A.J. Maguire

Tag: Reading

  • Round Robin – How I Unwind

    This month we’re talking about what we do to unwind in our Round Robin!  Which is really a fun question to answer because I do all sorts of things to refresh my creative mind.

    At the risk of sounding like a nerd … Well, I am a nerd, so I guess there’s no hiding it … I totally play Star Trek Online.  This game is immensely helpful when I need to get into the science fiction groove without actually writing.  (Though the writer in me has to question some of the things they make us do there.  Such as the control panel for a shield device sitting right next to the shield you want to take down.  I mean … smart money is on putting the control panel on the inside of the shielded area so the enemy can’t get in.)

    I tried playing Star Wars Republic but it just didn’t have the same feel to it, you know?

    When I’m in the middle of a fantasy novel and I need to unwind, I’ll play Dungeon Siege or Arcanum, depending on the level of my frustration.

    Oh!  And I have a ton of Dungeons & Dragon’s manuals that I’ll flip through for ideas.  The pictures alone set my creative mind to buzzing.  (I know, my nerd-factor just rose by about ten notches, didn’t it?)

    I go to the gym every other day — when my car is working — or enjoy time with my son at the park, but I don’t really consider those “unwind” moments.  Jogging is for my health and time with my son is for my soul.

    Still, I have noticed that my writing is clearer and my creative muse more willing to get to business when I’ve kept my exercise schedule and had time with my son.

    And, of course, there is the ever-ready movie to watch or book to read.  But I tend to view movies and books as investments since I’m always learning new and better ways to tell a story through them.

    That’s it!  Those are the things I like to do when I need to step back and relax.  Thank you for joining me and I’d like to encourage you to take a look at what author Ginger Simpson does to unwind as the Round Robin continues.  Here’s her link!  http://mizging.blogspot.com/

  • Writing In A Different Genre

    I am primarily a Fantasy and Science Fiction author.  The three books I have out for sale right now are all fantasy and I do have a science fiction scheduled to be released next year.  So when I started work on my historical fiction novel Persona I felt like a fish out of water.

    Suddenly moving shadows had nothing to do with lurking monsters.  And the idea of genetic enhancements stretching the limitations of the human body wasn’t an option.  Suddenly I had to deal with real people, real problems, and real settings.

    To make matters worse, I chose to limit my point of view character.  Normally I write within two or three characters, but in Persona I limited myself to just one, just Megan.  Because I wanted this to be a “Who am I?” story I wanted the so-called camera lens to be focused entirely on Megan as she struggles through Nazi Germany.

    And these were the best decisions I could ever have made.

    Let me tell you what I’ve learned about the writing craft through this experiment.

    1) My other writings are severely lacking in setting.  Yes, you can see some imagery and I give a sketch of what you’re looking at, but the settings in my other books don’t have the character that it should.

    2) I have learned how to reach deeper into the personality of a character through Megan.  By limiting myself to Megan I can now see how very vague I’ve been with other characters.  (Even my beloved Trenna, though I think she’s purposefully private in many matters.)

    3) The use of a theme-based outline has been supremely enlightening.  Rather than just following the plot to its conclusion, this outline has been able to focus my writing on Megan’s journey to self-discovery.

    I’ll use an example from this weeks posted chapter.  We’re in chapter seven and Megan comes home to find a POW hiding in her bathroom.  That’s all plot and action.  My outline goes further to the main question of the scene; What will Megan do with this man, and what does it say about her when she does it?

    There are more practical issues that I’ve learned during this process as well, most of them having to do with taking ownership of the story and my craft.  But the main thing I want to say is that this decision, to write something outside of my comfort zone, has been incredible.  I highly recommend any author to try it.

    Pick a genre outside of what you normally write and commit yourself to it.  If it’s just a short story then that’s fine, the point is to look at how writing within this new genre is different.

