Posted in writing, tagged fantasy, first drafts, series, writing on November 15, 2017| Leave a Comment »
I’ve had a few very good days on this NaNoWriMo experiment. Over 2,800 words on Sunday alone–and that included a fight scene. Still probably not going to make it to 50,000 words, but that’s not really the point. At least not for me.
BECOME: TO CATCH THE LIGHTNING is still 12,500 words closer to being done already.
And a pivotal scene coming up in just over a chapter.
Posted in writing, tagged events, fantasy, first drafts, series, writing on November 12, 2017| 2 Comments »
I’m still not on the NaNoWriMo pace of over 1600 words a day and I likely won’t make it to 50,000 words by the end of the month. I’ve written about 6500 words so far when the pace would be about 14,800 words. I actually had negative words one day when I went back to fix something that was going to lead down the wrong rabbit trail. But I am making good, solid progress on BECOME: TO CATCH THE LIGHTNING.
And I’m fast approaching places where the writing may go more quickly. Or not. Sometimes those exciting bits, while they’re fun to plot, are actually harder write–and get right.
Still, I’m happy with my progress so far. I’m really happy with what I’ve written so far. And that’s what counts the most.
Posted in writing, tagged events, fantasy, first drafts, series, writing on November 8, 2017| Leave a Comment »
I’m still well off the pace of writing 50,000 words on BECOME: TO CATCH THE LIGHTNING this month.
That’s okay. I have a three-day weekend coming up. I may make up some ground then.
But even if I don’t, I’ll still count this experiment as a win. I’ve written every day, so far. Even if some of it was going back and altering what I’d already done. And I’m generating new ideas–which is making me more excited about this story again.
Forward!
Posted in writing, tagged discovery writer, events, fantasy, first drafts, series, writing on November 5, 2017| Leave a Comment »
Well, so far I haven’t achieved either the daily goal of NaNoWriMo–1,667 words a day–or my personal goal of a chapter a day. More like a scene a day. But that is still making more progress on BECOME: TO CATCH THE LIGHTNING than I have been lately.
I have excuses, but, except for Thursday, which really was too busy to get much writing done, they are just that–excuses. Except for one.
One of the issues I have always had with arbitrary goals of the form x number of words a day, especially when embedded in the competitiveness of something like National Novel Writing Month, is that it encourages just getting words down whether they’re the right words or not. Now, that’s not entirely a bad thing with a first draft. I love Shannon Hale’s quote on this:
I’m writing a first draft and reminding myself that I’m simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles.
However, there’s one time when “just keep writing” is very bad advice: when it’s taking you down the wrong rabbit trail. (Not a problem outliners are as susceptible to as discovery writers, like me.) Then, “just keep writing” can make it much harder to come back and fix the story in the revisions.
And I think I just dodged a rabbit trail. You see, where I am right now in this story, my characters are on a sort of Grand Tour, visiting the rulers of all the neighboring countries.
They start out from Juturna, which is their home–well, home to two of them. They pick up a third on their first stop in Versenna. That trip through the forest and what happens once they reach Versenna is absolutely critical to the rest of the story. Then they go over the mountains to Khatar. I have a few interesting things happen in the mountains and Khatar will be important later in the story. Fine, so far. And I was reasonably close to my NaNo goals that far.
But then they have to go south to Farea and Idun and finally back to Juturna. Um. Boring. Nothing very important was going to happen there. And if I’m bored there’s no chance of keeping a reader’s attention.
So, I can either skip over that and just pick them up arriving back in Juturna, where my main character expects to face some consequences for his decisions back in Versenna. And I could do that, but it feels wrong.
Or, I can make that part of the trip more interesting. And early this morning, my subconscious bubbled up the way to do that. It means I have to go back and change what I wrote yesterday–which won’t add to my word count. But it will mean the story is more interesting and add a complication/obstacle that could well turn up again later. I like it, so I’m going with it.
Posted in writing, tagged events, fantasy, first drafts, habits, series, writing on November 1, 2017| Leave a Comment »
National Novel Writing Month, that is. I’ve never formally done NaNoWriMo. Partly because I already know that, under the right circumstances, I can write that fast or close to it. And I’m not doing NaNo this year either. However, what I am going to do is try to use this month to change a few habits, get rid of or at least reduce some distractions, get a little more disciplined about my writing time than I’ve been lately.
