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Posts Tagged ‘Young Adult’

The WIP Queue

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

First an update: Yesterday I finished the current draft of DREAMER’S ROSE. In the process, I managed to cut it from over 400 pages (approximately 100,000 words) to just over 300 pages and 75,000 words. It will still need at least one more pass before it’s ready for readers. It’s still not living up to its potential. There are problems I know I need to fix first, things I need to bring out more. And one whole section near the end where I practically lose the main character altogether. Well, she didn’t used to be the main character and that section makes sense from the other character’s point of view. But Rose has to be doing something useful during the climax. I’m going to have to give that some more thought.

Now, the WIP Queue:

Every once in a while, as I’m finishing up a couple of projects, I still get a little worried that there won’t be enough left to work on. What if I run out of ideas?  Not to worry.  A quick check at the WIP (work-in-process) queue allays those fears.

Leaving aside sequels, for the moment:

  • DREAMER’S ROSE: When a demigod succeeds in becoming a god only to find that nothing has prepared him for the challenges he now faces and the results of his own failures, it takes an outcast girl with the ability to enter dreams–even his–to help him make things right.
  • SEVEN STARS: When a young woman unintentionally unleashes the berserker curse in her blood, she is exiled from her home and everything she loves forever, unless she can find a way to control the berserker fury and, if possible, a cure for the curse.
  • THE SHAMAN’S CURSE rewrite: When a boy (or possibly a girl, in the rewrite) fails to save his friend from a flash flood and earns the hatred of the friend’s father, he can only put an end to the vendetta against him by learning to accept and use his own innate magic.
  • THE BARD’S GIFT: A young woman living on the frontier of a new world must learn to cope with an ancient gift amid the challenges of wresting a new home from dragons and malevolent neighbors.

And that, as I said is leaving aside (that I know of):

  • Two sequels for BLOOD WILL TELL
  • Two sequels for MAGE STORM
  • And one sequel for THE SHAMAN’S CURSE

And that’s just what I have fairly well-formed ideas for. No need to worry.

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Re-Imagining a Story

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

This topic arises as I finally begin to make headway on the new version of SEVEN STARS.  I wouldn’t say I’m on a first-draft-in-six-weeks pace (which can be quite a wild ride anyway), but I am definitely making strong and consistent progress.

I’ve been somewhat resistant to writing this story. Not because I don’t like it, but because the first version of it fought me to a standstill at 50,000 words and refused to go any farther.

I set it aside and began tinkering with the plot to try to get my interest back up. But even though I liked the new plot line much better, I couldn’t flog myself into getting back into the story. Until I completely reimagined it.

In this case, I played with the gender of the main characters. Actually, I flipped them. The formerly male character is now female and the formerly female character is now male, which basically forced me to look at the entire story with completely new eyes. It’s too soon (chapter four) to tell whether this is going to work all the way through to the end, but either way it’s going to have been an interesting exercise and a useful way of getting back into a story I had some resistance to.

You can’t just change the genders of the characters and then go ahead and write the same story. Some other things will have to change. Even if your characters still have the same personalities and the same goals as before. The way other characters respond to them and their expectations of them will probably change. Even if they have the same goals, the way they go about trying to achieve them, at least for the first try/fail cycle, will probably change. The way they respond to challenges may change–and the skill set they bring to the problem.

Of course, since I write fantasy, I have the advantage of being able to adjust the world I set these characters in, too. But, in some ways, it’s more interesting to play with them in the original world, created for a character of the opposite gender, and see how it changes their responses.

Look at s couple of examples in the genre:

In THE LORD OF THE RINGS, Eowyn had essentially the same desires as her brother Eomer, and every bit as much courage, but she was constrained by her gender role.

In GRACELING, Katsa is faced with contradictory expectations. On the one hand, her uncle the king tries to treat her like any other lady of the court and marry her off to his advantage. All the while, he’s using her Graced talents to make her his strong arm and assassin.

Both characters who at some point have to break out of their assigned roles. I think that makes them more interesting. And I think it will make SEVEN STARS much more fun to play with, now.

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Writing Process, Part Two

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

Well, so now I have a first draft and it’s been allowed to rest for about a month.  Time to start the second draft.

