Speaking ... naturally

I recently read a post on PBWriter's blog extolling the virtues of Dragon naturally speaking version 8. The last time I tried this piece of software it was at version three or four and the kids and I spent a happy hour confusing it utterly. It reciprocated by confusing us just as much.

With faster processors, more ram, more hard disk space, I suppose it was only natural (no pun intended) that the software should have improved over the following five versions. So, armed with almost $200 Australian, I bought a copy from eBay. It arrived today so I plugged in the headset and microphone, installed the software and spent 20 or 30 minutes training it.

All I can say is what a huge difference five versions makes. My accent is a mix of British and Australian and I tend to speak very quickly. Despite that, the software seems to know what I'm trying to say. (which is more than I can say for my kids when there are chores to be done.)

I'm quite looking forward to writing a short story or a chapter of my next novel in this fashion. One benefit is that you can gaze out the window and dictate without even looking at the screen. One negative is that talking to yourself can be taken as a sign of madness.

In summary, I would wholeheartedly recommend this software. I have already caught up with half of my e-mail backlog without laying a finger on the keyboard more than once or twice. I just dictated this entire blog entry and only had to correct two words. Not bad after only 20 minutes training.

In case I don't post again before Christmas, have a good one.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Titles are everything

Link taken from pbackwriter.blogspot.com: The Title Scorer

Put in your title, answer a couple of questions on the make up and it'll tell you the likelihood of your book hitting the bestseller lists. I put mine in and Hal Spacejock scored about 45% chance while Hal Spacejock Second Course scored 79%

I'm guessing they've analysed a load of bestsellers and distilled the titles to discover what elements most have in common. For example, titles with a proper name plus one or more nouns (e.g. Harry Potter and [something]) do better than wacky, oddball, too-clever titles which nobody can pronounce. A double or treble meaning is good, as long as the title isn't contorted unduly to make it work.

Personally I think the content is more important in making a bestseller - you need word of mouth for that, which means people reading and enjoying the book, not just talking about the title. On the other hand, every little bit helps in this game so why not put your intended title to the test?

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

A voice from the future

Here's a blog for those who prefer something a little more interesting than my behind-the-scenes writery posts:

http://haldiary.blogspot.com

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Hal Spacejock III progress

You can't buy Hal II yet (or even Hal I, if you live outside Australia), so non-writers might be surprised to hear that I'm putting the finishing touches to Hal III, a book which won't be in the shops until September 2006.

Sure, my editor will be giving me a list of suggestions to improve things, but the manuscript I'm handing in will be as finished as I can make it on my own.

The final deadline for Hal Spacejock III is April 2006, but I've got two SF conventions, a literature festival and the launch of Hal II to contend with at the same time. Anyway, my editor requested the manuscript in time for xmas, which is akin to a general requesting his troops attack the enemy.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Why yWriter is essential to me

I haven't mentioned yWriter much on my blog. It's a tool, I use it, and that's that. Today I realised just how much I owe this software, after an incident with my work in progress.

The story so far: the draft of Hal Spacejock III is due in next Tuesday. Over the past week I've been scribbling on a printed version, turning the last five chapters into a mess of arrows, underlining and crossing out. I've inserted sentences describing new scenes, added comments explaining what the sentences are for, and then added notes explaining the comments explaining the sentences.




One page amongst 30 from the end of the book


So far so good... this is working. Now, some months back I generated a DOC file from my Hal 3 yWriter project because I thought I'd finished the structural stuff. Since then I've done two line editing drafts, which means the original project is outdated and unusable. So, today I tried to perform the edits in the word processor, and within half an hour I felt like I was up to my waist in quicksand and sinking fast. I couldn't get an overview of what I'd changed, what needed doing, what the structure looked like now that I'd moved scenes around, whether the chapters still ended on high points or hooks... nothing. I couldn't find the placemarkers for new scenes I had to write, or the comments I'd written telling me what they should contain. I couldn't link the narrative, quickly check that characters weren't in two places at once... I couldn't function, full stop.