  • What I Love to Read – Round Robin Blog Post

    I have boxes of books everywhere in my apartment.  Some are hidden in my closet, some in the storage unit outside, and there’s even one under my bed.  I normally rotate the books on my shelves twice a year just to keep my library choices “fresh”.  So it goes without saying that I love to read.

    When I visit the bookstore I tend to linger in the fantasy/science fiction section.  (That makes sense since I am primarily a fantasy/science fiction author.)  There’s just something about walking on another planet that appeals to me.  I love seeing familiar things made unfamiliar.

    Like dragons, for instance.  How many different variations of dragons are out there now?  Eragon gave us a feathery version, The Smoke Thief gave us a strange misty-version, and there was one I read a while back that had a really cool wyrm hiding in the center of the earth.  (Forgive me, I can’t remember the title of that one.  It’s in one of my buried boxes and I won’t get it out until October.)

    But as much as I love science fiction and fantasy, I also love Ken Follett and all his World War II books like The Key to Rebecca or The Eye of the Needle or, my particular favorite, Jackdaws.  Mr. Follett has a real grasp of strong, complicated women.

    Oh!  And I can’t talk about my favorite books without mentioning Diana Gabaldon and the Outlander series.  Those books let me walk in another time and really breathe life as it once was.

    And finally, when I want to laugh and escape for a little while, I’ll buy a Jennifer Crusie novel.  She’s a romance author but her characters have so much sass and approach life with enough verve that I actually want to sit down and have lunch with them.

    Round Robin Continues!

    Billie A. Williams is a mystery suspense author.  Check out what she loves to read on her Blog at http://printedwords.blogspot.com/.

  • Fact vs. Fiction — Chapter Three (Persona)

    For those following along with the serialization of Persona, here is the Fact vs. Fiction page for Chapter Three.

    So far this whole experience has been incredibly fun!  If you’re just hearing about it, Persona is my WWII novel that is currently being serialized online for free.  You can find it at its Wattpad address or at its story blog.

    But here’s the battle of Fact vs. Fiction in Chapter Three!

     

    Chapter Three – Fact vs. Fiction

     

    Fact:  When I was in high school I took German as my second language.  (We totally watched The Sound of Music and The Great Escape during school.  It was awesome.)  But I remember our teacher Mr. Vanburen (yes, I totally snagged his name because he was one of my favorite teachers and I wanted to immortalize him somehow) said that there were different dialects in the German language.  It is much like anywhere else, I imagine, with different accents coming out.

     

    Doctor Who fans will remember the Ninth Doctor being accused of coming from the north (of Britain) and his response was; “Lots of places have a north!”

     

    So!  The idea of Uncle George’s “language game” isn’t too far-fetched.  It’s a little weird, but that gets explained as time goes on.  Uncle George isn’t the most honest of fellows, after all.

     

    Fiction:  I shoved Megan into a converted storage room on board the ship because I really didn’t know where they would keep a stranded girl on board.  I always imagined it was positioned just beside or inside the sick bay so that Herr Schuler could see to her.  Let’s face it, this sequence of events is very fictional and I doubt they had a manual for what to do when they picked up a half-drowned woman.

     

    Fact:  There really is a place called the Jade Bight.  In Germany it’s called Jadebusen and it’s a bay just south of Wilhelmshaven.  I had to mention it somewhere because, quite frankly, that’s the coolest sounding name in the world.

     

    Fiction:  This is only a quasi-issue because Megan isn’t in the military and really doesn’t know what’s going on, but in the event someone was taken on board a ship like this they would most likely be kept alive.  The whole “remand her into custody of the port authority” is semi-realistic.  VanBuren would need to give her to his superiors, who would then direct her to military intelligence for interrogation and then relocation to a camp.  (More about this in Chapter Four.)

     

    Fact:  My original draft of this story had four other POW’s on board the ship, which Megan was kind of interrogated through because Wycoff forced her into the same room with them and then listened to see if she revealed anything.  She then set about trying to help rescue these four men, which she managed during a bit of a battle, but she still got stuck going to Germany because she had to act as a distraction in order for the men to run.

