The Future of the Two Year Novel Course

I began the first Two Year Novel Course at Forward Motion (www.fmwriters.com) in January, 2004.  The course covered writing a novel from the very first idea all the way through submission (or later, for Indie Authors -- all the way to publication).  The course is filled with information to help people at every step, and while some new writers found it useful, even those who had written a few novels found things to help them shift their thinking for newer projects.

I am ending the last set of the original classes in December, 2011.  I had also published two books (one for each year of the course) at Holly Lisle's store, but those are no longer available.

Since everything was closing down, I thought to give the course a break, edit the books in a year or so, and make them available again . . . later.

However, many people began asking me about the classes and the books.  I knew I didn't have time to edit the entire two (or even one) year course right now so I decided to put the material out in sets, which I could edit as groups, making the work a bit less daunting and giving people the ability to take the entire course or pick up the ones they want. 

There will be nine pieces in all:

Basics (this one) Weeks 1-5

Characters Weeks 6-13

World building Weeks 14-25

Outlines Weeks 26-33

Writing the First Draft/1 Weeks 34-45

Writing the First Draft/2 Weeks 46-65

Editing -Second Draft Weeks 66 -77

Editing - Final Draft Weeks 78 - 88

Submission and Publication Weeks 89 - 104

This is a total of 104 classes so if you do one a week (I always started the courses the first week of January), you will have completed everything in two years.  This is how I presented the 2YN course online for eight years.  I hope to have all the pieces edited and up for sale by the end of year one, though, so people will not have to stick to this timeline.

Each class includes the 'lecture' plus an assignment and examples.

Not everything will help you, and certainly not everything will help with every book you write.  However, the more an author is willing to look outside their usual patterns, the more likely they are to find the spark to write something new and different.

The first set will be out in the next few days so people can be ready to start the classes in January.  The sets will be $0.99 each and I will put them out as often as I can, but there is no schedule.  How often depends a great deal on the rest of my work.  While I don't intend to do extensive editing, the publishing world has changed drastically in the eight years since I began this course.  Also, the course was originally designed to run on Forward Motion, and I am removing those references so people will not be tied to any sort of on-line structure.

I will announce here and on Twitter (LazetteG) as the pieces are available.  Look for the 2YN tag.

New Release and More

What happens when a young boy is accidentally turned into a mouse?  He has the adventure of a lifetime of course!

I have just released Joey Mousekin's Tale on Smashwords for $1.99. This is a delightful, fun little tale and with a few small illustrations.  I hope people will give it a try.

Writing news:

I am very happy to have Joey Mousekin's Tale out.  This is a fun story and one others have urged me to publish for years.  So there it is!

I am working on finishing the last three projects of the year and they're going fine.  I am making plans to release the Two Year Novel Course on Smashwords in sets of four, one per month and at $0.99.  I have the first set almost done, and I'll do a post about the classes when I'm about ready to put that set up for sale.

One of the projects I'm finishing up is the outline to Water/Stone/Light.  I was playing around with it last night and one of the characters just leapt to life for me.  I don't like his current name (Kontror -- and I keep typing it as Kontrol and getting all kinds of Get Smart images . . . that won't work.), so I'll be digging out the Character Name Sourcebook (this must be a new version -- different cover, slightly different title) and seeing what I can come up with.

I am also starting to work up a list of things to release next year.  This is really difficult.   Just glancing over what I have available and I've come up with 17 things:

1.      Xenantion: Draw the Line (SF)

An ancient and abandoned alien space station -- dubbed Xeno Station, and then Xenation -- brings humans and other species to learn its secrets, and draws Rafael into a dangerous link with something still there.

2.      Paid in Gold and Blood (Fantasy)

A man trying to escape his past travels to a new country, only to discover his patron Goddess has sent him to solve a murder and end the wrath of a dangerous, vengeful ghost that has now focused on him.

3.      Mirrors (Urban Fantasy)

Skye is half human and half fae, and neither male nor female.  He works as a small time detective, and stays clear of the fae who don't trust him -- until his human cousin drags him into a mystery involving the fae and a woman abducted just before her wedding.

