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Posts Tagged ‘first drafts’

Writing Schedule

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , on July 13, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Subject to change. Let’s face it, if anyone offers to buy either MAGE STORM or BLOOD WILL TELL, I’ll switch these priorities to basically whatever they want, probably the continuation of either of those series.

I’ve finished the revisions to BLOOD WILL TELL. Now I need to rework the query and probably the synopsis and start sending it out again.

I’ve also finished the revisions to MAGE STORM, so I need to check the query and synopsis and start sending it back out, too.

Conventional wisdom says not to try to query two books at the same time, but this is one convention I’m willing to buck. I’ve got two ready for market. They’re very different stories for different markets. I see no reason not to query both of them.

Of the next books I’m ready to start on, the first book of the series tentatively titled THE HARBINGER (although I’m actually not sure whether that will be the title of the series or of one of the later books in the series) is calling to me. That is probably the very best way to choose what to work on next. The working title is MAGIC’S FOOL. If the story is ready, I can generally write a first draft in about four to six weeks.

Well before that, the first readers’ critiques of SEVEN STARS will be back. (I’ve got one already.) So I’ll take care of those revisions, essentially the third draft, and then set it aside to rest for at least six months.

Then, I’ll start on BLOOD IS THICKER, the sequel to BLOOD WILL TELL. If I don’t get any bites on BWT, this is the series I’m thinking of taking to e-publishing next year.

By then I’ll be ready for the second draft of MAGIC’S FOOL, followed by the second draft of BLOOD IS THICKER.

That ought to keep me busy for the next few months, anyway.

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Next Project

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , on July 6, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Well, I’ve finished the revision to BLOOD WILL TELL. Now I need to write a new query letter, research some agents, and start sending it out again. Meanwhile, I’ve started the revision to MAGE STORM.

As I said in my last post, the next thing I need to do is to decide what I’m going to work on next. The candidates are:

  1. THE BARD’S GIFT. Young Adult. The story of a girl who has the gift of story telling. Despite the fact that she’s a believer in the new god, the old gods literally put stories into her head that she’s compelled to tell. Her internal conflict and the trials of getting her elders to listen to and accept her stories would be set against the greater difficulties of carving a new settlement out of the wilderness. This one is an alternate history in which the norse actually did create a permanent settlement in the New World some two or three hundred years after Lief Erickson. Frankly, I don’t think this one is quite fully cooked yet. I don’t have enough plot points mapped out. And I need to do some research before I can tackle the alternate history part, anyway.
  2. Book One of the series tentatively titled THE HARBINGER. Middle Grade, although the series might migrate into Young Adult in later books. This would be a completely new look at the story told in my first two novels, so the plot is pretty much complete (at least that far). I know the characters and the milieu very well, too. No additional world building required. The interesting task in this one, beyond trying to forget (and not peek at) what I did before, is to chop it into smaller but still complete parts. The story formerly told in TSC (I’m still just sticking to the initials) would make up probably three books of this series–and each one has to have its own central conflict which is completed withing that single book. That’s really the only thing I would need to work out to be ready to start writing tomorrow.
  3. BLOOD IS THICKER. Adult, first sequel to BLOOD WILL TELL The continuing story of the main characters from the previous book. They have a clutch of three eggs, but there’s something wrong at the hatching grounds. The geothermal heat that keeps the grounds at a constant temperature is failing, due to some earlier activities of the antagonist from BWT. To save their unborn children, Rolf and Valeriah have to find out what’s gone wrong and find a way to fix it. I know the bones of this story well enough to start writing any time. I even have a couple of scenes already written.
  4. WILD MAGE. Middle Grade, first sequel to MAGE STORM. On a trip home, Rell and his friends discover that isolated settlements are being attacked. They set out to find out who’s behind it and end up having to battle with the wild mage and her coterie of loyal creatures–gryphons and a young dragon. Again, I know the major plot points and could start writing this one at any time.

So. I’m not really ready to start THE BARD’S GIFT, but I could start any of the others. For MAGE STORM, I’m committed to continuing to try to get that published by the traditional route for a good while yet, so I probably won’t start the sequel to that, yet. That leaves either Book One of THE HARBINGER or BLOOD IS THICKER. And the answer to that depends on whether and how soon I seriously consider e-publishing BLOOD WILL TELL.

Decisions, decisions.

 

 

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Where Ideas Come From

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , on June 29, 2011| 4 Comments »

I actually don’t know the answer to this. But I do know that ideas come to me when I’m writing. I can stare at a wall all day. I can try to think up a new idea. Nothing. I can’t force the ideas out of hiding that way. But start writing and here they come, like birds flocking to a newly-filled bird feeder.

