Revision Pains Etc

I have been revising Dark Falcon for the past week or so. I'm overwhelmed now. I really, really want to finish this revision by the end of the month. That was going pretty well, but the past couple days have been gunk. Maybe it's allergies... but my head just won't work. Not the best time to edit, you know?

I'm optimistic about Dark Falcon, but I need a beta reader. Trouble is, I'm not actually sure how to get my manuscript off my internet-less Windows 98 and onto this one (a Vista).

I've also been writing a short story I've tentatively entitled "The Goblin Queen". It's my own take on goblins, Faye, and Otherworld, so that's always fun.

My interest in Twitter has been revived as I now have more opportunities to sneak on.

I'm not really big on writing scripts, but I may collab with my brother again for ScriptFrenzy. He gets to mess with the formatting that way.

My 18th birthday is coming up (yay!) This may sound weird, but I want to head out to the zoo and practice my photography for the occasion.

:D SD

P.S. I have discovered I am a geek: This summer's superhero movie lineup has me freaking out. ...And Cowboys & Aliens.

Finished Draft Woes and Longhand Binges

So I finished Dark Falcon with I think it was 73K. Have read through it a couple times since November. There are a few issues. It needs expansion in some places, and a lot of (rather difficult) research in others. Somewhat overwhelming amount of supporting characters. Can't think of any major revisions to the story though, and it's been bugging me whether or not that's a good thing. I spent so much time planning the story out in September and October, that I may have actually gotten it right in November.

Of course, I hope this isn't the wrong intuition.

While I work out this small conundrum, I have been writing another story (August 16th) longhand. It's made great progress, but I'm still sorting through any multitude of options for the story. (I always hated Choose Your Own Adventure stories. There would be pages I just could never find. Not that this story is one. Just feels that way.) Spent all of the last three days working on it.

Have to say, because I'm writing in time-coded sections, writing longhand has been easier for August 16th. I did once have this crazy idea about making it anchronological, a whim since abandoned.

Hope everyone is having a great 2011, and does anyone else find some stories just flow better in longhand?

:D

Researching for Nanowrimo

How tall would a wall have to be to break Humpty-Dumpty?

It's not easy. You've got to sit down an think about all the vague exploits and hijinks that will happen, character details that you often forget to pay attention to, and all the while, you're sure that there's something that you haven't remembered.

Wikipedia's always a good place to start, but it's not a story-solver. After that, there's the Reference Desk on the Nano forums. People are more than willing to share their wisdom. Only problem is pretty much every other person on Nanowrimo is asking questions too. At that point, you might try wading through the different forum posts, which very often does turn up useful information.

Of course, if you've some VERY specific inquiries to make, you have to take on the Google beast or the labyrinth of your library. This is not for the faint of heart. In 2008, I was writing about a woman who had sustained a severe traumatic brain injury. I wanted to know what her chances of recovery were from different specific scenarios. It wasn't easy. A lot of the information I needed was locked away on websites that required $800+ dollars a year for access to their articles. So I spent the first half of October piecing together the information for myself using diagrams of brains and TBI patient resource sites.

You can make an inquiry with a specialist, or perhaps someone on Nano, but usually you're in a hurry. Come November, you realize what it was you really needed to research back in October. You're falling behind on word count, and no one's answering your Reference Desk post. None of scientific/medical lingo really makes any sense to your literary mind anyway.

In the end, you might even find you wind up leaving this information out all together. Your story might no longer make sense, but that's what revision's for, right?

Of course, when you do get the information you need, it can put your story together or break it to pieces. But even then, it's hard to be completely sure your story is believable.

It must have been a writer deluged in this sort of exhaustive research who first said: "Write what you know."

Not that, I think, anyone ever takes this advice for more than five minutes together.

Nano!

So Nanowrimo's around the corner again. I've been doing quite a bit of planning. I now have my own (albeit Jurassic) computer to work on. Yay! There's a tiny snare this year. That's that we're moving. I'm keeping myself convinced that it's no big deal (Denial is a powerful thing). My sister's even signed up to do it with me this year. That's kind of cool. She's writing a mystery-suspense, think.

I'm writing urban fantasy-- but it's superheroes! I've decided to call it Dark Falcon.

I've a synopsis posted here http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/209666

And here's a better view of my book cover

(kind of an awesome winged ninja) :D

So for the next few weeks I'll be haunting my Twitter and Nano forums.

How's everyone else doing this pre-Nano season?

Write a Book, then Write It Again... And Again.

You have a story idea. Maybe something inspires, maybe you had this amazing dream. Maybe you just love a particular concept and have built upon it.

What are you going to do with it?

