Category Archives: writing

NaNoEdit? Over a year of Jack Reusen books

No it’s not Jack Reusen’s birthday but it is just over a year since Jack Reusen and the Fey Flame went out into the world, and today marks another landmark too; it’s my birthday.

When I turned thirty I decided that before I hit forty I would write ten books and one album. If you count my philosophy book (don’t worry you don’t have to read it, but I’m thinking it counts) then to date I’m six books in, so not going too badly.

I’ve got a new job so I’ve had to give April’s ‘Camp NaNoWriMo’ (National Novel Writing Month) a miss. On top of that I still have two of those six books to edit properly, with that in mind the actual writing bit has taken a back seat.

To be honest it would be great if the folks at NaNoWriMo made an editing month as well. I’d be surprised if anyone can finish writing a book in just one month and still be able to walk away with something in final form.

Each of the books I’ve already released have had at least three edits, it’s a gruelling part of the process and it definitely would have been beneficial to be able to talk to others going through the same thing.

Maybe this post could count as a plea to the nice folks at NaNoWriMo, or simply to other writers out there who are at the same stage. It can be a bit of a lonely and thankless task at times, and it’s definitely nowhere near as satisfying as the huge rush of creativity that you find in the actual writing bit. It would be great to share this part of the process with others in the same way that people do with NaNoWriMo.

Today I won’t be thinking about editing too much, it’s my birthday so I’ll be spending some time with the family. However, I’m aware of how much I still have to do so if any other writers out there fancy going through the editing process together in May (after this round of ‘Camp NaNoWriMo’) then let me know.

Perhaps we could set up a twitter hashtag or something to tie our experiences together, maybe #nanoedit (it looks like it’s had a bit of use already). If you aren’t a twitter user feel free to post updates on the Jack Reusen Facebook page or in the comments for this post.

In the mean time feel free to pop over and see some of the things I’ve learned since I started writing here, one issue that was particularly difficult for me was simplifying plot, you can get an idea about the ways I’ve found to get around this by clicking this link.

Apologies for the silence on the blog post front over the past wee while, I’ll try and be better.

As always thanks for reading, all the best, John

Write all day and you will realize 5 things about yourself that you never knew

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Rock_balancing_(Counter_Balance) NaNoWriMo is here again and some of you are probably tired of hearing about it. Trust me it’s tiring on the inside as well. This is my third National Novel Writing event and it marks the writing of my fifth book set in a world that started to take shape only a year ago.

In my last post I talked a about the new book and explained a little about the support that’s helped push me on to write so much in such a short space of time. To absolutely anyone who has bought Jack Reusen and the Fey Flame you have no idea how much it means to me, and for those of you who have picked up a copy of the sequel, consider yourselves responsible for the barrage of books that are about to erupt out into the world.

When you sell copies of your first book there’s always a little voice in the back of your mind that wonders if people are just being nice. When you start selling copies of the sequel it makes you wonder if maybe they really do like to read what you’ve written. Thank you for that.

Anyway, on with the five things I’ve learned through plunging myself into this surprisingly demanding eventy. Here are some things that my last two NaNoWriMos have taught me:

Resilience: When you skip a day of writing it’s easy to beat yourself up over it but this just wastes time and energy that you could use to make up for lost time the next day. The first NoNoWriMo opened up my eyes to the fact that blaming yourself for a slip is utterly pointless, it’s happened. You just need to get back at it.

Time management: This is essential for the completion of a task like NaNoWriMo. After a few slips you start to discover what caused the problem and the vast majority of the time it has a lot more to do with expecting too much of yourself in too small a time-frame. Just because you wrote 1000 words in an hour a few times don’t use that as your gauge for how long it will take you to write 1000 words. Some passages need careful thought, some need extensive research just to get a place or character name just the way you want it. This will take time, don’t short-change yourself on time. Set aside an hour and a half a day to begin with, if you struggle to meet your target word-count add more time, if you speed through with keys blazing you could save some time on editing by going back over it then and there. Be fluid in time allocation but be persistent in working.

Commitment: In the middle of November last year I started calling myself a writer and actually meaning it but I knew that I’d be talking nonsense if I couldn’t even finish my first book. It was like a promise I made every time I said ‘I’m a writer’. Builders build, bakers bake and writers write. It was suddenly that simple. If you’re writing now and want to finish what you started a good first step is to commit to the moniker, call yourself a writer and mean it.

