Writer's Block

It's the age-old challenge and the age-old question.  Writer's block.  How to solve it?  Everyone faces it, some more often than others, and, as an author, I get asked the question:

What's your solution?

My solution to writer's block is to write.

Yes, this sounds like the sort of answer that doesn't really help, but the truth is the only way through anything is, well, through it.  Like the old Nike commercials:  Just do it.  When it comes to writing, if I can't seem to get going I just make myself write.  Something.  Anything.  I don't worry about how horrible or how dumb or how anything what I'm writing sounds.  We live in an age of electronics where we can type and correct and type and correct and fix and remove and type again.  There should be no pressure to get a first draft anywhere near perfect.  In fact, the final result may be completely changed from that initial effort.

Don't get hung up on getting it exactly right.  Not even close.  Especially not the first time.  The more you try to edit as you create, the more it bogs you down.  Stream of consciousness.  Get it out.  Just ... get it out.  Edit later.  Type "blah blah blah" if you can't think of the words; put in raw ideas for now, even if you can't think of the exact, most eloquent way to say it; just get it out of your head and come back and make it make sense later.

Write.  That's the solution.

Writing absolutely destroys writer's block.

:-)

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Being A Hero

Each of us can be a hero.

Heroes come in all shapes and sizes, all scales of action.  This is obvious, of course, but Hero is such a big word we often use it for only the absolute biggest things.  Superman saving a city is a hero.  We can all agree on that (excepting those tiny voices of dissent -- there's always someone who disagrees).  But what makes a hero?  Do you have to save a city?  How about setting aside a day to help a friend do something they can't do alone?  Does that make one a hero?

My contention is that it does.

I'm not out to skew the definition, but most of us know what constitutes heroics.  You know when you're in the presence of one.

The official definition of a hero is this:

"A person who is admired for their courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities."

That's a good definition.  Put that way it seems we could all be heroes, almost on a daily basis.  Being a hero has a broader meaning than saving a city or even a life.  Heroics great and small.

At the end of the day heroes make it better.

The Star Angel books are entertainment, but there's no reason we can't practice heroism in our everyday actions.   People are watching, and the things we do get noticed.  By setting a heroic example we spread that message, even if only a little, and the positive effect travels.  Be a hero in all things, great and small, and the effect will be wide.  Leave a trail of good deeds behind you.

It could be fun.  If more of us made a game of it it might spread.  In truth there's more positive in the world than negative.  More good.  Despite the merchants of chaos running the typical news hour, despite all the bad things made all the worse, all the more serious by the fact that they get the most alarming coverage, the evidence supports the fact that, mostly, we're good.  We haven't killed each other yet.  Wars, yes, terrible crimes against each other, of course, but over the millennia we've gotten better.  The world has advanced.  If the balance of our actions were destructive than we wouldn't be here today.  Man -- the vast majority of us -- is good, and no cynic, no matter how clever, can change that.

But there's room for improvement.  To turn the spiral in the other direction.  To push it up, rather than down.

In Star Angel the hero, Jessica, inspires others to action, and by the end of the story each of the major players has become a hero in their own right.  Star Angel is filled with those who rise above.

And so let me stop rambling.  That's the message.  Be a hero, in every way you can.

Can you imagine a planet full of us?  :-)



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Note, this is taken directly and shamelessly from the Team Star Angel web site.  I had a huge hand in the creation of the site, so I feel within my rights to borrow.  :-)

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The Age Question

I've been getting some questions about Jessica's age.  No one's complained, but I think there's been a little discomfort that she's younger than your typical "young" protagonist -- especially in view of the harrowing situations she has to face, many of which would have an adult curled up in a ball.  In answer, and to quote myself from an interview question: these are modern considerations.  People ruled empires at 15 and 16 in the past.  We aren't any different now than we were then; modern society has imposed these conventions, and they have nothing to do with real ability or actual readiness.  In fact, probably a lot of modern issues in the "difficult" teen years (that weren't an issue a thousand years ago) would go away if we let kids get the show on the road.

