Creating Silver Part 7 – The Sequel

This is part 7 of my series called, “Creating Silver.” This blog and its posts will talk about the troubles I went through brainstorming, writing, and publishing The Silver Ninja. I will talk about user reviews, sales, editing, marketing and any other miscellaneous obstacles I encountered along the way. I’m also going to talk about what went wrong.

 

What went horribly wrong…

 

Let’s recap – You’ve written the book, edited, formatted, published, marketed, and took your review score beatings and praise. What’s next? Well the obvious answer is… you write your next book! Or, if you realized being a writer is not much fun and this process is annoying, then you can retire to your day job. For me? I still don’t consider myself a “writer” but I do want to write more Silver Ninja stories to share with the public.

There needs to be more positive female role models in mainstream society, and I will gladly suffer through the hair pulling of publishing a book to make it happen. Anyway, regardless of the author’s motive, the point of your next book is to make it better than the last. The sequel or next stand-alone book, is your chance to fix the mistakes you made the first time around. The only way to improve as a writer, is to write more. This is the advice you will see from any best-selling author, just keep on writing more stories, essays, etc. Continue practicing your craft like an artist practicing how to draw. Oops! There I go with the similes again, I gotta really cut down.

As for The Silver Ninja, her adventures have not come to an end. I had always intended to write two books, and therefore I am happy to announce…

The Silver Ninja II: Indoctrination

Series: Silver

Premise:
    A super heroine  is accused of murdering a CIA agent’s family and has been taken prisoner. The superheroine claims she’s innocent, but is there a hint of truth to the accusation? Time is not on the heroines side, she has discovered the location of a nerve gas bomb and needs to disarm it before it poisons the United States east coast.

Marketing blurb – Rough Draft (Work in progress)

“After Cindy Ames, also known as The Silver Ninja, puts a stop to a rebel uprising in New York City, she powers-down her high-tech nanosuit in the hopes of never hurting another soul again. To repair a damaged relationship with her husband, Jonas, she willingly sacrifices a life of super strength, heroics and dangerous exhilaration. Unfortunately, she soon discovers that the past cannot be so easily erased. A CIA agent is stalking her for reasons unknown, and Cindy hasn’t the faintest idea who this mysterious operative could be.

“To make matters worse, Jonas has been arrested for developing illegal weapons used in the failed attempt to takeover New York City. When the lives of those she loves are threatened, Cindy is forced to transform into The Silver Ninja once again. But realizing she can’t win this battle alone, Cindy enlists the aid of her sister, Jadie The Ruby Ninja. With her sister’s help, Cindy hopes to avoid past mistakes, but will Jadie be willing to stand by Cindy’s side after their past history?”

 

Click ME to read a sneak peek of Silver 2.

 

I’ve had to update this blog post, because I’ve started reading tips from www.advancedfictionwriting.com and Techniques of the $elling Author. If you haven’t read either of these 2 resources and you intend on writing a book, do it, now! Also, you may want to pick up a copy of How -NOT- to Write a Novel. Okay, did you at least google the books wannabe writers? Let’s get started with how these books have strongly influenced what I’m doing for the second book.

I’m not going to cover “How -not- to Write a Novel” because surprisingly, I didn’t break that many rules from that particular book. No, my book had problems which could be boiled down into 3 topics: writing, characterization, and plot. So far, what I’ve discovered from my writing exercises is this. The Snowflake method eliminates characterization and plot issues. Stumbled into a plot hole while writing? Snowflake addresses that. Don’t know what your characters want? Snowflake asks you.

So, what’s so great about the Snowflake method that I keep raving on and on about? Well, quite simply, it lays out your entire book from end to end. Once you see the grand scheme of it all, Snowflake helps you go in and tweak the nuts and bolts of your story. The one catastrophic change you make no longer has to destroy your manuscript, you can now be prepared and tweak accordingly. Seeing your story in a segmented overview also allows you to remove plot holes before you commit to writing them. In addition, one of the most dreaded questions an author can receive is, “What’s your book about?” Well, Snowflake asks you that very same question before you type a single letter.

 

In less than 15 words, what is The Silver Ninja II about?

 

“A guilt-ridden superheroine is being hunted by a CIA agent.”

 

Simple, right? It keeps you focused on what your book is about and reminds you not to get sidetracked with sub-plots. Snowflake also addresses a big problem I had in my first book which is characterization. Generally people liked Cindy as a strong female protagonist; but at times she could be whiny, brooding, and very selfish. Her supporting cast also lacked a bit of depth, and in some cases the males were considered stereotypical and very shallow. In essence, the supporting characters didn’t really offer much for the reader to get invested in. So how am I going to address these glaring problems?

