Restart

This always happens to me. I start a story. I have the ending plotted, I know my characters and world. The middle usually ends up a haze for me till I've written the beginning and then started to plot my way backwards. But somewhere in the middle something happens that stops me dead. With Spandex it was finding out that Maisie would work better as Matt. I discovered that plot twist somewhere in the second third of the first draft. In that case I ignored the first part of the novel and wrote the last of it as if Maisie was male. Then I edited, and edited, and edited.

Wren's song stopped me early and although it's demanding a new beginning, the change isn't nearly as drastic. I've dumped some scenes, put a few in a file to see if they fit in later, and rewritten the first 2k to line up mostly with my middle. I've got about 8K of words to edit tomorrow and then most of it should be able to fit in. I'm hoping to unoffically Nanowrimo this story, which should put me at about 60k coming into the Dec. That should put me at about 3/4ths of the way through the text. That is a happy point to be. Since I'm not ditching everything I have to start fresh on Nov 1 I am not joining any of the official things but I'm hoping it will be fun and press my word counts to a new height.

Ever notice...

that the longer you wait to say something the harder it is to say it? This last month has wrung me out, for a lot of the reasons. Most of them are things that I won't put into this blog, although the babysitting has been on that list. Hopefully in November things will settle back into a routine. There has been writing happening, mostly in small spurts of story and mostly on Wren's song.

The difference in writing Wren's song and Spandex diaries is enormous. For the Spandex diaries characters were my plotting vapor. Characters shifted mid story because they weren't firmly rooted when I started writing. I had more issues moving the emotional arc then the plot arc.

Wren's song is a 180. I know Wren, I know her down to my core. This character has been in my head since I was 16. I know the characters around her. What I don't know are the solutions to the problems. It's been coming out of the chronological order. I know the end, I know some of the middle, I have a jumble of scenes that keep shifting order. And nearly all of them are the emotional story. The plot points... still working on it.

I'm sitting for another month then things change. Hopefully that will lead to more increase in the word counts. Till then bear with the changes and I will try to get back to my old commitments soon.

Ticking off another authorly thing...

I made a website. http://sites.google.com/site/dmbeucler/

It's pretty bare bones right now and I'm not particularly planning to add more other then some writing samples at the moment. Having a web site is one of those authorial rites of passage. Like your first zit. It shows your growing into the business but not necessarily that you've grown up.

In other news Wren's Song has reached 11230 words. Editing on the Spandex Diaries has slowed to a crawl. I'm procrastinating on the editing but writing more story. I'm not sure if that is awesome (because new novel) or terrible (novel limbo, the new level of hell).

Always something new...

Every time I approach a new novel I learn a new way to get the plot going. Rough drafting Wren's Song has put another few tricks in my basket. The first is the power of the blank page. I like blank pages. It feels like there is no pressure from the existing story. When I am terribly stuck I open a new window and write the scene there. It's simple, psychosomatic; it works.

Today's other stupid writer trick is a plot file. As I am writing out the story and jumping merrily from scene to scene as the muse takes me I keep tabbing back to my plot file. Every time I get stuck I start free writing out what needs to happen next to get the plot moving forward. It's turning into a clumsy synopsis/outline. Which helps when I need inspiration about what Wren did on page 8 and how I can mirror it on page 50.

Rough drafting means anything goes to get the words on the page.

Routine

It's taken a day to get back into my routine. Today I've spent the whole day writing and poking at the manuscript. I'm hovering just under 10,000 words. I have the beginning and a goodly portion of ending written. A lot of the plotting on this is working backwards from the end. I've walked to our local library and picked up books on writing novels. I'm outlining what needs to happen and when. Characters are having emotional issues and in general things are moving apace.

Tomorrow I hope to try to put up some of the blog posts I wrote while at Dragon*con. A little more show and less tell. Today I just need to write and do some laundry.

World building

For Matt's story I didn't have to do much world building. I created the fictional city of Livingston, added in some pertinent buildings and places and organizations. Wren's song is an entirely different world. I know places and people but today things reached a point where I needed to know about magic. Patricia Wrede has a wonderful set of world building articles on the SFWA site. Here is the specific one I am using at the moment.
http://www.sfwa.org/2009/08/fantasy-worldbuilding-questions-magic-and-magicians/

On the tenth day she rested...

Yesterday I didn't write. My husband and I are heading to a sci fi con soon and we had a list of things that needed to be finished before hand. So yesterday I shopped. Today I woke up late, poked about on the net then sat down and wrote 700 words in a sitting and edited a short story. Resting can be good.

I'm stopping now to do some world building. I don't start off with a developed world. Conflict and character come first, and I build the setting around who my characters need to be and what they need to do. Wren's Song is a fantasy novel. I created the countries after the first scene to set up the political conflict but there are huge gaps in the world right now. So today is dedicated on how to fill them.

Quote for the day...

Words were written, characters have been tortured, plot has been advanced and tomorrow I get to start all over again.

I have managed to put in over a thousand words today. I've developed a schedule in which I write from about 9-9:30 am till about 4-5 pm (or whenever I hit 1000 words). I end up with an hour or so break about noon to eat, check emails, clean the kitchen and feed the cat. If I am not on a schedule then he certainly is and I am soundly scolded for being late (or any other reason, cats are not tolerant.) Having a structure to my day has helped keep me focused and keep the words coming. Another day another word count.

Bloody edits

Have I mentioned that my pages edits look like someone died on the other side of the room. Red ink corrections everywhere. I have 2 more pages to edit on Matt's story then the draft 3 rewrite begins. Hopefully this will be the last "closed door" edit and then my merry minions (aka beta readers) can have a go at it.

As far as forward momentum goes I've spent three days in a row writing a thousand words a day. It's slow compared to some but its progress. And once those thousand words are a habit then we can jump to two thousand, or three thousand. Productivity for the win.

The rest of the day is not going to be productive writing wise. Family is visiting and I have cleaning, mowing, cooking and shopping to accomplish before they arrive.

More progress

I should be editing. But instead I added another thousand words to Wren's song. This time I've started very much in the middle. All of the conflict is about to be laid bare on the rush covered floor. After that I think I will be outlining until the story has more structure. But the kernel is there and Wren is coming alive on the page. It's been an odd 15 years walking about with such a person in my back brain. I'm not sure if I am relieved or if I will miss her once the story is told.

Politics...

only the good kind. I'm not talking Iran, health care or any other jazz. Nope, we are talking 100% made up politics in a 100% made up world. I've been having a fascinating time figuring out what conditions would have to exist to make the countries have the traits the stories need them to have. Queen Victoria, Jacobite revolutions, assassination plots and various Coup D'etat, and this is just the back story.
I am a thousand words into one of the big scenes right now. I've got a couple thousand in outlines, backstory and introduction. As always when I am writing in I remind myself to just get it down on paper. It's far easier to build a story from something then to start from scratch. And no one ever needs to see my first drafts if I don't want them to. That is a comforting thought.
Editing on Matt's story is nearly complete for pass two. I'm juggling the rewrites with Wren's song and I have 3-4 beta readers lined up once it's done. Forward momentum.