William Mangieri's Blogs: Why Am I Writing a Novel (and Giving You a Smashwords Coupon)?

For the last month this question has entered my mind repeatedly – in that small voice that most writers know (but don’t recognize until too late) as the early symptoms of writer’s block. The voices in your head that are whispering the story to you are talked over by the ones telling you “you don’t know what you’re doing”, “this will never work”, and “Fuhget about it.”

The main thing that is hamstringing progress on Swordsmaster is my knowledge that finishing the first draft won’t be anywhere near half the work. There will be reviews and revisions, and actual REWRITES (which I almost never do in my short stories – I do a couple of minor revisions, but that’s pretty much it.) I am so intimidated by the imagined quantity and scope of the work involved that I catch myself trying to make them unnecessary by writing the perfect thing NOW. This is impossible (and always will be) – I need to just write and worry about the revisions later. Stay in the moment. Let the story write itself now – clean it up later.

I started out my musical “career” on trumpet, and through a series of transitions wound up playing trombone. Funny thing was, when I went back to playing trumpet, there were advantages I had gained (a larger mouthpiece forces development of more control of your lip, for instance) that made me a better trumpet player. Different, trombone-inspired techniques came into my playing, like an artist working with oils carries different techniques with him that inform his switch to watercolors.

Everything we do in life comes into play in what we do after – that’s part of where the unique voice you see in an author’s work comes from. It’s augmented by role-playing that happens while working out dialog, where I even carry some of those personalities around with me in the real world until I’m done (just like when I used to act.)

So I will be forced to do rewrites, and by that learn to give more depth to my characters – more vibrance to my details. Find ways to stay on track when the work spans months instead of days. How will this impact my short-stories? It will improve my craft. It’s like a cross-pollination – if I do it right, I create a hybrid with the strengths of both.

Almost makes the process worth looking forward to.

Just saying…

<<<>>>

I am prepping “Endangered” to be ePublished this Friday (August 28^th) – Like and Follow my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter (see notes below) and you’ll see the notice when it goes live.

<<<>>>

My featured work this week is “The Red Barrens” (Mabel is forced to play her part in terraforming a resistant planet with the same Agent Purple that killed her husband. But there are things that are worse than death - things that could drive her over The Edge and into The Barrens…) - here’s the link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/474160?ref=NoTimeToThink

Use coupon code BE25C to save 67% off the list price at check out on smashwords (that’s right – only 99-cents!) The coupon is good through August 31^st. Enjoy!

<<<>>>

William Mangieri’s writing (including his latest ePublication “Reflections”) can be found in many places, including: