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Posts Tagged ‘Multiple Projects’

Done!

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on May 29, 2013| 4 Comments »

Just a little while ago I typed the magical words “THE END” at the bottom of the last page of MAGIC AND POWER. It came in at just under 75,000 words. Yeah, this was the story that was going to be short, a novelette (7,500 to 15,000 words). It’s rough, but, hey, that’s why they call it a rough draft. It’s time to close that file and let it rest a little before coming back for revisions to smooth that roughness out.

So now I’ll turn my attention to other revisions for a little while. I’m getting my middle grade fantasy, MAGE STORM, ready for my critique group next month. (That’s not that far away, now.) I’ll take another pass through BLOOD IS THICKER, the sequel to BLOOD WILL TELL. And, meanwhile, I can let my imagination play with that weird Oz story and try to get enough of a handle on it to plunge in and write that one.

I think I have a pretty good idea of the world in which this story takes place (think of it as a Jurassic Park version of Oz). What I need to develop more is the main story line. What is it the character wants? What does she need? How do those two conflict? And what will she have to do to get what it is she wants? It’s the conflict that drives the story forward and I need to have a grip on that before I start.

Meanwhile, new chapters of FIRE AND EARTH and BLOOD WILL TELL are available free on wattpad.

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Switching Gears

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on May 15, 2013| 2 Comments »

This morning, I finished up the revisions to my middle grade fantasy adventure, MAGE STORM. Well, this round. I can set it aside for a while, but I’ll want to give it another read through before I hand it off to beta readers next month, just to make sure I didn’t create any new problems.

So, now I’ll be getting my head back into my work in process, MAGIC AND POWER. I left two of my characters really angry with each other. Well, one was spitting fire–not literally. It’s fantasy; I have to be careful about metaphors like that. Some people might take it literally. Her magic is with plants, not fire. Although, the other character might have gotten a clue that if he’s ever going to argue with her again, maybe he should find a place with fewer trees. The other character is more confused. He expected some push back to what he was asking, not the (figurative) face full of claws he got.

So, now I’ll read through that last chapter and get ready to carry the story forward. The fun is really just beginning for these characters.

Also, don’t forget about FIRE AND EARTH. The introductory pricing of $2.99 will go up to $3.99 almost everywhere next week.

Fire And Earth Cover (Provisional)

Also, new chapters of FIRE AND EARTH and BLOOD WILL TELL are available free on wattpad.

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Revisions (Again)

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on May 12, 2013| 2 Comments »

My current WIP, MAGIC AND POWER, is on temporary hold while I work through a particularly difficult spot in the revisions of my middle grade fantasy, MAGE STORM. The tricky spot is because I’m taking a section that originally had only two characters and revising it to include three characters. There are so many more possibilities for a bit of conflict between the good guys when there are three of them rather than only two. I think it will ultimately work better, but that doesn’t make it easy. Especially when I’m trying to be very careful about adding too much to the word count.

I love MAGE STORM. Always did. Here’s the pitch (which will need more work):

Like everyone else, Rell believes that magic died along with its users at the end of the Great Mage War. All that’s left are the violent, semi-sentient mage storms made up of the ashes of the magic users killed in the war. Then he’s caught in a mage storm and infected with magic he doesn’t know how to control. Rell must find someone who can help him learn to deal with this gift for his own safety and that of everyone around him. If he can’t, that fire he accidentally started in the barn will be nothing compared to what the magic will do to him. If he succeeds, Rell could begin healing the damage caused by the war and ending the mage storms forever.

I’ve already got ideas for three sequels to this one, more trouble that Rell and his friends can get into.

Of course, that’s never all I’m working on.

Don’t forget FIRE AND EARTH. (I have to find time to do some more promotion for this one.)

Fire And Earth Cover (Provisional)

As always, new chapters of FIRE AND EARTH and BLOOD WILL TELL are up on wattpad.

Oh, and I finally figured out how to do the European 4 in 1 chain mail pattern:

European 4-1

Happy Mother’s Day everyone!

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Print on Demand

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , on April 24, 2013| 4 Comments »

As part of publishing FIRE AND EARTH, I tried something new.

Fire And Earth Cover (Provisional)

For the first time, I also made a print version available. Print on Demand services like Amazon’s CreateSpace make this possible, now. Nobody has to pay for a large print run. Copies are printed when ordered.

That’s not to say it’s just as easy as uploading a file. Neither is e-book publishing, come to that. There are various formatting issues that have to be solved with e-book publishing and those aren’t immediately obvious the first time or two. But then the learning curve kicks in and it gets easier.

Formatting for print, without having access to desktop publishing software, has its challenges. Certain quirks of MS Word made it more interesting. It wasn’t until I got the proof of FIRE AND EARTH that it finally became clear to me. What word showed as the left-hand page was reall, in print, the right-hand page. Ah. No wonder I hadn’t been able to make sense of the margins. (You see, you have to leave a larger margin on the inside so the print doesn’t run into the binding and disappear.)

