Because I have time to post things more often!
Rewriting goes well, got another chapter done today. I've got 7K words left until the 100K cap-mark is reached. (I really want to keep it under, to make it more publishable.) I want to make these words count.
When I first decided to split things, I went several days without writing anything, I almost had to wonder if it was because I knew I was now really close to the end and I didn't quite want it to be over or something like that, but now I'm pretty sure I just wasn't writing because of finals, because I wasn't really doing anything that wasn't finals related.
Currently, writing is a tad slow-going BECAUSE I'm trying to make every word count. Plus, I'm not pulling from the old draft at the moment, every single scene I'm putting in currently did not exist in the original, even most of the exposition.
And Jason kind of makes me want to bash my head into a wall at the moment, but that's because he's just being a jerk at the moment. It's cool, he'll get over it.
So... yeah...
That's all I have to say at the moment. I really should probably go to bed because I have to get up early tomorrow morning for a doctor's appointment for my knee. (Yay.)
Ciao!
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Sunday, December 16, 2012
It's Been a While...
Well... it has.
Finals happened. And they hit HARD. Then I was essentially MIA from the internet for a few days in the midst of hanging out with irl friends. (*GASP* WHAT? I HAVE THOSE?)
Wow, that's totally not professional in the slightest. But really, who said this was a professional blog? This is a blog about my book and my journey of rewriting it.
As that rewriting journey is coming along (hopefully faster now that finals are over) I have come to the conclusion that I'm splitting it in half. The original draft was 137K+ words. Which is way more than any YA fantasy novel can get published with by a first-time potentially published author. (To put things in perspective, I believe the first Harry Potter book was about 78K.)
Currently, the rewrite project is at 92K. It was at 91K when I concluded I was going to split it. There is just too much going on for it to feasibly happen all in one book. I have character and plot developments that range from should-happen to need-to-happen if this is going to be good. My biggest challenge now is making that last 8K really count. I have a list of things that need to happen and an idea about what the new end will look like. I'm in the middle of moving things around at the moment.
It's rather amusing, my computer looks a lot like: old draft over there, new draft over here, extra document with stuff that I wrote in the new document and then took out because it's gonna have to move to the second half, notepad full of little reminders, then physical notebook with plot-vomit session in it. (The plot-vomit used to be on my closet mirrors, but since I'm not at that apt. for the holidays, I had to move it all.)
I believe it is better for the novel to be split, I can make things happen better now. As my boyfriend's father said, (though he was technically referring to the Lord of the Rings movies) you can either chop a book to pieces to make it a script and then no one will like it, or you can split it into parts and hit everything that needs to be hit for a good story. The last Harry Potter book was split into two movies. (So was the last Twilight book... but moving on...) I heard somewhere that the original Lord of the Rings book was ONE BOOK and then the editor split it into THREE. The last Wheel of Time book was split into two or three books. So, it happens.
No, I'm not entirely thrilled that this book will no longer end with that epic battle. It's cool, it's going to be better this way!
Finals happened. And they hit HARD. Then I was essentially MIA from the internet for a few days in the midst of hanging out with irl friends. (*GASP* WHAT? I HAVE THOSE?)
Wow, that's totally not professional in the slightest. But really, who said this was a professional blog? This is a blog about my book and my journey of rewriting it.
As that rewriting journey is coming along (hopefully faster now that finals are over) I have come to the conclusion that I'm splitting it in half. The original draft was 137K+ words. Which is way more than any YA fantasy novel can get published with by a first-time potentially published author. (To put things in perspective, I believe the first Harry Potter book was about 78K.)
Currently, the rewrite project is at 92K. It was at 91K when I concluded I was going to split it. There is just too much going on for it to feasibly happen all in one book. I have character and plot developments that range from should-happen to need-to-happen if this is going to be good. My biggest challenge now is making that last 8K really count. I have a list of things that need to happen and an idea about what the new end will look like. I'm in the middle of moving things around at the moment.
It's rather amusing, my computer looks a lot like: old draft over there, new draft over here, extra document with stuff that I wrote in the new document and then took out because it's gonna have to move to the second half, notepad full of little reminders, then physical notebook with plot-vomit session in it. (The plot-vomit used to be on my closet mirrors, but since I'm not at that apt. for the holidays, I had to move it all.)
