MIA? Not anymore (Plus New Challenge & Giveaway of Sorts)

Really sorry for my absence. I hadn’t realized it had been almost two months since my last post. I do have book reviews to share, just haven’t had the time to edit them and post them up. I have been quite busy with life and my drawing. I also attend conventions and sell my art there.

The conventions have dimmed out and I have a bit more time to devote to this wonderful blog, which I missed very much. But no worries, I do have a great new challenge going on that you will all like.

NANOWRIMO has started and though this year I won’t be taking part in the writing aspect of it I will be continuing my writing tips from last year’s challenge. I will also be taking part in the 30 Days 30 Covers Challenge that runs along side NANOWRIMO. I am doing my own version of it since I can’t seem to figure out how the signing up for the offical challenge takes place. The best part of doing my own is that I can finally reveal my big surprise I have had in the works, at the end of the month one lucky reader/writer/commentor will get a FREE Book Cover.

Yup, you read right. I will be giving away one premade cover from my ever growing collection over at PremadeCovers4U. Please keep in mind that it will be one of my covers and not one created by one of the other artists. My covers are sold one time only, so don’t try to grab dibs on a cover that is currently up until the last day of the cover challenge because the cover might not be available then. This way you also don’t miss out on one of the wonderful new covers I design.

There is a catch. You have to of taken part in this year’s NANOWRIMO challenge and finished. The winner will need to send me the link to their NANOWRIMO page showing me the book they will be wanting the cover for. It is only fair. 🙂 This is meant as an extra incentive to finish that novel, without worrying about the cover. I will be posting a new blog entry with more info on it as the time approaches.

If you like this, go ahead and check out my Cover Challenge being posted over at my cover blog. Day 1-3 are already up and will be posted on the PremadeCovers4U shop later today.

If you are hesitant to check out my other blog here is Day Three’s Cover:

See you all tomorrow. I have a great online convention to share with you all, it has a great amount of writers, illustrators, and bloggers taking part, so make sure to check back Nov. 4th and check it out.

Web Serial Writing Month…Who’s ready?

Everyone knows November is National Novel Writing Month (NANOWRIMO), but do you all know August is known as Web Serial Writing Month (WESEWRIMO)? Well over at EpiGuide they sure do and they’ve been taking part for the last eight years. I don’t know what it is about writing in tight deadlines, but if you don’t give yourself one you might never sit down and get writing. So why not go for the gold.

When I received an email informing me about Web Serial Writing Month I just had to join. My new zombie series, The Dead Can Run, has been gathering quite a bit of dust lately and it needs to be finished and polished. What better way to motivate me to write than pure intense pressure and fear of word count milestones that seem to have no end? But it’s still too early to say that I won’t be trying to find ways to keep myself from writing. 🙂

On the other hand I see many hours of coffee and sugar rush in the future. How about you? If you’re up to the challenge why not end this summer with a great new story or serial in this case. This is also a great way to prep for that dreaded NANOWRIMO.

The best thing about this event is that YOU get to set your writing goals. 750 words a day, here I come.

Peaceful at Last, Now let’s get to Work

NaNoWriMo has started to become a blur for some of us, for other’s it is still a heavy reminder of the few pounds we gained from all that sugar rush and snacks. But now it’s time to hop back on the roller-coaster of publishing that novel.

Hope you used that time away from your manuscript to refresh your take on your story and are now prepared to hack it to pieces. Love hurts after all and you have to love your novel to want to clean it up, get it to par for publication, and decorate it with a beautiful cover.

In our first step of many, many steps, is Revision.

If you have already started revising, two thumbs up to you, but that isn’t always recommended for everyone. It is encouraged to take a break from your work before tackling the massive step of revising your story, to let your brain reset after writing 50,000 words in one month. It helps make it easier to notice misspelled words, obvious word swapping, and other minor edits you can avoid later.

So what exactly does one do in revising?

Revise:

• to re-examine and make alterations to a written or printed work, to alter so as to make such work more efficient or realistic

• to reread work done previously and improve one’s knowledge of the subject

And there you have it. This is the step where you reread your entire work, catch those obvious, hard to look away, mistakes. This is where you notice discrepancies, slipup’s, and gaps in your story, content, and flow. Here you cut the fat from the fat. Notice all those repetitive phrases and words, change them up or take them out completely.

Search for ‘as’ and try to take as many of them out. ‘As’ is mainly your brain telling you that you should use ‘and’ or start a new sentence. Sometimes you can flip the sentence around and delete both ‘as’ and ‘and’. Another word is ‘just’, the list goes on.

How about tackling those other areas like dialogue? You can read the dialogue on its own and then as part of the story to see how it flows. Dialogue is one of your weaker points in writing? Check out my blog on how to make dialogue work.

Don’t forget the dispute whether to use a prologue and epilogue. Does your first chapter work better as a prologue and does your prologue flow better as the first chapter? Read my take on this conundrum in Prologue and Epilogue, both or neither?

