outline

Daily Writing Check-in: October 20, 2017

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Words/Time: undefinable amount of work done

So first, I did spend about 12 minutes talking through my issues with the outline for “Vin” (my NaNoNovel) that I started yesterday. It started with just expressing my frustrations to my husband, and then I think I worked out some of the problem. So it counts!

Last night, or rather early this morning, I stayed up way too late working on a project that came to me unexpectedly and sort of took over my attention for several hours.

I recently decided that at some point soon (maybe before NaNo…maybe after) I want to write up a post that attempts to explain the tangled mess of stories I’m working on. I have 6 storylines in mind that are all in the same story world, contain the same characters in varying roles, and largely all happen around the same time, and intertwine in various ways. There will probably be more than 6, but there are 6 that are developed enough to mention.

I don’t know how well I can explain this without giving spoilers, but I’m going to try. Last night/this morning, I got it in my mind to come up with an aesthetic for all of them, to add to that post. I made one last week for my NaNoNovel, and it’s the first time I’ve ever created something like that. I enjoyed it, and even enjoyed the way it made me think about the themes or visual aspects of my story. So I started looking for images for each of the other 5 storylines that I plan to post about. Here’s a sneak peek at one of them:

Pithea cropped

Yes, I’d rather be able to say I did some work on my outline, or even some more writing practice. But I didn’t get home from work until around 10:30 this evening, and I still had to eat supper. It’s been a rough week at work (lots of evening meetings), and I already told myself I wouldn’t push it if work was causing issues with getting to my writing. Making some visual representations of my stories is fun and still in the spirit of writing work, so I’m counting it.

For anyone out there who is participating in NaNoWriMo, feel free to check out my series of tips and tricks for the month, and also to add me as a writing buddy! (Let me know you came from here, and I’ll add you back!)

Daily Writing Check-in: October 19, 2017

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Words/Time: 137 words written, and 34 minutes of work done

The words were a short bit of free writing using another word from the list I’ve been using. The work was ACTUAL OUTLINING for my NaNoNovel! After several attempts and only an empty Scrivener file to show for it, I finally realized that I just needed to outline by hand first. I was trying to outline in Scrivener so I could just put the scenes right into there as I wrote them in November, but I realized that I don’t know where scenes will be separated yet. The way I normally outline is just plot point after plot point, and sometimes one line is an entire scene, but sometimes one scene comes out in 8 lines. I need to get the outline going before I can put scenes into Scrivener (if I even do that in advance). So I have almost a full page’s worth of outline, and barely got far in the story. But it did show me one thing.

I have this tendency to want to obfuscate as much as I can in a story. If I can fool the reader into thinking something else is happening than what is, even if just for a sentence or two, I do. If I can take two somewhat separate storylines and merge them together, but not give the reader any clue as to how they connect until 2/3 of the way through the story…oh, I love it!

I had it in mind to do something like that for this book, but since this book (I think) should be released after a few others, the things that I’m trying to keep secret are going to be pretty obvious to anyone who’s read the other books. So now I have to decide if I can salvage that obfuscation, or if I should just write it more normally.

For anyone out there who is participating in NaNoWriMo, feel free to check out my series of tips and tricks for the month, and also to add me as a writing buddy! (Let me know you came from here, and I’ll add you back!)

Daily Writing Check-in: October 18, 2017

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Words/Time: 755 words

I continued where I left off yesterday, free writing using a card in my Writer Emergency Pack. I finally finished the first question, and this last date my “hero” went on turned out really revealing. I almost don’t want to answer the other 2 questions on the card, partly because the first one took so long already, and partly because it’s now the 18th, and I need to get going on an outline. The other two questions don’t intrigue me at all either, but I have learned that it’s good to not ignore writing prompts just because I don’t see anything amazing coming out of them. Some of the ones that started with me thinking, “Meh, this will be boring,” have produced results that I’ve quite liked.

At this point, I’m just glad I’ve been able to do some free writing this week, because I’ve been a little crazy with work-related activities this week. I’ve also been free writing in a notebook, which I missed.

Oh, and I almost forgot that some of those words were a short amount of free writing using the 3rd prompt on this list. There’s a character that I killed off in my first novel, but have recently questioned if he really needed to die, and am strongly considering letting him live. And if he lives, he will be in many other novels (albeit in a side role). And he will be a leader. And he will be awesome. So I wrote about him.

