Month: December 2015

On Sequels

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So, although I’ve only just finished NaNoWriMo, and have a whole novel in the process of being beta-read, I’ve already started the sequel, and I’m kind of excited about it. I’ve never started a sequel before, and I’m 2000 words in already. I’m hoping it will be around 60 000 words, but we’ll see how that goes.

So far, I think the majority of my first 2000 words are reiterating what happened in the first novel so that readers who may have read the first one several months before can recall what events took place. I think this is somewhat normal for the opening of the next book of a series, but I don’t think I’ll spend much more time going over old ground. I’ll have to keep you all updated on my progress.

The one thing I’m worried about in this one is the story arc. I’m used to writing story arcs for a single novel or novella, but this time, the planning has to reach beyond this novel and into the next, as I am planning this to be a trilogy. My first series!

Since I haven’t had a lot of experience with writing a trilogy, I’m going to have to tell you all how that goes. Right now, I’m mostly worried about planning how this goes. My characters have a bit of a tendency to get away with me and do things of their own, which is rather problematic for the planning side of things. Herding them back in the direction they’re meant to be can be something of a challenge.

What I’m really using for my writing is the type of literary structure I was taught to find in school to pick apart. That’s where my English major skills are coming in handy, but that’s not the only thing I’m drawing on. I’m also thinking of the way J.K. Rowling created seven books in sequence which all knit up so smoothly. Her Harry Potter arc was put together skillfully with events throughout that related to one another.

The other thing is, I’m really worried about my first novel, which is finished its first draft, which is a very bare-bones draft. I’ll have to do a lot of revision and fleshing out, so that might change a few things in the later novel. It has to have a good foundation to build the rest of my trilogy, so I’m hoping that my beta-readers will be able to find any weaknesses in my work so I can fix them.

Anyway, that’s my news for today. If anyone else here has written a series, I’d love to hear your thoughts on how to construct a trilogy. 

Bothersome Background Noises

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When I’m writing, what noises are around me really affect my writing. I find that having just the right sort of noises can be very productive and get me into the writing zone, whereas others can completely ruin my concentration altogether.

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One thing I can’t stand at all is having the television going in the same room as I’m trying to work. Now that I live on my own, it’s not as much of a problem, but when I had roommates, it could be a huge issue. Sometimes, if I’m staying somewhere for a holiday, it can be a problem. It’s far too distracting, and half the time I’ll end up watching whatever show is on rather than writing.

Music is very helpful for a lot of people. I usually do very well with instrumentals or soundtrack music or theme music from video games. One of my favourites is listening to music from the Final Fantasy series, because a lot of video game music is mood-setting music. It helps set the tone of my writing to listen to it. I don’t usually listen to music with words, once again, because I get distracted – can you tell that I’m easily distracted?

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A couple of my favourite Final Fantasy XII themes – The Golmore Jungle and the Paramina Rift. I have to admit I have a whole Youtube list, but I won’t subject anyone to the entire thing.

Background noises can also be very helpful, both real life background noises and synthetic. I particularly like the background noise in cafes because of the low murmur of people’s voices which are usually low enough not to be intrusive. I’m sure there are many background noise synthesizers out there meant for writers, but one of my favourites is Noisli. It has a few different noises, such as rain, running water, wind, crackling fire, a cafe, and a train going over traintracks – no engine whistles, thankfully.

Strangely enough, I can’t stand silence. Silence is somehow just not stimulating to the mind.

What helps you concentrate on working? There are tons of methods out there that can get you in just the right kind of mood to be productive.

Greenpunk

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Well, now that I’ve done NaNoWriMo, I’m going to wait a bit to do edits on the finished novel myself for a while.

That means I’m starting on a new project. I’ve had a few ideas kicking around inside my head, and it’s starting to become more clear. It looks like I might combine two of the ideas that I had into one.

The first idea was to write a Victorian lesbian detective story in London. I’ve had a few different ideas regarding that, and one of them includes a trans woman private investigator who used to work for Scotland Yard. I haven’t really fleshed the idea out yet, but I was working on it.

The other idea was to write something other than steampunk. I love steampunk, and my NaNoWriMo novel is vaguely steampunk. However, I recently started researching environmental literature, and it gave me the idea to write about something I’m calling “greenpunk.” It’s the idea that using green technology started in the Romantic era and that the Victorians now have working green technology.

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I’ve decided to combine the two, and now I’m really excited to start the planning for world-building. I’ve started looking into current green technology and also looking into how some of it could apply to a world with a different twist on technology. It’s surprisingly fun coming up with all sorts of little details about this green world. To be honest, some of it won’t even make it into the book, but it’s fun making it up anyway.

If you know anything about London during the Industrial revolution, I’m sure you can imagine huge factories, lots of soot and smoke, and streets that were dirty and filled with literal crap. Can you imagine it all differently? I think it would be great. But enough about that for now.

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So for now, I’ve finished writing on my dragon novel, although I haven’t come up with a title yet. More on that process later, because I have fun making up titles, even though I’m not always the best at it.

I have one novel in the works for publication, although I don’t yet have a timeline on publishing for that. I got the first round of revisions back, and there will possibly be another one. 

So that’s what I’m up to for the next month or so. After all that time in the dumps with depression, I feel a bit like a dusty factory that’s finally starting to be cleaned up and used again. Go me!

Anyway, I hope you’re all having fun on your current projects (whatever they may be) because I sure am.

Now What?

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So you finished NaNoWriMo and have a 50 000 word novel on your hands. Now what?

I won NaNoWriMo this year, and now I have a novel, the same as so many other NaNo winners. Some people need to actually finish their novels, because although they won NaNoWriMo, their novel is going to be longer than 50 000 words long. Good luck to you. Don’t slack off on your writing just yet.

As for the rest of us, now we have to get beta readers and start revising. I’ve got at least two beta readers who are running through my novel to find pacing problems, plot holes, characterization issues, and anything else that doesn’t make sense and needs to be fixed.

So, do you have a beta reader? I did a post on beta readers a while ago. But to sum it up, a beta reader is looking for loose ends in your draft and letting you know so that you can tie them up. Sometimes that means adding or deleting scenes, changing things around, or throwing your computer out the window. Try not to do that last one, because as frustrating as revisions can be, they are still necessary.

I already have tons of revisions in mind, because my draft was very bare-bones. All I was doing was trying to get those words down. Sometimes I got writer’s block, but I still had to forge ahead to get to the next milestone. This is the problem with a lot of NaNoWriMo drafts, because you’re plugging away and need to just spew the words on the page.

Well now is when you fix the problems you created during the writing process. At least you don’t have such a huge deadline for revisions. I would suggest, however, creating your own personal deadlines in order to make sure you actually finish it.

Revisions are hard, and sometimes you have to be hard on your draft. Like I said in my beta reader post, make sure you choose readers who aren’t afraid to hurt your feelings by pointing out problems.

I’m doing that right now, so fellow writers, we’re all in this together. Hang in there.