So once again I’ve discovered being a perfectionist is more of a curse than a blessing. I did have book one completed but I wasn’t really happy with the last 9 chapters of the book even though other people said they were okay and I tried to ignore my doubts but I couldn’t. So I went back to the drawing board and have been working on trying to write a new ending to the book that I find more exciting and interesting. The trouble is I keep getting side tracked writing book two of the now planned trilogy which I’m really enjoying because I have spent so much time working on the imaginary world and characters that it feels like they’ve almost taken on a life of their own.
At the moment I’m pleased with how book two is progressing but it makes getting the ending right to book one even more crucial. Unfortunately this means it is also taking me a long time to get book one finished but I’d prefer to spend the extra time on it and try to make it as good as I can. I guess at the end of the day I’d like the finished book to be something that throws me into an imaginary world full of excitement and conjures up amazing images in my mind when I read it.
Tuesday 17 November 2015
Monday 13 April 2015
Dragons
As soon as I mention that I’m writing a fantasy book many people automatically say ‘ooh dragons’ and I suppose they have become very synonymous with the fantasy genre. That’s the problem though, there are just so many stories featuring dragons that I decided not to include them in my first fantasy book. However I’m now seriously considering writing a dragon into my sequel if I can find a way to incorporate it in an interesting way.
I’m currently in the process of planning the storyline for the second book in more depth and ensuring everything ties up neatly with the events that occurred in the first. So it’s decision time now and I have to decide whether to include a dragon or not.
Friday 27 March 2015
Editing My New Fantasy Book
I’ve been busy editing/rewriting the first draft of my new fantasy book. I asked someone to read through the whole story and give me feedback which was really helpful as it was great to have someone else’s perspective on the book. The only trouble with the editing is that I find I end up second guessing myself too much if I’m not careful. It’s tough finding a happy balance between making improvements and getting carried away and changing things for the worse.
The other problem is I keep thinking of new things and extra details I want to include in the story but I think it’s finally getting to the finished stage. So now I can start concentrating on writing the second book in the series and then I will make final alterations to this one later.
Although l also need to proofread, typeset and think of a name for book 1 of the series I’ve now got a really good idea of what to do for the cover so it’s starting to all come together into the finished article which is exciting. Thinking of a title is probably my biggest hurdle at the moment but I am hoping if I focus on writing the second book maybe ideas for titles of both books might just come to me. If not I will have to sit down and have a really big brainstorm.
The other problem is I keep thinking of new things and extra details I want to include in the story but I think it’s finally getting to the finished stage. So now I can start concentrating on writing the second book in the series and then I will make final alterations to this one later.
Although l also need to proofread, typeset and think of a name for book 1 of the series I’ve now got a really good idea of what to do for the cover so it’s starting to all come together into the finished article which is exciting. Thinking of a title is probably my biggest hurdle at the moment but I am hoping if I focus on writing the second book maybe ideas for titles of both books might just come to me. If not I will have to sit down and have a really big brainstorm.
Tuesday 24 March 2015
The Magic Key - 2
Continuation of posts 10 Minute Madness Experiment and The Magic Key - 1
‘It’s obvious it’s old. You know no more than I do so just admit that instead of speculating the obvious.’
‘I was only trying to help,’ he answered, hurt by his older sisters comments.
‘Well I’d really appreciate help searching this place if you two don’t mind.’
‘Of course not,’ Sheila said, ‘I think we’d both like to know what it opens.’
‘Divide and conquer I say.’ Jeff jumped up. ‘I’ll take downstairs.
Slowly the three began searching every item and door in the house looking for anything with a keyhole and excluding each item in turn when the key refused to even insert into most let alone turn. After several hours of searching and with every nook and cranny checked to no avail Jeff threw himself down on the couch exhausted. ‘This is hopeless,’ he complained to the other two who had re-joined him in the living room after their own fruitless exploration. ‘We’re never going to find it. Mat are you sure dad didn’t give you some item, maybe years ago.’
