Day Thirty-Five: In Which I Direct You To A Man Who Knows What He’s Talking About

Hello penmonkeys!

I was just browsing the Interwebs when I came across a lovely post from The Penmonkey, Chuck Wendig himself. 

And I think that what he has to say is pretty valid.

Check it out!

Ten Things I’d Like To Say To Young Writers

 

Day Eight: In Which I Begin At the Beginning

IT. IS. FINALLY. HERE.

Readers, can I tell you how hard it was to not look at the pages of my novel in print? Quite hard. Almost as difficult as those dreams where you’re really thirsty and there’s a bottle of water in front of you, but every time you reach for it, it moves farther away.

Anyway…(I hate those dreams!)

Today I started editing Opus. Now some of you may be thinking, “now what does that quite mean?”

Let me tell you.

It started with me reading most of the book in one fell swoop just to look at it because I wanted to. Then, I had an idea of what I wrote in the first place. Can you guess what I did next?

If you thought: “oh, of course, she re-outlined”, you would be 200% right!

I completely re-outlined Opus. Why? Well, because I wanted to make the storyline into more of a box that I could hold in my hands and peer at intently. Also, it helps me see things like this:

• Boring parts where characters do nothing but blab to each other
• Sections where the confusion was so thick, you could eat it with a spoon
• Chapters where it’s all action and no character development

And that’s just a taste of the things that I realized. Now I’m onto the second step….can anybody guess what that is?

Re-re outlining! (for why I’m doing this, see the blog of the Mighty Wendigo, since it’s his advice I’m following).

Now that I’ve figured out what goes on in this version of Opus, I can go through, decide what to cut and then decide what to replace it with. That in turn becomes the re-re outline, or as I’ll call it: the draft 2 outline.

So far, the reception that I’m getting from my critique partners is mostly positive (so, for any beta readers perusing this blog, that hopefully means good things in your futures).

However, I have found plot lines and characters to axe, plot threads to disentangle, points to un-subtext, text to make subtext, and (most importantly) characters to make feel tingly ways about other characters.

In short, it’s going to be work. But it’s going to be fun.

And now, the music.

From the Opus writing playlist:

God Particle by Hans Zimmer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=572CmMA6-Rk

I really love Hans Zimmer, he’s kind of great.

Stay tuned later for periodic updates….

Day Three Point Five: In Which I Share Insights On Author Blogs (Among Other Things)

Hello, dear readers.

Remember how I mentioned that many authors have blogs and then mentioned something about my fabulous critique partners?

Good. Okay, we can move on then.

Now that she is on The Swirling Pool of Endless Creativity (the Internet), I can mention my other critique partner and penmonkey of epic proportions: Allyson!

Read her blog here: http://nerdyfantastic.wordpress.com/

(she’s way funnier than I am, by the way, so prepare to laugh)

Though, short confession.

If you do go check about her blog, she will confess that she stole the term “penmonkey” from me.

…heh, heh….well. It’s not my word. I wish it was. But it is, in fact, the word of the lovely and absolutely hilarious person and amazing author Chuck Wendig (aka, the Wendigo).

He is indeed more funny than I: http://terribleminds.com/ramble/blog/

I do not know you, Mr. Wendig, nor do I think you will ever read this blog. But might I address The Swirling Pool of Endless Creativity and say that your blog has helped me heaps. From deciding whether or not to write awkward scenes, how the hell to pull yourself from the Writing Pits From Hell, what a throughline is, to how to get through those lies we tell ourselves as writers.

Including that we suck. Because we don’t. Not always. We will suck on the first draft and then we will get better.

ALLOW YOURSELF TO SUCK, PENMONKEYS, ALLOW YOURSELF TO SUCK.

Thank you, Mr. Wendig, that small saying has improved my self-esteem in epic proportions (that and your humor, especially in all its NSFL glory). And that piece of advice is now my mantra, followed closely by BICHOK.

While I’m on the topic, I should probably talk about the other two author blogs that have given me the most help as I travelled/(who am I kidding?) am travelling this rocky writing road (10 points for whoever makes that into an ice cream flavor).

This is turning out to be a longer post than I thought.

Maggie Stiefvater: http://m-stiefvater.livejournal.com/214290.html

Jesus, that woman is amazing. While I was actually penning Opus, I learned more from that blog than anywhere else. Even the blog of The Mighty Wendigo. I learned to embrace things like word count over page count (which is probably the reason Opus is actually as novel-shaped as it is), to accept that I need to have better stylized characters, and to deal with writerly angst. However, the section I’ve gleaned the most from on her blog is the “editing” section.

It’s actually her editing outline/skeleton thing that I’m following for Opus. If you want a free preview of the editing clown-hell I’m going to be trudging face first into come September, check it out. (If you are confused about the clown-hell, see the blog).

Kristin Cashore: http://kristincashore.blogspot.com/

Ms. Cashore is the author of three of my favorite books: Graceling, Fire, and Bitterblue. I routinely send aspiring high fantasy novelists to her books for guidance. I also learned from her top two most asked questions that I do not want to be answering those questions for Opus.

So, without giving too much away, I tweaked the plot so I wouldn’t have to answer annoying questions.

I know. I’m terrible.

That’s all for now, dear readers. Go forth. And I will give you another great quote to send you on your way:

“There is a primal reassurance in being touched, in knowing that someone else, someone close to you, wants to be touching you. There is a bone-deep security that goes with the brush of a human hand, a silent, reflex-level affirmation that someone is near, that someone cares.” — Harry Dresden

PS: I love Jim Butcher’s novels with a fiery burning passion. Harry Dresden is his property.

PPS: Oh, that quote up above, the Harry Dresden one? Yeah, that pertains to Opus and might answer some questions for some of my critique partners reading this blog. As for the rest of you…well, you’ll have to wait.

Like I said, I am terrible.

PPPS: Yeah, okay, this might be overkill, but feel free to comment on anything. Leave comments, questions, snide remarks. Anything.