Making the Beginning WORK

(Note: this post was composed about a month ago and lost in the deep dark depths of my harddrive.)

The beginning of anything is often the hardest: you have to overcome the intertia of not doing whatever it is you're about to start, and often you can be plagued by doubt or fear. What if I do it wrong? Can I actually do this? What will people think?

I've been writing for long enough now that beginning a new draft doesn't scare me so much any more. Where I used to prefer editing to drafting (my perfectionism was happy that it finally got a chance to make things RIGHT!), I now enjoy the freedom that drafting involves; it doesn't MATTER if I get it wrong, as long as I'm having fun :o)

That doesn't mean that beginnings are perfectly easy, though - they're just difficult in a different sense. As the Twitter peeps among you might have seen, I'm editing Sanctuary right now. Sanctuary is a YA fantasy, and I drafted a tentative blurb/query for it yesterday:

Moving halfway across Australia to Nowra, capital of nowhere, is the worst thing to ever happen to Edge. Three months on, she has no friends, the world’s most horrible bedroom, and no one to celebrate her fourteenth birthday with. Maybe that’s why she starts hallucinating that the butterfly is talking to her – though her dog seems to think the fairy is real enough.

Sure, finding out she’s a Traveller, able to cross between worlds to Sanctuary, home of the fairies, is a definite bonus. Making a new friend and realising that Sanctuary might be everything she misses from home is pretty great, too. But then the shadows appear, ominous and blacker than black. Edge is determined to find out where they’re coming from – until she’s dragged from Sanctuary into the land of death and almost killed by them. Now Edge must decide if her new home is something worth fighting for – or if, you know, running away to the circus might be the saner option.

But I'm editing! How does this relate to beginnings? Because it's in edits that beginnings are now brain-pretzeling difficult. The internet is full of really good advice about how to begin your story: begin in the middle of the action, show your character's voice, avoid excessive backstory, avoid shock-for-the-sake-of-shock lines, show your conflict, and so forth. However, while this advice is all great an necessary, it's not what I'm struggling with (though, granted, there is currently ALL THE BACKSTORY eating up my first page, which is not so good >.<). What I'm struggling with is something that not a lot of people seem to talk about: the themes.

See, the first draft of Sanctuary ended REALLY WELL. I'm completely in love with the last handful of lines, and they never fail to generate that 'Awww!' feeling, which is what I want. But in order for them to work, they have to be set up in the beginning.

The beginning has an epic amount of work to do: it has to hook the reader, establish the action, set the scene, introduce the plot conflict - and it also has to introduce the thematic conflict. It has to give a taste of what's going to matter in the story, what the MC's main drive is, what they're fighting for. And that, right now, is what I'm struggling with.

Where Do I Begin?

As a totally unrelated prenote (oh look, can I call this a prologue?!), the Twitterous Ones among you will hopefully have already spotted my gleeful squeeing about the fact that I finally have the blog looking how I want it to. The non-Twitterous Ones among you, click through now and check it out!

>SEGUE<

Today, I'm revisiting an old question of mine, because I found it saved in my drafts and it relates conveniently to Monday's post on what you need before you write. For a long time, I found beginning stories really, really hard. Where did I start? At the beginning, obviously, but where was the beginning?

After all, as my MC in Santuary, Edge, says, "I'm not sure where any story begins. Mum always says stories begin with "Once upon a time," or "In the beginning" - but that only works for written-down stories. In real life there's no one standing behind your shoulder waiting to whisper the magic words that let you know that something Big is about to happen."

In writing, as in life. No one is there to tell you where to begin your story, and technically, all stories began with the beginning of the world, because if the world hadn't begun, our MC's parents wouldn't have existed and if they hadn't existed and done x, y and z, our MC wouldn't have existed, and if our MC hadn't done x, y and z they'd have ended up as a butterfly flapping their wings over Brazil.

Incidently, life is a perfect example of a chaos system in action. In order to be classed as a chaos system, you need three things: 1) sensitivity to initial conditions (a tiny change in the beginning of things drastically affects the outcome); 2) topographic mixing (that is, your red and your white are actually allowed to mix together to form pink, they're not just stuck statically at either end of your paint tray); and 3) variable density, which is essentially, for the non-scientific among us, the same as 2).

/digression.

Life has a sensitivity to intial conditions, so fundamentally, everything about your character's life is important to your story.

Only it's not, because otherwise books would be a million pages long and really, really boring.

