Weekly Targets #4

I only managed about half of them this week.  Note to self: Make less targets!

I have had lots of fun fiddling with the various Wiki’s I’ve set up for each of the ideas I’m working on though (if I stuck to just one I’d more than likely get bored and give up – with 3, I can just switch).  So I have been productive (world building and plotting), I just haven’t met those specific goals.

The book I’m reading keeps making me want to write, so next week – well this week now – there will be word count goals!  It’s faaaar harder to shirk those bad boys!

This week’s targets

I was hoping to get quite a bit done this week as I took a couple a of days of work but I came down with a cold and that meant I didn’t really feel like doing much, other than burying myself in a book.  I did have my most productive writing day yet, but I don’t seem to have written since then.  I’ve just been pottering.

My goals were:

• 10 scene ideas for SB (Beth’s Book) – well I’ve sort of done this.  I did some bubble chart brainstorming, which went really well and I have lots of ideas.  Can’t wait to write the book.  I never used to like brainstorming like this for some reason but it seemed to work really well for this book. 

• Hit 4,000 or complete first chapter of fairy story, whichever is greater – done, 5,128 words worth of done.  I will probably cut quite a few of them in the edit.
• Plot second half of short story – haven’t even looked at this I’m afraid.
• Finish character building Beth – Not done, I did do some bubble charting for her too but I’ve definitely not finished getting to know her.  I really want to get into her head as this is going to be a first person book.

• Get a wiki set up for DW- this is underway, I have picked my wiki and I am in the process of copying over and tidying all my hastily typed word documents to do with characters and world-building.

I might start posting my targets at the beginning of the week in an attempt to make myself feel more accountable but that doesn’t seem to have worked in the past so I’ll have a think about that.

Targets

I had 3 main goals this weekend:

1. Hit 2,500 words on my new opening scene to my fairy novella – Done, I’m currently at 2,838 and I might write some more before going to bed.  I think the whole scene should end up being somewhere between 3,500 and 4,000 words.
2. Do a character profile for Beth, the heroine of my book for NaNoWriMo – I did a bit, I have a better idea of who she is but I’m not done by a long stretch.  I think I might work through Holly Lisle’s Create a Character Clinic for her too.
3. Plot out one of my short story ideas – Half way through.

I don’t think I’ve done too bad considering how rubbish I normally am with meeting my targets.  And I didn’t do any writing Saturday so I’m fairly pleased with myself.

Things I’m Working On

1. The story I mentioned a while back about Fairies doesn’t seem to want to be just a short story. It wants to be longer and I think I need to do some more character development and plotting – and by more I mean some at all. I got a basic concept, then came up with some characters I thought rocked, got overexcited and waded straight in, only to get caught up in fuzzy where-is-this-going, story hell. Must plot!

   This is where I went wrong with my many, many attempts to write before. I go completely against my character in the rest of my life – where I plan things to oblivion and make lists for absolutely everything – and start writing without a plan and then I just sort of flounder. I know I do it and I’ve spent a lot of time pre-writing DW to prevent the same thing happening there so I don’t know why I did it with my short story.

   So my main goal for this week is to plot that out and do a little more character development. Ooh and world-building, I’ve really enjoyed the world-building I’ve done for this story so far so I might do a bit more. Reading through what I’ve already written I think some of it is salvageable but the beginning is absolute dross and I’ve deleted my entire first scene. I want to rewrite that this week, starting the story a little sooner.

2. I need to write down all the ideas I keep having for the novel I’m planning to write for NaNoWriMo and work on twisting them into some sort of plot. Concentrate on developing my characters too, especially my main character and her mum.
3. Then have a look at DW and see how I can work in the idea I had for it last night. I’ve had quite a break from it so should be able to look at my ideas and characters with fresh eyes, see if I still think they’re as good.
4. I also want to try and plot some of my other short story ideas.

Change of Plan

I was planning on writing the novel that I’ve talked about here over the next few months, with the aim being to finish it towards the beginning of October.  Or sooner if possible.  The time from then until November was to be spent planning the book I’m intending to write (well, start writing) for NaNoWriMo.  Then November, obviously, doing NaNoWriMo.

 

Having read quite a few things lately about first novels rarely being up to much I’m considering a different plan of action.  I really like this story and I don’t want it to just be practice writing, I want it to be good.  I want to do it justice and be proud to show it to people, not bury it deep on my hard drive and wince whenever I think about anybody reading it – can you spot the person who recently found some stories she wrote years ago? *shudder*

 

So, what I think I’m going to do now is, spend the time between now and October writing short stories and novellas to get myself into a routine of writing often and to let myself get some of the crap writing out of my system.  Then spend October fleshing out my NaNoWriMo idea as planned.  Try and finish that by the end of the year (I don’t think it will be a long book so if I win NaNoWriMo that should be doable) and then write Dreamweaver – yes, I know it sounds cheesy as hell, it’s a working title okay…

 

Tonight I started writing a story about a fairy who bullies a woman into helping her free her friends from a witch who has trapped dozens of them and is selling them as garden lighting.  I’m having fun but I can see already that I had the right idea to do some practice writing.

