Hey, Wait, Is That a Milestone?

[rowyn]

I've been a good girl today, and did some work on Prophecy right after eating supper, instead of putting it off for a couple of hours (or until tomorrow) like I usually do. I've now done more than half the writing I'm supposed to for this week, which is way better than I'm usually doing by Tuesday.

Moreover, I finished a chapter.

Even more importantly, I finished the much-too-long chapter I was talking about last night. And since that was the last piece missing from Part One, it means the first part of rough draft is complete. Whoa. Cool.

Of course, when I say "rough draft" I mean rough. As just one example -- I'm not real happy with the way I tied the piece I just finished today with the piece that immediately follows it -- which I happened to write, oh, about 18 months ago. You know, I don't care how many books on writing say "you don't need to write your novel in sequential order", I don't think I'm ever doing this screwy jumping-all-over-the-outline thing again. I just end up writing a bunch of material that I'll probably have to tear up in the end, in order to make something else that actually fits wth what it turns out comes before. Editing this puppy is gonna be a pain.

But, all that said, it is pretty cool to have the draft finished for the first part. Odd thing: I don't like my working title for the work as a whole, which is just "Prophecy". But my working titles for parts 1 & 2 I do like. Part one is: Prophecy: The Awakening, and part two is Prophecy: The Army of Fate. For no good reason, I particularly like that last phrase, "the army of fate". Probably because there really is an army of fate in the second part.

Hmm. And now I have gone and messed with my friends page settings, and don't much like the results. Whoops. Maybe I'll go do something harmless, like sketch, for a while instead. Or bake. I need to bake something for the goodie day tomorrow anyway.

Comments

[jordangreywolf.livejournal.com]

Hurrah for you and your progress! =)

As it is ... I just don't think I could possibly handle writing back and forth in a story. "Akoma", I've done in bits and pieces here and there, but it's not a matter of chronology: it's a sourcebook.

On the rare occasion that I write a story, I generally have to start with an outline. On that outline, I may go forward and back, and fill in events, to plan things out, but when it comes to actually writing the story, I feel like going from beginning to end is the way to go.

I just want to know where I'm going, before I get there - even if there are big gaps in my outline. If I don't know how the story is going to end, then just starting on writing generally won't finish it for me. I've got to have some idea of where to go, even if I don't know all the steps along the way to get there.

And then once it's all written, and I'm sufficiently un-satisfied with the result, I may go back and make edits here and there.

This is not to say that my way is the way to do it. I have yet to write anything that I'm happy with. ("Rulesbreaker" doesn't count. That was largely based on a dream - which was both help and hindrance. Perhaps some day, I may try to take the better parts out of it and turn it into a real story.)

Re:

[rowyn]

Perhaps some day, I may try to take the better parts out of it and turn it into a real story.

Lemme just take a moment to encourage you to do this. "Rulesbreaker" is an excellent story framework. The characters are powerful and engaging, the imagery is compelling, and the plotline keeps the reader guessing.

Yes, it needs work. Your writing style is somewhat rough, the story is unpolished, and some of the elements don't quite work. But Rulesbreaker has more *potential* than any idea I've seen in a long time. It's a better concept, and in some ways better executed, than any of the ideas I've been working on. (Prophecy, Silver Scales, etc). I would love to see it developed into a polished novel. It would be truly fantastic and very marketable, I'm sure. Go for it!

Re:

[jordangreywolf.livejournal.com]

Well, the thing is, if I should ever set the time aside to write a story, something like Rulesbreaker is likely to come forth. "Rulesbreaker" is basically a variation on a theme ... and so far, it happens to be the theme that grabs me the most insofar as a story idea to develop.

One of the big problems with really completing it, is that this particular theme is, in essence, a reaction to stories I've read that have rubbed me wrong - to stories where the "hero" isn't (by my measure) truly heroic ... or where that heroism is cheapened by strawman villains who exist for the sole purpose of being vanquished, and the writer is unconcerned with concealing this fact.

A reaction, however, has trouble standing on its own. Do I spend the first part of the tale telling it wrong, and then going back, revising it? It runs the risk of far too much repetition. I'm tempted to at least give some sort of narrative summary up front, sprinkling in factoids and bits, rather than having the protagonist remember such details only when they become relevant to the task at hand.

One thing that I definitely want to go: the foggy-headed state of the hero. That was an element of my dream - as it is typical of so many of my dreams - but strikes me as something that wears thin in the story.

Ah, I could go on and on with my checklist. Might as well make an entry, really.

Re:

[rowyn]

Regarding the narrative structure -- I don't think there's a problem with it as a "reaction". First, your target market is people who read fantasy anyway; the odds that you're going to have readers who've never read the sort of story you're reacting to is slim. (Certainly your potential publishers will have read many many many of them! >:> ) Moreover, even people who don't read fantasy are familiar with fairy tales, which share the same problem characteristics: the hero is Good because he's Good and the villain is Evil because the storyteller says so. So I don't think you're going to lose that many potential readers because they don't "get" it.

Regarding the "fuzzy-headed-narrator" and the problem of things only coming up when they're important: I like the idea that the narrator is a person who read this as a book and became, somehow, entrapped in it. That device also makes the detail/repetition issue more plausible. Think about when you're re-reading a book that you first read a decade ago. When you start it, you can remember some of the big things that happen: how it ends, who the good guys were, some of the bad guys, etc. But you can't remember all the details: did this character betray the hero later? How did they get out of this situation? How do they get from this volcano to that plain? There are these gaps in what you remember. As you read on get closer to the events, you get that sense of familiarity: "Oh, that's what happens! Now I remember what -- no! don't go into the basement!" Haven't you ever had that sort of deja-vu when reading, when you know what's going to happen *next*, but it's only a few pages off?

To me, it makes a lot of sense to have the narrator struggling to remember what goes in those gaps -- and to remember some things just before they happen, when it's probably too late to stop it.