I got words on TalysMana today. Well, they aren’t words IN the story. But I redid my index (plot) cards to reflect the change in direction the story took, and to make sure that I stay on track with the sense of wonder in having imagination create your own living alternate universe.
So, in spite of vertigo and feeling rough, I’m getting back on track.
How about you?
{ 170 comments… read them below or add one }
Excellent! Good to have you back at the coal face, Holly
Hope you continue to recover from your ills.
I got most of Chapter 9 done today, but my marking of biology exam papers is more time-consuming than I had expected, hence not quite finishing it. It joins Chapters 3, 4 and 8 in the almost-done-but-just-need-to-finish-off-and-work-in-some-world-detail pile. What with the marking, I’ve put off trying to catch up the previous day, and instead have decided to go back and finish off these chapters once the marking is finished, which should be next week sometime. Backstory scene today, detailing the origins of the mythical pendant and the mysterious tag!
Welcome back onboard, Holly!
As for me, last words I got were 326 on thursday 8 July, detailing a nice little scene which gives some more details on the whole “where did Erthel’s mother end up” issue – AND the moves of the main antagonist (which, by the way, up until now we assumed was there to HELP our protagonist… yay for double-crossing!).
Right now I’m taking a week off actual writing to flesh out the upcoming scenes, and if I manage to, the book’s ending. Yes, because I’m at around 41K and the book is supposed to be 60K words long, so it’s almost time to wrap it all up! It seems so incredible that I’ve gone this far… and I started here with you guys, back in October, on the WABWM bandwagon!
Glad you’re feeling better! Looking forward to more Talysmana, but even more happy you’re able to do anything but feel lousy.
I’m noodling/doodling an new idea. It’s been a long dry spell, but I think I’m almost ready for the words on paper stage again.
So… should I finish up my summer project for WABWM, or should I switch back to PH2 and look into how to fix it? Maybe I can do both; I should have time.
Should. That word is like bait for distractions.
WOOHOO! Welcome back!
Ms Lisle, you are indomitable, you truly are.
I’m still chewing my lip over the Mr. N scene I wrote. To summarise: I was reading over my book, which I STILL CAN’T #”ING PRINT because my new printer decided to die and …ghhhhsarghhfffmurrfle. Anyway. I was mulling and thinking about what potential changes I MIGHT make once I get the revision rolling properly.
And my series uber-villain suddenly busted into my head declared that since he is very present in the prologue, which is a wonderful piece of writing that I want to keep, but disappears from the rest of the story (Because he isn’t due to return in the flesh until the mid point of the series)….
Well basically he declared he wants to re-enter the story RIGHT NOW. In Book I. And make contact with the heroes, even though his physical body is -frozen inside a moon-.
And not only did he want to make contact, but he wanted to make FRIENDLY contact. QUIET contact. He just wanted to scope them out and say hello. You guys don’t understand; this villain’s transmutation over the years of my writing him…even toned down…his original ‘first’ entrance was literally flying out of the sky and blowing up a city with his fingertip.
So to have Mr. N tap me on the shoulder and say ‘I want to meet your protagonists. And make friends.’ FLOORED me.
So, without touching the original draft (The one I’m trying to print and revise) I wrote the scene he wanted as a stand-alone piece. I really really like it. I’m going to wait for the revision to see if I can squeeze it in or not. But it’s there, now, it’s written, and it’s NICE to have him on board…
….god. I call that a ‘summary’?
One of these days someone is going to tell us our stories are too big and we should write smaller. We will instead invest in some really good painkillers and chortle with glee as we build big, complex worlds with big, complex plots–and do it well. Then we will point at the people who told us we were wrong and say, “Any dream worth dreaming is worth realizing BIG.”
*climbs down off soapbox and hides*
Hey there Wanders!
The new scene looks cool (I also read your description on the other thread about the creepy blind child… yikes!), but you’re right on waiting for the revision to decide about it. Remember that the more of Mr. N you put into the first book, the more he/she/it/whatever risks of turning from “creepy foreshadowing” into “dangling plot thread”.
What I’m trying to do is make him the opposite. By virtue of appearing in the prologue he’s -already- a dangling plot thread.
Well, I haven’t read the whole book so I can’t really give a sound opinion
But it seems to me that giving him more “screen time” would add to the dangling plot threads instead, if you’re not going to bring the thing to a resolution until a few books later. This because giving him more screen time means giving him more importance. Also, keep in mind the usual mantra that every scene moves the story forward. If all Mr. N does is being mysterious about things that will only make sense a few books down the road, and freaking the hell out of our heroes – but there are no other consequences in the book, well, handle the scene with care. I take it you like to give many tiny clues about what is actually happening in advance, but if the clues are too tiny and/or have no consequences, we’ll lose the big picture.
