And Progress Is Made!

Despite the lack of motivation that I've been suffering from during the last week or so, I'm happy to report that progress has officially been made on my latest project, Dangerous Waters.

I've been trying to rework this project, which I've written once, and am currently in the process of giving a complete overhaul, for a couple of weeks now, though only seriously since I finished Pandora and sent that out to my last beta reader before it moves onto the stage of agents (scary!).  But this last week, I had stalled out on it.

I was worried it was because of how I was planning it out.  Rather than doing a full on planning (which I didn't think necessary, as the story has already been written once, no matter how different it's going to be when I'm done) I've been using the cork board I bought to help me figure out the restructuring Pandora currently went through.

The last time I worked on it, I had nine chapters up on the board and absolutely no idea on where the story was going.  In fact, those nine chapters weren't very good.  Okay, it wasn't the chapters themselves, just the order (and the emphasis I was putting on them).

I figured out the problem, eventually.  The novel centres around three women (who are the main characters of the entire series) and I was trying to give them all equal say in the novel.  In order to do that, I was structuring it very specifically, making sure that they each got a turn one after the other.

Needless to say, it wasn't going over very well.  So, I decided that one of the characters needed to be the main POV, whether or not the tension of the story revolved around her.  When I figured that out, I tried to restructure again, this time giving her twice as many chapters as the other two.

Again I found myself looking at those opening chapters and thinking that they just weren't right.  There wasn't enough action, or plot, or even world building.  They all felt like filler chapters, and that couldn't happen.

So tonight, when I finally decided that enough was enough and I was going to get some work done or die trying (okay...I wasn't actually willing to die over getting work done...but, hey, I'm a writer, I'm allowed to exaggerate) I sat down and stared at the board.

It took a while to get into it.  At first all that happened was taking down the cue cards and trying to figure out what was wrong with them.  Eventually, though, I managed to get that ball rolling.  Scene after scene started to present itself to me.  And, rather than focusing on whose POV was being used, I focused on where the story needed to go, and what would help me get there.

As a result there are currently seventeen chapters up on the cork board.  And the best part?  They feel right!  Like the story is actually moving, and there's enough tension and plot to not stall out!

I'm pretty excited to rework this project.  It was one of my favourites, and I know that my critique group will be happy too.  I can't wait to see what the final result will be.  I have a good feeling, though.  This novel is going to go somewhere.  Now all I have to do is figure out what I'm going to work on next.

Do you have any tips on how to get past those block?  How do you figure out what POV each scene needs to be from?

Productive Days

This isn't something I get to talk about very often.  In fact, most of the time I'm complaining about how far behind I am in all of my goals.  But not today.  No, today I get to tell you all about the productive day I had on Sunday.

It started out fairly well.  Without the use of an alarm clock, I was up by ten.  (For those of you who know me, you'll know that this really is a feat.  I tend to sleep in when there's nothing waking me up).  As I thought it was closer to noon or one, I started the day on a happy note.

I didn't get up right away (because, why would I?) but I also didn't go back to sleep, which I'm pretty proud of.

By eleven, though, I had already gotten to work.  The first order of business was to catch up on the editing that I hadn't managed to get to the two days before.  That wasn't difficult, as I'd already gone through the chapters, I just had to put the changes into the computer.

Then came the blog post, which was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be.  See, I had tried to do my epiphany, and got a little stuck, so I wrote a blog post, which helped with my idea for the epiphany.

By the time I had done all of that, it was about one, and all I had left to do for the day was to do the two chapters of editing that I had scheduled for that day.

I'll admit, I slacked off a little at this point.  I might have gotten distracted by gag reels of comedies.  It started with How I Met Your Mother and quickly progressed on to Friends.  I had a few good laughs, but eventually I had to get back to work.

When I had finished my daily editing for the day (and had even managed to polish off the epiphany for Monday and got it all set up to post) I decided that I deserved a treat for sticking to my work all day (I don't really count the slacking off.  It was just a break, I swear!)

Anyway, I decided to watch Pitch Perfect, which I've seen before, but can't seem to get enough of.  It was a nice little way to reward myself, and when I was done, I thought, I might as well get a bit more work done.

So I did my Monday editing, and threw together another blog post (yep, this one right here) just to give myself a kick start for the week.

Now, if that isn't a productive day, please, tell me what is!

I'm happy with the progress I made.  I'm sticking to my goals for the year, which is surprising me.  I'm not usually good about keeping them.  Generally I procrastinate so long that it's no longer plausible for me to finish on time, and decide that I might as well just push back that deadline since I'm not going to meet it anyway.

With the way this year has been going, I'm going to accomplish all of my goals.  My first novel of the year is going to be edited to the second draft by the end of the month, and I couldn't be happier!

Now I'm going to go...I don't know...maybe work on another chapter of editing that doesn't need to be done yet.

How are your goals for the year going?  Have you started on any of them yet?

The Crooked Path of Progress

I read something in one of my books today while I was editing that made me stop and think for a minute.  Not because it was some profound thought (I can't honestly see those in my work, if they're even there or not) but because it made me think about how it relates to a writer.

In my book I mentioned a colouring book that a child had been given a couple of years before (she likes to colour, and they travel quite a bit.  It's become something of a cherished possession.)  In the beginning of the book there were random lines strewn about the page as the child thought that she was colouring.  Soon enough she was colouring in the lines, maybe getting outside once in a while, but staying pretty close, until eventually she was getting good enough that she was starting to add just the beginnings of shading to each picture, crudely drawn in with her cheap wax crayons.

So, just like everything else in the world (or so it seems some days) I started thinking about how that might relate to a writer and what they go through as they try to get published.

Each of us starts out with a pen and paper (or computer and keyboard) and a blank page.  And when we start writing we all think that we're amazing.  That this is the best book anyone in the world has ever written.

Soon enough we see that those words that we thought were so great were really nothing more than scribbles on the page.  (I'm not saying we suck, we're just unpracticed and don't really know what we're doing)

We try again, maybe focusing more on one area or another.  Something that we've noticed we lack in the clutter of colourful lines that don't quite fit together.  Or may something that a friend as discerned, but we plunge forward, always ready to make that mark on the page that proves that we are determined to be writers.  This time we more in the lines, but the colours are all wrong.

Every time we try again, we get a little bit better, until suddenly the colours are right, and suddenly we're seeing that shading coming in.  Rather than stumbling over dialogue that makes us cringe, it flows through, and all of a sudden we're seeing foreshadowing that we didn't even know was going to be there.  And where did that subplot come from?  Wait, who are these characters, and why do they seem so real?

Slowly, oh so slowly, we learn to do the very thing that we love doing.  No longer is it nothing more than a collection of lines that amount to nothing more than a piles of colours that create utter confusion.  Now we have a beautiful masterpiece.  Something that we can proudly show the world and shout 'I did that!'

I don't know if I'm making masterpieces yet, but I certainly hope that one day I will.  That soon I will be able to point out my work and proudly explain all the shadowing, all the intricate little details that I put in there that made this more than just a coloured in picture, but rather a Mona Lisa worthy of display.

Now I must be off to do some painting -- err...writing.  Can't wait to see your masterpieces!