Done with revising? Fine tuned your dialogue and figured out what flow your story should start off with? Check back later for the next step or question rather, to beta or not to beta?! 🙂 Till then.

 

And the Winners are…

November is officially done and over with. December is here. Do I hear Saint Nick? Is that the sound of wrapping paper I hear?

How did you do? Did you pass that 50,000 word count like a pro or did you cross that finish line by the nose? Even if you didn’t hit that required word goal having written anything is an accomplishment all on its own. Words don’t write themselves. Stories don’t tell themselves. Ok maybe that last one does, but it needs you, the writer, to share it with the rest of us.

So, if you hit that dreaded 50,000th word go get those well deserved banners, print out that award, and grin like the awesome badass that you are. You wrote 50,000 words!

If you fell short, don’t sweat it. Your story is still there, listen to it and write the rest. Use the hype, the tips, and the tools you gathered during NaNoWriMo and power on through.

In whatever category you fall into, November was hectic to say the least. What still awaits you might have you wanting to hibernate for the rest of the year, heck maybe even well into next year. Where are my warm blankets?

What exactly awaits you?

• Revising
• Editing
• Book Cover hunting (or designing if you also enjoy that part of the creative process)
• Formatting
• Submitting
• Uploading (if you go the self publishing route)
• Marketing & Promoting
• Author Platform (hopefully you started this before November)

The list goes on. Working on a novel doesn’t end when you’ve written it.

Catch a snooze, a well overdue long nap and hop right back to it. You worked hard, now share that hard work with us. I want to read your story, so let me. 🙂

And here is my total word count: 50734

Do I hate every word I wrote? Maybe? But I will tell you this, I dislike them less than the words I still need to write. 🙂

Thanks for taking this challenge with me, for making this journey momentous. This was my first year finishing NaNoWriMo and I look forward to sharing the next one with you. But don’t disappear just yet, there is much more to come. I will be tackling the to-do list above and plan to hold a very nice surprise here soon as another way to say thanks.

So don’t go away or you’ll miss out. And why not share your final word count with us?

The NaNoWriMo Aftermath by Michael Young

Three more days! Oh my!

In our last blog we learned what author Paula Flumerfelt did after she finished NaNoWriMo and pushed ourselves to keep going. With today’s blog we take another glimpse past Novemver 30th, that dreaded day we realize just how far we have come. Check out author Michael Young’s reasons as to why NaNoWriMo really shouldn’t be a one month thing.

 

The NaNoWriMo Aftermath

It has been five years since I started doing National Novel Writing Month, and it’s an opportunity I’ll never pass up. The exhilaration of doing so much writing in such a short time never gets old. I put aside other things and focus completely on my writing. It’s like a writing roller coast, barreling along at such speed that once it is done, it seems to have gone by quickly.

The question is, what then?

After NaNo is over, you hit December, with all of its holidays, parties, shopping, travel and other events. All things not terribly suited for writing. You get out of the habit, and then when the doldrums of January hit, old routines have returned. Wouldn’t it be nice to keep some of that November momentum going?

It isn’t going to happen if you don’t plan for it. Think about the things you do during NaNo that make it a success:

1. You set a goal, and set it high. You make a goal that will likely make you stretch. You can’t just coast by with this one. It gives you a prize to look forward to, and helps motivate you to keep going a few more sentences, even when you are tired.

 

2. You minimize distractions. In order to hit your writing goals, you probably spent less time on Facebook, fewer minutes with your phone, and might have even changed your sleeping habits. This extra effort likely went a long way to letting you cross the finish line.

 

3. You take the time to plan out your path. Before setting out on your NaNo journey, many people take the time to make plans for how they will go forward. The truth is, planning is a great way to prevent writer’s block, and to help you write as quickly as you can. If you know what is going to happen next, at least generally, you can forge ahead with confidence.

 

My point today is that you do not need to leave these habits behind once the calendar reads December 1^st. Sure, heave a large sigh of relief, pat yourself on the back, and share your accomplishment with your friends and family. Then, sit down and get to work. Figure out how your are going to do things going forward. What about your NaNo experience worked for you? What did not?

Which of the habits that you formed can you continue over the long run? Perhaps you need to set your goal not at 50,000, but at 20,000 words a month. Even keeping up that pace, that’s 220,000 words for the other eleven months of the year for a grand total of 270,000 words a year. That’s enough for several novels! (Unless you are an aspiring Robert Jordan or Brandon Sanderson.)

Good luck getting the finish line, my friends. But don’t make it the end, but rather the starting line for what the rest of your writing year is going to be.

 

Bio

Michael Young is the author of the fantasy, supernatural series Age of Archangels and co-author of the action, sci-fi collaboration Cardinal Directions. Other works include The Canticle Prelude and its sequel The Frozen Globe.

Both are available for sale through Amazon (eBook and paperback) and BigWorldNetwork (audio).

 

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Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed Michael’s pep talk and got pumped to stay–well pumped. 🙂 Don’t forget: Finish strong and keep going strong. See you all at the end of the race. 🙂