Category Archives: Work-in-progress

Work-in-progress, Writing

Busting a Writing Blockage

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So I’m lucky enough to have never experienced what most people think of as writer’s block. That iconic image of staring at a bright screen and literally having no idea what to write. That’s never happened to me. I have occasionally worried I might run out of ideas for stories, but inevitably something will strike me at the oddest time. I’ve had two ideas while listening to NPR so I give my local station a monthly donation because they are awesome!!!

I have gotten stuck before in a WIP (many times!), but I’ve never thought of it as writer’s block, per se because it isn’t that I don’t know what to write, I’m just having some sort of issue with my manuscript that I need to work through before I can continue. My subconscious knows there is a problem with the story.  And now after an epiphany about my current WIP in the wee hours last night, I’ve begun to think of what I typically experience as a writing blockage. The story is temporarily clogged, but with some prodding, the blockage will clear and the story will flow freely again.

Sometimes I don’t even realize I have a blockage until after I’ve figured it out. And then I’m like, oh I should have known there was something wrong with the story, since I’ve been so reluctant to work on it! Hopefully, others will be better at recognizing it than me because I have some ideas on how to be a plumber for your own story (am I taking this metaphor too far? I think I might be!).

This time I attributed my lack of eagerness for my WIP to still being burnt out from NaNoWriMo. I wrote 80k and there’s still so much story left! It was a little overwhelming. But I didn’t really worry about it because I’ve been busy with other writerly and productive things this month. So that’s my first suggestion: take a break. Do something else creative for awhile. Let your brain rest from one story to work on something else. Then, when you go back, you might see the problem more clearly. I realized that I was having my character do something because PLOT REASONS and not because she would actually do that thing. It made sense at the time when I was outlining, but when I was writing, it felt wrong. I pushed that thought away because NaNoWriMo, but my gut was correct. So I went ahead and revised the scene a little bit, toned it down some and now I’m much more comfortable with the direction.

If you don’t have time to take a break or don’t have another project to work on, try rereading what you’ve written. You may not want to start revising (you can if you want to), but think about the choices your characters make or the things happening to them, look for problems with the story that may be causing your blockage. Brainstorm some different choices for them. What would happen if they chose differently at a key point? Or maybe the problem is with what you’re going to write next. Brainstorm different ideas for where the story might go, maybe your brain is telling you you need to rethink the direction. Brainstorming is awesome because none of it is set in stone (and by stone I mean in-story words, which obviously aren’t set in stone, but may be hard to delete since you worked so hard on them). See where it takes you.

And finally, pick up a writing book. Something about plot and structure or character development or anything storytelling/craft related (I don’t think grammar books would have the same impact). Read a couple chapters and let your mind wander down whatever path it wants. Jot down notes. My brain is always sparking when reading books about writing, even if I’ve read the book before. And even if the book doesn’t relate to the issue you are having, you never know what connections your brain will make. Two of my favorites are Donald Maass and James Scott Bell, but there are so many writing books out there. You don’t even necessarily need to take any of their advice either, but if there are exercises, try them out. The main goal is to get your story flowing again.

Hopefully, I will remain blockage free moving forward and I hope you do too! But if the worst happens, maybe one of these ideas will help you out. Happy writing!

 

Research, Work-in-progress, Writing

New Discoveries about Maya Civilization: Perfect timing for my next editing project

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Way back in 2013 I managed to write an entire 1st draft during NaNoWriMo. I call it The Vern after an important religious figure in the book. The setting is inspired by the Maya, but I made up all the religious ceremonies etc based on another idea I had even longer ago. Anyway, the setting, temples, food, clothing, and architecture is all Maya-inspired.

I’ve recently decided this will be the next project I focus on after I finish writing Skyfall because the first draft is complete. The book I started writing during NaNo 2016 isn’t finished yet, so I decided to hold off on that one. My goal–and a steep one–will be to revise it by the end of the year. This is probably overly ambitious, but I can try.

