Well, the editing isn't going very well. It's been a week and I haven't even gone through the second chapter once. It probably has something to do with the fact that I keep getting distracted. A lot. But also because I decided to rewrite a scene (the one with the falling on ice) and I can't seem to do it. My writing stream has frozen up or something (speaking of, I'll have to rewrite the ending. Could it be that I haven't written a decent original sentence since July? Sigh). I'm hoping I'll get everything order again. In the meantime I'm already dreaming about other projects (including recording a song, making a video for it and shooting a small movie), all with the intent of bringing me new friends. And possibly make a fan base of sorts. What do you want? I only know one person in the whole of America. And all this reading about Kaleb Nation (who I believe is a great guy and I hate that I don't live in the U.S. and can't go to his book signing to meet him) and how his blog helped spread the word on Bran Hambric isn't really helping my confidence that if by some miracle The Changing Cloak did get published, anyone would buy it. Call me a gold digger, but I am way ready for some new friends. (Side note: Why doesn't any teenager in Latvia learn English seriously anymore? Oh, wait, they never have. Okay, why haven't they started? I want to be around people who are comfortable with speaking English and can fully participate in a conversation. While possibly being on camera. It's really hard to make a one-person movie. Ramble over)
But that's not what I wanted to talk about. The funny thing is that there are no speaking roles in The Changing Cloak for anyone who is over 23! Wait a minute... All right, there are four sentences in the novel spoken by someone over 23. That's still very little, considering that there are eight characters of that kind that appear in at least one scene. What's even funnier (to me, at least) is that neither of the lead's parents have names. Shouldn't I, as the author of the novel know what their names are, even if they don't appear in the book? That's the thing, I don't. There is a lot of stuff I don't know about my story and I like it that way. Only it gets a little hard when I'm supposed to know something. But that's off point.
Yesterday I created a new character. A parent. To someone who appears in about two scenes in the novel. What does that say? It says that my subconscious is figuring out another novel on the way. So that brings the total in the Pal Series up to eight. A lot, right? I love it when my subconscious takes over. Speaking of, I am totally in love with a character who didn't exist two weeks ago. I created him on the day I finished the novel and he only appears in the last chapter, but I can't wait to see what he'll do in the next novel! I actually didn't realize I liked him that much until yesterday when I started thinking about which of the villains I liked the most. And bam! Knowledge came. I don't think much of what I like about him (heck, no one's gonna read this unless the book gets published, so I can probably safely say that the character is Noah) shows on the pages, but I have a vague impression of his personality and I love it. You can't not love villains who are forced to be villains. Of course, his friend Alton is another story, but that's a tale for another time...
My manuscript keeps surprising me and I treasure every moment of it. Hopefully I'll get it polished soon and get some opinions! Which reminds me, I almost forgot: my friend Eve, the one that I gave the first chapter to, gave it back to me with words "I read five or six pages, really interesting" in a quiet tone (there were seven pages). I'm not sure if she actually read it, or if she understood it, but, nevertheless, I'm going to look at the positive. Maybe she really liked it, maybe it's worth something. Only you can tell.
Jane
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Sunday, October 4, 2009
First person narrative gender problems
All right, so the thing I might get criticized for the most is that I'm a girl writing from a guy's perspective. I don't even have many (or any, actually) guy friends to ask them about guy things or guy opinions, so, when writing the second draft, I'm struggling with the lead character, Blake's... Well, girliness, I suppose. I need to figure out what seems realistic, guy-ish, while still maintaining the views and opinions he has.
For example, today, after much thought over a several month period, I decided to change a major minor thing (I think I'm going to be using this term a lot. Don't know if it exists, but in case it doesn't, it means it's a minor thing that is major compared to other minor things, or, let's say, one of the few major things in a chapter that don't really matter elsewhere). I finally figured out that not only it is too weird for a guy that has a history in playing sports, but it's also completely not Blake. Largely because of his background in sports. He just wouldn't... The part that I'm cutting is a thousand word description of how he tries to balance and slide on ice, preferably not falling. He wouldn't fall on his face a hundread times over.
It's amazing how much editing can tell you about your character, how much you can learn. I'm excited to see what else the new manuscript brings me.
Oh, and also, I changed a very small major thing. There is this running gag about an *insert color* *insert item* that is largely connected to the title and even appears on some of the covers I've made for the novel. Today I changed the color. Huge, right? Yeah, not so much. The color didn't really change, I just found a more appropriate name for it. I'm not really good with names of shades.
