I want to start working on a new novel. Do I start writing the sequel to my unpublished yet plucky and lovable first novel or do I start a completely new novel and concept?
I want to start working on a new novel. Do I start writing the sequel to my unpublished yet plucky and lovable first novel or do I start a completely new novel and concept?
People ask me all the time, “Craig, are you really Joss Whedon in disguise?” Yes, we’ve both created adored television shows, beloved characters, and written and directed hit movies. And yes, you’ve never seen us both in the same place at the same time. In fact, you can probably drop that whole “at the same time” because frankly, you’ve probably never seen us at the same place period. But alas, I am not actually Joss Whedon. Here’s why:
When I first wrote my novel (does calling it “my novel” make me sound pretentious?) I killed off a minor character without much fanfare at all. An axe to the chest (yes, it is a children’s story, thank you very much) and he was a goner. Poor guy. He didn’t even have a name! This minor character spent some time off the page with another major character, and you could tell that character was upset by the red shirt’s death, but you never really knew why since the book is told from the perspective of the mainest (totally a word) character, like the Harry Potter novels. Speaking of, didn’t you hate when there was a huge battle going on, and you had to follow Harry to some random secluded place to have a boring confrontation instead? Um hello! We all wanted to read about how much ass Hermione was kicking! But I digest…
As I was doing my editing, I realized a large part of the story was missing by not telling what these two characters were doing together off the page. So I inserted a chapter told from the other major character’s point of view detailing their mini adventure together. I even gave old red shirt a name! (No, not Engineer Olsen.) But poor old red shirt still had to die. But now that I knew and loved this character, a quick meaningless death seemed so undignified. So I’ve added a bit of Boromir type heroics in death and a sad farewell just to up the emotional ante a bit. I realize it’s totally cliché and maybe a bit overdone, but I just can’t let a character die without giving them a proper (read: cry your eyes out) sendoff.
Which brings me back to only shred of incontrovertible evidence that proves I’m not Joss Whedon. Seriously people, enough with the autograph requests! He is notorious for quick meaningless deaths. Now don’t get me wrong, I would follow Joss to the ends of the earth in a totally not creepy stalker way, but his habit of killing off his beloved characters without any kind of fanfare drives me bonkers. I can appreciate the artistic merit, as well as the shock value of committing such a heinous crime against fandom, but really, enough is enough. I’ve gotta wonder if Iron Man is gonna bite the dust in his The Avengers movie just after professing his undying love to Pepper Potts ground pepper.
So what do you guys think? Are heroic deaths and sad farewells cheesy or wonderful? Which on screen or on page deaths affected you the most? Which quick Whedon death have you still not forgiven him for?
So I finished the first draft of my novel last night. Yay me! It’s been a long road, but I’m happy with the way everything turned out. I say that of course without rereading a lick of it. I need to take a break from it, but I still love the way it turned out! So how long has the road been, you ask? Well, several years ago, I wrote a story, 120 pages long called An Elf’s Tale. It was about a young elf named Nano who is told that “All great people have tales.” but he hears it as “All great people have tails.” So he goes on a mission to find a tail. It was a cute and fun story about Nano’s journey to find a tail, the characters he met along the way (a dog named Dodger, a lizard named Jilo), and the adventures he had. Upon returning home he learns that he was great all along and everyone lives happily ever after. Like I said, totes cute.
At the time, I tried to find an agent to get it published. I was young and naive and thought agents would flock to my wonderful story. LOL! Well, I still have the stack of rejection letters tucked away somewhere to prove me wrong. So my story was set aside as life progressed without it. I moved to Brooklyn, got a new job, watched entire series of television shows, read hundreds of new books and stories, started drawing comics, and moved back home.
After a while, it was time for me to bring back Nano. For another few months, the story of Nano evolved in my head. Like me, he became a little older, a little wiser. I dropped the tale/tail misunderstanding aspect of the storyline and instead built a larger arc that could be told over a series of books, while still trying to form the basis of a novel that could stand on its own. Rather than being the young, eager elf, Nano became the reluctant hero. Like Bilbo Baggins before him, he was pulled into an adventure, rather than seeking one out, which from my standpoint made for a much more interesting story to write. He would still team up with Dodger the dog and Jilo the lizard on his journey and would meet most of the other fantastical creatures he had before when it was called An Elf’s Tale. But as the story evolved, so did the title. No longer was it just Nano’s tale. It was a tale of three ordinary creatures who were capable of doing extraordinary things. The title then became A Tale of Ordinary Creatures.
I started writing A Tale of Ordinary Creatures over a year ago. I struggled with finding time to write between blogging and watching copious amounts of television. Over a series of months, I wrote about 24 pages of my new novel, and then I stopped. I’m not sure what happened, but I struggled with the story and the writing, and I just stopped. It wasn’t until Meg suggested we all do a Novel Writing Month back in August that I was able to continue writing. Over the month of August I wrote more than I had ever writen in my life. The goal for the month was 50,000 words, and I succeeded. My novel was now about 180 pages long and I felt great. I only had another chapter or so to go and it would be complete. Well once again, the novel sat untouched until January, where I finally finished it last night, and damn does it feel good.
Clocking in at almost 220 pages, a full 100 longer than An Elf’s Tale, A Tale of Ordinary Creatures feels like a much more complete story this time around. It feels like a novel, rather than just some story I wrote. I’m not the best writer around, but I found a voice that worked for me (writing more naturally and using humor to mask the fact that I am actually a terrible writer) and I’m thrilled with what I was able to accomplish.
