Life and Creating New Characters

Who knew that writing could cause physical pain. Oh sure, I spend so much time trying to figure out the right thing to write next, how my characters work together, reworking plots, and everything else about writing, that I sometimes forget that writing can be kind of hard on me physically. I don't generally mention this to most people, though, because, like everything having to do with my health, I hate talking about it. But lately, it's really been getting in the way, which is part of why I don't update this blog as regularly as I'd like. I spend eight or more hours per day writing up reports at my day job, that I often have trouble typing more when I get home or finish my work for the day. Thus, I have not been writing as much as I'd like too. *sigh* But enough of my physical issues. How about some writing ones.

I am attempting to work on a new story idea that is unconnected to my current WIP. I've had the idea for a year or two now, but I've just started working on the characters and plot lines. It's kind of exciting because, though it's a fantasy, it's also another genre that I've never thought about working in before. It's kind of exciting, but a little stressful as well. It's difficult, but I'm very excited about what will hopefully come of this. As usual I have no title (I'm really terrible at those), but hopefully one will come to me as I go. I'm also excited because I'm thinking of setting the story in a culture similar to the Byzantium Empire. Of course, this means lots of research, but I like researching stuff.

So know I'm going to give my poor wrists a rest, and possibly do some more research on Byzantium and this other genre.

Later.

Sarcasm, First Person, and Big Edits

So the title of this blog may be a little confusing. How, you ask, can all those things go together? Well, they don't, necessarily, unless your me. And the big edits doesn't really go at all, but I wanted three subjects for my title, so there you go. :)

As for how sarcasm and first person go together, at least for me, let me explain. It's something I've been noticing more and more about my writing. When it comes to writing a story in the third person perspective, I find it infinitely more difficult for my characters to be sarcastic than it is for them to be sarcastic in the stories that are in first person. I haven't totally figured out why that is, but I have a theory. When I'm writing in third person, I find I'm not really writing in the character's voice so much. There is a voice there, and it's always limited to what's going on with the character that's the focus of that particular scene or story, but their thoughts (sarcastic or otherwise) tend to get left in their heads, or only seen through physical action. And for me it's very hard to be sarcastic in physical action without doing the same thing over and over. I'm still learning different ways to show my sarcastic side, physically speaking. I raise an eyebrow, smirk, roll my eyes, and I'm sure many other things, but it's always the same. And being the sarcastic person I am, those actions happen over and over again throughout the day. If I were to do this in writing, it would get really monotonous really fast, don't you think?

This, however, is not as much of a factor when I'm writing in first person, mostly because I'm inside my character's head. That means I can be sarcastic in the way they think as much as in the way they talk. They don't have to say their witty remarks out loud. They can just think them, and since they are narrating, can tell the audience them, without those remarks having to be heard by the other characters. Thus my 1stP characters tend to be far snarkier (that's a word right?) than my 3rdP characters. And I kind of like that. But that's just me.

As for big edits, I still haven't started mine yet. Almost there, but there's still work to do polishing the latest draft of the novel. I will, of course, keep you updated.

Now I'm off to do some work at my day job. The research is never done. :)

Plot and Major Changes to Mine

I have discovered that I may have a serious plot problem. This kind of sucks.

What, you may ask, could that problem be? It is that I think I have major events happening in the wrong order and too close together. This equals massive reworking of the whole middle section of my novel. That, understandably, scares the crap out of me.

Why? Well mostly cause I'm not the best with change. I kind of try to avoid it. Like the plague. And here as I'm trying to work out the plot for a completely different story I discover possible major issues the book I thought I was almost finished with. I almost wanted to cry when I came to this conclusion.

See I love my book kind of the way it is. It's taken years to get it to this point, to where it's feeling close to being finished finally. And then I start reading about plot, and I realize, maybe I do need to reorder those two major scenes in the middle. And the idea of having to take those two scenes and swap them after rewriting them to work in their new place and rewriting all the transitions between the scenes, is a daunting idea. So daunting I haven't been able to look at my WIP in a couple of days.

