The content of the chapter veered as I realized there were some story issues I needed to deal with before I could deal with the issues I planned to deal with…and isn’t THAT clear as mud?
But I ended up moving the scene title “The Face In The Mirror Is Not Mine” to the next scene, and renaming the current scene “Ghost.”
For reasons that will become apparent.
Finished the scene. 1017 words tonight, and writing that flowed pretty well for me, in which I managed to surprise myself a couple of times—always a nice plus.
And I got the scene posted, too, so it’ll go out in the next mail cycle to folks who are caught up. It’s #18, if you’re not sure how far along you are in the story.
And I now have 27,675 words of my proposed 50,000 word first draft completed. More than half—a point I’d failed to notice until just now.
{ 101 comments… read them below or add one }
Whoa! Had a little writing explosion today.
I woke up with a side project floating in my head. . .I had started it while I was writing something else, before I decided I needed to pick one project, and focus on it until it was finished. I chose my currrant WiP. But the side project wouldn’t leave me alone, so I said what the hell?
1252 Words.
So I thought I was done for the day. But as it got later I felt guilty for not working on my “real” WiP. So, I figure, I can at least watch the cursor for a bit, even if I’m tapped for the day. . .
861 Words.
Total of 2113 Words? Seriously?
My MC forces some information out of her boyfriend, despite the fact that she’s shocky and exhausted from her run-in with the Villain. His information is also shocking, and by the end of the scene she’s balling in his arms. On one hand I love it. . . on the other I hate it. Just one of those things I guess. . .
Amazing wordcount! Congrats!
Well done!
You might love it or hate it now, but I find if you leave a piece of writing for a while and roll on, when you go back to it you’ll be able to decide which you really feel.
Wow- that’s so great!
talk about a productive day.
Only 745 words today, all on my main project.
I sort of want to keep working on both projects on a regular basis. . . but I’m not sure how much of that is trying to run from my “real” WiP, which is now completely of the planned track. . .
Anyway, the Boyfriend puts my MC to bed after her crying jag and plans to leave. . .and runs into my MC’s Mom who is just getting home from work.
I’m just full of evil anticipation of my MC’s reaction when she wakes up to find her boyfriend and her mom chatting over dinner. . . .
832 Words.
I had a little fun, My MC threw a little fit, and there was a small supernatural incident to round the scene off.
But I’m still feeling a bit lost. Sigh.
I know how I want this to end. . .I just have no idea how to there from here. . .
Those damned Wolves just had to show up and wreck the party!
That’s a lotta words, Holly. Excellent. I love the way you have turned around and “bam” so much is done. I am learning a lot from that.
I am working on Bet1, a story I started for a sf writing class assignment many moons and years ago. I went to print the work I had done for class and found something like 15 files and about 30,000 words. I don’t know whether to apply HTTS or HTRYN. I plan to read through this mess the next few days, and see what is worth keeping an re-writing and what to toss.
I have an outline this time, with a beginning, middle and end, and a twist.
I first word count goal will be in the novella range, 20-30K. Maybe, by then, I can see if it needs to be shortened to a short story or lengthened into a novel.
Lot of real life interference this weekend. Oh well. Hopefully this week will go better. Did lots of brainstorming Friday and hope to get some in today as well.
Brainstorming yesterday too. (My laptop is in intensive care so stuck with pen + paper for awhile.)
Oops, I submitted my post under HannaBelle rather than Hanna, and it did not display. Not sure why.
Though I love my Bx2 story, I decided to let it simmer. Stepped back to pick up an earlier work, done for a sf class I took many years ago. Bet1. Wow, I found over 15 files, 20K+ some words, 50 pages …
Now I am not sure whether to apply HTTS or HTRYN!!
Either way, I have an outline nwo and a pretty solid sentence, and a twisty twist that I like. I plan to read what I have and divide it out by story, character, setting and not sure but still want to use it.
My goal is novella length, 20K. If I can get at least that, then I can decide if it needs to be edited to a short story or lengthened to a novel.
I want to FINISH something — good, bad or indifferent.
Also, am toying with the idea of leaving for work a lot earlier, then putting in a half hour of writing time at the office before I start work-work. Not sure how that will me, getting up and leaving that much earlier …
Your previous post didn’t display because you hadn’t posted here under that name before. I have the first post by EVERYone moderated so we don’t get a lot of spam posts (cleared out over 300 of those yesterday). Thanks to Akismet and the “first post” rule, you folks never saw any of those.
You’re cleared now for either name.
If I just change the email, but not the name will that be a problem? Will do that for the next comment.
Oh, okay. I thought it was by email not name. Well, now I am double approved, as long as I don’t come up with a new name.
Holy Holly !…I think I’d have (bigger) bags under my eyes if I were to write that long…kudos to you. A wise tidbit for all – I had started a novel about 7 years ago and had finished the first three chapters. I shelved the book (on my computer) and password protected it. Now, wouldn’t you know, seven years later I no longer remember the password nor can I find the hard copy. Lesson be learned !
Dean
You might try this although it depends on your version of office. Take a copy of your word document and paste it to a different location (just to make sure you don’t mess up the actual file). You would then just update the extension of the file. (ex: Story1.doc becomes Story1.txt). If you use the txt extension, it’ll open in notepad and should bypass the password. If that opens too jumbled, you might try making another copy of the original document but use the .rtf extension instead. rtf keeps most of the word formatting but possibly it will remove the password.
