Posted in writing, tagged characters, fantasy, world building, writing on March 28, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Instead of a new blog post today, I’ve added some new material to the other pages.
Check out the Characers page for a new character (on the blog). Rolf from BLOOD WILL TELL.
And there’s a new page, Worlds, where you’ll find a deleted scene from BLOOD WILL TELL that gives some insight into the relationship between Chimeria and our own world.
Enjoy.
Posted in writing, tagged fantasy, queries, revisions, writing on March 24, 2010| Leave a Comment »
A little status first: Over the last few days, I have cut 7,000 actual words from THE SHAMAN’S CURSE. With that, and the previous cuts, the manuscript has gone from 113,000 calculated words (at 250 words per page) to 101,000. My goal is to get it under 100,000 words, so I’m getting close. I left 3 scenes that I had marked for possible deletion. I decided they were doing work that I actually needed and if I cut them, I’d just have to write something else to replace them. I may still do that, or I may trim these scenes, or I may leave them as they are. I also marked another 800 words to consider deleting on the next pass through.
I’ve also spent a little time working on the query for BLOOD WILL TELL. March is ticking away and it’s time to push this baby out of the nest and find out if it can fly.
Here’s a portion of the query in it’s current form (subject to change without notice):
Valeriah is half werewolf, unable to take wolf form, but still inconveniently driven by the full moon. She uses her werewolf strength and instincts as bodyguard for the elite and powerful of Chimeria, a world where magic takes the place of technology and the varied magical races vie for the power once held by the dragons.
When an unknown enemy tries to kill her cousin Crystal, Valeriah steps in to protect her. Forced onto the defensive because she doesn’t know who wants Crystal dead, or why, Valeriah accepts assistance from Rolf, a stranger who has helped save Crystal once already. However, she suspects that he has his own reasons for being interested in the women and their inheritance.
After dodging a third attempt on Crystal, Valeriah decides their best hope is to escape Chimeria through one of the portals and try to hide out in Los Angeles. When Rolf reveals himself to be a dragon in disguise, their alliance almost falls apart. An unexpected assault on Valeriah pulls them back together and leaves a trail for them to follow, first to the man who attacked Valeriah and from him to the man, and the reason, behind it all.
And when a werewolf and a dragon go on the hunt together, their quarry better start to worry.
BLOOD WILL TELL is an urban fantasy novel with elements of paranormal romance, complete at 95,000 words.
Posted in writing, tagged fantasy, first drafts, revisions, rewrites, writing on March 22, 2010| Leave a Comment »
First, a little status. I have cut 1000 words from THE SHAMAN’S CURSE and 2000 words from THE IGNORED PROPHECY. And that was just yesterday.
You have to get the beginnings right. Otherwise, nobody’s going to read the golden prose in the middle, the fantastic climax, or the awe-inspiring ending. (Well, we hope the middle, climax, and ending are all those things, any way.)
I’m thinking about this today because I had the good luck to have someone read the first few new chapters of DREAMER’S ROSE before I got too far into it. The good news is: it was interesting enough to read on. The bad news is: the critiquer thought a side character was the protagonist and that the real protagonist was shallow.
Diagnosis: I was rushing. I was trying so hard to get to what I saw as the inciting incident quickly, that I was just skipping over a lot of territory. So now I’m going back over those early chapters, expanding where appropriate, and improving my protagonist’s motivation for what he does.
Discussing the critique a little gave me the insight to realize that what I was seeing as the inciting incident was really part of the try/fail cycle (a failure). The real life-altering event occurs much earlier. I don’t have to rush and the story will be so much better for it.
I’m so fortunate to have found this out early. You don’t want to be trying to build a 100,000 word edifice on quicksand.
Posted in writing, tagged fantasy, rewrites, writing on March 15, 2010| 2 Comments »
This topic came up today because I’ve been working on the first revision of DREAMER’S ROSE, which includes about ten new chapters at the beginning. It feels very good to have the words flowing again after having been stuck on SEVEN STARS. The new chapters also give me a chance to get a good look at my antagonist as a petulant teenager. So, ultimately, even if I decide to go back to something closer to the first starting point, there’s no downside to writing this.
Especially because antagonists are just harder for me. I have much more fun writing about the good guys, the protagonists. Very often, in my first draft the bad guys are bad just because they are. Even though I usually know what motivates them, it just doesn’t come through in the first draft. So the antagonist is always something I pay particular attention to when I start the revisions.
In THE SHAMAN’S CURSE and THE IGNORED PROPHECY, the antagonists are motivated by revenge, one to the point of obsession, the other in a coldly calculating way. The antagonist in BLOOD WILL TELL is actually trying to do the right thing, as he sees it, but in a horribly wrong way. The villain in DREAMER’S ROSE (and this one is a villain) wants something but he’s not willing to pay the price to earn it, so he’s trying to steal it instead. It gets more interesting when you realize that what he’s trying to steal is the power of a god–and he almost succeeds.