So. Back to where we started: Where do you start?

(Ha, did you like that?)

First of all, all stories have what's called an 'inciting incident' - that thing that happens that the main character absolutely can't ignore, that pushes them into action, that says now, now stand up and do something because either way, your life will never be the same again.

So that's kind of a good place to start your story. But what if you don't know what it is yet? Won't know until you write it? Where do you start then?

Well, where do you start? I've no idea. But this is where I start: with one simple question. And it isn't 'Where do I start?' o.0 Smart-alec. :P It's this, directed at my main character:

What are you doing, right now?

And then I close my eyes, and I listen for as long as it takes for my character to answer. And so far, so far, they haven't led me too badly astray.

Has anyone else tried this as a method of beginning? Does anyone have another tried-and-true method of starting stories? Or does everyone except me find this really, really easy, and just sits down and writes? :P :D

Beginning Again

So, it’s About That Time Again: the Beginning.

Having finished the first draft of Jesscapades, I’ve shoved it aside for a month (quite convenient, since I’m tripping around the globe) and am ignoring it.

Sadly – or not sadly, actually :D – I can’t ignore writing, even when on holiday in the middle of a European summer. I lasted two weeks before I just had to start writing again :D

For a little while, I worked on The Black Gates, a novel I’ve been poking off and on since about 2001 (!). This time, I’ve made genuine progress: I’ve actually figured out the structure of the thing, which, trust me, is worthy of a post of its own o.O

But today, something else grabbed me: Borderlands, a strange little creature of a novel, a fantasy thriller that’s been bubbling away in my head for about a year. I had a dream two weeks ago that was so good I even dreamed that I’d woken up and written it down, and when I woke up for real I knew it was related to Borderlands – but I didn’t know how.

I worried away at it for a few days and figured out a loose connection – and my muse stopped there. Nothing else. Zip. Nada.

So I went to work on The Black Gates, and started writing new scenes and editing old ones, and I have about 20k over about 12 chapters at the moment – though some still needs editing. Well, it’s a first draft, all of it needs editing – but some of the old stuff needs editing to fit into the new structure.

But TODAY... Today I was Bitten.

Borderlands, ladies and gents, has Begun.

And it’s terrifying.

Why?

Not because of the content, but because of how little I know about how the plot all fits together still. I have only the vaguest sense of what the conflict is and who the MC is; I know that she can’t remember her past, and I know that there are two parallel storylines in the book – and I know who the main villain is.

But how all the tiny jigsaw pieces that I’m currently holding fit – where they fit – well, it reminds me a little of the time when a few friends and I did a double-sided puzzled of polar bears on snow o.O You just have to start, somewhere, anywhere, and you’ll never really know you’ve got it right until you’re done; and sometimes, you’ll discover that a whole section of the puzzle is upside down (because of the double-sided nature of the puzzle) and you need to flip it all around.
Beginning is scary, but it’s also exhilarating. There are no real plans right now, so nothing I do can be wrong. I’m free to write, to explore, to be lead entirely by my imagination and see what happens.

It’s scary, it’s thrilling, and I’m so glad to be starting something new and exciting again. This is a good feeling; and I totally remember why it’s so tempting, mid-book, to start a new one :D

But despite the glamour and allure of beginnings, I know the pleasure of endings, too; I know what it’s like to stick a book out until the bitter end – and I’m excited to see what the end of Borderlands will bring, whenever that may be.

How about you guys? Do you like beginning new projects? Ever get that terrifying – oh-my-goodness-I-have-no-idea-what’s-going-to-happen – feeling? What do you do about it?

Think Sideways Movie #1 - A Thousand Words For Wings

So, as I've said before, the month of January is as insanely hectic as December was, what with the various writing, work, and extra curricular commitments. Gweh o.O

For the next few weeks, therefore, I'm going to share with you the videos from the Think Sideways course. Yes, don't worry, I have full permission to do this :) And it will give you a better idea of what the course is like. Be warned - the videos, naturally, do not cover the detail of the course. They are the introductions to each month, and as such are introductory in nature. I like them, though, and hopefully you will be able to get something out of them.

Today, Month One: Thinking: Ideas - And A Thousand Words For Wings.



