Blog update

It has been about a month since I started blogging. I am finding that it has both benefits and downsides.

On the positive, it is providing an avenue to test my writing in a new forum. The publishing and formatting tools in online environments are primitive at best without resorting to hand-coding HyperText Markup Language (HTML)... which I thought had finished back with a little program called HotDog, if I remember my Information Technology (IT) background.

I am currently running five blogs with different flavours:

• Author Journal (this blog - which has had a change of template after complaints the text could sometimes be hard to read)
• Bartitsu & neo-Bartitsu
• Air, Steel & Soul
• Anonymuncles: comment monkey
• Courtly love letters

These have been ordered above as per the level of readership. My Author Journal was viewed more than 100 times over the last month, while the Courtly love letters was viewed more than 10 times in the same period.

I have found that even just transferring material into this format takes some time (like the Courtly love letters), while constructing material in the format can also have its own problems (like Air, Steel & Soul). Anonymuncles has heaps of draft material (I rant a lot but never publish it), but this Author Journal hardly ever has any.

Readership countries and search terms (or entry points) are varied. I even had my Battle of Korunai synopsis access via a search on some search engine of: book review 'space opera'. Google, Facebook, and webmail services are the most common reference sites.

I have also added RSS update feeds, but these remain untested just yet. If they work 'off-the-shelf' then all the better. I will subscribe soon to test them and confirm the required functionality. There will also be some cosmetic tweaks over the coming weeks, but not weeks and weeks of tweaks. Primarily these changes will be to enhance readability of the content.

The blogs have also allowed me to identify flavours in my own writing. My novels are all quite different - military sci-fi, cyberpunk, and space opera/cyberpunk. Air, Steel & Soul is fantasy and at this stage, I have no real plans for a fantast novel... at least none that are anywhere near mature for sitting down and writing yet. I am, however, getting requests - which is nice. I have seen other authors start periodic blogs like this and end up compiling it all into novels or novella, usually in electronic format, but I am still a bit of a traditionalist - I want to smell and feel my novel.

I had someone suggest I could write romance recently. I thought about it in my youth - just punch out some Mills & Boon classics for a few bob. Ssshh! Don't tell anyone, but I have even read the writers guidelines and wrote a chapter or three ... in my youth. I no longer have the material.  I couldn't imagine reading the stuff, so it was somewhat difficult to write it without feeling like I was producing something up there with Days of our Lives in literary terms. This is certainly not meant as an offence to those who do. These days, I see it as another form of writing, of which there are many.

But the value of the blogs comes down to the questions of quality of writing and skill with words and stories... and market for the guff I write. The blogs have taken some time away from my investment in my novel writing, but I think it is 'keeping me honest'.

Now I am off to consider entries for some short story writing competitions in horror and general genre. There is even flash fiction, which is under 1000 words. I am new to that concept, but will try my hand. Another writing exercise.

Writer's Surgery Update

Thanks to the tireless efforts of personnel at Queensland Writers Centre (QWC), I now have an appointment with Peter Ball to get feedback on approaching publishers/agents, manuscript development, and finding a market on June 14th. I'll provide more details post that point.

In the meantime, I have just finished part 5 of Air, Steel, & Soul. This story follows some real people playing characters in a role playing game that merges traditional undead and fantasy adventure plots with steampunk, magepunk, and dragon wars. These instalments document the adventures (or misadventures) that occur along the path of the campaign story.

I have also been investigating opportunities in competitions, but I have never really tried my hand at short stories. Perhaps I am just procrastinating... Is there a term for procrastinating when it is writing and not speaking? I shall have to investigate that further. Some time when I have the time... not to procrastinate.

Additionally, I am preparing for the Rabbit Hole 2... which is a program by QWC to write 30,000 words or "The End" in 3 days. In past Rabbit Holes, I have had a great time as well as been very productive. Preparation has involved scrubbing up some of the content specifications for the Battle of Korunai so I can just chip away at some more chapters. I have also started looking further at some of the other content specifications that could result in some quick novel completion.

More to come... hopefully.

Update of various projects

The Writer's Surgery material is in and I expect I will hear shortly about the progress, given the earliest proposed date for discussion is early June through the Queensland Writers Centre.

The Rabbit Hole II will be happening also in the first few days of June. I have participated in this writing marathon (30,000 words or "The End" in 3 days) for the last couple they have hosted. Not sure why this is #2, because it will be the third I have participated in. I'll be ramping up to that by reviewing my content specifications in preparation to write much more on Battle of Korunai and perhaps some blogging. I am thinking blogging should not be included in the word count, but we will see how close I get to the limit.

Additionally, I have been putting together some other blogs:

• Bartitsu & neo-Bartitsu, to document my discoveries in these arts, possibly with chuan fa thrown in for the fun of it. This has had some surprising interest since I started it.
• Courtly love letters, which is a selection of love letters I have written with the permission of those who were recipients (watch this space as I have a few there and will be starting to release them soon).

Finally, the 4th installment for Air, Steel & Soul just hit the photons. Statistics show that 63% readership is Australian... but nearly a quarter of readers are from Russia. Around 7% of readers come from the US, and below 2.5% for Germany and Malaysia readers.

