Leap Day Update

Wednesday is far too close to Sunday for these updates!!  I feel like I just did one.  Although the work week is dragging.  Let me reiterate:  duhrayeguhing!

So, no post besides my link to the ROW80′ers also getting it done (in various degrees), and my update.

HUGE PROGRESS!!  Of course, the changes I made, and the ripples they caused, are something I have to be conscious of even in the littlest details.  And I went and made another *minor* (minor, I say!) change . . . well, not a change so much as the addition of some information I had not eluded to before.  I’d been saving it for book 2.  Uh-huh.  Damn characters taking over again.  The red pen is furiously bleeding all over the hard copy and I would say I’m close to half done.  Whew!!

Write on! 

Suspension of Disbelief

a willingness to suspend one’s critical faculties and believe the unbelievable; sacrifice of realism and logic for the sake of enjoyment

I caught bits and pieces of the movie Dante’s Peak – only because Hubby had it on and I happened to be wandering in and out of the room.  Maybe I’m just getting more cynical in my not-as-young-as-I-was age, or maybe I just caught the worst parts of the movie (assuming there were better parts), but I found myself yelling at the television as though it were to blame for the disbelieve-ability of the entire thing.

Allow me to set the scene:  The characters are in a life or death race against a volcano ready to blow its substantial top.  They race *up* the mountain because two children drove up to save their grandma, despite the fact ash was falling thicker than a Wisconsin blizzard and they couldn’t see past the hood of their truck.  Everyone winds up at grandma’s cabin, and while she waxes nostalgic about she and grandpa building said cabin, the back wall suddenly turns red and erupts into flame.  Why?  Well, because a giant lava flow has snuck up on them.  They flee the burning house just ahead of the lava flow and make it to the river where sits an old motor boat.  They climb in, start up the ash covered engine, and everyone breaths a sigh of relief.  Whew!

Or not.  Because suddenly they realize all the fish in the river are dead.  The volcanic activity has turned the water into acid.  Acid which is steadily eating through the boat.  Put your feet up kids!  Now, granted, I’ve never had to outrun a volcano, and I hope I never need to.  HOWEVER, if I found myself in the  middle of an acid river, eating a hole through my boat (which it did much quicker than eventually eating the prop), I certainly wouldn’t keep putting blithely down the middle  of the river.  I’d be heading for the opposite shore because there are no paddles in the boat.  Not our guy.  Straight down the middle, slowly, gazing dramatically at the dead fish and the water seeping in through the bottom of the boat.  He seems totally flummoxed when the engine stops, and he realizes the acid *finally* did in the prop.  Now what are they going to do?

I won’t spoil it for you.  Suffice it to say, they make it to shore in the nick of time.  We can breath again.  I missed bits and pieces after that and came in on the next totally inane scene.  This time they’re in a forestry truck which they’ve hot wired (which leads me to wonder if everyone on earth besides me know how to hot wire a vehicle??)  They drive the vehicle through a lava flow.  Yes, the tires flame and melt almost instantly, but they keep trucking (pun intended), even pausing long enough to save the family dog along the way.

There’s more, but I think I’ve got enough to make my point.  And that is?  Simply this:  If a viewer — or a reader — loses their Suspension of Disbelief, we (the author) are screwed.  As a member of the audience, I’m not very forgiving when this happens.  Quite frankly, it pisses me off-fa-fa.  I’m investing my time to read that book or watch that movie.  I’m willing to believe what you throw at me as plausible within the confines of that story so long as it makes sense and is honest.

My hope is I never ruin it for my readers.  If I do, I sure hope they’ll let me know!

And, as this is actually my ROW80 check-in — *happy dance, happy dance* made it through the scene re-write/edit that was stumping me and back into making great headway on the rest.

Write on!

MIA

*Gack*  I missed my Sunday ROW80 update, and think I’ve been listed as MIA in most of the social networking arenas I (used to) frequent.  I breeze in, peek around, and scoot out – usually without comment.  It’s the age old adage about not having enough hours in the day.  Truth is, there would be plenty of hours in the day if I didn’t have to spend 9 ½ of them at The Job.  I’m not whining (not really), because in this day and age, I’m grateful to have The Job.  Without it, I wouldn’t have all the other things I have.  But it also means the hours I have outside of it are precious.

