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Posts Tagged ‘revisions’

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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Characters

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , on February 1, 2012| 5 Comments »

So, as I said last time, part of my revision to MAGIC’S FOOL has been to bring another character on stage earlier. In writing the couple of scenes or expansions of scenes that really show her character, I’ve remembered how much I really love this character. There’s a reason I wrote a whole novelette (“Becoming Lioness”) from her point of view. I might actually start to worry that this character is going to try to take over the series in later sequels.

I remembered so well that I went ahead and submitted that novelette to another market. I’d been holding back on it while I worked out how the middle grade series was going to go.

I actually have considered the possibility that, as this series advances, it may move from middle grade to young adult. In that case, Kiara’s somewhat backwards (Kiara goes at most everything in an unconventional way.) little love story would work very well as a foil for the larger story. Of course, that’s assuming Kiara doesn’t just take over that book and make it her own. She’s been known to be stubborn and venturesome.

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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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The Value of Critiques

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on October 16, 2011| Leave a Comment »

I’ve posted about this before, but it really does bear repeating. There is nothing in writing more valuable than beta readers and insightful critiques of your work. You simply cannot, no matter how long you let it rest, ever really see your own story objectively. You need somebody who will read it and be honest with you–brutally honest if necessary. Especially someone who will take the time to really analyze exactly where you’ve gone off into the weeds.

I’m fortunate to belong to two great writers’ forums–Hatrack River Writers Workshop and David Farland’s Writers’ Groups (the Pied Pipers). Links to both forums can be found in the sidebar.

MAGE STORM’s history goes something like this:

  1. I wrote it last year (2010) and submitted for readers in the Pied Pipers (a group on David Farland’s Writers’ Groups specializing in YA, especially fantasy YA). I got some good ideas, incorporated them, and started querying. I had a crit partner from over on Hatrack River read through the revised ms.
  2. MAGE STORM has been queried moderately lightly (37 queries). Of those, it’s gotten one request for partial and one request for the full, but neither went any further.
  3. However, the agent who requested the full did give me some feedback. Boiling it down, I decided that the main problem was that the central conflict wasn’t clear enough. (She complained that a certain event hadn’t happened soon enough. But that event was the second try/fail cycle, not the central conflict, and it happened pretty much right on schedule.) Well, partly that was a fault of the query and synopsis, for highlighting the wrong thing. But it was also true that there were things I could do in those first three chapters to really make the central conflict more clear. One way and another, I’ve been working on that since last June.
  4. I went back to my first readers to kick around some ideas and then revised the first three chapters. I submitted them back to the Pied Pipers for critique.
  5. Those revisions weren’t entirely successful. Basically, I’d managed to mess up the progression of Rell’s magic. It should have gotten scarier and scarier in order to propel him into the rest of the story. Instead it had done the reverse and so his decision didn’t make much sense. This, I find, is a pitfall of piecemeal revisions. It’s too easy to lose sight of the bigger picture.
  6. I made an attempt to fix that and asked for critiques over on Hatrack River. This is where having more than one critique group can be invaluable. It’s easier to find fresh readers who have never seen the story before (or never more than the first 13 lines) and can look at it with fresh eyes and no expectations of where the story is going to go from there. (Thirteen lines is all you’re allowed to post on Hatrack River. Anything else is handled through emails.)
  7. Well, I got some good critiques and one really extraordinary one. That one–that’s the one you’re always hoping for–really showed me where the problem was. What I had added that really didn’t need to be there. And where I needed to go to raise the stakes. (Thank you, MattLeo.)
  8. I’ve just submitted that revision back to Pied Pipers to see what they think.
  9. I’ve still got one critique on the whole ms outstanding. We’ll see what that turns up.

The point is, I can’t even begin to express how much stronger the story is for the input of all these wonderful critique partners. Thank you all.

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Not Much New Around Here

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , on October 12, 2011| 2 Comments »

With Wolf Tracks

This is one of those days when it’s just really hard to think of a topic to blog about. Nothing much new is going on with my writing–it’s going, just in the same directions as in my recent posts. I haven’t had any revelations or discoveries to report.

I guess I’ll just have to revert to a status report.

BLOOD WILL TELL: I’m still waiting to hear back from the agent who has the full ms. It hasn’t really been that long (though sometimes it feels like it). I’m still playing around with ideas for the cover, just in case. I really want to try to insert a wolf into the oval made by the dragon’s tail. I have a couple of

With Background

images to play with, but I’m not sure whether my skills are up to it. Won’t know until I try, I guess.

 

 

BLOOD IS THICKER: Just starting Chapter 9. This story and these characters are just fun to work with. I have to think up more trouble to get them into, though, besides the main conflict. I have a couple of ideas. (Possibly one of my characters may get to thwart a kidnapping attempt. That could be fun.)

MAGIC’S FOOL: Still going slowly, but going. I’m just about to start Chapter 6.

MAGE STORM: I need to get serious about those revisions. I’d like to be ready to start querying it again at the beginning of next month. Too much later, and it’ll have to wait until after the first of the year. (A lot of agents shut down for submissions over the holidays.) I’ve identified one scene that either needs to be cut or expanded. As it is, it doesn’t serve enough of a purpose. How did that one escape the last revision? Oh, yeah. I like the way it ends. That’s not enough.

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Oops!

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , on October 6, 2011| 4 Comments »

I got so busy writing I forgot to blog.

So, here’s an update on my progress:

  1. I finished this round of revisions to SEVEN STARS and closed the file. I intend to leave it closed for about six months. Then I’ll come back, read it through, hopefully do only a polishing edit (but who knows what I’ll find after six months) and then get ready to start sending it out. I may start the query and synopsis during those six months. It’s not too early.
  2. I got through Chapter 5 of MAGIC’S FOOL. A tricky chapter because one of the characters dies. And getting to that point made it clear to me at least part of why I wasn’t happy with the first 4 chapters. It’s a first draft. It doesn’t have to be perfect or anywhere close at this point, but it is comforting to know what I need to fix in the second draft. I think (well, I hope, anyway) that I’ll be able to move along faster, now.
  3. I’m hard at work on Chapter 6 of BLOOD IS THICKER. The central problem has been set up, but the characters aren’t yet agreed on a course of action. In fact, there’s a certain amount of conflict over Rolf’s choice. Conflict is good.
  4. I’ve just started looking over the early chapters of MAGE STORM. So far, it’s just tinkering. There are more significant problems in Chapters 2 and 3 that I have to resolve. Chapter 2 is not giving the reader a good enough sense of Rell as the main character. Chapter 3 isn’t setting up Rell’s decision to go off and seek an answer “out there” nearly well enough. I’m anxious to get this back out there.
  5. I’ve just about made a decision on BLOOD WILL TELL. I think its time is now or very soon. I haven’t heard back from the agent who has a full manuscript, yet. (It’s still really early for that.) But, if this one falls through, I think I will go ahead and e-publish this one. I even started a mock-up of the cover art. I am not nor will I ever be a graphic artist.
  6. I’ve started research for THE BARD’S GIFT, my YA alternate history. This story will ake place far enough (physically) from the main events of its time that I’m not too concerned about historic events or people beyond what I already know. But I do need to have a feel for what daily life would have been like for these characters.

Whew! I guess that’s why I was too busy to remember to blog.

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