During the last couple days I was able to finish converting my jury duty writings into a digital format on the laptop. In two weeks of jury duty I was able to scribble out almost 15,000 words. Currently that puts the book at:

Total Words: 86,500
Estimated Words Remaining: 20k-25k

Even when I finish, I have a feeling there will be some heavy editing. It seems silly to pour a year of your life into something like this and then not put some finishing touches on it. I don’t want to finish this, get it printed, and then find a silly mistake I could have fixed. Will it get done before the baby is born? I doubt it, but I’m certainly going to try.

What is your opinion of foul language in fiction? As I write I feel that I am faced with a dilemma. As my characters evolve, some of them are people that would most certainly use a curse word in certain situations in life. Here’s another example; if I were to write a story about certain people I know, I would have to use foul language to accurately portray them. I’m halfway through my first novel and there have only been a handful of bulls***s and I’ve considered using my first f-bomb, so I don’t want to go over the top, but I want your opinion.

If foul language is a reality in life, and I am attempting to recreate life in a fictionalized world, how can I accurately portray life by putting my foot down and saying “there shall be no four letter words in thy fiction!”? I live in this imperfect world where some “unchristian” things exist, and to accurately portray that world, don’t I have to include things that some people might think are unacceptable?

What are your thoughts?

Something I love about writing is that it requires next to zero resources. Sure a laptop is nice and a word processor helps, but all you really need are words and an imagination, and you can make anything happen. Need a person to undergo a life changing event? Kill someone they care about, and watch them fall into a spiraling depression. Need a fantastic fortress protected by warriors on horseback? Say the word and the walls will rise from the ground, the warriors will be trained, and all you need do is describe their war shouts as the enemy approaches. Here’s a fun example.

The drool running from Chris Loona’s mouth pooled on the desk he had used for a pillow. The saliva was ruining the materials Chris had been studying in his pursuit of becoming a world renowned fashion designer. Since he was a young boy it had always been his dream to weave beautiful gowns from the finest silks and other fancy materials that he had failed to research in becoming a character in this story. Working at the local supermarket paid the bills, but it was the glory of the runway that was his true passion.

He would have slept well into the night, but a sound awoke him. Wiping the drool from his mouth, Chris looked at the grandfather clock next to his bed. It was shortly after 2 a.m. according to the clock, which he had won the week before at a poker match. Once a week Chris played poker in the back office at the supermarket. Old dirty Mitch that worked in the meat department lost the grandfather clock to Chris on a pathetic two pair.

The sound came again, this time clearly from the outside. Adrenaline filled Chris’ veins as his body desperately tried to alert him to the potential danger outside. Immediately Chris reached for the shotgun he kept atop the TV. His hands gripped the weapon not a moment too soon. The bedroom window broke into a thousand tiny pieces as an evil being burst through.

Chris recognized his arch nemesis immediately. It was Paddy the Putrid from the dark realm. Covered in sores and stank, Paddy the Putrid was the most vile killer that Chris Loona had ever fought in his make believe world. In the parking lot of Hi-Ho Market, many a time did Chris find himself face to face with a crowd of violent assassins who had crossed over from the dark realm. Chris didn’t know the exact location of the dark realm, but he had a suspicion it was somewhere near Bell Gardens.

With the reflexes of a cat, or an extremely fast badger, Chris remembered Paddy the Putrids biggest weakness. Grasping the shotgun with all his might Chris shoved the muzzle into the large sore on the side of Paddy’s neck. The impact burst the sore and sent puss all over the room. The puss flew into Chris’ eyes and blinded him. The poison rendered him helpless. Before Chris could see what happened, a blow to the jaw sent Chris to the floor and the gun sliding out of reach.

Chris knew this was the end of the line. Paddy the Putrid would end his life, and he would never achieve his dream of starting his own line of clothing for impoverished children in Africa. As Chris cringed and waited for the final blow, the bedroom door flew open with a loud crash. Standing in the entrance was Chris’ mistress, Amy Merryson. In one quick motion she reached for the shotgun on the floor, and as she did Paddy the Putrid lept.

