(vol 1) CHAPTER 44: “Flash Dogs”

EVERY SAGA HAS A BEGINNING

I’ve been writing for a long time.

I went through a script phase in the late 90’s, I started proper novel length works in 2007 with the discovery of NaNoWriMo, I even once attempted poetry. And dotted through it all are a lot of short stories.

Despite all that, I discovered this year that there was another form of writing I’d never heard of called Flash Fiction. So far I’m loving it.

Through a fellow writer named Craig Anderson, I found myself taking part in Flash! Friday’s weekly writing challenge; 24 hours to write a 150 word piece of fiction based on a photo and a prompt.

It’s been great flexing my creative muscle in this new method. Before discovering this style I just wrote stuff when ideas came to me and whenever I could find the time. But with Flash Friday I had deadlines and a fixed starting point. My brain was forced to create a story from something not of my choosing.

Several months in and another Flash Writer, Jacki Donnellan convinced me to try another contest and so I found my way over to Angry Hourglass. Similar rules but with 36 hours and 360 words.

As I became more involved in these contests I began to build friendships with various Flash Fiction writers. One day a couple of them started a movement; a group that all worked together to share and inform, to help make each other better writers.

THE GOLDEN TICKET

In the early days I wasn’t sure if I could consider myself a Flash Dog. Sure, I labelled my stories ‘#FlashDog’ and took part in the Flash Fiction contests, but was there an application form I needed to fill out or an initiation to go through?

These thoughts vanished towards the end of September. Rumblings began of an anthology brewing, something FlashDog HQ was thinking about putting together. There was a message that talked about Golden Tickets being e-mailed out to the lucky authors they wanted to be part of the first collection.

And that’s when I realised I was an official FlashDog. One evening I received a DM on Twitter asking me to be involved. I replied yes so quickly that a small sonic boom erupted just above my laptop keyboard.

THE HARD WORK

And so it began. The rules were drawn up and the Dogs were let loose.

The plan was that people could submit a long piece of their own choice between 1500-5000 words or three shorter pieces of up to 500 each. That would be part one of the project. Part two would follow the format of the many Flash Fiction contests the writers taking part loved so much. A picture was chosen and sent out to us with a 500 – 1500 word limit.

This is the part I’m looking forward to most; seeing what the other 33 authors have come up with using that image.

THE PITCH

Which brings us to the sell.

There’s no two ways about it; if you’re reading this blog post and you enjoy the weekly Flash stories I post every Friday and Sunday then you will love the Anthology. I may only have read 4 of the 110 stories that have been included (mine!) but I have read enough work by the 33 other authors to know that it’s going to be something special.

So, this Saturday, when you find yourself wondering what to do next with your day, while it’s wet and cold outside and there’s nothing on TV, why not boot up your Kindle or your Kindle app and download the Flash Dogs Anthology and get stuck in.

PREVIEW

Just a quick lowdown on the four stories I have going into the Anthology.

If You Go Down To The Woods Today

This is the shortest of my entries but also the one I’m proudest of. Back at the beginning of July I wrote it as my entry to that week’s Flash Fiction. Not only did it get me my highest finish (since matched but not yet beaten), it also gave the wonderful Rebekah Postupak the chance to talk through what she liked about the piece, an article that put a lump in my throat.

Glass Of Milk

This was the Krampus story I wrote for the Krampus competition back in August. I originally planned to post it on my blog as the festive season closed in but as soon as I got the call from FlashDog HQ I knew that I wanted it in.

My Nemesis

The first of my two original pieces written for the anthology, My Nemesis was an idea I thought up on the spot after dropping another story I wasn’t happy with. More than anything else, I love superhero stories, whether it’s in comic book or novel form (I’m a massive X-Men fan!) so I thought it best if that small genre was represented.

Tanks For The Help

The other original piece, this is the story based on the prompt. I’m extremely proud of the result and already have ideas to expand the story itself into something bigger. It’s a little weird and sci-fi but I think it’s something that conveys the kind of stories I like to tell.

