Ok, direction not quite changed

I was planning on taking a year long break from Annabelle but Editor Jennifer told me about the wide world of publishing on the Kindle. I decided to look into it and this does seem like an amazing opportunity.

So I wrote a short story about Annabelle and Roland set in modern day. I'm going to polish it with the help of my critique group and get it ready for the Kindle. Then I'll shop around for cover artists and ready the book. After I put it up, I'll return to my break and Myths.

Wish me luck.

Top Five Misconceptions about Writing: A Keynote Address from Rick Riordan

Top Five Misconceptions about Writing: A Keynote Address from Rick Riordan

Two quotes from this I love...


"You have to find the story you must tell – the story so important to you personally that you have no choice but to write it." & "I would have written it whether it was published or not."


This is why I stick with... Annabelle, folks. This is why I endure the pain, struggle and disapointment. This is also what I feel for Myths.See More

Deadlines

Originally posted on 3/21/10 for the


Charge of the Write Brigade.

Recently I’ve been working hard on my novel. I’ve been tasked with edits and re-writes. My editor has given me two months to get this manuscript in place and that’s plenty of time.


This means I have to get serious and knuckle down. Some scenes only need to be reworked a bit and folded into the general story. Other scenes have to be completely thrown out and new ones put in to replace them. It needs to be tighter, more interwoven and the pace needs to be brought up quite a bit.

Now, if I decided to put off my edits until later, one of two things would happen. I’d either find myself at the end of the second month, scrambling to meet my deadline and producing shoddy work, or I’ve have to confess I wasn’t ready and couldn’t accomplish the job.

I long to be a published author. Do I intend to produce crap for my agent and the editor at my future publisher or do I intend to not produce anything at the required hour? Either answer means failure. What’s worse is that after the long, painful period of trying to find an agent and that agent finding a publisher, to throw it all away because I got lazy or distracted just seems purely insane.

Sure, my current situation isn’t that serious, but I must create a working habit of sticking to my writing deadlines. Interestingly enough, when I was working on book two I had no deadlines so I took my sweet time. Now that I have a professional editor waiting on my pages, it feels real.

That’s a good thing. I find that I behave more seriously about my writing now that I have a goal. I have until the last day of April to get all thirty-two chapters polished enough for her to see it. Sure, I don’t have to cross every ‘T’ or dot every ‘I’ as it were, but a complete story must be in place with all the changed.

Heck, it’s a Young Adult Historical Fiction Fantasy and the ‘Historical’ part means research. So to properly tell this tale, I find I’ll need more research, too. This means I’ll need to make time for that research with the time allotted.

Deadlines can’t be matched without writing goals, a chapter a day for instance. They’ve got to be realistic goals. If it takes a day, great. If a week or a month, also great. But don’t set a goal for two months of writing on one week. Be honest with yourself. You know the take before you. You know how long it takes you. Plan out the time you know it’ll take and the time you want to start. Once the time arrives, jump in and get it done.

A big help for me during this challenge is my cheerleaders. Hey, I could tell you plenty of story plotlines for comics and Sci Fi shows but when it comes to who plays which sport, I’m lacking. One thing I do know about sports; they set up pretty cheerleaders to shout praises at the guys while they’re struggling to make the goals.

Same principle. Remember your beta readers and critique group partners? Remember the members in your writing group? How about family, friends, co-workers? These people have either read your story (and it’s not as bad as your inner voice says) or listened to your struggles. Tell them your goals. Tell them what you plan to accomplish the next time you sit down at the keyboard. Set it up so they’re waiting to hear your progress. That way they can nag or remind you.

You may say, “But Scott/Jack, I hate it when my mother calls and nags me. Why would I want to have her voice doing it about my recreational hobby, too?

Well, why are you writing? If you’re serious about getting your work out there and sharing it with the world, if you’re serious about really getting published, then you’ll have deadlines and that means it’s also work. Yes, work you love, but work. That means you’ll need those friendly reminders from the people who want you to succeed.

Ok, my article is finished and it’s still pretty early. I’ve got scenes and chapters to do today so I’m signing off. Can’t let this deadline slip.

Direction change

I've tried every thing. Critique groups, beta readers, reading out loud, reading to classes and a professional editor. I spoke with two agents and caused a certain degree of interest in them for Annabelle.

I tried very hard.

