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Posts Tagged ‘Middle Grade’

Moving On

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on February 8, 2012| 4 Comments »

I’m actually playing hooky (sort of) from an on-line writers’ hangout to post this, so it’ll be quick.

Well, yesterday I finally finished the fourth draft of MAGIC’S FOOL. That last ten pages was like pulling teeth–and there weren’t even that many changes. I suspect I’d just gotten burned out on the story, having done three straight drafts back to back. Note to self: Don’t do that again.

However, I’m now much happier with the story and I think it’s ready for readers next month. I’ll probably give it one more read-through before then, but not for a couple of weeks any way.

So, now I’m moving on to the polishing edit of SEVEN STARS. This one has been resting since July. I’m trying something new–giving it a good long rest before the last pass and sending it out into the world. That’s only really practical when you have enough completed works to keep querying while you give the new one the benefit of that time.

I’m less than ten pages in and already feeling energized by the change to a “new” story.

I’ve also been working on the query and synopsis. Look out agenting world. SEVEN STARS will be coming your way soon!

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General Update

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , on February 5, 2012| 6 Comments »

Today, I think I’ll do a general update on what I’ve been working on and what I expect to work on. In chronological order, they are:

BLOOD WILL TELL:

 Paranormal Romance. This is the one I’m seriously considering e-publishing. It’s just not enough like anything I’m writing now or plan to write for it to be worthwhile continuing to look for an agent for it.

Here’s the cover I’ve come up with.

MAGE STORM: Middle Grade Fantasy. I’m continuing to query this one. Just had a request for the full manuscript last week. Fingers crossed.

SEVEN STARS: Young Adult Fantasy. This one has been resting so I can look at it with fresh eyes. It’s just about time to take it out again to do what I hope will be the final polishing edit. I’m going to start work on the query and the synopsis just as soon as I finish up this revision of MAGIC’S FOOL.

MAGIC’S FOOL: Middle Grade Fantasy. I’m on the last chapter of the fourth draft. Typically, it’s turning out to be one of the hardest. Here I thought I was going to skate to the end. Ha!

This one goes out to readers next month. Then, I’m sure, there’ll be more revisions.

BLOOD IS THICKER: Paranormal Romance. This is the sequel to BLOOD WILL TELL. It’s still in first draft, with some revision notes from alpha readers. I don’t usually put my first drafts up for critique, but somehow both BLOOD WILL TELL and BLOOD IS THICKER ended up that way. I’m reasonably happy with about two-thirds of it, but I hate the last third or so. Well, that’s what first drafts are for.

THE BARD’S GIFT: Young Adult Alternate History. I’ve kind of fallen behind in the research for this one. I need to get back on it.

However, it’s anybody’s guess whether the next thing I write will be THE BARD’S GIFT or MAGIC’S APPRENTICE (the sequel to MAGIC’S FOOL). I’m kind of into those characters right now. Still, it would be smarter to write something different at least until I have an idea how MAGIC’S FOOL will go. Of course, there’s also that retelling of “Little Furball” I’ve been thinking about.

Oh, and somewhere in there I’ve got to get back to writing a few short stories. I have half a dozen ideas stacked up, now. And I really do need to follow up that Honorabe Mention from Writers of the Future. I just have to find the tme.

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Progress Report

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on January 29, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Well, I’ve made good progress so far with my significant plot changes to MAGIC’S FOOL. I’m up to chapter seven. The changes involve bringing one character in much earlier (the beginning of the book instead of the very end) and making her older than she was before by about eight years. Towards the end of the book, one plot element will have to change, too.

I like this change. I think it will read better for the age group. (That’s mostly the change that will come at the end.) Plus it’s going to be a big help moving forward. MAGIC’S FOOL is intended to be the first of a series of (probably) four books. (Tentatively titled MAGIC’S FOOL, MAGIC’S APPRENTICE, MAGIC’S JOURNEYMAN, and MAGIC’S MASTER.)

This character (the main character’s little sister, Kiara) will now be in a much better position to take her intended role in the later books. She was going to be a little young for it, otherwise. Plus, now I get a (very) little conflict with the older boy not wanting his baby sister tagging along all the time. But, hey, every little bit of conflict helps.

Yesterday, I made the most major revisions so far to give Kiara a much bigger role in one chapter, so she can be seen as something other than just the pesky kid sister. She’ll have a bigger role as the series goes on. In fact, I have an unpublished short story about her that I may have to do something with in conjunction with this series. Maybe a free ebook or maybe I’ll just put it up on this blog. Or both. It’s called “Becoming Lioness”, which might give you a hint as to Kiara’s character.

Of course, after I finish this revision, it’s going to need at least one more read through before it’s ready for readers in March. But, this is my third straight time through. I think I’ll give it a bit of a rest before I go through it one last time before the Pied Pipers get it.