     

    It was a fun sequence, but after quite a bit of research I dug up the fact that it was very unlikely for prisoners to be taken on board ships like this.  Which meant if I had Megan rescued then I had to dump the other four guys.  I mean, I was already stretching the whole suspension of disbelief, so I needed to trim it down.

     

  • Story Bibles (aka – Consistency, People!)

    A friend of mine uses a Wiki to keep all her files straight while she’s writing a book.  I’ve seen software designed to help maintain little “sticky-notes” to help authors as they’re in the middle of creating their fiction.  Both would fall under what I define as a “story bible”.

    Basically, that’s the spot the author goes to in order to remember all the crap … uh … I mean brilliant details … they have written to help keep their story feeling real.  Because those details are important.  Details are what keep us grounded in a particular work.

    (I heard a rumor George R.R. Martin got skewered for renaming a beloved horse in one of his books.)

    Easy example … Harry Potter’s round-framed glasses.  If those glasses had changed at any point in the books I think Rowling would have been deep-fried by her fans.  You see those glasses and immediately you’re on the lookout for jumping chocolate frogs (also a detail) and people running for a brick pillar, heading for Hogwart’s train (yet another detail).

    Now then … Until I started writing sequels to my books I never kept a story bible.  The characters and worlds were fairly clear in my head and I was stupid enough to think I wouldn’t really need one.

    Saboteur isn’t really a good example of my needing a story bible because it took place in a part of the Dyngannon world that I’d never visited before.  But as I am currently writing the third book in the series (Usurper) and I am revisiting places both in Saboteur and Sedition …

    Yeah.

    I’m wishing I’d went ahead and written one out.

    It’s not so much the characters that worry me — I know who I want to show up where and why and what impact that’s going to have on the story — but the descriptions, the landmarks … those I might have some trouble with.

    My solution?  A notebook.

    I love that people can use technology to make Wiki’s and such, but there is just something about having my scribbles in weird margins, writing running vertical across the page, and using multiple colors that just appeals to me.

    What can I say?  It’s a jumbled mess in my head, it’s going to come out bizarre on the page, too.

    The only exception I have here is the notebook for Tapped.  That story bible is far more organized than any of my others.

    Then again, it does have the outlines and big plot points for 7 novels and novellas in it.  That’s right.  I said 7.  There might even be more than that.  I’m not sure.  I think I could do it in 6 but the whole series has a very episodic feel to it.

    And I’m looking forward to the novellas.  There are at least two of them.  So, technically, I could do the series in 4 books with 2 novellas tacked on.

    I think.

    But really, who wants to put a limit on a series about rescuing refugees?

  • Fact vs. Fiction Chapter Two – Persona

    Chapter Two – Fact vs. Fiction

     

    Fiction:  I have Megan on board the SS Ceramic and for all intents and purposes she’s headed for London to meet her Uncle George.  However the SS Ceramic was actually headed toward Australia, not England.  Which, of course, is a bit of a problem.  But because I wanted to highlight the tragedy of the Ceramic I went ahead and kept it.

    Fact:  The SS Ceramic had just gone past the Azores when it was hit.  Here’s another little site about this event in history — It even has a big picture for you.

     

    Fiction:  Here in Chapter Two I have Megan picked up by the Germans.  Let’s go ahead and admit that this was unlikely to happen.  Granted, Henke of the U-515 did pick up Mr. Munday, but that wasn’t a normal scenario.  (Note that in Chapter One Denton does mention to Megan that prisoners were not often taken on board a ship.)  But as this is a fiction book, I went ahead with this section in the hopes that readers could suspend their disbelief long enough to get Megan into Germany.