Confidence: You start off cautious, then you get a few thousand words in and suddenly it’s time to tell the world. You write blog posts. You post updates on social media. You tell friends and family. Then you sit down and freak out because you feel like they’re all expecting more of you. To be honest they probably aren’t (this tallies up with the final thing on this list) but this doesn’t stop the fact that you’re writing, you’re really doing it. All of a sudden there’s a new part to your personality, and it feels pretty awesome.

Being humble: This one is hard, for all the celebration of being a ‘writer’ you still need to remember that despite all the hours of work you put in there’s a good chance that the passage that you wrote at 3am after a marathon 5000 word day probably isn’t your best work. When the month is over you’re going to have a lot of work to do, admit that, drop the ego, develop some humility, and make something that you can actually be proud of. At the end of the day, if you can’t admit the faults that you can see in your own work then deep down you’ll never be able to tell yourself that you’ve done your best.

I’ve mainly written this post with fellow NaNoWriMo participants in mind and I hope it helps a bit. As you go through this month you’ll need to dig deep and what you find there will surprise you, but trust me it is utterly, unequivocally worth it.

As always thanks for reading, please feel free to ask questions or pop down a comment in the comments section below. All the best, John

Staying on target

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Today I passed 12,000 words of ‘Thea’s Quest’. Chapter six is done and I’m close enough to my word-count target to feel fairly comfortable. It was a hard slog today (wrote almost 4,000 words) but I really feel like it was worth it.

It’s a lot of fun experimenting with what Thea will do in different situations, it’s telling me so much more about who she really is and what the tone of the other books in her series will have.

As I said in my previous post, I won’t have much time for blog posting during all the other writing madness this month but when things go right it’s nice to share. Hope you’re all well, and as always thanks for reading (and for stopping by). All the best, John

Thea’s Quest

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11703059_507851296031556_3727381389049552295_n Yep, the beginning of Thea’s story is already taking shape. The fifth book set in the world of Fey now has five (very rough) chapters and it’s surprisingly different from Jack’s books. This month also marks the one year anniversary of the very beginning of Jack’s (and Thea’s) adventures. I still can’t believe how quickly this year has flown by and I’m really thankful for the reception the books have had so far.

Thea is such a different character to write about. I now have a character that instantly understands all of the basic things about Fey, she’s a lot less surprised by magical creatures and events than Jack was and I’m really enjoying the fact that I can just let odd things happen and then drive the story forward. It was always fun to share Jack’s awe as a new world unfolded around him but there’s something really liberating about just taking that magic for granted now.

The new book series will be released more slowly than the first as I now realise just how demanding it is to do all of the additional stuff required of a book. First there’s editing, then there’s talking about the books (because otherwise how would people hear about them), and alongside all of this I need to go over cover designs etc. with Karen but to be honest the bulk of the work there is on Karen (she knows her stuff so well, I barely need to go into any detail with her, she just gets it).

Talking about the books is definitely the most fun of the two ‘non-writing’ jobs associated with writing, I’ve been for school visits, held an in-store book launch, joined in with an authors event to do a book talk at the Crieff arts festival, not to mention a steady stream of communication with readers through this blog and the social media profiles I set up for the books over on facebook and twitter.

The big bad EDITING job is never a thrill and it’s this that has prompted me to spread out my book releases a little. I’d rather be able to spend more time chatting about the books and doing a wee bit of editing each week than be locked to the computer almost every day desperately trying to catch up with editing. At least for the foreseeable future I think we’ll be on about two book releases a year. I just don’t think I’ll be able to do four in one year again for a while.

Speaking of editing the next two books are on their way but it is taking a while. Though it’s less work this time through (I’m definitely learning from my mistakes), it’s still work. I’m going to try and get Jack Reusen and the Children of Fate’ away to the printers in the next couple of weeks (should be printed by the start of December) and ‘Jack Reusen and the Christmas Fox’ should arrive a week or so later (it’s a Christmas story so definitely want to get a rush on that).

