Weekly Update 9/13/15-9/20/15

Hey guys!

So I know this is a day or two late, life has been crazy here. School is taking up most of my time and with rush piled on top of it, I barely get a free ten minutes. 

Anyway, I want to lead with a big thank you. I've officially hit 300 views on this page which is phenomenal. So thank you all for the support. I've also started getting a few responses to my posts in the contact form which is also fantastic, keep those coming. 

My crazy busy life had kept me from making much progress this week. I'm still in the editing phase and will hopefully be able to drag myself out of the rut that I've managed to fall into soon. But past that, I've still got about 35 pages left to go, which is doable but I need the time to sit down and actually do the work. 

In other news, my classes this semester have gotten me thinking about other book ideas and so my notes for class are broken up with story ideas. At some point I'll have to go through and weed out the bad ones but it seems like a good jumping off point for a new series when I come to that. For now though, I'll try to stick to just one. 

Really that's about what I've got for news. The response to my offer to put up my first chapter completely unedited was a unanimous yes so that'll be going up soon. 

For random updates find me on Twitter and like my Facebook page. Subscribe to this blog for notifications whenever I post too. As always, thanks for reading guys!

B

Weekly Update 9/6/15-9/12/15

Hey guys!

So it's been kind of a crazy week for me. Obviously I released that mini-series of posts that I plan on adding to as I go forward. My classes here at school have started up for me which added to the whirlwind that life already is. Then on top of all of that I'm working my way through the first draft.

No one cares about the sad story that is my inability to work as much as I would prefer though, so let's dive right in.

I got my hard copy this week. Let me tell you, it's a beautiful thing. If I was proud to have done this before, holding the thing made it that much better. Then I thought about it and realized that I was in for a long hard time.

So far I made it about halfway through, page 53. That's after a week's worth of work on it and no actual changing of it yet. I just go through and mark down what I'll have to change later, I'm calling it passive editing.

My pages that I have done are covered in highlighter and notes and while it makes me happy that I can find the ways to make it even better, it makes me wonder if its even decent at all.

Don't worry, I won't get discouraged and stop just because I'm realizing the way that I say things kind of sucks. It takes a lot more than that to get me to stop doing anything.

In other writing news, I keep spinning ideas for the next book in the series around in my head. I actually have it down to three main story arc possibilities which I'm really excited about. More on that in the weeks to come though.

If school wasn't slowing me down enough, rush starts this week so I need to be conscious and working within that too. It's going to be a relatively unproductive rest of the month for me but hopefully I'll be able to power through and finish up my second draft and maybe even start my next book.

Find me on Twitter and Facebook for more frequent updates from me, and subscribe to this blog to get notified whenever I post something. Questions or suggested posts go in the form on the right and I'll get around to answering them as soon as possible. As always, thanks for reading guys!

B

On What Writing Means to Me

Hey guys!

So question, What does writing mean to you?

Answer me with a message in the form to the right, but I'll go ahead and give my two cents on it.

Writing to me is a beautiful thing. It's something non writers don't get because we go hide for hours or days at a time and then have a few pages to show for it. So how can something with such little output be so beautiful?

Well the words are what make it beautiful. They form the sentences, paragraphs, pages, and chapters that weave a story together. Sure, the story forms slowly, but words can flow like water when you get on a roll.

The other part of the beauty is the freedom. writing gives you every freedom in and out of the world. In the real world, you set your own hours, though usually you do have set deadlines. On the page, there's nothing you can't do. Something not making physical sense? You can justify it without a problem. Just add a few sentences and bam, you've got something that's logical in your fictional world.

For me, writing is one of the most special things that we as people can do. It's a way to communicate with a chance to correct what you want to say. It's the opportunity to go exploring without ever leaving your desk. It's the best way to let go of the real world and escape for awhile.

That's what writing means to me.

Check out my Twitter and Facebook for almost daily updates. Follow this blog too for a notification whenever I post something new. As always, thanks for reading guys!

B

On What Keeps Me Motivated

Hey guys!

Question of the day, How do you stay motivated while writing a long piece?

I've heard people say anything from making sure you sit down for five minutes a day to sitting down and cranking out ten pages a day. It could be somewhere between writing for your family or writing for yourself too. So really, motivation depends on the person who needs motivating.

For me, motivation is all about pressure. I do my best work when I'm in a time crunch. Obviously, with no publisher deadline to fill, as I just finished my first book, I set my own time crunch. At the end of July (the 26th to be exact), I started myself on a 40 day writing schedule. I had decided to finish a rough draft before I got back to school.

On a self set schedule you get a lot of flexibility. While flexibility can be good, it's a problem if you're trying to keep yourself in a tight time frame. That's where the second part comes in.

