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Posts Tagged ‘Point of View’

Moving On

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on September 23, 2018| Leave a Comment »

I’m still doing some research to help me with my keywords problem. I did make a couple of changes to the keywords. I haven’t seen any impact so far, but then I only made the changes yesterday. My chronic impatience aside, it probably is too soon to tell. Wait and see. More on that when I’ve had a little time to assess it–and, hopefully some data to assess.

Meanwhile, I’ve gotten restarted on the rewrite of MAGE STORM–a chapter from the point of view of another character. One I finally have enough of a feel for to write from her perspective after doing the character backstories. It’s not that I didn’t know who this character was in the earlier version of the story. But she never had point-of-view chapters and so she was mostly seen from the point of view of the only character who did. The original version of MAGE STORM had only one point-of-view character.

Usually, when I write from multiple points of view, I start out that way from the beginning. Coming at it from the other direction, I needed that dive into the other characters’ backstories in order to do them justice. It will be a much better story now.

 

 

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Not Yet

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , on January 21, 2018| Leave a Comment »

It’s about time to switch back to BECOME: TO CATCH THE LIGHTNING to start the revision process.

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But not quite yet. I’m going to finish at least the current chapter in BECOME: TO RIDE THE STORM, first.

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Actually, that won’t take very long. If the chores don’t take up too much of my day, I should finish today.

The hitch is that I’ve just decided to break what I planned to be one chapter into two. That’s for two reasons:

  1. The chapter is already ten pages long (about as long as I like a chapter to be) and not yet finished.
  2. The now two chapters have slightly different purposes. The first (not actually chapter one, obviously) is where this character is getting his first real impression of who the father he never knew really was. The second is where he demonstrates for the first time that the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.

So, there’s a decision to be made. Stop after I finish this chapter and start the revisions on BECOME: TO CATCH THE LIGHTNING or stay with the momentum and write the next chapter, too. The chapter after that changes to a different point-of-view character (which always involves a little loss of momentum anyway) and would be a more logical place to pause for a month or so. I suspect that’s what I’ll do.

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Slow but Sure

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on December 6, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Well, progress on BECOME: TO CATCH THE LIGHTNING has slowed down, temporarily.

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Mostly because I have a weird work schedule for this week and next, which is messing with my usual writing time.

Maybe also a little because this chapter makes me just a little nervous, for a couple of reasons.

The minor one is that I’ve decided I need to split the POV in this chapter, telling part of it from the main character’s POV and part from the antagonist’s. Normally, I use a chapter break to change points of view, but that would make this awfully choppy. And I don’t want that. It’s not that I haven’t split points of view in a chapter before, either, but always before between the two members of a couple. These two definitely are not that.

That’s just a little odd, though. Nothing to be really nervous about. What I’m about to do to my main character, though. And making it work. That’s going to be interesting. Also, I see some research into lightning in my immediate future. I chose that title and the cover art for a reason.

 

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Not Melting Anymore!

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on September 6, 2017| Leave a Comment »

The weather changed! Back closer to normal–quite pleasant, really. Nice breeze. And I’m making good progress again. Well, not today, but in general. (Other things going on today, like grocery shopping. That also has to happen, sometimes.)

Discovered that I needed to add another chapter. It’s not really adding anything extra to the story. Just, part of it needed to be told from the point of view of a different character–one who’s going to be even more important in the second book. So, a chapter break.

Still, the first draft of BECOME: TO CATCH THE LIGHTNING is taking a lot longer than I expected.

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I’ll get there in the end.

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Very Long Chapter

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , on October 9, 2016| Leave a Comment »

At least for me.

I’ve finished the new scenes for this chapter of BECOME.

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Now, I just need to do a little revision/rewriting on what I already had to put the remainder in the other brother’s point of view and I can call this chapter done.

It also now includes what was the following chapter (always from the other brother’s POV) which makes it really long. I’ll probably end up cutting at least some of this during the revisions, but that’s a problem for after I complete the first draft.

More importantly, THE SHAMAN’S CURSE is free for the next couple of days. Now’s your chance.