    Author’s Note:  Because of how controversial the whole sinking scenario felt to me as the writer, I do have a draft of this novel where Megan is shown already in Germany when the war starts.  I have her in a big rush for the border but by the time she gets there everything has closed down.  However, I like this opening better  and since I’m giving it away for free it I decided to keep it.  

    Fact:  The fate of Sapper Eric Munday!  After being rescued from the sea by the enemy, Sapper Munday was interrogated and then taken as a Prisoner of War, where he remained until the end of the war.  There are some books out there about him (which I admit I have not read but fully intend to.)

    Fiction:  The timeline of the sinking is off.  Apparently Ceramic sustained its first hit somewhere around 8 PM but didn’t actually sink until the final torpedo’s struck it around midnight.  Also, here in the second chapter I have the storm abating in the morning when in fact it was around 8 AM when the really big winds started up and the stranded passengers started capsizing.

  • Quests

    So there I was trying to take a nap because I’m either coming down with something nasty or have finally developed allergies — Hopefully I’m just getting sick.  I really don’t want to look forward to a seasonal allergy every year — when I opened my eyes and saw something strange on my bookshelf.

    Image

    Do you see it there?  Right between Jennifer Crusie and the Fantasy Reference Guide …

    It’s an old hardback notebook.  I kept squinting at it, trying to figure it out what in blazes it was when it hit me; it was the first notebook my mother ever gave me.  I’d already shown an interest in writing with “Noises Next Door” and “Noises in the Night” so she bought me this notebook to write in.

    Author’s note:  I was like twelve when I wrote those stories, people.  The titles are bound to suck.  And trust me, the stories were awful, too. 

    So I got up and pulled out that book and started reading the whole six chapter story I wrote in the sixth grade.

    It’s title?  Quest for Bravery … (with “bravery” spelled wrong, no less.)

    I used far too much punctuation and too many people were shouting, and for reasons I can’t understand I actually chose to write in cursive.  (I don’t think anyone writes in cursive anymore.  Not straight cursive, anyway.  I use a bastardized cursive-plain-text-print myself because I know that nobody else has a chance of understanding it.  It’s called author security.)

    The story was about a girl — yes, I’ve always written strong female fighters — who, for reasons I don’t explain in the story, is beholden to a wizard.  Said Wizard’s name was Henry because that was the oldest sounding name I could come up with at the time.  (Again, I was twelve.  And anyway, aside from Prince Henry how many “Henry’s” do you know that aren’t getting up there in years?)

    So anyway, the girl in the story was named Amanda Forcalmer (points to me for not using my own name that time) and she basically served Wizard Henry.  And for six whole chapters she got to meet a prince, fight a dragon, save a princess and then leave said prince.  (Again, points to me for not writing a romance.)

    It was really horrible writing-wise and I laughed as I read it.

    And then I started thinking about how many quests I have been privileged to go on both in my real life and in my writing life.  In real life I have jumped in the ocean in Alaska (that’s cold, by the way), swam in the Caribbean twice, lived in Hawaii, traveled from coast to coast, and been in the Army.  While none of those can be categorized as a “quest” per se, it has been an adventure in learning who I am as a person.

    In my writing life I’ve quested for the Ebony Blade in Sedition, fought against prejudice and for the safety of family in Saboteur.  I’ve hunted for nobility in Witch-Born and learned how fickle Fate can be in Dead Magic.  I confronted the demons of inner self in Deviation and am neck-deep in the quest for self-understanding in Persona as we speak.

    And I’m only 34 years old.

    We writers tend to bemoan how lonely our jobs can be.  We set out to tell a tale that no one else can.  We might get research and inspiration from the people around us, but in the end we’re alone as we write it.  And yes, the solitary act of writing can be hard sometimes.  But it is totally worth it.

    Because we writers are uniquely blessed.  We have quests like no one else in the world.  We create worlds in order to draw out and pinpoint certain aspects of human character.  We see reality differently.  We see people and what motivates them because we understand that the underlying motivation is what dictates what we do as human beings.