‘No nothing.’ Mat thought back still unable to remember any item his uncle had given him with a lock.
‘Well that just leaves the gardens and outbuildings.’ Sheila stated less willing to give up so easily than her brother. ‘Come on.’
‘At least let a chap have some lunch first.’ Jeff protested.
‘You stay if you want but I want to find out.’
‘Oh all right.’ Jeff pulled himself off of the couch with effort. ‘This had better be worth missing lunch for.’
Saturday 14 March 2015
New Author Page
I decided it was a good idea to create an author page at Amazon, something I had been putting off doing because of a fear of the unknown combined with being unsure what information to provide about myself. I shouldn’t have worried though as the whole process couldn’t have been simpler or easier to do and I’m now wondering why I didn’t do it sooner.
You can view the page at http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B00UL83P4O
You can view the page at http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B00UL83P4O
Sunday 8 March 2015
What I’m Currently Working On
The first book I wrote was a science fiction although people have told me since it’s a mystery as well as it kept them in suspense as to what would happen next and how the story would end. I love the genres of science fiction and fantasy equally though and whilst I have more ideas for science fiction books I decided I would work on a fantasy next. In fact it will be book 1 of at least a 2 book fantasy series as I had too much storyline I wanted write to make it just a single book.
Although some may say the genres are fairly close I’m noticing the significant differences. With the fantasy it can be quite challenging to try and make a fantasy world and events that can’t possibly happen seem real. It’s nice though being able to let my imagination run wild and dream up whatever I like although I still have the boundaries I’ve set myself of trying to make it seem real.
I’ve finished the first draft of the first book and now I’ve just started the process of going through re-writing vast amounts and refining other parts so it will be a while yet before it’s finished. Also I’ve never attempted writing a series before and my inclination is to start writing book 2 before publishing this one. I know from experience I find, although I have a storyline planned, I will stumble across ways I feel I can improve it during writing which leaves me having to alter earlier events to match with the new events that unfold later. That would definitely cause me problems if I had already published the first book and therefore could no longer change it.
I’m also getting to the point where I need to start thinking about a cover and title for the book which I have to admit I’m a bit baffled about. I do have a vague idea of how I want the cover to look but I think choosing a title that hasn’t already been used by either a film or book is one of the most difficult aspects of writing. Also it is tough finding a name that suitably reflects the contents of the book and portrays the right image for it. I’m still not sure the title of my previous book is the most suitable but there were too many things already titled want I wanted to originally call it so I ended up with about my 20th choice.
Tuesday 3 March 2015
Photography
Technology Themed Short Story
It’s great being able to talk to people with the same passion I have for writing and so I decided to attend the writers group again but that meant I had to complete what they refer to as the ‘homework’. A short story, approximately 1200 words in length in relation to the subject or theme they set. This time it could be a story about anything provided it contained the words ‘memory stick’, ‘mobile phone’ and ‘tablet’, which as someone pointed is basically a technology themed story.
The problem I have is I’ve never been any good at short stories. I start writing and no matter how good my intentions are to keep it short the storyline just runs away with me becoming more complex by the second until I reach a point where I have to turn it into a novella or novel in order to give it a proper ending. I wanted to show willing though so I decided to try my best and give it as much of an ending as I could but I still feel I could continue it on to reach a better ending. I have other ideas for stories I’m currently working on or want to do but once I’ve completed those I might revisit this one and expand on it.
I thought I’d post my efforts here. I’m busy with my new novel and didn’t have the time to invest in writing the ‘homework’ so once again it is an unedited first draft and written in a bit of a rush.
The problem I have is I’ve never been any good at short stories. I start writing and no matter how good my intentions are to keep it short the storyline just runs away with me becoming more complex by the second until I reach a point where I have to turn it into a novella or novel in order to give it a proper ending. I wanted to show willing though so I decided to try my best and give it as much of an ending as I could but I still feel I could continue it on to reach a better ending. I have other ideas for stories I’m currently working on or want to do but once I’ve completed those I might revisit this one and expand on it.