Tomorrow I might be able to get the very first opinion on the 2nd draft of chapter 1 of The Changing Cloak. Can't wait!
Jane
For example, today, after much thought over a several month period, I decided to change a major minor thing (I think I'm going to be using this term a lot. Don't know if it exists, but in case it doesn't, it means it's a minor thing that is major compared to other minor things, or, let's say, one of the few major things in a chapter that don't really matter elsewhere). I finally figured out that not only it is too weird for a guy that has a history in playing sports, but it's also completely not Blake. Largely because of his background in sports. He just wouldn't... The part that I'm cutting is a thousand word description of how he tries to balance and slide on ice, preferably not falling. He wouldn't fall on his face a hundread times over.
It's amazing how much editing can tell you about your character, how much you can learn. I'm excited to see what else the new manuscript brings me.
Oh, and also, I changed a very small major thing. There is this running gag about an *insert color* *insert item* that is largely connected to the title and even appears on some of the covers I've made for the novel. Today I changed the color. Huge, right? Yeah, not so much. The color didn't really change, I just found a more appropriate name for it. I'm not really good with names of shades.
Tomorrow I might be able to get the very first opinion on the 2nd draft of chapter 1 of The Changing Cloak. Can't wait!
Jane
Friday, October 2, 2009
Thoughts
Well, the odds had it this time as well. I couldn't find an appropriate moment to tell my teacher I was writing a book, so I didn't give the first chapter to her, or even a few sentences, really. I wouldn't say I chickened out, but I had no idea how to tell her without gloating or something. Perhaps she would have thought I was showing off, since I had to explain to her what "raining cats and dogs" means (for which I got an A+, by the way, no idea why) and she pronounces "lives" as "leaves", but that's beside the point. The point being... *looks above* that I didn't give it to her. But something unexpected happened. Just when I was waiting for the bus, one of my classmates that I don't really know well somehow tricked it out of me. Actually, I'm pretty sure I was deep in thought about what was going to happen next and my best friend asked me what I was thinking about and I said "my book" and Eve (the friend I don't really know) didn't hear and my best friend repeated that and Eve asked what the book was about and since I had the first chapter printed, I just gave it to her. I hope she likes it. Or that she'll even understand it, because where I come from, people who know even a little bit of English know: 1)the British English and 2)from text books. So, things like "sure as hell" or even "gonna" (and possibly "by the way" and "anyway") aren't common in Latvian speech. It is in mine, so...
Yeah, so basically, one door may close, but another will open and maybe you get to peek inside the third through the keyhole, too. Who knows.
In other news I am now officially done with Chapter 1 of The Changing Cloak and it only took 13 drafts. Sigh. I hope to work a lot on the novel this weekend and perhaps even get chapter 2 done. Or maybe it will be easier than I thought. At the moment, though I am very tired and thinking of writing chapter 1 from another point of view (Stephenie Meyer rip-off, anyone? What can I do, Midnight Sun is my all-time favorite book... And maybe this is starting a trend that many first-person authors will follow). It might help to get to know the other lead character even more and explore her head a little bit. Which is going to be hard, because her head is very strange (which is why I love her, of course) and half the time even I have no idea if she's deliberately weird, delusional or has cross-checked every piece of trivia she says (for example, hair salons for lions, monkey distaste for monkey-bars and wars between Ancient Greeks and Egyptians over plagiarized dances. All right, I'm pretty sure she made that one up, but who knows). Oh wait, she doesn't say anything about that in chapter 1. Relieved sigh. Anyway, I might do that in a little while.
Jane
Yeah, so basically, one door may close, but another will open and maybe you get to peek inside the third through the keyhole, too. Who knows.
In other news I am now officially done with Chapter 1 of The Changing Cloak and it only took 13 drafts. Sigh. I hope to work a lot on the novel this weekend and perhaps even get chapter 2 done. Or maybe it will be easier than I thought. At the moment, though I am very tired and thinking of writing chapter 1 from another point of view (Stephenie Meyer rip-off, anyone? What can I do, Midnight Sun is my all-time favorite book... And maybe this is starting a trend that many first-person authors will follow). It might help to get to know the other lead character even more and explore her head a little bit. Which is going to be hard, because her head is very strange (which is why I love her, of course) and half the time even I have no idea if she's deliberately weird, delusional or has cross-checked every piece of trivia she says (for example, hair salons for lions, monkey distaste for monkey-bars and wars between Ancient Greeks and Egyptians over plagiarized dances. All right, I'm pretty sure she made that one up, but who knows). Oh wait, she doesn't say anything about that in chapter 1. Relieved sigh. Anyway, I might do that in a little while.