So, I will be continuing to work on BECOME: TO CATCH THE LIGHTNING,
not starting something new. (Anyway, the next thing currently on my list isn’t new either. It’s a rewrite of MAGE STORM.)
If I can come anywhere close to the 50,000 words of NaNoWriMo, I should be able to just about finish this first draft by the end of the month. Fifty thousand words in thirty days comes out to an average of 1667 words a day. For me, that’s about an average chapter, or a little less. So, rather than count daily words, I’m going to focus on writing about a chapter a day. We’ll see how that goes.
I haven’t exactly started off with a bang, so far. But then, the day isn’t over yet. And nobody ever claimed that changing bad habits was easy.
Posted in writing, tagged fantasy, first drafts, series, story structure, writing on October 29, 2017| Leave a Comment »
Still working on BECOME: TO CATCH THE LIGHTNING–though chores are pretty much getting in the way today.
I finished the scene I was working one.
More important, I got that story structure more or less ironed out for six different important characters. I’d post a bit of it here, but . . . that would give away too much of the plot.
What’s most important about that is that it not only straightened out my idea of how the story needs to go, it also generated a few new ideas.
Posted in writing, tagged fantasy, first drafts, series, story structure, writing on October 25, 2017| Leave a Comment »
I’ve come to the conclusion that the problems I’m having getting traction with BECOME: TO CATCH THE LIGHTNING have to do with story structure.
Now, I’m a discovery writer (I believe I’ve mentioned that a few times before), but a modified one. That is, I don’t outline the entire story before I start writing, but I do like to identify a few sign posts along the way so I can keep my story moving in the right direction. At a minimum, the inciting incident (where the story problem first crops up) and key event (where that story problem becomes more personal for the hero), the midpoint or turning point, and the climax. Mostly, from there, I sort of let the story structure flow instinctively and only double check it for pacing during the revisions.
I know all of these points for this story.
Or, more precisely, I know all of that for the main story line. But the problem is, this story doesn’t have a single central story and a couple of subplots. It’s a much more complex story structure.
What I have planned is something more like this:
My main character or hero, Gaian, has three possible destinies. Obviously, he can only fulfill one of them. But two other characters, let’s call them secondary heroes, will each fulfill one of the other two destinies. (One in a fairly typical heroic character arc, the other in a redemption arc.) And all of that has to come together for the climax to happen. So they have their own plots–and story structures–that are not subplots and have to braid into Gaian’s main plot.
Then there are a few other characters who will also have at least subplots of their own. A couple of them, like the antagonist, have plot lines that probably lie somewhere between a subplot and one of those three main plots.
And, though they all need to end at about the same time (the climax), they all start at different points–a couple of them twenty years after most of the others. No wonder I haven’t felt like the story was coming together properly.
So now what I think I need to do is step back a little and identify the main points of each of those plots/subplots–all the points: Inciting incident, key event, first plot point (turn into Act 2), first pinch point, midpoint/turning point/second plot point, second pinch point, third plot point (turn into Act 3), and the climax.
This doesn’t mean I have to stop writing while I do this, of course. This is a first draft and I’m still primarily in Gaian’s main plot.
Posted in writing, tagged fantasy, first drafts, series, writing on October 22, 2017| Leave a Comment »
It took a little longer than I’d planned–almost everything about this particular story seems to–but I finished that little bit of addition to earlier chapters. I really like the additions. Next month, I’ll find out if my alpha readers agree.
And now I’m ready to go forward with the BECOME: TO CATCH THE LIGHTNING again.
First I’ll need to reread the chapter I was in the middle of before I went back for that addition, but that shouldn’t take very long. And, of course, getting myself back into Mariel’s POV after going back through two chapters of Gaian’s.
Time to get this story back up on its wheels and keep it rolling–forward.
Posted in writing, tagged blurbs, fantasy, first drafts, marketing, series, writing on October 18, 2017| Leave a Comment »
Okay, so I took a little break from the first draft of BECOME: TO CATCH THE LIGHTNING
to work on the blurb for THE SHAMAN’S CURSE.
