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Celebrating My Victories

February 5, 2018February 5, 2018 Laura Highcove 2 Comments

This week, more on my new timesheets, because that is data and I love messing with data. I am really liking the effect the timesheet is having. It pushes me to do more work when I need to, but is also a way for me to sit down and say: “Okay, I’ve worked on my novel for two hours today, so no I don’t need to work on it more now.”

The other effect is that it lets me, definitively, see how long it takes me to do certain tasks. I find when writing new stuff, I tend to work better in half hour increments. When smoothing or revising, I can more easily work for up to an hour (or more).

It also lets me see what other things I did over the course of a week that I might forget I had done, like these past two weeks I went though my blog and re-jiggered the categories and tags. I now have:

Journal: Mostly talking about the writing I’ve been doing, but some of what’s going on in my life in general.
Blog posts: Which are posts that are meant to be more informational or topic focused than ‘what I’ve been doing’.
Reviews: Because I realized I really like doing reviews and talking about why I did or didn’t like particular media (tv shows, movies, books, and video games).
World of Warcraft: For all my old world of warcraft kill posts that I just can’t bring myself to delete.

It took some time, but it now means things are much neater, and that makes my heart happy.

Also, two great things happened this past week. First was that I reached the point in Huntsman where I *usually* bang my head against it, think nothing can be done, and become sad for several days. But this time I remembered my process after only one day, and went back to the beginning to smooth for a while. (I am also taking notes on the things I still need to do.) I am proud that I was actually able to look at my resistance and realize what it meant. It’s all part of getting comfortable with my process.

The second was that I got depressed (okay the depressed part wasn’t great) but I *realized* that I was depressed and gave myself the day off instead of beating myself up over the fact that I didn’t feel like working on the Huntsman. Instead I read more in my mushroom book (research for a potential story) and spent almost three hours writing the first drafts and taking pictures for the gryffin posts I have coming up. And those were both productive and fun.

So it was two wins in the “self-awareness” category and I am celebrating that fact. I didn’t try to force myself to feel the way I thought I should, I just listened to what I needed and worked from there and ended up more productive for it.

Added Feb 07: I totally forgot to make myself a writing goal. On Jan 21 my goal was to finish removing a character from the Huntsman and smooth to the end. Since then I got about halfway in, then went back to the beginning for another smoothing pass during which time I started taking notes on what I don’t like, or that needs to be fixed in each scene until I now reached the place where the book basically breaks down completely.

Plan for the next two weeks is now this: Finish off taking notes on the whole story (Wed), move the scenes around to try and make the story more whole (Thurs), write the new scenes I put in my notes as needing to write. (Sat/Sun).

Then the next week is another, heavy duty, smoothing pass. I’ll reevaluate where I am over the weekend and include my new plan in the next journal entry.

May Writing Plan

May 2, 2017May 2, 2017 Laura Highcove

In April I got very little writing done. It was a busy month with lots of fun things to do that managed to all fall on consecutive weekends. It means I got to do everything, but it also meant that preparing for the Horse Show and the Spotlight MasterTreat took up most of my free time.

Over this past weekend I was in Las Vegas for the MasterTreat, and in an attempt to stay on east coast time, I was up at 4 or 5 every morning. I managed to get a lot of ‘writing’ done during these free hours before the actual event started at 9. I actually did a lot of smoothing. (Which is what I call organizing/rewriting the results of writing scenes multiple times and in random order.)

When I got home and synked my files from Dropbox, I realized that all of the organization I had done had been reset. The changes in the files themselves were safe, but whatever file decides how the files are displayed in Scrivener must have got screwed up somehow. I had to go into my project folder, pull out all the files I had edited this weekend, and then try and put everything back in order.

I was rather annoyed about that and it took me longer to do than I would’ve liked. Instead of being able to continue the momentum I had over the weekend, I had to stumble around in the dark. I’ll push forward again knowing that some of the changes I think I made may not be there anymore.

That being said, it is still my goal to have the rough draft of The Huntsman done by the end of the month. So I have made a schedule in the form of a list, as I love to do:

May 3 – 7: I am going to finish smoothing (or resmooth if necessary) what I need to smooth.
May 8 – 14: I am going to focus on writing the scenes needed for Tabitha’s character arc, which involve Wildrose and Snowdrop.
May 15 – 21: I will be on vacation, but I always like working on my writing anyway. This week I’ll work on Emelia and do any smoothing as a result of the previous week.
May 22 – 28: I will work on finishing up the story which is mostly Gabir’s arc, which will give the book an ending.