Feel free to discuss the movie in the comments - what do you think? :)

Like Blood From A Stone... Character Development 101

A bit of amusement for you today. Jess, or Jessana, is the MC of my secret assassin trilogy, which I plan to start writing in November. This interview is prep for book one, in which she's about to graduate at the top of her class from the Shard Academy and officially become an Assassin of Fate. A is me, and J is Jess :)

A: So, Jess, I need to ask you a few questions before we begin your story. Okay?
J: *silence*
A: Um, please?
J: *ignores*
A: *getting frustrated* Look, I know perfectly well that you can sit there till the cows come home and not spill a thing. It's your job to withstand interogation, blahblah, I get it, I know that, okay? But I'm not here to interogate you. I'm your author, I'm trying to help you.
J: *raises eyebrow*
A: Well, ultimately. In the end. Really.
J: *more silence*
A: Please, Jess? I really need this.
J: *big sigh* Okay.
A: *relieved* Thanks. Okay. So. First question: what one thing would you sacrifice almost anything to have, or to have happen?
J: *silence*
A: Look, come on, Jessana. You really don't need to be difficult about this!
J: Hey, I'm thinking! Can't a girl think before she responds? Sheesh, woman. Relax.
A: *blushes* Sorry.
J: *waves hand dismissively* Fine, it's fine. One thing. Hmm. To be honest, I'm not sure I do want anything. I like my life. I'm top of my class, the teachers like me - well, except Mr Snitty, but he doesn't count, he hates everyone. I don't know.
A: Come on, everyone has something they want more than anything else... It doesn't have to be a thing. Think abstract... Belonging? Purpose?
J: But I already belong, and I have a purpose. That's the whole point of the Shard Academy.
A: I know that! Argh, never mind. Next question. What in your life wouldn't you sacrifice?
J: *grin* Will you hit me if I say 'nothing'?
A: *glares* That's bull, and you know it.
J: *shrugs* If you know it, then you know the answer to the question, so what do you need me here for?
A: Jessana Peakes, I swear, if you do not sit down and answer my question right now, I will erase you from the story!
J: Can't do that, I'm the main character.
A: So I'll write a different story.
J: *shrugs* You think that, if it makes you happy.
A: *grinds teeth* All right then, Little Miss Smary Pants, I'll tell you what I think you wouldn't sacrifice. Two things: your honour - yes, don't squirm on me like that, I know you have honour you miserable little cretin, else the entire plot of your first book wouldn't work! - and control.
J: *surprised* Control? What makes you think I wouldn't give up control? I do it all the time.
A: *eyebrow* Yes, and quite distinctly on your own terms. I've seen what you get up to in book two, missy, and I know the truth about you.
J: *perks up* Book two, hey?
A: *slams notebook shut* Yes, book two, the one I'll never be able to write if you don't help me learn enough about you so I can write book one. *glares*
J: Oh. That book two.
A: *silence*
J: *sigh* Okay, what's the next question?
A: *reopens notebook* What's the one thing that you would do anything to avoid, or to avoid happening?
J: *thoughtful silence* *eyes downcast* Getting the wrong guy.
A: What?
J: *makes eye contact* Getting the wrong guy. Killing the wrong person. Nabbing someone who was innocent. Screwing up.
A: *hesitates* Thank you.
J: *nods* You're welcome.


After this she began to behave, and answered my questions nicely, so it becomes less entertaining. But I thought this might amuse you, at least for a short while :)

Month Two: Think Sideways

Sorry for the untimeliness of this post; this past weekend has been insane, and the insanity is set to continue as we gear up for a major family wedding next Monday. I'll do my best to keep the posts coming over the next ten days, but no promises. Thanks for understanding :)

Wow, it's that time again already! This month has gone so fast (thank goodness).

So, Month Two, the month of Planning. (If you want to read up on month one, by the way, it's here).


Week Five

This was a week that a lot of people taking the Think Sideways course had trouble with. Mostly, I think, because we like things in neat boxes - and sometimes planning a novel doesn't fall into a neat box. In this lesson Holly introduced the concept of the Dot and the Line (see my post here); and as a way of kickstarting story-brainstorming, I'm in love. The main point of this conceptual way of looking at things is learning to narrow down your focus, to concentrate only on what matters, what is different, what is special about your character and conflict and story, and put your effort into building that, rather than getting caught up in the million-and-one other pits the avid world-builder can fall into.

The Dot: Stop. Look. Something happens here. That something is small, it is contained, and it is different from everything around it. It is the one or two or three aspects of a character or conflict or twist or setting that make it stand out from the others around it; the reason why it is that character's story, or why the story starts here.

