Slowly, but surely

Today’s word count = 500

Total word count for the new draft of my children’s horse story = 1,910

I’m on chapter one where my MC discovers what she’s going to be fighting in the book and I’ve just got to the point where someone suggests a possible route to get what she wants. I’ve been building on a scene from an earlier draft that I’ve always liked and have decided to use it as the opener. It needs a few changes but I’m trying to keep forward momentum and not go back tinkering with things. A bad habit of mine!

Fingers crossed for 500 more tomorrow.

I’m also eagerly awaiting the return of Captain Jack tonight!

My Words for Today

I’m under attack from hayfever at the moment thanks to my horse ride this morning, not very nice, but definitely worth it as I love being around horses. I had a lovely ride around the country lanes today. Sadly it’s the season for horse flies and they were continually plaguing the poor horse so I spent a lot of time acting as his fly swat. I know how much the horse fly bites hurt so it was quite satisfying getting them!
     
Once I got back I was freshly inspired to have a look over my children’s horse story. After reading it through I decided that the opening scene needed to be rewritten. The plot’s changed a lot since I started writing the story and the one I had didn’t work anymore so I spent some time thinking about what I wanted from the scene and the story as a whole. I then started writing the replacement scene. I got to 302 words and though the scene wasn’t complete I wasn’t feeling right frame of mind –thanks to my hayfever – to do the scene justice so I decided to leave it there and move onto something else.
   
Happily, I managed to get all 19 world building files for my mist fantasy novel onto my TiddlyWiki and linked them to the relevant characters etc.
   
It’s defineatley helping the story come together in my mind and I’d recommend using TiddlyWiki for planning to other writers.

My next job is to get the ‘plot’ files on and link them.

Long, Long Absence

I can’t believe it’s been so long since I stopped blogging. Wow… 9 months! I could even have made a whole new person in that time! I wish I could say I’ve been away doing something exciting like travelling the world, getting a job at the animal park or, even better, getting published, but unfortunately I’ve just been living my boringly normal life. I’ve done a bit of writing – half of a child’s book and planning for yet another new fantasy series – but still no finish lines crossed.

But hopefully this is going to help me get one there: Holly Lisle’s Write a Book With Me.

It’s a great idea of Holly’s and has helped me get writing and also has got me back here. I’ve been playing along for the last three days and am going to be recording my progress so far:

Wed 1st July = 1,285
Thur 2nd July = 465
Fri 3rd July = 181
Total so far = 1931

I know the totals have gone down, but yesterday I worked over my lunch and again for a couple of hours last night on getting the planning and files for the new fantasy series – I’ll call it Mist Fantasy Novel for now as I have no idea about title yet – onto a TiddyWiki file. The planning was getting a bit crazy with over 40 different files and I wasn’t sure where it was all headed and the TiddlyWiki seemed like a great way to collate it all. It worked well yesterday as I got all my ‘character’ and ‘draft’ folders transferred and linked their relationships as they stand now. I also discovered a character I’d forgotten about who I think will be quite entertaining to write about and hopefully for people to read about one day.

Right now I’ve got some dogs watching me reproachfully wondering why I’m sitting here writing when plainly I should be out taking them for a nice long walk so I should obey the little beasts and take them out. After that hopefully I’ll be able to get some of the world building entries up and link them.

While I’m doing the planning for MFN I’m going to do my writing for the children’s horsey book, which stands at about 20k so far. That way I’ll be able to keep my writing fresh and hopefully get one book over the finish line! Although now I’m thinking maybe a TiddlyWiki for the horse book might be helpful too… Ack, no – it’s time to be bold. I have the story planned – I’ll get the first draft done then I can do a TiddlyWiki for the revisions. I have to write the words ‘The End’ one day!

Good luck for everyone else having a go at this and thanks to Holly for coming up with the idea.

An Old Story

I was sorting out my documents in my ‘Writing’ file and came across an old story I started last year. It’s a children’s fantasy story aimed at ages 12+ and is about three children who end up on an adventure in another world that’s being terrorised by dragons. Doing the world building for this story led me to some ideas for my Sarcaia Trilogy and so I’d forgotten all about it. Reading the opening scenes I’ve got I found it’s actually quite a fun little story and I’m thinking of giving it a small amount of my writing time while I’m planning the Demon Story. I think it’s always good to have a bit of fun and practicing writing can only be a good thing.

