My Blog

2011-06-10T12:56:00.003+10:00

I don't post things here any more. Most of my blogging is in my Live Journal (see In Search of a Title in the side bar for the most recent entries).

A Bit Crowded

2009-09-17T18:47:00.001+10:00

Um, no. Ideas from stories already written are not allowed to join the idea queue.

Idea queue?? Since when have I had an idea queue?

Then there was story

2009-09-16T18:14:00.002+10:00

I had characters, two, and a setting, some vague conflict and a scratch of dialogue. But it was just a situation. No plot. No storyline.

Then I thought, what if I make Character2 the main character, and bang, there was the story.

Not complete, of course, but motives, central conflict and possible ending all fell into place. And that is what I need to start writing it.

Moving Forward

2009-08-02T14:15:00.003+10:00

I was surprised at how easy it was to get back into WIP after nearly two weeks off.

On the downside, I am in the "middle of the book" bog. This is the bit where I go "Oh no, I have as much to do as what I've already done!"

Not even sure that is applicable here. I've added a lot of material in the rewrite that wasn't in the first draft and I don't think that is going to happen in the second half, so really, I'm past halfway.

I think part of the problem is this next bit is less structured. (These things happen) rather than (This happens) (Then this) (Then this).

But it is all there. I just have to flesh it out. Really.

Fun with fiction

2009-06-27T11:11:00.002+10:00

This weekend I get to make up some song lyrics. Fun. Not. Have no idea where to start either :|

"Riverman" seems to involve someone drowning or falling into a river.

"That's not 'Riverman', is it?" Matt asked.
Ash laughed. "A bit too prophetic?"
"I thought it might have been a suggestion on your part."
"That'd be more obvious."

"My Lady is a Laddy" is apparently for singing when you are drunk.

Ash did a repeat of the his chorus.
"Maybe we can offer you up as bait," Matt told him. "It's a ridiculous song anyway."

Mythical Creatures

2009-06-22T17:30:00.003+10:00

I'm making a list of mythical/supernatural creatures that have or can take human form, from Europe particularly British Isles.

This isn't as easy as I thought. There's the obvious ones of werewolves & vampires. Various little folk & big folk who wouldn't pass as human due to their size. Some individuals.

Angels & their ilk
Demons
Various water spirits (each uisge, selkies, nixes, undine etc - there are a lot of these)
Dryads
Elves
Banshee
Aos si/daoine sidhe
Leansidhe
Golem

Now my brain is full up, but I'm sure there's more.

Naming names

2009-06-07T11:20:00.002+10:00

I hate naming planets most of all.

Streets are fairly easy. Towns and cities are manageable, and there is also Gamebot to fall back on. Countries are getting harder, but again Gamebot is useful. Continents are tricky, but I can avoid usually avoid them. But planets? *shudder*

Sometimes, stopping and thinking it through helps. Other times it becomes harder.

So if I decide that for the purposes of this version of reality, the name will be given the first group to be associated with the planet. That is, the first settlers, or whoever sends them, or the company that buys up mining rights. So the task is reduced from "any combination of syllables" to limited groups e.g.

company names
mining products
surnames
existing cities or countries (New ------)

And that can actually be fun to play with.

2009-05-29T19:27:00.002+10:00

It occured to me the other night that strong female characters are common on TV. So why are they so hard to manage in prose?

Most shows I watch have believable, interesting women characters acting in believable ways, which often includes dishing it out to the bad guys.

They don't need to act like men. They act like ordinary women. They interact with other women. They do strange femalish things like dress up for dinner or worry about their kids, without thinking it might make them inferior.

So why they can't they in books?

Update Update

2009-05-29T19:24:00.001+10:00

I need to update this more often, so I am aiming for once a week!

%^#&!!

2009-03-31T17:38:00.004+11:00

My main character, to quote another character in the book, can't open his mouth without a string of obscenities coming out. His friends aren't much better. They're crude, bitter, uneducated and, yes, they do have a limited vocabulary.

