Day 67 - Creating Kezra

As we continue our challenge to write a Sci-fi novel in a little over a year, we've learnt that developmental feedback is only helpful if it is not completely demoralising.

After keeping our cards firmly against our chests, we have finally allowed out respective partners to read some (not all) of our masterpiece to gain useful feedback and insight from a couple of readers who aren't as close to the story as we now are. The results are in and were not as good as we had hoped.

Feedback from A's partner to A:
"I like it but some sections have too many things happening one after the other. Needs filling out."

Feedback from S's partner to S:
"Ooh yeah, thats really, really bad sci fi. But that's what you're going for right?"
"Not really"
"Oh.."

The friend who inspired our efforts in the first place has also been sending helpful emails such as this:

"This is what you two need for your 'book' -
http://fiverr.com/gigs/search?query=review+kindle&order "

Conclusion:Don't show other people your work unless you are mentally fit.

Progress report We recently had the conversation about writing a sex scene. It was bound to come up but we had successfully avoided it until now. Both of us have clearly declared ourselves unable to write such a thing and still maintain the ability to look each other in the eye. Our partners have suggested getting totally BBQ'd one night and writing it together; reading it once and never speaking of it again.

We could always get an outsider in.. maybe the 'friend' mentioned above or maybe you? Let us know if you're interested.

S

Day 52 - Creating Kezra

Two novice authors with little knowledge of sci-fi + a challenge to write a sci-fi novel in 1 year and 1 month, self publish and raise £600= welcome to our world.

And so, the Sci-Fi convention has been and gone. I think we learnt a valuable lesson from attending. Simply put, Sci-Fi conventions are not our natural habitat. This became clear almost immediately whilst collecting our name badges. The nice man with the guest list failed to hide his obvious confusion when he asked for our "full badge name" and we gave our actual names, rather than our Avatar names. We'll know for next time and maybe by then I might have one.

I was also surprised to only see one "Trekkie" but I presume more appeared over the course of the convention's weekend. On the flip side we were intrigued by lots of folks carrying around their beeblebears/Toys, complete with their own individual name badges...

We did get a goodie bag  though and heard GRR Martin read the first 2 chapters of his next, yet to be released, instalment of something called "Game of Thrones". I was only slightly uncomfortable watching him read a sex scene. I think I did well.  

Big news

We've knocked a few years off Kezra. This might not sound like big news, but, and I speak only for myself here,  I have found that she is speaking for herself these days. I am merely the person who types the words.

Is that a good thing? I think that's a sign of progress, right?

S

Day 46 - Creating Kezra

Attempting to write a sci fi novel in under a year and self publish it to prove a point continues... Despite seeming increasingly unlikely that we will be successful.


The day of the sci fi convention is upon us. I'm struggling to decide what to wear. I've ruled out dalek costume.


I have been sent a brochure/ progress report from the convention folks which leads me to believe that if I were a sore thumb, I would probably blend in better.


I shall be sending a progress report myself, assuming of course that we survive.


S

Creating Kezra - Day 44 (definitely)

And so, a week later than expected I have returned. I see A has kept you in the loop regularly...


Despite her panic though, I have in my inbox this morning 6 whole pages of text and some ideas for new characters. I've just read it and although I'd like to say it looks like a rush job, alas, it is of decent quality and even has exciting levels of punctuation.


I'm just about the email the latest installment of my efforts, written whilst lazing on a beach. I can honestly say that I spent hours thinking about Kezra and her troubles. However, my email will unfortunately consist mainly of phrases like "I know I said 10 pages but.." and "I just don't know what happened to the time"... I fully expect serious amounts of backlash.

Perhaps I should invent some kind of incident involving a shark and subsequent missing limbs to explain the reason for my pitiful *whispers* 2 pages.

 Today though, is the first wednesday of the month, and therefore we should mention the Insecure Writers Group. I think "insecure" is an accurate description of me today. Having read A's efforts, I'm almost ashamed to send her what I have. We both also feel, that perhaps, maybe, we ought to speed up just a little. With only 350 days to go, we are a long way away from the finish line. Impending failure seems likely. Our friend may have been right all along.. maybe we are just not cut out for this..

