Writing a novel: Day two

Day One

It's day two! I won't be blogging each and every day, FYI - there's writing to get done! However, it was a solid start today - a nice round 1,000 words. For those of you interested, pacemaker is a nice little online app that you can use to keep track of writing goals.

https://www.pacemaker.press/



I'll take some screenshots as I go. I use it with a pinch of salt - I may want 60,000 words, but it could easily be more or less depending on where the story goes. This is not set in stone. At the moment pacemaker tells me 1200 words a day are needed. Well we'll see about that!

In the last post I mentioned my starting notes, well here they are:

Don't read too closely if you want to avoid spoilers! I'm sure many will be horrified at the scarcity, especially considering the second page is the entire trilogy. This to me is just the skeleton - the meat of the planning gets added beneath all my text as I go along. I make notes of character traits and points I want to hit, which will get translated into the spreadsheet if they are major moments.

For fun, here's a paragraph from the opening section, raw:

Overpopulated and overstretched, Neon’s dome was splintering; district after district within bearing the brunt of an over-stimulated citizenry too eager and too bored to do anything other than reproduce. It was in their genes. It wasn’t their fault. There was space – the authority evicted whole families from top-side districts and relocated them to empty apartments beneath, to the sub-districts of pale lights and ever-night. It was a lottery. One day Joe and Jane Citizen were happily raising their family in the relative sunshine filtering through the dome’s skin, administering insurance accounts for the rich or wealthy or famous, or all three – and the next it was goodbye sun, goodbye rooftop barbecues, goodbye friends and family – unless they chose to move south too – and hello Negative Zero’s immigration barrier. Hello new home. Sure, the apartment might be twice the size as topside, but damn; the air was dank and sweaty and breathing it in made you feel as though you were filling your lungs with soup, all while looking out of tall, wide windows into blinking darkness and neon-punctuated misery.

A lot will likely change. The challenge is getting it all down to begin with. The fun part is the editing. (I'm serious!)

Day Three

Writing a novel: Day one

So, I thought it might be interesting to document my writing process for Neon City. I'm not sure how this will go, but it may highlight the highs and lows and triumphs and failures that pretty much every writer, I'm sure, will go through. Perhaps you're a reader, interested to see how an author plans and sets about achieving that mountain of a goal: writing circa 60,000 words (or more). Or maybe you're a fellow writer, looking for ways to avoid slipping up, giving up or otherwise WRITE!

I know I do that a lot.

Yet when I knuckle down, it does flow. I've now written - pinch skin - four novels. Would I give any of them 5 stars? No. But I'm hoping I would to the next one: Neon City. And if not that one, then the one after that.

All that is to say: I've been here before and just want each book to be better than the previous one. What I like about that is the formatted document is already done - sitting here with a title and spaces for copyright and chapter listings, and the oh-so-friendly About the Author at the end. I just need to fill the massive gap between.

I'm an indie author doing rapid release, so this book needs to be written in just a few weeks. I've given myself six. Other indies write more quickly, and slowly, have editors, don't have editors - whatever works for them. I write to this scale and have done since Nanowrimo a couple years ago, because it worked for me. I was inside the story every day. I believe that helped continuity of character.

I also write and copyedit in my full-time job, so I'm skilled at editing on the go. An editor colleague also reads and offers a proof. It would be great to afford a third edit on my novels in the future!

So that's 60,000 words in ~6 weeks, give or take. 10,000 words a week. My best day is 5,500 words - so it's easily achievable. I have a vague outline in place of where I want the plot to be, and 3 main characters pencilled out, and that's enough for me. So far, for each of the Neon series, I've set the first act up as an intro to location, mixed with mystery and a sense of foreboding. It will be no different here.

Time to get to know Xi Chen - my MC #1! I use an excel spreadsheet to outline the plot, but I rely on my characters to tell me where to go. As I get to know them, I often find myself cutting and pasting sections out or in, moving them around, or just shutting it down and letting the plot flow. Something I'm taking from the first three Neon books is complexity of character. Complexity of morality. Nothing, and no one, is black-and-white. And that's sci-fi at its core. I'm looking forward to mixing in a bit of cyberpunk.

Day Two

Review: The Game

The Game by Terry Schott
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I wanted to enjoy this book more than I did, as it had a nice, communal development story (uploaded to Facebook in parts for friends) and had themes I like exploring. In the end, I finished it just to squeeze out the ideas that the author had, as there were so many it ended up incoherent with little focus.

The Game is a pre-adult virtual reality life system designed to educate the children of Tygon. The Game is E. A. R. T. H. The idea is that the children come out of this system having lived full lives, and can then take that experience into their real life.

Sounds good. Except that you have to earn credits to be a part of the game (from having a ‘good game’), after your initial free runs. (Children play multiple times during their ‘childhood’). Logical inconsistency #1: the Tygon rulers therefore don’t actually care that much about maxing out a child’s potential. Logical inconsistency #2: kids that fail end up in labour camps. Where are the parents? Who are the parents? The Game has been around for 30 years – where is the supposed societal enlightenment that would come about from the communal wisdom of a generation?

