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Posts Tagged ‘revisions’

Work In Process

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , on September 6, 2011| 13 Comments »

Blogging a bit early this week. (Usually updates are on Wednesdays and Sundays.)

Since this is (near) the beginning of the Platform-Building Campaign and new people will be popping in to look at the blog, I thought I’d blog about my various projects today.

BLOOD WILL TELL

I’m actively querying this one. (Actually, this week I’m researching agents.) I have one full request out. Fingers crossed.

Being a half-blood is inconvenient on a good day, especially when the half you got from your mother is werewolf.  Valeriah can’t take wolf form, but the full moon still fills her with manic energy.  Running helps; a tired werewolf is a good werewolf.

Living perennially caught between two worlds–human and werewolf, magic and non-magic–doesn’t leave much room for love. That suits Valeriah just fine. She’s never had any luck with that anyway.

Until her cousin’s life is threatened, that is, and out of necessity she accepts the help of a mysterious young man to protect Cristel. Rolf is everything that makes Valeriah’s pulse speed up in spite of herself. Now, with Cristel’s life in the balance, is the worst possible time for that kind of complication.

But Rolf’s secrets could destroy her trust and that might cost her life.

BLOOD WILL TELL is a 97,000-word paranormal romance and potentially the first of a series.

MAGE STORM

I have queried this one, but a response from one agent who requested a full prompted some revisions which I’m still tinkering with.

Rell doesn’t want magic. He doesn’t dream of being a hero out of old legends or a mage. Certainly not a mage, after they all incinerated each other at the end of the Great Mage War. He’d just like not to be in his big brother’s shadow for a change. Someone should have reminded him to be careful what he wished for.

All he knows of magic are the violent, frighteningly aware mage storms formed of the ashes of those dead wizards. Mage storms seek out people on whom to vent their fury. When the ashes fall like rain, red cinders explode, white burn flesh like acid, orange ashes taint what they touch, and yellow cause withering death.

Caught in a mage storm, Rell is struck by a strange blue cinder that infects him with magic and protects him and his family from the storm. Rell starts to think that maybe magic’s not so bad after all, but he finds it only complicates his life. His father expects him to bring back the benefits of magic from before the war, but Rell doesn’t know how. Meanwhile, others who only remember the terrors of the war fear Rell and his new abilities. Frustration and anger only bring out one of the most dangerous aspects of his magic: fire.

Rell soon learns that whether he intends it or not, his magic will leak out, uncontrolled, whenever his emotions are too strong. If he can find some way to learn to use this “gift”, he may be able to reduce the threat of the storms. If not, he’ll probably end up adding his ashes to the mage storms.

MAGE STORM is a 56,000-word middle grade fantasy and potentially the first of a series.

SEVEN STARS

I’ve recently completed the third draft of this Young Adult Fantasy. The pitch is correspondingly very rough, still.

Because of her berserker blood, Casora has been raised as a warrior. Now that she has activated the Curse and allowed the berserker to rule her, she can never go home. She leads her band of exiled warriors turned mercenaries in the battle against the invaders who overran her homeland.

Tiaran is the youngest and least of princes, the one who will never be a warrior. He’s so desperate to get into the fighting when his country is threatened that his gullibilty leads him to run away–and straight into a suicide mission.

It’s up to Casora’s mercenaries to rescue the prince. Cut off from the commanders who are now besieged in the capital, Casora has to mold Tiaran into a warrior and together they have to find a way to defeat their common enemy.

MAGIC’S FOOL

I’ve really just started this one (half-way through chapter three). It’s a complete re-imagining of my first novel (well, if you don’t count the thing under the bed that we don’t talk about). This time as middle grade, which it probably always should have been. As such, the original 100 K word story will have to be broken up into two or even three separate novels, each with it’s own (related) arc. I confess, I’m just a bit nervous about that. I think I’ve got it figured out, but the only way I’m going to find out if it works is to try it.

So, that’s what I’m working on these days.

