Friday, January 13, 2017

Update: Revising and About Hourglass



I'm pretty sure I said something about this before, but I put Call of the Piper on the back-burner for a bit so I can break it down a bit better and fix the plot holes and just the big mess I made with it. Instead, I'm writing a novel called Hourglass. Well, it's written, I'm just revising it now (because it's a mess).

There isn't a synopsis right now. I'll be working writing one soon. I'm currently focusing on revising the first few chapters before sending it to my critique partner...but I'm finding a hard time fitting it in. I need to revamp my schedule because classes started up again and the professors this semester aren't messing around. I can't slack off like I usually do. I'm currently working on fitting everything in.

For my WriYe challenges, I decided to jump in on one (like I didn't want to do) and participate in the Genre Challenge. It's Origin Story. It's such a good pick for the month. I couldn't pass it up. I decided to write an origin story for someone in the novel I'm currently working on. It's really good to know the backstory of this character, though I can't tell you without giving some kind of spoiler.

Other than that, I have to say, revising is probably one of my least favorite steps in the process. It's long but it's worth it.

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Character Driven vs. Plot Driven


It's amazing how many people don't know the difference between character-driven stories and plot-driven stories. It's pretty self explanatory. To make it as simple as possible, character-driven stories usually always deals with more of an internal focus. This is where the story is more about the character changes throughout the book more than the outside forces. Plot-driven stories are more external. The things happening around your character are what drives the story.

There should be a good mixture of both aspects in a novel but writers tend to lean heavily toward one compared to the other. Knowing which one you tend favor can really help you direct your story.

I'm the kind of person who tends to favor plot-driven stories especially for my fantasy and science fiction novels and novellas. I like  having the external conflict be the main drive of my story. Getting to a deep emotional level and having that drive it, is really hard for me but with the novel I'm currently revising for publication, I've discovered that it's heavily character-driven.

How can I tell? Well, my characters emotional and mental state are huge factors on what's going on around him. I color-coded my main plot, my series plots (over reaching plots) and my subplots. So when I outlined, I could see how it all fit. My character's emotional and mental state ended up being huge and crucial for the story and his development also becomes a cause of some of the events that happen in this series. (I will probably write a blog post about this Friday.)

If I had to compare it to my novella The Survival Agreement, I would have to say that they are completely different in terms of style. The story is being moved by the plot and the situations that my characters have to go through. Their internal conflicts aren't prominent. They are important but not heavily brought up. (Does that make sense?)

Normally, I write lists for these blog posts but I feel like this one is fairly simple. I mostly wanted to bring up this topic because I struggled creating an outline for my novel due to the fact that I didn't realize how character-driven it was. So, it's good to know your style.

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

WriYe Blogging Circle: More and more goals




What’s your Wriye Word Count goal and why did you chose it? What are you going to be focusing on this year? What are you doing differently this year compared to last year?

Bonus:

What are you most excited about for in 2017? Writing wise or not. Let us know!

The Blogging Circle for 2017 is up and thought I've already written a post about my goals, I'll be a little more specific on my writing goals and there are things that I didn't talk about. 
My WriYe word count goal this year is 250,000 words. I might raise it later but I'm uncertain at this point how much writing I'm going to complete but 250,000 words sounds like a manageable  goal to me. 

This year, my focus is on publishing. I after many changes, I've decided to nix the Call of the Piper as the novel to publish and just start working on Hourglass. I have a lot to work on for that and I've already figured out my plot and start working on my new outline. Hopefully, I'll be able to start revising by this weekend. 

The biggest thing I'm doing differently this year is having a critique partner or two.  I'm actually part of a critique group in one of the writing groups I'm a part of...but I haven't sent anything to them yet. Maybe this will be a good chance to send them something. I also have a few beta readers and a deadline. Some of the other things that I've done differently is join a writing contest. I might join more or try to write for an anthology. Just trying to get my writing out there is important.

I'm most excited for publishing. This is a goal I've been working toward for some time. After lots and lots of research, I finally feel like I have everything ready to publish this year. It's probably not going to go smoothly, but it will be a good experience.