Lightbulb Moment

I quite like the idea of having pictures for my characters, I have found some on the net that are pretty close to the idea I had in my head of some of them but I hadn’t found any for my male lead.  Last night, when watching Chuck I realised that Adam Baldwin is spot on for Flynn.  Well built, good looking without being a pretty boy and looks pretty damn tough holding a gun, well even without a gun really.

Thinking about it, the two characters I’ve seen him play (Jayne in Firefly and Serenity; and Casey in Chuck) have a lot of the same character traits as Flynn too.  Tough guys with a slightly worrying affection for weapons, sarcastic and a little rough around the edges but with hidden depths, that you know are there but are hidden pretty darn deep.  Independent spirits, who don’t really like to play with others but really they need people. 

And did I mention yummy?  I know yummy isn’t exactly a character trait but  looking through images to find a good one for the post made me realise it’s a point that just can’t be stressed enough.

Spark of inspiration

I have had an idea.  Which I think is quite a good one.  What I’m not sure about is whether it’s an idea that would make a good ending for this book or could be developed into a main plot for a sequel.  If I use it as a sequel it would make #1 have an unhappy ending and possibly feel unresolved.  

I’d rather develop it further and use it as the plot for a second book as I think it has potential.  I’m really not sure how I’d make #1 feel somewhat tied up rather than just set up for #2 though.  Some brainstorming on my whiteboard might be in order (if it wasn’t already full of my scribbles that is – I’m probably going to have to write it all down and wipe the board clean).

God look at me, thinking about sequels when I haven’t even started writing yet!

New Toys

I’m typing this blog entry on my teeny tiny laptop. It’s even smalller than I was expecting. I’ts so cute! It is taking me a while to get used to typing on it but I have got better.

I’m sat out in the sun on my lunchbreak, listening to a couple arguing while their cute little dog sniffs around my leftover sandwich.

My whiteboard came last night too, so I spent last night brainstorming on that. I think I came up with more questions than answers but it was still quite handy to have. I copied my index cards of scene ideas onto post its and have plastered the back of it with them so I could move them around and try to work out some sort of order.

I think I’ve decided on my opening scene now so I should be able to start writing at the weekend.  Although I still haven’t decided on what POV I’m going to write from, which would obviously be helpful!

Ideas VS Decisions

I’m getting myself all tied up in a knot again over where I’m going with my WIP (I should really give it a name but I quite like calling it that, makes it sound like I’ve actually written something).  I keep getting more and more ideas and I’m really not sure which of them to follow.

I need someone I can bounce my ideas off really.  I’ve tried asking my mum what she thinks of a couple of things but she just tends to agree with me or tell me what she thinks I want to hear, without giving me anything constructive.  The one person who I think would actually be good to run ideas past, I don’t want to because we talked a while back about writing a book together and I don’t want to remind her of that.

I really need to stop book shopping too.  For a start I haven’t got time to read as much as I normally do now that I’m trying to do some writing of my own.  Secondly, every idea I’ve had that I think is great and a bit different I keep finding books where someones done it first.  Sort of.  Usually just vaguely but enough to put a dampener on me thinking I had something special.

No one has done all of my ideas rolled into one though and I still think they’re really good – even if I am getting more than slightly confused by all the different directions I could go.  I really want to tell this story, I think it has a lot of potential and that’s all that matters.  I’m writing it mainly for me anyway.  Because it’s something I’ve always wanted to do and to prove to myself that I can.

Character Interviews

Last week I bought a couple of Holly Lisle’s Writing Clinic eBooks, which I’ve found really useful.  I’ve been using the Create a Character Clinic over the past few days to develop my main character.  As well as helping me flesh her out and understand her better, it’s helped me come up with a few story points that I think are rather good, which is nice. 

Now I’ve got onto the section where you interview your characters and I’m actually having a lot of fun with it.  I’m enjoying finding her voice - and discovering that it’s not mine, which was a relief, I was a little worried it would be.  She’s bossy, asks quite a lot of rhetorical questions and I enjoy writing her.

I’m looking forward to interviewing my other characters too.  I was worried about all of my characters ending up all sounding the same, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.  And really, I’m not sure why I thought it would.  When I was little I loved playing make believe and would often have a whole cast of characters when there was just me or me and one friend playing.  And I’ve been told that when I was playing with my Barbies, you’d think there was a whole group of kids in my room because I’d be doing all the voices for all the different dolls.

I’ve also been ordering stuff.  I found a stationary firm online that let you have home accounts as well as business accounts and I’ve ordered myself a whiteboard and a few other bits and bobs.  I’ve put a bid on one of those tiny computers that I found on eBay too.  I may very well get out bid or next time I post I could be tapping away on a laptop no bigger than a hardback book!