We need tips. Anyone? We've tried bullying. We also tried healthy competition - both seem to have failed. Perhaps we should set ourselves a minimum number of hours per week that we spend writing. 5 hours? Is that reasonable?

Anyway, I'd better get on with sending that email...

S

Creating Kezra - Day 45 (ish)

So. Abandoned.

While S was swanning off on holiday, I was quietly confident that I could make plenty of progress on my section.

Inexplicably, it is now the day before S returns and I've written NOTHING. Somehow, all this time has past and my secret life as a sci-fi writer hasn't featured at all. What have I been doing?!

But all is not lost. I have one evening to write down everything I've been thinking about (the whole thing is stored safely in my head). S will never know I left it to the last minute err...Oh. Damn.

Creating Kezra - Day 29!

Two novice sci-fi writers continue to prove a point but only have one year left to do so.

With the new, stricter writing regime in place, last night I sat down and completed a couple of pages. I also have it on good authority that my writing partner, A, also continued to forge ahead successfully.

In the spirit of our renewed writing momentum, from tomorrow I will be going on holiday for a week. I'm pretty sure a beautiful beach with guarenteed sunshine everyday is definitely the perfect location to find inspiration for a slighly dark, sci-fi novel. 

I have promised A that I will absolutely have time to write in between lying on the beach and falling asleep often. My plan is to come back with a minimum of 10 pages – over which Kezra will make a very dangerous decision to join the Space Pirates (seriously, we need a better name for these guys!)

My theory is that as I won’t be at work, my head will empty itself of work-like thoughts leaving more space for Kezra and her current predicament. I’m personally convinced that it’s achievable. No-one else seems to agree.

However,  whilst I am away proving another point, I shall leave you in the capable hands of A.

S

Creating Kezra – Day 18 - 27

Our mission to complete a sci-fi novel in a little over a year to prove a point continues.. but something has happened to our ability to count.

If we were to follow the last blog in terms of day number, then we should now be on Day 18. Yet, we note today that the countdown suggests otherwise. Are we really only 366 days to our completion deadline?

The answer is yes - I’ve checked.

Our first blog was on 21^st February. Our completion date is thus 21^st March 2013. So really, this is day 27 and all of a sudden we have lost 9 days. I’m speculating that it could have something to do with the space-time continuum because the idea that we simply can’t count is just too horrible. Anyway, at least we now know where we are - exactly one Year and 1 Day to go before the end of our project.

At the moment, we have 13 pages completed. We haven’t yet separated the text out into chapters, but we assume that this is very nearly 1 chapter. We calculate that if we persevere at this rate, we’ll have156 pages by the end of the project. Or, in other words, we’ll have half a book and a failed mission.  We need to up our game.

We need a more rigorous writing schedule and have agreed to complete at least one chapter per month. That way, by December, we should be almost there and can dedicate serious time to editing and converting our 'masterpiece' into the correct format – we don’t understand this bit yet but figure there is time to learn. We should also think about our artwork at some point… for now though, maybe we should just focus on actual words.

Convention update – the nice people at the Olympus Science Fiction Convention have let us in. I will be attending on 6th April. My partner is overwhelmed with excitement at accompanying me.

S

Creating Kezra - Day 15

Somehow, we have started to take things a bit more seriously than we had expected. Originally inspired by reports of people knocking out e-books in just a few months, and amazingly also becoming very successful in the process.  We thought we could do the same, maybe even better given our timeframe. Our mutual friend looked dubious and said we probably couldn’t and so… here we are.

Yet, it has now become clear that we actually do want to write something semi-decent that we and our friends are not totally ashamed of.

Discussing plot lines is a strangely focused process but we are having trouble envisioning other characters. However, today a random lady in her 50’s passed us by with bright red hair, wearing a fedora hat and an eye patch… A and I looked at each other and didn’t need to say anything. She will now be the basis for one of our central characters.

Convention update:

I have decided to attend a day of the convention – filling in the application tonight. A is still to decide… I don’t blame her, the form is pretty confusing:

“Apocryphals/Toys/Beeblebears only need a badge name and a membership type.”

….? I hope they let us in.

Filk, by the way, is a musical culture, genre, and community tied to scinece fiction/fantasy fandom. Who knew!? Just think, this time next year we’ll know all the lingo.

