Tag: drafting

Time for Fights

Laura Highcove

So as I established the week before last, I am horrible at conflict, and so it directly follows that I am horrible at writing conflict, which leads me to be horrible at writing fights scenes (verbal as well as physical). But, at the same time, I write fantasy, a genre in which people are much more likely to be competent in a fighting style, and use said fighting style against an opponent, than in non-fantasy.

I have fifteen fight scenes in this book, though the final fight is three “notecards” because it’s in three parts. Luckily, my husband is *very* good at writing fight scenes. Yesterday I went over the first three fights with him for motivations and rough choreograph and today I cleaned up two of them and wrote one from scratch. However, I am actually pretty happy with how they’re shaping up so far.

So I have twelve more to write, (Then of course I have to clean them up) and three weeks to write them. That means four a week with a whole week to work on the final fight. Considering I usually give myself a week for a whole chapter, that seems like it will be about right.

I do need to work on being more disciplined with my writing though. I do well when I have only a little time, but if I give myself a large block, I really end up distracted. It’s not horrible for now, but if I ever make the jump to writing full time, or even more than I’m doing now, I think I’ll run into trouble.

Picking Jeremy Five-five

Laura Highcove

So now that The Storyteller is out for it’s alpha read, I had to decide what I was going to do in the meantime. I actually spent a day making a chart for all the stories I have written. I recorded how far I am in them (most of them have far less word count than I thought) and what about each story makes me want to write it.

I decided on a story with the working title: Jeremy Five-Five. This story has a bit of an interesting backstory. I started it for NaNoWriMo one year. While I was writing it, I wasn’t really into it. My problem was that my main character (Jeremy) kept flipping back and forth between wanting to hide in the background and having nothing to do with the game being played by his classmates, and getting super pissed off when they were playing it poorly and I was having a hard time understanding where he was coming from. So I decided to stop working on it, and instead go back to working on Shifting Winds.

When I went back to read Jeremy Five-five later, I realized that what I had written was really good, and I was able to figure out what Jeremy’s motivation. The back and forth of the apathy and anger actually works for his character. I pushed forward on it a bit, created a new draft and then it had been sitting there when I got more serious about my writing and worked on Shifting Winds and then The Storyteller.

Now I’m back to it in the drafting phase. I’m just plowing forward on word count, and Jeremy continues to be a bugger and a half to write. I just can’t seem to pin him down, but at the same time I’m drawn to him like the other characters in the story seem to be. There’s something about him that is peaking out and I need to figure out what it is so he can really shine.

Internet Distraction

Laura Highcove

So my husband and I watched the first season of Sleepy Hollow and then missed the second season. We decided we wanted to watch the second season before the third season starts October 1st, so we signed up for a free trial of Netflix, only to realize we couldn’t watch Sleepy Hollow on Netflix. So we went to Hulu and signed up for a free trial there, only to realize instead of a month, like Netflix gives you, we only get a week. So we hunkered down to watch 18 episodes of Sleepy Hollow in seven days.

All was going well until yesterday afternoon our Internet (and cable) stopped working, and I stopped to think about it, and realized that being out of Internet for a few days isn’t all that big a deal (granted if it hadn’t happened on a weekend it would be a bigger deal because my husband works from home) except that this happens to be the week that we were trying to watch all that Sleepy Hollow. What a bother.

I sat down last night to do my writing and had to stop myself dozens of times from hopping on the Internet to ‘real quick’ check something, only to remember I couldn’t. It didn’t occur to me that it was that big a distraction. I think I might start turning off the Internet during writing time. I have a little wireless button on my laptop that will work perfectly well for that.

That being said, I am getting back into the swing of writing. I think my plan from last week really helped. It surprises me how much I have done, and how much I still have to do. Like I think I can get it beta reader ready by the end of the year, but I can’t imagine how long the polishing will take. Still, even if the polishing takes a whole year, the book will have gotten done in less than three years, which I can be proud of.

Plan for the Rest of the Year

Laura Highcove

I was talking with my husband this morning and he asked if I was going to work on my novel, and in jest I said, ‘Yes, I’m going to go work on my boring, old novel.’ Then I stopped and realized that The Storyteller isn’t even a year old yet. The concept for it is about a year old, but I didn’t start writing it until October of last year. And that sort of blew my mind. I have so many other stories that aren’t even to this point that are far older, yet when I think about this novel, I keep having issue with how long it’s taking me to get to beta reader ready. I’m grateful for the reminder that I’m doing a good job.

My goal is to have The Storyteller ready for my beta readers by January 2016. I counted up the number of weeks left in the year. 16 and five days, which I am rounding up to 17 because I can do that. Here is a list of what I still have to do:

Finish writing the scenes involving The Slayer and The Archer. (3 weeks)
Finish writing the scenes involving The Fairy Godmother. (2 weeks)
Finish writing the scenes involving The Huntress. (2 weeks)
Fix three plot holes. (1 week)
Overall run through of story to identify any new problems. (1 week)
Run through to fix any “medium” problems. (3 weeks)
Run through to smooth out as many “minor” problems as possible. (3 weeks)
Overall run through of story as a last check. (2 weeks)

That’s actually more time than I thought I was going to have. Once I wrote it out in a list and put times to it, I’m pretty confidant in my ability to get it done. Though I suppose I have to remember that Thanksgiving and Christmas are in there, and I won’t be able to participate in NaNoWriMo this year. Still, less than a year an a half to get a story to beta readers. I’m happy with that.