 

Talking of the Demon story, I’m thinking of putting my characters and plot from there into the world of Sarcaia. I’m going to have another read of the world building I have so far for Sarcaia and see if they might be compatible. I hope so, as I really love the world I’ve created there and I don’t want to see it lost and forgotten.

Planning Dilemma

I didn’t manage to finish off the steps on THE GAY MAN’S GUIDE TO WRITING FANTASY FICTION after I’d posted my blog entry last week, as going through it had brought up a new issue that needed dealing with. When the story first came into my head I was planning on setting it in the present day/ slightly in the future and it had more of a sci-fi feel to it than fantasy. I’d never really been 100% happy with this as I have more passion for reading and writing fantasy, but I couldn’t really see how to change it as to me the story revolved around the setting. While going through the steps in the guide I soon realised that what made the story was the characters and their journey and the setting mattered little, if anything, to the real heart of it. So, for the past week I’ve been having a little debate with myself on the best place to set my story and I decided that although the present day setting might be quicker to get started (with much less world-building and changing of the story to do), my heart’s always been with fantasy and I think the story could really come alive there.

 

With that decided – and with the starting line so close just a week ago too – it’s now back to planning for me! I have a whole world to build around my demon friends so I’d better get to it, although maybe I should plan the story out first and then make the word to fit it? Ah no! Another dilemma for me… lets hope this one takes less than a week to resolve!

 

Something I have no dilemmas about is my horse riding trip tomorrow – I can’t wait to get back in the saddle! Hopefully the weather will hold out and my muscles wont be too achy, but even if I end up a sore and sodden mess I’ll still be happy and make the most of it.

A Great Plotting Website

Yesterday I was planning on working on my heroine’s backstory and other elements of planning for her. Instead, after browsing around various blogs, I found myself reading THE GAY MAN’S GUIDE TO WRITING FANTASY FICTION. I was intrigued by the methods the author, Adrian Swift, used there and decided to try the ‘Plot to Draft’ section for my novel. I found it really helpful – it gave me a better understanding of my characters and their motivations and also of where I want my plot to go, which had been a bit hazy up until then. It also made me question whether certain aspects of my novel could be changed/got rid of to help improve the story and that can only be a good thing.

 

As my novel is going to be told from two main points view I decided to go through it for both my hero and my heroine and I got to the ‘6-Step Outline’ section for both. I ended up with 1,276 words so I might not have stuck to doing the bits in one sentence, but it is for two people and things kept popping into my head so I couldn’t help it! Today I’m going to get back to it and hopefully I might finish it off assuming there’s no distractions waiting for me at home!

 

I’d definitely recommend the guide if you’re having problems with your plotting and planning or if you just fancy trying something new. It’s not too long or complicated and has good examples for each section, which I found very helpful.

 

On a personal note, I’ve just booked a holiday for April next year! Woo hoo –only 6 months to go! Also, I’m going horse riding next week for the first time in ages, so things are definitely looking up.

Planning the Heroine

Yesterday I came to a place in the hero’s personal plot where it will intertwine with the heroine’s and so I decided to start planning her before I went any further with it. I opened up a fresh document and typed in her possible name and then the first heading ‘Character’s Backstory’. Unfortunately this promptly stopped my in my tracks as my lovely heroine has amnesia and while I already knew one aspect of her former self, I couldn’t decide whether I should plan a more detailed one, as I did for the hero, or to leave it to be decided upon later. After far too long staring at the screen in deliberation, I decided to put the document aside and work on something else in the hope that it might bring me a breakthrough. It didn’t, but I did end up with most of chapter one planned so at least it wasn’t a total waste of time!

 

After mulling it over last night I realised I do want to plan her backstory because even if she doesn’t know about it I think I should. I’ve never suffered from amnesia myself – I’m diplomatically not going to mention any alcohol-fuelled versions – but I’ve decided aspects of her previous life will be influencing her behaviour and I’d like to have solid reasons behind. I also think it’ll be kinda fun to have her discovering talents she never knew she had and trying to piece together what they all mean. So my plan for today is to work of planning the heroine. Fingers crossed I won’t hit anymore road bumps.

 

Here’s another good site I found with fantasy art on – All Fantasy Art Fantasy Pictures – I found some great dragons on there.  

The Hero is Almost Done.

