SRG Blog

Moving!

I'm moving this site to Wordpress, and attempting to do so with out any swearing outside help.

So, if I accidentally flood your feedreaders or the site disappears or something, I'm REALLY SORRY.

Perhaps the spam filters are a little too strident if I need to verify myself before I can post a comment.

Decisions, Decisions

1. Have re-write planned, more or less, for Solace. Now need to sit and do.

2. Which book next? High fantasy which might secretly be a romance (SHUT UP) or another softie scifi on what art means in the future, probably in the same universe as Solace because I'm lazy like that I'm not done in that particular sandbox? Fantasy: 1/3 of first attempt salvagable, world built, probably a quick write. Scifi: wicked fun, more literary, MC I'm totally enamoured with. You pick, I can't.

3. Host for new Wordpress site?

Why My Finicky Revision Process Works for Me

In the process of mapping out my chapters, I not only figured out why the middle was so muddled but also found the third major character's arc. (This is Aditi, for anyone reading who was a beta reader for The Girl in Room Twelve. She wiggled in and nearly took over the book.) Her goals were pretty simple- but there was no internal movement. No major change, just a little softening around the edges. But I think she's here- I think she went from being a minor character subplot to a driving force- because this story is also about redemption. For Scar and Nedia and Aditi. It's the thing that ties them together even when they want to kill each other.

I don't like redemption stories. I like the theme just fine, but I usually don't buy it. It ends up being a little too convenient, most of the time, or a little too romantic or glorified. Eye-roller endings. I think- think, but now need to be very sure- that I avoided that in the end, but I'll be leaning on my first readers to call me on bullshit when they see it.

But now I can re-write the middle with a much stronger sense of Aditi's internal conflict. And it will color her interactions and the tensions between characters.

Back to Work

My break was a little longer than I'd planned, but now I'm all rested and have had a couple of readers look over the first few chapters of Solace, and with their spot-on comments and encouragement, I'm ready for the next round.

Today and likely tomorrow I'm making my revision notes, which include:

1. Settings described and explained in detail
2. Descriptions and most important details of cultural and economic issues driving the plot
3. Chapter maps- POV, scenes, plot purpose and character goals
4. Character arcs, overall
5. Plot description/synopsis
6. Consistency details to watch for- tech and language and mores  and POV, especially

A lot of those things are in the draft, but writing about it and sketching it out helps me make sure I have things happening in the right order, that nothing major is being left out, that I have a clear idea of the characters' paths.

Notice there's nothing here about language (other than consistency). There are two reasons for that. One, I'm on draft two of three or four. There are too many big things to fix before I start pondering word choice. Two, rough launguage usually means there's something else I need to fix; I write fairly clean, when things are going well and I know what's what and everyone on the page is cooperating. When my language gets shoddy, it generally means I need to fix a plot hole or an inconsistent characterization or something bigger than an excess of adverbs.

The cute creature sidekick has to go. I argued to leave it in, but have been convinced that it's one of those darlings that needs to be done away with. Especially since he sort of disappeared off the page after doing one necessary task. It'll take a little rearranging- and I'll lose some of my favorite dialog, but I'm sure he'll show up in a short some time.

The biggest problem with draft one is the relative lack of a middle- the big events are there, but I wrote around a lot of the motivation and conflict instead of directly addressing it, and it's terribly obvious that chapters 5-9 are little more than placeholders. This was partly intentional; I needed to figure out the ending before I could aim for it. Now that I have the ending, more or less, I can get everyone there more easily. I hope.

Right now I'm taking my notebook out into a perfect Colorado afternoon to scribble some notes while I watch the robins and the jays squabble over the lower branches in the ash.

Quick Update:

I have come to conclusion that I dislike Typepad for too many reasons to justify paying for it anymore. Which means I need to figure out how to move the site and the years of archives elsewhere. So far, I see a lot of people using wordpress... anybody have another recommendation? I want something easy to use, easy to change, and hopefully free. Plus I want an LJ cross-poster and all those fun little widgets everyone else seems to have.

Note: haven't mentioned this to resident geek. Since the last time was so much fun, I'm sure he'll turn colors and run out of the house when I do get around to mentioning it. (Hi, honey. I promise I'll be low maintenance this time.)

The End is Nigh

I'm one chapter away from a first draft. Expect to be scarce until it's done, and then taking a good two week break (preschool over, friends visiting, r&r) before revising. On track with master plan: intend to start querying agents by the end of the summer.

Also, have at least four other novels in the backbrain waiting to be drafted. I used to be so wholly focused on one project at a time that I never had more than one in my brain at any point, but this feeling of having more work to do than time to do it in is actually sort of nice.

My inner three year old is throwing a temper tantrum over the convention trip I had to cancel, the novel I drawered last winter, and the constant anxiety brought on by job hunting. The writing's going ok, but I hate feeling like I'd be in a better spot if I'd expected less.

Spring=Garden.

Where I come from, once you hit 70` it's pretty safe to put the tomatoes in the ground.

Not here, oh no. And I have the patience of a fruit fly- I needed that garden in, period- so I'm going from the weather forecast to the backyard, cheering on the little plants and throwing old sheets and tablecloths over them to keep off the chill. Plus we get hail. I think we might get more hail than rain, and I am absolutely fascinated by it. The tomatoes plants don't like it so much.

The garden is fine; it's also a distraction. I haven't put many words down in the last week. I have sorted out some subplots and rewrites and I think I'm still on track to have a finished draft by the end of the month. Then I'll take a week or two off (coincides nicely with the break between preschool and summer camp, I'm smart like that) and start revisions in early-mid June.

There's a plan for what's next, too, but I have to revisit that. I have a vague new idea- a character and setting, really, no plot to speak of, which is typical of me- and some old ones tugging at the backbrain. We'll see.

May 8

Made progress, but this patching and fill in process is so slow, I don't know how to count it at the end. I think I took out as many words as I put in, but the story is improved overall.

I think I'm looking at a final word count of about 90k. Not sure what that means; it seems like the right length to me. But we'll see.