So now that I've made my decision to spilt the plot lines into different books, I'm wondering if they really did belong together.
Great.
I guess I'm just going to have to see if I can figure out a different way for the main character to get to her end without needing the other characters. I think the story will be stronger and less cluttered, but I've got a lot of re-plotting to do.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Monday, May 26, 2008
Still Around
Sorry that I haven't been blogging for the majority of the month. I realized that I was having a problem with my duel plot lines because they really didn't belong together. I had to go strip out the one plot line (and save it as the start of another book), which totally killed my word count. The other plot line was at about 8k words and, after a little bit of work my main plot line is to 15k. My goal is to get back up to 20k by the end of the week. At that time I am going to go back through what I have and do my first revision. Every 20k words I am going to do that (but only over those last 20k) so when I get to the end everything has been revised once. It's going to be a little harder to fit in writing because I picked up a second job that will last about three months. My goal is to keep up at around 4k words a week when I'm not revising and about 3 chapters when I am.
Also, my little sister got married last weekend so we've been crazy busy with all that and all the prep work. That's the above picture. I'm the one on the left, Meg is in the middle and our older sister, Ashleigh, is on the right. The wedding was very nice with minimal drama, which is good :)
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Dreaming of the Ocean
It's not even 11am yet and I've put out half a dozen fires at work (no, not actual fires, issues/problems) and I have a huge list of other problems that need to be fixed yesterday.
One guy who works for me needs something to do, but all of these are too hard for him, so I have to think of something to give him so he's not wasting his time.
Stuff that was just fine yesterday magically decided to break today. Gremlins. I think I have gremlins.
My goal is to write 2k words tonight to get up to 20k. I deleted a bunch of the bad plot line so my word count took a nose dive. I usually try to work on my novel over my lunch break, but I think it's going to be a 12 hour day, no lunch.
Days like this, I'm dreaming of the ocean.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Making Characters' Lives S*ck
Disclaimer: If you don't like the word "suck" don't read this article. I think I'm going for an all time record of the use of suck.
--------
If I met my main character (in the plot line that is going well) I think she'd zap me through the heart with a purple lightning bolt (she's a mage).
Why is it my favorite plot line? Why would my character go all homicidal?
The answer to both of these questions is the same. Because her life sucks. I mean *really* sucks. Seriously.
Making life suck for your character is one of the most important elements of the novel. Seriously, who wants to read about Daisies and Rainbows all day? (Okay, besides Environmental Scientists...I totally lost Crystal and Jenny both to that section the other day at Barnes and Nobles...but those books *were* non-fiction :-P)
Plots are important, and your premise is really all you can go into on your query letter--so it needs to be solid in order to get a request for a partial--but the characters are who the reader identifies with. How your characters react to the events you have created in your plot is what propels the story along; and gets your readers to keep turning the pages (and maybe results in a request for a full--or a book deal--or lots of money...okay, backing up now).
I'll admit, this is why my one story line is a bit stagnant. Her life isn't sucking enough. "Push 'em to the edge and then throw rocks at 'em" is a common novel-writer rule. I think it's fun, and a bit maniacal.
Events aren't the only way to make your character's life more difficult. You can also raise the stakes--either the personal stakes or the public stakes--of the events you have already created.
For example:
Your heroine's husband getting caught having an affair sucks.
Your heroine's husband getting caught having an affair with your favorite 18-year-old babysitter really sucks. (Who will watch Timmy?)
Your heroine's husband getting caught having an affair with your favorite 18-year-old babysitter by the board of the country club you were trying to join that would ensure your 3-year-old gets into the best preschool really really sucks. (Who will watch Timmy? How can he get into Yale and make me feel better about myself? How can I go to the store--everyone will be watching me!?)
You know what else would really suck? The president of the board was the baby sitter's father. Timmy can kiss that preschool good-bye. Or what if he was the heroine's boss? Ouch!
Of course, it would also suck if the affair was with your heroine's best friend. Or with your heroine's best friend's husband (that would *really* piss off the country club). Or maybe your heroine's father left her mother with his mistress and her mother was unable to take care of herself and your heroine has all this angst.
And then your heronie can react to all this suckage, pull herself up by the bootstraps and make the reader cheer with her. Don't let her whine too much. Even if her life sucks, the reader doesn't care. They want to see her get out of the suckage.