S

Creating Kezra Day 13

Co-writing a sci-fi novel to prove a point continues...

I find myself focusing mainly on three things:  actual work, writing about Kezra and obsessively checking the blog stats. The latter being a hindrance to the two previous.

I imagine this is a phase that will slowly ebb away and for everyone else’s sake, I really hope it is. Even my co-writer, A, is becoming visibly bored by my hourly updates about the new countries that we have magically reached out to. The web really is a marvel.

In addition to this, we have now bravely shared our very first creative efforts with each other. I was shocked to see that A had written considerably more pages (4!) than I had (2) and had even included our first piece of dialogue. A’s efforts are also, I hasten to add with mild jealously, pretty darn good. I’m suitably impressed and now wait for what can only be described as serious amounts of trepidation for the “developmental feedback” that I sense A will have to deliver.

We have also discovered that there is to be a British National Science Fiction Convention this April in London.  I note the organisers are requesting volunteers for the "filking sessions".

Should we go along and what is a "filking session"?

S

Two novice writers continue their challenge to write a Sci Fi novel in a year and a month, publish online and somehow make £600 in the process.. and all to prove a point- Day 10

Since discovering the vast number of plot gaps we have regrouped and ironed out a few “facts”. We have the visions and aims for both factions of society (both suitably questionable and twisted)  and Kezra's sister is coming to life!


Kezra hopes to be reunited with her sister, but sadly, all is not well as she has decided, mysteriously, to isolate herself from both factions as well as her own past. We have discovered that she used to be just too curious for her own good and is now choosing not to live with the consequences..  or something like that. It still needs a lot of work.

One thing we are certain on however is that the words “space station” and “space pirates” are really embarrassingly, awful descriptions that need changing as soon as we think of something better. (Suggestions welcome).


Also, we find ourselves wondering whether it's possible to jump OFF the moon?  S

Creating Kezra - Day 9

Two novice writers continue their challenge to write a  semi plausible Sci Fi novel in a year and a month, publish online and somehow make £600 in the process.. and all to prove a point

I came across a new website today with offers membership to something called the “Insecure Writers Support Group”. Once a month, fellow writers blog about their concerns and other members of the group try to help out… A brilliant idea & clearly, we are going to need help/ advice and encouragement during our mission. I think we can all agree it was a no-brainer to sign up. It also helps to know we are not alone and maybe at some point we might actually be useful to others..? 

So far our biggest insecurity is that we have joined a group called the “Insecure Writers Support Group”. The word “writers” makes us wonder if we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves. It suggests we consider ourselves real people of letters…wordsmiths even. I think for now we should stick to merely commentators or, at best, yarn spinners…

Amazingly we already have some interest from people other than the few people we have bullied already to support us! Thank you!

Writing update - an additional 7 lines written and significantly more holes identified. S

Two novice authors, with no knowledge of sci-fi, aim to write a sci-fi novel in 1 year and 1 month, self publish and raise £600...and all to prove a point – Day 7

I have come to the conclusion that this might be slightly more challenging that I had first thought.

With renewed vigour, last night, I sat down at the dining table and started to write again. 3 lines in I realise there might be a small problem. It turns out the plot we carefully devised in the pub, has a significant number of holes upon closer inspection. I found myself thinking that some scenarios are very unlikely. But then again, it’s supposed to be a sci-fi/fantasy doo-dar so surely anything is possible. Humm.

I took to the internet and rather quickly came across all manner of help. http://www.writesf.com/, for example, is a whole website for aspiring sci-fi writers such as us, giving tips on imaginative world building, consistency and character building etc. It also lists some classic sci-fi books to read with fascinating titles including: “The Claw of the Conciliator”, “Dreamsnake” and something called “Startide Rising and The Uplift War” - particularly recommended for fans of dolphins!?

Frankly, it’s a minefield out there in sci-fi land. It’s rather overwhelming in fact.  But, I’ve now ordered, care of Amazon, one of the books recommended which will be my first venture into the world of sci-fi literature. I’m quite excited...although the front cover looks a bit dodgy, so I might have to re-cover that before reading it on the tube of a morning.

Needless to say though, a whole two hours passed before I realised I had written only 4 lines and that it was time to focus on cooking, eating and walking the dogs. How do people do this??  Must. Not. Give. Up.

