Space-farming in the age of the disco-pirates has 9,999 more words to be edited. Yes that’s right, only four digits. 97959 words had been edited into a second draft. I am happy to say the book is readable. A reasonable person can follow the plot from word one to word 100k.
I’ll finish up this second draft soon and get started on the third draft. Once I edit chapter one again I will re-post it explaining changes from the previous version.
The third draft will see to clarity. Many setups are vague, I want to play those notes louder earlier. In particular, a biker gang (space-bikers) loses trust in their leader, but right now it comes out of nowhere. Putting some work into that will be good.
I feel that the third and fourth drafts will be lightning fast. Especially compared to the second draft. I deleted 15000-ish words of first draft material. And wrote 20,000 words of fresh material. The book is at 108331 words. I am hoping to bring down the word count slightly. 108k words isn’t bad, but I have a feeling the narrative is a bit bloated.
I love the settled title for the book, Space-farming in the Age of the Disco-Pirates. I am really happy that I got a lot of fun things in there. Food-tyrants, Gambling, Heists, Drug running, and of course Disco-Pirates. They are the first and last villains of the book. I love how my initial idea of having one villain, the Pirate Queen Dina, grew into a cast of four villains. Mr. Paulo–casino owner, Prime-President Macka–leader of the free world, and Xercan–the universe’s primary food supplier. I take a great bit of pride in my villains. No by the numbers evil here.
We are at 84,184 words and counting for GALAXY-FARM.
That makes it the longest book I’ve ever written. I am excited to finish up and start editing. As soon as the first chapter is done I will post it here so you all can get caught up in the adventure straight away.
I’ve recently reordered some sections to increase tension, namely a battle brews for a lot longer. In the mean time the two main leads have a lot of time to make bad relationship decisions. These get resolved right after losing the battle — and by resolved I mean they bitterly argue and split up. Drama, drama, drama. Every plot event is strung along like the wooden duck toy. I’ve got a rap sheet as long as my arm of problems for continuity and half the cast have the beautiful name of Tk-name. (I never stop the flow, making up names takes time like stopping during the tour-de-france to admire flowers.) The second draft will concern itself with getting all the logic sorted. Dreadful soap-opera level dialogue will be next. I am writing the resolution. The plot is wrapping up, no new battles that is, and all of Charles’s friends I left hanging need to be freed from prison, and given lots of money. I should be able to do that in another four thousand words or so.
I am expecting during the editing process for the narrative to balloon to about 100,000 words. A little on the shorter side is preferred–I like things that are short and sweet.
The Blog
My PDF for Jacob’s Quest has 29 downloads. Thank you all so much for downloading that sweetheart of a book. I am still interested in getting an e-pub exporter so reading becomes easier for kobo and kindle owners. All in all, blogging and self-publishing is strange work but I appreciate every time you grab my book.
Some observant fellows may have noticed I deleted my ‘Swipes from the President is missing post.’ I decided to collect swipes and put them in a single place.
These swipes are my favorite parts from books and I wanted to have them all in one place. Why not here, for all to enjoy?
For creative writing bloggers: Here’s a SEO keyword for your blog, use it, if you aren’t already.
The keyword is: Creative Writing Techniques. It is getting 1,500 searches a month and has a low difficulty score. What does that mean?
Folks are searching creative writing techniques but very few websites offer that exact keyword.
Also, I’ve been using writing advice as my most common tag, but writing tips is far better. I didn’t include it in the two images but here are my keyword searches I did on KWfinder.com.
Other standouts, story writing is big but difficult. I also like creative writing examples, especially since I love to edit published work and gush over masterpieces: perfect keyword for me to use.
I wanted to write a book review for today but I decided I wanted to spend a longer period of time on it before I post it. I have an off the wall writing book I want to recommend but I want to make sure it is memorable. Especially because the book is about making things memorable. Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Instead I’ll just do a quick update of my reading and writing.
I’m at 57,000 words for Galaxy-Farm.
I just finished reading Mistborn and now I’m moving onto A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. I really enjoyed Mistborn and I’m moving onto the second of the trilogy as soon as I can get my hands on a copy.
I am at 50,000 words for my first draft of Galaxy quest and feeling great. I am excited to finish the barf draft. Afterwards, I can polish and share a first chapter with you all.
Just today I wrote a scene where Charles gambles with nobility. While writing I noticed something. The prose was written faster than any other section I had before. I was moving between rooms in a casino and describing the people in those rooms. It was easy and fun to write. And, with any luck, the section builds anticipation for Charles getting totally cleaned out by a veteran gambler.
Other scenes, namely conversation scenes, fighting space pirates, and Charles working farm equipment, are written much slower and take concentration.
It might just been I’m in the swing of things today as opposed to other days, but I can’t shake the feeling that writing opulence is easy for me. It wouldn’t surprise me if this was the case, when I was nine I wrote several short-short stories about an Indiana Jones type character avoiding traps and reclaiming valuable treasure. I had an illustrated children’s thesaurus that had a page devoted to treasure I loved to read. From the words the book supplied, I built ornate treasures. Perhaps some of that nine-year-old is coming out in my current writing but I want to extend the question to you.