I am looking forward to being able to put a done stamp on this rough draft since it has taken me so much longer than writing The Storyteller. I’ll be posting again in two weeks with another journal entry.

Limits

July 10, 2016July 10, 2016 Laura Highcove

I finally managed it. I figured out what Wildrose’s artifacts are. For a long time (while writing the story basically) I wanted Wildrose to just have a whole bunch of random artifacts that would do random spells that he would use cleverly. I have come to realize pretty hard, during writing this book, that unlimited options is the worst thing you could possibly have. With too much variety, there is no focus. I finally decided I had to sit down and figure out what the common element was for Wildrose’s artifacts. I knew three things:

1) He works at range. Ie, I kept wanting it to be something he could throw into melee from a distance and then have it do the thing.

2) He is very precise.

3) He has a larger variety of things he can do than the others.

I wrote a few scenes with different ideas, brainstormed several times with my husband. and eventually came up with his having a deck of tarot cards that are each an artifact and each have a spell in them. There are a few rules for the cards*:

1) The maximum number of cards in the deck is set, as are the spells for those cards. (I actually haven’t figured out what either of those are yet. I want the number of cards in the set to be a multiple of three as opposed to clinging faithfully to the actual tarot, and no, I have not spent the time yet to figure out what every spell he has is.)

2) He can have duplicates of a specific card, but he still can’t have over the maximum number of cards. For those of you who know D&D it’s like the 3.5 wizard with his spellbook and prepared spells.

3) It takes a certain amount of time to re-imbue a spell into a card once spent. Time it takes is effected by the strength of the spell. If he happens to lose a card, the process of recreating the card is far more arduous.

So now comes the step of going back and retro-fitting this into all the fights. As I said before I really should not have let myself get this far into the story without figuring this out, as it’s going to require a lot of rewriting, plus my beta readers don’t have it to give me feedback, but that’s where I am.

*This is the disclaimer that I’m still working on this story and ideas are bound to change, so nothing here is set in stone.

New Stage of Revision

June 19, 2016June 19, 2016 Laura Highcove

My writing process involves a lot of: ‘oh I’ll add that foreshadowing later’ or ‘I guess I’ll need to stick in an extra scene sometime’ or even ‘well I’ll get around to explaining that.’ in it. Now, for the first time, I have reached a stage where I actually have everything I wanted to do in the story. It’s not all perfect and beautiful and flowing, to be sure. But it’s all there.

And since it’s out with beta readers, I sort of hit a spot where I have no desire to work on it. It feels like a little switch in my head got flicked to ‘done’, and I have to keep reminding myself that it is not, in fact, done.

So I am using this blogging time to both blog, as well as plan what the next few steps will be, still holding to the DIYMFA revision pyramid, which for it’s simplicity, is so powerful. I have the bottom of the pyramid done. I know my pov. I have my character development done. My plot and story structure is all there.

That leaves making a list!

World building:

Make sure I have enough artifacts floating around that the world feels like it has artifacts.
Make sure all my magic is logical (As well as Tabitha’s progression through learning it.)
Hashing out the syntax of commands used for the Storybook.
Figuring out syntax for using remnants.

Description/Dialogue:

Mark all the places where description needs a boost. (Most of the fights fall in here.)
Make sure every person’s voice sounds right in their dialogue.

Theme:

Choice vs Fate
Everyone needs friends

Line Editing:

Print out the story on paper and see what typos pop out.

Now, the world building is still something I can do while the story is out with the beta readers, because if any of the feedback involves “well, I dunno about this world having magic” then I have other problems. The rest of it should wait until I know what scenes I may be adding or subtracting or moving around. Line editing won’t happen until I’m ready to submit to an agent. (I’ve only line edited one story before. It was annoying, and that story was only 12k words.)

I think the biggest thing I got from this week is remembering the benefits of sitting down and making a plan. Even though I never cleave 100% to the plan I make, it just helps to organize everything in my head and makes everything seem attainable as well. And it’s always important to give myself a little ego boost from time to time.

Plan for the Rest of the Year

September 6, 2015September 6, 2015 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.

Getting Back in the Saddle

July 5, 2015July 5, 2015 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

May 31, 2015May 31, 2015 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.

Drafting: Limiting my Writing

May 3, 2015May 3, 2015 Laura Highcove

I have no idea if this journal is helping or hurting me. On one hand, I have someone to be accountable to, even if there’s only one or two people clicking through from my facebook, or coming here of their on volition. It also makes me look at what I’m doing on a weekly basis, so I don’t get stuck in stagnation.