I went through the questions and a few more with my hero and now – 2,220 words later - have a nicely rounded character to play with. I’m giving myself a break before my eyes stop working completely (my tummy is not impressed by the lack of any lunch either) and then I’m going to go back to finish him off. I haven’t answered all the questions individually - some of them were answered in the backstory or elsewhere – but I feel like it’s worked out well as he seems like an actual person now rather than a vague idea. I found some pictures that look a bit like how I’ve imagined him from surfing around Google Images and I’ve saved them for future reference/inspiration.

 

If you are looking for inspiration I found some beautiful sci-fi/fantasy pictures on this webstie: http://www.elfwood.com

 

I also decided to give him his own personal subplot as befitting his new real-person status and I need to go back and decide where that’s going to take him. Once I’ve done that he should be ready to go! 

 

If I manage to get that done tonight it’ll be the heroine’s turn for the same treatment tomorrow. It’ll be fun to make a new friend for the hero to play with.

 

Also I’ve been naughty and defected back to the demon story as I feel it has more potential than the Sarcaia Trilogy. I got more planning done for it in one week than I managed to for the Trilogy in a much longer time period, which made me think maybe the Trilogy just wasn’t working for me. In any case, I’ve made my choice and this time I’m going to stick to it!

Planning

Below is a list that I’ve come up with for the things I need to plan before I can start writing. I’m going to use it to give myself a target date for starting writing.

 

• Characters
  • For the hero, heroine, two antagonists and the hero’s best friend I need to work out:
    • A basic backstory. How does it shape who they are at the start of the story?
    • How many people are in their family? How do they get on with each of them? Why are their relationships like that?
    • What do they want? Will they get it? If yes, how? What must they overcome/sacrifice to get it? If no, why not? Are they thwarted by someone else? Do they give it up for something/someone else?
    • What do they fear? Will it come about? If yes, will they overcome it and if so, how? If not, why not? How will the failure affect them? If it doesn’t come about, how did they avoid it? 
    • Who are their friends? How did their friendship come about? What do they like/dislike about them? How will their friendships be challenged in the story? Will they still be friends at the end of the story? If not, why not?
    • Who are their enemies? How did they end up enemies? How are their enemies trying to hurt them? How are they trying to hurt their enemies? Will they win out over their enemies? If so, how and at what cost? Are they still enemies at the end of the story?
    • Have they ever been in love? How did this love end, or is it still going strong? How do they feel about it now? If it ended badly, how did it shape their attitude to love? Are they in love now? If so, does the person they’re in love with love them too? Does the person know about the characters feelings? How will they try to make the love work?
    • What’s their name, age, height, looks, occupation, hobbies etc?
  • For any other significant characters:
    •  A basic backstory.
    •  How are they related to the main characters?
    •  How do they shape the story? Do they help or hinder the main characters, and in what ways?
    • What’s their name, age, height, looks, occupation, hobbies etc?

• Plot – I’ll update this at a later date, as I think I have plenty to be going on with!
• World – as above!

 

Thanks to these website that helped me a lot with ideas for the planning:

 

http://www.hollylisle.com/fm/Workshops/character-workshop.html

http://www.writerswrite.com/journal/jun98/lazy2.htm

Things That Stop Me Writing

I haven’t got any writing done since my last post. Not even typing up of notes, which I really should have done by now. It’s very frustrating that I haven’t been able to write so I thought if I write down the reasons why, I might be able to come up with ways to combat them. Here are the main things that have stopped me over the last few days:

• Having to look after sick people. Unfortunately there’s not much I can do about this one. When I’m not well it’s easy for me to make myself sit at my desk and write, but when it’s someone else I can’t really justify leaving them on their own. It’d be a bit selfish really, wouldn’t it?
• Work. I can’t really avoid having to go to work sadly, as I’m still waiting on that winning lottery ticket. I used to be able to write at work, but the bosses have put CCTV cameras in and one of them points right at my desk so I can’t get away with it anymore. Very selfish of them really! I am, however, going to make sure I actually take my lunch breaks (away from the nosey cameras) and I’ll use them to work on my story. That will give me an extra hour or two every week.
• Volunteering. I went to the gorillas twice this week on my days off, which could have allowed me plenty of writing time. I don’t feel the need to give this up for writing however, as once the sick people are better it’ll free up enough time for me to get back into my routine. Again though, I could use my lunch breaks there to get some work done. That’s another half hour to add to the pot.

Looking back, I don’t feel as guilty as I did. I didn’t waste any time watching the tv or messing around on the computer, so not as if I’ve been being lazy. Still, there’s at least an hour or two that I didn’t realise I had, which is something to keep in mind. Every little helps after all.