Of course I think Office might have closed that loop in later versions but it won’t hurt anything to try (as long as you use a copy of the document and keep the original somewhere safe).
About 1000 words on a couple of scenes in The Silent Warrior (aka Chapter 12)
I think I may have convin cingly managed to tie the heroes’ angst to the Apocalyptically Important Thing half a continent away.
Which sets up directly the meeting with Ol’ Snake Eyes.
…
Mwahahahahahaahhahahahahahaha!!
I think you’ve forgotten an important thing: the crack of thunder in the background, to go with your evil cackling. I can’t believe all the important things kids forget nowadays! XD
Good job
Hardly! The entire chapter takes place during a thunderstorm
196 words on sunday… and 1349 words on monday, to make up for my skipped days and more!
Ended the infamous lunch scene, which I was risking to turn into something like “My worldbuilding, let me talk your ear off about it”.
One of the lunch guests, a noble coming from another region, reveals he has investigated phenomena very similar to Erthel’s mother’s disappearance in the past – the problem is: it usually ended pretty badly. So they probably don’t have much time. He offers his help and experience with the issue, but he also needs Erthel so she can act as a link to her mother. And he needs her right away. Faurel tries to object, because she already evoked her gift that morning, and she should probably recover. But Erthel has already made her choice, and guess what? She already knows that she should rest and avoid abusing her abilities – she knows it’s going to end badly for her. But she’s not going to decline with her mother’s life at stake. Her mother’s still there, wherever “there” means, and she’s going to do all that she can to bring her back.
Excellent progress. For skipped days, you recovered well.
I “stole” some time yesterday to read through some of my Bet1 materials, and found a lot of good stuff. I am up early already, so I can leave early and steal another half hour or so of writing and Bet1 reading.
776 words.
I tried writing without looking back, writing the story as it unfolds as best I can, but no going back and reading over, no editing. I think the revision part of my day has been creeping into the writing part and slowing me down, making me critical and worst of all, starting to drain the fun out of it.
We all know where that leads.
Happily my strategy worked, and the words came back. I just can’t tell if they were any good.
By the way, you guys have some great word counts going, and it’s always inspiring to read what everyone is doing!
I took my elected day off yesterday to start the revision. I’m now calling it Silverline (SL). I got through a first read of chapter 1 (6 scenes) but thanks to the reorg I did earlier, I’m missing a scene here. I can’t deconstruct/diagnose what I don’t have so I’ll make some time to fill in the big blank before going on to chapter 2.
So far the revision contentment meter is in “excited” mode.
Whaam! I just read Ghost, and so as not to spoil for others:
KETTAN Don’t Do it!
(So there, that doesn’t tell what she shouldn’t do.)
Nice scene, btw. A good way to get information to the reader while keeping it interesting.
No more words, but a lot of pictures: I spent a long boring period where the Japanese teachers were in a meeting and left me alone in the teacher’s room sketching out most of my book’s secondary characters.
Including the random ex-lover-of-the-heroes-best-friend who wrote herself in last night. (Don’t Breed Characters, I know, I know…)
The images came very easily. I suppose I had a clear idea of each in my mind.
Hoping that Holly got my competition entry, I made sure the link worked, but I’m not sure if I used the site properly.
443 words on tuesday.
An unplanned little interlude scene just found its way into the novel. Faurel confronts Erthel, worried she doesn’t realize the kind of mess she’s getting herself into – but she actually knows that, and she asks him if he wouldn’t do the same in her place. Also, she’s not going to tell anybody, but there’s definitely something amiss. She shrugs it off, but I am so looking forward to next scene, where I’ll show why she shouldn’t have.
1224 on the missing scene. It has changed the dynamics of James and Cait’s relationship and I’m not entirely sure if that’s how I want it – though it’s good in terms of showing how much they change later. Just a little bit more to fill in and then I can move on to chapter 2.
Still working away at an average of 600 wpd, and still finding that, 87k words in, I’m running across issues that seem so obvious now, how could I have completely flubbed it at the beginning of the story. I’m finding that I will have to (as Larkk is) just keep writing and bookmark previous errors for later correction.
Woo. 3000 words and a smattering of scenes, building toward the big finale.
The A. princess did, indeed, sneak out of her room (in response the pulse of the Mysterious Object on the other side of the world) and ended up spying on the hero’s best friend rekindling things with an old flame (bom-chicka-wow) before being collared by the heroine and dragged off for some girl-talk…which in turn was interrupted by the Kingsman arriving with the hero in tow, giving him a lecture on the nature of knighthood.
Which the hero isn’t paying attention to, because he and both of the girls can feel the pulse, and no-one else can.
Two problems with this scene: I need the best friend to be up on the rooftop fighting Snake Eyes with them, and he’s, uh, busy.
And the damn thing is almost 10,000 words. Just as big as the tournament scene. I think I am going to have to split the chapter AGAIN. That will make four new chapters fattening the Argoria section of the book, which is supposed to be Act 2-A of 3.
This is chapter 12 of a planned 36, and my word count keeps soaring. While this is a good thing, it is also a very bad thing, because this is just the first book of a planned trilogy, and I had no intention of turning into Robert Jordan… (god rest his soul!)
I don’t remember how many times I’ve said I love your story, but I’m saying it again! And I’m still seriously interested in being your beta reader when you need one. Goddess, I love fantasy!
“and he’s, uh, busy.” Haha, you had me laughing! (If that wasn’t obvious from the “haha”…) Which is a very good thing right now, since I’m on pins and needles waiting to see if I got a job I’ve applied for.
