The Alien Relic

Stephen King once referred to the first draft of any novel as an "alien relic." I couldn't agree more.

As I plow through the manuscript of my next novel, tentatively called Maximal Reserve, I am face to face with adverbs (words ending in -ly), broken and grammatically, mangled sentences, mismatched character names and redundant paragraphs that seem to indicate I was smoking an illegal substance at the time of the writing.

To make it worse, I have some early readers providing me thoughts and feedback. I need feedback! I need validation, but this process is exceptionally (look, another adverb!) humbling.

It's a good thing I have great friends!

I also see a lot of places where the plot needs to be tighter and more connected for the reader. This part reminds me of the medieval torture of being drawn and quartered. There is so much tension in the book and the chapters are so intricate in feeding information out as needed that I feel like the whole thing will fly apart.

One of my friends said that she found it interesting to see a book at this stage--fresh from the brain. That pretty much sums it up.

People may like sausage, but no one really wants to see how it's made.

Engineering a Book - Maximal Reserve

Well, the first draft of Maximal Reserve is done. This means the general story, characters, chapters, length (and depth of the book) and basic tone of the book are complete. This doesn't mean that the book is finished, but it does mean that how the book starts, runs and ends is essentially done.

Unlike Wayback--where, to be honest with you--I had little to no idea what I was doing until the edit stage, Maximal Reserve started with the foundations that I learned along the way with my first book. I tried to take the criticisms of Wayback and my strengths from Wayback and combine them. People generally liked the story of my first book and the scene descriptions were called out as strengths with character development and dialog being areas that some felt could use work.

I agree. So, on Maximal Reserve I focused on Characters--characters that I now love. In Wayback, the science team was the protagonist (or perhaps Jim Spruce was depending on who you ask) - in Maximal Reserve you get to know the protagonist, warts and all, from the very beginning. It has the same twists and turns that my first book was known for and additional dimension -- better relationships, better romance, better emotion--better everything.

People ask me what it's like to write a book and I suspect each one is a bit different, but now I focus my answer on what I relied on for the last seven months--structure and engineering.

How can art be engineered? It has to be to work. Fiction has structure - whether it's conventional, contemporary fiction or literary fiction - there is a formula that must be considered. It's not enough to have a good start or prologue--is there enough "ummph" to make it 80,000-100,000 words?

For me the challenge is around 30,000 words where the transitions occur and the middle of the book feels like it's sagging. It takes focus and rewriting to tame a manuscript and get to the resolution in a meaningful way.

Here are some things that I kept asking myself all through the writing of Maximal Reserve:

• Is there tension - everywhere?
• How are the transitions handled between Act I and Act III?
• How does the protagonist grow during the book?
• What is the relationship between the antagonist and the protagonist?
• Do the subplots slow down the story, or support it?
• In my case, does the science overwhelm the story, or support it?

So, with 90,000 words in the bank, I can now share the synopsis of Maximal Reserve...more news will be coming...What's next? Well, I have a whole raft of early readers and critics lined up to shred the manuscript (from a critical perspective).

Will the story change as a result? Undoubtedly. This is an early look at how the book will be perceived by the rest of the world. I can't wait to hear what they think...good or bad.

Phillip Channing was just an ambitious college graduate who wanted to make his mark on the world. He didn’t know that mark would be the greatest oil discovery of all time–in the wrong place. Phillip finds the largest oil reserve in history, dwarfing the lucrative reserves in Saudi Arabia, and threatening to change the balance of power and wealth in the favor of the most unlikely country of all.

The Timeline for Writing Wayback

Since this blog over time becomes a kind of diary, I wanted to post the timeline of events that led to Wayback being published. I know that during the process I always wondered what was next and how long that particular task would take, so perhaps this will help other writers who are curious.

Oops, blogger doesn't give us much space here - here's an enumeration of the events:

• May 2007 - Manuscript started, originally titled "Chronology"
• May 2008 - Manuscript submitted to Manuscript Submission Network
• July 18, 2008 - VMI Publishers extends contract
• Endorsements - from Aug 2008 to Nov 2009
• Edit - from late November 2008 to Feb 15 2009
• Web Site development - from December, 2008 to Feb 2009
• Typesetting - March 2009
• Printing - April 2009
• Available to the public May 1, 2009!

Blessings,

Sam

What's it like to write a book?