And I’ve been obsessed with BD&L.  Need.  To.  Finish.

Plus, lambing will be starting soon.  No, that’s not some weird writing ritual.  And with nicer weather, I get to work the dogs more often.  Not that the weather has been totally cooperative, but when it is, everything else gets shoved till later.  That’s a big part of my life.  If you have no clue what I’m talking about, visit my other blog at Shadowdance Farm.  A blog, also sorely neglected.  *sigh*

So, where am I on BD&L?  So glad you asked. *please note dripping sarcasm*   I’m seeking medical attention for the flat spot I’ve developed from my forehead repeatedly meeting the surface of my desk.  Good thing I have a hard head.  It could be a lot worse.  As it is, I probably need to replace my desk as well.  Meaning. . . ???

Meaning I’m still in flounder mode over the changes I’ve made.  But, thanks to input from my readers *waves and blows kisses* I may finally be getting through it.  A POV switch was suggested.  I explored that more yesterday and decided to go with it.  That will also help fill in some of the gaps from the last time we saw this character.

When not fighting my way through that, my muse has been tossing random scenes and characters at me in a most chaotic fashion.  I’ve been forced to write them down.  Ignoring them just causes problems.  They pester me until they are on paper, figuratively speaking.  But their pestering has had me pounding out well over 1,000 words a day — which, if nothing else, is good exercise for the writing muscles.  One piece, in particular, will either turn into a short story or novella.  I like it, and the characters, I’m a bit stuck on a certain point, but really haven’t given it a lot of attention.  I might post it here as it progresses.  Rough draft.  A freebie for those interested.

And that’s it.  Check out my fellow ROW80‘ers here.                        Write on!

Ripples in the Pond

This is me.  Not literally, but certainly figuratively.  And I’m thinking it’s a good thing I have *a lot* of hair.  Otherwise I would be bald.

Let me just say, overall, I don’t mind editing.  I’m a putzer and a tweeker, and editing allows me to do that under the auspices of something grander.  I can rearrange sentence structure, hunt for new words, play with pacing, and all manner of other fun stuff that doesn’t happen <cough> while in the throws of the first draft.

However — and you knew there was going to be a ‘however’ — during the course of this editing, and at the insistent pushing of the Sage of the South, I rewrote a scene.  The fact the scene needed the revamping is indisputable.  It hovered on being ‘just okay’ when it could have been so much more than that.  It lacked the real tension and gritty realism the events called for.  So I hammered, slaved, tried, failed, tried again, consumed wine and food in a glorious girl’s night, tried again the next morning, and aced it.  Awesome!  <happy dance, happy dance>

There are many sayings about one change, no matter how small, affecting many other things — ripples spreading outwards from the pebble thrown into the pond.  That’s why, to me, time travel is such a conundrum of a thing.  Think about it.  You go back 1000 years and accidentally step on a butterfly and, through some warped chain of events, ten other things fail to occur.  That affects twenty more, and so on until the whole fabric of reality is frayed, and it turns out the time machine was never invented in the first place, but then how did you get back in time to step on the damned butterfly?!!?

<clears throat>  Sorry, all this hair pulling has severely stressed the grey matter.  As I was saying…this change I made really is for the better, except for the damn ripple effect.  Not only did it push my MC further than intended, it forced me to bring out the kindler, gentler side of her co-MC.  He wasn’t supposed to show that side of himself, except for bits and pieces, until closer to the end of the book and then only barely.  He’s not comfortable being kind and gentle.  As the Sage put it, the co-MC wears an Ass Hat.  He can’t help it.  It’s who he is.  As readers, you’ll either understand that and accept him, or totally hate him.

Anyhow, that means I now need to rewrite several — did I say several? — scenes immediately following the fateful change.  Which, by direct correlation, has me mimicking the photo above.  Why?  Because the aforementioned character has to, absolutely, positively, no arguments allowed, HAS TO, put his Ass Hat back on.  But the MC also needs to deal with the new events in a believable and consistent manner.  And the trickle down will work its way through the entire plot, right up to the end of the book and into the next.

