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Posts Tagged ‘revisions’

Back to New Writing

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on August 25, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Yesterday, I finally got back to MAGE STORM.  I know, I know, I said back to new writitng.  But there’s so much material that needs to be added in the second draft, it’s really more new writing than revisions. 

So far, in fact, I’m pretty happy with everything that I wrote in the first draft.  The first couple of pages have gotten good responses on the new David Farland’s Writers’ Groups, so I think I’m on the right track.  There are just a number of places that need to be expanded, which is almost the same as writing the first draft, except this time I have a much more detailed structure to work in.  That’s what I’m focusing on in this draft.

  1. I need to expand the main character’s journey a little at the beginning.  He needs a few more adventures before he arrives at what he thinks is his destination.  This will give him a reason to be glad to get there and not notice that there’s something fishy for a couple of days.  It will also give me a chance to foreshadow the existence of certain creatures in this world so they don’t just pop out of nowhere in the last third of the book.
  2. I need to spend more time developing the friendships between the main character and his sidekicks. 
  3. I really need to spend more time developing the antagonist, his menace, and his motives.  I know what they are.  I need to put it in the story.  This is typical for me between the first and second drafts.  I almost always concentrate on the main character in the first draft and neglect his opposition.  The antagonist gets better treatment in the second draft.
  4. I think I need to spend a little more time with the mentor character, too.  I just have to do it in a way that doesn’t slow down the plot too much.
  5. I need to bring out the inherent conflict that remains in the falling action after the climax.  It’s there.  It gets resolved.  I just haven’t fully developed it in the first draft.

So, that’s mostly new writing, even if it is a second draft.

Meanwhile, I’m continuing revisions on DREAMER’S ROSE (which may end up getting recast into a YA novel, too) and THE IGNORED PROPHECY, as well as one of my short stories.

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Immersion

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on July 14, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Well, so much for balance.  Once I got into BLOOD WILL TELL, I got caught up in it (again) and just went straight through.  I really, really love this story.  I believe in it.  Someone else will, too.  So, a bit more spit and polish on the query letter and the synopsis and off it goes again.

My expectation was correct.  Through the rest of the book, I have what I think is an appropriate level of immersion into the characters.  Deep penetration into the point of view at the emotional highs and lows, moderate throughout most of the rest, and narrowed to the immediate during escapes and fights.

What I have learned from this experience is that it seems that I have a little trouble getting into my characters’ heads right at the beginning of a story or novel.  It takes me a chapter or so to get comfy in there.  When I think about it, that doesn’t seem unreasonable. 

Now that I realize that, it’s something I can look for and fix on the second draft (when I’ve had plenty of time to get comfy), just like my writer’s tic of starting sentences with conjunctions.  So, the experience has been good.  Now I know what to look for.

As far as balancing some revisions along with the first draft work, my internal editor will have to be content with revisions to the synopsis for now.  Maybe after that, I’ll pick up revisions to that short story that’s been sitting patiently and waiting for me to get back to it.

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Balancing

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on July 11, 2010| 1 Comment »

Well, I’ve gotten through the revision of the first three chapters of BLOOD WILL TELL and I’m generally happy with it.  In the end, I dumped the idea of a new first chapter.  The novel now starts about three paragraphs earlier than it did before, which hopefully lets me get in some of my character’s urgency and show, as well as telling through more free indirect thought, her emotions.  I’ve added a bit more description in a couple of places, cut back on some dialog, and added a little side piece of business to one scene that should illustrate the sticky part of the world building.

I’m going to go ahead through the rest of the book to see if there are more places where I can get a little deeper point of view, etc.  I think any further changes will likely be minor.  Then I’ll reread those first three chapters again, just to make sure everything still works as I intended and there are no typos.  Over the next week, I need to revisit the synopsis for this one, too.  After that, I’ll start querying again.

Meanwhile, I’m starting up new work on MAGE STORM again.  Admittedly, I haven’t gotten very far yet, but I have started. 

It’s going to be a balancing act, trying to do even a mild read-through revision on BLOOD WILL TELL, as well as working on the first draft of MAGE STORM.  I may have trouble with that pesky internal editor.  Then again, maybe letting it exercise itself on BLOOD WILL TELL will help me make it shut up when I work on the first draft.  Who knows?

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Unexpected Revisions

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on July 7, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I mentioned last time that I had gotten into some unexpected revisions on BLOOD WILL TELL, which I had regarded as complete.  It happened like this:  I had actually gotten a request for a partial on this one, which, unfortunately, ended in another rejection.  But the rejection came with a little hand-written note.  That’s good.  It seems the partial was confusing.  That’s not good.  Ever.

Well, of course, it’s not confusing to me, but I have the whole story and more in my head.  So, I asked the writers at the Hatrack Writers Workshop for some help.  Several people stepped up and offered to read the sample and give me their opinions.  It’s great to have a forum like that and I appreciate them all.