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Replotting on the Fourth Draft

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , on January 25, 2012| 6 Comments »

I’ve almost finished the third draft of MAGIC’S FOOL. And I just now decided on a fairly major plot revision.

This draft was supposed to concentrate on improving descriptons, but as I near the end (where most things have already been fairly well described), I started wondering about a particular plot element. It had worked just fine in the original version, before the rewrite. But now I’m targeting a different audience and I’m not at all sure it works for the new market.

Fortunately, I think I see a pretty good solution. One that will, fortunately, actually help to solve a time-line issue that bothered me even in the original version. I think I’ll like this version even better.

Now, I was planning what I was going to work on after I finish this draft: revision notes to BLOOD IS THICKER based on reader input, starting to work on the query for SEVEN STARS, working on that neglected short story I’ve barely started. I still need to do all those things, but I guess they’re going to be delayed a bit.

My readers get MAGIC’S FOOL in March. I’ll need to have it ready for them.

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Revisions, Revisions

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on January 22, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I’m well into the third draft of MAGIC’S FOOL and still liking it very much. That’s a good sign. Hopefully, my writing colleagues who read it in March will also like it. 

MAGIC’S FOOL is actually a rewrite–complete rewrite as in I didn’t even look at the first version until after I’d completed the first draft–of my first novel, which was called (ahem) THE SHAMAN’S CURSE. TSC was originally written as if it was an adult story, so I’ve had to break it down into parts to make it middle grade. I like this version better, though. It probably alwasy should have been middle grade. I just wasn’t experienced enough as a writer to understand that.

Of course, I’ve had to lose a few things along the way. Several characters have been axed or combined. That’s okay. There were too many in TSC anyway. I am a little sorry about some of the more adult subplots that have to go. Oh well, maybe I can use those ideas in another book somewhere along the line. They just won’t fit here any more.

Here’s the first page, as a teaser:

Vatar rode along beside his father, helping to move the cattle to better grazing. Though, really, the Dardani’s short-legged herd dogs did most of the work of keeping the herd together. Tradition demanded that he spend the day before his formal initiation into the clan with his father. This was supposed to introduce him to the responsibilities he’d be expected to shoulder as an adult someday.

Vatar’s eagerness was boundless. Not so much for the responsibilities, although the glamour of being considered grown up covered even that. Anyway adult responsibilities were still a few years away. Forever to a thirteen-year-old.

It was the more immediate promise of freedom that had him checking the position of the sun every few minutes and wishing it would move faster. After tonight’s ceremony, he would finally be considered old enough. He and his friends would be allowed to ride out of sight of the village in small groups without an adult to keep an eye on them. They’d be able to do things. What things he didn’t know yet, but he was quite certain they could think of some once they had the chance.

He looked around the endless circle of the plains, merging with the sky at the far horizon. The earth was all golden brown now, the grasses prematurely dried up by the lack of rain. Here and there, the green smudges of trees surrounding a waterhole dotted the plains. The darker line of the Great Forest marked the eastern horizon. The possibilities for adventure boggled even his imagination.

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Resting a Story

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , on January 15, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Woo Hoo!  I finally typed “The End” at the bottom of BLOOD IS THICKER.

It’s very strange. I enjoyed writing the first two-thirds of that story, but the last third was like pulling teeth. I felt like I had to carve every word out of granite.  I’m sure that’s a sign that the story went seriously off track somewhere. I’ll have to figure it out and fix it.

The good news is: I don’t have to do that right away. In fact, I shouldn’t even try to do it soon. What I need to do is let it rest for a while and come back to it with fresh eyes.

Rest, I’ve come to believe, is one of the least appreciated steps in writing. When you finish a story of any length and you’re so totally in love with it that you can’t see it’s flaws–or when you hate the last third and can’t stand to look at it anymore–that’s the precisely worst time to start the revisions. You have to give yourself time to come back to it without those preconceptions.

I always give myself about a month from completion of the first draft before I start revisions. (I’m in the middle of the second draft of MAGIC’S FOOL right now and it’s going swimmingly.) I generally have an enforced rest again while the story is out to beta readers.

I’ve also come to the conclusion over the last year that that’s not enough. When I really think the story is finished and polished and ready to go, I need to take another break. A longer one, maybe as long as six months, before I start sending it out.

That’s very hard to do at first. A little easier when you have more than one story in the pipeline.

That’s why I’ve been letting SEVEN STARS rest for so long after I finished with the last set of revisions. I’m aiming to open that back up and reread it in another month or so. If I fall in love with it all over again, well, that will be a very good sign.

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Getting Around Blocks

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on January 8, 2012| Leave a Comment »

A while back, I posted that I was stuck near the end of BLOOD IS THICKER. I’d lost the momentum and was having trouble getting it back. I played around with designing a cover for BLOOD WILL TELL for a while. (That’s still a work in progress, but it’s getting better.) But sooner or later, I had to come back and just find a way to finish BLOOD IS THICKER.

