped. And yes, they’re awesome. And yes, I can’t wait to start work on it. In fact … I’m so excited to start work on it that I might bump it into my NaNoWriMo slot. Which would totally alter my already altered writing schedule and everything but … you know … half the fun of NaNoWriMo is to work on something you’ve been excited to work on.

    Oh! And NaNoWriMo is all prepped and ready for November! For those who are gearing up to participate this year … You’re all awesome and I’m right there with you! For those of you who don’t know what this is, go visit the site! It’s amazing!

  • Gutter Space

    Last year I made a few print copies of Persona for my family. (No, it is not for sale. Yet.) But anyway, I discovered this rather annoying problem with my Word program when it came to converting the text for printing.

    Every page needed a designated amount of “gutter space.” This is the space that you see right in the middle of the book when you open it up, the little “gutter” that is created where the binding comes together. For whatever reason, my Word program could not target even versus odd pages, forcing me to spend FOUR HOURS going through each individual page and shifting them over.

    As evidenced by what happened next, shifting text is quite boring.

    “Gutter space” sounded so … sordid. Kind of seedy, you know?

    I decided that what “Gutter Space” really stood for was that place where all rejected novels go, and for four hours that late November night I let my creative brain run rampant. It was quite entertaining. I had a main hero named Partial (standing for Partially Formed Idea) who was met by several different novels, all of them with some form of book disease.

    My personal favorite was Multiple POV Disorder where the inflicted novel kept switching characters mid-sentence.

    In any case, I sort of let “Gutter Space” fade away after I finished shifting text but this week I caught myself in that weird transitional period between projects. And, lo and behold, Gutter Space came back to mind. As much as I loved the concept of Partial being introduced to every manner of writing mistake (like Purple Prose Syndrome, which was so full of unnecessary description that it continued to just describe things around it rather than address anything of worth to the plot) I’m not quite ready to write that short story.

    But trust me, I will.

    For now, I’ve decided that “Gutter Space” will be anything and everything that my brain needs to clean out before it’s ready to start on a new project.

    So what is my “Gutter Space” comprised of today?

    Well … Here’s my line-up …

    1) Residual Haunting — needs completion (But it’s also my next project so I don’t need to worry so much.)

    2) Persona — needs a new ending (Already got this baby scheduled.)

    3) Usurper — needs an edit or … uh … 5 (Pardon me as I hide from all Trenna fans. I already promised it would be out in 2015!)

    4) Primal — needs re-written or … brainstormed or … something

    5) Dead Weight — needs completion

    6) The Abolitionist — needs research

    … My car needs cleaning too.

    And I should wash my carpets ’cause … Winter is coming.

    And there you have it … That’s what’s in my Gutter Space today. Starting next week I’ll be diving headlong into Residual Haunting and posting it, as promised, for free on Wattpad. It will be completed by the end of October, which frees up my November for NaNoWriMo where I will either be working on Primal or The Abolitionist.

    We’ll see.

  • December Mayhem! (And Rise of the Guardians Review)

    Well, NaNoWriMo is officially over.  My hats off to everyone who managed to write 50,000 words in 30 days.  That’s just crazy cool and you all deserve a cookie!

    In case you were wondering, I did manage to finish writing Dead Magic.  I got it done Monday last week, so I was way ahead of schedule and had the Epilogue written and everything.  Now I just need to type up the last 5 chapters and throw it out to my Alpha readers (( I love you, Alpha’s! )).

    Because of school I have to schedule out my time differently.  So!  On Saturday (December 1st) my son and I had a play day.  We decorated the house, put the Christmas tree up, strung lights and made giant gingerbread men.  It was a blast!  We also went to see Rise of the Guardians at the movies.

    Honestly, I loved the movie.  It was touching.  And funny.  My son walked away claiming that he wanted to be Jack Frost — which, given the backstory they gave the poor fellow, I was torn about — and cheering that the Boogeyman had been subdued.  (Sorry if that’s a spoiler but I mean … it’s a kids show and that’s the bad guy, do the math.)

    Welcome to December!  I hope everyone is excited for the holidays — however you like to celebrate them.

  • National Novel Writing Month

    It’s here!  National Novel Writing Month is here!

    Since I’m not actually participating this year I thought I would just send out a quick note of encouragement.  To all of you crazy people out there, frantically writing non-stop for the next 30 (well, 27) days, good luck!  Don’t look back.  Don’t edit.  Just go!  You can edit in December.

