Cover reveal time!!! This amazing cover was created by Shayne Leighton (www.parliamenthousepress.com) for our dragon anthology.
“Dragon of a Different Tail: 17 Unusual Dragon Tales” will be out November 29th!
You can preorder the book at – https://books2read.com/dragonstail
“I think perhaps all of us go a little crazy at times.” – Robert Bloch, Psycho
A new week, a new installment of… The marX Files!
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If you are new here, the quick “previously on” is: I am a filmmaker and a writer who has begun the duel journeys of writing my first fiction novel and attending grad school for a Master of Fine Arts degree (MFA).
October is a special month and not just for ghosts. It’s a special month for writers… and maybe ghost writers, too.
This time I want to talk about Preptober. No, it’s not about preppy people from the Tober townland in County Westmeath, Ireland. (That would just be weird.) The term, I believe, originated from author and YouTuber Rachael Stephen and she has a lot of great resources for writers who participate. It takes place in October (hence “tober”) to help writers prepare (hence “prep”) for NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is a yearly writing event that takes place during the month of November in which participants attempt to write a 50,000 word manuscript. Many a novel was birthed from NaNoWriMo. It is a great motivational tool that reminds me of The 48 Hour Film Project, where a film is written, filmed, and edited in—you guessed it–48 hours. It’s like a college dare that, instead of making you feel regret the next day from a hangover, actually produces something positive, and proves that amazing works can happen if you just do the work.
I’ll be participating this year in NaNoWriMo, hoping to get a 50,000 word surge in my WIP (Work In Progress) urban fantasy novel. Which means I’ll, in a way, be participating in Preptober, too.
Normally, you would start a new book project (or you can adapt this to any other format of writing, like scriptwriting), but I can’t stop my novel mid-way. Instead, I hope to use it to give me that push to speed up my process. I have a lot of time left to write my book the way it is scheduled in the MFA program, but I’m about as patient as The Flash waiting for a taxi. I would rather speed ahead and not wait. But that takes a few things: correct mindset, time management, and a good outline.
Hold on, you pantsers reading this (those who like to write by the seat of their pants, a.k.a. hate plotting in advance), don’t start slinging muddy anger my way. I get that outlines or plotting a story in advance is not everyone’s cup of tea. I need it, though, or I freeze up not knowing what to write next. For those that swear by the pantsing lifestyle, I would suggest buying the book Writing into the Dark: How to Write a Novel without an Outline (WMG Writer’s Guides) (Volume 9) by Dean Wesley Smith, which explains a method to help you anti-outliners out there. I’ll also include a video at the bottom with more information.
So, that is what a lot of Preptober is about: getting in the right mindset to write 50,000 words, planning out your writing schedule, and outlining your story (genre, plot, characters, etc.).
If you are a writer about to start a new project or a writer who wants to start writing their first project, then you might want to try this, too. And don’t just think it has to be a novel. With a magical thing called math, you can modify the word goals for a short story or collection of short stories, or make it page counts instead of word counts for a script. Just use this as a tool to help you with what you love: writing.
So, what I’ll be doing this month is taking in all of the advice, planning out my writing schedule, polishing the 80+ pages I already have written, fine-tuning my plot now that I know the characters better, fine-tuning character arcs, planning out what future books will have happen so I can better seed those events in book one, switching over to Scrivener to help me with my outlining/organization, etc. So my word count won’t be going up much this month, but I’ll have a very solid start to the novel and will write like lightning in November (crossing fingers). If I’m lucky, I may finish my first very rough draft by the end of the year. Wish me luck!
Besides talking about plotting, Scrivener, and more, I’ll also be doing a few reviews soon. So watch for those starting soon.
Until then, at the bottom of this column there are a few videos to get you in the Preptober spirit.
Marx’s Work In Progress urban fantasy novel (that may or may not take place in the month of October): 14,507 words
Until next time… marX out.
For you pantsers, here is a video where Michael La Ronn talks about how you can write without an outline and the book mentioned earlier that discusses the strategy he uses.
And here are a few videos that go into more about Preptober from a couple of authors who are very experienced with it, Rachael Stephen and Kristen Martin:
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Marx is the author of the non-fiction book Television on the Wild Wild Web, co-host of the podcast GenreTainment, co-host of DC Action Hour on YouTube, and creator of web series/films. He has been a panelist at various conventions, including San Diego Comic-Con, Boston Comic Con, Gen Con, and Dragon Con. As a professor, he teaches script analysis & film production. Click to join his email list or click over to MarxPyle.com to learn more about him.
“So in my uncertainty, I went to graduate school and there it all happened.” – Ted Nelson
Welcome back!
If you are new here, then the quick “previously on” is: I am a filmmaker and writer who has begun the duel journeys of writing my first fiction novel and attending grad school for a Master of Fine Arts degree (MFA).
