The TalynMana project hit a snag a couple weeks ago, when Becky’s day job got slammed with, well, the economy. Not just her job, you see, but the company she worked for, too.
So she’s in the middle of changing everything, and the jewelry part of the TalysMana project is on hiatus until she gets through this particular disaster.
And the contest is on hold until Becky can participate in judging the entries along with me. We’re looking at–realistically–a couple of months for this to happen.
On my end, there’s still a bunch of craziness going on, but it’s winding down. So I should be able to get back to writing TalysMana in another week or two.
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Got to within a few scenes of the end – might try to get the last four done over the weekend, then next week I can decide which of my additional scene ideas I want to run with, and get the outlines for those drawn up.
Got all the original scenes assessed. Progress was slower on sorting out which scenes to add from my list of possibles, as some of the additions had knock-on effects in other scenes that I had to make sure didn’t throw the plot out. Hopefully have my set-in-stone list of scenes tomorrow, then it’ll be about finalising world and language detail and then getting stuck into the rewrite…
Three new scenes figured out today – there’s about another seven to do, which is more extra scenes than I was expecting. Also trimmed down my to-do list, which was full of repeated ideas that I’d come up with at separate times and not had the inclination to check I whether I’d already made that note! My work tightening up the plot actually resolved or incorporated the issues many of the notes addressed, too, so on the whole I felt the day got me another step closer to a cohesive plan for the rewrite.
Danzier- Thanks for the input. I hear you. I was just thinking about that. Unless the details are extremely important I should just move forward. I did take some time and think about what other consequences my MC might experience that I did not plot out, and got some really interesting ideas I’ll end up using later in the story.
Well, looks like I’m off to try and write again. Not sure how far I’ll get.
Didn’t quite get as much done as I’d hoped today, but got another couple of new scenes outlined, and also tidied up more of my fragmented notes, which had the unfortunate consequence of suggesting a couple of different endings! Got to work on the languages, jotting down terms I need a word for, and hope to get at least one of the two basic languages I need done tomorrow.
Found out today that getting to the re-write is going to take a little bit longer than planned. I have a backstory I need to work in which needs some development, and the language work I’m doing, though not particularly in-depth, is quite time-consuming. So it’ll be a couple of weeks before the write-in, I reckon.
Wow, Greg, you’re really cruising! Way to go!
*blows the dust off her keyboard*
Hi everybody! It’s been a tough month, but I’m writing again, FINALLY. I also wrote my own two cents on my tumblr about beating writer’s block: http://dasteroad.tumblr.com/post/627997038/beating-writers-block-for-dummies (Warning! May contain irony
).
After putting my MC, Erthel, through a real ordeal last time to be healed of her magic-related seizure/crisis/thingie, I peeked into her dreams to see what’s going on in her mind through the illness. Something related to the old well and weird voices, and what she would be willing to give up to bring her mother back. Nothing pretty, I have to say. I also started the next scene with Erthel waking up in her bed, still sick and feeling all sore. Part of me is tempted to just give her the big, big middle-of-the-book-turning-point blow that’s awaiting her RIGHT NOW, part of me wonders if I couldn’t exploit the impact of the event better by waiting just a couple of scenes… and part of me wonders if I’m not just chickening out at the thought of what I’m about to do to her life, and trying to protect her. But what the heck. Characters are meant to be hurt and tested, not to be protected, aren’t they?
And what have you guys been up to lately? *waves hand to everybody*
Oh, and Wandersnowhere: I owe you an email, and I’m going to write it soonish. Stay tuned
Good to hear you are writing again. I see these detours of time and other activities happen to everyone.
Looking forward to hearing how far you have gotten.
Welcome home
And looking forward to that email!
Thanks, Danzier.
Got the other language I needed pretty much done today. Outlined another new scene, and tidied up some world issues. More progress, but I want to get started on the redraft! Must learn patience…
Welcome back, DasteRoad
Welcome back!
I’m going on a camping trip with my sister, and I’ll be gone until next Wednesday or so. I should get some good writing done freehand while I’m gone.
I got a bit done on paper and just typed it up. I am pretty happy with my progress but am a bit worried because of how short my scenes are. Which probably means the book won’t be as long as it needs to be. I might have to add a second POV. Hopefully it won’t be too hard.
Current Wordcount: 2,448 words.
My next scene my MC almost gets suspended from school for fighing a bully, but instead is put to work after school for one of her teachers. This scene should be pretty fun. Hopefully it will be longer than my previous ones.
I should mention that this teacher is one my MC is very conflicted about. And she is conflicted because there is a war going on within her.
