Now that I've got the week off from class, it's time for the big announcement.
I've decided to self publish Urban Mythos. My YA Urban Fantasy about a collection of ex-mythological creatures learning to live among us is coming soon. Former Griffin Zydeco Hill, his human love interest, Tameina, and best pal and ex-Gnome Blaine, will debut first on the Kindle. The cover art is ready to go, and I'm in the midst of a very deep editing process.
I am pretty excited about the prospect of doing this. I'll be self promoting right here, on twitter, on facebook and wherever else I can insinuate myself. Keep your eye on the sharpened pen for a contest or two as well!
More to come...
Showing posts with label creatures. Show all posts
Showing posts with label creatures. Show all posts
7/24/10
Primary revisions complete
I meant to post this a while back, but things have been a bit hectic around here, what with spending every night working on a synopsis and query letter for Urban Mythos. Now that's out of the way, I can finally focus a bit more on sharing overall progress. As the title says, the primary revisions of the book are done. I've been following my revision process for the most part. And like any "process", it changes over time. That's a good thing. You can't just invent something and expect perfection off the bat.
You can't set off to create any sort of framework, be it writing, revisiing, software development (my day job). If you do, you'll fail every time. These kinds of things have to develop over time. They come about organically through experience.
Great. So now that I've rationalized not following my revision process verbatim, let's check the progress.
Revision Round #3 - Grammar and Dialog
After completing round three, my confidence in this book is absolutely brimming. The feedback I've received from my critique partners at the YA forum on WDC has been equally positive. When I compare this book with my first book and the feedback I've received, especially around voice - let's just say I've traveled light years.
When I look at the remaining rounds of my revision process, I hesitate.
Revision Round #4 - The automaton editor - bring on the pain
I'm thinking of giving round four a miss primarily because of how deep the revisions were from round three. A lot of the benefit of the automaton editor above: finding repetition, clichés, poor sentence pacing, readability... Heck, I've gone through that in detail already in round three and I feel excellent about it. I think I may run a couple of chapters through, just to see what it finds, but it's otherwise coming off my list for now.
Revision Round #5 - One last look - one rule - no MAJOR changes allowed
Obviously this round goes on until the book is published. I'll continue to solicit feedback from my critique partners, and my immediate family and very close friends who will get a look at the book. When an agent discovers the book and my general delightfulness *WINKS*, the feedback will continue. And then when the book is sold, there will be an editor as well. So, round five's definition will change a bit. Also, the "no MAJOR changes allowed" rule will need to depend on who is giving me said advice.
Meanwhile, it's awfully hot out. I've finally cooled down from mowing the lawn this morning. It's time to get some reading done in the A/C and maybe play a half hour of Simpson's Road Rage on the Wii.
You can't set off to create any sort of framework, be it writing, revisiing, software development (my day job). If you do, you'll fail every time. These kinds of things have to develop over time. They come about organically through experience.
Great. So now that I've rationalized not following my revision process verbatim, let's check the progress.
Revision Round #3 - Grammar and Dialog
- Judicious use of MS Word spell and grammar check. Correct as needed.
- Read the book out loud, or use tools like ReadPlease to read the book to me.
- Immediately fix the obvious grammatical issues.
- Immediately fix the horrendous dialog that the ear makes far more obvious than the eyeball.
- Misspellings (the easy part).
- Run-on sentences.
- Awful dialog.
- Pacing issues, both within a sentence-- when to add or drop a comma--and spanning a scene--when to chop up long sentences or combine short ones.
- Repeated words and phrases.
- A milieu of misses
After completing round three, my confidence in this book is absolutely brimming. The feedback I've received from my critique partners at the YA forum on WDC has been equally positive. When I compare this book with my first book and the feedback I've received, especially around voice - let's just say I've traveled light years.
When I look at the remaining rounds of my revision process, I hesitate.
Revision Round #4 - The automaton editor - bring on the pain
- This is where I take the book chapter by chapter through manuscript editing software. I've used AutoCrit and been quite happy with the results.
- This isn't so much about grammar or spelling, but more about finding repetition, clichés, poor sentence pacing, readability, etc.
- This is tedious and painful. The Terminator is not kind.
- Revise appropriately.
I'm thinking of giving round four a miss primarily because of how deep the revisions were from round three. A lot of the benefit of the automaton editor above: finding repetition, clichés, poor sentence pacing, readability... Heck, I've gone through that in detail already in round three and I feel excellent about it. I think I may run a couple of chapters through, just to see what it finds, but it's otherwise coming off my list for now.
Revision Round #5 - One last look - one rule - no MAJOR changes allowed
- Gather any additional feedback and revise as needed (see round #2)
- One more MS Word spelling & grammar check.
- Final read through and tweaks.
Obviously this round goes on until the book is published. I'll continue to solicit feedback from my critique partners, and my immediate family and very close friends who will get a look at the book. When an agent discovers the book and my general delightfulness *WINKS*, the feedback will continue. And then when the book is sold, there will be an editor as well. So, round five's definition will change a bit. Also, the "no MAJOR changes allowed" rule will need to depend on who is giving me said advice.
Meanwhile, it's awfully hot out. I've finally cooled down from mowing the lawn this morning. It's time to get some reading done in the A/C and maybe play a half hour of Simpson's Road Rage on the Wii.
7/5/10
Revisions - Incorporating Feedback
Last night, well after the fireworks were finished, I completed revising Mythos based on the many critiques of my wonderful friends at the YA Club on Writing.com. These folks have been reviewing chapters since the very first one I posted last fall. As they came in, I read each one, thanked the reviewer profusely and, many times, commented on one or two salient points they made. That was it, though. I filed the critique away, refusing to look back on what I'd written until the first draft was complete.
After finishing my second draft about a week ago (see my decrap-ification post), I broke open the folder of reviews. There were sixty-nine of them. Yes. 69. Inappropriate comments aside, let me just say that I felt a strange mixture of delight and horror. I had a ton of feedback on nearly almost every chapter I'd written! There's going to be lots of grammar corrections! Woo-Hoo! People are going to tell me if the characters and plot held up! Yay!
Yes, that was the "delight" portion. Onto the horror.
Sixty-nine reviews? That's a lot, isn't it? Have you ever decided to walk somewhere instead of driving, thinking, This won't be bad at all, only to find out about 60 minutes into your walk that you're not even a tenth of the way there? Yeah. This is a lot of feedback and advice to sort through, and often it feels like you are miles from your destination. You may get on a roll where a couple of reviews are primarily grammar related, with some easily fixed plot flaws or unrealistic dialog. And then you get to the killer review -- the one that points out a horrific and difficult-to-fix plot flaw, requiring you to rewrite five chapters. Or the one pointing out that your characters, who have been so consistent for ten chapters, suddenly act completely out of character. I mentioned this in my Triangle Effect post on The Crew. It's right then that you put your head on the desk and wish the teacher would just say it was nap time.
As far as revising based on critiques, like I implied, grammar is the easy bit. Loads of people are better at grammar than I am. It saves me so much time. Fresh sets of eyes always seem to find the repetitive use of words, the adverb misuse, etc. It's a huge help. As for comments on characterization and plot, well, these are the bits that sometimes cut deep. Let's review what revision round #2 is all about.
Revision Round #2 - Incorporating feedback
- Gather all the critiques from the critique group (in this case, my YA writing pals on writing.com).
- For any editing/grammar nits, revise appropriately.
- For the "big issues", like characterization, plot, setting, voice, etc., decide if I agree with these points.
- If I agree, revise appropriately.
- If I don't agree, but several others do, consider that I may be wrong and revise appropriately.
- If I don't agree, but only one or two others do, the author wins. (Stephen King rule)
Each time an excellent reviewer pointed out a "big issue" as stated above, I immediately struggled with what to do about it. After a few moments of mental anguish and indecision, I returned to the three bulleted "rules" above. Obviously, if I agreed with their point, I revised, no matter how difficult. Review number sixty-nine offered one such colossal "big issue" (thanks Laura), but I concurred with the assessment. It required quite a bit of work to redress, and hopefully I've done a reasonably good job.
As for the reviews I disagreed with, well, emotion tends to get involved. The "rules" are meant to help you avoid emotion. Still, as writers, we tend to be a smidgen, um, protective of our babies.
Across the many reviews, there were a number of issues with which I disagreed. However, when multiple people raised the same issue in one fashion or another, I forced myself to revise. Heaven help someone if they tried talking to me while I was making that revision. *winks* All is fair in writing and revising, however. So, if only one or two people raised an issue with which I disagreed, I merrily passed it by, not even waving in my rear view mirror. When (not if) my fellow writers whose chapters I've reviewed disagree with my comments, they should philosophically run over my foot as they drive off, leaving my comments in the dust at my squashed shoe. I'd expect nothing less.
I can't thank these wonderful people enough: Laura, Airdale, Dezi, Tania, Vicky, Kurt, Ralene, Richard, Frankie, Mireyah, Annie, Dawn, and Ceri. Each of you have helped me make this novel better in so many ways. Thank you!!!
Now, I'm on to revision round #3! The good news is that I took care of step 1 already.
Revision Round #3 - Grammar and Dialog
- Judicious use of MS Word spell and grammar check. Correct as needed.
- Read the book out loud, or use tools like ReadPlease to read the book to me.
- Immediately fix the obvious grammatical issues.
- Immediately fix the horrendous dialog that the ear makes far more obvious than the eyeball.
6/12/10
Mythos Revision Update
An update to the Mythos revision process. a new checkmark goes to step #2 of the Decrap-ification round. Tomorrow night, we move on to step #3.
Revision Round #1 - Decrap-ification (in progress)
As a side note, I'm debating whether to combine step #3 of this revision round with Revision Round #2 - Incorporating feedback. That's where I take all the critiques I've received so far and make those changes as well. I've got mixed feelings. Combining will actually make round #2 easier, because the critiques are based on the first draft. The critiques won't always sync up with a revised draft. On the other hand, I need to give my own concerns priority over my critique partners.
Procrastination on this decision sounds like a good idea.
Revision Round #1 - Decrap-ification (in progress)
- Kill some recycled trees and print the first draft.
- Read it and take copious notes all over the page.
- Make all the changes from step #2.
As a side note, I'm debating whether to combine step #3 of this revision round with Revision Round #2 - Incorporating feedback. That's where I take all the critiques I've received so far and make those changes as well. I've got mixed feelings. Combining will actually make round #2 easier, because the critiques are based on the first draft. The critiques won't always sync up with a revised draft. On the other hand, I need to give my own concerns priority over my critique partners.
Procrastination on this decision sounds like a good idea.
5/27/10
Revision Time!!!!
I was planning on spending some time with Elliot and the rest of the Children of Midian, polishing it up based on some recent agent advice, and then querying. However, after a long week away from Mythos, I've made the executive decision to return to the Knucklehead City. *snorts*
Knucklehead City, you say? When I began to write Mythos, I had absolutely nothing in mind for a title, so I figured, let's just throw a working title up there on the first page, you know, for chuckles. And the working title was Creatures of Knucklehead City. Or, Creatures for short. It wound up as Mythos much later on.
In any case, I printed the manuscript yesterday - double-spaced, double-sided - loads of recycled paper. And last night, while listening to a combination of fawning over Simon Cowell and numerous performances on American Idol, I started reading. I made it one and a half pages in, before completely re-sequencing the opening paragraphs. So I guess I can say I'm now in revision mode.
Wicked cool. Can't wait till I'm done.
5/24/10
Birth of a Novel, Part 17 - The End
This is the twenty-second and final entry in my Birth of a Novel series of posts, where I talk about the development of my new YA urban fantasy. Yes, twenty-second, even though the post is entitled Part 17.
As when I started writing Mythos, I end the first draft with the little black pug sitting on my lap. Whoops - she just jumped off. Okay, start again...
As when I started writing Mythos, I end the first draft with the little black pug having stepped on my crotch as she leaped off my lap. There. Actually, that's good.In the last few chapters, Zydeco felt the perpetual sting of a paw to the crotch. I will of course not say how I wound up the story. Is it Rocky or Rocky II? Does our hero lose the fight, but prevail nonetheless? Or does he beat the champ? Jeez, this book is nothing like Rocky.
Man, oh, man, was I ever afraid I'd never get to the end of the story. My brain just wouldn't stop coming up with new ways to prolong the action, to figure out more torture for Zydeco and his friends. But I persisted and prevailed like Rocky did against Clubber Lang in Rocky III. *hangs head in shame with yet another Rocky reference*
As I closed in on the end, on resolving the conflict, I couldn't decide if I would have a follow up chapter where you see life returning to a semblance of normalcy a week later, or if I would go for the epilogue and show life a year later. However, when I got past resolving the key conflict(s), it just organically.... ended. I didn't answer every question in its entirety. I think I tied up the loose ends, but didn't provide concrete solutions for everything - and this is what happens to him, and this is what happens to her, and happily ever after, and there will never be another problem again, etc. etc. But life's like that, I think. Ah, well. Technically, there's room for a sequel, but I have no intention of writing one at this point. The story stands on its own.