Today, I want to dig a little deeper on this whole MFA in Writing Popular Fiction program and why I would do this to myself. Basically, I’d like to offer you great insight on my Quest for the MFA (*cue dramatic echo*). Many of you might have considered grad school as well, so you might find this helps you gain a better understanding of how it works or if it would be right for you.
First off, let’s address the 500-pound telepathic gorilla in the room. Many of you are probably thinking: “Do I need an MFA to be an author?” or “Why would anyone want to spend the time and money on an MFA?”
No, you do not need to get an MFA to be an author. Everyone’s got their own creative path. I’ve decided at this time in my life that it makes sense to do this. There are two major reasons I decided to pursue my MFA in writing. If I had only one, I may have thought twice, but the two combined just clicked for me. Everything seemed to come together at just the right time that this just… made sense… kismet.
Whew, okay, we got that out of the way.
So, once I decided I was going to go to grad school, the next big question for me was, which school?
When I first when to college, I experienced something a lot of writers experience: creative writing classes that… actively discouraged creativity. The kind of class where writing about spaceships or vampires is frowned upon, looked down upon as a lesser form of storytelling. I didn’t like it when I was 18 or 19, so I sure as heck wasn’t going to spend a lot of money on a program that had that attitude now. If you want to write only navel gazing stories that are based on a true story or could be, then that’s okay, too. The world needs all kinds of stories. But me, I want to write stories that make me feel the way I did when I first watched Star Wars or Indiana Jones. I want to relive those chills of Michael Myers lurking in the shadows, the laughs and tear jerking moments of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the wonder of exploring the Wonderland, or the dark terrors of Castle Rock. Don’t get me wrong, I might write some navel gazing stories at some point, too, but I really want to write books that fall in what is known as Popular Fiction.
What is Popular Fiction? It is what the book genres of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Thriller, Mystery, Romance, and Young Adult are considered. You know, the popular stuff that people buy. What, go to grad school to learn to create stories that large numbers of people want to buy and read? But, but… I might make enough money to pay off the student loans. Madness I say!
So, I knew what I wanted, and only a handful of universities in the United States provide an MFA in Popular Fiction. That narrowed down the list greatly.
My top two choices were Seton Hill University and University of Southern Maine (their Stonecoast program).
Another choice that probably would have made it on the list (if I had heard about it before applying) would have been Western Colorado University.
I was looking for schools that have a proven record of helping authors have good careers and have teachers that are also award-winning/career authors in Popular Fiction.
Oh, I should also mention that I wanted a low-residency program (combination of online instruction & visiting campus a few weeks each year), because I wasn’t going to quit my day job for school. So if you are going to school full-time, you might find some other excellent options.
Seton Hill University (SHU) ended up being my first choice and I got accepted! The school’s mascot is a Griffin and the school looks like Hogwarts, so it just felt perfect for me to learn magic… I mean writing.
So, what is the MFA program like at SHU? Well, I’m just a few months in, but so far I’m over 20,000 words into my thesis (a.k.a. urban fantasy novel) and I’m taking a Readings in Genre: Recent Works of Science Fiction and Fantasy class that has me reading and writing about a wide range of books.
I really love that the Thesis starts right out of the gate. The best way to learn to write is by writing, after all. And I get excellent feedback from my mentor (author Heidi Ruby Miller) and my fellow classmates in my critique group. Not only do I get insight on how to improve my story, but I learn so much by critiquing my fellow MFA questers.
So, while we learn theory about writing in workshops, we apply those theories to our current work in progress. We also learn by reading works of other successful writers in a variety of genre, at time nudging me out of my comfort zone and into the worlds of romance and mysteries. I have no plans to write a romance story, but most stories have romance as a sub-plot. So learning the various genres will make me a stronger writer in my chosen genre. And who knows, maybe someday I’ll go on the Quest To Write A Hallmark Movie!
Fade to Black
Well, I’ve blabbed enough for one week. So, I better start wrapping this up. You’ll hear more about the MFA program over time and soon, I’ll give you a sneak peek into how my novel is progressing.
Before I go, I want to say a big thanks to everyone who read the column last week and commented on social media. It really energized me and I managed last weekend to write over 8,000 words! To give you a comparison, last month, I wrote less than 8,000 words… for the whole month. So, please, keep reading and feel free to leave a comment. Let me know if there are any topics you would like me to cover or any writing tips you would like to share with me and the readers of the column.
I also want to give a big thanks to Kathie Fong-Yoneda, Victor Miller, and Tamara Coy whose support helped make it possible for me to start this Quest for the MFA (*cue dramatic echo*).
Marx’s Work In Progress urban fantasy novel (that may or may not have a telepathic gorilla): 22,843 words and counting.
Until next time… marX out
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This post was originally published on SciFi Pulse. Check there for the most recent installments of this column.