There are plenty of options. A screenplay, a comic book or strip, poetry, your alter ego, a novel. Maybe even inspiration for a painting. Still, most people do nothing.

Assuming you're a writer too, you went the fiction route (and probably the alter ego).

I believe I first attempted to write a book when I was seven or eight years old. My story wasn't bad in the premise. It reflected my own life, books I'd read, and recent news events.

Unfortunately my effort was abandoned for one major reason: I had no clue how to write. I believed that all paragraphs had to be exactly 4-6 sentences long. And I'd never heard of margins or the fact you could leave off dialogue tags.

When I discovered how to format, maybe a year or two later, my stories finally escaped being mere doodles on notebook paper and became words. (Notebook paper remains my favorite media.)

I won't pretend to have been a prodigy. My first efforts were probably much like everyone's. You should know the problems.

As I wrote my ideas began to develop and became better. They would change so quickly that often I would just have to start the story over. (They were innately long. I still struggle to write short stories. Or just finish a work at all.)

After that, there's actually not a lot. I wrote, and wrote, and wrote, and wrote, and wrote, and wrote. In between, I read mounds of books and drew character art. I never went to a workshop and my only book on writing was my grammar book. Other novels formed my style, etc.

Now, I consider myself born a story-weaver and dreamer, but I only call myself a writer because I've devoted myself to an unknown quantity of fiction. (I've probably passed the Million Words mark).

These past two and a half years, I've learned a lot about maturing my stories from the internet and Nanowrimo. Literary agents, other publishing people, and experienced creative writers have blogs that all have given me advice I desperately needed.

What remains is to create a polished manuscript and eventually find someone willing to publish it.

So how about you? Where have you come from as a writer?

P.S. This is my first attempt at this kind of writing post. Please feel free to give advice on where I have failed.

Thanks to Write a Better Novel for inspiring this post.

The other night I couldn't sleep at all. Which is pretty miserable, but it turned out for the better. I was wide awake at 6:00 a.m. and able to get up to write. (I have been sleeping past noon, as my dad works nights so I stay up with my mom.)
But anyway, it's nice to be working on The Restored again. Even more nice is to be able to blog something on here.
I have been working on a faerie story longhand, sacrificing my fountain ink pens for a noble cause. I just about thought I'd fallen in love with the blue one LOL.

Question: Do you like it when there's a prologue setting the story's conflict up, or do you prefer when it's explained later?

Still Learning

Recently, I reread some of my older writings.
In particular, two versions of a story since abandoned and two versions of a story in the making.
And I noticed something: I've gotten better.
My writing has come a very long way in just a few years, which makes me wonder what it will be be like five years from now.

But I did try and decide some things I could specifically improve. That was descriptions and pulling the plot together.
Still... it's nice to know I'm better than I was. I'd hate to be stuck in a rut.

Super Powers

Did I mention I've been writing longhand lately? It's not too much fun (read hand cramps). I was noticing that I seem to revise much better if I've got the first version right next to me and I'm rewriting on a different paper/document.

Haven't been on the pc too much lately (for the same reason I'm writing longhand).

My story is set a few decades into the future (somewhere between 2040 and 2060) and is a spin-off of some superheroes stories I've worked on before (set in present day).
Anyway, the idea is that the superhero organization mentioned in the other stories has collapsed and given rise to new ones. The new ones are corrupt, bureaucratic, and competitive with each other. They also focus more on treaties with equally corrupt governments and political parties than vanquishing villains (that's become a side job). The public's unaware of all this since the media is their pawn.
The protagonist is a teenager whom the dominant organization has labeled a serious threat to themselves; she hides with a small group of supers who've been blackballed as "antiheroes" because of their noncompliance w/ the hero organizations.

That's the set up but I'm not sure beyond that.

Get a Grip

Currently Listening: Crystal Clear by Jaci Velasquez

Since ScriptFrenzy is over and was a success at 101 pages. I'm wanting my Nano but know I have to get The Restored done. At 18,000 words currently and summer ahead, I think I'll be able to do it.
Today I was informed via tweet if I wanted to generate more blog traffic, I must post more. It was one of those Duh! moments, but I really don't have much of interest to talk about.

The one topic I can thinking of (that's not smart quotes vs plain quotes) is character development. I made a lot of progress in that way yesterday. Might as well share some of my revelations.

I was really trying to get a handle on my character Lindsai. Lindsai, I'm thinking, is relying far too much on herself. She thinks she has to be a support for everyone else to the point of neglecting her own feelings and emotions.


My character Brenneth is a cynic. This was quite a shock to me. I hadn't a clue. In fact, he was on the the brink of insubordinance yesterday. Also, not expected. I love it when my characters surprise me though because now he's a much stronger character.