I think you get the point.
But you probably already knew that. What's important is how can I add more of this to my story! I know where I want my character to get next. I just can't think of any seemingly-sucky-but-everything-will-turn-out-okay-in-a-couple-hundred-pages way of getting there.
I am modifing the snowflake method. Get out 4 sheets of computer paper (or really any paper). Tape them together along the edges to make a big square. About half way up the top two sheets of paper, in the middle, write a sentence about where your character is at now.
Draw a circle around this. For everything that could happen next, draw a line to a point below where you have started and write the sucky event. For an event to come after that, draw another line to a point even further down and write the next incident. If you need foreshadowing in order to make this event even more sucky, draw a line for this make make it go above your initial point. Once you are done, you will have a not-to-scale timeline from the top of the page to the bottom. Connect the dots of your favorite sequence and use this as your plot. You can also draw a line between events that you could connect. So it becomes more of a web than a snowflake. Below I drew an example of what I am talking about. Hubby caught is the starting point.
--------
If I met my main character (in the plot line that is going well) I think she'd zap me through the heart with a purple lightning bolt (she's a mage).
Why is it my favorite plot line? Why would my character go all homicidal?
The answer to both of these questions is the same. Because her life sucks. I mean *really* sucks. Seriously.
Making life suck for your character is one of the most important elements of the novel. Seriously, who wants to read about Daisies and Rainbows all day? (Okay, besides Environmental Scientists...I totally lost Crystal and Jenny both to that section the other day at Barnes and Nobles...but those books *were* non-fiction :-P)
Plots are important, and your premise is really all you can go into on your query letter--so it needs to be solid in order to get a request for a partial--but the characters are who the reader identifies with. How your characters react to the events you have created in your plot is what propels the story along; and gets your readers to keep turning the pages (and maybe results in a request for a full--or a book deal--or lots of money...okay, backing up now).
I'll admit, this is why my one story line is a bit stagnant. Her life isn't sucking enough. "Push 'em to the edge and then throw rocks at 'em" is a common novel-writer rule. I think it's fun, and a bit maniacal.
Events aren't the only way to make your character's life more difficult. You can also raise the stakes--either the personal stakes or the public stakes--of the events you have already created.
For example:
Your heroine's husband getting caught having an affair sucks.
Your heroine's husband getting caught having an affair with your favorite 18-year-old babysitter really sucks. (Who will watch Timmy?)
Your heroine's husband getting caught having an affair with your favorite 18-year-old babysitter by the board of the country club you were trying to join that would ensure your 3-year-old gets into the best preschool really really sucks. (Who will watch Timmy? How can he get into Yale and make me feel better about myself? How can I go to the store--everyone will be watching me!?)
You know what else would really suck? The president of the board was the baby sitter's father. Timmy can kiss that preschool good-bye. Or what if he was the heroine's boss? Ouch!
Of course, it would also suck if the affair was with your heroine's best friend. Or with your heroine's best friend's husband (that would *really* piss off the country club). Or maybe your heroine's father left her mother with his mistress and her mother was unable to take care of herself and your heroine has all this angst.
And then your heronie can react to all this suckage, pull herself up by the bootstraps and make the reader cheer with her. Don't let her whine too much. Even if her life sucks, the reader doesn't care. They want to see her get out of the suckage.
I think you get the point.
But you probably already knew that. What's important is how can I add more of this to my story! I know where I want my character to get next. I just can't think of any seemingly-sucky-but-everything-will-turn-out-okay-in-a-couple-hundred-pages way of getting there.
I am modifing the snowflake method. Get out 4 sheets of computer paper (or really any paper). Tape them together along the edges to make a big square. About half way up the top two sheets of paper, in the middle, write a sentence about where your character is at now.
Draw a circle around this. For everything that could happen next, draw a line to a point below where you have started and write the sucky event. For an event to come after that, draw another line to a point even further down and write the next incident. If you need foreshadowing in order to make this event even more sucky, draw a line for this make make it go above your initial point. Once you are done, you will have a not-to-scale timeline from the top of the page to the bottom. Connect the dots of your favorite sequence and use this as your plot. You can also draw a line between events that you could connect. So it becomes more of a web than a snowflake. Below I drew an example of what I am talking about. Hubby caught is the starting point.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Happy Birthday Pete!