    So if you’re a writer then embrace that solitary time.  Take that quest that no one else can and share it.

  • Persona is Live!

    That’s right!  You can now read Chapter One of Persona at either its Wattpad link or the Story Blog.

    And just as I promised, I’m going to post the Fact vs. Fiction rundown for the story here.  You can find it on a separate page on the story blog as well, but for those who prefer Wattpad I thought I’d smack it up here as well.

    Fact Vs. Fiction

    Chapter One – Fact vs. FictionFiction:  Persona’s original draft had Megan in an airplane and getting shot down into the sea.  Obviously that changed because it wasn’t really normal for a passenger like Megan to be on an airplane going from place to place back then.  So!  I decided to let her get sunk instead.

    Fact:  The SS Ceramic was a real ship.  If you take a look at Uboat.net you can find the SS Ceramic.  When it sunk just after midnight on the 7th of December, 1942 (yes I made the date the same) it actually had 133 fare paying passengers on board, which is exactly what I needed for my fictional Megan Crossweathers to be there.

    That’s just the fare paying passengers, there were actually many more people on board, to include nurses in Queen Alexandria’s Imperial Nursing Service.  You’ll notice I put that in the chapter as well.

    I chose not to mention the 12 reported children on board the ship for several reasons.  First, it breaks my heart.  I’m a parent myself and I just can’t read/write books that highlight the death of a child.  Second, there just wasn’t enough time between Megan’s seasickness and the sinking.

    Fiction:  Regardless of whatever Captain Denton Gray might have been up to, there’s no way one man and one woman would have taken a boat on their own.  With so many people abandoning the ship they would have likely joined in with one of the other boats.  However, for the purposes of the book I needed to get Denton and Megan away from everybody else.

    Fact:  The sole survivor of the SS Ceramic was Sapper Eric Munday of the Royal Engineers.  The only reason he survived is because Henke — the dude in charge of U-515, the U-boat who sunk the Ceramic — surfaced at around midday to find many of the lifeboats had capsized in the massive storm.  He ordered for the first survivor who reached the U-Boat to be taken on board, which happened to be Munday.

  • The Countdown is On!

    That’s right!  In just four days I’ll start posting Persona as a serialized novel online for free.  I have to admit, I’m excited.  I’ve got a seven week buffer, which means I have seven chapters edited and prepped so that if life gets in the way, or if I just need a little break, I can take one and not miss the weekly deadline.

    I’m considering an audio version but I’ve only got the one little microphone and, let’s be frank, the idea of anyone listening to my voice nonstop for twenty minutes makes me a little self-conscious.  For now I’m only guaranteeing the story blog, which you can find here and the Wattpad version.

    I can’t give the Wattpad link yet because it hasn’t been created, but early Tuesday morning it’ll be here.

    The amazing Chris Howard has been hard at work on the cover art for Persona and here’s what we’ve got so far …

    Cover Art by Chris Howard
    Cover Art by Chris Howard

    Honestly, I love it.  It absolutely captures the tone and heart of the book.  This guy is amazing.  You should really check out his stuff.

    And now I have to confess that I’ve decided this blog will be echoing the Fact vs. Fiction page on the story blog for the duration of Persona’s serialization.  The reason I’ve decided this is because I am a single parent who works full-time and goes to school full-time.

    Time is tight and while I have a seven chapter buffer, I don’t have a blog buffer.  If I want to get the fact vs. fiction stuff up at all, I have to sacrifice something.  And trust me, I can’t sacrifice lego playtime with my kid.

    Besides, it’s still a blog post about writing so I’m not really cheating here.

    So!  Here we are with four days left to go.  The story blog is already set up so if you want to sign up via email it’s ready to go.  That just means you’ll get the story delivered directly to your email every Tuesday.

    I’m still working on how to upload a PDF version that can be downloaded and delivered to your eReader of choice.  (If anyone knows how to do that, please say so.  I’m a little lost myself.)