Yes, Robert Jordan sure did it big…but it only got too complicated because there were too many characters he insisted on following. As long as you keep your main character count down to like 2-5 (five may be too many) it should be fine.
Plus I’d imagine it’s easier to cut out extraneous stuff after you’re finished, then you’ll know for sure what you need.
Aww thanks Felicia. I would really like that, and be happy to return the favor! Fantasy is wonderful, isn’t it? I’d like to try other genres someday but for now, I really want to focus on this story and make it happen. I’ve put all my other projects aside for this.
How’s things with your projects going? What kind of job are you applying for, outa curiosity?
P.S I have three MCs, all of equal importance. There’s a whole ‘rule of threes’ going in my story; three MCs, three MVs, three sides to the central conflict. My cast of supporting characters is HUGE, but I try to make sure they don’t overstep the plot functions they fulfil too much.
Whether that’s working or not, I’m not quite sure yet ^.^
462 Words.
And I finally sat down and did a little re-plotting, so I’m not flailing around in the dark anymore.
Writing at work is not my first choice of places to write, but I made do and got 384 words. It was a nice break to get into my story, even if just for a little while.
Finished the filler and fixed what I really needed, which was mystery. What’s the point of the beginning if it doesn’t stir up the MC’s curiosity?
And if that wasn’t enough, woke up this morning with 3 lines of another project drilling in my head until I got to work to write them down. It turned into 15 minutes of a fully fleshed out plot! G&B is going to be a YA adventure sort of like an Americal fairy tale. (I’ve been trying to figure that one out for 3 years!)
50 words on Bet1 today. I know it does not seem like a lot, but its an alternate start that keeps coming back to me and a few extra words opens it to some transitions. I don’t know if its my muse talking or the movie-loving-monkey-fun part of my brain — unless they are one in the same … hmmmm.
Ooh, so you’re already getting words on Bet1, that’s so cool! Keep up the good work!
1137 words on thursday (took wednesday off). I love it when I get this kinds of wordcounts
I wrote through the whole planned scene, from start to finish, partially during lunch break, partially after dinner. This just blew me away. There’s a bit of meat missing, which I might add tomorrow while lightly revising the scene (which I usually do before addressing the next one) but still, onward we go.
This scene is loaded with interesting clues that (I hope) will start to click together only after half of the novel.
Erthel helps Urwyn, the nobleman whom she met during the lunch, with further investigation of her mother’s disappearance… and learns the very hard way why she shouldn’t be dismissive when she feels there’s something wrong.
Things are currently turning from bad to really, really bad. The thought of how we’ll see very soon how *much* exactly they can still get worse, makes me giggle with excitement. Or evilness. I dunno.
@Wanders Nowhere – Yes, fantasy is fantastic and I can’t seem to get away from it. Every time I have an idea that doesn’t involve fantasy…it involves it when I try to expand on it. I love magic, mystical things, so I guess that explains it.
My projects…well, they are at standstill. I decided just the other day that I’ll get back to my Rinaya project, aka my world-building, since I haven’t done anything on that in a few weeks.
I also wrote my first draft on my contest entry for Talysmana, so I’ll have to expand, rearrange and edit that.
The job, yes. I’ve applied for an Au pair position in Ireland. Au pair – takes care of a family’s children and usually light housework. I really, really hope I’ll get it, but we’ll see. I’m hoping I’ll know before the weekend’s over.
Wow!! I hope you get it too. My mum’s been to Ireland recently and had a really wonderful time. Totally jealous
sounds like a fantastic place to work, as long as the family & kids are nice, lol.
Don’t give up on those projects of yours
just got to keep trucking with it. I always end up having a quick re-read of Holly’s “Mugging the Muse” when I feel stuck or uninspired.
…or listen to music. My writing style is kinda bombastic and over the top so I like…epic…music. Look up Immediate Music, Two Steps from Hell, or X-Ray Dog on youtube if you aren’t familiar with them. Music really gets my wheels turning, I recommend finding what works for you!
No writing. The world has gone badly. But I had a thought.
If fantasy is a setting, then isn’t reality also a setting by default?
Well, it’ll always be your reality.
What is meant with fantasy being a setting, rather than a “genre” is that for it to be fantasy you just have to either alter reality or create your own world/reality. And with alter reality I mean usually adding something magical/fantastical.
Having reality as a default depends on the person I think. For me a fantasy setting is my default setting because I have to fight myself not to add magic, dragons and sword fighting.
Well this is just my take on it, and I’m not sure I’m thinking that coherently at the moment…do I ever think coherently. Well, that’s a question for another time. ^_^
“What is meant with fantasy being a setting, rather than a “genre” is that for it to be fantasy you just have to either alter reality or create your own world/reality.”
Maybe I messed up when I typed that before. That was kind of what I was getting at: to alter “reality,” there has to be a “reality” to alter; if the altered state is then a setting, is the state prior to alteration also a setting? Sort of like um, math.. if
2+2=3+1, and “3+1″ is a setting “4,” then is “2+2″ also a setting “4,” or is it a something else?
And as for coherence… well… I figured out why a raven is like a writing desk so I may not be here at all. 8-S
Who needs coherent thought anyway? It’s hugely overrated!
And yes, i see fantasy as a setting.
And yeah, i guess reality would be a setting too. . .I just see it as extremely uninspiring.
