The Dragon's Flame Goes On

Well, it's been a while since I've updated this blog with something about my actual writing.  Since the point of this blog is to separate my reviews from my writing updates, it kind of defeats the purpose if I don't keep people updated about my writing.

That being said, ever since Nathan laid down the law, I have been writing every day, missing only a day or so out of the week.  I should be writing every day, but I think that having a day where I don't write be the abnormality, rather than the days I do write, is a step in the right direction.  Right now what I need to do is increase my minimum from a thousand words a day to two thousand.  I try my best to never be under a thousand words, but sometimes it just happens.  The nice thing about a thousand words minimum is that anything below five hundred words just isn't satisfactory and hardly counts as actually writing.  And by the time I've reached five hundred words, going to a thousand just isn't a big deal anymore.  And once you reach a thousand words, what's to stop you from writing a few hundred more?  And then a thousand more?

I'll tell you what stops me, the fact that sometimes I don't start writing until one in the morning.  This is a bad habit, I need to stop it.

I should take the time to say that this is all thanks to Nathan, and in part to Jason (who created a nifty excel document that we can all use to keep track of our progress and compare it to the rest of writing group.  Makes it much easier to be accountable when you see how much you are sucking), that I've been able to reach this phase where I'm writing pretty much every day.  He doesn't have to get on my case, but he does, and I appreciate it, since I'm finally moving to that phase where I will be able to get myself to write so much more easily.

That and it's kind of shameful to have to be forced to do something I love and want to do for a living.  My eventual goal is to be known as one of the more prolific writers published.  This will take a while to happen.

That being said, I'm currently most likely half way through Dragon's Egg, I have a good chunk of it planned, and once I finish my long form notes for the plot I'm going to start working on planning my next book.  I intend to have this book be fifty thousand words, but I imagine it will be a bit longer than that.  So I'm either halfway, or three fifths of the way through.

There's a lot that's going to need to be changed up, some major edits that need doing.  Since the book is meant to be a middle grade I'm going to need to remove a fair bit of violence (I honestly can't help it, I don't think I'm cut out to be a middlegrade writer, YA might be as young as I go).  But since I like the violence, I'm going to make two edits.  A middlegrade edit that is meant as a gift for my cousin, and a YA version that I'll actually try to get sold.  This depends of course on which version I like better.  If I go the YA route I'm going to have to make Melan a good few years older.  And once I do that, a lot is going to change.  The earlier stuff written when she was still ten, and everything else written when she was twelve.  But I think for now I'm going to finish it up, and then start work on my next book after I do the middlegrade edits.  This will be the first actual book I've finished (full length that is, I've finished plenty of shorter (sucky) stories, but never a full length book).  What I need to do next is start on a new project so that I can actually claim to have a portfolio.

Anyway, classes have started again, which means the real challenge starts now.  Now we see if I can make myself write even though I have homework, and if I can juggle it all along with keeping up to date on my blog.

Pray for me, people.  Pray for me.

Planning - It is better than discovery writing. There, I said it.

I am absolutely loving this new method of planning.  Already I've restructured my story to the point where it's actually good.  Maybe my brain works a little differently from other writers, but not having to focus on whether my writing is good, or even just putting down serviceable prose, has really made it much easier to get the creative juices flowing.  I guess this is an extreme version of what Brandon said about turning off your internal editor and just writing.  I've turned off both my internal editor, and my internal prose writer.  And it's working miracles. 

I know I'll have to actually write the prose eventually, and maybe I'm adding more stages to this than there need to be, but it's working and that's all that matters to me.  Like I said, I can write an amazing amount of words in a day if I don't have to think too hard about what I'm writing.  So I definitely suspect I'm going to be one of those writers that spends months planning a book, and then writes it in a few short weeks. 

It's definitely a lot easier to fix story errors before actually writing the prose.  While in the planning stage I can look at what works and what doesn't work, and since I have no prose to be attached to, I can easily make the necessary changes in a minimal number of words, and then move on to fixing the next problem.

Writing like this is, however, much more slow paced, which is both a good thing and a bad thing.  On the one hand it's aggravating the side of me that wants to get to the end of the project as quickly as possible.  On the other hand that side of is a whiny little canine of the female persuasion and needs as many beatings as I have the strength to deliver.  Trying to rush through this book in the first place is what made the end fall to pieces.  It wasn't pretty.

The funny thing is, that inspiration keeps hitting, even when I'm working off the shorter plan I made.  So even though I had one course of events in mind, I end up retooling it completely for the detailed plan.  I'll say it again, this is working great for me.

But since it's late I'm going to get some rest now, and continue work on this tomorrow.  It went so well this evening that I think I can spend a lot more time getting writing done tomorrow.  Not like I don't have time for it.  I also have some blogging that needs doing, so after I spend the morning writing I think I'll get that done, adn then see if i can get any of my other planned reviews out of the way.  Feels nice to feel productive, now if only I could find a job, then I'd feel really productive. 

