The Pyrite War… FINISHED!

The plan continues apace…

Despite a remarkably busy week, including an insane schedule of End of Course testing at work and preparing the play I’m currently directing (Alan Ball’s Five Women Wearing the Same Dress — four more performances at the Thibodaux Playhouse, beginning Thursday), I managed to find time this week to finally finish the first draft of my current Work in Progress, The Pyrite War. This is a great feeling. It started as my NaNoWriMo project for 2010, and although I hit the required 50,000 word mark, the story wasn’t nearly finished. Unfortunately, as tends to happen, I lost the thread of the story for a while after that, getting distracted by other things. I found it again a couple of months ago, and although I haven’t reclaimed the furious pace NaNoWriMo requires, since I returned to it, The Pyrite War has been my sole fiction project. A few days ago, I wrote the last word of the book (the word, if you’re interested, is “do”) — 90’027 words total, spread over 17 chapters and an epilogue. And The Pyrite War version 1.0 is finished.

Other People’s Heroes, at its core, is the story of a young man who believes in heroes helping a lost city to find its way. The Pyrite War is about an older man, a more cynical one, who must overcome that cynicism so that the same city isn’t lost at the very dawn of the first heroic age. Set in 1939, The Pyrite War is the story of Siegel City’s first superhero. Although none of our friends from OPH appear in this book, their are threads that reach back in time. I am a true lover of heroic legacies. This story will show you how some of the legacies in OPH began.

It’s not ready to share, not yet. This is just the first draft, after all. But I’m quite proud of the story and the fact that it’s finished.

So my plans for the next few months are as follows:

•Complete final editing on Opening Night of the Dead. Then, as soon as the cover for that book is completed, it will be made available in print and eBook.
•Do a second draft of The Pyrite War. This time around I intend to add a few bits, specifically intended to strengthen the mystery (yes, mystery) and give a little more depth to one of the more important relationships in the story I don’t think got quite enough screentime in the first go-around.
•Send the second draft to the Legion of Beta Readers for comments and editing. Also send it to the great Jacob Bascle, who has designed the cover art for all the Siegel City stories thus far and, I hope, will be willing to do so for a very long time. The goal is to finish all edits and the cover and have this book available to you before the end of the year.
•Jump into the next fiction project. I don’t actually know what that will be yet. I may return to an incomplete project, of which I have several (including two more “World of Siegel City” novels). I may take a third attempt at the true sequel to OPH, 14 Days of Asphalt, which I’ve already done two versions of but I still feel goes in a strange (and not in a good way) direction about halfway through, and I can’t quite figure out a fix. I may start something else entirely, although at the moment I don’t have any brand new ideas fully formed enough to really start on. Whatever I ultimately decide to do, I’ll keep you posted.

That’s really all I’m willing to say about The Pyrite War just yet, but if you want another taste of the story, go to my Facebook Fan Page. I’ve posted costume designs for (almost) all of the heroes and villains who appear in the book… although at this stage of the game I won’t tell you much information about them. Gotta keep some secrets to myself, after all.

Keep reading…

Approaching the finish line

Okay, my friends. There is a chance — a CHANCE — that I can finish the first draft of THE PYRITE WAR by the end of my spring break. I’ll be off from April 21-29. I do have things to do (set builds on both Saturdays, rehearsals at night, etc.) but looking at how much story is left… I think I can do it.

So I’m asking you guys to please, from now until the end of the month, NAG THE HELL OUT OF ME. Ask me if I wrote anything today. Ask me how MUCH I wrote. Ask me how much I have left. And the shame of potentially having to answer this question in the negative, God willing, just may be enough to push me across the finish line.

NaNoWriMo: Meeting the Goal

Tonight, my work on The Pyrite War hit 50,404 words. The story isn’t finished, but the 50K word goal has been met, so once again, I can call myself a NaNoWriMo winner.

Now, in the past, I’ve had a tendency to hit the 50K mark, not be finished with the story, and then drift away from the tale and not finish, at least not for some time. I’m bound and determined not to let that happen this time. I’m going to keep working, daily, until this first draft is finished. If you’ll look at the chart here, you’ll see I’ve only skipped one day of writing all month, and since I gave that day to Erin, I think that was more than worth it.

