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Posts Tagged ‘Young Adult’

Really Seeing Your Own Story

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on March 23, 2011| 5 Comments »

One of the biggest challenges about writing fiction is really seeing your own story, not the way it is in your head, but the way it really is on paper. Two things help with this in my experience:

  1. Critiques
  2. Time

Critiques help, obviously, because they give you insight into what someone else is finding in what you wrote. Sometimes, it isn’t what you intended. Sometimes, a critiquer will make that one comment that clarifies everything for you.

Time is the one I struggle with. I have a freakish memory that lets some things slip through like water and holds onto others like a vise. Things I’ve actually written tend to be in the latter category. This means that getting enough distance from my own writing to really see it is a problem.

I try to let things sit for a month between drafts, but that may not be enough. I’m finding that things I come back to after about a year are not as good as I remember them being.

Okay, back from the ER. (Mom has a UTI.) So, to finish my thoughts:

I found that with THE SHAMAN’S CURSE, which is what convinced me that that book (my first) just needs a complete rewrite. And I found something similar with BLOOD WILL TELL. Not, fortunately, that it needs a rewrite, but I did find more things that could just be better than I expected to.

So now the $64,000 question is: how long is long enough. A month might not be. A year seems like too long. This is definitely something I’m going to have to figure out, though.

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The Evolution of an Idea

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on March 16, 2011| 7 Comments »

Having recently completed the first draft of SEVEN STARS, it feels like a good time to explore how ideas develop in a story. As mentioned in a previous post, I’m largely a discovery writer, so this evolution happens while I’m writing. I’m sure pretty much the same thing happens to a plotter/outliner, though. Just at a different point in the process.

So, fairly early on in SEVEN STARS I had my characters isolated. There’s a war on and because of some imprudent behavior by one of the characters, they’re cut off from their main army, from the capital city, and from the hidden fortress where the women and children have been taken for shelter. I knew from the beginning that at some point they would make it to the fortress through a system of caves.

When I got to that point, I had an idea to have a little fun with them. In battle, the female character is more prepared, more experienced, better trained and not afraid of much. The male character is learning, but he’s never been in this situation before. So, I decided that when they went underground, it would be fun to switch things on them. He’d be perfectly comfortable in the caves and she’d be claustrophobic.

From there, the caves became a sort of almost religious experience for him. It’s like an initiation, but only he feels it. His confidence increases in the caves, which leads to a couple of interesting side effects.

Well, at this point, the caves started to become almost another character in the story.  I decided that the caves actually were responding to his presence and that their guide would notice it. When they reach the fortress, the guide proclaims that the caves, by affecting the character in this way, have indicated that he is the heir. He’s the youngest prince, the one nobody expected anything from, and now this guy’s saying that he’s the heir because he liked the caves?

This introduced some more world-building. Not just the caves, but the notion that through the caves the land is supposed to choose the heir. The current king has been trying to circumvent that by not sending his younger two sons into the caves and suppressing the knowledge that the oldest son failed to even get through the caves.

Those ideas only come to me when I’m writing. I would never get that idea while making an outline. 

Now, of course, I have to go back and introduce a few elements a little earlier in the story to foreshadow that revelation. That’s okay. It will make the story richer. And it won’t actually take much. A couple of sentences here and there, maybe a paragraph.

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Shifting Gears

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on March 13, 2011| 4 Comments »

Yesterday, I finished the first draft of SEVEN STARS. Now I’ve spent a little (very little) time savoring that feeling, it’s time to shift gears.

Today, and possibly the next few days, are going to be about putting myself in a different frame of mind. SEVEN STARS needs to rest so I can approach the second draft with fresher eyes. Now I’m going to start another round of revisions on BLOOD WILL TELL (which may also get a new title in the process).

I have to drag my mind away from one set of characters that I’ve gotten to like and back to another. I need to change my focus from new writing (altough BLOOD WILL TELL will almost certainly get a new beginning) and prepare to do revisions. I have to get myself out of a second-world young adult fantasy and get into the right frame of mind for an adult urban fantasy. Piece of cake, right?

But that’s exactly what I need to do–focus on something else for a while–so I can come back to SEVEN STARS and really see it.

I’ll probably start by reading through BLOOD WILL TELL one more time. I swear there are parts I could probably quote from memory.

