Dust it Off Bloghop-- What I Learned

For the third, and last, day of the Dust it Off Bloghop, I'm supposed to post what I learned from WANDER. That's an interesting way to end, since I find that I've learned a lot thanks to this bloghop, looking back on the novel and thinking critically about it. I've had a lot of fun over the past couple days, and I'll definitely be willing to do more hops like this! Hmmm... I could even write a series about 'What I learned from my trunked novel.' We'll see. :)

Anyways, here are five things I learned from WANDER.

1- I CAN finish a novel. This was a big one for me. WANDER was the first novel I ever finished solo. I had written hundreds of pages on a fanfic before abandoning it, and then I had co-authored a mystery novel with a friend, but WANDER was my first personal project that I actually completed. Also, it was a great morale booster because I wrote the whole thing in 19 days and had only been brainstorming for several months. In short, it took me less than four months to create the novel, contrasted with years for my previous attempts.

2- Finishing the writing ain't the end of the process. Now, I never actually thought that writing goes straight from first draft to bookshelf, but this was a real eye-opener to how imperfect a 'finished' novel could be. While there's a lot of elements I love about WANDER, I also see all its flaws, in plot, character, and writing, and even now that I've trunked it I feel like I can't show anyone because I want to edit it first.

3- KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid). This is an acronym that my dad loves, and one that I need to consider when plotting my novels. I think the biggest problem with WANDER was simply how complicated it was. Everything made sense by the end of the third book, but for the rest it was just this huge tangled mess full of unrealistic elements. I think most readers would have given up rather than waiting for the end of the third book.

4- Religion matters. Another 'problem' with WANDER was that it dealt with Muslims and terrorists (and terrorists being Muslim.) While I did treat Muslims fairly (I had several Muslims read and enjoy the story) it is extremely hard to balance religions while writing for the secular market. For religious reasons, I think WANDER wouldn't have made it in the secular market, but a Christian publisher might have taken it.

5- What you learn matters more than the end result. When I finished WANDER I was so excited about finally having a finished product, something to perfect and then query with. Almost two years later, I still haven't started querying, but I've learned a lot about writing. Maybe, at some point, I'll re-do WANDER and try to get it published. Right now, I have no interest in doing that. Writing WANDER was just what I needed: it gave me a confidence boost, taught me about the writing process/plotting/religious themes, and basically just gave me experience as a writer. I've heard that you need to write a million words to become proficient as a writer. Whether or not that's true, it's undeniable that the more you write, the better you write. WANDER may never see the light of day, but the experience it gave me will shine in all my future novels.

Dust it Off Bloghop-- Excerpt

For Day 2 of the Dust it Off Bloghop, I'll be posting a short excerpt from WANDER. This segment comes fairly early on in the book, when two of the main characters (Ephraim and Zakiya) are just meeting each other.

“Impressive,” Ephraim said, flicking on the light switch. It was time for his performance to begin. He opened the door to his study a little wider. “I haven’t seen an assassin that talented in years.”

He stared up at the ceiling for a split second, then back to Zakiya. “Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever seen an assassin that impressive,” he admitted. “Of course, no one’s ever tried to assassinate me before, so you would also be the first assassin I’ve ever seen, but still, impressive.  By the way, why were you trying to kill me?”

Ephraim could feel his heart pounding in his chest. He had never been more afraid in his entire life. The young woman still stood, like a tiger ready to pounce, the moonlight gleaming off the dagger in her hand.

He had convinced his father and his bodyguards that his ability to talk his way out of anything would even work on a trained killer like Zakiya. He would surprise her, put her off guard. They must have been convinced that he would do it, because his bodyguards were now taking a night off, probably drinking in some ill-reputed bar.

Ephraim wished he was so sure.

“Come on, now,” he continued, feeling like as long as he could talk, he’d be alright. “What’s wrong with you? Cat got your tongue? I asked you a question.”