In the past, whenever I started a story I would be all gung-ho about it and then I would hit a wall. Right about the 15,000-20,000 word mark I would miss a day and then two and so on. Then when I would come back I'd be lost with the story and start being super critical of my own work. This time I tried something different.

I told my brother about the project. Just him, no one else in my family even knows yet now that I finished. But he would check every couple of days to make sure I was still on track. I knew there was nothing that he could or would do if I wasn't, but the pressure of someone else knowing kept me going past that mark.

The way I write is with a very loose skeleton of where I want the story to go. I know how it starts, how it ends, and a couple of points in between, but how they get between those points is a mystery when I sit down. I let myself discover the story as I type it, almost like reading it. The sense of discovery and adventure is the part that ties together my motivation. I want to know how it's going to happen, I NEED it even.

So there you go, motivation for me is a good dosage of pressure plus a drive to discover. Let me know how you stay motivated in the comments and hit me with any suggestions for this article or questions you might have in that handy form on the right there.

To track my progress on this book and future ones too, subscribe to this blog, follow me on Twitter, and like me on Facebook. As always, thanks for reading guys, you'll hear from me soon!

B

On Why I Write

Hey Guys!

So the question today, Why do I write?

There are a million and a half different reasons that any given person writes. Just about all of them can come back and be connected to some basic urge.

For me, it's about the thirst for adventure. That need for excitement and the zest for life are my biggest reasons to even sit down and write.

My family is great. Really, absolutely fantastic. The problem is, we don't go on many "adventures" in the traditional sense. Our idea of a big deal is driving an hour to go to the nearest outlet malls or something along those lines. Now that's not to say we don't do awesome things from time to time, but those just don't come up very often.

So with that in mind, it makes some more sense as to why I have this inner desire to go and adventure everywhere. As a broke college student, I can't do that really, so I turn to my computer and the little writer elves that live inside of my head.

Creating worlds and characters with crazy plot twists and memorable achievements is deeply satisfying for me in that sense. It could, of course, be complete garbage that I'm putting on the page, but it still gives me that sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.

That leads pretty well into the next reason, I just love to do it.

I've been writing stories for about fourteen years now. Granted, that puts me back in first grade, but back then we were writing short stories. I won a ribbon for one of mine way back then and I realized that I had had a great time doing it. Since then, I've managed to sit down and at least begin to explore some of the worlds in my head.

Really, writing this full length novel has been great. It reminded me just how much I love doing this. The characters, the plot, the world, and everything in between all make it the best job I can think of. Plus there's this sense of accomplishment when you finish that you just can't match.

Follow me on Twitter and like my page on Facebook to track my progress farther, and follow this blog for email updates about new articles as they get posted. Ask me questions or hit me with suggestions in the form on the right and as always, thanks for coming back and reading again guys!

B

On What to Write About

Hey guys!

The question today is, How do you know what to write about?

This one is tricky because it really varies based on who it is, almost more than anything else about writing. The general rule that anyone should stick to: Write what you care about.

You care about cooking? Great, write cooking guides. You care about fairy tales? Awesome, write some of those bad boys down.

For me, I write dystopian fiction. Most of the stories I've started have fallen in that vein because that's what I really care about. I love reading that kind of thing, so I love writing it too. I've tried fantasy stuff, but that fell to the side of the road like so many others.

So now we've got our genre picked out, how do we know what to actually write about? This brings me to the second rule, write what you know.

This rule can be interpreted in a few different ways. The most common way is people should write based on what they've read or experienced. If you're basing it on your experiences, you have memories to help you get it all down then. If you're basing it on what you've read in the past, you've got actual written words to refresh your memory with, which is great.

I read this article a few years ago which changed my perspective on writing off of what you've read. I wish I could find it and post a link for you guys but it has since disappeared into the ocean that is the internet. The gist of it was What you write doesn't have to be a new idea, just new to you.

That really got me thinking. It's absolutely right, no two people will write the same story the same way even given an outline. So you end up with two distinctly different stories. That's part of the beauty of writing, everything is different in different minds.

Okay sorry, side tracked for a second there. The other way write what you know gets interpreted is write what you've researched.

With that, you can write about anything. If you're willing to put in the time to learn the ins and outs of something, by all means, go for it. There's something beautiful about learning the intimate details of a subject and relaying that back to the world.

My personal opinion is that you should have a nice little mixture going on. I base what I write on what I've read, what I've done, and what I've researched. It helps to connect the writer more intimately to the work and gives you a better shot at finishing what you start out to do.

Find me on Twitter, Facebook, and follow this blog for notifications when new articles go up. As always, thanks for reading guys and I'll be back soon.

