fantasy | Meredith Mansfield, Author

Posts Tagged ‘fantasy’

Epiphany

Posted in writing, tagged conflict, critiques, e-publishing, fantasy, Learning, revisions, sequels, series, writing on July 22, 2015| Leave a Comment »

So, last time I blogged about the last sticky revisions to BEYOND THE PROPHECY. The ones I left until last because I needed to think about them more.

Probably the hardest of those–and the one I was likely to leave to last–was a very general note on the whole middle of the story. A large part of what’s going on there is actually setting up for the conflict in the fourth (and final) book of the series. But that meant that it largely lost sight of the main conflict of this story. Things were happening, often exciting things, but they didn’t seem to further the story. And as a consequence it felt weak, sort of meandering.

But I need those things to happen. This is one of the problems with wiriting middle books in a series. And it was going to be the hardest thing to fix in this manuscript.

Then, on Monday, I listened to the latest episode of the Writing Excuses podcast. Which just happened to be about middles and characters needing to fail (even if they succeed at something smaller) during the middle. And the light broke through. That sometimes happens when my subconscious is worrying at a problem for me (while I take care of the easier revisions) and then I run across just the thing that proves to be the key to the solution.

I’m likely going to listen to that podcast again–maybe more than once. But the key is this. Yes, my characters have to step aside to deal with this other problem before it gets out of hand. (It will, anyway, of course, but not until the next book.) Yes, but by doing that, something else has to go wrong in the main conflict because they weren’t there to stop it.

I need to work it so that when we come to the climax, the situation is worse than it would have been (not necessarily a lot worse than it already is, though) if they had made different choices. Even though their choices weren’t wrong.

It’s going to take a bit of reworking, but it will make the story so much stronger.

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Revision Progress

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, revisions, sequels, series, world building, writing on July 19, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Revision is an iterative process–even when I consider it one pass.

The first pass at the final revisions for BEYOND THE PROPHECY is complete. Way ahead of schedule. (I’d projected the end of July, not the middle.)

What that means is that I’ve been through all the critiques I’ve received (one is still out), marked up revision notes, been through the entire manuscript, and dealt with most of those notes one way or another. Some scenes were cut. Some new ones written or existing ones expanded. And in several places a little more was added to refresh readers’ memories about how this world and the magic works. Overall, the manuscript got longer, not shorter. (Some of that may get smoothed out in the next step and the polishing edit.)

I left a few notes (fourteen of them to be exact) that I want to come back to. Some of these are scenes I may still delete, but hadn’t decided on in the first pass. One pair of scenes, in particular, just doesn’t do enough to justify their existence currently. The decision I have to make is whether to cut them, or expand them. And the dreaded middle still needs some attention to focus it more tightly on the main problem of the story. (Difficult, because part of that is set up for the conflict in the fourth and final book of the series.)

So, now, I’ll go back specifically to those notes and make those changes–or not. Some of these changes may take a bit longer than most of those in the first pass.

And then I’ll be ready to set the publication date for September and put the book up for pre-order while I work through the final polishing edit.

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World Building for the World of the Dual Magics

Posted in writing, tagged creatures, e-publishing, fantasy, revisions, sequels, series, world building on July 15, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Revisions to BEYOND THE PROPHECY are ahead of schedule.

I thought I’d change it up a little today and write about the world building for the DUAL MAGICS series, specifically, the creatures found in this world.

Creatures of the Plains

I hope it’s not obvious, but the beasts living on the plains in the world of the Dual Magics Series are based—loosely—on the Pleistocene megafauna of North America.

I left out all the creatures that would have screamed that that was the inspiration. No mammoths or mastodons. No giant ground sloths or wooly rhinos. Although, that doesn’t mean they don’t exist in this world. Just that they don’t occur in the part of the plains inhabited by the Dardani. (I wouldn’t be surprised if the Dardani’s ancestors had something to do with that.) But if you were to wander off the map up north into the Northern Wilderness or south beyond the mountains, you might find these creatures roaming in those areas. Maybe that’s why people don’t often go to those areas.

The lions are actually intended to be the American lion, a separate species that was a little larger than the modern African lion. Though, having nothing else to go on, I do portray their lifestyle as very much like their African cousins. The swiftcat(mentioned only a few times) is actually the American cheetah—which was not a true cheetah. At least one species had retractable claws that would have made climbing trees easier for it than for modern cheetahs. And the Forest tigers are fairly obviously based on saber-toothed cats.

The wild horses are modeled more on the zebra than on domestic horses, except that I gave mine leopard spots rather than stripes to break up their outlines and make them harder to see. Why not?

Of course, I added a few things, like the wyverns the live in the mountains (and at least historical hints of other kinds of dragons). But wyverns and dragons aren’t new to fantasy. (In fact, most of my novels seem to have a dragon in them somewhere. Only FIRE AND EARTH and DAUGHTER OF THE DISGRACED KING have no mention of dragons.)

