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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. 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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Last Week's Goals My main goal last week was to work on the outline for the next "sequence" of chapters. I did not have much information for what I wanted in this next section so I felt that I needed to take a week to focus on determining what happened next. Otherwise I could see myself struggling to get words on paper. I now have a better idea what happens next for the next four chapters.
I worked on this section as though I was writing a short story. This was an experiment because in the past I would just come up with scene ideas and charge along and write them. However, I wanted to create a story arc for this section with a three act structure in mind. This helped a bit in developing ideas, interesting chapter endings, and tension on each page. Once I get to my Friday Night Deep Outlining I will better determine how successful this experiment was.
My goals for next week:
Chapter 7
This first chapter is "act one" of this short story. It basically introduces the problem that the main character needs to solve at the moment. I will also have a smaller chapter arc as the main character tries to solve the first issue in this short story. With this method I may also be able to have a beginning, middle, and end of each chapter with obstacles to solve. I'll see after this week how successful this method works at the chapter level.
What did I learn this week? Well, I don't know that I have actually learned much this week. However, with this experiment I may have a way of breaking my novel into smaller pieces that are both easier to manage and easier to outline. This experiment will take about a month to truly unfold because this short story will end up being four chapters long. So far I like the results.
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My writing goals for this past week were a complete bust.
On the bright side, I did survive 2.5 hours in a dentist's chair, was reunited with my copy of Characters & Viewpoint, baked a birthday cake and found the floor of my bedroom! (Not that I'm entirely unpacked, mind you; that's a goal I hope to accomplish circa 2011...)
Goals for next week, by priority: 1) WOTF stuff. Seriously. 2) Write the next chpt. of SB 3) Scribble down a few ideas that have been floating around in my head, before I lose them. 4) Find all items lost in the move (one shirt and the power cord off my laptop.) 5) Watch the new HP movie
Dreamer's Rose: Get to the end of chapter 3. Yep. And I'm about a third into chapter 4.
Synopsis and Query for The Shaman's Curse Again, yes. At least I worked on the query. I'm liking this version better. I'm going to try to get to the synopsis this weekend. The query took way longer and more revisions than I hoped. And I'm probably not done with it yet. At least I finally feel like I'm moving in the right direction.
The Fairy's Kiss: Try to get another thousand words into it. Nope. Didn't touch it.
On the plus side, though, I did start a couple of chapter exchanges on The Ignored Prophecy. Not only is that helping me to pinpoint problem areas, I skimmed through the whole thing. I hadn't looked at it since I wrote "THE END". I still like it. Wow. It only took four tries to get this story into the right form. The first three times, I hated it.
Edit: It's the fifth try, not the fourth. This one really fought me. But I like it this time.
Next Week's Goals:
Dreamer's Rose: At least two more chapters, 4 and 5. Chapter 6 would be better.
The Shaman's Curse Query and Synopsis: I think I've finally got the query on the right track, not that it can't be refined. Now it's time to go back and work over the synopsis, too. I hate this part. But I have to do it, so I can start sending queries out again. Current score: Fourteen queries sent, eight rejections, six still waiting for a response. Of course, some I may never hear back from at all.
The Ignored Prophecy: Continue the chapter exchanges and revisions.
The Fairy's Kiss: Maybe I'll try to get 500 words in on this. If the mood strikes me. It's not a priority.
[This message has been edited by Meredith (edited July 17, 2009).]
Continue plotting/ sketching out scenes for the witch book. Well, I wrote three more scenes. So no plotting/sketching, but progress has been made.
Complete a scene tracker. Did not do. But I'm cool with that.
Dust off a story for WotF. Um, er, I thought about it...
Write every day!!! It's been too long since I've approached this as a discipline. This I did. Except yesterday. And I guess today still remains up in the air since I have plans. But I'm glad to feel like I'm taking the reins up again.
I want to thank all those who offered advice on my luffing plot. I think your suggestions about subplots are great, and I'm going to do some brainstorming this weekend to figure out what subplots might work well.
