fantasy | Meredith Mansfield, Author

Posts Tagged ‘fantasy’

Last Year’s Writing Goals

Posted in writing, tagged Contests, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, Goals, Learning, Middle Grade, Multiple Projects, paranormal romance, queries, revisions, rewrites, sequels, series, writing, Young Adult on December 29, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I don’t make resolutions anymore, but I do set goals. And now it’s the time of year to look back and see how well I did. So here are my writing goals for last year and the results

Prepare to query THE BARD’S GIFT. I did. I got it polished up and ready. I queried widely. And the only positive thing I got out of that was four personalized rejections variously praising my writing and the story. Rejections like that are not supposed to exist. Agents just don’t have time. I got four. If four agents took the time to do that, I can only conclude that they saw something good, but just didn’t think the story was commercial enough. THE BARD’S GIFT is now up next to be e-published, early next year.
I also set a goal of getting my rewrite of MAGE STORM ready to query again. I met this goal, too. MAGE STORM is currently a first alternate in Pitch Wars. Wish me luck.
Last year, FIRE AND EARTH was a first alternate (with a different mentor) in Pitch Wars. Ultimately, I decided to e-publish it.
I set a goal to e-publish BLOOD IS THICKER and met that one.
I intended to enter Writers of the Future at least once, but I didn’t. I just don’t write that much short fiction. The one I attempted this year turned into a novel.
Write two first drafts. I guess I met that one, too. MAGIC AND POWER was a completely new first draft and I did a complete rewrite of THE SHAMAN’S CURSE, too.
Learn and improve. Well, that’s an ongoing goal and a little too vague, really. I met it, but for next year it might be nice to specify some target areas.

Next post, I’ll start looking ahead to next year’s goals.

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Recharge

Posted in writing, tagged fantasy, first drafts, revisions, sequels, series, writing on December 24, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Posting a little early because tomorrow’s Christmas.

I finished this draft of THE SHAMAN’S CURSE. It’ll need one more pass before it’s ready for beta readers, but not just yet. It should rest a bit first.

For now–and only for a couple of days–I’m taking a short break to recharge the creative batteries. I’ve been doing a little thinking about where the story goes from here. This should be the first of a four book series. I have a (very old) draft of the second book, THE IGNORED PROPHECY. It’ll serve as an outline, but will need to be basically rewritten, same as TSC.

I never got more than a few pages into the third book. That one will have a lot less sword swinging and spear wielding and more political upheaval. (It gets back to more sword swinging in book four.) I need to think out exactly how that’s going to work.

I’m also going to have to work out the bane of starting sequels (three times!) Providing enough grounding into a world and characters that have already been introduced for readers who start with a middle book without boring readers who’ve read the previous book(s). That, and giving a needed summary of what happened in the earlier book(s) without making it an infodump. Bothe are tricky to navigate.

For now, though, I’m just letting my imagination play with it.

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Next Up

Posted in writing, tagged Alternate History, e-publishing, fantasy, Goals, writing, Young Adult on December 18, 2013| Leave a Comment »

It’s almost time to assess how well I did against this year’s goals and set my goals for next year. One particular goal has come into sharper focus over the last couple of days.

The next book I publish will be my alternate history/historical fantasy THE BARD’S GIFT about a shy girl tapped by the gods to save her people–by telling stories to inspire and direct those people.

I’ve already done the cover.

Here’s the first page as a teaser:

Astrid leaned into the freezing wind, staggering down the beach hunting for driftwood to feed their meager fire. She kept one eye open for anything edible. The gale felt like needles of ice penetrating even the thick white bear pelt she wore as a cloak.

The wind swept up the fjord straight off the icy sea, funneled by the steep hills on either side. Astrid paused to take shelter for a few moments under a rock overhang that blocked the gusts. With nothing to hunt for, she let her mind drift, retelling to herself some of the stories her grandmother used to tell her. It was almost as good as sleep to take her mind off her hunger and keep her company.