4.      The Servant Girl (Fantasy)

Eliza had spent almost her entire life in the shadow of the Princess, serving and protecting her with secret magic, but when an invasion separates them, she must learn to be more than just the servant girl.

5.      Devlin's Team 1: Welcome to Forest (SF)

Devlin is a top Inner Worlds Security agent, and she had not expected the kind of trouble she faced on the backward, technophobic world of Forest.

6.      Beware the Wrath of Bunny Hopper (Urban Fantasy)

Bunny Hopper thought her life was odd enough, but then she leapt into help her brother in a fight . . . and found he wasn't fighting humans.

7.      Autumn Storm (Urban Fantasy)

In the sequel to Summer Storm, it's only a few days before Halloween and Summerfield once again finds himself caught up in dangerous fae trouble, right along with the bad weather they draw.

8.      Vita's Vengeance (SF)

Alsandor Vita is the spoiled, dissolute younger brother of Madame President Elisa Vita Daren of Kai, but when war comes to his world, he's given a chance to become someone else and help in ways he never could before.

9.      Badlands (SF)

Carmen del Santo Palo has lead the Calles for too many years, helping them survive on the dangerous world of Caliente and now she faces the biggest danger of all in the form of a drought and a pending war over the water rights.

10.  Rat Pirates (SF)

When the Lindy (from Vita's Vengeance) ask the Inner Worlds Council for their own port, they meet Lt. Commander Palman, who has come to ask help for the devastated Caliente (Badlands) -- creating a bond that is more dangerous than people at first realize.

11.  Glory (Urban Fantasy)

In a post-apocalyptic future, Gloryanna Del Mar has a secret that draws her back to the small town where her husband died -- and where she, as the avatar of the Goddess Isis, must set to right a problem that has been growing for years.

12.  Journey to Winter (Fantasy)

Prince Nishanon is kidnapped from his desert home and taken to the far northern court, where he must survive in a place of miserable cold, dangerous magic, and people he cannot truly trust.

13.  In the Service of the Queen (Fantasy)

Two young men come to apply for the post of the Voice of the Queen, the court poet, and find themselves caught up in a murder mystery and an impending invasion that could destroy the empire.

14.  Written in the Sand (Fantasy)

Gareth was a guard doing his duty when an attack destroyed the rest of the guards and he must make his escape with the dangerous desert tribe while protecting their holy relic and learning about the dangerous return of the gods.

15.  News from the Front (SF)

The last place Alyn Naevon wanted to go as a reporter was to his home world, where he had been a different person and caught up in the same battles he tried to escape several years before.

16.  Living in Caine's Hold (SF)

Cristos Hellena is the son of one of the most powerful men on Caine's Hold, but when his father unexpectedly dies and his older brother takes over the cartel, Cristos takes a dangerous path to escape his own 'unexpected' death as well.

17.  Singer & St. Jude: The Lost Cause (SF)

In the near future, after catastrophic quakes have all but ruined the west coast, Elias Singer and Nicolas St. Jude are teamed together on the police force, taking on a case that no one else is going to touch -- or help them with.

I'm not even certain how to decide which to do first at this point.  Or if there isn't something else I should be looking at instead.  And I have not even glanced at anything but novels.  I should be doing more novellas and maybe a few short pieces, too.

This is the backside of being prolific.  It can sometimes paralyze you just with the amount of choices available when it comes to Indi publishing or even when it came to submissions.  Even though I love editing and rewrites, by the end it's still easy to say 'oh, I'll think about this later' and go on to something new.

I've done well for getting things out in 2011.   I intend to do better in 2012.

Plus, of course, there will be lots of new things to write.

I hope the cycle never ends, even when it does lead to occasional frustation.

In other news:

We have snow.  Lots of snow.  I don't know how many inches we'll end up with becasue it is still snowing and has been all day.  In fact, it's snowing harder now.  There isn't more than 2 inches on the ground, but I expect to see more add up.  Still, I don't think we'll hav ethe 7 to 10 inches they feared.  I do not have to shovel the snow this year.  It nearly killed me last year (had those kinds of reactions where they say stop if this happens), so I am quite happy just to sit in here and watch.

