Supereptitious Saturday

sur·rep·ti·tious
/sərəpˈtiSHəs/
Adjective:   
Kept secret, esp. because it would not be approved of.



You know the old saying...big brother is watching.  That's the topic of today's blog...secrets.

How well do you keep a secret?

I've kept many things secret for decades. "Escape from Second Eden" was based on true events thinly veiled fictitious character changes to protect the innocent and the guilty.  Of course, a percentage of this novel is pure fiction.

It took thirty years before I let the light into my closet of horrors from my childhood. When I first approached my father about writing about what happened in Ceylon he simply told me to write it as fiction. When you work in clandestine services a lot of things are kept secret. Half truth, innuendo, and sometimes blatant lies are the result. So how honest are you? How honest should you be? How much can you talk about? These are every important questions.

When my little sister read the initial copy of Escape from Second Eden, she cried. She remember each and every incident no matter how young she was at the time. She said she had never talked about it because she didn't know what we could or couldn't say. She like me stuffed it all deep inside until it poisoned the soul because of the repression. I spent years in therapy for traumatic stress syndrome because of past incidents and present. There is catharsis in writing. It brings the boogie man front and center out into the open, and then evaporates in the light.

As an author I pull from all sorts of areas to spark ideas, hours of research, and then just plain out creative juices to write an intriguing story. One that makes you wonder...did it really happen? Could it really happen? Wait a minute, I can relate to that. I know that feeling.  These are all things readers have said to me about what I have written.

I have heard the conspiracy theories on online search engines being monitored. Somewhere there is a huge telecommunications computer geared for keywords. It makes me wonder. I know the internet is not private...look at what you can google today compared to ten years ago...just about everything. It sure saves time for writers doing research. I remember the old days of having to go to the library or the bookstore to find information. Today's it's just a couple taps on the keyboard and voila! you have it.

This made me think of what I have actually researched on the internet in the past few months...

Survival guides
Survival supplies (food and other stuff)
Self-sufficiency
Weapons of all types nuclear down to hand guns and ammo (how to make them and use them)
Maps
Paranormal activity
Solar power (Everything)
Espionage (past and current)
Foreign languages such as Russian and Chinese
Zombies
CDC
Child abuse
Candies
Bullying
Tea Parties
Occupy Wall Street
Dying with Dignity (Right to Die laws)
Legislatures of various states
Missile silos (layouts and designs)
Murder scenes
Assassinations
Martial Arts
Hand-to-hand combat
Medical information (all types including surgeries and treatments)

Not to mention videos I've streamed. It was all done in research for this or that novel. Innocent right? Maybe not when you look at the list and put it all together. Muaaaahhhh!

Now, if there is a BIG BROTHER watching...I'm in deep trouble.

Keep writing and loving the Lord.

Clarifications

In my last post I wrote about breaking one of my cardinal rules. I am now in my second draft stage of my new horror story.  For me, the second draft is expanding on the bones I created in the first.  The storyline does not actually change.  It is enhanced by adding tiny little details like in Zombie Apocalypse:Redemption  I've named the levels in the silo after Dante's Inferno.  The circles of hell as someone's idea of a joke.  My main character, Dr. Donna Cairn's lab is on the level "Anger" for the fifth circle of hell.  This is a second draft add in.

I also, in the second edit, fix grammatical errors, extra vowels put in place, some missing words, and double check the pacing.  I was aghast at the amount of these little items in my story.  Fifty in the first thirty pages!  My fingers were really flying on the first draft.  I also add scenes which will heighten the reader's anticipation here and there...just a little jump or rise in their heart rate, if a particular part needs it. Of course back in my typewriter days it was different.  Everything was written in notebooks, crossed through and written over before sitting in front of the typewriter.  Thank God for computers!

It's sort of like high school, when your language teacher asked you to write an outline.  I hated having to do those things even though I think and write linearly. It's 1,2,3, then A,B,C, and then a,b,c.  I approach editing the same way, but not writing.  Strange huh? I write the major events in the story, add very few tidbits of fluff in the first draft although some scenes are pretty fleshed out they could use some uphm.

I've talked with thousands of authors over the years and each have their own approach to writing.  Some have to have a precise outline and follow it down the line to the end-every line perfectly the way they want them.  Others will write scenes in full and then later sew them all together-each scene is perfect. Others, like me, write from beginning to end and then from the bare bones expand and edit.  There are probably a thousand ways writers approach stories.  This is just mine.

How do you write?

Keep writing and loving the Lord.

Broke One of My Cardinal Rules

I had the best intentions, honest I did.  My last blog I said I was going to sit on "Zombie Apocalypse:Redemption." I broke one of my cardinal rules this morning...I started fluffing and editing the story.


All it took was a suggestion which hit home from fellow author Thomas Wilson.  "Up the Ante."  After reading the story this morning, he was right.  The beginning needed a scene or two to raise expectations and the anxiety level of the reader. I've added 2,000 words and haven't stopped yet.

Keep writing and loving the Lord.

Done, Done...Well Almost Done

 Yesterday I wrote "THE END" to Zombie Apocalypse: Redemption.  YEAHHHHH ME!

