The Healer and the Pirate

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Showing posts with label NaNoWriMo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NaNoWriMo. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Writing Wednesday - Just Do It

I FINALLY FINISHED FLIGHT FROM ENDWOOD!!!

The last chapter and epilogue were very, very difficult to write, because I had to close up a huge mess of plotlines as well as I could. It's a very complicated story that I'm just not a good enough writer to pull off at this point. Someday I'll revisit it, but I'm SO grateful that day won't be any time soon! You can read a little about it at my About Me and My Writing page.

So I have a co-worker who would like to write a novel, but he worries that he wants his novel to be GOOD. (One cure for that problem is NaNoWriMo. It's a great way to see that yes, you can write something if you take the pressure off.)

For most people, it seems, the first draft is really rough, and the edits come later. In other words, the art of writing is really the art of RE-writing. Even if you have a solid outline and a solid plot, you can always polish your writing to make it sparkle. But first you have to have something to polish!

Animation is the same way:



Even rough/imperfect drafts can be really beautiful, as in this line test for Beauty and the Beast. And if those rough drawings hadn't been done, the movie couldn't have been made.

I hate to see anyone not write just because they're worried it won't be good enough. Frankly, some authors have become fabulously wealthy with novels that critics (and fellow authors!) don't consider to be remotely well-written. And I think the best way to learn to write is to just do it (and once you're strong enough, solicit feedback). I learned more about writing for publication from six months of giving and receiving critiques on Critique Circle than I did from my Creative Writing degree. And Critique Circle currently costs as little as $0 a year (free membership; $49.00 a year for some excellent perks; $89.00 a year for no ads).

Now, all that said, it's easy to give advice and much harder to follow it. I struggled with those last two chapters because I was afraid they wouldn't tie up the story satisfactorily. Yup; I fear they're not good enough!

Still, the best advice is, just do it.

If you write, you will eventually have a manuscript. 500 words a day for about 7 months will give you 100,000 words (the very HIGHEST word count most beginning authors should strive for). Unless you have exceptionally short chapters, one chapter a week will give you a novel in well under a year.

Of course, as I found out through NaNoWriMo, if you just start writing with NO plan, you may end up with a story that's incredibly hard to edit. (Especially if time travel always creeps in to your stories, like it does into mine.)

One brilliant idea for conceiving a book is the Snowflake Method. The basic concept is, start with a little kernel of a story idea, and then build on it until you have a coherent storyline. Eventually you'll get a detailed plan to write your novel! As a bonus, you'll end up with an outline you can use when pitching your work to editors and agents. From the site:

There is no reason to spend 500 hours writing a wandering first draft of your novel when you can write a solid one in 150. Counting the 100 hours it takes to do the design documents, you come out way ahead in time.

I actually attempted to use the Snowflake Method before I started "Flight from Endwood" in 2006. It didn't work so well, but I was pressed for time and didn't pause to actually think through how the story would actually work. I ended up plotting a romance for two characters (Edwin and Miss Liang) and they had absolutely no attraction. Had I actually considered my Snowflake more critically before I started, though, I might have saved myself literally years of edits, and might have a pitch-able novel right now.

But I'm going to try the Snowflake thing with my next project (Chosen: Bonnie of Sheshack). That's another novel that I wrote and substantially edited about a third of...but I'm going to get working on it in earnest presently, and get something out there. Still, I'm not going to rush it before I get a very solid outline in place.

Anyway! I think I'll celebrate the completion of my manuscript by the adding of chocolate to milk. :)

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Progress Report

So I figured I'd at least write progress reports on Wednesday. The last seven days weren't great--I got some writing done on "Flight from Endwood," but not as much as I wanted. I also critiqued a co-worker's short story. (It's amazing how some people you'd never have expected at first have amazing creativity and talent!)

I also got something printed on Lulu.com so that's pretty cool. Hopefully it will arrive soon!

I would love to have Endwood finished by the end of the year, but if I manage that, it will definitely be a God thing. It's a very, very complicated novel (it will need a total rewrite which I won't tackle until I'm a much better writer). I've also got several chapters to critique from one author, and several other chapters from another.

I'd better get to work!

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

NaNoWriMo

I did NaNoWriMo this year, hoping it would help me either rediscover my enjoyment of writing, and/or give me a good dose of "just shut up and get it done"--either of which I could use for my novel "Flight from Endwood" (which, itself, was my NaNoWriMo, circa 2006). I was also looking forward to just WRITING for a change.

The basic concept itself was something I believe God gave me in Disneyland in June--though the execution did not go as expected. I had no idea my favorite character would be a human-looking robot! The entire thing will need rewritten from the ground up, and will probably need to be given a coherent plot. It's a pretty good candidate for if I ever try outlining.

Some people are impressed that I wrote 50,000 words in 30 days, but honestly, some of those same people could probably do the same thing if they just pushed aside all notions of quality and let the characters run wild. Such as...

“Erie sent me here to help,” Harris said.

“But you’re not...” Antonio trailed off. “Señor Papa--what do I do?” His face lit up in a slow grin, and Harris worried. He handed Harris an earpiece radio. “If you see anything amiss, I need you to tell me. This is set to broad to me, top priority.”

He smiled. “Did you want to arm me?”

“Not at this time.” Antonio looked around the vast hangar, now empty, almost as if scanning. He touched a panel and a closet door slid open. Antonio entered and rummaged for a few moments. “Yes. This will do. You must wear this.”

He handed him a black helmet, half the size of his torso, and furry with dust. No--furry with fur. “What’s this?”

“Your uniform,” Antonio said. He pulled out a huge black jumpsuit, made of fur, with a violet skirt around the waist and--no--a tail.

“I can’t wear that!”

“It’s climate-controled, with three views through the cameras. Señor Papa is sure a pilot such as yourself will have no difficulty navigating.”

He shook his head. “Did you have to pick a lady cat?”

“It is a good size for you,” Antonio replied with a smirk, looking down at him--he was a good foot taller than Harris. “And there are precious few of these suits left, for obvious reasons.”

“Because they’re horrible?”

Antonio frowned. “Because technology has greatly improved. Will you wear it?”


Oh yes. I don't know how it happened, but I went there.

Didn't get much of anything done today, except for a tiny amount of cleaning, and making some oven-baked potatoes which were quite good.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Introduction

My lovely and multi-talented friend Maggie is making a website for me and would like me to have a blog with it. Which I need to do anyway. I'm thinking we might track the exciting life of a writer here...but right now I'm busy with the holidays and, oh, yeah, finishing my NaNo. (Disneyland in space during a war!)

So hopefully I'll have more here in weeks to come. Pleased to meet you, random strangers, acquaintances, and friends!