I believe it is better for the novel to be split, I can make things happen better now. As my boyfriend's father said, (though he was technically referring to the Lord of the Rings movies) you can either chop a book to pieces to make it a script and then no one will like it, or you can split it into parts and hit everything that needs to be hit for a good story. The last Harry Potter book was split into two movies. (So was the last Twilight book... but moving on...) I heard somewhere that the original Lord of the Rings book was ONE BOOK and then the editor split it into THREE. The last Wheel of Time book was split into two or three books. So, it happens.
No, I'm not entirely thrilled that this book will no longer end with that epic battle. It's cool, it's going to be better this way!
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Motivation
Everyone has motivation. Even characters.
Some of them are motivated by love, others revenge, others a pursuit of honor. Everyone is motivated by something.
Every writer should know their main character's motivation for sure. To make a more rounded story, knowing the motivation of all the main characters (and even some of the minor ones) would also be helpful.
As of a couple of weeks ago, I wasn't sure what ANY of my characters' motivations were. Well, it didn't take to long to figure out Jason's--he's all for the pursuit of gaining honor. (Not REgaining it Zuko-style, just gaining some honor in general.) William's on the surface is easier, but I really have to sit down and think about the deeper implications of his motivations. Alice and Tristan became pretty easy. Kat...I spent a while figuring out EXACTLY what her motivation is. Because her motivation has to make sense, because she's the protagonist.
Yup.
Writer's problems.
Saturday, December 8, 2012
TWINS
So, apparently, I have a thing for having twins in my story.
Firstly, there's Alice and William, who are a couple of too-smart-for-their-own-good-bending-the-rules-because-its-convenient (darn, I can't think of a noun for them...) To be completely honest, they're more of a troublemaking bunch in my head. When I write them out, they don't come across that way. However, they have little regard for the rules. Okay, Alice is correcting me: they have regard for the rules, they just don't pay attention to said regard. I've been told I've got the brother/sister dynamic down pretty well. However, sometimes, they don't come across as twins all that obviously. It's something that I'm working on. I've done loads of research on how twins should behave... but what I'm actually missing is a real set of twins to pull from. I've known about... three sets of twins in my life. *shrug* Things to improve upon.
The second set of twins isn't actually a set of twins anymore. Leah and Alan were supposed to be twins. However, rar pointed out to me the unlikelihood that Kat would meet not one, but TWO sets of twins in her grade at her new school. So, I changed it so that Alan was younger by about 18 months, but is ahead in school so as to be in the same grade as Leah. It works. It's kinda cute too.
The third set (which may change still, seeing as it's not terribly plot-important) is Kenric and Jeanette. (Who's name I just changed from Mae, because Mae also happens to be Alice's middle name and... it functions better as a middle name. And Jeanette sounds cooler.) Regardless, I'm not even sure why these two were supposed to be twins. I know why I originally had Alan and Leah as twins, because it made the most sense for them to be twins if they were both going to be in Kat's grade, but Alan can just be smart, that's cool. I have no idea why I wanted Kenric and Jeanette to be twins. No idea. So, idk if I'll change it or not. I went and reworded it in the current draft to just say "sister" so I have options when I get there. It's cool.
I guess I just have a thing for twins. When I was in high school and wrote a book with one of my friends, she and I wrote in a set of twins (much for the same reason as to why Leah and Alan were twins, to account for brothers being in the same grade). We pretty much had the brothers aspect of them down because we drew our inspiration from people who lived in real life. I don't think the two boys behaved like twins though. However, I believe that many twins want to be identified outside of their "set", so maybe we did a good job after all.
In middle school, when I was writing drafts of stories (that never made it to the computer), I usually always had just one set of twins. Once, my main character was a twin... but her sister was a minor character. Then, I tried to write a story told from the point of view of a set of twins, but it didn't work very well because I can't get my brain to think like that...
I don't know why I like twins so much. I just do. *shrug*
With Alice and William though, I feel that it works just so well. Because it adds a connection between the two of them that allows for so much magikal playing with that I can always have stuff to draw from.
So, yeah.