This isn't to say all 16-year-olds are ready to be leaders.  They aren't.  But then neither are all 30-year-olds.  :-)  And so if the talent is there, if the ability is clear, age is an arbitrary limitation.

When I began writing Star Angel I felt the hero needed to have the resilience of youth.  Jess goes through so much more than an average, fictional adult would be expected to endure, absorb, and keep going.  We find later why this is true for her.  At the outset her age may make us a bit skeptical, but by the final installment we're no longer giving it a second thought.  Only that she is who she is, that she's done what she's done, and that the reality of her accomplishments is all that matters.

I did the following on the Team Star Angel site, and I'm going to do it here.  Something that's getting a bit ahead of plans, but because this question is coming up it will probably be a good thing.  Following is an excerpt from the final book, Book Five: Prophecy.  This is Jessica, and her own thoughts as she muses over this very thing.

Here it is.

FROM BOOK FIVE:

Jess thought maybe what she’d done so far, all she’d accomplished, took the sort of perspective only a teenager would have.  Not yet weighed down by the failures and impossibilities of life, able to have the insane optimism needed to make the attempt.  To believe it could be done.  To absorb the kind of trauma such epic events entailed and move on.  Even that shocking trip to Anitra -- she found herself thinking all the way back, to where this began -- events that would’ve left an older mind scarred ... even after that she managed to fight her way through and survive.  Then slip back into normal life.  Though she seemed too young to be the hero of this crazy story maybe youth was exactly what was needed to make it work.  Maybe that sort of durable optimism was the only thing keeping the whole charade in motion.

Things failed.  But they never failed unless you tried.  Likewise, things succeeded.  And, likewise, things never succeeded unless you tried.  And so the only way was to try.  To make the attempt.  And she had.  Often terrified, often wanting to do nothing more than curl into a ball and wish it all away she’d persevered.  And, so far, the greater part of her attempts had been successful.  Success outweighed the failures and here she was, having achieved what she set out to do and, voila, the teen girl had done the impossible.

Writing And Music

I've been asked about music, and whether I listen when writing.  In general I do.  Especially during the initial phase, when creating the first draft.  That's the "writing into blank pages" part, getting it out for the first time, and in my experience the right music helps.

During the editing phase, after the initial writing is done, I prefer quiet.  It's easier to catch everything without distractions.  However, living in a small house, with lots usually going on, the isolation of music -- and a good set of headphones -- can become a necessity to get anything done.

So I've listened to a lot.  Across the writing and editing of all five books, I'd have to say I've probably listened to thousands and thousands of hours.  Maybe more.

Funny thing is, most of that was incredibly repetitive.  Certain songs worked for certain parts of the process and so I listened to those ... over, and over, and over again.

Here's a sample of some of my best options for the creative (first draft) phase:

Anjuna Beats - most

Armin van Buuren - much

Tiesto - many

George Accosta - some

Thrillseekers: Nightmusic - lots

And others of similar type; vocal trance, trance and house.  Less or no words, transcendent music.

Some video game soundtracks, such as Deus Ex: Human Revolution and others.  For certain scenes, some mixes like those by DJ Baby Anne, other breakbeats and dance stuff, old New/Dark Wave and Industrial, like Depeche Mode, The Cruxshadows, Assemblage 23, Front 242 and others.  Even a few pop songs; whatever might've been popular at the time I was writing.  In fact for one scene I remember listening to Selena Gomez on repeat for almost an hour.  I'm just being honest.

Please don't hate.  :-)

Writing some of the more intense action scenes I amped the aggression and/or pace.  Metal and similar styles, fast hits and hard beats, epic choruses if possible.  Specific tracks that worked:

Korn ft. Skrillex - Get Up

Static-X - Push It

Hadouken - Turn The Lights Out

Ministry - NWO

Volbeat - Warrior's Call

Stemm - Face The Pain

Eric B & Rakim - Follow The Leader

Five Finger Death Punch - Lift Me Up

Slipknot - Duality

Die Antword - Fatty Boom Boom

Led Zeppelin - Immigrant Song (Trent Reznor)

The Prodigy - Warrior's Dance

And others.

