quote:Welcome to this week's Novel Support Group (NSG). Anyone can join. If you're new, tell us a bit about who you are and what project you are working on. Feel free to update the NSG Work in Progress thread with your current projects. Although we can report on any number of things, here is a list of suggestions (suggestions welcomed).
What were your goals last week and did you accomplish them? Describe what you worked on. Set goals for next week. Did you learn something during this week?
Here is a list of things that you can do each week as we work on our novels (suggestions welcomed).
Writing on a novel Characterization World Building Relevant research
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As for me.
Last Week's Goals:
FIRE AND EARTH (formerly known as SEVEN STARS): Continue promoting. Eh. Nothing this week.
BLOOD IS THICKER: Recheck Smashwords format. Formulate a publication plan. Didn't get to this, either.
THE BARD'S GIFT: Send out three queries. Yes.
MAGE STORM: Revise query. Wait for the last two critiques to come back. Yes.
MAGIC AND POWER: Rest. Easy one.
THE SHAMAN'S CURSE: Through Chapter 26. Yes. Actually, through Chapter 27.
WEIRD OZ STORY: Write what flows. Don't force it. Evidently, nothing flowed.
I am just about to write the last couple of pages of this novel.
Which means, of course, that now I must go back to the very opening and start hunting for the elusive misspellings, especially the nasty ones that hide as the wrong word (then in place of that and so forth). Also, repetitions that are not meant. Characters in the wrong place/time. All manner of other egregious errors.
Where can I go for solace now that I am hunting error rather than gloriously creating more of my new world vision?
Really. Where to next?
Posts: 1580 | Registered: Dec 2005
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posted
I am now working from the front of my novel toward completed and partial scenes from the middle. Most of those scenes have been heavily revised; the last scene is in my head and has stayed true for over a year, so I'm excited. I'm a bit conflicted about having heavily revised them, but there were many pieces that came together or appeared because I was forced to make logical/causal sense of the characters' actions. There were many times this took me into very fertile ground for new ideas and strong story elements. There, I'm not so conflicted, hehe.
I want to write a "profluent" novel as John Garner defines the term. My target audience is adults and emerging adults, not really YA. The main character is a reluctant hero, a young man who is passive and in love and hoping for his grandfather to address the threats his family and town face. The other characters are a mix of those who bury their heads in the sand, and those who desire to take heroic action but lack that final ingredient only the main character has. And that ingredient has been forced upon him. I love this story and hope, God willing, my future readers do, too.
This week I will write the first draft of one more scene and flesh out my outline in more detail with a heavy focus on story arcs and C and E of MICE. I will likely free write some interior monologues and intimate conversations which reveal character and motivation. Of course it could all come out completely different Which is what I love about this adventure.
dig into the second draft (which is usually going to be a lot more than just fixing typos and spelling mistakes. Often, some fairly major overhauling is called for)
or
put it on a shelf and let it sit while you move on to the next story. Then, after a while, come back to it with fresh eyes.
I don't know that either option offers solace, per se, but they both keep you writing and (hopefully) submitting.
As for my own novel, next week's goals:
The God Behind the Glass (I think I finally picked a title): Let it sit, other than getting some crits. For the time being, just collecting feedback from readers, not working on it directly.
The Meat House: Finish writing synopsis, submit for publication as a magazine serial.
Begin working on some shorts as development for my next novel, which I don't really have fleshed out, but involves an idea I have about superheroes. The shorts may or may not end up being standalone pieces that I can send around, but they will flesh out the world for the novel and help me come up with some characters/plot/etc.
Posts: 1528 | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
Haven't posted in this thread for a long while.
I haven't looked at my first novel, The Kabbalist: The Foundation of the Kingdom for a couple years while I [1]collected copyright permissions for use of a line of song lyric (my thanks to the record label and artist)and one from a short story passage from the heir of H.P. Lovecraft (nice man), and [2] wrote two prequel novelettes that I was unable to find homes for and therefore stopped writing a third--figured I'd try writing other things before returning to this urban fantasy series. I still get compliments and requests for these at times. I should give the novel another look with a couple years more writing experience under my belt and consider the query process.
But this is all the past (and the future). I'm adding to this thread today acknowledging utter failure with my presumptive Q4 WOTF story which is now at 25K words with a few thousand left to write. This morning I wrote the synopsis for the first half of the second part of, I presume, three of what will be my second novel--a science fantasy tale in the tradition of the beloved greats in this subgenre who recently passed away (in 2013 and 2011 respectively)will be missed: Jack Vance and Anne McCaffery.
Still got to slap something together for Q4 WOTF, though.
Respectfully, Dr. Bob
Posts: 1475 | Registered: Aug 2010
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