3 SLEEPS TO GO

And that’s it. I know I’m looking forward to reading the other 106 stories contained within. I’m extremely proud to be part of the project and, no matter what else happens down the road, this will always be the first electronic release to contain my work.

A massive pat-on-the-back to the wonderful folk over at FlashDog HQ who have worked so hard that I think we should come up with a new word to sum up their efforts. From cover and poster designs to proof reading and formatting, they have been the glue that has kept the rest of the Dogs together.

And of course let’s not forget the rest of the Dogs themselves who have worked so hard with each other to bring you, the Flash Fiction reading public, the best bang for your buck (a buck that will be going to a fantastic charity – the IBBY).

May this be the first of many Anthology’s for this intrepid group of flash fiction adventurers and who knows, in 10 years’ time wouldn’t it be great to be releasing books under the FlashDog Publishing House.

Just a thought.

See you in seven.

(vol 1) CHAPTER 43: “Fallout”

THE DUST SETTLES

Another year down and another NaNoWriMo winners certificate under my belt.

  

DAY 27 – 5833 words

This is where it all happened. I had originally booked the 27^th off from work because it would be the last day of November where I could be at home without the wife and son around. I’d always planned for it to be my emergency day should I ever get behind.

Unfortunately, due to the events of last week where idiot drivers felt the urge to exist on the same section of road that I was using, I suddenly had a lot of things to do on this day of days and all I could think of was how much of a waste it was going to be.

And yet somehow I managed to hit the single highest word count of my month and cross the finish line.

So . . . I dropped off my son at the child minders, rushed home to write 500 words before heading to the doctors. Once back I managed another two hours before the repair company came to pick up my dented Kia. I snuck in the final episode of Franklin & Bash with lunch before the hire car company picked me up so that I could collect my hire car. Once back from there at around 3:00pm I then managed another couple of hours of writing before the wife returned and we both went to pick up our son. Home once again I then powered on through until dinner with about a 1000 words to go. Dinner done, back on the laptop and, at about 9pm (and 100 words over) I validated my 2014 NanoWriMo entry.

That’s my fifth now but each one feels amazing for its own reasons, whether it’s because it’s the first, the most word ever written or a project that became a challenge, each NaNo is in itself a story, a victory and a fantastic memory.

DAY 28 – 251 words

I think that, other than last year’s Nano, I tend to drop off once I cross the line and this year was no exception. All I wanted to do the day after winning was watch TV and play video games.

Of course there was a small part of me that didn’t want any ‘zero’ days on my spread sheet so I started the final chapter of volume one just as a jumping off point.

DAY 29 – 582 words

A busy day out shopping with the wife and son left me exhausted so today was another ‘limp’ day. Finished off the epilogue I started the day before and called it a night.

DAY 30 – 908 words

If you win NaNoWriNo before the last day of November then it’s a bit like an F1 driver winning the championship at Suzuka but still having four races to go; the prize is already yours so it’s just about adding to your stats.

With the bare bones of volume one finished I used an hour of the afternoon to take a swing at the opening of volume two. I updated my word count one last time and that was all he wrote.

11 MONTHS AND COUNTING

I can’t say that I’ve accomplished much in my life but these November writing projects are a big, big deal to me. Each year I get excited, scared, worried before finally find myself jumping up and down and feeling more than a little over the moon.

Yet unlike previous NaNoWriMo projects that get written, printed, put in a ring binder and left on a shelf to gather dust like Wheezy from Toy Story 2, I now have a self-appointed deadline to get something done more tangible from this.

I’m taking a week off from writing (except for this blog and perhaps getting stuck back into the various Flash Fiction contests I love). Then, it’s all about the edit. I’ll being going crazy with the read pen and making the changes that have been popping up in my head throughout the month of November. The plan is still to release bite sized chapters fortnightly on the blog and Wattpad beginning from February 2015. Hopefully people will read the tales and comment, helping me to shape the future of the world I’ve created (updated map coming soon).