I thought I’d post my efforts here. I’m busy with my new novel and didn’t have the time to invest in writing the ‘homework’ so once again it is an unedited first draft and written in a bit of a rush.
Copyright © Yvonne Arlott 2015
This is a work of fiction. All characters, events and places in this publication are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, events and places in this publication are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All Rights Reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the author, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover.
As the progress bar continued migrating slowly across the screen Dale rechecked the results on his tablet to reassure himself he was doing the right thing. There was no mistaking it; the company had made an error in the programming, an error that caused the code to deviate more each cycle from its original lines of code. A never ending loop that would result in the programming becoming so corrupted there was no telling what would happen. The deviation each cycle was so minuscule it wouldn’t happen straight away, maybe not even for many years but gradually it would become more and more noticeable and eventually dangerous.
So many robots had already been sold with the software though that the last thing the company wanted was to have to recall them all. If it didn’t send the company bust overnight then it would definitely impact their reputation. They probably figured by the time people saw the robots acting bizarrely they would have made their fortune and be long gone. They didn’t seem to realise or want to admit the robots could become dangerous, depending on how the code deviated. It was such a small error after all and most of the robots were still functioning normally. It was only luck that they had even found the problem after one of the robots had been returned faulty. For some reason in that particular robot the error had deviated faster each cycle, a circumstance they still couldn’t explain, which resulted in it accidentally knocking its owner unconscious when handing her a drink. That had happened already and things could only get worse, that’s why he had to let people know and for that he needed proof.
The files had nearly downloaded when he heard footsteps in the corridor outside the room. He still worked for the company and had clearance to be in the room but that very morning he’d had such a ruckus with his boss over recalling the robots that his boss had put him on forced leave. No doubt all his work colleagues would have heard about it by now and whoever it was approaching the door would be bound to question his reasons for working alone, late at night.
The computer beeped signalling the files had downloaded and he hastily retrieved the stick and shut the computer. The screen blinked off as the sound of footsteps grew louder and he waited with abated breath hoping they would pass him by. He felt the vibration before he heard it as his mobile phone began to ring. He desperately fumbled in his pocket trying to turn it off but it was too late. The office door swung open and a man in his late 40’s entered.
‘Dale! What are you doing here?’ He tried to stay calm, hoping the guard wouldn’t notice his panic or distressed state.
‘I just had to tidy up some files to make it a bit easier for whoever takes over while I’m away.’ He gave a half laugh that turned into more of a nervous chortle. The guard eyed him suspiciously and he knew at once his nervous behaviour was the cause. He forced himself to project a calmer manner as he continued on. ‘Guess you heard about my trouble with the boss earlier? Thought it best to keep out his way for a bit so figured it was better to pop in after he’d gone home.'
The guard laughed, relaxing slightly. ‘I think the whole staff heard about that argument. Apparently he was actually shaking after you left him and his face was bright red. His secretary’s been telling everyone. I’m surprised he didn’t fire you then and there.’
‘So am I to be honest.’ Dale forced a laugh.
‘I think you’ve got the right idea keeping out his way, at least until the dust has settled.’
‘Well I’ve finished here and I’m on vacation now for 3 weeks so that shouldn’t be a problem.’ He felt beads of sweat beginning to form on his brow and hoped the guard wouldn’t notice. He had the advantage the lights in the office were turned off and the only light that filtered in came from the corridor.
‘Enjoy yourself and think of us poor souls still slaving away here.’
‘I will.’ Dale smiled, casually picking up his bag containing the memory stick and taking his leave before the guard could change his mind. He had reached the office door when the guard called after him to hold up. He froze, fearing something had happened to give him away.
‘I’ve got a little boy at home who is mad on those robots you make. If you get any discounts for them you couldn’t by any chance send one my way could you?’ Dale exhaled softly, trying to conceal his relief.
‘Yeah sure. We get various staff discounts from time to time.’
‘That’s great. Thanks mate I owe you one.’