Just my two cents as usual.
Oh! I just thought of something.
Again, I second your idea of waiting for the revision to decide what to do with this new scene. But maybe… if in the end you realize that you can’t think of a decent spot to squeeze the new scene in, or that it would put too much on your plate – you could always use it as a little prologue for the 2nd book! I don’t know if you already thought of a prologue for that one, of course… but it could be a nice way to show us that, while our heroes were busy with other things, something else is lurking beneath the surface and lookie, he just made contact. I could also see a nice pattern emerge: every book starting with a teaser scene with Mr.N – until of course he really takes center stage, at which point we’ll start to see him much more frequently. What do you think?
Of course, now I expect to get 70% of your net profits for this oh-so-awesome idea I just had.
(Of course I’m being stupid XD)
Lol.
Well, I already have prologues planned for each book. Some involve him and some don’t. Usually they’re a dream or vision the protagonists have, and tied directly to the plot at hand (e.g second book has the ‘dreamed I was a lizard’ scene, and guess where the heroes end up going) The reason I was getting excited about Mr N’s scene is that he is much LESS vague than the existing foreshadowing.
Snake Eyes has a habit of being cryptic and obfuscating to the point where the heroine makes fun of him for it. His big bean-spilling of Book I amounts to “vague evil things are hunting you, and they’ll destroy civilisations just to get to you. They’re going to kill a royal tonight. Kthxbye.” *BATMAN VANISH*
….Mr N. flat out tells the hero what the bad guys are and what they’re looking for. And shows him a vision of the Cosmic MacGuffin, tells him what it’s called, and blatantly points out the source of both their powers.
All in about three sentences. He has no reason to be obfuscating. He does have a reason to manipulate the heroes, but he does this by telling them the truth;
‘Everyone will use you.’
274 words on SP (which stands for summer project; I still can’t think of a working title for it yet) last night. I was soooo tired; I woke up this morning and thought, “Wow, I dreamed I wrote some words!” And then there they were, legible and everything. I think for the sake of finishing things I’ll stick to this one until it’s done. PH2 is to my main story like The Hobbit is to the Lord of the Rings, so I don’t feel too bad telling it to wait a bit. Meanwhile, I have tunnel maps to draw. Can anyone reccommend some good books on medieval architecture?
Wanders, my hubby says sorry but he doesn’t know how to fix that kind of printer problem, and you may want to try the website for the company that made the printer and/or the help line. Could you save it to a flash drive and print it at a library or somewhere? The school might even give you permission if you explain and ask nicely. I’d offer to print it here and mail it to you, but my printer access is gone until September, along with my parking pass.
Thanks!
I may resort to asking the school. They certainly have the paper and huge office printers that can easily handle my book (though their paper is fairly rough recycled type, I may want to bring my own). It’ll depend on school policy and the price of the ink. TBH, I burn through more ink printing a day’s worth of worksheets than I would printing something as plain-text as the book.
If you need help with medieval architecture, email me? kurisukun-at-hotmail-dot-com. I built a castle on Second Life and had to learn a passing knowledge of the subject to make it feel authentic.
The trend continues. Got Biology exam paper quota for the day done, got Chapter 10 mostly done. Left it where the drowned archeologist is discovered, for maximum motivation when I return to it next week!
(Most of) Chapter 11 tomorrow…
Gah. I just knew this was going to happen sooner or later.
I’m working on the plotting, racking my brains to figure out what happens next, and how everything is going to wrap up – and I’m flat out HATING IT ALL.
Well, not completely. I still love PoB as a project and I can’t wait for the moment when everything will click together, and Erthel will reach her ultimate goal. Because I know she will, I just have no frikkin’ clue as to HOW.
But I can’t seem to get my Muse to talk to me yet, at least not in clear, useful “conflict/action/twist” patterns. Everything just looks so messy and insignificant. Yes, I know a lot of stuff is going to happen, but just “stuff happening” is not enough to have decent, workable scenes in mind. What bugs me more is that I have no difficulties with actual writing: figuring out WHAT TO WRITE is always the hardest step.
Groan. Maybe I’m just asking the wrong questions. Maybe I should just brainstorm some sketchy details, start writing again and figure out the twists on the go. I don’t know what it’s not working at the moment, but it’s just frustrating.
I hope a good night sleep will help.
Don’t give up, hon, we all hit this wall. I still look at my story and think ‘Is this ever going to make sense to anyone but me?’ even after my mother, who doesn’t read fantasy, followed the plot without needing any clarification. Writers are passionate, emotional people, sometimes the same features that give us so much power to create rebel on us.