Finally, in desperation, I cut the last five chapters from the DOC file and built a new yWriter project. I pasted the chapters into files, automatically split on the scene breaks (* * *) and applied scene descriptions and titles. Then I marked scenes as 'outline', 'draft', '1st edit' and so on. I felt myself relaxing as I did this, gradually hauling myself out of the Quicksand of Despair. By 1pm I was ready to write again, and by 4pm I'd knocked off two thousand words and knew exactly what I needed to do to finish the book off.

This isn't a commercial for yWriter (it's a free program anyway, and I really don't care if I'm the only person on the planet using it), but I don't understand how other writers can sit down with a big DOC file and come up with a coherent book. I'm an organised person with a decent attention span and a very good memory, but I'm in awe of anyone who can leap about in a huge file and make it work.

I realise Word and OO have outlining, but it's never worked for me. Last time I tried every line of dialogue was picked out as a heading, which defeats the purpose of an outline. And you can't drag and drop a scene, and editing comments is clunky, and... Well, they're not yWriter.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Final final

I just put the corrected galleys for Hal Spacejock Second Course in the mail. Just two minor things, neither of them important. I then spent more time writing a new bio than I did reading the galleys - or at least it seemed that way.

After I mailed the parcel I enjoyed the feeling of relief for all of five minutes. Then I opened up the Hal 3 file and continued work. This one is currently 84000 words, which is 4k longer than the first two books in the series. My plan is to trim the excess over the next two revisions, tightening up meandering dialogue by converting four lines into two or removing them altogether. (It's amazing how much better dialogue sounds when you trim it back.)

I have two characters to remove, and a minor character I'm planning to promote to major (hah). Book two features a strong female character (Sonya Polarov) opposing Hal, and while I don't want book three to be a carbon copy, there IS a minor character (Lieutenant-Colonel Ortiz of the Cathuan military) with a similar role. What can I say? I like writing kick-arse female characters prepared to take charge of their own destiny.

In the current revision Ortiz appears halfway through the book, but my plan now is to introduce her in chapter three, where a group of soldiers infiltrate a robot plant. That means dumping the two characters I mentioned, who currently run that mission. They also appear in a later scene, discussing the typical fate of movie henchmen, which will be dropped completely. If you want to read it, scour the web for the Bowman Publishing edition of Hal Spacejock Just Desserts. Good luck, as there are only 90 or so in circulation. ;-)

I also have a scene where Hal dresses up as a stewardess after Clunk mis-reads a contract. I'm wavering over this one - it's a bit of a farce, and I usually avoid making idiots out of my characters. Problem is, there are two events during the flight which are significant later, so dropping the whole scene isn't an option.

Oh well, back to it.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Pleased with Hal

I got an email from my publisher today, telling me they're very pleased with the sales of Hal Spacejock. Hopefully the sales are about to get even better, because the Abbeys/Galaxy Xmas catalogue has my book on page 12.
On the down side, Hal Spacejock Second Course now has something to live up to. Trust me to find a cloud enveloping every silver lining ;-)

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Nanowrimo Winner

I worked steadily for 23 days, writing 1700 words or so per day until I reached 41500 words. Then I came up with the mad plan to write 7500 words in a single day. It worked - and because I only had 900 to go by 10pm I knocked them off as well. Hasta la vista, Nano.

I should point out that I write fiction via an internal editor. I don't splash down grammatically incorrect repetitious nonsense and hope to clean it up later: I write as if my draft were to be published as-is.

On the other hand, my major plot ideas come after I've written the bulk of the book. I like to write in scenes, and I like to string together scenes for each viewpoint character. What I mean is, I'll keep writing about one character and just fling in notes about what the other characters are doing in the meantime. When I run out of inspiration I just write one of the other characters' streams. What happens is that one stream will influence another, and then I have fresh ideas to carry those along.

Tying them up at the end is the fun part.

For example, Hal 4 features three or four subplots and I had no idea where there were all going or how they were linked. I was happy to just mine each one, writing along with the knowledge that weaving the threads could come later. Now, after several days of reflection, I've come up with what I think is a killer plot which neatly joins the bits together. The trick now is to re-read and edit the threads so that each has clues & references to the others and to the overall plot. You can't know all this stuff before you begin writing, believe me, and I think many first-time authors fall at this hurdle. Staring at a blank page and hoping to come up with a knock-out plot isn't the way to do it.