On the other time, it’s something else to eat up time, and I feel much guiltier about not getting done what I say I want to get done. Then because I don’t have time and am more scared to fail, I am hesitant to make any changes to my plans.

I know focus is a hard thing for me. Even when I was in college and I would work on my programming projects, I had a habit of banging out a section of code, getting it to a working place and then getting up and taking a walk around before coming back. The nice thing about getting up and walking around in a dorm room, is there’s not much to it. It’s easy to land back in my desk and then continue with the project.

Now my ‘get up and walk around’ ends up being going to a website of some variety and then I look up a half-hour (or longer) later having not gone back. Barring that is getting up and walking around my house, where I get distracted by a messy counter, a dusty TV, or something else to procrastinate with.

For the second week I feel like I worked pretty hard on my writing, and yet I still didn’t get all the way through what I said I would. I guess I could blame it on my not being good at planning how much I can get done in a week, but I also worry that I’m just not focused enough on it.

I want to get through the rest of Bluebeard and do the Headquarters section, which will drop me out in front of new content just in time for my vacation. That will give me four weeks to finish off the book by my deadline.

I think I might even try and limit my writing this week. I know that sounds a little counter productive, but I have been in a state of near constant guilt. Any time I am not writing I am feeling guilty about not writing. So let’s see:

Sunday: 2 hours + 1 for blog/facebook
Monday: .5 hours
Tuesday: 1.5 hours
Wednesday: 1 hours
Thursday: 0 hours
Friday: 1 hours
Saturday 2 hours + .5 for blog

That is: 8 hours of writing a week. And 1.5 for social media. I think that’s pretty good.

Revision Update: Main Character 1

February 14, 2015February 14, 2015 Laura Highcove

So I woke up Sunday morning last week and sat for a good half an hour in front of my computer with my inner critic on a rampage. I was so unhappy with how my revision was going (or not going) that I was ready to give up on the entire story because it wasn’t good enough.

But you see, this story is my tripwire. I put my last story away because I got stuck in the exact same place, the muddle in the middle. Just like with that other story, all attempts to shove and muscle my way forward caused more and more angst.

So after I let myself wallow my my negative thoughts for that half-hour, I told myself ‘This is not working, it’s time to take a step back.’ This is a lesson that the universe likes to keep throwing at me, and I’m finally starting to learn it.

Then I did the only thing I could think of and went back to the revision slides from my DIYMFA 101 class and started from the beginning. The answer slapped me in the face six slides in.

You see, Gabriela, the instigator of DIYMFA, had helped me come up with a revision plan using her revision pyramid and she said that characters or plot can be the base of the pyramid, dependent on which you are stronger at. I was confidant in my character development, so I decided to put plot and story first on my revision schedule.

Well when I took that step back, I realized that I am great at character development …on all of the characters that I have been working on for years. However, the story I am revising right now has been in existence for less than five months, so of course the characters aren’t well-developed yet.

I spent the rest of Sunday filling out character questionnaire for all of the important characters. And then I spent the rest of my time this week poking at Tabitha in a few scenes again just to see what came out, and she seems much happier when I’m not trying to simply shove her after plot points.

So as for my specific measurable goal from last week, I failed to achieve my goal. I instead discovered that I had my revision plan in the wrong order. As such I am reordering it:

December 6 – 31 (3.5wks): Extract an Outline
January 1 – February 7 (5wks): Plot and Story
February 8 – March 5 (4wks): Main Character
March 6 – 26 (3wks): Secondary Character(s)
March 27 – April 2: (1wk) Plot and Story 2
April 3 – April 23 (3wks) World Building
April 24 – April 30 (1wk) Dialogue
May 1 – May 14 (2wks) Description
May 15 – May 28 (2wks): Theme
May 28 – June 3 (1wk): Line Editing

There is a yoga aphorism that is very common around the barn where I ride that goes like this:

Do the work,
Reflect on the work,
Release the results.

I am doing the work required for this revision (taking into account honoring my reality), and I am reflecting on the work, which has basically become the job of his blog, and while part of me wants to be upset about the fact that my timeline is pushed back, I just have to look at what has happened and release the result. Good or bad, the result cannot be changed so I take what I can learn from the process, and start it over again.

So now for my new specific measurable goal! This week I am going to write an outline for Tabitha’s character arch, and then go through my folders focusing only on the pieces of the story that deal with her character arch. My goal is to get through the first six folders, which shouldn’t be hard as she’s fairly well-established in them already. Folder 7 is where I started running into a wall.

And since this post is getting close to too long, see you next week!