I love how things are going so far. This book is scary and exciting to write because it is so different then things I have done before. And it is pretty edgy as well, but it looks like the YA market is getting more of that now.
I’m going to try and write that scene now, maybe with some help from techniques from HTTS.
I’m shooting for 700 words, more if I get into it. I don’t want to stop until I get that though.
The smile on my face is huge right now. I went past my goal of 700 words easily. My wordcount now reads 3,448 on my story! Exactly 1000 words in one sitting!
Not sure how well I will do tomorrow, I have lots of work to do, but I am shooting for at least 700 again.
And the scene should be awesome and steamy! Woot!
Congrats on the words, Tori. I have been wrestling with backstory today, and trying to figure out the detail and then decide how much of that I need to work into my story. With provisionally having a trilogy in mind, I need to decide what bits of backstory to keep for parts II and III. It’s all starting to hurt my head, frankly! Will look at it again tomorrow, when I’m feeling fresher!
Greg- I would love to write a trilogy…but I have such a horrible memory I’d constantly have to keep reading the previous books to remind myself of threads that would have to be tied up and so on. It seems like so much work. And frankly I don’t think I could spend that much time with the same characters. I’d have to really love them. So I congradulate you, you are doing what I cannot! And I bet it is a lot of work trying to figure out everything that needs to be saved for the next books! And thank you! I was very proud of myself!
I kind of had to take some time to figure out where I want to take my story now because it went in an unexpected direction. I just figured out some things about my MC’s I didn’t know before and now I am stumped. Hate it when this happens but it is fun too! Hopefully tomorrow is more productive!
I will be trying again for 700 but secretly hope I write more than that!
Hope everyone is doing well with their projects…
Wow, I actually have words to report! 405 on a spur of the moment rewrite of SL’s opening chapter. I couldn’t wait to finish reading the draft, this had to get down on paper. It’s stronger, or at least gives Cait some bite.
I’ll probably add a bit more to it tonight and then go back to reading.
The romance is also progressing in chunks, but since I have no plans to publish that yet, I’m not counting words too closely.
Hmm, slower day today. Got bogged down sorting out my backstory – trying to decide what scenes to write and what bits to tell in the narrative (ie not worth a scene in themselves). Then I got tied up in mapping my world, and trying to make sure I have the locations climate-wise that I think I’ll need for the sequels. Hopefully, after a day’s groundwork, it’ll all fall into place tomorrow.
1000 words yesterday, on Beti. I also decided to write a synopsis on every project. The reason is that when I work on one, the others clamor for attention. So, I decided that by the end of the June, I will have written a synopsis and/or outline on all the projects and will have given all of them some attention. I also starting to realize I might need to write some of them as screenplays, I can see the scenes, better than I can describe them in prose form.
Wrote almost 900 words today. Although not as much as last time it was still more than my goal. So I am happy. I even thought the scene was okay. There are some things that need to be changed in the rewrite, but some very unexpected things happened. And that is always fun.
So much for falling into place! Realised due to timing and technology issues that some of my plot won’t work, so the backstory needs a rethink…
Much rethinking done, and a prototype new backstory drawn up. Will hopefully iron out the details tomorrow and find it stands up to scrutiny.
Wow, you guys are doing great! Your word counts are way up there, and it looks like there’s a lot of progress on everyone’s stories.
Yeah, I’m back. And burned crispy. I got about 350 words freehand…and some excellent settings and notes for enriching my stories! I always have characters getting lost in the woods, and now I have woods for them to get lost in. [Piliated woodpeckers make giant rectangular holes in trees; fox snakes imitate rattlesnakes but don't have rattles; and garlic mustard seeds in May and each seed pod has about 600 seeds... And other interesting notes not included in the word count.]
1,257 words today. 38,059 completed so far. I shoot for 750-ish words/daily, with a timer set for 50 minutes and another alarm set to go off when I hit my word-count goal. Some days are harder than others, but today went okay.
Backstory developed today, even a little more slowly than I would have liked. Bit of mapping done too. Hoping to get a bit of character work done next, along with figuring out exactly how far before my main story the events take place and hopefully then I’ll be back to working on the present day plot.
Wll, I got words yesterday and typed them up again today. I might not like all of them but I have moved my story forward and I think I have a good idea what happens next. I’ve almost reached the thirty-paged hump. I think if I can make it past that I’ll finish this thing. It seems all the projects I never finished didn’t make it past page thirty.
Words written: a little over 900
Current Wordcount: 5,289
I’ve been hitting my goals these last few times I have been writing, which is a good sign. My scenes are getting slightly longer. Not sure if that is a good or not.