So, when I heard on the radio that archeologists have discovered that the Maya civilization is much more extensive in area and dense in population than previously thought, I figured it was a sign I’d chosen the correct project to work on next. This is so exciting for me because what I’ve imagined for my book is actually closer to reality than I expected. I had to fudge some stuff (it’s fantasy, remember) to create the feeling I wanted for the setting, but now I’ll be closer to the truth which is always nice. The big discoveries I’m most interested in are:

  • denser population (3-4x what they thought), possibly 10 million people
  • cities connected by raised causeways! for trade and travel
  • massive farming and irrigation operations
  •  more interconnected fortifications and other evidence of war than they thought and from before they thought

All of this will help define the world of The Vern when I go back and start revising. I’m really hoping to focus on my setting this next draft and all this will help. I’m pretty good at societal structures and history in my world-building, but the actual physical details are more difficult for me.

 

Work-in-progress, Writing

NaNoWriMo 2017: Skyfall

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I’m so excited to get started writing my project for this year’s NaNoWriMo. As I explained this is a complete revamp of my very first novel. At its core, it’s similar: girl wants to do this cool thing she’s dreamed of her whole, but can’t because magic sucks. But the world and magic are completely different.

Believe it or not, I was inspired by the Matt Damon’s movie, The Great Wall. While it’s no The Martian, I actually quite enjoyed it. The pageantry of the army was great and it was the crane divers that really started me off on my new idea–that and a segment on NPR about a woman who works as a scientific researcher, trying to cure her own neurologic genetic disease, which would cause her to deteriorate rapidly once she started showing symptoms.

I also used an idea I had years and year ago–I called it my flying world–where people flew to help them battle in a war because they were constantly being attacked by countries who wanted their magic. Those flyers had wings (and this was completely unrelated to my first novel starring Marla) but in this novel they don’t, they use magic that basically controls their relationship with gravity. But they do live in a country constantly battling to survive because the surrounding nations want their magic.

Skyfalls are what those who wield this magic are called. They use it to make weapons for the military to use. The book is her struggle to come to terms with the new direction to her life (and a whole host of other problems as well.)

I have more scenes planned than will take me to get to 80k words, which is my goal and I’ve only planned through Act II, so it might be a long one.

Work-in-progress, Writing

When you read that NaNo novel you wrote two years ago for the first time…

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I’ve started rereading The Vern (not the real title) one of my NaNo projects from 2013, the year I went insane and racked up 130,000 words in 30 days. I’m looking at it for a couple of reasons:

  1. I need something else (other than Autocrit) to focus on while my queries for Dakotashi One are out there in agent-land (I don’t have anything at the right stage to start writing).
  2. If I go through all the agents who represent fantasy that I can find and none bite on Dakotashi, I’ll need something else to send them.
  3. The Vern fits some of the wish-list criteria I’ve seen: multicultural, non-European setting.
  4. It’s a cool story/setting/characters that I definitely wanted to get back to anyway at some point.

It’s a weird experience. It’s both better and worse than I thought. I don’t remember all that happens, so I’m enjoying the story and characters, but I also notice all these things that need to be worked on. Everything needs to be tightened, of course—NaNo right? But while so far I think the plot & characters are good, I’m narrating/telling way too much. The characters are on a journey so there a lot of jumping around (to avoid unending travel through rainforests where nothing happens), but the scenes are too short (because of the narration/telling) to really ground the reader before jumping again. So I’ll need to find ways to be more present in the moment and expand the scenes without focusing too much on mundane journey stuff that doesn’t really matter.

I also discovered that one of my main characters reminds me of Dakotashi in that she has a rich & violent backstory. I have been thinking recently about how while I love flashbacks on TV, I tend to dislike them when I’m reading. I made the decision not to use flashbacks for Dakotashi, despite his rich and relevant backstory, for this reason. However, I’m thinking now that maybe they’ll work in this story.

I’ve always wanted Dakotashi’s history to be somewhat mysterious and vague. His story affects his emotions more than anything else. For Amber, one of my main characters in The Vern, her story not only affects her emotions, but the plot and her relationships with other characters. Anyway, I am at least considering using flashbacks for her.

In the meantime, I will continue to think about how to show all these scenes better. The Vern is going to require a lot of work, but maybe not as much scene moving/combining/rewriting as Dakotashi One. Wish me luck!