SEVEN STARS didn’t really have an antagonist. There were some people who weren’t very nice who got in the way, but they weren’t truly antagonists. So, there’s at least one insight into what may be wrong with that story and what I’ll need to do to fix it when I eventually go back to it. No writing is ever wasted. You always learn something.
Posted in writing, tagged fantasy, Writer's Block, writing on March 10, 2010| 2 Comments »
. . . at least for a while.
I can be stubborn. Ask anybody who knows me. A former boss once compared me to the Energizer Bunny. With me, he had to be careful what he pointed me at because I would keep going until I got there, no matter what was in the way. Sometimes, that’s not a good thing. Sometimes, you need to step back, look at the problem again, and try a different approach. I didn’t really learn that until I became a caregiver for my mother (who has Alzheimer’s disease, if you haven’t checked out my About Me page).
Well, it can happen with a story, too. Sometimes, like BLOOD WILL TELL, a story just flows out like turning on a tap. Sometimes, it feels like you’re carving every letter into granite. Most times, of course, it’s somewhere in between. But when it’s like carving the story into stone, it’s probably a sign that something is wrong.
My (late) current project, SEVEN STARS, seemed to be going well until right around 40,000 words. It was never the roller coaster ride writing BLOOD WILL TELL was, but it was about normal. I knew the characters. I knew where the story was going. And right about that half-way mark or so, I hit a wall. I had to fight for every paragraph. It was a rare scene that I could write in one sitting. It just wasn’t working.
I took a break. I worked on the query and synopsis for BLOOD WILL TEL. I did a few more critiques than average for other writers. But it’s just not working. And finally, even I have to admit it. Something is wrong. Maybe I haven’t spent enough time on world-building. Maybe I chose the wrong character as the protagonist. Maybe the story just stinks. The answer is the same, either way. I have to shove this one into a drawer for a while until I have some distance from it, so I can see what the problem is.
Posted in writing, tagged fantasy, queries, synopsis, writing on March 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Wow. It’s been a few days since I last posted. That’s because I’ve been working on the query and synopsis for BLOOD WILL TELL. And, let me tell you, compared to writing the novel, this part is work. It’s necessary, but it’s nowhere near as much fun as writing a story. So, once I convince myself to tackle it one more time, it’s best not to allow too many distractions.
BLOOD WILL TELL actually came incredibly easily. The first, rough draft just flowed. For the most part, the revisions weren’t much more difficult. But now it’s time to do the hard work.
Imagine you’ve just spent several months of your life writing a novel in something around 100,000 words. You’ve created characters and a world, crafted the plot, built conflict, and brought the whole thing to a satisfying ending. You’ve had people you trust to tell you the truth read it. And revised based on their critiques. You’ve polished it.
After you’ve done that, the next thing you have to do is retell that story in 1,000 words or so. And you’ve got to try to make it interesting, because this is one of the tools to help you sell your novel. You can’t just summarize the plot like a book report. It has to have character and conflict, just like the novel. I’m still fighting this one.
Oh, and if you think the synopsis was fun. Now you get to do it all over again–in about 250 words for the query letter. Except for that one you don’t want to give away the ending. I’m on the sixth revision to this version of the query letter. There were two versions before this that went through similar revison processes only to be discarded.
I would so much rather be writing the murder scene for SEVEN STARS. But this is part of the job, too. It can’t be avoided. And it has to be done the very best I can, because otherwise, no one will ever get to read BLOOD WILL TELL.
Posted in writing, tagged fantasy, inspiration, writing on February 24, 2010| 2 Comments »
This will tie in to my last post on Knowing Where to Start. Trust me.
The male protagonist for DREAMER’S ROSE is based on the Greek myth of Hercules–the real one, not what Disney did to it–turned completely upside down. In case you don’t know, Hercules was driven mad by Hera. In his madness, he killed his wife and children. The famous Twelve Labors were his punishment for this crime (they didn’t have Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity back then). In the end, still consumed by guilt, Hercules built his own funeral pyre and burned himself to death. But, as the son of Zeus, all the fire did was burn away his mortal half and leave him a god.
This made me wonder, what exactly would you pray to Hercules the god for? People did, in ancient Greece; he had temples and people made offerings. What were they asking for? His entire life was a disaster. The only thing he was ever good at was killing monsters, so unless you had a Hydra hiding in the back yard, what did you want Hercules to do for you?
I took this story and completely turned it upside down. My protagonist leads a charmed life with the patronage of the Goddess (who happens to be his mother). He succeeds in everything he does. He’s practically invulnerable because the Goddess heals every injury. That is, until he gets struck by lightning, burns, and becomes a god. That’s when the Peter Principle kicks in–he’s risen to the level of his incompetence. He has absolutely no idea how to go about this god business and he fails horribly. It is his last and greatest failure that causes the conflict in the story and which he ultimately has to rectify, with a little help (from Rose).