The only thing I must complain about is it is really hard to write everyday. That is not something I have managed in a while. Looks like I’ll have to make up for that this weekend.
Does anyone else have issues writing everyday? How can I find time to write when I’ve got an infant on my hands and a strong urge to sleep when he does?
I don’t know how I’ll find time to write when I have to go to work. Or when I go to school. I’m scared I won’t be able to find time to write at all.
Any thoughts?
Hi Tori,
I’ve been finding that work and school haven’t really stopped me from writing.
As long as you’re making solid progress, you’ll get to that finish line. It’s when you let yourself stall and procrastinate that it all grinds to a halt. I know all of us have let that happen at some point; mine was recently. Big relationship drama. Ugh.
Blocking out a set time each day might help? Though I understand with small children it’s really hard to make any kind of planned schedule. Best of luck!
as for me I broke my promise a bit and instead of forging ahead with the new book I went back, split the bloated final scene of the first book up into multiple chapters and inserted a few scenes showing the bad guys sneaking up for the final attack.
This is intended to break up the Frankenscene that was into multiple smaller scenes on distinct topics, as well as make the attack seem less like an implausible ‘WTF WHERE DID THESE GUYS COME FROM??’ And add a bit of tension, because while the heroes are waffling and debating and revealing things, there are these huge beastie assassins coming in RIGHT on top of them…
Also added a scene explaining why the head assassin isn’t involved in the battle, and making good on the promise I made with a side-character who cropped up earlier and then disappeared without explanation.
I was naughty, but this was just to fill in time until I had the printer so I could start the proper HTRYN revision. Now I have it, and let the revision BEGINNNN!!
Hey Tori,
I’ve got a 7-year-old. When she was little, I would schedule everything I needed to get done during her naptime and after bed, and I really only gave myself ten minutes per thing. My writing really suffered at that point. As she got older her naps got longer. The hardest part was when she was about 4, before preschool, but when her naps started getting shorter again. Honestly, a paper notebook helped the most, so I could write with one hand and carry it all over with me. And then she got a little older, and half-day preschool started, and all of a sudden there was time for typing and cleaning and having tea with my sister and all the other stuff that there hadn’t been time for.
School I’m dealing with now. There are two times I’ve found I can write: before the class starts, waiting for the teacher to show up; and when I schedule classes sometimes there’s an hour between classes, which isn’t enough time to go home and come back (not to mention parking!) but there are open classrooms and lounges and computer labs that I used as temporary offices for writing. I got about 700 words per “between class” times. A lot of the writing ended up being short “this has nothing to do with anything” scenes, but those are now getting incorporated into the main storyline almost by accident.
Oh, one more thing. Let your mind wander and ponder the story as you’re doing non-writing stuff (washing dishes and baby-feeding times are good). That way you can pick and reherse your words and when you have ten minutes to sit down and write the only thing working against you is your typing speed, not your muse or the missing thesaurus.
I’m stalled. I’m only interested in doing my revision, but I haven’t had access to a printer. Now I think I kinda have, although I’ll have to print things in my sister’s room. Now my problem is instead that I have a very intensive course for four more weeks that makes me tired and out of thinking by the time I get home. So yeah…will have to wait 4 more weeks. I’m trying to keep up with my role-playing instead, which is going kinda badly too…lol.
But it’s keeping me creative and writing, so I’m happy.
I’m still thinking and redesigning my world. My mc is finally talking to me about why he won’t go home, but I feel like I’m not quite getting it yet. I know when I figure out this hurdle the thing will flow and be wonderful, but until I do I’m not making much progress.
At least now I know the difference between a path, a trail, and a road when walking and how long it takes to go short distances by foot on dirt trails with actual hills. And a lot of other relevant details I had never thought about.
WandersNowhere-
I haven’t been procrastinating. I just don’t get to write as much as I want to. And when I do write I make sure that I hit my goals. And I would say I have made good progress. I started this story a couple weeks ago and I am already past page thirty! And I usually quit way before this! So yeah, I am happy about that!
Relationship drama was actually what usually made me stop writing every time I started a WIP! Good thing my hubby actually LIKES it when I take time to write! Or else I don’t think I could do this…
Yeah, its kinda hard to write at the same time each day. I’m never sure when I’ll get a break, so I usually go for it as soon as he takes a nap. Sometimes he sleeps for quite some time. Others not so much.
YAY for doing HTRYN! How do you like it WandersNowhere? Is it worth the money like I am quite certain it is? Is the book you are taking through the course one you already revised on your own, or is it a true first draft?