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Powering Through

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on March 9, 2011| 2 Comments »

I have three chapters left to go on SEVEN STARS. It’s been going slower than anticipated this last week or so. It’s not that I’ve lost enthusiasm for the story or don’t know where it goes from here. Maybe it’s spring fever. Or maybe I just don’t want to finish it. Sometimes, I think, like reading a good book, I just don’t want to get to THE END. I want to stay in the sandbox and keep playing with these characters.

Of course, on a first draft, THE END isn’t anywhere close to really being the end. There’ll be several revisions. I’ll only be saying goodbye to these characters for a little while. It’s just a brief vacation so I can come back to the story with fresh eyes for the second draft.

So, what I have to do now is just pull my (figurative) writer hat down firmly on my head and power through. I know what happens next. And the writing doesn’t have to be perfect or even close to it in the first draft. That, after all, is what revisions are for.

If you want to be a writer, you can’t be a wimp about it. Some days it’s just butt in chair and get the job done, like any other job.

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Pulling Characters Apart

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on March 6, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Not too long ago I posted about bringing two of my characters together.  I’m now in the interesting part of SEVEN STARS where I have to pull those two characters apart–temporarily.

They’ve spent some time alone to learn to respect and trust each other. They’ve worked together for a common goal. Learned things from each other. Had their first kiss–okay a couple of kisses. And I’ve given them some obstacles, some arguably good reasons why they really shouldn’t choose each other.

Now, it’s time for me to separate them for a little while so they can realize just how much they really want to be together and build up enough motivation to take on those obstacles.

Well, one of them already has the motivation. He’s been a bit ahead of her at every step down this journey.

The separation won’t last too long. In fact, I’m about to put them back in the same place (physically at least) in this next chapter. Might take another couple of chapters to complete the process. She can be a little stubborn and he’s going to have to change her mind. Not that she’s happy about her decision, but she does think she’s made a decision. 

Poor Ti. It’s going to get a little rocky for him for a little while, but he’s up to the challenge, now.

You have to torture you’re characters.

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The Purpose of Fantasy

Posted in writing, tagged , , on March 2, 2011| 2 Comments »

I recently had a comment about my blog that got me thinking. You won’t find the comment here, it was someone on another forum where I’m active and the comment was made there.

Basically the comment was that there seemed to be a disconnect between the person from my About Me page (I take care of my mother who has Alzheimer’s disease) and the person who would write stories with titles like BLOOD WILL TELL and MAGE STORM.

Well, first, neither BLOOD WILL TELL, nor, certainly MAGE STORM is probably the story this person is imagining. I think I’ve mentioned before that I’m not always great at coming up with the exactly right title. Of all my titles, only DREAMER’S ROSE strikes me as being close to perfect. BLOOD WILL TELL is an urban fantasy/paranormal romance. And MAGE STORM is about a 15-year-old boy who discovers he has out-of-control magic.

But the comment got me thinking about one of the purposes of fantasy in the first place–to take you somplace else.

Any good story has the capacity to take you out of your surroundings and immerse you in the world of the story. That’s part of the draw, whether that world is a time before you were born, a place you’ve never been, or someplace that never existed at all. But that capacity can be particularly strong in speculative fiction of all kinds (fantasy, science fiction, and horror), because the writer has to create the world from the ground up. Literally anything is possible in fantasy if the writer can make it seem real. We’re writing about magic, in some sense, after all.

And some of may just need that escape more than others.

In other news, the first draft of SEVEN STARS (possibly to be retitled CURSED, unless I come up with something better) is coming along swimmingly. I wrote two chapters yesterday alone. Another week like this and I should have it finished.

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Walk-On Characters

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on February 27, 2011| 1 Comment »

This is undoubtedly related to being a discovery writer. Sometimes, in the middle of a story, I get to meet a walk-on character.

Often, as with the current version of SEVEN STARS (possibly to be renamed CURSED), I know that there’s going to be a need for a character at a certain point in the story.  They’re in the plans. I’ve got two of those coming up in the next couple of chapters.

Sometimes, I reach a point in the plot and just need a character that hasn’t already been introduced to do something. I’ve had one of those in a recent chapter and there’s one coming up in the next chapter. These characters don’t have to do much as a rule. The one coming up just has to guide my characters to a secret entrance. I don’t expect he’ll do much besides that.

