THE FORMLESS FORM OF NOVEL WRITING

You might be asking yourself what the title of this post means. The formless form of novel writing? To that I respond in the words of one of my favorite childhood icons Bruce Lee, "Be water, my friend."

In other words, adapt or perish.

By now I thought I would be 50,000 words into my new novel "THE MOONBEAM RIDER," a multicultural Young Adult novel geared towards the female "HUNGER GAMES" audience. My tagline is: THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK meets WAR OF THE WORLDS.

However I'm only half that far along in my book.

What's going on? For one, time management (I've got a crazy schedule). Two, I've hit some sticky points story-wise that I have to work through. Three, I've, for some reason, become a little stale on the material (even though I'm watching tons of UFO documentaries and loving it).

Now many writers at this point, would probably shelve their project or put it on the back burner.

Not me. I have a schedule of novels I'm writing and I plan to stick to it. Plus, I love the projects that I'm working on. The subject matters of all the novels I'm writing and will be writing are very close to my heart. It is a true labor of love. 

So what do I do to get over this bump in the road?

CHANGE THE PACE! Since I planned on adapting MBR into a screenplay as soon as I had the novel finished like I did with my last novel, I figured why not shake up the process.

So I began the screenplay adaptation NOW and all of a sudden I'm looking at the material through fresh eyes. Writing a screenplay is way different than writing a novel and has to approached in an entirely different manner. By doing this, I'm even having new ideas for the novel.

I have one third of the book written (about 70 pages). In screenwriting format, that should equate to the first act. Feature film scripts are composed of three acts.  

My plan is to write the first act of my screenplay, then go back to the novel. Probably, I'll jump back to the screenplay after I finish the next 70 pages of the book and write the second act of my screenplay.

This may seem unorthodox, but I say whatever gets the job done. Plus it solves a couple of other problems for me. My literary manager, who is currently shopping the screenplay adaptation of my last book in Hollywood, is asking me when I'm going to have another project for him to sell. This speeds up my timetable of delivering another script to him. Also, when I finished my last novel, I held on to it for four months while I marketed it.

So, this time around, by the time I finish my first rough draft of the MBR novel, I should have a pretty polished screenplay adaptation. Then, while I'm dealing with my editor and going back and forth with changes and rewrites of the book, I can begin my marketing campaign as well. 

So I'm actually using my writing block to get even more done. 

You see, there is no one way to write a novel. Whenever you have a problem, there is a solution. You just have to think of it. 

ALLIED EARTH needs you... to fight the Grays.

PERSEVERANCE: THE SECRET TO WRITING

When I first moved to Los Angeles with the idea of being a stuntman, I made money by teaching Gymnastics. Having been a gymnast, this came quite easy to me and it wasn't long before I was teaching an adult tumbling class. Here in Los Angeles, most of the people who attend an adult tumbling class are actors, stunt people, dancers and martial artists.

One of the actors in my class told me he was writing a screenplay. This fascinated me intensely. I had been a literary major and journalism minor in college and the thought of writing a screenplay had never ever occurred to me. I had written short stories. 

But the more I thought of it, the more I wanted to write a screenplay. To do this right, I reasoned I must read books on screenplay writing and actual screenplays as well. I read a couple of books. One was by Syd Field of course. 

Back then - in those dark ages before the Internet - the only way to get ahold of screenplays was to go to this store in Hollywood and buy them. I picked up a bunch from films that I loved. After reading four or five. I started writing my  own screenplay.

A few weeks later, I saw my actor friend at the gym. I asked him if he had finished his screenplay. His reply was, 'not yet.'

I had worked out my outline, fleshed out my major characters and dove into Act One. 

After about six weeks, I again asked my actor friend if he had finished his script. He once more replied, 'not yet.'  

I had just finished my first screenplay. Then I wrote a second one. My actor friend who had given me the idea to write a script in the first place, still hadn't completed his first screenplay.

I don't know if he ever finished that screenplay.

To date, I've written at least forty screenplays. Many were for hire by small independent producers. At least ten of them were made into films. Not many of them were very good, for various reasons that were out of my control.

The point is, writing takes perseverance. Of which, gymnasts have plenty. In the sport of gymnastics, when attempting a new high level, high risk skill you have to fail over and over again for months, before mastering it. That means falling on your face over and over again.  

After ten years as a stuntman, I decided to go at the writing thing full time. I went from always having money to always being broke. Most of my stunt friends deserted me once I could no longer hire them for jobs. I found out who my true friends in Hollywood were: my dog. At a low point, I slept in my car with my dog. 

Now after years of people telling me how to rewrite my scripts to satisfy their own over-inflated egos, I've started my own independent publishing company. And I don't take notes anymore. Well, I still have an editor and she gives me her opinion. If I think she's right, I make the changes. But I'm the owner of my company and, if I don't agree, I don't make the changes. I'm writing the books I want to write, exactly the way I want to write them. Which is the way I think it ought to be.

