Spring File Cleaning

Just spent the majority of the morning cleaning up the files in my “documents folder” and sorting through all the miscellaneous files that were floating about that contained written material for one thing or another. Made sure I had back-ups of all the major pieces that I have written in the last few months because I don’t want to end up with only a hard copy of something again. It is now infinitely easier for me to locate things.

I was using ywriter 3 and was about to try out the new ywriter 4 when things went a little haywire when I tried to import from one to the other and this is what prompted me to make sure that I had back-ups of everything in something other than the formats given in those programs.

On the positive side of things it reminded me of the little ideas that I typed up here and there and made me consolidate everything. And making me re-read things has sparked a new idea or two. It is perhaps what I have been needing to get me out of this sudden doldrum that I have found myself in the last two weeks.

A Contest Of Sorts

There is a contest going on over at Nathan Bransford’s Blog : The Surprisingly Essential First Page Challenge.

To quote Nathan:

All may participate. First pages may be from your work in progress or one you invented solely for the SEFPC. I’ve learned my lesson from contests past, and am limiting entries to one (1) per person…

First pages are limited to 500 words. Use them wisely. Paragraphs should be single-spaced with double-spaces between paragraphs (like how this blog post is formatted). Please do not get crazy with your formatting…

And the prizes! The ultimate grand prize deluxe winner will receive the satisfaction of knowing they have a seriously awesome first page, and will have a choice of a query critique, partial critique, 10 minute phone conversation, or one of my clients’ books. Runners-up will receive a query critique or other agreed-upon prize.

For more information on the contest visit Nathan’s Blog. Have to admit that any of the prizes would be well worth it.

Friday Wrap Up

Hmm. Let’s see what happened this week.

• Finished reading and wrote a review for Next.
• Read a few more chapters in friends manuscript and sent my suggestions
• Picked up my next book to read
• Wrote 0 (as in zero) words-you read that correctly

Let’s hope it goes better next week.

It’s A Sad Sad World

No progress on White Roses. So as of today I am moving on to something else. I know I should have been writing on Monday and Tuesday, but I was reading instead. And probably playing a video game or two. So I am going to work on scene writing.

In other unrelated news (I normally wouldn’t write about it here as it really doesn’t have anything to do with writing-but I felt it was important), the death of Heath Ledger at the age of 28 was a complete and utter shock. I have enjoyed many of the movies he has been in – The Order, A Knights Tale, 10 Things I Hate About You…
And while I have never met the man, and he was diligent about keeping his personal life private-he struck me in the few interviews that I saw to be a very nice and caring person. He seemed to have a bright future ahead of him.
It may not mean much coming from me as a fan, but I extend my heartfelt condolences to Ledger’s Family for their loss.
It is a loss for them just as it is a loss for all of us.

Next by Michael Crichton

Synopsis: Is a loved one missing some body parts? Are blondes becoming extinct? Is everyone at your dinner table of the same species? Humans and chimpanzees differ in only 400 genes; is that why a chimp fetus resembles a human being? And should that worry us? There’s a new genetic cure for drug addiction–is it worse than the disease?

We live in a time of momentous scientific leaps, a time when it’s possible to sell our eggs and sperm online for thousands of dollars and to test our spouses for genetic maladies.

We live in a time when one fifth of all our genes are owned by someone else, and an unsuspecting person and his family can be pursued cross-country because they happen to have certain valuable genes within their chromosomes…

The future is closer than you think.

Okay, so this was was the first book on my NYT BSL for January to come in from the library for me to read. A word of advice. If you aren’t used to Crichton’s style of writing, and the in depth technical writing, don’t read this book. I knew what I was getting into having once tried to read Jurassic Park and getting lost in the technical explanations.

Next is essentially a view of what could and probably will happen in the future of genetics research. The good and the bad. Crichton follows 6 or 7 different characters that interconnect in small ways but never truly come together in one solid story. Crichton does a smooth job tying it all up by the end but before you get to it you are wondering the entire time how is going to do just that.

You have to pay attention when reading a Crichton novel and this one is no exception. While it is a work of fiction it certainly makes a person think long and hard about the science and technology behind genetics research and its consequences. At the end of the book Crichton wrote an Author’s note listing off the things he learned by the end of his research for Next and wrote in some detail about his conclusion. He makes some compelling arguments. And he includes a 7 page bibliography at the very end of everything that used for research.

Over all I think that the book was very well written even with all the difficult terminology and science. It was a ton easier for me to follow than his previous works that I have read. Then again I think it helped that I knew what I was getting into.

Friday Wrap Up

Bullet Points for the week:

• Realized that I had no plot for White Roses and spent three days trying to figure out what I needed to fix [No, the conversation I intended to have with my husband didn't happen yesterday]
• Read and wrote a review for His Majesty’s Dragon
• Began writing Steampunk/Victoriana letters for a story
• Picked up one of the books on my NYT BSL* for January to read

I really didn’t do the writing this week that I wanted to. I let this non-plot thing get to me and derail the progress that I was making. I will be moving on to something else entirely if I can not work things out this weekend.