In the mean time I can share a wee bit about Thea’s Quest (though it probably won’t be out until next summer). In Thea’s first book we find that the polar-bear girl has discovered some pretty impressive powers (even more impressive than turning into a polar bear). She is struggling to understand them though and she’s having an even harder time learning to control them. Her quest will take her to parts of Fey she’s only ever heard of in stories and her journey will teach her a lot about herself and her friends. Where the Jack Reusen books introduced us to a strange other world, Thea’s books will take us on a voyage steeped in ancient magic and even older stories.

I’m really enjoying the research for these books, I started looking ahead to some of the places Thea might visit earlier this year, I even posted a few sample pictures on the Jack Reusen facebook page. I desperately want to get the third and fourth books out before Christmas so I probably won’t be blogging a whole lot over the next few weeks. Every spare minute I have this November is going to be spent on books. Hope it all works out, wish me luck. As always, thanks for reading, all the best, John

AAARRRGGGHHHHHHH!

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Yep my brain is near bursting, in just over a week we see the start of ‘NaNoWriMo’ (National Novel Writing Month) the event that started all of this, and I still have so much to do.

Karen (the awesome cover illustrator) is working on covers for the next two books in the series as we speak and I’m battling my way through the editing process in pursuit of completed drafts in time to start writing the first book in Thea’s series. It’s all go and can’t wait to share both of the new books with readers over the next couple of months. ‘Jack Reusen and the Children of Fate’ should be out in November and DUN DUN DUN…(new title reveal!)…’Jack Reusen and the Christmas Fox’ will be out just before Christmas.

One thing that I’ve learned over the past year is that writing and editing (you skip editing at your peril) at this pace is tough and sadly leaves little room for school visits etc. The weird thing though is that without school visits I’m not really sure how kids will hear about the books.

My target audience are children aged seven or eight years and up and as far as I know not many of them read blogs or hang out on facebook and twitter. Without school visits I’m really reliant on word of mouth from you guys who stop by this blog to find out what’s happening with the books.

With this in mind I’m sorry to say that Thea’s first book might arrive a little later in the year than ‘Jack Reusen and the Fey Flame’ did. I want to give myself time to get out and talk about the books more in the new year so if you would like an author visit for your school (or even a writing workshop/Q&A) please get in touch.

Sorry for not being on here much over the past few weeks, I completed a rework of ‘Jack Reusen and the Fey Flame’ (to go with Karen’s mysterious new cover) and as I said earlier I’ve been on editing duty for the next two books. As things start to loosen up over the next few weeks (or, more likely, as I begin to lose my sanity) I’ll no doubt be on here a lot more, and hopefully my posts will be full of updates on how it’s all going. As always thanks for reading, Cheers, John

Is Superman Overpowered?

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I say 100% no, despite the fact that he’s got it all, plus he’s always the good guy. Superman’s massive power-level has led some to think of him as the most ‘boring’ comic book character ever, since he faces no real challenges, but to be honest I just don’t see him that way, and it all boils down to one of his powers; hearing.

It seems like one of the least important of his powers but just think about what his (albeit fictional) world is like: he has super hearing and the ability to save people just one at a time. Even if he can only hear for a few miles he must be able to pick up on multiple problems every few minutes, and there will inevitably be times when he hears two or three emergencies at once.

This means that on a daily basis Superman must be ignoring cries for help either to focus on another call or in some cases he may even simply be trying to lead a normal life. Super hearing isn’t a power its a curse.

In fact there must be ways that you could say the same about all of his powers; from holding back his strength around us squishy easily-breakable humans, to controlling his breathing so as not to accidentally blow over a building or freeze someone. His entire life is a straight-jacket of control.

He has a massive collection of insane powers but the truly interesting thing about Superman isn’t about how he uses them but instead how he doesn’t use them. Writers of Superman can’t afford to be lazy, their job is insanely difficult; they have to create a story in which this mega-powerful alien can somehow come across as relatable humanised character who the reader can empathise with. He might be very powerful but he has very real limits that must plague him every minute of every day.

Maybe I’m wrong but I think drawing on the risk of death is actually kind of lazy (when used to the extreme) so the writers of Superman have been forced (for the most part) to write stories that build intense emotional resonance without the boost of emotional reactions we have in the face of death-defying deeds. What’s more the risk of death is so distant in most of our minds (children especially) that it can sometimes feel less ‘real’ than seemingly more mundane risks like failure, loss of acceptance, ridicule etc.