Well, now that I’ve figure it out, I might as well capitalize on the learning curve. So, in the near future, I will be adding a print version of BLOOD WILL TELL and also probably a collection of the three shorter pieces I currently have available as e-books, “Heart of Oak”, “The Music Box”, and “Becoming Lioness”.  In fact, BLOOD WILL TELL is almost ready to go. I just want to tweak the cover a bit. That dragon bothers me just a little when the cover is blown up to 6″ x 9″. The edges are a little rough.

Blood Will Tell Cover

In other news, new chapters of FIRE AND EARTH and BLOOD WILL TELL are available on wattpad.

Next post, back to work in progress, MAGIC AND POWER (which is likely going to need a new title). This one is now over 46,000 words, so, yeah, it’s going to be a novel.

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Get Ready for a Launch

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , on April 3, 2013| 2 Comments »

Big news first: I’ve decided that April 21st is the day. That’s when I’ll e-publish FIRE AND EARTH.

Fire And Earth Cover (Provisional)

That gives me almost three weeks to plan a launch–and do a better job of it this time. Anybody who wants to help me boost the signal on this or have any good ideas on what to do, any and all help will be appreciated.

In other news, new chapters of both FIRE AND EARTH and BLOOD WILL TELL are up for free on wattpad. They went up this morning and both already have several readers. That’s encouraging.

And, unrelated to the above, here’s a (slightly fuzzy) photo of my latest chain mail project:

Digital Camera

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Down the Rabbit Trail

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on March 27, 2013| 3 Comments »

And I don’t mean for the Easter bunny.

Easter postcard circa early 20th century

Easter postcard circa early 20th century (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’m afraid the characters in my current WIP, “Magic and Power”, have been leading me astray. Well, not exactly astray, but not on track, either. That’s the problem, really. There never was a sufficient track laid out for this one.

I’ve posted before about being a (modified) discovery writer here and here among others. I’m perfectly willing to embark on a short story on the basis of an idea and faith. If it doesn’t work out, I haven’t lost that much time and no writing is ever wasted. It’s all practice if nothing else.

But I approach longer works a little differently. I want at least a minimum amount of milestones to keep me from going off into the weeds. The reason for this is experience. The second book I wrote after getting serious about writing (which doesn’t count that thing I wrote back in college) is the specific reason.

I was literally writing the last page of a 100,000 word or so novel when I looked up and said to myself, “But, it’s not a story.” I instinctively knew it wasn’t a story, even though there were characters, who changed, a setting, and things happened. I was a much less experienced writer then, though. It took me half a dozen attempts at fixing it to figure out why it wasn’t a story.

It wasn’t a story because it didn’t have a strong central conflict. There were conflicts. They were resolved. But the ending didn’t feel like a resolution of the whole book because there wasn’t one dominant problem that drove the whole story forward. Once I fixed that, it became a story–one that I was even happy with.

And that’s–sort of–my problem with “Magic and Power”. This was supposed to be just a sweet little love story. Maybe 15,000 words tops. Just something to work on while I prepared to write my weird Oz story that needs more development. At least, that’s what I thought it was going to be. And for that, the conflict of the main character’s choice between her magic and her love was sufficient. I just passed 27,000 words. That’s not enough to sustain the story anymore.

So, once I finish the current scene, I think it may be time to take a step back and do a little plotting. There are some elements that are candidates for greater conflicts that can intertwine with the love story. I just need to pick one as central and go back and weave it in more firmly. Two steps forward, one step back is still progress.

 In other news, new chapters of FIRE AND EARTH and BLOOD WILL TELL are available for free on Wattpad.

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Love Triangles

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , on March 24, 2013| 4 Comments »

My current WIP (working title “Magic and Power”) took a turn of it’s own about a week ago. This turn leads me into unfamiliar territory–the first time I’ve ever written a love triangle.

Well, technically, it’s not a true triangle, because there’s no relationship between the two love interests. That added relationship, where it works into a plot, can add another layer of conflict. That’s just not going to work out in this story, though. It’s okay, my main character has other issues to add to the conflict. Plus some conflicts external to the whole romance element.

I didn’t plan this story, originally, to have a love triangle, but this second character popped up and said he loved my main character, too and to give him a chance. It’s not where I intended the story to go, but I think I like this new twist better. Still, it’s a little outside of my comfort zone, so making it work is going to be interesting. We’ll see what my critique partners have to say on whether or not I pulled it off.

I also hadn’t planned for this story to be this long. I thought it was probably a novelette (between 7500 and 15,000 words) or maybe a novella (between 15,000 and 50,000 words), which is why I was willing to dive in without more planning. I just passed 26,000 words, so it’s definitely at least a novella and might even decide to grow into a full novel. If I get to–or close to–50,000 words, I’ll have to give serious thought to expanding it to a full novel.