The Line: Difference. Things on one side are not the same as things on the other. The simplest way to work this is to juxtapose dots: antagonist versus protagonist, protag versus the setting, past versus present versus future... etc. Keep it small, keep it limited: Where are the differences that will cause conflict? What changes?

Week Six

This is the genre week. While it might not seem like much of topic for a lesson, I actually got quite a lot out of this - especially the 'Technique' section, entitled Amazon River %-) This lesson is a perfect example of the things you don't even know you need to ask. Writing careers change, books go bust, and sometimes, you have to do a genre jump. This lesson explains in great detail exactly how you go about learning a new genre in a matter of days, giving techniques for dissecting books in the genre, techniques for finding not just good books, but books that YOU will like in the new genre, and all importantly, techniques for switching genres mid-book.

Week Seven

Worldbuilding. How to do it, and do it right. By which I mean NOT spending years and years and forests of trees planning out every single detail before you write the first word of the story. There's one really simple way to figure out if you need to build a piece of information or not, and it all hinges on the one question that I would certainly never have thought to ask, and that it's taken Holly 17 years to think of asking:

Why do writers worldbuild?

Have a good think about that for a moment, write down some answers if you have a pen. Why?

There are, of course, many answers to this. But there is ultimately only one important answer: To create conflict.

Therefore, if the thing you're looking at building before you start writing doesn't induce a change in your character/s, or in some way create a conflict, don't bother. It's something you can invent as you go along, because it won't change the direction, or the heart and soul of your story.

There are eight extra modules in this huge lesson which deal with the specific areas of conflict, character, culture, scenes, language, maps, time and maths, and come with great worksheets and so forth that will help you build what you need without going over the top. Remember the principle of the dot and the line: small, contained, different.

Week Eight

The final lesson for the month is aptly titled "How to Plan Your Project Without Killing Your Story", and teaches you how to make an outline that will neither make you its slave, nor leave you in a funk when you hit that nasty muddley middle :D The basic premise is the line for scene method, but Holly also covers how to use this method to fix boring spots in your novel before they happen - and before you waste valuable time and words on them.


Conclusions

I am absolutely in love with the techniques I'm learning here. And writing from the middle of month three, I can tell you, they just keep coming. The Dot and Line principle, the Amazon River technique for finding alternative genres for your work (SO useful for remarketing short stories), how to prevent boring or messy bits... these techniques have changed the way I approach my writing, and have made my pre-writing stage so much more efficient and streamlined. Approaching planning in this way is also great for when you're putting together your submission package (week 11, which I'm reading now). Having nutted out the themes and concepts of your story early on, you're in the best position possible to create a winner of a query letter, and a sound synopsis.

So, Think Sideways sounds like something you might be interested in? Previously, to sign up for this course, you had to wait for the next designated sign-up week (which happen about once every two months, from the looks of it), and hope that you got in early enough, since they're all limited-intake.

However.

However. Holly's top 25 affiliates now have access to passwords which mean you can sign up at any time. Given I've sold less than ten items through my affliate link like, ever, imagine my shock when I was included in that email! :D

So, anyway. The long and the short of it is that if you sign up through my link, you can get in at any time, and be guaranteed a place. Skip the sales hype and go to the bottom of this page. If you want to do the six-month course at $47/month, the password is checkin. If you'd prefer the 12-month version (same lessons, just once per fortnight instead of once per week) for $25/month, the password is taketime. Hehe.

Don't forget, payments are monthly via paypal, and you can opt out at any time and get a full refund for any lessons you haven't yet recieved :)

So, that's me for the day! Have a great week, and hopefully the rest of this week's post will be more or less (hopefully more!) on time! :)

Think Sideways: The Dot and The Line

I was supposed to write this last week, but I realised as I was looking at it that, in a way, the dot and the line is Holly's way of looking at significance. So I decided to write the article on significance first. If you haven't read it yet, it's here.

So, first of all, what is the dot and the line? What on earth am I talking about? :)

This principle comes from week five of the Think Sideways course. By this point, I have my basic idea, I have my Sentence (logline) with the MC and their major problem, in an interesting setting, with a twist - and I'm ready to continue. What do I do next? The dot. And the line.

The Dot

The basic principle of the dot is that it's small, defined, and contained. It's different (and in some ways opposite) to the blank space around it; it's special. Extraordinary. Stop, it says. Look. Something important happens here.

