first drafts | Meredith Mansfield, Author

Posts Tagged ‘first drafts’

Transitioning

Posted in writing, tagged critiques, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, Multiple Projects, revisions, sequels, series, writing on September 28, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Most of the critiques of the second book in the Dual Magics series (formerly titled THE IGNORED PROPHECY, now likely THE VOICE OF PROPHECY) have come back. I have some work to do to make it ready for publication in December. So, very soon, I will have to transition back to revision mode and start work on that.

I’m trying to finish up a couple of chapters of book three (BEYOND THE PROPHECY, probably) first. The ones I already have fairly clearly in my head. Best to get them out before they fade.

Meanwhile, I’m trying to come up with a new concept for the cover art. I thought I had that all wrapped up, but the title change to emphasize a different part of the story needs to be paired with appropriate cover art. I think I’ve got a fair idea now of what I’m going to do. Unfortunately, it’ll be a bit more work than the previous concept.

Lots to do.

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My Brain During a Heat Wave

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, Multiple Projects, Reading, Real Life, revisions, sequels, series, writing on September 17, 2014| Leave a Comment »

I now know exactly what happens in the next several chapters of BEYOND THE PROPHECY–and I’m still not making much progress. It’s not editor brain (at least, I don’t think it is). It’s my brain during a heat wave.

I don’t know how many of you have read Terry Pratchett. (If you haven’t, you should.) A subseries in his Disc World series deals with the Night Watch, which (after the advent of Carrot, anyway) includes not just humans, but dwarves, a werewolf, and a mountain troll. I don’t remember the troll’s name off the top of my head, but I do remember this little plot point.

The troll was big, strong, and intimidating to the bad guys. He was also dumber than dirt–until one night he got locked in an ice house. Then he was brilliant. So one of the dwarves built him a hat that would keep his head cool so that he could be smart all the time.

I need someone to invent that hat in this world. The kind of concentration it takes to write a first draft simply eludes me right now.

Maybe my efforts would be better directed to a little revision for the duration. They say this heat wave will end soon–but we all know how much we can trust weathermen. I’ve gotten the first critique back on THE IGNORED PROPHECY and it looks like I may have a lot of work to do on that. Sequels are hard. More on that in my next post.

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Kindle Select and Other Things

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, Learning, marketing, Real Life, sequels, series, writing on September 14, 2014| Leave a Comment »

So, I’ve taken the step. THE SHAMAN’S CURSE is now exclusively on Amazon and enrolled in Kindle Select.

If you’re not a writer, what this means for you is that it’s now available for borrowing by Amazon Prime members and available free to members of Kindle Unlimited.

Normally, I like to make my books available in as many different places and as many different formats as possible. However, for whatever reason (and some of it baffles me), TSC has sold approximately 1000 times better on Amazon than everywhere else combined. (My normal distribution is more like 60% Amazon, 40% everywhere else.) So, if I was ever going to try Kindle Select, this seemed like the one to do it with.

Kindle Select offers several advantages:

Higher royalty rates in some markets
Kindle Countdown Deals and Free Days
Inclusion in the Kindle Lending Library
And, most important right now, Kindle Unlimited

It’s only been a few days, but I have to say that so far the experiment has been a success. Sales have held fairly steady (maybe just a tiny drop) and the addition of “borrows” either through KOLL or KU has really helped bump TSC back up the Amazon best-seller charts.

Meantime, I’ve been trying to survive work during a vicious heat wave which is only going to get worse. I’m a crossing guard by day (which leaves me plenty of time to write), so I stand out on a corner wearing a uniform that is not what I would choose for this weather (black polyester pants!), and walk almost constantly taking children and parents safely across a street that can get really crazy at times. There is no shade to speak of on my corner. A heat wave right at the beginning of the school year, before I get a chance to get re-accustomed to the routine, is rough going, but I still do really love the job–and the hours.

Also, I’m still working on my new writing space. This weekend, it’s been about turning a closet into a book case (more or less). Here’s yesterday’s progress:

Those lower shelves that are crammed full–those are all fantasy books. And that’s not all of them. Science fiction is up on the right and history books (yeah, I’m a history nerd) are on the left.

