Tag: Serialization

  • Clearing Off the Cork-board

    Early Thursday afternoon — on my lunch break, no less — I was able to type “The End” on Tapped. This was my most extensive round of edits. I solicited an editor to help me develop the story and couldn’t be happier with the results. Gabriel Fitzpatrick helped me see the strengths and the weaknesses in the manuscript and it is now totally awesome. 

    Ahem.

    Well, after a lot of blood, sweat, and tears it’s really quite a lot better than it was.

    In a week I’ll probably hate it, but I’ve come to expect the roller-coaster that is the author’s psyche. One week I love it, the next week it’s dribble not worth looking at.

    Whatever.

    This week it’s awesome and I have happily cleared off my cork-board, making way for the next project. All of the 3×5 cards with plot notes, sketched outlines, and character questions have been tossed into recycling. It is now a blank bit of brown cork with festively colored push-pins just waiting to be used again.

    ajmaguire-ResidualHaunting-COVER
    Cover art done by the amazing Chris Howard!

    And what is that next project?

    Residual Haunting!

    The original plan was to serialize Residual Haunting through the summer because I had so much fun bringing Persona into life that way. (Why yes, Persona has seen an editor and I will begin brushing it up in January. I’ll be completely changing the ending since the editor sorta … uh … hated it. No, I mean it, he HATED it.)

    AJMaguire-PersonaCover-1280h
    Remember Persona? It’s cover art was done by Chris Howard!

    Anyway … Residual Haunting is in a sorry state of incomplete and since it is another one of my experiments in genre/POV/and all things the craft of writing, it meets my arbitrary qualifications for serialization.

    So! Starting October 1st, 2014 I will be posting a chapter a week on Wattpad  — because Wattpad is awesome and I totally love it —  and on a story blog of its own — because I like to accommodate people who either do not use or do not understand how to use the Wattpad site.

    This is FREE! Yes, absolutely free. I will post links to each site (Wattpad and Blog) every time a new chapter goes up. Just like Persona, this is a draft and it is subject to massive amounts of change. Also like Persona, after its completion it will be removed while it undergoes said change.

    What does that mean?

    It means it will only be up for a limited time after the final chapter has been posted. If you follow along week by week you have nothing to worry about. If you wait until it’s all up there, you’ll only have three months to read it before I remove it from the public eye.

    And now I’ll leave you with a blurb telling you what Residual Haunting is all about. 

    Follow Doctors Jared Foster and Cal Murphy as the infamous Residual Haunting Museum is hijacked by ghosts, a witiko, and a girl named Rachel who is trying very hard to retire from all things supernatural.

    As Cal works hard to decipher his newest “Print” — or ghost — things inside the museum start to go haywire; the ghosts inside their exhibits disappear, power fluctuates and threatens to poison them all with the gases used to maintain each exhibit, and Cal finds himself doing the impossible by speaking to a ghost. But there’s far more going on than the mystery of just one ghost and the closer Cal comes to understanding how this woman died, the closer he comes to the real danger hunting them all inside the museum.  

  • The Wattpad Experiment So Far

    All right, I’m a month into the serialization of Persona and I have to admit that I’m loving it.  There is a lot more work involved given that I’m having to write and edit all in the same week, but for some reason this process is really working for me.

    A typical week goes something like this;

    Monday – Review/edit the chapter meant to go up on Tuesday.  Write 1k words on the new chapter.  (I have a 6 chapter buffer so I’ll never be late.)

    Tuesday – Stagger out of bed around 5:45 AM, review the chapter to go up one more time.  Post on Blogger and Wattpad.  Announce on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.  The rest of the writing day (I do have a full time job I have to go to) is spent writing on the newest chapter.

    Wednesday – Type up new chapter and print it out.

    Thursday – Edit.

    Friday – Edit and then save in several places (because I’m terrified of something happening and then not having the post up on time.)

    Saturday and Sunday I don’t write at all.  I enjoy time with my son.  (We’re totally going to the Zoo today.)

    Now, I’m going to go ahead and admit that this process would not work if I hadn’t made an outline of the book months ago.  That outline has been edited and revamped several times due to research — my character gets to survive a bombing in the town she’s residing that I didn’t know about when I first wrote the outline — so it looks kind of messy.

    But this outline is also far different from anything I’ve ever used before.

    Instead of using plot points to guide me through the chapters, I’ve used character arc points.  Remember that Persona is my “Who am I?” story, so every scene is following Megan as she grows and learns more about who she really is.

    Much of Chapters 1 – 4 are things happening to Megan that are beyond her control, such as the boat sinking and who picked her up, but her reactions to these problems are just as important as when she finally gets to start taking action.

    And, in truth, she started taking action in Chapter 3 when she chose to lie.  But she doesn’t really see that in herself yet.

    Anyway, the outline has two columns.  The first column is the normal process.  (And for some reason I still use Roman Numerals when I’m doing this.)  It shows physical action, things that need to happen or things I need to point to that have already happened to help keep a sense of fluidity within the book.

    The second column is all about the arc.  Such as Megan’s confusion of loyalties.  Her mother was German, after all, and she’s not the sort of person to go picking up a gun and choosing one side over another.  She sees too many real people in front of her to allow for that.  This causes a lot of conflict for her.

    When she’s confronted by the POW — Sam Layton, by the way.  If you’re following the serialization then you’ll get to meet him soon — she is also confronted by the fact that she has to choose a side.

    That’s a major arc point.

    Anyway, so far it is a lot of fun.  I’m a little nervous for next month since I have a couple of new classes starting.  Yay for summer school!  But I do have that 6 chapter buffer to sustain me.

  • 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!