From her shelter, she could see one of the many islets in the fjord, one that would be a seal rookery later in the year. That made her think of the stories about selkies, sea creatures that could shed their skins and take human form once a year. She pictured them dancing down there on the beach, as the stories described. In her mind, the leader looked a lot like tall, red-blond Torolf. The stories said that if a human stole the seal skin while its owner was in human form, the selkie could be compelled to stay on land as the wife–or, she supposed, husband–of the thief. Pity the stories always ended with the selkie finding the stolen skin and returning to the sea.

She sighed. If it were only that easy. Why would Torolf ever give her a second glance if she could never manage to say a complete, coherent sentence in front of him? Well, Torolf wasn’t going to magically appear on the beach. She might as well continue her search. She had to go farther and farther afield to find anything these days.

Look for THE BARD’S GIFT early next year.

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Getting the Flow Back

Posted in writing, tagged Contests, e-publishing, fantasy, paranormal romance, revisions, rewrites, sequels, serialization, writing on December 15, 2013| 2 Comments »

And it feels good. Ever since my Weird Oz Story petered out on me, my productivity has been less than usual. Oh, I’ve kept on working, but I haven’t accomplished as much as I wanted to.

The decision to concentrate on one thing at a time (think of that) has helped. I’m making real progress on my rewrite of THE SHAMAN’S CURSE, adding depth and conflicts and all the things that will ultimately make the story even better. (Also longer, but I’m not going to worry about that.)

I also have some ideas on how to break up the log jam on Weird Oz, but I won’t tackle that until after the first of the year–probably not until after the conclusion of Pitch Wars. I’m going to have to go back and restart the story, but it won’t be the first time that’s happened.

Meantime, ‘ve put up another new chapter of BLOOD IS THICKER on wattpad, where you can read it for free.

Also, there’s only about another month to buy the Chimeria Omnibus,

containing both BLOOD WILL TELL and BLOOD IS THICKER, for the price of either book alone. In mid-January, the price for the Omnibus will go up.

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Things Are Moving — Slowly, but Surely

Posted in writing, tagged Contests, fantasy, Middle Grade, Multiple Projects, revisions, rewrites, writing, Young Adult on December 11, 2013| 2 Comments »

Well, life is still crazy. Some things are anticipated–and then there are the surprises and unexplained phenomena.

I expect to have some work to do soon on my middle grade fantasy, MAGE STORM because I made it to first alternate in one of the Pitch Wars teams. (I’m on Team Jen Downey.) Yay! So now I can stop being on pins and needles about that. Which is good, because I’m still waiting for a couple of other things, including word on THE BARD’S GIFT. The submission guidelines say twelve weeks. Twelve weeks have passed and still nothing.

Meanwhile, I’ve mostly settled down at this point to finish this pass through of THE SHAMAN’S CURSE. I’ll take the other revisions/rewrites one at a time. That way, I might actually make some progress.

Also, a post by the wonderful Susan Kaye Quinn along with my ongoing reading of L. Frank Baum’s stories have given me an idea of how to unstick myself on my Weird Oz Story.

And one or two things are moving forward in real life, too. The pace is slow, almost glacial, but progress is being made.

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Feeling Scattered

Posted in writing, tagged characters, fantasy, Multiple Projects, Real Life, reviews, revisions, rewrites, sequels, serialization, writing, Young Adult on December 9, 2013| Leave a Comment »

And it’s not just because of the season–although that’s part of it.

This post is a day late because life–and my house–got a little crazy on me yesterday. Oddly, most things seem to have returned to normal today. No better explanation so far than poltergeists. And, really, the only ghosts in this house should be friendly ones. Oh well.

I’m also feeling a little scattered–or maybe schizophrenic–because I’m trying to revise three different novels at the same time! I’m just waiting for the time I catch myself typing the name of a character from DREAMER’S ROSE into either THE SHAMAN’S CURSE or MAGIC AND POWER.

I may just have to decide to work on only one thing at a time. Think of that. If so, I’ll probably finish this pass through THE SHAMAN’S CURSE first.

My day was brightened by this very nice review of BLOOD IS THICKER this morning.

Speaking of BLOOD IS THICKER, there’s a new chapter available on wattpad, too.

