Tag Archives: novel

My first hurdle

Posted on by
4

Well, that didn’t take long! I hit a slight pothole while working on my book. Honestly, it feels more like I drove off the side of a cliff, tumbled down the embankment, and landed in turbulent seas. Though I have miraculously survived, the car is quickly filling with sea water, sinking, and I don’t know how to swim. This may be the end. If I don’t make…*glub glub*

I love a belabored metaphor. Sorry about that. Everything I’ve found so far have been relatively easy fixes. For example, one of my minor character’s story arc will be reduced, though not entirely eliminated. I want my main character to try to help her friend out with her problems while my M.C. is grappling with her own situation. What a friend! It’s all about putting everybody’s story arc in their proper perspective.

There are paragraphs, and a few scenes, that have been reduced or eliminated. Some didn’t fit, some took me as the reader out of the book, and some were just unnecessary. I’ve continued to refine my language, trying to say what needs to be said in as succinct a manner as possible. It’s hard work to write effortlessly.

The problem I found involves another of my characters. Something about them isn’t clicking. I like the character, and they have a part to play, but the issue is that their part grew the more I wrote and I’m having trouble unifying who I wanted them to be versus who they ultimately became. Their arc became more convoluted and the fix took me out to such an extreme that they became a cliché instead of a complicated character. Fixing it has plagued me for a long time.

I’m sure a lot of rewriting is in my future, and I’m okay with that. I’m confident that I have a strong story, minor problems notwithstanding. It’s just going to take more work than I originally planned on dedicating to this project. Also, and I can’t stress this enough, I’m going to have to figure out how the hell to fix it. I guess I could simply give up, but I feel giving up isn’t truly an option.

It’s not as bad as I thought

Posted on by
2

It bleeds! It hurts! It – it’s not that bad. Huh! I expected it to be harder to cut things out, but one I started, it was quite easy. I’ve just now started chapter three, and there’s one section that I want to move until later, but there’s a chance I’ll cut the scene completely. It’s seven pages showing the reason my protagonist left her ex many years before. I’m still not sure about that. I’ll see where the story leads me, and if it’s necessary, I’ll find the right place.

I’m glad I chose to print it out, for the umpteenth time. It’s so much easier when I have an actual document in my hands. It makes it real somehow, more real than the glow of a computer screen can manage. I get a thrill seeing my words on paper. It’s magical and euphoric. I can’t wait until it’s printed and bound in an actual book, ready to be read by the masses. I hope it finds an audience.

But I’ll try not to get ahead of myself, which I really have a bad habit of doing. I want to finish chapter three before bed. I want to do at least two chapters a day, more if time allows. A two-hour round trip to work sure makes life harder, but I’ll do what I have to in order to move on to the next phase. I wonder what the next phase will be.

 

Making the cut

Posted on by
2

I’m going through my book, again, and mercilessly slashing it to bits. I have a bad habit of keeping things in solely because I wrote it. I’m a genius, after all. Only I’m not. I can’t even fool myself into thinking that.

I don’t know how many times I’ve read and reread each single line. Some are great, some need a little bit of polishing, and some are crap. On one particular paragraph I added this little note: Who cares?! Shorten or delete paragraph! There are other lines and paragraphs that I have marked as needing to be cut out. Those parts have bothered me, but I resisted. Enough is enough! I’m taking care of business now.

I’m finding it difficult to delete those words I worked so hard to write. I’m discovering that not everything I wrote is worth saving. I say I’m discovering that fact, but the truth is that I already knew. I guess what I should say is that I’m finally accepting that I need to be a little more discerning as to what makes the final cut of the story.

I’ve read, and I’ve cut, and I’ve rewritten and finagled spelling, grammar, syntax and I’m still not satisfied. As a whole, I’m pleased with the story, but there are those places that cause me distress. I’ve reprinted the whole book, or I’m in the process of doing so, and it comes in at 400 pages, double-spaced. I want to trim that down some.

I’m only on the second chapter, but I’ve managed to cut out maybe a thousand words. I’ve cut out a secondary character’s story arc, one that adds nothing to move the plot forward. There’s another character that needs to be rewritten. I haven’t figured out how I’m going to do that. It’s a puzzle that I need to put together, and I have no idea how the finished picture is supposed to look like. I’m a little stressed.

I’m going to continue reading and making my notes, tweaking it so that I can finally send it to someone to proofread. I’ll correct as many of those as I can find, but I’m sure there has to be several stupid mistakes per page. I can’t wait to be done with this. Why did I think I could do this? I must be mad.

I’m also really tired.

The time flies by

Posted on by
1

Four years ago today I started my blog. I can’t believe it’s been so long! Though most of my post from 2011-2013 have been archived, 396 posts in all, plus the 155 posts still available to be read, that’s 551 times I opened myself up and let people in.

From heartbreak to working towards my goal to be a published writer, I have confided in you my fears, my pain, my struggles to get over they obstacle of the moment. I have shared my hopes and my dreams. I have shared my despair and my joy.

I have no grand plan for the future, other than to continue to do what I’ve been doing. I’ll admit that sometimes I feel like I’m too old to earn any measure of success, but then I realize that it doesn’t matter how old I am. All that matters is that I have finally decided to succeed.

Let’s see where this next year takes us. I’ll continue to write the occasional book review, publish a short story or two, and bring you along as I meander towards my ultimate goal of ruling the world…I mean publishing a book.

For now, I’m going to do some reading for Monday’s book review and perhaps do a little writing of my own. Unfortunately I caught some bug that’s going around so I’m not up to doing much, but I’ll do what I can. Every little thing I do gets me that much closer to what I want, and that makes me happy.

The joys of outlining

Posted on by
Reply

That has to be one of my most sarcastic titles I’ve ever written. The joys of outlining…excuse me while I weep silently into my pillow. *Muzak version of Pharrell Williams Happy plays in the background while writer wails miserably into a pillow* Sorry. I don’t know what came over me. I’m a little tired right now. Maybe I’m still emotional after Seattle’s Super Bowl loss on Sunday. Back to the reason I’m writing today….

I’m working on outlining my book, hoping to get a visual of my story main points and how it fits together so I can rip it apart and put it back together. I’m deconstructing the book scene by scene, highlighting the main points in each. It’s been slowing going so far. I’m only on chapter two, but I also didn’t do a thing yesterday. I’m off from work today, so I play to catch up and get as much done as I possibly can.

I’ve never worked with an outline before. I confess this to my friend who wrote back in astonishment that I could have gotten through college without learning how. In fact I did learn how, but it’s not a practice I’ve kept up with. I always felt that it constrained my writing so I didn’t bother to remember. It’s coming back to me, and I still hate it! But as I put the outline together, I’m grudgingly having to admit that it may be a useful skill to have.

Though I am far from done, I’m convinced this exercise will help me make a better umpteenth draft. There is one scene in particular that bothers me, but not so much that it’s there but rather because of the person to whom the story is being told. I’m hoping to find a better place for it and maybe this process will help me locate it. The other option is to cut it out, which I’m not entirely adverse to, but I believe the back story the scene shows is important. We’ll see how it goes.

If this works, I will apply this process to another book I’ve already written but needs a lot of work. Maybe this is the tool I’ve been needing in order to progress to the next step in my desire to become a published writer. Only time will tell, as the saying goes, but there’s another saying that may be more appropriate. “Get off your fat ass and get to work!”

I think we can all agree those are truly words of wisdom. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an ass that needs getting off of, but ironically I’ll have to sit on it to get this particular work done.