I've already got a response from Jay as to whether I will be changing names. Of course, but the characters will be a blend of all my college friends, myself and others I have met since birth.
Here's a teaser to who the story revolves around:
Chris: He plays the part of the narrator. From the beginning, he starts out as naieve, mostly unsure about himself. He came into college sheltered by his parents, but the first thing he does when he gets to school is declare to change that.
Enter Ethan.
Ethan: He's calm, cool and collected. He handles every situation like he owns it. He's far from perfect, but to Chris, he's God. Yes, he's kind of an asshole at times, but it's excusable in the long run. His goal in life is to succeed so he never has to return to his dump of a hometown.
"My hometown is occupied by the white trash that clogs the flow of natural human evolution," he says.
But by reading that, don't think this is some buddy book where two little rascals go off into the sunset to find an adventure. Sure it's based off parts of some of my best friends, but keep the title of the book in mind.
Still, I promise the first chapter posted soon.
11.02.2006
11.01.2006
And thus it begins
Like I said last time, I'm a big cheater. But I'm also bad at estimating too.
Prior to a few hours of writing -- if that's what you want to call it -- last night, I was sitting at 8,749 words. Now, I'm at 10,689. The number sounds good, but with the amount of dribble I threw down on it in college, that number could easily decrease with the amount of crap I'm going to have to cut out.
Seriously, some if it is just horrible. But, there's also a lot of good stuff in there too.
The story line will be my biggest challenge. In writing about some things that are true, you don't want to mess with them too much. Then again, you don't want it to become an inside joke that no one else will get.
But I've got my space all set up. Since my roommate is long gone, I've turned the spare bedroom into my office. It's pretty ghetto, but it works.
Since a lot of the story line has to do with my college life, I needed a good line of place to get ideas and post possible themes. Voila, here it is.
(Sorry for the bad photo quality, I had to use my cell phone.)
Prior to a few hours of writing -- if that's what you want to call it -- last night, I was sitting at 8,749 words. Now, I'm at 10,689. The number sounds good, but with the amount of dribble I threw down on it in college, that number could easily decrease with the amount of crap I'm going to have to cut out.
Seriously, some if it is just horrible. But, there's also a lot of good stuff in there too.
The story line will be my biggest challenge. In writing about some things that are true, you don't want to mess with them too much. Then again, you don't want it to become an inside joke that no one else will get.
But I've got my space all set up. Since my roommate is long gone, I've turned the spare bedroom into my office. It's pretty ghetto, but it works.
Since a lot of the story line has to do with my college life, I needed a good line of place to get ideas and post possible themes. Voila, here it is.
(Sorry for the bad photo quality, I had to use my cell phone.)
10.31.2006
I'm already cheating...
So, I'm a dirty cheat.
The contest - if that's what you want to call it - doesn't officially start until the first of the month and I've already logged 10,000 words. Some were from college. More were from a recent stint.
The whole point, for me at least, in the book-in-a-month thing is for me to finally put foot to pavement. There's been a thousand ideas I've had on my first book.
1. The Three Stooges -- True crime book about three kids who run over a guy with his own Jeep, beat, stab and drown him. Then then use his money for a trip and back to Florida. They're all tried in three separate trials at the same time, which I covered by myself. It was my first murder trial. It would have been a good book, but so far, none of the convicted teens have agreed to an interview.
2. "Veritas" -- Novel about murders that keep popping up in certain area. They keep getting worse and worse. The details of the crime keep popping up verbatim in the newspaper. It looks like the killer is a cop and spewing the details to a reporter who won't cooperate with the investigation. It's an idea I still love considering I'm a newspaper reporter. But, for some reason I can't pinpoint, I'm not ready to take up that avenue.
OK, not a thousand, but I've had more and talked them up a lot.
So, here's "A Constant Suicide." It's bits of me. It's college. It's about things people don't want to talk about. My mom has already expressed doubts she'd even read it. That doesn't matter.
I want to see it published, by myself. I'm doing the writing, the cover, everything. I'm going to hold that first copy and just stare at it. Hopefully, anyone who gets a copy will do the same after they're done reading it.
First things first, I have to write it.
This blog and this challenge will keep me motivated to keep going. I've said it before, but I'm doing it. I dare you to think otherwise.
There will be some exerpts coming soon, so you'll have to give me some honest criticism of what you think. Check back soon for the first chapter.
Don't friggin' hold back in your opinions.
I'm not going to in my writing.
The contest - if that's what you want to call it - doesn't officially start until the first of the month and I've already logged 10,000 words. Some were from college. More were from a recent stint.
The whole point, for me at least, in the book-in-a-month thing is for me to finally put foot to pavement. There's been a thousand ideas I've had on my first book.