Unless I drag some fantasy elements into my realistic setting, which come to think of it, is exactly what I’m doing with my WiP!
Is anyone here familiar with magic realism? They hammered it into us at university (though definining in a vague, useless kind of way like most of my uni studies. Holly’s right, btw you don’t need a degree to be a writer.)
As best I understand it’s a story where the more or less real-world setting is undercut by elements of folktale, spirituality or impossible happenings which weave into and out of the story without any kind of fuss or explanation, lending the whole thing a kind of dreamlike modern-fairytale quality. It was pioneered by Latin and South American writers, and movies like Amelie and Chocolat get cited as film examples a fair bit. I don’t see it as a genre, per se, more a mood or feel to a story. Gabriel Garcia Marquez among others has pointed out that labelling it a pseudo-fantasy genre called “Magic Realism” is missing the point.
The line between fantasy and reality isn’t clear. It’s really going to depend on the writer’s (and the reader’s) definition of ‘reality’, which is all about your beliefs, culture and spirituality. An atheist for example is going to write from a ‘default reality’ in which God does not exist, and probably nothing supernatural exists. A Christian will write from a default reality in which Jesus Christ really is the son of God and really is going to save the world from sin. A person from a tribal culture is going to have a default reality which includes a whole slew of gods, spirits and ancestors that are as real to that person as a rock or a piece of toast.
Maybe we should define ‘fantasy’ less in terms of elves and dragons and more in terms of “a setting in which things the author does not believe to exist are presented as being real within the context of that world”
..Hm. bit longwinded and problematic, still. Any thoughts?
I don’t think it’s possible to set values for different worlds and they’d mean the same.
Btw, how is a raven like a writing desk? (Loved the Alice in Wonderland movie – saw it in 3D. Yay!)
@Wanders – You have a point. A reality is different for everyone. Some things are the same for most, like countries, country lines etc. Possibly the facts of history too.
“a setting in which things the author does not believe to exist are presented as being real within the context of that world” maybe…
“A setting where elements the author doesn’t believe to exists are real.”?
Both a raven and a writing desk have blackened feathers all over them.
In the writing desk’s case, they’re quill pens. In the raven’s case, they’re pinions.
: )
987 words.
My MC goes back to the Place where she almost got her butt kicked, but this time she’s prepared. She clears up a bit of nastiness, but not before it lands one more low blow. . . making her think she killed her Boyfriend.
And then he runs to her rescue, very much alive. . . and realizes she thought she killed him.
Ooh, I’m having so much fun messing with these two!
on holidays in Switzerland with the family.
But I have access to a computer, and that means the writing isn’t stopping.
The meeting with ‘ol’ snake eyes’ is one scene away, and I’m excited!
If only I had gotten to it while it was actually thunderstorming back in Japan…ah well!
Have fun in Switzerland! I went to Lugano recently during xmas holidays since my brother-in-law works there at the uni.
Since I’m in Italy we’re neighbours right now
That’s got to be amazing! I totally envy you
It’s really beautiful here. Loving the countryside and the castles <3 Going to be inspiring for the writing, too. Absolutely love travelling to new places and absorbing everything I can.
Jealous here! Switzerland, it sounds so nice. Castles? You’re killing me. Tell me no more. Wait! Tell me more! I wanna know.
Have fun!
Well, I took MRD and broke it into scenes. The criteria for finding scenes were a change in point of view, location, or time. I put 200 words or so into PH2, trying to break away from the thinking scene and into post-bad-guy-appearing action. I took a lot of notes about family stories at my Grandma’s funeral, and I’ve been pondering relationships and their whys.
VERY jealous of the Swiss Vacation. I live in a very flat area, but I grew up in the mountains and miss them. Plus, who could say no to castles? Take good notes on things like the names of rooms and what they were for– I wish I’d done that in France.
And I submit to your judgement on the reality question. I’d never heard of Magic Realism before, but it sounds intreaguing; I’ll check with the English department. They still like me even though I switched majors. Most of the classes at my university focus on race, class, gender, and equality, which makes for a very monotonous and heavily biased education base, and is annoying as all getout.
A bièntôt—:D
the writing itself is more interesting than learning about it. I think useful for fantasy writers, too; just weaving special things into the world without feeling the need to point a big neon sign at them reading THIS IS FANTASY!!!!! makes them feel more like they belong there.
Managed to tap out a scene before we went castle-seeing today.
Saw a gloriously lavish monastery (!) which sparked my mind for a particular culture in my world, which is A) deeply religious and B) ludicrously wealthy. That kind of Rococco-era extravagance would suit them. Though they don’t really appear until Book 2.
Scene was the pursuit leading up to the snake-eyes encounter I keep mentioning. A. princess gave the guardians the slip again, this time (literally) unconsciously. They got the best friend rudely out of bed with his old flame, while the three MCs caught a mysterious monk spying on them…wearing the symbol of the Bad Guys around his neck.
Pursuit ensued. The monk is not running like a human being. The MCs and the royal guards can’t seem to catch him.
But someone will.
-<
2800 words and Silent Warrior is done. I’m pleased, it came out pretty damn well, and I love writing snake-eyes; he’s mysterious to everyone else, but like an old comfortable boot to me.
MCs and friends pursued a creepy monk only to find him dead at the hands of a serpent-eyed shadow. They chased him to a tower rooftop and took him on, but four warriors with archery support vs snake eyes is not a fair fight, and the MCs have the bruises to prove it.