Obviously this in one area where written speech differs from the spoken word. Putting f*ck in front of every word doesn't work, even if that's how someone actually speaks, because swear words have mor
My main character, to quote another character in the book, can't open his mouth without a string of obscenities coming out. His friends aren't much better. They're crude, bitter, uneducated and, yes, they do have a limited vocabularly.

Obviously this in one area where written speech differs from the spoken word. Putting f*ck in front of every word doesn't work, even if that's how someone actually speaks, because swear words have more impact in print. Limiting it too once per sentence looks silly. It's too artificial. Not using any at all, in the case of these characters, just reads wrong.

I googled a bit to find out other people's thoughts. Not very useful. When it comes to swear words, it seems there are two types of discussions online.

The first uses the idea that if swear words are used very lightly they have better shock value. I understand this. If a character who doesn't usually swear, or who uses mild curse words, suddenly comes out fuck or their culture's equivalent, then it has an impact. They're angry! They're upset! Whatever. Running alongside this idea is the common thought that overuse of curse words reduces their impact, dilutes them. Of course it does, and if you want the shock! effect, it's something to bear in mind. I'm not sure it's so appropriate to this situation.

The second type of discussion goes along the lines of "I don't use swear words in my writing and you don't have to either. Here's how!". Um, yes, there are many characters types who don't feel a need to swear. We know this. Now fuck off.

I guess I shall have to pick up some books with crude, bitter, uneducated characters of limited vocabularly and see how they're handled. Suggestions?e impact in print. Limiting it too once per sentence looks silly. It's too artificial. Not using any at all, in the case of these characters, just reads wrong.

I googled a bit to find out other people's thoughts. Not very useful. When it comes to swear words, it seems there are three approaches.

The first uses the idea that if swear words are used very lightly they have better shock value. I understand this. If a character who doesn't usually swear, or who uses mild curse words, suddenly comes out fuck or their culture's equivalent, then it has an impact. They're angry! They're upset! Whatever. Running alongside this idea is the common thought that overuse of curse words reduces their impact, dilutes them. Of course it does, and if you want the shock! effect, it's something to bear in mind. I'm not sure it's so appropriate to this situation.

The second type of discussion goes along the lines of "I don't use swear words in my writing and you don't have to either. Here's how!". Um, yes, there are many characters types who don't feel a need to swear. We know this. Now fuck off.

The third is don't actually use it. "Jill ran together a string of words that made all those around her blush." We can see how this would be a little difficult for a main character, yes?

I guess I shall have to pick up some books with crude, bitter, uneducated characters of limited vocabulary and see how they're handled. Suggestions?

Untitled!

2009-03-30T19:35:00.001+11:00

My current Work In Progress has no working title. It lives in a folder called "New Folder".

My previous Work In Progress had the same working title as an earlier WIP.

I can see a pattern here, except where do I go from no title? Negative?

Indicators of Veracity

2009-02-04T16:50:00.005+11:00

Below are some extracts from an article in the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin October 2004, about establishing truth in crime reports. I was struck by how these things also apply to fiction.

Are You Telling Me the Truth?
Indicators of Veracity in Written Statements

A second relationship that the authors found between veracity and features of the examined statements involved the inclusion of unique sensory details. Such information recounted by a suspect or victim includes detailed depictions of the five sensory perceptions—sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. In an assault case, for example, a truthful victim might describe the alcoholic smell of an assailant’s breath or the rough feel of his callused hands. Unique, rather than generic, descriptions add to the specificity of the sensory details.

Studies contrasting truthful, experienced memories with false, or constructed, ones have shown that the experienced memories contain more sensory information. Similarly, in studies of oral statements, researchers have found that truthful accounts include more details than deceptive ones.

The final part of the research involved examining the relation ship between veracity and the inclusion of emotions in the 60 written statements.

Memory studies have revealed that the recall of experienced events includes more affective information, such as emotional reactions, than the recall of created events. In oral statements, researchers have found emotional experiences present in truthful witness accounts but not generally in constructed ones.

