Hatrack River Writers Workshop: NSG 8/6

This is topic NSG 8/6 - 8/12 in forum Hatrack Groups at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by WBSchmidt (Member # 8533) on :

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

=-=-=-=-=

Last Week's Goals

I am quite pleased with my progress from last week. I finished the vast majority of the subplots have a little bit of clean up and organization remaining.

My goals for next week:

Organize scenes
Improve scene details

Since I made such progress last week, I started organizing the subplot scenes into chapter order. This has allowed me to improve the details of each scene since I now know how each scene relates to one another. In addition, seeing the scenes in their final order allows me to review details from previous scenes and foreshadow future scenes.

What did I learn this week?

Again, not much here. The one thing I can say, from some months ago, is that perseverance is very important with writing. For several months I did absolutely nothing with my writing, but I continued to visit here. I'm glad I did because I feel I am making quite a bit of progress now.

--William

Posted by Meredith (Member # 8368) on :

Last Week's Goals:

DREAMER'S ROSE: Work on chapter exchange revisions as they come.
Yes. (Well, not counting the one that came in yesterday, but you can't do everything all in a day. Especially a day like yesterday.)

THE SHAMAN'S CURSE: Let it rest for a while longer.
Easy goal.

THE IGNORED PROPHECY: Continue chapter exchange for this in FPNA (Future Published Novelists Anonymous).
Yes. (Again, not counting the comments that came back yesterday. See above.)

BLOOD WILL TELL: Two new queries out next week.
I actually sent out three.

MAGE STORM: Write through to THE END.
Not quite. But I'm two-thirds of the way through the epilogue, so I'm that close.

OTHER:
Update my blog twice a week.
Work on that short story.
Yes and no respectively.

Next Week's Goals:

DREAMER'S ROSE:
Work on chapter exchange revisions as they come.

THE SHAMAN'S CURSE:
Let it rest for a while longer. When I've finished the chapter exchanges on its sequel, I'll take another look at it.

THE IGNORED PROPHECY:
Continue chapter exchange for this in FPNA (Future Published Novelists Anonymous). Getting close to the end on this one.

BLOOD WILL TELL:
Send two new queries out.

MAGE STORM:
Write through to THE END. Then I'll let this sit for a short while before going back for the second draft. The first draft is going to fall short of 40000 words--too short, even for YA. But I've got quite a few notes for things I want to add or expand on. Hopefully, I can get it up between 50000 and 55000 words, which still feels awfully short to me.

OTHER:
Update my blog twice a week.
I've got three possible short stories I want to spend some time on while MAGE STORM rests a little.

[This message has been edited by Meredith (edited August 06, 2010).]

Posted by Kitti (Member # 7277) on :

This week's goals:

1) edit and submit current short story WIP
2) write 1K on Mudlarks
3) remember to come post again next Friday!

Posted by Crank (Member # 7354) on :

PREVIOUS WEEK
"Agents of the Fourth Wind" (SF): I’ve used the crits from the synopsis contest to lead me to plot holes and inconsistencies. I found a few, so I’ve been working at making the necessary adjustments.

Mainstream novel: I’ve only added a little over 400 new words to the story, but I tightened up a few things.

"Metzgerhund Empire" (YA): I continued ironing out the contradictions between my main character and how he behaves in certain scenes.

UPCOMING WEEK
"Agents of the Fourth Wind" (SF): Continue identifying and adjusting any plot holes and inconsistencies I might find, and write new material as dictated by the characters themselves.

Mainstream novel: Writing. I’m going to make a conscious effort not to edit so much this time around.

"Metzgerhund Empire" (YA): Chapter five is kicking my rear end, but it’s a critical point for my MC’s psyche, so I’m taking my time and doing it right.

NOTES
(1) During this time, I will also be working on my next WotF entry.
(2) Also---and very much against my better judgment, considering how many other things I’ve got going---I’ve started a new SF short story. But, what can I say? Something that mirrors this story struck me in real life, so I was inspired to finally move this story off the drawing board and onto the front burner.