Then again, he could surprise me. The last character of that type has piqued my interest and just may end up with a bigger role.

But the real surprises are the complete walk-ons. The ones that were never planned at all, who just walk in and take on a part of the story. I’ve had one of those turn up in the last chapter. It wasn’t a role I felt I needed to fill. Maybe my subconscious did.

This character just showed up and told me he was an old friend of one of the main characters and that now that that character has begun to change, the old friend wants to hold him back and make him stay in his old roles. Cool! A new source of conflict. Can my character who’s just begun to believe in himself overcome the doubts of people who knew him before? How will the challenge affect him?

I also think that, probably unwittingly, this new character is going to have a role to play in moving my romance along. The main characters have been taking their jobs just a little too seriously. Someone needs to give them a little shove.  All work and no play . . .

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Title Time

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on February 23, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Wow. Throw in  a Monday holiday and my days get all messed up. Almost forgot to blog!

It’s time for me to seriously start thinking about titles again. I’m just not very good at titles. But I’ve got to come up with a couple.

SEVEN STARS seriously needs me to find it a new title. (Now in chapter 17 and past 30,000 words.) This title sounds too much like Seven Samurai. It’s not that kind of story. Besides, with the new, much improved version of the plot, it doesn’t even fit anymore. I just haven’t been able to think of anything, yet. I’d go with CURSED, but that might make it sound like a vampire story, and it’s not that either. Well, if I can’t come up with anything better . . .

I also need to come up with a new title for BLOOD WILL TELL. It looks like I’ll be giving that a pretty thorough revision while the first draft of SEVEN STARS rests, including a new beginning, some tightening, and some work on one of the characters. If I’m going to think about trying to submit it again, it needs a new title, too. BLOOD WILL TELL was always supposed to be a working title. (So was SEVEN STARS, come to that.) But I’ve never been able to come up with anything better than WEREWOLF’S HONOR, which just stinks.

Time to rack the brain a little.

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On Being a Discovery Writer

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on February 20, 2011| 5 Comments »

Hello, my name is Meredith Mansfield and I’m a discovery writer.

And, no, I’m not looking for a twelve-step program. I like it just the way it is, thank you.

Some writers–many very successful writers–fully outline a story before they start. I know writers who have every scene mapped before they put “Chapter One” at the top of a page.  More power to them. If I outlined in that detail, I would never write the story. What would be the point? I’d already have told it.

For some of us, the more often we tell the story (and outlining is telling the story, just in a boring way), the less enthusiasm we have for it. We have to be free to find things out as we go along. We’re discovery writers or sometimes pantsers (because we write by the seat of our pants).

I set up a basic structure for my novel, so I know where I’m going. It helps to keep me from veering off into the weeds (too much). And then I start. I generally sort of outline about a chapter ahead as I go.

The fun part is, I’m learning parts of the story at the same time I’m writing the first draft. Yes, that means that I’ll have things I need to go back and add, change, or delete in the second draft. That’s okay. I make a note and move on.

But as I get really into a story, as I’m into SEVEN STARS right now, new things come into my head and I get to explore them, turn them around and look at them from the other side, and decide whether or not to put them in the story. It grows. It gets better. Things that were hazy when I wrote that proto synopsis come into focus. How to get the characters from A to B or how to accomplish that important plot point becomes clear. They’re still new and exciting and I get to write them while that excitement is fresh.

And I’m willing to bet discovery writers have more fun.

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Bringing Characters Together

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

I have to say, I’m having a lot of fun with this new version of SEVEN STARS so far. Switching the gender roles just opens up a world of possibilities for these characters and a lot of fun things to explore.

I’m up to chapter eleven, more or less alternating viewpoints between the two main characters. Right now, I’m in that interesting stage of bringing the characters together.

These two characters are very different, have different backgrounds, different ways of looking at things, even different goals. But, of course, because this is a story, they’re going to end up working together, learning to like and respect each other, and, eventually, falling in love.  That’s even more fun now with the female character being the dominant member of the pair in the beginning.

While their paths have crossed a couple of times, I’ve just really brought them together where they have to interact when she rescued him from certain death. Now they’re going to be stuck alone together for a couple of days so they have a chance to learn a little about each other.

This is much better than that awful trope I had in the first version. (We just won’t talk about that, alright?)

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