These aren’t answered. They are compounded by the idea that The Game is viewed for pleasure by the adults – the very same adults who have been through the process themselves in order to become ‘better adults’. It’s masochistic, and given the dwindling popularity of Big Brother type shows in our reality: unrealistic. There’s also no explanation as to how The Game is viewed, as an entire lifetime inside The Game can take around 7 weeks in real-time (assuming someone ‘lives’ to be 70). It’s stated that recording and rewatching an event in The Game is impossible. There are ‘big’ events that happen in-game that in reality, for someone watching, would flash by in an instant. It makes no sense.

It also makes no sense that so much time and dedication is placed by ‘Patrons’ – people on Tygon who ‘sponsor’ single individuals (out of millions/billions) with the goal of trying to influence the outcome of in-game activities, when they cannot communicate directly in-game, and events would happen so fast that it would be impossible, in reality, to react quick enough even if they could.

Despite massive holes such as these, there were some good ideas, such as the explanations for Angels and Demons, and religion as a whole. The idea that the Pyramids and other ancient structures were BETA testers. It had some innovation, but all this was just not enough to paper the cracks. Add to this one-dimensional characters and an unrealistic, narcissistic MC; and a writing style that lacks variety, ‘style’, ambition – that does nothing but ‘tell’ instead of ‘show’ – and you get your two-stars.


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Neon City - Now Available for Preorder

***SPECIAL PRE-ORDER PRICE OF 0.99***

The city of Neon is experiencing a pandemic of crime - time to clean up the streets. 

Book one in a cyberpunk, crime and mystery trilogy, Neon City follows on from the Neon Sands trilogy, with characters old and new fighting to break the chains of corruption.

Still early days on the blurb for this one, but it's always fun getting a book up on preorder so I couldn't wait any longer! 

Neon City trilogy covers!

Hi all, excited to reveal the next covers in the Neon series! It's another trilogy; Neon City, Tides of Hysteria, and Purge of Deceit. The blurbs aren't completed yet but you can add them to your reading lists on Goodreads! 

Review: The Dragon's Den

The Dragon's Den by Graeme Rodaughan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This book was like "Welcome back, good to see you, sit down, we're all out of starters, we only have 24 ounce steaks for main courses and here it is, waiting for you, get stuck in."

That is to say, after the first handful of pages it was relentless in its action. The reader is guided towards where they think the showdown is going to happen, and then realises the whole damn thing is a showdown. Pure, frenetic, ramp-coruscating action.

With that in mind, the set-pieces need to work, and while you're left mesmerised and wondering just how far the Morovar team can push their skills, they go and push it some more. It's frankly miraculous they get as far as they do, especially with grenades aiming their way as they cling to the top of a moving vehicle. Batted away like baseballs.

And the set-pieces do work. The obstacles they meet on their path are realistic (for this world), with the right amount of insurmountability to be surmounted. It is satisfying to read how they navigate their way from mini-battle to mini-battle, within the framework of the grander scale. The POV seems tighter than the previous two books, with clarity between characters when we switch. Individual character motivation is also more obvious, though sometimes questionable, but that's characters for you!

My only negative really is the run-on sentences; ironically it works well during action sequences, as the pace is kept racing. It doesn't work so well when we do get down time, and seems to be just how the writing style is. Seems picky, but I know it would be a bigger issue for me if this wasn't an action-oritiented series.

I enjoyed the ending too - the little teasers of further intrigue and misdirection and guilt and new character motivation. Leading straight to the next one! I wonder if it'll last longer than a few in-story hours!

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Selection of active giveaways

See below for some giveaways of free books currently going on. You'll find my titles within, but also just a great selection of other titles. Happy reading!

https://books.bookfunnel.com/nohappyendings/xdkl41c8zm

SPACE EXPLORATION

https://books.bookfunnel.com/spaceexploration/c6le3483pw

https://books.bookfunnel.com/scifiwinter/ax7xili6db

https://books.bookfunnel.com/speculativefictionshowcase/1y55i4ydd1

Neon Sands Trilogy Boxset & Permafree Prequel - NOW OUT!

She's out there in the world for all to read. A little scary; heart flutters of nervousness.

It'll be fine.

You'll click on this link:

DOWNLOAD AND ENJOY MY BOOK

And then you'll LEAVE A REVIEW and the world will keep on turning.

I'll keep on writing.

And we'll do it all again, you and me.

And should you enjoy that little taster, you'll either buy the reasonably priced BOXSET or have that sweet KINDLE UNLIMITED membership to read the entire set in one go.

And LEAVE A REVIEW on all 3 books.





Because you're a reader, and you're great.

Review: Neon Zero: The Neon Series Prequel

Neon Zero: The Neon Series Prequel by Adam J. Smith
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

To great fanfare...... Neon Zero is now available for FREE download. That's FREE!

It's a permafree prequel to the Neon series, so enjoy!

getbook.at/amazon-neon-zero


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Cover reveal - Neon Zero - Neon Series Prequel

Hi all! Well it's been an exciting month for my book sales - having Neon Sands Book One on free for a few days was great, reaching #1 in 3 different categories and curiously, across all 5 days, the ratio of free downloads to purchases of books 2 and 3 was 30:1, consistently. I like that ratio. So next up, the perma-free prequel Neon Zero:

You cannot outrun the sun...