    See you all in four days!

  • Serializing Novels via R.J. Blain

    Just as I promised, I have a guest post from R.J. Blain today on serializing novels.  For those of my awesome, wonderful, perfect Readers who don’t know what it means to serialize a novel I’ll go ahead and explain.  Serializing a novel would be sorta like when stories were posted in the newspaper week after week.  (Think Jo in Little Women, she did that for a while.)

    Since I’ll be serializing Persona (that’s the WWII project I’ve been talking about and yes, I know I changed the title like five different times.  I’m a writer.  Until it’s published it’s subject to change.) But because I’ll be serializing Persona starting in June I asked the lovely and talented (and slightly crazy) R.J. Blain to talk a little bit about her experience serializing novels.  

    R.J. Blain has not one but TWO novels being serialized at present (which really blows my mind), and she has some great things to share.  

    So!

    Meet R.J. Blain — 

    Art by Chris Howard

    There are a lot of things a writer needs in order to be successful. Having the ability to put words on the page is just the start of the journey. Reaching out and connecting with those who want to read your stories is almost as important as the words that you’ve put on the page.

    It’s also a lot harder.

    Let’s face facts: Most writers are introverts. Some of us are introverts with extrovert tendencies, and there is a reason for this – those who spend their time writing aren’t spending their time socializing. An extrovert often finds this process uncomfortable. Introverts find this process uplifting.

    For some of us, it just caters to our special brand of insane, but that’s a different story altogether.

    I have two different novel serializations on my website, and AJ asked me to step up to the plate and talk about the process of preparing and releasing a serialized story.

    I might have winced a little when AJ told me of her plans to serialize a piece. A hundred and one thoughts fluttered through my head, and each subsequent one unsettled me even more. Then, after going through a gauntlet of eulogies for her sanity, I started to grin.

    A post on the process of serialization? I can so work with that.

    My name is R.J. Blain. If you spot my sanity anywhere, please return it to Montreal, Quebec. I’m sure someone from my household will retrieve it. Eventually.

    I started serializing my story, Zero, (http://rjblain.com/zero-a-science-fiction-web-serial/) in January of 2013. Almost six months in, I was 5-10 minutes late on two updates, flirted with the devil many more times than that, and had posted two bonus scenes. I update every Wednesday.

    When I set out to write Zero, I went in trying to accomplish three things: High-quality writing, consistent updates (every Wednesday), and telling a good story. That last point is important: It’s the manifestation of wanting to connect with people who want to read things I write.

    The rule of three quickly crashed down on me. I had the updates in the bag. I’m pretty good about sitting down and doing what I need to do. I don’t work with a buffer, and I get quite the adrenaline rush when I realize it is 5 pm on a Wednesday afternoon and I haven’t even started my update for Zero.

    I drove myself to epic-levels of stress trying to accomplish the quality I wanted. I want to write a story that people enjoy reading, and the requirement and desire to produce quality writing was equivalent to wearing concrete shoes while skydiving over the Hudson.

    So, I admitted defeat and crossed high-quality off of the list. I just couldn’t spend the amount of time editing fresh draft. In exchange, I am having a lot more fun with the story now that I’m not as worried about the quality. Knowing myself as well as I do, I’ll never be able to totally abandon my desire for quality.

    This is a good thing.

    Songbird (http://rjblain.com/serial-a-romantic-fantasy/) is another experimental piece I’m serializing because of a dare. Terrible reason, but a fun story, and one that plays by different rules than Zero. When I went into Zero, I knew I wouldn’t be updating Songbird consistently. It’s a fly-by-night, pop out of a dark corner and shout, “I’m BATMAN!” at unsuspecting victims type of story. Like Zero, it’s an experiment: Could I write a traditional fantasy with strong romantic elements?

    On the surface, these two stories aren’t that much different. Zero is a soft science fiction. Songbird is a romantic fantasy. One uses political sciences and some futuristic tech, the other includes magic. To me, most science is magic because I don’t understand it more than half of the time.