For those of you who are wondering, the second book in the DUAL MAGICS series, THE IGNORED PROPHECY is on schedule for release in December. And I’m progressing, slowly, on the third book, currently titled BEYOND THE PROPHECY.

I do want to share this terrific post by Sarah Negovetich on what to do to still be productive, even when the writing isn’t flowing.

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Writer Brain vs. Editor Brain

Posted in writing, tagged Contests, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, revisions, sequels, series, writing, Young Adult on September 10, 2014| 1 Comment »

I’m back at work on Book 3 of the DUAL MAGICS series (currently titled BEYOND THE PROPHECY, but nothing’s set in stone). But I’m not fully back in first draft mode.

I’ve decided that’s part of my problem in really getting this one rolling. After all, I know the characters and the world. I laid down a rough outline of at least the high points of what’s going to happen. So what’s holding me back from making better progress?

Answer, I haven’t yet managed to disengage my editor brain. Writing (a first draft) and revising an existing draft are two very different things, calling not just for different skills, but a whole different mind set. Editor brain worries about what should be shown better and what should be cut, not about telling the story in the first place. Editor brain worries about whether that was precisely the right word.

I realized this yesterday when I wrote a new scene, and immediately thought that I should delete it. Well, there’s a good chance that it will be deleted and the information in it worked in with just a few sentences. It doesn’t really merit two pages. But that’s a decision for the second or third draft, not the first. The first draft only goes forward.

First drafts aren’t supposed to be good writing. Their purpose is to get the story out in the open so it can be revised into good writing. And I’ve been revising for quite a while, now. Both THE SHAMAN’S CURSE and THE IGNORED PROPHECY had already been written before.

(Not well, but that’s what revision is for.) The plot lines didn’t really change as I reworked them, just tightened up.

And before that, I revised and polished DAUGHTER OF THE DISGRACED KING, which I’m currently querying. It made the top 25 in the Pitch Plus 5 contest. You can see the pitch and first chapter (which just happens to be about five pages long) here. It’s been a while since I was in first draft mode.

It may take a few more days to switch over to the correct frame of mind, but it will happen. And then this draft will start to really move.

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Miscellaneous Stuff

Posted in writing, tagged Contests, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, first pages, Multiple Projects, Pitches, queries, revisions, sequels, series, writing, Young Adult on September 7, 2014| Leave a Comment »

A few weeks ago, I entered the Pitch Plus 5 Contest over at Adventures in YA Publishing. Then, life being what it is, I lost track of when the first round of results were due. Apparently it was yesterday. Now, the way this contest works is that the first 50 entries make it into the contest. (Actually, the first 25 at an impossibly early–for the West Coast–entry window and the first 25 for a window 12 hours later.) Then, those entries are judged on a standard form by respected book bloggers on a standard scorecard. Based on those scores, the top 25 entries make it to the next round.

This time, entrants also get a short critique from that first judge. Email being what it is (newest on top), I read that critique before the announcement of who got in to the next round. The first sentence is “The opening didn’t hook me.” So, naturally, I thought that I wasn’t going any further this time. Then I get down to the list–and DAUGHTER OF THE DISGRACED KING is on it.

Here’s the initial entry, by the way.

So, now I have two days to make revisions and also do a little work on the query and get it in by midnight (9 p.m. my time) tomorrow night for the next round, judged by authors.

Yeah, that means that the first draft of BEYOND THE PROPHECY (book 3 of the DUAL MAGICS series) will be put on hold until Tuesday. (I have written a new first chapter for it, that does a better job of telegraphing the kind of story it will be.)

Meanwhile, I’m in the middle (exactly) of painting the final wall in what will be my new writing space.

What I want to know is: who had the bright idea for all those louvers?

Going to be a busy couple of days.