Well, meanwhile, I’m having fun with this story.

In other news, new chapters of FIRE AND EARTH and BLOOD WILL TELL are up for free on Wattpad. Take a look!

Also, although I missed out on Pitch Madness, I did get a partial request for THE BARD’S GIFT out of WriteOnCon’s Luck O’ the Irish Pitch Fest.

 

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When Stories Take on a Life of Their Own

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on March 17, 2013| Leave a Comment »

 First, let me say Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

 Saint Patrick

And fingers crossed for a little of the Luck of the Irish. (I am part Irish, after all.) I made it in to The Luck of the Irish Pitch Fest. We’ll see what, if anything, comes of that next week. And I have to wait a couple of weeks to find out if I make it into Pitch Madness. In both cases, I’m pitching my YA alternate history, THE BARD’S GIFT.

Next, a small announcement:

Chapter 2 of FIRE AND EARTH and Chapter 5 of BLOOD WILL TELL are now available on Wattpad. It’s free, so go check them out.

Now, back to the topic, stories taking on a life of their own:

I just passed 20,000 words on this story I’m working on now–and it’s starting to veer off in an unexpected direction.

This was supposed to be a short story or maybe a novella. I picked it up to fill the time (productively) while I figured out which of my novels-in-waiting to take up next and do a little more prep work on the chosen novel. This one is looking more and more like it might decide that it needs to be a novel, too.

That’s–I won’t call it a problem, let’s say interesting (as in the Chinese curese “May you live in interesting times”)–because I deal with short stories and novels a little differently.  I’ve mentioned before on this blog that I’m a discovery writer by nature and a modified discovery writer by experience. I’m willing to freestyle (fly by the seat of my pants) with a short story or even a novella. After all, it’s only a few thousand words. If it doesn’t work out, well, no writing is ever wasted. Hopefully, I always at least learn something. Maybe I try something that I’ve never done before, like first person or a different genre. Short is the place to experiment.

But when I plan to start a novel, I do at least a little planning. I want to know the inciting incident (obviously), the central conflict, and if possible the try/fail cycles. I don’t outline, exactly, but I do usually have a separate file with a paragraph or so about key points that the story will hit. Most importantly, where the story is going to end. I have a plan.

I had an idea where this story would go, but it left a lot of room to explore. Well, now I’ve introduced a new character who has decided that he’s going to be a second love interest. I’ve never written a real love triangle before. Not as in there’s real doubt about who she’ll choose in the end. Now this new character is turning out to be maybe the better choice. Which wasn’t in the plan at all. Stinker.

Oh well, I better fasten my seat belt. I’m already on this rollercoaster. There’s nothing to do now but ride it to the end–and hope.

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One Step Forward . . .

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , on March 13, 2013| Leave a Comment »

You know the rest. I don’t even have to say it, do I?

Well, as for steps forward, the fourth chapter of BLOOD WILL TELL is now up on Wattpad:

BLOOD WILL TELL, Chapter 4

In addition, the first chaptr of FIRE AND EARTH is now up there, too, with this (provisional) cover. (I may tinker with it some more, but you get the general idea.)

Fire And Earth Cover (Provisional)

My next task in figuring out this promotion thing is to gather myself together and explore audio books. For a long time, I was thinking I could do this myself. Well, maybe I can with one or more of the shorter works, but I simply don’t have a trained voice to do a full novel. Know your limitations. So, I need to go over to ACX and see what I can do there to find someone better equipped to do it for me. Now that FIRE AND EARTH is in the mix, maybe I’ll use that one. It only has two POV characters.

Meanwhile, I’m still writing on an (unplanned) project. When I picked this up, it was supposed to be something short that I could work on while choosing my next project. Like so many of my stories, it had a mind of its own. It’s going to be at least a novella–and quite possibly may want to grow up into a novel. The world, I think, is rich enough. I’m just starting a love triangle, which is something a little new for me.

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Step One

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , on March 6, 2013| 2 Comments »

And it’s a small one. Still, you’ve got to start somewhere. So, where I chose to start was by putting the first chapter of BLOOD WILL TELL up on Wattpad. Go check it out. It’s free. The current plan is to put up a chapter once or twice a week (there are 34 chapters) and then move on to BLOOD IS THICKER. It’s a start. I need to do a whole lot more.

In other news, I’ve sent out the first six queries for THE BARD’S GIFT. Fingers crossed, please. And, by this time next week, hopefully I’ll be in the Luck of the Irish Pitch Fest with this story, too. It’ll be a random drawing so, again, fingers crossed. I’ve got the pitch about as polished as I can get it in 200 words.

And I’m working on something new! “Magic and Power” will probably be a novella, at least on the first draft. (Early signs say it’ll come out around 40,000 words.) But I might decide to expand it into a full novel later. We’ll see.

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