So I'm almost two hours in to Write Your Ass Off Day. I've completed some revision work on chapter ten and after a short break for a snack and Diet Dr. Pepper, it's full speed ahead with chapter eleven.
With revision I cut some words but ended up adding 337 words to the chapter. I'm not fond of overly long chapters, especially in YA fiction. Mine end up averaging about 15 or 16 pages.
Chapter ten is 18 pages and switches scenes several times between two events happening simultaneously. In this chapter, my main character, Ruby, discovers her true nature, a Shedim, a spirit commonly referred to as a demon, but, in the world of the novel, neither specifically good nor evil.
Writing fantasy fiction is new for me. I usually stick with mainstream literary. Deciding how to reveal a supernatural existence in a way that is believable and powerful, while keeping the level of tension tight, has been difficult. I decided to approach it by having the secret revealed by other characters in separate scenes and flashing back and forth between short passages, revealing several important aspects of the novel's plot at the same time. It feels like it works. I think the next chapter will begin with a bridge scene where she has time to think and take in all the strange recent events of her life. I don't want every scene to contain new action. She needs time to digest what's happening. I'll post how it's going in a few hours.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Write Your Tush Off Day! commences
Okay, so best laid plans ... and all that.
I'm posting my comment from the blog Editorial Ass as explanation of why I didn't start my Write Your Ass Off Day on time.
I'll be posting my progress participating in WYAOD over the weekend. I've just about finished my Grande Sugar-free Cinnamon Dolche Americano and it's off to work on Chapter 11 of the book. It's such a beautiful day outside in sunny Florida. I'm going to try hard to stay motivated.
I'm posting my comment from the blog Editorial Ass as explanation of why I didn't start my Write Your Ass Off Day on time.
Better late than never. I signed up to write my @ss off from 11am to 7pm today and instead slept my @ss off until 11:30 then ran my teenage son around town. But it's 1:30ish and I'm starting now. I'm splitting the eight hours between today and tomorrow, so one butt cheek off Saturday and one Sunday. What else can I do tomorrow when everyone else I know is watching the big game. Go, eh? Who's playing? Anyway ... starting off with a blog post @ Doom-Eager (my blog about the rapture and misery of writing (http://doom-eager.blogspot.com) and then working on my YA manuscript. I'm about 28,000 words in (130 pages or so) and looking to knock out 2,000 words this weekend. Wish me luck!
Saturday, February 06, 2010 1:41:00 PM
I'll be posting my progress participating in WYAOD over the weekend. I've just about finished my Grande Sugar-free Cinnamon Dolche Americano and it's off to work on Chapter 11 of the book. It's such a beautiful day outside in sunny Florida. I'm going to try hard to stay motivated.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
the rules of writing
I continue my theme of "the rules of writing" with this quote from W. Somerset Maugham:
Maugham's Of Human Bondage begins with a brief description of the weather and the actions of a woman servant on a day when the protagonist's mother dies. What interests me about this opening is that the reader enters the story when the protagonist is very young. The first fifteen chapters take the reader through various points in the young boy's childhood. By page 56 in the Penguin Book edition I own, Philip is thirteen and attending school, The King's School at Tercanbury.
I guess what interests me here is the question of "low" versus "high" openings. It seems these days that all I hear about openings are "grab the reader's attention" and "begin as close to the end as possible." I contend Maugham does not do this and wonder if his manuscript would have been repeatedly rejected based on this opening.
Are openings of setting description and backstory (even when worked into action and dialogue) universally dismissed these days? If I've got an agent's or publisher's attention for maybe three to five minutes, do I even dare a "low" or "quiet" opening? Is this question of the best opening just a matter of current fashion?
This "no rules" thing really bugs me.
There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.
Maugham's Of Human Bondage begins with a brief description of the weather and the actions of a woman servant on a day when the protagonist's mother dies. What interests me about this opening is that the reader enters the story when the protagonist is very young. The first fifteen chapters take the reader through various points in the young boy's childhood. By page 56 in the Penguin Book edition I own, Philip is thirteen and attending school, The King's School at Tercanbury.
