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Progress, delays, and deadlines

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8 Sentence Sunday #22

3/10/2018

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Picture
I present to you Eight Sentence Sunday, a blog hop hosted by Weekend Writing Warriors. I finished National Novel Writing Month in November, so you'll be seeing parts from that for the next couple of months as I expand and edit the rough draft.






A while later she was on the other side of town, knocking on Lorenzo Baldocinetti's door. The sign above the door said "Inventor." Pages from the local printing press were plastered on the window for all to see and read. Only one new one since last week, and it just looked like an ad for hiring new experts to help on the latest invention.

"Looks like an alchemist, circus performer, young man to work hard, and a smart child."

Sounded like a riddle. Must be something Lorenzo put together himself.

The door opened and the hunched man smiled. "I was hoping you'd show up today."

Check out more at http://www.wewriwa.com/.
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Editing Advice - Resources

9/25/2016

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My first ever cat picture! This guy was named Oscar and his brother was named Ernie after the Sesame Street characters.

With only one new submission from my critique group I was able to focus on finishing the full novel critique for a friend. I took some time, and 3k words, to talk about ways to improve the story. Many of these suggestions can be applied to any novel, so I thought I would share them with the rest of the world in a three post series about editing. Without further ado: Editing Resources.


Not all writing tools work for all writers. The ones I list are ones were particularly applicable to the book I critiqued. If they don't work for you feel free to throw them out the window.


Pyramid of Abstraction - More details make a piece feel more professional. This tool looks into why. The more grounded the reader is in a scene the more crazy shit the author can talk about without losing the reader. More specific details, particularly dealing with the senses, will help ground the reader.  This is from Sanderson’s seventh class. (Which is the best in the series so far.) Definitely worth a listen.

Cutting 10% - In the realm of editing it is said that cutting 10% will help streamline a story. This isn’t supposed to be a generic guideline or goal – it's a learning process. The hope is that a writer will learn the economy of words, making sure each one adds detail, character development, action, or plot. Once an author understands the economy cutting 10% usually isn’t needed or wanted. (That being said, one of my favorite books ever, “The Mote in God’s Eye,” was the result of a request by the publisher to cut 10% even though both authors were well established.)

Sanderson’s Laws of Magic – There are three laws, the first one is usually the most relevant. “An author’s ability to solve conflict with magic is directly proportional to how well the reader understands said magic.” Powers needed to be expanded upon is because the novel does use magic to solve problems. If the reader doesn’t understand the magic, and the limits of that magic, then they can’t really get used to it. There is a video or text to learn more about this law.

The best example of this is LoTF. Gandalf seems all mighty and powerful, yet he cannot take the ring to Mordor himself. BUT because the magic system is completely undefined the readers don’t question it. On the other hand there’s the ring, which has the clearly defined power of turning the MC invisible. This is used plenty of times throughout the book and when it’s used to the MCs advantage the readers love it.

Motivation/Reaction Units (MRU) – For easier reading a motivation should come before the reaction. The door needs to creak before a character has a reason to look at the door. Realizing that the photos don’t look like the apartment has to happen first, the reaction is a feeling of regret. This was from the book “Rivet Your Readers with Deep Point of View”, I’m not sure you’d get anything else useful out it, the rest of their suggestions don’t really suit your writing style.

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Editing Advice - Plot

8/29/2016

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PictureRoger Williams Park Botanical Center. Providence, RI.
With only one new submission from my critique group I was able to focus on finishing the full novel critique for a friend. I took some time, and 3k words, to talk about ways to improve the story. Many of these suggestions can be applied to any novel, so I thought I would share them with the rest of the world in a three post series about editing. Without further ado: Editing Plot.


Strong plot comes from having the reader know what each character wants and feels. The anticipation of two characters taking actions towards opposing goals lets the reader believe there will be future conflict, and that creates tension. This can also happen inside of the character, by having a character want one thing, but feel something else. Eventually the character will need to decide between the feeling and the want, and the reader will eat that up.


