A Corporate Restructure of Sorts
This past week and a half of writing… it’s been kicking my butt.
The Good: I HAVE been writing daily.
The Bad: I have not been writing AS MUCH as I had wanted to during my daily writings. To be fair, a lot of this is because my outline just straight up did not work. I’ve had to put a pause on the progress I’ve made so far to restructure my outline. The problem, simply, is that in this first of three novels, I didn’t have enough tension. I was focusing too much on back-story and explanation and not enough on ACTION. Novels 2 and 3 of this series are jam packed with tons of action, but I didn’t realize when I was outlining quite how much of Novel 1 was just nothing but build up for 2 and 3. It’s great if I’m going to write just one gigantic epic novel, but it’s not so great if I want to hit my goal of writing a trilogy where all three novels can stand on their own.
The Ugly: Getting one area of my life structured is highlighting that there are other areas of my life that are vastly unstructured. Literally, the only structure in my day is my writing. I don’t have a specific bedtime or wake time. I don’t have specific meal times. I don’t have specific chore times. Pretty much I just sort of float around doing whatever when I’m not actively writing, and because of that I’m feeling VERY lopsided. So, in addition to restructuring my outline for the novel, I’m restructuring my days.
All in all, I’m pleased with my progress – more than pleased, in fact. But I have a lot of work to do and I don’t think I really will do it in one month. I’m not taking that as a failure, though, because within this month, I’m actually tackling a lot of issues that I’ve been slacking on that may not have anything to do with writing, but definitely effect my writing. In the long run, I think getting these issues resolved – or, at least, well on their way to being resolved – will ultimately help me be a better writer.
I’ve learned one thing for sure: blogging can’t go by the wayside. It really, really helps me sort out my thoughts and feelings. Already, just writing this, I am feeling less anxious and tense about all this restructuring going on in my life.
BIAM: Kickoff Delayed Slightly
Today was supposed to be kickoff day. Happenings over the weekend ended up spilling over into today and writing today ended up being a wash. Drama… that’s really all I have to say about that. I have hopefully drummed it into various heads that the next 30 days will be intense and I will likely be out of communication for most of it.
I had originally planned to blog the whole time during the 30-days to post progress and I have decided that I’m not going to force myself to do that. If I do update the blog during that time, GREAT! If not, it’s no big deal – all that really matters is that I get this 30 days done and hit my benchmarks.
Kickoff will probably be tomorrow. I’ll be spending most of my time till then finishing up the last little bits of outline and character sketches – which, technically is progress, I guess.
Mo reads Enchantment by Orson Scott Card
Several years ago, I read Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card and really liked it. The book was given to me as a gift and came with the added bonus of being signed to me by Card himself.
I would have never picked it up on my own and I would have been poorer for it.
Like with Storm Front, I was nudged in the direction of OSC by helpful suggestions by dockmagik and PhotoNinja when I asked for book suggestions. I meant to re-read Ender’s Game, but I have yet to unpack the numerous boxes of books since I moved and I refuse to re-buy something when I already know I have it.
I hit up a used bookstore looking for other books in the Ender series but could only find Enchantment instead. Undaunted, I snatched it up without a glance at the back flap because I trusted my friends enough to steer me in the right direction with OSC. After reading it, I realize fully – they are so right about Card. So, so very right. The man may very well have himself a new fangirl. … continue reading.
Should I bite the bullet?
I have a confession to make:
I have never read any Harry Potter or Twilight novel. I haven’t even glanced at a page from either franchise.
This is a fact that I’m actually proud of – I can look down on the hype from my “above it all” perch and pat myself on the back for my superior taste. After reading Storm Front, though, I realized that I can probably learn something from giving them a gander.
Storm Front is not a novel I would have ever picked up on my own, and though I didn’t like the book itself, I don’t regret reading it. In fact, I’m actually very glad I read it. While there are major differences between my story and Jim Butcher’s, there are some basic elements that are similar (a set of strict laws/code of ethics the hero must adhere to and an ancient order that enforces those laws). ‘It was good to see how Butcher incorporated these kind of background elements into the story.
That brings me to Harry Potter and Twilight – both of those have elements of similarity to my own story. Both contain magic (or supernatural abilities). HP includes an ancient order. Twilight includes ancient/semi-immortal characters that interact with mortals (no, my story does not contain vampires, thank you). Granted, they’re both young adult novels and mine is not – but I am aiming for a “general audience” novel that young adults could read without parents worrying too much about naughty language or content.
I’m beginning to believe that I may have to read them. Maybe not the whole series (because, let’s face it – I am NOT going to be reading the whole Harry Dresden series), but at least the first book. As it is, I’m already reading books that are not necessarily my cup of tea… and in most cases, they’re not nearly as bad as I feared. In some cases, I really enjoyed the read.
I’m still undecided, though, and the only major thing that is keeping me from heading to the library and checking them out (because I refuse to spend money on either series – Meyers and Rowling have made more than enough money, thank you very much) is just my fear. No, I’m not afraid that I’ll hate them… I’m afraid that I might like them and have to read all the books. I don’t know if I’d be able to take that much of a fall off my high horse yet.
We shall see.
Mo reads Storm Front by Jim Butcher
Lots of months ago, I asked for suggestions for good sci-fi/fantasy books. Bradley, docmagik and PhotoNinja gave me some GREAT suggestions and I’ve been trying to make a dent in that list ever since. In those suggestions was Jim Butcher’s Storm Front… but not because I would like it. In docmagik’s words, “it’s sort of what every gritty contemporary magical urban fantasy is being compared to right now.” What I’m writing is not very much like Storm Front, but it’s close enough genre-wise that I should know at least a little something about it.
So, full disclosure: This is not a book review. This is a book deconstruction. I didn’t ask for suggestions for entertainment’s sake (though, in some cases, that was a happy side benefit) – I wanted to learn from them. What makes a sci-fi book work? What makes it fail? What pitfalls am I in danger of tumbling into and how can I avoid them? So, what follows is what I learned from reading this particular book and how I can apply those lessons to my own writing.
I have to say that this is probably one of the best “lesson” books I’ve ever read, which is not to say that I liked it. I actually didn’t like it much at all, but I saw potential. There were things I liked. There were elements that were spot on. The “lesson” came from seeing the problems Jim Butcher had telling this story (which are actually problems that I’ve had in my own writing) and seeing how he could have fixed them if he wasn’t so emotionally invested.
