The End. The Beginning.

I reached the end of Felling Abberfaun. Huzzah!

Photo by Gilderic - Gah! That's beautiful.

Or at least I have reached the end of the story for book 1. Yes, I love Epic Fantasy, what can I say? This story will continue, it will expand, increase its reach and grow.

With each ending there starts a whole new beginning. Like a circle, there is no end to the writing. I may have reached the end, but I have copious notes on other files, on my phone, voice notes, paper notes, all conspiring to throw me back into the writing to truly finish the first draft. But in a way, the first draft is done. And for that I will celebrate.

At 115,000 words, it is more than I was expecting, but, then the story is richer, more complicated and spans more viewpoints than Veil of a Warrior. So I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Still I was hoping for that perfect middle ground of 100,000 words. I'm left to wonder (still) how some do it. How they can say, with all authority, "This story will be exactly 105,000 words. Not one single word less or more."

Ok, perhaps, no one says that, but it seems like other writers are better able to gauge than I. Is this a matter of some gift? Years of additional skill? Or just pure, silly luck?

I'm sure it matters little in the broad reach of things. I tell the story until it is over...

The End

Let the People Decide...

...Who to vote for!

Yes, that's right, I got nominated to be a featured writing blog on eCollegeFinder.org. Which is a resource for finding online education for the time impaired. I've never used the service, but it looks interesting.

Online Colleges

Weigh in and make your voice heard, and don't forget to vote for me! :-) I'm giving you my most winsome smile right now.

You can vote as much as you want, so keep-on-a-clicking!

Poem: Wireless Obsession

A random poem that sprang to mind. I was amused, and thus I share. Do not expect this to be a regular kind of thing.

*************

Photo by Cote

My fingers run across the keys,
spiteful intent.

A free-range mouse,
gripped close,
my bidding is done.

Hurry, before it is too late.
Do not delay.
The end is near.

Click

Click
Click
Clickety-Click
Click

The cursor is still.
Starkly cast pixels glare,
silent, unmoving.

Two more batteries,
lost to my wireless obsession.

A curse upon the environment and upon my growing conscience.

 *************

© 2012 Clifton Hill, all rights reserved.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Cheery, aren't I?

Book Review: Feed, by Mira Grant (a.k.a. Seanan McGuire)

(This is a repost, of my review that appeared on SF Signal recently - reposted here for posterity)

Mass Market Paperback: 608 pages
Publisher: Orbit; 1 edition (May 1, 2010)
ISBN-10: 0316081051
ISBN-13: 978-0316081054

In a world where we are all, quite literally, zombies—just waiting for a bad day to shuffle away, seeking a hot meal—bloggers rule the news, social fear is taken to new levels and politics are (as always) the true evil. As a blogger vying for the big leagues, Georgia Mason tells the news the way it should be: full of fact and clean of bias. Shaun is her reckless brother, more interested making the news, than living life in something resembling a sane fashion. Together they take a ride that flies them higher than their wildest hopes and plummets them worse than their deepest fears.

2012: Looking Forward

I’m trying to look at my goals for 2011, compare them to the results and make a more realistic 2012 set that is achievable, but challenging. In all, I am little concerned either way. I am more interested in pushing forward, no matter the challenge, and taking whatever I can from the experience.

Photo by Jill Clardy

In writing, I plan to finish the Felling Abberfaun first draft by the end of January. I will finally return to Veil of a Warrior and do a final revision before I send it for consideration and put some serious thought and time into prepping it for self publish. Some may say that I am rushing forward, but anything gained in the process of getting it ready to publish is a gain, whether I end up going traditional or not.

I also want to do a revision to Felling Abberfaun, work on the Hammerblood sequel and a couple other projects that I’m kicking around.

Happy New Year!

Wishing you all a wonderful 2012.

Let your celebrations be safe, be merry and look to the future with hope and energy. May 2012 will be a year we all grow in health, wealth and wisdom.

