Month: August 2020

Learn to Write a Great Novel

Posted on by Jonathan Fesmire

 

Writing a novel, especially for the first time, is a huge endeavor. Many, maybe most, novelists wrote their first books with little instruction, figuring it out as they went. That was me more than thirty years ago. That first novel will probably be mediocre at best, and that’s all right. It takes a lot of work to get good at anything.

A course in novel-writing can help you avoid major pitfalls. In fact, even if you’ve been writing for a long time, a good class can teach you things you missed along the way.

 

My Favorite Novel Writing Class

 

The online course I’m about to tell you about is fantastic. Yes, this is a review, and typically I’d put my conclusion closer to the end. I found this class so helpful I think it’s important to say that before moving on.

The course, Write a Great Novel, is taught by prolific author Russell Nohelty and is available on his site, The Complete Creative. One of the best things about the class is that it’s free.

 

What’s In the Course

 

Write a Great Novel takes you through all the most important aspects of creating a novel, from beginning to end. It includes:

 

  1. Culling ideas. This is all about gathering your story ideas in one place and looking at them periodically. Learn to combine and develop your best ideas so you always have something to write about.
  2. Characters. Learn what makes a great main character, villain, and ancillary or supporting character. The course also includes a helpful comparison between video games and novels and distinguishes between non-player characters (NPCS) and bosses.
  3. Setting and worldbuilding. Russell talks about how these fit into a novel and how the setting needs to challenge the main character every step of the way.
  4. Avoiding data dumps. There are some simple ways to avoid massive data dumps by layering in the extra information readers need to know. Master this and you’ll keep your story flowing.
  5. Structure. Russell describes a fractal structure for novels where not only does the overall story builds up to a climax, but so does each scene. He covers pantsing, plotting, and doing something in between. He also shares an excellent beat sheet that can keep your book on track.

 

He covers getting that first draft done, effective editing, formatting, and acquiring a great cover. Finally, you’ll learn the importance of the right mindset and staying dedicated.

 

 

My Experience with Write a Great Novel

 

I came into this course already an experienced author. However, it generally took me at least a couple of years to write a novel. I’d get stuck, a lot. My story-writing instincts would lead me to the right path, and people have loved my books. Yet I wanted to be able to get my books done more quickly.

The most helpful thing I learned in this course was just that. After meeting Russell at Pasadena Comic-Con in January and subsequently taking this course, I wrote the first draft of my new book, Bodacious Creed and the Jade Lake, in less than six months. Most of that was during the last two months of that period! Now, I have a method that will allow me to write the first draft of the next novel even faster, probably in two to three months.

Editing comes next, and I’ll be able to do that quickly as well, polishing and improving the story until it’s ready for the final edit. I should be able to write two to three books a year going forward, even with my full-time job. My readers won’t have to wait long for sequels and will remain excited about my stories.

And this course is free!

 

Signing Up

 

I encourage you, whether you’d like to start your first novel or you’re already experienced, to sign up for Write a Great Novel. You’re bound to learn something that will help you improve your craft.

Russell teaches other courses on the site as well. Most cost a bit, and I’ll review courses I’ve taken in future blog posts. Again, Write a Great Novel is free. It’s about five hours of densely packed information that can make a big difference in your writing, and you have nothing to lose by taking it.

If you have any questions, let me know in the comments below!

Also, if you’d like to know when I put up a new post or have exciting news, sign up for my newsletter. The form is at the top of the right sidebar. You’ll also get my short story, The Obstructed Engine, which is a prequel to my novel series, The Adventures of Bodacious Creed, and after a few days a special offer.

“At the end of Slaughterhouse-Five… I had a shutting-off feeling… that I had done what I was supposed to do and everything was OK.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut

 

Getting Your First Draft Done

Posted on by Jonathan Fesmire

 

MY FIRST DRAFT, YOUR FIRST DRAFT

 

If you’ve read my blog before you may have noticed that I like sharing my methodology for getting things done, with the goal of helping others. So, I’m going to share today the basics of how I got the initial draft of my upcoming novel finished recently. I hope it helps other writers do the same. Writing the first draft of a novel is tough, but you can do it!