Now, I promised that this would tie in to the last post. Here it is. I had the hardest time getting this story started. It’s really hard to write something interesting about a guy that can’t fail and can’t be hurt. Where’s the conflict? In the end, I couldn’t do it. I gave up and started with another character, which morphed the story into something that wasn’t really what I had envisioned. So, I put it in a drawer (figuratively) for a few months. Recently, I opened it back up and reread it. I started making notes for the revisions I wanted to make. And now I know where the story really starts. I just needed a little distance from it to see it. It starts at his height, right before he becomes a god and everything goes to pieces.
That’s probably obvious to you. But when you’re in the trenches struggling with a story, sometimes you’re too close to see it. A little distance is good.
Posted in writing, tagged fantasy, writing on February 18, 2010| Leave a Comment »
First, an update. On a first pass through THE SHAMAN’S CURSE, I’ve identified and marked approximately 8500 words that I think I can cut. Some of them will indeed hurt–me, not the story. I haven’t actually cut anything, yet. I want to wait a week or two and then read it through, skipping over those parts, to be sure it all still hangs together and makes sense. It feels like progress, anyway.
Now, as the title says, knowing when to start:
Many stories, like THE SHAMAN’S CURSE, have one right place to start. That’s with the inciting incident, the accident that turns the shaman into the protagonist’s implacable enemy and drives the conflict for the rest of the story. I could move the beginning a little bit, either way–backward a little to show more of the protagonist’s world before everything changes for him, or forward a little to start in media res–but not much.
My second novel, THE IGNORED PROPHECY, isn’t so simple, because it’s a different kind of story. The inciting incident isn’t an event. It’s a question and there are several different events that could, potentially, cause that question to be asked. And that, I think, is the problem with this story. I picked the wrong event and I’ve stuck with it through several revisions out of inertia, I guess.
This book has been through changes. Some of what happened in the first draft has been pushed off to an eventual sequel, but the beginning was still almost the same. I think this is the main problem with this book. In this case, it’s only the first third of the book that seems to take too long, not the first half. Improvement! But it still needs to be tightened up and changing the way in which this question gets asked is likely to be what needs to be done. I have some ideas. So that’s what I’ll be working on while trying to get a little more distance from THE SHAMAN’S CURSE.
Actually, there’s a series of questions, not just one. Although it starts with the biggest question. What I want to do is bring all those questions much closer together. Really rattle my protagonist right at the start and then keep him off balance as much as possible.
Posted in writing, tagged fantasy, revisions, rewrites, writing on February 12, 2010| 1 Comment »
I actually don’t mind revisions. I do my best to turn my internal editor off during the first draft, so I expect to have to do a round or two of revisions. Expecially if I’m writing fast, some things may just get left out or need to be expanded. I often need to give more depth to my antagonists than they get in the first draft. There’s its own kind of reward in seeing the writing and the story grow and improve during revisions. Kind of like gardening, I guess. Pull the weeds, prune judiciously, plant something new every once in a while, water and fertilize the rest.
But rewriting, where I actually have to discard what I wrote and start over, is more painful. That’s where I am with two of my novels, though. I still really believe in these stories, so it’s worth the pain to try to get them right.
This week, I’ve been formulating a plan of attack for my first novel, THE SHAMAN’S CURSE. (It’s not really my first novel, but we’re not going to talk about that thing under the bed, okay? It is the first to be good enough to try to get it right and get it published some day.)
I reread it after a about a year. It wasn’t as good as I remembered. I still really like the second half or so and that, right there, tells me what the first problem is. It takes too long to get there. So, that’s my first task. I want to cut 10,000 words from the first half–15,000 would be even better. Then I’ll see how far that goes towards fixing some of the other porblems I saw. Wish me luck. This is going to hurt.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged fantasy, writing on February 7, 2010| 3 Comments »
Welcome to my blog, which I expect to be primarily about my writing. Other things, like real life, may crop up from time to time, though.
I write fantasy, mostly novels. I do have a short story or two knocking around, though. I submitted one just this morning. Fingers crossed, please.
I have five fantasy novels in various stages of completion. The first two are in the unfortunate category: “Complete, needing a rewrite”. The third, BLOOD WILL TELL is complete, polished, and ready to go out into the world, just as soon as I get that pesky query letter and synopsis done. The fourth is complete in first draft and ready for revisions. The fifth is only started. And the idea for number six is already starting to cook.
Since this is mostly about writing, some of the interesting stuff will be on added pages, rather than the blog itself. My plans include pages where you can meet some of my characters or get a glimpse of the worlds they inhabit.
Meredith Mansfield, Author 