More

So if you want something to sound real, include specifc sensory details and emotional experiences.

Characters, the reality and otherwise of

2009-01-11T11:57:00.000+11:00

I was following a blog thread on characters that started here with discussion on how to develop characters' voice then moved over here with a side discussion on interviewing/pretending to be your characters, or not and then to here with dicussion on what degree of real characters have to their authors.

The thought of pretending to be my characters is squicky. I can't interview them either -- it's just wrong. I did manage to come up with 20 questions that they will answer, but as you can see they're not very talkative and it's certainly not a character building tool. I think this is because they don't exist out of the context of their story/world, so they how can I interview them? Maybe if the interviewee was someone from their reality, it might work, but I don't see it as much use, for me, as a character developing tool.

What does work for me, is having them tell me their story beyond the borders of whatever I'm actually writing. That is, making up stories about the characters' past and futures. Past events get added to a timeline in case I decide to refer to them, future events are just for me (ha). It seems a more natural way of working out what makes them tick, what matters to them etc, that the artificial nature of an interview.

One thing I do that pulls the characters out of their reality though, is "take them shopping" or to a museum or some other place that might interest them. The point of this is to explore how that character see things, to be able to filter the world through their view of it. Which is, in my opinion, what character building is all about -- developing a character so they do have their unique perspective and then being able to get this across to the reader. (Visiting such places/exhibitions also helps to expand my knowledge of subjects that are relevant to the story/characters.)

Does it require breaking down, or at least thinning, the fourth wall to actually interview a character? Or is it just a different way of approaching the problem?

At the other end, I can't treat characters just as pieces to push around the board. I don't see how you can do that and still get believable characters. Maybe it works in idea/driven stories? If I try it, I end up with dry as dust scenes, when I can get them written in the first place. I'm happy enough to kill them/torture them/otherwise make life tough for them, but again, I can't do that if I just see them as playing pieces, because then I don't care, so what's the point?

First Person, Oh Dear

2009-01-04T20:46:00.003+11:00

Now I remember another reason why I don't like first person for writing: The narrator always wants to say things their way, and if I don't let them, they sulk. This would be fine if they didn't get so carried away.

I end up with lines like:

As he approached his apartment up on Level 4, Chev heard voices. With the instincts of any animal that has been hunted all its life, he froze.

Oh dear. It's going to be a long rewrite :|

Language Making

2009-01-01T19:35:00.000+11:00

I find made up languages in fiction annoying at best. So why am I now adding one to this WIP?

It seems to me that if a character comes from a family who speak a different language at hime, then words from that language are going to slip into his speech from time to time. Maybe expressions his parents used, or single words like "No" or "Wait" that he doesn't bother to convert, or long words when he's frustrated or upset.

If those single words and short phrases are going to have some consistency, then I understanding of the syllables and words are put together, and the accompanying grammar. Then once these starts to develop, I start to play with more complicated constructions.

It's a slippery, this language constructing. And, of course, I have no idea if it works :)

It grows

2008-12-07T20:02:00.002+11:00

Why is that simplifying a section and making less things happen leads to the number of scenes increasing?

Notes on Descriptive Writing

2008-10-04T11:48:00.004+10:00

The point of description is not to recreate what the exact image that the writer sees but to invoke a reaction in the reader.

The intent might be to portray an emotion, or to give a sense of setting or character.

Too much detail with overwhelm the reader or clutter the image, and the point gets lost in the details. One or two well thought out details can accomplish more than a long string of visual information.

Use the other senses, beyond visual

Hearing
Touching
Tasting
Smelling

Always filtered through the character's perceptions: What matters to them? What will they take notice of? What are they feeling?

Use the specific, not the general. Be concrete. Use the particular word.

Pinning down specific details eliminates unnecessary modifiers and makes the ones you choose work harder. Choose just the right word to create an impact, rather than throwing bunches of words at the reader and hoping some of it sticks.

