Michael F. Stewart's Blog, page 2

So you’re done your book. You’ve edited it like mad. You’ve looked at sideways and upside down. You’re on draft ten and you’re sure there isn’t a single typo. Now’s the time to send it out to BETA readers, right?

WRONG

You have ugly baby syndrome.

You should have done that eight drafts ago.

It’s hard to tear the arms off of any baby. So you have to send the zygote out before you’re too attached. (Sorry about the analogy but it’s working for me!) I struggle with this. In part because I edit and rewrite as I write. I often will go back and edit the chapter I wrote the prior day before writing the next. If I’m really procrastinating I might rewrite the last few chapters. When I’m done the project I’ll rewrite it again (or am I editing and not rewriting?). My problem is that by the time I get to the second draft I’m already beginning to think it’s decent because it’s not a second draft. It’s a highly polished first draft. Polished writing is harder to rewrite. It may be an ugly baby but it’s still a baby.

If I then go on to prepare the manuscript for BETA readers by doing a clean up line edit followed by a proof, I’m getting way to ahead of myself. What I NEED is to understand where it SUCKS, so that I can cut it and rip off legs, arms, even the head if need be, but this becomes much more difficult if I’ve spent another month making a crappy draft publishable. Know what I mean? The writing might be great and clean, but its pacing is slow, the story confusing, characters cliche. It’s an ugly, ugly baby.

And this works both ways. If you ship me something to BETA to read, you had better be prepared for me to make structural critiques that require taking an backhoe to your plot. If you’re looking for someone to catch typos because you’re not prepared to change anything, that’s not a BETA reader.

So find BETA readers that don’t need the zygote to be perfect. And don’t wait until your ugly baby’s almost grown up before sending it out for comments.

Sometimes the dead don’t want to talk.
You need Terminals to make them.

Terminals solve crimes in this realm by investigating them in the next.

That’s the logline and I don’t think I’ve ever had a better one.

Many many hands touched The Terminals: Spark. It’s been optioned for television and has awesome producers and directors attached. We tried it as a graphic novel and at some point I’ll put out a version of the novel with some of the art. It’s been rewritten, shopped, and rewritten again. I’m very proud of the final product and I hope you’ll enjoy it. Thank you to all who have supported me along the way.

You’ll note that this is Episode 1, and the plan is to write novella sized episodes hereafter (book 1 is full length). I’m really excited to continue with this series, there are so many places to take it. To many many hells and back!

Today With Zombies goes live!

If you haven't already, please RSVP for the Goodreads event and get a deal on Script Kiddie.

Have you already read the first two books? Then get WITH ZOMBIES here: http://www.amazon.com/Zombies-Assured...

Soon to come to BnN too.

Much has been made of the Independent’s decision to no longer review books targeted to a specific gender. But the analysis has missed–at least for me–a critical piece. Where have the books for teens, particularly young teens, gone? Regardless of gender.

Every recent teen novel since Harry Potter has been a crossover book, meaning a book that has the potential to appeal to both teen and adult audiences. Are we losing something here? Are teens losing something?

I understand the draw as a publisher. If only 18% of young adult books are purchased for young adults then it’s not really your target market, it’s a secondary market, so why cater to them? But there’s good reason. They’re different. They’re at different stages and have different generational cultures. It is possible to write a book strictly for teens that won’t appeal to adults. But this is a huge risk for an author or a publisher. Why? Because the reviewers are adults! A book that could be excellent only for teens would likely be panned by adults before it could take off.

In my view, this is a real challenge. At present everyone’s writing adult books with teenage characters in them.

Humor, in particular, is something that is very different at different ages.

Why is this important? We need to engage readers at all stages of their life. It’s too easy for a thirteen year old to be turned off by middle grade books as too juvenile, and not see themselves in the stories meant for adults.

I think we might need a new category: Not for adults.

Assured Destruction has been named a finalist in Foreword Reviews Book of the Year Award!

This is awesome--a panel of over 100 librarians and booksellers will determine the winners of these prestigious awards.

And With Zombies has a spanking new cover!

If you missed it, I'm interviewed by the Ottawa Sun too.

It's the final push for the Kickstarter campaign. I so appreciate everyone's support. One thing's for sure, it's all gonna happen. :)

Is on KICKSTARTER!

Please come help fund the finale of the Assured Destruction series.

With Zombies is done, and now just needs the finishing touches to turn it from good to great. Cover, professional editing, and formatting.

In return, you'll receive the book before everyone else!

Thanks for your support. :)

Please share!

The more books I write the less total rewriting time I spend. But that doesn’t change the number of drafts I do. What I mean is that going from Draft 1 to Draft 2 is less painful. That’s where all the plot holes and underdeveloped scenes need to be fixed. I think it’s because the more books I write, the longer my initial outlines become. I leave less room for tangents that lead nowhere.

