So now Kettan is in the unenviable position of fixing her awful mistake, and while Will is with her, she’s the only one who can undo the mess she made of everything, and set things right—but without setting everything back the way it was to begin with.
So she has a problem, and no clear solution.
I got 670 words tonight, and enjoyed the writing. (Last week was hideous, and I’m glad to put it behind me.) Tomorrow night, I should be able to get her solution down on paper.
How’s the writing going for you?
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
252 words.
A couple of sailors who were surprised by the whole battle stations alarm, and who initially decided to ignore it thinking it was a drill, pull their vac suits on and get jacked by the Princess and her two new friends.
I wasn’t sure i was going to write at all tonight. Last night I found Myth Weaver and got enthralled by their Dungeon Generator. I haven’t programmed graphics in php and those dungeon maps were sweet. So most of today, I spent taking care of my wife (who’s been sick this weekend
) and figuring out how that programmer drew those maps. It turns out to be pretty simple once you’ve got the right library loaded. Unfortunately, there’s a link for a Town Generator but it doesn’t work. I’m going to see if I can’t write one of those. I’m wondering if he draws little buildings or if he has a bunch of pre-defined images that he layers in and rotates. And how much detail he adds in.
I think I might be stalling because I’m not sure I’m liking my direction.
Stop. Take the time to ask yourself (and your Muse) questions.
What obviously happens next? What if that didn’t happen? What if what seems to happen really meant something else? Who would be behind that?
And so on.
If your gut is warning you that the story isn’t right, your Muse going on a sit-down strike won’t be far behind.
No words over the weekend/friday, but some more scene analysis and some work on my world, including a study of climate. I found this, which is useful for creating believable weather, etc:
http://jc.tech-galaxy.com/bricka/climate_cookbook
I slept through most of the weekend -.- For shame! I suppose I needed to relax, though. Also, the time did not completely go to waste from a creative point of view, since I’ve made a cool drawing/portrait as a gift for a relative who really appreciated it. Go me!
I have a little fiction-related question, Holly, and I apologize if this has been answered elsewhere. Do you have any rule of thumb you follow on when exactly to end a scene and move to the next one? I know a scene is “complete” once the twist is shown, but I’m thinking about it more as a matter of style and pacing. Let me make an example.
Most scenes, usually the most suspenseful and action-packed ones, are just perfect if you end them abruptly right at the moment of the twist. I find it gives a nice edge-of-your-seat effect. I’m afraid though that in quieter scenes (quieter as in “slower in pacing”, but just as conflict-filled and critical as a frantic fight scene) it might get confusing or unclear, as in: I want the twist to leave the reader asking for more, but not in the sense of leaving them scratching their heads because it all happened too quickly. So sometimes I feel the need to linger, if only for a couple of sentences or a short paragraph, after the twist to show its immediate aftermath or emotional impact on the point of view character. Example: character overcomes an obstacle that was keeping them from the truth (this should be action+conflict), *and then* the big reveal follows (this should be the twist), including the character’s reaction to it, and them deciding on the next step. At which point there is a blank line, and we move to the next scene.
Am I overthinking this? Am I sprouting Frankenscenes this way? Or could I give the same information simply by working on the scene’s pacing?
I suppose this kind of thing can be better worked upon in revision, so I’m not giving it much thought right now in the first draft stage. I know I’ve overdone this a lot in past novels though, since back then I had next to no notions about action, conflict and twist. I hope you’ll cover this kind of issues in your HTRYN course when we’ll get to the style polishing stage.
First—:D—it’s first draft. You cannot make a mistake in first draft, because everything in first draft is written in water, not carved in stone.
Second—no, you’re not overthinking. You’re bringing up intelligent points about what you want from your scenes, and you have a good Reason Why to back them up (avoiding reader confusion).
Write in your longer scene endings. If you run too long, so what? If they alter your pacing in ways you don’t like, so what? If they don’t work for you in first draft, they won’t ruin anything just sitting there. You’ll fix them in revision. That’s what revision is for.
692 new words on the WIP.
The rest of my words went to defining my eight subplots, and three notplots in sentences of 30 words or less. Very happy with that:)
Today was a holiday, (for some), so I got 1,500 words for a total of 72,000. Trying not to worry about the final tally, but 72k is only about half-way to what I was aiming for, and I don’t know if my scene cards will take me out another 70k.
I know the story is over when it’s over, and I don’t want to put in unnecessary filler, so, hopefully some new scenes will reveal themselves as I go.
Too tired to write anything yesterday after my first shift at new job. Today thought, I managed to get 2200 words. I can live with that. Will try to work in at least 250 words a day for the next couple days as I adjust to working again. Better some words than none at all.
Tired does seem to be going around. I did some planning for Owls; I’m going through the plot course again to see where I stopped before and finish it for both stories, and I worked out a writing schedule that fits into my regular schedule and still leaves me time for my homework. So I’ll be nailing gelatin to the wall for a couple of weeks. But my schedule has me finishing the rough drafts about mid-August. What a lovely month to think about in February.
My scenes just run together, and I break for chapters when I really don’t want to write the next logical scene, and sometimes when I would rather change pov than keep going. PH2 has at least 4 different pov characters, and I can’t see Owls having any less, even though it only has one right now.
And Greg, that is an awesome website!