Also remember the flow, because it makes it easier to follow: head to toe, or left to right, or along a road/river

I know this

2008-09-18T21:42:00.001+10:00

If I write one day, the next day it's easier.
If I don't write one day, the next day it's harder.

So why don't I go for the easier option?

Story goes out

2008-09-06T19:53:00.002+10:00

Just marking the date that I send out a short story for the first time in 2.5 years. This is obviously enough time to forget why I stopped sending them out :)

Or maybe not

2008-07-31T15:14:00.002+10:00

Possibly I was wrong about the source of slowness, at least in part.

The last two or three, rather long, scenes have been in Gwyn's point of view. Writing them was like pulling teeth with a pair of toothpicks. The one I've been working on today is from Jenn's point of view, and it's more like "Hey wait for me, I can't write that quick."

Now, Gwyn is a private sort of person. He doesn't like to give out his thoughts on things. With some coaxing, he'll tell me what he's doing, but his emotional state and observations have to be dragged out, word by word. He's happy enough when saying what other people are doing, where he can fade into the backgroudn and become an "invisible narrator" (grumbles) but once the focus of action turns to him, he doesn't want to be part of it.

On the other hand, Jenn wants to be the center of attention and he's also happy to share his observations on things. If he had his way, he'd spend the whole novel sitting on the edge of the river watching the world go by and tell me about it.

It's not the first time I've noticed different in how my POV characters share information. I've had some who only notice what immediately effects them, and others who have to look at everything and anything and comment on it. It's a strange phenomomen. I have to work out how to use it to my advantage.

Slow

2008-07-29T16:21:00.000+10:00

Progress has slowed down significantly since the halfway point (I still have to do all this again: nooooooooo). This is not helped by me wanting to redo a large part of this second half -- mainly J's motivation. What's at stake is he fails in the end game? He'll get arrested and, hang on, haven't we just had this? So stakes need to be upped and the attraction of succeeding as well.

Then there's the new idea, which be November's New Novel, but it is so very hard to focus on reworking an old story when there's a fresh new one trying to get attention :\

Halfway!

2008-05-24T11:10:00.002+10:00

We've reached the halfway point of the rewrite. The end of part one!

And there was much rejoicing.

Note to self

2008-05-15T18:39:00.002+10:00

When trying to work out the best course of action in a scene, stand back and let the characters decide.

Any other approach, invariably leads to forcing them to do things that are out of character.

I really should know this by now.

Nearly Halfway

2008-05-08T09:43:00.001+10:00

On rewrite, I've reached a point that's 46.5% of the way through the first draft.

Dark Towns

2008-05-07T18:56:00.000+10:00

It might be selective memory, but on thinking about fictioanl towns & cities, it seems the most believable ones are those with the dark or negative elements emphasised. Now if I could just think of some examples.

Downs & Downs

2008-05-07T13:16:00.002+10:00

I do hate books where things just get worse and worse for the characters, and there's no hope of improvement until the end. Too negative. Downbeat. Crushing for reader.

I prefer to have some things go right for the characters earlier on, and even have really good things happen. It adds a positive element, and gives them more to lose when everything collapses!

Bah

2008-05-07T10:21:00.000+10:00

Waking up crying over a scene that is not written for a book not even started is just wrong.

Title!

2008-04-27T15:01:00.002+10:00

Thanks to some of the Evil Minions, my little novel has a title!

Now I can write the query letter too. Although I haven't finished the rewrite, I want to write the query so I can get a proper focus on the plot.

The mice are playing

2008-04-21T21:25:00.004+10:00

With two overnight trips to Hobart in one week, I took a few days off writing.

I was mildly curious to see how the characters would react to being "ignored". I expected Gwyn would be the ring-leader. He's the one who has been bugging me to write the book so far. He's a nice, easy-going sort of characters, who has a POV and a small subplot that seem to satisfy him, but he does have a stubborn streak.