I’m not sure I could work on two projects at once. I’ve tried a couple times and failed miserably.
Good luck on your revision! At least you’ve got a first draft finished! I feel so far away from the finish line.
Danzier-
As far as nap times and bed times go I’m thinking that most of my writing will have to come at night because he doesn’t really like to take very long naps. Plus, I can’t really focus on writing when its loud all around me. So I need to either get up before he does or stay up a little later. I have no clue what I will do when he gets older and doesn’t want to sleep. I’d probably carry a notebook everywhere and whenever he gave me a free minute I might write something down.
I’m kinda looking forward to when he can go to preschool. At least if I don’t have to work at that time because I could see myself getting a lot of writing done. Not so much if I have a full time job though.
Thanks so much for your advice about the school thing though! I think I would like to write in between classes! But then comes the other question…what about homework? I’m worried that when I go to school everyone will expect me to be able to do what I can now and I know thats not the case. When I go to school most my free time will be doing homework I suspect.
If I sound stressed and worried…I am. But I am trying hard to let this go right now because there is nothing I can do until I get there.
Thank you both for the comments! They have helped! I now know I need to be a bit more organized.
Oh, and I managed to write again today. Not sure how much yet…but not as much as usual. Oh well. Tomorrow I’ll have much more time to write. So I’m happy.
Hey Tori,
First off, way to go on more words! I might have 50 for today, tops, so you probably beat me.
Homework REALLY depends on the classes you take. English classes require a lot of reading; foreign language requires a lot of practice worksheets; gym classes don’t really require much of anything except showing up; and Radio/Tv/Film (my major) requires a lot of group projects and studio time. Having a kid while going to school and writing too is very hard, but it’s do-able. It helps if you have a really good babysitter, or a hubby who seems as into it as yours is. My family has been the kind to expect me to be “Super Mom” and it’s been very hard. “I’m writing to unwind from hard classes” is a useful line.
However, it’s not all bad. As far as organizing goes, I’m going to go ahead and post this web site, which has been a lot of help for me. It’s www dot flylady dot net, and even though a lot of it seems off the wall, it works. I won’t say more about it here though; it’s not a writing website. But if you want more specifics, please send me an e-mail: schroe29@uwosh.edu is me. And yeah, it’s my school-provided e-mail.
Oh, PS:
According to my school, the number of credits to a class is the number of hours you spend in that class per week, and the average amount of homework is twice that number of hours. So if I’m taking 12 credits total, I have twelve hours of class and 24 hours of homework per week, and that’s considered full time.
:S
1276. This seems to be my writing range if I can get an uninterrupted hour. Did this last night, hope to do another 1300-ish tonight.
Using this blog to keep me honest, LOL. Wish there was a remotely easier way to do the posting, though; adding your counts through a single Blog comment seems like a disaster looking for a place to happen.
I am almost 6,000 words into my manuscript. It might not seem like much, but for me that is 31 pages! And I haven’t gotten past the 30 paged hump in a long time. Finally I have and that gives me hope that I can finish this thing.
Didn’t get as many words as the last few times. Probably only a little over 500. And considering I have been writing more like 1000 for a good two weeks…I was a little disapointed.
But I have 500 words I didn’t have before. And that is something.
I may try to write more today, but if I can’t I’ll just try to do better tomorrow.
2019 today. I’m at 43,149. Hard to believe I’ve made it this far.
Hi everybody!
I’m still writing, but I’ve had rare access to the internet during the last week so I haven’t been updating my tumblr and wordcount meter. I’ll update this comment as soon as I do the math, but I think I wrote around 1500-1700 words from the last time I updated.
In the end I decided to go with my gut, and give Erthel the huge, middle-of-the-book-turning-point blow RIGHT NOW. I won’t give any details since it’s pretty spoilertastic (though it could be probably guessed from future updates), but I think I made the right choice. This is being painful, horrifying and cruel, but stunning at the same time. It perfectly fits.
I did the math, and found I underestimated my progress: I’ve written a total of 2047 words from the 28th May to the 7th June. I also wrote 300 words yesterday, bringing the “huge blow” scene to a close.
Daste – the turning point sounds good. Painful, horrifying and cruel = good fiction
I’ve been slowed down by invigilating again, and also have a couple of job interviews for temporary, part-time work this week. Hoping to flesh out my backstory characters and get some maps done though. Preparing for the re-write will run into next week now, so it’ll be W/C 21st June that I get stuck into it.