Or in the immortal words of actor Vincent D'Onofrio  in "THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD" (where he played Robert E. Howard the pulp fiction writer who created Conan the Barbarian), "I'm the boss. The typewriter is the employee." 

I've written two novels and am currently writing my third. And at the beginning of each novel, I felt like I was at the bottom of a mountain, looking up at the top in the clouds. And everyday, I clawed at this mountain. 

Some days I wrote a little, some days I wrote a lot. 

But I know the process. The first sign of progress is the halfway point. I pretty much know how long my novels are going to be. My first novel was a little over 60,000 words. My second one was approximately 62,000. This latest one should be about 70,000. 

I'm at almost 20,000 words (way behind schedule). So, when I reach 35,000 words (the halfway point), I'll begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. When I reach 50,000 words it will be easy sailing. My first pass should come in around 63,000 words. Then when I go back and start to rewrite and add scenes that I realize are missing, it should pad out to 70,000 without me consciously trying to break 70,0000. If it comes in a little less that's no problem either (like I said, I'm the boss). 

I remember something I read once, I think Syd Field had said it. It was: as you near the completion of your project, you may find yourself holding back, not wanting to finish this labor of love. He said that was natural, but that you must finish it. You must finally give birth to your creation. 

I remember when I read that I thought it was a bunch of bologna. Until I experienced it myself. I was dwelling on my work. Reluctantly to finally type: THE END, until I did. No matter how torturous it is, writing is also a labor of love (if you're writing for the right reasons). 

I don't write for money. I don't write for fame. Although I want all those things, I write because I love writing. 

It's art. 

It's therapy.

It's chicken soup for the tortured soul. 

D'Onofiro as pulp fiction writer Robert E. Howard 

Describing his creation CONAN THE BARBARIAN

WORLD CREATION 101

At this time of the year, when everyone is thinking about family and hopefully peace on earth and good will to man, it's important to remember how horrible war truly is. 

American soldiers are fighting in different parts of the world. And unfortunately it seems like there will always be one war or another.

That's an important theme in "THE MOONBEAM RIDER," the Young Adult novel I'm writing. Which brings me to WORLD CREATION. You hear this term a lot in Hollywood. But what does it really mean? 

World creation is when you create a wholly unique world to populate with your characters and their quests. It could be, for example: a world overrun with zombies who answer to their undead vampire masters, set in a post apocalyptic Tokyo (actually, that's something I'm planning on writing in the not too distant future). 

I want "THE MOONBEAM RIDER" - which is a world only a few days into our future - in a setting reminiscent  of World War II. I want it to be a real good verses evil story. Hitler and the Nazis attempting to take over the world kind of evil. And since this is a science fiction tale, what would be better than aliens from another world attempting to take over our world? I want this story to be complete with traitorous human collaborators, selfless patriots, and all the nations of the earth joining forces to become an Allied Earth.

This world is a world where you're no longer allowed to be a kid. When you turn eighteen - male or female - there is a mandatory draft in effect. It's a romantic vision of war with acts of cowardice and heroism. This world contains occupied territories, ground fighting across war-torn lands and people living in ruins, under the harsh rule of aliens who use humans to do their dirty work and put the humans who won't submit into work camps. 

And... we're fighting for all the marbles. Because if the aliens win, they will decimate eighty percent of the human population and use the rest as slave labor, while they colonize the Earth.

This is the world my protagonist NOA ASH -  a powerless sixteen year old girl - finds herself in. Then, by a twist go fate, she is given the keys to unimaginable power (my secret for now) and can have an impact on this war. The question is, can she rise to the occasion?

I'm moving slowly but surely forward on the novel and plan to have the cover art and an audio recording of the first three chapters produced for your entertainment in early 2015.

Please keep following my exploits writing what can best be described as THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK meets WAR OF THE WORLDS.

  

FINDING YOUR HEROINE'S VOICE

Well, I'm currently a little shy of 13,000 words on THE MOONBEAM RIDER novel. I'm about fifty pages in and starting on chapter three. The complete book should come in at around 70,000 words. That's about 260 pages. 

Once you have a strong grasp of the story you are writing, the beginning of any undertaking to write a novel is mostly about finding your hero's - or in this case heroine's - voice. 

I'm writing about NOA ASH, a sixteen year old adolescent female, a very complex personality to scribe about. I am also writing my first novel in the first person. So I am literally writing in my heroine Noa's own words. 

It's a good thing that I've spent a lot of time around teenagers (I'm a former gymnast who still spends a lot of time in the gym working out and working with young gymnasts). When people become adults, they often forget how young people think and perceive the world. 