The first few days he just grumbled about a lack of progress, like usual, but then he the vague ideas I'd been toying with for a sequel and turned them into the start of a proper plot, with himself as a bad guy. The most unlikely bad guy I've ever written, I'm sure, but the story he is offering hits many of my "that'd be fun to write" buttons. Sneaky little bastard.

I need to get back to writing the WIP as soon as possible before he comes up with something worse.

Sense words

2008-04-14T20:54:00.002+10:00

A technique for adding a touch of individualness to a character's dialogue is to pay attention to what sense-related cues a character uses. I'm sure there's a technical term for them. People tend to stick to one type of sense & visual words are the most common:

I see what you mean.
That doesn't look good.
Do you want to look into it?

Instead, someone could say:

I hear you.
Do you want talk about that?

That doesn't feel right.
How do you feel about that?

Of course, this should go beyond just word choice. A character who is aurally inclined is going to behave in a slightly different ways to a predominently visual person. Do they give verbal directions or draw a map? Do you talk a lot when nervous? Make frequent eye contact? Or touch people for reassurance? Look? Listen? Do?

Name Game

2008-04-02T12:39:00.002+11:00

I am so tired of coming up with names for things and people.

Now I'm stuck on a surname, of all the stupid things. These are usually easy because they don't get used much, but Morgan is digging in his heels. I think he realised he was too co-operative over his first name. ("That's mine!")

So it has to start with a B, have ls and in it and end with a, or maybe e; and have d' or De at the front. Why???

(He's considering Sarles at the moment, so maybe he's just unsure.)

One Third

2008-04-02T12:34:00.001+11:00

I'm one third of the way through the first draft.

This is the point, where you look back at all the work you've done and realise there's twice that more to go!

Therefore, I am Officially Discouraged.

Fence Sitting

2008-02-29T21:10:00.000+11:00

I get caught between wanting to do "gritty & realistic" and wanting to "play it safe", and I end up with something murky and unsatisfying. *sigh*

No, not "play it safe". Maybe that should be "what I want to do" vs "what I how it should be done".

Either way, I end sitting on the fence with a feeling that something is missing from the story.

Scene Structure

2008-02-26T21:48:00.000+11:00

I've been analysing the structure of the scenes in WIP. It is discouraing.

For each Scene, there has to be a Goal, a Conflict/Obstacle and a Disaster.
Following this, the Sequel, which has a Reaction, Dilemma and Decision.

The scenes as they are don't work like that. The biggest problem being, I often end scenes with a positive rather than a negative (disaster). For example, the MC wants revenge on a former friend and he thinks his ex-girlfriend knows where the friend lives (Goal) so he goes to the shop her family runs to get her address but her sister doesn't want to give it to him (Conflict) until he goads her into giving it to him (not a Disaster).

But, I might be looking at the concept of a Scene in the wrong way. I see it as a section of writing with blank lines or other markers separating from the other sections. However if I look at the above scene (section) in conjunction with the following section, then it goes: MC wants to find where his friend lives (Goal), ex-girlfriend's sister won't give up her address (Conflict), ex-girlfriend won't give up friend's address (more Conflict), she chases MC out of house because her husband is coming home (Disaster). Then, MC is trying to get work and grumbling about things (Reaction), goes back to ex-girlfriend's house and finally offers to tell him if he'll agree to stay away their daugher (Dilemma), which he agrees to (Decision).

Scene & Sequel.

It fits!

Not so discouraging now!

Bah

2008-02-21T09:53:00.000+11:00

Feeling discouraged by novel, and I'm not even 1/3 of the way through it. 1/5 actually :(

Mixing Colours

2008-02-20T16:14:00.002+11:00

Further to ideas from previous post, in my novels, I invariably have some supporting character who is of a different race to majority of the human characters. The outsider/different world view thing can be useful in a supporting character.

