PROGRESS: 14 pages/4,000 words, Ready for Chapter Four

I got stuck less than 50 pages into Marla, Book One. I couldn’t decide the best way to handle something, but I think I’ve got it now. I was writing a whole scene to acomplish one thing. Now, I’ve folded it into the next scene and I think it moves the plot along better that way.

I wrote a whole scene filled with important information that I almost immediately cut, realizing it revealed too much information. Still, once Nat has suspicions about the villain, I can put the scene back in.

After spending a relatively miserable weekend feeling sorry for myself about various things including my personal life and my job life (and reading a book and 1/2) , I finally got back in the groove and wrote last night. I’ve been looking foward to writing this scene ever since I thought of the changes I was going to make in it. It’s an action sequence and I had a good time writing it.

This scene sets Marla’s goal back and attracts the villain to poke her nose in again. 🙂

Next: Three scenes that are direct consequences of the action-scene I just wrote.

GOALS FOR THE WEEK:

• Write the above three scenes and more
• Organize writing space in spare bedroom; add bulletin board and dry erase board for notes and ideas
• Continue to think about Song of the Prophecy, especially the addition of a secret society for the Mother or one for each of them.

Ok, well, she doesn’t live, but the project does!

I didn’t accomplish any of my goals for Song of the Prophecy, but I’m up to chapter three in Marla, Book One. Of course, in my original manuscript Chapter Two is really long, so I’m only about half way through that if we compare. But who’s comparing? The manuscript is really too long for the kind of story it is anyway, so I wouldn’t mind shaving off a bit of length, say 20,000 words anyway.

So what did I do?

• I cut all scenes not from Marla’s POV in the first chapter.
• I cut a extraneous sub-plot that doesn’t have enough meat to it to be included.
• I made the second chapter all from Nat’s POV (my secondary POV character)
• I made the villainess more prominent in both POVs.
• I cut a character.
• I made both antognists that Marla meets in Chapter Two more interesting, I think.
• I included bits about the new magical system.

What do I need to do in Chapter Three?

• Marla needs to figure out what’s going on with Nat.
• Some interaction with Byan and Russ? (not sure)

Obviously, since I’m only on Chapter Two in the old version and Chapter Three in the new version and there are seventeen chapters in the old version, averaging 26 pages each, I still have a lot of work to do. But there are definitely scenes that I will be able to use parts of.
Overall I am very pleased with my progress and my enthusiasm so far. I chose to write instead of read on the beach and that’s saying something!

Well, I wrote notes about the changes to the magical system in Marla, Book One which led to thinking about plot concerns, which led to going through my scene outline (a must for anyone writing a novel!) and reminding myself of what happens in each one. This took a long time. The book is over 400 pages long. I only read a couple of scenes, skimmed a few, and scrolled down through most, but it still took awhile. This led to me seeing some problems I hadn’t seen in my last revision, and seeing even more things that would need to be changed because of the changes I am making. Fortunately, I have no doubt that it will be a better book after I make these changes, unlike in Song of the Prophecy where I am still not sure.

Anyway, I will be cutting one of the major plot elements of the book because I think it was just a device to add more excitement and to fulfill certain plot necessities. Now I think the same ends will come about in a more natural way, stemming from some things that characters would naturally do. At least I hope so.

The changes I’m making will actually help with a lot of the characterization, however. I know these characters. They’ve been living with me for over ten years after all, although I’m not sure when these particular incarnations started to coalesce. And sometimes I know what they would feel and how they would react without there being a real reason for it. Or something. It’s hard to explain. It’s like I knew these ideas were coming before they came and the characters were reacting to something I hadn’t written yet. Ok that makes no sense at all. I have better back story now. It makes more sense.

That’s it. The back story! Before I knew the characters as they are when the book starts and had come up with some back story for them, but now the back story is a better fit for how the characters are when the story starts. Yes yes yes! That’s what happened. My subconscious is more genius than I thought. =) j/k

I’m pleased with my progress, even though I’ve barely gotten started.

So I talked last week about having some ideas about my book Song of the Prophecy. What I didn’t say was that about a month ago I had some ideas to make my very first novel, which doesn’t currently have a title–I generally call it Marla, Book One, much better. I started writing it when I was around 14, and it was inspired by some of my favorite authors of the time. I’ve always been a little worried about it not being orginal enough. Well, I think I came up with some ideas that will make it much better. The world was a pretty general fantasy world, but with these new ideas I think the world will be much more interesting, but I won’t have to change the plot that much. Obviously it will be a serious revision and I’ll have to go through the whole thing, but it won’t be a complete re-write. I’ll be able to keep a lot of the bones.

Anyway, so I have all these ideas about Song of the Prophecy AND now I also have all these ideas about Marla, Book One and I’m excited about both of them, so I don’t know which to start on.

I know. Isn’t this a problem I’d like to have more often? I will think of it as an opportunity, not a problem.