Lifting the gun from the floor, Amy fired a single shot into the face of Paddy, reducing him to a warm lump of sores, and saving Chris Loona and his dreams. She fell to the floor and cradled Chris in her arms. With the tenderness only a woman possesses, Amy licked the puss from Chris’ eyes and restored his sight.

In the coming months Chris and his mistress would display a new line of leather pants and jackets. Failing to pique the interest of the fashion world, Chris would fall into a very deep depression, eventually losing Amy to old man Mitch at the supermarket in a poker game.

The End

I hope you enjoyed that, because I had fun writing it. All the characters in this story are completely fabricated, and if you happened to associate them with any real persons, I can’t be held responsible for your interpretations of the events therefor told in herefor aformentioned story.

First I will start by apologizing that I have not posted in 3 days. I am ashamed.

And now I am over it.

Today I hit a huge milestone in my novel. 50,000 words! Not only is it a nice round number, but it also marks the end of my 2nd Act, with one final act to go. It feels like I’m at the 2 hour mark in a 2.5 hour movie. The rest of the book is a rise to the final climax. Since my original outline quite a bit has changed. It will take some reworking before I begin the final ascent, and several more months of writing, but it feels great to get this far!

In addition to writing I’ve been doing some reading at a cool website called Lulu. Not only can you get your book published and have an actual copy of it, but there are some interesting forums where people talk about ideas and critique each other’s work. And like I said in a previous post, there is a lot of “wow, this makes me feel pretty good” kind of stuff.

All it takes to write a story is an understanding of the English language, a creative mind, and time. Take a look at the story here. If that person thinks they can write a story (which so far is terrible), then what’s stopping you?

I know you don’t care, but I hit 45k words tonight. Mostly that’s for me so I can keep track of my progress and I can look back at previous posts and see where I was several weeks prior.

Somebody is gonna die soon!

Thought I would share a couple interesting “writer” websites I’ve come across over the last couple months.

The first is the website for Orson Scott Card. I’ve never read one of his books, but he has some excellent articles on different aspects of writing. They’re mostly questions he gets from new writers and he answers them. Very cool stuff.

The other isn’t quite as interesting, but it’s more fun to post more links. This is another writer website by some guy named Crawford Killian that I’ve never heard of. Again, more questions answered and stuff. I really like this guys website, because it makes me feel better. People post comments saying “I wrote a story that’s only 5k words. How do I make it into a book?” While I know my first book won’t win any awards, it’s still encouraging to know that I can put together a whole story and don’t have to post on a website to ask how long my chapters should be.

The mood in the house tonight is very somber. We’ll be holding a candlelight vigil for the death of summer in a moment.

I hit 40,000 words on the book tonight. That’s 15,000 in a little under three weeks! I’m hoping that momentum isn’t hurt too much by work. I know you’re probably getting tired of the updates, considering you don’t even know what the story is about, but I’ll update you anyways. I can tell you that I spent a good 5-10 minutes tonight researching what a gunshot wound feels like. The best description I read was 1000 tiny knives stabbing you all at once. I also did some research about the Invasion of Panama in 1989, and how the pit maneuver works. Exciting stuff!

Off to bed. (Pours out bottle of tequila onto the floor dramatically)

I started to include this in my Day 12 post, but it warranted a separate post of its own. And heck, I’ve got a writing category even!

I’ve decided to write every day, otherwise this book won’t be done for five years. Even a small goal of a few hundred words a day will get the book done in a year (which doesn’t sound as long as it once did). I find myself having a better idea of where the story is going, and the words are jumping onto the page faster, which makes it a lot easier. I hit 25,000 words the other night, which felt good. You can only read so much about “how” to write a book, because once you actually start writing it you learn so much. What makes for an exciting series of events, how characters should react to different scenarios, and most importantly pace. A book is a marathon when it comes to writing, and it’s hard to figure out at first how fast or slow you’re going. Go to slow, and you’ll have a Harry Potter length book but only half a story. Go to fast, and events will jump around too quickly without giving readers a chance to relate to your characters.

If I’ve learned anything though, it’s that you don’t have to be a genius with the written language. Sure you need to be able to form a sentence and use grammar correctly, but it’s all about the story. Is the reader interested enough to keep turning the page? When something happens to a character does the reader care? Can the reader picture in their mind the events unfolding on the pages in front of them? That’s what makes a book a good read.