Vacation Time!

Laura Highcove

So Otakon is this weekend (I am writing this post on Friday morning in order to still have something to post on Sunday) and so this week was a little wonky. I got plenty of notes done over the past weekend but not nearly as much as I could have. I feel that in the future I should be able to pound out notes in a draft in only slightly longer than it takes to actually read the story.

I am in the final fight scene right now, which is actually not as much of a total mess as I thought it was. The choreography of the fight needs a lot of work, but the A, B, C of what happens is pretty together.

After Otakon I am hanging out in Maryland (at my mother-in-law’s) for an extra three days (otherwise I would be spending Tuesday driving home to Southwest Virginia and Thursday taking the train to New York City for the Writer’s Digest conference.) which is just unnecessary travel. It will also give me three days of a no plans vacation in which I will finish out my notes and start in on my outline. (And maybe read some of Words of Radiance, the next #Branderson book in my queue.)

Which means that Writer’s Digest is imminent! I am a little package of nervous excitement. I am glad that I am able to take the train up and stay in the hotel with Anel (a writing buddy) so I won’t be all alone in the city. Btw, if you’re going to Writer’s Digest, drop me an email or a facebook message so I know to look for you.

So next week I may post twice! Once with what writing stuff I get done on my ‘vacation’, and another with the details of my experience at Writer’s Digest. Stay tuned!

Notes and Procrastination

Laura Highcove

I was talking with my mother Wednesday (as I do every Wednesday) and was telling her about how this project often feels overwhelming. But at the same time, even though it feels like I’ll never accomplish anything, the alternative is to stop writing. That possibility does not exist in my world. So the only path is to continue forward.

As such, I am still in the process of adding notes to The Storyteller. I’m not quite halfway through, though I am making quicker headway than I was. As long as I can sit down and remind myself that all I’m doing is writing down notes, things go smoothly.

And what is the logical follow up for deciding you are going to continue on a project come hell or high water? Well it’s to procrastinate of course!

You may or may not be aware that I have some skills in Photoshop. That banner ^. Totally made that myself. I have, in the past, made (pseudo) book covers, banners, and wallpapers for my stories as inspiration points. This is the one I put together this past week for The Storyteller. I even made sure this time to get free-use pictures.

I find that having pictures that represent my stories helps me to feel like they’re more real somehow. This wallpaper is now my desktop background and I am able to look at it and it encourages me to keep going. I’m pretty happy with it.

Baby Steps

Laura Highcove

Getting back into the swing of writing has been rough. Mostly because the ‘writing’ has consisted of reading my story and then reading it again while making notes of things I need to change, fix, or add.

What About Bob? I was hoping that on reading The Storyteller over again, that I would be encouraged by how much I had done. Instead I find myself scared by how much I haven’t done. It’s much harder to make myself sit down and work on the story than it has been in the past.

I read some articles on revision in the past, and I remember a lot of them seeming to say: ‘Sure, I went though and jotted down notes on what needed to be fixed, then I made a plan and viola!’ Maybe for some people it is like that. I feel like I’m still light-years from a readable book, much less a publishable one.

As for my actual process. Right now I am making a new copy of each scene, and then going through and putting in notes. Right now I’m ignoring descriptions that need to be improved, dialogue that needs tweaking, all of the typos. The notes that I write are in reference to plot, world building, and character building issues. All the ‘huge’ points that need to be hammered into place so that someone could read the story and at least follow what’s going on.

I am not actually fixing any of these issues yet. Right now most of the notes are in reference to little things. Things that aren’t too lumpy, but I know that later I have major holes and whole scenes that will need to be added and rewritten. In order to keep the project from feeling overwhelming, I just have to keep taking baby steps.

Getting Back in the Saddle

Laura Highcove

It’s time to get back to The Storyteller! If you can remember back that far, I did indeed say I was going to take two months off, however, I neglected to take into account how long a month is. The story is sufficiently rested.

I am excited to continue working out my writing process through actual action. This story, come what may of it, is probably going to be the single most important novel in my discovery of said writing process.

Right now, the rough plan I have for The Storyteller is:

1) I’m going to read the story through once and just see what’s there and how it flows when I’m doing nothing but reading.

2) I’m going to then read it a second time and take notes on what is there and what isn’t there that I would like to be there.

3) I’m planning on making a post-it note outline with colors for different plot threads and things that need to be added so I can see everything at a glance and move things around at will.

4) Go in and write the bits that are missing and I know there are a lot of them. This will probably constitute a large chunk of the planned six months. Move around my post-it note outline (pino!) as I write to keep an eye on where I’m going and to see whether it is ‘complete’ as a story. The end of this step happens when all of the pieces are in the story, such that it makes sense in a read-through from beginning to end. (I’m going to put four months here, but this will likely change.)

