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Win a character appearance in my novel!

don’t forget about this! just one week to go!

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as I launch into the final phase of preparation for my novel – I’m about to write the final draft of the outline, eek!! – I want to start ramping up my promotion of my baby!  A God Grown Old is going to be AWESOME… and this is your chance to be a part of it. a real part of it.

so yes, this is a giveaway for a guest appearance in my novel!

I’m still in planning mode, so I’m not giving away too much about the book itself, but here are a few tidbits that should give you a feel for what I’m going to be writing:

  • it’s set in the Middle East and North Africa, around 200 AD.
  • it’s a re-telling of a famous myth, but from an unusual point of view.
  • the main character is a dragon, and the four primary secondary characters (shhhh, it makes sense) are two humans, an Egyptian wolf, and a karkadann.

your character could be just about any animal, creature, or human that would exist in this kind of story-world (remember, this is a myth, so traditional African mythical creatures are welcome as well). you can choose to include an OC you haven’t written into something, or you can have yourself wandering through the wilds of Libya. I am happy to take any name and set of characteristics so long as I can find a creative way to work him, her, or it in to the story.

want to enter? rules rules rules!

  • you must be following me. I know, I know, but I don’t post more than two or three times a day max, so I won’t be flooding your dash. plus, if the book sounds like something you’d like to read, you may want to stay informed anyway!
  • you may reblog twice and like once. each will be considered an entry, for up to three entries.
  • you may follow me on Twitter (AGodGrownOld) for one entry.
  • I will be choosing the winner randomly on Monday, April 23rd, and contacting them by the next day. so basically you have ten days from the start of the contest to get your entries in!

I think that’s everything! if you want some more details about A God Grown Old, I am happy to answer some specific questions via my ask, but I’m kind of keeping it under wraps to some extent until I’m a little further along.

thanks for reading, following, reblogging, or snorting with derision! 😉

– August

Posted on

Win a character appearance in my novel!

augustwritesabook:

as I launch into the final phase of preparation for my novel – I’m about to write the final draft of the outline, eek!! – I want to start ramping up my promotion of my baby!  A God Grown Old is going to be AWESOME… and this is your chance to be a part of it. a real part of it.

so yes, this is a giveaway for a guest appearance in my novel!

I’m still in planning mode, so I’m not giving away too much about the book itself, but here are a few tidbits that should give you a feel for what I’m going to be writing:

  • it’s set in the Middle East and North Africa, around 200 AD.
  • it’s a re-telling of a famous myth, but from an unusual point of view.
  • the main character is a dragon, and the four primary secondary characters (shhhh, it makes sense) are two humans, an Egyptian wolf, and a karkadann.

your character could be just about any animal, creature, or human that would exist in this kind of story-world (remember, this is a myth, so traditional African mythical creatures are welcome as well). you can choose to include an OC you haven’t written into something, or you can have yourself wandering through the wilds of Libya. I am happy to take any name and set of characteristics so long as I can find a creative way to work him, her, or it in to the story.

want to enter? rules rules rules!

  • you must be following me. I know, I know, but I don’t post more than two or three times a day max, so I won’t be flooding your dash. plus, if the book sounds like something you’d like to read, you may want to stay informed anyway!
  • you may reblog twice and like once. each will be considered an entry, for up to three entries.
  • you may follow me on Twitter (AGodGrownOld) for one entry.
  • I will be choosing the winner randomly on Monday, April 23rd, and contacting them by the next day. so basically you have ten days from the start of the contest to get your entries in!

I think that’s everything! if you want some more details about A God Grown Old, I am happy to answer some specific questions via my ask, but I’m kind of keeping it under wraps to some extent until I’m a little further along.

thanks for reading, following, reblogging, or snorting with derision! 😉

– August

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Conversations with myself

I’m sure that if mental physicians everywhere had their way, I (and many other writers) would be diagnosed with something serious.  I’ve been writing Serious Character Bios (read: three handwritten pages per main character, which so far is six pages and will eventually be 15), and this has caused me to love my characters. Even my antagonist.  Which is good, because even villains have mothers who love them (or something).

Anyway, now that I’ve fleshed out Cleo and George, in particular, I’ve started to have conversations with them. Sometimes this involves acting like I’m listening to said fictional entity telling me about themselves or a situation; sometimes I take on the role of the character and monologue to myself while in the bathroom (no, not while it’s otherwise occupied, I’m not that confident in my ability to prove my sanity).  It’s actually a helpful exercise, because it plays on my one strength as a public speaker: spontaneity.  I like to connect dots that were never supposed to be connected, and this happens best when my brain is in GO mode without the ability to censor a connection before I can see where it goes.  Having conversations with myself is kind of my version of freewriting, especially because I’m slow to write by hand and typed freewrites feel like cheating.  Weird quirk, right?

What kinds of quirks do you indulge in as far as your writing practice?

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Unintentional symbolism

Symbolism and motifs are one of those integral parts of a good, solid novel that I tend to overlook.  Either that, or I make it uber-obvious.  I’ve been trying to explore some possibilities for motifs in A God Grown Old and before last night I was totally stumped.