When you read a book there's no knowing which bits the author thought of up front, and which were cunningly inserted in a later draft. A novice writer might read a novel and wonder how the author come up with all these twists and turns. Well, they probably didn't. They just wrote and wrote until they had a messy first draft, then kept only the bits which followed the plot they ended up with, and wrote other bits to bridge the gaps.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Fandomedia Thanks

I just wanted to say a public thanks to Ju for inviting me to Fandomedia. Perth fans are a great bunch of people, and the program was well thought out. Plenty of time for chat, eating and drinking, and the Emerald hotel is very con-friendly.
I had a ball on several panels including interview with an Alien: Chuck McKenzie and his reproductive hands and Erika as the team leader for Perth Inter-Species Specialists (We're real artists) Other highlights included the Goodies panel, the Sunday morning coffee panel featuring Kaneda the barista and much detail on why a lot of cafe coffee sucks, and chatting to a number of writers throughout.
I've been attending cons for over five years now, but this was the first one where my wife and I managed to schedule things with the kids so she could attend. I'm sure it was nothing like she expected: Many people think cons are just a bunch of weirdos dressed in Trekkie uniforms. She didn't have THAT perception (because I've told her about cons in the past), but I don't think I'd managed to convey the friendliness of the all-embracing fan community. Well, now she knows.
Fandomedia 2005 is done. Look out for Fandomedia 2006!

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Go Socceroos!

Aussie Aussie Aussie Oy Oy Oy!
Yeehah ... Australia just qualified for the soccer World Cup!
You're not going to believe the coverage it's going to get in this country. From now until the tournament in Germany next year it's going to be soccer soccer soccer. For too long the world game has been a second cousin to rugby and AFL here, but this is going to boost it unbelievably.
My local archery club was absolutely swamped when Australia won a gold medal in 2000, as parents herded their budding Robin Hoods in for their chance at fame and fortune. Now everywhere you go you'll see kids in green and gold booting soccer balls around.

Update: It seems SBS captured 36% of the Australian TV-watching audience last night, and the peak viewing audience matched those for the opening and closing ceremonies at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. For decades SBS has been plugging away with soccer while the other channels (ie. the ones most people watch) completely ignored it. All I can say is HAH!
Aussie newspapers are reporting a 40% spike in visits to their sites as people get to work and catch up on the aftermath of the game, and on the Age website I notice that eight of the top ten most viewed articles are soccer-related - the first seven plus the ninth. (The other two are probably stories on how soccer balls are made.)
Sydney is planning a ticker-tape parade - perhaps as early as tomorrow (most of the Socceroos play for european clubs, and will need to get back 'home' for their weekend games.)
Australia is a sport-mad country, there's no doubt about it.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Promo CD

Hal Spacejock is appearing on the Fantastic Queensland Speculative Fiction Library promo CD. If you follow the link you'll find a web-based version of the disk, which features 14 Aussie SF/Fantasy authors with extracts from their latest books plus a bonus article or short story from each one. I submitted the first chapter of Hal Spacejock along with a humorous fantasy story originally published in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Launch of Australian Specfic in focus (ASif!)

Check out ASif! (Australian Specfic in focus!) – launched today with over 50 reviews by 22 reviewers of Australian speculative fiction and comics. The site aims to double review every Australian publication, author and artist of specfic. A big task, but someone’s gotta do it.

The aim is to have all the low-down you need to find out what you want to read and where you need to go to buy it. And for the next month, there are freebie prizes, including a copy of the forthcoming Shadow Box CD, for spiffy answers to the online treasurehunt! What are you waiting for? Visit ASif! now!