Zakiya replied, her voice deep and slow. “And I’m deciding whether I should answer it.”

“Why wouldn’t you?” Ephraim asked cheerfully. “If you’re going to kill me, the least you could do is tell me why.” He noted with satisfaction that his light banter was working. She was confused, frozen in place. The knife was held out at a useless angle, neither attacking nor defending. For the moment, she had no plan.

I'm not quite sure why I like this segment. After all, the whole assassin-idea is a little unrealistic. I guess what I really loved was Ephraim; he's probably my favourite character in the novel. He seems really cocky and self-assured, and he always has a confident reply to anything you can throw at him. The thing is, he's actually insecure because of a lot of things in his personal past. I think I love Ephraim because I've always wished I could be like him when really I'm the opposite. I'm really secure in who I am, but I feel like I appear insecure, or at least am easily flustered. 

Enough of my personal psychoanalysis. While Ephraim may seem corny sometimes because I had a hard time writing him, he still remains one of my favourite created characters. And I absolutely love the dynamic with him and Zakiya. *sigh* I'm really starting to miss this story...

Dust it Off Bloghop-- Pitch

For the first day in the Dust it Off Bloghop (which was supposed to begin yesterday, but I'm a bit late), I'm going to post the short pitch for my 2010 NaNo novel, WANDER.

If he wanted you dead, you'd be dead by now.
He wants you alive.
He wants you to fail.


While I do sort of like this pitch, in that it's short and creepy and hopefully somewhat enticing, I think it encapsulates exactly what was wrong with the novel. Frankly, WANDER was too confusing. The reader doesn't even know about this mysterious 'he' until near the end of the first book. No one knows exactly why he wants them to fail until near the end of the third book. While mystery is good, in this case there was just too much that didn't really make sense and seemed unrealistic. The end of the third book brought everything together, but most readers aren't going to wait that long.

I have another version of the short pitch:

Ida and Wander have been best friends for a month now. The strange thing is, they've never met. When the internet-pals decide to finally meet via webcam, Wander is kidnapped and Ida is threatened with the same fate if she tells the police.


This pitch has the same problem. As the reader quickly learns, Wander doesn't really get kidnapped; it's a lot more complicated with that. The thing is, the plot of the story is far too confusing to try and describe in a short pitch. And if the story is that confusing, it's probably going to be too confusing for the reader to follow.

So, there's day one of the Dust it Off Bloghop. It's making me a little sad to take out WANDER and criticize it like this; after all, it was the first novel I ever completed solo. I do still love the characters and the plot (despite its many flaws) so it's kind of sad to treat it as nothing more than a learning experience. However, that is one of the wonderful things about being a writer. Maybe no one else will ever get to learn about Wander and Ida and Ephraim and all my other characters... but they'll always be in my heart (no matter how cheesy that sounds).

Long Time No See

Hello everyone!

The title of this blog post is, sadly, very appropriate. Apparently I haven't blogged since December! Even then, it was pretty infrequent. All my good intentions to keep posting just went down the tubes as soon as school hit. It was my first year away from home and I was working really hard to keep my average up in order to get a scholarship. Since school ended last week (and I did get my A average!) I'm back at home and ready to start blogging again.

This week, I've decided to participate in the Dust it Off Bloghop. Tomorrow, Saturday, and Monday I'll take another look at WANDER (my 2010 NaNo novel). Tomorrow I'll post the pitch, Saturday will have a short excerpt, and then on Monday I'll talk about what I learned from WANDER.

I've also got some exciting news to share with you guys. On Tuesday, I found a wonderful-- and completely unexpected-- email in my inbox and I'm just dying to tell everyone about it. No, I'm not getting a book published, and no, I don't have an agent, but it is a writing opportunity that I'm pretty pumped about. As soon as everything's official, I'll let you all know.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with the promise that I will blog more often. I still have to decide if I want a schedule or not. We'll see. But now, over to you. What sort of posts would you like to see this summer?