So, next week:
Brainstorm subplots: I think this is going to be closely tied with character work. So I'm going to do some more research on my characters and possibly my world.
Nail down my villain--I've thought of a couple possibilities. I'll have to figure out which one works best.
Dust off a story for WotF.
Continue to write every day.
[This message has been edited by annepin (edited July 17, 2009).]
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LAST WEEK Current: Revise the "Metzgerhund Empire" synopsis, as needed. Goal: Resume submissions.
I didn't really do much with the actual writing, but, as before, I made up for it by obtaining new leads.
Current: Continue my SF studying and researching. Goal: no set word-count-based goal, just keep at it.
I continued my studying, but I feel as if I haven't learned anything new this past week. Maybe all the good stuff is in the next chapter...
Current: Continue workload on my "main project" Goal: no set word-count-based goal, just keep at it.
This was bound to happen. I merged another story (one that I've always wanted to work on, but was stuck in an undetermined-esque status for way too long) into this project. Yes, I've doubled my expected workload, but I'm psyched about this project's new possibilities.
I also managed to spend some quality time on my mainstream novel. The Order of Events and the character profiles aren't nearly as liquid as they were before.
UPCOMING WEEK
Current: Revise the "Metzgerhund Empire" synopsis, as needed. Goal: Resume submissions.
Current: Continue my SF studying and researching. Goal: no set word-count-based goal, just keep at it.
Current: Increase workload on my "main project" Goal: Produce more than I did last week.
Current: Continue ironing out the Order of Events for my mainstream novel Goal: Notice I didn't use the word complete. Any forward progress on this story will make me happy.
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Hello everyone! I’m happy to be joining this group in the hopes of seriously continuing work on my novel for an extended period of time. In the past, any work I’ve done on it has been when I feel a burst of “inspiration.” Now, for the first time, I don’t feel any special burst of anything, and yet I’m still making progress! This is very exciting.
My novel is fantasy, and it is currently called Of the Mountain Stream, though I doubt that will end up being its final title. I started working on it when I was in 7th grade (which shows how often those bursts of “inspiration” came).
So…
I didn’t have any goals last week, but I did learn some things. First of all, I had been struggling to figure out how to do some structured planning/outlining for the story. I have a synopsis of sorts for the entire plot, but in terms of planning the sequence of scenes, I was rather lost. I got the idea of scene mapping from you, annepin, although I don’t really know if what I’m doing is at all similar to what you do. I basically write down a short description of each scene and things like how characters grow, how it moves the plot forward, and what important information is revealed. This is helping me tremendously to avoid writing flat, boring scenes. Yay!
I also finally combined two ideas I had for a story, which of course OSC recommends and I had been trying to do for ages. Suddenly the ideas just clicked together and, what do you know, I have another workable (I think) idea for a novel! This is especially nice because until now, I hadn’t had any other ideas for novels. Now I feel like more of a real writer.
So, goals for next week. I’m going to start off easy.
Keep mapping more scenes, and hopefully finish all of the scenes that will make up the next main section of the book. Write at least one scene in chapter 11 (chapter 10 also finished last week. Look at all this progress!)
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Welcome, Marita Ann. We have had several new additions to our group lately, which is great. Each of us use different techniques in our writing process so I hope that you can glean some things from our group to help you.
Posts: 354 | Registered: Mar 2009
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posted
I'm still plugging away with the plotting, however I'm only about half way through (no cause to panic - only about half way through the month as well).
What were your goals last week and did you accomplish them? Add scenes to my plot chart. The only concern is that my estimate for the total number of scenes in the novel is probably way too low, so I think I have to pick up the pace to hit my deadline.
Describe what you worked on. Still plotting a thriller in freemind, and the plot-heavy approach is pushing my abilities. I also converted the first 30% of the plot into a 1700 word written synopsis (one paragraph per scene) which was a very useful (but time consuming) exercise.
Set goals for next week. Follow the plan. Keep to the schedule. Stay on target. Use the Force, Luke.