I can’t believe I let myself go a year and a half without writing. Somehow I forgot how much fun it can be! I really can’t wait for NaNoWriMo right now; I almost don’t care how little planning I end up with at the end of the month.

For anyone out there who is participating in NaNoWriMo, feel free to check out my series of tips and tricks for the month, and also to add me as a writing buddy! (Let me know you came from here, and I’ll add you back!)

Daily Writing Check-in: October 17, 2017

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Words/Time: 647 words

I continued where I left off yesterday, freewriting using a card in my Writer Emergency Pack. I’m still on the first question (out of 3), but at least I’m onto the final character that I felt was main enough to send my “hero” on a date with. This one is interesting, because it’s her own husband. But I get to explore the beginning of their relationship, which so far has not been put into story form. I keep thinking it’s not helping me plan my NaNoNovel, but these characters will be in “Vin,” so it’s all prep work!

For anyone out there who is participating in NaNoWriMo, feel free to check out my series of tips and tricks for the month, and also to add me as a writing buddy! (Let me know you came from here, and I’ll add you back!)

Daily Writing Check-in: October 16, 2017

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Words/Time: 1002 words

I started freewriting using a card in my Writer Emergency Pack, and it went on a while. In fact, out of the 3 questions the card asked, I didn’t even get through #1 in 45 minutes and 1002 words. The card discussed relationships between characters, even characters who are strangers, and set forth the challenge of picturing your hero on a date with each of the major characters in the story. While I’m not sure my story has an easily defined “hero,” I made do. That required 4 date scenarios. I got partway through #3. It was fun, though, so I’ll finish it tomorrow. I suppose it may not be helping me outline my NaNoNovel, but it’s nice to just write again.

For anyone out there who is participating in NaNoWriMo, feel free to check out my series of tips and tricks for the month, and also to add me as a writing buddy! (Let me know you came from here, and I’ll add you back!)

Daily Writing Check-in: October 15, 2017

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Words/Time: 3 hours, 53 minutes

This was a huge leap forward, considering how my last few days have been. I definitely have a lazy Sunday to thank for that. They won’t always be this prolific, that much I know.

The majority of this time was spent working on my overall story timeline (for several books in one story world), updating/inputting the information for “Vin” that wasn’t already in there. But before I could do that, I had to put in the information for a book that I’d yet to even add to my timeline.

I wrote a very, very rough draft of what I was calling “Jonathan and the Book” for NaNo 2015. It wasn’t even complete, though it basically had an ending, because I jumped from a later middle spot to the climax because I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I needed to keep writing, ’cause…NaNo. I could put enough of it into the timeline to know where the events of “Vin” that come after it will fall, and they can always be moved later.

While I was doing this, I had to read through the draft of “Jonathan and the Book” so I could mark days, and I had an epiphany! I now have a name for that book–“The Seeger Book.” This makes me very happy.

An hour of my time was spent writing out some brainstorming for a giant, gaping question that starts out the sequence of events in “Vin,” and I think I have it mostly closed up. There are still a few minor questions, but I think I can move on.

I also spent a portion of this time organizing the labels and colors in my timeline. I use Aeon Timeline (so far, I still prefer the original to Aeon 2), and you can color-code your events. I have a color for each book, and in the case of at least one book, 2 colors to differentiate 2 distinct arcs. You can also separate events by arcs, but my arcs were out of order, based on the order I tend to think of them in my head. So I spent some time getting them in order, and fixing the colors. I had originally just assigned random colors, but I was running out of distinctly different colors that were easy to read. So I messed with that a bit. It was kind of fun (I’m messy in real life, but I enjoy organizing things digitally), but felt like a waste of time until I realized how much this is going to help me down the line, to have the timeline a lot more organized. So it counts.

My next step is to start outlining, using the timeline of events. I want to keep doing writing practice, answering character questions, and other things to continue to learn about Vin’s motives, but even if I don’t always know why he does things, I know when he does them (though I’ve made up my mind that even that is subject to change, whether it will force me to change an already “finished” book or not).

This is a crazy long writing check-in…but that’s because I did so much for once! I’ll be busier the next several days, so my updates will probably be short again for a while.

For anyone out there who is participating in NaNoWriMo, feel free to check out my series of tips and tricks for the month, and also to add me as a writing buddy! (Let me know you came from here, and I’ll add you back!)

