Fang Marked Quote Of The Week
"We're odd when office supplies make us happy."
"No. Just writers."
-Me and Nicole Palmby
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Nanowrimo 2011
30 Days Of Literary Abandon!
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About Me
Showing posts with label Writing Down The Bones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Writing Down The Bones. Show all posts
14 June 2010
Series Bible
Thanks to Nathan Bradford and Nicole Palmby, as well as my own beloved husband Nathan, I have undertaken a crazy task that will hopefully make me a better writer and make you, the reader, happier.
Have you ever read a series where the writer didn't seem to know the characters from one book to the next? Or how about a series where the writer seemed to forget important details from one book to the next? Or, even worse, a series where characters seemed to pop in and out with no apparent plan or reason from one book to the next? Yeah, I've read them too. Don't they just drive you nuts?
My characters deserve more than that and I don't want to disappoint them. I also don't want to disappoint you as the reader. So I'm undertaking the Chronicles of Seven and Order Of The White Rose Series Bible. In longhand.
I realized as I've been editing Awakening that I don't do my characters justice by not remembering little parts of their personalities from one book to the next. Ulrich wouldn't act like he does at times in Awakening as it stands now. Those need to be fixed. Seven wouldn't do some of the things he does either. It's just not good enough.
So in the middle of the crazy edits, I'm taking the time to make it better. If that means I write page after page of character bios, then that's what I do. If that means I have to create mythology that I'll never actually use, then that's what I'm going to do. If that means hammering out a timeline from Legacy (the 1700's roughly) to Order (2012 or thereabouts) then that's what I'm going to endeavor to accomplish. It's a lot of work, but maybe it'll be the actual companion book someday.
We'll see what happens, but as of now, my hands hurt from writing so much in longhand.
Labels:
Believability,
Drafts,
History,
Plot Mapping,
Writing Down The Bones
|
1 comments
14 April 2010
Write on Schedule
Yes I did that in the title on purpose. I know it's corny instead of clever, but I don't care.
Since deciding to publish Awakening instead of Legacy in June, my life has gotten so much simpler. No longer am I concerned about the historic significance of the prequel. I have plenty of time to finish the prequel. Legacy will be just as good (if not better) than I'd hoped it would be.
The only thing biting me in the behind right now is that I haven't worked on Awakening for so long that I'm not sure what I've already told and what I haven't. It's very frustrating, especially when you're trying to get things done on time.
So here's my plan for the rest of this month and next:
-Finish the first draft of Awakening. That should be done in the next week or so as I was pretty much wrapping it up when I stopped working on it.
-Start editing right away.
-Flesh out the story and clean up any errors I let slide before.
-Figure out a new cover scheme and get to work on it.
-Format and edit again in late May.
-Get it to CreateSpace at the end of June and take a deep breath before starting on Resurrection.
It's a little daunting to think that Resurrection is supposed to come out in November and I haven't even started writing it yet. Hopefully I haven't bit off more than I can chew. But so far, everything is right on schedule for release. Get it now? I'm writing on schedule and the title is Write On Schedule...it was clever when I thought of it. I'm going to bed now...
Labels:
Awakening,
Editing,
Endings,
Legacy,
Time Management,
Writing Down The Bones
|
0
comments
19 August 2009
Real Time Editing
So you're thinking about editing your novel huh? That means you need to pat yourself on the back right now because you did the hardest thing a first time author has to do. You finished the first draft. And you thought you were done didn't you? Ha!
Let me just put this out there: the first draft stinks. No one is immune to this. You might think it's a work of literary mastery and it should be published as it is. Trust me, you're wrong. My second novel, Forbidden, was written in 19 days. No, I'm not kidding. I thought it was perfect as it was. But when I sat down to edit, I realized it wasn't. Granted, it wasn't bad. But it needed some fleshing out.
My writing style is to write down the bones. I just let myself go and get the words on the paper and that's it (NP, that's writing down the bones right? That's what I got from reading the book anyway). The bones might be 158 pages single spaced. They might be fantastic fiction as they are. But they are bones. If you leave them as bones, you have a skeleton and we all know skeletons can't live on their own.
So what's real time editing? That's the title of this post and you want to know what it is right? Real time editing is my secondary style of editing. You don't just edit once. If you do, you're in trouble. Before I start real time editing, I go through and comb my work. I pull scenes out and move them around or add new ones or whatever it needs. Then I read it aloud to my husband. That's real time editing. It's a live audio book with a lot of pauses.
Reading it aloud to him allows me to catch most of the gramatical problems and I'm able to hear how it sounds on the page. It also enables me to go through the work word by word. If I get caught up in my own story, I must be doing something right.
Real time editing might not work for you. But the point of this post is that you will edit more than once. If you aren't, you need to. But don't get down on yourself. Utilize the tools you have. Now sit down and write your three pages.
Let me just put this out there: the first draft stinks. No one is immune to this. You might think it's a work of literary mastery and it should be published as it is. Trust me, you're wrong. My second novel, Forbidden, was written in 19 days. No, I'm not kidding. I thought it was perfect as it was. But when I sat down to edit, I realized it wasn't. Granted, it wasn't bad. But it needed some fleshing out.
My writing style is to write down the bones. I just let myself go and get the words on the paper and that's it (NP, that's writing down the bones right? That's what I got from reading the book anyway). The bones might be 158 pages single spaced. They might be fantastic fiction as they are. But they are bones. If you leave them as bones, you have a skeleton and we all know skeletons can't live on their own.
So what's real time editing? That's the title of this post and you want to know what it is right? Real time editing is my secondary style of editing. You don't just edit once. If you do, you're in trouble. Before I start real time editing, I go through and comb my work. I pull scenes out and move them around or add new ones or whatever it needs. Then I read it aloud to my husband. That's real time editing. It's a live audio book with a lot of pauses.
Reading it aloud to him allows me to catch most of the gramatical problems and I'm able to hear how it sounds on the page. It also enables me to go through the work word by word. If I get caught up in my own story, I must be doing something right.
Real time editing might not work for you. But the point of this post is that you will edit more than once. If you aren't, you need to. But don't get down on yourself. Utilize the tools you have. Now sit down and write your three pages.
Labels:
Drafts,
Editing,
Writing Down The Bones
|
0
comments
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