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Monday, 05 July 2010 09:24 |
Block Two of the Creativity Workshop is now over. In the first block, I wrote three out of the four stories I intended to; in the second, I only managed two. Last week, I didn't write anything at all.
I'm continuing with my idea generation exercises - not every day, but a few times a week - and I'm continuing to get interesting concepts, but nothing I came up with last week seemed to fit with the student/mentor relationship I was intending to explore. Nothing sparked, and I didn't want to push it - it was a bit of a weird week for me on a personal level, since hubby started a new job which will mean he won't be at home all the time any more. There are lots of very positive things about the job, and it's all quite exciting, but it does require a bit of an adjustment so I decided to let last week go.
This week, though, I'm excited. This is the block I've been looking forward to since my initial goals post - I finally get to meet my band of mercenaries and their snarky leader. I have four settings to focus on; I already have a pretty clear idea of this week's story, and it incorporates the student/mentor relationship I missed out on last week. Last week I picked up James Barclay's Dawnthief for a re-read and it wasn't until a few chapters in that I realised my subconscious must have been thinking ahead - the Raven are probably my favourite mercenaries ever. I plan to spend some time later today scribbling down thoughts and character pointers, and after that we'll see how things progress.
The story bible is proving more tedious than I anticipated, but I've now set myself an actual target, which should help - I'm aiming to get through two chapters a day, with my goal being to finish by next Friday. It's doable. The thing is, it only takes me about fifteen minutes to get through a chapter, sometimes less, but it's just not very exciting work!
Since hubby is now working Monday to Friday, I've made the decision that I won't push myself to write at weekends. I'm hoping this will make me more productive during the week, but we'll see how it goes. It's not something I'd foreseen myself doing, but I'm feeling quite positive about it. I'm having to rethink my daily routine a little bit during the week, especially since I'm now working two days a week out of the house myself, but I'm hoping it won't take me too long to settle and work out how best to divide my time.
So, with any luck, by the time I check in next week I'll be one short story down and a lot closer to the end of this story bible. We shall see!
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Tuesday, 29 June 2010 18:01 |
So, once again Tuesday's come around and I haven't yet posted my review of last week or started work on this week's story. I'm getting things done, but slowly, and I'm having trouble keeping my head in story-world when I'm not actively working on it. This is true of both my short stories and my novel at the moment. But like I said - I am making progress. It just doesn't really feel like it.
Last week I got my short story done in just two sessions. I wrote it by hand again, and it was two sides of A4. (No idea what that is in words, but my writing is fairly small.) The story surprised me by being quite dark but very much contemporary. Since this block is all about relationships, it explored an old friendship, and I think it was fairly successful, but not in the way I expected. It became more about the loss of a friendship than the experience of one. It was certainly new territory for me though, and although I'm not completely happy with the ending I think the central story is fairly solid.
When I'm not actually working on anything writing-related, my mind seems to be a million miles away - I seem to be very detached from it at the moment. With the novel, I'm not surprised, since at the moment I'm doing a slow read-through, using my iPhone (which I'm not too keen on as a reading experience, but it's less hassle than carting a lever arch file around with me). As I mentioned last week, I'm making notes about character and setting to make sure it's all consistent, and it's definitely the most tedious part of this revision so far. I'm about a third of the way through, but I'm finally beginning to pick up speed and I'm hoping I'll get through the rest relatively quickly.
I think one thing I'm learning in this block is that there's a reason I choose to write fantasy. I think - I'm not completely sure, but I think - that part of the reason I'm not engaging properly with the short stories is the fact that they are so different to what usually sets my imagination off. I'm still getting the words down, and I'm still fairly happy with what I'm producing, but the stories just don't seem to excite me in the same way. I may be imagining things - it may just be that the last couple of weeks have been a bit of a slog all round. But it's an interesting thought. Either way, I'm really glad I'm trying this - I think it's fair to say I probably wouldn't have bothered to spread my wings in this way without the help of the workshop. And who knows - maybe this week will be different. If I ever come up with an idea, that is.
I'm behind on the exercises, but I am working my way through the various posts. I'm now on the last page of my second notebook - mainly because I ended up writing the week before last's story in it, but I have been doing my idea generation exercises too.
So I'm still here. I'm still in. I'm just plodding behind a little bit, that's all. :)
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Tuesday, 22 June 2010 12:44 |
Well, I actually got my short story done last week, which was a definite plus. I have no idea how long it is, since I wrote it by hand, but it contained no magic whatsoever and I think it dealt fairly well with the mother/son relationship I was trying to explore. Okay, so the situation they were in was a little out of the ordinary, which wasn't quite the plan, but it worked. It was actually one of my morning idea generation exercises that sparked the plot, which was quite exciting. I then used the wagon wheel concept described by Rachael Hale to develop the concept. I was really pleased with how well the tools worked together, and I'm hoping to use the same method this week.
