Nothing

I have nothing to blog about, so that's why I haven't been blogging.

Jake

(PS; Book #3 is started!!!)

Done!!!!

Yes, that's right, novel #2 is DONE! The grand total of pages is 83, 13 pages longer than my first novel was in rough draft. Wow, that's the longest novel I've ever written! ;)
I also did it in record time, about 5-6 months I think. It's pretty good, if I might say so, but a lot more sad than the first was.
I'm going to 'put it on the shelf ' for a month or so, and then take it out and edit it. I'm not sure when I'll start on book #3, but I'm sure it's going to be longer than the others.
I'm going to go over novel #1 a few times more, and then let my mom and dad read it, so it's all going really well. And I also have ideas for a whole 'nother series after this. Oh boy!
To make matters even better, I have books coming in at the library, and Tonight is supposed to come today!

Jake

Tonight!

Yes!!! TobyMac's brand new album Tonight is here! I'll give his music video (excellent, by the way.) here, of his song Tonight, with John Cooper of Skillet. (Go Skillet, too!)




Jake

Whew!

I have been working my rear end off when it comes to writing and schoolwork. Among the bashing of brains against algebra, I have had some time to write. Yesterday night, I was trying to write (I was at the MOST exciting part in the entire book #2, when whatshisface found a super secret tunnel and charged into the fray) when Daddyo said out of the blue, "Jake! It's time for bed." Ouch.
So I packed up my computer (not literally) and shut it down. Today I am venting a little of my frustration. (I promised Dad I'd tell the entire world of this OUTRAGE. ;) )
My #2 novel is now at 71 pages, longer than the #1 was when I first finished it on rough draft. And it's not done, not by a long shot.
I'm planning a third book that'll have a lot of content in it, probably making it longer than ther other two. I've even laid grounds for another series.
I said to Alex a couple minutes ago, "A problem I had when I was really young, like 8 years old, was that I had no novel ideas. I'd make a title that sounded cool, and then I'd make a story to fit to the title." Now I have novel ideas coming out of my ears. And the ironic thing is, I haven't officially named them yet. ;)

Jake

(More) Snow, and Novel News (what a NOVEL concept!)

It snowed yet again, and we got three or so inches. I made an AWESOME snowfort that is about four feet tall, and twice that long. I'm planning to enlarge it and make an entrance tomorrow. It's built on the remains of my old snowfort (Yes, from Christmastime). And I did all this in ONE day, so I am exhusted.
It's amazing what I could do with my sequel once I set my mind on it. For the past five days, I have been determined to write at least one chapter a day, and I succeeded. It's now 60 pages long (and I myself am saying "Whoa!"). I started editing my first novel at 70 pages, and this one's going to be longer by A LOT. It's better than my first novel in my opinion, but I'm pretty sure that the ending to the trilogy, the third book, will be the best yet, and it'll delve a little bit more into the culture of the first two books.
So, I'm excitied, and I think my novel (#1) will be ready for 'public consumption' soon, at least as far as I can do it.

Signing out,

Jake

Novel Title (Among Other Things)

Okay, so yesterday I wrote a question. If a person commented and got the answer right, then I would put a novel title possibility. Thanks, Grandma, you got it right. Reuel was the father-in-law of Moses. Actually, I named a character in my novel Reuel, and I had NO idea that the name was in the Bible when I made it up. Really.
Anyway, for the novel title (drumroll) I was at first thinking of The Tower of Bailrai for an obvious reason. The problem was that the book wasn't all about the Tower. Then, late at night while I was laying awake, when I always get my best ideas, I thought of something. (By the way, that time of night was when I first thought of my novel storyline, and when I imagined the trilogy idea). The title that I chose as the best is The Black Lord. You'll only understand the title when you read the book, and the title goes with the series.
My sequel novel is now 42 pages long (I wrote a chapter yesterday). I'm at the secondmost exciting part in it, 'cause my character is meeting some familiar faces. ;). Ahh... I love writing.
Anyway, that's about all I have to say today.

Jake

More News on Novel

I'm still working on the novel, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to finish editing it to a state where it can be edited by someone else.
I'm also simultaneously working on a sequel to it, and that's 39 pages long already, and going smoothly. I'm getting excited about my series (not that I wasn't excited before), and I'm planning to turn my novel into a trilogy by adding two sequels. I also put in lots of hints, doodads, and other stuff in my novel that will be fulfilled in one of the later books.
By the way, if anyone wants to read that short story I mentioned earlier, remember; email me at jtbdude@gmail.com.
Um, so what else should I talk about? I could ask you [reader] a question. Let's see... Who was Reuel? (Hint; he was in the Old Testament of the Bible).
If you comment and get it right (Ah, 'the poision dart hidden in the raisin tart', Christopher Paolini in Eldest) then I will tell you what a possiblity for my novel's title would be. Happy guessing! (And Bible-searching).