After whupping them in his sleep, he dropped his customary cryptic hints to the story and vanished off a rooftop like Batman. Leaving the MCs with a cliffhanger; the King is meeting with the T. princess, and snake eyes casually slipped “their pawns thirst for royal blood tonight” into the after-whupping conversation.
DUN DUN DUNNNNN!!!
845 Words.
MC and her Boyfriend get into a argument over the sorta killing him thing. Then MC realizes the annoying neighborhood Demon is hovering, and decides it’s time to plan a hunting trip.
I stopped working on PoB for a couple of days to write my entry for the Talysmana contest, and here it is:
http://dasteroad.tumblr.com/post/480398682/be-a-character-in-talysmana-contest-entry
Sadly I’ve been having technical issues with the submitting form so I’m not sure if Holly actually got it or my email asking for help. I hope everything goes fine. I enjoyed working on this entry and I wouldn’t really want to let it go wasted because of some silly bug.
I tried again this morning and apparently it worked. Yay! Crossing my fingers for the contest
Ya, I had the same thing, thought mine might not have gone through, but it turned out poor Holly just had umpteen entries to go through. I think she posts them in batches.
Yes, I think entries are being posted in batches. Mine is online now! *jumps in excitement*
Poor Holly and Becky, I’m afraid my entry might have gone through twice since I had to try a couple of times from different email addresses ^^;
Still, the entry url is exactly the same so I hope I didn’t waste their time!
Just finished editing and sending in my contest entry. It’s about 500 words, and that’s the only thing I’ve written in a few days.
I’m taking Holly’s Crash Revision course, or well checking it out. I have to get some things together to try it out.
I reread the school project/book I wrote with my friend during 2008-2009 (autumn-spring). I have been so sure I wanted to cut a whole section of the book. (It is separated in two parts – I wanted to cut part 1.) But as I read it I realized it was good. It had tension, conflict and stuff. I really liked reading it. This is the first time I’ve read through it, so it has had almost a year to sit.
Kind of like meeting an old best friend for the first time in years.
Still the reason I wanted to cut it still stands I think.
Basically part 1 is following the two protagonists as they are raised – the most critical moments. But their raising is a little unusual.
I guess I’ll just have to define the story line/sentence and if it furthers that, it could be the introduction of the characters. Part of their “normal” life before everything goes out the window.
-Ramble End-
Isn’t it fun when you look back over your old work and think “geez, this had potential, I was going somewhere with this, if only I’d finished it” instead of “oh, god, what was I thinking? I’m too embarassed to keep reading!” A revelation of the former kind was what spurred me to pick up the novel version of my story again, and finding Holly’s site gave me the incentive to build a discipline with writing it.
to clarify, my story already exists as two screenplays (corresponding to two books) and half of the third, which I kinda petered out on because I knew how to end it, but not how to start it.
Don’t be afraid to play around with that section of the book you want to cut. Maybe it’s telling you it wants to be told, but not WHERE you have it now. My most painful cut was the entire prologue of my story, because while I loved the portentous epic vibe it was building, it was forty frigging pages from the POV of two characters we never see again, who did nothing except watch something momentous happen. And then a huge battle where no characters who ever appeared again fought until the very end. It had to go.
The new prologue is 12 pages of the very end of the battle featuring the to-be-mentor and to-be-archvillain, and the story’s central artifact. Nothing else. I am in love with it because while it doesn’t come together until later, everything you need to understand about the story is right there in that scene. But I kept the old chapter because I may break it into more digestible pieces and use it later when the heroes get a history lesson and find out why everything is happening.
Don’t throw anything away, it’s ALL material that you wrote, and you were trying to say something with it. Keep even the embarassing stuff. you never know when you might glance back at it and spark something better. Cut it out and keep it filed in a “Cut scenes” folder or something.
I will never ever throw this version of the story out. I wrote it together with my friend and it was my first completed long writing project. 50’000 words fantasy novel!
But after we finished last year I knew there were several things missing in it, which I really wanted. I guess my inner critic went too far. Because as I read it know I realized…Wow, this is good. It wasn’t just good potential I think I might be able to keep a lot of it.
Last time I wrote this with a friend, but now I’m going to do it alone. She’s gonna help me, or at least have input in how I rework the plot (it needs it!), but all new material and all editing will be me. Scary thought.
I thought I’d give you guys a little explanation so you’ll understand my problem better.
The story sentence as it stands now is: “Two boys with contrasting personalities have to work together to take revenge on their parents’ murderers.”
As it stands, most if not all of part 1 need to be cut, because the sentence only covers part 2. Some of part 1 may be justified to keep, at least those most tightly connectible with the vengeance.
There are a few different focuses/themes in the story, and I guess I’ll have to choose one, as main focus/plot and use the others as secondary focus/sub-plots. They are in no particular order:
1) A social experiment two “scientists” are preforming. Checking if you are born as good/evil or taught it by your upbringing.
2) The vengeance angle – where the two main characters wants to avenge their parents’ murder.
3) A legend/prophecy that foretells that in every generation there will be a Hero and a Villain, and the Hero most win or the kingdom will fall. (This will be a sub-plot. That much I know.)
If I on the other hand focus on the social project – then part 1 would be more than justified.
Maybe it’s possible to have two main plots? ……ermmm….?
You could interweave them if they have parallels or if they end up meeting later in the story.
Or you could even split them and make them two different books?
