Monday, March 28, 2011

Dragon's Egg Edit: Around 3,000 Or So

I should probably mention that I've started the editing process for The Dragon's Egg.  I've thought of some more material to increase the overall length, and hopefully give it a better plot in general.  I've already rewritten two scenes, and added another, and am starting on a rewrite/edit of the last few scenes before I make some major changes to the plot. 

Hopefully this won't take too long.  But I'll have to take as long as necessary in order to make this book as good as possible. 

I still have several scenes that need to be properly planned out, as well as several chapters worth of material that needs organizing.  After I write the scenes I do have planned I'll take a break from writing in order to get a good outlined written up.  Some people can discovery write; I'm not one of those people.  So from here on out expect to see several Sunday posts about me planning out my book.

I'll never understand people who can just sit down with a basic idea, and start writing from there.  It completely blows my mind.  For me it works a lot better if I focus on thinking up a plot first, and taking down rough, or detailed notes and worrying about actually writing the book only after I've sat down and planned everything out as much as possible.  Writing is a lot of work, and it is never easy (part of why I'm so bad at doing it regularly), but just because it's a lot of work doesn't meant we need to make it harder on ourselves.  Some people can sit down and just let the story come to them as they write, but for me it's much easier to get a good deal of inspiration written down, and then when I finally do sit down I have a detailed list of what happens. 

I still get inspiration while I write the actual book, and sometimes things go in an entirely different direction.  But when the choice is between forcing myself to stick to a rigid plan, or not writing at all because I'm overwhelmed with what I'm trying to do.  I'll probably go into more detail about my writing process at a later date, I need to respond to Nathan's pro-discovery writing, anti-planning post.  It should be interesting, especially since I've reached this point after trying to convince myself that I was a discovery writer for the longest time.  I've been going about this in a very roundabout way, but I'm slowly getting to the point where I know what I want, and how to do it.  So here's to catching up for lost time.  And given that I have a pretty decent WPM going for myself, I should be able to produce a lot per day if I write every single day, and work off a plan that I bothered to take the time to write out.

Monday, March 14, 2011

And Now For Phase Two - My Current Life, Career, and Academic Plans

I've started work editing and rewriting The Dragon's Egg.  While it is in fact done the finished product really is more aptly described as a twenty thousand word outline.  This peeves me a bit but so far my writing group is responding well to it and giving good advice on how to improve the book.  So now we start the delightful editing process.

My first goal is to print off the manuscript, it's only a little over thirty pages long, and to go over it and decided where I can lengthen this book to the point of adding at least another thirty thousand words. My biggest weakness so far is easily the fact that my pacing is pretty terrible, which is accounted for by the fact that I rushed through this book in order to just finally have it done.  But now that I've put it aside for a few weeks I feel ready to look over it again and focus on only the most important parts, namely fixing the pacing issues.  Hopefully this will turn out a much better book.

A lot of writers talk about how they had to give something up in order to actually write.  TV is usually the most common thing that writers give up, but I haven't really watched TV in a long time.  But a talk with some of my friends made me realize that while I don't waste my time on TV as much as I once did, I have another time eater that has been threatening not only my writing, but my school work and blogging as well.

So until further notice - by which I mean I intend to keep this up indefinitely - I will eschew my main past time, namely goofing off on various internet sites.  The way it works is that I don't get online during the week, and save everything I would have read for the weekend.  Alongside that, if I can get all my work done during the day I can have an hour or less in the evening during which to apply myself to other entertainment.  This will most likely take the form of blogging (considering how far behind I am) and working on The Dragon's Egg.  Keep in mind that "blogging" will generally include time spent watching the shows I review on a theoretical weekly basis.  Besides starting on editing this will be the focus of my daily evening hour of internet usage.

But since I don't want to choose between blogging and writing, I will also be dedicating at least an hour each evening, after I finish school work, to working on my current book.  For now that will be writing extra scenes to flesh out The Dragon's Egg, but as soon as I get that done I'll restart work on The Incredible Life of Billy Brown, aka/ the book with the best title I've ever thought of. 

As soon as I get everything sorted out I'll probably post a writing schedule of all the ideas I want to work on.  Currently I have plenty of ideas for books, and other various projects, that I should have no problem finding something creative to do.  I'll probably never be in the situation where I have nothing to write, because I have so many ideas, including the currently abandoned ideas, that I doubt I'll be able to work my way through all of them in just a year.  And the chances of not thinking of a new idea during said year are slim as well.  So by the time I finally write everything I've currently thought of I'll all ready have a myriad of brand new ideas ready to go.  And so on, and so forth, until they find me dead at my key board with an unfinished first draft.

And then the fans will forever wonder what masterpiece I have left unfinished.

Hopefully this change in life style is exactly what I need, and I can finally beat the chronic laziness that is keeping me from getting as good as I should be.  I know for a fact that I've gotten better over the past two or three years, but it's nowhere near as good as I would be if I had gotten myself to consistently write every day during that time.  Well, here's for making up for lost time, and hopefully for balancing out my University career as well. 

With that said, I have to confess that I find it hard not to slip up a little and check on the websites I once frequented.  But I will remain strong and stay away from distractions cold turkey for the entire week.  Eventually I might even be able to keep it up for an entire month, followed by a binge at the end where I read all the things that I've missed.  Maybe I'll even just stop going online for leisure entirely, and instead read my manga when I buy the volumes.  I know the publishers would prefer that, but first I would need to wean myself away from the desire to keep up to date on the stories.  No idea how likely that is, but it's a possibility.  My current ultimate goal is to avoid going online for leisure reading entirely during a whole semester and to see if that improves my academic standing.  Granted just avoiding it for a week, or a month might be sufficient, but gaining that kind of self control would do me a world of good. 

And with that I sign off, because I have a mid-term to take, but taking the time to write this has definitely helped calm me down, and provided a necessary little break from studying.  I just have a few more papers to go over and then I'll go take the exam.  After that the true test begins, and we see if I can stick to getting all my work done before any leisure.