Oh, and I got to introduce my character Emerelda too. Goodness, that girl reminds me of my sister, except her threats aren't empty--they got a pitchfork behind 'em. I was half-afraid she was going to shishkebab Will before the the story was a third way through. I know, however, that it's just a front. Em is half-human, half-woyd. That means the humans are actively seeking to kill her and the Macians shun her. She's not going to be friendly to anyone she suspects might turn her in. Once she trusts Will, she'll improve.


That's about it for me. I must get to the actual writing now,
S.D.

Letting Go

I was working on a story named "S.T." for now. And I've been working on it for awhile now. This would be my third or fourth draft actually. It's one of the few stories I believe I mostly finished before I moved onto the rewrite or something else. Anyway, I wrote about 11 pages on the computer and this incredible thing happened-- I wanted my mom to read it. And then I ave it to my dad. Drew the line at my brother (he the caricature of the dorky obnoxious teenage boy) though. So it's obvious my story had entered the stage where I was able to share it with the outside world. And my parents really liked it. My dad even said that he knew I had the dedication to be a writer but now he knew I had the talent (*internal teary-eyes*).
Anyway I was glad I let them read it. I had let go of the story, having put what I had into it.
The one downer is now they want me to finish it!

P.S. Also I was not a nervous wreck about it, as i have been before. Could it be I'm more confident? 0_o

:)

I watched that TED talk by Elizabeth Gilbert on recommendation. It was great. Philosophically, I didn't agree with some of the particulars, but totally Understood. It was really nice to be reminded that the story was a collaborative effort. As far as creative genius in itself, I think it's something God created. I don't pretend to understand it. But I do know it's not simple like people try to make it out to be. It's some ineffable thing. It Exists in a way that makes writers and other artists look insane to the plebeians.

I was trying to explain it to my dad with this new material, but he wasn't understanding. Call it a force, a genii, a whatever, I know there's a complexity here. Unfortunately, he wasn't understanding, just inserting the "Moral of the Story."

I know God gave me Creativity. But could it be possible that Creativity is something in itself? Absolutely. Am I ever going to get anyone to understand that? Probably not.

Dare I say its centered in myself without going mad? I think I'll abstain.

*bleep*

Okay, so I know a lot of people don't have these issues, but I do. That is, when my characters start cussing, I am at a loss as to what to do with them. I'm torn between making them clean out their mouths or letting them say what they mean.

As it is, they're only allowed occasional exclamations of h**l, d**n, or sometimes s**t. Which are pretty commonplace words, but my parents consider, butt, shut up, and heck to be bad words. Especially my dad. My mom has been known to let out such (the former) interjections every once and awhile.

I'm not even allowed to say cr@p until I'm 20, so should my older, worldly characters do so? Because when I just go %#@$, it looks like I'm saying something else, like f***, which I'm ardently opposed to. Because using a word that has its meaning is just embarrassing!

So it's a dilemma for me. I might go ahead and just withstand the lectures, etc, and the embarrassment of my siblings peering over my shoulders and harassing me about why I would use such a word, OR let some of the poignancy be lost by removing the. OR leaving the little $%&# and ____ there and let people just have dirty minds.

Thoughts appreciated.

Politics in Writing?

In light of the occasion, I thought I'd discuss politics in writing.

Should we put them in our writing unless it's clearly a political book? Or even at all?
Well, I know I do.
Title Page will hopefully eventually become a controversial look at the practices of the FDA and medical industry.
Across the Stars is more of a look into government corruption. And then, Identity Crisis has a political tone about corporate crime, etc.
In fact, a lot of political messages probably find their way into my stories since I have have such strong, controversial ones (in other words, I thought Ron Paul ROCKED). I should have been a man around 1790 in my views in how government should be. So... It's kind of inevitable, especially since no one's going to discuss them with a hot-headed fifteen year old. Gotta vent somewhere and save my poor family.

Across the Stars

So I wrote Across the Stars for Nano in 2007. Finished lacking contractions and generally with every kind of word I thought I could separate, separated, but I got 50K and I proved to myself I could do it. It is worth mentioning I finished several days early. But anyway, I haven't really looked at it since then.

Now I am editing it, largely on the motivation of a free proof copy which it has to be ready for in only a couple of months.

I've made good progress, I think. I opened a file for revision and have worked two days on it, this being my third.

I am, however, having issues with the storyline, or rather the fact that I started out without one. And they one that follows is rather unclear... Just a look into my fourteen year old pysche explaining/excusing a character who turned into an intergalactic assassin as a sort of public avenger. I'm not sure why I felt the need to.

