Posts Tagged ‘novel writing’

Another Idea

Posted: September 27, 2009 in fantasy, writing update
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True to form, as I’m starting to make progress in the rewrite of Tear of the Mountain – 13,000 words in – another new idea comes along.

Cept it isn’t like any idea I’ve had before. A couple of days ago there was nothing. Next thing I knew, without even trying, I had, well, near everything. Five main characters came along and I knew what they looked like, their personalities and how they interacted with one another. In addition there were five minor characters with similar details. Much of the overall plot was there, as well as some minor plot details. Various scenes and conversations were whirling around as well.

In all my time fiddling around writing I’ve never had a project just jump so vividly into existence before. Stopping Tears of the Mountain when I’ve done so much already would be a bit silly, but this new project has really taken a hold and refuses to let go. At the very least I’m going to have to make some notes so I don’t forget it.

Procrastination And Goal Setting

Posted: July 19, 2009 in writing update
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As I have mentioned before I’m something of a procrastinator when it comes to writing, and I don’t really set goals or plot out things properly, which adds to that problem.

When it comes to writing I’ve always been a bit of a seat-of-pantser, just having a vague idea and going with it. Oddly, this stands in stark contrast with how I go about world building, in which I do a lot of planning.

I think I’ve realised that though I may write as a pantser, I am in reality a plotter and that is why I don’t get as much done as I should. I’m changing that, and as a result am making some progress – I’ve known the plots of most of the short stories I’ve written in the last few months and have been able to churn out quite a few and, while I haven’t done much written work on Tears of the Mountain yet I am confident given how much of the plot I have already figured out.

I have also read a post by Merrilee Faber on her blog recently, talking about the techniques of writing and the setting of goals. It certainly did nail the problem I’ve had for most of the year – my goals have been far too long term and made of vague generalities; ie write a novel.

What I should have been doing was setting smaller, more concrete goals, but more of them. And so I shall.

The post itself is here and is worth a read, whether you are a panster or a plotter.

How To Start A Novel

Posted: July 6, 2009 in Tears of the Mountain, writing update
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I must admit that I have no problems beginning novels – I have ideas spilling out all the time – but where I do fall down is ending them. While I am for ever starting new ones, the fact I finished a rough draft earlier in the year was something of an oddity.

Holly Lisle wrote an article called How to Start a Novel and in it is discussed what is really my main mistake – lack of planning.

I think I will have to pause momentarily with Tears of the Mountain (after having made it 9K in already) and go through and plan it properly, make sure that it is all there in front of me – world, characters, conflict, theme, the works.

I am not without things to do in the meantime – working on more stuff for Pure Escapism, the ‘prequel’ pilot for Tears of the Mountain and various other tasks that need doing.

Another Idea

Posted: July 4, 2009 in Tears of the Mountain, writing update
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The rough draft for Tears of the Mountain has suddenly hit 9K words, the draft barreling along at a fair clip of knots, and yet not much has happened. No indication yet as to how long this will turn out to be.

Strangely, while doing this, another idea came to mind. No, I’m not stopping work on the draft, but it does sort of tie in.

What I’m thinking of is to do a longer short story, some 15-20K in length, that is something of a prequel to Tears of the Mountain. The main though behind doing this was to introduce a few of the characters and also to give an overall indication to the feel of the world which is a little different than for most fantasy worlds. Plan would be to have it to share and show around when talking about the novel and the world, so people can see what it is all about.

Sought of like a pilot for a TV program, the purpose thereof to generate some interest.

At least that is the idea.

Getting The Numbers Right

Posted: July 2, 2009 in General
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In building realistic fantasy worlds, one error that people sometimes fall into is not getting the number right.  By this I am mostly referring to populations and armies.

Often the numbers involved are based more on modern times and not what could be expected for the equivalent time frame.  Million man armies just did not exist, no matter what the Dark Lord may want.

Populations were small, and predominately rural, living in small villages and involved in farming.

Armies, except for rare instances, mostly numbered only in the thousands.  Tolkien is one that gets this right, at lest for the good guys.  Their forces only number in the thousands, even at the Battle of Pelennor Fields, Hornburg and the Black Gates.  Of course the Uruk always number in much larger numbers…

I came across a couple of interesting article on the web dealing with these matters, and offering helpful advice on dealing with realistic numbers.  They will certainly help me in my world building and writing.

Medieval Demographics Made Easy

Keeping Your Fantasy Armies A Little Less Fantastic

The New Project

Posted: July 1, 2009 in Tears of the Mountain, writing update
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After a long period of threatening, I have finally started work on writing the novel. Yep, it is now the WIP and will remain so until it is done, with Pure Escapism relegated behind it.

I started writing it two days ago and have already passed 3000 words on the rough draft, which was a bit more than I expected. I’d written up shortly before that a couple of pages in a notebook detailing just the first small part of the story. I haven’t even finished expanding on that in the rough draft and those 3000 words came from just 150 words in the synopsis. And that will only get longer once it goes from draft to expanded form.

I’m am currently giving it the working title Tears of the Mountain, but that is probably going to change later on.

As for the story itself, it takes place about 20 years prior to the events in Tomb of the Tagosa Kings from the first volume of Pure Escapism, and features a younger Halir. It has action, adventure, lost cities, ancient ruins, hidden treasures, intrigue, politics and much more.

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