Let’s start with this fact. I like using the term “garbage draft.”

 

What Is a GARBAGE DRAFT?

 

This is a term I picked up from author Russell Nohelty. “Garbage draft” is another term for “first draft,” be it of a story, novel, article, school paper, or piece of poetry. The term is meant to remind the author that it’s fine for that initial draft to be terrible. Another term some authors use is “vomit draft.” I don’t care for that visual, but I get what they’re saying. The point of that initial draft is to get your story down. You can, and must, edit it later.

The first, vomit, or garbage draft is an act of discovery.

 

DISCOVERING THE JADE LAKE

 

I mentioned recently that I finished the garbage draft of my upcoming novel, Bodacious Creed and the Jade Lake. I created a basic outline of the story which include the major plot points and figured out, as I went along, what happened between each.

It took me about six months to get this 76,000 word draft done, and I learned so much that I believe the garbage draft of my next book will take a lot less time, maybe three months.

So, that’s what I did, but what I didn’t do is just as important to understand. When I realized what needed to change, I didn’t go back and edit to implement the changes. I simply kept writing with the changes and took notes about them.

If anyone else were to read this draft, they’d be pretty confused. Characters vanish. Others become completely different people. Events get mentioned later that I didn’t write about before.

Here are a few examples. There’s an organization in the book with seven members. Two of them were unnecessary, so I’m cutting them, and if you were to read the book now they would appear to vanish. Two characters start off as of German descent and then become two Mexican Americans with totally different names. Later in the book, I reference an event that James Creed attended, but I didn’t write about that event earlier on.

These are all things I can, and will, fix later. The point is that by not going back and changing them as I worked on the draft, I was able to get the story finished.

 

HERE’S A PAGE FROM MY HERO’S JOURNAL

 

Using my Hero’s Journal has been great. This is one of the things that has helped keep my writing on track. It’s split into three acts, and I used Act 1 to write the garbage draft.

Here’s the final page for Act 1, where I wrapped up what I got done.

I highly recommend The Hero’s Journal for anyone working on a major project.

 

 

 

COMING SOON

 

In the last year, I’ve taken two of Russell Nohelty’s online classes, one on novel writing, and one on book marketing. I plan to review both soon for this blog. Even though I had already written several novels, and learned a fair amount about marketing, these courses helped me tremendously.

Go forth and get those drafts done!

“You can make anything by writing.” ― C. S. Lewis

This Year’s Queer Sci-Fi Anthology: Innovation!

Posted on by Jonathan Fesmire

 

innovation by Queer Sci-Fi!

 

For the second year in a row, I’m proud to say that I have a flash-fiction story in the latest Queer Sci-Fi anthology!

Innovation by Queer Sci-Fi came out this month, and it features 120 stories, 300 words or fewer, by many stars and rising talents in science fiction and fantasy. Published by Other Worlds Inc, and edited by J. Scott Coatsworth, each story incorporates LGBTQ+ themes and the idea of innovation.

My own contribution, Lucy Morgan Loves Anna Boyd, involves characters from my series, The Adventures of Bodacious Creed, which includes Bodacious Creed: a Steampunk Zombie Western, and my novel-in-progress, Bodacious Creed and the Jade Lake.

 

 

EXCERPTS

 

Here are some story excerpts from Innovation by Queer Sci-Fi.

