New story time!
This one’s been kicking around for some time. Last year, Scott Roche and I co-wrote a novellette we called “The Battle of Wildspitze“. I’ve been trying to decide how to explain that world to people, and I think I have a concise way of summing it up.
- Harry Potter.
- But everyone knows about magic.
- And it’s 1910.
And that’s basically it in a nutshell. One of us had come up with an idea for a short story regarding dragon-riding pirates raiding airships, and we started writing. I had originally thought that this would be a parallel world, no really recognizable people in it, until Scott introduced Baron Richtoffen as one of the pirates. That single character nailed the setting, the attitude, and the timeline for me.
This is a preview of
MPF 2.07 – Norris Tilney and the Docks of Dover
.
Read the full post (196 words, estimated 47 secs reading time)
Back in the writing saddle, that is.
Hearing Matt Forbeck’s goal of writing 12 books in 12 months is both scary and inspiring. Basically, Matt is shooting to do a NaNoWriMo-length novel of 50,000 words every month in 2012. It’s made me sit down and start calculating what it would take to hit a million words in 2012. The number is surprisingly small – 1000000 – four NaNoWriMo projects (200,000), minus the shorts I’ve already written for MPF (just north of another 52,000) = about 750,000. Divide by the number of writing days I’ll have in 2012 (313) and I come up with 2,400 words a day. Wolfram Alpha puts it at 2396.16. But what’s 3.84 words among friends?
This morning, I started counting up the universes that I’ve got planned out and am currently writing in, or that I have stories that I plan on coming back to – recurring universes, as it were. So far, here they are:
- The Sinner – my two weird west stories- High Moon and The Devil’s Due.
- Sparks and Spells (that’s a tentative name) – the alt history fantasy/manapunk pre-WWI universe – Battle of Wildspitze and Finding the Fire. (This is the universe that Scott Roche and I are sharing / writing in.) New stories coming from both of us soon.
So, it’s December 1st, and another 30 days of crazy writing is behind us.
What now?
That’s a fantastic question. I have a couple of suggestions, and a couple of announcements. The short answer is this: keep your eyes on this web site. Because GSG is coming back. And because by the end of December, you’ll start seeing longer fiction here. And because there will also be regular short stories now that the craziness of NaNoWriMo is behind us.
If you need help getting your text to Amazon / BN / Smashwords / etc: Flying Island Press
The climax is over… now it’s time for cuddling the denouement.
Denouements are hard if you don’t know what they’re for. Show the characters reacting to your awesome stupendous world-shattering climax conflict resolution. And end. This is the “We’ve got Top Men working on it… Top Men.” This is the “R2! He’ll be all right, won’t he?… Award Ceremony… Everyone gets a medal but Chewie”. Grace note.
GO FINISH IT!
Download GSG NaNo Gaiden #30
Permanent link to this post (99 words, 1 image, estimated 24 secs reading time)
So, you’re not sure how to end your book.
No Problem! You’re over 50,000 words, right? h/t to Holly Lisle for the tip. If you’re interested in more great tips from her, sign up for her courses – and do it fast, because I don’t know if she’s taking new students. If you’re there too late, she has promised to have all of her courses made available for Kindle and Nook and whatnot, so watch for her instructional books at amazon.com. www.hollylisle.com.
Enjoy!
Download GSGNaNoGaiden Ep #29
Permanent link to this post (111 words, 1 image, estimated 27 secs reading time)
This is the grand finale! The last battle! Your hero is kicking butt! Or is Having His Butt Totally Kicked!
Either way, this is it! FINISH IT!
Download GSGNaNoGaiden Ep #28
Permanent link to this post (57 words, 1 image, estimated 14 secs reading time)
Get finished. You’re almost there. Go for it!
I’ve taken some writing courses over the last few months, and I’m learning a lot. I’ve hit a point where I’m starting to look for / see techniques that other authors are using. It’s weird, reading this way, where you notice a technique, and you might think that it takes you out of the story, but it hasn’t done that yet.
Download GSGNaNoGaiden Ep #27
Permanent link to this post (97 words, 1 image, estimated 23 secs reading time)
Your book may not be what you thought it would be when you started. You may have gone down a number of rabbit holes, taken left turns at Albequerque, and this may not be what you really wanted.
So what? You’ve got three days to write. Keep going. Don’t worry about it right now – make it as good as you can in this moment. And when we get into December, go back and edit the holy bejeebers out of it.
Hello, listeners.
It’s Black Friday, and traditionally, people have sales on Black Friday.
Comments (0) 
Themocracy