Your story sounds fantastic from this end, if it helps, and I’d consider it a tragedy if it got derailed. Endings can be tough. I know I tend to know the ending I want in advance, and then overload the scenes building to it in a mad scramble to tie up all the loose ends before the Battle Royale With Cheese. Maybe that’s what’s happening with you? Maybe you should just make a step-by-step list, or scene cards, whichever, of what you need to have happen before the end and then figure out a few potential sequences it can happen in?
I had a teacher for a playwriting class who once started the day with this exercise: “Jane enters the room from stage left, carrying a small………………………….. rodent. Write what happens next.” He paused for about a minute before deciding that Jane was carrying a rodent. Such suspense!
Yeah there’s a point to that. Sometimes surprise is the best idea. If you figure out all the places that a certain dangling thread could go logically and none of them seem great, pull out a book of random words (I like the thesaurus, myself) and flip a bit. You get new and exciting directions, and then you can figure out how all the threads connect to it. Like, how in the world does “Librium” –some sort of name-brand tranquilizer, apparently–tie together a mystic looking for a rare crystal and an archeologist determined to discover why the people at the mesa disappeared? …. See, you’re thinking about that, now, aren’t you? It works!
Thanks guys – to the both of you. It really helps to know there’s a place where people can actually understand what I’m going through when nothing seems to work
Apparently, my muse just needed me to stop harassing her and leave her alone for a good night’s sleep. Today the links finally started to come together, and everything felt much clearer, more meaningful… and powerful, somehow. I can already visualize the start of a couple of scenes that I can’t wait to write. I’m also getting a first feel for a couple of things I’ll probably have to work in during revision – but I’m sure as heck NOT going to start revising now: I just jotted down a couple of notes and then moved on with the plotting. I’ve learned that lesson the hard way.
1000 new words in less than thirty minutes. They may not be good words, but I got something. That’s all that matters right now.
Also: I’ve hit 23K in my novel. I’m doing JulNoWriMo so my ultimate goal is to hit 50k this month. So far it looks like that will happen. I’m just having a hard time not cutting most of my words right now. Nothing is ever good enough for my Inner Editor so its a struggle to tell her “no” and that she has to wait until next month to do anything. But if I’m ever going to finish a rough draft that is how it needs to be.
Glad you are back Holly! This is exactly the inspiration I need to keep going!
Hi, Holly: Welcome Back!
After stating on the “Boulder” thread/comments that I was chucking it, around July 3rd I think, I decided to grit my teeth and jump back on the horse. 516 words today, so 50,734 total. I guess that is about 6-7K from when I started posting here, so that’s moving along, albeit slowly. (I got stung by a scorpion Saturday night–not a great excuse, but it did sideline me for a day).
I have a coyote that lives in my little area of the Tonto National Forest, and he’s basically 3-legged. Natch, I call him Tripod. When I first moved here two years ago, I was certain he was a goner. But he’s still here. I’m grateful that he’s still here, because I have learned something from him…to persevere. He simply “keeps on keeping on.” Thus it is with writing fiction…you just have to keep on keeping on, I guess. – thanks for being here, Holly.
I’m really glad you’re not quitting, Hitch. Welcome again.
Well, I’ve stopped working on my WIP so that I can concentrate on my RIP. Over the past few weeks, I’ve really been banging on getting all the kinks worked out in the story. The story has totally turned itself on its ear. I began the Write In of the revision on Sunday. Since I’m doing this long hand, I don’t have a word count but I’ve got 19 pages down. That’s 7 scenes completed and basically covers the first “day” of the story.
58 scenes to go.
Welcome back, Pencil Neck! It’s nice to have you onboard again
Chapter 11 about two-thirds completed. I actually discovered that the original draft had a couple of takes on the scene already, and as I had a handful of changes/additions to make, I started over. Once I’ve rewritten it, I’ll scan through the old versions for any juicy bits to keep.
I have a new “don’t ask” in my list of places I’ve written: during a tornado watch. Green sky, hail, listening for sirens. And writing a kidnapping sequence.
It’s official; I’m setting ARC aside for the moment to work on a short story for Holly’s Rebel Tales.
After Holly’s reply on the other thread telling me to ‘write fast’, I was spurred. I had a vague idea about wanting to do a short fantasy mystery last week. Yesterday, the idea exploded into a setting, two rival cultures, a shared history, a magic system, two protagonists, a religion, an antagonist, and a twist. So clearly a little more complex than I’d been expecting; but I am in love with this idea…
And I just finished Chapter 1
Chapter 12 mostly done! Got given an extra 170 papers to mark today as well. Still hope to clear all of them on Sunday, so I can focus on my writing next week…
482 words on thursday 15th. Yay for writing again!
