Sir Alec of McQuay linked me in this, and so I shall endeavour to continue, albeit with a little difference.
What is the working title of your book?
At the moment, it is 'Spirit Warriors Saga: Book One'. A tad assumptive, I know, but In the process of writing I realised that If I had included the entire story that I wanted to write, it was going to be a rather large tome, so cut it into managable book-size chunks.
Where did the idea come from for the book?
I guess the idea for this book came out of a love of fantasy and dragons. I decided to participate in this years NaNoWriMo, and felt that the first thing I attempted to properly write should be of a genre I know pretty well. Therefore, I went with fantasy. The rest kind of just fell into place along the way...
What genre does your book fall under?
Fantasy, can't you read? Seriously though, maybe High Fantasy, if we're being technical. There's not a lot of high fantasy that's really grabbed the market at the moment, nothing major has been released and taken hold that I've noticed since Christopher Paolini's Inheritance cycle finished.
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
This one, I couldn't possibly speculate. My characters are very much themselves, and in a movie renditon I'd have to let the director decide who best to represent who. Though I can definitely see Tom Hiddleston playing the part of the Necromancer. He has that crazy-face down to a tee.
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
When Will and his friends are sucked into another universe, they find themselves in the warpath of an evil Necromancer - can they survive his wrath and find a way back home?
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Well, I've seen several publishers that are open to novel-length submissions at the moment, so I aim to get it submitted to them as soon as possible. Ideally, I'd get a contract with them for the book (hopefully for both/all three of the books), but if that fails who knows. I may look into self-publishing.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
27 days exactly. I averaged 2,318 words a day throughout the month of November, and managed to finish off the manuscript at a fair 69,544 words. Of course this number will increase as I get further through the rewrite/editing process.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Narnia, for the sheer fact that young people get sucked into another dimension and thrown into a conflict there. It has a large range of fantasy creatures involved in it, and more to come in the subsequent novels, so maybe a piece of Tolkein's Middle Earth stuff too - he has a diverse range of races also.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
NaNoWriMo got me thinking of doing it, but when push came to shove it was my dear other half, Katie Wright, that pushed me on throughout the month of writing to get it done and finished. Thanks should also go to my university friends, who asked me almost every single day how it was going, and to Alec McQuay (mentioned above) and Abhinav Jain, both of whom encouraged me throughout the process.
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
I think the characters are well-rounded and interesting, and there's certainly a lot left to be answered where the book ends, hell even when the book begins, so I'd hope that they would be drawn in by the originality of the story.
Now for the slight deviance from Alec's - unfortunately I don't have as many friends that are writing novels, aside from Connor Edwards - you should definitely check his stuff out. So there's just that one link I am afraid! Happy Monday.
Monday, 10 December 2012
Saturday, 1 December 2012
The End!
So, NaNoWriMo has come to a close. BUT, I did finish my novel, and have since begun editing it. The prologue has been dropped entirely, and the editing process has begun on the first chapter, with at least two people reading it through for me right this moment! The editing process would have been held off until January at the earliest, but there are several publishers I've discovered (four I believe, to be precise), that all have open submission windows that are asking for things suitable for my story to fit into. Therefore, I hope to get the first three chapters edited and polished and sent off (in some cases just the first one - they vary in what they ask for).
NaNoWriMo has taught me so much about writing in general, and more specifically about myself as a writer. For instance, I know my best writing hours are 10pm - Midnight, where I've often managed to crank my measly 200-500 word count up to 2-4k. I now also have found that, if I don't read over what I've already written (bar searching back using the find button for specific things I need for continuity) I get alot more done! Other things have penetrated my brain too, like I can now 'read' my brain, and determine when I really do have writers block and need to go do something else, or if my muse is feigning death and hiding around the corner, waiting to be dragged kicking and screaming back into work. One of the most important things NaNo has given me, however, is the ability to write to a deadline.
Having finished my novel a few days prior to the end of November, I began searching around for other things to occupy my writing time in the leui between November and editing in January. I found a fair few, and listed them down in a handy excel spreadsheet; one of which was an anthology submission for the 30th of November. Now, it got to Friday night, approximately half ten, and I still hadn't done anything towards my submission. I had a vague idea of what I was going to write about, but nothing more. The urge took me to try, and so I sat at my pc, and managed to finish a short story of 2,700 words (approximately) by 11:50pm. I gave it two looks over and adjusted one or two words to make it flow better but, all in all, it was pretty decent attempt (so I thought then - I'm not going to go back and read it now just in case I find mistakes that I missed). At 11:55pm I had it sent off via email, all the formatting guidelines followed. I now just have to twiddle my thumbs and wait for a response.