Unfortunately this week is getting off to a slow start. I spent the weekend with my parents, and haven't yet got back into my routines - I'm getting lots of housework and general organising done, but apart from 30 minutes yesterday working on my story bible I haven't done anything writing related since Saturday. Hoping to get that problem addressed later today.
The story bible (or series bible if you prefer) is proving useful, however. Prompted by this post over at Deadline Dames, I decided it would be a good idea to get one together. If I do ever get a chance to write the second book, it will be invaluable - but right now it's giving me a really thorough grasp of a few inconsistencies, in my settings in particular. I've worked through six chapters so far. There's a bit of a way to go, but once I've done that (and the exercise on settings too) I should be ready to get on with line edits. (But then, I've said that so many times already that I'm not holding my breath.)
This week's short story is rather vague so far, since I haven't even thought about it properly yet. I'm thinking I'll try exploring a relationship between two old friends this week - but if my idea generation exercises point me somewhere else, I think I'll go with it.
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Sunday, 13 June 2010 10:35 |
So, I said I was going to be working on those exercises on integral setting, right? Yeah. Well, I started to. I did the first exercise (I chose ancient Athens, incidentally) and found it really interesting - I think Merrilee's post really got some important points through for me. And then yesterday I started on the second, and it looked promising - I decided to do it for the novel I'm currently revising, since it's so fresh in my head. But I didn't get very far. I was going to continue with it this morning, but... well. Somehow I ended up in plotting mode for the second book in the series, and this is what I ended up with:
Essentially, I suppose they're mainly character sheets, with notes on the issues they're all facing and some of the most important things they'll have to do. I had been planning to do some collaging this week, but at the moment I don't have access to a particularly good printer so I haven't been able to do that yet (although I have found a few interesting pictures that I'll be using). But this may well have been the more productive option. I don't yet have my inciting incident, but I do have a good idea of my character goals and motivations (which is very rare for me at this stage) as well as some of the key events plotted out. I know where they're starting from, I know where they're going, and I know some of the places they need to visit along the way.
It was probably the most exhilirating plotting session I've ever had - I was buzzing long before I sat down with my pencil and paper. I learnt some things about the bad guys I hadn't realised before, and I realised that one of the relationships I loved so much in the first book isn't going to survive this one. There were a couple of things I came across that I am going to have to feed back in as I go through and do my (hopefully) final revision on the first book, but that's all to the good - nothing major, more foreshadowing than anything, but important all the same.
I'm excited about this book. I have no intention of starting to actually write it any time soon though - I'll get a more linear plan in place, and then I'll put it away. My current plan is to finish this revision and send it out, and then start working on the revisions for last year's NaNoWriMo book. It takes place in a completely different world, and it's one which I'm itching to get back to. That way, if things go really well, I have a plan for book two of the world of Amulet ready to go; if they don't, I have a whole other book and concept that I can bring up to scratch and start sending out. It does mean that I'm not going to be able to start work on a new book just yet, but I guess this is the year of extensive revisions, and that's okay. Last year I finished one first draft and then a week later jumped straight into the next, so it's only to be expected! If I can get Bonded revised by November, then maybe I'll get to work on another first draft for NaNoWriMo - but that's still some way off, and I don't want to rush anything.
Creativity Workshop Week Seven: Coming Up
This week, though, I need to get back into the workshop. Firstly, that means getting the second exercise on setting done and dusted - I have a feeling it will be useful to have that done before I jump back into the third draft. I think I'm going to put the third exercise aside for now and come back to it for the third block of the workshop, which is going to be about setting.
The block which I'm now in, although a week late, is about relationships. I'm really hoping my plotting frenzy continues tomorrow so I can get some solid ideas, but we'll see! I originally planned to explore four kinds of relationship, but with only three weeks that's a little more difficult, so I'm cutting out the housemates story. This week, I want to try the mother and son relationship - it seems appropriate, since we're spending time with both my parents and my in-laws over the course of this week! I think this is going to be a challenge for me, since, for obvious reasons, I have never been a son, and have yet to be a mother. But it will no doubt be interesting. All I know about the story so far is that it's set in a small town. Tomorrow, hopefully, I will learn a bit more about it.