But this book will be finished.

NaNoWriMo: The Updates Continue

I’m going to cross the 40,000 wordcount mark on my NaNoWriMo novel, The Pyrite War, tonight. The story is progressing nicely, and I’m only 10,000 away from the goal to “win” NaNoWriMo. I’ve no doubt that I’ll hit it before the November 30 deadline.

However…

Looking at the story, I’ve got a hell of a lot more than 10,000 words left to write. There’s too much story left to tell, and what I’m writing keeps taking me in directions I didn’t expect. This is a good thing, believe it or not. 50,000 words is the bare minimum length a work of fiction can be and still be considered a novel, which is why it’s the benchmark the founders of NaNoWriMo chose. Most publishers, however, want their novels to clock in closer to the 90,000 word range, which is much more marketable. And the goal here, lest we forget, is to get these books into print. Reaching 40K and knowing I’ve still got a lot of work left to do is actually a very good thing.

That said, I don’t think there’s any chance of actually finishing the story in the next ten days. That’s okay. Because I’m making this pledge to you right now. I’m not going to stop when I hit 50k. I’m not going to stop when I hit November 30. I’m not going to stop until I finish the story. I’m going to maintain my daily wordcount goal (that’s a 1700-word minimum, for the record) every day until the first draft of The Pyrite War is finished. I’ll try to keep you guys updated.

 

Rain, rain, rain

It rained today. Pretty much all day. Which isn’t actually a problem for me, really. I quite like the rain, in most circumstances. I just don’t like driving in it. There’s something about the sound of a steady rainfall that’s calming and soothing, something about watching it through the window that I find relaxing. I know the traditional way to interpret a rainfall is “gloomy,” but to me, it actually feels somewhat… cleansing.

Today was better. After two hellish weeks, work went more smoothly today and I felt like I got something accomplished. Plus my NaNoWriMo novel crossed the 30K mark, and I came up with a few more pieces of the puzzle. That’s the thing I love about a good story as it comes together. Some people compare writing to excavation — the story is there, your job is to reveal it. For me, it’s more like a puzzle — I need to discover the correct way to put the pieces together, and I don’t have the picture on the box to use as a cheat.

But for The Pyrite War, I think I’m figuring out just how the picture is supposed to look.

NaNoWriMo: The Pyrite War Update

I know I haven’t told you guys too much about The Pyrite War, this year’s NaNoWriMo project. I do have a few things to share with you though. It is set in Siegel City, home of the characters of Other People’s Heroes, but set in the past — 1938 to be precise. And like happened when I was writing OPH in the first place, as I continue with this story I keep finding new and different characters, avenues, and ideas that I not only want to explore, but seem to fit wonderfully in the context of what I’ve already written. It’s a fantastic feeling.  I’m past the halfway point of NaNoWriMo’s 50,000 word goal, and I don’t think I’ve gotten to the halfway point of the actual story yet. And this is a very good thing.

Here’s a quick dialogue from a scene I wrote to day, just to give you a taste:

——————————————————————————————————————-

“Why is it a crime to be prepared?”

“It’s not a crime to be prepared for cutting your arm or for getting a snake bite in the middle of the woods. Being prepared for breaking into somebody else’s home? Samantha, that’s the definition of a crime!”

“You worry too much, Davey.” With a flick of her wrist, the door popped open and swung into the apartment. “You first.”

“You are certifiable.”

“Certified.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

A reminder

Hey, guys. I don’t really have the time for a serious blog post tonight, I’m afraid. I’ve got NaNoWriMo to occupy my time, both of my jobs (the one that pays and the one that doesn’t) seem to be in a state of chaos at the moment, and to be frank, I’m kind of getting exhausted. But I press on, because I take all of these responsibilities for which I receive no monetary remuneration very seriously. Because I’m an idiot.

