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Posts Tagged ‘revisions’

Full Novel Critiques

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on October 31, 2010| 2 Comments »

Hmm.  Got busy and forgot to blog until late.  Now I’m full of pumpkin pie.

I just got back the last of four full-novel critiques on MAGE STORM.  These wonderful people read the whole thing–inside of a month, too.  Previously, I’ve only had novels critiqued piecemeal as part of a chapter exchange that often stretched over several months to complete.

I really appreciate the critiques.  There are just somethings that I know these readers could judge much better than if it had been a chapter exchange.  Pacing, for one.  I’m always suspicious about pacing comments from someone who’s reading a chapter every ten days. 

At the same time, four complete, marked-up copies of my manuscript at once is a little daunting.  It’s hard to know where to start.  Guess I’ll still end up doing the revisions chapter by chapter just to break it into manageable pieces.

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Reassessment

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on October 20, 2010| Leave a Comment »

The realization that my voice as a writer is a better fit for the young adult market has me doing some reassessment.

MAGE STORM, which I thought was young adult, is probably actually middle grade.  I’d already made plans to rewrite DREAMER’S ROSE as young adult, which I think fits the story much better.  Now, I realize that BLOOD WILL TELL is probably young adult, too.  That’s three fifths of my completed work.

That leaves me in something of a quandary on my planned work, though.

I plan to write SEVEN STARS (I really need to find a new title for this) as young adult anyway.  The only obstacle there is that so far my main character’s voice is sounding a little too old and experienced to me.  But I’ve only written a little over 4000 words, barely enough to really start getting into his head.  I’ll find his insecurities and things will fall into place. 

The two possible sequels to BLOOD WILL TELL pose an interesting problem.  I married the main character off in the first book.  I’m not sure how that would impact the second and third books from a young adult perspective.  Of course, I could find a reason to torture them some more and force them to wait, but the plot of the first sequel sort of depends on their being married unless I think of a way to change the inciting incident and main conflict.  That’s a pretty major change.

THE SHAMAN’S CURSE is probably pretty close to young adult, too, except the pacing is way off.  Too slow.  But I was going to have to fix that anyway.  But then there’s the problem of three more book in that series with a progressively older, more adult protagonist.  Crossover?

I need to spend some time considering the implications.

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Queries and Synopses–Again

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on September 29, 2010| 3 Comments »

Well, since I’m working through a polishing edit on MAGE STORM, preparing it for readers in the very near future, it’s time to think about queries and synopses again.

I have a query, although I’m quite sure it can be improved:. 

Fifteen-year-old Rell lives in a world where magic is dead.  It died with the all the mages at the end of the Great Mage War.  All that’s left are the mage storms, composed of the ashes of the dead mages, wreaking havoc.

Or so everyone believes until a freak mage storm infects Rell with magic he can’t control.  When he fails to learn how to control his frightening new abilities on his own, Rell runs off to seek help.  It turns out magic isn’t as dead as people think and real help isn’t as easy to find as Rell hoped.

The only teacher anyone knows of is Trav, who turns out to be an overbearing cult leader who murders anyone with real talent.  After witnessing his latest murder, Rell is next on Trav’s list.  Rell is forced to flee, but he can’t forget the friends he left behind.  Somehow, he has to learn enough to return and free the others.

That is, if Trav doesn’t catch him first, because Trav doesn’t let anyone get away that easily.

Now I have to start working on the synopsis.  I had a basic one I used as an outline, but it’s not helping as much as I hoped it would in creating a really interesting version of the story.  It’s still got to hook.

Ah, well.  Back to work.

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Bewteen Things

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on September 26, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I’m at my least favorite phase of writing–being between things. 

MAGE STORM is basically complete and ready for readers.  I’ll do one more read through, but I expect any changes to be minimal at this point.  Just tweaks. 

My chapter exchange with DREAMER’S ROSE is not quite complete.  I don’t want to start the heavy revision until that’s done.

I’m working on revisions to a short story right now.  I may go back to working on the revisions for THE IGNORED PROPHECY next week. 