So far, the opinions run along these lines:

  • Several people felt that they couldn’t connect with the main character until about the middle of the second chapter.  Not good.  One way to fix that would be to just move the beginning to that point, and I may still do that.  There are some things that I establish in that earlier chapter and a half that I’d like to keep, though, if I can.  So, I’m sweeping through trying for deeper immersion in the character.  (Sweeping may be too big a word.  It’s been almost a week and I’m still on Chapter Two.)  I’m also trying to tighten it as I go with a few judicious cuts.  I’ll go through the whole thing.  I actually think I get pretty good penetration into the character’s POV later.  This may be a failing of mine, that I take a chapter or two to really settle into the characters’ heads.  Something I should look out for and fix in second drafts.
  • A couple of people didn’t like the abrupt introduction to Chimeria.  I’ll pause there for a paragraph to introduce the differences between our world and the magical realm.
  • Some people found the exposition of the premise, which I tried to weave into the story, confusing.  People expect certain things when they see werewolves, unicorns, and dragons.  I’ve consciously stepped a little outside what’s expected.  But I may not have made that easy enough to follow at the beginning.  I think I can reorganize the way certain things are brought out that will hopefully make the whole premise more understandable.  And spend a few more words to help clarify.  Hopefully it’ll make it more interesting, too.
  • It has been suggested that, with this complicated premise, this story might need a prologue.  I tried an ELANTRIS-style prologue (which you can find under Chimeria on the Worlds tab), but it just doesn’t work for me.  So, instead, I’ve tried writing an even earlier first chapter.  This chapter takes place at a very dramatic and important event that occurs twenty years before the rest of the novel–the murders of the main character’s family, witnessed by her as a five-year-old.  I’ll have to see how that works.

All of this, of course, is taking me away from new writing on MAGE STORM.  Well, the new first chapter counts as new writing, too.

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First Drafts vs. Revisions

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on July 4, 2010| Leave a Comment »

On the surface, it’s obvious.  Writing a first draft is different from revising a second or third (or fourth) draft. 

Switching from revision mode, which I’ve been in for several months now, back to first draft writing mode isn’t so easy though.  I’ve got a reasonably good start on MAGE STORM.  I know where the story needs to be going.  I even think I’m managing to keep a pretty decent pace for a young adult novel.  The problem I’m having is switching off that internal editor again.  I’ve been giving it free rein during revisions of THE SHAMAN’S CURSE, THE IGNORED PROPHECY, and DREAMER’S ROSE.  Now I’ve got to turn it back off in order to write MAGE STORM and it’s fighting me.  I keep wanting to stop and search for the perfect word or go back and fix a sentence or two.  It’ll never get done, that way. 

A first draft is all about getting the story down.  It doesn’t have to be perfect.  Yes, of course, you try to write it as well as you possibly can.  Saves work later.  But the point is to get it written all the way through to THE END.  To do that, you have to avoid the temptation to keep going back over what’s already written to tidy it up.  That’s one of the things the second draft is for.

This is further complicated by some unexpected revisions to BLOOD WILL TELL (more about that in another post, perhaps).  Right now, I’m switching back and forth between revisions and writing new material.  I may have to pick one to work through and then come back to the other.

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Ideas

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on June 27, 2010| Leave a Comment »

It’s an odd thing.  Or maybe it’s not.  But I get my best writing ideas when I’m writing.  Not just ideas for the story I’m working on, although that happens, too.  Ideas for other stories or brand new stories come easier and faster when I’m writing.

I don’t mean precisely when I’m sitting at the keyboard.  When I’m writing something new, more ideas come to me all the time.  It doesn’t happen that way when I’m primarily working on revisions.  Something about writing new scenes and chapters and stories sort of greases the skids.  My subconscious gets on track and starts pumping ideas out at me whenever my brain is more or less idle–in the shower, walking the dogs, pulling weeds.

That can get frustrating.  I’ve had ideas take over and force me to write them out before I could get back to what I thought I was supposed to be working on.  Most of the time, though, I can just open the appropriate file, jot down a few notes, and then get back on track.

This was brought home to me this last week as I started working on a new novel, MAGE STORM.  I had been working on revisions and waiting for new inspiration to come to me for the abandoned novel SEVEN STARS.  Nothing much came.  I started work on MAGE STORM and suddenly I’m seeing what I need to do with SEVEN STARS.  The ideas are coming, now. 

SEVEN STARS will have to wait, though.  I’m on chapter 3 and starting to really get into MAGE STORM.

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Queries, Again

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on June 23, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I’ve been busy.  I recently finished the major revision to THE IGNORED PROPHECY.  I just finished the first draft of a new short story.  I’m starting a new young adult fantasy, MAGE STORM.  On top of all that, I’ve been working on a new version of the query for BLOOD WILL TELL. 

I’m feeling like I might, almost, maybe be getting close this time.  Writing a query is so different from writing the book in the first place.  It’s a lot harder.

