Filed Under (writing, writing tools) by J. Mark Miller on 14-07-2010
PWxyz linked to a fun little bobble today at GalleyCat, a little program called I Write Like.
Plug in a sample of your writing, and it spits out the name of a famous author whose style you emulate. When I plugged in the first chapter of my latest novel, Rise of the Sun King, I got this result:
When I entered the first draft in progress of my children’s story, Ethan’s Magic Leaf, I got this:
How about a sample of my sci-fi short story, The Last Silent Place?
How about the first two chapters of my first novel, The Swords of Xigara?
Best of all, the utility was consistent in its selection of authors. No matter how many times I plugged in the same writing sample, it always spit back the same result.
Who do you write like? Go find out.
 One of the most exciting aspects of writing, for me, is the process of discovery. I’ve found myriad layers of discovery from finding what’s in my imagination, discovering the motivations and personality traits of my characters, and most important, self-discovery.
As I’ve made the commitment to be more intentional about my writing over the last year, I’ve been learning what does and doesn’t work for me in the writing process. My first completed novel was one I had been working on half-heartedly for nearly ten years. I finally decided about a year ago to buckle down and finish it, spending a month rewriting and re-charting the 60,000 some-odd words I’d already produced, then finishing the first draft in about a month or so.
What was interesting about the process was how I unconsciously chose to approach the manual aspect of writing—good old paper and pencil. I purchased a five-subject spiral notebook, and went to work a few hours each day writing the remaining manuscript by hand, finishing it sometime in early October.
There’s a point to this story, so hang with me. The remainder of October was spent typing the hand-written manuscript into my computer, and though it was the extra step, it really became something of a blessing. During the transcription process, I was able to essentially do the first round of editing, so in the long run the time was not wasted.
When November came around, I was done with the transcription, and NaNoWriMo was under way. I had downloaded the trial version of Scrivener, determined to give it a real run for the money since I could purchase it at half price after winning NaNo. So here I was, suddenly shifting from writing a first draft by hand to writing on my laptop. Granted, I didn’t know if I could keep the minimum pace necessary to complete 50,000 words in 30 days writing my hand, but I suspect in hindsight I would have.
In fact, I now have suspicions I would have well exceeded the word count.
You see, I’ve since completed that NaNo novel, and as I’ve been going back to do a first round of revision, I’m finding I don’t like the voice of the novel as well as my hand-written one. Even after NaNo was over, and the pressure to produce a minimum word count was gone, I continued forging ahead on the laptop. I fell in love with Scrivener and used it daily to complete the first draft.
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve taken up plotting a new novel, and a short story as well. Without thinking about it, I’ve found myself with pencil and paper in hand, writing out the plots and notes to these stories by hand. I’m enjoying the process so much more than when sitting on the couch with my laptop, and I’m finding myself much less easily distracted. The whole experience feels more organic and natural to me, and I know I’m producing a better first draft.
NaNo is approaching, and I’m considering doing it by hand. Since I can enter a word count number of my own without using the official word counter, I’m thinking I can just figure out how many words per hand-written page I average and use that as a guide for my daily goal and word count. Sure, I’ll have to type it all up later, but I think I’ll come out with a much tighter manuscript in the end.
Filed Under (inspiration) by J. Mark Miller on 05-07-2010
A Writer’s Declaration
I am a writer.
I am a writer because I choose to be, not because someone else tells me I am.
I am a writer because I cannot not write.
I am a writer because I write, not because I have been published (or not).
I am a writer, and no agent, no editor, no rejection will deter me from writing.
I am a writer because I have stories to tell, even if only to myself.
I am a writer, and therefore I will make time to write.
I am a writer, and therefore I will continually hone my craft.
I am a writer, and therefore I will work hard to breathe life into my characters.
I am a writer, and therefore I will enjoy the journey.
I am a writer, and I will not allow obstacles to become insurmountable.
I am a writer, and I will write until I can write no more.
What’s your declaration? What would you add?
Happy writing!
