Multiple Projects Status

September 21, 2011 by meredithmansfield

So far, I’m liking this multiple projects approach. It doesn’t matter when I sit down to right, there’s always something I can work on.

In the next week or so, I’ll be wrapping up some revisions to SEVEN STARS. I need to work on one early action scene that got a little too much in the head and not enough in the action. It needs just a touch or two of scene-setting, too. I think I’ve got one other scene I want to look at. And then I want to work a bit on the opening. I’m afraid the main character feels just a little too old in that scene. SEVEN STARS is young adult, after all. So I want to add just a touch, a few paragraphs at most, to show her true age before she shows her competent professional side on page 2. I don’t want her actual age to come as a surprise on page 5. And, while she is sure of herself, she needs to have enough youthful and human traits to make her sympathetic before everything falls apart for her in chapter 2.

MAGIC’S FOOL hasn’t advanced very far, yet. But I know what I’m going to do next. I just have to let the scene work out in my head a little more.

Fortunately, that’s not stopping me from writing, because I’ve also got BLOOD IS THICKER. Like its prequel, BLOOD WILL TELL, this one is just plain fun to work on. I’m well into chapter 3, which sets up a couple of conflicts that will parallel the main conflict. Chapter 4 is where the bottom is going to drop out and things go from “Okay, that’s a problem, but we can work around it” to “What just happened and what the heck do we do now.” That’s where the fun is really going to start.

Gearing up for some edits on MAGE STORM, too. I’d like to get that one back out into circulation. I’m just not confident in the first three chapters right now. Only the most critical chapters in the whole thing, right? Actually, I think the first chapter’s pretty good. A couple of quick edits are probably all it needs. Its the second and third chapters where I’m afraid I lost my way in the last revision. I’m just not sure I get my main character to where he needs to be to make the decision to strike out on his own. And, um, too much dialogue–internal and external–for middle grade. Really. Cut to the action (instead of cutting the action).

Yep, I think that’ll keep me busy into next month.

Posted in writing | Tagged fantasy, Middle Grade, Multiple Projects, writing, Young Adult | 9 Comments

9 Responses

on September 21, 2011 at 1:26 pm | Reply Lissa Clouser

I admire the sheer number of projects you have going! Though I definitely second the feeling that there is always something to work on. I’m holding off on novel work until Nano. I don’t want to run the excitement I have for this project so close to November and end up not finishing! In the meantime though I have several short stories and a few poems in the works. It’s nice to have more than one thing to turn to. Keep us updated and best of luck! =)

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on September 21, 2011 at 5:38 pm | Reply Barbara Evers

Sounds like a great plan. I can’t get over how much you’re working on. I have a lot of things in the works, but I tend to focus on one long-term project with occasional side-trips to write an essay or short story.

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on September 22, 2011 at 3:31 am | Reply meredithmansfield

I’ve usually focused on just one project, too. But this is helping me get moving on these projects, at least right now. Sooner or later, I expect one of them will grab hold of me and make me finish it first. For now, this is working well.

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on September 22, 2011 at 5:05 am | Reply Deana Barnhart

Wow! I don’t see how you do it. Sounds like there’s never a dull moment:)

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on September 22, 2011 at 7:58 am | Reply meredithmansfield

I try not to let it get dull.

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on September 22, 2011 at 12:06 pm | Reply Michael McDuffee

Curious – do you switch back and forth, day to day, on different projects, or just go all SEVEN STARS for two weeks, MAGE STORM for a week, etc?

I’m struggling with how to deal with 3 works in continuous development, and of course I’d like to get City of Magi closer to query status.

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on September 22, 2011 at 3:15 pm | Reply meredithmansfield

@Michael:

I’m only about a week into this multitasking thing. Right now, I kind of go where the words are. If I think of how something should go in BLOOD IS THICKER or MAGIC’S FOOL, that’s what I work on. I finished up Chapter 3 of BLOOD IS THICKER this morning. Now, I’m trying to imagine exactly how the game is going to go in MAGIC’S FOOL. A three-sided game is a bit of a challenge, but it fits the way these people would see the world.

But I might switch–work on one in the morning and the other in the afternoon.

Right now, I’m letting some ideas for the edits to SEVEN STARS percolate for a day or two. Same with MAGE STORM.

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on September 24, 2011 at 7:59 pm | Reply redux

Hi Meredith. This is redux from the Hatrack forums. I just wanted to drop in and congratulate you again on getting that call from the agent. Also, I would like to give you the Versatile Blogger Award.

You can read more about it here: http://authornotawriter.blogspot.com/2011/09/award-time.html

These are rules for accepting this award:

* Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to their site in your original post.
* Tell us seven things about yourself.
* Pass along the award to five newly discovered bloggers.
* Contact these bloggers and let them know they got this award.

Wishing you the best of luck! I’ve been following your blog for a while and I know all your hard work will pay off 🙂

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on September 24, 2011 at 9:15 pm | Reply meredithmansfield

Thanks. I actually haven’t blogged about that phone call, have I?

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