Myrddin Posted September 6, 2012 Author Share Posted September 6, 2012 I may end up rushing to the end of this chapter ("They went to X, [dialogue Y] and conclusion Z") and hoping it's an issue with this chapter, the second big action piece, rathe than the entire thing.How far into the novel are you? First act or second act?Switch to the computer and see how it goes. Even if you just try to hammer out the end of this chapter. Don't key in the previous part first; just let your mind dump the story over the keyboard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoë Sumra Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 How far into the novel are you? First act or second act?Second act, but not that far into that. I'm combining an outline with winging it a little (this is my normal and best way of working) so I'm not entirely certain where second act is going to turn into third.Switch to the computer and see how it goes. Even if you just try to hammer out the end of this chapter. Don't key in the previous part first; just let your mind dump the story over the keyboard.Gotcha. :thumbsup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aimlessgun Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 For the next four months I've moved to a place where I don't have my 'real' computer, and only have a crappy laptop unable to play computer games. I've written more in the last week than I wrote in the last 6 months <.<Woo, here it is, my first rejection!Yaaaay!Interesting about handwriting. I feel like I should try it. But I'm such a compulsive editor that being unable to go back and rewrite a paragraph on the fly would really kill me. Maybe thats an argument for handwriting, come to think of it.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoë Sumra Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 Interesting about handwriting. I feel like I should try it. But I'm such a compulsive editor that being unable to go back and rewrite a paragraph on the fly would really kill me. Maybe thats an argument for handwriting, come to think of it..I find that this is a double benefit of handwriting (my present situation excepted). I can't go back and edit the bit I'm drafting, forcing me to make a quick note in the margin and just keep going, and when I first put it to a computer, the typing-up process amounts to a first content edit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emberling Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 ETA: Oh...whoops, apparently I already said all this on this thread before. :blush: Hidden.I spent the first week-or-so of August (and its NaNoWriMo) out of town with no computer. I've generally had reasonable success with writing a page or three by hand then typing it in, and found that sometimes this works better than being at the computer with its attendant distractions. But when confronted with the task of writing thousands and thousands of words by hand, I just couldn't perform. I only managed a few hundred a day. And when I went back to check on it, I realized that what I was writing was...well, bad, from a draft point of view. Not that it was poor writing, but that it was extremely sparse of the detail and the sort of brainstormy inclusiveness of action that makes a first draft so much more useful than an outline. That's not something I'd observed before - but this time I was writing to an outline, and the other times I only had a general idea of where I was going, which I guess freed me to meander in the handwriting.I sort of wonder how much this has to do with the amount of words that fit on a page. I would sort of unconsciously eyeball a paragraph and move on if it filled half a page of handwriting, but discovered that on my screen that's like two lines. I have big handwriting and a big screen.After weeks of silence, yesterday Duotrope started reporting reams of rejections from the other place I sent my story out to. They're still popping up every hour or so. But I haven't gotten one yet. The tension is...tense. Yes. Tense. I write gud. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jolene Brown Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 So, I just finished a novel and now I am thinking about the next one I want to write. The last one jumped between two points of view, but they were from separate storylines in separate time periods. This time I want to go back and forth between two points of view telling the same story from their own perspective. I know GRRM did this a couple of times within each book - I think Blackwater goes back and forth between Davos and Sansa for 5-6 chapters, doesn't it? I also thought about Tyrion/Sansa's wedding/marriage, which is mostly from Tyrion's POV but at one point goes Tyrion/Sansa/Tyrion. And perhaps the RW? Was that Arya/Catelyn/Arya? Can anyone think of other examples? I want to read them all to see how GRRM uses that technique. I write literary fiction, not fantasy, but I think the basic principles of pacing and characterization are pretty universal and something GRRM does really well in those sections. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emberling Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 When I need to illustrate the importance of perspective and the stark differences between how two characters can perceive the same events, I always suggest trying some romance. It's part of the most common formulas - two people meet under circumstances that make them hate each other before they grow to love each other. Constant misunderstandings and misinterpretations.If you actually want something that's well written as well as all that, though, I don't have any suggestions in mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jolene Brown Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 Ah, no, I meant more other examples of GRRM doing it in the series than the ones I mentioned. I think he is great at it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derfel Cadarn Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 Slow progress on my second draft. I've finally worked out some chapter moves, and some changes I want to make in the 2nd and 3rd quarters of my story. But some of it;s slow going. I'd hoped to get a lot done yesterday and today but didnt get much done at all. Hopefully tomorrow will be more productive. Once I've made the 'big' changes I can concentrate on the editing. So far the prologue and chapter 1 are *almost* finished, just the odd sentence needing polished. Chapters 2 - 5 have had some work done on them, but more will be needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoë Sumra Posted September 10, 2012 Share Posted September 10, 2012 Second drafts can be tricky beasts if you've been first-drafting for a long time and aren't moving in that direction. Good luck.Finished my chapter: yay. Now the characters, and I, can regroup. I'm finding it tricky sometimes to balance what the characters should find out in what order, which is something that's never given me a problem before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Marquis de Leech Posted September 10, 2012 Share Posted September 10, 2012 Third draft done for 15/18 chapters. Chapter 15 has been expanded from 4800 words to 8350 words (a good thing, in terms of overall pacing). I was tempted to split the massive chapter, but having re-read it, I think it fits together well enough.Novel now sitting at 92,500 words, with three chapters left to revise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myrddin Posted September 10, 2012 Author Share Posted September 10, 2012 I haven't an update here in a while, because, well, there wasn't much to say. Last time I reported in, I was beginning the 4th draft of my fantasy novel, in which I planned to significantly redo the first 12 chapters and spot edit the rest to reflect any narrative changes. Work, kids, life, (and yes laziness) left little movement in the writing area.The good news is, I've been getting in some decent writing sessions these last few months and have finished about half of my planned revision. Just last night I sat down for 2 hours and pounded out 800 words or so, pushing past a scene that stumped me so back a few weeks ago that I skipped to the next chapter rather than deal with it.Glad to see others here continuing to progress as well.Keep on writing. Keep on sweating blood over your keyboards (or, in Eloisa's case, paper). Keep on persevering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isalie Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 Haven't written anything all summer but I opened up the old word document yesternight and started reading up on what was in it, editing and so forth, was pretty enjoyable so tonight I think I'll wait until the family is sleeping, have a cup of tea, listen to Tupac and get to writing. Lets hope i reach something like 60k words before this thread reaches 20 pages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Marquis de Leech Posted September 15, 2012 Share Posted September 15, 2012 Chapter 16 revision done. Novel now 93,000 words. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthmail Posted September 16, 2012 Share Posted September 16, 2012 I know this has been asked before, but i'm sitting down to do a synopsis and a query letter, and i need a few decent resources. Any suggestions?Sorry i have not been around lately, work has been crazy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isalie Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 I know this has been asked before, but i'm sitting down to do a synopsis and a query letter, and i need a few decent resources. Any suggestions?Sorry i have not been around lately, work has been crazy.I think the absolutewrite.com has a subforum for these things, should be plenty of good advice available there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoë Sumra Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 I know this has been asked before, but i'm sitting down to do a synopsis and a query letter, and i need a few decent resources. Any suggestions?Sorry i have not been around lately, work has been crazy.For query letters, QueryShark is useful, but I strongly suspect it's US-specific.For synopses... well. I always found that people give advice but I'm incapable of following it. The only bit I've ever been able to follow is to start by breaking the story down to one sentence, then to one paragraph - after that, doing it in one page is comparatively easy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Marquis de Leech Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 Chapter 17 done. Now onto the last (and most difficult) Chapter for revision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthmail Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 Thank you kindly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myrddin Posted September 17, 2012 Author Share Posted September 17, 2012 Thank you kindly.And when you're ready to start finding agents to mail the query and synopsis to, querytracker.net is a great resource. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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