Fun thing is, I have around 10 scenes planned ahead, and the current one – with Erthel and Faurel having a chat about his habit of calling his mother “our matriarch” – just came out of the blue. I like their interactions, but I have no idea where I’m going with this little scene or what consequences it will have. It’s weird… and fun at the same time.
I’m taking a short break from writing to shine my house as I have an inspection on Monday. I’m hoping to be able to catch up on Saturday, but we’ll see how it goes. Wanders, I’ll be sending you an e-mail as soon as I can; they should be done fixing the storm damage later today.
Got it, working on a reply. Will do my own research when I get home.
Ok. Thanks much–I really have no idea what to look for.
…Wilhering Abbey has the kind of history that I think would make for some great underground hiding spots. (Yes, I looked up Rococo.) Church made of a castle, burned down, was rebuilt, was invaded, et cetera…
Hi all.
I’m new here, but I’ve been quietly reading Holly’s main blog for a little over a year now. Afraid I’m not quite as prolific as many of you folks, but this seems like a good place to keep me encouraged and writing.
841 words today.
Forgot to post the word count from the kidnapping scene. 972, and nobody even saw the bad guys
Next up, the bad guys get a scene and some good food.
One room shiny, five to go.
1961 words on my first chapter of the RT story – and now, 3361 words on Chapter 2, which is finished.
Bit of an infodump on the protagonist’s backstory, which may get pruned when I polish it before sending it to Holly. I may be able to break it up and insert it in less obtrusive way elsewhere.
But at present I’m satisfied with the presentation; the hero is fading in and out of consciousness and dreaming of the life that led him to this ignoble moment…
…while the heroine is dragging his unconscious ass through the jungle, and swearing her head off.
I think I’m in love with her.
Ch13 about half done. No more marking after weekend so can concentrate on the write-in.
595 today. Up to 51,328. Fighting off a cold, so it was a total slog. Still–I wrote ‘em. Good enough for today.
Holly,
It’s so good to have you back here! No rush, but I am reallly looking forward to the next email installment of Talysmana.
Also, I love the HTTS class. If anyone is on the fence, it is incredible. Love it, love it, love it. I’m getting new writing tools with every lesson. (I already signed up for the revision course even though I’m not ready to use the lessons yet.)
1,376 today. Total count, 71,379.
354. Total of 51,680. Seems like very slow going right now. I keep going back and editing my first two chapters, like a total dolt. I know better–and I keep doing it anyway. I firmly believe it’s a form of procrastination.
@JWD: Welcome!
And holy smokes, you’ve got some words there! Way to go.
I’ve pulled off 217 words in the past few days, with *no* writing time whatsoever. (And my house is almost shiny.) I wrote in the hunchback of the tunnels and then realized I wrote him as a spry 70-year-old man, but if his story is true, he’s pushing 90. So I need to fix that. I forsee a day’s travel to the good library.
I’m ALMOST on holidays and if I can get away from Second Life people (ugh…’people’ is a generous term) and my friends trying to be cram in as much socialising as possible before we all part ways, I am going to write.
The new story, which I’ll codename ‘Pilgrim’, is progressing more slowly than the first frenzied two days, but I’m on chapter 3 and all is well. I can’t spoil too much, but it’s a kind of Romeo and Juliet romance…
…In a jungle. With monsters and lost cities and warring tribes and abyssal secrets rotting beneath the fetid ruins of forgotten civilisations. And stuff.
It’s a love story.
592. 52,272.
I can’t recall where I ended the word count–that is, whether I posted after writing most recently. Let’s pretend I did. In which case… I fixed the old guy, but it only averages out to about 10 words. Now instead of being the creepy guy, he’s seeing the creepy guy. (Seeing=”has in view”, not “dating”!)
Well… newcomer here.
I’ve failed to write anything for the last two days after getting about 17k words out there. A friend said I should try having two stories, one to work on when I’m less than happy – satirical – and one to work on when I’m seriously writing. One sitting, one thousand something words. But it sucks.
First major project – five main first-person characters. No idea what word length I’m going for.
But maybe this’ll keep me on track better, having said I’d do so.
So…
Here goes. Two thousand words is goal by saturday.
Welcome aboard, Jonathan
Thank ya.
Wow, so many updates to keep up with! I’ll make this a quick one – I finished editing the first of 6 sections and I’m on to section 2. There have been a ridiculous number of rewrites already because changing one thing affects so many others, but I’m satisfied enough to move on.