 Hey there readers. I’ve been AWOL yet again, but in my own defense I’ve been busy. This week should be a good productive week of writing, revision, and blogging as I’m taking half a week of vacation.
In other news, LOST is over. Whether you did or didn’t like the finale episode, and even if you lost interest in the show somewhere along the way, you have to admit the series was a game changer, and television producers will be hard-pressed to find its like again.
There have been some rumors and hints around that LOST may come back again in the future. The producers said they wouldn’t have a hand in a sequel series, but ABC themselves may think otherwise. The plot was certainly left open-ended enough, and there are still more questions than answers about the island. Realizing the losties in the Earth-2 universe were actually dead and preparing to move on into the afterlife showed us evidence of further possible adventures.
What about Hurley and Ben as they continued to shepherd the island? Did Desmond escape the island and reunite with Penny and their kid? What’s up with Eloise Hawking? What about Lapidus, Richard, Kate, Sawyer, and the others who escaped on the plane? What about Walt, Aaron, and Sun and Jin’s kid? How do they figure into things?
I had a dream a few days ago that felt very much like the opening scene of a continuation of the series. Now roll with me here. There were many weird, impossible happenings in LOST, so you know what I’m about to share could make complete sense in that universe.
The scene begins with Jack and Hurley walking through a dark, damp cave with torches aloft. They fight their way through offending roots and cobwebs, followed by a gaggle of nameless, faceless losties. They’re searching for something, and Hurley keeps asking, “Dude, where are we going?” I’m not really sure if Hurley sees a dead Jack, or if Jack’s really there in the flesh. One clue is Hurley is holding a torch while Jack is not.
They round a final bend in the cave to find their way blocked by a large, blueish-white slab of something. Jack announces, “We’re here,” and Hurley steps up with his torch to see what’s going on. It’s a giant block of ice. There’s a shadow of something encased within, and Hurley reaches up to wipe the frost away from the ice’s surface. He gasps when he discovers what Jack has led them to.
John Locke is frozen inside.
Hurley whispers, “Dude,” and the LOST logo appears.
I get excited just thinking about it. What do you think happens next?
Happy writing.
Filed Under (editing, writing) by J. Mark Miller on 27-05-2010
 I’ve been a bad boy lately. Remember that post from just a few days ago about goals and stuff?
Yeah. I’m not even close.
I’m finding the editing/revision process to be much tougher than I’d anticipated. This is the first time I’ve ever sat down and started working hard on revisions for a completed novel. It’s taking up far more time than I’d planned on, and is harder in every way than I’d expected.
Add to all this, my family and I have decided to get off our rears and get in shape. We bought P90X last week, and are just a few days into it. I’ve lost some weight already, and feel much better, but it kind of saps my desire to do any serious thinking afterward. I’m hoping once I get into the groove of working out I’ll be able to get back to concentrating better.
To top it all off, I finally got around to reading John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series. What a fun ride. I can hardly put the books down, and would rather read them than revise my novel. Kudos and curses on you Mr. Scalzi for writing such good stuff.
Happy writing!
 With a name like Chaotic Shiny a website’s gotta be good right?
I have to thank Lynn Viehl at Paperback Writer for posting a bunch of links to Chaotic Shiny’s generators. I’ve already put one of them to good use.
I’m sure many of you have used name generators before—and this site has those—but the real beauty here is the sheer number of generators I’ve never seen anywhere else.
The Civilization Generator helped me flesh out an idea for the central culture of a novel I hope to write in the next year or so. You’ll find generators for superstitions, mottos, laws, languages, and much more.
I highly recommend you bookmark Chaotic Shiny.
 I’ve already made mention of how good I think James Scott Bell’s The Art of War for Writers is, but I’d like to put one of its recommendations into practice. To do so, I’m putting this up for public record.
Chapter 4 of the book talks about discipline as the first step toward victory. One area of discipline is to set writing goals and stick to them. I’ve already discovered this for myself, but in terms of writing there is a further piece of advice which Bell learned from Anthony Trollope.