We did have a power outage and the heaters kicked off for about four hours.  House was VERY cold when I got up.  Cats were not thrilled.  I wasn't all that happy, either.  So I turned them back on and crawled back into bed for about three hours.  Temp was up 15 degrees by then, so that was good. We're still sitting at about 57f (13c) in the main room I keep heated, so that's not too bad.  The rest of the house I don't want to know about.

I suspect we will have snow on the ground from now until March, but I could be wrong.  We've had annoying late December warm ups that melt all the snow just before Christmas -- annoying because you've put up with it that long so you might as well have a white Christmas out of it.  Also, a lot of snow-related toys around here, so it helps to have the snow on the ground when the kids (young and old) get them.

And now it's time to get back to writing!

What do you mean November is over?

Well, that was a fast month!  Yes, I did well -- 215,750 words

Beware the Wrath of Bunny Hopper

Devlin 5: The Aldebaran Stopover

Devlin 6: Legend

Devlin's Report 2: Gemini and Psi

Devlin's Report 3: Caliente

Not bad at all, really.  Intense.  I had two cats ill during the month, which gave me problems for a while there.  However, I did have fun.

And I also crossed the million word mark, too.  Got newsletters done for DAZ and some much needed updates for ACOA.  And now I just need to get caught up on everything else and we'll be fine.

I hope everyone had fun!

Now back to the real world, if I can find it!

A Psuedo-Holiday Letter: Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour #5

Dear Everyone,

Today I should have been doing a self-interview for the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour, but I couldn't quite get my head around the questions -- which is odd for someone who generally interviews authors for Vision.  So I thought I would write a pseudo-holiday letter instead and let you know what's going on in my world.

Personal Life:

Russ is still working in New York and I am in Nebraska.  This is the start of the fifth year and we really hope things will change soon.  He only manages to get home for a few days three or four times a year, and none of us are happy about the situation.  On the other hand, he does have a job, which is why he went to New York.

The three boys -- Wind, Zaphod and Edmond (yes those are the cats) -- are doing well, though Edmond has been suffering from a horrible cold already this year.  I dread to think what it is going to be like when winter actually hits.

I do have a new member of the household, however.  Meet Buffy -- who has lately been answering to 'You, Demon Cat from Hell!'   She is the most active cat I have ever known.  All three of the boys play with her from time to time, but I think we're all hoping she grows out of it soon.  Don't let the picture fool you.  She was just shocked that I would do such a thing to her.  She hasn't sat still since.

In the last four years, I have become a virtual hermit.  I have a very boring life, in most respects. I order almost everything I need on-line and since my job (a weekly newsletter for DAZ3D.com) means more computer work, you can imagine the amount of time I spend in front of the computer, and that's not even counting the most important aspect of my world.

Writing Life

2011 marked a huge change for me as I finally moved into the new world of the Indie Author.  Trust me; this is not a leap to make without a lot of thought and study.  It may seem as though this would be an easy choice, to do away with the publishers and go straight to the reader with your work.  The problem is finding those readers.  Publishers could distribute to the stores (and let us all mourn the loss of Borders) where readers gather in groups.  If nothing else, this is an important aspect of traditional publishing.  Yes, the Internet is also filled with readers, but it is very difficult to draw their attention to your little corner.

However, over the last year or two, readers have begun to seriously seek out new talent.  The Kindle and Nook markets have made this a viable, exciting market.  A number of previously published authors have leapt into the Indie Author field with both reprints and new work.  Some of my personal friends (Holly Lisle, C.J. Cherry, Jane Fancher) were some of the people who finally convinced me to have behind the old world and leap into the new.

I had already been published in ebook format for many years.  Now, though, I have moved away from the small press companies and taken over the entire process myself.  I now own a small co-op publishing entity.  The group of us have banded together simply for marketing purposes.

While you can find my work at the Nook and the Kindle sites, the easiest way to find the majority of them is to go to Smashwords.

http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/zetteG

There you will find novels, short stories and more.  The prices range from $2.99 down to free.  Most are science fiction and fantasy.  A few of them have been previously published.

What do I hope to achieve in the Indie Publishing World?

