Where I Start

One of the most common questions asked of writers (especially popular or prolific writers) is "Where do you get your ideas?" The answer, most of the time, is "Everywhere." Writers are inspired all the time by what they see, hear, and experience. Sometimes all it takes is a certain image to get them fired up and typing away. Writers do need to start somewhere, though; but where?

I think the genesis for most ideas for stories can be divided into four categories: character, scene/situation, theme/topic, and setting. Character is starting with either a specific person, say an actual person because you'll write a historical novel; or a type of person, like a cop or a superhero. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is an example. You could start with a specific scene or  situation. Most of Stephen King's books fall into this section. Salem's Lot is "What if vampires took over a small New England town." Themes are another place to start. Perhaps a book about lost love, feelings of loneliness, or a fictionalised account of cyber bullying. Setting is a particular place, perhaps you want to write a book that takes place in a haunted mansion or on a cruise ship. The book series Star Trek: Titan is an example.

I start with character. I often have a very basic idea for a character that I want to write about and I'll build that character. My story evolves from who that character is and how they came to be that way. My current work-in-progress is The Super School Uniform. When I started, I only had a character in mind: a Japanese schoolgirl with superhuman strength. That's all. Everything else evolved from trying to figure my character out. How old was she; was she a high school student, middle schooler, college age? If she has powers, how did she get them? Was she born with them? Given by aliens? Are they mystical in nature? Is she afraid of her powers or happy and a show-off? By answering questions about my character I was building my story and plot, keeping what worked and discarding ideas that didn't fit.

I often have a specific scene with that character, an image to work from. Sometimes it makes its way into the story, sometimes not. Sometimes an image itself, either of a person or an object, will make me want to write about it. Of course, these are often already licensed or copyrighted, but they get me thinking.

There's no wrong place to start a story. If you are more of an emotional writer, character or theme might work best. Maybe you want to use your favorite vacation spot as a jumping off point for your story. It doesn't matter. Try different approaches. Some are easier than others but they all have one thing in common: they'll get you thinking about a story. And thinking about a story will get you writing it.

The Next Big Thing Blog Hop

Martin Reaves asked me on the Facebook group Master Koda to be on a blog hop. It's something I've never done before. Each author in the blog hop tags five authors (if they can find them) on their blog and gives them an easy interview to fill out about their current work-in-progress novel. Then they tag other authors and it keeps going until they run out of authors. The blog hop sounded fun and it's a good way to meet other authors. Here are two others participating, Steven Montano and Bruce Blake (who tagged Martin Reaves).

HERE ARE THE QUESTIONS
Ten Interview Questions for The Next Big Thing:
What is the working title of your book?
The Super School Uniform.


Where did the idea come from for the book?
Two movies: The Masked Girl (check out the YouTube trailer) and Iron Man. The first is a Japanese short film in which a high school girl is given superpowers and must find several kidnapped girls. I always liked the idea of a Japanese girl with superpowers. Then came Iron Man, and Tony has no superpowers without his suit. (Although, when asked by Captain America what Stark was without the suit, Tony replied "Millionaire genius playboy philanthropist.") Knowing that school uniforms are an important aspect of school life, I thought it would be interesting if her school uniform would be the source of her powers. If she couldn't wear it, she was powerless.

What genre does your book fall under?
Action, science fiction, light novel.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
I actually thought about this at a few times. For the main villain I'd choose Kitamura Kazuki. My heroine… I'm not sure. I'm basing the look of my character, Takamachi Hina, on a model named Yuzuki Mana.


What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
A Japanese middle school student gains a suit that gives her superpowers and she must stop aliens from terraforming the Earth into a copy of their own homeworld.


Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Self-published, via Amazon and Smashwords.


How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
I'm still writing the first draft, but so far about 10 months.


What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
I don't know of any. But in other media, I'd say various anime and Kamen Rider.


Who or What inspired you to write this book?
I wanted to write something completely different after finishing my fantasy novel Adventure Hunters.


What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
As a former teacher currently in Japan, I've peppered my book with many references about daily school life. I hope it will give my readers an insight into a different culture.


There you have it I hope you enjoyed it, and don't forget to check out the other authors tagged for this blog hop.

What's Going On

Summer break has started here in Japan and this week my job ends. I'm a little sad to see it go and I'll miss my students a lot.

On the plus side, I'm moving into my wife's condo on Friday. After two years we will finally be able to live together. I'm looking forward to it. Moving out won't be as bad as when I moved out of Iwakuni, a new ALT is taking my place here in Hikari so I can leave almost everything to her. I only need to move my personal stuff.