And, of course, throughout the books a few specific songs are named.  Generally I listened to those when writing those parts, just to get the feel of what was being referenced.

Music.  Not every writer uses it, but I believe many do.  I definitely find a use for it at certain stages.

Plus music is just awesome.

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Stand Alone, Walk On Water

A catchy post title, which I have to credit to my brother.  The story behind it is long, and involved, but the "stand alone" part applies to this post.  :-)

For this reason: Some stories that are part of a series can also stand alone. Book One of the Star Angel pentalogy fits this mold. Yes, it's the opening chapter of the five book series, and part of the whole, but it ends in such a way that it can stand on its own. It was written with that in mind. Kind of like the original Star Wars (1977). You could watch that one and walk away. Or, if you wanted more, you could go on to the next (The Empire Strikes Back) and jump on the train. Once you watch the second movie you're along for the ride.

So enjoy Star Angel Book One. Walk away if you're done. Or, if you want, go on to Book Two, and hang on as we spool out the rest.

Check the Star Angel site for dates.

[ TeamStarAngel.com ]

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Star Angel Release Schedule

We've laid out a schedule for Star Angel [ The Books ], and are on track to keep it.  The books are written, which means no waiting on the creative side of things.  Polishing, editing and so forth has been mapped out and we should hit these targets.  Books One and Two are released, and Book Three is on track for December.

In short, if you're enjoying things so far don't stress that you'll have to wait longer than expected.  These dates should be realistic.  :-)

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Two Types Of Reader

It occurred to me that, if you distill it down to the very basics, there are essentially two types of readers: Fast, or, you might say, skim readers (I fall into this category), and detail readers.  The best stories can be enjoyed by both.

At times the details of a story can get lost to a fast reader, and if those details later become important, especially if they become very important, key to the story, then those readers lose the story entirely.  They feel it wasn't good when, in fact, maybe it was.

Conversely, detail readers, those who get the minutia, no matter how small, no matter how obliquely mentioned, even things only vaguely hinted at, can get bogged down with over-explanations.  The same sort of "Hey!  Pay attention to me!" that might be needed for a fast reader becomes arduous and painful for a detail reader.

As a fast reader I've experienced the "too subtle" story points, missed them in my haste, then had to go back and find where some key bit of info was mentioned in passing which I missed the significance of.

And so what occurred to me is that the best stories (the best-written, at any rate), successfully play to both types of readers.  They manage not to bog down the detail readers, while at the same time enforcing the important points in a fast, stand-out sort of way that the fast readers get and that still manage to impel the story forward at an engaging clip.

I've spent time in editing trying to get this right with the "Star Angel" books.  My hope is that the stories flow well for both types of reader.

In the end a good read is one where you're immersed in the story and, honestly, forget you're even reading.  All writing is a transfer of ideas via another medium -- words on a page.  The best writing makes that "via" disappear.  In the best writing/reading exchange the reader gets the exact images, feelings, ideas and all else as they existed in the writer's head at the time of the writing.  That's a great read.

Here's to that experience!  :-)

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Uncharted Territory

With the upcoming release of Book Two I'm entering somewhat uncharted territory.  I've released a follow-on book before, but it was a prequel and, while the universe for those stories was the same, with shared history and worlds and all else, the characters were new.  With Return to Anitra, the second book in the Star Angel pentalogy, the characters are very much the same.  In fact, as "Book Two" this is most definitely a continuation of their story.  :-)

As such there's a bit of nerves.  Many people have said how much they loved the first book, and as a result the pressure's on.  Did I get it right?  I'm not sure exactly how I could "get it wrong", being as I'm unfolding the story as I see it, however there are a lot of people who will likely have differing ideas as to how it should, or should have, progressed.  These are my readers, the people who matter most, the people I'm out to entertain, and so, while I myself most definitely love the story as it plays out in the second book, there's no guarantee others will.

That being the case, here's raising a glass to the hope that, mostly, at least, I got it right.