But of drafts, there are many.

There’s the first draft, and then the major structural rewrite that ensues. Draft 3 I print to edit and it’s a mash of line editing, punching up emotions, discovering some hidden one liners, and sometimes still noting a major hole that needs filling. Draft 4 is often my wife’s draft. She’s an awesome first reader for me and that leads to a solid draft 5.

Draft 5 is about language and honing. Show don’t tell. Adverbs add nothing. Eliminating words like just and suddenly. Swapping the verb to be for action verbs. Yadda, yadda, etc.

Draft 6 is a line edit.

Draft 7 is a copy edit.

Draft 8 is a proof read.

Sometimes I use beta readers but often not. If there are technical elements, I definitely find someone to ensure I nail them.

Guess what, now it’s ready for real editors. Be it Inkslinger, the publisher, my agent, whomever, this is when I get back the editorial letter and dig in for another long haul. To be fair, the changes always seem dramatic at first, but I find this edit seldom takes more than a week or two and then I need to start back at Draft 7 and do the copy edit and proofing before I turn it around. That puts us at draft 10 or 11. It’ll then go through a pro line edit, copy edit, and proof read. To be honest, there’s not much work involved for me at this point. I tend to agree with most changes, the more heads the better.

So yeah, them’s the drafts. Ouch, right?

As I head out on a very wintry drive I want to wish everyone on Goodreads a very merry holidays.

It’s been a wonderful year for me. I’ve written two fiction novels, two non fiction, two early readers, and two non fiction early readers. Eight books!

Okay, so maybe I shouldn’t count the readers, but I learned so much researching the non fiction books I wrote on Corruption and Children’s Rights.

Very proud of them, and proud that in 2014 most of these books will see their way into the hands of many thousands of teens via major publishers.

I have a big family of four daughters and am now writing in their age group. If you wonder where my teen voice comes from, look no further. The Assured Destruction Series is undoubtedly my greatest achievement this year and I hope to discover new readers in 2014, especially when I launch the campaign for book 3 (tentatively titled Assured Destruction: WITH ADDED ZOMBIES). Getting real fan mail has to be THE BEST feeling.

In the background, I have two other series on the go. One concept is so awesome it’s already optioned for television and film. Episode 1 is locked and loaded. The other I’m editing with my amazing agent Gina. It has a lot of potential to work with other authors in different countries (I like to think big!).

Three more projects are burbling (yes, I have no other word for it). One is a project with the award winning director Jim Donovan. Dystopian YA. The other two ideas I’ve told only to my wife. One is really fresh, semi-dystopian SciFi YA. A premise that is believable, yet at the same time magical. It’s missing the right combination of story and characters though and I’m waiting for it to gel. The other idea is similar in voice to Assured Destruction. Techie, and includes all my research into body modification. I’m excited about them all. And I can’t wait to tell you more in 2014.

In 2013, I feel like I became a true writer. And perhaps it’s because I feel surrounded by them now, online, offline. Just like Janus in Assured Destruction, I do believe our online contacts are so important. Thanks for being a part of mine in 2013, and I wish you the happiest, most amazing 2014 EVER.

My plans for Assured Destruction are coming to a peak.

Book 3 is pretty wild, but I wanted to write something that would also allow me to explore yet more marketing and storytelling opportunities through social media.

*small spoiler* In book 3, Assured Destruction is firebombed, cutting whatever threads the Rose family was clinging to. It's a really cool opportunity for friends to come together to help rebuild what was lost. So begins a crowdfunding campaign in the book.

Well, I thought it would be cool to replicate that same campaign in the real world. So this coming February you'll see a new campaign begin on Kickstarter. One that will blur the lines between fact and fiction, complete with incharacter perks like personalized heckles from Heckleena and answers to your most desperate questions from Gumps. Need fashion advice? It's yours from Tule. And many more.

Oh, and it'll also be a chance to get the book before anyone else!

I'm really excited to see what readers think of the Assured Destruction Series' conclusion. It's going to blow your mind. (blew mine!)

Remembrance Day always reminds me of how much history we lose with every passing generation. And it's a huge loss. History isn't simply a series of dates and facts, its 'story' --look 'story' baked right into the word.

Imagine a family for which every passing generation scrap books all the life events of its members, even the mundane. It's to the point where the children have a real sense what it was like to be a knight, or nobility, or have the plague, or be gunned down in battle. By 18, you will have loved and lost and failed and succeeded. How would we see life differently from the looking glass of our ancestors?

I can try to reimagine what it would be like to huddle in the cramped quarters of my grandfather's tank. To feel the convulsions of steel as each shell fired. To check off the men I'd killed. Men like me. But I'd miss the finer nuances. The smell. Maybe the taste of it. Surely the horror of it.

It's good to remember, right? How else will we ever stop repeating ourselves?