With Earth falling to pieces, those who escaped look back with sorrow, and forward with hope. Hope of a new beginning. A chance to start over.

Then the fires began...












Looks good, eh? I might just have to get a paperback version printed, if only for myself, even though it'll only be 100 pages or so long. You can add it to your Goodreads reading list here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43199128-neon-zero

I seem to have had a rise in book review requests lately - apologies if I've not responded to you. At the moment, the only books I'm thinking about are my own and a few that are already on my reading list, sorry.

Breaking the silence - Neon Sands FREE

I am alive! The blog is not dead! Hallelujah!

In all seriousness, I've just been too busy to do anything but work and write Flames of Apathy! It was a bit of a beast but in the end, I think I've done the trilogy justice. Science-fiction, for me, has always been about hope and aspiration, as much as it has been about any futuristic science, or high-concept action scenes. I'm most interested in the human story. Which is why I think Flames of Apathy works well. But, who knows, maybe it'll divide opinion. If at least one person enjoys it, than that'll be something!

It's out on 6 December, so to celebrate, Neon Sands is free, and Plains of Ion is reduced, for the next 5 days. Neon Sands is currently sitting at #2 in various categories, which is pretty amazing. Might even be #1 by the time I finish writing this. This will be the first and only time it'll be free, so grab it while you can. I'm writing a prequel to the Neon series which will be permafree, out in February.

Review: Poor Things

Poor Things by Daniel Barnett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Had fun with my new kindle reading this one, sharing lots of good quotes as some may have seen. This book is perma-free on Amazon and if you like horror and gore with characters in the Stephen King mould, you'll enjoy this.

A devestating event sends Joel to live with his Aunt Sandy in the town of Honaw; a place with more than one skeleton in its closet. New school, new friends, new bullies - pretty soon we're treated to a cast of characters to become attached to, and horrors to endure.

“In the dictionary under ‘adolescence’ you’ll find a bunch of stuff about transitional periods and developmental phases, and that all may be accurate enough if you’re writing a paper for Health class, but only one word defines ‘adolescence’ and that word is ‘earthquake.”

I shared many quotes and could've chosen any of them to put above, but the truth is the writing is just extremely solid throughout. There's a definite style which lends itself well to suspense and horror, and in first person it is peppered with incisive observation.

“I think we all have that place where we feel closest to ourselves, where the mind slides into perfect orbit around the heart.”

And when it arrives, the crawling horror is satisfyingly bloody, and splatty, gorey and squelchy - almost too much, stretching the believable, testing the limits of our narrator. But then it's reigned in again, lulling us into its safe space. Before kicking on, shifting into a higher gear, crescendoing to a satisfying conclusion.

Did I mention it's free?





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DailyFlash: Adrift

Skin no longer skin; inside a bubble of gelatine gently decoding her, she followed where her mind lead. Threads stretched beyond the dome; beyond the planet and the atomsphere and into the empty chaos of space. She was that chaos; starbursts and heat deaths and dark that did not matter, and dark that was. She could see between the nature of things, and through it, into the soul - a disembodiment of God. Planktons of knowledge dislodged from her and became part of the soup around her, blazing.

Neon Series Promo - 24-26 Sept / #Amreading

Howdy folks. Just a quick update to let you know you can pick up Neon Sands for 99c, and a discount on Plains of Ion. Book 3, Flames of Apathy is on permanent preorder bonus price of 99c too - great to see some preorders already!

You may have already read my newsletter - I'm giving the whole NL swap thing a go, and so far, it's not doing too badly. Best sales day since July!

The Risen is also on offer at the moment for 99c, while Hereafter is FREE! Free I tell ya.

The writing for Flames of Apathy is going well, and while I'm not writing, I'm reading Poor Things by Daniel Barnett and The Fireman by Joe Hill. So far, so prefering Poor Things. The Fireman is a whole lotta book!

Follow me on Goodreads for updates there.

Review: How the World Ends

How the World Ends by Rudolf Kerkhoven
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The world's population is dying by their own hand. Can one family halt their demise?

The plot unfolds from this central premise and turns into a sort-of road trip - a linear exploration of a family struggling to keep it together as everything falls apart. The strengths are with the writing, which flows very well and does a good job exploring the inner self of Alex, our matriarch protagonist; and the characterisation of the husband and wife. Even if we are often asking ourselves how these two remained together. But that in itself shows strong characterisation.

Sometimes the children felt a little forgotten - when they were there they were realistically portrayed, but they didn't come into their own or feel 'rounded' until later. But this wasn't so bad. For me, after everything, the book kinda fell into Book One syndrome - it never reached fifth gear; the family are constantly running AWAY from danger it feels, and even when danger catches up it's more of an uphill labour to generate any tension or unpredictable action. The problem is we are in the head of someone who has no idea what's going on, and the development arc all leads towards book two.

I can see why someone would rate this higher, so my 3 stars is (obviously) just a personal taste thing. It's a character-driven end-of-world tale; I'd have just enjoyed a bit more bite in the middle.

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