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Escalation

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , on August 28, 2011| 11 Comments »

It’s not a secret. Things should get worse and worse for your characters until the climax, when, hopefully, the conflict is resolved, the protagonist having won, learned something, and grown or changed. In most, if not all, of my stories, that’s also going to put the protagonist in a position to finally get what he wants–which may or may not be what he thought he wanted at the beginning of the story.

I’m ashamed to say that in one of my current projects, I got that wrong. Not for the story as a whole. Just for the first try/fail cycle. Still, that’s bad enough.

How did that happen? Well, I was making revisions and I added some events to help make the central conflict clearer right from the beginning. So far so good. It’s just that I added them in the wrong order.

This is where a great critique group is the biggest help. It’s more than possible to be so close into the details yourself that you can’t see a screw up like this. But a critiquer will tell you that something is off.

So now I just have to go back and put things in the right order.

  1. Insignificant event that shows the problem, but doesn’t make it seem very bad.
  2. Public event that is largely benign, but upsets people.
  3. Overheard reaction of those people.
  4. Major event that scares the protagonist into taking more action.

Yeah, that’ll work much better than the other way around.

Edited to add:

Well, I thought that plan was going to work, but after playing with it all day, I’ve decided against it. Plan B is to just add some more tension and danger to the last incident. I need to see if I can make it as scary–or even scarier–than the first.

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The End

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on August 21, 2011| 1 Comment »

Gosh, I got so involved in revising the end of SEVEN STARS that I almost forgot to blog. (Well, that, and Mom’s birthday.)

I haven’t quite finished this round, yet. But I’m awfully close. I just might press on and finish it tonight. I’ll still want to do another read-through and I still have a couple of things I want to add or strengthen.

While I made revisions throughout the book, I think the beginning and the end changed the most.

The end is actually changing. But some of how the characters get there is. Some of the way things happened in the earlier drafts didn’t build tension the way it needs to. Plus I seem to have skipped some internal monologue towards the end. Actually, I think I was getting a bit fatigued when I wrote the original ending. But that’s what good critiquers will help you with–and keep you honest about.

I had to write two new fight scenes. Not the easiest thing for me to write, but I hope I’ve done a better job of it. That’s what readers will tell me, though.

I’m still really loving this story.

 

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Revisions, Revisions

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on August 3, 2011| 4 Comments »

I polished of the current draft of my Writers of the Future entry. Now I’m trying to get into the revisions on SEVEN STARS.

I’ve got four critiques back from readers (two are still out). I’m hugely pleased that, so far, everyone seems to really like it. Whew! I’ve got some great ideas for things to add or change to make it even better. I’m really excited to be getting back into this project.

Nevertheless, at the moment I’m mostly just working on the fiddly little stuff. Adding a sentence or two of clarification here, moving something else over there. These are not the changes I’m excited to be getting to. Unfortunately, it does just take a few days for me to really get back into a novel-length project. I wish it didn’t, but so far I haven’t found a way around this.

Ah well. This too shall pass. And then it’s going to be fun!

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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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Decision Time

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , on July 3, 2011| 2 Comments »

Well, I’ve come down to the last 20% or so of the revisions to BLOOD WILL TELL. The time to make some hard choices is coming right up.

I’ve already made the decision to give this one another try by the traditional route. I’ll redo the query letter, research some new agents, and start sending it out there again, this time as paranormal romance. That’s not the hard choice.

The decision is this: Do I want to be prepared, in case this one still doesn’t get anywhere through traditional channels, to put it out there myself.

If so, then I have more work to do. Not just learning more about e-publishing. If I want to make it a success, then I really need to be able to put the sequels out at or close to the same time. Sequels that aren’t written yet.

You see, up ’til now I’ve pretty much concentrated on the traditional route. And the conventional wisdom in that arena is that it’s better not to start the sequel until you’ve sold the first book. The reason is that if the first book doesn’t sell, the rest of the series has about the same chance as a snowball in . . . well, you know the rest of that saying. It’s better, in that venue, to write something new that may have a better chance.