I have art posted along the sides. The first is the working cover, which I plan to modify, the next is of Midia Dezsenee, whose spirit and soul are tragically crushed so that she is 'heartbroken.'
I also have one of Hannah, who is the driving protagonist in all of this (I could have written it form her POV and it still be good; Midia, not so much). I need to redraw Hannah, so I won't post the picture. I did get a deviantArt as QueenAravis, so you can come look at that if you want.

Hmm

I haven't had the time to blog lately... Did I mention my mom was being stingy about computer time? No? Well, she is. All of two hours to pound out fiction and blog seriously about it? Hah!

Anyway, I've migrated back to my superhero stories. I wrote Miki before... I think I got to almost fourth draft/version of it actually. Skipped what was supposed to be the second book, Maddie, and then got to work on Ruth, a story which has always pulled my attention away from Maddie and finishing Miki where it should be.

The idea is that, about three years after when the book Maddie occurs, Lorrie Mehlan's* niece, Ruth Barynes comes to live with her as her mother has died several years before and all she has left is an abusive stepfather, her real (superhero) father having died years before (years after her parents' divorce).

Now, Ruth's not supposed to be able to have powers. Her father's exposure to the radiation that eventually led to his death through cancer was supposed to have inhibited that. So therefore, she was never told anything about this until she was nearly seventeen and Lorrie did so.

Anyway, the doctors were wrong of course. I think they are a lot, so it's not a hard stretch for me to say that. Ruth does in fact have powers. Huge, enormous powers in their potential. But that's okay. She's pretty decent and Lorrie's helping her learn how to use them once Ruth tells her (that is, she waits to after she realizes she has them).

But there's another threat lurking, waiting to strike....


*****SPOILER ALERT******




And it's Ruth's own sister, who ranaway when Ruth was eleven. She's mad at the world, gone pyschotic, with the resources and power capacity to strike out at superheroes and everyone else.
Rachel really gets to me, which I always enjoy in a villian. Especially supervillains.

*****SPOILER OVER******

*Now, from the previous stories, you automatically know that Lorrie is a Mission Deployer for the ISA (International Superhero Affiliation.... kind of corny, but it was what popped in my head).
Lorrie's superpower makes her especially adept for the job, as she never sleeps, having an unlimited amount of energy. Of course, I still say it as not everyone reads the previous books in a series.

Anyway, I've been working on this story instead of the ones I should be; I am comfortable with my oddities now, as I have an entire novel to qualify me as a writer, even if it's not published... I really need that proof copy. Anyway, soon the only people who will mock my insanity are my siblings, and that's really kind of their jobs, even if they're the real whack jobs.


Year 16 (I turn 16 in March) is promising! And I'm coping with my cynicism. Searching out exceptions in the world has helped. So I sound unusually optimistic right now. It's a high. I'll come back down to earth, but what can I say? I was born to fly!

The Exiled (Prologue included)

The story of a banished princess.
Kind of interesting, but it's been there, done that. Right?
What the heck, I'll give it a shot.

Now maybe three years later, I have made huge discoveries in that story. Never really thought it would go this far.
And I've decided it's unique in it's mish-mashing. I've taken several cliches and set them on puree in the story blender.

For instance, the princess is tortured. And she was affected by it psychologically. Don't see that in too many fairy tales (I mean, when you do, they're usually out of their minds, and she's not).
Then of course is the plot twist that shocked me for a month. But just in case this thing ever makes it to the library shelves, I won't go into that. Seriously, it's a big one though...

I really like my characters, Aby and Trina. Trina is rather aloof, and I think she sometimes comes across as cold and unreachable, but that's what she wants. I gave her some exposed moments, but right now the story's in its skeletal frame stage. I'll flesh it out later and put that in there.

But this is problem the third, no, fourth revision. It's on the right track and everything. Of course, that's only the beginning of the story that's on it's fourth revision. But I daresay the Prologue for the story is the Best thing I've ever written.



