#PLUS i’m working on her ref sheet for her in my novel

[boxdstars]

amara enjoyers bouta be fed real soon trust ‼️💯

[bugbearjack]

Trying not to drown for The Sunken

Trying too hard to be clever with my title?  Definitely. I read an article today about the 10 dos and don'ts for writing a novel (https://www.nownovel.com/blog/how-to-write-a-first-novel-guide/).   2 things stood out to me.  Number one, write everyday without fail.  This one rubbed me the wrong way because I am not disciplined at all, in fact, I am currently failing fantastically at my most recent diet attempt (stand by Keto, the white chocolate reeses somehow wandered onto my desk).  But it makes sense to me that setting up a habit is important.  So I will do my best.

 The second item that struck me was to "List rationalizations for not writing and put them to one side."  Now I get the psychology behind it.  Visualize your detractors and literally, push them aside.  Plus as I am sure you or anyone who has read ANYTHING about setting goals has heard, writing things down is 50% -128% (your results may vary) likely to help you reach that goal!  However the part of this second point that really stood out for me was to keep a journal of the process.  Hence this piece of work.

 I understand completely that I am unlikely to see this journal or the book itself through to the end (see notification above re: discipline), but every journey begins with a first step, etc etc.

 So I need accountability. I went to two sources between writing this paragraph and the previous one.  First my wife.  I have given her the task of nagging me to write everyday, which she gleefully accepted. Second I enlisted my friend, coworker and passable smite player who, for the purposes of anonymity I will name… Meffrey. He is also an aspiring writer, so I thought we could bounce ideas off each other and keep each other motivated. Then the first thing this asshole sends me is an excel sheet with characters, items and locations from his story all organized and meticulously laid out.  Ok, clearly I am out of my depth.  He calls it a "work in progress".  Show off.  

 But it served its purpose. It motivates me.  

 So where to start.  I feel like this must be the most asked question. How do I even begin to start? Where in the story do I start?  In the beginning?  Halfway through then backtrack via flashbacks?  Do I change things from my original plot?  Will readers get turned off when a main character near and dear to my heart (SPOILERS) gets killed off in the first couple of chapters?

 Yes this is going to be one of those blogs with GIFs.  GIFs are awesome.

No, this is my story and I need to write it my way or I won't follow through.  If I'm not excited about it, not only will I not finish it, but surely the reader will not be excited about it either.

So how did this start? Well thanks for asking.  I was at my father's birthday party recently.  I was talking to him and my brother about the Dungeons and Dragons campaign I was currently running.  After listening to me go on for several minutes about Druids and blood cultists and dragons and a dead king with no heir and dark alley double crosses and nearly killing off one of my players (Sorry Meffrey), he asks me "Why aren't you writing this as a book?"  I said what I assume many people say to this. A) I don’t have time and B) I suck at writing, no one will want to read it.  There are so many other BETTER writers out there.

 That’s when my father said something really profound.  "You are right, there are many many writers out there doing this much better than you." Not the best start to a pep talk.  "But you wont get better unless you do it.  I'm not a great writer but I have a book that’s still selling copies on Amazon." (it's true, it even hit the top Sci Fi list in Australia. Shameless plug incoming: https://www.amazon.com/Sleeper-Defending-J-Alexander-Black-ebook/dp/B01MSVT358/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=j+alexander+black&qid=1551104170&s=gateway&sr=8-3).

 He then offered to write it for me.  Problem solved!  However after several emails back and forth and a rough draft I received, it became clear to me that our ideas of how the story should go were very different.  It is no reflection on my story or his writing ability.  His writing style just does not jive with my story.  Instead of compromising what I wanted my story to be, I decided the only one who could write it the way I wanted it was me.  So here we are.

Anyways, back to my earlier thought.  How to start the damn thing?  Well I am going to start "in the shit" as I like to say.  Am I allowed to say Shit on Tumblr?   I am often inspired by an old video game called Lufia.  It was made on the Super Nintendo in the 90's. Heard of it?  Congrats!  You too are a dinosaur!  But the cool thing about it is it started you out right in a fight, a boss battle no less! It was a great way to hook me right from the get go.  So that’s were I shall start.  

 The heroes are already on a mission, killing a thing to get the mcguffin and save the blah blah. Pretty standard stuff.

So that’s the plan. Start writing.  Hook em in with action.  Work in some small bits about the characters through actions and dialog.  KEEP WRITING.