Work in Progress: TMOS

Tags

connect, Insights, LiteratureLessons, metaphor, nanowrimo, novel, WorkingOnStuff

This morning, I had another lull at work. No one else was in the office, and I had two hours to kill.

I opened up Wings of Skell to edit it, but before I’d even found my place again, I was opening a new document, and typing out the details of an idea that I’d had Monday night.

I was originally tagged by Cheyenne in one of these “Work in Progress” Blog Hops and having done one for my other pieces, here’s one on this new project.

This is my final set of answers for now – focusing on the novel I began in 2010, and am working on into 2013 (mainly to stop me editing the previous two). It’s not as detailed as the previous two, but as it’s actually my work in progress, I thought I should post about it.

 

1) What is the working title of your book?

It’s currently called The Mists of Shade.

2) Where did the idea come from for the book?

Watching Pocahontas on Monday night reminded me of an idea I’d had a few months or years again. It wasn’t new, but this new idea then blossomed over the last three days as I tried to write it down and then ignore it.

3) What genre does your book fall under?

I’ve only written one chapter, but I’d say fantasy as a loose category for now.

4) Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I only have two characters so far, and one of them’s an animal.

5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Kayla is a social worker in the county of Sussex, and looks from the outside as normal as anyone. But she has a gift that she cannot ignore. When she begins working on a case at work that stumps her colleagues, she discovers the war that’s going on under every person’s feet.

6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

At this point, neither. Both are possible though.

7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I began this morning… It’s less than 3,000 words so far.

8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I’ll let you know when I know what this one’s about.

9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?

One scene of Pocahontas, loosely.

10) What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

I already know what I want the cover to look like, and it’s EPIC.

Once again, I tag anyone who writes  Leave a link in the comments so I can read about your work and connect with you.

In Light,
Rose

The Written Word: A Love Affair

Tags

blazing-crusade, connect, LiteratureLessons, novel, potential, reflection

This morning, I got my first official rejection. This led to me buying a kindle and a load of new books to read, as well as increasing my motivation to edit my novels.

 

~

 

I grew up with books.
In a way, I grew up inside books.

And most of my core beliefs now stem from some of the books I read as a child.

Having beliefs that your parents disagree with, and don’t understand, was always a real problem in my house – but when I look back on those series, I realise the true importance of the written word on who I am today.

The first set of books that taught me about life were by Kenneth Oppel: Silverwing, Sunwing and Firewing. This was the first set of books I’d read where a creature died, and it’s spirit was free to continue flying through the trees (it was a bat), and I began to question the aspects of life and death as experiences.

Next, I discovered the strong female figures – Lyra from His Dark Materials Trilogy, Myrina from Troy and the Warrior Women Series, Magda in the Forestwife Series, Sabriel in the Old Kingdom Trilogy and Renn in the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness.

Then, the ideas of family and honour arose as I read The Sight and Fell by David Clement-Davies.

 

Moving Forward

Today, I bought a second-hand Kindle on eBay. I place all blame on my sister of the written word, and her bad influence. She too, is an avid reader and writer, though our favoured genres are often very different.

This led to me spending a lot of time in the Kindle online store today, and, unfortunately, to buying a lot of paperbacks.

The idea of paying more for a Kindle book than a new paperback, let alone a second hand paperback, doesn’t sit well with my beliefs, nor my wallet.

But I bought some books.

 

The Importance of Reading

As far as my reading habit goes, this is a brilliant step forward. I’ve not been reading much over the past couple of years, nor even in the past two months, even without a TV in my flat. Finding new authors and series to trial has re-sparked that love of reading and I’m already back on track to reaching this year’s goal of completing 26 books minimum, and ideally aiming for 35-40.

Through university, my reading list considered a lot of books on quantum physics, spiritual exploration and psychology or writer non-fictions…

As a writer now editing my books, I feel that now is the time to keep myself immersed in good writing – now I’m less afraid of accidentally stealing ideas as the plot is already laid out – so I can focus on making sure my tone and style really expresses the places and people I’ve created.

So, as a fan of books, who loves hearing about other books, here are the purchases I’ve made this weekend:

“Fire” – Cashore, Kristin
“Graceling” – Cashore, Kristin
“Geist (Book of the Order)” – Philippa Ballantine
“2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love”  – Rachel Aaron [Kindle Edition]
“Runemarks” – Harris, Joanne
“Gardens of the Moon (Book 1 of The Malazan Book of the Fallen)” – Erikson, Steven
“The Spirit Thief (Legend of Eli Monpress)” – Aaron, Rachel;
“The Agency: Volume 2” – Dianne Sylvan [Kindle Edition]

I will of course be rating these on my reading list.

 

Writing

Also, March is my month of novel-editing, and here is the latest update:

Day: 3
Pages Edited: 17/314 and 0/310
Scenes Edited: 3/71 and 0/80

Don’t forget to find out more about my books from the my writing page.

Story Editing ~ March 2013

Tags

blazing-crusade, nanowrimo, novel, processing

Each November, I take part in NaNoWriMo.

This year, I wrote a sequel to a book I finished 2 weeks before hand.

Throughout February, I’ve dipped in and out of reading, re-writing and whining over the first instalment. But today, it’s March, and I feel like I’ve made no progress.

I was whining about it last night, when Ellie Di commented on my frustrations.

“Sounds to me like you might actually have one book spread across two. Have you thought about what you can cut and combine?”

Oh Shit.
I hadn’t even considered that my two books might actually be one.

80,000 words is an okay novel-length. 92,000 is almost perfect.

Combining them will surely involve a lot of cutting, and I’m not sure how to re-write the information I still need to include.

I asked my friend Sorcha, who read my first book, and she seemed unsure.

“I suppose you could, but you’d have to be really careful because there’s a lot of important backstory on the antagonists etc… and the assassins that you need to keep in otherwise people might get confused.”

So this month of March, I’m editing: be that re-writing, cutting, merging or beginning bits again.

I’ll be updating my progress here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/novel-draft-aftercare/threads/107884 and measuring it according to pages:

Current Score: 
Day: 1
Pages Edited: 5/314 and 0/310
Scenes Edited: 1/71 and 0/80

Are you editing a piece of work? How do you measure the process?

– Rose –