The hubby turns 26 today. His present is a cat, Skittles, who we got about 3 weeks ago from PAWS Chicago (a very awesome no-kill shelter). I think that he was expecting a techno-toy in addition to cat, but he didn't get one. Although I am thinking about giving him a card that says that he can get a Windows Home Server. His Media PC about bit the dust over the weekend, but he brought it back to life.The weekend didn't quite wrap up the way I was expecting. I ran out of steam on Saturday. I still managed to hit 19k words, but I didn't want to push it. I think that I am just going to push through with the sub-par/glorified outline writing until the end and then go chapter by chapter to fix it up. I'm loving one of my story lines, which is funny because it was the secondary storyline initially. I'm about 70% done with that story line and only about 15% done with the other main one. I'll probably keep going with it until the story lines merge, which isn't very far off. At that point I will *have* to do the other story line. I like it, I'm just unsure how to get them from point A to point B with out seeming too contrived.
So, I don't know if anyone else has the same problem, but recently all I can think about/want to talk about is my novel--how it's going and the worries I have about getting to point B within a marketable word count. I think the hubby is getting annoyed by hearing me talk about it...lol. I made him listen to the first chapter, which he really liked, but it was like pulling teeth to get him to let me read it to him. I guess he's not going to be a beta reader :-P
Friday, April 25, 2008
Chuggin Along at 16142
I am over 16k, which is awesome seeing as how last week I was sitting around 9k. That being said, these last 7k from this week aren't that great. The plot stuff rocks, but the words just aren't there. It's just a lot of placeholders.
This can be both good and bad.
Bad: I need to do a lot of rewriting. It's mostly in a glorified outline. Definetly putting the rough in rough draft.
Good: Since the story bit is solid, it's probably more like 11k+ worth of story telling once I add more description. This may sound psycho, but I really enjoy rewriting. Stringing words together to say something beautiful is my favorite part about writing. I'm not going to have to worry about what to say, just how to say it.
More Bad: The writing is really sucky so I might depress myself when I try to read it. Also, I'm out of practice. Maybe the quick writing will help me get back into practice, I'm not sure.
Plan of Attack: I've still got a lot of ideas bouncing around in my head. I think that I'm going to keep going until I hit around 20k max or Sunday morning, which ever comes first (which would be 11k up from a week ago). On Sunday I will start going chapter by chapter doing some micro revision to add description. Through the micro-revision, which I will finish by the end of next weekend, I hope to be up to around 25k. Most of that will be through added descriptions, details and events to previously created scenes and some will be new scenes to help set up what's going on or to add more colors.
I'm not sure how feasible these goals are. Normally I'd think they were too ambitious, but I'm totally obsessed with my story line right now and it's just flowing along. I don't want to revise too much while all these plot line juices are flowing because I find revision is a good way to deal with days that have a bit of writer's block associated with them.
This can be both good and bad.
Bad: I need to do a lot of rewriting. It's mostly in a glorified outline. Definetly putting the rough in rough draft.
Good: Since the story bit is solid, it's probably more like 11k+ worth of story telling once I add more description. This may sound psycho, but I really enjoy rewriting. Stringing words together to say something beautiful is my favorite part about writing. I'm not going to have to worry about what to say, just how to say it.
More Bad: The writing is really sucky so I might depress myself when I try to read it. Also, I'm out of practice. Maybe the quick writing will help me get back into practice, I'm not sure.
Plan of Attack: I've still got a lot of ideas bouncing around in my head. I think that I'm going to keep going until I hit around 20k max or Sunday morning, which ever comes first (which would be 11k up from a week ago). On Sunday I will start going chapter by chapter doing some micro revision to add description. Through the micro-revision, which I will finish by the end of next weekend, I hope to be up to around 25k. Most of that will be through added descriptions, details and events to previously created scenes and some will be new scenes to help set up what's going on or to add more colors.
I'm not sure how feasible these goals are. Normally I'd think they were too ambitious, but I'm totally obsessed with my story line right now and it's just flowing along. I don't want to revise too much while all these plot line juices are flowing because I find revision is a good way to deal with days that have a bit of writer's block associated with them.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