One of the problems, especially with fantasy, is figuring out just how much detail to put in and what to leave for the synopsis or even the sample chapters.  It’s a fine line.  Without some detail, your query ends up sounding generic and not very exciting.  But too much will bog it down in a heartbeat. 

Names are another problem, more so with the often-unfamiliar names of a fantasy.  You feel like you want to name at least the major characters in the query.  But you only have about 250 words.  If you put half a dozen names in there, you can’t expect anybody reading it cold to figure out who’s who.  And you can’t give even a tiny description of more than one or two people and still give any sense of the setting or plot.

One or two more tweaks and then it’s time to send out a few more queries.

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The Curse of Revisions

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on June 2, 2010| 1 Comment »

The curse of revisions isn’t having to do them.  I really don’t mind revisions.  I know writers who have a hard time forcing themselves to revise, but I actually still really like these characters.  I don’t mind visiting with them again.

No, for me at least, the curse is that my story always seems to end up longer after the revisions. 

I’m about half-way through the current rewrite of THE IGNORED PROPHECY and, counter to my hopes, I haven’t ended up cutting it down any.  In fact, it’s grown by about three thousand words.

I did succeed, I hope, in tightening up the beginning.  It’s one chapter shorter, anyway.  But that’s been outweighed by additional content to get deeper into the main character’s point of view and by a few other minor points I’ve added as I’ve gone along, especially to give better motivation to one of the supporting characters.  I’m adding a scene right now, which means still more length.  However, I think this scene will help to show the main character’s internal conflict and how far he’s willing to go to get answers at this point.  So it’s needed.

There are a couple of places up ahead where I might end up cutting some material, but the best I can hope for at this point is to break even.  That means that there will have to be at least one more pass through specifically to find things to cut.  That’s my least favorite kind of revision, but sometimes necessary.

It always seems to work this way for me.  Every revision grows a little until I have to do a final revision to chop it back down.

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Mystery

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on May 19, 2010| 2 Comments »

I’ve started the rewrite of THE IGNORED PROPHECY.  The revision is significant enough to call it a rewrite, I think, even though I’m mostly rearranging things I’ve already written.  There is some new material as well.  And quite a bit of what was there is being cut, too. 

And that makes me think about mystery and how to create it in a story, because THE IGNORED PROPHECY is at least partly a mystery.  At the end of THE SHAMAN’S CURSE, the main character had just come to terms with his own magical abilities–something he had tried to reject during most of the book.  Now, at the beginning of THE IGNORED PROPHECY, all kinds of strange things are happening to his magic, things he doesn’t seem to be in complete control of.  Some things are odd.  Others are disturbing.  And one scares him to death.  (Well, not literally.)  And he won’t find out what the causes of these phenomena are until the end of the book.

The last revision was pretty good (compared to where this one started out), but I need to increase the tension and up the stakes.  I also took pity on my protagonist and resolved (or at least proposed the correct solution for) one of the mysteries way too soon in the current version.  I’m trying to reorganize things so all of these strange things happen within a very short time.  This structure pushes the “big scary thing” a little further back, but hopefully lets me build up to it so that when it happens the main character is already off balance.

I’m going to have to employ some misdirection as well, to keep things from being resolved too quickly.  There was a little misdirection in the last version, but not nearly enough.  Then the answers should start coming during the last quarter of the book.  But, again, I need to try to arrange that so that answering one question just raises another or makes the remaining questions look more serious.

This mystery thing is harder than it looks.

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Reusing Milieus

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

“Becoming Lioness” is set in the same world, and uses some of the same characters as THE SHAMAN’S CURSE and THE IGNORED PROPHECY.  In fact, it’s based on an event that should happen in the fourth book of the series, if it ever gets that far.

The last set of revisions (which I finished this morning) were prompted by a couple of critiques and one comment.  It made me aware of just what a delicate dance it is to provide enough information, but not too much in a short story.  There are both benefits and drawbacks to using the milieu from two of my novels for a short story. 

On the positive side, all the world building was already done.  I know this world and these characters intimately.  That part was easy.  From at least one comment, I think the world came through as being much richer than my other short stories, probably because it is.

On the negative side, I know this world and these characters intimately, meaning I know way too much about them to fit into a short story. 

This last revision was mostly cuts, removing places where I had too much detail or backstory.  It might enrich the story, but it was killing the pacing.  Asking the question: does the reader really need to know that for this story to work?  I don’t know yet if I cut enough or too much.  In some places, I had to combine characters or even slightly alter events from the way they will be in the novel in order to make the short story better.

The next short story that I’m considering is also set in this world, based on an event from THE SHAMAN’S CURSE.  So the take-away lesson is: to really think carefully about what I put in.  Some hints at the backstory may serve to enrich the world.  Too much just bogs things down.  And I can’t let myself get too tied down to the way it happened in the novel.  I have to do what works best for the short story, first.

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