Now, the whole point of this series of blog posts was to describe the experience of writing the book. I've hopefully articulated some of my moments of exhilaration, frustration, horror, and glee. Occasionally, I shared a snippet of a chapter for everyone to peruse, at least early on. Whether that's drawn any further interest in the book remains to be seen.
My wonderful writer friends in the YA Group on writing.com have provided me helpful critiques all along the way. More are coming and rather than incorporate those critiques as I wrote the first draft, I just filed them away for when I was ready to revise. I've read each and every one of them, and now have to decide what to incorporate.
There have been a couple of common themes, and those will almost certainly get a lot of attention. For one, I realized my author's view of Tameina through Zydeco's eyes hasn't translated well enough to the page. It's a lot more intense than I wrote and I need to fix it. I occasionally suffer from the dreaded writing illness - Well, I know that's how they feel, why doesn't the reader? It's a chronic thing, but with aggressive treatment, I'm way better now than last year and more so than the year before that.
There's also a list of things I just want to add. I love the judicious use of dreams in fiction, and while draft #1 has none, rest assured the second draft will. The sleepy-time dreams will be foreboding and entail a voice from Zydeco's past.
A couple more days off from Mythos, and then I'm going to read it from start to finish and make lots of notes. I'm not particularly afraid of what I'll find, and that's not because I think it's so awesome. It's all kinds of crap -it's a first draft. No, you see as first draft's go, it's better than any other one I've written to date -- something to do with experience, I think. I hope. I hope I've learned something along the way.
Well, that seems like a pretty good note on which to end the Birth of a Novel chain of posts. And so I will.
As when I started writing Mythos, I end the first draft with the little black pug sitting on my lap. Whoops - she just jumped off. Okay, start again...
As when I started writing Mythos, I end the first draft with the little black pug having stepped on my crotch as she leaped off my lap. There. Actually, that's good.In the last few chapters, Zydeco felt the perpetual sting of a paw to the crotch. I will of course not say how I wound up the story. Is it Rocky or Rocky II? Does our hero lose the fight, but prevail nonetheless? Or does he beat the champ? Jeez, this book is nothing like Rocky.
Man, oh, man, was I ever afraid I'd never get to the end of the story. My brain just wouldn't stop coming up with new ways to prolong the action, to figure out more torture for Zydeco and his friends. But I persisted and prevailed like Rocky did against Clubber Lang in Rocky III. *hangs head in shame with yet another Rocky reference*
As I closed in on the end, on resolving the conflict, I couldn't decide if I would have a follow up chapter where you see life returning to a semblance of normalcy a week later, or if I would go for the epilogue and show life a year later. However, when I got past resolving the key conflict(s), it just organically.... ended. I didn't answer every question in its entirety. I think I tied up the loose ends, but didn't provide concrete solutions for everything - and this is what happens to him, and this is what happens to her, and happily ever after, and there will never be another problem again, etc. etc. But life's like that, I think. Ah, well. Technically, there's room for a sequel, but I have no intention of writing one at this point. The story stands on its own.
Now, the whole point of this series of blog posts was to describe the experience of writing the book. I've hopefully articulated some of my moments of exhilaration, frustration, horror, and glee. Occasionally, I shared a snippet of a chapter for everyone to peruse, at least early on. Whether that's drawn any further interest in the book remains to be seen.
My wonderful writer friends in the YA Group on writing.com have provided me helpful critiques all along the way. More are coming and rather than incorporate those critiques as I wrote the first draft, I just filed them away for when I was ready to revise. I've read each and every one of them, and now have to decide what to incorporate.
There have been a couple of common themes, and those will almost certainly get a lot of attention. For one, I realized my author's view of Tameina through Zydeco's eyes hasn't translated well enough to the page. It's a lot more intense than I wrote and I need to fix it. I occasionally suffer from the dreaded writing illness - Well, I know that's how they feel, why doesn't the reader? It's a chronic thing, but with aggressive treatment, I'm way better now than last year and more so than the year before that.
There's also a list of things I just want to add. I love the judicious use of dreams in fiction, and while draft #1 has none, rest assured the second draft will. The sleepy-time dreams will be foreboding and entail a voice from Zydeco's past.
A couple more days off from Mythos, and then I'm going to read it from start to finish and make lots of notes. I'm not particularly afraid of what I'll find, and that's not because I think it's so awesome. It's all kinds of crap -it's a first draft. No, you see as first draft's go, it's better than any other one I've written to date -- something to do with experience, I think. I hope. I hope I've learned something along the way.
Well, that seems like a pretty good note on which to end the Birth of a Novel chain of posts. And so I will.
5/6/10
Birth of a Novel Part 16 - Emotional Climax
This is the twenty-first entry in my Birth of a Novel series of posts, where I talk about the development of my new YA urban fantasy. Yes, twenty-first, even though the post is entitled Part 16.
I think the title of this post is pretty catchy. I'm actually three chapters along, but this is about the first two of them. Mythos is experiencing the big climax right now. And frankly, I should be on to the denouement, but I got a bit sick earlier this week, which rendered me thoroughly useless, disabled, unable to read, much less write. It sucked. Royally. Dude - I can't wish this on anyone.
Once again, I digress. So, yeah, Mythos and climax. This is one long sucker, the first two chapters of which I've decided are really the emotional climax. Zydeco experiences betrayal, which in and of itself is a tough thing for a person living or literary. Things are already pretty bad when he realizes what's happened, and you'd think this is the final "pile on Zydeco" wrestler move.
Not so fast.
As an author, I've learned a few things about the treatment of the characters I've created. You need to treat them not like a parent, but more like an unbalanced deity. I love them to death and take enormous pride in their accomplishments As my mother would say, I "kvell" when good things happen. And then I'll turn around, make their lives incredibly miserable, and rejoice and my evil accomplishment.
Where I'm going with this is that no matter how bad things get for your protagonist, you can always make them worse. A little creativity goes a long way. Think like an evil overlord. You'll do fine.
So, while Zydeco may feel like he's at the bottom of a Chinatown dumpster, it can and will get worse. A LOT worse. But not before I give him some false hope. You see, I am such a bastard, I amaze even me. Now this being a first draft, I'm sure it'll all come across as slightly contrived and Zydeco won't appear as fazed as he ought to. The structure is all there, however. And I think I've got a pretty sweet cliffhanger at the end of the first of these two chapters. My, oh my, I certainly believe it's true.
Now the next two chapters I'm working on -- which bring us to the end of Mythos -- are all about how Zydeco deals with these awful circumstances. Will he fail or will he overcome? Is it Rocky or Rocky II? Only yours truly knows the answer.
To read about the last chapter, journey back to the previous entry.
To see how it all ends, read the final post.
I think the title of this post is pretty catchy. I'm actually three chapters along, but this is about the first two of them. Mythos is experiencing the big climax right now. And frankly, I should be on to the denouement, but I got a bit sick earlier this week, which rendered me thoroughly useless, disabled, unable to read, much less write. It sucked. Royally. Dude - I can't wish this on anyone.
Once again, I digress. So, yeah, Mythos and climax. This is one long sucker, the first two chapters of which I've decided are really the emotional climax. Zydeco experiences betrayal, which in and of itself is a tough thing for a person living or literary. Things are already pretty bad when he realizes what's happened, and you'd think this is the final "pile on Zydeco" wrestler move.
Not so fast.
As an author, I've learned a few things about the treatment of the characters I've created. You need to treat them not like a parent, but more like an unbalanced deity. I love them to death and take enormous pride in their accomplishments As my mother would say, I "kvell" when good things happen. And then I'll turn around, make their lives incredibly miserable, and rejoice and my evil accomplishment.
So, while Zydeco may feel like he's at the bottom of a Chinatown dumpster, it can and will get worse. A LOT worse. But not before I give him some false hope. You see, I am such a bastard, I amaze even me. Now this being a first draft, I'm sure it'll all come across as slightly contrived and Zydeco won't appear as fazed as he ought to. The structure is all there, however. And I think I've got a pretty sweet cliffhanger at the end of the first of these two chapters. My, oh my, I certainly believe it's true.
Now the next two chapters I'm working on -- which bring us to the end of Mythos -- are all about how Zydeco deals with these awful circumstances. Will he fail or will he overcome? Is it Rocky or Rocky II? Only yours truly knows the answer.
To read about the last chapter, journey back to the previous entry.
To see how it all ends, read the final post.
4/13/10
Birth of a Novel Part 15 - Choreography Part I - Violence
This is the twentieth entry in my Birth of a Novel series of posts, where I talk about the development of my new YA urban fantasy. Yes, twentieth, even though the post is entitled Part 15.
Two chapters later, and with American Idol and Glee on television tonight, it's clear I won't be getting much writing done tonight. Having readily admitted this weakness, I can move on to a BOAN post.
There I was, writing and writing and writing. This is the point at which Zydeco has to haul his cookies to "the site" for the big showdown. Approximately 183 ideas came to me as I began writing - all sorts of twists and turns - that I rapidly jotted down in my green sasquatch notebook. It's pretty cool, I have to say. I always love the "big showdown". And I find the choreography challenging and rewarding. Some of it is purely stage direction - get everyone to where they need to be to make the scene work. But it's also making sure everyone is emotionally where they need to be, which is a larger challenge, and often involves the entire book.
These last two chapters were about getting Zydeco and company to "the site". So, yes there was plenty of choreography getting him from Octavio's hidey hole, along with another character who reappears causing all sorts of tension. Along the way, they try to recruit Ted the Yeti and Alice the Sphinx, who were introduced a few chapters ago.
I looked around, catching movement in the shadows behind the doors and windows of the nearest buildings. Urgent whispers carried in the quiet, and broke only when Ted spoke.
"But I don't understand. Why does Phineas Malice care about us? Why does he care about any of us? Any of you?"
"I know he hates me, especially," said Octavio. "He blames me for his exile, which is actually quite accurate. When I was on the council, I saw to it he was sent away. He was a no good thief, consorting with the worst element. Goblins. The occasional imp or demon, too. Awful."
"More reasons for me to dislike the guy," I said. It also explained why he wanted Octavio so badly. "You're like the detective who puts the bad guy in jail, then winds up in the same cell with him. But I can't believe this whole thing he's doing--sending mythos into exile again, grabbing every one he can get hold of-is just because he hates you."
Ted cocked his large, furry head in confusion. If it weren't for the killer teeth and fangs hanging from his mouth, he'd be as adorable as an enormous, confused puppy. Behind him, Lex was hugging herself while keeping her eyes on Alice, who chose that moment to speak.
"There is a most elemental answer for that riddle, is there not?"
"That he's a tool?" I replied.
She narrowed her eyes and shook her head.
I didn't like her very much at that point and shot a pleading look at Octavio.
As the gang of three approach the site, things go terribly awry, and his results in Zydeco finally getting an ass-kicking. I couldn't just have him wander into the site and save everyone (Blaine, Magenta, etc.) easily. He may be able to put a hurtin' on Hunter, but he's not invincible, especially when a well conceived attack takes place.
Here's what surprised me about the whole deal. It didn't bother me one bit to deal Zydeco some serious violence. I mean, I wasn't going to kill him or anything. The fun part was choreographing the one-sided violence. How was I going to bring him down? I needed an element of surprise. Given the setting at the time, how would I do that? And once Zydeco was surprised, what would I do to him to get him on the ground? And how would I keep him there? Broken rib(s) are nice and debilitating, and having someone inflict the breakage in a savage and planned manner should hopefully give the reader pause.
Now, about those scribbled ideas in my little notebook. I came up with a brilliant twist if I do say so myself. It's awesome-tastic because of my tendency to leave "stuff" in the chapters as I write, in case I think I can use it later. If you are in my critique circle and have read my first drafts, you have likely complained about all the open questions I've left hanging. By the end of the first draft, I've answered many of them, and by the end of the second and third drafts, I've hopefully eliminated most of the unanswered questions. Well this twist is so very cool because you won't see it coming (I hope) but there are hints along the way. I love it when things just sort of work out.
To read about the last chapter, journey back to the previous entry.
The next couple of chapters have their very own post right here.
Two chapters later, and with American Idol and Glee on television tonight, it's clear I won't be getting much writing done tonight. Having readily admitted this weakness, I can move on to a BOAN post.
There I was, writing and writing and writing. This is the point at which Zydeco has to haul his cookies to "the site" for the big showdown. Approximately 183 ideas came to me as I began writing - all sorts of twists and turns - that I rapidly jotted down in my green sasquatch notebook. It's pretty cool, I have to say. I always love the "big showdown". And I find the choreography challenging and rewarding. Some of it is purely stage direction - get everyone to where they need to be to make the scene work. But it's also making sure everyone is emotionally where they need to be, which is a larger challenge, and often involves the entire book.
These last two chapters were about getting Zydeco and company to "the site". So, yes there was plenty of choreography getting him from Octavio's hidey hole, along with another character who reappears causing all sorts of tension. Along the way, they try to recruit Ted the Yeti and Alice the Sphinx, who were introduced a few chapters ago.
