Revenge of the Gamer

Hello? *listens to the echo* 

It’s awfully quiet, just the way I like it.  That might sound odd since this is a blog.  Shouldn’t I want a lot of traffic?  Not really, no.  I’ve avoided listing this site or trying to stir up traffic in any way.  This place serves a different purpose.  It helps measure my progress as a writer.  It’s a log of the projects I’m working on, and of the skills I’m cultivating.  My writing has improved a great deal in recent months, but there are still many things I need to learn.  Characterization, viewpoint, setting, syntax…all are skills I strive to master. 

Don’t get me wrong.  I’ve made tremendous strides, especially since I started a major project in February.  I decided to write a novel.  Really write a novel, not get half way through or a few chapters in before abandoning it.  I say that, because I’ve attempted to write a novel many times throughout my life.  Every previous attempt ended in failure, usually because I just didn’t like what I’d written.

This time is different, because for the first time I have a plan.  I set rules and have followed them, and the results are amazing.  I have over 200 pages done, and am two chapters away from finishing the rough draft.  So what did I do differently?

Rule #1 Get it done- My most critical rule is writing two thousand words every weekday.  That gives me 10k words to edit on evenings and weekends.  For the past four months I’ve followed this rule, and the longer I’ve done it the easier its become.  Now I casually belt out 10k words and have hit as high as 20k a couple of times.

This was difficult to accomplish in the past, because I spent too much time editing my work.  I’d write a few paragraphs, and then spend hours editing them.  Now I belt out several pages before going back to edit.  Even then I keep the editing to a minimum, because there is plenty of time for it after the first draft is complete.

Rule #2 The Outline- Cranking out a ton of words is useful, but you need a plan if you want to tell a good story.  Reading a book called Beginnings, Middles and Ends by Nancy Kress helped me tremendously.  It taught me to lay the entire novel out in scenes, and how those scenes need to be interconnected.  Now that I have a better understanding of the whole story its much easier for me to tell it well.

Rule #3 Know your Characters- In the past I often ran face first into a wall when writing.  I’d plot out the story and it sounded good, but for some reason I just couldn’t sit down and write it.  I finally realized why.  I’d crafted scenes and a general story, but I didn’t have people to fill it.  My characters were wooden and lifeless.  Even I wasn’t interested in them. 

I sat down and wrote a few pages about each character in the novel.  Who is Yuri and what are his goals?  How will he change?  Why?  I repeated this process for every character in the book.  Once I understood who they were whole new storylines opened.  The novel practically wrote itself as the characters came to life.

Rule #4 Show don’t Tell- Reading my past work the mistake I most often made was backfill.  Instead of showing my world through the story I had paragraphs of explanation littered everywhere.  For example in a fantasy story one of the nations outlawed magic.  I wrote several paragraphs explaining this to the reader, but it sounded flat and lifeless.  It was like reading a dry historical tome.

I picked up a book called Setting by Jack Bickham, and it provided a solution.  Instead of telling my reader I needed to show them through the perspective of the characters.  I had a character arrested for using magic.  The reader learned through the attitudes of the men who caught him, and from the circumstances of his trial that the nation of Olivantia hated magic.  It proved far more effective and I ended up with a more exciting scene.

So, there you have it.  Four simple changes have allowed me to accomplish a goal I’ve had since I was a child.  I’m very nearly done with the first draft of my novel, and I’m proud of what I’ve written.  I may not be Robert Jordan or Geore R.R. Martin, but I’ve proven I can finish a project I set my mind to.

I’ve decided to post once a week and will keep you updated on the Novel’s progress.  Watch for the next post which will go into the specifics of the plot, subject, and goals of the book.