Of course, there are three more books to go, so even if I got this one spot on, I'll have ample opportunity to mess it up.  :-)

Enjoy!

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What is "Team" Star Angel?

What is "Team" Star Angel?  Team Star Angel is more than the books or the story, and the idea for the Team grew out of a simple chain of events.

To start, here's a quote directly from the site (TeamStarAngel.com):
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"Star Angel is entertainment, pure and simple.  It's a five volume epic (we're calling it a pentalogy), filled with sci-fi action, adventure, ancient mysteries, romance -- even a little of the fantastic.  In that sense there is no "mission".  Star Angel is just books and was never intended to be anything more than something fun to read.

Within the books, however, there's a theme at work.  One we could adopt in our own lives.  And so the idea of Team Star Angel was born.  What's Team Star Angel?  Team Star Angel is about making it better.  It's an approach, maybe even an ideal, modeled on the action in the story.  The main character, Jessica Paquin, is an average girl in an average town who, when challenged, rises above her fears, not only to survive but to unite worlds.

Each of us have that spirit within us.

So, the mission of Team Star Angel is to encourage an environment of prosperity through intention, starting with our own lives and spreading a positive force into the world.  In short, the mission of the Team is to make it better."
__

So where did the idea come from?  Not, at first, from any particularly noble impulse.  I was simply looking for a web address, one that was easy to remember yet relevant to the site.  All good names were taken, of course, and as I was thinking of ideas and combinations I recalled the old Twilight camps, where there was a Team Jacob and a Team The Other Guy.  I'm drawing a blank at the moment, but you get the idea.  I thought, "Team Star Angel".  Great idea.  Better still, the web address was available.

Only ... what exactly did that mean?  In Twilight "Team" had relevance because you were either pro one guy or pro the other.  In Star Angel there really isn't any such division.

Then it struck me.  The true meaning of a team.  And that cascaded further to the common theme running through all the Star Angel books, that of doing the right thing no matter how hard, of not giving up and, ultimately, fighting to make the world a better place.  Thus the idea of an unofficial "team", anyone who upheld those values and worked to push positive effects into their environment and into the world, took hold.  And Team Star Angel was born.

As it says on the site, there is no official membership.  There are no dues.  Being a part of the Team is a decision someone makes for themselves.  Others may know it or not.  Actions will speak to the support of the mission.  Actions will make it better.

So the Team Star Angel site is kind of a twofold affair.  It definitely has lots to do with the books, lots of extra info on the story, including links for this blog and a Tumblr blog with cool art, an upcoming video channel and even, one day, gear you can buy, plus it stands as the embodiment of an ideal.  A mission, really, to take action and make the world a better place.  Participation in that mission is entirely up to you.


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The Inception of "Star Angel"

Now that I've described where the idea for a book series like "Star Angel" came from (previous blog), where did I get the idea for the story itself?

Interestingly, from a dream.

Once I decided the criteria for the story I would write, I began the work of fitting the pieces of that puzzle into a coherent structure.  I knew the story would feature a young heroine; I knew it would be sci-fi; I knew it would be an all-ages read, with a an emphasis toward Young Adult readers; I knew I wanted lots of action but with a strong romantic thread; it needed to be epic, with a big back story that set the stage for the unspooling of grand events; the beginnings needed to be humble, preferably set right here on Earth in order to anchor everything that would unfold to some common reality ...

Hm.  What to write?

While mulling this over I had a dream.  Nothing exactly like the eventual story, and certainly not very coherent (what dream ever is?), but the elements were there and they led to what eventually became "Star Angel".  In fact, the dream sequence in "Book One: Awakening" is taken almost exactly from one part of the dream.  Which then ties in to dreams the main character, Jessica, has off and on in subsequent books.  Which, of course, ties together the overall arc of the story and her journey toward self discovery.

In the dream, as in the story, there was a girl, lost in a strange land with an overpowered hero who had no recollection of who he was or where he came from, and all of this sort of gelled in the days after I awoke to form the basis of the "Star Angel" saga.