But, like writing any character, it takes a certain amount of fumbling around before you dial in on who that character is and what they will and won't do. I've now gotten to the point where I feel I truly know Noa Ash.

I'm also trying to be careful to make Noa a genuine girl. I've flipped through some Young Adult novels written with female leads and often I can tell when a male author has penned the book.

For a genre novel (science fiction/action adventure), Noa is a very unique creation from many of the characters in other genre fiction novels. She is biracial (the product of a Black father and white mother). Noa also starts out overweight. After the death of her parents, she is sent to live with a grandmother she has never met on remote and scary SHADOW BEACH,  where Noa begins to surf the dark waters. By the end of the second chapter, she sees her reflection cast in the water and realizes she has not only lost weight, but become fit.  

I still have a long way to go. But I promise to start moving forward on the book cover art, so that I can have something visually dazzling for all of you. 

Plus, once the first three chapters are tightly polished, I will have a voice actress do a audio recording of them, so you can hear Noa Ash in her own words.

Aloha.

Carlton Holder

RE-ENTRY

As hard as I've been trying to get to the pages of THE MOONBEAM RIDER, forces have been pulling me away. 

Scheduling has been tough for me lately.

Therefore, I've decided to cancel my holiday plans. I'm not a Thanksgiving or Christmas type of person to begin with (Halloween is my holiday of choice). My family is on the East Coast and, although I love them, the thought of flying back in the cold doesn't exactly excite me. For Thanksgiving, I was going to visit an old college buddy who lives in Vegas. I thought I would get some good writing in at the Hard Rock for three or four days. For Christmas I was going to take a seven day cruise (it would have been my first) down into sunny Mehecco. 

But dammit, I want this book written and I enjoy getting lost in this world I've created. A world that harkens back to the old pulp science fiction magazines and World War II, while remaining firmly planted in a contemporary world which could be tomorrow.

So I'm just going to write through the holidays.

I have become fully invested in the main character NOA ASH and her plight being recently orphaned in a world at war with another world. Which is what happens when you write. The characters start to come alive for you and inhabit your life. Then the only way to purge yourself of these ghostly inhabitants is to get their story out of you. Even though it's a long hard road, there are few joys as great as finishing a novel.

I'm in the middle of the second chapter and around 7,000 words. I'm already planning the book cover and I'm going to hire a voice actress to do an audio recording of the first three chapters, when I have them finished. Since the story is written in the first person of our heroine Noa Ash, I figure this is the best way to introduce her to all of you.

I'll keep you posted.

FIRST ENTRY

Welcome to my first entry into this brand new blog, which will chart the evolution of my new novel as I write and promote it. 

The novel is "THE MOONBEAM RIDER."  It's my third novel and first young adult fiction book, so I'm very excited. I'm just as excited to be sharing my experience with you.

My target audience is teenage girls. Although the tone and storyline for my novel are very different from "THE HUNGER GAMES," I hope to attract that same audience. With the superhero-esque element of the book, I'm also hoping to capture teenage male readers and young adults as well.

The story deals with the alien invasion of earth as seen through the eyes of our main character. It also deals with a long lost metal superhero from World War II and the main character's relationship with it. So, yes, UFOs and robots.

Like "Hunger Games," my protagonist is a teenage girl. Her name is NOA ASH. The story starts out in the first chapter with Noa a few weeks away from her sixteenth birthday. Her parents are killed in an act of violence in the first chapter. Noa turns sixteen in the second chapter while she is remanded to a tough group home for teenage orphans, waiting for a grandmother she has never met to take her in.

Also like the "Hunger Games," this story is told in the first person by my heroine. I want this novel to have an in the moment feel. I also want it to be as if Noa Ash is recounting her adventure as it happens out of her private journal with insight into her emotions, hopes, and fears. So basically, this novel is "THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK" meets "WAR OF THE WORLDS."

Unlike "Hunger Games" however, Noa doesn't start out as a statuesque heroine with a perfect physique. In fact, in the first two chapters, Noa is short and chubby. She grows in physical stature and inner strength through her discovery and subsequent love of surfing in the black waters of the meteorite-covered SHADOW BEACH.

Lastly, Noa Ash is biracial, the product of a Caucasian mother and an African American father. This is very important to me because my publishing imprint which I will be releasing this novel through was created to bring diverse fiction to the multicultural audience that is more a reflection of America today than what is portrayed on TV and in Hollywood movies. 

The other thing I will be doing differently from my previous two novels is that I will be building awareness for this adventure tale as I'm writing it. I've already come up with a number of ideas, which you will be discovering in the upcoming months.

I want to involve the audience in the writing of this book.

So, I hope you tune into my blog from time to time and share the adventure. For me writing a novel is like creating a whole new world, full of wonderful voices. I often learn things about myself from my writing.

And after all, isn't that why we've been put on this earth? To learn.