One of the most important changes is going to take place in the evolution of Cindy’s character. I intentionally started her off in a dark place in book 1 so that people could see the day and night transformation of her character. Sadly, I lacked the experience to pull off what I intended in the first book, but it doesn’t matter now. With book 2 I have the freedom to turn Cindy into a paragon of heroism. There’s going to be a lot less whining and a lot more selflessness in her actions. She’s still going to have her flaws, but Cindy is going to actively stop herself from making the same mistakes she did in the first one. Readers who have read the 1st book will be familiar with some of her more ‘private’ issues that still plague her. Those demons will still be present in the 2nd book, as I feel it’s not an issue that can be overcome just by saying so. She has to retain her insecurities and flaws to make people believe she is real, but at the same time show how she rises to the challenge.

Jonas on the other hand, Jonas is going to be a challenge to write. I have some ideas on how to make him more relatable and significant to the story; but I recognize that he’s going to be a difficult character to pull off. He’s very complicated and not easy to describe. However, now that I’ve used Snowflake method, I think I will be able to turn him into a very compelling character.

Michael is going to have an interesting role in this book. The events from the previous book are going to carry over, and he’s going to have to adjust his life accordingly. I think this will provide me a great opportunity to give Michael a lot more depth than he had in the first one. He will be forced to face past issues and may even have to make a few confessions.

Jadie, ah Jadie. Get ready to see a new side of her that hasn’t been revealed before. Sure she may be the typical younger sibling living in her sister’s shadow, but wait till you find out why she quit the Coast Guard. Unlike Cindy’s story, Jadie’s pride gets in the way of what could have been a successful career. She’s going to be a very fun character to write, and I can’t wait to have the two of them going at it again.

The CIA Agent, the big mystery villain. I can’t say too much about this character, except that this is the person I am most looking forward to writing about. I have been dreaming and thinking about this character for years now, and I can’t wait to introduce you. I really wish I could say more, but let’s just say that this will not be your typical villain.

Enough about characterization, let’s talk about plot issues. How are we going to deal with these pesky things? Well the answer is devilishly simple. The story elements need to be pre-plotted out via a scene list. With the Snowflake Method, I will be able to keep the three act structure into perspective and can address plot holes before I write anything. So if I know that I want a scene with a skyscraper, I know a beach town isn’t going to fit the setting unless it’s in Miami or Atlantic City. I can also see at a glance when an action doesn’t have a motivation. Example: Why is character A buying ice cream if they stated in a previous scene that they’re full? You will be able to nip these problems in the bud, just by having a simple scene list in front of you. I’m also hoping that with the help of beta readers and a new editor, I will be able to avoid the issues that plagued the 1st book.

 

With all that being said, what is the theme of Silver 2?

 

Silver 2 is going to be about consequence. Every action that Cindy, Jonas, and Michael made will affect their lives. Jadie isn’t on the list because she paid her dues in the 1st book. Cindy tries to run away from her past, but it constantly catches up to her. Jonas’s involvement in designing the weapons used in the New York uprising will have drastic repercussions. And the reveal of Michael’s secrets will teach him the true meaning of regret. Expect to see a brand new Cindy, re-born from the ashes of her past sins, to be molded into a super heroine of legend.

And on that note, my blog series Creating Silver draws to a close. For all you budding, indie, self-published authors out there. I hope this blog helped put into perspective the journey ahead of you. If there’s one important thing I hope you take away from this blog, it’s this.

 

Keep writing and finish what you write. Ideas are a dime a dozen, but are worthless without representation in the physical world. What good is an idea if you don’t have any tangible way of sharing it with others? Instead, capture those floating ideas and write them into existence. Don’t talk about it, be about it. No one cares about the story you’ve been talking about writing for 10 years and the cool ideas you have to go with it, people want to see you put your money where your mouth is. So whatever it is you want to create, create it. You never know if what you make can change someone’s life.

 

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog series, but don’t stop visiting! I will have plenty to talk about as I continue to write Silver II and will even discuss a horror project I have waiting to be edited. Hope to see you again soon!

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Wilmar Luna

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Wilmar Luna

Wilmar Luna

Couldn't be a superhero in real life so he decided to write his own. When he's not creating empowered female characters he can be found watching films, reading books, and playing lots of video games. Buy his books here: https://www.thesilverninja.com/purchase/