Word count is somewhere over 7K but only 6.5K typed.
758 of my 2K goal so far. I’m leaving quite a lot for later, I suppose.
I’m losing too much of my writing to revision, – I can’t be content with one of my characters. He began as aloof and cynical, even brutal. Now he’s far too human for my tastes, and I’m having difficulty showing his thought processes as ‘cold’. Logical, yes, but not cold.
It’s less than encouraging.
I’m writing a story about a set of five characters – one detached and cold, one young and naive, one disillusioned and afraid, one stigmatized and alone, and one evil but repentant.
Well, those are the good guys, anyway. Defined by their faults, mostly. The bad guys are respectively patriotic, noble, and valorous, because I hate flat bad-guy characters, and hate more when you can’t put yourself in their shoes.
Anyway – that brings me to .. oh gosh I just did the addition and I was way off what I thought I had … 23,688 words.
What is normal word length for a chapter?
Your bad guys sound really interesting. I have trouble with bad guys; they come out sounding like extras from 80s afternoon tv. I’m trying to read books with decent bad guys in them to get some feel for how to handle them properly.
I’ve seen elsewhere on this board and in Holly’s other work that there is no “normal” word length for a chapter. It’s more like, write a bunch of scenes, average your scene length, stick a bunch of scenes that go together together and call it a chapter. I’ve seen chapters that were four words long, probably for the suspense. My own chapters run about 6000 words, and I define them as “enough stuff has happened to warrant a change of perspective and/or cliffhanger point has been reached.”
Cool. My normal length so far is 3000, +/- 1k, and I often feel like I’m probably doing it wrong.
My bad guys are what I would try to consider heroes in other works… you know?
In war – does it make more sense to go up against an enemy who is patriotic, fighting for the kids at home and hoping desperately that he’s doing the right thing – or to go up against a monster who’s willing to mobilize armies on his own selfish whims?
I felt it would make more sense, and be more fun to write, for all of my bad guys to be patriotic servants of a rebellious country – like the US was for britan – and to stick all the good guys in the ‘britan’ part. Except having the countries side by side, not across the sea from one another.
My protagonists are most likely to do the whole ‘mobilize an army for my own selfish ends’ – actually, though they’re not so much selfish as survivalist.
(shrug)
– And if you want to read good bad guys, Jim Butcher’s books are pretty good for the intelligent bad guys. And if you want to get behind the bad guy’s eyes, read Dumas’ Count of Monte Cristo.
I like your stance on villains.
Especially since in the real world, patriotic, noble and valorous people are often the ones who commit the most heinous atrocities imaginable. Look at Genghis Khan or Vlad the Impaler, or if you want to be a bit more controversial, look at the figures of more recent history, especially through the eyes of their own people.
Vlad I know little to nothing about. But Genghis Khan was a great ruler for his people, if a brutal strategist — you’re right.
Even when noble, patriotic, and valorous people aren’t committing heinous acts, they are still intelligent and dangerous opponents.
I would rather face a cowardly, selfish bad guy then a valorous, selfless, patriotic bad guy.
And …. the patriotic one might still kill you in your sleep, because it’s the best/only way to do it – if he judges that you need to die.
Somehow that made me think of the patriotic French in 1789 or so.
Genghis -was- a great ruler, and Vlad was known (although he certainly had contemporary enemies and rivals to spare) in his own time and place as a patriot and a fearless warrior prince who cleaned the traitors out of his country, defended Christendom from Ottoman invasion and ruled his province with brutal but even-handed justice.
But tell that to the countless fields of corpses they both left behind.
This is where you can use cultural subjectivity to really, really play with it – in the real world, people Western culture view as despots / warlords / terrorists often have huge factions of supporters who sincerely believe they are heroes fighting for the freedom of their nation, or the Rightness of their religious or political views, or what have you. Not all of this can be brushed under the carpet as ‘they’re brainwashed!’ – there are complex social, political and religious elements at work.
Simultaneously, anyone who oppresses, tortures or kills those who disagree with them will always have enemies within their own society as well, who may or may not be too scared to act openly against them. One culture’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter; ‘Us vs Them’ seems to be elemental to the human psyche, and people who sincerely believe in what they’re doing are often the most dangerous of all, because they’ll be much more easily able to justify questionable acts in the name of their cause. These are things that unfortunately create a great deal of suffering and horror in the real world, but they are a GOLD MINE for storytelling.
And it’s also one that forces a writer to examine and challenge his own beliefs, because the more you look at it from ‘the other side’s’ perspective, the more complexity reveals itself…
… and the more bigoted you may or may not reveal yourself to be.