S!
S!

Posted by walexander (Member # 9151) on :

I felt unfocused this last week.

I've always written in MS Word, and just got introduced to Ywriter which helps me organize projects, in a good and a bad way though it forces you to think about your spelling because it doesn't have auto correct or drop down spell correct. You also have to export to see the whole document.

I also have been playing with Celtx which is a pretty good script writer but can be used for just about anything. I'm trying to settle on something so I can get my focus back in the game.

I like both of these because they allow you to break scenes and chapters apart, and you don't have to scroll through the whole document to find what your looking for.

What was left of my attention span went into fine touching my Wotf entry which final has the perspective name: How to kill a god.

The Unbeliever's Realm: Temp. on hold.
The Seeds of Persephone: Temp. on hold.

What's horrible is I came up with a great YA book idea, and now I feel conflicted as to what should get priority.

Plan for this week. Get my focus back, choose a utility, choose a project, and just get the ol' fingers and brain cells moving again.

curious question whats the tag for bullets here?

[This message has been edited by walexander (edited August 06, 2010).]

Posted by Meredith (Member # 8368) on :

quote:
curious question whats the tag for bullets here?

Within the usual brackets [], use list to start a bulleted list and an * for each bullet. /list ends the list.

Posted by walexander (Member # 9151) on :

thanks M.

Posted by Strychnine (Member # 9207) on :

Before I start I’d just like to say one thing. I’ve spent the last week or so reading through current and past posts and let me say y’all intimidate the hell out of me! I’ve been a casual writer since I was about 15. Recently, I decided it was time to write that first great novel and started doing research on it, which is how I ran into this site. Now I look and see everyone talking about their rejection letters, acceptance letters, and winning writing contests, it’s all a bit overwhelming.

However, if you are going to learn anything, you have got to start somewhere. So here I am. For the most part I like to write fantasy, and historical fiction. But when I started asking “what if”, about one of my characters today an idea hit me like a ton of feathers. So now I am going to work on a SF novel. Before now I have always written by the seat of my pants; research, write, and repeat. Yet somehow I’ve never finished anything. Until I started reading posts on this site I never thought about the fact that I was breaking one of the 7 habits of highly effective people. I was beginning with the middle in mind, not the end. That changes here. I know how this book starts, I know how this book ends, and now all I have to worry about is the middle. Simple, right?

Onto goals, I had no goals for last week. At least where writing is concerned, so I have nothing to report other than the idea that hit me earlier today. For this week I have two goals

1 - Continue brainstorming
2 - Continue research on the world building portion of my project.
3 – Get an outline going for at least the first three chapters.

[This message has been edited by Strychnine (edited August 10, 2010).]

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

Strychnine, one thing you might want to consider is the idea that you don't have to write a story in the order in which it will be read (movie directors don't necessarily film movies in the order in which they will be viewed, and writers don't have to write their stories in the order they will be read, either).

Since you know how it starts, and you know how it ends, go ahead and get first drafts of those parts written as soon as you can. Then, as you brainstorm and figure out the middle parts, write them, even if you don't figure them out in order.

You can always get things sorted out and smoothed over in the right order when you do the rewrite(s). The important thing now is to get as much of the first draft down in actual words as you can, and as you figure it out.

[This message has been edited by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (edited August 10, 2010).]

Posted by thomaskcarpenter (Member # 9192) on :

Ghost and the Nether - Busy typing in 400 pages of edits so I can ship to my First Readers. Aughh... i hate typing in edits.

DF short - 10k short done and did first edit. Have to type it in next week after novel edits done.

Posted by Strychnine (Member # 9207) on :

KDW,

I just realized I had a reply to my post. Sorry. Thank you for the advice. I will remember that when i get stuck this time around. usually when I am having those non-creative moments, I walk away and don't come back for months. I have learned that this leads to unwritten stories. I think now when I have these moments I will just skip to another part of the story.

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

I hope it works for you, Strychnine.