    Realistically, these two stories are completely different. I don’t write them the same way. I don’t prepare them for serialization the same way. I didn’t even conceptualize them the same way. The most valuable lesson I’ve learned as a writer over the years is that while there are a few elements of my method that carry over from project to project, no one novel is the same as another, and these two stories are my proof of it. (Every writer is different, so this is commentary about me and me alone.)

    Zero started with three days of plotting, planning, prepping, and world building. When I started scene 1, I had a good idea where I was going. I even had some ideas on how to get there. I had the main characters, and I had a rough idea of how they’d meet despite coming from such different worlds. I had Easter eggs prepared, puns planned, and a roadmap complete with a set of directions.

    Songbird started with nothing. I sat down, picked up my pen, and I started to write. I knew nothing of Kara, even less about Ranik, and I really don’t know where they’re going or if they’ll make it to the same destination at the same time.

    It took me three or four updates before I started loathing Zero due to how I was writing it.

    I never fell out of love with Songbird.

    I feel back into love with Zero, and I feel that the story has a whole-new dynamic because of it.

    I don’t get to write on Songbird even a quarter of how often I’d like to.

    Zero is a patient friend and companion, showing up for a date every 7 days, whether or not the weather is nice. It’s that guy, you know. The one that sits outside at a café on a rainy day waiting for his girl, who shows up disheveled and several hours late.

    I’m convinced Songbird is staging a revolt as the result of neglect.

    Zero is drafted directly to the computer. Songbird is written by hand in a moleskine journal and transcribed to the computer scene by scene.

    One author, two stories, and two very different writing processes to bring these stories to life.

    If you’re planning on releasing a serial, I strongly recommend that you do so knowing what you’re getting into. If you’re going in without a buffer, expect stress. Expect needing a hellish amount of dedication and enthusiasm to push through the bad days. Expect the strong desire to burn the project with fire when you are forced to work on it when you don’t want to.

    Don’t expect the process to be easy. Don’t expect a high number of people coming back to your site week after week. Even if they do, most of them aren’t going to comment, aren’t going to notice you, and they aren’t going to hold your hand. Expect to have a silent audience, one that you engage only through the words you’ve written.

    Expect to get a glimpse of the world of publication, where you are forced to forge connections with people without ever having the chance to talk to them directly.

    Even if you only have one person who sees the story through to the end, that is one more person you have supporting you, even if you aren’t aware that they are there in the shadows. This was one of the hardest things for me when I started serializing Zero and Songbird. I’m an introvert with extrovert tendencies. I want to be noticed. I want my readers to reach out to me. I want to forge those connections.

    I want people to read my stories.

    For me, this was the most valuable lesson I’ve learned so far serializing my stories: I write because I want to be read. I want to entertain someone.

    I want to forge connections with people.

    The hardest lesson I’ve learned so far serializing my stories is that most of the time I’ll never know for certain if I succeeded at making these connections.

    That’s okay, though. It’s okay because I don’t need to know that it’s happening to be aware of the fact that it is, even if I’m not told this is the case to my face.

    In a way, novel serialization is a leap of faith. It’s a risk. It’s a challenge. Success is hinged on the will of others and my ability to connect with people I’ve never met.

    Is novel serialization right for you?

    Only you can answer that question. Just don’t make the mistake of thinking that knowing one person’s method (or lack thereof) will give you the keys to the universe and to success. It won’t.

    If you decide to serialize, make your own way. Forge your own path, and never stop writing.

    Good Luck.

    ~R.J. Blain (http://rjblain.com)

    (Special thanks to R.J. Blain for luring me into a guest post with chocolate.  I totally dove into the trap when she promised Godiva’s.  And, just as a side note, I’m sooo glad I’m not crazy enough to jump into serialization without a buffer.  I have no idea how she does it, but I would have slammed my head into a wall by now.)