‘No worries.’ He smiled and left, feeling sorry for the guard. Once he exposed the data to the world it wouldn’t take the company long to find out he was the one who had stolen it and from there work out who was on duty at the time. The chances were that the guard would lose his job or at the very least get a severe reprimand but he’d gone too far to turn back now. And more was at stake than one man’s job.
Relief washed over him as he finally exited the building and got into his car. He pulled out his laptop and the memory stick. It wouldn’t take him long now to upload the entire contents to the Internet and once there the company would find it impossible to cover up or to refute such hard facts. They would have no choice but to recall all their products. He of course would lose his job but that would be a small price to pay considering the potential disaster he would have averted. The file finished uploading and he smiled pleased, knowing he had succeeded.
There was only one thing that kept niggling at him slightly, disturbing his triumph. What had caused the deviation each cycle in the code and why had that one robot’s code altered so much faster than any of the others? They knew it had to be an error in the programming but no one had been able to find the exact lines of code causing it and that bothered him. Something just didn’t feel right.
Dale drummed his fingers impatiently on the desk as he waited for the files to finish transferring to the memory stick. All the while he remained alert for sounds of anyone approaching the room. It was taking longer than he had thought it would and every second increased the risk of his discovery. He couldn’t let that happen, too much was at stake. He was the only one who could expose what was really going on. He knew no one else at the company had the guts or were prepared to risk the penalties for stealing files even though they had all seen the same results he had and knew the inevitable outcome if someone didn’t stop it.
As the progress bar continued migrating slowly across the screen Dale rechecked the results on his tablet to reassure himself he was doing the right thing. There was no mistaking it; the company had made an error in the programming, an error that caused the code to deviate more each cycle from its original lines of code. A never ending loop that would result in the programming becoming so corrupted there was no telling what would happen. The deviation each cycle was so minuscule it wouldn’t happen straight away, maybe not even for many years but gradually it would become more and more noticeable and eventually dangerous.
So many robots had already been sold with the software though that the last thing the company wanted was to have to recall them all. If it didn’t send the company bust overnight then it would definitely impact their reputation. They probably figured by the time people saw the robots acting bizarrely they would have made their fortune and be long gone. They didn’t seem to realise or want to admit the robots could become dangerous, depending on how the code deviated. It was such a small error after all and most of the robots were still functioning normally. It was only luck that they had even found the problem after one of the robots had been returned faulty. For some reason in that particular robot the error had deviated faster each cycle, a circumstance they still couldn’t explain, which resulted in it accidentally knocking its owner unconscious when handing her a drink. That had happened already and things could only get worse, that’s why he had to let people know and for that he needed proof.
The files had nearly downloaded when he heard footsteps in the corridor outside the room. He still worked for the company and had clearance to be in the room but that very morning he’d had such a ruckus with his boss over recalling the robots that his boss had put him on forced leave. No doubt all his work colleagues would have heard about it by now and whoever it was approaching the door would be bound to question his reasons for working alone, late at night.
The computer beeped signalling the files had downloaded and he hastily retrieved the stick and shut the computer. The screen blinked off as the sound of footsteps grew louder and he waited with abated breath hoping they would pass him by. He felt the vibration before he heard it as his mobile phone began to ring. He desperately fumbled in his pocket trying to turn it off but it was too late. The office door swung open and a man in his late 40’s entered.
‘Dale! What are you doing here?’ He tried to stay calm, hoping the guard wouldn’t notice his panic or distressed state.
‘I just had to tidy up some files to make it a bit easier for whoever takes over while I’m away.’ He gave a half laugh that turned into more of a nervous chortle. The guard eyed him suspiciously and he knew at once his nervous behaviour was the cause. He forced himself to project a calmer manner as he continued on. ‘Guess you heard about my trouble with the boss earlier? Thought it best to keep out his way for a bit so figured it was better to pop in after he’d gone home.'
The guard laughed, relaxing slightly. ‘I think the whole staff heard about that argument. Apparently he was actually shaking after you left him and his face was bright red. His secretary’s been telling everyone. I’m surprised he didn’t fire you then and there.’