But, for e-publishing, that turns around completely. Those who’ve done best with e-publishing have been able to follow up with more books in the same series to really build readership.

So now, as I complete the revisions to BLOOD WILL TELL and then a revision to the beginning of MAGE STORM and send both of them back out there into the world, and wait for first reader responses to SEVEN STARS, I have to choose what to work on next.

New stories, like THE BARD’S GIFT (alternate history) and THE HARBINGER (a total re-imagining of my earliest novels).

Or the sequels to BLOOD WILL TELL (BLOOD IS THICKER and SPILLED BLOOD) and MAGE STORM (WILD MAGE and DRAGON MAGE).

Happy Independence Day

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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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Trying Something Else Different, Too

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on June 22, 2011| 9 Comments »

To tie this in with my last post, I’ve noticed something similar about my few short stories, too. I don’t write very many short stories–just not the length that seems to work best for me. The few that I have written and decided I liked, I’ve sent out to various publications, but with no luck so far.

But, just like the novels, I’ve discovered that when I look at a short story six months or a year later, I can see things to make it better, often with help from some very good critiques. So far, this process has also resulted in making them longer–running up into the novelette range (roughly 7500 to 15000 words). The problem with that is that there are a lot fewer markets for novelette-length short fiction. And these stories had already been to most of those places (at least the ones I’d be willing to sell them to).

Unlike novels, it’s really hard to give short stories a second chance. With novels, you can change the title and write a new query letter. After a year or so of reading literally hundreds of queries a week, there’s a very good chance an agent won’t even notice. But you submit the whole short story to a market. Many of the publications specifically say that they don’t want to see rewrites of stories they’ve already rejected unless they request them. So, what to do?

Well, one option is to e-publish them. And that’s still on the table. But there’s no rush.

Another possibility is to think outside the box. What other publications might be interested? Well, while they are fantasies, most of my stories seem to have a strong romantic undercurrent. So, why not give that a try?

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Trying Something Different

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on June 18, 2011| 6 Comments »

I’ve begun to notice a trend. It’s the sort of pattern that takes a while to see because the data points are so far apart. Bear with me for a little history, please.

  • Just over two years ago, in May of 2009, I sucked in a deep breath and started to send out queries for TSC (we’ll just let it go by its initials for now. This is the one I’m probably going to pull apart and start rewriting next month.) I was disappointed at the time, but thank goodness no one showed any interest in it. It really wasn’t good enough, I just didn’t know enough at the time to realize that.
  • Meanwhile, of course, I kept writing, and in January 2010 I tabled TSC and started querying BLOOD WILL TELL. BWT got two requests for partial, but never got farther than that.
  • And I kept writing. In 2010, along with work on a couple of other novels that are going nowhere for the moment, I wrote MAGE STORM.
  • At the beginning of this year, with MAGE STORM ready to start querying, I re-read BWT and decided I could make it better. I got some new readers on it, got some ideas, and I’m about half-way through a major revision. After that, I’ll have to make some hard choices on just what to do with it. I like the story and I have ideas for two sequels. I’m just not sure a werewolf story, even a slightly quirky werewolf story, has much chance in traditional publishing right now.
  • So, in January 2011, I started querying MAGE STORM. So far, I’ve had one request for partial and one request for the full manuscript. Neither, unfortunately, went any farther than that, but the response to the full included some comments that have me thinking about a couple of revisions that might make it better.

Okay, I see two trends in that, actually. One is encouraging–I’m getting better responses from one novel to the next. That’s good. I’m improving.

The other is a little less obvious. When I’ve let a story sit for a longer time–six months or so–I’m finding things that could be improved. This is probably due to a combination of factors. One, hopefully, is my growth as a writer. The other may be that it just takes that long for me to be able to really take a clear look at what I’ve written.

So, I’m going to try something new this time around. SEVEN STARS is complete (through second draft) much earlier in the year than either BLOOD WILL TELL or MAGE STORM. I’ll have the opportunity to let it rest for five or six months before I start to query it. It’ll be interesting to see what I find in around January or February of next year.

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