PS: Creative juices taste like apple juice.

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.

Dragon's Egg: 3,351 Words

I'm really bad at updating this when I write something.  Or I'm really bad at writing.  You decide.  Either way, I'm going to try and make a habit of updating this blog every Sunday, with a total word count for the week.  Hopefully this won't be completely depressing.

I decided to do my best to finish this book today.  And Hallelujah I did it!  This marks the first officially completed book I've ever written.  Yes it isn't the longest book out there, but it's middlegrade and those tend to be on the shorter side anyway. 

Technically I have finished one book before this, but it wasn't one I'm proud of, and the ending was just me giving up on it.  So as far as the Derek Bown Canon is concerned, The Dragon's Egg stands as my first completed novel.  Or novella... 

Well, either way this is an exciting night.  I'm sure as I go to edit this book I won't be so smug about it as I am now.  But for now I'll just relish the high I'm getting off of finishing this book.  Now I can buy my ticket for world fantasy, now that I have something to show editors and agents.

Dragon's Egg: 2,189 Words

Well, I wrote 2,189 words today.  While I may not be writing as often as I'd like, at least I'm getting a decent amount written when I do write.  I'm a little under 3,000 words away from my word goal for this book.  Well, my second word goal.  Originally it was going to be 30,000 words, but then I decided to save on printing cost I'd cut it down to 20,000 (that and it would take less time to finish it).  Though I am close to the word count goal it will probably be a bit longer than I anticipated.  We're close to the final showdown, an event I imagine will take a little longer than another 3,000 words.

So we're close, very close.  Then I'll just have to proof read it, and make a few changes so that it's ready to take to the printer.

Well, here's hoping I finish it either tomorrow, or sometime this weekend.

Dragon's Egg: 531 Words

I only got 531 words done today.  But I wrote again, so that's something.  I'll try to write at least something every day, even if it is only 500 words.  Though I'd rather write a lot every day.

Dragon's Egg: 1,484 Words

I got the rest of the book planned last week, and have since not gotten around to finishing it quite yet.  But I'm slowly getting there.  I'm really excited, because I have the ending all planned, so I know what I'm going to work towards, and this will be my first really finished book.  At least the first that actually counts. 

I wrote about 1,484 words, and we are rapidly approaching the climax.  Can't wait to get there.  This has been an education for me, as I've relearned the importance of having an outline for me.  At the same time I've also learned that while I have the important stuff planned out, and a lot of the minor stuff, I need to adapt my planning style to flesh out everything in a plan before I write it out.  Though I should probably keep myself from going overboard.

Well, it was a bit of a rough session this time, I didn't get nearly as much done as I hoped, but I got something done, and should be finishing this book soon.  It'll be good to have one done, and I'll be able to carry what I learn on to the next book.  Here's hoping I get to the point where I can write longer books.

I'll probably be able to pull it off, once I perfect my planning method, and am able to get the creative juices flowing well enough to do some discovery writing for the stuff in between.  Mostly I need to work on my transitions from scene to scene, and I'll be much better off.

Welcome to the Blog and Halfway Point For "The Dragon's Egg"

I decided not too long ago that I needed a writing blog.  A blog specifically for me to post updates on my writing, and talk about my different projects, along with anything relating to writing in general.  This is also the blog that I'll be sharing with Agents and Editors while networking.  This will also be the blog that I put on my business cards.

So, I hope you enjoy this blog, and hopefully I'll be able to think of interesting things to post here, besides just updates on my work, and possibly even excerpts.  If I ever write a short story I'll consider posting it here.

Today I was able to get 3,458 words written for The Dragon's Egg a special project of mine that needs finishing as quickly as possible.  It's a middlegrade book, and will be about 20,000 to 30,000 words long.  So far my actual goal is 20,000, meaning I'm halfway through.  It's been a lot of fun to write, since it's been coming to me much more easily than pretty much anything I've done in a while.  I guess it helps that I lowered my expectations for this, not because I don't care if it sucks or not (though I have accepted that as a strong possibility) but because I went back to basics and adopted a simpler plot than a lot of what I've done before.  It's not going to win any awards, but it does what it's meant to and I can't ask for more than that.  Once I get some practice in I hope to be able to pull off more and more complicated plots.  Which should be doable now that I have a clearer idea of plotting after Brandon's class last Thursday.

So, I'm halfway through with this, and hope to have it done by this week.  While it won't be as long as any YA novel out there, it will still be my first officially completed novel.  I've technically completed some before, but none were satisfactory, so it will be nice to be able to point to this one when asked if I've finished a book.  And if I can keep up this paee every day, then it won't be a fantasy to pull off getting this, and more books done.

That being said, I have another book I'm writing at the moment for Brandon's class, and I need to have 50,000 words done for that by the end of the semester.

Hope you enjoy this blog, though it probably won't be getting any viewers until I'm known in the wonderful world of fiction.