‘So am I to be honest.’ Dale forced a laugh.
‘I think you’ve got the right idea keeping out his way, at least until the dust has settled.’
‘Well I’ve finished here and I’m on vacation now for 3 weeks so that shouldn’t be a problem.’ He felt beads of sweat beginning to form on his brow and hoped the guard wouldn’t notice. He had the advantage the lights in the office were turned off and the only light that filtered in came from the corridor.
‘Enjoy yourself and think of us poor souls still slaving away here.’
‘I will.’ Dale smiled, casually picking up his bag containing the memory stick and taking his leave before the guard could change his mind. He had reached the office door when the guard called after him to hold up. He froze, fearing something had happened to give him away.
‘I’ve got a little boy at home who is mad on those robots you make. If you get any discounts for them you couldn’t by any chance send one my way could you?’ Dale exhaled softly, trying to conceal his relief.
‘Yeah sure. We get various staff discounts from time to time.’
‘That’s great. Thanks mate I owe you one.’
‘No worries.’ He smiled and left, feeling sorry for the guard. Once he exposed the data to the world it wouldn’t take the company long to find out he was the one who had stolen it and from there work out who was on duty at the time. The chances were that the guard would lose his job or at the very least get a severe reprimand but he’d gone too far to turn back now. And more was at stake than one man’s job.
Relief washed over him as he finally exited the building and got into his car. He pulled out his laptop and the memory stick. It wouldn’t take him long now to upload the entire contents to the Internet and once there the company would find it impossible to cover up or to refute such hard facts. They would have no choice but to recall all their products. He of course would lose his job but that would be a small price to pay considering the potential disaster he would have averted. The file finished uploading and he smiled pleased, knowing he had succeeded.
There was only one thing that kept niggling at him slightly, disturbing his triumph. What had caused the deviation each cycle in the code and why had that one robot’s code altered so much faster than any of the others? They knew it had to be an error in the programming but no one had been able to find the exact lines of code causing it and that bothered him. Something just didn’t feel right.
Saturday 28 February 2015
Proofreading
If there are too many errors in a book it can be very off putting when reading through it and can ruin the flow of the story so proofreading is essential. If you are able to it’s great if you can hire a proof reader but if you’re self-publishing, with the other costs involved, that may be a luxury you can’t afford. You can ask friends and family to read through the manuscript and look for mistakes but if the story is good the chances are they will get wrapped up in reading it and miss all the errors. That leaves the last resort. You have to trawl through the book repeatedly yourself, which is not ideal as there is an art to proof reading but at least hopefully you may find the majority of errors.
I found proofreading was one of the things that took the longest time in the whole publishing process and I still doubted that all the mistakes were eliminated. Someone told me the best way to proofread is to read something backwards as now you will read each word properly without your brain guessing what the word in the sentence is and seeing what it wants to see. Even if you adopt this approach I find you do still need to read the book through in order to find grammatical errors and words that are spelt correctly but do not fit in the sentence such as the following examples:
‘She was starring at the moon.’ Which should of course be: ‘She was staring at the moon.’
I noticed when writing this in a word processing software it did underline the incorrect word, in this case ‘starring’, but in the following examples it did not underline any of the words and accepted both to be correct.
‘He couldn’t bare the pain anymore.’ Which should be: ‘He couldn’t bear the pain anymore.’
‘He jumped over the worn, wooden style.’ Which should be: ‘He jumped over the worn, wooden stile.’
It’s the mistakes above that can be particularly difficult to pick up without the word processor's help and because our brains are too clever and will accept even incorrectly spelled words that look similar as we read words as a whole as opposed to every letter in a word. A good demonstration of this is how a lot of people, myself included, can make sense of and read the following gibberish.
Alpapertny it is psoilsbe for mnay ppeloe to raed wdors wehvetar oerdr the lertets are in the wrdos povdired taht the fsirt and lsat ltteer are in the rhigt pclae. Tihs fcat meaks porornfedaig all the mroe dilfiucft and is the rosaen you hvae to raed turgohh the mapcsniurt so mnay tmeis.