S

Two novice writers continue their challenge to write a Sci Fi novel in a year and a month, publish online and somehow make £600 in the process.. and all to prove a point - Day 6

Over lunch we discussed progress with the guy who provoked our Kezra ambitions in the 1^st place. He remains unconvinced, yet vaguely impressed that we even bothered to start:

"..to be honest, you've done more than I thought you would" 

Another colleague also sat at the table, interest piqued, asked what on earth we were talking about. Her response to news of our literary quest in space was met with something along the lines of:  “What? You two?”

If our resolve and spirit had hypothetically starting to wane, it is comments like this that renew our determination! 

So, 4 whole pages of our masterpiece in, there’s no stopping us. To inifinitiy and…humm, maybe over familiar…

Onwards Kezra!

Creating Kezra - Days 4-5

Co-writing a sci-fi novel to prove a point - we have encountered our first misunderstanding.

Having left the pub with a plot and a plan for how to start writing we felt confident - so far, so good. We were both clear on who would write which section. It turns our however that, unfortunately, we left with completely different ideas on HOW we were going to write our respective parts.

So, some time later, when asked whether I was carrying Kezra round with me I said no. I was writing my section on a laptop which I shared with my other half and so I couldn’t take it everywhere with me…obviously.

This was met with a stunned pause and then my writing buddy pulled out a notebook, covered in handwritten text. We looked at each for some moments. I had been writing everything straight into electronic form, my co-writer was doing it all by hand.

We looked back to the night in the pub. We had taken a notebook (the paper kind). I admit this was my idea. That part all went fine and we scrawled our plot down by hand. I hadn’t meant for us to write the whole thing out by hand, the plan is to publish this electronically after all, no paper copies.

My co-writer thought I had insisted we write it all by hand, and begrudgingly had agreed so as not to muddy the waters at this very early stage… but, alas, will now have to type up all notes to date… Sorry mate.

Creating Kezra – Day 2 (only we were rubbish about uploading)

Writing our first Sci-fi novel from scratch with no idea how, mainly to prove a point continues...

We went to the only place we could think of to begin our journey with a serious and meaningful discussion about Kezra and the Space Pirates.

In hindsight, the pub we went to perhaps wasn’t the best place, but still after only 10 minutes we had a seat, two drinks, a pad of paper, a pen and a sticky table to help our plot brainstorm. 15 minutes in, the centre of the pad had a small bubble on it containing the words “Space pirates”; coming from this bubble was an arrow leading to the word “plot” followed by “?”.

Despite this somewhat rocky start, a mere one hour into our meeting we had the skeleton of a semi-plausible (space pirate) story set. We now have a sister character and two warring factions of space society. There’s a whole page (!) dedicated to plot points which we think we’ll use as chapters.

We’ve decided to now split up the work. One of us will begin to introduce the Kezra character and the other will work on the sister. We plan to then re-group, swap ideas and discuss our next steps.

In all honesty we left the pub feeling a bit smug. So far it’s been a doddle… all we have to do now is start writing….

Creating "Kezra" - Day 1

This could be the start of something great, something fantastic, something to make our mums proud, something amazing. Or simply, and in all the most likely scenarios, it could end up being another subject matter for our friends to use in order to take the piss out of us.

We are about to embark on a one year, one month project (the one year project has been done too many times) to write one whole, 200+ page, sci-fi novel; self publish it and raise £600 in the process. Why £600? We don’t know. It seemed like a reasonable and almost achievable amount. £600 would perhaps pay for relaxing a weekend away which we will surely need to recover from the exhaustion of being so creative for a whole year (and a month).

The additional challenges to this already challenging challenge are as follows:

• The book will be written by two novice authors who both have full time jobs
• Neither of us have any real knowledge or manic interest in sci-fi/ fantasy books or films
• We currently don’t know the difference between these two genres
• Both of us get bored easily.
• We embarked on this journey not out of a desperate need to become successful writers, but mainly as a stubborn attempt to prove one of our mutual friends wrong.

Day one of our big exciting adventure and we have already happened upon a name - "Kezra". We also have a theme - "Space Pirates". Exactly. You can see where this is (not?) going… join us and maybe provide us with some pointers. I fear we will need them…