I know what you're thinking - I've said that I was going to wait until Januray to edit my NaNo novel, and I've said that I decided not to wait and have already started doing that. I've also said that I have a list of anthology submissions to attempt in the meantime between now and editing my novel. So, I've decided to do both. Editing is less like writing and more like reading (at the moment, I've yet to find something big that needs changing), and so I'm reviewing my novel when my creative writing muse gives up. Currently, I'm working on two pieces - one steampunk-style short-ish (10-20k) and one quadrilogy of short stories (four 2000-word pieces that tie together and would be released as a serial if they get through selection). So I'm keeping busy. I'm actually quite excited about the steampunk one, as I've never tried anything like that type of fiction before, so its all new and spangly and I get to play with some cool ideas within it.
Back to my novel submissions - If it doesn't get an acceptance through a publishing company before April/May, I'll be utilising a NaNoWriMo partnership company that gives all NaNo "Winners" five free printed copies of their manuscript, and offers them the chance to set it up as a self-published print on demand/ebook via amazon. This I'll do, in the vain hope that someone somewhere will want to read it; if this is the case, I'll be setting it at a low price, somewhere in the region of £2-3. Who knows. I'll be back sometime this week with further updates on my whereabouts with my stories and whatever else is going on in my life at present. Peace!
NaNoWriMo has taught me so much about writing in general, and more specifically about myself as a writer. For instance, I know my best writing hours are 10pm - Midnight, where I've often managed to crank my measly 200-500 word count up to 2-4k. I now also have found that, if I don't read over what I've already written (bar searching back using the find button for specific things I need for continuity) I get alot more done! Other things have penetrated my brain too, like I can now 'read' my brain, and determine when I really do have writers block and need to go do something else, or if my muse is feigning death and hiding around the corner, waiting to be dragged kicking and screaming back into work. One of the most important things NaNo has given me, however, is the ability to write to a deadline.
Having finished my novel a few days prior to the end of November, I began searching around for other things to occupy my writing time in the leui between November and editing in January. I found a fair few, and listed them down in a handy excel spreadsheet; one of which was an anthology submission for the 30th of November. Now, it got to Friday night, approximately half ten, and I still hadn't done anything towards my submission. I had a vague idea of what I was going to write about, but nothing more. The urge took me to try, and so I sat at my pc, and managed to finish a short story of 2,700 words (approximately) by 11:50pm. I gave it two looks over and adjusted one or two words to make it flow better but, all in all, it was pretty decent attempt (so I thought then - I'm not going to go back and read it now just in case I find mistakes that I missed). At 11:55pm I had it sent off via email, all the formatting guidelines followed. I now just have to twiddle my thumbs and wait for a response.
I know what you're thinking - I've said that I was going to wait until Januray to edit my NaNo novel, and I've said that I decided not to wait and have already started doing that. I've also said that I have a list of anthology submissions to attempt in the meantime between now and editing my novel. So, I've decided to do both. Editing is less like writing and more like reading (at the moment, I've yet to find something big that needs changing), and so I'm reviewing my novel when my creative writing muse gives up. Currently, I'm working on two pieces - one steampunk-style short-ish (10-20k) and one quadrilogy of short stories (four 2000-word pieces that tie together and would be released as a serial if they get through selection). So I'm keeping busy. I'm actually quite excited about the steampunk one, as I've never tried anything like that type of fiction before, so its all new and spangly and I get to play with some cool ideas within it.
Back to my novel submissions - If it doesn't get an acceptance through a publishing company before April/May, I'll be utilising a NaNoWriMo partnership company that gives all NaNo "Winners" five free printed copies of their manuscript, and offers them the chance to set it up as a self-published print on demand/ebook via amazon. This I'll do, in the vain hope that someone somewhere will want to read it; if this is the case, I'll be setting it at a low price, somewhere in the region of £2-3. Who knows. I'll be back sometime this week with further updates on my whereabouts with my stories and whatever else is going on in my life at present. Peace!
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