For me, the “second draft” involves multiple passes.

  1. The first thing I do is to read through and take care of the notes I made during the first draft. 
  2. I know I will need to flesh out the villain and side characters.  My first draft is always very centered on the protagonist and other characters don’t get all the attention the deserve in the first round.
  3.  Depending on how fast I was writing the first draft, I may need to add descriptions.
  4. I may also need to expand on the internal monologue and indications of emotion.

The word count often grows by a third during the second draft.

Then it’s time to get some alpha readers. At this point, I’ve written it and read through it at least three times.  I’m much too close to it.  It needs fresh eyes. This also forces me to let it rest again while the readers have it. Time to work on one of those other projects for a while again.

For me, it’s most helpful to get readers who will look at the entire novel as a block at this point. They’re better able to judge pacing, among other things. 

When the comments or critiques come back from the alpha readers, it’s time for the third draft, incorporating revisions based on the readers’ comments. I admit, it’s a little daunting to have more than one set of comments on the entire book at one time. So I tend to break the work up into more manageable chunks, like a chapter at a time. On the plus side, it makes it really obvious if more than one reader highlights the same problem. Then you know you need to fix it. 

After the third draft, and while the manuscript is resting once again, I begin preparing to submit. This is when I write and polish the query letter and try to shine up the synopsis. I will look for readers and critiques on both of these, as well.  The query letter is probably the single most revised piece of writing in the whole process.

When I think I have the query letter in pretty good shape, I’ll read through one more time and do a polishing edit. This is the really nitpicky revision, looking at words and sentences rather than at the story itself. 

Depending on how extensive the revisions on the third draft were and how confident I feel, I may look for another reader or two at this point. Since I’m looking for more detailed comments, this reading works well in a chapter exchange format.

Then it’s time to take a deep breath and start submitting.

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Writing Process, Part One

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on February 2, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Every writer has their own process, their own way of approaching a story. The tough part is, we all have to figure out what it is for ourselves by just diving in and trying things.  At first, it’s just fumbling in the dark, but I think I’m starting to get a handle on what works best for me.

Some stories–notably DREAMER’S ROSE and the first attempt at SEVEN STARS–don’t seem to want to fit into this pattern, but the ones I’ve been happiest with, do.

Now, first off, I’m something of a discovery writer. Not hard core, but nearer that end of the continuum. I really find I need to identify at least three things before I can start a novel:

  1. The inciting incident.
  2. The central conflict.
  3. The climax and its resolution.

Most frequently, now, I write what I call a proto-synopsis before I start. It’s not in outline format and it doesn’t get into too much detail, which leaves me free to discover the story as I go. Besides, I’m going to need to write a synopsis sooner or later anyway. This gives me a starting point.

Next is the first draft. If it’s really flowing, I may complete the first draft in little over a month. These are usually the stories I end up liking best. 

The first draft is unidirectional–forward only.  No going back for revisions.  However, I will make notes of things that need to be done in the second draft.

  1. In order to maintain the momentum, I may have short changed a difficult scene. I may need to go back and flesh it out. This may get some sage note such as “Show don’t tell.” 
  2. I may realize that something needs to be further developed. In MAGE STORM, for example, I realized I needed to spend a little more time developing the friendships.
  3. I may insert something late in the story and realize I need to go back to foreshadow it a bit, so it doesn’t appear to fall out of the sky. In the last quarter or so of MAGE STORM, I changed what was going to be a large fish into a small water dragon. That made it necessary to go back to a couple of places earlier in the story and give some indication that such creatures might exist in this world. 

Then I try to let the story rest for a month. This is the time to work on something else. I also find that I like to follow Kevin J. Anderson’s advice to have more than one project at a time (in different phases) in order to maximize your writing time. Ideally, I’d like to have one story in development, one in first or second draft, one in revision, and one on submission. In reality, I usually don’t quite manage all of that, yet.

Next post, I’ll continue this topic.  Starting with the second draft.

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Writing One of THOSE Scenes

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on January 30, 2011| 3 Comments »

Update: Aliza is back to her bouncy, bossy usual corgi-queen-of-the-world self again.