Sometimes it’s when I’m actually at the keyboard. Sometimes it’s when I’m doing something else–walking the dogs, weeding the yard, driving. Just before I fall asleep is a big one. But ideas will generally only come to me during those times if I’m actively writing at some point during the day.

There isn’t necessarily a pattern to what ideas come to me, either. Most often, it’s something about the story I’m actually working on, but sometimes it’s an idea for another story that I’ve already written or an idea for a totally new story.

I think there’s a slightly higher occurrence of ideas–especially new ideas–when I’m doing original writing, as in a first draft or significant new writing in a second draft. Something about the creative juices flowing, I suppose. But revisions seem to trigger ideas, too.

Last night, before I fell asleep, I had three ideas–all at once. Two were for BLOOD WILL TELL, which I’m currently revising. Little details that can make the story more powerful. The other was a plot development for MAGE STORM. I think I’m almost ready to start on the rewrite of the first 50 pages or so of MAGE STORM. At least the ideas I need are starting to flow. More will come, probably when I actually start to work on it.

I guess the moral of this story is: Don’t stop writing and keep a notebook handy.

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Skipping Around

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on May 4, 2011| 2 Comments »

One of the advantages to working on a second draft is you don’t have to go in any particular order. I know some people write first drafts out of order, working on whatever is most exciting first. Since I’m about two-thirds discovery writer, it really works best for me to tackle the first draft from beginning to end.

On the second draft, though, I already know the story. I’ve got some notes in it for things I want to change, add, build up, etc. And now I can take them in any order. I still usually try to work from beginning to end, but if I find myself getting stuck anywhere, I can easily just skip to another chapter.

So, that’s what I’ve been doing on SEVEN STARS. I got a little stuck on exactly how I want to handle something with my first point-of-view character, so I skipped to the other. (This story has two point-of-view characters.)

In some ways, at least for me, second drafts are almost as much fun as first drafts. And they are first drafts, at least in part, because the manuscript usually grows by about a third.

Later revisions, not so much.

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The Evolution of an Idea

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on March 16, 2011| 7 Comments »

Having recently completed the first draft of SEVEN STARS, it feels like a good time to explore how ideas develop in a story. As mentioned in a previous post, I’m largely a discovery writer, so this evolution happens while I’m writing. I’m sure pretty much the same thing happens to a plotter/outliner, though. Just at a different point in the process.

So, fairly early on in SEVEN STARS I had my characters isolated. There’s a war on and because of some imprudent behavior by one of the characters, they’re cut off from their main army, from the capital city, and from the hidden fortress where the women and children have been taken for shelter. I knew from the beginning that at some point they would make it to the fortress through a system of caves.

When I got to that point, I had an idea to have a little fun with them. In battle, the female character is more prepared, more experienced, better trained and not afraid of much. The male character is learning, but he’s never been in this situation before. So, I decided that when they went underground, it would be fun to switch things on them. He’d be perfectly comfortable in the caves and she’d be claustrophobic.

From there, the caves became a sort of almost religious experience for him. It’s like an initiation, but only he feels it. His confidence increases in the caves, which leads to a couple of interesting side effects.

Well, at this point, the caves started to become almost another character in the story.  I decided that the caves actually were responding to his presence and that their guide would notice it. When they reach the fortress, the guide proclaims that the caves, by affecting the character in this way, have indicated that he is the heir. He’s the youngest prince, the one nobody expected anything from, and now this guy’s saying that he’s the heir because he liked the caves?

This introduced some more world-building. Not just the caves, but the notion that through the caves the land is supposed to choose the heir. The current king has been trying to circumvent that by not sending his younger two sons into the caves and suppressing the knowledge that the oldest son failed to even get through the caves.

Those ideas only come to me when I’m writing. I would never get that idea while making an outline. 

Now, of course, I have to go back and introduce a few elements a little earlier in the story to foreshadow that revelation. That’s okay. It will make the story richer. And it won’t actually take much. A couple of sentences here and there, maybe a paragraph.

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Shifting Gears

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on March 13, 2011| 4 Comments »

Yesterday, I finished the first draft of SEVEN STARS. Now I’ve spent a little (very little) time savoring that feeling, it’s time to shift gears.

Today, and possibly the next few days, are going to be about putting myself in a different frame of mind. SEVEN STARS needs to rest so I can approach the second draft with fresher eyes. Now I’m going to start another round of revisions on BLOOD WILL TELL (which may also get a new title in the process).

I have to drag my mind away from one set of characters that I’ve gotten to like and back to another. I need to change my focus from new writing (altough BLOOD WILL TELL will almost certainly get a new beginning) and prepare to do revisions. I have to get myself out of a second-world young adult fantasy and get into the right frame of mind for an adult urban fantasy. Piece of cake, right?

But that’s exactly what I need to do–focus on something else for a while–so I can come back to SEVEN STARS and really see it.

