Tidings from the River

I've just edited the very last scene before the official arrival of Elle and the party in the Desert. I get to start tomorrow fresh in an entirely different setting!

My research for the desert was really fun and I can't wait to go back through it. I want to make the setting especially vivid going forward, since it's such a foreign and dangerous place to Elle. I put a lot more confusing and dangerous elements into it than even a normal desert has (because hey, magic- if not to make your characters frightened, what IS it good for?) and hopefully that strangeness will be pretty constant. There are a lot of developments for Elle, especially because she goes through some really mentally trying things that change her, and I want to get the stress of a formidable place right.

That's really all going into it, I've been keeping up with editing fairly well, except over this past weekend. Last weekend, though I forgot to mention it, was a hugely productive one. I sat for over three hours straight editing last Saturday- a feat of patience and an attention span I just did not have three weeks ago. Consistent creativity really is amazing for the brain. I've also been helped by my roommate introducing me to habitrpg.com, which is this amazing game-type thing. It's basically your to-do list but with rewards for your own fantasy-type character when you do them, and there are pets and weapons and other things... It's really helpful especially if you're super competitive, like me. I found myself Friday night looking over homework that I could do just to get more points, which is both something my parents are going to be proud to read and very, very frightening. I'm fueled almost purely by the infuriating fact my roommate is level 14 and I am currently on level 5.

But once I finish writing this post I'll get points since it's on my to-do list. And then I can buy an axe before I go to sleep.

Since it's ridiculously late and I've had a very strange day I'm going to deprive you of a summary list. So all I have to say is good night/good morning, and I hope everyone is safe and doing well.

For those of you out there having a bad one, remember to love something, and no matter how small or big it is, it will get you through.

Halfway!

I'm officially over the half-way mark in editing! (At least for the first run-through)

But it's really exciting. I have around 90k words left, which are already divided into two big chunks.

I knocked through the middle chunk this weekend at an amazing pace- as my friend suggested, the muse visited, and I sat for over three hours straight editing this thing. I think it's mostly because I got to a point where the original writing WASN'T horrible should-be-burned quality- which is also really exciting! It's fun not to hate my own stuff!

I'm also completely out of the middle part of my manuscript now, moving on as soon as I post this to Part Three. Much excitement. BRING THE ACTION.

Another reason for my inspiration this weekend I think came from watching a couple Ghibli films. I watched Spirited Away and Ponyo each for the first time, and they're just (oh my god) beautiful. Not only is the art amaaaazing, but the stories themselves amazed me- I can't think of many (if any, other than Ghibli) films that focus on love in the same way. In Spirited Away and Ponyo the protagonists are all young children, and yet they succeed due to true love. It is refreshing, because it isn't necessarily romantic love, but it isn't just the love of a family member, like a lot of things with younger protagonists focus on. It's just true love- which is really actually simple, despite how we seem to overanalyze and categorize it in real life. Why can't we just love wholly and with abandon, without having to invalidate or categorize it? It's limiting and I like that Ghibli did away with those boundaries.

The only way all that is relevant is that I would like to include something like that- in fact I think that's what I did try to do with one of my characters (who conveniently is introduced in Part Three) and maybe I can do a better job now, being aware of that and seeing it successfully (and beautifully) done.

I may or may not have to go draw some Spirited Away fanart. (But more editing first!)

Page: 222/415

Problems I'm Thinking About:
-logistical consistency
-character development
-messy writing and being too wordy(one of my main problems. It's horrific, really.)
-Pacing (I've noticed many things I've done right with pacing and many instances where I've done it very horribly wrong, so I want to play more with that now that I see it. I feel like it might become even more important, with the coming action.)

Hope you all had a wonderful Saint Valentine's Day!

Whoa, Look it's 2014!

Hello, All!

I've been gone a while, I know. Shame on me. To be honest I just picked up editing again last week, and until then I refused to post before I had something to report on. So here I am!

I've gotten around half a chapter done every day I've worked on it for the past week or so, so that's a good pace- as long as I'm actually getting stuff done. I'm about halfway through, which is exciting! the chapter I'm editing at the moment is toward the end of Part Two. Part Three is going to be a long one.

It's strange to think I wrote the words I'm editing over a year ago. Thankfully, I seem to have reached a point where I was writing well, which is a great relief. Editing was going horribly slowly and was just plain discouraging before, but I'm not actively hating what I see on the page now. Besides some overall agreement in what characters said earlier in the story and logistical things like- in this one scene I seem to have changed my mind on who was in the room after I wrote it, so I have to make a decision and fix that. There are a few characters I've been noting need some more TLC, too. But really, all's well, and it's such a relief.

The next part- Part Three, the Desert, is very long, but also has the majority of the action-y action, and is more fast-paced and (hopefully) suspenseful and blood-pumping. I also wrote it more recently, so I trust that writing more. I'm really excited for it! I remember actually writing the post about reaching Part Three on this blog.

It's entertaining, the strange things I remember when I reach certain points in the story. like "Oh I was eating pickles when I wrote this" or "Ah, that description was inspired by the lovely weather the day I wrote it (even if the description had nothing to do with weather)" and I wonder if professional authors remember things like that when they look at their own books. I wonder if a book really stays so personal, specific, and 'your own' even after editing and once it goes through the publishing process.