I looked around, catching movement in the shadows behind the doors and windows of the nearest buildings. Urgent whispers carried in the quiet, and broke only when Ted spoke.
"But I don't understand. Why does Phineas Malice care about us? Why does he care about any of us? Any of you?"
"I know he hates me, especially," said Octavio. "He blames me for his exile, which is actually quite accurate. When I was on the council, I saw to it he was sent away. He was a no good thief, consorting with the worst element. Goblins. The occasional imp or demon, too. Awful."
"More reasons for me to dislike the guy," I said. It also explained why he wanted Octavio so badly. "You're like the detective who puts the bad guy in jail, then winds up in the same cell with him. But I can't believe this whole thing he's doing--sending mythos into exile again, grabbing every one he can get hold of-is just because he hates you."
Ted cocked his large, furry head in confusion. If it weren't for the killer teeth and fangs hanging from his mouth, he'd be as adorable as an enormous, confused puppy. Behind him, Lex was hugging herself while keeping her eyes on Alice, who chose that moment to speak.
"There is a most elemental answer for that riddle, is there not?"
"That he's a tool?" I replied.
She narrowed her eyes and shook her head.
I didn't like her very much at that point and shot a pleading look at Octavio.
As the gang of three approach the site, things go terribly awry, and his results in Zydeco finally getting an ass-kicking. I couldn't just have him wander into the site and save everyone (Blaine, Magenta, etc.) easily. He may be able to put a hurtin' on Hunter, but he's not invincible, especially when a well conceived attack takes place.
Here's what surprised me about the whole deal. It didn't bother me one bit to deal Zydeco some serious violence. I mean, I wasn't going to kill him or anything. The fun part was choreographing the one-sided violence. How was I going to bring him down? I needed an element of surprise. Given the setting at the time, how would I do that? And once Zydeco was surprised, what would I do to him to get him on the ground? And how would I keep him there? Broken rib(s) are nice and debilitating, and having someone inflict the breakage in a savage and planned manner should hopefully give the reader pause.
Now, about those scribbled ideas in my little notebook. I came up with a brilliant twist if I do say so myself. It's awesome-tastic because of my tendency to leave "stuff" in the chapters as I write, in case I think I can use it later. If you are in my critique circle and have read my first drafts, you have likely complained about all the open questions I've left hanging. By the end of the first draft, I've answered many of them, and by the end of the second and third drafts, I've hopefully eliminated most of the unanswered questions. Well this twist is so very cool because you won't see it coming (I hope) but there are hints along the way. I love it when things just sort of work out.
To read about the last chapter, journey back to the previous entry.
The next couple of chapters have their very own post right here.
3/25/10
Birth of a Novel Part 14 - Dialog, Answers & Tension
This is the nineteenth entry in my Birth of a Novel series of posts, where I talk about the development of my new YA urban fantasy. Yes, nineteenth, even though the post is entitled Part 14.
Have you ever begun a chapter and stalled? I did. I just sort of wrote some, then got stuck, then wrote a little more, then got stuck again. It was like driving my late 1978 Ford Fiesta, which by the way, was my first car. 800 bucks and a total piece of crap, but it moved.
I digress.
But then all of a sudden, last Sunday, I just had a massive spurt of productivity, and the chapter launched itself from my imagination onto the page. It was, as Peter Griffin often says, friggin' sweet. The chapter is a whole lot of dialog between Zydeco and Octavio, with our young griffin feeling a bit hostile to the old cockatrice.
It all sounds great when you write it, you know? But this involves a lot of dialog, and very little action. As I alluded to in my previous post, I'm most comfy and cozy writing dialog, especially if I know where it's going. The trick is to make sure it moves at the same time. Given that Octavio answers many of Zydeco's (and the readers') questions, it might help keep people's interest. Also, there's emotion and some level of tension.
Here's a snippet of Octavio monologue.
He strode in front of me and leaned in. “It’s important, Zydeco, because you are now human.” He waved a hand as I was about to protest. “You are human now. A mythos, yes, but human. You will continue to keep some of the griffin skills, if you continue to use them. I’ve seen your strength. You should be able to hear quite well, and your sense of smell … well, living in the city, you may want to avoid that particular … never mind. My point is, to survive and indeed thrive as a human, you must forget your past life. Those that have acclimated best are the ones who’ve given up dreams of the past. You want to be stronger than everyone else? You want to eavesdrop or use your super smelling power, or whatever it is you griffins have? Go right ahead. Although, some might consider those things a bit rude.”
Speaking of tension, a few chapters ago, I introduced a "timer", meaning that things have to be resolved by a certain time, one way or another. The classic, "Bring me the ransom by noon, or the hostage dies!" I decided that the timer I'd introduced had too much time on it. Malice set it for 3pm the following day. For a variety of reasons, plot-related and otherwise, I've pulled the timer back in to midnight. This should also raise the tension a few notches. I've received some feedback lately that the tension level in the story has gone down some, and while I'm going to fix that up in my revisions, I wanted to address it going forward as well.
I'm a big fan of Donald Maass' approach to building tension. I love his comments from The Fire in Fiction about micro-tension. He states that what keeps your readers noses rammed right into the book margin (my words, not his), is the constant worry about what will happen in the next few seconds of the book, not what will happen through the rest of the story. And that's micro-tension.
I want my readers on the edge of their seat during this chapter. While they read this dialog, I want it so engaging that they can't wait to hear what the next person will say.
How do you build tension?
To read about the last chapter, journey back to the previous entry.
The next post can be found by taking a zip line across the tree line to this spot.
Have you ever begun a chapter and stalled? I did. I just sort of wrote some, then got stuck, then wrote a little more, then got stuck again. It was like driving my late 1978 Ford Fiesta, which by the way, was my first car. 800 bucks and a total piece of crap, but it moved.
I digress.
But then all of a sudden, last Sunday, I just had a massive spurt of productivity, and the chapter launched itself from my imagination onto the page. It was, as Peter Griffin often says, friggin' sweet. The chapter is a whole lot of dialog between Zydeco and Octavio, with our young griffin feeling a bit hostile to the old cockatrice.
It all sounds great when you write it, you know? But this involves a lot of dialog, and very little action. As I alluded to in my previous post, I'm most comfy and cozy writing dialog, especially if I know where it's going. The trick is to make sure it moves at the same time. Given that Octavio answers many of Zydeco's (and the readers') questions, it might help keep people's interest. Also, there's emotion and some level of tension.
Here's a snippet of Octavio monologue.
He strode in front of me and leaned in. “It’s important, Zydeco, because you are now human.” He waved a hand as I was about to protest. “You are human now. A mythos, yes, but human. You will continue to keep some of the griffin skills, if you continue to use them. I’ve seen your strength. You should be able to hear quite well, and your sense of smell … well, living in the city, you may want to avoid that particular … never mind. My point is, to survive and indeed thrive as a human, you must forget your past life. Those that have acclimated best are the ones who’ve given up dreams of the past. You want to be stronger than everyone else? You want to eavesdrop or use your super smelling power, or whatever it is you griffins have? Go right ahead. Although, some might consider those things a bit rude.”
Speaking of tension, a few chapters ago, I introduced a "timer", meaning that things have to be resolved by a certain time, one way or another. The classic, "Bring me the ransom by noon, or the hostage dies!" I decided that the timer I'd introduced had too much time on it. Malice set it for 3pm the following day. For a variety of reasons, plot-related and otherwise, I've pulled the timer back in to midnight. This should also raise the tension a few notches. I've received some feedback lately that the tension level in the story has gone down some, and while I'm going to fix that up in my revisions, I wanted to address it going forward as well.
I'm a big fan of Donald Maass' approach to building tension. I love his comments from The Fire in Fiction about micro-tension. He states that what keeps your readers noses rammed right into the book margin (my words, not his), is the constant worry about what will happen in the next few seconds of the book, not what will happen through the rest of the story. And that's micro-tension.
I want my readers on the edge of their seat during this chapter. While they read this dialog, I want it so engaging that they can't wait to hear what the next person will say.
How do you build tension?
To read about the last chapter, journey back to the previous entry.
The next post can be found by taking a zip line across the tree line to this spot.
3/10/10
Birth of a Novel Part 13 - Image Driven Setting
This is the nineteenth entry in my Birth of a Novel series of posts, where I talk about the development of my new YA urban fantasy. Yes, nineteenth, even though the post is entitled Part 13.
I saw the image on the right posted in a forum on wirednewyork.com some time back. It depicts the old dockyards at the Java Wharf in London quite some time ago. It painted a dark picture of an abandoned way of life, and became quite useful for me as I had Zydeco venture into a deserted part of his city, in search of Octavio.
With this picture up on my computer, I very slowly drew the next chapter of Mythos. And draw I did. This is one of those chapters where the protagonist goes somewhere. In fact, I'd say about 40% of the chapter involves Zydeco traveling through a dark and generally unpopulated part of the city. There's a lot of setting for my favorite griffin to see and touch. I tried to make some of the background breathe, tried to make a character out of the setting. My wonderful readers at writing.com will certainly let me know if it worked or not. Sometimes, I get in the habit of paying too much attention to these details that the plot gets bogged down. I hope it's not like that.
Speaking of too much attention to detail, I've noticed I write at an entirely different pace depending on what I'm writing.
Action & movement, but with little to no dialog.
TORTOISE SLOW.
or, for the parents around here:
The time it takes your child to finally fall asleep, and leave you the heck alone because holy smokes you are exhausted and just want to go to sleep too!
Dialog and action.
Fast as a pug running in a circle. I write in fits and spurts.
Or as Gimli, son of Gloin says,
"I'm wasted on cross-country! We dwarves are natural sprinters! Very dangerous over short distances!"
Mostly dialog.
Ferrari fast.
Faster than the scavenging of catered leftovers in an office environment.
Yeah. That quick.
Dialog loves me and I love it. It flows and frankly, I write it way better than I speak it.
The first inkling I liked to write occurred in some college theater courses. I took playwriting and a few other related courses, and wound up writing a couple of full length plays. I'm pretty sure they were horrible, but it was such a treat to see my classmates act out my manuscript. I pulled A's for them too, so they couldn't have been awful for a college student. I think this is where my love of dialog comes from. There's a lot of talking when there's no singing and dancing up on stage.
Like I said, nearly the first half of this chapter is dialog free, except for the occasional self-muttering Zydeco does. Here's a snippet of my boy dealing with setting.
Crossing under a fire escape on the next building, I gave a small jump and tapped the ladder above me. This turned out to be a bad move because the bottom three rungs crumpled and fell inches from my head, ringing out like a pile of tin cans hitting the deck. But that was only the slightly noisy appetizer because the whole thing collapsed as I threw my back against the brick façade. It sounded like a bowling alley and at that moment I was sure Hunter would somehow show up, rumpled from the trunk and pissed.
Once I got done with all this setting nonsense, the fun began. A sphinx. A yeti. A riddle. And a reunion. Another place reminiscent of Elfreth's Alley in Philadelphia. Elfreth's Alley intrigued me no end the times I've been there. It's considered by some to be the oldest residential street in the U.S. So, I'm pretty excited to have the opportunity to paint it in just a smidge.
To read about the last chapter, journey back to the previous entry.
The next post has arrived and you can discover it right here.
I saw the image on the right posted in a forum on wirednewyork.com some time back. It depicts the old dockyards at the Java Wharf in London quite some time ago. It painted a dark picture of an abandoned way of life, and became quite useful for me as I had Zydeco venture into a deserted part of his city, in search of Octavio.
With this picture up on my computer, I very slowly drew the next chapter of Mythos. And draw I did. This is one of those chapters where the protagonist goes somewhere. In fact, I'd say about 40% of the chapter involves Zydeco traveling through a dark and generally unpopulated part of the city. There's a lot of setting for my favorite griffin to see and touch. I tried to make some of the background breathe, tried to make a character out of the setting. My wonderful readers at writing.com will certainly let me know if it worked or not. Sometimes, I get in the habit of paying too much attention to these details that the plot gets bogged down. I hope it's not like that.
Speaking of too much attention to detail, I've noticed I write at an entirely different pace depending on what I'm writing.
Action & movement, but with little to no dialog.
TORTOISE SLOW.
or, for the parents around here:
The time it takes your child to finally fall asleep, and leave you the heck alone because holy smokes you are exhausted and just want to go to sleep too!
Dialog and action.
Fast as a pug running in a circle. I write in fits and spurts.
Or as Gimli, son of Gloin says,
"I'm wasted on cross-country! We dwarves are natural sprinters! Very dangerous over short distances!"
Mostly dialog.
Ferrari fast.
Faster than the scavenging of catered leftovers in an office environment.
Yeah. That quick.
Dialog loves me and I love it. It flows and frankly, I write it way better than I speak it.
