Are you any good at chess?

I'm not.  I completely suck at it.  Despite the fact that I have known how to play since I was in elementary school, I still am consistently trounced by the computer set on Easy skill level.  My problem?  (Because obviously there is one)  I don't think far enough ahead to beat my opponent.  Recognizing this should have made me feel better, after all "knowing is half the battle", but it didn't.  If you're not willing to fight the other half then knowing doesn't do jack squat for you.

For a long time this particular fault quality of my personality worried me as it applies to my aspirations for becoming a writer.  How can I write a well planned and cohesive novel if I don't think ahead?  But, much like I play a game of chess, I plowed forward, making the moves I felt like and dealing with consequences as they came.  When I finished that first novel I was pleasantly surprised to find myself NOT defeated.  There was a complete novel in my hands - it had a beginning and an end with characters, plot, conflict, and resolution.  So, I wrote another.  I am now writing a third, and nothing has changed about how I approach writing them, except perhaps I'm a little more comfortable with my ways.

What changed?  I read a little book by Stephen King called "On Writing".  He was the first "adult" author I ever read, and I've definitely read more books by him than any other single author, so I dare say his writing has influenced my own more than any other.  I don't know why it took me so long to read his book about the craft of writing, but I'm kicking myself now for not reading it sooner.  Reading about his own process for writing a novel made me think that he doesn't plan too far ahead either.  One part I remember clearly is a comment he made about the joy (and shock) of seeing your characters come to life while you are writing them.  I immediately thought, "That's happened to me!"  I had a specific phrase I wanted a character to utter in order to move the conversation in a certain direction, but no matter how many times I tried to get them to say it, they did their own thing.  In the end it was either force the phrase or go with what came out when I wrote it (for the tenth time).  I went with what I wrote and just moved on.

Forcing your characters to do one thing when they want so badly to do something else is NEVER a good thing.  I still jot down little notes or phrases I think I want to see in the next few sentences, but I no longer try to force them.  My characters will let me know if I'm on the right track (if I let them).  So, when I try to explain to people that I have a general idea of how I want things to start and end, but not much about the middle, I don't worry so much about their doubtful expressions.

So, if I ever am so fortunate as to meet Mr. King, I think that will be on my list of questions I'd like to ask him: "Are you any good at chess?"

The movie was better

I should probably be publicly shunned for admitting this, especially considering I'm trying to encourage people to read my own work, but there's no way I can deny the fact: on the rare occasion, I have actually enjoyed the movie more than the book. I can hear the screams already, but please hear me out.

First of all, this is VERY rare - so much so that I only have two examples right now. Secondly, in both cases I saw the movie before I read the book, so I already had a vision of how the story should unfold. Things may have turned out differently had I done it the other way around, but we'll never know for sure. My two entries are below and I'll add to it if I run across any others.

Bladerunner
I'm going to go ahead and draw as much scorn as I can on this one because I'm admitting that I like the theatrical version of this film the best. Ok, that's not exactly fair as I haven't even seen the director's cut, but when I read they had cut Deckard's internal monologue I lost all desire to see the other version. I saw the movie when I was a teenager, but read the novel within the past couple of years, and I was disappointed. The world and its inhabitants just didn't come to life for me in the book. Again, I might feel differently if I had read the book first, but I'm not so sure.

Stardust
The movie actually followed the book pretty closely...until the end. That's what ruined it for me. Match the endings and I'm a happy camper, but as is, I'd rather watch the movie again.

Has this happened to anyone else...or am I on my own here?

The First Chapter

I've started working on another novel.  I looked through my list of ideas and picked the one that screamed the loudest.  I'm excited about getting it written and I'm also serious about getting it done within a reasonable amount of time.

Now, if I can just get through the first chapter.

I like to write the first draft on 3x5 notebooks and then edit as I type it in to the computer.  I've already ripped out and restarted the chapter twice now.  I already know how the next chapter starts and I'm thinking ahead on how I want things to happen, but I can't decide what to explain in the first chapter.  So frustrating.  Even more so, because I know this chapter will get the most rewrites and edits as the story unfolds.  Oh, well, for now it is that ever so familiar - one step forward, two steps back.

First!

The first post must, of course, be dedicated to shamelessly plugging my novel.  It is the reason I've launched the Facebook page, website, and blog after all.

So what's it about?  Read on, but please remember that I'm writing novels and condensing them into jacket cover blurbs is an art I will never master.

Red Sky at Morning is a science fiction novel which takes place in the mid 26th century.  Mars has been colonized for about 100 years, but space colonization did not spread out as expected from there.  Instead of being a springboard to the rest of the solar system, Mars has become little more than a tourist attraction.

For Simon Owen it would have always remained little more than an annoyance on television or the billboards he passed on his way to work, but one phone call changes everything.  He will be charged with destroying an entire mining settlement on Mars and shown images of himself enacting the crime, all under the narration of his own voice on the other side of the call.  It will throw his entire life off balance and he will struggle to regain control of it as he travels to Mars to unravel how he could be implicated in such a heinous act.  He'll have to hurry, for he is followed closely by Detective Jake DeVitt, an officer from Earth working as liaison with the Mars Planetary Security Force.


Let me know if I've interested anyone (or even if I haven't - but please be kind).