5) Send story out to beta readers and get feedback.

6) Run through the whole story multiple times, tweaking and changing as I go, possibly focusing on certain aspects of the story such as plot, character, etc (Similar to my plan at the beginning of the year) to further hone stuff.

I’m not putting any time restraints on here and probably won’t until after step 2, at which point I can reevaluate where I think I am. I need to keep reminding myself that my process is my own. I need to stop getting bogged down with the process of others.

Retrospective

Laura Highcove

So here I am, after spending a week not working on The Storyteller. That doesn’t mean I don’t have anything to write about for this post, however. I figured this would be a great time to sit down and figure out what it is I’ve gotten out of the past five months. I just went back and read all of my posts, and I cannot even believe the ups and downs I managed to get through. It’s sort of mind boggling that I got anything done.

Major things I learned:

1) I am starting to hammer out what my process is.

I am not a writer who pounds out a rough draft and then edits it a few times. I’m not convinced I pound out a rough draft in the first place. I don’t do much planning at all before I sit down and write, so all of my planning is done as I write. That makes me believe that my first and second drafts are nothing more than active planning.

I always assumed that the way I used to write (writing until I had a new idea, then going back and editing and writing a little more, then repeat) was no good, mostly because I rarely had the discipline to stick with one story long enough to actually finish it. I have now accepted that that is likely part of my process. My first ‘draft’ is more ‘getting all the ideas on the page’ (whether I get to the end of the story or not), I let it rest, then sit down with everything I wrote and expand on the characters, the magic system, the world, etc. Then I write another draft, which is still not a completed rough draft, but at this point I should get through the entirety of the story. (So I have a legit ending.)

This is as far as I’ve gotten in the process thus far with The Storyteller. I know I am missing at least one subplot and many more details that need to be fleshed out. After this rest period, I will likely hammer out a few more details, and then turn the draft into an actual rough draft. As much as I want to compare myself to people who can just hammer out beautiful rough drafts ~cough~ #branderson ~cough~ I’m just going to have to keep working on what my own process is.

2) I am not as much a beginner writer as I thought

I am finding that I actually do have processes and good habits as a writer that I just didn’t recognize. SUBLIST!

a) I can hammer out words. I mean like seriously.
b) I can write most anywhere with most anything. Laptop, desktop, notebook, back of an envelope, whatever.
c) My ideas develop as I write them. I can only do so much sitting and thinking. (Not that it doesn’t help)
d) I am hella stubborn. As many times as I have thought about abandoning my story, I really am more stubborn than I thought. It basically comes down to the fact that I know I’m never going to stop writing, so abandoning a specific project is just losing a way to improve.

3) Other writers suck too

I have had a lot of problems with comparing what I write to other amazing stories out there. (This includes novels, movies, tv shows, webcomics, etc.) And I am actually starting to take a step back and look at the fact that everyone has stuff that is trash along with the stuff that is good. Or they started out and weren’t all that great and developed over time. Even well-written stuff can drop the ball in a serious way.

So as I work my way through my two months of not working on the Storyteller, it does allow me to take a step back and look at things objectively. I made a deadline and I met it. I succeeded at some things, failed at others. I even have comments on my last two blog posts! I want to thank everyone who has followed me this far. I’m not done yet. Stick around.

Completing a Draft

Laura Highcove

As you may remember from posts past, my overall plan was to finish this write through of the story by June 6th, which is a Saturday, and when I would start playing my video game reward. I worked on writing the end of the story, while reminding myself it is all rough draft to keep from over analyzing, from the outline I made a while ago. I stumbled around the final fight scene, then I started in on the final scene and I just started writing and things were just coming together. It was making sense, and I was really happy with it. I tweaked the epilogue (which I had written before as a goal point) and then I sat back and thought ‘Wow, this might actually be good, like not just ‘I got through it’, but good.’

I gushed to my husband about how happy I was that the story was good, even though the first half and second half were not the same length. So my husband asked how long they were. I told him. Then he said, “You know that means your story is only 55k words, right?”

Of course I didn’t know that. Who the heck just adds two numbers together in their head? Suffice it to say, I very quickly went from being proud of myself to realizing I didn’t have a novel length draft. (Much less a fantasy novel length draft.) And while my draft is rather rough in some places, and will need some scenes added in and such, the idea of being able to add 35k words did not seem plausible.

This is what having a mentor is for. She suggested that after letting it rest for a while, I should read through it again and find a subplot that could be expanded on. That sounded like a perfect idea to me, reminding me that sometimes seemingly horrible problems have simple answers.

So since Wednesday, my draft has been sitting, and I keep feeling like I should be writing, and then I remember that I’m taking a break. It’s a surreal experience as always. Sort of like the first week after I graduated from college when I realized I would never have to go to school again. Like ever. 😀

Worry not, as I am currently alpha reading my husband’s book (which I’ve been promising to do forever) so I’m not completely out of the writing game. I also started playing my reward game.