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First Scenes

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, Multiple Projects, sequels, series, writing on August 31, 2014| 2 Comments »

I now have the rough outline and the first scene for the third book in the DUAL MAGICS series, reminding me again how hard it is to start a novel, let alone a sequel. What with reworking the first two books, it had been a while since I’d actually sat down to start a first draft.

Starting any novel–especially a fantasy–is a delicate dance between providing enough information about the characters and the setting while at the same time having something interesting happen that is relevant to the plot. Sequels are even more difficult because of the fine line between providing enough information for a reader who happens to pick up a middle book first and not boring a reader who has read the first (two) books and doesn’t need the introduction. It’s always my intention that any book in a series of mine is able to stand alone, even as it has a place in the larger plot arc of the series. That’s my preference as a reader and that’ how I write.

When starting a first novel in the series (or a book that’s not part of a series), I usually try to limit the number of characters in the first scene. But that gets harder to do as a series goes on. Other characters just are there and their characters and relationships have to be introduced somehow.

This will be the third book in the four-book series that starts with THE SHAMAN’S CURSE.

I’d share the first scene here, but . . . well, spoilers. And since Book 2, THE IGNORED PROPHECY, won’t be out until December, it’s just a little early to telegraph that plot.

I still have to come up with a good title for Book 3, though. Well, there’s time yet. The only risk is that the longer I go with a working title, the harder it is for me to think of the story with any other title.

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Book 3 and Cover Art

Posted in writing, tagged conflict, Cover Art, critiques, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, Multiple Projects, Real Life, sequels, series, writing on August 27, 2014| 2 Comments »

Well, I think I’ve done about as much as I can with THE IGNORED PROPHECY until I get some reactions from beta readers. It’s down to 108,500 words, which isn’t bad. There may be a bit more I can cut, but not much.

So, it’s time to start turning my attention to a couple of other things:

Cover art. Naturally, I’m going to want this to have some similarity to the cover of THE SHAMAN’S CURSE.I can find similar backgrounds with out much trouble. The trick is going to be coming up with a good central image.
The map. If I’m going to include a map in THE IGNORED PROPHECY (and maybe go back and add it to THE SHAMAN’S CURSE, I probably should get that ready pretty soon.
Book 3. Poor Book 3 doesn’t have a title yet. This is the book where everything falls apart. I need to settle the main outline of the plot. I’m a modified discovery writer. I don’t do a detailed outline, but I do find that having at least the main turning points as guide posts is helpful. Also, without having a good idea of the plot makes it hard to know where the story starts, and I really want to include an excerpt in THE IGNORED PROPHECY when I publish that in December.

Meanwhile, of course, still working on my new writing space. I got the ceiling painted yesterday. Progress!

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Revising Revisions

Posted in writing, tagged characters, fantasy, first drafts, Learning, revisions, Romance, writing, Young Adult on April 27, 2014| Leave a Comment »

By far the longest part of writing is revisions. First drafts are allowed to be bad. Some would even say they’re supposed to be bad. Really, the first draft is just to get the story down. My rule on first drafts is never look back. There is only one direction–forward. If I go down a rabbit trail, well, I just cut that part in the next draft. There are going to be things I have to cut. There are going to be things I have to add–settings and emotions I skipped over in the first draft, foreshadowing of things I discovered as I went along. Sometimes, there are just going to be things I got wrong.

Sometimes, in the process, I create even more problems.

I’m currently working on what I hope will be the last revision of MAGIC AND POWER (working title). This one has taken a more circuitous path than usual. When I started it, I expected it to be a novella. Yeah. Right. It’s 95,000 words now and likely to get a bit longer. Not a novella. Some reworking was necessary when I realized that. The conflict that will sustain a novella isn’t necessarily big enough to make a novel work. So the political background of the love story had to grow and take a bigger role in the story.

I intended it to be a love story between just two characters–until a third character popped up and turned out to be a better match. My first love triangle. And, on the first and second pass, I botched it. Knowing which character was going to win in the end, I didn’t make the other enough of a possibility. In this revision, I need to make that character a plausible love interest–better, stronger, less desperate.