Well, they actually interweave rather tightly. Well, here’s a spoiler if you ever read it. The scientists and the murderers of the heroes’ parents are the same. The parents wouldn’t have been dead if the scientists didn’t choose those two boys as subjects for their experiment.
So maybe what I mostly need to do with the revision, or with creating my target is to bring the experiment more into focus. Because it didn’t really come out in the novel much. Hmm…they really do go together rather well. And beside part 1, the experiment isn’t really “happening” anymore, and in part 2 basically starts when one of the protagonists are starting to get on to them/the scientists.
So it could work. Nice. Now I just need to start getting a salary so I can go by HTRYN. ^^
Hi all
Daste: what if you just keep it as “Part one”? Is knowing about how the characters were raised going to help the reader in part two? I’ve read a lot of books in this multi-part format and sometimes even entirely unconnected information works just fine this way.
Question: How do you get away from “how it’s supposed to go” if that “how” is hindering the story? I keep dredging up realistic bits to shove in my adventures. I don’t like them, but the story feels off without them. Example: The mine collapses. Realism bit: there’s a landslide. Problem: my characters were supposed to be escaping just then, how do I keep them from getting caught? bad reality solution: they go the other way over the mountain… but I don’t want the landslide, as it’s just there because that would happen in this kind of terrain/faultlines etc. The spare bad guys were killed in the explosion, they don’t need to be buried, too. But if I take out the landslide, the story feels broken. I’m at a loss in a lot of places.
Trying to smile though.
Yikes! The comment I directed at Daste was supposed to be to Felicia. Sorry you guys!
there’d be ways to work it in, though. Maybe the bad guys died in the landslide, not the explosion? Maybe the heroes are trapped for X time but find a way out? or fall into a natural cave, or are rescued by a team of sherpas / another important character?
There are ways to work it in, but honestly, I just don’t want to. The explosion collapses six mine shafts. The bad guys all die by being crushed in the rubble, except the one, and he’s close enough to dead to make trouble for the MC later on. The other important character (Mr. Crazy Like a Fox Doctor) finds the MC and friends at a town that some other bad guys just wiped off the map, which is also important, because if the MC hadn’t been THERE, he wouldn’t have been let in to the town he ends up saving later on. It’s honestly just an extemporaneous landslide thrown in to keep my inner geologist happy, and I can’t seem to get rid of it.
I also can’t get rid of the scrub desert, the pine forest, the river shallows, or the sudden thunderstorms. Is it maybe a worldbuilding conflict?
I don’t see how it would be that. Feels more like you’re just adding touches of realism to your story, and I don’t see how that could hurt it. Believability is king in fiction, right?
300 words today, on my contest entry. I thought about it for a while, but suddenly sat down and wrote the whole thing. Its is not long, that’s for sure, at only 300 words with a photograph, but I got a lot of a certain side of myself into the entry, a very unseen side.
632 Words.
Some more work with my MC and her Boyfriend, a sort of tentative make up before the Hunt. . . . Hopefully tomorrow my MC will finally get around to killing the demon. She seems to want to put it off, lol!
with the snake eyes scene done it’s been kinda hard to resume the quieter stuff with the princess and the king. one of my techniques for keeping on writing is never to leave off at the end of a scene or chapter. Staring down a blank page and starting to write is always much trickier than picking up a half-finished sentence you left off on, at least for me. So sometimes I stop writing halfway through a sentence just to leave a dangling thread I can grab next time.
Shoulda done that this time, but I didn’t. Ah well!
Funny, I’m the exact opposite: If I have a half finished scene it takes me forever to figure out how to end it. I keep asking myself “what was I going to do with this?” Instead of just writing.
Somehow with a blank page I feel free do do whatever needs doing, without the constant self-questioning. I think that’s why I write in the wee little hours of the morning too, so I don’t get interrupted and left wondering “where was I?”
My favorite Pretending-to-write scheme is typing what the scene is supposed to be about six lines below where I’m currently typing. This leads to a document that looks like this:
Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
About scene 3
About scene 2
About scene 1
That way if I read it from the bottom up I can make sure my overall story is on target, too! I’m so good at wasting time…
princess and king scene; changed a lot from the script, because I read over that and realised there was no tension whatsoever. They just nattered about nothing, when they had a lot to talk about.
Kept most of that dialogue but came at it from a new angle; they each have a massive, pressing compelling agenda. He is desperate; his kingdom is a wreck, his people are exhausted, his nobles are a viper’s nest, he needs a strong ally. She is desperate; her throne has been usurped, her people are suffering, and she’s a virtual prisoner of her regent, she needs a strong ally. They need each other, but can they trust each other enough to voice it? I have all the conflict there to make a zinger of a scene, if I can get it right…
I’m re-shaping the focus for PH2. Between Holly’s crash revision course and my college screenwriting class, I’ve picked up about four “Can’t Live Without This” tips that I’d never heard of or understood properly before. With some work I think I can take my outline from a scrubby little plant to a beautiful thriving bonsai. Yay, gratuitous plant analogy.
Anyway: the target, the three-act structure, the concept of relevance to the target, and working throughlines are my four new pillars. Some of the story is solid already, but I can see some saggy parts now that will benefit. I’m only revising the sentence and outline, not the whole book yet. That will wait till the rest is done. But this way the second half should be much shinier than the first half!
896 Words.
Yes! The Demon is Finally Dead!!
And my MC now has to deal with the consequences of Demon Hunting: She’s literally drunk with it.
And before long she going to NEED more.
Well done! Bet you’re getting quite the rush yourself from finishing writing a fun part like that!