<huge sigh>  The trickle down, I can deal with.  The scene immediately following THE SCENE, can I just say, “AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

And that, folks, is my mid-week ROW80 Check-In.  Join the ROW80 Blog Hop here.

And have a nice day.  <head, desk, head, desk, head, desk>

 

Making Adjustments

The post I had scheduled for Friday got eaten.  Which sounds a whole lot like the age old excuse, “The dog ate my homework.”  Well, in this case, cyberspace ate my post.  And I didn’t have the time, or quite honestly the inclination, to re-write it.  I finally need to admit that while I am in the throws of editing BD&L, the blog will suffer.  There is only so much brain power I possess and spreading it thin is a bad idea.  Really bad.  Think cataclysmic disaster of epic proportions.

These were my original ROW80 Goals:

• 2k per day which would put me easily through the first draft of the second BD&L book (I might have to adjust that to 1500 given my schedule but I’ll push for 2k)
• If I get stuck on BD&L2, I must dedicate those words to short stories or flash fiction
• Two regular blog posts per week (Monday & Friday) plus ROW80 updates on Sunday & Wednesday
• Print out a hard copy and line edit BD&L when it returns from my beta
• X number of queries per week once it’s ready to go (I haven’t decided on that number yet)

Here are my Adjusted Goals:

• Finish editing BD&L
• Regular ROW80 updates to the blog on Sunday & Wednesday
• Other additions to blog as they occur to me and when I have the time/brain capacity to do them justice.

And, of course, interspersed within those are the other things known as My Life.  They include things I am obligated to do, and things which I *need* to do for the sake of my sanity (okay, so that one may already be a lost cause) and my soul’s well-being.

Write on!

Of Taun-tauns and Editing

There’s a scene in The Empire Strikes Back where Han Solo cuts open a Taun-taun to stuff Luke into it and by doing so, save his life.  At one point, Han drapes himself across the beast, his efforts exhausting him, and proclaims, “And I thought they smelled bad from the outside!”

That’s exactly how I feel about this editing phase.

There I am, draped across my manuscript, proclaiming, “And I thought this was hard on the writing side!”

And it was.  But it was also fun.  I could just let the words flow, let the characters run rampant and do what they may, giggling insanely when they did something clever, cussing like a sailor when they did something unexpected and left me to deal with the mess.  I didn’t give a fig for how my sentences were structured, how many nasty adverbs snuck into my prose, or the fact that I used the same phrase or word six times in one paragraph.  It didn’t matter.  All that mattered was getting the story down.  Start to finish.

Then came the re-writing, which was still fun because I got to flesh out some scenes, add others, fine tune my characters and my plot and make the story grow.

Then some more re-writing.  The fun began to wear thin.  I’m not sure how many “re-writes” there were.  I didn’t keep track.  But finally, finally, I thought I was close to being done.  For real.

Then. . . . <cue music> light saber, Taun-taun, guts spilling out in a stinky pile.  Too many adverbs.  Too many statives.  Don’t you know how to use a comma correctly?  How many times can you repeat the same word in one paragraph? Do you not own a Thesaurus?  Try opening it once, will ya?   Weasel words, running rampant, whack them!  Whack them all!  See this?  This is your favorite sentence in the whole work.  You thought it witty, or poignant, or sublime, and felt positive everyone would remember this one line, if nothing else.  Trash it.  It doesn’t work.  It’s gratuitous, and flowery, and full of nothing but your ego.  Kiss it goodbye.

Eep!

But, when the sun rose, Han waved in the rescuers and all was good.

And, when the sun rises on the other side of this editing, I’ll be popping a cork.  Not only to celebrate its completion, but to rejoice in the fruits of my labor when I realize where it started and what it’s become.

I have my very first, very rough draft.  I plan on reading it when I’m completely finished.  It will, most likely, throw me into fits of hysteria.

So, ROW80  goals?  Still pretty much on target with where I was Sunday.  Check out all the other ROW80 participants on the ROW80 Blog Hop.

Write on!