What sort of scenes come quicker and vividly to you? What do you write fastest?
It’s insanely important to complete your first drafts with reckless confidence. Then, with enough emotional distance, critique it like an expert reader.
I am reading Eragon again. I want to confirm if my positive opinion from middle school is justified. So far, it doesn’t hold up but I have gained some new reflections on writing.
Critiquing is Easy as a Reader — Rewriting is Easy.
Its no secret that I esteem character as the soul of story but I often have difficulty bringing that soul to my novels.
The first draft contains thousands of errors. There are characters with conflicting motivation form one point of the novel to the other without cause. Dialogue is clunky, cliche, and expository. Character emotion is spastic and only serves the plot. Backstory is weak summarized. Body acting and ticks are unresolved and inconsistent.
If I went back right now to correct everything, it would slow down the process to a grinding and painful halt. Killing all the writing vigor. The live edit wouldn’t solve the problems anyway, the next chapter would inspire new ideas for the character which would have to be incorporated from page one. Over and over, the cycle would continue. This is an exercise in futility.
How does Eragon, particularly the character Brom all fit into this?
In the chapter, ‘A Costly Mistake’ the character Brom is talking to Helen.
[said Brom] “Thank you for your hospitality; it was most gracious.” Her [Helen’s] face reddened. Eragon thought she was going to slap him. Brom continued, unperturbed, “You have a good husband; take care of him. There are few men as brave and as determined as he is. But even he cannot weather difficult times without support from those he loves.” He bowed gain and said gently, “Only a suggestion, dear lady.”
Throughout the story Brom is paraded as a wise, direct, and savvy man who confronts challenges head on. But moments like this kill that illusion. The part where he says, ‘Only a suggestion, dear lady.’ is completely out of character with a wise and direct man. Only men who doubt what they say or cannot take criticism bank what they say with platitudes. He sounds more like a vain-glorious thirty something who has just met a woman for the first time in his life.
This isn’t the only example. Throughout the entire book Brom does act like a wise mentor. Instead, he acts like a bravado cloying wannabe. Two reasons for this error. Little research was done into great men from history. There are plenty of resources to learn how those ‘with a complete belly’ talk. Second, the mistakes weren’t edited out properly. Nobody had the guts to tell Paolini his sixteen year old idea of how men talk is half-baked.
But, and here’s the magic, it wasn’t an error while he was writing.
It is easy for me to locate mistakes in Brom’s character as a reader. If I can bring the same focus to editing my own book, I know for certain the Charles, Jessica, Mateo, Terrance, and Gabby (The main cast of Galaxy-farm) will have strong and contrasting characters.
As such, I am preparing myself for the third stage of the writing battle. Ruthless editing. If something is wrong with a character I need to cut it out immediately. I will surround myself with beta-readers who won’t spare my feelings. Or better yet, readers who hate me. I wish I had more enemies.
Now, to be fair to Paolini. Later in the chapter he does some things I love. Namely, he hurts his main character. I don’t like invincible characters, they are impossible to emphasize with. And he dispels the notion the ‘good side’ (The Varden) from being perfectly good. They have selfish desires and will use Eragon for their own goals. Those are the reasons I am still reading Eragon, I look forward to future conflict.
Embracing Imperfection Breeds Success
Eragon sold a lot of copies.
I still remember seeing piles of Inheritance being stacked one on top of each other in man height columns.
So what if Brom is a caricature of a wise mentor, so what if Saphira is a reptilian dominatrix maid sex-fantasy, and so what if Eragon is a shadow of Aragon from Lord of the Rings.
Now that I’ve finished one novel, I want to avoid the tragic rewrite stage where nothing was working. I am under no delusions, I know it will happen again. But, I want to set up my next novel for success.
It is a science fiction crime novel with disco space pirates, an evil CEO who owns everything, and an alien baking show. The crime involves the theft and farming of illegal plants.
I love it and I’m excited to get it in your hands.
I kind-of went ham and wrote 40,000 words without planning it that well. So, I’m going to take what I did, see what works and cut what doesn’t.
What I Will Outline
Characters are more important than plot.
The outline will be based off character perspective. And, in turn, that perspective will be the audiences in the final book. I want people to want to read the book. I must make the character likable. There was a movie’s climax — I forget the name — that made me livid with rage at the filmmakers. The main character was a hate-able lazy snob who talks down to people and walks around with a sneer of his face. During the emotional climax of the film, the music swells, the camera frames him majestically, and he gets the courage to solve his “problem.” (Whatever the hell it was I lost interest)
During that scene, the filmmakers were trying to sell this person as a close friend overcoming struggle. But he was not my friend and it made me hate the movie instead.
I’ve clung to that for my writing. The audience must like the main character. The main character then tells their story. Readers will listen to a friend.
Therefore — the outline will start with introducing Charles.
How can I introduce Charles the Space-farmer, describe his flaws, set him on a collision course with destiny, all the while making him chummy with the audience?
I don’t know, but I’m going to find out during the next week. I’ll be blogging as I mind-map and outline but as soon as I have a finished outline I will step away from the blog to write.
Temple of the Seven Silver Seas 