I don't expect to be a huge seller.  I write the kinds of adventure stories that are not filled with sex.  My stories are about fighting against the odds and finding adventures, sometimes in odd places.  I have a few truly wonderful fans and I hope to reach more of the same people.  My sales doubled in the last quarter, so I hope that means a continuation of growth.  I would like to make enough to help support Forward Motion and Vision: A Resource for Writers, without having to ask for donations and then build up from there so that I had a solid writing income of my own.

But that's the business side.  What am I writing now?

I just finished the first draft of Beware the Wrath of Bunny Hopper, which is a fun little urban fantasy novel.  I'm now working on Devlin 5: The Aldebaran Stopover, which is part of a science fiction series.  I'm doing these for the 2011 round of NaNoWriMo.  This is my 11th year taking part, and though I had something of a slow start, I have really gotten into it and I'm enjoying the process again.  It probably seems odd for someone who writes as much as I do to take part in an event aimed at helping new writers get moving on their first novels.  I do write far more than the required 50,000 words.  (I am up to 116k at the moment and still a long ways to go.)  Why join in?

This is an intellectual marathon.  It's inviting people to use their brains for something creative for a whole 30 days in a row in November.  It, wisely, does not require that you write great fiction, but only that you give yourself a chance to let your imagination play and create what might be a viable first draft of a novel.

For me, it's an excuse to just leap into a story and forget everything else for a while.  For a few days (usually not the entire month!) I can tell myself that writing is the most important thing going on, and everything else can be put aside: work, Forward Motion, Vision, etc.  It's my chance to do what I love most with no demands and no excuses.

For many people, the actual act of writing is the most difficult part.  That's not true with me.  Even editing is not a problem because I love revisiting the story and making it better.  What is the problem on my end?  Finding time to really concentrate on the work for the last steps before publication. Oh and marketing.  Marketing is something I just can't seem to grasp.  So I have bought books to help me out in 2012.  Yay!

Photography

I started my Picture a day blog on January 1, 2006 and I have not missed a day since.  The pictures are taken on the day they are posted (though sometimes they may be posted a day late, but dated to the day they were taken).  This has been an interesting experiment!

http://zettepicaday.blogspot.com/

Finding a picture to take each day isn't difficult when you have cats.  However, I do try to get some other things. Birds at the feeder are always popular and so are the leaves in autumn.  I also have a spot on Flikr for various things:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zettepics/ 

Digital Art

Almost all of my work in digital art these days is going towards cover art for the books.  That's okay.  I just wish I had time to play with it more and to even learn some of the tricks to making models and textures.  That's something else I want to try my hand at next year.  If I get to half the stuff I want to do, it will still be too busy in 2012! 

And that's it, really.  Not a very exciting life.  Maybe I'll come up with some questions to ask myself later -- but for now, I need to get this posted and get back to writing.

Have fun!

If you want to get to read about nearly twenty other writers and find out what's on their nightstands, check out the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour. Be sure to read tomorrow's post by Sharon Kemmerer

Book 1 complete, 74,017 words

Before I write anything else, you should go check this out from Write Now! Coach blogs: 

http://www.writenowcoach.com/blog/?p=493

That's an interesting site, too.  Well worth looking around to see what's going on! 

The post was a good reminder that yes, this is supposed to be fun.  My little mini rants in the last post were just a bit of frustration at seeing the same things every single year.  Notice that I can't even get up enough energy for a few hundreds words about them this time. (grin) 

I completed Beware the Wrath of Bunny Hopper at 74,017 words last night.  After midnight I started the second book, Devlin 5: The Aldebaran Stopover.  I'm coming up on 2k for it.  I suspect it will go to about 60k.  I have another outline in hand for afterwards, though I may just leap in and write something without an outline. 

Or maybe I'll go rebel and finish up the one novel I haven't completed yet this year.  You know what?  It doesn't matter as long as I'm having fun. 

And there is the thing you need to keep in mind, too.  None of us needs more work, do we?  None of us needs more stress.  Don't let NaNo cause you problems.  Enjoy the rush. 

