As I was Working

When I sit down to write, I always have music on that suits my project. Well, I'm working on a short fantasy right now that I can figure out what music to play with it, so I put in LOTR -- Fellowship of the Ring and I start writing. I look up and Legolas is looking shocked (Gandalf has just died) and confused. I continue writing and look up a few pages later, and Boramir has died. I wrote quite a bit tonight. But the emotional impact of those two scenes reminded me of where I need to be with my own work.

A First Draft in a Month?

That is the claim. I spent the weekend at a mini-writer’s conference, and that was the focus of it. To write a first draft in one month. Actually what you are writing is a 100 page outline in that month. It’s an indepth outline designed to make everyone believe that the only real writers are plotters. Ugh. While I learned a lot, the process is suppose to take a couple of months or so and only 2 drafts. The outline and then the final one. Well, not really, there is a lot of editing as you go, stuff going on. I actually found the method too stringent. I don’t believe that the only successful writer’s are plotters. There are a lot of pantsers and good portion of hybrids—those who are both plotters and pantsers.

Okay, so the challenge to myself is to take April, not March, because 1 – it’s already started, 2 – I have to move soon, and 3 – I’m still on vacation, and write the first draft in one month. And then to take either May or June (probably June) because there is vacation and graduation in May and revise the heck out of it and submit it to a publisher by the end of June. And this is a new work, not one I’ve been working on, though it can be the sequel to it.

FYI

Even though a great many literature authors will tell you that you must be depressed, under tension, and despair regularly in order to write anything worth while. I whole-heartedly disagree with that sh*t. First of all, you have to want it. Second of all, you have to have a measure of talent that you were born with, and third of all, you have to guts, determination, and have unquestionable faith in yourself and your abilities. Otherwise, quit. It's easier. Less taxing on those pour fragile nerves and the rejections you recieve for your work won't cause you to go further into depression. But, on the other hand, if you believe that dribble, don't be surprised when the rejections start piling up. Very few people want to read about how depressed you are and how sad everything is.

Enough said.

WoW

It looks like we will finally finish filming WoW the 2nd full weekend of June. The interiors, the last historical exterior -- a dusk shot, and all of the contemporary stuff. Yeah. Now all I have to do is finish the costumes for the last scene, rewrite the contemporary scenes, and add the ending and the alternate ending. Because, really, I like Happy Endings.

One Story Becomes Three

The story I've been working on forever now, has become three. Today, in hopes of meeting my new resolution -- at least one of them, I've written about 5 pages, but I also figured out how to keep track of the "texts, letters, prophacies, and other documents" used in my story. NOt to mention the timeline and printed out the first 10 chapters so that I can start to edit, revise, and check for consistancy. I'm hoping that this will be finished by February 1st.

Writerly Goals

I've been thinking about my goals and lifestyle changes for 2006. It's almost new years, and it's a tradition.

Concievably, I would love to write a chapter or a two a week. But realistically, I think 10 pages to a chapter is better. Tha gives me play room. But if I can get my 10-20 pages written a week that'd be great, although, 3 or 4 chapters a week will get the newest trilogy written faster, which is good since I asked several of my friends if they'd critique for me and I've already recieved questions on how many pages and words I've written. Gotta get moving. So that'll be good.

So the goals are to write 2-6 pages a day or 10-20 pages a week, with more being preferable. To set up a working a critique system. And to query at least one editor.

Script Changes

Okay, for about 4 years now, I've been working on and off again on this Romantic Fantasy, mostly off, and last year I had made significant headway on it. When my dad passed away in August, I stopped working on it. But the other night, thanks to a couple of good friends and a wipe board with multiple colored markers, I not only worked on it, I answered a question that had been plaguing me and found that I had more than one story.

I had been asking myself if I had too much for my characters to do in one story? Yes. But could anything be eliminated without changing the story? No. So, I was left wondering what my options were. So I asked my roomate and one of my best friends, well, they were more like a captive audience (it was after the cookie and ornament exchange I had) and I picked their brains, but they did offer some excellent insight into my problem.

In the end, I ended up with a trilogy. A trilogy based more in fantasy and less in romance. The titles were worked out, the character arc sketched -- because there must be growth for the characters in all three novels or else the reader will curse the writer and end up hating the characers, both of which are bad -- the plot thickened, one of the subplots sketched out, and the general conclusion of the whole blasted thing outlined. So now, I'm left with writing the thing, ending the first book with a hook and a reward. I'm still on chapter 11 of the book, which will be returning to it's first title, which also means a Character POV shift. The first book will be more about her. The second book will be more about him. And the third book will be about them and the happily ever after. Well, there is more to it than that, but you get the idea.