Write a quota of words every week.
Rather than shoehorning a daily writing goal into a schedule which doesn’t always work out as planned, set a weekly quota based on six days of writing per week. That way, if writing one day goes awry, you can make it up on another day, plus have an extra day for making it up if absolutely necessary.
I still keep a daily record of the number of words I write, but my goal has shifted to a weekly rather than daily quota. Here are the quotas I’m setting for myself, broken up into two separate sets of circumstances.
While Working on Revisions:
- Weekly word quota: 8,000 words (average 1,333 words per day, six days a week)
- Weekly revision quota: 6 chapters (average 1 chapter per day, six days a week)
- Weekly reading quota: 6 chapters (average 1 chapter per day, six days a week; these are writing improvement books, not reading for pleasure)
- Weekly blogging quota: 3 posts per week minimum
While Not Working on Revisions:
- Weekly word quota: 9,000 words (average 1,500 words per day, six days a week)
- Weekly revision quota: 6 chapters (average 1 chapter per day, six days a week)
- Weekly reading quota: 6 chapters (average 1 chapter per day, six days a week)
- Weekly blogging quota: 3 posts per week minimum
Observations
- The pace of writing new content is only slightly reduced during revision work times. I’ll admit the revision/editing process is one I’ve not fully experienced before, so I may have to come back and adjust some quotas there. I finished my first novel just before NaNoWriMo started, and I set it aside until I finished my second novel just over this last weekend. I now have two 150,000+ word novels ready for revisions.
- I won’t beat myself up if I don’t reach the daily average. I used to feel bad about not making the daily goal, but since switching to this method, I’m finding myself surpassing the weekly quota by one to two thousands words fairly easily.
- I wonder if this method will work during NaNoWriMo? At first glance, it looks like it would, making the weekly goal 11,667 words per week. The pace during NaNo is frenzied anyway, but spreading it out over a week makes it seem more manageable. I’m concerned, however, that it takes away one of the largest motivating factors of the event—the daily pressure to produce.
- How does the brainstorming and planning of new stories work into all this? I’ve always wondered how other authors deal with the planning stages of their works? Are they still writing something everyday in addition to brainstorming, or do they count whatever notes they put down as counting toward a word count? Can anyone comment on this?
How do you set quotas for yourself? What methods or advice can you share that has helped you reach your writing goals.
Filed Under (fantasy, novels, writing) by J. Mark Miller on 14-05-2010
 I’m about to jump in a car and be out of pocket for the next two day, but I thought I’d throw this little bit of info up before I go.
The first draft of my second novel, Rise of the Sun King, is complete.
Now it’s time to rewrite.
.
 I just got The Art of War for Writers by James Scott Bell in the mail yesterday. I haven’t had a chance to get very far into it, but I know it’s going to be good.
How do I know? Well, here’s a simple paragraph from the introduction. Tell me this doesn’t sell the book.
“Because I am, like you, a writer. We understand each other. We are not like other people. We are, in fact, pitiable wretches.”
If those lines don’t resonate with you, you’re probably not a writer.
.
 The weekend is here, and it’s time for me to buckle down and get some writing done—in between yard work, family in town, and special events. Oh, and I must not forget the Sunday ritual of watching Stargate Universe and Doctor Who.
On to this week’s links.
Slush Metrics at Gabrielle Edits
Writing Wisdom from Dave Cullen at Rants & Ramblings (Rachelle Gardner)
The Worst of Contracts by Chip MacGregor
FAQ: Fanfic by Charles Stross
Feeling Like A Loser? Go Outside for Five Minutes at Consumerist (great advice for writers)
The Series Bible by Nathan Bransford (Scrivener is a killer app for helping you accomplish this easily)
7 steps to creativity – how to have ideas at Write to Done
Are You Getting These 5 Daily Writing Vitamins? at Write it Sideways
Agent Barbara Poelle On: Three Things Debut Authors Should Know When Signing With an Agent by Chuck Sambuchino
Happy writing and enjoy the weekend!
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