 

“The fields are overgrown, have been for years with all the Bios underground. The wind kisses the grass in serpentine patterns long forgotten, patterns the Bios couldn’t imagine anymore. My mechanical hand stores the seed envelope in the mechanical pocket in my androgynous torso. In these suits, there is no gender. Gender is, always has been, in the mind. And I am finally, unequivocally, female.” —Seed, by Val Muller

 

 

“No one in the village knew what the Change would bring. They never saw it happen. They only knew what they had been promised: the Change would bestow three gifts.” —A New Way, by Rory Ni Coileain

 

 

“The girl kissed her, hard. Then backed away, grinning, teasing, drawing her to the end of the hallway and a flight of stairs leading downward. She took two steps and gazed back up at Lilian, one hand outstretched. Her brilliant red lipstick wasn’t even smudged. Her skin glowed in the harsh white torchlight.” —The Thing With the Bats, by Mary Francis

 

“Interspecies sex is outlawed on the Freespec Interplanetary Space Station. Politicians call it a safety measure. But I’ve been in the Medical Corps for half my lifecycle, and I call it criminally negligent prudery. Leaders would rather let innocents die needlessly—punctured by sperm darts and dissolved in sacks of voltaic pleasure mucus—than give them the knowledge to express their feelings safely.” — Are My Underwater Sperm Darts Normal?, Brenna Harvey

 

“The bell’s brassy gong echoes through the flat; the walls blush crimson. See, see! He’s at my door. The live feed shows him sniff his armpit; cup his breath. He wants to impress, but I’m impressed already. His lips softly part; he brushes them with stubby fingers, as he waits. Ugly fingers. Ugly hands. Scrawny neck. Milky eyes. But those lips, see, they’re perfect, just perfect. Plump n’ pale, a slither of my future.” —Just perfect, by Redfern Jon Barrett 

 

 

“Lekke looked down over the valley, First People’s home for as long as any tales or dreams could tell. Now only Spirit Dreamer Manoot, neither he nor she but both, and Lekke, elder healer, were left. Lifetimes of Long-legs’ raids had driven First People to their deaths—or, some few, to the Way. If there truly was a Way.” —Going Back,” by Sacchi Green

 

“Savinna limped into her lover’s workshop, her hip still sore from tangling with the marabbecca which had knocked her into its well before she managed to kill it. Such was the life of a monster hunter. Not at all surprised to see Larissa hunched over her bench, hard at work tinkering with something, Savinna ghosted her hand over Larissa’s back.” —Those Who Hunt Monsters, by Jana Denardo

 

 

“The baby cried as Freya lowered the bartering bucket into the wishing well. Many had come to the tree-shrouded clearing to make exchanges—a bushel of azure apples for a sword, a woven blanket for a day of rain. The well had been the final creation of a thousand-year-old inventor. But dead wizards often don’t anticipate how their gifts birth consequences.” —The Bartering Bucket, by Diane Callahan

 

GIVEAWAY

 

Queer Sci Fi is giving away your choice of a $20 Amazon gift card OR a print copy of four of the other five flash fiction books in the series – Flight, Renewal, Impact, and Migration! (US only unless you are willing to pay the shipping outside the US.)

 

Enter via Rafflecopter

 

the authors

 

Wondering who all the authors are? Here’s the list!

 