REST OF THE TEAM

And let’s not forget my NaNo buddies that have helped me keep a good pace this year.

Commiserations to David Graffham who seemed to have dropped off the grid about half way through and never exceeded his 27285. At the rate he was going I have no doubt he would have hit 50,000 easy.

As for the rest of the group it’s a big congratulation to Adam Nelson who crossed the finish line a week ago and kept going to end on 63456.

Rasha Tayaket looked like it was all lost before committing to two massive writing sessions and hitting 50020. It’s all about not giving up.

And a big thanks to the two wonderful ladies who, despite not knowing how much they were helping, were the closest to me the whole month and kept my pace honest for thirty days; Caitlin McColl on 50161 and fellow FlashDog Casey Rose Frank on 50040.

Hopefully see you guys next year to go through it all over again.

Image courtesy of Tamara Rogers

DO NOT REPRODUCE WITHOUT PERMISSION

RUN WITH THE PACK

And finally a non-NaNo piece of news - Although I can’t remember exactly how it happened, several months ago I found myself joining a group of writers who call themselves the FlashDogs. To my astonishment these fine people have asked to include some of my work in a Flash Fiction anthology alongside several members of the various Flash contests I’ve been involved in recently. I’ve enjoyed the comradery that it brings by finally talking and being involved with people who are like me, people who love writing. 

I’ve mentioned before in this blog that I, like many writers, have spent a lot of time scribbling away in isolation, too scared to share. Since being taken in as a ‘stray’ my writing confidence has grown and the invitation to be included in the anthology will definitely be the crown jewel of my first year at trying to make it big.

The anthology itself goes on sale on 13^th December and will be available to purchase on Kindle. I will have a lot more news regarding the book, the authors and the content next week so stay tuned.

See you in seven.

(vol 1) CHAPTER 42: “NaNoWriMo – Day 26.”

CHOP AND CHANGE

Only a few days to go and, while the writing is getting done, it’s becoming a bit of a tangle that might need a little more than a ‘hammer & chisel’ in the edit phase.

DAY 20 – 1367 words

Despite another driver attempting to take me of the road again tonight I managed to get home alive. A good word count achieved even if it didn’t cross the required total of 1667. Still, I have two short pieces completed that I know I can expand more once I get to the rewrite. Our hero meets a several new companions but at this stage of writing all my introductions are quick. I prefer to get stuck in with dialogue and action about ten seconds after people turn up but I’ll expand things and slow little moments down as I rewrite next month.

DAY 21 – 2032 words

Once more I had one of my slow days. And as before a fight scene, similar to the previous one with wolfs and a character death, suddenly escalated. I found myself creating a new monster (or monsters), a sort of mini villain for this part of the story and also I ended up rewriting two characters history’s and motivation.

I don’t tend to spend much time creating my characters in the planning stages of writing. I prefer to have just a basic sketch and about two lines of background. That’s it. I focus more on the story I want to write and let the paper thin characters come to life around it. Sure I can get 20,000 words down the line and discover our hero’s best friend is now driven by the death of his pet dog. But I’d rather go back and change a character to how he or she wants to be than force a character with too much planned details into a situation that they don’t fit.

DAY 22 – 1941 words

I started to wonder if I’d have any time to write today. As morning turned to afternoon and afternoon turned to evening I still hadn’t found the time to sit down with laptop. But, after dinner, I forced myself to not accept a day without any words going down and a muddled through.

Although my characters knew of the catacombs under the temple, I had never intended for them to go down into them. Yet the previous days writing left them with no other option than to flee the fight and seek another way out. But instead of them finding a tunnel and a secret exit on the other side of the forest I thought it would be more interesting for them to find a secret room with a treasure inside. This was mainly because people walking through a tunnel for twenty pages is boring but also because I really wanted them to all head back and discover just who was trying to kill them and why.