Over the last two years as I have worked on my book and discussed it with others, I hear the same questions over and over - "How did you do that?" or "What's it like to finish a whole book?"

That's a hard question to answer because there is so much to the answer. I'm not classically trained in writing, so much of Wayback emerged from what I read and observed that work well in the thriller genre (thank you Michael Crichton!)

I came across a video the other day that while not a perfect analogy somewhat shows the process of writing if I were to compare it to painting.

So, take five minutes and watch the video and then let's continue the conversation...

Here's the finished product - "Above the Timberline"

By all accounts this painting is an amazing vision, but look what it took to pull it off. The artist talks about a lot of tasks that occurred before he painted - the creation of the main character, pencil studies, research into polar bears, composition - this doesn't just happen - it was well planned - well executed. The artist even talks about the "camera" - something you don't hear about in painting - Viewpoint, yes -- camera, no. He talks like it is a movie or a book in his head and he is bringing it to life - an act of pure artistic creation. But the parts of the video that I really like are when he stops and does more research - more investigation for a glint or reflection on a goggle or a specific shape or brush stroke that he applies to a polar bear.

He talks about "anchors" that help him feed off that element visually - bold and subtle. Plot is like this - but so are characters and even scenes. It is like this in writing - what is finally published has almost no bearing to early drafts, or possibly what was originally envisioned or planned. Yes, I like to work with an outline, but the "sketch" of the story allows me to venture into wild territory and discover things that make the book more interesting. Unlike painting and drawing where you are filling in a physical canvas, writing entails sentences and paragraphs that can be almost infinite in detail - sometimes going deeper or holding back to get an idea across is the hard part. Sometimes I have to stop completely and research something over and over from many different perspectives. In Wayback, that involved lots of looking into what the Antediluvian world would have been like, what would the Flood have felt like and looked like, even the modern portions of the book that entail the Six Day War or a private think tank building an amazing machine took rework and research. The words don't just fly out of your fingertips (at least for me) it is a slow and arduous journey, but very rewarding and fun!

Blessings!

Sam

P.S. the typesetting process for Wayback should be done this week.

Rachel Starr Thomson - My Editor

The edit for Wayback is now drawing to a close. I was fortunate that VMI Publishers assigned Rachel Starr Thomson to me for my first novel. She has been an outstanding advisor and friend through this process. 

Editing was something that I was a bit nervous about. Actually, it's really not the editing that scares writers, in my opinion. It's criticism. I have found my taste and thirst for validation has increased substantially since I started writing Wayback nearly two years ago. 

What do people think of the book? 

Do they like the characters, the plot, the twists and turns? 

Is it intense enough?

Is there too much tell, not enough show? 

I suspect validation is something I will always struggle with, but Rachel made this process easy and even fun. We focused on making the manuscript the very best it could be. I tried to drop any reservations and listen to her comments and advice openly and readily. 

As she likes to put it, "she wields a mad red pen, but nicely." Yes, she did all the "normal" editing  stuff like punctuation and style, but she also pushed me, in some cases, to completely rewrite full chapters. She made me "show more than tell" and after I was done "showing" I had to admit she was right - it made the book stronger, more lively and more interesting. 

One of the things I really appreciated was that she read the book deeply-perhaps more deeply than anyone else-and knowing that there is still time to make it better she did that. What remains from this process that we started together in early December is a much stronger, more readable and more enjoyable adventure story with a richer plot, characters with texture and, well, more character and scenes that are more vivid.

During the process, I learned a lot about myself - what I'm bad at and what I seem to excel at. She taught me some of the things that I need to look out for as I head into other writing adventures. She did all that without scolding me, schooling me or just trashing the pages with red marks and comments. I think she has a magic touch because she isn't just an editor, she's a writer herself, and I think she understands the mental gymnastics that goes on when submitting your work for improvement to another person.

Now that the edit is getting behind me I'm looking forward to reading some of her work, which you can find here. Join me in saying thank you to Rachel by picking up a few of her books and supporting her.

         

Rachel, I hope we can work together again in the future. You are a large part of any success that this book enjoys.

Blessings,

Sam

Learning to say "Thanks"

When you are rearing children you work hard to establish good habits and polite manners. One of the main tenants of politeness is that of thankfulness.

When you go through the effort of getting a book written, accepted by an publisher, edited and sold in the marketplace you learn that it takes the effort of a multitude to make one person get noticed.