So I wasn't that surprised when one of the major characters (not a main one, but he's one of the three POV holders) in Falcon told me he was a half-caste, his father was the from the predominant white-race-yet-to-be-named, his mother from a smaller, dark-skinned race. It's just an interesting back story, after all. Until I discovered his mother's people are looked down, consideredless intelligent, useful as servants but little else; and the idea that people from the two races would come together, let alone produce children is just disgusting. Of course, this character has an advantage due to his job (people don't always see past the uniform), but it means he is bringing in all sort of issues and conflicts that I didn't intend to be in there.

Still, it's interesting to explore

Colouring In

2008-02-20T14:06:00.001+11:00

I like Bernita's blog, she has thoughtful and thought provoking posts on writing, in particular charsters. She gets lots of comments though and I tend to be behind in reading so I don't add my own comments.

This morning I read her entry Color My World.

Now, I can't remember when I first saw someone who was "non-white". Possibly on TV. Traditionally, Tasmania got significantly less immigrants than the rest of the country and they were mostly Poms, Kiwis, Dutch, Italians, Greeks. The native blacks are usually pale-skinned, sometimes even blonde haired & blue eyed. An occasional person from Indonesia, or neighbouring countries. Or Maori. African, African-American, West Indies, people from these places were rare, and usually visiting. When we lived at St Leonards, there was a missionary training college around the corner, just down from the church Mother went to, which attracted a lot of foreigners. At Uni, there were a number of internatinal students, although mostly from eastern Asia.

A monochrome world.

Hobart is a bit more multi-cultural, especially North Hobart, with its restaurants and takeaways and delicatessans (you know, the stereotype of the immigrant family who comes to Australia, opens a corner store/deli which they run with the help of their family, lots of them), and the Greek & Italian clubs the next street over. Still mostly European.

Then somewhere between then and now, about the turn of the century, there was an influx of refugees from Sudan & Eritrea, maybe a third place I can't remember. They were usually very tall, very thin, very dark, sometimes black. Not a small number either. Enough that shops opened selling African good or offering hair styling, the pub I walked past twice a day advertised African food every Thursday night, food like okra started appearing in the supermarket. Enough people to have an impact, in both Hobart and Launceston. I assume it was a deliberate attempt at some level of government to increase the number of young families in Tasmania.

What was once unusual is now commonplace. Not just the Sudanese either. There are a lot of what I assume are Indian families; some Afghans; shorter browner Africans. If I go down the street, into the city, on the bus I expect to see plenty of black or brown faces. It would be strange not too.

Now it's a polychrome world, and so very quickly.

Walk-on characters

2008-02-05T14:06:00.000+11:00

In writing, I find there are two types of characters:

- the ones I create and put on the board
- the ones who walk onto the board and say "Here I am".

The first usually result from a story need, there's a role to fill so it's filled. They tend to be well behaved, but this can make them dull to write.

The second appear in the story, often for no apparent reason, or they're minor characters who are given a bigger role than originally intended. These are the ones who like to take the story into interesting or different places. If they're not the main character, they believe they're entitled to their own subplots, and then their own book. They walk on, and take over their little corner of the story

It's these characters who bring in interesting plot twists, who offer interesting world building details, who make the stories worth writing.

But where do they come from?

Deliberately trying to create them just leads to more type one characters. They come from the dark pool as story ideas, no doubt. Story ideas come from random thoughts, little details, interesting phrases and odd concepts that fall into the pool where they float around looking for other bits to join up with, until they spark and create a storyline. Maybe walk-on characters take a swim in the pool, and pick up the bits that make them spark.

Links

2008-01-31T15:19:00.000+11:00

Having thoughts about what to put in the Links section.

What is the purpose of this section?

I could link to other blogs I read so they're easier to access, but I get them via RSS feeds, so why bother?

I could include interesting or useful sites but that's what bookmarks are for.

So is it for the benefit of visitors? ~~That requires the blog to have visitors~~ I already have my website & LJ (which is more intersting than this blog). Don't see a point for the links section, really.

Mapping

2008-01-22T14:46:00.001+11:00

I finally gave in this morning. If Jenn is going to insist on walking around the city, then I need to have a map, even if it's rough.

