Well, I’m stalled. Not in a ‘hit a wall’ kind of way, but more of a ‘I lost all confidence in myself’ sort of way. I feel like I’ve let a lot of people– including myself– down recently and it’s sapped my will to do anything clean away. Whether I have or not is up for debate. But this is a writing journal, not a place for my melancholy postings.
I did come to a realization about my novel in this time though! I’ve been poking at it, studying it (yes, studying it is the antithesis to getting a first draft done) and I think I’ve made real progress. Since no one else ever reads this anyway, I feel I can post it here and not let the sand out of the proverbial bag.
I’ve been rereading Les Edgerton’s ‘Hooked” book. He talks in there about the Inciting Incident, or the place where all trouble starts, the Initial Surface Problem, the thing they’re trying to solve, and the Story Worthy Problem, something I’ve been struggling to understand for a year and a half now. It’s easy, you might say. Well, sometimes people forget how to spell the word ‘the’. Things come quicker to some people than others. Anyway, I’ve never been able to figure out what exactly the SWP was for Old Dominion. I think I have an inkling now.
Zero’s buried problem, the one that’s going to take him all novel to realize he needs to overcome, is his decision to make bad choices. Looking at what I have for the book now, it makes perfect sense. Because he blames himself for what happened the second time he touched the Cursed Prince’s Stone, he unconsciously makes himself suffer by making decisions that hurt him. He’s punishing himself for something that wasn’t his fault. Only he doesn’t know that. He has no idea. The SWP is the “driving force behind the initial surface problem as it’s ultimately what the protagonist must reconcile at the end of the story” (Edgerton, ‘Hooked’ 26). It’s never overtly stated in the novel. I feel like I understand things a little better now. Yay!
And that’s my update for now. Jya~
Category Archives: writing
Word Count
I’m finishing the night with 1,821 words. I still need 2,170 until I’m caught up for today, but I think I’ll get some sleep.
I’m making progress on the part that’s giving me trouble. It seems Priest is going to be getting his own little sections in the book. The trick will be to not give too much away. Before, I was going to have Zero (and consequently the reader) find out that Priest knows everything after the events in the book’s middle. I’m going to aim to only give hints that Priest knows what’s going on and is manipulating everything. Be all cryptic like. We’ll see how that goes, haha.
Ta~ Sleep now.
Old Dominion
I dove into my summer writing project with a couple friends. Yay! Writing is much more fun when you know other people who are also laboring along. And it kick drives my competitive spirit, haha.
I’m working on a section for my novel that’s been in the works for months. I’ve done ten different versions before the one I have now. Why it’s resisting being written, I don’t know. I’m missing something. Might be one of those sections that gets outlined, bypassed and come back to later when I know more. There’s something there that I don’t know about yet.
And so I go back to the writing. I have 527 words done out of 3200ish. There’s a couple hours work in front of me still tonight.
For a Work Friend
I mentioned that I would put up a sample of my steampunk novel and here it is~ This is a little bit of the first chapter.
The story is about an elf, Zero Laylian, who lives and works in the human city of Amara as a smuggler of elven antiquities. A long time ago, the elves of the Central Continent died out. No one really knows why. Except Zero. He’s the last of that lost race. When a man shows up and blackmails Zero into working for him, he has to make a choice. Will he retieve the Crused Prince’s Stone, a weapon that could potentially end all life on the Central Continent, and save the fragile life he’s built in Amara? Or will he reclaim his lost heritage, but lose everything he cares about?
I suck at summary, so I apologize, haha. Click on the link for the chapter:
Continue reading
For Nachan
I wrote a lot of things last night (or the beginning of a lot of different things…), but here’s the snippet of dialogue that I’m working with now. It’s set in my Old Dominion world.
“I want to live under my own power.”
“Then you’re a fool. Half blind, ill, have you forgotten you can’t channel magic? What can you accomplish?”
“More than you–or anyone from the city– could ever expect. Leave me.”
“I won’t. Accept it or not, you need a doctor. Maybe not now, you’re right, but soon. And by the time you send word to the city for help, it will be too late.
“I wouldn’t call.”
“That’s why I’m here.”
Last Week’s Writing Exercise
Here’s something old. I’m toying with the idea of trying to tell a story all through letters. Just for the practise. It’s been stretching some different writing muscles for me, haha.
‘Amelie,
It’s three years now and I’m still writing these. Pretty pathetic, huh? Your pathetic priest. Even worse? Every time I come down, I look for a reply from you. You’re laughing at me. If our positions were reversed, I might do the same.
Or I would come to you, cradling you against me until neither of us were laughing anymore and our tears unstoppable?
In the center of town they built a rose garden. Right on the roundabout! Can you believe it? The town doesn’t have enough people for a stoplight, but we have a garden on our roundabout.
They aren’t real roses. You know how closely the Church guards those. And yes, I know unaltered plants wouldn’t survive. Still, it would be nice. I’d love to have a real rose to give you instead of these engineered daffodils.
But real or not, you’ll love the new garden. Alice May oversaw the project. She got the whole congregation up with the sun and put a shovel in every hand. We worked all day long in the summer sun (which isn’t that bad here in Pennsylvania. I just wanted your sympathy). We put the last bush in the ground just as the sun started to set. Imagine all those full blossoms bathed in pale amber light, strong pines shielding them on all sides from the worst of the weather. When the bushes grow taller, they’ll form a simple maze for the kids. Doesn’t that sound nice? I’d like to get lost for a while. Who could complain when they’re surrounded by the fragrance of rose and pine?