1. The Three Stooges -- True crime book about three kids who run over a guy with his own Jeep, beat, stab and drown him. Then then use his money for a trip and back to Florida. They're all tried in three separate trials at the same time, which I covered by myself. It was my first murder trial. It would have been a good book, but so far, none of the convicted teens have agreed to an interview.
2. "Veritas" -- Novel about murders that keep popping up in certain area. They keep getting worse and worse. The details of the crime keep popping up verbatim in the newspaper. It looks like the killer is a cop and spewing the details to a reporter who won't cooperate with the investigation. It's an idea I still love considering I'm a newspaper reporter. But, for some reason I can't pinpoint, I'm not ready to take up that avenue.
OK, not a thousand, but I've had more and talked them up a lot.
So, here's "A Constant Suicide." It's bits of me. It's college. It's about things people don't want to talk about. My mom has already expressed doubts she'd even read it. That doesn't matter.
I want to see it published, by myself. I'm doing the writing, the cover, everything. I'm going to hold that first copy and just stare at it. Hopefully, anyone who gets a copy will do the same after they're done reading it.
First things first, I have to write it.
This blog and this challenge will keep me motivated to keep going. I've said it before, but I'm doing it. I dare you to think otherwise.
There will be some exerpts coming soon, so you'll have to give me some honest criticism of what you think. Check back soon for the first chapter.
Don't friggin' hold back in your opinions.
I'm not going to in my writing.
10.30.2006
One novel. One month.
So it's a project from a group of Quad-Cities writers. One month. One novel. 50,000 words or more. Can it be done? Who's dumb enough to try such a thing?
Me.
As Dispatch-Argus Entertainment guru Sean Leary put it:
"November is National Novel Writing Month. The goal is for writers to pen an entire 50,000 word novel in the span of its 30 days. It's a daunting task, one that under the best circumstances would end in an extremely rough draft of a (hopefully) passable story. The most anyone could hope for is to get everything down so he or she could begin the arduous revision process of shaping that giant lump of coal into something resembling a diamond.
However, in the spirit of the month, that's the challenge I'm going to undertake and I invite you to do the same as part of the Quad-Cities November Novelists Group."
Check it out online at: http://groups.myspace.com/qcnovembernovelists.
Or you can go to www.seanleary.com and click on the "One Novel In One Month" icon and it'll take you there.
"A Constant Suicide" started as a short story my sophomore year in college. It sucked and I let it die.
Then, about a month ago, I was reading all of my old writing still on my computer and read some of it. "Wow, I used to know how to write," I said to myself.
Since I wrote the story, I became a newspaper reporter. My writing has gotten better, but the pure, uncensored emotion an angst-fueled teenager threw down on paper was (at least I thought) brilliant.
I've gone back to those times. It's escaping all social norms that have been embedded into me and going back to the days where I just sat in my room and wrote about nothing for hours.
November is the month I become a writer. Then I'll use my own money to self-publish. I'm the kind of person to make too many claims I don't follow up on. This blog is to keep me on track and in check. I'll be posting little tid bits here and there to see if there's any interest out there for such a thing.
It's igniting my love for composing stories that say something about myself and the society I live in.
Writing is my therapy.
It's my savior.
My own personal Jesus.
Me.
As Dispatch-Argus Entertainment guru Sean Leary put it:
"November is National Novel Writing Month. The goal is for writers to pen an entire 50,000 word novel in the span of its 30 days. It's a daunting task, one that under the best circumstances would end in an extremely rough draft of a (hopefully) passable story. The most anyone could hope for is to get everything down so he or she could begin the arduous revision process of shaping that giant lump of coal into something resembling a diamond.
However, in the spirit of the month, that's the challenge I'm going to undertake and I invite you to do the same as part of the Quad-Cities November Novelists Group."
Check it out online at: http://groups.myspace.com/qcnovembernovelists.
Or you can go to www.seanleary.com and click on the "One Novel In One Month" icon and it'll take you there.
"A Constant Suicide" started as a short story my sophomore year in college. It sucked and I let it die.
Then, about a month ago, I was reading all of my old writing still on my computer and read some of it. "Wow, I used to know how to write," I said to myself.
Since I wrote the story, I became a newspaper reporter. My writing has gotten better, but the pure, uncensored emotion an angst-fueled teenager threw down on paper was (at least I thought) brilliant.
I've gone back to those times. It's escaping all social norms that have been embedded into me and going back to the days where I just sat in my room and wrote about nothing for hours.
November is the month I become a writer. Then I'll use my own money to self-publish. I'm the kind of person to make too many claims I don't follow up on. This blog is to keep me on track and in check. I'll be posting little tid bits here and there to see if there's any interest out there for such a thing.
It's igniting my love for composing stories that say something about myself and the society I live in.
Writing is my therapy.
It's my savior.
My own personal Jesus.
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