It's an interesting process committing an imaginary place to paper, or screen. Partly because I don't have any software to help draw up towns :( I do have a home architect for buildings, which is handy.

I start with rough sketches on the back of a piece of paper, to get an idea of the relationships between things. It's not just a matter of drawing a rough bay and sticking a river in the middle. That puts the industrial area alongside the rich quarter. Cross out. If I move the IA to the other side of the river, the city is now split in too, and there needs to be bridges that can still allow water traffic. Try again. If the main north road is there, then that put the shops in the middle of the city, and separates out the IA and RQ, and then the river can come around like this...

It's this process of discovery that makes mapping both fascinating and frustrating. It has to fit into what I've written so far but, just like the people, the place has it's own character that won't come out until it's committed to paper.

The one building I've planned out for this world is the guard house. I got to a point where the relationships between the rooms mattered so I did a plan. I thought it was a simple place, with the front room, a barracks, a bedroom/study at the back and some storerooms. I took many pieces of paper to get building to fall into place. When I did, I discovered it had been built many years before to protect the entrance into the city. Originaly, there were 3 rendered-stone buildings -- a small guard house at the front, a barracks & a long room at the back -- all surrounded by a high wall, but over the years additionally timber rooms have been added (kitchen, storerooms etc) that connected the original three together. Very interesting. I don't know if any of that will appear in the novel, but I do have a layered, colour-coded plan showing the buildings as they are and as they were.

An Odd Thing

2008-01-19T11:04:00.000+11:00

I am rewriting the novel I wrote in last year's Nanowrimo.

Not that's anything odd about rewriting a Nanowrimo novel, I do this all the time. The odd thing is, I've only just completed the first draft and now I'm doing a rewrite.

My usual process, and I've done this for far too many novels and not enough short stories, is this:

* Write a quick & short first draft.

* Put it aside for a few months while I work on other things.

* Come back to it fresh, and do a rewrite. This is where I add in all the structure, make all that has to happen does happen and get to know the characters.

* Put it aside for a few months while I work on other things.

* Come back to it fresh and add in the emotional & descriptive stuff.

* Fuss, fiddle & tweak, while writing query letters & stuff

So it's a slow journey for an individual novel (this is why I've only got one submittable) but it's a sort of a rolling process that, on theory, moves all them closer to being "finish".

When I've tried to do a two-draft novel (with one major) rewrite, I've got bogged down because I was trying to do too much. It's also hard to say "Just get it down and fix it in the rewrite" when you don't intend to do a rewrite. So this is my process that works for me.

Enter Falcon.

This novel's coming-to-be was different from the start, but that's another post. Come November, it took me about *mumble* days to write and then I went off to concentre on exams and other WIPs. Towards the end of November, I started getting whispers "Rewrite me." No bloody way. It was just over two weeks from when I'd finished. Instead, I started on the "final" draft for Fox, the other planet-highwayman books, because it's closed to being done. But I couldn't get into it, what with it being summer and all the end-of-year/Christmas/New Year stuff and this other novel screaming "Rewrite ME."

So, come the turn of the year, I went back to Falcon. There was this thought that it would soon become stale and I could go back to working on what I "should" be working on.

I'm currently partway through chapter 2 and I've discovered two more odd things. It's trying to be a "two draft" novel and working! And somewhere during December, my writing style changed. The words I use & the type of sentences I put them in has changed. I also prefer to work first thing in the morning rather than last thing at night.

All of which is good. But it does show that just because something works for you, doesn't mean it will always work for you.

Reply to Obligatory First Post

2008-01-15T21:49:00.000+11:00

Now it's not so pink.

Obligatory First Post

2008-01-15T20:07:00.000+11:00

I got to thinking, I should post over here a bit more. I know I do that every year or so.

Anyway, this is the blog for bits & pieces about me. Whereas Forgotten Dark is for photo posts, and Original Hero is for snippets of information so I can find them again. (I don't comeup with the names.)

I think it's a little to pink though.