I guess what interests me here is the question of "low" versus "high" openings. It seems these days that all I hear about openings are "grab the reader's attention" and "begin as close to the end as possible." I contend Maugham does not do this and wonder if his manuscript would have been repeatedly rejected based on this opening.
Are openings of setting description and backstory (even when worked into action and dialogue) universally dismissed these days? If I've got an agent's or publisher's attention for maybe three to five minutes, do I even dare a "low" or "quiet" opening? Is this question of the best opening just a matter of current fashion?
This "no rules" thing really bugs me.
Check out this writing blog
Just stumbled upon a new writing blog to follow. Well, new to me, at least. It's Writer Unboxed. Give it a look-see. I read an interesting post on prologues vs. prefaces vs. forwards. Not a big fan of prologues (tend to skip those), but I usually read the preface or forward of a nonfiction book.
For more on prologues, check out the latest post on Pub Rants, "Why prologues often don't work." Just click on my link to Pub Rants under My Blog List.
For more on prologues, check out the latest post on Pub Rants, "Why prologues often don't work." Just click on my link to Pub Rants under My Blog List.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
A Cool Writing E-vent
What a great idea. Moonrat at the blog Editorial Ass has set up a Write Your @ss Off E-vent this weekend. I've signed up for Saturday from 11am to 7pm. Eight glourious hours of writing. Now that I've committed myself to an actual event, I think I'll get some productive work done this weekend. It's easy to slack on the weekends. Then, again, I find it's easy to slack anytime. I'm nearing the half-way mark in the manuscript but have been stuck the last few days in a difficult chapter.
Check out Write Your @ass Off Day at Editorial Ass. See My Blog List below.
I'll be posting my writing progress on Saturday, Feb. 6th. on Moonrat's blog.
Check out Write Your @ass Off Day at Editorial Ass. See My Blog List below.
I'll be posting my writing progress on Saturday, Feb. 6th. on Moonrat's blog.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Advice for the Beginning Writer
After my blog yesterday on all the "helpful" (really confusing) advice for beginning writers available in the multitude of writing magazines and manuals, I ran across this bit of sage advice from John Gardner in his classic The Art of Fiction:
How does one achieve mastery? According to John Gardner one must both read widely and write not only "carefully but continually."
Here's a thought: In Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers, reporting findings on why some people succeed more than others, Gladwell asserts that mastery in a craft is likely attained by reaching a number measurement. When do we reach mastery? Gladwell claims it comes with 10,000 hours of practice.
Okay, I've taken liberty with his research and simplified what Gladwell reports, but it's reassuring to know that "mastery" is not some unattainable, unquantifiable, nebulous thing. We're not talking "perfection," we're talking "mastery." I can handle that notion. I can practice writing a certain number of hours, with Gardner's carefulness and consideration, "assessing and reassessing" what I write. That's doable.
So, today I got some good advice I can grasp onto and use. Just thought I'd pass it along. Let me know your advice for the beginning writer.
What the beginning writer needs, discouraging as it may be to hear, is not a set of rules but mastery -- among other things, mastery of the art of breaking so-called rules.
How does one achieve mastery? According to John Gardner one must both read widely and write not only "carefully but continually."
Here's a thought: In Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers, reporting findings on why some people succeed more than others, Gladwell asserts that mastery in a craft is likely attained by reaching a number measurement. When do we reach mastery? Gladwell claims it comes with 10,000 hours of practice.
Okay, I've taken liberty with his research and simplified what Gladwell reports, but it's reassuring to know that "mastery" is not some unattainable, unquantifiable, nebulous thing. We're not talking "perfection," we're talking "mastery." I can handle that notion. I can practice writing a certain number of hours, with Gardner's carefulness and consideration, "assessing and reassessing" what I write. That's doable.