I just got the final rejection for awhile. The agents have good reasons to reject it. There are still things to rework. The problem is, I lack the strength to do this work. I still love Annabelle, but I can't bring myself to look it over again. I'm so very tired of it.

There are two choices available to me. 1) Give up writing/ take a break from writing, or 2) Try again with something else.

There have been moments when I've taken a break and tried to write other things. I think they're good but then I thought Annabelle was ready. So I'm going to try Myths. I'm going to go down that path, honing my writing and trying to get inspired for it instead.

 Annabelle, I'll miss you a great deal. I've spent 6 years with you and I wish things had been different.  There will be times it will hurt but I must move on.

The Climb

Originally posted on 3/7/10 for the


Charge of the Write Brigade.

What is your anthem?


As writers we thirst for inspiration. We sail the ocean of procrastination and distraction. The far off shores of creative thought and completed manuscripts or at least chapters seem so far over the horizon that we wonder if we’ll ever get there.

Life gets in our way. Sometimes we need something to spark our juices. I’ve already written about how music can inspire a writer. I won’t go into length about it now.


I do want to share with you some of the songs that set my writer’s brain on fire. I’m not talking about what songs or music styles inspire certain ideas or stories. I’m speaking of those songs that remind me that this dream is reachable. That despite all the things I can never seem to learn and apply, all those rejections that pile up, these songs make me stand up and forge ahead with the dream.

At least three songs come to mind.

Go the Distance by Michael Bolton

Created for the Disney movie Hercules, this song represented young Herc’s longing to be something more. He sensed within himself the ability to take his talents and do something important with them.

Whenever I hear this I feel it too. I don’t think of glory or fame. I don’t give a crap for those. Instead I think of the joy my stories bring to others. I think of how they can make kids dream and wish for things in life. I think that maybe one day, beyond this mountain of rejections, one day there will be a line of kids and adults wanted to discover Ann and Roland’s latest adventure. That one day I can get these stories out there into the world.

Someone’s Watching Over Me by Hilary Duff

In the movie Raise Your Voice, Duff plays a girl who wants so bad to sing. The problem is her father won’t let her spread her wings. Well, her older brother (played by John Ritter’s son) always believes in her. Without her knowledge, he sends out her application to the music school she wanted to attend. He dies shortly afterward and she discovers what he did later on.


The ballad is soft and reaches out. It reminds me of the doubts and fears that always cloud my mind. It also makes me think of my dream. It causes me to reach for the impossible. I think of how important this dream is. How the fears and impossibilities aren’t important. I refocus my mind and sit up straight. I can do this. I can achieve my dreams.


The Climb by Miley Cyrus

This is the new kid on the block for my personal anthems. It’s currently my favorite. Created for her movie to represent the character’s feelings about failure and hope, I resisted it at first. I have four children who practically live on Disney Channel so I tend to get sick of their TV offerings.

I couldn’t resist it though. I hear the quiet beginning and soft words and my mind travels to the same doubts I mentioned before. I think of the hard reviews and tough decisions I’ve made. Stephen King said you have to kill your babies and I’ve got so much blood on my hands. But it’s not the end of the journey I should focus on. It’s the actual path I’m taking. Each rung of this latter is important. Am I scared of what my editor is going to say? Yes! But I need those bad reviews. I have to fall again and again if necessary to learn how to walk. I can’t become a author unless I learn how to write.

So there you go. Three anthems that make me believe in my abilities. What are yours and what effect do they have on you?

End of the World As We Know It; Dangers of too much world building

Originally posted on 2/7/10 for the

Charge of the Write Brigade.


Last time I wrote about the joys of world building. I went on to explain the fun of creating your own world and how to build on that for many future stories.



Today I’d like to touch on the dangers. Yup. There are dangers. Not danger in the sense of the word where your mouse will bite you if you click it again. I’m talking about distraction and procrastination.

Yes, those two evils that destroy a writer’s potential. Two of our greatest adversaries lurk within world building, waiting to strike.







A friend of mine has an amazing imagination. He’s inspired by many writers to sit down an pen the great American novel. He lives on the other side of my state, too far to visit. Because of this distance, we keep in touch through nightly chats on the phone. I respect him a great deal and expect him to soar if he put his mind to it.


Some nights we discuss writing and our mutual progress. When ever he speaks of his ideas I’m entertained to great concepts involving wonderful plot twists and well thought out characters. He tells me of histories and back stories and future plans where multiple novels revolves around generations of heroes and villains.