So as I tap away on The Pyrite War tonight, may I direct your attention to Tales of the Curtain? My new online fiction experiment, which launched a few weeks ago and where I posted a new installment just earlier today? It’s hellacool and it’s waiting for your input.

NaNoWriMo Update: The Pyrite War begins

NaNoWriMo is continuing briskly. At the end of yesterday, Day 4, I had reached 10,012 words in my novel-in progress, far ahead of the 6668 I would need on that day to remain on-pace to finish by November 30. My basic philosophy is to set each day’s goal by adding 1700 words to wherever I ended the previous day, even if overshot the goal considerably, which I’ve done each day so far. The story is progressing nicely as well. The novel, with with working title The Pyrite War (tell me what you think about that) is a first for me in several respects. It’s my first time trying a period piece (set in the late 1930s) and my first time trying a murder mystery (although the identity of the killer will be revealed relatively early, with much of the story dedicated to proving his guilt and bringing him to justice). As I move along, I’m hitting a lot of the milestones that have characterized my most satisfying projects — I find myself introducing new concepts and characters and, as I do so, immediately thinking of ways they will fit in nicely with ideas I’ve already established, almost like they were waiting there for me to uncover them all along. I know that’s a cliche, but there’s a reason cliches become cliches — because there’s often a kernel of truth to them.

What’s really helping to propel me, giving me a chance to beef up my word count this year? Twitter. No, seriously. The Ultimate Distraction is actually serving to be a fantastic motivator, as I keep up with a lot of friends who are also participating in NaNoWriMo much easier than I could do on the always-slow official website. What’s more, NaNoWriMo officials host “Word Sprints” every day, posting a starting time and a time limit (anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes) with the instructions to use that time to write as much as you can and then tweet your word count. I’ve participated in several of those, and each time, it’s worked for me. Some of the sprints even include optional “challenges” like “Send your characters on a road trip.” I can see those being helpful for people who are stuck on a plot, but I’ve decided not to take any of the challenges unless it happens to be something that actually fits into the context of the story.

So before I get into tonight’s writing, I thought I’d share a little of what I’ve got done so far. So submitted for your consideration, unedited and raw, is the first scene of The Pyrite War:

Chapter One

I knew that Gabriel’s death would leave me unhinged for a while – I was even prepared for it. Nobody could lead the life he had planned without dealing with harsh consequences. But I didn’t expect to find the entire world abruptly going mad after he passed. I was at school when I found out about his death, instructing my third period class in the small tragedies of Edgar Allen Poe while the tragedies of the real world brought a knock to my door.

“Mr. Lawrence,” I said, pointing to one of the more trustworthy students in the class. “Turn to page 78. ‘The Raven.’ Demonstrate for the class the proper way to scan this piece for rhyme scheme and meter while I speak to whomever feels the need to interrupt us.”

I was unaccustomed to interruptions in my classroom. I had my own policies and procedures in place, and the admiration of Kirkham Preparatory Academy was respectful of that. If someone was knocking on my door, I knew it had to be serious. I wouldn’t have even predicted just how serious. Mr. Thripshaw, the principal, was standing at the door as I cracked it open. His eyes were hollow, and the downturn of his lips betrayed a reluctance to deliver whatever information was important enough to disrupt my lesson.

“Mr. Ruston, could we have a work with you?”

“This really isn’t a good time, Mr. Thripsh–” I jarred myself to a halt when I realized he’d used a plural pronoun. “We?”

For the first time, I noticed the two uniformed police officers behind him, and I felt ice run through my heart. I think I knew, then, why they were at my school. There could only be one reason.

“I’ll stay with your class, Mr. Ruston,” Thripshaw said. “I think you need to accompany these gentlemen.”

“I suppose I should,” I said, my voice suddenly much softer. I stepped out of my classroom and felt all three pairs of eyes gazing at me, definite sympathy in them. Sympathy can be a comfort at times, but not when you don’t know for certain what has happened to deserve that feeling. “Officers, do I dare ask what this is all about?”

One of the police, the older of the two and obviously the one with more experience in such matters, stepped forward, his had clutched in his hands. “Sir, I’m afraid we need you to come with us. We need you to identify a body.”