B

Weekly Update 8/30/15-9/5/15

Hey guys!

So here's my second weekly update, which means that my blog has been up for about two and a half weeks now. I just want to thank you guys for the great response I've had both on here and on twitter. 

Alright obviously I had an exciting week this week and you probably know why but I'll tell you anyway. I finished my first draft of my first full novel ever! Break out the party hats and streamers am I right?

It's a huge step for me because every story I've started before kind of lost it's fuel at the 15-20,000 word mark which was really frustrating. I almost thought this one was going to do the same thing but I figured out that the best way to keep yourself going is through other people. I'll talk about it more in a post I'm planning on writing about the writing process and what it means to me and how I stayed motivated that should be coming up later this week. 

What's the next step for me? 

Well I'm glad you asked. As of now I haven't started editing because I want to do a hard copy edit before anything else. By my next update I will have started that process and will let you know how it's going. As of now I'm enjoying not working on anything, even though the wheels in my mind are turning. I have a few ideas on what the next book will be about that I'll be writing down soon enough. 

As always, thank you guys so much for reading! Don't forget to follow my blog here to get updates whenever I post. Follow me on Twitter and like my new page on Facebook for more frequent updates. 

Thanks for the support guys!

B

Exciting!

Hey guys!

So I know it's a couple of days earlier than the weekend when I said that I would put up a new post but I can't really contain it right now. I'm so happy and I want you all to join in with me.

I finished my first draft!

I just wrote the last lines and got hit with this wave of euphoria. After it all was said and done, my draft came in at 108 pages and 79,853 words. That's almost 10,000 more than I had planned and two days earlier than expected.

I don't have much to really say past that. I'll scribble up a post about the experience more in my weekly update but for now I just wanted to let everyone know and hopefully get you all excited with me!

Thanks for reading guys!

B

Weekly Updates and What I've Done Since Last Time

Hey guys!

So I think I'm going to update this thing weekly(ish) with a progress report on the book or to answer any questions you've got. Maybe both!

Okay well I have no questions yet so I'll dive straight into the update. 

I had a pretty big week this week. I made a lot of headway on the book. As of finishing today, I'm within 6,000 words of hitting my goal of 70,000! Granted, I've had to come to terms with the fact that I'll need more than that, as I haven't even reached the climax yet. The good news is, the words just flow off of my fingers now. 

Thank you all again for your continued support. It really means a lot to me. Hit me up with questions or suggestions for this page at benwagnerwriting@gmail.com and follow me on twitter @wagner_writing for everyday updates. Thanks guys!

B

Let's Bring You Up To Speed

What I've gotten done so far.

Hey guys!

So obviously writing a full length novel is kind of a big deal. I didn't know how far along I'd make it before I called it quits on this one so I haven't made too much of a log up until this point, and now I'm less than two weeks out from finishing my first draft.

To start, I'll give you guys an idea of what I did to plan this whole endeavor. 

I set myself on a 41 day schedule. The extra day was for actually setting up my whole schedule so day one was planning the next forty. Days 2-6 were all for planning then. I had to set myself up with an idea, a setting, character bios, and a plot line. I left an extra day for any extra planning I felt like I needed.

From day 7 on through where I am now, having just finished day 30, I wrote. Everyday I've sat down and written until my little fingers couldn't write any more. My overall goal for the first draft is 70,000 words (currently at 51,811). So if you take that and break it down into the 35 days that I set up for writing, it comes out to 2,000 words a day, which is actually way easier than I had anticipated (I'm 3,811 words ahead of schedule).

There have been days where I just couldn't bring myself up to the 2,000 mark but those are few and far between. I'm on track completely, having just finished chapter 24 not two hours ago. 

So the more linear way of saying all of that is:

Day 1:Schedule

Day 2:Story Idea

Day 3:Plot

Day 4:Setting

Day 5:Character Bios

Day 6:Wrap-Up Planning/Prep For Writing

Days 7-41:Write 2,000 words minimum a day

Thanks for reading guys!

B

First Posting

Hey guys!

So this is my first blog post. I officially have no subscribers as of now but I'd like to think that'll change soon!

I'll do a quick little rundown of what I'm doing with this thing. I'm a very green author, currently in the works on my first draft of my first novel. I'm hoping to connect with everyone as best as I can here. I've got a twitter profile that you can go check out too @wagner_writing and I'll do my absolute best to keep both this and that up to date.

I'm trying to keep you all as engaged as possible because as much as I love this job, it's solitary and gets a little lonely sometimes. So please hit me up both on twitter and here, I'll love to hear from you.

Thanks guys,

B