Thanks Greg
The scene fits perfectly. I’ve found that one of the main factors slowing down and hindering my writing is the instinct to protect my characters, as in “it’s too soon for the characters to enter a fight with the baddies! Let’s observe them having lunch and talking about social customs” and the like. Once I stop trying to protect them and giving them time to adjust to things (unless I have an actual, plot-related reason to), everything works much better.
Had to stop writing to do some research to check my facts. Maybe I should have done that after I wrote the outline. But, you know, hindsight and all that.
If things go well I can finish my research tonight, but I probably won’t be writing again until tomorrow.
Tomorrow’s goal: 1000 words or more.
Also, I added three more scene cards to my outline! That is very exciting! And if things go well I might even have to add more.
Hi Tori!
HTRYN – Yes, it’s fantastic. I won’t be able to tell you just HOW fantastic until I’ve started it properly, but like all of Holly’s stuff, it’s well worth the cash.
I’m still wondering if I would have written a better novel in the first place if I’d taken HTTS first…but I have the novel I have, and I like it a LOT. It needs work. But I like it.
I wrote part of the novel a long time ago and then pushed it through to the end recently, and I’ve been revising piecemealishly as I go. Which is why HTRYN is going to really be a blessing, because it means I can stop with these muddled, nitpicky revisions and just do one solid, clean revision that feels whole and cohesive.
I’m also working on Book II, but progress is slow. I may not be writing ‘the good stuff’, because I’m tiring of the political chess games and itching to leap into the pirates-exploring-the-lost-world setting of the book that all the politics is just the setup for.
Not to mention most of the political scenes involve the King and his advisors, who I think are stealing too much screen time / page time from the MCs. I miss my protags.
1418 today. At 44,603.
Slowish couple of days – job interviews today and tomorrow for some fairly mundane part-time and temporary work, but they needed preparing for nonetheless, restricted my output yesterday. Could do with getting one of them to keep me going ’til Xmas. Managed to get a couple of character profiles done, and tidy up a subplot that pretty much sets the story’s ending in stone and I’m happy with it. Leaves some suspense for book II. Interview and invigilating tomorrow, but hopefully have a good stint late afternoon…
WandersNoWhere-
Well, I can tell you one thing about HTTS. It helps me stick with projects. Instead of getting an idea only to get bored I now know how much of my world and backstory I need to build BEFORE I write and what can wait til I am writing. I now know how to write a working outline, how to plan scenes with conflict and change…HTTS has helped me a lot. And I know that if I use the tools I can get through this first draft. But, honestly, if you can write a first draft easily on your own you can probably get along fine without it. Plus, I hear the HTRYN teaches you how to make better first drafts anyway, so you’re good!
More than anything I want to take HTRYN, so hopefully I can finish my first draft in a decent amount of time that I can start it soon! For a while I didn’t want to take it because I felt like I probably wouldn’t understand her techniques anyway…but I got over it so now I am saving up. If things go well I’ll be taking it by August!
Progress is slow in my novel as well. I don’t know why but I have days where I can write pages and pages and not want to stop but then for almost a week I get nothing! Plus, I want to get to my favorite part. Its not that there isn’t conflict now, there is, I just feel like all the most awesome stuff is more in the middle of my novel, if that makes sense.
One thing I worry about is that my first draft might not make complete sense if I read through it and that all the scenes don’t connect like they should. Is that normal? What if my first draft doesn’t feel like one book, but more like two? I’m not really sure if I should keep all the other conflicts in this book, if they take away from the main story or not.
I’ve been trying to get my research straight and I think I finally have figured out enough that I can move forward in my story. One thing I hate more than anything is getting facts wrong. Because if I do that…that’s just one more thing I have to fix in revision and I don’t want that.
Today’s goal: 1000 words or more.
Tori,
I am 100% with you on the ‘what if it doesn’t make sense?’ feeling. It is a very very familiar one to me. My story is HUGE. I mean GIGANTIC. I mean there isn’t enough caps lock in my keyboard to express the enormity of it. I lamented to Holly in an email that I found the ancient first-first-draft I wrote when I was a teenager, and while it was painfully cheesy, the story was so much LEANER back then. All the subthemes and subplots that add richness and depth to my world also make it a lot harder to see the threads coming together. They are, everything that happens is bound to the same central plot, but it’s hard on the surface to see that the gigantic alien artifact that is mysteriously pulsing into the heroes’ heads, their private childhood traumas, weirdassed dreams and personal quests, the tangled political chessgame going on between the ‘young nations’, the ancient grudge between the ‘younger’ and ‘elder’ races, the history of the entire planet they’re on, and the creeping sinister demonic cults rampaging around behind the scenes are All Actually The Exact Same Plot. When it was spelled out in the first draft (‘Heroes! An ancient evil is going to destroy the universe! Go forth and defeat it! It is your Destiny!”) it was a tad less convoluted. Just a -tad-.