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Sunday Times mention

A couple of weeks ago Hal Spacejock got a mention in a comedy piece on literary awards (Miles Franklin crossed with the Brownlow count. You have to be an Aussie for this one.) Personally I wouldn't have typed the whole article in just to share it (copywrite plus waste of time.) However, it's posted on Tara Moss's news page so click the link and have a giggle.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Nano progress

My goal is 1700 words of fiction per day, for a total of 52700 words by November 30. So far, so good: I'm six words ahead of schedule.
That means I've written 10,206 new words of Hal Spacejock 4 in six days, and when you factor in a day job, my part-time software business and family life it's not bad going.
Occasionally I wonder why I'm putting myself through the extra pressure, particularly when I could be editing Hal Spacejock 3 - unlike #4, that one's under contract. The answer is that the first three Hal books are coming out at six month intervals, and if my publisher decides to extend the series I need to write them now. To meet that six month deadline, each book has to be finished before the previous one is released. Hal 3 will be ready by March '06 for a release date of Sept '06. Hal 4, if there's going to be one, would have to be written and edited by Sept '06. Hal 5 by March '07.
Bear in mind I've had no word from my publisher on any of this - they've only just brought out book one, and for all I know they might be wishing they hadn't! But I have to plan ahead, and one Hal book every six months means there's no let-up.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

NanoWrimo begins

Every year thousands of dedicated writers set out to write a complete novel in a month. November is that month, and it started at one minute past midnight on the first (today, as I write this.)
I've signed up this year, hoping to knock off half of Hal Spacejock 4 by the 30th. (A complete Hal Spacejock novel is around 90,000 words.)
Why did I sign up when I already know I can write a whole novel? In a nutshell, I work best with a deadline and I enjoy a challenge.
The Nano deadline suits me because it's much easier to skip unimportant stuff when you have to write 1,700 words each and every day. There's also the reward aspect, where you won't allow yourself another coffee until you reach 500, 1000, 1500 words, or you're not allowed any TV or DVDs or casual web browsing unless you've done your quota for the day. That works quite well.
The challenge is a major one - Assuming you get 250 words on a double-spaced manuscript page with industry standard margins (ie. huge), 1700 words is almost 8 pages. And that's not dictation or copying from a book - it's all fresh fiction from your brain. Every day.
I'm off to the dentist in about 1/2 hour, but when I get back it's writing time. My goal is to start off with 3000 words.
By the way, you might like to check out my NanoWrimo Progress Forms

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

First review of Hal Spacejock

This is the moment authors dread even more than opening envelopes with rejections in. The first review. Will they get the humour? Will they pick the plot to pieces?

See for yourself

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Articles

I've been waiting patiently for this, and can now report that the West Australian newspaper printed their article featuring me & my books. It was a full page piece, very well written and condensed from the original chat I had with the journalist. (The West is Western Australia's only daily newspaper, with a weekday circulation of around 210,000 copies)

Aside from the article and a photo of the book, readers were also treated to a mugshot which will have old ladies reaching for the CrimeStoppers phone number.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Download a new Hal adventure

While you're waiting for Hal 2 you might like to view this totally unauthorised Hal adventure entitled Hal's New Ship.

Coming next, a Clunk version called 'Where's my Hal?'

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Appearances

Two of them, one soon and one a long way off.

The first appearance is at Fantastic Planet on the 28th of October. I'll be doing a reading from Hal Spacejock at 4:30pm (Fantastic Planet is an SF bookstore in Shafto Lane, Perth, Western Australia.)

The second is a three-day event called Kids' Lit 2006. This will be the fifth annual festival of children’s literature, reading, writing and illustrating to be conducted by All Saints’ College. The focus is on the promotion of young people’s literacy, and they have a packed program with about 8 concurrent streams. Over the past four years they've attracted 40,000+ visitors, and it's getting bigger each time. I'll link to the program and ticketing details once they're available online. It's a prestigious event and it sounds like a blast, so I'm very happy to be invited.

Update - Make that three appearances. I forgot to mention Fandomedia. (Sorry Ju)

Just a reminder that I maintain an appearances page on the Hal Spacejock website.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

Free short fiction

I decided to put four of my previously published short stories online. One appeared in the first issue of Potato Monkey, and promptly won an Aurealis Award. The other three appeared in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine in 2001 and 2002.
You'll find details on the Hal Spacejock website, including mini synopsis and info on original publication dates. They're all very different - Fantasy/humour, SF/humour, straight SF and a short comedy piece.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)