The only creature I entirely made up was Chitter in the first book, the little flying-squirrel-like creature with a lion’s mane (like a golden lion tamarin) that hung around Vatar’s campsites.

I left out the teratorns, (really giant condors) too. The largest North American version (there was one a lot bigger in South America) was about fifty pounds with an eighteen-foot wingspan. I’d duck if that flew overhead.

However one of the two kinds of magic allows certain people to take a different form and a couple of my characters change to eagles. But one of the requirements of these shape changes (under normal circumstances) is conservation of mass. So, a petite hundred-pound woman will be a hundred-pound eagle. Plus, just because she can take that shape doesn’t mean she knows how to use it. That has to be learned. I didn’t want to lessen the struggles of these characters learning to fly by having really big birds making it look easy.

So, that’s a window into what might be lurking out on the plains.

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New Scenes During Revisions

Posted in writing, tagged characters, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, revisions, sequels, series, writing on July 12, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Revisions on BEYOND THE PROPHECY are moving along at a comfortable pace–now.

I was worried about staying on schedule last week. That was because I had to add basically a whole new scene. And it was slow going.

Adding a scene at this stage is like going back to the first draft. But, doing it while my editor brain is still engaged–which means I question every sentence. A normal first draft can be allowed to be bad. I can skip things like descriptions or dialog tags, because I’m going to go through several more drafts to fix those things. That’s no longer true at this stage. There’ll hopefully be only one more pass–the polishing edit. So this scene had to be close to final-draft perfect on the first pass. It was a lot of pressure and slow going.

I got it done, though. I may tweak it a bit before the polishing edit, but it’s basically there. And I think it strengthens the story. The action is more true to the character.

Most of the revisions from this point will be less dramatic. Right now, I’m averaging slightly over two chapters a day, which will comfortably finish this draft by the end of the month. On target again.

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Adding and Subtracting

Posted in writing, tagged critiques, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, revisions, rewrites, sequels, series, writing on July 8, 2015| Leave a Comment »

BEYOND THE PROPHECY revisions are under way–not as far under way as I’d hoped, but that’s the way these things go sometimes.

Hopefully, I’ll make it up later and stay on schedule. I’d like to complete the first pass this month.

Two scenes have been deleted. They weren’t doing much, really and the nuggets of information that were there could be moved (and told, not shown) elsewhere. In some ways, that’s the easy part.

Right now, I’m in the middle of revising/rewriting a scene that worked but could be stronger, as one of my critique partners suggested. I’m getting my main character more involved in the action, which is always good. On the other hand, this is almost like going back to a first draft, so it does slow the revision process down. The story overall will be stronger for it, though.

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This and That

Posted in writing, tagged conflict, Cover Art, critiques, e-publishing, fantasy, Multiple Projects, revisions, sequels, series, writing on July 5, 2015| Leave a Comment »

I’ve finally made progress on the blurb for BEYOND THE PROPHECY.

It isn’t finished, yet. It still needs some tightening, but I’ve finally got something I can work with:

The foundations of Vatar’s world are unraveling.

Being one of a handful graced—or cursed—with both kinds of magic makes Vatar the target of those who think he’s too dangerous.

The Council that rules his adopted city has guaranteed safety for him and his family in return for his promise not to expose their secrets. But they’ve already failed to keep their part of the bargain.

One Council member sees him as an obstacle to furthering her power. Gerusa launches an unsanctioned attack on Vatar and his family. When that fails, she is forced to flee the city.

But that’s far from the end. Even from exile, Gerusa exerts influence, causing the city to churn with unrest and uncertainty. It’s clear that her goal is to unseat the Council and replace it with herself as sole ruler.

Unable to trust the Council, Vatar sets out to stop her.

But when he’s captured, he’ll be forced to prove his boast that it’s impossible to imprison anyone who can do what he can—or die.

The key was to focus on the central conflict.

I’ve also finished marking up the revision notes. One of the things I know is that I need to center the manuscript more on the central conflict. (Maybe not surprising that I had trouble with the blurb, then, huh?) There is a central conflict, but other things are happening, too. Things that lead up to the conflict in the fourth and final book in the DUAL MAGICS series. I just need to make sure that the main conflict of this story gets center stage.

A bit later today, it will be time to dig in and start the final revisions. Once I have a handle on that, I’ll be able to set the release date. The target is still September.

I also now have a new cover for “Modgud Gold“.

That ties in with the series much better.

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In Transition

Posted in writing, tagged Cover Art, critiques, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, Goals, Multiple Projects, revisions, sequels, series, writing on July 2, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Well, that what happens after school gets out for the summer, disrupting my routine. I completely lost track and forgot to blog yesterday. Catching up today.

So, I’m now in the mode of switching from starting the first draft of DUAL MAGICS BOOK 4 (title to be determined) to making the final revisions on BEYOND THE PROPHECY (Book 3).