The first inkling I liked to write occurred in some college theater courses. I took playwriting and a few other related courses, and wound up writing a couple of full length plays. I'm pretty sure they were horrible, but it was such a treat to see my classmates act out my manuscript. I pulled A's for them too, so they couldn't have been awful for a college student. I think this is where my love of dialog comes from. There's a lot of talking when there's no singing and dancing up on stage.
Like I said, nearly the first half of this chapter is dialog free, except for the occasional self-muttering Zydeco does. Here's a snippet of my boy dealing with setting.
Crossing under a fire escape on the next building, I gave a small jump and tapped the ladder above me. This turned out to be a bad move because the bottom three rungs crumpled and fell inches from my head, ringing out like a pile of tin cans hitting the deck. But that was only the slightly noisy appetizer because the whole thing collapsed as I threw my back against the brick façade. It sounded like a bowling alley and at that moment I was sure Hunter would somehow show up, rumpled from the trunk and pissed.
Once I got done with all this setting nonsense, the fun began. A sphinx. A yeti. A riddle. And a reunion. Another place reminiscent of Elfreth's Alley in Philadelphia. Elfreth's Alley intrigued me no end the times I've been there. It's considered by some to be the oldest residential street in the U.S. So, I'm pretty excited to have the opportunity to paint it in just a smidge.
To read about the last chapter, journey back to the previous entry.
The next post has arrived and you can discover it right here.
2/25/10
Birth of a Novel, Part 12 - Back story
This is the eighteenth entry in my Birth of a Novel series of posts, where I talk about the development of my new YA urban fantasy. Yes, eighteenth, even though the post is entitled Part 12.
See this stuff to the left? I'm getting pretty tired of it, I tells ya. Last time I posted a Birth of a Novel entry, we had a blizzard. Well, we've got another one dumping a couple of feet on Northwestern NJ. Bah! Bring on Spring!
Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.
This is Zydeco's chapter of self discovery. Here I had my chance to weave in necessary back story. Let me stop right there. Back story. In general, I like to sprinkle "history" here and there, but not all at once. Not here, though. There's lots in this one chapter. The strategy was to lay all this out, make it interesting, and have a lot of reaction. What did Zydeco think about all this? What is he going to do about it? I scribed this chapter with absolutely no fear based on this premise. It was a couple of days later that I began to worry. Did I spend too much time revealing this that had happened after Zydeco transitioned to humanity?
Imagine you are sixteen or seventeen, and you find one of those folders of "stuff" from when you were a baby -- your birth certificate, pediatrician reports, your kindergarten progress reports and so on. Have your parents ever handed you that kind of stuff later in life, and maybe photographs you'd never seen before? Well this chapter is a bit like that, only the information doesn't embarrass Zydeco or get him all warm and fuzzy. He gets emotional. He gets testy. And I present him with a mini quest that will bring the book to its conclusion maybe five or six chapters from now.
I don't know how readers will feel about it. I'm satisfied with what I wrote. There are answers to old questions, some new questions, and a bit of intrigue. Plus one cranky griffin. My critique group over at the YA form have been giving me great feedback, so I'm interested in their take on this one.
And now for a taste.
Flipping the page over, I came to a couple of pictures stapled to a thin piece of cardboard. My breath caught in my throat at the first snapshot. A creature with the body of a lion and head of an eagle crouched underneath a cherry bark oak tree along a muddy river bank. I ran my finger over the face, the one I’d seen reflected back at me in countless watering holes.
Blowing out a breath, I scanned the next picture. A younger me wrapped in a green blanket leaned against a thick tree trunk, my silver hair flew off my skull, like the world’s worst bed-head. Wild eyes stared off to the left, from which a delicate hand touched my shoulder. Was the hand Magenta’s?
I'm nearly done with the next chapter and Zydeco is on the move. It's all good.
To read about the last chapter, toboggan or ski back to the previous entry.
You can check out the next chapter right over here.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.
This is Zydeco's chapter of self discovery. Here I had my chance to weave in necessary back story. Let me stop right there. Back story. In general, I like to sprinkle "history" here and there, but not all at once. Not here, though. There's lots in this one chapter. The strategy was to lay all this out, make it interesting, and have a lot of reaction. What did Zydeco think about all this? What is he going to do about it? I scribed this chapter with absolutely no fear based on this premise. It was a couple of days later that I began to worry. Did I spend too much time revealing this that had happened after Zydeco transitioned to humanity?
Imagine you are sixteen or seventeen, and you find one of those folders of "stuff" from when you were a baby -- your birth certificate, pediatrician reports, your kindergarten progress reports and so on. Have your parents ever handed you that kind of stuff later in life, and maybe photographs you'd never seen before? Well this chapter is a bit like that, only the information doesn't embarrass Zydeco or get him all warm and fuzzy. He gets emotional. He gets testy. And I present him with a mini quest that will bring the book to its conclusion maybe five or six chapters from now.
I don't know how readers will feel about it. I'm satisfied with what I wrote. There are answers to old questions, some new questions, and a bit of intrigue. Plus one cranky griffin. My critique group over at the YA form have been giving me great feedback, so I'm interested in their take on this one.
And now for a taste.
Flipping the page over, I came to a couple of pictures stapled to a thin piece of cardboard. My breath caught in my throat at the first snapshot. A creature with the body of a lion and head of an eagle crouched underneath a cherry bark oak tree along a muddy river bank. I ran my finger over the face, the one I’d seen reflected back at me in countless watering holes.
Blowing out a breath, I scanned the next picture. A younger me wrapped in a green blanket leaned against a thick tree trunk, my silver hair flew off my skull, like the world’s worst bed-head. Wild eyes stared off to the left, from which a delicate hand touched my shoulder. Was the hand Magenta’s?
I'm nearly done with the next chapter and Zydeco is on the move. It's all good.
To read about the last chapter, toboggan or ski back to the previous entry.
You can check out the next chapter right over here.
2/10/10
Birth of a Novel, Part 11
This is the seventeenth entry in my Birth of a Novel series of posts, where I talk about the development of my new YA urban fantasy. Yes, seventeenth, even though the post is entitled Part 11.
It's snowing. A lot. Blizzard type snow - the kind measured in multiples of feet. Actually, it was supposed to snow like heck up here last Saturday. It didn't, but only because I sunk a small fortune into a new snow blower Friday night. I've put the sucker to good use today, though and will do so again tonight.I was emitting all sorts of manly grunts as I pulled the beast from its crate this afternoon.
But enough about that. On to Mythos!
Life now double sucks for our bestest buddy and big toe, Zydeco Cashcan. I alluded to "The Aftermath Part I" in my last post and said there was more to come. Well complete awfulness has arrived. I've pretty much taken away everything and everyone he cares about. Serves him right, after all. I mean things were going so well with Tameina.
I think I did well with the "making life miserable" thing but of course, there is no point unless Zydeco shows his mettle and makes us root for him. That'll come, but for now, let's look at this scene as he scrambles back to his apartment.
By the time I reached the fourth floor, my heart pounded in my ears and my breath came in short gasps. The crappy lighting in the corridor flickered like a broken disco ball. I ran my tongue over my lips and stared at our door. It hung open no more than an inch, allowing a narrow beam of light to enter the hall from inside the apartment. Another dose of reality crept all over my skin like a dozen spiders. I was too late.
And a few moments later.
After some time, the tears wouldn’t come anymore and my insides were empty, just devoid of anything. I didn’t want to think, or breathe, or even be. So I sat there, for how long, I don’t know. But at some point I realized my heart kept pumping, and didn’t appear inclined to give it up. I lifted my head from my hands and inspected my surroundings.
The place looked like a massive bar fight had taken place. Broken plates crunched underfoot as I wandered over to the wall beside the still open door. One of our hickory handle butcher’s knives was impaled to its hilt in the plaster three feet above the microwave lying on the floor. The utensil turned weapon held a torn patch of blue, pinstripe fabric to the wall.
Zydeco began to go through the seven steps of grief in the previous chapter, and he continues on here. I thought it was important to have him react normally, even though he is/was a mythological creature. The cool part is that the evil Phineas Malice arrives in his apartment looking for any evidence that might lead to the capture of Octavio - who he's got a real problem with. He and Zydeco exchange some serious barbs here. And Malice introduces a "timelock limit", by which stuff must be resolved. This is good for the story and good for me, because it'll force me to get to the end.
When I finished this chapter, however, I was a little concerned about how even though Malice and his cronies are nabbing other Mythos in the city, they still never take Zydeco. Originally, I did this because, well, Zydeco is my protagonist, and the story won't go where I want it to go if he's thrown in jail or worse. So after getting a critique on this chapter, I went back and put some thought into why he's still free. Fortunately, there was another loose string I'd left in the book that I was able to knot up with this loose string, thus tying up both loose ends. Wow, what an awful metaphor.
Zydeco also discovers a mysterious package containing... MWAHAHAHAHAHA - Well I know what's in it - it's in my green sasquatch composition notebook - and this information will find its way into Chapter 15. This information will set Zydeco in motion, which will ultimately bring back a familiar character and bring the story to closure. I can't wait until I get there.
If you'd like to see what happens next, grab some snow shoes and clomp over to the next post.
To read about the last chapter, toboggan or ski back to the previous entry.
But enough about that. On to Mythos!
Life now double sucks for our bestest buddy and big toe, Zydeco Cashcan. I alluded to "The Aftermath Part I" in my last post and said there was more to come. Well complete awfulness has arrived. I've pretty much taken away everything and everyone he cares about. Serves him right, after all. I mean things were going so well with Tameina.
I think I did well with the "making life miserable" thing but of course, there is no point unless Zydeco shows his mettle and makes us root for him. That'll come, but for now, let's look at this scene as he scrambles back to his apartment.
By the time I reached the fourth floor, my heart pounded in my ears and my breath came in short gasps. The crappy lighting in the corridor flickered like a broken disco ball. I ran my tongue over my lips and stared at our door. It hung open no more than an inch, allowing a narrow beam of light to enter the hall from inside the apartment. Another dose of reality crept all over my skin like a dozen spiders. I was too late.
And a few moments later.
After some time, the tears wouldn’t come anymore and my insides were empty, just devoid of anything. I didn’t want to think, or breathe, or even be. So I sat there, for how long, I don’t know. But at some point I realized my heart kept pumping, and didn’t appear inclined to give it up. I lifted my head from my hands and inspected my surroundings.
The place looked like a massive bar fight had taken place. Broken plates crunched underfoot as I wandered over to the wall beside the still open door. One of our hickory handle butcher’s knives was impaled to its hilt in the plaster three feet above the microwave lying on the floor. The utensil turned weapon held a torn patch of blue, pinstripe fabric to the wall.
Zydeco began to go through the seven steps of grief in the previous chapter, and he continues on here. I thought it was important to have him react normally, even though he is/was a mythological creature. The cool part is that the evil Phineas Malice arrives in his apartment looking for any evidence that might lead to the capture of Octavio - who he's got a real problem with. He and Zydeco exchange some serious barbs here. And Malice introduces a "timelock limit", by which stuff must be resolved. This is good for the story and good for me, because it'll force me to get to the end.
When I finished this chapter, however, I was a little concerned about how even though Malice and his cronies are nabbing other Mythos in the city, they still never take Zydeco. Originally, I did this because, well, Zydeco is my protagonist, and the story won't go where I want it to go if he's thrown in jail or worse. So after getting a critique on this chapter, I went back and put some thought into why he's still free. Fortunately, there was another loose string I'd left in the book that I was able to knot up with this loose string, thus tying up both loose ends. Wow, what an awful metaphor.
Zydeco also discovers a mysterious package containing... MWAHAHAHAHAHA - Well I know what's in it - it's in my green sasquatch composition notebook - and this information will find its way into Chapter 15. This information will set Zydeco in motion, which will ultimately bring back a familiar character and bring the story to closure. I can't wait until I get there.
If you'd like to see what happens next, grab some snow shoes and clomp over to the next post.
To read about the last chapter, toboggan or ski back to the previous entry.
1/28/10
Birth of a Novel Part 10
This is the sixteenth entry in my Birth of a Novel series of posts, where I talk about the development of my new YA urban fantasy. Yes, sixteenth, even though the post is entitled Part 10.
I usually name each chapter after I've written the thing. With Mythos, however, there are no chapter names. Just the stark - Chapter 1, Chapter 2, and so on. If I were to name my chapters, though, I think I'd call chapter thirteen: "The Aftermath, Part I". I kind of like that. On the other hand, I've been reading The Lightning Thief, which has really cool chapter titles like, "Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death". Now that's sweet. I could call this chapter, "Magenta Blows Me Off But The Fat Guy Is Still There". Something weird like that.
I should say that from this point on in my Birth of a Novel posts, I'm going to be purposely hazy about the plot details because I really don't want to give the game away. This also makes it more difficult for me to include snippets of the chapter.
So life has seriously begun to suck for Zydeco. Life has changed for him, and he's lonely and miserable. And now that I've written it, I realized he's not acting and thinking as miserably as he ought to, given what's happened. This won't be hard to fix, but I know I need to go back make the dude more depressed. Mind you, he can't be a total "layabout-hiding in the dark-never climbs out of bed-doesn't eat-sleeps all the time-reeks" for long. Readers like him. He's my boy. I want people to still like him. And he's nothing if not resilient.