Hocus-Pocus and Bippity-Boppity-Boo

Too Many Cooks ~ copywrite K. L. Schwengel

As a reader, one of the things that turns me off is gratuitous magic with little structure and no consequences.  (The same holds true of sci fi with science that just doesn’t ring true.)

As a writer, my magic system is regulated, not frivolous, and has a cost.  Several of my readers have commented on, and thanked me for, making magic something other than what I’ll describe below.

And what I describe is why fantasy sometimes gets a bad rap  –  magic that is free for the taking, and can get the characters out of any situation at any moment, or is used for mundane, daily chores like lighting fires, dressing, or preparing food.  (Yes, one of my characters does use her magic to light a fire, but only out of necessity, not as the norm.)   If the characters get into a prickly situation, a wave of the wand later, they’re on to their next adventure.

That’s a bit of a lazy approach, if you ask me.  But, if the writing is good, the characters sympathetic, and the plot engaging – well, more power to you.  Maybe then it just doesn’t matter.

I, however, think it does matter.  Hopefully my readers will as well.

For an example of easy magic, let’s look at the esteemed fantasy healer.  Here’s a familiar  scenario:  The main character takes an injury, there’s no time in the plot for him to heal in a natural manner, so call in the healer and botta-boom, botta-bing he’s on to the next scene, none the worse for wear.

Awesome.  *yawn*

C’mon, people!  If it were that easy, there wouldn’t be much risk involved in facing off the bad guy or slaying the dragon, would there?  Just haul along a healer, and get yourself pumped up with some Fix-a-Flat, and you’re good as new.  Where’s the tension in that?  And tension is one thing that keeps your reader doing the thing which we writers desire most.  It keeps them turning the page, keeps them coming back to our books and reading.

So, for the sake of argument, let’s say healing takes a toll on both the healer and the patient.  Why would it, you ask?  Simple.  The healer must expend energy, must take some of the patient’s pain into themselves, must exert themselves to try (notice, I said ‘try’) and heal their patient.  And why should this also drain the recipient?  Because it’s not the natural way for a body to mend itself, that’s why.  Because the body has still suffered an injury, lost blood, been shocked and traumatized.  Unless your healer also does a bit of time travel to the point before the injury (and wouldn’t that be an interesting concept to explore…), all that bodily abuse still exists, and still has an effect.  There have to be ramifications.

Which is, of course, just my humble opinion.

I like to think of magic like exercise.  Did a bunch of you just say, “Ugh.”  I know I did.  Why?  Besides the fact exercise is important, and most of us don’t get as much as we should, I’m going to bet your response was due to the fact that exercise is hard and demands a price.  That’s how magic should be.  Think of someone with a lot of magic as a prime athlete.  For them, the small spells equal ten push-ups.  Piece of cake, they don’t even break a sweat doing it.  A larger spell might equal 100 push-ups; harder, still doable, but it’s going to take some work, and when they’re done, they may need to rest for a while before doing more.  A really big spell might equal a bunch of push-ups, some squats, and – well, add in some other physical exertions.  Holy crap!  Our athlete can do it, because they’ve trained and prepared, but it takes a lot of effort and they’ll need to rest when they’re finished.  Obviously a lesser magic wielder would have problems with even the 10 push-ups.  (That would be me, if anyone’s wondering.)

The bottom line?  Just because it’s magic doesn’t mean it should be an easy out.  If your story is all about easy, I doubt it’s very interesting.  Give your magic some boundaries, some rules and consequences.  Then see what happens!

Next up:  Here, there be monsters.

Write on!

Another Award & ROW80 Update

A big Thank You to J M McDowell for handing me this:

Those who know me best would argue that I am not who they think of in connection with anything having to do with “Sunshine”.  As it usually denotes cheery, outgoing, happy, etc.  Not that I’m a grumpy, unhappy, introvert.  Okay, fine, I am an introvert, or perhaps just reserved with strangers (as is my chosen breed of dog).  In any case, I thank JM for the award and will add it to my list and try to do it honor.

As I’m way behind in several awards I swear to pass them along this week.  Honestly, I will.  So if I visit your blog, just remember, you could be next in receiving one of these awesome badges. 