Next time I’ll bring one of those roses for you.
Love,
Issachar’
Writing Prompt
‘”You really thing you can hold me here?”
“No. Not for long. But long enough.”
“You think so.”
The rattle of the cage drew my eyes to it. And by drew I meant twitched. But so far the super-tempered durasteel was holding. It had better, for the price I paid. “You’ll get out of there when we arrive. Not any sooner if you value life.”
“Funny words, coming from you.”
I crossed my arms. The figure in the cage apparently appreciated the irony and slunk back against the far wall.’
I wrote this in my notebook for a warm up a while back. Going back through, it caught my eye. I’m not sure who the characters are or what the situation is, but I think it could have potential. Maybe I’ll poke at it a little more.
Also, I’m starting work again on Old Dominion. I hand wrote the next section, so now I just need to type it up and edit. Probably edit a lot, haha. But that’s nothing new.
NaNoWriMo 2010 – Finished!
I would like to thank all the people who helped me through this and dealt with the mood swings inspired by sleeplessness. To all the customers I might have confused when they called on the phone last month, know that it (probably) won’t happen again. To everyone else, I extend a general ‘thank you’.
Haha, no really. Thanks to everyone and congrats to other winners of this year’s NaNoWriMo! I ended up with just over 50,200 words. It’s an accomplishment! Even though I’m only halfway through the story, it’s more high fantasy than I’ve ever written. I love reading high fantasy. I love it so much I think I set up a mental block. ‘I could never do that,’ I thought. This NaNo was a quest to prove to myself that it could happen! And it did. So, even though the NaNo rules strongly suggested we finish a book in the month’s time, that I could even write 50,000 words of high fantasy is a big step for me.
Of course, more than half of it is going to get thrown out when I edit, but that’s the way first drafts usually go. Something I noticed this year: the general attitudes of people outside of NaNoWriMo were on the negative side. And I’m not talking about friends and family, but newspapers and things like that. ‘Let’s have an After NaNo Reading Month,’ one article joked. The point of their piece was that writing anything that quickly would most likely produce a bunch of worthless words. I respectfully disagree. First off, it’s a rough draft. Secondly, it’s a rough draft. If you take Hemingway’s words ‘the first draft of anything is shit.’ A person isn’t going to write a rough draft and declare it ready for publishing. Or they shouldn’t. Inexperience should be forgiven in this case. And I think that whatever you write, it’s good practise. You’re not wasting your time if you’re learning from the experience.
An ‘After NaNo Reading Month’. Please. It was almost insulting.
Still, I enjoyed myself and my friends all hit their word count marks as well. One of them fell back in love with writing. The other found that if she really tried, she could come from 15,000 behind and still win. They enjoyed themselves. That’s what this is really all about.
Well, I think that’s about it for this time. I’ll post again with more novel related things next time.
Goodbye all~
Day 13 of NaNo 2010
I’ve noticed that my spelling outside of my novel has been really bad recently. I don’t know if that’s my subconscious refusing to cooperate while I’m still behind or if I’m just not paying attention.
Right now I have 18,051 words done out of 21,667. I’m catching back up again! It’s beyond pleasing. I really like what I’m writing now. Switching my viewpoint characters solved all my troubles.Things are flying out onto the page (*sound of knocking on wood*) and even while I’m sure I’ll cut half of it out and have to expand most of it later, I’m still pleased with the way things are going. Aryad has kidnapped Mihn and they’re going to hunker down in a cave for the night. Neither of them are very happy about it, haha. Syrus and Furore are off doing something. Hopefully they made it into Sai-Jiang (the country they’re supposed to meet Mihn in). I’ll find out in a little bit, I’m sure.
Hot showers, Starbucks hot Chai Tea, the new Anna Nalick song, Thomas Bergerson’s song ‘Promise’ and Conjure One have gotten me this far. Going out of the house to write has been useful too. Still, I find I do most of my word count sitting on my bed at night with the room illuminated with the light from my laptop screen. I’m a creature of comfort, haha.
Nothing else to report from the noveling front. Other than I now compulsively press ‘Ctrl S’ all the time.
Day 8 of NaNo 2010
Inevitably I fell behind. I started over four times, so it was to be expected. However this time I think I’m going strong! (*knocks on wood*) My main character, Mihn, has become a minor character and Syrus, who I thought would work better as a minor character, stepped up to play. Also, I gained a new character, who’s playing counter position to Syrus. Aryad is his friend as well as the man contracted to hunt him for the Mysterium. They’ve got plenty of tension between them (I hope)
My problem last time was I had no conflict. What I thought would work (Mihn wanting to save Syrus from changing completely into an animal, was not enough to get her out into the world. It wasn’t her problem. There wasn’t any charge to things. No sense of urgency. I solved it by making Syrus the view point character. There’s more spark now.
I’ve found that hand writing has really helped move things forward. It’s slower and less legible, but there’s just something about putting pen to paper. The words come easier. They’re better. The writing is less cluttered with the unimportant things. I wrote close to 2,00 words that way (all of my new beginning). I would encourage anyone who’s stuck to try it. And make sure you use a pen that makes you want to write more. Mine are colored as well as glittery, so sometimes you just write to watch it sparkle, haha. Or maybe it’s just me.
Gotta get some sleep before the staff meeting at work tomorrow. Good night, all~
Laylian