I am ashamed to say I’m stuck on thirteen hundred words. I’ve two final exams on friday, and have been attempting to pour my energies into studying for them.
History and sociology. Any guesses why I’ve been writing my characters the way I have? Heh-heh.
You think a lot, Wanders. I’m curious as to the motivations of your own villains, now.
Wednesday’s words – got most of chapter 14 of my write-in done and some of chapter 15. Think I might be overdoing the world-building side, but figure I’ll try to work as much in now, then when I re-read afterwards I’ll trim out anything that seems awkward.
265. 52,533.
1300/2000. Somewhere near 24.5 k.
Trying to resist writing from the viewpoints of all my bad guys too.
Not a great day, but one short scene re-written and notes finalised for another before urgent last-minute biology papers to mark de-railed me. Hopefully distraction free tomorrow.
Wrapped up chapter 3 of SP. The old guy isn’t dead but he broke his hip. I’m debating what the next scene should be, but it’s probably going to be the kidnapping victims discovering their plight.
744 today. 53.277. Man, I’ll be glad when I get over 55K; this past 5K has just been killing me, for reasons that aren’t really clear to me. I fear I’ve reached the point where I have to craft the end now…so I know where I’m writing TO, make the next bit (the 2nd half of the 2nd act and the 3rd Act) a little less of a bumpy ride. And to think I was originally going to do a shorty at 60K. Ha!
Reasonable day. Sluggish start, but made up some ground this evening. Have managed to mostly write-in about 18 chapters, and just trying to find time to pop back and finish off those that are left once I’ve done my next chapter for the day. Hopefully next week I’ll be back on track. Had a morning where I was wondering why I was writing at all, but it seemed to pass late afternoon, which was a relief
Question for you guys.
How the heck do you get your family to leave you alone long enough to get some writing done??!!
I’ve shipped mine off to Grandma’s for the night, and I’m aiming for a couple K tonight. But fits and spurts are no way to build a career, and sending them off somewhere only works so many times.
Any insights? Thanks much in advance… :S
Update: 1201 words tonight. Two scenes. I like where this is going.
Don’t tell them you’re writing – just lock your bedroom door and don’t mingle with them, or alternatively, write on your laptop and take it wherever you go, and write when you’ve the free time.
Though you’re married and I’m a single eighteen-year-old-kid, so maybe there’s limited milage on that one.
Also I don’t know about writing for a career, because I’ve never tried, but it seems to me that there are a lot of pointless things we use to fill our days – that extra hour of sleep, television, that extra snack before mealtime, computer games or facebooking – dump that, and theoretically there could be time for writing.
All good points. I suppose making a third arm of my laptop would work, eventually. At the very least it would let everyone know that I’m serious enough about writing to include it in my daily life.
1,776 words tonight. Holly sent out another tip about conflict. I did a two-line fix of the end of chapter two, so that instead of starting with a planning session the characters just jump down a hole and go after the kidnapped friends. But I also got a whole new unplanned scene. Faced with a decision, the character starts off down his chosen pathway only to fall on his face and nearly get swept away by a river of poo. Now he’s wet, smells like poo, and still has to rescue his friends while not falling back in that river.
For being completely unplanned, I think it’s pretty good.
River of Poo.
(shakes head)
That’s gotta clear the sinuses.
Nice.
Chapter 3 of the Pilgrim story is almost done. Various other b.s has prevented me from working on it as quickly as I wanted and I’m worried that if Holly is accepting submissions to Rebel Tales at the end of the month, I’m really not going to have enough time to write and revise this in time for that.
But I can give it a shot, that’s all.
Male MC got his magic back.
Finished my first draft on the 24th! It’s a little short, but I’m not worried. Yet. Plus, when I printed it all out…I was amazed at how much writing I’d actually done! Seriously, I spent quite a few minutes just staring at my MS because I was that surprised. And my hubby was like “You wrote THAT?” My next stop is letting my WIP sit for at least a week, then I’ll start HTRYN.
I’m also hard at work planning my next project. I’m working on my characters right now. I can already tell I’m going to like this story more than the last. But I’ve got to tell you. It’s scaring me too. I’m realizing just how much I’ve screwed up my other story and its taking everything in me to let it sit a little longer.
Does anyone else get that feeling after they finish a project? That its completely horrible when comparing it to anything else? And even…feel it needs to die and work on something else instead?
I’m not sure if these feelings are natrual or my WIP needs a severe amount of work. The thing is, I can’t tell if my story needs a normal amount of revision…or if its not worth dealing with.
Anyone run into this? And yeah, maybe I shouldn’t obsess about this. I am going to be taking HTRYN after all. But I can’t stop worrying about this.