I don’t really have anything else that feels ready to start right now.  The world building for SEVEN STARS isn’t complete.  I have an idea for a sequel to MAGE STORM, possibly to be called DRAGON MAGE, but it’s not a good idea to spend the time on a sequel until you know if book one is going anywhere.

I start getting itchy for something new to work on.  I may even start the rewrite of the SHAMAN’S CURSE.  It’s not new, but a lot of the writing will be.

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Next Phase

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on September 22, 2010| 3 Comments »

Well, I finished the second draft of MAGE STORM yesterday.  It came in right about where I wanted it at 56,000 words.  So, now I’m in revision mode for a while.

I haven’t decided yet (I have a few days) whether I’ll put this up for a full novel read or just continue section by section.  Either way, it’s time to have a few readers look at it with fresh eyes.

Meanwhile, I’ll be catching up on the chapter revisions for DREAMER’S ROSE.  I have a backlog of eight chapters to work through.  And that’s if I get caught up before more come in (unlikely).  Yikes!  And two of those are going to be significant revisions.  I knew there was something wrong with that scene, but I just couldn’t put my finger on it.  My critiquing partner nailed it–it’s from the wrong point of view.  Duh!  That’s what happens when you’re too close to something.  Can’t see the forest for the trees.

After that, I’ll be making some revisions on a short story and deciding exactly what to do with it next. 

Meanwhile, I’ve already started to get an idea for a possible sequel to MAGE STORM

I’m not sure yet whether SEVEN STARS (I really have to find a better title for that one) is ready for me to start over.  I like my new plan for it.  I know where it starts.  I know the central conflict.  But I don’t really see the climax yet or exactly how it ends, so it’s probably premature to start on that.  Therefore, it may be a couple of weeks before I start any really new writing.  We’ll see if I can stand it that long.  Maybe another short story will come to me in the meantime.

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Second Draft – Show Don’t Tell

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on September 19, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I’m making good progress on the second (and last) pass through on the second draft of MAGE STORM.  I hit close to the half-way point this morning.  This pass through I’m mostly finding places where I need to show instead of tell something, though I have done a little rearranging, too.

It’s mostly small things that I need to show.  Not things that need a whole scene.  Just places where I need to expand three sentences into something more like three paragraphs to flesh things out a bit more and, you know, make the story come to life.  Even so, I’ve added about 2500 words.

I hope to finish the second draft this month.  That’s going to depend partly on factors beyond my control.  Then it’s on to getting readers and incorporating revisions from critiques–the third draft.  I’ve actually already done that with the first three chapters.

I’m pretty well on pace to start querying this one early next year.  Fingers crossed.

As to the factors beyond my control:  Wednesday’s blog may–or may not–be delayed.  I’m on jury duty next week so everything will be, as they say, at the mercy of  the court.  My group hasn’t been called up for Monday.  So far, that’s all I know.

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Revisions

Posted in writing, tagged , , on September 12, 2010| Leave a Comment »

There are revisions and then there are revisions.  I’m in the middle of two different kinds of revision right now. 

On MAGE STORM, I’m starting the second pass through of the second draft.  Technically, that’s a revision, although what I expect to look for and correct in this draft has already resulted in more than 10,000 new words.  It’s at least as much new writing as it is revision of what’s already written.  I think I may add as much as 5,000 more in this pass.  In fact, this pass is the first in which I’m really going to look at what’s already there, because I have some critiques on the first three chapters.  Other than that, I’ll be looking for places where I tell what should be shown or where I need to add to the descriptions or provide more internal monologue.

On DREAMER’S ROSE, I’m working through the revisions from an ongoing chapter exchange.  DREAMER’S ROSE is actually in a very odd place right now.  I’m working on the chapter exchange and the suggestions are improving the story immensely.  I did six chapters this week, which filled a couple of plot holes and fixed a couple of places where I just didn’t make the characters work hard enough.  I actually did add one scene and beef up some world-building description, but it’s often as much about what I delete as what I add.

