Of Beginnings

Where to begin.

Where to begin is something I often wonder, and I’m sure I’m not alone.

With something like this, a blog, where do you start?  Do you start at the beginning?  And if so, which beginning?

I have no idea where you start.

I start here.  Or…well I started up there.

That’s beyond the point.

The point is, I want to write.  I’ve wanted to write for a long time, almost as long as I’ve wanted to read.

Reading, that’s pretty easy, all things considered.  I feel like I’ve gotten the hang of it over the years.  Grab book, or newspaper, or fancy electronic device, or cereal box, then look at little squiggly lines as long as it takes, until hopefully words start making sense.

Writing; writing’s a bit different.

I keep hearing, very often, that the only way to learn to write is to write more.  Write until you’ve finished something, and then continue to write.  It’s pretty good advice, as far as I can tell, and so far I’ve followed it.

I’ve written one thing; one novel.  The Fire and the Fog.  A young-adult fantasy.  A fairly simple beginning, but a beginning nonetheless.

Now, I’ve begun working on a sequel. 

Write until you’ve finished something, and then write more, right?

I feel I may be using that word too much.

Right now, I’m doing character outlines, location planning, setting out the first ‘act’ of the second book.  I have some broad ideas, ideas of where to begin and where to end, and vague, nebulous notion that there should probably be words somewhere in the middle.

What I find myself wondering now though, is what do I do with the first book I’ve written?  What do I do with The Fire and the Fog?

I’ve put it up on Kindle independently, for $0.99.  I’ve had 125 copies printed, and I have sold ~75 of them so far.  I’ve sent the manuscript off to two different publishing companies, Penguin (through the DAW imprint), and TOR, and await answers from both.

So there’s the background, now we can get back to the beginning.  The beginning of this blog is, I suppose, a way to chronicle the progress I make on my second novel, and the progress I make trying to get published.

Where this blog might end, who knows.

But at least there’s a beginning.