Summary: I wrote 10 new chapters. I'd introduce the voice narrator for the book's sample. I did journalism as a food critic. My book needs feedback. And I mentioned two of my important anniversaries.
You know what I hate? Energy drinks and waking up and realizing you forgot to charge your phone the night before.
So I figured that after drinking my first couple of energy drinks in 2022, I would stop drinking them. But juggling school, work, and writing my first novel is tiring, but it's the good kind of tiredness that comes from working hard. So no matter how hard I try, I always end up buying a can of Red Bull to stay awake to work on the book.
And no matter how hard I try to plug my phone in to charge it, I either forget or I remember that the outlet is too far from my bed, and I will absolutely refuse to get up once I get too comfortable to plug it in. Absolutely not.
10 Brand-New Chapters & Found the Story Direction!
But today, the last day of January, I'm happy to announce that I've finished and written ten brand-new chapters, making a total of 70 chapters with 95,942 words! Yaaaaaay! After taking a three-month break from writing, I came up with a lot of new story ideas and plot twists that I had to write about.
And I finally figured out where the book's story is going. This means I know exactly how I want the story to start and how I want it to end. It amazed me that it took me ten months to figure out what the story of the book was going to be about. So far, I'm very happy with how the story is going.
Most of the ten chapters I wrote were great, but there was one chapter I didn't like as much. I still wrote it, though, in case I wanted to use it in the book or one of my other upcoming novels. And I liked this other chapter I wrote because it really helped me figure out who the main character is and brought him to life through writing.
“Team of Critics” Wanted
And in the real world, especially in the business world, you have to trust others to get where you want to go in life, which is not an easy thing to do. So, I'm going to make a huge decision that will help me finish the first draft of the book quickly and effectively.
And that decision is to find a list of writers or story critics. This means I'm going to reveal my story to a few people I can trust so I can get feedback and criticism about the book. Why? To figure out what I can do to make the story more interesting and make it seem more real and to make the fictional characters seem more realistic, unique, and relatable. I'll reveal my story ideas to them, the ideas that I created on my own and worked hard on over the past many months ever since I first started writing the book on day one. Again, it requires trust, which is something I look forward to giving out to only a few selected people.
I'm very fortunate to have found one reliable writer who's on board with this idea (I'll name that person if you keep reading), but I need at least three more. Most likely, they'll be my close buddies or colleagues who like writing as much as I do or who love to read. The more feedback I get for the book, the better my chances of finishing this project.
Introducing the Voice Narrator 4 the Book's Sample
Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of meeting the voice narrator in person that can voice the book's sample, which is exciting news. And I've been working with him as well.
In my previous progress report on November 2nd, I said that I had two potential candidates to narrate the book and be the voice of the main character. But the first candidate, Francisco, left a big impression on me and has been chosen for the role. And he's also a writer who enjoys writing too that agrees to help to give feedback on my book.
I heard a sample recording of him portraying a fictional character in a small stop-motion video that he created himself, and is very impressive to watch! And surprisingly enough, his voice has a striking resemblance to how I imagine the main character would sound.
Francisco can pronounce words clearly with no or little mistakes and has some acting experience in his past, which is a huge plus, so he can make an effort to mimic the main character's speech and caption the tone while narrating the first sample of the book. So he is one of the few people who got to see the rough draft of the book before it was finished. He got to look at the summary and learn about some of the most important events that occur in the book. This helped him to understand the main character before narrating the book.
In Preparation for the First Book Sample & Scripts...
Currently, I'm preparing the voice narrator for his script, which is the first sample of the book. I want to write a short piece of the story for him to read and narrate out loud that doesn't give away too much about the plot but gives a sense of the story's genre.
I'm looking forward to doing this task for the book. Not only am I looking forward to writing the sample of the book but also I look forward to writing scripts to improve my writing.
And I am ready to move up the writing ladder from writing stories for ten months to writing scripts such as for plays, informative speeches, skits, screenwriting, etc. With time and work, I can reach this big milestone, just like I did before.
"The Main Character"
And also, I want to clear up this one misconception that I got this month. In my last progress report, I did say that I and the main character have a lot in common, but that doesn't mean we're the same guy with a different name. No, not even close. I'll admit that he and the story itself is fictional, but I will say that the book was inspired by my life experiences and all the moral lessons I learned growing up from a child to a young adult.
As I was writing a scene for one of the ten new chapters, I came across experiences the main character went through firsthand at a very young age. Some of his experiences I could never fully understand or relate to. And that being honest with myself. And I don't want to reveal anything about his experiences since it would spoil the book. It will require me to learn a lot about psychology and how people think, which is something I'm eager to do.
Journalism as a Food Critic
So, I decided to try journalism this month to improve my writing skills. One of a journalist's jobs is to review restaurants. Where I set a goal to try the food at six different restaurants and give feedback on how it tastes, how the atmosphere is, and how well the staff treats customers. And I set a deadline for when I had to be done.
Here's the thing, though: it was a fail, which is fine because you have to fail to succeed. I didn't get around to reviewing all six of them because... the prices of the meals were too costly. I could only manage to write four reviews. And I won't be able to finish this project until next month, when I will have saved enough money to continue this mini-project.
While I'm working on that, here's a piece of my creative writing I wrote (that I totally didn't do at the last minute the night before class)—so go ahead and check it out, please, and thank you! Here's the link to that to read more: https://mikemelero123.wixsite.com/website/post/what-not-to-do-at-a-stoplight
Two Important Anniversaries of Mine Are Arriving Soon! 🎉
In the next three months, I have two anniversaries coming up. One of them will be the one-year anniversary of starting the book. A whole calendar year! The book's first birthday!
Seriously, it blows my mind that I did that, and I’m proud of myself. And thank you for keeping up this blog site. Even though I don’t get enough traffic from this site, I’m thankful and grateful that at least one person took the time out of their day to read this. That alone uplifts me and boosts me to keep going until the very end.
And I really appreciate it when friends or family stop me when they see me in person or call or text me about the book to ask questions or congratulate me, so thank you for that. I hope everyone has a good day and ends up winning a million dollars after reading this. Thank you for your time; god bless!
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