As for my ROW80 update:  Still on track with the editing/revising.  In fact my reader should be the happy recipient of revised pages very shortly — this weekend perhaps (Oh, great Sage of the South, you thought you had escaped me!  Bwa-ha-ha ha!).

Blog posts – yes, Satan needs to run out and buy a jacket – I’m two ahead of myself!  Unreal.  Well, at least for *this* blog.  I contribute to the IMPire (and you really need to go visit if you haven’t) so need to send something their way, and my Farm/Dog blog is behind as well.

And, I do write every day.  Mostly on the above mentioned editing/revising, but occasionally on little sniglets of other things.  Hmm, maybe should post a fresh one of those, since I haven’t in a while.  Oh, and I’ll hopefully have an entry in Devin O’Branagan’s Flash Fiction contest — missed the past two months on that.  Stop in and check it out.  Anyone can enter.   Rules are at the link.

So, there we have it.  And here you have the link to all the other ROW80 participants.  Now, go write something!

Write on!

Setting the Record Straight

“You write fantasy?  Well, you have it easy then.  You can just make everything up!”

Yes, someone actually said that to me.  To which I responded, “Huh?!!?”

I know, eloquent, hey?

Well, sure, those of us who write fantasy do make up a lot of things.  We create whole worlds for our characters to inhabit.  But easy?  Seriously?  Have you ever tried to create a world from scratch?

Worldbuilding is exactly that.  Building.  A.  World.  The whole world.  Which means there’s a lot more to it than setting a scene.   To draw the reader in and hold them – give them their moment of suspended disbelief –  our worlds must be believable, and consistent. They have history and culture, languages, social structures, food, clothing, artifacts – in short, everything the real world has.  A lot of that information never makes it directly to the reader, but that isn’t the point.  It shapes our characters.  How they react to the situations they’re put into is impacted by their environment and culture and if we, as writers, don’t know those details how the heck are we, as readers, going to care?  To ensure our characters talk and act in a true manner, the world they exist in must have rules and boundaries.

And it must be consistent.

Oh, did I say that already?  Well, I’m saying it again.  If it’s commonplace for inhabitants of Aquinius to be able to walk on water, and suddenly in the heat of a chase scene they can’t get across a lake because not doing so builds tension, there’s a problem.  Caveat alert:  If that scenario is part of the plot, if there’s something different about this lake that prevents the inhabitants of Aquinius from walking across it, and they need to discover the secret, then there’s a reason for it.  Otherwise, walking on water is commonplace for all inhabitants and must remain so.  End of discussion.

So, yeah, we make stuff up.  A lot of stuff.  A lot more than the reader may realize.

And why?  Depth.  Believability.  Escapism.

After all, would you rather spend your time in a world rich in culture and history, where things feel real?  Or one where you’re surrounded  by hazy details and superficiality?

Me?  I’m going for the big plunge.  Make me believe this world does exist somewhere and these people are real because then I’ll care, and I won’t want to put that book down.  As an example, some of my all time favorite worlds are:  Middle Earth, Pern, and the section of Compact space in which dwell the Chanur clan.  How about you?  What worlds do you think have succeeded?  Or failed?

Next post:  A look at magic in fantasy.

Write on!

Wednesday Check-in

Are you sitting?  I’m actually writing this Tuesday evening, and scheduling it to publish Wednesday morning, instead of frantically penning something Wednesday at the day job.  On break, of course.  *cough, cough*

Just a quick mid-week update on ROW80 goals — no change from Sunday.  Except that I actually have a few ideas for blog posts.  Again, ahead of time.  I’ll blame part of my lethargy of late on a nasty cold courtesy of the husband.  Nothing worse than trying to think and be organized when your head feels as though it’s been stuffed in a bucket.  Then comes the coughing and hacking and attack of the mucus.  Fun stuff.  And when I thought it had left, it was back for more.  It’s still lingering and really starting to annoy me, but I think its grip is loosening and I’m about to kick it to the curb.

If you missed Monday’s  guest post, please give it a look.  Author J. A. Campbell wrote a special short story involving Doc, the Vampire hunting Border Collie.

ROW80 Blog Hop is here.

Write on!