How we handle tough times defines us. It's a simple truth, but also makes for great fiction.
When I suggested "The Aftermath, Part I", it was a hint. Bad things happen to good people... or griffins, or whatever. Notices that it's bad things, not bad thing. There will be a second aftermath, and this is where Zydeco will show his mettle. That begins in chapter 14.
Today's snippet.
I was thinking of lost moments in the library with Tameina when I nearly crashed into Lex on the school’s front steps. The look on her face seemed appropriate for visiting a sick friend. “How are you?”
Crap. I wasn’t in the mood for the instantaneous cranial stupidity her voice instilled in me. Much to my surprise, I was able to force a few words out of my mouth, but my voice sounded weak to me. “I’ve been better.”
A group of guys in red varsity jackets burst through the doors, but stopped like a flock of birds crashing into an enormous window.
Lex shot them a scathing look. “How many times do I need to tell you boys? I don’t like jocks.”
They grumbled as one and went back inside.
Chapter 14 is a little slow going right now. Apparently, the Inner Evil Editor has made a return visit. I guess he missed me. Thanks for checking out this BOAN (Birth of a Novel) post, and stay tuned for more.
To read about the last chapter, saunter on back to the previous entry.
To check out the next chapter, you might want to shimmy over here.
I usually name each chapter after I've written the thing. With Mythos, however, there are no chapter names. Just the stark - Chapter 1, Chapter 2, and so on. If I were to name my chapters, though, I think I'd call chapter thirteen: "The Aftermath, Part I". I kind of like that. On the other hand, I've been reading The Lightning Thief, which has really cool chapter titles like, "Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death". Now that's sweet. I could call this chapter, "Magenta Blows Me Off But The Fat Guy Is Still There". Something weird like that.
I should say that from this point on in my Birth of a Novel posts, I'm going to be purposely hazy about the plot details because I really don't want to give the game away. This also makes it more difficult for me to include snippets of the chapter.
So life has seriously begun to suck for Zydeco. Life has changed for him, and he's lonely and miserable. And now that I've written it, I realized he's not acting and thinking as miserably as he ought to, given what's happened. This won't be hard to fix, but I know I need to go back make the dude more depressed. Mind you, he can't be a total "layabout-hiding in the dark-never climbs out of bed-doesn't eat-sleeps all the time-reeks" for long. Readers like him. He's my boy. I want people to still like him. And he's nothing if not resilient.
How we handle tough times defines us. It's a simple truth, but also makes for great fiction.
When I suggested "The Aftermath, Part I", it was a hint. Bad things happen to good people... or griffins, or whatever. Notices that it's bad things, not bad thing. There will be a second aftermath, and this is where Zydeco will show his mettle. That begins in chapter 14.
Today's snippet.
I was thinking of lost moments in the library with Tameina when I nearly crashed into Lex on the school’s front steps. The look on her face seemed appropriate for visiting a sick friend. “How are you?”
Crap. I wasn’t in the mood for the instantaneous cranial stupidity her voice instilled in me. Much to my surprise, I was able to force a few words out of my mouth, but my voice sounded weak to me. “I’ve been better.”
A group of guys in red varsity jackets burst through the doors, but stopped like a flock of birds crashing into an enormous window.
Lex shot them a scathing look. “How many times do I need to tell you boys? I don’t like jocks.”
They grumbled as one and went back inside.
Chapter 14 is a little slow going right now. Apparently, the Inner Evil Editor has made a return visit. I guess he missed me. Thanks for checking out this BOAN (Birth of a Novel) post, and stay tuned for more.
To read about the last chapter, saunter on back to the previous entry.
To check out the next chapter, you might want to shimmy over here.
1/17/10
Birth of a Novel Part 9
This is the fifteenth entry in my Birth of a Novel series of posts, where I talk about the development of my new YA urban fantasy.
I really should be writing, but I watched the Jets beat the Chargers today, and my brain is somewhere between way too distracted and shot from nervous energy. Why must the actual watching of my football team be so much less fun than the week between games? But I've done a lot of reading this weekend. In fact, I finally finished Scott Westerfeld's steampunk novel, Leviathan, and loved it. You can check out my mini review on goodreads.
Nevertheless, it was time to post a new birth-of-a-novel entry, so here goes.
This chapter picks up after the multiple bad events that have just occurred to and around Zydeco. I definitely wanted to make his life miserable. For if I do not, then how does he change? How does he learn? I think it's critical not to let your characters get too comfortable. Conflict is great, and when you give your protagonist something to overcome, especially multiple somethings, you can give your readers someone to root for.... hopefully.
For Zydeco, he decides to take things into his own hands, but doesn't find much success. I'm not quite sure just how much I should reveal here, so I'll err on the side of caution. Zydeco revisits the park location, where he and Blaine saw something awful. But that was during the day and they were together. It's fun to recast an outdoor scene in the middle of the night when your character is all alone. Stuff looks and sounds different, of course.
On top of that, Zydeco stays out all night, and when he finally returns home he finds a worried Magenta. Okay, that's not a good enough description. She's in a fit state. And he gets what's coming to him. Frankie has pointed out in her critiques of the chapters so far that Zydeco isn't the biggest brain in the Department of Mysteries' brain tank.
“Zydeco, you are an adorable kid. But you are such an idiot.” She punctuated the last word by slapping the table.
She slumped back in her chair and glared at me. “I suppose you thought it was okay to stay out all night without letting me know. You think I didn’t know about what happened last night?”
“I … no,” I muttered, not really having any answer at the ready.
“Shut up. I’m being rhetorical now, okay? When I need you to answer me, I’ll let you know. Until then, shut up.” She sighed.
“Bad things are happening to Mythos, Zydeco, and you run around like what Malice is doing doesn’t impact you or the people around you. It’s as if you haven’t noticed or you think you are this invincible being. But that’s the problem. You don’t think!” She tapped my forehead.
I jerked my head back, angered by the accusation. Of course I knew what was going on. “I did. I mean, I do. I won’t be here forever. I … get it.”
She shook her head and sighed. “No, Zydeco. I don’t think you do. You know Emma called me last night and told me what happened? She was beside herself, as you might imagine. Much like I was when you didn’t come home.”
With every syllable, her voice rose in volume until she nearly shrieked the last word.
Magenta goes on to abuse him for some time, before lightening up. He has had a bad night. Then again, so have his closest friends. I suppose I can mention that he and Tameina are on the outs, and the realization of it crushes him.
One of the challenges I've mentioned recently is my Evil Inner Editor. I promised to pay attention to when I'm able to simply write, at an acceptable speed without fighting myself with every sentence. While pushing out the last half of this chapter, I noticed things moving well. In this case, I did a better job eliminating all distraction. I cranked up my iTunes library or VH1 Radio, and my family sort of left me alone. These both made a difference. So for this week, some combination of music and lack of distraction kept the Evil Inner Editor at bay. I'll let you know if this continues.
Thanks for checking out this BOAN (Birth of a Novel) post, and stay tuned for more.
To read about the last chapter, saunter on back to the previous entry.
To check out the next chapter, you can go here.
I really should be writing, but I watched the Jets beat the Chargers today, and my brain is somewhere between way too distracted and shot from nervous energy. Why must the actual watching of my football team be so much less fun than the week between games? But I've done a lot of reading this weekend. In fact, I finally finished Scott Westerfeld's steampunk novel, Leviathan, and loved it. You can check out my mini review on goodreads.
Nevertheless, it was time to post a new birth-of-a-novel entry, so here goes.
This chapter picks up after the multiple bad events that have just occurred to and around Zydeco. I definitely wanted to make his life miserable. For if I do not, then how does he change? How does he learn? I think it's critical not to let your characters get too comfortable. Conflict is great, and when you give your protagonist something to overcome, especially multiple somethings, you can give your readers someone to root for.... hopefully.
For Zydeco, he decides to take things into his own hands, but doesn't find much success. I'm not quite sure just how much I should reveal here, so I'll err on the side of caution. Zydeco revisits the park location, where he and Blaine saw something awful. But that was during the day and they were together. It's fun to recast an outdoor scene in the middle of the night when your character is all alone. Stuff looks and sounds different, of course.
On top of that, Zydeco stays out all night, and when he finally returns home he finds a worried Magenta. Okay, that's not a good enough description. She's in a fit state. And he gets what's coming to him. Frankie has pointed out in her critiques of the chapters so far that Zydeco isn't the biggest brain in the Department of Mysteries' brain tank.
“Zydeco, you are an adorable kid. But you are such an idiot.” She punctuated the last word by slapping the table.
She slumped back in her chair and glared at me. “I suppose you thought it was okay to stay out all night without letting me know. You think I didn’t know about what happened last night?”
“I … no,” I muttered, not really having any answer at the ready.
“Shut up. I’m being rhetorical now, okay? When I need you to answer me, I’ll let you know. Until then, shut up.” She sighed.
“Bad things are happening to Mythos, Zydeco, and you run around like what Malice is doing doesn’t impact you or the people around you. It’s as if you haven’t noticed or you think you are this invincible being. But that’s the problem. You don’t think!” She tapped my forehead.
I jerked my head back, angered by the accusation. Of course I knew what was going on. “I did. I mean, I do. I won’t be here forever. I … get it.”
She shook her head and sighed. “No, Zydeco. I don’t think you do. You know Emma called me last night and told me what happened? She was beside herself, as you might imagine. Much like I was when you didn’t come home.”
With every syllable, her voice rose in volume until she nearly shrieked the last word.
Magenta goes on to abuse him for some time, before lightening up. He has had a bad night. Then again, so have his closest friends. I suppose I can mention that he and Tameina are on the outs, and the realization of it crushes him.
One of the challenges I've mentioned recently is my Evil Inner Editor. I promised to pay attention to when I'm able to simply write, at an acceptable speed without fighting myself with every sentence. While pushing out the last half of this chapter, I noticed things moving well. In this case, I did a better job eliminating all distraction. I cranked up my iTunes library or VH1 Radio, and my family sort of left me alone. These both made a difference. So for this week, some combination of music and lack of distraction kept the Evil Inner Editor at bay. I'll let you know if this continues.
Thanks for checking out this BOAN (Birth of a Novel) post, and stay tuned for more.
To read about the last chapter, saunter on back to the previous entry.
To check out the next chapter, you can go here.
1/5/10
Birth of a Novel - Part 8 (and the dog butt is not on my foot)
This is the fourteenth entry in my Birth of a Novel series of posts, where I talk about the development of my new YA urban fantasy.
It's been a while since I wrote a Birth of a Novel post. In fact, you may have noticed that the name and layout of the blog looks different. It's true. Around New Year's I messed around with a few variations, but for now have settled on The Sharpened Pen. I'm not sure quite sure how I feel about it. The layout appears pretty clean, and the name of the blog is such that it should be easier to find me via the googles and bings of the world. We shall see.
Back to Mythos then. I wrote two more chapters since my last post on BOAN (Birth of a Novel, the acronym). These chapters are really about:
DUM ... DUM ... DUM!!!
The Prom.
As with many a prom, loads of really good things happen. Magenta gets to act a bit motherly to young Zydeco in prepping him for the prom. It's a nice little scene. Here's a snippet.
“Hmm.” Magenta stepped in front of me, the corners of her mouth curving up. She reached up and adjusted the collar of my suit and brushed some invisible dust from the front. “You look handsome.”
And then I saw something that I thought I’d never see. Her gold eyes, shaped once more as diamonds, glistened. “Are … are you okay?”
She drew back a few wisps of short, black hair and cocked her head just a little. “Yes. It’s just, well, I’ve never been particularly maternal. There were never any little hatchlings.” She chuckled but there was no mirth there. Her lips thinned. “And this is going to sound completely cliché, Zydeco, and I abhor clichés. If I could, I’d collect all the clichés in the world in a stack of papers and then I’d burn them to ashes in one blow.”
I blinked. Magenta was rarely at a loss for words, and this was no exception. “What are you--?”
She closed her eyes and shook her head. “What I’m trying to say, Zydeco, is that if I had a child, I’d be happy … I would be proud … if that child were you.”
I'm weird. I like these little tender scenes. There's a bunch of inner voice from Zydeco who mulls over what it means to have Magenta - the dragon woman - react like this. Any-hoo, I followed this up with some scenes of hint-dropping/foreshadowing. Zydeco picks up Tameina at her place and we finally get a little peek at her dad. It's brief, but I need to get Daddy in the story just a bit more.
There's some Mythos folks kind of "there" in the background, and Hunter and pals still following Zydeco around. And then... they arrive at the prom - at this old city hotel with paneling and a distinct 70's vibe. It also becomes apparent that there are more Mythos around the school than Zydeco realized.
Now then. Former mythological creatures wouldn't have had much dance experience, right? So there are two options for such creatures at a prom.