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Wednesday, 09 June 2010 19:32 |
Yes. Finally. I got to the end of the second draft. It came in at a total word count of 103394, which I'm very happy with. So now I'm going to put it to bed for a week, and leave it alone. I may play about with some collaging for another novel idea, but then again, I may not. I might just concentrate on the Creativity Workshop for a few days. Then, at the end of next week, I'll print off my manuscript again and start making the smaller changes - moving words around rather than whole scenes.
I'm fairly confident that the structure is pretty much all in place now - there may be a few small modifications to make, but overall, I think the story itself is now in pretty decent shape. It's taken me far longer than I anticipated to reach this point, but honestly, that's okay. What's that saying - anything worth doing well is worth taking your time over? Well, I've certainly done the latter. Hopefully the first part is at least vaguely applicable too.
So, with that done, I actually have the time to address the questions Merrilee posed in her How are you doing? post, and now seems like a pretty appropriate time to do so. Even if it has taken me two days to do it.
1. Creativity
1a. Am I doing my daily creativity exercises?
I had been doing really well at this, but when I stopped working on my short stories, I also stopped doing the idea generation exercises every morning. It only took me a few days to realise that I actually really missed doing it. I haven't yet had anything overly remarkable appear on the pages of my notebook from them, but they were getting me into a generally more creative frame of mind, and after a few days of not doing them I realised my other writing was suffering because of it. So now I'm back on the wagon, so to speak.
1b. How full is my notebook?
I finished my first one, and I'm a few pages into the second one. Okay, they're only Pop Notes books, but they're perfect for carrying around with me, and there are 50 pages in each one. I'm using them for my idea generation, and also for taking notes on blog posts - mainly the ones from the workshop, but also from other blogs I follow when something of particular interest comes up. When Merrilee has set exercises to do, I've used it for those as well.
1c. Do I look around me and collect inspiration as I go about my day?
I think so, some of the time, but it's usually from objects and places rather than people. I need to work harder at people watching and using those observations - I suspect my character development would really benefit from that.
1d. Am I looking for inspiration, instead of waiting for it to appear?
I've noticed that my gaze will fall on something, and I'm almost automatically asking myself the "What if...?" questions Merrilee mentioned on her More ideas than you can write blog post. That feels pretty good, and I'm really very happy about it.
2. Focus
2a. Am I examining ideas that excite me?
Not really, to be honest. But then I have been trying to focus hard on my revisions, so maybe this will start to change now.
2b. Have I found a particular genre or topic that really means something to me?
Fantasy is my genre of choice, always has been. Lately I've found myself working family issues into my stories a lot, and I do find that fascinating.
2c. Is my exploration leading me to new outlets for my creativity, or do I feel like I am going in circles?
Hmm, not sure about the new outlets, unless short stories in general count. And they're not entirely new. But I don't feel like I'm going in circles - I have felt lately as if I'm on a neverending path with my revisions, but that's different. I knew I was moving forward, it was just slow.
2d. Am I finding it easier to concentrate on a project on-demand, or do I get distracted easily?
I'm usually pretty good about sitting down to write, but I do tend to work in spurts - I'll write a scene and then go and check Facebook/Twitter/blogs for a while. I'd like to work on writing for longer periods at a time - I know I can do it, but I'm not doing it regularly enough. Timing myself helps - I guess I need to start increasing the length of time on Write or Die!
3. Productivity
3a. How many stories have I started?
Three so far.
3b. How many stories have I completed?
I've completed first drafts of all three, though they will need editing - especially the third one, which rambled and meandered a lot! This is the second week I've skipped, but every week I've tried, I have managed to finish the story.
3c. Am I writing as often as I could be?
Probably not, but I am writing nearly every day. The last week or so I've been skipping my evening sessions, which is bad - and silly too, since I feel so much better when I do fit them in.
3d. Do I bring the story to mind every day, even when I’m not writing?
I've definitely been doing this with my novel - I think I was doing it with the short stories too, but can't honestly remember!
4. Goals
4a. Am I meeting my goals?
I think overall I am. As I've said, it took longer than expected to meet my novel goal, but it's done now. And I made a conscious decision not to push myself to do the short stories for this week and last, so I don't really feel like I've failed at that.
4b. Do I remember what my goals are?
I think so!
4c. Do my goals reflect my desires and where I want to go as a writer?
Yes, I think they do - my overriding goal is to get my novel to the query stage, and my goals for the Creativity Workshop are all about exploring different avenues and techniques to see what works for me.
4d. Am I keeping my goals in mind whenever I get excited by a new project?
This hasn't really come up so far - there are too many things already in the works. But I am keeping my goals in mind as I decide which parts to focus on.
There. I think that's a long enough post for now. Today I'm going to start work on some of Merrilee's exercises on integral settings. Tomorrow, who knows. I'm taking it easy for a couple if days!
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