So what am I going to do, you ask. Well I could be a wuss and say nothing, but we both know that's a cop-out. So instead I'm going to do the hard thing. I'm going to finish this draft (Numero 6) including the big chunks I haven't worked on yet. Then, once that's finished, I'm going to give it to my friend who's read two of the other drafts along with the new crit partner I hope to be finding soon (thanks to Natalie Whipple and her fantastic Crit Partner Classifieds), then begin the massive rewrite for draft number 7 while they read it. Once that's done, I'll have them read #7 and see which is the better layout for the story.

It's a seriously frightening prospect, especially because I may do all that work for nothing. But after thinking over it for a couple of days, it's feeling more and more like what I need to do. So I'm going to do it.

So that's my thought for the day. Now I'm off to write or something.

Lost, Edits, and Snow

It's been a while. It's February, and my edits are still unfinished. But that's okay. I've decided that it's okay if I don't get my edits done in time for the conference. I tend to push myself too hard then get frustrated when I balk and don't meet my goals. I'm great at meeting goals for other people, but when it comes to personal stuff, I find it hard to keep pushing myself.

That being said, I am going to be done with this edit by the end of the month at the latest. I want to be able to show it to a crit partner (assuming I can find one) starting in March. Then more edits. Maybe this summer I'll start the query process, but I don't want to commit to too much, so that's still a maybe. I really want to, but I'm not going to send the manuscript out before it's ready.

Meanwhile, I've been watching Lost for some inexplicable reason. I started it last week and can't seem to stop watching it. I can't say that I like the show, but I don't hate it either. It's mostly just that I can't stop watching, like an accident or something. So I keep watching, trying to figure out why I can't stop and why I want to know what happens next.

Oh yeah, and we in St. Louis have been hit with a massive winter storm. So I'm stuck at home. My car is frozen with a 1/2 inch of ice and I've been working from home for two days. I probably will continue to do so for at least one day, if not two.

So I'm off to do more edits, watch some more lost, and do some more work.

The New Year and an Update on the WIP

Two weeks into the new year and it already feels like forever. And I'm not sure if I mean that in the good way or the bad way.

The new year also means that I am now less than 90 days until I attend my first writer's conference. To say that I am nervous is something of an understatement. I've been attempting to figure out what exactly to expect, but I'm starting to think that I'm not going to be prepared for it. Honestly, the idea of voluntarily going to a place jam packed with lots of other people (even other writer people) is scary. Have I ever mentioned that I strongly dislike crowds? No. Well it's true. Crowds actually kind of scare me. And here I am, excited about participating in an event designed to draw a crowd.

So where does my WIP stand in reference to this conference? Well I'm about half-way through my sixth draft, minus the really big changes. I just split a chapter into two chapters because it was just too bulky. So now it's split into chapters 8 and 9. my goal is to have this draft done by the end of January. Then I'm either going to do another draft myself, or possibly join a critique group through Writers Digest. I'm not sure yet. I know I need another set of eyes to look through the book, but I'm kind of limited on writer friends.

Another interesting bit about the novel; I now have over 71,000 words in it. This whole adding description and emotion and world-building stuff is actually kind of fun, and seriously beefs up the word count in a good way.

So my goals are as follows: Finish 6th draft by end of January. Finish 7th draft by end of March.

I'll let you know how I'm doing on these goals.

Now back to work.

Break for Christmas and New Years

So I'm going to take a break from posting for the next couple weeks, just to get through the craziness that accompanies Christmas and New Years.

I wish everyone a very merry and blessed Christmas and safe New Years. See you in 2011.

A Quick Post

Just wanted to put up a quick post. Work was absolutely insane today, so I didn't get the chance to write the post I was planning to write. Instead, I had to find every school in a school district in South Carolina.

So to make up, here's a link to Michael Buble singing "Baby, It's Cold Outside" instead. I love this song. :)