Prologue
The chains around her wrists and ankles must have been heavy, but she stood tall. And her long, dark hair had matted over the last months, yet it was still somehow glorious. She wore a simple dress, barely deserving of the word, so old, torn, and filthy it was, though she wore it with full regality.
So that now as she faced her cousin, she looked every bit the princess she was. A fact that drove him to the end of himself.
Her pale lavender eyes gazed steadfastly into his own dark, evil ones, which refused to meet hers. But he hid it extremely well.
“Face it,” he almost oozed, “I have triumphed. Surrender now while you still can!”
She made no answer; her calm, steady nerve never faltering. Rogan was irritated by this, and his frustrations were rapidly increasing. He would have to act before he did something regrettable.
“No? Well then, I’m going to have to eliminate you.”
“Do you honestly think you can kill me? At least without the grave consequences of which the poets sing?”
“Why, my dear cousin, do you not know that there are many ways to eradicate an obstacle without technically destroying it?” When she did not answer, he sparked into the circle of stones between them.
It was a Magic fire, for it burn without fuel, hovering a few inches away from the stones. It was also unmistakably Evil. For its flames were a blue and red, and they filled the room with a decidedly sinister air, though they produced no traditional smoke.
Rogan, practiced in his Dark crafts, began to chant. The flames heightened and shot in different shapes. Rogan, with well-placed sweeps of the hand, formed them into a circle which swirled towards the center.
He spoke again and she felt her chains drop off, and Rogan was suddenly behind her, pushing her through the circle.
She landed oddly with a thud on damp grass as the vortex closed up above her. She dazedly realized what had happened. She had been sent to her grandfather’s world. To a place called Earth.

Distancing Myself & the Evolution of a Story.

So I've finished the first draft of my novel. I now have to emotionally detach myself so I can make painful edits need be.
So I'm writing something else. Or rather, transcribing it mostly. At least on the computer. It's called The Restored. And I'd like to talk about it right now.
The Restored was originally a tale of two half-sisters/cousins cast into the world of their mothers. They are connected to our world via a chat window on a laptop. It was then changed into cousins, then second cousins. It also went through phases of character details.

Em/Emerelda/Will:

• was orginally a nerdy, half-human, reclusive girl
• then she became a future Queen
• I made her father a horrible man
  
• and I gave her a stutter and made her more run-of-the-mill
• then I made her a nineteen year old pregnant widow
• then I nixed the pregnancy. I used that in another story.
• I got rid of the father. She was now completely woyd.
  
• After a couple rewrites, Em became a boy named Will.
• And I replaced the gold necklace with golden hair as the birthright somewhere in there
  
• There is now another character named Emerelda, a half-human girl who lives in Macia.
• Worth noting, I kept the stutter, though it's not as bad.

Lindsai/Lindsaiana/Lindsaille:

• Was orginally a loose teen who was destroying herself.
• I made her a more grounded teen
• At the same time, I made her blind
• I then wondered why she was blind
  
• I worked on that for a couple versions, but eventually I discovered she was the Justice of Tayrrhea and all Macia
• And I changed her name from Lindsaiana to Lindsaille
• Made her actaully born in Macia
  

Aly/Alylina/Cher/Cherapha

• Has alway been a centuar
• I changed her name to Cherapha bc I had another character named Alyssa caleld Aly.

There is other stuff I changed to, but these are the most interesting evolutions to me. I am now dealing with a twenty-one year old blind woman and an eighteen year old boy. They are second cousins. And this feels Right. I have finally understood what was going on.

I Finished My Novel... Now What?

I painfully typed those last words. It all came so suddenly. Much more so than I ever anticipated. But my novel is now weighing in as a completed manuscript. Huge gaps in the shoddily constructed plot, but it's over.
*Looking Around* Now What?
The only answer in my mind is "Write a sequel."
Not "Go back and Edit"
No, "Write a Sequel"
Granted this sequel has been nagging ever since Ria became a main character, but still- So Soon?
"You know you want to write it."
And I do.
Okay!
So I guess I better put together a mock title like "Title Page Two."

P.S. I have decided to put my ending here.

Annelie breezed down the road south. She’d stopped at the hotel, got her stuff, checked out, and got on the road she was now. The dawn was coming, illuminating the wide road that was ahead of her, and the city was quickly falling behind her.
She would see where it took her. That was all anyone could do. The title page of her life turned, and the story began.

Yesterday & Today

Yesterday. I wrote even though I had no clue what to write. Eventually, I just let it sit and came to it later. Actually, more accurately, I took a hot shower and kicked my character's butt into gear. She just wanted to sit around the house and sulk. I'm not going to put up with much. Especially from a manically depressed protagonist who doesn't have her medication at the moment.

Anywho, I'm shooting for 28K today. Wish me Luck. I'm gonna need it.

Research or Not to Research

Researching is one of those things that I personally love. I find it addictive. I can never stare at a Wiki entry long enough.
But it can be annoying.
I know this.
So I use it sparingly.
But just how sparingly?
I dunno. I use intuition in my stories. I'm actually pretty good at writing stuff which I later find to be pretty darn similar to the facts.
This use to scare me, but now I know it is just my characters telling me.
Of course, they don't usually put it in a way that I can write authoritatively.
Just my thoughts. Got to get back to Nanoing!