Showing posts with label Novel Writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Novel Writing. Show all posts

Monday, June 21

I'm Not A Professional Writer

Although, one could make the claim that I am because I have had some of my writing published in a book and on a variety of social media forums and my own blogs but none of it has been for the exchange of money, and therefore would not be considered, by me, to be professional as I think of being professional as being paid to do something.

However, regardless of being professional or not, I have been writing relatively seriously since 1972 and really serious in 2015 when I retired from full time employment.  My writing since since 1972 has been poetry, short stories, and opinion articles that is pretty much all that I write when posting my thoughts on my blogs.

From 2015 until the present time, I have been writing full blown novels of at least 300 MS Word pages which translates into about 450 paperback novel pages...  so, my novels are full length so to speak...  My first one took the longest time and is entitled:  The Cosmic Priesthood:  the unveiling of consciousness and is about the main characters desire to find and assemble 12 keys that he believes will SAVE THE WORLD...  The forces of evil are trying to stop him and outweigh the forces of good that are trying to help him.  That is when the Cosmic Priesthood steps in...  (completed)

Their rationale for helping our character is to maintain balance in the universe, and sometimes these Priests help and sometimes they don't.  Interestingly, there is a group of Priests that are against our character's actions...  and, the reason why is only revealed if you read the novel.

My second novel is entitled:  HOLD ON and is about one of the evil characters in my first novel and about how he tries to corner the market on honeybees.  He is also involved in a variety of other illegal activities and is eventually brought to justice but not by the law...  perhaps by the goodness of the universe one could say.  (completed)

My third novel which to this day is only have finished, is entitled:  CODENAME: Hanging Church and is about an American Spy working in Cairo, Egypt trying to track down the secret organization that is behind all the terrorist activities in the middle east, Europe, and other places.  He is also a hired assassin for the CIA, performing those duties on the side. (work in progress)

My fourth novel is a sequel to the first entitled:  The Cosmic Priesthood: Beyond the Milky Way and takes place in the year 2253 and earth has been all but abandoned and living on a variety of planets in our solar system.  There is only one government composed of all earth countries, The Galactic Corporation of Commerce and Interplanetary Exploration.  Our colonies on these planets are being invading by a society from a different galaxies in a different dimension.  The Cosmic Priests are able to tap into the power of the Cosmic Consciousness imbedded in the whole of the universe.  (completed)

My fifth novel is entitled:  Ghost Dancer and is about sex trafficking and drug trafficking on Native American Reservations all over the USA for the pleasure of wealthy individuals located in the US and Canada and maybe other places as well.  I have completed a chapter outline and have written an introduction but done nothing else.  (work in progress)

My sixth novel is entitled:  Lost Creek Diaries and is about a small college in the south, specifically in the foothills of TN beside the Great Smoky Mountains and that when the college was formed in 1835, it was created a college and as a brothel.  A slave diary was kept exposing what was going on but the practice has continued up until the present.  The Mexican Drug Cartel, The Russian Mafia, and the Japanese YAKUZA are involved as they lauder money through a Native American Casino.  (work in progress)

My seventh novel is entitled:  Caucasian Male and was started because I wanted to write about my life but I also wanted to write about what it was like living as a white person, especially in the light of BLM, ANTIFA, and Critical Race Theory.  (work in progress)

I have 7 other novels rolling around in my head for a total of 14 if I ever live long enough to write them all...  I have not really thought about publishing them and not sure that I want to go through the shit of receiving rejections...  Just the fact that I wrote them is what is important to me.



Saturday, June 5

Writing A Novel For The Hell Of It...

Most people don't want to do a damn thing just for the
hell of it, except for maybe:

  • take drugs
  • have sex
  • drink alcohol
  • overeat

let alone go to all the trouble to write a frigging novel...  but, I am sure that there are some people, who, like myself, simply enjoy writing.


With that said...  let me share my process with you...  I don't consider myself to be a very creative person, and yet, I have ideas for novels pop into my head all the time.


Once I decide I want to explore one of those ideas, I try to decide on a Title for novel, even though the name might change down-the-road.


Then, I open WORD and set my manuscript document up with the headers/page numbers publishers prefer, along with line spacing, and paragraph indention  I always choose Times News Roman at 12 pts  simply because I like that style and it most accepted by everyone.


I don't necessarily have a Table of Content page, but I do create 15-20 Chapters and I either use large numbers to distinguish or Chapter 1, Chapter 2, etc.  And, once the chapters are created, I create a comment beside each chapter in which I write:

Chapter Outline

  • Topic 1
  • Topic 2
  • Topic 3
  • Topic 4
  • Topic 5

I create this outline whether I use it or not...  and, I have written novels both ways.  I include 5 topics because I figure 3 written pages per topic especially if there is dialogue with each chapter being roughly 15 pages long.  I can add/subtract topic as those situations present themselves.


My first task is to write the INTRODUCTION/PROLOGUE to set the stage for what the novel is going to be about even though this could change as well during the course of writing.  I remain flexible so that if I get this wild hair to take the novel on a side adventure, I am not locked in place to a rigid Topic idea.


Then, I just start writing according to the first topic of the first chapter and just let it flow.  If I struggle with the topic not developing, then I put it aside until the next day and if I am still struggling, then maybe my topics have not been developed in such a way that is conducive to the writing process...  this means I start over with my topics and think of new ways the novel idea/concept should flow.