It made SENSE. That sense was just…flavored. With Large Ham and Extra Smelly Cheese. Mm-mm.
It’s a balance I think. You may end up doing what I did and splitting your book into more books. Just be warned, that tends to leave you with a lot of Dangling Plot Threads That Would Have Been Resolved By The End Of The Book If It Were Still All One Book.
I’m going to have to strip-mine my book in the revision to get rid of those, because I made the mistake of deciding I’d written the first book instead of the first third of the first book AT THE VERY END OF WRITING IT. This is complicating, try to avoid it
P.S the Omniscient Mage Council of Vagueness was omitted from my later drafts so thoroughly I actually forgot about them, lol.
And I killed my Scrappy pre-emptively. Oh, god. The re-read, “My party had a TALKING compsognathus-stand-in dinosaur mascot? WAS I ON CRACK? Was someone beaming Jurassicrack into my brain while I was asleep?” I love me some dinos, but that one BELONGs in a KFC bucket.
WandersNoWhere-
I would actually like it if my stories were longer! I write so lean…its too lean if that makes sense. There is hardly any description of the setting. And a few other things are not explained that I will have to straighten out. Gah.
But it sounds like I wouldn’t want to have to deal with your monster of a book. How long is it exactly?
I can totally get what you are saying, because my idea started out the same way. A tad easier to figure out. I wasn’t expecting my characters to hide secrets from me and hit me with things that would change some of the meaning I had intended with this story. It is kind of cool and kind of scary.
Are you saying I should just try to trust myself that it will all come together in the end? That I shouldn’t try to throw stuff out now? I really don’t want to, I was just worried that maybe I was getting carried away…but looking back what I put in there gives the story a bit of depth. I’d be sad to see it go.
Holy crap, my head would explode having to keep track of that many plot lines. Good lord. I congradulate you for getting to the end of that first draft!
I love smelly cheese! Actually…I just love cheese in general.
Yeah, I think that if I split the book up…well, I think that is a bad idea. Really I should just end it all in one go. I don’t want to leave anything hanging in the air. And I certainly don’t want to give myself any headaches.
OMG! I remember you talking about that dino scene! You were really excited about it too! Sad to see it go…but author knows best!
And I have the “was I on CRACK?!” feeling many times! Sometimes even more than once a day! It just happens. My Muse likes to hide that stuff from me sometimes, makes me thinks an idea is great and shiney…and later I find out…actually no it wasn’t.
Today’s Wordcount: 900? 1000? I forget the exact number!
Total Wordcount: 6, 610
Because I missed so many days I really want to see a higher wordcount tomorrow. Hopefully I can pull it off.
Tomorrow’s goal: More than 1000, aiming for 1500
(This might be a bit difficult for me to achieve, but I am sure going to try!)
Hi Tori!
My book…Ok. I planned a trilogy. I had screenplays of this trilogy already written.
I started the novel. I finished Act I of Book I.
I realised I had 90,000 words / 500 pages. Roughly the same length as Holly’s Fire in the Mist, a fairly comfortable, modest length for a novel.
I realised if I kept writing until the end of the Book I I had planned, I would have at least twice, maybe three times that.
So, I’ve had to split my ‘trilogy’ into a planned NINE books. The first of which I have now written. It’s a nice bite-sized book, but it’s the first of a saga. Put together is where the hwoogeness comes in.
The dinosaur bit – Actually, the dinosaur scene I was raving about is still going in. I was talking about my First First Draft, my Proto-Draft, from Way Back In High School Ten Years Ago.
That one had a TALKING dinosaur. A tiny, annoying, talking dinosaur, with roughly the personality of Scrappy Doo, if Scrappy talked in third person ‘You No Take Candle’ speak and constantly flung insults at his companions.
…Yeah. Anyone for KFC? It’s really good.
P.S Yes. Trust yourself. Don’t throw bits away now. That much I’ve learned from Holly – don’t try to edit as you go. Just let it flow. It’s a first draft, it’s not supposed to be perfect. That’s what Revision is for, and with HTRYN you can do THAT in one solid, logical process. Good luck!
Tori and Wandersnowhere –
Guys, may I offer my two cents on the topic?