    Call your characters Brian Gatorade because a Gatorade bottle happened to be sitting on your desk while you were introducing him to the work in progress.  Throw a flying kangaroo in there somewhere.  Take a bath tomorrow, just keep your butt in your chair today.  (I hope you bought Febreeze so your family can spray it whenever they walk past you.)

    If you have kids they should be stocked up on candy from trick-or-treating so don’t worry too much about what they’ll eat.  (That’s actually a complete lie.  Please feed your kids.)

    But mostly, have fun.  If you’re not having fun then you’re not doing it right.

    I’d be having fun with you were it not for the 3.5 chapters I have left to go on Dead Magic.  The end is so close on that one that I can just taste it and I really, really need to finish.

    So good luck!  Have fun!  It’s writing mayhem!

  • Witch-Born Giveaway

    I promised that in October I would run a Giveaway of the novel Witch-Born, and so I’ve gone ahead and started it.  Or, well, it hasn’t started quite yet.  It starts September 8th and runs all the way through October.  I’ve put in the widget already, so you can click on that and go straight to Goodreads, who is hosting the Giveaway.

    Thank you, Goodreads!  You are super-fabulous!

    Anyway, as this is the first time I’ve given away Witch-Born, I figure I should take a moment to give a little background information on the novel.

    So!  There I was getting ready for National Novel Writing Month back in 2008, and I had this great outline for a straight Romance novel.  (I love National Novel Writing Month.  Seriously.  If you know anything about them then you know they are out there promoting literacy and everything in young people.)  But then a funny thing happened.  November 1st showed up and I simply could not write the novel I had mapped out.

    It was infuriating.

    I had taken all of October to create that outline and suddenly I couldn’t use it.  So I threw it aside, grabbed the two main characters (in my mind it was by the throat, even though I’m pretty sure both of them could have killed me with a wink) and let them lead.  By November 3rd I had a better idea of what the story was about.  My straight romance novel was overrun by witches, dirigibles, snake-like creatures that attached to people and took over their minds, and assassination plots.

    It was pure mayhem.   And I loved every second of it.

    I didn’t want to make Witches into the hunted creatures tradition has placed them in.  So, I decided to make a world where Witches were in charge.  This made for a strange, convoluted society that separates the Witch-Born from the Untalented, but resembles the familiar fiefdom we have in our history books.

    I barely won National Novel Writing Month that year, but I did win.  (First time, too.)  And then I took all of December to complete the novel.  For the next year I edited it.  Then I threw it out on the market where it was picked up by Double Dragon Publishing.  It was published June of 2011 and its sequel (Dead Magic) is currently under contract with Double Dragon.

    It’s actually quite appropriate that I give away Witch-Born now, since I should have Dead Magic completed by November.  (That’s not the publication date, just the day I’ll finish working on it before the editors at Double Dragon start ripping it apart.)

    I’d give you all a teaser of Witch-Born, but if you go to the Amazon page you can get the first chapter and a half for free.  So instead I’ll put up a quick snippet from Dead Magic.  (Not much, mind you.  I don’t want to get in trouble from the publisher.)

    ***

    “Are you taking me to the ark?” Valeda asked bluntly.

           Elsie smiled some more, careful not to show her surprise.  Regardless of her good nature, Miss Quinlan was a reporter.  The last thing Elsie needed was another news report about Delgora matters.  “I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about, Miss Quinlan.”

           “I saw it last night.  From my window.” Valeda’s soft gray eyes narrowed at her. “On the southern ridgeline.”

           Elsie chuckled and turned away, resuming their hike before she answered. “First of all, Miss Quinlan, you’ll notice the position of the mid-morning sun is directly to our right.  You, being an educated woman, are well aware of the sun’s rotation from East to West, which would make our current trajectory due north of Delgora Manor.”

           From the corner of her eye, she saw Valeda look to the sky and frown. “That doesn’t deny what I saw last night.”

           “Secondly,” Elsie continued without acknowledging the comment, “Even if I were inclined to divulge Delgora House matters to you, Miss Quinlan, my better sense knows that your profession cannot be trusted.”

           “I’m a reporter, not an idiot.  If you required my silence you would have it.  I’d never cross a Witch.”