Since I’m done editing for now, I’ve had time to consider new ideas and storylines. It’s fun, because it kinda feels like when I first started writing The Paladin. But... I’m not the only person writing paranormal fantasy adventure novels. Sometimes others have similar ideas.
Now I could get upset and grumpy, but it’s best to take it as a lesson. Lots of people have similar ideas. JRR Tolkien wasn’t the only one to write about dragons and elves and he doesn’t own the rights to them. After all, if he (and his estate) held a death grip on those ideas we would have Game of Thrones. So so what am I doing about finding another novel about monster hunters sanctioned by the Vatican? Learning. Obviously my readers would overlap with theirs, so I can learn about cover design, genre focus, and any other details of marketing. People that like that book will likely enjoy mine, so if I can learn, I’ll be all the more prepared for my own release. So I’m going to look into this novel. I’m going to see what steps they took to market it, their art, and anything else I can to help me with my book. And maybe, someday, someone will do the same with The Paladin. Dont forget get to be awesome.
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So my trip to the career fair was so so. No huge leads but it wasn’t exactly a waste of time. Hopefully something good will come of it. It was a long trip and I’m not completely confident I’m coming out of it with a new career.
It’s okay, though. We’re still set for the time being. My focus on the novel is still paramount and I have plenty to do. First and foremost, of course, is getting feedback from my Betas! Speaking of which... Would you like a chance to read The Paladin now? Click here! I’m still looking for more people to give me feedback on the manuscript so that I can start clearing out extraneous scenes. Until then, I suppose I have a short story I can work on. DFTBA I'm headed to a broadcasters career fair tomorrow, so it might be a short blog for next couple days, but I still have tonight. And the thing that's been weighing on my mind is... Stephen King.
I'll admit, I haven't read as much as I should've while I writing The Paladin, but now I have a bit of spare time and, thanks to some suggestions from a friend of mine, I'm now reading The Gunslinger from the Dark Tower series. As a reader, I highly recommend it. As a writer, stay the hell away. Well... maybe not. Let me explain. See, reading something from a master like Stephen King, right after I handed off my manuscript to some beta readers... it's put a ding in my confidence. While I can certainly recommend reading The Gunslinger to anyone NOT writing a book, I might suggest you either A) read it WHILE writing or 2) wait few weeks before you pick it up. Obviously, I can't help but compare my work to his and, frankly, that's just nuts. The competent, composed side of me knows that I shouldn't compare myself to ANY other author, much less Stephen King. Every author is different. If Fifty Shades can earn a fan base, my work sure as hell can. And yet, there's that nervous part of me that's reading his words and thinking "Oh wow... why didn't I use this metaphor?" or "Holy crap, that was a great character intro." And to top it all off... I'm not writing anything to distract myself. Be Excellent to each Other I had a different song in mind for today, a weird song with some weird ties to my youth, but I couldn't find proper attributions for it. What can I say, the '90s and '00s were a weird time, especially with music and sharing videos. The one I had in mind actually went viral BEFORE YouTube. Yes, children, there was a BEFORE YouTube. But, so that I could get this posted in a reasonable amount of time, I decided on another song off my playlist, Trapt's Headstrong. Now, if the themes of this song aren't apparent, well... you need to listen! If you have a protagonist that is trying to rise about, to move ahead despite what others think, and who is doing so while everyone is telling them they can't do it, this is your song! So, enjoy Headstrong by Trapt. I felt a little lost today. I got up, sat at my computer, opened my manuscript... and didn't do anything. I mean, I've gone over it a few times and removed a few minor things, correct a couple minimal things I noticed as I was scanning it, but... that's it.