Write on!

Photo by Dondel

2011: Year in Review

Photo by Samantha Decker

My what a year! I can’t believe 2011 is nearly over. The changes that have occurred for me are all over the board: new baby, the passing of family, a new, exciting book nearly done with the first draft, the webcomic ShadowBytes.com was started and then stopped and much more.

First, let’s get the embarrassment over. My 2010 NaNoWriMo entry (which has become Felling Abberfaun) was supposed to be done with the first draft in January 2011, but is now on pace to be done in January 2012... I had hoped to return to Hammerblood’s book: Veil of a Warrior early in 2011, now it will be early 2012. My wordcount for the year is only in the realm of 100-110k for actual story writing. That breaks down to only 2k/week or about 9k/month. Not great, but a few months had very little writing, so it is to be expected. The Shadow Bytes webcomic began life as The Cat Bytes, lost its name, gained a new, cooler one and then went on hiatus—I still plan to return to it, but I’m trying to gain some regularity in my life first.

Moving Past Chapter 1

You've written and re-written Chapter 1 a dozen times, you have an endless stack of story ideas from the techno-thriller, starring a maniacal Jack Frost, to the Victorian Mystery starring a fashion-obtuse Conan The Barbarian, but what you really want to do is actually finish something.

Question is: What is holding you back? Perhaps you're trying to make the story too perfect on the first draft? Because first drafts SHOULD suck and just be about what people are doing, why, where they are and how. All the pretty prose, good grammar, riveting action, clever dialogue should could come later (unless the muse is in).

I'm no Writer Extraordinaire, but I've got some completed projects under my belt, and others that are close, so it takes me back to my own path. If you are so interested, come walk with me for a moment while I reminisce.

Happy Holidays: How fast and unexpected you are

Photo by Hynkle

Where did the year go? Seriously! Who stole it, took it, and hid it away? I want answers!

If it wasn’t for my lovely wife, I know I wouldn’t be even half prepared for Christmas. (Thank you Anneli!) As it is, the kids will be well taken care of—without a doubt. As a parent surveying the mass of various toys scattered thither and yonder, it surprises me how many our four year old has. Christmas and a certain large, ungainly, but merry, old elf are only bound to increase the condition. The mind staggers to think of what the house will be like when little baby Nemo is old enough.

My study is messy enough—AS IS. I’m putting a double-deadbolt on it now, best to be on the safe side to keep some of that mountain of toys from crashing in here.

The family will be a bit fractured this year, what with new babies and long drives. But we will have a grand time nonetheless and will be thinking of everyone near and far.

Here’s hoping you and yours are having a joyous Holiday Season, no matter your economic condition and no matter what you may celebrate.

Up Your Words

Seriously incredible post by Rachel Aaron on increasing your writing word count. It makes total sense and will probably have you backhanding yourself in the forehead *ouch*.

Read her post, but to quickly summarize, her three key things are:

Knowledge - Before you write, brainstorm for 5+ minutes about what you are going to write. We all did this in school, it was called brilliantly enough: Brainstorming. Block action, make plot decisions, do it rough and quick and then when you are feeling full of writerly fire, turn to the computer and start unloading those words.

Time - Find the time of day and location where you are most productive. This takes some tracking and organization to pull off.

Enthusiasm - There are scenes we love to write and scenes we hate to. Sometimes we are outside of our comfort zone, but it may be that most of the time we are merely writing something that is boring to us. Skip that, find a way to tell the scene that interests you. If it doesn't, then why should your reader be interested.

Side note: Perhaps obvious, but perhaps not, eloquence and word choice are not what any first draft should be about. Make your story pretty (or gruesome) after you figure out what your characters are doing and when they are doing it.

I've just barely tackled this method, but I think I can see that results will follow with perseverance. Thank you Rachel for an awesome post!

Here's a screen grab of how I've set up my own spreadsheet to track everything. Not necessarily perfect, but I think it will work for me.