Daily Writing Check-in: October 14, 2017

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Words/Time: 83 words

I did a little writing practice earlier in the day after reading this post. I started with the first one on the list–careless. I was waylaid when heading toward my writing time for the night, but even those 83 words gave me a little more insight into my NaNoNovel plot. I have a lot of busy evenings next week, so I may be starting to get a little discouraged, but I still have over 2 weeks before NaNo starts. I may just need to start prioritizing what kind of planning I need to have done before the end of the month. An outline of events is #1, I think. I’ll start on that next and hope to find time to fill in more character growth for Vin.

For anyone out there who is participating in NaNoWriMo, feel free to check out my series of tips and tricks for the month, and also to add me as a writing buddy! (Let me know you came from here, and I’ll add you back!)

Daily Writing Check-in: October 5, 2017

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Words/Time: 1 hour, which started with looking over the outline I made in Scrivener for “Pursuit of Power” when I tried to start revising it last year. I got distracted from that by a thought that I’ve been musing over for the last few days and decided if I was going to do it, now would be the time.

I’m aging most of the people in my stories by 3 years. The main characters in the stories I’ve written so far have been around 15-17 years old. The original reason for their ages was due to the fanfiction world this all started in, but I didn’t have any reason to change this before. After all, the beginning of “Pithea” shows the main characters basically just getting started in life. However, I have recently realized that there are plenty of reasons to add some years to their lives.

  1. Even though this is set in a world that is vastly safer than ours (less crime, anyway), the characters are still out on their own a lot more than I would expect a bunch of 15-year-olds to be, even traveling from town to town on their own.
  2. Folks live longer in my story world than they do in real life–not by a lot, but average live span is 25-50 years longer. It stands to reason that kids wouldn’t be pushed into starting their lives as early as I’d made it (14).
  3. I didn’t care for the way the romance felt in some of my stories, when characters were only 16 and falling in love. It isn’t meant to be teenage romance, at least one in particular; it’s meant to be viewed as real, long-lasting. But at least one of my beta readers had a hard time accepting it, because of their age, and she had a point.
  4. I don’t consider this overall series of stories to be YA, but because the book that will likely be the introduction to the entire rest of the series has 2 main characters who start off at 15 years old, it would be hard to convince anyone that the book belonged anywhere but the YA section. It’s not that I plan to have adult situations or coarse language, but the characters grow up, and in another book, are in their 20s. Very likely there will be main characters in their 30s at some point. Aging the main characters to 18 at the start of that cornerstone book will hopefully help with this issue.

So now I’m going through all of my characters who are important enough to be listed in my timeline with an official age (birth month, at least) and figuring out who should be aged forward, and how much. Someone who is in the story as a 62-year-old man, for example, may not be worth changing. And this is what I spent most of the hour on.

You know, my daily challenge check-ins never used to be this detailed.

All of this is because I’m trying to figure out if I should write the continuation of “Pursuit of Power” for NaNoWriMo or not. Aging my characters 3 years does not bring me any closer to that decision.

For anyone out there who is participating in NaNoWriMo, feel free to check out my series of tips and tricks for the month, and also to add me as a writing buddy! (Let me know you came from here, and I’ll add you back!)

Daily Challenge Check-in: October 30, 2015

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Words/Time: 37 minutes fleshing out the minor characters for my 2015 NaNoNovel. After I spend a little time with the main characters and their family, I’ll be back to the outline.

I’ve officially decided to write all day, midnight to midnight, on Nov 1. I’ll be setting my goal for 25k in one day. I’ll be tracking my progress here in case anyone wants to look in: 25kDayOne Google Docs spreadsheet

Daily Challenge Check-in: October 29, 2015

/ Kristi / 6 Comments

Words/Time: 40 minutes working on the outline and fleshing out some characters for my 2015 NaNoNovel. I’m bothered by how unprepared I still am, with only 2 days until NaNo starts. For now, I think I’ll set aside the outlining and focus on the characterization. I have so many similar-level minor characters that I need to keep straight (for myself and for the reader) so I’m going to work on making them each unique. I’ve been known to start with a partial outline and work on it during the day when I couldn’t be writing anyway; that’s likely what I’ll be doing this year. Only problem is, this being a mystery novel, I need to have my clues and certain events straight before I can do much writing. So basically, I have a lot I still need to do before midnight comes on Saturday.