The game has been run twice in the same week for the first time ever and has resulted in some interesting outcomes that will soon be documented. I still am not up to the same spot as the game is, but that just means I have more to write... urgently.

I have also started investigating competition opportunities. Most of these seem to be for short stories, which I am not really all that keen on, but I have never really put my hand to. I guess I am about to.

Trying to hang in there.

Writer's Surgery application submitted

I submitted my application for the Queensland Writers Centre (QWC) Writer's Surgery using the Battle of Korunai as the sample material. I had to submit the application plus a 1-page synopsis and 20-page writing sample.

I requested feedback on approaching publishers/agents, manuscript development, finding a market, and formatting and presentation. The first three are what I am really after, but the formattting and presentation I added as this is the first time I have used this sort of template and have no idea about presentation from an author perspective.

I have placed my work into the genre of speculative fiction, which includes science fiction and fantasy in most of its guises as well as cyberpunk. The Battle of Korunai is definately in hard military science fiction. Another I am working on is well within cyberpunk while another straddles cyberpunk and hard military science fiction.

It would be great to just have the money to fund expenses to enable me to complete these things. Writing daily professionally is a dream of mine - one I have had since a small boy.

I requested three consultants in order of what I considered to be relevance to my work and current location in the writing profession:

1. Angela Slatter
2. Peter Ball
3. Sally Collings

Angela was recommended to me based on a discussion of my position and writing maturity. Peter looked interesting as he has a similar genre... or at least closer than anyone available. Sally seemed to have extensive background in non-fiction publishing of which I have a lot of stuff, but have never really considered if (or how) to publish it.

So, in summary, this is my first formal step on putting my writing into the hands of professional writers for review and consideration. Although I only emailed it in 2 hours ago, I am hoping for a reply any minute! Will keep you posted.

Blog start-up

Finalised my three blog 'flavours' today.

They are:

• Air, Steel & Soul is a blog that will initially be updated based on the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition game currently being played. I am the game master (dungeon master) for this game and have designed the world and the story for the characters. Several of these characters are played by other people who contribute to the world and story as they play either each episode or as 'cameo' appearances. This blog should be updated after a gaming session is complete, but there is some back story that needs to be written to catch up to the current game.
• Anonymuncles: the comment monkey is a blog that will have me commenting on science, politics, and is expected to be quite cynical. I will be providing references within the material to back up the arguments or to provide evidence (or just topical relevance) or for additional information. This blog should be updated once a week with something.
• Author Journal is a blog (this blog) that will document and update any interested parties as I move toward professional writer in published format. Initially this will be focused on technical elements or professional content and is not expected to include material or excepts from the material being discussed unless it is relevant to discussion. This blog should be updated as needed, but no less than once a week.

So, let the fun begin.

Korunai status

Writer's Surgery preparation

I am putting some effort the last few weeks to preparing my Battle of Korunai manuscript in an appropriate format for it to be provided as background information for a session with an expert. The Queensland Writer's Centre (QWC) offers a service for members to consult with a professional mentor who will read a sample and provide guidance called the Writer's Surgery.

My original templates for production of the chapters are in 'Arial' font. I find them easier to read and enables a flow in the story. I had never really considered it stylistic... but it IS.

Standard manuscript submission formats are in a mon-spaced font, like Courier New or Times New Roman, double spaced and 12 point.

The sample provided to QWC includes a 1-page synopsis and a 20-page sample of material. There were no further requirments, so I grabbed a template for manuscript preparation (a Microsoft Office template) that looks about right in all the needed areas and transferred the first two chapters. In my old template, these were 6 pages for the first chapter and 16 for the second. I did some modifications on the template, but will admit that I have yet to really learn all the bits of it.

I was pretty sure I could get both the first and second chapters into the sample material. If it carved off the last page of chapter 2, then it would probably be leading to a small rise in literary tension in the story without the resolution that would usually occur...

I know some of my readers hate getting caught at these points and often demand to know what happens next. I try to provide only full courses of literary material, lest I have people harrass me to complete it.

But, back to the story... So, I transeferred the material into the new template. Chapter 1 was now 10 pages, and chapter 2 was now 30 pages! Now I was only going to get about half the first chapter. I may not have captured audience interest by this point. I would hope that I had, but I usually give a novel a few chapters and rarely just put something down.

This initially freaked me out. But then I decided to print it out and take a look at it. The change in font and spacing really made a difference from an editor perspective. I was immediately able to identify a bunch of superflous words... lots of 'the' and 'that' that were not needed.

So, I printed it out and sat down and did a brutal review in editorial terms - the way I have done to numerous technical writers over the years.

I managed to cut the first chapter down to 5 pages and the second chapter down to 27 pages. So, nearly 4 pages of guff removed. The manuscript is much tighter now and I will add this process to the end of my develpment and review cycle.

I'll be submitting this in the next few days after I sleep on the changes, then print it all out and eyeball it. Looking forward to the June appointment to discuss it.