Jake

Short Story

The snow is MELTING.... I knew deep down that the snow would melt, but.... Well, I took the time to use the melting snow to build up my snowfort a bit. It snowed yesterday and melted today. Kansas weather. Sigh.
Anyway, I had to write a short story for school (I'm homeschooled, for those that don't know that) that starts with the sentence 'The sun beat down on the hikers as they slowly climbed higher.' I thought, Well, that's boring. So I turned it into a 13 page fantasy short story that is suspiciously linked to my novel (heh heh!). So, if you want to read it, (I'd recommend reading my novel first, but that's not up for public consumption) email me at jtbdude@gmail.com. The story's not too bad, if I might say so myself. A good story line, but too short to be a novel.
Remember!

Jake

Snow

Well, what do you know? It snowed again! Unfortunately, only enough to barely cover the driveway.
Almost all the snow from that Christmas Eve giant snowfall (well, at least it was giant for Kansas) has melted. BUT! My once proud snowfort is STILL there! Sure, it's only a foot tall... but still! All the snow but that snowfort is melted. I'd put a picture of the pitiful and lonely mound of snow on here, but our picture card reader thingy broke. I have no idea what it is called, but Alex knows all about cameras, and she takes a LOT more pictures than I do. So if you're looking for pictures, you're looking in the wrong place.
By the way, I have no idea how many people check my blog. Alex still hasn't helped me put a map on my blog to show my views. Which means that I only know people are checking my blog by their comments.
Anyway, on that random piece of information, I can't think of anything else to write. Which means....

I'm signing out,

Jake

Novel Summary

Before I give a summary of my novel (as the post title implied) I think I'll give out some news. The 23rd was Alex's (my sister) birthday, so happy b-day Alex, even though this is a little late on the news. One year and you'll be a teen (like me!).
So anyway, I am going to (finally) give a summary of my novel. Keep in mind that it's a rough summary, and it's not quite polished up. Enjoy (hopefully).


When 14 year old Shad accidentally runs through a portal, he tumbles straight into a foreign country called Aleorendos, which being torn apart by civil war between a tyrant and the people. When he is found by two dwarves, Shad teams up with them and a dragon on dangerous quest given to them from the mysterious being Saar. Obstacle after obstacle block their way as they journey through Aleorendos, searching for the feared Tower of Bailrai, to rescue a forgotten king.

That's about it. Give me some feedback on it. You can comment, or just email me at jtbdude@gmail.com. By the way, this is in no way another human/elf/dwarf/dragon fantasy. There NO elves, and the humans, dwarves, and dragons have completely different interactions with each other than any of the fantasy books I have read.
I made sure not to go on the well paved roads of the human/elf/dwarf/dragon fantasy stories, but instead tried to go off road and make something unique.

With that, my post is now wrapped up.
Signing out,
Jake

Revising and Editing (Part 2!)

Okay, before I start, I just wanted to clarify on a post I made earlier about the Follower thingamajigger. You can now scroll down (go ahead) and click on 'Become a Follower' on the sidebar. Good? Okay.
To start out, the page number of my book is now 92 (Yes!!).


One of the things that I did throughout the editing, revising, and etc. was adding history. In the very first draft, I had a page that was full of historical information. It was the tale of... well, I can't tell you, for fear of ruining the story. Later, there was another pageful of history. Going through in the first draft, I added little tidbits here and there where I added history, like a reference to a long gone hero. In fact, I wrote just yesterday a scene where the main character found some mysterious and (you guessed it) historical stuff.


Some other stuff I did was adding geography. There were numerous references to towns, cities, and two different countries. I find it's a LOT easier to form a rough map of the area before you write a book. I, unfortunately, didn't find that out until I was done with the book, so I'm going to have to form a map from the events of the book, which has to be with EXTREME painstaking detail. It's very easy to mess up.

With fighting, what I did was add detail. You know the saying, 'the more, the merrier'? That does NOT apply here. I needed detail, but I also needed to keep the action quick and fast-paced, so not to bore the reader.

I am going to expand on what I said on my last post about description. When adding description, I never use the same descriptive word on the same page. I use synonyms instead.
An example of this would be; The dragon flew backwards, and then turned and flew to the Ralar again. A better phrase would be The dragon flew backwards, and then swiveled and shot toward the Ralar again.

Another thing I do is showing emotions through movement. 'The sentry shifted nervously as he replied...' You can also do this with words. '..."S-sir, you are needed at the king's tent." '

I MIGHT be able to think uo some more, but as of right now, I'm on empty, so,

Signing out,
Jake

Editing (and Revising)

If I say I haven't blogged in a while, it's probably because I haven't. (Duh!). Either that, or I had nothing to blog about. However, as you can see from the title, I am blogging about editing. When you see the word editing, you probably think I'm going to blog about editing my novel (Unless you've never checked my blog before). Guess what? You're right.
Now, sit back, stop grumbling "Get on with it!", and read what's been happening in the world of my novel.
My current page number is 88. It would have been 91, but the computer did something-or-other, and terminated the program, making me lose 3 pages of editing.
This is what I did for the editing (and revising and rewriting) process.
Before I begin, however, I'd like you to know I am not one of those people who write out an outline, then build on that. Nothing against the outline method, though. I'm more one of those people who sit down and just write a story from beginning to end, with no outline (unless it's a short summary of what I'm trying to do). Really, I'm not really controlling the story, more, it's controlling itself, going whichever way it feels like going. The novel I have now is definitely not the novel I set out to write two years ago. But I'm getting off the subject.