Then on August 1 I'll go back to America for almost a month. I'm looking forward to seeing every one again.

On the writing front, it's looking like The Super School Uniform will be over 100,000 words, which I'm happy with. Better to write too much and take some out in editing than to try to add stuff. I will be adding stuff on the second draft, hopefully more characterization and details and such. I'll be glad to finish and move on.

I wanted to reciprocate a post by my friend Lynn Rainey. She wrote a post here and gave some good advice I'm trying to follow.

Back To The Ole Drawing Board (umm… outline, rather…)

I've had to pause on writing The Super School Uniform. I haven't stopped for good, just put the actual writing on hold for a bit. The last few weeks I've been finding myself getting stumped on things in the story: motivations, set-ups, and the like. Then I came across this link shared by Jeffery Deaver. I realized that I didn't have enough things thought out well enough. I had purposely left my outline a little vague, thinking that I could fill in as I wrote. But, I found myself having to pause during my actual writing, sometimes for days, until I got a particular point figured out. It felt frustrating, because it felt like I was wasting time by not writing. So I have decided to pause on the actual writing, go back to my outline, and make it more detailed and have more points well thought out and such. It feels bad I'm not actually writing, but I think having a more detailed outline will help me in the long run.

No update in a while...

It's been a while but I'm still here. I've been plodding my way through The Super School Uniform. I'm currently thinking how to best stage my next action scene. This sequence is somewhat important because it will reveal what the aliens, the Noigel, look like without their protective suits, along with what kind of weapons they use. I'm going for a Predator/Jem'Hadar kind of thing without hopefully making the Noigel TOO similar to them. If anyone has any cool alien designs/inspirations they'd like to see, please tell me. I didn't think of the Noigel designs when I wrote the outline, I figured I would just make it up when I got to that point in the novel. Well, it's here now, and stumping me more than I thought it would. I guess I'll plan ahead better when I write my third book.

Anyway, I've also been reading. I'm trying to alternate my book this year; swapping between Stephen King, Jeffery Deaver, Star Trek, and something I normally wouldn't read. I'm currently reading The Bourne Identity. So far it has just been okay. Maybe knowing what he is, because I've seen the movies, is hindering my appreciation, but the book seems to be just a series of "follow the money and meet people who give you clues." The story heavily involves banks and money and people who work for people who work for a person who works for a person that wants Jason Bourne dead. I'm about halfway through and I hope I will finish it. I tried reading The Three Musketeers and The Time Traveller's Wife but didn't finish them. Maybe one day.

I joined the site Goodreads so I can get recommendations on books that I normally might not read. My reading selection is somewhat limited and I'm trying to expand that (hence The Bourne Identity and The Maltese Falcon). I also search out new authors on Smashwords. I'm hoping to come across some good stuff this year.

As always, leave your comments below and thanks for reading.

Word Count

I'm up to about 45,000 words on The Super School Uniform. I'm hoping for around 100,000. Stephen King said in his book On Writing that 180,000 is a goodish length for a book if the tale is done well and stays fresh. I don't know if I'll ever get that many words but I'm hoping as my skills improve, my word count will go up. Adventure Hunters was around 63,000 words, I'm expecting to pass that with my next novel. At 44,000 words I'm only near the halfway point on The Super School Uniform.
As I wrote screenplays, page count was always a factor I thought about. An average screenplay was about 120 pages, or a two hour movie. One page of a screenplay equaled about one minute of film. I liked having a page goal, it was something to aim for. If my screenplay was woefully short, say 80 pages, I knew to go back and add stuff, usually character-building moments. Novels are more loose, they can be as short or as long as they need to. But I like having a minimum to shoot for, like a little map to follow. Obviously my 100,000 word goal is not ironclad but it's a nice signpost to write towards.

Update

Sorry for the lack of updates. I'm on chapter thirteen of The Super School Uniform. I'm about halfway through the first draft. It's going kind of slow and I've decided to rewrite a character. He hasn't had many scenes so far but will later. Beyond that, not much else is going on. As always, thanks for reading.

Coming Next...

Not long after I finished Adventure Hunters I began the first draft of my second novel. Unlike Adventure Hunters not be adapted from a screenplay and will be my first original novel. The working title is The Super School Uniform. It's a sci-fi/superheroine tale about a Japanese schoolgirl who must stop aliens from destroying the planet. I don't want to give away more than that. I'm a little less than halfway through the first draft. I'll keep you posted.

I may also post other works here on this blog. They would be short stories, snippets, vignettes, etc. I'm not quite sure if I will do it or not. As always please leave a comment below.