As the (most likely) last post of the year (woot? It's kinda like, "Oh, last one of the year!" and then, when the new year comes, it's really just a continuation, so what's the hubbub?) I'll make this one relatively brief...I think.
Today's writing went off well, then not so well, then embarrassing, then it's time to go home. In order: I got to the library pretty early, and the first chapter that I wrote came across all right. I'm not one hundred percent disappointed in it, but, while it began well, the chapter seemed to drag for all 2800 or so words. The problem came from the same issue that I really struggled with in Words of the Silence (and I may have reference in an early post): I pack so much exposition into dialogue that I just don't know what to do with myself. I amn't pleased with the way that my chapters tend to do one thing or another--people either sit around and talk a lot, or they get in fights. Like, really, that's all they do. There's either exposition in the dialogue or there's violence--and I already talked about violence in my book.
So the first tow parts of the procedure were the details revealed were good (that's what went well), but I did it all through talking (which was not so great). Having a little more time than I'm used to, I decided to go ahead and try another chapter. This put my total into 4,990 words for the day, which is a great amount of work...except that the second chapter I worked on stunk. Saldrae's exposition and character development felt good, and the transition between her chapter with the idea of forgiveness to the introduction of a Calistar chapter that was seething with violence seemed to be a great contrast.
Then the wheels fell off and the whole scene fell/felt flat. I can't really say that much more on it, but I was sorely disappointed in myself. I know a lot of it is me just being hard on myself, but there is a reality that some of these chapters are working just the way they're supposed to, and others are not. This one--again falling prey to the idea that I have to have more 'action' in the story--had a fairly pointless scene of violence in which Calistar almost kills someone. I think part of the reason that I don't appreciate this is because the setup for these scenes is lacking, and then the emotional response from the characters is almost non-existent. I didn't make them really feel as though this horrible moment actually mattered to them.
Now I'm typing up my blog and getting ready to go home. It hasn't been a complete bust, but I was hoping for more of a bang to end the year's writing, rather than a whimper. But that's part of writing--going with the ups and downs.
On slightly different news, I'm thinking that I've hit about the 5/6 mark of the book. I'm thinking that it'll end in the next 15 chapters or so, which puts me right into April (and the land of the goal for 250k words) if I'm able to really produce well. This is exciting, because it means that I can stop sending things out and finally start explaining the stuff that I've been meaning to do for years.
Of course, knowing me, it'll be explained in dialogue....
Today's writing went off well, then not so well, then embarrassing, then it's time to go home. In order: I got to the library pretty early, and the first chapter that I wrote came across all right. I'm not one hundred percent disappointed in it, but, while it began well, the chapter seemed to drag for all 2800 or so words. The problem came from the same issue that I really struggled with in Words of the Silence (and I may have reference in an early post): I pack so much exposition into dialogue that I just don't know what to do with myself. I amn't pleased with the way that my chapters tend to do one thing or another--people either sit around and talk a lot, or they get in fights. Like, really, that's all they do. There's either exposition in the dialogue or there's violence--and I already talked about violence in my book.
So the first tow parts of the procedure were the details revealed were good (that's what went well), but I did it all through talking (which was not so great). Having a little more time than I'm used to, I decided to go ahead and try another chapter. This put my total into 4,990 words for the day, which is a great amount of work...except that the second chapter I worked on stunk. Saldrae's exposition and character development felt good, and the transition between her chapter with the idea of forgiveness to the introduction of a Calistar chapter that was seething with violence seemed to be a great contrast.
Then the wheels fell off and the whole scene fell/felt flat. I can't really say that much more on it, but I was sorely disappointed in myself. I know a lot of it is me just being hard on myself, but there is a reality that some of these chapters are working just the way they're supposed to, and others are not. This one--again falling prey to the idea that I have to have more 'action' in the story--had a fairly pointless scene of violence in which Calistar almost kills someone. I think part of the reason that I don't appreciate this is because the setup for these scenes is lacking, and then the emotional response from the characters is almost non-existent. I didn't make them really feel as though this horrible moment actually mattered to them.
Now I'm typing up my blog and getting ready to go home. It hasn't been a complete bust, but I was hoping for more of a bang to end the year's writing, rather than a whimper. But that's part of writing--going with the ups and downs.
On slightly different news, I'm thinking that I've hit about the 5/6 mark of the book. I'm thinking that it'll end in the next 15 chapters or so, which puts me right into April (and the land of the goal for 250k words) if I'm able to really produce well. This is exciting, because it means that I can stop sending things out and finally start explaining the stuff that I've been meaning to do for years.
Of course, knowing me, it'll be explained in dialogue....
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