In my revision/rewrite of DREAMER’S ROSE, I’ve come to the next place that needs a significant rewrite. Unfortunately, it’s one of those scenes. You know, where two characters first really get together. In other words, a sex scene.  Not an explicit one; I don’t write those.  It’s much more my style to sort of set up the situation, let things begin to warm up, and then figuratively draw the curtain and come back in the morning. You know, sort of pull out to a shot of waves crashing on the beach, like in the old movies. Still, there has to be enough there to let the reader know what’s not being said.

Difficult enough at the best of times. Much harder now that I’ve decided that this really should be a YA story. Not that I think sex should be completely ignored as if it doesn’t exist at all in YA stories. That’s disingenous and a discredit and disservice to the readers. They’re smarter than that.

It shouldn’t be thrown in without cause, just for the thrill of it, either of course. But where it belongs in a story, as it does in this one, it should be acknowledged. To an extent, the last third of this book doesn’t happen if this scene doesn’t happen, so I can’t just ignore it.

I think it requires a little extra delicacy, though, in an already delicate subject. It’s a difficult balance to strike.

As I sometimes do when writing difficult scenes, I’m reviewing other, published, well-regarded works for guidance. How did some of the authors I respect most handle similar situations? I’ve found my role model, I think, but not in YA literature. 

The approach, if I can pull it off, will be to go mostly to internal dialog. To focus almost exclusively on the character’s emotions.  It’s not going to be easy. I’ve already spent two days on the rewrite of this chapter and I’m not even up to the hard part, yet.

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No Antagonist

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

Since I last posted about antagonists and villains, I’ll continue on with the theme.  What about stories that have no antagonist?

Yes, it’s possible. It’s even possible to do well. Look at Maggie Stiefvater’s SHIVER. Of course, in a way, there is an antagonist. It’s just not a person.

This comes up as I prepare to start working on SEVEN STARS again because I think it’s one of the problems (not the only one) I had with the earlier version.  This story doesn’t have a personified antagonist.  There will be characters who variously help or impede the main character for their own ends. There will be characters or groups she vilifies as evil and fights against. But there really isn’t a single antagonist.

Instead, her battle is much more against a part her own nature. Very similar, in a way to SHIVER, although SEVEN STARS is not a werewolf story. 

I think there are additional challenges to writing a story without an identifiable antagonist. Keeping the tension up, for one. There’s nobody to point to and say, “Hurry, he’s going to catch you.” SHIVER still had that, to a degree, because the weather was a huge part of the problem–and you know things are only going to get colder as winter comes in. SEVEN STARS won’t have anything that clear to point to.

I’ve written one other book (THE IGNORED PROPHECY) without an antagonist on the main story line. The central story on that one was very internal. But I had a really unlikable antagonist for a strong sub plot. I’m not sure I’ll even have that for SEVEN STARS. 

It’s going to be a challenge, I think.  Well, it’s one of two stories (DREAMER’S ROSE is the other) that have made me work harder to get the story out and get it right.

The current challenge on DREAMER’S ROSE is going to be to cut about a quarter of it. The pacing stinks in places.  That’s going to require more than one pass, I’m afraid.

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Antagonists vs. Villains

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on January 19, 2011| 12 Comments »

I mentioned in my last post that I have trouble writing villains. I wanted to expand on that a little.

First, my early drafts are all about the protagonist, so the antagonist doesn’t make it onto the page as an individual with goals and feelings of his own until the second or even third draft. That’s just the way I work.

Then, I find that the advice that your antagonist should think of himself or herself as the hero of his or her own story is sound. It helps a lot–for most antagonists. Not so much for villains.  There’s a difference, at least for me.

Most of my stories have antagonists:

1)      In THE SHAMAN’S CURSE, Maktaz was a grieving father who really believed that he was avenging the murder of his son.

2)      In THE IGNORED PROPHECY, Gerusa was narcissistic and her political maneuverings were designed for her own benefit. But she did really believe that the changes proposed by her hated ex-husband were going to destroy their people.

3)      Zobran, in BLOOD WILL TELL, was unscrupulous, ruthless, and very dangerous, but he really believed that he was saving the world.

4)      In MAGE STORM, Trav is seen only through Rell’s eyes. Still, despite his huge ego, he does believe that he has a solution to a problem that almost tore their world apart, once–and, of course, he thinks he deserves to be heavily rewarded for it 

They’re antagonists, not villains.  I didn’t have so much trouble writing them into the second or third draft.