Adrik Kemp, Alex Silver, Alex Stargazer, Allan Dyen-Shapiro, Andi Deacon, Andrea Speed, Andrew Vaillencourt, Ava Kelly, Barbara Johnson-Haddad, Barbara Krasnoff, Beáta Fülöp, Benoit Lafortune, Blaine D. Arden, Bob Milne, Brenna Harvey, Brooke K. Bell, C.L. McCartney, Cassidy Frazee, Chet Gottfried, Chloe Spencer, Chris Bannor, Christine Wright, Christopher Koehler, Clare London, D.J. Clarke, D.M. Rasch, David Gerrold, Devon Widmer, Diane Callahan, E. L. Harrison, E. Romeis, E.D.E. Bell, E.M. Hamill, Edie Montreux, Elaine Burnes, Eloreen Moon, Emilia Agrafojo, Emma Johnson-Rivard, Eric Warren, Evelyn Benvie, Gareth Worthington, Ginger Streusel, Howard V. Hendrix, J. Needham, J. Zachary Pike, J.S. Garner, Jade Black, James Alan Gardner, Jamie Lackey, Jana Denardo, Jasie Gale, Jeff Jacobson, Jennie L. Morris, Jet Lupin, Jon Miller, Jonathan Fesmire, Joshua Ian, Julian Maxwell, K. Kitts, K.L. Townsend, K.S. Marsden, KA Masters, Katelyn Cameron, Kellie Doherty, Kevin Andrew Murphy, Kevin Klehr, Kim Fielding, Kitt Harris, Koji A. Dae, L.S. Reinholt, L.V. Lloyd, LC Treeheart, Lee Jordan, Lee Soeburn, Lou Sylvre, M. X. Kelly, Maria Zoccola, Mary E. Lowd, Mary Francis, Mary Kuna, Matt Doyle, Mere Rain, Milo Owen, Minerva Cerridwen, Naomi Tajedler, Nathan Alling Long, Nathaniel Taff, Nicole Dennis, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Noah K. Sturdevant, Patricia Scott, Paul Uebler, R. E. Carr, R.L. Merrill, Raine Norman, Ray Lidstone, RE Andeen, Redfern Jon Barrett, Rory Eggleston, Rory Ni Coileain, Rosalie Wessel, S S Long, Sara Testarossa, Sean Ian O’Meidhir, Shannon Brady, Shannon Yseult, Skip J. Hanford, Stephen B. Pearl, Stephen J. Wolf, Steve Carr, Stone Franks, Stuart Conover, Susan James, Sydney Blackburn, T. T. Thomas, T.W. Cox, Tom Jolly, Val Muller, Warren Rochelle, William Tate.

“Writers and artists know that ethereal moment, when just one, fleeting something–a chill, an echo, the click of a lamp, a question—-ignites the flame of an entire work that blazes suddenly into consciousness.” ~ Nadine C. Keels

Age 50 Accomplishments

Posted on by Jonathan Fesmire

It’s my 51st birthday!

 

It feels like a good day to share some recent accomplishments. I had an eventful year at age 50. I took a couple of online classes related to being an author. I moved my blog from Wix to a WordPress site. I joined a new writing community.

I also started my novel Bodacious Creed and the Jade Lake, the sequel to Bodacious Creed: a Steampunk Zombie Western. And you know what? Last week, I finished the first draft. I wrote it in less than six months, and most of that writing took place over the last two months.

Once I finish the first draft of a book, I have to set it aside for about a month before coming back to it. I’m already aware of a lot of things I need to change and fix in this current novel, which makes me eager to get back to it. However, the book and I need a short time apart so that when I get back to it I can look at it with a fresher perspective.

With the book set aside, though, I still have plenty to do.

Currently, I have the basic ideas for my next two books. The very next one I’m going to write, once Bodacious Creed and the Jade Lake is almost ready for publication, is the third book in this series. It will be titled Bodacious Creed and the Frisco Syndicate.

The novel after that will start a new series but will be set in the same world as the Bodacious Creed novels. I’ve done some major brainstorming for both of these books. By the end of the month, I plan to have a basic outline for each.

This week, I’ve also been filling a Google Sheets file (can you ever fill a Google Sheets file?) with blog post ideas. If you have any writing questions or other things you’d like me to address in a blog, feel free to let me know in the comments.

I also created portraits for three of the main characters in the Creedverse: James Creed, Anna Boyd, and Jonathan Johns, using techniques I’ve covered in previous blog posts.

This technique is a lot like casting actors, and these three were tougher to cast than other characters in the series. I’m pretty happy with the results, though. These are now in my series bible, which you can check out here:

 

The Creedverse on World Anvil

 

Note that what readers see is just a small portion of what I have on the site. Most of the information is private. I aim to avoid spoilers! The point of the site is to serve as a repository of information on my fictional world that helps me keep everything straight.

Oh yes, here are those pictures of James Creed, Anna Boyd, and Jonathan Johns.

Have a great week and stay safe. Long days and pleasant nights.

“We accomplish things by directing our desires, not by ignoring them.” ~ Anonymous