(Note; This next part did NOT all happen at the same time. Note 2; I am going to add examples to show you what I mean in certain places. The examples are not necessarily taken from the novel.)

When I finished my novel, I immediately went through with the Spell Check/Grammar Check (A quite useful device) and checked everything, making adjustments where they were needed, and correcting my spelling (I'm proud to say that there were very few mistakes in that area).
When I was done with that, I read my entire novel through several times, adding clarity on my meaning when needed, among other things.

Example of adding clarity;

Before; 'They both looked at the rock. "That rock looks queer." he said.'
I think, how does the reader know who said that sentence?
After; 'They both looked at the rock. "That rock looks queer." Nalgra said.'

Next, I made sure everything was properly indented. (No need for an example there).
By then, I had changed the name of the document to 'first draft'.

Since I had only a few descriptive scenes in the novel, I then went through the book, adding description.

Example of Adding Description;

Before; 'The green dragon spun through the air.'

After; 'The emerald dragon whirled through the air, a blur of flashing teeth and talons.'

When that was finished, I went through, adding depth and personality to the characters.

Example of adding personality;

Before; '"What does that mean?" said Reuel'

I wanted Reuel to sound and act more like a person, and less like a English professor. I avoid the word 'said' like a plague, so I usually change it to a different word, or couple it with a descriptive word. In this case, I changed it to '"What in the world is that supposed to mean?" asked Reuel indignantly.

Next, I made the obstacles harder, turning detours into things that take up more than just a chapter, pushing the characters where they were unwilling to go.

Example of Detour Change;

Before; They traveled to a city to avoid an enemy patrol.
After; They traveled farther south to lose the patrols altogether, forcing them into dangerous places where they were unwilling to go.

Following that, I added more emotion to the main character's life, putting in late-in-the-night thoughts and other emotions.

Example of added emotions;

Instead of 'He went to sleep immediately.' try 'He tossed and turned restlessly, thoughts of the approaching challenge filling his mind. What was going to happen? (etc.) Filled with these uncertain thoughts, he finally slipped into an uneasy sleep.' Longer thoughts can be added.

I also implied culture (Inspired by Donita K. Paul's post on her writing blog).

Example of Implying culture;

Before; I just added an information dump.

After; I spread my information out in the book, having scenes where the character may be instructed in proper etiquette (again, Donita K. Paul's suggestion) and other places.

I could add a some more, but my mind is drawing a blank for now, and fingers ache a little. So, I might add a sequel post later on, but for now I'll end it. I probably gave you much more information than you wanted, but I had one of those times when I write as fast as fire. So, see you, er, write you, (or something) later.

Jake

New Years

New Years Eve is today, New Years Day is tomorrow. We're going to spend the day at some friends' house in Newton.
My New Years resulution will be to finish revising and editing my novel.
Other than that, I have nothing else to blog about.
Hey, if you're interested in reading my blog and receiving emails to tell you when I publish a new post, scroll down the sidebar and click on- well, I'm not sure, but I'm sure you'll figure it out!
Off to the New Years Party!
Jake

Circles

Circles. I really don't like circles. For more than one reason.
One; They are endless. You start on a circle, and you come back to the beginning eventually.
Two; People make books using circles.
The Circle Trilogy by Ted Dekker. A circle. There's a fourth book, and it ends the way the first book in the series began.
The Song of Albion series by Stephen Lawhead. Although it uses the Endless Knot instead of a circle, the books do go in a circle like the Circle Trilogy; they end with the same words they began with.
I admit that these two authors do a great job with their books. In fact, the circle thing helps make their books better. But still... the books go endlessly on. When you finish the last book, the continuation is the first book. They don't really end.
Someday, I might even use that same concept in a novel. But I still don't like circles.

The reason I blog about circles? There is no reason. I finished the Song of Albion series (which I had gotten for Christmas) yesterday, and so I thought I'd tell you why I don't like circles. So, one day later, I decided to blog about 'em. I started typing...

'Circles. I really don't like circles...

Yea or Nay?

Today I present my readers questions that requires one of the answers listed on the title.

1. Do you want me to make a seperate blog for writing about my writing(the novel)?

2. Do you want me to post the summary of my novel here?

3. Do the poll. (That one wasn't a question, but it needed to be said.)

My blogging shortage will officially start right after I post this post, due to the holidays (I said holidays, meaning the New Year too).

Have a merry Christmas, everybody!

Jake