If you're here or if you've read this far, you may also have browsed the Team Star Angel site (TeamStarAngel.com).  If so then you've seen that, while the site has everything to do with the books, it also has a mission of its own.

In my next post I'll go over the origin of Team Star Angel.

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Background

We'll start this blog with some background.  For years I've been working on a number of books, mostly parts of two series; the Saga of Ages and Star Angel.  Early on in the Saga of Ages series the first book was published, but as I went back to writing and mostly ignored (or half-assed) my duties as an author to actually promote the book ... it never really got traction.  Unrelated but significant, the publisher later went bankrupt and at that point I was officially out of the selling game.  I became fully devoted to one thing:

Writing.

Of course at some stage that strategy gets you nowhere.  If no one is reading your stuff you tend to go a little crazy with an imbalance of creative energy.  Somehow it needs to be fed.

Around that same time various self-publishing options became much more attractive, and so I took the two Saga of Ages books (by then I'd finished the second) and self-published.  This time I devoted more time and effort to the endeavor, made a decent website, went on book-signing tours, attended conventions and so on.  It was actually going rather well.  The third book was underway, it looked like I might actually be able to make something of this and ... I got off on another tangent:

Screenwriting.

That consumed many years, led down many paths, saw some amazing opportunities materialize and dematerialize, and in fact still holds possibility but is no longer my prime focus.  Another opportunity has come up with novel writing and, once again, I'm going to give it my all.

During the ups and downs of the screenwriting journey I continued working on the novels of my other series, Star Angel.  Somewhere along the way a friend and I had a discussion about why certain things seem to sell better than others, and a bit of a philosophical look at the subject of "selling" in general.  Where did selling violate artistic integrity?  After all, shouldn't you create the "art" as you see fit, regardless of whether it will sell or not?  Then hope it's well received?

As a writer I, of course, leaned in this direction.  I'd always written what I loved.  That seemed the best course, but at the same time gave no thought to whether anyone else would like it too; a key thing to consider if you're going to make any money.  Making money, however -- for the whole purpose of making money -- equated in my mind with "selling out".  I wasn't prepared to think that way.

Then I read something.  A little anecdote by Robert Kiyosaki, the guy who writes the Rich Dad Poor Dad series.  I don't recall it well enough to quote, but here's the gist:

He was being interviewed by a college student, a writer.  She was incredibly talented, but was having trouble getting her stuff published.  Robert suggested to her that she tailor her writing for the market.  Basically, write what people wanted to read.  Of course she was against the suggestion.  Doing something like that would violate her artistic integrity.  Robert told her that was her choice, and she was a fantastic writer who certainly deserved to be heard, but he pointed out this:  He showed her the cover of one of his books and said, Look.  This doesn't say "bestwriting author".  It says "bestselling".

That was kind of an eye-opener for me.  I realized you could still go for quality, artistic integrity, while turning an eye toward the market and what would actually work.

To that end I began looking.  What I discovered (at the time) was that:

- There was a definite surge in Young Adult books
- There seemed to be more girl readers than boys
- There was a huge trend -- almost a movement -- toward young female heroines

Since that time these trends have continued, almost to the point that the young female heroine is no longer unique in the least.  There are tons of books and series following this paradigm.  However, though we're reaching the point of saturation they haven't yet fallen out of favor.  I think there's still a lot more to be done with girls in leading roles.

Which is good, because I set out to write Star Angel based on those things I discovered years ago and, well ... it's a little late to go back and change five long novels.  : )

And so, armed with the above discoveries, I set out to craft a story that would both fulfill my interests as a writer of action/adventure, sci-fi and fantasy, and yet hit the strongest notes I was seeing in the market.

In essence, I fully preserved my artistic integrity, all while selling out.

Unexpectedly, the result is one of my proudest creations.  Writing Star Angel I felt the action and the epic sci-fi badassery I love and, more than that, I came to root for the very characters I was putting in peril, and now, after five books and nearly a million words, I feel like they're family.

I'm so happy most of them made it!  : )




In my next post I'll go over where I got the idea.

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