Chapters of Progress

So whooppee! I've officially edited one eighth of my manuscript!! (fifty-two pages)

I also split "Chapter Three" so I that sooper long chapter is now a bit shorter, and I'm now working on Chapter Four.

My writing is still crap, but I suppose that's to be expected. At least I can recognize it and fix it (kinda).

How long do you like your chapters? I've been trying to stick to around 10-17 pages per chapter but, well I guess I should just read a few books and see. I've been really bad about reading this year. I have read a few really good books though, just not fantasy.

I've admitted to myself that there's no way in hell I'm finishing this by graduation, so I'm just taking my time now. Going to get it done right.

I also came across this picture the other day that is scarily like how I picture the main character. I don't know the girl's name, or anything else about her other than she's Russian and had her picture on this before and after thing for some Russian make-up artist.

Here's the pic:

I think I may have stretched it a little bit somehow, but still. It was startling, to see the image I've been trying to draw for myself for a year.

Another thing is I just started watching Game of Thrones, and it's giving me serious story envy. Everything's so beautiful, the characters are so well rounded, the whole thing is super original. Like the seasons thing? That's awesome! I read an article recently about making your fantasy setting any way to serve the story, and not having to obey the rules of our world and with creatures and settings I've done very badly with creating something original, so I'll work on that. I want the world I'm creating to be just as magical as I see it, but when I think about it most of the beauty comes from just my obsession with the natural beauty of our world. I'm not going to make water green or give it two suns, but I can do a better job of exaggerating things to give the reader the same wonder I have.

Game of Thrones is also great with their characters. I haven't read the actual books the show is based off of, but I'm sure to have all these different stories it must have multiple POVs, which I'm not going to do. Still, that isn't the only reason the show has such a complex and multifaceted story, with all these characters with their own complete dramas. I've been noticing that a lot in real life, as well; that every person has their own story just as or more complex and mine, which sounds obvious but is really hard to think about. I saw something a while ago that titled the sensation of this realization as "sonder" and it really is overwhelming.

In the interest of creating more complex storylines/subplots and characters I started giving every important/semi-important character a page in my notebook to outline their lives and feelings and motives, and though I've only done a handful so far I was kind of surprised because I realized a lot of my characters (like most of them) are killed some way by this one guy, which may change, but right now really entertains me.

Problems I'm Thinking About:
-general suckage
-character consistency
-what is the title going to be??
-mastering the use of dialogue
-well-rounded character stories