On the other hand, these chapter revisions have also shown me that this one is going to need a much heavier revision, especially in the early chapters.  I’ve all but decided to make this YA.  It’s really close anyway.  Most of the story only needs a few tweaks.  The beginning, which needs the heaviest revision anyway, is the part that will have to change the most, because the novel currently starts with an older character, not the YA character.  Part of me is starting to get really excited about those changes.  I’m getting the itch to start, but I’m going to hold off until the chapter exchange is complete.

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Second Draft

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on September 8, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I finished the first pass on the second draft of MAGE STORM.  It’s just over 50,000 words, now.  I’m taking a break from it for a day or two, doing chapter revisions on DREAMER’S ROSE.  Then I’ll go back for a second pass.  I’m still calling this the second draft.

In the first pass, I had a number of things marked in the text where I wanted to add material, often whole scenes.  In fact, there are two whole new chapters.  In the second pass, I’ll take a closer look, specifically for:

  1. Places where I need to add more detail to the setting.  Try to involve more than just one of the five senses.
  2. Places, especially near the beginning, where I need to get deeper penetration into the main character’s point of view.
  3. Places where I need to show, rather than tell.  I’m pretty sure I’ve got a couple of passage-of-time type places where I could find a better way to show it.

That pass will complete the second draft.  Then it’ll be time to start finding readers.  (Well, in fact, I already have.)

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Small Celebration

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on September 1, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Now that the calendar says it’s officially over, I was going to post about “Awful August” today.  Well, maybe I’ll save that for Sunday.  (You have figured out that I post on Wednesdays and Sundays, right?)  Today, I’m going to celebrate.  It’s not a big celebration, but you’ve got to take what you can get. 

I just finished Chapter 9 of MAGE STORM.  This is a new chapter added as part of the second draft and it had me stopped earlier in the week.  I knew what needed to happen in this chapter; two characters who weren’t friends before become friends partly by virtue of working together against the antagonist.  But I didn’t know the details.  It’s really hard to write a scene, let alone three or four, without those pesky little details. 

I got the first part of the chapter written and then just stared at the # where the next scene was supposed to start.  Nothing. 

Ideas come to me best when I’m writing.  Not necessarily right when I’m sitting with my fingers on the keyboard, but when I’m spending enough time writing every day to keep the juices flowing.  So, I set MAGE STORM aside for a day or two.  I worked on some back-logged revisions to DREAMER’S ROSE.  I revised my latest short story. 

Then I came back to MAGE STORM.  Still nothing.  I started the scene anyway.  Even if I haven’t figured out the details, I know where it takes place and who’s there.  Those things have to be set up anyway.  Before I had that paragraph done, more was coming to me.  I just now typed the last few sentences.  I like it.  And now I can move on with the rest of the second draft.

Yay!

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Second Drafts and Point of View

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on August 29, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I’m approaching the half-way mark on the second draft of MAGE STORM.  It’s going really well, so far.  I had a lot of fun writing a scene where the main character gets attacked by a griffin.  But the pace is about to slow down.

I’m at the point, now, where I need to start building the conflict with the antagonist.  This is where using a single point of view is making things difficult.  In other books, by this time I would have introduced two or three scenes from the antagonist’s point of view.  That makes it easy to show what the antagonist wants and what he’s willing to do to get it.  This one is entirely from the point of view of the main character, so I can’t do that.  It’s posing a bit of a problem.

I can work in the antagonist’s motivation, but not for several more chapters.  The antagonist isn’t going to monologue in front of the main character (who he thinks he has duped), so the only way the protagonist can find out about it is from a third character who knew the antagonist way back when.  That character won’t be introduced for three or four more chapters.  Meanwhile, the antagonist just has to be a confusing and occasionally menacing presence.  Well, for at least another chapter or two, before something happens that strips the mask away.  Even then, the main character won’t understand why the antagonist would do something like that.  Of course, that inability to understand can be used to make the antagonist just that much more scary for a while, so it’s not altogether a bad thing.

This, unfortunately, is probably going to take more than this draft to get really right, but it’s really necessary for this story to work.

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