681 words tonight.
My Villain is rounding up the Werewolf Pack when she feels her connection to her Demon familiar snap upon his Death. She vows Terrible Unholy Vengeance.
Meanwhile my oblivious Demon-Drunk MC stumbles home, runs into her Boyfriend and exercises some impaired judgment with predictable results. . . .
And yes this is all very fun. Evey thing is sort of tumbling toward the end now, and I’m just trying to hold on and not miss anything.
It’s awesome and scary at the same time!
A good 30 pages into the Diplomacy scene. I managed to pull off an awkward part of the scene reasonably well. It hadn’t worked before – the royals are talking and then suddenly the whole party busts in crying murder. It just jarred.
I’ve managed to work it in a slightly different way, since Snake Eyes dropped the hint of a royal assassination, giving the interruption a LOT more urgency and necessity. Also, the Princess has a more active role in the scene compared to the script.
But there is a LOT of talking going on. T-princess and king talking their talk, explaining the murder and introducing the party to the two royals, and the A. princess and her entourage finally revealing their big secret too. Which surprised me, more came out of it than I had planned, and it made her two guardians seem a little less noble.
Whew. All this scene needs now is…
…Random assassins!
Random Assassins GO! *laughs evilly in a dark corner* *lightning strikes* *thunder clap*
…be more like tribal drums and war cries with these guys. XD the best way to describe them is if you mated an Uruk-hai with one of the Na’vi from Avatar and then mated -that- with a saber toothed tiger.
And then gave it a brain transplant from the Predator.
Or maybe mated a Klingon and a Predator and -then- transplanted its brain into our na’vi/uruk/smilodon hybrid. hm. This metaphor is not quite working. They’re big and scary, that’s all I need to say XD
Sounds like some seriously dangerous critters! Oh, the insane chaos yet to come. . .
BTW, about Snake Eyes, is he a bad guy? Why is he dropping hints about the Random Vicious Assasins of Tribal Origin? Is it just for amusments sake or does he actually want to help?
Hmm. Now I want to read this book!
Snake Eyes is…interesting. I won’t spoil it. A very important character with a massive vested interest in the MCs and their story.
Diplomacy scene is finished.
And with it, possibly, my first novel.
This has been a challenging night for me. I just finished what was supposed to be the exact half-way point of the 1st book of my trilogy.
I look back, at 96,000 words, 475 pages. I really never intended for it to take that much writing to get here. I really only ever wanted a trilogy; it’s cliche to say I drew inspiration from Tolkien, but I did. He wrote a huge, world-spanning epic that could be more or less neatly split into three books. I always felt that pushing it beyond that was unnecessary. And three is a magic number to me, and a number of immense symbolic and cosmic importance within my story. A trilogy would seal the theme of threes and make it whole.
Deep breath. I might have to write more books. I’m not 100% sure; this is a major turning point, but there are still so many dangling threads that are not even remotely wrapped up at this point of the story that I’m concerned my readers would be more confused than satisfied if I left it off here.
But if I keep writing I WILL end up with another 90,000 words, easily, before the ‘first book’ is done. Imagine slapping that on a publisher’s desk, from a first-time author!
So, crunch time; do I consider the first book ‘done’, take HTRYN, and consider a quartet, quintet or sextet from there? Do I keep writing, uncaring of the word count, and trim it when the original plan is fulfilled?
Do I just keep writing?
The only answer I have is the answer to ‘are you going to stop writing?’ Which is: I’ll stop writing..when my skeletal fingers crumble to dust at the keys. In other words, ladies and gents; HELL NO. This is the beginning! ONWARD, TO GLORY!! Mwah ha ha ha ha ha haaaa!
Having no professional experience what so ever, and therefore not being the best source of advice, I say follow your plan through for the first book and sort out the rest when you’re DONE.
At least then if you decide you have to split it, you’ll be able to do it in a sane and consistant manner, making sure whatever loose ends are tied off and such.
And I like ridculously large novels, they actually last me more than a few days, voracious reader that I am.
So don’t panic.
*Tolkien infodump alert!*
The Tolkien books were actually split into six books and a huge conglomerate of appendicees. The book split was enforced by his publisher, who believed a trilogy was as far as they could expect the book-buying audience to follow the story. The overall story is split like this: book one is the forming of the fellowship; book two is Rivendell to Sam and Frodo leaving; book three follows the Aragorn/Merry & Pippen storyline; book four follows Sam and Frodo to just past Shelob’s lair (the spider); book five is the battle at the White City; and book six wraps everything up.
So, I would suggest continuing with the actual series–AND taking HTRYN. Judging from the crash revision course Holly taught on SavvyAuthors, just starting HTRYN will take a lot of thought and concentration. Rough in the storyline for your own books two through six or so, revise one, write two, submit one, revise two, write three, etc. Mind you, this is the pattern I’m following for mine, but I’m still at “write one” and I have the overall story for the rest of the series roughed in.
This way if a publisher says “This won’t sell until the economy recovers” or something, you haven’t put six years into the writing first, and you can write to that recovery deadline instead, or write something more likely to sell sooner.
AAAANNNDDD…. My thanks to PencilNeck for originally suggesting this type of plan to me, clear back in January or so, on a different board. I certainly would not have thought of that writing schedule on my own.
: D
Oh, one more thing: Considering your theme of threes, would three volumes of three books be a possibility for your story?