DAY 23 – 2030 words

Today went like yesterday but most of that was because I was not going to miss the final race of the 2014 F1 season. Coverage started at midday and I carried on watching long after the chequered flag had dropped when dinner was served. Once my son was in bed and everything was washed up I got to writing and somehow managed to pass my target with lots of plot and dialogue.

I did have an issue with certain characters leaning stuff at a point that I felt was too late into the story, stuff I hadn’t dreamt up earlier. But, like Abraham from the Walking Dead would say, “we don’t go back”. NaNoWriMo is all about powering forward and worrying about the kinks later on. Therefore this will all be worked out and rewritten in the edit.

On the down side, despite taking a crack at this week’s Angry Hourglass prompt for Flash Frenzy, I just found my imagination couldn’t come up with anything and so passed on that writing challenge for the week.

DAY 24 – 1526 words

I started a scene today but lost my way. After 300 words I thought it best not to slow down at this stage and so I skipped on to where I knew I needed that scene to end and just carried on. What I wrote next leads into the final part of this volume for Fallen Swords. It’s all about the mystery surround whole towns becoming mass graves. As I’ve built towards this I’m getting more ideas to plant the seeds during editing. I want more about the politics between two of the states and the civil war that is brewing.

DAY 25 – 949 words

Today carried on from yesterday. We meet a crazy man who has been living around the dead and we finally see what is happening to the people who were unlucky enough to escape the event that is wiping out town after town after town. Is it a curse or a virus or something much, much worse?

I know, but you’ll have to wait until next year.

DAY 26 – 2002 words

The scene that keeps growing had more added today with our main characters taking a big risk in their methods to contact the rebel leaders.

WRITING IS FULL OF SURPRISES

It’s been a real head spinner this last week. The best way to describe it is that the story feels like a map on one of those old RTS games like Command & Conquer. The whole map is blacked out at the start except for a little area around your base. As you move around the world you uncover more and more map. But there always comes a point when the map is fully uncovered and you see about seven different spots that would have been better to start from if you’d known they were there.

When I started the story I had a loose idea with several beats planned out, stepping stones I had to pass over. But as you flesh out characters, introduce new locations and uncover subplots, you see more and more of the world you’re creating and your brain can’t stop giving you extra ideas with what to do with it all.

I know I’ll be using this first draft as a more detailed outline come December. I will start again with a cleaner idea of where I want it all to go. I will slow down, build things in more detail.

Hopefully you guys enjoy what comes out the other side.

ONE DOWN

So as we near the end, there’s time for one final shout out to my NaNo buddies; Caitlin McColl (42396), David Graffham (27285), Casey Rose Frank (40821) and Rasha Tayaket (33651). Hope to see you all on the other side of 50,000 come Sunday. Good luck.

Also a big, big shout out to Adam Nelson (54175). Congratulations on completing NaNoWriMo 2014

See you in seven.

(vol 1) CHAPTER 41: “NaNoWriMo – Day 19.”

THE PLOT THICKENS

Coming to the end of week three of this year’s NaNoWriMo and now I’m starting to find the story that wants to be told.

DAY 13 – 2417 words

Back on form today and another of those sessions that feels slow (600 words) then gets slower (800 words) before snowballing towards a rather pleasing 2417. And I didn’t even finish the chapter.

I’m really getting into this new part of the story now. In the opening of this volume, the main character had woken with no memory on a secluded beach. Heading out he finds his way to the nearby town of Fosters End where he has been given the job of cook. Not knowing his past he decides to take his job title as his name.

DAY 14 – 2012 words

Although I hit a nice target during the previous nights writing, the scene itself was far from over. Cook had settled into his new role cooking food for the visitors to the town but it’s not long before the town comes under threat and Cook discovers he has abilities that separate him from normal men.  

This and two Flash! Friday entries too. Another busy day in the world of writing.

DAY 15 – 619 words

The week’s first bad day comes, once more, with what I feel is a legitimate excuse. My son had recently turned two and we’d decided to throw him a party of two halves; friends and kids in the morning and then family in the afternoon. By the time everyone was gone, presents were unwrapped, the house tidied and dinner was finally eaten it was late. So all I managed was 619 words that tied up the large chapter I’d started on Thursday as well as barely starting with a few lines on the next.