So what do I do with my time now? Well, I actually have a few things I'm working on. One, of course, I'm looking for more Beta Readers! Would like to check out The Paladin and help me get that much closer to being published? CLICK HERE! But beyond that, I have a short story to work on, I'm getting ready to do some work for Smash Fiction, and I've got a few more conventions I'm gearing up for. I think my big thing to do while waiting on feedback is to get my name out there a bit more. I gotta be honest here. I'm having trouble now that I'm not writing figuring out what to with myself. I've got plenty on my plate, but I'm wondering what I'm going to do daily with this blog. I'm certainly not stopping it, not until I'm published, but things might get a bit shorter or varied on topic. Until next time, Don't Forget to be Awesome! Hey, guess what. I did something. Nothing much. Just, you know, FINISHED THIS FREAKIN' EDIT. I'm so freakin' excited! I got to see "The End" again! I just need to tighten up a couple little things and then it's off to beta readers!
Man, I've been editing this for so long, re-writing, cutting words, and fixing stuff as I went along, but here I am! Now, this doesn't mean the book's ready to go to an agent. Like I said before I need to have a new string of Beta Readers take a look at it and then I have to decide what scenes are less vital to the whole thing. Why? Because after all that, I've only gotten it down to 137,000 from 144,000. That's a lot of words cut, but it's not nearly enough. So, after I my readers get back to me with thoughts on what scenes didn't seem to be important, I'll be removing them. Man... that's going to be tough. But hey, I'm closer now than I've ever been to getting published. Step by step, day by day. On that note... who wants to read The Paladin? You can hit me up on my Contact Page, social media (links at the bottom right of the page,) or even right here in the comment section. Don't Forget to be Awesome! I'm hoping to finish this edit of The Paladin by the end of this weekend. At the time of this blog entry, I'm only 24 pages away and I'm so excited! But that begs the question. Beyond beta readers and agent querying, I have to have something to occupy my time. I'm a writer, I must write.
So what do I write next? Well, I think I owe it to a certain artist to finish up my latest short story. This one won't be a Paladin related short story. I want to stretch myself a little bit, so I'm working on a fantasy mystery, because how many of those do you run into? Well... I don't run into many. I won't know about you unless you leave a comment, so... Still, I'm excited to do writing on something new. I haven't touched traditional high fantasy since I was in high school and, if I'm being honest, I've never tried my hand at a true mystery at all. I think this should be fun! But, of course, this is a short story, so what comes after that? I gotta figure out which of the possible directions I could go. I'm leaning toward playing more with Reagan's origins, or perhaps the new crew of paladins. Either way, I get to explore the Academy more and see what life is like for a rookie paladin... well... one that is properly introduced into the Order. So, not sure where I'm going, but I'm excited to get there. Again, if you're interested in reading The Paladin before it's published, leave a message, find me on social media, or click on the contact page! DFTBA As of this moment, I have 34 pages left to edit. I could conceivably be done by this weekend. I am SO stoked. So, the question is, what happens next. I'm glad you asked! I need Beta Readers!