Here’s the old blurb:
Vatar risked his life to try to save his friend–and failed. Now he has an implacable enemy in the vengeful shaman, who blames Vatar for the death of his only son. In his isolation, Vatar finds some comfort in daydreams. He knows the strange girl he sometimes imagines is just that–a dream. She’d better be.Because, if she’s real things could get even worse for Vatar. The accepted magic of Vatar’s plains tribe wouldn’t enable him to see or communicate with a girl he doesn’t even know–or know where to find. That would be more like the magic passed down in certain, closely-guarded bloodlines among the ruling class of the coastal cities. And that’s bad. Very bad.
Unlike their own, Vatar’s people think the city magic is evil. If the shaman ever found out, it could be the weapon he needs to destroy Vatar. And yet, finding a way to accept the other side of his heritage may be the only way Vatar can ultimately defeat his enemy.
The two kinds of magic have always been separate. Until now.
It focuses a little too much on the girl. Not that she’s unimportant–far from it. But, it doesn’t exactly communicate that this is the first book in an epic fantasy series.
Here’s the new one:
The two kinds of magic have always been totally separate. Until now.
Vatar risked his life to try to save his friend–and failed. Now he has an implacable enemy in the shaman, who blames Vatar for the death of his only son. He’s forced to flee his home, at least until the shaman’s thirst for revenge cools.
Taking shelter with his mother’s people in one of the coastal cities, Vatar learns more than he bargained for. He agreed to learn to work iron and steel, but he never suspected to find a magical heritage as well.
And that’s a problem. A huge problem. Because unlike their own Spirit magic, his people regard the city magic as the work of Evil Spirits. If the shaman ever found out about this, it could be the weapon he needs to destroy Vatar.
And yet, finding a way to accept the other side of his heritage may be the only way Vatar can ultimately defeat his enemy and win more than his freedom.
I’m sure this one is still far from perfect. But it hopefully does a better job of communicating what kind of story this is.
Posted in writing, tagged critiques, fantasy, first drafts, revising, series, writing on October 15, 2017| Leave a Comment »
My rule about first drafts is that they only go in one direction–forward. Creating the first draft and revising/editing it in subsequent drafts are two very different tasks that each require a very different frame of mind. Writing a first draft all the way to “The End” requires that I resist the urge to let myself get into the editor frame of mind.
That doesn’t, of course, mean that I can’t go back and make a note. I almost have to since I discovery write and sometimes I discover something that will require a change to something I wrote earlier or, more often, something that will need at least a touch of foreshadowing–you know, like the fact that dragons exist in this world if a dragon or two are suddenly going to show up in, like, Chapter 30. (That’s a reference to another story I need to circle back to sometime, MAGE STORM.)
I also belong to one writing group that reads a few chapters at a time every month or so. This works really well. It lets me know what aspects of the story are working and which need a bit more work. As per the rule above, I incorporate ideas from these critiques as notes and move on–usually.
However, right now, as I’m trying to rebuild momentum after a couple of unplanned stops pauses, I’m thinking this might be a good time to break that rule.
In this particular case, my critique partner wanted more emotion about a particular past event that isn’t directly shown, but only referred to. I agree, in general. Particularly because this event is the cause of one of my main characters . . . what K. M. Weiland would refer to as his “ghost”. Something he believes, that isn’t really true, that holds him back, at least temporarily.
The problem is that this particular place in the story–at the start of a battle–isn’t the place for soul searching or a lot of emotion that doesn’t have to do with not getting killed or letting too many of his men get killed, either. I had actually toyed with the idea of deleting that paragraph or two for just that reason. But I need to get the information in somewhere and I’m not sure where else to put it. Plus, it ties into his motivation in that moment.
What I can do is have him firmly repress that emotion and memory because this is not the time or place for it. But then I still have to figure out how to get that emotion in somewhere else. And I can see pretty clearly how and where to do exactly that. And it would be adding not editing.
So, this feels like a good time to break that first draft rule, just a little. Hopefully, it’ll even help me build momentum for the story as a whole.
Meredith Mansfield, Author 