Looking to the Future

Now that Lesson One: Revolution! is available for sale through Amazon.com and is starting to become available elsewhere, it's time to start looking to the future. Part of that is my 100-Copy Goal, but I'm also pondering NaNoWriMo 2010. I really want to participate in it, because I have a story line that I want to develop, but I also want to finish my 2006 project and start rewriting it and it's 2008 prequel. "Free time" doesn't look any more abundant in the coming months than it has anytime recently, so I have to carefully allocate what little I have. Decisions, decisions...

Lesson One: Revolution!

It's done! Lesson One: Revolution! is now available for sale. It should be available through Amazon.com in a couple weeks. In a couple months, you should be able to order it at a book store near you! (Just in time for the holiday season, fancy that!)

This is a pretty exciting development for me, even if it's "just" self-published. At least I can actually get my writings out there to an audience beyond immediate family and friends! Whether anybody will actually read it, though... well, we'll see!

A Step Never Taken

I first took a personal interest in writing fiction about, oh, 36 years ago. I've finished the first draft of several novels, and I've written a number of short stories as well. As I assume is true with many writers, I also have plenty of "starts" that never got very far. I've always thought it would be really cool to be "published." That, too, is something I assume I share with most writers. While I've spent hours poring over the Writer's Market, and I've even submitted some of my short stories to magazines (which, so far, has only resulted in adding to my collection of rejection slips), there is one thing I've never really attempted...

What is the one step I've never taken? Trying to publish a novel. A real book. A physical, hold-in-your-hand, probably-paperback book. I've never submitted a single manuscript, or query letter, or anything to a book publisher, nor have I ever seriously pursued any self-publishing options.

Never, that is, until this month. July, 2010. After 36 years of thinking it would be cool to have a book published, I finally took solid steps toward that goal. I'm going the self-publishing (print-on-demand) route for this first one, so it's not quite as exciting as having a book publishing company give me their thumbs-up, but I'm still happy to be getting this far. The book I am pushing out to the world in this form is the novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo last November.

Depending on timing, it's possible I will have this book available for purchase on Amazon.com by the end of this month. More likely, it will be early August. A couple months after that, you should be able to request it at your local bookstore. Stay tuned -- the specifics will be posted here soon!

April's Gone!

April (the month, not the character) is gone -- and you know what went with it? The stress of participating in Script Frenzy when I didn't have enough time for it. Oh, and while I'm mentioning Script Frenzy... I won! OK, I'm not at all happy with the quality of my screenplay, and I didn't reach its end either, but I did make it past the 100 page mark. So despite not having enough time for it, I did it anyway. Yeah, I'm cool like that. (Dark circles under the eyes, clumsiness, and forgetfulness are all measures of coolness, right?)

So, May is here. That's May the month, not the character. June is around the corner. That's June the month, not the character. You know what? To make it simple, I'll just never give one of my characters the name of a month. That'll make it simpler, eh? Oh, but wait, there is January, he's a real tough cookie...*

Anyway, time flies when you're having fun, and when you're not having fun but busy anyway, and when you're asleep, and when -- oh, never mind, you get the point. Lots of things to do, and never enough time, or so it seems. I do have some plans to rein in the crazy horse of my schedule, so let's see if those bear fruit.

* Not really -- my character names may be awful sometimes, but not that awful.

April Approaches

No, I don't mean a character named April. I wish I did. Instead, of course, I mean the month of April. The closer it gets, the less likely I consider my success in my first Script Frenzy. Or if I do manage to crank out 100 script pages that month, their value will be much lower than I wanted, requiring more effort (if I ever considered it worthwhile) to rewrite into better shape.

Despite my grand plan to have my NaNo '09 project rewritten and nearing readiness for self-publishing, I've done essentially nothing with it since December 1. Only one of my readers has responded (and I didn't have many to begin with). The project is, in a nutshell, disappointing at the moment, and I expect the near future to be the same.

One thing I am considering more now, though, is finally buying Dragon NaturallySpeaking. My hands are in considerable pain these days, probably due to the manual labor I've been doing lately, and if I don't get enough of a break before April for my hands to recover, Script Frenzy could be a non-starter for me as a result of that pain. Dragon provides one way beyond that obstacle.

I'm obviously whining now, so I'll end this post now. :(

Update Your Links! (Please?)

It won't make much difference yet. In fact, it might never make a difference. However, the Web address (a.k.a., the URL) for this blog has been changed. If, by chance, you have a bookmark or a site link to this blog, maybe from your own blog, please take a few moments to update it. The new address should already be visible in your browser's address bar, but in case it's not obvious, the new URL is:
http://ranowrimo.just-stuart.com/

What does this mean in the long run? In the long run, it means the way is paved for me to take the blog to another technology instead of using Blogger's services. For example, I might just have the blog directly on my own site, using the features of the software I use for my site (currently, Drupal). I don't have specific plans for that yet, but "someday" it might happen. If I do, and you don't update your links or bookmarks now, then "someday" your link or bookmark won't work.

Generally speaking, it's no big deal. It's a technicality. But, in it's own little way, it's a good step forward.

Speaking of steps forward, I'm sorely lacking in those when it comes to my NaNoWriMo projects. Script Frenzy is approaching rapidly, and I'm not ready yet! I had hoped to have the first re-write of my NaNo '09 novel complete before Script Frenzy begins, since I'm using that book as a basis for my script. Time, time, I just need more time... {sigh}

If my dreams came true...

Writers have a lot of dreams; some might call it "imagination." What is story-telling, other than communicating your daydreams? Anyway, in addition to the dreams I put forth for others to read, I have other "dreams" related to my writings. An obvious one is to get published and have a wildly-successful novel, something on the order of the Harry Potter series. A mostly-separate dream is to see one of my novels turned into a movie, not for the fame and fortune, but to see it visualized. I would consider that to be similar to experiences I've had in the past, like having a "poem" of mine turned into a song by a local band.

As I've mentioned before, my "plan" for my NaNoWriMo 2009 project was to develop a story I originally intended to write directly as a screenplay. In April 2010, I fully intend to participate in Script Frenzy and take this once-nebulous, now-developed story line and build a script around it. Gee, that ties in very closely to that dream of having one of my novels turned into a movie, don't you think?

What sets this apart from other stories, where I start with the story and then ponder what could happen with it later, is that I started this story with an actor. I was thinking of one of my favorite actors, probably after seeing him in a movie (although I don't recall which one), and my brain started kicking around ideas for what kind of story I could create where he would play a leading role. That's really where my NaNoWriMo 2009 story began — with William H. Macy. Does that mean the movie will ever be produced or that he would even bother to look at the script? Of course not -- but I do give him credit for, in a way, inspiring the story. And, really, I'd be lying if I said that I never envisioned him playing that role while I was writing, although that was not usually the case. That was more for my "sit back and ponder where this thing goes next" moments rather than active writing moments.

Of course, the leading man needs a leading lady — or at least he does in this story. Although I can't say that she played the same key role in the genesis of the story idea, Julia Stiles was an early choice for that leading role — early meaning pretty much right from the beginning, long before this became a NaNoWriMo project. And yes, I envisioned her playing the female lead role during the writing, also usually when I was pondering rather than writing. I could certainly see others in the role, especially Kirsten Dunst, whom I also envisioned in that role at times during the first draft phase.

At this point, with no such success in my past, I can't realistically consider the possibility of seeing this movie produced unless I do it myself, and in that case you can bet that none of the actors will be anyone you've seen in a movie before! But I can dream, right?