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Orphan Heroes

Posted in writing, tagged characters, conflict, fantasy, inspiration, Middle Grade, Reading, writing, Young Adult on November 27, 2013| 1 Comment »

Tomorrow’s Thanksgiving. Lots to do.

But, I’ve been thinking about something lately, so I’ll talk about it here. I’ve recently finished (yesterday, as a matter of fact) an interesting indie book (FLEDGLING by Nicole Conway). This made me think of the prevalence of orphan and/or abused and/or seriously misunderstood protagonists, especially in middle grade/young adult stories.

Harry Potter immediately comes to mind, of course, but he was far from the first. Anne McCaffrey’s Menolly in the Harper Hall trilogy. Taran in Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain Chronicles. Even Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars trilogy. I could go on and on. The trope of the orphan boy or widow’s son who makes good goes all the way back to fairy/folk tales.

And it made me wonder. Why? Why do so many stories start with this kind of hero? I think there are several reasons.

For one, at least as far as middle grade stories are concerned, I think we all go through a period around those years when we believe no one understands us. It’s something the readers can relate to, at least as far as the misunderstood protagonist goes.

Another reason might be that it builds in some initial conflict while the story gets started. While the narrative is building to the inciting incident, the character already has something to fight against. And it can even be a further complication–something, perhaps, that makes the hero doubt himself–once the real story problem is in full tilt.

But sometimes I think it’s just done to build sympathy for the main character, like having him pet the cat. And that just makes me want to break type. Someday, I’m going to have to write a story in which the orphan is bitter and becomes the villain. Just because I can.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone.

The First Thanksgiving, painting by Jean Louis Gerome Ferris (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Holiday Interference

Posted in writing, tagged fantasy, Middle Grade, Multiple Projects, revisions, Romance, sequels, serialization, writing, Young Adult on November 24, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I don’t know about other writers, but my output definitely slows down a bit around this time of year. There are too many other things that need to get done, too. (To all my writer friends doing National Novel Writing Month right now, trying to write 50,000 words in the month of November, more power to you.)

This year, Thanksgiving will be at my house for the first time in almost 15 years. Eep. It’s not that I can’t handle the cooking. I cook a turkey every year anyway. And I don’t have to do all of it this year. I’m only responsible for the pies (as always), turkey, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, and rolls (with help from Pilsbury).

But there’s a lot I need to do before then. I mean, despite my somewhat lackadaisical attitude toward housekeeping, the place has to look at least minimally picked up, dusted, etc. I’m going to have to find another chair or two somewhere, too.

Meanwhile, I’m working on revisions to three different novels, as the mood strikes me. The rewrite of THE SHAMAN’S CURSE needs a second look-through to work out a few structural issues (like losing the main conflict for several chapters). The rewrite of DREAMER’S ROSE needs some new scenes to replace places where I used telling in the original. And, of course, the revisions to MAGIC AND POWER that I outlined in my last post.

Oh, and Christmas is less than a month after Thanksgiving.

Yeah. No pressure.

Meanwhile, a new chapter of BLOOD IS THICKER is available free on wattpad. And don’t forget there are still a few stops on my blog tour tomorrow.

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Inspiration

Posted in writing, tagged conflict, critiques, fantasy, inspiration, revisions, Romance, writing, Young Adult on November 20, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Sometimes, it’s surprising what things will come together at the precisely right time to spark an idea. That might be the seed of a new story. Other times it might be the germ of what needs to happen to make an existing story better.

That happened to me yesterday. I was working through one of the critiques on MAGIC AND POWER (which may be retitled DESERT ROSE). Then I read this post on Adventures in YA Publishing, and everything started to come together.

I had a period early in my story in which my main character didn’t seem to be struggling enough. There wasn’t enough tension. Also, during that part of the story, the hoped-for love triangle didn’t have as much suspense as it needs because the “right” choice was a little too obvious.

Now, I’m going to give that “right” choice some drives based on his background that are at odds with the main character’s desires. Basically, he’s going to annoy the heck out of her, causing her to brush off her early attraction to him.

I think it will make the story so much better. And that’s the name of the game.

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