For me, I'm going to be writing as often as I can for the rest of the month.  I will not let much else interfere, except for the stuff I have to get done.  I'm remembering what it is like to write with absolute abandon and enjoy the story just for telling it. 

I'm having a great time.  I hope you are too.

And here is a bit out of Beware the Wrath of Bunny Hopper.  Remember, first draft.  I hope you enjoy it, though:

At the end of the rock-carved hall we reached an open archway to the right and a huge room filled with a lot of people.  I tried to look around, to see if I could find Brad, but they never slowed as they herded me across the room.  Tables set here and there and I could smell food.  I saw faces turn my way.  Talking stopped.  I guess they didn't get many visitors down here in the hobbit hole.

Then, finally, something else occurred to me.  I was the only female in the room.  No others.  I began to think there was more to not telling me about what was going on and I felt a wave or righteous indignation.  It was because I was a girl.  Cooties!  Oh no!

By the time we got to the end of the room, a tall, older man with a sour face had stood and come toward us.  I could see he was not happy to see me at all.  The others didn't actually salute him, but I could still tell he was the guy in charge.  He had the look of Mr. Patterson, the social sciences teacher, whom everyone agreed had been way too long at the job.  He did not put up with anything but what he said was right.

Yeah, I saw this in this guy's face.  I was about to get detention.

But then I heard people coming towards us and looked to the right and spotted dad and my brothers. 

"Bunny!" Dad said, and sounded both surprised and exasperated.

"So, this is the girl child," the older man said, looking from dad and my brothers to me.  "You thought you had found a way around the oath, did you?  Don't tell her anything, only bring her inside, against my wishes."

"We did no such thing," my father replied, and this time he did sound indignant.

"Do not make matters worse, Andrew Hopper."

"We did not bring her in Silvanus.  You know us better than that."

"I would have thought I did --"

"Hold on there," I said and dared to take a step forward.  "They didn't bring me in!"

Silvanus looked at me, his grey eyes narrowed.  "I did not give you permission to speak."

Oh right.  Well, I was about to go from detention to suspension, if not straight to being expelled.  "If you want to know how I got in, then maybe you ought to listen to me, don't you think?"

"And why should I believe what you say?"

"Oh, careful there, Silvanus.  Remember whose daughter she is," dad said, his voice gone oddly soft.

Silvanus frowned, but I could see he wasn't going to give up his anger.  "Someone brought you in.  There is on other way."

Dad put a hand on my shoulder.  I think he meant to quiet or calm me, but I was not going to let him, Brad or anyone else take the blame for what I had done.  I had never feared the truth.   "I hid in the back of Brad's truck after he took me home.  I sent him to take the trash out."

"Damn. Tricky," Brad said with a sigh.

"I watched him when we got here.  I stood in the same place and when the statue asked, I said I was of the blood.  It let me in."

Silence fell everywhere in the room.  Silvanus blinked.  I could sense the shock that spread everywhere with a little whisper from table to table.  I dared a glance at Brad who gave a little shrug, but I saw the way his hand was near the sword he wore as well.  So did my other brothers and my father.  The sight didn't reassure me.  I feared if things went out of hand, they would draw those weapons to protect me.  I saw a whole new world of folly in what I had done.  I never expected it to be like this.

Silvanus was staring at me when I looked back at him.  "You are lying," he finally said, but I could hear a hint of disbelief in his words. 

"She most certainly is not," dad replied.  His fingers on my shoulder tightened.  "You know the truth when you hear it, Silvanus.  And I have been telling you as much about her."

Silvanus stared at me.  His face did not change and I could tell that no matter what we said to him, his mind was made up.  When he gave a little nod, I knew it wasn't one of approval.

"The girl child must go from here," he said.  My father made an exasperated sigh.  "And she must forget."

He lifted his hand and waved his fingers before my face.  Pretty lights danced around my eyes.  I watched them for a moment, wondering how he did it.  Then I batted them away.  "Don't do that," I said.  It's really very annoying."

His mouth opened.  He said nothing.  No one said anything at all, until finally, my father let out a little laugh.  He startled Silvanus who looked back at him with a shake of his head.

"It won't work, Silvanus.  She is of the blood."

Now, go write and have fun!