The most obvious application of this is in maps - you draw a rough sketch, and you let your subconscious pepper it with dots. Then you ask the questions - why there? What happened? What's extraordinary about that place?

Extraordinary is the key word here; an important principle of pre-planning that helps you avoid over-planning is to let the ordinary speak for itself. You only need to define the extraordinary. This is where the concept relates to what I said about significance: you only need to worry about things that are significant to your story. For now, nothing else matters.

This can apply equally well to characters as to settings: For Neighbourhood Watch I shoved a metaphorical dot on my MC and asked the question. Why him? What happened? What's extraordinary about this boy?

For this story, the MC's defining trait is his jealousy for his younger brother, who is cool, confident, and rules the neighbourhood. This is the trait that kicks the story into motion; this is the trait that provides the MC with all the motivation and tenacity he needs to get himself into Really Big Trouble - from whence he will have to find his way out.

Dots can also apply to conflicts: Why this conflict? What happens? What's so special about it? In my Evil Tree Story, the one I'm developing for the Think Sideways course, the major initial conflict is that my MC Jake has to decide between helping out his girlfriend, who gets into serious, life-threatening trouble, and preserving his reputation - no too-cool teenager wants his friends to know he's out hugging trees ;) Why this conflict? Because Jake has always struggled to fit in. Because it's something he's only acheived recently, and it's something he'll fight tooth and claw to hold onto.

Because he adores his girlfriend, and would sacrifice his life for her if he had to.

Thus the dot: Stop. Look. Something important happens here.

The Line

The line has a different power to the dot. The line shows not importance, but difference. Things on one side of the line are not the same as on the other. For me, this was an easier concept to grasp - lines, difference, makes sense :) And it applies to things other than setting much more intuitively, for me.

Setting is easy. Tomorrow, when I post my maps, I'll show you my primary setting 'lines', and give a quick explanation of them. Essentially, the world on one side of the line is different to things on the other side (big surprise there, huh).

So, characters. My MC in Neighbourhood Watch was easy: his line is the line that he draws between himself and his family. He is at once ashamed of them, their poverty and low-class mannerisms, and wishes nothing more than to be disassociated from them forever, and at the same time intensely jealous of his brother's ability to lead and blend in at will. But he would never, ever admit this - his line between his family and himself is (currently) absolute. They are not his, he is not theirs; they just happen to share a house because he has no other choice.

Applying the line to conflict is a bit different: rather than saying what is different on one side of the conflict to the other (although writing this I realise that that would be a perfectly valid approach, too; what is different before the conflict as opposed to after it? What changes?), I looked at what are the lines that cause conflict.

Lines between people are an easy place to start, because often it's the person's dot - the thing that makes them special is the thing that makes them different, which causes conflict, because difference = conflict...

Take Jake for example. On the one hand, he wants to rescue his girlfriend. On the other hand, his mates don't think he ought to have anything to do with tree-hugging hippies in the first place, let alone rescue them when they 'get themselves into trouble'.

Or Heather, my MC from The Project. On the left, we have Heather, who is going to do whatever it takes - whatEVER - to save that little girl, because of her own past. On the right, we have everyone else, who thinks she's getting way too involved, and ought to a) mind her own business, b) leave it to the police, or c) at the very least not make so much trouble over it.

Conflict. Differences. The line.

Remember, this is not the be-all and the end-all of planning. This is just a neat way to kick things off, to figure out what your focus should be, to understand what it is that makes this your story, an extraordinary story, something different and special and you. It's flexible, and I don't think there's any need to feel constrained by its boundaries: if one area isn't working for you, skip it. It's okay to not know every single detail going into a story :)

Tomorrow, when I figure out how to turn my PDF scans into postable images, I'll throw up my initial workings for the Evil Tree Story, and if you can decode my writing you'll see how a couple of sketchy maps sparked the entire conflict and gave me a name for my MC :)

Analysis of Openings

Meant to do this at the end of last week, but alas, it is week two of uni and already I have an essay due. But better late than never.

