Unexpected Story Line Developments

Why is my story writing itself?!

Before I get into what is happening, please remember, I don't consider myself to be even as high as an amateur author. I'm trying to fill my "extended vacation" time with an activity that enables me to enjoy living inside a world of make-believe. So for those people who are as introverted as I am and are terrified of joining groups or even socializing, I wanted to do an experiment. How possible is it for somebody to write and publish a decent novel largely on their own and is it possible to make a little bit of gas money on the side?

After having planned my main plot I figured the trilogy would write itself -- and that it did. As I began writing, I realized that many times the characters would develop themselves, contrary to what I had originally planned. It was largely surprising as I watched the characters take on the plot in their own ways. Each day as I spend my time writing, I would come out surprised at the way the events would turn out. Usually this was a good surprise, but occasionally I would end up writing myself into a corner.

Sometimes, in order to ensure that the story was staying on track and there weren't too many plot twists, I would go back and rewrite things. Other times, I would leave things the way they were. I would notice that characters who I had previously introduced as minor secondary characters could easily become primary characters, which added nice little plot twists.

What has surprised me most has been how well the story develops when a decent amount of pre-planning is done before delving into the meat of the story. I got a lot of help from using the snowflake method, by Randy Ingermanso. Basically, you start by writing out your main plot in a sentence or two. Then you expand that short description into a paragraph. Then write a longer description of each of the main characters and so on. It definitely helped to solidify the foundation of the story. I suggested heading over to that site to read up on the method.

So, after I finished the first draft of The Connected: Origin of the Sleepers and sent it off for editing, I began envisioning how the second part of the trilogy would fit into the overall plot. In one week, I came up with the outline and began writing, reaching about eight thousand words. I was quite excited at the pace.

Then I hit a wall. I wrote myself into a dead end. I know where I want the story to go and I like how the story is laid out up to this point, but now I've had to take time to really think if what I've written and how I want the story to develop is actually worth this brief period of writer's block, or should I slowly move backwards and find a point to begin rewriting.

I'm not going to spend too much time blogging about things, but it has been nice to take some time to clear my mind in an attempt to approach the story from a fresh perspective.

Time to get back to writing!

First draft of First Novel sent for editing.

Alright, I had an idea for a story one day while watching people wandering through the streets. They were all immersed in their cellphones, texting, browsing and living their lives within their devices. As technology becomes more advanced and people become more connected, where will this take us?

Here's the description of the first part of a series entitled: The Connected

The Connected: Origin of the Sleepers

Forced to connect to the global neuralnet through a high tech implant, a group of isolated rebels struggle against the government legislation. They create a computer virus to maintain their anonymity but it backfires, infecting over half the world population and turning them into primitive drones – the Sleepers. Decades after the initial infection, four young adults, descendants of the rebels, passionately continue the frenzied hunt for the antivirus. They discover that the designer of the virus also holds the key to the antivirus, but refuses to relinquish the code. He becomes the self-appointed leader of the Sleepers, manipulating them via the neuralnet. The Sleepers become his own personal army. After he abducts three of the group members, the lone member Jessica, escapes to her small village and recruits her own soldiers in preparation for the impending conflict.

While the editing and proofing work is still in progress, I've started the first draft of the next book in the series, entitled: Sleeper Conflict. I'm still putting together the frame of the novel, determining my plot and such. I started the first book on March 4th, 2012. Right now it is pretty small, about 73,000 words. I've been going through and removing parts and I think that I need more character development. It could be awhile before I format it for self-publishing. 

I'm trying to do as much of the self-publishing as possible. Although I've gone through and done an edit myself, I prefer to have experienced eyes help with this stage. I absolutely do not want to put out a badly written, poorly told story.

As far as self-publishing goes, I've decided to see what will happen for a new author entering the literature world through Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing. 

To be honest, I'll be happy if I can sell one eBook a month.

I have no idea what I'm doing...

I've never written anything in my life, besides Facebook statuses and stuff like that. This blog is meant to give an accurate report of what a new, unpublished, inexperienced "author" goes through when attempting to self-publish fiction novels.

I have no idea where this will take me, if anywhere. I prefer to look at the journey as a realist, in that the odds of producing decent fiction and building a following of readers are insurmountable.

For anybody entering the self-publishing industry, this is an honest account of my progress - or lack thereof.