Here's the deal, peoples. I've got a lot of people who seem excited to see this book completed. I'm excited, too! This is your chance to read it totally free. You see, once it's published, I won't just be able to hand out free copies to everyone. My publisher will only give me so many and I'll need those copies for marketing promotions. So, if you are interested in what I'm writing, you are excited to see it finished, and you want to read a copy for free, this is the chance. Hit me up on social media, in the comments, or using my contact page. I'll give you the Google Docs link and all I'll need from you is your impression of the book afterwards. Easy peasy, right? Man, I am so excited to be this close. I'm losing a lot of sleep putting so much focus on the edits. But I have to be careful, because this close to the end, I'm finding that I occasionally just read through and forget that I'm supposed to be cutting words and correcting mistakes. I'm so ready to move on to the next section, but this is where my edits count the most! This is the climax of the novel, the resolution, and the most exciting parts, so I gotta make sure it comes out right. Be Excellent To Each Other As I've been writing and researching for The Paladin, I've acquired a vast array of knowledge in so many random topics that I never thought I'd learn about. My personal interests, apparently, don't stretch out too far, and thus I'm left with only one option. I have to research. I know, it's terrible. Some of you out there may genuinely hate research, but I'm a nerd. The topic doesn't have to be incredibly in line with my usual interests for me to lose myself in it. So, since I've been learning a lot about topics so that I can accurately represent them, I'd like to share some of my research. Today my subject is firearms. I think one of the biggest mistakes we as writers can make is to assume that because we've seen things demonstrated in movies and television, that we understand how to write about them. Well, I hate to break it to you, but just like movies don't like to play well with physics, they don't play well the realities of firearms either. Now, before you get riled up about Second Amendment politics, know this has NOTHING to do with that. This is about how they literally work. Regardless of your support or condemnation of firearms, they exist in our world and if you want to write about them, you need to represent them accurately or anyone with even a cursory knowledge of guns is going to know you faked it. So, here's some of the cool things I learned about writing about guns, most recently taken from Jane Friedman's Website. To encourage you to go to Jane's website, I'm only sharing the top three things that I learned, but she has a list of 9 great things that you should know about when writing about firearms. So, let's get to it! 1. Clips Do Not Equal MagazinesI am as guilty of this as anyone. In fact, in one of my most recent editing sessions, I had to go through to correct this fact, specifically. We hear a lot of talk about clips. You fire the last of your ammo, you call out for a fresh clip, right? You're takin' down some scrub in COD and, uh oh, gotta reload with a fresh clip. Well, that's a quick way to tell your readers you've never touched a gun before. What you probably think is a clip is actually a magazine. That's the thing that cops in police procedurals load into the bottom of the gun. Inside the magazine is a clip, and that holds the bullets together. It's a subtle, but important difference. 2. Bullet does not equal Shell......Or round, or cartridge. That little tip, the actual metal part that goes into the squishy target? That's the bullet. The cartridge, shell, or round is the entire firing device that's loaded into the gun. The bullet is attached to the cartridge or round. Another subtle, but important difference. 3. Pumping a shotgun or cocking the hammer of a pistol is purely dramaticThat's not to say that these actions aren't to be taken at all. But if your character is, let's say, interrogating a suspect they tackled in a dirty alley and want to know where the bomb is, pumping the shotgun or cocking the hammer just means they weren't ready to fire during whatever intense action sequence you just wrote.
Furthermore, your character may have just wasted a perfectly good round if they have been shooting! Pumping a shotgun ejects the cartridge that's inside, presumably after it's been fired and is now empty. There are times to cock hammers and pump shotguns, but if you're not familiar with firearms, don't bother. Like me, you'll probably get it wrong. Well, I hope those were informative to anyone writing action scenes. If there's anyone out that thinks I got something wrong, please correct me. Hit me up in the comments or on social media, because trust me, my pride is not worth me spewing fallacies. I want to write the truth! And if you enjoyed this little Knowledge Bomb, let me know. I'm considering making this a weekly piece like Paladin Playlist. Tell me what issues you have problems writing and what you'd like to see in the future. DFTBA Let's see... last week we did soft, right? Well, then I suppose I need to get something epic going today. For today's Paladin Playlist, I give you Wield My Sword by Yngwie Malmsteen. Now, I first encountered this song only a few years ago, but it does hail from the '90s. And trust me when I say this, the song is a masterpiece of Swedish epic rock. If you're writing anything with fantasy involved, especially a sword and shield novel, this is your jam. When I listen to harder rock while writing, it's generally for when the protagonist and crew are getting the short end of the stick, but this... this is different. When it's time for a hero to rise, when it's time to slay the dragon, when it's time to raise your sword and smite evil, this is the freakin' song to listen to! From the awesome lyrics to the incredible guitar solos, this song nothing short of epic. So, for this 31st edition of Paladin Playlist, please enjoy Yngwie Malmsteen's Wield My Sword. |
Matias TautimezKeep your eyes open for my debut novel, The Paladin. Archives
January 2023
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