The format I'm using here is totally theived from Liana Brooks over at Write or Right? - with her permission, naturally ;)

This was my opening:

"Heather, you have something of mine."
I stared at my brother. I had no idea what he meant.
He stared back in silence. The years hadn't been kind to him, that much was certain. I pursed my lips at his dark, sunken eyes, unkempt hair, and too-skinny frame. Dirt clung to his shirt, and his shoes were scuffed and nearly worn through at the toes.
I frowned. "Really, Andrew. It's nice to see you and all, but" – I glanced up and down the perfectly manicured street – "did you have to show up like this?"
He shrugged and maintained his stare. "You have something of mine."
I suppressed a sigh. Better let him in before the neighbours see. I stepped aside and jerked my head.
His eyes widened briefly, but he stepped inside eagerly enough. I wondered how long it had been since he'd been somewhere warm – his hands were mottled with cold.
He hovered in the hallway, and I stepped past him and led the way to the kitchen. "Drink?"
He nodded. "Something warm would be great."
He slid onto one of the stools that edged the bench, and I turned away to rummage for the mugs and hot chocolate. "So," I said, trying to keep my voice casual. "What brings you here?" I hadn't seen him in what, ten? Eleven years, now? As I turned, mugs in hand, I caught his eye. I inhaled, hit by the intensity of his gaze.
"You have something of mine."

Comments: 26, if we discount my two :)

Hooked? 24 plus one maybe. Hoorah, there is hope! :)

Problems Cited By Critters:
* Brother is more interesting that Heather
* Lots of people wobbled at the 'hands mottled with cold' bit
* Lots of sentences start with 'he'
* Issues with Heather's actions - why does she invite him in instead of just asking what he thinks she has?
* Too many repetitions of "You have something of mine." - makes him sound robotic.

What I Can Fix:
* Both characters need a major overhaul. I know this.
* The cold hands can easily go, and sentences can be reworded to avoid 'he'

What Won't Change:
* I seriously doubt she'll just confront him on the doorstep. I still don't know her very well, but I know enough to know that that's a conversation she's NOT going to have in public ;) Besides, if she did, it would ruin the plot %-)

So, the biggest thing that needs working on here is the characterisation, which ought to iron out interest issues and also quirks in their mannerisms, such as Heather inviting him in, and him being so repetitious (or not, depending on how his character turns out).

For a long time I've been a character-focused writer, and have struggle a LOT with plot and structure. When I started writing this, it was an exercise in Making Things Happen - in plot. Consequently, the characterisation is very hazy - it seems that at the moment I can work on one or the other, but not both.

But that's okay. I can clear that up in revisions, and this novel is teaching me a whole new way of writing - and that I /can/ plot, and structure, and have coherency result :)

Overall, I'm pretty stoked with the high proportion of positive comments, and can't wait to finish this dang draft so I can get to revising.

Of course, the fact that I discovered some rather interesting details about Heather and Andrew's past two days ago has nothing to do with it O:)

Absent Because of Beginnings

Today's title is somewhat non-sensical, but I like the sound of it, so it's staying :P As it suggests, I have been a little absent from the blog this past weekend because of beginnings - one hundred and fifteen first pages, to be precise, as posted over on Miss Snark's First Victim. I'm proud to say that I've read and commented on every one, and also read what no-longer-secret agent Holly Root had to say about them all. And I'm especially proud because with the ones that I commented on before she did, we agreed on nearly every one ;)

Why is this worthy of a post, you ask? Well, my good friend and Twin of Darkness and Good, who goes by the name Liana Brooks, posted a couple of days ago about which openings she liked and why. Which made me think I ought to do a similar post, since similar thoughts have been coruscating throughout my brain for the last few days. (Yes, coruscating. They're very shiny thoughts.) I'm amazed by how much this competition has taught me, and I know that once again my own writing will be made stronger because of it.

So, what struck me about the openings that I loved, versus the openings that were just so-so? Firstly, and mostly, voice. Stories that opened with a unique, identifiable voice that was in some way quirky had me immediately. It almost didn't matter what the subject of the story actually was, if the voice was great, I was hooked. (I say almost because there was this one that had a great voice, but was about a visit to the dentist... Others liked it, but I just couldn't feel that interested. Probably because I've never had a negative experience with a dentist, I'd say.)

And this is something that I know I need to work on for TP - Heather's characterisation is still all OVER the place, and she needs a solid character with a great voice to really make the book sing. But it has potential, and I'm glad of that much :)

Other things I noticed:

* Big paragraphs of description really suck. I skim. That even relates to paragraphs that may not actually be description, but look long and dense. Hoorah for small paragraphs!
* Punctuation, grammar, and spelling really, really, really count. Especially comma slices. (Death to splices! *waves pitchfork*)

And finally, the other biggie: conflict. You may recall that I wrote an article on conflict a while back, basically saying that there are lots of types and that it's the meat and bread of a story. Beginnings are no different. Even if the beginning has a good voice, is clear of mistakes and has nice sized paras, there has to be conflict. And more, the conflict has to be relevant. There has to be a sense that the conflict portrayed matters somehow within the context of the story.