Research, Work-in-progress, Writing

History is Complex

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So I know this is perhaps the most understated of all understatements of all time, but it’s a problem for me. My Dakotashi series started out as kind of an more nebulous alternate world that echoed our own, like Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Dart series. But then it morphed into something a little more based in our reality, but still with significant changes, especially for my alternate England (Breinnan) and alternate Japan (Kansa). So the whole world-building aspect has been a major roadblock for me.

Even simple things like—Do I call Shakespeare Shakespeare, or do I give him a different name?—cause rounds of debate with myself. I’ve already given him a slightly different background for his characters in Romeo and Juliet although the plot remains the same (I also renamed it as it no longer takes place in Italy–oh the ripples!). The monarchy, I’m thinking starting with Queen Elizabeth, is completely different. How much of the rest of politics and history stays the same? It’s times like these that I wish I had taken an English history course in college. I would have, but I think that professor was on sabbatical for part of the time, offered courses that weren’t the ones I wanted (which let’s face it would probably have focused on Queen Elizabeth; Young Bess was one of my favorite movies growing up), or were in conflict with other classes. Honestly, I don’t really remember. I just wish I had a better foundation beyond the numerous regency romance novels I’ve read.

Beyond the two main countries I’m focusing on, I think the rest of the world can remain basically the same, but it’s still a little overwhelming. So I’ve been avoiding doing anything about it. Well, that has to stop if I’m going to be able to continue with my revision for Book 2. In this book, Breinnan and Kansa (where the invaders were magically sent from hundreds of years ago) come into contact. In order to make the interactions with the delegation from Kansa have stakes and tension, I obviously need to know the motivations on both sides, which has a lot to do with what is going on elsewhere in the world.

So I read up on the period in my Complete Idiot’s Guide to World History and perused more details in Wikipedia. Stellar sources of information, I know. Still, it’s helping. I think. I haven’t nailed down exactly when my story takes place: during the early part of the French Revolution, the Reign of Terror or during the Napoleonic Wars, but at least I have a better overview of the timeline again. It’s been a long time since the general World History course I took in college.

I also read a little about the East India Trading Company, which could cause even more trouble for me. How would having a king of Asian descent affect trade in that part of the world? Would it matter? Would it be an advantage? I know even less about the history of Britain’s trading empire than I do the French Revolution/Napoleonic Wars.

I’m doing everything backwards! But the fact I’m thinking about all of this is a step in the right direction. Baby steps, people.

Work-in-progress, Writing

Coincidences and Connections

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In addition to working on my Dakotashi Book 2 revisions, I’m also brainstorming Book 3 and beyond. It’s possible I’m getting ahead of myself, but I like to know where I’m going, at least in a general sense.

I had two ah ha moments while working some ideas out that got me thinking about connections. One of the ideas from Donald Maass that really clicked with me was plot layering and nodes of conjunction. Plot layers are basically the things that your main character is dealing with that are not connected. For example, your main character’s case as a detective and the blind dates her roommate keeps setting her up on. A node of conjunction is a place where you see these to plot layers can connect. For example, the blind date turns out to be one of the witnesses your MC just interviewed or later turns up in the case as a suspect. Now the two plot layers are connected. (That was off the top of my head. I don’t write detective fiction.) Although it seems like coincidence, in a novel it helps build a cohesive whole with additional resonance for the reader. You can do this in revision, but it’s less work to do it while brainstorming!

So it made me feel extra special to think of two ways to add connections so close together. I don’t know that either is exactly like what I describe above in terms of plot layers and nodes of conjunction, but I think that any connections that weave plot elements and characters closer together are a good thing. The first is for Book 3. I was thinking about a problem that Dakotashi is going to be dealing with and figured out a way to connect it to the over-arching story that’s going to be threading through these first several books. This will help tighten plot elements together.

The second is for some other time in the future, not sure when yet, but it connects someone who is going to be very important to Dakotashi’s future to someone who was very important in his past. I’m really excited about this one because it will make this relationship have more emotional impact even when it is still new. This one in particular would seem like a coincidence if I explained it without context, but built into the story, the reader will have the context, the characters their specific reasons to be when and where, and in the end it will seem more like fate!

Is that all vague enough? Sorry about that!

Work-in-progress, Writing

Revision Update: The Map

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Last night I finished the map for my revision. Or I think I did. It took awhile.