DAY 16 – 2080 words

With Sunday being a more relaxing day, I managed a lot of writing. Once my Angry Hourglass entry was out of the way in the morning I spent the evening powering through the chapter that introduced the first of the power players in the new land; Lady Rashett. Her meeting with the second main character was an opportunity to pass into the lands capital too, a truly epic place that will make Minus Tirith look like a garden shed.

DAY 17 – 2123 words

From this point I have a couple of chapters taking place at a secluded temple while several characters come and go. I managed two short chapters that gave the main character of Cook time to develop and take in what he’s seen so far.

DAY 18 – 1839 words

Like several of my writing evenings, this chapter started slow and seemed to get slower. But when you start chopping up the word count goals it all suddenly flies by. I would just push my daily to 1000 but then my total word count wasn’t far from rounding up to whole number. So I’d do a little more. This is exactly what happened until I got to an epic fight scene; two heroes versus a park of oversized wolves. Blood was spilt during this chapter and I was exhausted when I finished the scene. Very happy with it though, very happy.

DAY 19 – 530 words

Which brings me to tonight. I was looking forward to keeping my momentum going but, unfortunately, my car was hit on the way home from work tonight. I’m fine and the car is (mostly) fine. However, with digging out paperwork, phoning the insurance company, having dinner, putting away a home shopping delivery and writing this post, time is slipping away. I managed to hand write the start of the current chapter while at work today so I’m just going to type that up and call it a night. Hopefully I can get my head back in the game tomorrow.

HISTORY WILL CHANGE

Despite the fact that NaNoWriMo is all about writing and writing and writing, with editing told to have the month off, my brain is already looking at what works and what doesn’t. I put a lot of stuff into the story that just randomly starts and I will need to go back and foreshadow characters, locations and plot points.

If you were to read through this draft now I think your brain would explode. The project probably resembles something that was started by a different author each day with almost no back story passed on to help.

Still, I’m enjoying this exploration phase, which is exactly what this is all about. Each chapter is like a fork in the road and it’s only when I get to the end of each one that I know if I want to carry on through with the plan or strike out into brand new territory. The path may continue off on a wild tangent for the rest of NaNoWriMo or, like what has already happened a lot, I might just take a detour, explore off to the left or right for a little bit before returning to the main path.

I guess we’ll see if this works come February next year when I start releasing it.

A LITTLE FLASH(ING)

Before I go I have a little bit of positive news. One of my two entries for last week’s Flash! Friday was award the prize of First Runner Up (AKA 2^nd place). This matches my highest position (see IF YOU GO DOWN TO THE WOODS TODAY – 11^th July 2014). Big thanks to judge Margaret Locke for the nice words she had to say about my entry INFINITE MONKEY THEOREM and also well done to the other winners and honourable mentions.

THEIR NECK AND NECK (AND NECK)

So NaNo enters its final third and I’m still sat with a positive word count (1060 words in credit).

Once more a big shout out to Adam Nelson (41905), Caitlin McColl (29486), David Graffham (27285) and Rasha Tayaket (2700) as well as new buddy Casey Rose Frank (30567). These guys keep going which makes it easier for me to keep going.

See you in seven.

(vol 1) CHAPTER 40: “NaNoWriMo – Day 12.”

THE PREQUEL ENDITH

Coming to the end of week two of this year’s NaNoWriMo and things are looking pretty good.

DAY 6 – 2067 words

My pace dropped later this week despite a good start on the Thursday. I finished a piece that really develops the main characters back story through a dream sequence showing both current issues mixed in with a tragic event from his past. It was nice exploring that character a little more, finding out his motivation for signing up to the army and what haunts him to avoid the magic that is crucial to his new role and the story in general. As with a lot of things I’ve written over the last seven days, it’ll be fun to go back through the edit and sprinkle more details in now that I’ve discovered them.