It's been a long time coming with life getting in the way.  What I thought would be a three week project at best, turned out to be almost six weeks and counting.  As any decent writer will tell you writing "the end" at the end of a first draft is only the beginning.

Now begins the rest period when I let my story sit and I walk away from it for a week.  It will sit in my hard drive, flash drive, and dropbox for that long.  Long enough for me to forget bits and pieces of the story while I focus all my attention on another work in progress....like "Surviving Hank."  The main character is the one I use for the "Know Your Character" tab up top.  This story has been developing my one part of my brain while other issues took precedence.

Next week in between and after wedding ceremonies, I will print out a copy of Zombie Apocalypse and go through it and check for typos, grammar errors, and flesh it out.  I used to write novels copiously and then spend hours painstakingly editing and cutting the manuscript down to size.  Now I do the opposite.  I write sparingly just some good bones with sketchy details.  It's my BOOM, BOOM, BOOM rhythm.  Think huge kettle drums pounding.  But as any artist or musician knows it takes orchestration, tempo, lulls, and peaks.  The same is true with writing a good story.

In a previous post I talk about the rhythm of the stories I write.  It takes creative juices flowing, blessing from the muse, and the stubbornness of a bull  to fully complete a good story. Once I put in the rhythm, this will the end of the second draft.  At this point I will wait forty-eight hours to reread the changes.  I will make the changes and tweak it one final time.  Then another week it will sit on my hard drive, flash drive, and dropbox.  Once this final read is over, I'll deem it publishable and I'll use readers as a sounding board, or scrap the project. 

I can hear you now...what a waste of time. This is a point of view and for me an arguable point. Each time I write a story I stretch my creative talents.  I try new techniques.  I stretch my boundaries like actually writing horror.  But most importantly, I become a better writer.  Why be mediocre when you can be the best you can be?

In this day and age of self publishing too much trash gets published.  I know many writers will be offended by me calling their babies trash, but ask anyone not related or a friend of the author. While the image of self-publishing is changing too many authors rush the process and put out a substandard product they later regret.  Once it's out there, it's out there for the whole world to see. 

So, I'm done, done...almost done with Zombie Apocalypse: Redemption.

Keep writing and loving the Lord.

New Video & Editing

This week has flown by! If you notice I posted a new video on the right hand side of the page.  This one is for "Escape from Second Eden." This project, being my second, went a lot faster than the first. Four days total. It's amazing how quickly it went together...now that I know the program to produce it with.

The same thing goes for writing. You research and struggle as you write your first, second or maybe even your third book.  Editing it all into proper English grammar, making sure each line is supposed to be where it is, etc.  It's a process that takes forever or at least, it seems that way. But each time you correct your own mistakes you learn.  By learning the proper way to write, you become a better writer so with each progressive novel you make less mistakes in the beginning. As a result, each subsequent novel you write becomes easier to edit.

Writing is an art form. Whether it is blogging, journaling, writing nonfiction, fiction, article,or an essay. It is a creative process. I know you've heard practice makes perfect a thousand times or more in your life...I know I have. The same goes for writing. It is a learned process. Stop being so hard on yourself for not getting it right the first time.  Nobody ever does which is why publishing houses have editors. Everyone dreads the red pen process.A first, second or third draft is usually covered in arrows, strikeouts, and comments and even after all this and all is corrected...you are still making changes.

I call it tweaking a work to death. I'm a master at this. I'm never satisfied with what I write even when others say it's perfect. I look at the copy yet again. What's worse is I do it to everyone else I read too.  God help me! I can't stop! I reach a point in my own writing where I say enough...usually after a couple major rewrites and about the fifth tweaking pass, I put the whole thing aside for a week or so and work on something else. At this point I'm tired of reading the same thing over and over again.  No matter what you are reading or how exciting it is you start making mistakes and over looking mistakes at this point. It becomes like reading text books in high school, a boring, mundane act of reading. Put it away before you throw it away.

Okay, a couple weeks have passed. A lot of new ideas from the storyline you have been working on flows through your mind. You are recharged by writing something new. You have your zip back and you are bouncing with excitement. Now, is the time to bring out the copy you stuck in the drawer (file folder). Print it out double spaced lines. Now, one final time for this manuscript, and grab your red pen. Read and edit carefully. Then make the changes to your copy. This should be the final copy (not draft). You are done! Finish! Finito! Congratulations!

I spend quite a bit of time blogging about editing because all writers know their story. It's the mechanics which go along with the storytelling which trip most would-be authors up. Almost every agent and publisher out there online or publishing house stress the importance of editing well. In fact, I've seen this on every site on the web as a requirement before submission.

A word to the wise here, do not hire an English teacher to edit your novel. Hire a fellow author, join a writing/critique group, or some other outside source if you choose not to edit your book yourself. The main reason is an English teacher will make your grammar perfect, but you lose your voice. Teachers of English do not teach English because they love to write. Most teachers teach English because they love to read. I know I will probably take a few hits on this previous statement, but it's true. Very few English teachers are also authors. Your writing is written in your style. Dialogue is almost never spoken in perfect English. While your writing, when edited by an English teacher, will be grammatically correct.in all likelihood so will your dialogue.  Dialogue makes your characters come alive to the reader. More on dialogue in another post.

Keep writing and loving the Lord.