quote:Welcome to this week's Novel Support Group. 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:
DUAL MAGICS SERIES (THE SHAMAN'S CURSE, THE VOICE OF PROPHECY, BEYOND THE PROPHECY,and WAR OF MAGIC): Social media promotion. Not really.
BECOME: TO CATCH THE LIGHTNING: Continue writing first draft. Yes.
MAGE STORM: Read through what I've already rewritten. Well, I've got the file open.
I am now back to working on my other WIPs. So did a bit of work on that steampunk-urban fantasy-dragonpunk-history novel I was doing.
I don't know I almost feel like redoing the last chapter or two. Working on number four. But I don't know what to put in the place of what I have. I need to get my MC onto the battlefield so I could cut down the time spent in travel-except when he saves the airship he was on-then do away with most of the time spent in two bases. Shoulder shrug.
Worked on the revision of The Courier . Added to it too. Only on chapter two. I introduce a new important character. And some more about my main character Kara Stronggear
Came up with a new steampunk idea. One mixed with paranormal creatures and one person who has had three live times, who fights them. I am not sure if he is part of a group or just himself.
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In my writing this last week I wrote some new stories/chapters and edited some older ones.
From the new writing, I've learned that sometimes distance does help. I can set up the characters and the scene, and let it run, but unless I get some distance from the story, the scene will turn out flat. Sometimes I only get an idea for a good twist when I come back to the story a week later.
From the editing, I've realised that I still have a lot to work on with my viewpoint characters. Sometimes they don't sound as authentic as they should. My characters in general often sound more sophisticated than they ought to be, putting things in a much too convoluted way. I also keep finding sequencing tangles, again and again. I found one in the fourth draft of one particular story, after I thought I'd combed them all out--rather depressing, but at least I'm getting better at spotting them. Still, I need to work harder there.
I'm beginning to see a difference of quality between my older stories and my more recently finished ones. I edited one of the first ones I wrote this year, almost alongside editing two later ones, and while it wasn't completely awful, I'm beginning to think it will need more than another redraft to make it good enough for putting out there.
Another important thing I learned this week is to trust my own style a bit more. My first reader commented that the action and dialogue in one of my stories wasn't plausible, given the characters. He was right--the characters were acting implausibly, because I hadn't given them enough thought. So I initially tried to solve the problem by introducing stronger language and more violence. But I wasn't happy with it. The violence seemed over-the-top and unnecessary, and didn't fit the kind of story I wanted to write. It didn't fit me, or the story's tone. So in the next draft, I went back and removed the extreme bits, and changed the characters instead, so that they fitted more plausibly into the original tone of the piece. Going through this dance taught me a lot, and made the story (I hope) more complex and interesting.
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Great stuff, H Reinhold! It's so cool to see growth and results in our efforts. I'm very happy for you.
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