It is true that a too-much-lean book might fall a little flat, so it’s good to have subplots and the like to add depth and meat to a story. But from my own experience, I have real horror stories about the opposite end of the spectrum: the dreaded Huge Neverending Overplotted, Overbuilt Tangled Series Monster.
The problem with it is exactly the one you pointed out, Wandersnowhere. While a couple of subplots tied to the main one can be really cool and add to the story – if the threads become too many, you lose the big picture, and they become more confusing than cool (this was more or less the theme of the email I was going to send to you around April, before real life got in the way).
My two-cents advice is: WATCH OUT. Yes, in all caps. I wrecked my oldest (and dearest) project for good by turning it into the Huge Neverending Monster. Especially watch out for these symptoms:
- You feel the need to cram every good idea you have in the same project “because the setting is so big, and the characters can have many new adventures”.
- All of your main characters have to take center stage, and have their own novel-spanning plots and subplots (and you have a main cast of more than 3 people. I had a main cast of *10 Frikkin’ People*. Imagine my state of mind.).
- There’s so much going on at the same time that a good part of what happens in the beginning, or in the 1st book if it’s a series, won’t start making some sense until around 500K words, or the end of 3rd book.
Let me say this again: this are just my two cents and come from my own experience, so this may or may not apply to your situation (which the both of you of course know much better than me). But this is what happened to me, and I assure you I didn’t like it. I hear you on the “save the world! it’s your destiny!” lean plots being really cheesy, but there is such a thing as “too much” when it comes to plotting. At the start, of course, when it’s all floating about in your head, it’s supercool and exciting. But when you work on it for years, and still you’re not getting to the really cool part when it all comes together – it becomes frustrating, both to write and to read. I still think that the characters and plots in that old project of mine are really good in their own right – but I didn’t do them justice by cramming them all in the same place.
(aaaand I’m done spamming Holly’s blog for now ^^; )
Good lord. Yes, that too is familiar!
I’m thinking this half-applies to me. On the one hand, I have the bloated overbuilt monster with kitchensinkitis that you described. I have three MCs with parallel and equally important roles, a supporting cast of their friends and allies, a mysterious mentor, and a slew of villains, not all of whom are the same faction. This adds up to an extensive final roll call.
On the other hand, I still really like this story. I’ve written a first draft that I actually ENJOY sitting down and re-reading. A lot. I lose hours reading this thing instead of writing it, because it’s just that nice to actually see the story that has been floating in my head for so long play out on a page.
I feel like if I trim a bit of flab, streamline the subplots and characters and wipe out the ones that are just wasting space, it’ll be something beautiful. It’s just a tough balancing act.
If I were you I wouldn’t say that your beloved project is wrecked ‘for good’. Stories have a way of returning from death if you pour enough blood into them. Like Dracula, you know.
Here I am again! On the topic of actual writing, 326 more words on the 9th. We’re visiting Erthel’s nightmares again, and this one in particular will start making some really horrible sense very soon. Horrible in the “good fiction” sense of the word, that is.
Bit more progress today, around job interviews and invigilating. Curse the practicalities of life! Got the first quarter of the backstory nice and neat and tidy and did a quick outline for one of my peripheral characters from the main story. Outstanding tasks are to outline a handful of characters from the backstory, finalise the remaining scenes and the timeline and sketch some locations. Then…the rewrite! Inivigilating ends a week on Monday, so I’m trying to coincide with that…
Hey Wanders NoWhere-
Wow, it’s a good thing you stopped when you did. I’ve heard that anything much over 100,000 words in adult fiction is a really tough sell for a first time author. Good thing you listened to your gut and broke it up into different books…
What really blows my mind is the fact you were planning a fugging TRILOGY and it turned into…NINE BOOKS! That is insane to me! Seriously!
On one hand I am jealous that your characters are that awesome you are able to write so much about them. On the other hand I wouldn’t want to have to keep track on so many different plots.
I’m glad the dino is still going in your story. Wow…your first draft was from back in highschool? Have you not worked on any other books besides this sense then?
Hehe, that sounds pretty funny actually. It makes me want to read it! I mean, its fun imagining a dino with the personality of Scrappy Doo, it makes me smile.
I’d eat KFC…but I’m on a diet. So that probably isn’t a good idea.
Thank you for the awesome feedback! I needed it to get me back on track.
DasteRoad-
What you describe certainly isn’t something I would want to deal with. For one thing, I don’t think I’d be able to be with the same characters for that long without getting bored, no matter how fun the plot. For another, I’d be afraid of forgetting stuff. And I can certainly understand the feelings you had. I know I’d probably feel that too.