*NYT BSL = New York Times Best Seller List

If Only I Had A Brain

Still stuck.

I think I need to walk away from this for a few days and not think about it as I am beginning to hate myself and frankly that’s not a good place for me to be. Perhaps a good conversation with my husband this evening will help dislodge this plot dilemma I am having. He was after all very helpful when I came up with this idea in the first place by letting me bounce ideas off of him and talking out loud at random about things. I haven’t done that yet. I think that is going to be my plan.

It’s got to be better than not doing anything at all. I haven’t even been able to write anything else due to my extreme focusing. Step back. Look away from the computer. Do something else to get the ideas flowing.

To quote my favorite band Duran Duran :

My head is full of chopstick I don’t like it.

Man I really don’t like it….

Music I am currently writing to:
—————-
Now playing: Duran Duran – (I’m Looking For) Cracks In The Pavement
via FoxyTunes

His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik

Synopsis: When HMS Reliant Captures a French frigate and seizes its precious cargo, an unhatched dragon egg, fate sweeps Capt. Will Laurence from his seafaring life into an uncertain future–and an unexpected kinship with a most extraordinary creature. Thrust into the rarefied world of the Aerial Corps as master of the dragon Temeraire, he will face a crash course in the daring tactics of airborne battle. For as France’s own dragon-borne forces rally to breach British soil in Bonaparte’s boldest gambit, Laurence and Temeraire must soar into their own baptism of fire.

So this book was initially recommended to me when it was first published in 2006. I am sad to say that I didn’t read it then. Which is odd since I have a great liking for most things that are about dragons. It was perhaps that it dealt with the Napoleonic Wars that made me put it off for so long. I don’t like reading books about war. It’s was all the fight scenes from Le Morte D’Arthur that took pages and pages to describe that did it to me. But my love of dragons finally won out and I picked the book up to read. And then I go and read the entire thing in one day.
I was immediately drawn to Laurence from the start. He came across very strong on the page; sure of himself, his abilities, and his lot in life. Which of course changes drastically by the end of the first chapter when Teremaire is hatched.
And what a dragon Temeraire is! From the very beginning I could tell that he was special. The details that Naomi goes into when she describes the different dragons is absolutely breathtaking. And the dragons that graced the pages of this novel had distinct personalities which was fantastic.
I was not disappointed by the synopsis of this book and it delivered everything that it promised it would. I did have to slog through some battle descriptions but they were easier to get through knowing that the battles focused on what the dragons did and the human interaction.

The one thing one must remember when reading is the time period it is set in. Naomi does a wonderful job of immersing the reader through her characters and their reactions to things. But it can occasionally come across stilted. There is a lot of formal speech-which was very common during the time period. It is interesting to see Laurence’s attitudes change regarding certain social mores over the course of the book.

As I read and finished the book in one day says a great deal. One-that I have way too much time on my hands to read a 342 page novel. And two-it was engaging enough to keep me reading ignoring everything else around me. Is that a sign that it was well written? You better believe it.

So yeah, I’ll be reading the next book in the series.

Truth Be Told

I don’t have an actual plot in White Roses. I realized this after reading and trying to apply the Central Question and Conflict Box lesson from the CruiseMayer Workshop. I couldn’t work out what Serenity’s actual goal and conflict was as the protagonist. I knew exactly what the goal and conflict was for the antagonist though-which made no sense since I originally though that it was part of the bigger plot that was supposed to span the series. And to make matters worse I had nothing to connect the antagonist to Serenity. Everything just kind of happens to my protagonist and she just kind of bobs along. She doesn’t do anything.

So what do I do now? I really need to think about what it is Serenity wants and what the true Central Question is. And if the antagonist is supposed to be part of the secondary story that is going on in the background for this book I need to change who my antagonist is or figure out who the real one is.

Even though this technically puts me back at the beginning I am actually really glad I decided to to see if the Conflict Box works at this stage. It allows me to see what I did wrong and what I need to fix. Granted if I had done this at the onset of writing the initial draft in November I wouldn’t be sitting here typing about my lack of plot right now.

I know I have a great idea. It is exciting. Now I just have to figure out how to translate that idea into something I can plot and write.

Friday Wrap Up

Here’s the run down of what I did this week:

• Finished transcribing the Original White Roses [Go me!]
• Picked up a new book to read. Look for a review sometime next week
• Stared hopelessly at the draft of Blood Roses for an entire day
• Made notes on some things that I needed to focus on during the re-write [things like scenes and stimuli-response]
• Began reading the CruiseMayer 2007 Online Writing Workshop written by Jenny Cruise and Bob Mayer [taking lots of notes for me to go back and look at during my re-writing]
• Realized that Blood Roses should be titled White Roses and that it needs a lot of work during the re-write
• Freaked out briefly about the amount of work needed to be done during the re-write

Okay. So there was one day where I didn’t write a single word unless you count the notes I started to make yesterday. I can deal with that. Especially when I spent the entire day staring at the RD of the now titled White Roses [I know it's going to be confusing for a while]. Off to continue note taking.

Happy Writing!