So, personal checklist for beginnings: voice, conflict, bite-sized paragraphs, and no errors. Easy! :D

And A Slight Hyperventilation Of My Own...

The Are You Hooked? contest over at Miss Snark's First Victim is well and truly up and running, with an astounding 113 entries! If you have a spare second to pop over and comment even on one or two, I'm sure everyone would be greatly appreciative. All you have to do is say whether the beginning hooked you or not, and, if you're feeling verbose, why :)

Meanwhile, I'm having a bit of a 'squee' moment of my own. This is what Secret Agent had to say about my opening:

"Yes. I might tighten a few spots (strike second line, cut to "The years hadn't been kind to my brother, that much..."; lose the second line about his clothes) but I'd want to see where this is headed."

*bounces up and down* Words cannot describe how floatily excited I am right now :D

First Lines and Hookability

If you haven't heard of Miss Snark, then you are a deeply deprived person. Go right now and check out her Snarkives which, even though she is no longer actively blogging, contain an absolute treasure trove of information on the writing business.

And although she is no longer blogging, the dear Miss Snark has spawned a great many spin off blogs - one of which belongs to Authoress, owner of the Miss Snark's First Victim blog. Over the next few weeks, she's running a second Are You Hooked? competition - and the rules are easy. When submissions open (circa July 14), email in your first 250 words of any story. Once the entry period is over, each entry will be posted in a separate post, and readers of the blog will comment on each post. As an added bonus, Authoress has managed to snag a real-life, honest-to-goodness agent who will also read and critique each opening.

Entry is free, you don't have to have a complete manuscript to enter, and all that's asked is that you give feedback on everyone else's beginnings if you get feedback on yours. What have you got to lose?

If you're feeling like you need a bit of a warm up, this thread over on Critique Circle is for posting entries to for preliminary help with polishing and feedbacky-ness. And our very own Liana Brooks is hosting a first paragraph 'competition' on her blog as we speak as a warm up for your first 250 words :)

Free feedback, from an agent no less. You can't pass that up every day ;)

Logan Appears

So, I appear to have officially decided that BG is on the back burner until it's been world-built better. It's going to be one big, complex story, and I'd like to have a more solid grasp on it going in than I currently do.

I say I appear to have decided, because while I didn't actually consciously decided, the first few lines of Logan (scheduled to be the next wip) appeared in my head tonight - and quickly turned into about 900 words. Nearly the first complete scene :) I intend to complete it after dinner (no, have not had dinner yet, was distracted by computer. Yes, am starving hungry!), and hopefully make a start on the second scene.

Teaser, anyone?

Logan looked up at the wall in front of him. In the nighttime gloom it seemed to stretch up forever, even though he knew it was only as tall as the nearby houses.
"Go on," said his brother, B, from behind.
"No way," said H, shaking his head. "There's no way we can go in there."
Logan glanced left and right to see how the other members of the group were reacting. T looked resonably interested, but the others seemed to be echoing H. He turned to his brother. "I don't know, B. It's asking for trouble."


Yes, the other characters aren't named yet. Deal with it ;)

'Black Gates' Wins Out in the Portalverse...

So, after all my fluffing around, it seems The Black Gates has finally won over Logan in the 'Which Book Gets Written Next' competition.

Why?

Simple. It may not have as complete an outline, but it does have that one thing that Logan sorely lacks - world-building. And now, also, a beginning, which came to me last night as I lay in bed struggling to sleep. Teaser, anyone?

Athara tensed under the blankets and strained her ears in the darkness. Was that the gate?

I'm horrified by the fact that it begins with the MC waking up, but at this stage, it'll just have to cope. Besides, it's not waking up so much as being woken up. And that's completely different, right? *sheepish grin* At least it has a beginning now.



In other news, my universe finally has a name. A nickname, anyway, something quick which I can use to refer to it. It came to me this morning as I was driving to work.

Yesterday, I spent a lot of time reading agent Kirsten Nelson's blog, and subsequently doing some actual agent research (cue scary music... dun dun dun...). It was interesting, though I bemoan the fact that so many more US agents make themselves accessible through the web - I'm yet to find a single Australian agency that even lists bios for its agents :\

ANYway. My universe.