Superman is a weird character but I wouldn’t say he’s overpowered, he just has a different perspective on the world and his own set of challenges to face because of that. That’s of course only my opinion (what else could it be) and I’d love to hear what other people think of this iconic character. Do you think Superman is overpowered? Why do/don’t you think that? Let me know in the comments below, over on the Jack Reusen Facebook page, or over on the twitter account. Thanks for reading, All the best, John

And the winner is….

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Last weekend, in conjunction with Fun Junction (and to tie in with the Crieff Arts Festival and the mini book festival that ran within it titled ‘Writers Live‘), I ran a ‘Design a Jack Reusen Character’ competition. All the entries had to be in by the end of the weekend and I’ve had a tricky job on my hands ever since.

Basically I liked so many of the entries I received that I decided to have three winners. The fourth book will be out in November, it’s a condensed chapter story set at Christmas time, and I’ve left space for a short story to fit in along side it. I’ll be starting work on the short story tonight but in the meantime I thought I’d share the winners’ artwork.

Congratulations to Jenny, who’s already had a wee mention in the Acknowledgements in ‘Spark of Dreams’. Jenny even submitted a character description along with her picture so here it is:

“Name: Stormfly
What is it: Dragon
Qualities: Friendly, cold dragon. She breathes ice straight up into the sky to make snow storm clouds and tail whacks the ground and is as strong as an earthquake.”

I’m looking forward to seeing what ‘Stormfly’ gets up to in the story (though I may have to ask Jenny if I can give her a different name as she shares her name with Astrid’s dragon in ‘How to train Your Dragon’). I have to confess that I’ve been hunting for an excuse to put a dragon into Fey to see what happens, so thank you Jenny, I’m really excited about this one.

Next, congratulations to Summer. Summer’s character didn’t have a name but I absolutely loved the atmosphere of the picture. I’m not sure how well this will come across in the image here but basically almost every part of this picture sparkles. The twinkling black sky and the girl in the shimmering party dress already have me setting out a wee starting scene on a frosty night in Fey. Thank you Summer.

Finally congratulations to Grace for her ’10 eyed monster’. I’ve a feeling that this guy is going to have an interesting role to play in the story. My first thoughts picture him living deep in a cave. He comes across as scary and I don’t want to lose that so I’ll need to think hard about what he’ll be up to, in what will basically be a Christmas story. Every good story needs some conflict and I think the ten eyed monster will be just the ticket. Thank you Grace.

It’s going to take me a wee while to get this story drafted up but I’ll be sure to post it on here when it’s ready and it will also be available in print in November. Of course it wouldn’t be fair to ask the contributors to buy a copy so I’ll be sure to set aside a free copy for each of them that they can get hold of before they appear on the shelves.

I’ll contact the winners shortly and will hopefully have their story ready for them in the next few weeks but in the meantime I’d like to ask people to give them a big social media round of applause with likes or favourites on their pictures (you can find them by clicking this link for facebook and this, this, and this link for twitter). As always thanks for reading, all the best, John

The words are Magic

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OK this is an idea that I’ve been running in the background of the books for a while but I wanted to touch base on what people thought to the concept and whether it’s an easy thing to follow. Here’ s the general idea behind the way that magic works in Jack’s world:

Characters in the book are characters in a book
The worlds in the book are worlds in a book
…you get the idea
Somewhere deep inside their bones some of the characters know these things, and they can train themselves to change the words in the story around them.

I haven’t made this clear very often in the books for fear of making a children’s book like its overly intelectual. The books are just adventure stories with bad guys and fate-of-the-world stuff but the philosopher John that hides in my head and over-thinks things (here I’ll flap my BAHons, MLitt, and MPhil around) needed some highfalutin stuff to keep him occupied. For the most part this is all this is but I still thought it might be iteresting to share.

If you’re looking for subtext then you might also get the idea that the Wishmaster is a representation of Stalinist communism, the Reusens began their days trying to enact something like Rawl’s ‘veil of ignorance’ (a perfect world with equal opportunuties for all), and there’s even a bit or rationalism vs. impiricism hiding in there (magic: you believe what you can logically think up, matter-world: you believe what you can see). If you read into them deeply enough the first three books basically work as a Philosophy 101 course.

But in essence the books are suppposed to get kids thinking about the power of the words they say. The very first scene in the very first book finds Jack lost and alone because he told his parents he hates them, in Jack’s world (and in many ways in ours as well) words have power.