Oh. And I’m going to mention another thing. My ending compared to my beginning sucks horribly. At least I finally finished something…but still. I’m a little disappointed with how my first draft turned out.
Yes. I’m working on a revision now amid other WIPs, and I had the same issue about giving it time to sit, and thinking it was crap. You’re not alone.
I caved after 2 weeks because there was just too much going on in my head and I was still so excited about finishing a full first draft. But I didn’t just dive into rewrites – I at least held back to just the big picture: looking at the plot, characters, theme… stuff you’ll learn in HTRYN I’m sure.
One thing about thinking it’s crap versus the shiny new stuff though… like anything else, we learn through experience so I believe that yes, whatever your next project is it will likely be better than the last. That’s how things generally progress. That’s not always the case, but generally (imo).
That doe not mean, however, that what you wrote is wasted paper. I go through the same thing when I look back at my work and have to ask myself “what was I thinking?” but that’s what the revision is for – to make it better. Make it shine.
You will see the better side of it again. For every “what was I thinking?” there’s a “that was bloody brilliant if I do say so myself”
As they say, you’re your own worst critic.
Chin up and keep at it. Congratulations on the finished draft.
Your new writing may be better … but old stuff is worth saving, even if part of it really were crap – it can be redone, and as long as everything that builds off of it is salvageable, it’s not a waste of time.
It’s like building a ladder. Even if some of the rungs end up being made badly, the entire structure is still going up, and the loss of one or two rungs doesn’t compromise the entire structure. Just a fairly small part of it. They can be replaced when the rest of it is done.
In other words, no matter how bad you used to write, the characters and plot are probably salvageable. And the ideas that made the entire thing fun are certainly salvageable.
And we’re all our own worst critics.
Oh yeah. And I did the whole – step back, take a look – thing once. Junked 50 pages or so. Dunno what that is in terms of wordcount. But it was a sad sad thing.
Okey-dokey: first, 807 words today. 54,069. I had some success with working on tweaking my 2nd half outline, though, so I am happy with that progress, for today.
@Danzier: I wait until everyone’s in bed, then I write. Period. I can’t work (write–I can do my other work with a normal amount of noise) at all when the house is awake and noisy.
@Tori: LOL, are you kidding? I feel like my WIP is total shite on a daily basis. I am constantly resisting the idea of tanking it altogether and nuking it, giving it a merciful death. I plan to finish it, put it away for 30 days, then sit down to revise it. IME–which is not unsubstantial in the non-fiction world–revision is 90+% of writing, or at least, of writing WELL. Put it away for a while, until you do HTRYN. Then if you still want to euthanize it, maybe you will–but don’t do it until then.
(P.S. – I find critique groups extremely helpful in determining just how crappy my stuff REALLY is versus how over-critical *I* am).
HTH,
Hitch
I’m ba-a-ck!
My writing-Mt.-Everest has always been to get organized then stick with it. Then, all the other stories vie for attention. I write a lot for work, and I have the same challenge, I just know how to get past it for work purposes.
Then, I had a head smacking “duh” moment last week, and called a woman who got me writing again, several years ago. She has agreed to be my coach of sorts and help me get organized, then stay organized. She really gets me, and within five minutes of our talking again, she asked a question that could be a turning point in my life AND in my writing. (I really hope it is not a talking point for future disappointment.)
So, I should be back with daily words soon. Not sure yet how to work it around work and life and stuff, but I suspect the time will open up.
Did you get a diagnosis yet?
Thank you all for your helpful comments! It has helped me calm down a bit…at least enough to wait til HTRYN to decide whether my project deserves to live or not.
@Jessica- You are right of course. My new project IS likely to be better than my last because writing is a constant learning experience. It’s just I find myself cringing at some of the things I thought were awesome and already know now to be….well, not so awesome. I am so happy that I’m not alone though. I was worried that it was only me, because my stuff sucks in comparison to everyone else’s. Now that I know revision tends to make every writer think “what WAS I thinking?” I’ll be better prepared for when I start HTRYN. And when I really think about it…it IS good that my new idea is better. If I’m improving that’s all that really matters. Oh! Once I had time to calm down I realized you were right about the wasted paper thing too. My WIP isn’t wasted paper, it’s a learning experience. Even if it never gets published. Which is fine because my next idea is better anyway.
@Jonathan- I agree. There is always something worth saving, even in old writing. Even if its only a line or two, or the setting, or the characters…there is always something. I’m actually not throwing my idea away. I think I just have the pre-revision blues. Maybe I think my WIP is crappier than it really is. But I don’t have any delusions either. It has A LOT of problems, mainly the worldbuilding…or lack thereof. Thanks for the input! It’s helping me look at the brighter side of revision. Even if I throw out a lot of stuff I’m bound to find stuff I’ll keep too.