You have the Blaine "totally fearless" option, a dance worthy of Elaine Benes from Seinfeld.
On the other hand, you might have someone like Zydeco, who is simply not comfortable dancing. Fortunately, Tameina is with him, keeping him calm and luring him into a slow dance. Well I posted a bit of that scene on the blog for the Official Kissing Day Blogfest. From that moment on, this chapter gets a bit on the romantic side for Zydeco and Tameina, as they enjoy the night and talk a bit about the future. Even though Zydeco isn't sure about his future, what with the bad guys rounding up Mythos left nad right, he's in a state of bliss. And as the guy writing their story, I was so happy for both of them.
But we writers must maintain a sadistic side, too. Don't we? As the evil bastard I am, I crash their euphoric night around them. When Lex shows up, do good things ever happen? My goal with this chapter was to make things just totally awful for Zydeco, and I think I pulled it off. I'm very mean in this chapter. And I'm not done grinding Zydeco into the sidewalk with a steel-toed boot. Poor, poor Zydeco. Still, I actually felt pretty bad for Tameina, too. She's such a sweet girl and doesn't deserve any of what happens.
I expected to dig down and plant some "seeds" in these two chapters. Sadly, I realized that some of these "seeds" required planting earlier on, so I'll need to return to some earlier chapters and spread them like wildflowers. So now I've got all these notes like "THIS BIT OF TAMEINA BACKSTORY MUST COME EARLIER!!!". There's even one bit of story I introduced in chapter ten that I expected to resolve in chapter eleven, but I forgot to do so! Yeesh. So there's another note to go back and fix it.
One other lesson I'm beginning to learn is that I've got to learn to turn off my inner editor while writing. It's slowing my writing down as I struggle to get certain paragraphs just right. I must bottle the editor and save it until I revise.
Anyhow, thanks for reading and stay tuned for more.
To read about the last chapter, saunter on back to the previous entry.
To check out the next chapter, slip and slide to the next post.
It's been a while since I wrote a Birth of a Novel post. In fact, you may have noticed that the name and layout of the blog looks different. It's true. Around New Year's I messed around with a few variations, but for now have settled on The Sharpened Pen. I'm not sure quite sure how I feel about it. The layout appears pretty clean, and the name of the blog is such that it should be easier to find me via the googles and bings of the world. We shall see.
Back to Mythos then. I wrote two more chapters since my last post on BOAN (Birth of a Novel, the acronym). These chapters are really about:
DUM ... DUM ... DUM!!!
The Prom.
As with many a prom, loads of really good things happen. Magenta gets to act a bit motherly to young Zydeco in prepping him for the prom. It's a nice little scene. Here's a snippet.
“Hmm.” Magenta stepped in front of me, the corners of her mouth curving up. She reached up and adjusted the collar of my suit and brushed some invisible dust from the front. “You look handsome.”
And then I saw something that I thought I’d never see. Her gold eyes, shaped once more as diamonds, glistened. “Are … are you okay?”
She drew back a few wisps of short, black hair and cocked her head just a little. “Yes. It’s just, well, I’ve never been particularly maternal. There were never any little hatchlings.” She chuckled but there was no mirth there. Her lips thinned. “And this is going to sound completely cliché, Zydeco, and I abhor clichés. If I could, I’d collect all the clichés in the world in a stack of papers and then I’d burn them to ashes in one blow.”
I blinked. Magenta was rarely at a loss for words, and this was no exception. “What are you--?”
She closed her eyes and shook her head. “What I’m trying to say, Zydeco, is that if I had a child, I’d be happy … I would be proud … if that child were you.”
I'm weird. I like these little tender scenes. There's a bunch of inner voice from Zydeco who mulls over what it means to have Magenta - the dragon woman - react like this. Any-hoo, I followed this up with some scenes of hint-dropping/foreshadowing. Zydeco picks up Tameina at her place and we finally get a little peek at her dad. It's brief, but I need to get Daddy in the story just a bit more.
There's some Mythos folks kind of "there" in the background, and Hunter and pals still following Zydeco around. And then... they arrive at the prom - at this old city hotel with paneling and a distinct 70's vibe. It also becomes apparent that there are more Mythos around the school than Zydeco realized.
Now then. Former mythological creatures wouldn't have had much dance experience, right? So there are two options for such creatures at a prom.
On the other hand, you might have someone like Zydeco, who is simply not comfortable dancing. Fortunately, Tameina is with him, keeping him calm and luring him into a slow dance. Well I posted a bit of that scene on the blog for the Official Kissing Day Blogfest. From that moment on, this chapter gets a bit on the romantic side for Zydeco and Tameina, as they enjoy the night and talk a bit about the future. Even though Zydeco isn't sure about his future, what with the bad guys rounding up Mythos left nad right, he's in a state of bliss. And as the guy writing their story, I was so happy for both of them.
But we writers must maintain a sadistic side, too. Don't we? As the evil bastard I am, I crash their euphoric night around them. When Lex shows up, do good things ever happen? My goal with this chapter was to make things just totally awful for Zydeco, and I think I pulled it off. I'm very mean in this chapter. And I'm not done grinding Zydeco into the sidewalk with a steel-toed boot. Poor, poor Zydeco. Still, I actually felt pretty bad for Tameina, too. She's such a sweet girl and doesn't deserve any of what happens.
I expected to dig down and plant some "seeds" in these two chapters. Sadly, I realized that some of these "seeds" required planting earlier on, so I'll need to return to some earlier chapters and spread them like wildflowers. So now I've got all these notes like "THIS BIT OF TAMEINA BACKSTORY MUST COME EARLIER!!!". There's even one bit of story I introduced in chapter ten that I expected to resolve in chapter eleven, but I forgot to do so! Yeesh. So there's another note to go back and fix it.
One other lesson I'm beginning to learn is that I've got to learn to turn off my inner editor while writing. It's slowing my writing down as I struggle to get certain paragraphs just right. I must bottle the editor and save it until I revise.
Anyhow, thanks for reading and stay tuned for more.
To read about the last chapter, saunter on back to the previous entry.
To check out the next chapter, slip and slide to the next post.
12/1/09
Birth of a Novel - Part 7
This is the thirteenth entry in my Birth of a Novel series of posts, where I talk about the development of my new YA urban fantasy.
I was well into chapter ten of Mythos when I realized I hadn't chronicled chapter nine. Doh. Chapter eight ends with Zydeco and Blaine seeing an awful thing. It's bad tidings for the Mythos in the city. Chapter nine takes place weeks later, and the Mythos are living in these somewhat dark times, worried about themselves, their families and friends. I returned to Blaine's apartment for brunch, this time with Magenta joining everyone. As opposed to our prior visit, however, the mood is far more somber.
Alright, I need to come clean now. I was struck by the mood in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, when all the witches and wizards are in constant danger of disappearing, of losing their own friends and family. People go into hiding. People run. Some people stay and fight, but often lose. There are many books along these lines, and they always remind me of Germany, Austria and Poland before and during World War II. For the small population of Mythological creatures living in a large city, it's a microcosm of all of the above. Mythos is a smaller book, and Phineas Malice is neither Lord Voldemort or Adolf Hitler. He has his own reasons for what he's doing, but I wasn't going for anything so overly evil. Hmm. I hope I haven't sold Malice short. He is evil. Really he is.
He’s calling us criminals, you know,” said Magenta. “Drug dealers.”
Edward nodded. “Yes, I’ve noticed that.” He narrowed his eyes and spoke in a barely audible voice. “I wonder what he was.”
Magenta shook her head. “Well, thank you for brunch, Emma. Edward.” She didn’t lean in for a kiss. She wasn’t like that. Instead, she took their hands and smiled. “But if I don’t get out of here and have a smoke, I’m going to bite someone’s head off, and what kind of gratitude would that show?”
What with all of this going on, plus constant studying for finals, Zydeco's mind isn't entirely focused on the fact that he's asked Tameina to the prom. The pair of them have spent an awful lot of time together studying, and he's clearly got strong feelings for her. He's so worried about his future, though, that he hasn't been able to organize his thoughts on the matter. The chapter ends with a reminder that certain aspects of a teenager's life are immutable. I'm surprised at how easy I find developing the Zydeco/Tameina relationship. It feels really sweet and honest and I hope it comes across that way.
Overall, I think I did alright with this chapter. I already know I need to go back and add a bit more background tension - that someone is always watching and that peril lies just around the corner.... Because it does, truly. MWAHAHAHAHAHA
But first, they need to get to the prom. Its going to be like Carrie without all the blood. >-)
Thanks for reading and stay tuned!
Feel free to jump ahead to my next Birth of a Novel post
.
Or to read about the last chapter, saunter on back to the previous entry.
I was well into chapter ten of Mythos when I realized I hadn't chronicled chapter nine. Doh. Chapter eight ends with Zydeco and Blaine seeing an awful thing. It's bad tidings for the Mythos in the city. Chapter nine takes place weeks later, and the Mythos are living in these somewhat dark times, worried about themselves, their families and friends. I returned to Blaine's apartment for brunch, this time with Magenta joining everyone. As opposed to our prior visit, however, the mood is far more somber.
Alright, I need to come clean now. I was struck by the mood in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, when all the witches and wizards are in constant danger of disappearing, of losing their own friends and family. People go into hiding. People run. Some people stay and fight, but often lose. There are many books along these lines, and they always remind me of Germany, Austria and Poland before and during World War II. For the small population of Mythological creatures living in a large city, it's a microcosm of all of the above. Mythos is a smaller book, and Phineas Malice is neither Lord Voldemort or Adolf Hitler. He has his own reasons for what he's doing, but I wasn't going for anything so overly evil. Hmm. I hope I haven't sold Malice short. He is evil. Really he is.
He’s calling us criminals, you know,” said Magenta. “Drug dealers.”
Edward nodded. “Yes, I’ve noticed that.” He narrowed his eyes and spoke in a barely audible voice. “I wonder what he was.”
Magenta shook her head. “Well, thank you for brunch, Emma. Edward.” She didn’t lean in for a kiss. She wasn’t like that. Instead, she took their hands and smiled. “But if I don’t get out of here and have a smoke, I’m going to bite someone’s head off, and what kind of gratitude would that show?”
What with all of this going on, plus constant studying for finals, Zydeco's mind isn't entirely focused on the fact that he's asked Tameina to the prom. The pair of them have spent an awful lot of time together studying, and he's clearly got strong feelings for her. He's so worried about his future, though, that he hasn't been able to organize his thoughts on the matter. The chapter ends with a reminder that certain aspects of a teenager's life are immutable. I'm surprised at how easy I find developing the Zydeco/Tameina relationship. It feels really sweet and honest and I hope it comes across that way.
Overall, I think I did alright with this chapter. I already know I need to go back and add a bit more background tension - that someone is always watching and that peril lies just around the corner.... Because it does, truly. MWAHAHAHAHAHA
But first, they need to get to the prom. Its going to be like Carrie without all the blood. >-)
Thanks for reading and stay tuned!
Feel free to jump ahead to my next Birth of a Novel post
.
Or to read about the last chapter, saunter on back to the previous entry.
11/16/09
Birth of a Novel - Part 6
This is the twelfth entry in my Birth of a Novel series of posts, where I talk about the development of my new YA urban fantasy.
Before writing this chapter (tentatively chapter eight), I grabbed my trusty green sasquatch composition notebook and sketched out the rest of the book, starting from now. And the more I scribbled, the more sparks that began to shoot from my head. Backstory appeared in a few brain cells - well a lot of brain cells. Plot points zoomed into focus. More character traits flopped around like a fish wanting to jump back in the ocean.
My goal? Make Zydeco's life utter misery, while amping up the story. While the story arc reaches its inevitable climax, he has to face losing everything. And I mean everything. He has to be utterly alone. And then when he has the slightest chance of not being alone, he has to make a decision that, if things go poorly, will guarantee total and complete despair. If things go well, he still won't have everything he wants. This is one of those moments. Your protagonist desperate wants/needs two things. Now make it impossible for him to have both.
Oh, the anguish. In the end, it boils down to how courageous I am as a writer. I know that in the end, he will not have everything he wants, but how much do I want to give him? Can I, for example, do to Zydeco & Tameina what Philip Pullman does to Lyra and Will?
Only time will tell.
As for this chapter, Zydeco and Blaine witness something ... horrible. It involves our nasty pal Hunter and his evil boss, the deputy mayor, Phineas Malice. Dang, I love that name. What do they see? Let's just say it does not bode well for the future of the Mythos. And it kind of starts the Wicked Witch of the West's hourglass on Dorothy's life, if you get my drift.
Two black creatures appeared low in the sky, large as bulls, with horns to match. They plunged through the air on deformed and bent wings and fell on the sheep-wolf. The carnage was over in seconds, the two flying demons bulleting back into the sky, each carrying half the prey's bloody carcass with it.
I also had a little fun with setting here, imagining an abandoned drive-in type theater inside a big old city park. Whereas most of the bits of city setting come from one or more actual city landmarks, this does not. I liked the idea and went with it. Writer's privilege, you see.
