Achievement Unlocked: Write a Novel!

So yesterday I wrote two words. Well, actually I wrote 4,446 words, which is actually a new daily record for me. But within those, I wrote two specific words: “The End.”

After just over a year of writing, and 112,956 words later, I finished the first draft of my first real novel. (Those who know recall that I wrote a novel in High School, but that was really just a 50,000 word inside joke)

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The story is called Bloodlines, and it follows a man named Matthew Drake. He works for a private security firm, which is hired to protect a team of researchers who are investigating a plague in China. The plague has a ridiculously high mortality rate, and the survivors exhibit very strange behavior. While there, he also starts to encounter some questions about his own heritage.

So…yeah, the above blurb isn’t that great. But I’ve been busy working on the book, not so much on a blurb.

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In the process of writing Bloodlines, I’ve learned a lot about writing. Looking at my first chapter, and my last, the progression of my prose is incredible. I am a far better writer now than I  was a year ago, and pumping out almost 200,000 words (I wrote a few short stories as well) was a big part of that.

I also have gained an incredible appreciation and sympathy for screenwriters, specifically regarding plot holes. Good crap, I have so many plot holes in my book that I’ll need to fix in revision. You could sail an entire U.S. carrier group through the plot holes in Bloodlines. Phew!

Juggling view points, writing a female character that is her own character, prose, pacing, engaging the senses, world building, and a lot of other things I still haven’t recognized yet. I’ve made progress in all of these.

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I finished a first draft. What’s next? (I’ve had a few people ask)

I’m not going to try to get Bloodlines published at this point. It is still a very rough story, and my first novel, I’ve got a lot of revising, and a lot of learning to do. In fact, Bloodlines won’t be the first novel that I want to be published. It is a solid story, but not what I want as my debut.

Right now I’m planning a novel for NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo is an annual decentralized “event,” basically a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. So, I’m planning for that, and then I’ll write it, start to finish, in November.

After that, I am planning on taking Brandon Sanderson’s writing class during next semester (Fingers crossed.) The homework for that class is to write a 30,000 novella.

In addition to writing the novella next semester (I write fast) I’m going to do some revising of Bloodlines, and get started on my next novel, which will be a fantasy.

Then I’m going to write the sequel to Bloodlines.

Finally, after that I am going to write a fantasy novel, which I’ve given the working title of “Succession.” That will be the novel which I try to get published as my debut novel. If all goes well, I should finish that book early 2016, with a goal of being published by the end of that year.

So, finishing Bloodlines is a huge milestone and accomplishment for me, but I’ve still got a long way to go before I become a best-selling author.

Last night I was talking with a few friends, and somehow we got on the topic of my writing. I started explaining one of my short stories, and someone expressed interest, and I ended up spending the next 45 minutes reading UEC Falcon. Three people ended up listening to the story, and although it was hard on my voice, it was really gratifying to experience people being interested in my writing.

It was almost as gratifying as the writing of UEC Falcon.

So I've been stewing on this story idea for several weeks. I had a core idea for the
 story: There is a military spaceship with only one engineer on board. The ship normally has a crew of hundreds, but it is just the one, and he can't remember what happened. This was an idea, but alone it wasn't enough for a story. I let the idea mull over in my head for a while, and work shopped it with my Writers Group. With their help, I got a few more scenes plotted out, developed an ending, and had a general overview of the story, but I still didn't feel ready to write it. There were missing pieces, and plot elements that didn't quite fit together.

So I continued to mull it over in my head. Then, on a Thursday or Friday, I was thinking about the story as I left work to get lunch, and as I was walking, pieces started falling into place until I had the entire story laid out before me. Everything fit together, it had a beginning, a middle, and an end, And I figured out how it would fit into the larger Nakt story line.

So I went home that evening, and typed up a scene-by-scene outline. Over that weekend and the next Monday/Tuesday I wrote a first draft of the story, clocking in a just over 7,000 words. Monday was the best part. I was recovering from a fever and so stayed home from work, I didn't feel sick, but I felt very fatigued. So after resting for a bit, I sat down to write. I wrote a scene, and then another, then decided to get to the scene after the next one. Two hours later, I had written just shy of 3,000 words. This was the most I've ever written in a single day.

The writing just flowed onto the screen. It was incredibly gratifying.

Revival

I haven't posted to this blog in a while.

Over this year (2014) I've become more serious about being a writer. I took a Creative Writing Lecture class from Brandon Sanderson this past winter semester, and I'm planning on doing his workshop class next winter semester. Plus, my main writer's group has become more regular in meeting, and better in critiquing. Along with all this, I'm trying to write 7,000 words a week.

It'll be several years, and a good number of no-so-great novel drafts before I become an actual accomplished author, but I want to get into good habits now that will help me reach that goal. Things such as writing every day, and maintaining a blog.

Another good habit to get into is accountability. So on those lines, here are the main writing projects I working on right now:



Bloodlines.
This is a SciFi/Thriller novel I'm working on. A mysterious plague breaks loose in several places around the world. The plague is lethal and spreading, and the survivors are exhibiting weird symptoms. Matthew Drake, a retired soldier who works for a private security firm, gets drawn in to these events.

I plan on this being the first book in a trilogy, but this isn't going to be the first book I try to get published. This book, and possibly its sequels are intended to be practice. I've written twelve chapters thus far, and I can already see ways that I am improving.

Nakt
This is going to be a series of SciFi short stories. The plan is for each one to stand on its own as a story, but for aspects of the stories to connect in an over arching plot. I don't know how it will work out, but I'm going to experiment. I've already written a first draft of one story, and I've outlined a second. I'd like to get a couple of these stories published, but again I'm not an awesome writer yet, so we'll see.

Succession
This one is a fantasy novel. I've got a few cool ideas that are coming together, but not a full story yet. I want this to be the novel I try to get published in a few years. In that vein, I'm not actually writing it yet. I'm working on world-building and plot-building. I also plan to write a few short stories, and maybe even a novella or two set in this world to help me explore it.



So those are the overarching projects I'm working on in my head. A bit more specifically:

Bloodlines, Draft 1:	40%
Outpost 17-C, Draft 2:	30%
UEC Falcon, Draft 1:	10%

That is where I am right now, and where I am heading as a writer.