Embarrassingly when proofreading I found I had often mistyped certain words more frequently than others in my haste to get my ideas down and hadn’t even noticed the mistakes when editing. It was only when I came to the proofreading that I discovered I had to be more vigilant for these words, a few examples of which can be seen below.
The correct Off or of
The correct it’s or its
The correct their, they’re or there
The correct your or you’re
The correct to or too
There were many other mistyped words I discovered and corrected and maybe more that went unnoticed, though I hope not, but the process certainly gave me a healthy respect for the work professional proof readers do.
I found proofreading was one of the things that took the longest time in the whole publishing process and I still doubted that all the mistakes were eliminated. Someone told me the best way to proofread is to read something backwards as now you will read each word properly without your brain guessing what the word in the sentence is and seeing what it wants to see. Even if you adopt this approach I find you do still need to read the book through in order to find grammatical errors and words that are spelt correctly but do not fit in the sentence such as the following examples:
‘She was starring at the moon.’ Which should of course be: ‘She was staring at the moon.’
I noticed when writing this in a word processing software it did underline the incorrect word, in this case ‘starring’, but in the following examples it did not underline any of the words and accepted both to be correct.
‘He couldn’t bare the pain anymore.’ Which should be: ‘He couldn’t bear the pain anymore.’
‘He jumped over the worn, wooden style.’ Which should be: ‘He jumped over the worn, wooden stile.’
It’s the mistakes above that can be particularly difficult to pick up without the word processor's help and because our brains are too clever and will accept even incorrectly spelled words that look similar as we read words as a whole as opposed to every letter in a word. A good demonstration of this is how a lot of people, myself included, can make sense of and read the following gibberish.
Alpapertny it is psoilsbe for mnay ppeloe to raed wdors wehvetar oerdr the lertets are in the wrdos povdired taht the fsirt and lsat ltteer are in the rhigt pclae. Tihs fcat meaks porornfedaig all the mroe dilfiucft and is the rosaen you hvae to raed turgohh the mapcsniurt so mnay tmeis.
Embarrassingly when proofreading I found I had often mistyped certain words more frequently than others in my haste to get my ideas down and hadn’t even noticed the mistakes when editing. It was only when I came to the proofreading that I discovered I had to be more vigilant for these words, a few examples of which can be seen below.
The correct Off or of
The correct it’s or its
The correct their, they’re or there
The correct your or you’re
The correct to or too
There were many other mistyped words I discovered and corrected and maybe more that went unnoticed, though I hope not, but the process certainly gave me a healthy respect for the work professional proof readers do.
Wednesday 25 February 2015
The Magic Key - 1
The following copyright and legal information applies to this post and all subsequent posts related to this story with the category/label ‘The Magic Key’.
Posted below is what I wrote in the time given at the writers group.
He stared at the ornate bronze key wondering what it opened. There had been no note with it in his uncle's will just the direction it was to be given to him. Why him though? His cousins should surely have been left the key along with the rest of his uncle’s estate but that hadn’t been the case. His mind raced back trying to remember something, anything in the conversations he’d had with his uncle that would provide some clue to its use. There had been nothing though, except maybe that one line his uncle was so fond of repeating. ‘Happiness is the key to everything.’ How could that possibly help him now though? It made no sense. Maybe his only sensible recourse was to search every possible item in the house and grounds until he could find the lock the key fitted. His cousins wouldn’t object he knew but it was a large house situated in 5 acres of land and there was no guarantee he would even find it.
‘Have you got any idea why he left it to me Jeff?’ He asked his cousin.
Jeff stared, the same puzzlement reflecting in his eyes. ‘I’m sorry I’ve no idea. It looks old though. It must open something old.’
‘You’re not being very helpful.’ Sheila interrupted.
Copyright © Yvonne Arlott 2015
This is a work of fiction. All characters, events and places in this publication are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All Rights Reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the author, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover.