Possibly, but it would mean even more padding and by then I might just want to finish the damn series already XD
I was aware of the Tolkien stuff; I just meant it’s usually sold as three neatly-sized volumes. As far as my story plans go, I have as follows; Books 1 and 2 completely written out in screenplay format, which I’ve been using as a loose blueprint for the novels thusfar.
I also have the start of Book 3 in screenplay format, as well as a general idea of where I want it to go, and a definite and clear-cut idea of the ending. The only void (heh, heh) in my planning is the gap between the start of Book 3 and the end. But it is a time period with a lot of forward momentum, building to the big final doomfest, so I don’t want to add too much fluff in there.
Should I mail Holly about this, y’think?
If I were you I’d finish the first book as you’ve planned it. It’s hard to know exactly what’s fluff until you finish it. And maybe you’ll notice some sub-plots aren’t forwarding the story, etc. etc.
So finish it and then see, can it be made into one book, or is it possible to break it at a good place?
The reason i posted what I did is that I think if I were to break it, I’d break it here, b/c it’s a turning point where the immediate conflict (the assassination plot) has been thwarted, the heroes have achieved a goal (meeting the king and joining his service) and from here the next step is a long sea voyage, which would make a nice book on its own XD
I still say follow the plan until the end, then you’ll actually KNOW how big it is. If it’s really outrageously large, then you can split it. You already have a good breaking point lined up too.
But if it’s long, but not on the level of Tome, then you don’t have to worry about the split at all. And you can keep your nice, neat, planned Trilogy with out any fuss.
Epic fantasy sort of has a thing for Really Thick Books any way.
400+ Words.
The Villain communes with The Dark Forces Beyond. They aren’t exactly pleased with her for allowing her familiar to die. But they pat her on the head and say that it’s not really her fault, because she wasn’t really strong enough to stop it any way.
And then they drop a shiny new demon on her head.
This one is far stronger than the last, and though the Villain will no doubt think she is control until her death, the Fact of the Matter is that a rather powerful Demon just acquired a nice new human familiar.
AWESOME. I always like it when people handle demons well. Playing with the spiritual embodiments of evil is always a dicy game; they’re thousands of years older and smarter than you and they tend to lack quaint little human things like hesitation, remorse, moral qualms, fear, uncertainty…
tweaking the ending chapters. Chewing lip on inserting a small scene with the two princesses and possibly finishing off with the two MCs talking instead of with Snake Eyes and Red Coat (my code names for the biggest plot-chess-players in the story. One of whom is a major villain but I won’t say which).
Princess scene includes a poem from T. princess and a song from A. princess. So I’m taking a break to write the languages needed for those.
688 Words
The boyfriend has a reality-bending dream, where the Villain, who used to be a friend and girlfriend of his before she went off the deep end, insists that my MC is going to kill him.
The Boyfriend and the Villain’s relationship is complicated, and whenever the to of them are together. . . . Well, it’s complicated.
She want’s to destroy him, and he wants to save her: She thinks his chivalry is amusing, and he knows he’s playing moth to her flame, but feels obligated to try since he feels responsible for her downslide.
It’s a strange little dance that won’t end until one of them is dead.
back from vacation. moved the story forward only about 500 words but did more brainstorming (…should keep me busy today too).
Hey all again,
Since my last post, not much has been done. I haven’t written much, maybe… 500-700 words in total. But it’s been a couple of times a week. Which is better than what it was, which was… to be honest, a couple of times a year. lol. Since tonight was the first night i’ve done even close to the goal, I figured I’d post: 226 words
That being said, I’m also coming close to the end of this chapter
So far, it’s 7 and 1/2 pages in Microsoft word.
Does this seem a good size? or should it be more a section of a chapter, and then write another section that is somewhat related… ?
Hi Lindsey,
Way to go, words AND a chapter!
I think at this point in your rough draft, just write however you feel like writing, and heck with the rules, whatever they are. MS Word and I don’t get along, and a large part of that has to do with formatting. The way I format, 500-700 words takes about a page and a half. Since I don’t know your story, it’s hard to say if what you’ve written is a scene, a part of a scene, or an entire chapter–or a couple of chapters
. I’ve heard that a scene is “done” when either point of view, place, or time changes, and every scene has one critical change in it. In my stories, I put chapter breaks when I change viewpoint character or when I really don’t want to write the next thing and just want to skip it. So “imho” if you figure you’re done with the chapter, go on to what you want to write next.
Just, have fun with it.
Hi Lindsey,
Congratulations!!
I second what Danzier says (with MSWord, the page count all depends on your font size and margins, etc). And actually chapters can be a page long, a sentence long, etc. There’s really no rule about it. Typically you would just break it at the end of a scene or right in the middle of the action/cliffhanger (which can give it a page turner effect where people can’t wait to see what happens next).
I’ve heard that a lot of authors write the whole story before they break out the chapters. And I think they tend to mix the chapters that end on a cliff hanger with those that end at the end of a scene.
I’m focusing on word counts right now. From my research a story can be anywhere from 80 – 110,000 words so my goal is 95K (this would all depend on your genre however). I try for about 3 scenes per chapter, around 1000 words/scene. Sometimes my scenes are way over that, sometimes way under. The story has been naturally breaking itself into chapters (and right now some of my chapters have about 5 scenes in them). I’m going to figure out the best way to break it up at the end though.
Probably with rough draft the biggest concern would be whether your scene “feels” finished. If so just keep going to the next scene and onward til you reach the end.
Good luck!