I’ll probably start by reading through BLOOD WILL TELL one more time. I swear there are parts I could probably quote from memory.

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Powering Through

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on March 9, 2011| 2 Comments »

I have three chapters left to go on SEVEN STARS. It’s been going slower than anticipated this last week or so. It’s not that I’ve lost enthusiasm for the story or don’t know where it goes from here. Maybe it’s spring fever. Or maybe I just don’t want to finish it. Sometimes, I think, like reading a good book, I just don’t want to get to THE END. I want to stay in the sandbox and keep playing with these characters.

Of course, on a first draft, THE END isn’t anywhere close to really being the end. There’ll be several revisions. I’ll only be saying goodbye to these characters for a little while. It’s just a brief vacation so I can come back to the story with fresh eyes for the second draft.

So, what I have to do now is just pull my (figurative) writer hat down firmly on my head and power through. I know what happens next. And the writing doesn’t have to be perfect or even close to it in the first draft. That, after all, is what revisions are for.

If you want to be a writer, you can’t be a wimp about it. Some days it’s just butt in chair and get the job done, like any other job.

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Pulling Characters Apart

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on March 6, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Not too long ago I posted about bringing two of my characters together.  I’m now in the interesting part of SEVEN STARS where I have to pull those two characters apart–temporarily.

They’ve spent some time alone to learn to respect and trust each other. They’ve worked together for a common goal. Learned things from each other. Had their first kiss–okay a couple of kisses. And I’ve given them some obstacles, some arguably good reasons why they really shouldn’t choose each other.

Now, it’s time for me to separate them for a little while so they can realize just how much they really want to be together and build up enough motivation to take on those obstacles.

Well, one of them already has the motivation. He’s been a bit ahead of her at every step down this journey.

The separation won’t last too long. In fact, I’m about to put them back in the same place (physically at least) in this next chapter. Might take another couple of chapters to complete the process. She can be a little stubborn and he’s going to have to change her mind. Not that she’s happy about her decision, but she does think she’s made a decision. 

Poor Ti. It’s going to get a little rocky for him for a little while, but he’s up to the challenge, now.

You have to torture you’re characters.

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Walk-On Characters

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on February 27, 2011| 1 Comment »

This is undoubtedly related to being a discovery writer. Sometimes, in the middle of a story, I get to meet a walk-on character.

Often, as with the current version of SEVEN STARS (possibly to be renamed CURSED), I know that there’s going to be a need for a character at a certain point in the story.  They’re in the plans. I’ve got two of those coming up in the next couple of chapters.

Sometimes, I reach a point in the plot and just need a character that hasn’t already been introduced to do something. I’ve had one of those in a recent chapter and there’s one coming up in the next chapter. These characters don’t have to do much as a rule. The one coming up just has to guide my characters to a secret entrance. I don’t expect he’ll do much besides that.

Then again, he could surprise me. The last character of that type has piqued my interest and just may end up with a bigger role.

But the real surprises are the complete walk-ons. The ones that were never planned at all, who just walk in and take on a part of the story. I’ve had one of those turn up in the last chapter. It wasn’t a role I felt I needed to fill. Maybe my subconscious did.

This character just showed up and told me he was an old friend of one of the main characters and that now that that character has begun to change, the old friend wants to hold him back and make him stay in his old roles. Cool! A new source of conflict. Can my character who’s just begun to believe in himself overcome the doubts of people who knew him before? How will the challenge affect him?

I also think that, probably unwittingly, this new character is going to have a role to play in moving my romance along. The main characters have been taking their jobs just a little too seriously. Someone needs to give them a little shove.  All work and no play . . .

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Title Time

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on February 23, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Wow. Throw in  a Monday holiday and my days get all messed up. Almost forgot to blog!

It’s time for me to seriously start thinking about titles again. I’m just not very good at titles. But I’ve got to come up with a couple.

SEVEN STARS seriously needs me to find it a new title. (Now in chapter 17 and past 30,000 words.) This title sounds too much like Seven Samurai. It’s not that kind of story. Besides, with the new, much improved version of the plot, it doesn’t even fit anymore. I just haven’t been able to think of anything, yet. I’d go with CURSED, but that might make it sound like a vampire story, and it’s not that either. Well, if I can’t come up with anything better . . .

I also need to come up with a new title for BLOOD WILL TELL. It looks like I’ll be giving that a pretty thorough revision while the first draft of SEVEN STARS rests, including a new beginning, some tightening, and some work on one of the characters. If I’m going to think about trying to submit it again, it needs a new title, too. BLOOD WILL TELL was always supposed to be a working title. (So was SEVEN STARS, come to that.) But I’ve never been able to come up with anything better than WEREWOLF’S HONOR, which just stinks.

Time to rack the brain a little.

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