Well, this last week, I have. And here’s what I did:

I went ahead and wrote the last chapter. I had it all pretty much in my head anyway. That I could write with no problem. It was the stuff in between where I was and that ending that was the problem.

I outlined the half-dozen scenes I needed to get there. Generally, I’m more of a discovery writer than a plotter, but in an emergency I can outline. I usually just don’t find them very useful. I’m too apt to depart from them and end up being a pantser anyway. But, for a handful of scenes, it works fine.

Then I gave myself an assignment. Every day I would write one–just one–of those scenes. After that, I would let myself work on the second draft of MAGIC’S FOOL.

And that has been working for me. Just one more scene to go and then I can skip to the bottom and type “The End”.

Whew!

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A Look Back

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on January 4, 2012| 4 Comments »

This is the last post about resolutions or goals for a while. I promise.

The turning of the year is a time not only to look forward to what we want to accomplish in the coming year, but also back on how well we did last year.

My 2011 Goals:

  1. Get MAGE STORM out on submission. 

Yes. It’s even gotten one request for partial and another request for the full manuscript. I’ll keep querying it at least until SEVEN STARS is ready, about April.

  1. Keep writing and submitting short stories. It’s not the primary focus of my writing, but it is good practice. The publication credits wouldn’t hurt, either.

By my records, I made nine submissions of three different short stories in 2011. No publications, but I did get an Honorable Mention in Writers of the Future.

  1. Finish two books this year.  Current candidates (subject to change without notice) DREAMER’S ROSE (which is in rewrite) and SEVEN STARS (which will be a first draft)

Yes. SEVEN STARS and MAGIC’S FOOL. I very nearly finished BLOOD IS THICKER, too. DREAMER’S ROSE is on the shelf until I figure out how to fix it.

  1. Learn.  There is always more to learn. 

Yes. Of course, there’s still more to learn out there.

  1. Read widely in the YA genre.

Yes, again.

  1. Never give up. Never surrender.

Well, obviously. I’m still here, aren’t I?

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Stories That Grab You by the Throat . . .

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on November 30, 2011| Leave a Comment »

 . . . And won’t let go.

At last count, I had about 25 books in my To-Read pile. But for some reason earlier this month I just couldn’t get into either of the ones I’d picked up. I’m likely to drop one and come back to the other later. What did I do? Did I pick up another book from that teetering stack? No, I didn’t.

I went back to a tried and true story I’ve read at least twice before. THE SHARING KNIFE series–BEGUILEMENT, LEGACY, PASSAGE, and HORIZON–by Lois McMaster Bujold. I know exactly how this story is going to go and how it’s going to end, and I am as caught up in it as if I were reading it for the first time. I can’t even think about picking up another book. I’m finding extra time to read.

That is the kind of story I aspire to write. So, I have to spend a little time trying to figure out exactly what it is that makes this story so enthralling.

In large part, it’s the characters. Lois McMaster Bujold does the redemption of damaged characters better than any other writer I can think of. Characters who start out half-dead inside, then find a reason to fight to live, and then nearly lose it again. That is a riveting story.

But it’s more than that, of course. It’s how alive those characters feel. With virtues and flaws and dark places they don’t want to probe too deeply.

It’s the way the setting is drawn on my imagination. It doesn’t hurt that THE SHARING KNIFE is in a non-standard fantasy setting. Not some parallel medieval setting for this one. This is much more like–very much like–the Mississipi River Valley during its early settlement.

It helps that in addition to the individual trials of the characters, there are also two cultures in conflict. And nasty monsters–some human, some definitely not–that have to be vanquished along the way.

And, of course, it’s all tied together with her writing style that just eases me into that world with no bumps or hitches along the way.

But really, I think it’s the characters.

There’ve been a few other stories that grabbed me this way. Stories that often made me keep thinking about those characters long after I’d finished the book(s).

Back to reading. And thinking.

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The End is Sweet

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on November 27, 2011| 2 Comments »

I am just about to type “The End” at the bottom of the manuscript of MAGIC’S FOOL. It’s a rough first draft. All first drafts are, but this is rougher than usual for me. And, while I was worried about this story when I started, I’m now happy with it, which is even better.

I know most of what needs to be fixed or expanded in the next go ’round. And I can take as much time as I need next year, while querying SEVEN STARS, to make those changes until I think MAGIC’S FOOL is ready to take its turn in the query hopper.

Counting manuscripts that have been shelved (a couple of them probably permanently), this is my seventh completed manuscript. It still feels almost as good as the first.

So,after today, it’ll be back to BLOOD IS THICKER, which ran off into the weeds unexpectedly earlier this month. I need to create some kind of emergency to kick my characters back out into the fray. I have a couple of ideas about that which could have the added benefit of tying in some additional plot elements.

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