@Hitch- Well…as long as I’m not the only one worried about my WIP I guess I’ll survive LOL. Seriously, though. You guys have made this a lot easier. I’ve never had a real crit group outside of highschool. There may be ones in my area but I really don’t know where to find them. You have any ideas? That might help me decide exactly how bad this thing is. But even if I don’t find a group I have my hubby and my sister. Thanks for reminding me of that! Sometimes we aren’t the best judges of how bad or good our writing is.
Okay…so today I’m going to be working more on my new story. I’ve got to get through at least the character modules, but I’m going to try and hit the rest of the critical ones as well. And tomorrow I want to focus on figuring out some candy-bar scenes. Should be a busy week! I’d love to start writing this thing before the revision of my other WIP…but something tells me that isn’t likely to happen. So I’ll either work on this between editing stints or it will be put on hold until after my revision is done. Kinda depends on how fun the revision is and how fast I can get through it.
Anyway, I was so happy about finish my first draft I had pizza last night! Not good for my diet, but I figured I needed to celebrate somehow!
So…how do you guys celebrate finishing a rough draft, a revision…or when you start sending out query letters?
Well… I obviously failed to hit my last goal. I’ve been doing a lot of studying and have put off real progress – word count wise – until after the big exams. But during the parts of the day I’m not studying I’ve been trying to brainstorm my way to one of these candy-bar scenes of which you guys speak.
Of which my writing to this point has been somewhat lacking – not because I don’t write scenes that are fun to write, but because the in-between is also fun to write.
But I think I finally found a couple. And TvTropes – you guys know of it? – is at fault. It’s a gold mine of oft – perhaps – used ideas, but it helps me a little – I’ll look at, say, the phrase “kill us both” and figure out exactly how I’m going to kill the husband of one of the main characters.
Oh, and I think I’ll let his sacrifice be in vain, mostly.
Anyway, here’s hoping I write up to that point by next friday – not this coming one, but the next, a week in which I’ll be able to get down to some serious writing again.
@Tori – never finished a rough draft worthy of the name, never celebrated revisions ( just breathed a sigh of relief ) and haven’t sent out letters — But when I finish a chapter, say, I celebrate by making some unlucky soul read it… does that count?
Well, I’m bad about not studying, apparently. But I did knock out another nine hundred something words or so just then. Impassioned dialog about how the wagon-man met, married, and lost his sweetheart, and why that drove him to the merchant’s life. Even incorporated it into existing writing.
Re-writing it to make it flow better might be a little hard, though. My character’s response makes him seem too human.
@Jonathan- First of all…why haven’t you sent out a query letter? Did you loose your nerve or not think your work was good enough or what? Oh, and I’d say letting someone else read your work counts! In fact, that is one thing I haven’t done in a long time! This is my first draft I’ve finished in almost ten years (I was just a little kid then). There was one last year I almost finished but I lost everything. It’s actually what brought me to write this story. Anyway, I’ve never made it to revision which is why I’m so scared. This is my first time I’ve even come close to celebrating though.
I’ve done more planning on my new story. Slowly working through the modules. It always goes by so slow this part! Sometimes I hate planning, but I know I need it. I screwed up big time on my last WIP because I didn’t do enough of it, I don’t want to make the same mistake again!
How many of you tend to overbuild at the planning stage? How many of you are pansters? Or, like me, have learned to plan in some areas but not much in others? For me, because I don’t write fantasy or historicals, putting my worldbuilding in my manuscripts is hard. I’m actually going to have to go through my WIP and add decriptions of the place…in fact I never actually made a decision on which town I wanted! Admitting this makes me feel like such a fake, like I’m not really a writer. I know so many others that go insane over worldbuilding…but that is the hardest part for me!
Anyway, if things start picking up I might even let myself start writing this new thing even while editing my other WIP. Or at least inbetween lessons of HTRYN. I’m really liking what I’ve got so far.
Assuming “query letter” means what I think it means, I haven’t sent out any because I haven’t ever written with the goal, even really in abstract, of publishing – just with the goal of actually finishing something for once.
Keeps me sane and all.
And good luck with your revision, and – it’ll undoubtedly be fine.
Monday: caught up some unfinished scenes from the previous week. Still behind where I want to be, though. Have part-time work starting next week, so will be pushing on these next few days…
350 on a dream of wandering through an egg timer while it flips over, and then she woke smacked against the floor with the bed on top of her.
Sadism is so much fun sometimes! lol