Kaleran, in DREAMER’S ROSE, is a villain, true evil. His only goals are personal gratification. No one else really counts as even human in his mind. That’s the kind of antagonist this story needs. Nothing less than seeing the face of evil in his own son would set Lerian so off-kilter.

That’s why Kaleran is so much harder for me to write, I think

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Progress at Last

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on January 16, 2011| 4 Comments »

This week, I finally got through the chapter of DREAMER’S ROSE that’s had me stopped for nearly a month.  This is a story that has fought me tooth and nail from almost the beginning.  Well, that’s not quite fair.  It’s only this first part that fights me. The rest has gone fairly smoothly. I’ve been tempted just to chop off this beginning and start where the story starts flowing more easily, but that just ends up feeling unbalanced to me.

Part of the problem with this first section is the old, old one from the very first of trying to create enough conflict for a character that’s basically invulnerable.  That’s not easy.  I think I’ve finally hit on the right balance–or close to it–for the male main character.  I may do some cutting in the next pass, but I’m feeling a lot better about it.

Then I got stopped on the two chapters in this section that are written from the antagonist’s point of view. Have I mentioned that writing real villains is harder for me?  And this one is a particularly slimy little sociopath. Well, I finally got through the chapters that show his development and I’m making good progress on the next chapter (back in the male main character’s point of view).

The next chapter after this shouldn’t need too much revision and then it’s on to the chapters where the female main character makes her appearance.  Those are actually some of the first chapters I wrote and they’ve always just flowed better for me. 

Since this first section is basically a rewrite, I’ve given myself first-draft permission not to get everything perfect right now.  The later sections will be more of a revision and, hopefully, will go faster.

It feels good to be past that block, finally.

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Rejection

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on January 12, 2011| 5 Comments »

News:  This is my 100th post. There have been about the same number of comments.  And some time over the holidays while I wasn’t looking, the blog went over 2000 views.

Now on to today’s topic: rejection.  It’s something we’re all going to have to deal with. The only way to avoid it is to never send your work out and that just guarantees that no one will ever see it or publish it. So, you have to take the risk.

Earlier this week, I started sending out the very first queries on MAGE STORM.  Five queries have gone out and one rejection has already come back.  That’s not totally unexpected. There can be all kinds of reasons for it and agents don’t usually stop to tell you exactly why.

But that’s not what this post is about.  It’s about the freeing nature of that first rejection.  (Now, this isn’t my first rejection.  Just the first for MAGE STORM.) When you first send the queries out into the world, you’re a little bit on pins and needles, even though you know that realistically it could be weeks before you hear anything back, if you ever do.  Some agents only reply if they’re interested.

Then that first rejection comes back. It’s disappointing.  It stings.  But then you realize that you’re still standing, still writing. That you still believe in your story. And you compose another version of the query letter and send it right back out. 

The worst is over.  It may be an uphill battle, but at least from here it is all uphill.  Well, mostly, anyway.

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Query Time Again

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on January 9, 2011| 3 Comments »

First, an update:  Last week I blogged about e-publishing.  SFWA’s Writer Beware has a very informative and realistic article about e-publishing on their blog. Plenty of food for thought.  I’ll be interested to see the next installment.

Over the last week, especially, I’ve been working on refining the query and synopsis for MAGE STORM.  I’m almost happy with the query:

The only traces of magic left in Rell’s world are the violent, semi-sentient mage storms made up of the ashes of the magic-wielders killed in the great war.

At least that’s what Rell believes until a mage storm infects him with magic he can’t control. The magic ebbs and flows with his emotions, protecting those he cares about one day and starting fires the next. His only hope of returning to a normal life is to find someone who can help him learn to either control the magic or get rid of it.

Rell follows rumors of a teacher but instead finds a cult leader, Trav. When Rell witnesses the death of another student, he realizes he’s next on Trav’s list. Forced to flee, Rell 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 with real magic live long enough to challenge him.

I’ve also started my research and developed an initial list of agents.  In the next few days, I’ll take a deep breath and start submitting MAGE STORM to agents.  Fingers crossed.

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