As always thanks so much for reading and feel free to leave any questions or comments you like in the comments below, all the best, John

Playing to an empty room? (and some info about competitions)

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Just a short one tonight as I’m getting my ideas together for my book talk at ‘Writers Live!’ on Saturday. Basically that’s the main thing on my mind at the moment; will people come to my book talk? The idea of talking to an empty room is far more daunting than the thought of talking in front of a big crowd.

So far responses on the events page seem promising so I’ll try and hold back on the anxiety, also I’m really looking forward to seeing some of the entries for the competition I’m running in conjunction with Fun Junction.

I’ve actually got two different competitions running in conjunction with my book talk for Crieff Arts Festival but only one of them ends this weekend: The ‘Design a Jack Reusen Character’ competition is being run in conjunction with Fun Junction (where entries can be handed in). Simply design a character to feature in a Jack Reusen book. I’ll write the character into a short story which will appear on this site soon after the arts festival, but it will also be appearing in print and released inside a book that’s due to come out just before Christmas (I’ll post the title of the new book tomorrow night 😉 ).

You can submit a picture, a character description, or both. Just in case you don’t get a chance before the talk, I’ll also be bringing a big pile of paper and pencils along to the Strathearn Artspace on Saturday so that children (and adults if they want) can draw up their characters and hand them in either to me on the day. You can also drop off entries at Fun Junction up until 5:15pm on Saturday (if you want to take your time drawing/writing). Judging will take place this weekend and entries should either be dropped in to Fun Junction, or scanned and sent digitally to either the Jack Reusen facebook account, twitter account, or to jackreusen@hotmail.co.uk.

The second competition will now be running until the end of August: Simply explain what you liked most about ‘Jack Reusen and the Fey Flame‘ on the facebook page to be in with a chance of winning a signed copy of either ‘Jack Reusen and the Spark of Dreams‘, ‘Jack Reusen and the Fey Flame‘ or (if you don’t mind the wait), you can get an early release, signed edition of ‘Jack Reusen and the Children of Fate’ when it comes out in the Autumn.

If you haven’t already, please pop along to the events page on facebook and say whether you’ll be able to make it along to the book talk (if I know that people are coming I might be able to relax enough for that ‘humming’ noise in my ears to go away 😉 ). As always thanks for reading, all the best, John

3 Tips on Dealing with a bad fit in your writing

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Sometimes you’ll feel yourself stumbling when writing, and one of the worst stumbling blocks can arise where something, or someone, doesn’t fit the story in the way you originally planned. So what do you do when a character doesn’t quite fit the situation which you’ve plunged them into? Here are three hints (in no particular order):

Conflict: Find conflict and resolve it (pick your pace depending on importance of character to the story). This sounds simple but it can be a fantastic way to bring a bit of excitement or intrigue to dull or lifeless scenes and characters and it’s often a great way of moving your plot forward a little.

Mirroring: Sometimes a character will lose contact with who they are and what they’re supposed to be about. Here you can use ‘mirroring’ to draw them back on track; basically find a pivotal scene that helped establish that character at some earlier point (probably the more distant the better) and return to something similar. This approach has a two fold benefit; either this will highlight an organic change that’s already occurred in a way that will allow the plot to move forwards, or it will pull them back from changing too far from who you need them to be and what you need them to be doing.

Lighten the the load: Sometimes a character starts doing the work of two or three characters. Where your plot needs brains, heroics, strength, wisdom, hope, naivity, innocence, etc. you may find that your character is taking on too much. At best they’ll seem very changeable with hard to read emotions, at worst they’ll appear volatile and unbelievable. Here you’ll need a secondary or even tertiary character to lighten the load, let them take on some of the work of moving the story along and allow your main characters to become more established and easier to follow.

Complexity is great, and absolutely essential to a useful, versatile and lasting character but it can also get in the way of getting to know them. Don’t overdo the additional characters though, as you don’t want a humongous cast of characters to keep track of (especially in a children’s book).

There are other things you can do but these three should help neaten up what’s going in your book, and hopefully make your work a little easier too. Anyway, I hope this helps someone out there, or if nothing else that you find it interesting to read about how I work with my own characters. Thanks for reading, all the best, John

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