Posted below is what I wrote in the time given at the writers group.
He stared at the ornate bronze key wondering what it opened. There had been no note with it in his uncle's will just the direction it was to be given to him. Why him though? His cousins should surely have been left the key along with the rest of his uncle’s estate but that hadn’t been the case. His mind raced back trying to remember something, anything in the conversations he’d had with his uncle that would provide some clue to its use. There had been nothing though, except maybe that one line his uncle was so fond of repeating. ‘Happiness is the key to everything.’ How could that possibly help him now though? It made no sense. Maybe his only sensible recourse was to search every possible item in the house and grounds until he could find the lock the key fitted. His cousins wouldn’t object he knew but it was a large house situated in 5 acres of land and there was no guarantee he would even find it.
‘Have you got any idea why he left it to me Jeff?’ He asked his cousin.
Jeff stared, the same puzzlement reflecting in his eyes. ‘I’m sorry I’ve no idea. It looks old though. It must open something old.’
‘You’re not being very helpful.’ Sheila interrupted.
10 Minute Madness Experiment
I decided to attend a writers club as I thought it would be great to talk to other authors but an unexpected and interesting thing that came from it turned out to be a 10 minute task they set everyone in the group. They gave us the topic ‘The Magic Key’ and we had to write a story or as much of a story as we could about it in 10 minutes and then read our efforts at the end. I’d never done anything like that before and I found it extremely challenging and at first I thought I’d never think of anything to write in such a short time but I ended up surprising myself. Although it was written in a rush and was unedited I still found I wanted to know what would happen next.
So at the risk of putting myself under enormous pressure I thought it would be an interesting experiment if I were to post what I had written here and then, if I can manage it regularly, set myself 10 minutes (20 if I really can’t cope with the pressure) to write a bit more of the story.
I don’t usually like people to read a first draft of anything I write and this could turn out worse than a first draft with the time limitations. So please bear in mind what I post here will be unedited, rushed, written under pressure and will probably do any writing skills I may have no justice at all. I have no idea how long the story will be, what the storyline is or if I’ll even be able to make a storyline that makes sense. I don’t even know what genre it will be yet. Added to those problems once I’ve posted something I can’t change it which could well add to my storyline dilemmas. Even just thinking of character names is awful under the time constraint and I end up just using the first name that comes into my head. My only consolation is that unlike normal where I spend hours thinking of a title I at least have something to call it already provided for this story, ‘The Magic Key’.
I’m really interested and somewhat nervous to find out how this experiment goes.
So at the risk of putting myself under enormous pressure I thought it would be an interesting experiment if I were to post what I had written here and then, if I can manage it regularly, set myself 10 minutes (20 if I really can’t cope with the pressure) to write a bit more of the story.
I don’t usually like people to read a first draft of anything I write and this could turn out worse than a first draft with the time limitations. So please bear in mind what I post here will be unedited, rushed, written under pressure and will probably do any writing skills I may have no justice at all. I have no idea how long the story will be, what the storyline is or if I’ll even be able to make a storyline that makes sense. I don’t even know what genre it will be yet. Added to those problems once I’ve posted something I can’t change it which could well add to my storyline dilemmas. Even just thinking of character names is awful under the time constraint and I end up just using the first name that comes into my head. My only consolation is that unlike normal where I spend hours thinking of a title I at least have something to call it already provided for this story, ‘The Magic Key’.
I’m really interested and somewhat nervous to find out how this experiment goes.
Tuesday 24 February 2015
My Writing Story So far
After having spent ages writing and re-writing my book I then spent hours and hours trying to find any typos and errors and also asked other people to check through it. It felt like a never ending task as no matter how many mistakes I found I could read through it another time and find twice as many still remaining. I don’t know how many times I went through the book but I started to find fewer mistakes each time to the point where I could only find one or two.