Firstly, there's Alice and William, who are a couple of too-smart-for-their-own-good-bending-the-rules-because-its-convenient (darn, I can't think of a noun for them...) To be completely honest, they're more of a troublemaking bunch in my head. When I write them out, they don't come across that way. However, they have little regard for the rules. Okay, Alice is correcting me: they have regard for the rules, they just don't pay attention to said regard. I've been told I've got the brother/sister dynamic down pretty well. However, sometimes, they don't come across as twins all that obviously. It's something that I'm working on. I've done loads of research on how twins should behave... but what I'm actually missing is a real set of twins to pull from. I've known about... three sets of twins in my life. *shrug* Things to improve upon.
The second set of twins isn't actually a set of twins anymore. Leah and Alan were supposed to be twins. However, rar pointed out to me the unlikelihood that Kat would meet not one, but TWO sets of twins in her grade at her new school. So, I changed it so that Alan was younger by about 18 months, but is ahead in school so as to be in the same grade as Leah. It works. It's kinda cute too.
The third set (which may change still, seeing as it's not terribly plot-important) is Kenric and Jeanette. (Who's name I just changed from Mae, because Mae also happens to be Alice's middle name and... it functions better as a middle name. And Jeanette sounds cooler.) Regardless, I'm not even sure why these two were supposed to be twins. I know why I originally had Alan and Leah as twins, because it made the most sense for them to be twins if they were both going to be in Kat's grade, but Alan can just be smart, that's cool. I have no idea why I wanted Kenric and Jeanette to be twins. No idea. So, idk if I'll change it or not. I went and reworded it in the current draft to just say "sister" so I have options when I get there. It's cool.
I guess I just have a thing for twins. When I was in high school and wrote a book with one of my friends, she and I wrote in a set of twins (much for the same reason as to why Leah and Alan were twins, to account for brothers being in the same grade). We pretty much had the brothers aspect of them down because we drew our inspiration from people who lived in real life. I don't think the two boys behaved like twins though. However, I believe that many twins want to be identified outside of their "set", so maybe we did a good job after all.
In middle school, when I was writing drafts of stories (that never made it to the computer), I usually always had just one set of twins. Once, my main character was a twin... but her sister was a minor character. Then, I tried to write a story told from the point of view of a set of twins, but it didn't work very well because I can't get my brain to think like that...
I don't know why I like twins so much. I just do. *shrug*
With Alice and William though, I feel that it works just so well. Because it adds a connection between the two of them that allows for so much magikal playing with that I can always have stuff to draw from.
So, yeah.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Well, it's not November anymore, but I'm still Writing
Of course I'm still writing. I'm always writing. It's kinda what I do. Granted, I've spent most of the past 5 days writing papers. Or, rather, one paper. One big final paper that I really want to just be done with but I'm not. I'll be done with it before Sunday though, because that's when it's due. Today though, I've taken a break from the paper in favor of writing some.
I'm at 84K roughly. Currently the only thought prevalent in my mind is how my book is totally going to be over 100K and how I'm either than going to have to cut it back to under 100K, or split it in two. I'm not sure what would be better for the book, honestly. I also don't think I should be thinking too hard about that now, because it will probably affect how I'm writing now. Meh. Writer's Problems.
I'm trying to make development of certain ideas take longer to come to fruition. That's my big goal for this section of the novel. Before, everything just kinda hit everything at once. Now I'm making characters come to conclusions slower... because... it makes more sense that they would. There's still a conclusion that no one's drawn yet that was drawn five chapters (well, if I had chapters in the previous draft) ago in the previous draft.
Plus, I have to illustrate tension between a particular set of characters. And I have to illustrate it particularly well. It's difficult. Because of who they are. Yup. Anyway.
So, yeah. Erm... that's all I have to say now at the moment...
I'm at 84K roughly. Currently the only thought prevalent in my mind is how my book is totally going to be over 100K and how I'm either than going to have to cut it back to under 100K, or split it in two. I'm not sure what would be better for the book, honestly. I also don't think I should be thinking too hard about that now, because it will probably affect how I'm writing now. Meh. Writer's Problems.
I'm trying to make development of certain ideas take longer to come to fruition. That's my big goal for this section of the novel. Before, everything just kinda hit everything at once. Now I'm making characters come to conclusions slower... because... it makes more sense that they would. There's still a conclusion that no one's drawn yet that was drawn five chapters (well, if I had chapters in the previous draft) ago in the previous draft.
Plus, I have to illustrate tension between a particular set of characters. And I have to illustrate it particularly well. It's difficult. Because of who they are. Yup. Anyway.
So, yeah. Erm... that's all I have to say now at the moment...
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