Do you write and drive?

It's illegal to text and drive but can I write in my head and drive at the same time safely?  Ponderous.

Anyway, I came to a crux on Sunday.  It's one of those moments in story-telling where your decision could affect the outcome of the whole story.  It's the "Death" decision.  Many writers at LTUE agreed that killing someone is a great way to keep interest.  Dumbledore, Sirius Black, Professor Lupin.  They all needed to die to force Harry to stand on his own and become a man.  But even in the end, Harry doesn't cast the death spell on Voldemort. 

My crux came because I'd had this great idea to have my main character, Kyle, discover a spell.  It's a cool spell.  But it had the potential of making him invincible.  DOH!  And then it came.  The death decision.  If you mean to shoot and kill someone, there is guilt but there should also be justification.  But if the gun goes off unintentionally and someone dies, can you ever touch a gun again?  But could I do that?

So I turned to my  lovely wife and asked for help.  She guided me wisely as she always does. It took me to new depths and created a more complex character.  It reminds me of the movie "Stranger than Fiction".  I'm not really a big Will Ferrell fan but that was a great movie.  And it taught me same thing my wife did, sometimes they don't have to die to make the story great.

This is the Novel Mage saying *POOF*

Write a textbook to support your fiction habit

The organizer of our writing club shared a stat with me once that 80% of what publishers put out there is non-fiction. This was backed up by a comment by one of the authors at LTUE who said she is the only fantasy/sci-fi author that Covenant has published.

I've been going to college for three years now and textbooks are horrifically expensive. But why? Because they know they have a fixed audience. They know how many books they are going to sell (roughly). AND college kids EXPECT to pay a lot for textbooks! Sure we grumble about it! But when I have a textbook that costs less than $50 I'm shocked. We don't want to let those college kids down. So my philosophy is this: If you like writing fiction, that's where your love is, write a textbook to make you money (and you can say you are published) while you write fiction to feed your soul.

Or get a day job. :)

This is the Novel Mage saying *POOF*

Clubbing

I attended writing club last night for the first time in just about forever. This school thing is killing me. But it was a good meeting. We went over our notes from LTUE for those who couldn't go and shared ideas and thoughts. Our fearless leader asked for suggestions on how we could better organize. Good discussion followed. I did leave more inspired to write. Now I just need to find time.

Current projects include: The Oak Wand, Sword and the Stone, Poetry book, and Burning (the Phoenix Chronicles). Who has time for life??

This is the Novel Mage saying *POOF*

Back on the typewriter again

Did you hear the "Back in the saddle again" music playing through your head? Yeah, me too. A quiet Sunday morning seems like a good time to write. Until all of your kids crowd around you sitting on the couch and all read over your shoulder. Then you get too distracted and have to stop.

But still, I got over a page written and some more plot worked out in my head and stuff. That's always good. And I haven't written in several weeks so I liked getting something down. Now off to bathe kids and get ready for church.

This is the Novel Mage saying *POOF*