When I started writing Wayback, nearly two years ago (Summer 2007), I didn't know where it would go. Could I even finish it, was the story interesting to anyone other than me, was the grammar right, did I use the right literary mechanisms, would people like it, or even read it?

These questions haunted me and still do.

As the story began to come into focus I decided to "Open Source" the story a bit. To give it some sunlight and see what people thought. This was hard for me. Exposing something that comes from your mind in the form of writing is different than showing someone a drawing or a painting.

As least to me it is.

Responses ranged from raw curiosity to great feedback and encouragement. Some people read the manuscript and never responded at all, while others gushed about it. If you add this schizophrenia to the earlier points about questioning everything about my own story you get a true mental illness. :)

What I learned was that when you write you write something that interests you, and in the case of writing for the Christian market, you write something that you believe will please God and communicate some truth from His Word.

Nothing else matters.

That said, I've wanted to post this particular entry for a long time and while there is a page in my book to say "Thanks" I wanted to start a bit early.

My wife, Susan, far beyond anyone else was my greatest encourager. In fact, she was surprised to find that I wanted to be an author initially. Not that I hid it from her, it's just that family, career and everything else pushed itself ahead of my desire to write.

My sister, Marnie was one of the first to read my stuff and encouraged me every step along the way. We've always been close and this was a special thing to me. I then included my mother-in-law, Donna and sister-in-law, Bonnie. Both of them continued to encourage me and while I don't think it was their "cup of tea" they accepted me - that was important.

After my sister got done reading the earliest work and didn't respond with a "it really stinks" or "don't quit your day job" I asked my parents for their opinions. What can I say, they're parents. They loved it and jumped on the band wagon. This was nothing new, my parents have always supported me and stood behind me in both my good and bad decisions.

As I got feedback from my immediate family, I pushed beyond them to my closest friends. Chris, Beth, Tim and Carla. All of which supported me and cheered me on. How important are great friends? VERY.

The person who started all of this was next on my list. My high school teacher, Mr. Robin Maples, who I had lost track of over the twenty years since graduation. Back in tenth grade I won a creative writing contest that I entered at the spur of the moment. I was not a writer, I wanted to be a programmer and I really didn't like English and Language very much. Mr. Maples (I still have a hard time calling him "Robin") said one simple phrase to me after reading my first place entry around the topic of "Thanksgiving" - "you might have a gift there - do something with it." That might not be an exact quote, but look how important it was. It simmered in the back of my mind for over twenty years. Words are important and sometimes we say them quickly without thought. His quote after reading the Wayback manuscript was "count me a fan."

Being a book that focuses on the first six chapters of Genesis, I looked to my pastors for their opinions of the writing. The pastors at my church, Valley Forge Baptist Temple weighed in on many of the questions I pestered them with - especially Scott Wendal and Lamar Eifert. They had nothing but encouragement in their responses. Pastor Randy David, my youth pastor also enjoyed the manuscript and sent me his thoughts.

Grammar being the worst of my sins in the creation of this manuscript; I sought out an editor to scrub the early parts of the work before I submitted it to publishers for consideration. Cindy Ley, a professional editor, took evenings and weekends to look at every sentence and every word. Thank you Cindy, who knows what would have happened without your work?

Over the past year, literally dozens of people have read the manuscript...to all of you, I say a huge "Thank You."

Dave Caldwell, Dawn Pleasants, Ben Coulton, Jenalee Good, Paige Martin, Dave Davis, Earnest Grooney, Matt Maney, Nathan Gifford, Chris Lovett, Dan Bressler, Dan Wooster, Joe Hicks, Rory Bond, Troy Bond, Jeff Rapp, Lois Rall, Matt Wendal, Beth Capelletti, Kelly Unruh, Phil Spense, Pat Reeves, Joe Poley, Pastor Dave Jones, Carol Cobb, Charles Cobourn, Bert Arrowood, Jeff Hamm, Andrew Harrod, John & Mary Bergstrom, Rebecca Levis, Joy Caldwell, Jamie Aylestock, Jan W., Rebecca Misiura, Jodi Kappel, Nate Gray, Philip Martin, and Henry & Thea Miller.

In short, writing a book and sharing it with others does two things: one, it make you grow rhino skin and believe in your own ideas and two, it makes you learn to say "Thank You!"

I hope this didn't bore you. I had to do this - it was cathartic!

Blessings!