Like I said in my last post, I identified some areas that I think I can improve in my book. Most of the problems stem from, even though I intentionally put in scenes that serve more than one purpose, much of my draft being single layered, as in only one thing happening at once. Part of that is because Dakotashi can be pretty single-minded. Part of it is also I don’t always see how things connect or how they can connect until the first draft is finished and lay it all out. Then it’s like fitting together and rearranging a puzzle.

This time I used Scapple, a kind of note board from the creators of Scrivener. You start with a blank “page” and then add notes that you can move around and connect with each other with dotted lines or arrows. You can change text and border color and even border shape. So for my revision map, I wrote a short descriptive name for each scene (which I’ve already done in Scrivener b/c I don’t divide into chapters until later in my process) and then I started adding stuff, moving things around and seeing what connected/seemed to work better. All while keeping in mind the goals I had identified for my revision.

Scapple Revision Map

Here is screenshot of the first couple of scenes. The rounded black borders are the original scenes. Green is new material in a current scene. Blue is combined and Blue with a jagged border is moved and combined. It turned out to be pretty linear (with offshoots). If you look at what I did while brainstorming before I wrote the book, you can see that one was really free form.

Scapple Character Web

Then, I wrote a synopsis based on the outline to see if I could get everything to fit and flow. I did have to refer to my draft some to remind me exactly what was going on is some scenes. I have thought of a couple of problems that will necessitate some further refinement, but I think what I have is workable.

Next Steps: Expanding on the details when I put everything back into Scrivener for a more detailed outline moving forward. I’ll probably do some nitty gritty character and relationship progression work as well. I will be trying to follow the Revision: Plan for Attack that I thought of a couple years ago, refining/changing as I see fit.

Work-in-progress, Writing

Revision Update: Brainstorming

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Around watching a movie and tv today I spent most of the day brainstorming about my Dakotashi Book 2 revision. After reading over my first draft and trying to consider its problems, I decided the story needed more depth and for some of the conflict in the 2nd half to be moved up into the first half. So I’m thinking of some ways to move some things around, heighten others and add some also.

My problem now is trying to find the best way to map it all out in a way that I can see it all and make sense of what I’m changing and what is staying the same. Especially while I’m still brainstorming and figuring things out, this is very important so I don’t forget things and when I actually start the rewriting, I have a plan I can follow.

Wherever my revision goes, it’s still clear that my first draft is still a very rough first draft. I suspect if I ever want that to change I’ll have to stop writing so quickly over NaNoWriMo. But I’m not sure even if I took my time and wrote from an even more detailed outline, it would change the amount of work I’d have to do in revision. I discover so much of the story and characters while writing the first draft and probably more while revising.

Revision is when the story really takes shape.

Work-in-progress, Writing

NaNoWriMo Mid-point update

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I admit that this year has been more of a struggle for me. I will presume this has to do with writing the 2nd half of a novel instead of starting at the beginning. NaNovices beware. Don’t do this until you have a better sense of your process and flow. This is why the good folks at NaNo HQ tell you not to.

With that said, I’m doing well, ahead of the pace for 50k, but far behind my blistering word count from last year. As of Saturday (the official midpoint I was at 29,609. At the end of today, I stand at 33,155. So which makes the entire Dakotashi 2 novel about 83k so far. I was hoping for 100k, but as I’m through the climax now, I doubt I will get that far. I did forget to write a scene–one of those things I thought of, but didn’t write down on an Scrivener index card and therefore skipped. Oops. So I still have the skipped scene (or two) and several wrap up scenes to write.

Then I’m going to try pantsing it for the rest of the month on a new project that I’m pretty excited about. But I still expect the pantsing experiment to be a spectacular failure as I seem to need to map of where I’m going in a novel in order to get there, but we shall see. I’m hoping that I’ve matured in my writing some since the last time I tried writing without a plan, but if I need to in order to keep going, I will allow myself some brainstorming and plotting.

I want to get to 50k no matter what.

Work-in-progress, Writing

Progress NaNoWriMo 2014

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Participant-2014-Facebook-ProfileKeep updated with my progress on the 2nd half of  Dakotashi Book 2 during National Novel Writing Month. My NaNo username is dont_look_back, which is a reminder to turn my inner editor off during November.