So here's where I am so far:

Page: 178/415

Problems I'm Thinking About
-logistical consistency
-tweaking language and messy writing
-avoiding a middle slump in the story

Much News

I've had a pretty good week (or at least last few days) for writing and editing.

I have gotten some more editing done, only now it's actual good editing instead of just trudging through the lines like I have been. I'm going to do another thousand words before bed once I post this.

I've been planning out two new things, as well. The first thing is a short script, and I'm getting pretty artsy on this one. I've never written a script either so it'll be fun. I'll have it done within the week BECAUSE

I signed up for NaNoWriMo! Yayy 2013 run! I've already outlined my story. It's totally different and will be a wonderful breath of freshness. It's also going to be much shorter than my book; I might not even be able to make it over 50k words. It'll be exciting. It's a story I started forming almost a year ago and now I think it's ripe enough to be written.

Having not sketched for myself in a while, I cracked open my sketchbook again today and drew something. I'm just getting all kinds of creative.

I'm still in the same block of scenes I was last time, but I've got a handle on them now. I'll finish them this weekend.

Hope everyone's having a great pre-Halloween week!

and On and On

It's positively disgusting outside today.

So I've gotten quite a bit done.

Right now I'm working on cutting a lot of fluffy pretty things out, and just finished another chapter from the mountain setting. To be honest it's just beginning. I've just now stopped right before a ballroom scene because I have to get across campus to the art studio for a while, but I'm going to dredge through the rest of it tonight.

Not a very exciting update, but I'm making progress so this is good.

Interesting fact: remember this post? Well I've just gotten to the scene where Simon Tylor is introduced. It just made me smile, that's all.

I think I know what I'm going to do for NaNoWriMo; I've narrowed it down to two or three ideas and might try to outline my attempt this weekend since I've been on fall break. I've found a few writer friends I can consult with (none of whom have done NaNo, which I intend to fix!) So I'll keep you updated on what I decide and if I do decide to make an attempt I'll put up my NaNo account. We were supposed to activate this past week, I think. I haven't yet, but I can't wait to see the new setup of the site!

Also: I've found the most amazing song for drawing/painting/writing. I'm listening to it right now, even. Young and Beautiful by Lana Del Rey, anyone? I'm not a huge fan of hers but this SONG, man.

Hope you all are having a great Fall thus far!

Slow and Steady... Right?

Gosh it's been such a crazy month. College is so weird. But I have gotten a little editing done.

Not much editing, there isn't much to report. What little I've done involved a lot of cutting pretty fluff. There was a lot of unnecessary description of dresses because I spend too much time thinking about them.

One thing I hope to accomplish is a story that's interesting to anyone, so I can't have too much girly things. It's not a very limiting thing, but as I said last post, I get a bit carried away.

Thank you all for being so patient with me, here's a sketch!

... of a dress. You see my problem? This is Elle in just a plain dress. But I like it. I haven't been drawing for myself much lately because I actually have drawing homework. It's kind of amazing. So this is the last of the sketches from my last go-through of my sketchbooks. I shall make more soon.

I'm still trying to figure out what to do for NaNoWriMo. I kind of doubt it will be possible though because college is a lot of work. But no surprises there. I might just try a collection of creepy stories. I have a few theories about hauntings I could explore. Last night I was in the art building during a pretty good rainstorm and it gave me some good ideas.

Part One Down. Next Up: The Fluff.

I've gotten through Part One! Yay!

Elle is changing locations now and she's going to what actually might be my favorite place in the story, the mountain nation. It's modeled after seventeenth century France in a lot of ways, and is full of extravagant characters and situations and I'm very excited to read this for the first time.

It's been almost exactly a year since I've seen these pages.

This whole mid-plot excursion to the mountains is also where I'm going to have to make a big choice regarding cuts, I may in fact decide to cut the entire thing and here's why I think that:

It doesn't do much to further the main plot of the story. It serves to inform Elle and the reader of the larger world and a lot of political relationships that come into play throughout this story and later ones, but nothing I think I couldn't do just keeping her at home or something less involved.

I get a bit self-indulgent, and this is definitely a product of that. What I remember about this part was making pretty designs for fun characters and settings, which I have a weakness for. I also was trying to be a bit art-y and I don't know if that really serves my purpose well. It's a lot of worldbuilding, again, but maybe not entirely necessary to this story.

It gets really long, and might be too long and boring. Again, I think I was pretty self-indulgent with this and the pretty pictures. I've been warned often of having a slow middle to the story and while this may be pretty it might slow it down. It's also a large chunk of my manuscript and cutting it out might make it a more navigable/marketable/otherwise more appealing and thinner hunk of paper. We shall see.

These are all my preliminary worries about this particular segment of my manuscript. Of course I haven't seen it in a year so we'll see if my opinion of it changes as I read. How do you all feel about scenes or entire chapters whose primary goal is world-building? Are they laborious and boring? Or do they add dimension and context to the main plot? I'd like your opinions, because I'm not sure of my own.

But tonight I rejoice! And bring out another blog post. I just went back into my Word document and found my place, so I have a page number for you.

Page: 133/415

Problems I'm Thinking About (besides what I just outlined in the body of the post)
-I'm still focusing on character development and consistency
-and of course fixing the immature writing.
-I read something today about each chapter having a certain level of suspense, and will have to keep an eye on keeping it interesting. I don't have enough distance right now though, that will have to be a next-edit thing where I read through the whole thing before editing instead of editing as I go like I am now.