With the book ready I then had to learn how to publish it, a task that at first felt insurmountable. I had read that you can self-publish eBooks on Amazon Kindle and decided that was probably a good place to start but it turned out to be more challenging than I had imagined to do it properly. Signing up to publish with them involved filling in various forms and then once that was sorted I spent a good while reading through all the invaluable help guides they provide. After further researching on the Internet and some trial and error I discovered how to convert and upload my book so that it appeared for sale on Amazon Kindle, which was a very exciting and nerve-racking moment.
Now that I had the eBook for sale I could concentrate my efforts on getting a paperback of the book printed. First of all I had to buy ISBN numbers and then register the book with the database which involved more form filling. I couldn’t just use the word file I had converted and uploaded to Amazon though as I learnt it had to be properly laid out in a pdf before I could send it to a printing company. The more I researched the more I discovered how much was involved in typesetting, from using appropriate fonts to eliminating widows and orphans. In hindsight it would have been a reasonably easy task but not having any previous knowledge of the subject I spent a long time typesetting only to have to restart the process from scratch after discovering I had made some fundamental error. Eventually I succeeded in producing a pdf in the correct format that I could send to the printers and shortly received the proofs to check through. It was very exciting the first time I saw the pages of my book printed, even though they were loose and not bound in the cover. Three weeks later boxes and boxes of the finished printed book arrived.
Since then I have sold both eBooks on Amazon and paperback books and have received positive feedback and reviews already which has been very encouraging. I’m still only at the beginning of my journey though and have lots more to do.
With the book ready I then had to learn how to publish it, a task that at first felt insurmountable. I had read that you can self-publish eBooks on Amazon Kindle and decided that was probably a good place to start but it turned out to be more challenging than I had imagined to do it properly. Signing up to publish with them involved filling in various forms and then once that was sorted I spent a good while reading through all the invaluable help guides they provide. After further researching on the Internet and some trial and error I discovered how to convert and upload my book so that it appeared for sale on Amazon Kindle, which was a very exciting and nerve-racking moment.
Now that I had the eBook for sale I could concentrate my efforts on getting a paperback of the book printed. First of all I had to buy ISBN numbers and then register the book with the database which involved more form filling. I couldn’t just use the word file I had converted and uploaded to Amazon though as I learnt it had to be properly laid out in a pdf before I could send it to a printing company. The more I researched the more I discovered how much was involved in typesetting, from using appropriate fonts to eliminating widows and orphans. In hindsight it would have been a reasonably easy task but not having any previous knowledge of the subject I spent a long time typesetting only to have to restart the process from scratch after discovering I had made some fundamental error. Eventually I succeeded in producing a pdf in the correct format that I could send to the printers and shortly received the proofs to check through. It was very exciting the first time I saw the pages of my book printed, even though they were loose and not bound in the cover. Three weeks later boxes and boxes of the finished printed book arrived.
Since then I have sold both eBooks on Amazon and paperback books and have received positive feedback and reviews already which has been very encouraging. I’m still only at the beginning of my journey though and have lots more to do.
Monday 23 February 2015
Welcome To My New Blog
I love writing and have always started writing stories since as far back as I can remember but never got round to finishing any of them as my confidence would always fail me. My family would find and read my attempts and would be so desperate to know how they ended they would pester me to finish them but I never did. Well finally after a lot of pestering I finished writing a book a few years back and, after mustering up courage, asked family to read it. They thought it was really good and suggested I try to get it published but I had too much self-doubt and so ended up putting it in a drawer and promptly forgetting about it for years.
It was only circumstances in life and relentless encouragement from my parents that eventually prompted me to read through it again and, after making significant changes and receiving positive feedback from other people I asked to read it, I decided to self-publish. So began a journey far more complicated and interesting than I had first thought.
Having only just begun this journey I decided now was probably a good time to start a blog and maybe my experiences can help others.
It was only circumstances in life and relentless encouragement from my parents that eventually prompted me to read through it again and, after making significant changes and receiving positive feedback from other people I asked to read it, I decided to self-publish. So began a journey far more complicated and interesting than I had first thought.
Having only just begun this journey I decided now was probably a good time to start a blog and maybe my experiences can help others.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)