So, today I got some good advice I can grasp onto and use. Just thought I'd pass it along. Let me know your advice for the beginning writer.
Monday, January 25, 2010
First post of 2010
January is almost over and this is my first post in 2010. When I started this blog, my goal was to post entries of inspiration and information, material that kept me going, writing day to day. It's so easy to say "I'll get to it tomorrow" and "I'm not feeling it right now."
The good news is it worked. I have been writing more. What that means is I've been working on the novel draft more and, thus, on my blog less. I never intended to create a blog chronicling my progress with the book painful page after page, whining about the struggle for the best opening line, lamenting over point-of-view issues. But, hey, leave it to me to head off one direction and do an about-face. Having said this . . .
I'm 120 pages into the first draft of the novel. I say first draft, but I revise a lot along the way, so much so I rewrote chapter one eight times before I felt satisfied going on to chapter two. The months of May and June of '09 were spent thrashing back and forth over where to begin the story and that elusive first sentence. Damn, you, opening lines ...
You hear everywhere that you've only got the first few pages, possibly the first few paragraphs to grab an agent/editor/publisher, and every article gives the same contradictory advice. Don't open with dialogue, but grab the reader with compelling dialogue or we'll chuck you in the recycle bin. Don't bore us with setting openings, but create a sense of place that's rich and evocative or we'll file 13 you. Jump into the initiating event right away but build character from the beginning. Don't start with a passive sentence but Toni Morrison's opening of Beloved, "124 was spiteful.", is one of the best openings ever (which is totally true). It's enough to make your head spin. Not just spin, but spin off, careening into the YA section of B & N, which, by the way, is a dark and scary place to be right now.
So, the first few months I didn't get past chapter one. Since then, it's been better, slowly. I'm about over the panic that when I sit down to write, nothing will come, that I'll end up crazed and homicidal, typing "All work and no play makes Kimberly a bad girl."
Now I just feel a bit nautious and worry that I won't make my word quota each time, which I usually do. It is just a matter of setting up a routine and doing it. In the last six months, I've learned to take all the helpful writing advice with a grain of salt, or a glass of wine somedays, and just try to do good work scene by scene. At least that advice helps me keep my head on straight.
The good news is it worked. I have been writing more. What that means is I've been working on the novel draft more and, thus, on my blog less. I never intended to create a blog chronicling my progress with the book painful page after page, whining about the struggle for the best opening line, lamenting over point-of-view issues. But, hey, leave it to me to head off one direction and do an about-face. Having said this . . .
I'm 120 pages into the first draft of the novel. I say first draft, but I revise a lot along the way, so much so I rewrote chapter one eight times before I felt satisfied going on to chapter two. The months of May and June of '09 were spent thrashing back and forth over where to begin the story and that elusive first sentence. Damn, you, opening lines ...
You hear everywhere that you've only got the first few pages, possibly the first few paragraphs to grab an agent/editor/publisher, and every article gives the same contradictory advice. Don't open with dialogue, but grab the reader with compelling dialogue or we'll chuck you in the recycle bin. Don't bore us with setting openings, but create a sense of place that's rich and evocative or we'll file 13 you. Jump into the initiating event right away but build character from the beginning. Don't start with a passive sentence but Toni Morrison's opening of Beloved, "124 was spiteful.", is one of the best openings ever (which is totally true). It's enough to make your head spin. Not just spin, but spin off, careening into the YA section of B & N, which, by the way, is a dark and scary place to be right now.
So, the first few months I didn't get past chapter one. Since then, it's been better, slowly. I'm about over the panic that when I sit down to write, nothing will come, that I'll end up crazed and homicidal, typing "All work and no play makes Kimberly a bad girl."
Now I just feel a bit nautious and worry that I won't make my word quota each time, which I usually do. It is just a matter of setting up a routine and doing it. In the last six months, I've learned to take all the helpful writing advice with a grain of salt, or a glass of wine somedays, and just try to do good work scene by scene. At least that advice helps me keep my head on straight.
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