Hummm, what else? There is a small aftermath of what they've seen. Blaine is actually spooked, and concerned for his future. I worked a bit on his relationship with Zydeco, here. They've been best buddies (and big toe, Sergeant Hulka) forever, even when Zydeco was a griffin and Blaine a little gnome. Zydeco really would do anything for his friend, and I try to show that.
But of course, they are also just a pretty funny pair, so...
"Dude," I said, leading the way back down the road. "That was just … was that what I thought it was?"
Hands in his pockets, Blaine tried to kick a pine cone, but missed. He grunted. "What? Bloody evil incarnate?"
And so, we keep writing. The next chapter's theme is, living your life despite the undercurrent of fear. This should be fun. It's right there in my head and in the sasquatch notebook. :-)
Thanks for reading and stay tuned! Now, on to the next chapter!!!!
To read about the last chapter, slide on back to the previous entry.
Before writing this chapter (tentatively chapter eight), I grabbed my trusty green sasquatch composition notebook and sketched out the rest of the book, starting from now. And the more I scribbled, the more sparks that began to shoot from my head. Backstory appeared in a few brain cells - well a lot of brain cells. Plot points zoomed into focus. More character traits flopped around like a fish wanting to jump back in the ocean.
My goal? Make Zydeco's life utter misery, while amping up the story. While the story arc reaches its inevitable climax, he has to face losing everything. And I mean everything. He has to be utterly alone. And then when he has the slightest chance of not being alone, he has to make a decision that, if things go poorly, will guarantee total and complete despair. If things go well, he still won't have everything he wants. This is one of those moments. Your protagonist desperate wants/needs two things. Now make it impossible for him to have both.
Oh, the anguish. In the end, it boils down to how courageous I am as a writer. I know that in the end, he will not have everything he wants, but how much do I want to give him? Can I, for example, do to Zydeco & Tameina what Philip Pullman does to Lyra and Will?
Only time will tell.
As for this chapter, Zydeco and Blaine witness something ... horrible. It involves our nasty pal Hunter and his evil boss, the deputy mayor, Phineas Malice. Dang, I love that name. What do they see? Let's just say it does not bode well for the future of the Mythos. And it kind of starts the Wicked Witch of the West's hourglass on Dorothy's life, if you get my drift.
Two black creatures appeared low in the sky, large as bulls, with horns to match. They plunged through the air on deformed and bent wings and fell on the sheep-wolf. The carnage was over in seconds, the two flying demons bulleting back into the sky, each carrying half the prey's bloody carcass with it.
I also had a little fun with setting here, imagining an abandoned drive-in type theater inside a big old city park. Whereas most of the bits of city setting come from one or more actual city landmarks, this does not. I liked the idea and went with it. Writer's privilege, you see.
Hummm, what else? There is a small aftermath of what they've seen. Blaine is actually spooked, and concerned for his future. I worked a bit on his relationship with Zydeco, here. They've been best buddies (and big toe, Sergeant Hulka) forever, even when Zydeco was a griffin and Blaine a little gnome. Zydeco really would do anything for his friend, and I try to show that.
But of course, they are also just a pretty funny pair, so...
"Dude," I said, leading the way back down the road. "That was just … was that what I thought it was?"
Hands in his pockets, Blaine tried to kick a pine cone, but missed. He grunted. "What? Bloody evil incarnate?"
And so, we keep writing. The next chapter's theme is, living your life despite the undercurrent of fear. This should be fun. It's right there in my head and in the sasquatch notebook. :-)
Thanks for reading and stay tuned! Now, on to the next chapter!!!!
To read about the last chapter, slide on back to the previous entry.
11/4/09
Birth of a Novel - Part 5
This is the eleventh entry in my Birth of a Novel series of posts, where I talk about the development of my new YA urban fantasy.
I had just completed chapter seven of Mythos, when as I read Scott G.F. Bailey's excellent piece, Some Thoughts on Middles, it struck me that this is exactly what I'm up against. A middle. Act II. Act I of Mythos is really about setting up the conflict (plot), whereas Act III resolve the conflict (plot climax and denouement). Act II is the bridge that should do two things. First, the plot has to evolve--the chess pieces have to move--until the characters are ready for the climax. Second, the characters have to develop further-- Zydeco, Blaine, Tameina and everyone else.
Certainly Zydeco changes as a result of the events of the book. That's got to be a given. Scott makes a fantastic argument, though, for treating Act II to its own beginning, middle and end. What does it mean? It means that Zydeco should change as a result of the events of Act II. He needs to show up in Act III different than he was in Act I. How he reacts during the penultimate scene may vary from how he would have had the same thing occurred in Act I.
I've gone off and rambled myself silly, haven't I? Jay! What about chapter seven? All you've done is talked about what happened after you wrote the thing? I mean, really!
Okay, okay. So, chapter seven. It's back to Zydeco and Blaine, and carries over from the slight cliffhanger of the prior chapter. I really do love these characters, and there are really two relationships I get a kick out of exploring. Zydeco and Tameina - it's fantastic to develop those two as a couple, especially because they're friends first, and because each of them is ever so slightly damaged in their own peculiar ways. Zydeco and Blaine - total best friends, and they're like a well oiled machine. It's like they riff on one another. One could finish the other's sentence. They're funny.
We get to see Blaine's bedroom, which I found fun to describe. In chapter two, I showed one of Zydeco's mythological skills. As a former griffin, he has enormous strength. It is my conjecture that a being, part lion, part eagle would be, well, strong. So there. I've decided. It's fantasy. My book, my rules. In chapter seven, I got to write about his acute hearing. I alluded to it in a prior chapter, but came right out and demonstrated it here.
I held a hand up and leaned across the desk. “Need to concentrate.” Pressing my ear close to the screen, and my eyes shut, I let all thought drain away, focusing on the noise three stories below. I imagined myself as I had been, seeking out prey. The irony wasn’t lost on me that Hunter was now the hunted, but I let it go. I listened. And after a few moments, I heard.
“How many?” said Hunter, his high-pitched voice carrying over the light Sunday traffic.
A pause.
“When?” Another beat. “Right. Okay. And the cockatrice?”
I opened my eyes. This confirmed it. They knew what Octavio was. But, how?
The boys set out in search of Hunter and his crew--there's bad tidings afoot in the park. I get to take them out of their apartments and school, and into the big city park. I get them moving. I get them snooping.
I'm very careful not to set Mythos in a specific city. At least in first draft, the fictional city does not have a name. I may name it later, if I think it's worthwhile. But in my head (and on paper), there are pieces of New York City (my home base), Philadelphia, Boston, and San Francisco. The outside of the library in one of the earlier chapters is very much a re-imagined NYC Public Library. This park is a combination of Philadelphia's Fairmount Park and New York's Central Park. I even threw in a seemingly bizarre landmark - an ancient obelisk -- that does really exist in Central Park. Interesting history behind it, I must say.
Within minutes, however, Malice and company were gone, and Blaine and I were alone on what looked like a road cut through an underground forest. Birds chirped, likely from the overhead canopy that blocked out the sun. A family of squirrels chattered and chased each other around the base of a tree along the edge of the road.
We slowed to a jog and then a casual walk.
“Lions, and tigers, and bears, oh, my,” said Blaine.
“A Griffin, a gnome and some squirrels, you mean.”
“Ruin all my fun, why don’t you.”
Chapter seven, we hardly knew ye. Before I move on to chapter eight, which continues the events of seven, I need to go off and sketch out Act II as a beginning, middle and end. The three acts of Act II, if you will. By doing so, I think the rest of the "middle" of Mythos will just FLY by.
By the way, I'd love feedback from anyone who's been following this thread. As you write, do you face the same questions? Do you have the same fits and starts? Does what I'm writing sound remotely interest?
Thanks for reading and stay tuned! Now, on to the next chapter!!!!
To read about the last chapter, shimmy and shake on back to the previous entry.
I had just completed chapter seven of Mythos, when as I read Scott G.F. Bailey's excellent piece, Some Thoughts on Middles, it struck me that this is exactly what I'm up against. A middle. Act II. Act I of Mythos is really about setting up the conflict (plot), whereas Act III resolve the conflict (plot climax and denouement). Act II is the bridge that should do two things. First, the plot has to evolve--the chess pieces have to move--until the characters are ready for the climax. Second, the characters have to develop further-- Zydeco, Blaine, Tameina and everyone else.
Certainly Zydeco changes as a result of the events of the book. That's got to be a given. Scott makes a fantastic argument, though, for treating Act II to its own beginning, middle and end. What does it mean? It means that Zydeco should change as a result of the events of Act II. He needs to show up in Act III different than he was in Act I. How he reacts during the penultimate scene may vary from how he would have had the same thing occurred in Act I.
I've gone off and rambled myself silly, haven't I? Jay! What about chapter seven? All you've done is talked about what happened after you wrote the thing? I mean, really!
Okay, okay. So, chapter seven. It's back to Zydeco and Blaine, and carries over from the slight cliffhanger of the prior chapter. I really do love these characters, and there are really two relationships I get a kick out of exploring. Zydeco and Tameina - it's fantastic to develop those two as a couple, especially because they're friends first, and because each of them is ever so slightly damaged in their own peculiar ways. Zydeco and Blaine - total best friends, and they're like a well oiled machine. It's like they riff on one another. One could finish the other's sentence. They're funny.
We get to see Blaine's bedroom, which I found fun to describe. In chapter two, I showed one of Zydeco's mythological skills. As a former griffin, he has enormous strength. It is my conjecture that a being, part lion, part eagle would be, well, strong. So there. I've decided. It's fantasy. My book, my rules. In chapter seven, I got to write about his acute hearing. I alluded to it in a prior chapter, but came right out and demonstrated it here.
I held a hand up and leaned across the desk. “Need to concentrate.” Pressing my ear close to the screen, and my eyes shut, I let all thought drain away, focusing on the noise three stories below. I imagined myself as I had been, seeking out prey. The irony wasn’t lost on me that Hunter was now the hunted, but I let it go. I listened. And after a few moments, I heard.
“How many?” said Hunter, his high-pitched voice carrying over the light Sunday traffic.
A pause.
“When?” Another beat. “Right. Okay. And the cockatrice?”
I opened my eyes. This confirmed it. They knew what Octavio was. But, how?
The boys set out in search of Hunter and his crew--there's bad tidings afoot in the park. I get to take them out of their apartments and school, and into the big city park. I get them moving. I get them snooping.
I'm very careful not to set Mythos in a specific city. At least in first draft, the fictional city does not have a name. I may name it later, if I think it's worthwhile. But in my head (and on paper), there are pieces of New York City (my home base), Philadelphia, Boston, and San Francisco. The outside of the library in one of the earlier chapters is very much a re-imagined NYC Public Library. This park is a combination of Philadelphia's Fairmount Park and New York's Central Park. I even threw in a seemingly bizarre landmark - an ancient obelisk -- that does really exist in Central Park. Interesting history behind it, I must say.
Within minutes, however, Malice and company were gone, and Blaine and I were alone on what looked like a road cut through an underground forest. Birds chirped, likely from the overhead canopy that blocked out the sun. A family of squirrels chattered and chased each other around the base of a tree along the edge of the road.
We slowed to a jog and then a casual walk.
“Lions, and tigers, and bears, oh, my,” said Blaine.
“A Griffin, a gnome and some squirrels, you mean.”
“Ruin all my fun, why don’t you.”
Chapter seven, we hardly knew ye. Before I move on to chapter eight, which continues the events of seven, I need to go off and sketch out Act II as a beginning, middle and end. The three acts of Act II, if you will. By doing so, I think the rest of the "middle" of Mythos will just FLY by.
By the way, I'd love feedback from anyone who's been following this thread. As you write, do you face the same questions? Do you have the same fits and starts? Does what I'm writing sound remotely interest?
Thanks for reading and stay tuned! Now, on to the next chapter!!!!
To read about the last chapter, shimmy and shake on back to the previous entry.
10/15/09
Birth of a Novel - Part 4
This is the tenth entry in my Birth of a Novel series of posts, where I talk about the development of my new YA urban fantasy.
Yeesh. (Once in a while, start a blog post with Yeesh.)
This chapter took a while to get started. I made the mistake of thinking too much about the plot as I sat there staring at a blank page. My plot outline in Mythos is much lighter than it was for The Children of Midian. It's really driven by the characters, which is kind of fun. The problem was that my next major plot point could not possibly take place at the current point in the story.
I stared at that blank page for one heck of a long time before deciding to go back to my character notes and my trusty green sasquatch notebook. Lo and behold, I found this big 'ol pile of stuff about my characters I wanted to get on the page. There was also some back story I wanted to slip in. Off I went, excited as can be. I wrote one tiny little scene with Zydeco stopping by Blaine's place at night, only to find his slightly kookie grandmother, Ava, at the door, and Blaine not home. Cute scene, but a massive disappointment in terms of progress.