DAY 7 – 1085 words

A busy day equals low word count. Thankfully with a nice amount in the bank it doesn’t put me behind target. Everything I wrote today was supposed to be in the last chapter but with the new character being introduced and the character development I’d started yesterday kind of growing out of control, a new chapter that was not in the original plan appeared. It put me a day behind in the plan I’d made but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to dig a little deeper.

DAY 8 – 2053 words

Getting to know my characters caused a big chance in the writing today. It was a nice amount and more than I thought I’d get done. I sometimes have evenings where I’m struggling and pushing for my target when a fight scene or conversation suddenly gets rolling and I’ve gone further than I realised. Which is good, right?

DAY 9 – 882 words

I hit my first wall today. I’d noticed a small (giant) flaw with the magic system and had spent the weekend mulling it over and trying to fix it, knowing it was crucial to the finale of the first act. As I got closer to the ending I got slower. I was not happy with the day 9 word count.

DAY 10 – 1703 words

Another fairly good day with the 1667 target beaten again. I was building up to the fight scene and spent much of the session setting the pieces into position. I’d also solved the magic system problem I was having which led to the inclusion of something that would make the final battle even better; airships. Trust me it will all make sense though I will have a LOT of rewriting to do.

Something else that surprised me was a character that showed up early on in a subplot (that never went anywhere) now seems to have popped up in a pivotal villain role. I was surprised. Again, mucho rewrite.

DAY 11 – 2216 words

This was another one of those slogs that suddenly turned to ice. I was struggling with the battle scene and getting bogged down around 600 words. Then, for no reason, I placed an object in the scene and everything snowballed all the way to  2000+ words an hour later. The battle is loosely wrapped up but I’d say it’s about 80% set. 

DAY 12 – 1104 words

I’ve wrapped up the prequel story and have now moved onto the next act. I’m at the part that was the seed of the idea all those months ago; a man with no memory waking up on a beach and slowly discovering that his homeland is no more.

With a blog post to write (this very one you’re currently reading!) and time getting on, I’ve decided to stop at 1104. It’s in a good place and I’m looking forward to getting stuck in tomorrow if I get the chance. My priority tomorrow will be my son’s second birthday. God, how time flies.

SO IT SHALL BE WRITTEN

The plan from the get go was to write this in short(ish) chapters which I would then post up on the blog episodically starting next year. The idea originally was to have the audience learn about the main character as his memory returned.

However, there was a large back story that I wanted to write too. Something big and bad happens for our character for him to end up like Jason Bourne on the other side of the world. His home land is destroyed and I had an idea how. I thought that the history itself made a good story and wondered if, at some point further down the line, it would be a good idea to write and release it.

The only issue I had with that is the Star Wars prequels. You see, despite George Lucas saying he had the whole sage planned out, a lot of things didn’t add up when you compared the Prequel trilogy to the original. Kenobi doesn’t remember owning droids which is surprising how much time he spent with them in episodes 1, 2 and 3. I know he was old but, come on.

(Calm)

Anyway, this isn’t the place to bash the prequel trilogy. The point I was making is that writing the back story later on can give a writer a whole bunch of headaches as there are so many things that have to add up. If character A says he remembers character B from years ago and then you write a story set ‘years ago’, well, you’d better include that scene where A and B met. The reader is expecting it.

As the prequel I’d planned wasn’t a full scale novel I thought I could spare the first third of my NaNo writing it. That way, when I got into the main story I would be looking back at written history in the same way you’d look at notes. I figured it would be easier to just continue the story from the prequel instead of going back and filling in the blanks.

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE WORDS

I’m still on target (1109 words in credit) and am looking forward to delving into a new contenant and new characters.

Another shout out to Adam Nelson (32651), Caitlin McColl (20082), David Graffham (20293) and Rasha Tayaket (12066). I’m running this marathon with these guys beside me and seeing their word counts help to keep me going.

See you in seven.