Somewhere in the mountains of advice I read yesterday, an agent spoke of a story she'd taken on - to her suprise, a 'portal story'.

*shock* and *surprise* on my part. Prophecies? Chosen Ones? Sure, they're overdone in fantasy, that's a no-brainer.
But portals?

Well, yes. I suppose so.*

*cringes*

Any of you that know the background that ties my stories together will understand that this is crushing news for me. (Though I don't really care; see footnote below). In my universe, portals abound. They're pretty much a staple, you could say.

And all this rushed through my head this morning as I drove, distracting me from focussing on the on-coming traffic (O:) don't tell my father!)... and the perfect name appeared.

My universe is, officially, the Portalverse.

:D

*(A large part of me wants badly to argue that they're only as overdone in fantasy as space ships are in science fiction... People need to travel after all. But is this self-defence or logic at work here? Who's to say...)

P.S. Say hello to my hundredth post. Hoorah! Aren't I verbose *beams*

I Hate Writing?

So. It's the 5th of February, and my writing count for the month stands at a big fat zero. Not fun.

I sat down today to think about writing the beginning... And thought to myself - I hate beginnings. Somehow, they seem like they need to be more perfect than any other part of the story - it's what's going to hook people in, after all.

And then I remembered the trouble I had throughout January trying to finish TBAEO. I hate endings, remember?

All okay. Endings (including the climax) are hard too. So, I hate beginnings and endings... But I can do the middle.

Um, no.

Remember Nano, anyone?

So, I hate the beginning, the ending, and the middles...

Does this mean I hate writing? *grin* No. It just means that the process of writing a novel is a long and difficult one, and my brain is just a little bit lazy.


On that note, off to find a beginning...

Sometimes It Comes... And It Isn't What You Expected

I know, I know, I'm spamming you this week. I'm sorry. Hopefully, you'll cope.

Sometimes, the book you plan to write isn't the one that wants to be written. I sat down tonight, prepared to force myself to begin outlining The Black Gates.

Instead, I now have a 1300+ word outline for (temporary title) Logan's Prize. Stupid title, since he doesn't have a prize. Maybe I'll just nickname it Logan.

This story is a bit of history for The Black Gates; I've known the general gist of it for months now, but the story just came to me, a few weeks ago, first act complete, just like that. I could see the scenes vividly in my mind, and I just knew it would work.

I typed it up...

And then I lost it. I've spend the last two days scouring my home computer, my work computer, my email accounts and my notebooks... All to no avail.

So tonight, instead of outlining The Black Gates, I sat down to write what I knew about Logan. And ended up with a complete, finished outline.

I think Logan's impatient to be written. Athara may just have to wait...

Another Breakthrough

A long time ago, way back in highschool, I began a story. It was archaic and stilted - and had a horrible title - but I knew that somewhere, somewhere, there was something worth working on in it.

It was the first piece I ever submitted to Critique Circle; I chose it because I had no emotional attachment to it and so thought I wouldn't mind people telling me how horrible it was.

To my surprise, they didn't. My suspicions that there was something worthwhile in there was confirmed. So I worked on it.

The character that was supposed to be the villain became sympathetic, and eventually developed into a main character with his own story. I tried to weave his story in with the original main character in a story I temporarily titled Search... But it just didn't work.

And so, for months, I stalled. I couldn't figure out where to go with her story, and his story needed so much more worldbuilding to make it plausible.

But today...

Today I had a breakthrough. At work, scribbling away while I scanned, writing down my goals for the coming year, I began to think about this story, and what needed to happen.

And now I have at least two thirds of a semi-decent outline.

And I made an important discovery - once again, it was the muse balking that was holding me back. But this time the muse was balking for a good reason: the beginning was wrong.

All it took was a change from a slow, drawn-out and expected death to a quick accident, and voila! Beginning problem solved.

Now I can't wait to keep working on it :)

If only I could finish Evil Overlord first...

Beginning Again...

A new year, a new story...

But how do I begin?

Over the next few weeks I'll be using a combination of the Create-a-Plot Clinic, the Two Year Novel books, and an outlining method used by a friend of mine from Critique Circle to try to begin my new story. Once I have some more concrete thoughts on which methods have worked for me, and why, I'll post some reviews of the products I'm using.