Looks like I am safe though because I only have one MC. The other characters are important but they are still only supporting characters. Also, my novel won’t be nearly as long. I’m writing a YA book and because I write lean my first draft will probably only be between 40k- 50k. But I’ll be lucky to get even that. After revision I hope to hit 60k, but I won’t push it if it doesn’t need it.
I don’t think what you have described will ever be a problem for me, but I’ll watch out anyway. I really don’t want to deal with anything as huge as that. I’m even not really wanting to write a sequel. I probably won’t. Because if this book isn’t publishable and the next one is…where would that leave me? I have had the idea that series were no-nos for awhile. But sometimes the temptation is pretty big to write one. You know, with all those bestsellers out there. It seems like everyone that makes a lot of money wrote a series. But I am probably just seeing what I want to see.
Anyway, thanks for your input! It gives me a lot to think about. And you are always welcome to voice your thoughts, just so you know!
Okay…now about my writing. The plan: write 700-800 words in one sitting. Take a break then write another 700-800 words. Which would mean I would get around 1500 like I was wanting to do.
I’ll write a little later tonight about how much I got.
I wrote some words. I filled in some holes where my story was thin. I found some thin spots that I’m not going to fill for now; revision stockpile. My mc wasn’t my mc by the time I needed him to go back to town, so as I backfill (just the Really Important Stuff, mind you) I’m fixing him and putting him back into his role. His ten year old friend had started being me yelling at him for being all messed up…No wonder he didn’t want to talk to me.
So 227 words, all necessary.
Word Count: About 850ish
Total Word Count: 7,476
My brain is a little fried. I’m not even positve about my actual word count for the day. But that is about right. I wanted to write more than this…and I will if I get the chance, but my baby is calling for me so that might not happen.
This scene was a little hard to write. For quite a few reasons. Sometimes its hard to hurt my characters. And the research for this part was a pain in the butt. But I got through it. I still have to check if what I wrote is even remotely how things would really happen…but for now I’m leaving it for tomorrow.
Tori – I couldn’t help, but want to add something to your discussion. I write lean too. More dialog than descriptions or character motions. I’m slowly getting better at it, trying to think of where the characters are and such, but it’s still not what comes first in my mind. Probably because I don’t visualize much at all. I hear the dialog in my head…recently I have been thinking that maybe I should try and write a screenplay…
Anyway, what I was trying to convey was that it’s okay to write lean. Lean isn’t bad and can always be easily fixed in revision. What would you rather do in revision: try to cut words or add words? I’m with the latter!
Another stop-start day with invigiliation and the modest distraction of the World Cup (!) I also found out vi e-mail that I failed to get either of the two jobs I was interviewed for, which feels like a decent chunk of my writing time for the week down the pan as much as anything else. Managed to bounce back to get a couple more backstory outlines finalised, though.
Felicia Fredlund-
That is exactly my problem! The first thing that comes to mind is whispers from my characters, their motivation, the twists in my scenes. But when it comes to description I just can’t see it in my head. Like you, I can’t visualize all too well.
And, although I haven’t revised anything in a long time, I would have to agree it is much easier to add words than to cut them.
Thanks for the input. It’s nice to see I’m not the only writer with this problem. For awhile it really worried me.
Writing Progress:
Was able to write early this morning so now I am getting ready for my next session. I’ve done some research and although I am not completely sure of my facts I need to move on if I want to finish the rough draft by the deadline. I can always fix it later if I’m wrong right?
Word Count goal: At least 800.
On visualization: sometimes you have to draw it. Sometimes you have to find pictures that are close to it. Sometimes you have to build it, cook it, or knit it. And sometimes you have to go to it, live it, taste-touch-smell-exist in it. Sometimes you have to eat burned camp food while wearing wet jeans and realize that it’s fun even so. Sometimes you have to pretend to have gone, and that’s ok too.
It’s in the questions you ask when you’re doing it. What matters in this picture? What’s not here? What should not be here? What are the sensory imputs of the place pictured? Why would that guy be grinning like that? Where’s the light coming from? Where are the shadows coming from? On and on, every question you can think of.
That’s the difference between “Eagles and hawks will frighten smaller birds into hiding” and “We had eight bluejays flitting from tree to tree–silently!–over our campsite. They were hard to spot in the pines, especially with the smoke from our little fire between us and them, but they all ended up in the low branches over our tent. Every time the wind shifted they moved out of the smoke and we watched where they went. Despite the smoke, they stayed at the south end of the campsite. After about ten minutes, we edged out to the beach–and spotted a bald eagle skimming over the trees two campsites north. No wonder the jays were silent.”
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