Tag: fantasy

Vacation Time!

Laura Highcove

So Otakon is this weekend (I am writing this post on Friday morning in order to still have something to post on Sunday) and so this week was a little wonky. I got plenty of notes done over the past weekend but not nearly as much as I could have. I feel that in the future I should be able to pound out notes in a draft in only slightly longer than it takes to actually read the story.

I am in the final fight scene right now, which is actually not as much of a total mess as I thought it was. The choreography of the fight needs a lot of work, but the A, B, C of what happens is pretty together.

After Otakon I am hanging out in Maryland (at my mother-in-law’s) for an extra three days (otherwise I would be spending Tuesday driving home to Southwest Virginia and Thursday taking the train to New York City for the Writer’s Digest conference.) which is just unnecessary travel. It will also give me three days of a no plans vacation in which I will finish out my notes and start in on my outline. (And maybe read some of Words of Radiance, the next #Branderson book in my queue.)

Which means that Writer’s Digest is imminent! I am a little package of nervous excitement. I am glad that I am able to take the train up and stay in the hotel with Anel (a writing buddy) so I won’t be all alone in the city. Btw, if you’re going to Writer’s Digest, drop me an email or a facebook message so I know to look for you.

So next week I may post twice! Once with what writing stuff I get done on my ‘vacation’, and another with the details of my experience at Writer’s Digest. Stay tuned!

Notes and Procrastination

Laura Highcove

I was talking with my mother Wednesday (as I do every Wednesday) and was telling her about how this project often feels overwhelming. But at the same time, even though it feels like I’ll never accomplish anything, the alternative is to stop writing. That possibility does not exist in my world. So the only path is to continue forward.

As such, I am still in the process of adding notes to The Storyteller. I’m not quite halfway through, though I am making quicker headway than I was. As long as I can sit down and remind myself that all I’m doing is writing down notes, things go smoothly.

And what is the logical follow up for deciding you are going to continue on a project come hell or high water? Well it’s to procrastinate of course!

You may or may not be aware that I have some skills in Photoshop. That banner ^. Totally made that myself. I have, in the past, made (pseudo) book covers, banners, and wallpapers for my stories as inspiration points. This is the one I put together this past week for The Storyteller. I even made sure this time to get free-use pictures.

I find that having pictures that represent my stories helps me to feel like they’re more real somehow. This wallpaper is now my desktop background and I am able to look at it and it encourages me to keep going. I’m pretty happy with it.

Baby Steps

Laura Highcove

Getting back into the swing of writing has been rough. Mostly because the ‘writing’ has consisted of reading my story and then reading it again while making notes of things I need to change, fix, or add.

What About Bob? I was hoping that on reading The Storyteller over again, that I would be encouraged by how much I had done. Instead I find myself scared by how much I haven’t done. It’s much harder to make myself sit down and work on the story than it has been in the past.

I read some articles on revision in the past, and I remember a lot of them seeming to say: ‘Sure, I went though and jotted down notes on what needed to be fixed, then I made a plan and viola!’ Maybe for some people it is like that. I feel like I’m still light-years from a readable book, much less a publishable one.

As for my actual process. Right now I am making a new copy of each scene, and then going through and putting in notes. Right now I’m ignoring descriptions that need to be improved, dialogue that needs tweaking, all of the typos. The notes that I write are in reference to plot, world building, and character building issues. All the ‘huge’ points that need to be hammered into place so that someone could read the story and at least follow what’s going on.

I am not actually fixing any of these issues yet. Right now most of the notes are in reference to little things. Things that aren’t too lumpy, but I know that later I have major holes and whole scenes that will need to be added and rewritten. In order to keep the project from feeling overwhelming, I just have to keep taking baby steps.

Author Challenge

Laura Highcove

So a few weeks ago my DIYMFA mentor suggested I do an author challenge. In it, I picked an author in my genre (fantasy) and read three of their books. One of their earliest, one of their most recent books, and one that is right in between. This process is to help me see how an author has evolved as a writer from the first book they published, forward by giving a wide sample.

At first I was going to choose Brandon Sanderson (because Brandon Sanderson…), but then I decided I would choose my first favorite fantasy author, Mercedes Lackey. I read her gryffin series (The Black Gryphon, The White Gryphon, The Silver Gryphon) what feels like a million years ago. I didn’t read any of her more famous books about the Companions until much later. I am also such a fan of her Joust books and the 500 Kingdoms. I just love most everything this woman writes (not that I’ve read it all, she has written a lot).

So I went and found a list of her books. Her first book was Arrows of the Queen which was published in 1987. I chose that one. Right in the middle were two books that I already owned. I decided to choose the one I had enjoyed reading more, called Brightly Burning. Her most recent book is part of the Elemental Masters series. I have not read any of that series, but I chose it anyway. It seems pretty stand alone. It is called Steadfast.
So I started off with Arrows of the Queen. I have to say that the plot for this book was rather rough. The story jumped around and didn’t really focus well and when we got to the big bad conflict at the end I was left a little lost. However, I could see the care and detail she put into her characters and her world. Foreshadowing for books she wouldn’t write for years were all in this first book, and the characters were alive and real and I cared about them.

Since it was my second time reading Brightly Burning, I was able to look into it with a bit more detail. What really got to me is I got about a quarter way into the book before the actual plot started. I just felt that there didn’t need to be quite so much back-story. Once the ‘actual’ story started, the story and plot worked well. Again, the characters and world are wonderful.

I am about halfway through Steadfast and so far it is proceeding in standard Mercedes Lackey fare, though I feel like the ending is pretty well-dictated at this point and I’m not anticipating a twist. This doesn’t mean I’m not enjoying it.

When I read and immerse myself in a book, unless there’s a major issue, I just read it and enjoy it. Now that I’ve learned to read more like a writer I can see that authors are not gods. They are good at certain things and not as good at others.

The book can be entirely enjoyable without being perfect. That was something I knew logically, but it’s different having read the books and seen the imperfections.

It gives me more confidence in my own writing not needing to be perfect. Now I still have to figure out what my strengths in writing are, but baby steps.