Applying these to Harry Potter:
  • Harry Potter wants to stay with Ron over the summer, never seeing the Dursley's again. But Dumbledore wants him to stay with the Dursley's so that he can be safe. Someone is going to get disappointed.
  • At the beginning of 'The Half Blood Prince' Harry wants Dumbledore to pick him up from the Dursley's. But he feels that the meeting between Dumbledore and the Dursley's is incredibly awkward. Harry wanting to leave, and the feeling of  awkwardness might not conflict, but they still create tension in the scene.

The more of these kinds of conflict the better. When someone confesses to someone (whether that confession is love or sin) the tension will be significantly higher if there is a previous scene where the character goes over what they want, what they feel, and what they're scared of. In the case of romance they want to continue to have a good relationship with someone, but they feel like they could go to the next step, and if they act on the feeling then they can get what they really want; a romantic relationship.

One mark of a well paced story is the natural division and placement of action and reaction chapters. The reaction chapters are the best places to add more about the wants and feelings of the characters, particularly as the characters change throughout the book. While it might not naturally seem it, these chapters can really increase the tension.

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Goal Check In - July

7/18/2016

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PictureAcadia State Park, Maine
I started 2016 with seven writing goals:
  1. Finish the three novels I started in 2015.
  2. Write and submit a short story each month. (These can be separate stories.)
  3. Edit a novel and send it out.
  4. Do all the “homeworks” from season 10 of Writing Excuses.
  5. All of the NaNoWriMo’s.
  6. Join and continuously participate in a critique group.
  7. Author visibility.
I have decided to add one new goal since then:
  1. Listen to all of the currently getting posted Youtube video’s of Brandon Sanderson classes.
 
Progress so far this year:
  1. I finished a rough draft of my novel Conwomen. I still need to finish Animal Companions and Mind Magic.
  2. I have written three new short stories and have submitted two of them to different markets. One came back with a rejection. I suspect that the one that came back will need a radical rewrite, but it’s not going to get done this month.
  3. It’s going. I’m progressing so quickly as a writer every time I look at a novel I see new things that need to change. As long as I don’t forget about the overall goal of publishing novels it’s ok. When I get something published I want it to be the best work that I can create at the time.
  4. I have a handful of these done. I have not been keeping to my original goal of one a week. I should probably aim for two a week from this point forward to catch up.
  5. I finished the first Camp NaNo with many new words written. This month is the second Camp and my goal was 50k new words. This has been waylaid by Pokemon Go coming out this month. Not only am I a huge fan, but it’s been a great game for the SO and I to play together.
  6. The critique group was started in Jan and the group is phenomenal. We balance each other well and all give excellent critiques. We are going to be taking breaks for each Camp, official NaNo, and less official JuNoWriMo. (I did not participate in JuNoWriMo, but the other three members of the group did.) During other months of the year we’re each submitting 5k words for critique, and then critiquing everyone else’s submissions.
  7. I finished this website!
  8. I’m half way through the first class. They started to get posted two or three weeks ago, so I’m not too behind, yet.
 
Quantifying goals for the month:
  1. Read both Animal Companions and Mind Magic, and then write an outline for the rest of each novel.
  2. First I want to finish a second draft of my story about self driving cars. After that I’d like to put together a first draft of a story I’ve been brewing about medical pies. Stretch goal of a first draft of an undecided second short story.
  3. I’m going to let all of my novels sit for the month. Brewing and growing needs to happen.
  4. I aim to do two Writing Excuses Season 10 homeworks per week for the rest of the month.
  5. Working on it. (I’m writing this at a Write-In actually!) My goal was originally 50k new words with a focus on finishing Animal Companions. Now I’m thinking about 35k new words with a focus on some new short stories and the Writing Excuses homework.
  6. Break month. I posted one short story last month which will cover the first month of August when we’ll really be getting back into gear. (I thought I’d be nice and give it to everyone ahead of time so that they could fit it in when they can, but I don’t think that anyone will be getting to it early.)
  7. I want to make a FB Author Page and Google+ Author page, and then add links onto this website. I should also add new pictures to each page on this website, and add at least one excerpt.
  8. I want to catch up on all posted classes, and take notes on each of these classes.
 
What are your writing goals for the month?

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