Fine, I said to myself. I'll make up for it next time. Oh, and while I'm at it, I thought, I'd best add some tension to this chapter. You can't just have people jabbering on about stuff forever, or you wind up with one of those chatty, but yawn-inducing "tea scenes", as Don Maass puts it. So, next time came and I jammed out this good scene outside Zydeco's apartment building with Mr. Patel, and my favorite character, Dr. Tension.
Good, good, I thought. Now, I wanted a scene upstairs with Zydeco and Magenta. And with me laying on Dr. Tension's couch, I began this crazy scene with Zydeco walking in on Magenta as she hacked away at something on the kitchen counter. There were rivers of blood flowing onto the linoleum, and Magenta looking around wild-eyed. You see, I thought it would be neat if, instead of buying from a butcher, she bought whole animals from a supplier and slaughtered them herself for the meat. I mean, she was a dragon and all. Dr. Tension was furiously taking notes from his chair while I typed away on his couch.
The scene began to spiral out of control and added all kinds of complications and unnecessary loose ends I was completely unready to deal with. Here's a lesson. Tension for tension's sake isn't a good idea. It was then I decided to bail for the night and go read The Lost Symbol. The next night, I tossed that entire scene and wrote a new one, that I'm genuinely pleased with. We have a bit of tension, and some chuckles courtesy of Magenta. Sometimes, she's Costello to Zydeco's Abbott. I also add some back story, revealing the name of the "world" from which all these mythological creatures came: Parable, and the world to which they thought they were headed: Fairway. I like those names. No idea why. Anyway, there's no blood flying through this scene, but there some pretty good cursing. Here's a sample:
Magenta shook me awake.
The lights were on and she stood over me with her hands on her hips. “What are you doing all slumped over on the wall? You’ve got a perfectly good bed, I thought.”
“Yeah, um….” Using the back of my hand, I mopped up the drool that ran from the corner of my mouth down my chin. I dragged myself to my feet. “How was the movie?”
She slid into her red wing chair. “Unbearable.”
I rubbed my eyes. “Why? What did you see?”
She sighed. “Eragon was playing at the second run theater. I had no idea. If that little bugger tried to climb on top of me, I would’ve eaten him, bones and all.”
I'd also been meaning to write Zydeco at Blaine's apartment with his family. Blaine is a gnome who lives with his family of gnomes, you see, and in my book, gnomes have an English accent. I have an eccentric grandmother, and the uptight cousin of Blaine's who she picks on mercilessly. I wrote that scene last night - long one, too. The entire time, bits of Fawlty Towers were playing in my head, but I don't think it really mattered. I actually kept thinking of Ron's Aunty Muriel in Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows. It was a brunch scene, and no tea was served. What do gnomes eat for breakfast? Omelettes, heavy on the mushrooms. A tiny sample (Aidan is Blaine's older cousin):
Aidan turned to me. “Didn’t you used to fly by the garden and snatch our Blaine up into the air?”
This brought me back and I nodded. “Yep, it’s true. I did.”
“I kept thinking, here’s this griffin come to snatch my little cousin. He’s done for. But then a few hours later, there you’d be, descending from the sky, with little Blaine clinging to your back, laughing his bloomin’ head off.”
Blaine was smiling, his eyes distant. “Great fun, that was. Nearly fell off once or twice.”
I need to do a little more plotting on the next few chapters, and continue to work on Zydeco's voice so that he brings that "mythological creature" perspective to life as a human. Good thing I'm still writing the first draft!
On to the next chapter!!!!
To see what I thought about the last chapter, slide on back to the previous entry if you like.
Yeesh. (Once in a while, start a blog post with Yeesh.)
This chapter took a while to get started. I made the mistake of thinking too much about the plot as I sat there staring at a blank page. My plot outline in Mythos is much lighter than it was for The Children of Midian. It's really driven by the characters, which is kind of fun. The problem was that my next major plot point could not possibly take place at the current point in the story.
I stared at that blank page for one heck of a long time before deciding to go back to my character notes and my trusty green sasquatch notebook. Lo and behold, I found this big 'ol pile of stuff about my characters I wanted to get on the page. There was also some back story I wanted to slip in. Off I went, excited as can be. I wrote one tiny little scene with Zydeco stopping by Blaine's place at night, only to find his slightly kookie grandmother, Ava, at the door, and Blaine not home. Cute scene, but a massive disappointment in terms of progress.
Fine, I said to myself. I'll make up for it next time. Oh, and while I'm at it, I thought, I'd best add some tension to this chapter. You can't just have people jabbering on about stuff forever, or you wind up with one of those chatty, but yawn-inducing "tea scenes", as Don Maass puts it. So, next time came and I jammed out this good scene outside Zydeco's apartment building with Mr. Patel, and my favorite character, Dr. Tension.
Good, good, I thought. Now, I wanted a scene upstairs with Zydeco and Magenta. And with me laying on Dr. Tension's couch, I began this crazy scene with Zydeco walking in on Magenta as she hacked away at something on the kitchen counter. There were rivers of blood flowing onto the linoleum, and Magenta looking around wild-eyed. You see, I thought it would be neat if, instead of buying from a butcher, she bought whole animals from a supplier and slaughtered them herself for the meat. I mean, she was a dragon and all. Dr. Tension was furiously taking notes from his chair while I typed away on his couch.
The scene began to spiral out of control and added all kinds of complications and unnecessary loose ends I was completely unready to deal with. Here's a lesson. Tension for tension's sake isn't a good idea. It was then I decided to bail for the night and go read The Lost Symbol. The next night, I tossed that entire scene and wrote a new one, that I'm genuinely pleased with. We have a bit of tension, and some chuckles courtesy of Magenta. Sometimes, she's Costello to Zydeco's Abbott. I also add some back story, revealing the name of the "world" from which all these mythological creatures came: Parable, and the world to which they thought they were headed: Fairway. I like those names. No idea why. Anyway, there's no blood flying through this scene, but there some pretty good cursing. Here's a sample:
Magenta shook me awake.
The lights were on and she stood over me with her hands on her hips. “What are you doing all slumped over on the wall? You’ve got a perfectly good bed, I thought.”
“Yeah, um….” Using the back of my hand, I mopped up the drool that ran from the corner of my mouth down my chin. I dragged myself to my feet. “How was the movie?”
She slid into her red wing chair. “Unbearable.”
I rubbed my eyes. “Why? What did you see?”
She sighed. “Eragon was playing at the second run theater. I had no idea. If that little bugger tried to climb on top of me, I would’ve eaten him, bones and all.”
I'd also been meaning to write Zydeco at Blaine's apartment with his family. Blaine is a gnome who lives with his family of gnomes, you see, and in my book, gnomes have an English accent. I have an eccentric grandmother, and the uptight cousin of Blaine's who she picks on mercilessly. I wrote that scene last night - long one, too. The entire time, bits of Fawlty Towers were playing in my head, but I don't think it really mattered. I actually kept thinking of Ron's Aunty Muriel in Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows. It was a brunch scene, and no tea was served. What do gnomes eat for breakfast? Omelettes, heavy on the mushrooms. A tiny sample (Aidan is Blaine's older cousin):
Aidan turned to me. “Didn’t you used to fly by the garden and snatch our Blaine up into the air?”
This brought me back and I nodded. “Yep, it’s true. I did.”
“I kept thinking, here’s this griffin come to snatch my little cousin. He’s done for. But then a few hours later, there you’d be, descending from the sky, with little Blaine clinging to your back, laughing his bloomin’ head off.”
Blaine was smiling, his eyes distant. “Great fun, that was. Nearly fell off once or twice.”
I need to do a little more plotting on the next few chapters, and continue to work on Zydeco's voice so that he brings that "mythological creature" perspective to life as a human. Good thing I'm still writing the first draft!
On to the next chapter!!!!
To see what I thought about the last chapter, slide on back to the previous entry if you like.
9/30/09
Birth of a Novel - Part 3
This is the ninth entry in my Birth of a Novel series of posts, where I talk about the development of my new YA urban fantasy.
Let me start off by saying this was the first time I've written anything bordering on romantic. I've always been a "tension+action=plot with the occasional quiet interlude to let the reader breathe" sort of writer. But there I was, creating some teenage romance. Before anyone gets too excited (or horrified), it's nothing too squishy or explicit. Surprisingly, I knew exactly what I wanted and was able to pull it off. It was slow going, mind you, because I kept refining it. Normally, I let the words spill from my brain as they may and worry about cleaning it up later. The problem was that the muscle pumping behind my ribs was the real driving force for much of this chapter and the ol' noggin organ wasn't in sync. Hence the extra tweaking.
There were a couple things that made writing this scene quite fun. First off, Zydeco is really conflicted about the whole thing. It makes him extremely happy, but it also makes him think he's rejecting his past. As you might imagine, he's "all frigged up" inside, but to his credit, he's not acting that way. Secondly, and most important to yours truly, I love these two characters, the other of which is Tameina. I feel like I know them and I am totally rooting for them. More so, because I know what terrible things I'll be doing to them as the book progresses. *evil grin* So, it was unbelievably important for me to make these scenes very sweet. I tend to be more mechanical and less creative in my second and third drafts, so I was afraid to leave this stuff till then.
Okay, so where does that leave me? Ah, yes. The bad guy comes out in the open, more or less, and I dedicate about four pages to a preliminary good vs. evil stand-off. In business terms, it's the pre-meeting. You know the kind - it's like when Superman first meets Lex Luthor. It's not really "on" yet, if you catch my drift. I hope I built some "mood" suspense leading up to this meeting. Naturally, I'll wind up ripping it all out in later revisions, but for now it stays. :-)
Oh, and I have one simile I'm seriously worried about. I like it, but we'll see if anyone else does. I'm not sharing it here, though. *sticks tongue out*
What am I sharing? This bit.
“Why are you smiling?” I asked.
“Am I?” Her glasses reflected the green traffic light at the corner, and here, with the taxicabs zooming in and out of traffic, carrying fairs to their destination, it seemed ridiculous to think of her as anything more than a girl from school, a pretty, human girl who, along with Blaine, was my best friend in this world. And what she’d shown me in the library? Perhaps she has something, some ability, some kind of supernatural talent. Whatever it is, it doesn’t really matter to me. It is beyond hypocritical for we Mythos to doubt the unknown.
She gazed down at the fancy dinner I had provided for us, the corners of her mouth still raised upward. “I guess I’m just happy right now.”
On to the next chapter!!!!
To see what I thought about the last chapter, slide on back to the previous entry if you like.
Let me start off by saying this was the first time I've written anything bordering on romantic. I've always been a "tension+action=plot with the occasional quiet interlude to let the reader breathe" sort of writer. But there I was, creating some teenage romance. Before anyone gets too excited (or horrified), it's nothing too squishy or explicit. Surprisingly, I knew exactly what I wanted and was able to pull it off. It was slow going, mind you, because I kept refining it. Normally, I let the words spill from my brain as they may and worry about cleaning it up later. The problem was that the muscle pumping behind my ribs was the real driving force for much of this chapter and the ol' noggin organ wasn't in sync. Hence the extra tweaking.
There were a couple things that made writing this scene quite fun. First off, Zydeco is really conflicted about the whole thing. It makes him extremely happy, but it also makes him think he's rejecting his past. As you might imagine, he's "all frigged up" inside, but to his credit, he's not acting that way. Secondly, and most important to yours truly, I love these two characters, the other of which is Tameina. I feel like I know them and I am totally rooting for them. More so, because I know what terrible things I'll be doing to them as the book progresses. *evil grin* So, it was unbelievably important for me to make these scenes very sweet. I tend to be more mechanical and less creative in my second and third drafts, so I was afraid to leave this stuff till then.
Okay, so where does that leave me? Ah, yes. The bad guy comes out in the open, more or less, and I dedicate about four pages to a preliminary good vs. evil stand-off. In business terms, it's the pre-meeting. You know the kind - it's like when Superman first meets Lex Luthor. It's not really "on" yet, if you catch my drift. I hope I built some "mood" suspense leading up to this meeting. Naturally, I'll wind up ripping it all out in later revisions, but for now it stays. :-)
Oh, and I have one simile I'm seriously worried about. I like it, but we'll see if anyone else does. I'm not sharing it here, though. *sticks tongue out*
What am I sharing? This bit.
“Why are you smiling?” I asked.
“Am I?” Her glasses reflected the green traffic light at the corner, and here, with the taxicabs zooming in and out of traffic, carrying fairs to their destination, it seemed ridiculous to think of her as anything more than a girl from school, a pretty, human girl who, along with Blaine, was my best friend in this world. And what she’d shown me in the library? Perhaps she has something, some ability, some kind of supernatural talent. Whatever it is, it doesn’t really matter to me. It is beyond hypocritical for we Mythos to doubt the unknown.
She gazed down at the fancy dinner I had provided for us, the corners of her mouth still raised upward. “I guess I’m just happy right now.”
On to the next chapter!!!!
To see what I thought about the last chapter, slide on back to the previous entry if you like.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)