I’m currently making revision notes, chapter by chapter, based on the three critiques I’ve received from my beta readers. (One critique is still out, but she told me in the beginning that she’d need extra time.) But, if I’m going to have this ready to publish in September, I’ve got to get started.

A lot of the revisions will be relatively small. A little more context or background in a few places. Some things may get shifted around.

And not throwing out so many names all at once. That’s a big one right at the beginning. Starting sequels is hard partly because I already have all these characters. They’ve all been introduced in the earlier books. But that doesn’t mean I can name eight of them right at the beginning without expecting to confuse the reader. Yet, I have to identify them before the action starts, which is in Chapter 1. Well, I’ll work that out, too.

There are a few larger issues I’ll have to work on throughout the manuscript, too. Like doing a better job of centering the story on the main conflict.

Then there’s the blurb. That’s really been fighting me this time around. I’ll get it eventually.

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New Covers

Posted in writing, tagged Cover Art, critiques, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, Goals, Learning, marketing, Multiple Projects, revisions, sequels, series, writing on June 28, 2015| Leave a Comment »

I have a new cover for “Becoming Lioness” now. It looks more like it belongs with the series and might even give a reader the idea that it’s a fantasy story.

For reference, the old cover looked like this:

“Modgud Gold” has proven to be more difficult. But, thanks to some helpful internet friends, I think I finally have a direction to go.

Meanwhile, progress on the still-untitled Book 4 of the DUAL MAGICS series continues. Though, by next week I expect I’ll be ready to set it aside for a short time while I take care of revisions and polishing edits on BEYOND THE PROPHECY so I can publish that in September.

And, I’ve started writing out a concept for another story. Like I don’t already have several in the pipeline. But you’ve got to write down the ideas when they come to you or risk losing them. And nobody wants that.

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Two of These Things Are Not Like the Others

Posted in writing, tagged Cover Art, e-publishing, fantasy, marketing, series, short stories, writing on June 24, 2015| Leave a Comment »

The covers for the Dual Magics series (so far–the release of BEYOND THE PROPHECY is planned for September):

The covers of the two tie-in short stories:

You see the problem, don’t you? The two short story covers don’t look like they belong to the same series.

Heck, the covers don’t even telegraph that they’re fantasy stories. “Becoming Lioness” could be something about an African safari for all you could tell from the cover. Well, except for the subtitle. Dual Magics might give you a clue.

“Modgud Gold”, again, except for the subtitle, could be a gold rush story.

In my defense, “Becoming Lioness” was released long before I had covers for the series. I have no excuse for “Modgud Gold” other than the image is a really good representation of a scene in the series. But, see, that’s not what a book cover is supposed to be. It’s supposed to entice a reader and give them some idea what kind of story to expect. This one fails.

I think I need to do a couple of new covers.

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Plotting

Posted in writing, tagged critiques, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, inspiration, Multiple Projects, revisions, sequels, series, writing on June 21, 2015| Leave a Comment »

We all know by now that I’m a discovery writer. (Unless this is your first time visiting my blog. In which case, welcome.)

But, however I write them, all stories have plots. Sometimes, I just arrive at the plot backwards. Sometimes not.

I’ve also said that the only time I really get detailed plot ideas is when I’m actually writing–just in the quiet times when I step away from writing for a few minutes.

Well, last Friday seems to have been a day for that. I didn’t actually get much writing done on Friday, but I did get solutions to three plot issues–two for Book 4 of the DUAL MAGICS series and one for the final revisions to BEYOND THE PROPHECY (Book 3).

For BEYOND THE PROPHECY, it was an issue raised by one of the two critiques I’ve gotten back so far. I figured out how to refocus certain elements of the story to help the plot be more centered. So that’s good.

The second idea was about something in the first chapter of Book 4. It’s a minor thing, really. A bit of background. But I realized that it’s probably not very accurate. I’m not sure exactly what I’ll do with that bit, yet. I don’t go backwards in the first draft unless it’s something really major. I make notes of things I need to look at in the second draft. I’ve made such a note and I’m sure I’ll find something that will work better by the time I get to it.

The big plot idea, though, was about the climax of Book 4. See, I know what the climax is (unless another, better idea comes along first–which I doubt.) But for what I have planned to work out, my main characters have to be forced to do something that they wouldn’t otherwise choose to do. And the logical way for that to happen is for the antagonists to do something that implies knowledge of one of the two kinds of magic. Or, at least, the basis of that magic. The kind of magic that the antagonists don’t know about. Hmm. That’s a conundrum. But now I know how they’re going to learn just enough for them to do what I want them to.

What makes a discovery writer is that we’re willing to jump into the story anyway, even with a gaping plot hole like that, and have faith that we’ll figure it out by the time we get there. Moments like Friday are what feed that faith.

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