Then I started reading up on historical Libyan food and dining rituals.  One of the things that stuck out to me was that three cups of green tea are consumed at the end of every meal.  While green tea is by no means native to Libya, it does appear to be a commodity they purchased from the traders coming in from the Far East as early as 800 BC.  That fits nicely into my timeline, so I think sharing a cup of green tea is something two of my characters will do as a representation of their relationship.

I had to make a trip to the library the other day (avoiding the bus tunnels as long as I could and all that) and ended up walking out with two useful books: The Natural History of Unicorns by Chris Lavers and The Hero With an African Face by Clyde Ford.  I needed information on the history of the karkadann (my previously made-up unicorn species has been switched to this no-less-elusive but appropriately “real” critter from Arabian mythology) as well as a little extra depth to my African characters and their belief system.  I perused Ford’s book this morning and pulled out quite a few useful gems for the Princess, and I’ll take a look at the unicorn book very soon.

Research is surprisingly fun!

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13 and counting

Sufficient sleep has eluded me lately, but it’s not been all bad; a tired, loopy mind is a fertile place for brainstorming to occur.  I sat down this morning and wrote outlines for each of the secondary characters’ arcs, all four of them.  I won’t include at least half of what I wrote down, because it’ll be happening off-screen, but I’m finding it to be an incredibly useful exercise.  Now, when my secondary characters are off-screen, they won’t be like puppets: useless unless I have my hand up their asses.  (Wait.  What?)

Inevitably, my favorite character in (insert show/book/movie/fandom here) is a secondary character, but I’ve yet to quite capture a good supporting cast.  I think this might be the secret: giving them lives outside of recorded events, especially when the tale is told in a limited p.o.v. (in this case, third-person limited, probably to two characters max, barring the epilogue).  Of course, it does help that I’ve known these characters for 13 years, but still, they were never this vibrant before.

Now, to figure out how to make the main character likable and not just a whiner.  CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

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The perfect tools

My personal writersense tends to air on the technological side of things rather than the traditional. I think much faster than I can write by hand (I never took many handwriting courses growing up), so my 120-wpm typing speed is really helpful in that department.  Yet there are times when hands-to-keyboard just doesn’t feel right. I can’t connect as well with the material if I don’t write it down by hand. (This holds true of taking notes and making lists as well.)

I went out yesterday and “splurged” on some perfect tools for my outlining process: a simple Mead college-ruled notebook (green cover, of course), a set of five different-colored highlighters, and two fantastic Pilot G-2 pens with gel roller ink. No strain on my hand for prolonged periods of writing and permission to be messy (i.e. no fancy journal cramping my style)? I think yes!

I’m well on my way to seven solid pages of handwritten notes in just one lunch break, one slow afternoon at the help desk, and one early early morning.  I’d say this is a satisfying start.

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We’ve all got a head full of ghosts and gods and it behooves us to listen to them, to let them out and play on the page, to use the madness granted to us rather than deny it and walk the safe and sane line.

500 Ways to Be a Better Writer, by Chuck Wendig
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Abandoning pants

…if you came here looking for my bare legs, sorry. I know, I know. I’m such a tease.

Pants!  Actually, let’s be more accurate, here: pantsing!  Not the really mean kind where you sneak up behind someone and remove their lower garb, but rather the kind where a writer sits down and goes “screw it, I’ve got a great idea and I’m writing it, and I’m writing it NOW.” Proceeding from that initial burst of idea, without semblance of order or planning, is pantsing.  Seat-of-your-pantsing is the origin of the word. It used to be my modus operandi, but it’s gotten me into far more trouble than it’s worth.  (See: zero polished novels.)

Not only that, but I need to try some different methods.  I’ve been stuck in my general writing routine for almost twenty years now, and as much as I’d love to stick to my guns and “be true to me,” that’s just bullshit.  I want to open myself up to new ways of doing things so I can find precisely what works for my creative process.  And I’ve tried outlining before – it’s not horrid, it’s just a bit inconvenient.

To facilitate my learning, I’m reading what’s proving to be a pretty cool book so far: Outlining Your Novel by K.M. Weiland.  It’s short but packed with helpful information, including ideas on how and when to outline.  Instead of reading this all at once and being overwhelmed by all the things I forgot to do in the process, I’m going to follow along and actually complete the steps as I go, so that hopefully – fingers crossed, good thoughts out into the universe – by the time I’m done I’ll have AGGO outlined and ready to write.

That’s the plan, anyway.

(P.S. Excitement – searching for “A God Grown Old” pulls up my blog as result #6…already! Above that are references to the book from which I pulled the phrase, so… I’d say I’m good on that one.)

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quick reminder to my writer friends

just went and checked the Tumblr Terms of Service…

anything you post on here, Tumblr owns the rights to. original stuff, then, no longer belong to you once you’ve posted it on the site.

thought you should be reminded in case you’re posting anything you plan to make money with!