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POV Changes

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , on October 2, 2016| 5 Comments »

Hard at work on BECOME.

Become 5

Right now, I’m rewriting a chapter. Since I’d originally started trying to tell this story chronologically, the chapter was written from the point of view of the main character. But now that I’m allowing the story to be nonlinear, it really needs to be told from the brother’s POV.

This means that I need to write a completely new scene (or more) as well as rewrite the main scene from a different perspective entirely. Some of that is going to be a bit challenging to write. Because the main character is about to do something that makes sense to him, but which his brother thinks is totally insane. (And . . . he could be right, at least a little.)

This should be fun.

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Book Surgery

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 7, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Last time I blogged about a problem I’d found in my first pass on the post-critique revisions for WAR OF MAGIC.

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Very simply, too much of the last half of the book moves away from the main characters way too much. Not away from the main problem–or not completely. But it’s still a problem. Now I understand why one of my critique partners–the only one who hadn’t read any of the previous books–wondered who the main character was supposed to be. Yikes! Now I understand that comment.

Now, some of that can be fixed by possibly deleting some of the other points of view, or recasting them into the main characters’ pov. I will probably need to add at least a little to that part of the book–from the main characters’ pov.

But I had another idea, too. You see, right now part of that problem is in winding up a subplot established in the earlier books–especially BEYOND THE PROPHECY.

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Now, I need to wrap that up, but it doesn’t have to be a distraction. In fact, it shouldn’t be. By moving a few events around and adding a little, I can turn that into an obstacle, which will be much better.

It’s going to require a little more surgery than I was planning to do at this point. And, of course, another read-through to make sure that things fit seamlessly into their new places. But I think it will be well worth it in the end.

Wish me luck.

 

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80%

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , on August 3, 2016| Leave a Comment »

That’s how far I’ve gotten on the first round of post-critique revisions on WAR OF MAGIC.

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I’ve been noticing something. A lot of this section–from about the midpoint–is taken up with chapters from other pov characters, not the main characters. And I’m going to have to figure out how to deal with that.

Part of that is because that’s where a significant subplot plays out, and part of it is actually building toward the part those other characters will be playing in the climax. But I don’t like having so much of the focus off the main characters during this part of the story.

I’m going to have to think about how to handle that though. Most of those chapters can’t be moved–or, at least, can’t be moved very far–without messing up the timeline. Some might be cut, or at least reduced. I might need to add a new chapter or two, taking the story back to the main characters.

It’s this kind of thing that slows down the revision process. But that’s why revisions are necessary–to make the story stronger.

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New Chapter

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on April 27, 2016| Leave a Comment »

I’m at the first point in the rewrite of MAGE STORM where I’ve decided to add a new chapter from a different point of view. Not a new character, but one that never had a point of view in the earlier version of this story.

Changing POV characters, especially early in the story, always slows the writing down. It’ll be worth it in the end, though. This way, the reader will get a chance to really understand what motivates this important character. Not just what she tells her friends, which isn’t exactly false. Just . . . not complete.

I want to get this chapter (or two) done before I go back for my second look at WAR OF MAGIC.

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POV Choices

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on December 20, 2015| Leave a Comment »

As an epic fantasy, the DUAL MAGICS series has several POV characters. (Without looking, I believe there are three antagonist characters who carry some part of the story that the protagonists can’t know–yet–but that the reader should know. Those chapters are few and far between, but necessary. And four protagonist characters who have the focus at various times, either because they’re separated physically, or because they are either the driving force or the most affected by what happens in that chapter.)

Sometimes–often–more than one POV character is present in any one scene, and I have to decide which of them will have the POV for that scene. Sometimes, I guess wrong and have to backtrack. That happened last week in the first draft of WAR OF MAGIC.

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I picked one character because something was to happen at the end of that chapter that would need to be in that character’s POV. But I was having way more trouble with the chapter than I should. And I realized I’d picked wrong. Another character (the main character) needed to be the focus of that chapter and the pivotal scene (or two) that needs to be told from the other character’s POV just needs to be it’s own short chapter.

Once I figured that out–and got a little uninterrupted writing time–things fell into place and the story is proceeding well again.

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