Blurb 1.0

Right. Here it is. My first attempt at a blurb for Calibre. Some feedback would be awesome, but I'm self-aware enough to know that nobody actually looks at this, and if you have it's probably because of my direct instruction for you to do so, so just go back to my MSN/Facebook IM window and tell me there. As I said... this is my first attempt. I've never really created a blurb for a finalised product (I've made one here and there to try and stir interest amidst my friends, then go on to write nothing to assign it to). So I really do what to know how it sounds... so without further ado...

The giant pods of Pen Expers that somehow hang in the air; the town of Photo, where it always rains; the monstrosity that is Building 12... The world of the Fectoprine is a curious one. But something is terribly wrong.

As man attempts to scrub the world of a deity, the extraordinary are the enemy. Acting as the remnants of the mysterious Ruben Storm, those who possess calibres - supernatural abilities granted to seemingly random individuals - are dubbed competitors and hunted down. For it is only a matter of time until they become the ‘host’ - nothing but a projection of Ruben himself - and potentially destroy the Fectoprine... or redefine humanity itself. But what place does humanity have in this world?

Eric Paradinas is a competitor, possessing a tongue of silver that only the deaf can defy, who becomes reluctantly entangled in the ongoing battle between the two distinct sides. While both parties seem to share the same goal - destroy Ruben Storm - they have very different ideas as to how it will be done. And the clock is ticking, but only the elusive nemesis knows the ring of its chime...

So yeah. Let us know. Any good? Would you consider reading a book with this blurb? Thanks!

Actual progress!

About four weeks after I finished the first draft, I started marking it up. Admittedly, I did not pick up many errors, which was kind of frustrating as I knew they would inevitably be there. But my main goal - to ensure coherence in the next draft - is mostly achieved... on paper, at least. I'm yet to go through the actual documents and make the changes I've outlined, but I'm actually up to that stage now.
Right now, I actually feel rather stupid - it took me two fairly long days to mark up seven chapters. I could have finished this stage months ago. Now that I've arranged to have it looked over for errors and consistency by somebody else, which I believe will easily be a more effective method, it frustrates me that I put off doing something so simple for so long, thus meaning I can't send it right to them yet. However, at least soon I will have a coherent draft, with all of the crap that I don't want, cut.
I have a headache. Ttyl.

Just a note

Due to the fact that I have actually finished the first draft of Calibre, and don't really care too much to talk about the mundane editing process which I'm yet to begin, I'm probably going to start using this like an actual blog. With that said, onward...

Last night, tired impulse had me consider trying to do something a little more experimental with my time before beginning another large novel project. Funnily enough, though, the idea may be simpler when it comes to the storytelling side of it, but its complexity in structure will probably be enough to put me off the idea the moment I try to start it. Yet... that's what I thought about writing a novel less than six months ago, so I might as well talk about it.

At the moment, it's titled Erin Decides - Erin being an intentionally unisex name, as the character's identity to the reader is pretty irrelevant. It is going to be a create your own adventure. There's not really a better way to put it. And I'm well aware that, if you are my age - a nineties kid - your mind has automatically presented you (hopefully) fond memories of the CYOA Goosebumps books. That's not really the kind of thing I will be going for, though.

Instead of presenting the reader with a choice at the end of segments, Erin Decides will instead be a 'flowing' narrative - essentially a free-flowing narrative - in which the reader interacts via 'denial'. Because the reader is not Erin, Erin is able to make their own decisions. But you can deny said decisions. In context of a digital version, which will probably be the only kind, decisions are distinguished from the rest of the body of the story, like Erin doing something as simple as pouring themselves a cup of coffee. You can deny this decision, and thus the story changes accordingly. The idea is that the initial decisions made by the reader will create completely different scenarios (which means there will be no single plot for the experiment).

This will result in a huge web of possibilities - every single decision in the project will affect the story in some way, from obvious things like somehow lagging Erin's progress; to more complex interactions, most probably with other people, that will go on to echo throughout the narrative and affect it in ways that you will not realise unless you do it all again with minor changes. Yes, it is going to be fairly difficult to make, and I intend to do planning. I'm not particularly optimistic about it actually working, but it's an experiment! What's there to lose? Free time I'm currently spending on nothing, really.

Back to Calibre briefly... at the moment, I'm not touching it. I've decided to let it cool off before getting stuck into the editing. Plus, I would like to kick start another project, whether it be Erin Decides or Time & Place or Surrogate. Whatever happens, really. But I hope to brush off all of the errors and course-correct oddities in Calibre before my birthday. *shrugs* I'm not really rushed any more, but I still would like to move onward all the same.