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Alex Rojas, Artist, At Heaven's Door, Blog, Books, First Draft, Inspiration, Las Vegas, Poetry, Publishing, Stephen King, Writers, Writing
So recently I’ve decided to stop reading…for pleasure. Again. You see, I love to read fiction and I love to read for pleasure, but I also know that I’m a writer with a lot of bad working habits that no one beat out of me when I was a younger writer, so now I have to do that myself. I remember last year dropping books for pleasure and spending any spare reading time studying the art of the short story. I had a hard time getting into the mindset for writing short stories. I would start them and they would get bigger and bigger (not quite as big as a novel, not even a novella, but too long to be a short story) because I never understood the concept of what a short story was meant to be. At the time I didn’t appreciate it as a true written art form. I took it for granted. At most I viewed it as a means to an end. I was told by other writers that to get noticed by publishers, you need to get your name out there and get noticed, and the best way to do that is to have some short stories published. You get noticed, and you might also get an agent interested in you and then offer to work with you. I figured, okay why not. How hard can it be, once I pound out a few of those and get them published, I’m on my way. And unless it’s a project for an anthology or sideways piece for one of my bigger works (like a short story that takes place in my At Heaven’s Door Universe), I won’t ever have to worry about short stories again.
Yeah, no, you see, I failed to get the praise I wanted from my short stories. More importantly I began to realise that the more I tried working on them the harder they got. And that pissed me off and intrigued me at the same time. That’s when I realized I missed something about the short story: the subtle art form that it is and how writers who have mastered that medium and thrive are artists. There was so much more to short stories (more on that later) than I realized. I knew that I had to study it, try to get a better idea of what it is and to work on that aspect of me as a writer so that I can be confident when I attempt to write a true SS.
So to do that, I decided it was time to get out my library card (yeah more on that later as well) and go back to school. Sort of, this would be self-taught; at this point I am unable to take a real class, but I would take other steps to learn, and yes, it’s worth it. I started reading all sorts of short stories written by others. I analysed and finally practiced. I did that and it really helped me. From there I went to borrowing books on the subject of writing short stories. So I stopped reading for fun, and read up on the subject. I immersed myself with writers who knew more about short stories than me. And it helped. More importantly it taught me that an old dog can learn new tricks.
Which brings us to now.
I’ve recently finished the latest revision of ‘At Heaven’s Door’, my (hopefully) debut novel and am waiting for my pre-reader feedback (thanks Laura, Shawn, Beth, and Nancy). But even if they all gave it to me today, I would hold off for a few days because I am too close to that book, so to speak. I spent so much time rereading and rewriting that I need to put it down; when I input their notes I want to see it with fresh eyes. So in the meantime I’ve decided to start work on a new novel. Now I’ve already wrote a sequel to ‘At Heaven’s Door’ that’s called ‘The Divine Comedy’ that will be revised very soon. But because I spend so much time, years really, on the first two books, I decided I needed to get out of my comfort zone and start a new novel. It’s in the same universe; I’m hoping to do something like Terry Pratchett, where it’s one universe with several characters that have a story they want to be told. So this book is more of a sidequel (can I patent that term?) then a sequel. Its stars a breakaway character by the name of Alex Rojas; he was a good friend to the main protagonist in the last book and I had an idea for a story that takes place in Las Vegas. It would be a good way to expand this world of mine, do a better job of explaining how magic worked in this universe, and introduce a number of new characters for future novels and stories.
So I’ve started working on my new opus, tentatively titled ‘What Happens in Vegas’ or ‘Vegas Baby, Vegas!’ Those are my working title. You would think I have everything in the bag right? Wrong. Right now the biggest problem I’m having with this new book is fear of my old writing habits. I’m already afraid of them rearing their ugly heads. I find myself stalling, and by stalling I mean working on this blog even though I have several done ahead of time. As of today it’s October 2, 2015. I suspect you won’t be reading this until early next year. And well yes I am writing, a sentence here or there, a blog or a poem, but I should be working on the book, really driving hard, really trying to finish the first draft. I can finesse all I want later, right now I’m deviating from one of the most important rules: get your first draft done and then clean up, rework, revise, rewrite.
Now I’m devoting time to expanding the outline and getting the pieces together and thinking about it. But with ‘At Heaven’s Door’ I spent thirteen years working on it, and I also spent several years contemplating ‘The Divine Comedy’ before writing my first draft. But I’m not a young guy so spending a decade working on a book, the first draft even, is not going to happen. This needs to get done.
So I’m using the skills I’ve picked up, but it’s not enough so I’ve decided I need help from the big guns. It’s time to take out my library card again and get an education. What I’m reading now are books that will help me be a better writer, and help me complete my next novel. I’m currently reading John Gardner’s The Art of Fiction as a primer. I also intend to read another of his books on writing: On Becoming a Novelist. Also currently in my possession is Stephen King’s book: Stephen King | On Writing | A memoir of the Craft. And there are others I have pending. Using everything, I can I promise you this next book won’t take me thirteen years to get a first draft completed. Ten, eleven years max. *evil smirk* My goal is to have a completed draft by late spring/early winter. Wish me luck.
What do you think is required reading for working on a novel? What are your fears about writing a big project? How do you hone your skills? Any advice for a guy working on his next novel?