Now it’s time to take another break from Nano. Time to let me and him mature for a bit. Time to let friends and family read what I’ve written and gather their thoughts before I dive back in and start making revisions. It will still be a long time before I seek an agent or publication. Like Nano learned at the end of An Elf’s Tale, it isn’t a single thing, the tail, that makes you great. And for me it isn’t publication. It’s the tale, the writing, that makes me feel great. The fact that I am so proud of what I’ve written and to even say that I wrote a novel. That’s my tail, and for now that’s all I need.
I spent all last night working on my novel. You’ll be happy to know that I’m so close to being done with my first draft, I can taste it. Heck, if everything goes according to plan, I’ll be done tonight. But the bad news is, I have nothing for you today. So I figured I would share the playlist I listen to while writing.
Battlestar Sonatica by Bear McCreary from Battlestar Galactica
Forgiven by Bear McCreary from Battlestar Galactica
A Good Lighter by Bear McCreary from Battlestar Galactica
Inama Nushif by Brian Tyler from Children of Dune
The Day is Yours by Patrick Doyle from Henry V
Glasgow Love Theme by Craig Armstrong from Love, Actually
End Credits by Alan Silvestri from Castaway
Once Upon a Time…Storybook Love by Mark Knopfler from The Princess Bride
Dragonheart Theme by Randy Edelman from Dragonheart
Evening by Jan AP Kaczmarek from Evening
Watermark by Enya
Remember Me As a Time of Day by Explosions in the Sky
Star Trek: First Contact Theme by Jerry Goldsmith from Star Trek: First Contact
Life and Death by Michael Giacchino from Lost
Oceanic 815 by Michael Giacchino from Lost
Labor of Love by Michael Giacchino from Star Trek
No Sacrifice, No Victory by Steve Jablonsky from Transformers
My Name is Lincoln by Steve Jablonsky from The Island
Jack’s Love Theme by Ben Foster from Torchwood
The Battle by Harry Gregson-Williams from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Now We Are Free by Hans Zimmer from Gladiator
Star Trek: Generations Theme by Jerry Goldsmith from Star Trek: Generations
E.T. Theme by John Williams from E.T.
A.I. Theme by John Williams from A.I.
Any suggestions for songs I should add to the list?
Where does the line between Homage, Borrowing, and Plagiarism exist? I asked myself that question a lot as I was doing my novel writing month back in August. A Tale of Ordinary Creatures is the story of an elf trying to rescue his friends from abductors (elfnappers, perhaps?). But the backdrop of the story that would (hopefully) span over the course of a few books would be an evil force trying to come back to power. That basic premise of course has previously been done in The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. Is it possible to do it again? Surely the idea of a dark force coming back to power can be original if it’s written in an original way, and their means and motivations for doing so are also original, right? I mean, there won’t be a single object to give them ultimate power, like the ring, or the blood of the enemy to give them rebirth, like Voldemort. So I’m of the opinion that the dark power rising up again is still a viable storyline that can be reused if done in a captivating and original way. Correct?
Now of course I did see myself stepping waaaaay past the line of plagiarism when I found myself writing about a broken sword, like that of Narsil/Andúril from Lord of the Rings. As I was writing it I was like “WTF Craig? You suck.” So I have to go back and rework that aspect of the story so I’m not being such an asshat. So I am capable of looking at my work and seeing plagiarism, and that gives me hope that my writing can be quite original, even if some other aspects of the story have been seen before.
But some tougher parts that I find difficult to determine whether it’s plagiarism or not is when there’s a slight similarity to other stuff I’ve seen. For example, I wrote a scene that’s essentially a big troll smackdown (I love writing action scenes by the way) and at the end of the fight, the “good” troll is drowning the “bad” troll and taking things a bit too far when she is stopped by her best friend, a cat named Bernie. Now, is that too similar to the Incredible Hulk stories where the Hulk would need to be stopped before he killed someone? Or is it different enough to be original? Or am I borrowing the idea in a respectful way that doesn’t plagiarize? Or is it downright plagiarism?
What do you guys think? If something reminds me of something else, does that mean it needs to be scrapped right away? Or can things be similar, but different enough to be original? I’m of the opinion that the Incredible Hulk wasn’t the first story about two goliaths going head to head, and that it shouldn’t be the last. In any case, I think (and hope) that my writing and the overall scope of my story is original enough that slight instances of familiarity can be overlooked.
Starting Word Count: 8,061
Current Word Count: 58,129
Total Words in August: 50,068
Total Pages: 183
Current Mood: Boo-Ya!
Summary: So I did it! I wrote 50,000 words in August! As did Meg, Meredith, and Nan who have each written their own (sure to be amazing) novels! Mine isn’t quite finished yet as there is still another chapter or so to go (followed by a buttload of editing) but I suspect I will have it complete in the next week or so. I’m positively exhausted from the effort. As you can see in the graph above, I started off a bit weak, but have been spending nearly every free moment writing these past few days.
Thank you to all you guys for your support in this process and to all the guest posters who did amazing jobs while I was on hiatus! Regular posting should resume this week, after one final post of amazingness courtesy of Michelle M tomorrow.
Starting Word Count: 8,061
Current Word Count: 38,131
Words This Month: 30,070
Words Until 50,000 Month-End Goal: 19,930
Total Pages: 112
Current Mood: Pumped
Starting Word Count: 8,061
Current Word Count: 28,105
Words This Month: 20,044
Words Until 50,000 Month-End Goal: 29,956
Total Pages: 86
Current Mood: Tired
Starting Word Count: 8,061
Current Word Count: 19,356
Words This Month: 11,295
Words Until 50,000 Month-End Goal: 38,705
Total Pages: 60
Current Mood: Happy with a side of Nervous
Starting Word Count: 8,061
Current Word Count: 13,084
Words This Month: 5,023
Words Until 58,061 Month-End Goal: 44,977
Total Pages: 42
Current Mood: Pleased