Not content with that, in the process of creating a little more tension with the other love interest, I messed him up too. I want him to have some goals and methods that are annoying to the main character, so that their attraction to each other is derailed a few times before things work out for them. I took it too far. Now he comes off as pushing too hard.

Sometimes the writing process is two steps forward and one step back. Oh well, as long as the momentum is still forward.

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Not All Rewrites Are Equal

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, Learning, Multiple Projects, revisions, rewrites, sequels, writing, Young Adult on March 9, 2014| 2 Comments »

I’m currently involved in two different rewrites. Very different–and not just because of the stories.

DUAL MAGICS:

The two different kinds of magic–one acquired by initiation and one inherited in the blood–have always been completely separate. Until now.

Not quite epic fantasy. I’d call them sword and sorcery, but there aren’t any swords, really. Spear and sorcery?

In these, I’ve gone back to one of my very first stories. It’s actually a four-book series. I’d written the first two before getting stuck on the third. I’m a much better writer now. Part of what these stories need is craft-related. Some of it is streamlining the story, which is still basically the same. I’ve already done the rewrite on THE SHAMAN’S CURSE and I have it out to some beta readers. I’m on Chapter 5 of THE IGNORED PROPHECY, which is where I’m running into the interesting issues of starting a sequel I wrote about in my last post.

In both of these, the story has remained almost exactly the same, although in the rewrite I’ve chosen to expand some things and reduce or delete others. It’s almost more like a really deep, extensive revision than a rewrite, although scenes do have to be rewritten to fix the craft deficiencies in the original. That’s why I can work on this at the same time I’m working on my other project.

DREAMER’S ROSE:

I don’t have a good log line for this one, yet. It’s changed so significantly. Part of it explores aspects of the Hercules legend that fascinate me. (I mean, this guy never succeeded in anything in his life except killing monsters. And then he became a god. How did that work out?) Except I’ve turned the whole legend on its head.

But now that’s only the beginning of the story. The first part will stay basically the same. Again, it needs a rewrite/revision to bring it up to the current level of my writing craft. But after that, everything will be new. Completely re-imagined. Two thirds of this will truly be a first draft–and I’m almost to that part. Looking forward to it.

This one is going to provide some interesting challenges in structure. It has three main characters, but one character’s story starts several years before the other two characters are born. Right now, I’m just writing chronologically. I’ll think about whether I need to rearrange things after I’ve got the story down.

Two very different kinds of rewrites.

In other news, I’ve decided to put THE BARD’S GIFT up on wattpad, one chapter a week, so you can start reading it for free. (Hint: You’ll get the story much faster if you just buy it. It’s only $2.99 on Amazon)

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Some Stories Grow Themselves

Posted in writing, tagged conflict, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, revisions, writing, Young Adult on February 5, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Last post, I mentioned that I’m currently working on a heavy revision of MAGIC AND POWER. It’s going well and I’m loving the changes.

This is the kind of thing that can happen when great beta readers spark ideas about what should have been in the story in the first place. Of course, if you were reading this blog this time last year, you’ll know that MAGIC AND POWER had a mind of its own and refused to do what I originally intended for it.

It was supposed to be a relatively simple story about a girl from a politically difficult background who feels she must choose between love and the work she feels called to do. Probably novella length. Then this other character popped up and forced his way into the story and suddenly I was writing my very first love triangle. It grew to about twice novella length. Like I said, mind of its own.

My wonderful beta readers pushed me to look at the story differently and shed those preconceptions I’d had for the novella. Two more things are expanding in this version. I’m significantly playing up the political intrigue and bringing it in much sooner. I actually had a couple of threads that only needed fleshing out to do a lot of this.Now they’re not just hanging out there; they’re part of the weave.

I’m also adding complications to the love triangle in the form of incompatible goals and a few annoying personality traits for all three characters. This story is going to be so great when I’m done with it.

Don’t forget THE BARD’S GIFT. I think that’s a pretty terrific story, too. And you can read it right now. Just click the pretty picture to go to Amazon of check the My Books page to find other retailers.

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