Jane
Thursday, October 1, 2009
The Fascination Continues
So, the odds were right. I came home from school and started reading the tenth version of chapter 1 of The Changing Cloak of something tentatively titled The Pal Series (you'll understand why when you've finished reading the first book). And, of course, I edited it. Little tweaks here and there. A few bigger ones in a couple of places. Some added sentences of thoughts where they were needed. Perhaps I'll delete them tomorrow. Who knows. Well, the eleventh version of chapter one is finished and I'm taking it tomorrow for my English teacher to read. Then again, it might be the twelfth or the thirteenth version, since I'm fully intending to re-read it again tonight and perhaps tomorrow before school. Editing expected. Sigh.
But back to the fascination. I remember when I wrote one particularly hard part of the novel that I had no idea how to write, because it was something I'd never experienced (as if I've experienced supernatural stuff, but that's beside the point). I wanted to get some opinions on it, so I posted those few paragraphs on Yahho!Answers. I fussed over each sentence, each word so that people would like it. They did. I was extremely shocked about it, because, well... Someone actually liked it! There were a few suggestions of improvement that I agreed on and the current version is nothing like that first one. I hope it's better.
But anyway, the thing was that I thought that surely I wouldn't fuss over each sentence in the whole book. I'd read about authors that really criticize every word and I knew one myself. I couldn't understand how it could be possible, why it would need to be, where I'd find the patience if I had to do that. And now I'm doing exactly that! I've literally fussed over each sentence at least five times. Some a lot more. And it feels surreal.
I never thought I of all people would do it, spend so much time doing something. The weird thing is that I enjoy it. It's fun! I hear authors say they've worked with the manuscript so much they're sick of it and I can't understand how it's possible. It's the work of your love! Or am I just very passionate about my novel? Whichever, I hadn't thought editing could be fun. Part of it is that it's the key to the next step: getting people to read it and get their opinions. But what I'm surprised about is that each day I can't wait to get home from school, and not just because it's school, but because I want to work on my novel. I hadn't expected that.
I've read about a lot of authors who have started writing for some reason and are doing it with their teeth locked. That shows in the work they've created. But when they find an idea they're passionate about, it just clicks and that has made them successful writers.
I like polishing my novel and that tells me that perhaps if I'm patient enough, hard-working enough and perhaps attend a few confences and courses and get a master's degree in English, I might make something out of this hobby of writing, because the passion is there.
And that's the most important thing.
Jane
P.S. I'm very nervous about tomorrow. The odds are my English teacher will be too busy to even glance at the chapter. Will the odds have it this time as well? We'll just have to wait and see.
But back to the fascination. I remember when I wrote one particularly hard part of the novel that I had no idea how to write, because it was something I'd never experienced (as if I've experienced supernatural stuff, but that's beside the point). I wanted to get some opinions on it, so I posted those few paragraphs on Yahho!Answers. I fussed over each sentence, each word so that people would like it. They did. I was extremely shocked about it, because, well... Someone actually liked it! There were a few suggestions of improvement that I agreed on and the current version is nothing like that first one. I hope it's better.
But anyway, the thing was that I thought that surely I wouldn't fuss over each sentence in the whole book. I'd read about authors that really criticize every word and I knew one myself. I couldn't understand how it could be possible, why it would need to be, where I'd find the patience if I had to do that. And now I'm doing exactly that! I've literally fussed over each sentence at least five times. Some a lot more. And it feels surreal.
I never thought I of all people would do it, spend so much time doing something. The weird thing is that I enjoy it. It's fun! I hear authors say they've worked with the manuscript so much they're sick of it and I can't understand how it's possible. It's the work of your love! Or am I just very passionate about my novel? Whichever, I hadn't thought editing could be fun. Part of it is that it's the key to the next step: getting people to read it and get their opinions. But what I'm surprised about is that each day I can't wait to get home from school, and not just because it's school, but because I want to work on my novel. I hadn't expected that.
I've read about a lot of authors who have started writing for some reason and are doing it with their teeth locked. That shows in the work they've created. But when they find an idea they're passionate about, it just clicks and that has made them successful writers.
I like polishing my novel and that tells me that perhaps if I'm patient enough, hard-working enough and perhaps attend a few confences and courses and get a master's degree in English, I might make something out of this hobby of writing, because the passion is there.
And that's the most important thing.
Jane
P.S. I'm very nervous about tomorrow. The odds are my English teacher will be too busy to even glance at the chapter. Will the odds have it this time as well? We'll just have to wait and see.
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