But in every story, on all the many worlds he’s discussed over twenty years of discussions (not always nightly, but that’s still a long time) I know there is one question that will always have the same answer.

“Have you actually begun writing this book?”

“Well no. It’s all just in the planning stages.”

Now to be fair, he did write two short stories and a chapter. But this makes it worse in my mind because I now know he can do it. I know all these great ideas are more than wishful dreams. I realize he can do something wonderful with them if he’s just sit down and do it.








As writers, we can’t help but create worlds. It’s in our blood. It’s a wonderful ability and our main super power. But there must come a time where we sit our butts down and WRITE THE DANG NOVEL. We need to call a time out, take these ideas and actually begin the sentences, paragraphs and ultimately the chapters of our projects.

We can get distracted in the big picture and caught up in our creations. We love how it all fits together. It’s so amazing! We want to take out outlines or notes and run right out and shout our incredible discovery to the masses.

But they won’t ‘get’ it. It’s raw. Sure, our friends, family, fans and support groups may even sit beside us in eager anticipation as we expound upon our creations, but it don’t mean jack if it never becomes an actual story.







Anyone who has actually written a novel knows that your plans change during the telling of the story. The characters’ voice alters things. Sometimes they won’t play as instructed. If you never begin, how will you discover these changes?

So why do we do it? Are we to afraid to start? Maybe. Is our time limited? Definitely.

What do we do about it?







Set a time limit or goal. Make a plan like “I will build for a week or a month, then begin writing this monster.”

Write something about your world. Start a scene to get in the flow. You don’t have to keep it and it doesn’t have to be in chronological order. Set a time and jump in.

So if you’re trapped in your own worlds, jump on to a chair and just write.

Part of Your World: The Joys of World Building

Originally posted on 1/17/10 for the

Charge of the Write Brigade.






We all write in our own worlds. World building is as natural to the writer as breathing.

Maybe you have a space saga with strange planets or a fantasy epic with golden lands populated with elves and dragons. Some of us spend time in the past where knights rescue ladies or gunfighters meet at high noon. In your world monsters could exist, be they romantic immortals who have gotten a bad rep or horrific demons of old who’d rather eat you than look at you. Does your story take place within a secret society of magic users or deep within an ancient institution where deep coded secrets await discovery? Maybe your world is the tough crime ridden streets of New York or a quiet suburbia where your heroine tries to avoid love?



Regardless of where you place it, the scope of your world is governed by the scope of your story.

My first novel is set in the frontier colonies of the New World. Moving from smoggy, crowded London, Annabelle finds the peaceful clean air a stark contrast to her first ten years of life. The fresh smell of pine and the crisp sound of chopping wood becomes a comfort to her.




There can be pain and pleasure to writing about the real world and real history. It means tons of research so the past you use is as accurate as can be. I must read books, watch period shows, search out and save web pages about certain topics and set up a 2nd home on the History Channel. I save pictures of period style clothing and maps of locations, preferably from the era’s I’m writing about. All the while trying to imagine my characters strolling those old streets and seeing those historic events.



World building research isn’t just for historical fiction. In the realms of Sci-Fi and fantasy you still need governments, currency, food, entertainment, transportation and history

Base it on the real world. Ok, you’re writing about happy elves that live in a tree and make cookies. Who is the head elf? How did he or she become head elf? What is the hierarchy? Are they paid? Why do they live in tree houses? Are they hiding from something? What do they do on their time off?



We each find our own ways to create our worlds. Long walks, music and prior concepts we want to change are some ways. Recently I discovered one of my own.

I’m taking a break from friendly child vampires and trying my hand at regular fantasy. I’ve created my own mythical world of elves, dwarves, mermaids and dragons called Farnalla.




To create Farnalla I needed to make a map. Because of the nature of the story, I needed to think about the various mythical creatures and how they would migrate across the globe. This led to several maps, each covering a different era in their history.




As I created and altered the tribal and later, national boundaries, my mind had to do something. So it wandered. I found myself explaining to my daughters (whom were fascinated at the story) why the elves and fauns would merge their tribes, why the giants and dragons went to war over the mountains, and so on.




Before I knew it, I had an outline for the world’s entire history up to the present day when the novel starts.

That’s one way to world build. What are your favorite ways ?