Did you learn something during this week? Darth Vader can do a mean MC Hammer impression. In novel-related education, I came to the realisation that I have a *lot* of research to do.
[This message has been edited by BenM (edited July 17, 2009).]
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Last Week’s Goals I accomplished my goal of completing (a draft of) chapter 3. The second goal—complete a plan of the setting—was forgotten, so it’s been moved to next week’s goals. Last week, I also worked on characterization, briefly researched “living chips”, and created a new worksheet for scenes.
Next Week’s Goals
World Building: Finish drawing a plan of the MC’s house
Planning: Outline chapters 4-6
Planning: Complete scene and sequels worksheets for chapter 4
Story Writing: Start drafting chapter 4
Lessons Learned As mentioned on my blog, I started learning about the “scene and sequel” structure of novels. Perhaps the most important realization so far is that I do not understand conflict. The primary conflict in many of my scenes, whether for novels or shorts, is vague. Staring at an incomplete scene profile, I’ve discovered, forces me to think more carefully about each scene’s conflict, but I think I need to read more about writing conflict.
Is conflict the action resulting from the clash of the POV character’s and antagonist’s goals? I’ll be happier when I have one solid definition of conflict in fiction.
"I believe you and support you now." I didn't say it last week, so... Thank you, Crank. I learned this blessing, when given from another, is a weapon against the inner heckler.
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Thanks! I’m so glad to be here. I’ve already learned a lot by reading the last few weeks’ NSG’s. Before then I had a vague impression that novels just kind of flowed organically from people’s hands as they wrote. Now I have a much better idea of the kind of planning that needs to be done, and how helpful that planning is. Especially without that handy Muse. Posts: 35 | Registered: Jul 2009
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I didn't quite make my goal last week. I am finding that I need to rework my beginning so I have a clearer idea of where I am going. I also realize that I really need to go to bed earlier. My mind is having problems functioning at night.
Next week, rework Chapter 1.
What I learned. I really need to take care of myself better. If I am hungry and tired, I am not productive.
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Welcome Marita Ann. Glad you found the NSG right away. I didn't for like a month after joining the forums, but now that I'm here it's been helping me keep on keeping on.
As for organic writing, I feel like that's always been my best strength. When I really get excited about a story idea and I have the time to sit down and just let it come out, I can find myself writing beyond the scenes I'd already thought of as if they were there just waiting to be pulled out of the air. It's always been the most fulfilling part of writing for me (and might explain why once that "writer's high" fades I get so bogged down and can't seem to get anywhere).
Managed to get a few scenes written, mostly where they were needed to gap continuity breaks so I could put in a new chapter for my chapter exchange. I've got to say it's helping a lot with this WIP because I was completely stumped as to how to fill in the breaks, but taking it one chapter at a time and having a different perspective on the story as a whole is helping it come together.
So next week I hope to get even more done. About to run into some of the gaps in my story, so there's plenty to do!
Also my synopsis is still on the back shelf. I'll probably get back to it when I finish the first draft, so I know pretty much where everything's going.
Edit: I thought I was finished with the post, but turns out I wasn't!
[This message has been edited by Natej11 (edited July 19, 2009).]
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Eww Monday, I'm late. I accomplished my goals, finished Brandon Sanderson's last Mistborn book and do no writing and pack, but that's not hard (except the packing part.
This week even though I am moving on Saturday I want to do some writing.
Goals - Finish chapter 2 of TG and write each day. It's just a small goal but I think it's what I need this week.
quote: I didn't say it last week, so... Thank you, Crank.
You're quite welcome, aspirit. Always willing to see an inner heckler getting its teeth kicked in...even if it isn't my inner heckler. If I can participate in that beatdown, all the better.
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Psh, satate, all the cool kids post on Monday or Tuesday...
Both last week and this week involve much traveling and visiting, so my goals are modest: -resubmit rejected stories, make changes to one suggested by an editor -rewrite chapter 15 of the novel.
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