Where are you? (in your novel)

TedTheewen said:

I'm in the second edit/rewrite portion after beta reader feedback and time to think about what it was missing.

Right now, the MC, Frank, is walking through the downtown after having had dinner with his boss and mentor. He's looking at the empty buildings in the Rustbelt town's downtown area while thinking about a woman he shouldn't be thinking about. This is where I show just how deep the damage in his character goes. He is, just like the downtown he's strolling through, a collection of could have been, used to be, and never will again.

Click to expand...

Ooh, I love writing scenes like that. Also like how you described the lady as "a woman he shouldn't be thinking about." You should include that line somewhere in your novel.

Currently working on my first ever novel (if you don't count a really horrible fanfic I once wrote back when I was 17. Spoiler: it doesn't count)! I've written my outline but kept parts of it vague in order to give some room to grow and be flexible. I've already ignored about 60% of the outline and things are going very well. So far, in terms of how long, I've nothing real impressive to talk about. It currently sits at around 9000 words so I'm still very much in the beginning. That being said I already know where to take the story and a lot of the lore behind the world.

It feels so great to be writing again.

starrystorm said:

Ooh, I love writing scenes like that. Also like how you described the lady as "a woman he shouldn't be thinking about." You should include that line somewhere in your novel.

Click to expand...

Thank you! And I will, actually. But I'm thinking instead to have his boss/mentor tell him he shouldn't be thinking about her.

TedTheewen said:

Thank you! And I will, actually. But I'm thinking instead to have his boss/mentor tell him he shouldn't be thinking about her.

Click to expand...

Ooh, maybe have the mentor tell him that first, and then have him repeat it in his internal monologue later?

janeofalltrades said:

Ooh, maybe have the mentor tell him that first, and then have him repeat it in his internal monologue later?

Click to expand...

You know, that's what I was thinking. I added the line to his internal monologue last night but I knew I'd need to add it beforehand. My MC has made a few bad choices and he's actually spiraling downward but doesn't care.

I recently completed a book I'm querying now, and about to embark on a new project. The one being queried is a "standalone with series potential" i.e., first in a trilogy. I know the 'best practice' is to not write book 2 because if my goal is to be traditionally published (which it is), I should write something totally different in case this first book doesn't sell. That way, I won't end up with Book 2 with a Book 1 unsold, and would have something new to query.

So I've got a couple of ideas, one of which is in a similar vein as book one (space opera), while the other idea I've got is more "literary with speculative elements". Even if the latter book veers more into straight-up scifi territory, it'll be grounded scifi set on Earth and not in space with a bunch of aliens. Strategically thinking--which is the project I should focus on? I am not a multiple-projects-at-a-time writer, I've got to work on one at a time until it's done.

I'm equally drawn to both and eventually will write both, but as far as which route to take with the express purpose of getting traditionally published in mind, does one make more sense than the other right now?

eta: not sure this is the correct place to post this question! But I did answer the thread's inquiry/topic!

khanwong, that's actually what I've been thinking of for my next project. I think what I'm going to do is to work on a different project, but write down any ideas for book 2 as/if they pop up. Doing different stuff is interesting and a challenge, and you can't grow and improve if you don't do different things. You might learn things that'll make book 2 even better than book 1.

As for me, I've been moving at a pretty good clip for the first half since I knew what would happen (mostly). But I realized one of my POV characters was suffering from Useless Character Syndrome in the second half, so I had to completely change what he'll be doing, and my brain is not very happy with the idea of coming up with all this new stuff on the spot. Just stuff like coming up with names for minor characters feels like A Lot Of Work, which I know is irrational, but that's how it goes sometimes. I'll have to think about it during my off time and see what I can come up with.

Clark has fled New York for his childhood home in Pacific Palisades. Not his best move.

Kindle is taking a horse back ride along the beach with Lewis (the LI). Just a nice little moment to slow things down.

Joshua-Gabe's best friend Billie accidentally got himself, Joshua-Gabe, and Joshua-Gabe's older brother, August, in trouble. That's what you get when you try and steal a training dummy for a four year old's birthday.

Trying to tie up the last loose end in my epilogue, and the end feels too abrupt.

Just finished my second editing pass of WIP.

I altered my process and the work turned out pretty lean (not overly though), so I've only taken away a bit over 2K words so far. It's looking good and I'm feeling positive.

For now, I'll rest a few days then hit it again, then its off to my editor.

I'm always interested in other writers processes. When I started writing I kept feeling like I was missing the "right way" to do it. Now I know there's no right way, but there are a few wrong ways.

Also beautiful kitty!

starrystorm said:

Kindle is taking a horse back ride along the beach with Lewis (the LI). Just a nice little moment to slow things down.

Click to expand...

Nice! Sounds like a good pacing choice for this moment.

Hit 30,000 on the rewrite (draft 2).

Due to the smell of hot tea, Kindle is having another flashback to her "dead" parents. This time instead of happy things, she's remembering accusing her mother of using poison. She's confused.

Just started querying my second novel. Working on the third.

Tightening the last section of WIP to increase tension.

Finished draft 2 of Part 2 (out of 3) of my current WIP Puppet People. I have about 22k left, but I still have to rewrite the first three chapters because I decided it would be better without a certain character.

Finishing up the final edits and read-through for my WIP. I'm self publishing via Amazon, and will load the MS there when through. My cover designer is in high demand, and won't get to my job until early November. Once all the pieces are complete it will go live - this is the last of the series, so I'll see about getting Amazon to create a boxed set for sale.

Still in the thinking phase - I suck at marketing and am considering hiring a pro off the Reedsy site. We'll see.

Right now I'm captivated by a story idea; dystopian future, oppressive government fashioned off the Stalin era in Russia. MMC is an assassin working against the government, and FMC is a member of the secret police. I'm making notes on it during the evening while my partner watches her murder TV shows.

Starting book 5 for the year on Monday, the last of what started out being a trilogy and then turned into a quadrology. So far, they've all held steady at about 115k each so I figure that's how it will end up as well.

Repairing the opening scenes in Lily's Volume #2.

It used to be that we met her racing through a terrible rainstorm, then quelling a riot, then drying off, THEN learning what her predicament is, and how she hopes to solve it.

YIKES! Who wrote that mess?

So now, we'll learn her predicament within the first sentence or two. All it's going to take is some particularly graceful editing and rewriting. Piece of cake, right?

I'm just 3,000-ish words away from finishing the first draft of a sequel! I've never written a book so fast (mind you, it's taken me six months to write this draft so it's not necessarily "fast") and I'm very proud of it. I've definitely had more time to write as I work from home through this pandemic. I can't wait to start editing and beginning work on the final book in this trilogy.

Got Lily's predicament stated nicely right at the outset--then forgot to say what would happen if things went wrong.

That should keep me busy for a while...

My cover art came in today! I made my avatar the artwork.

I am plotting a potential MG linked short story collection from the POVs of pets. As I was doing so I was wondering how many (in ALL of my 5 WIPs) of the POVs are human.

Out of my 12 POV characters (in all of my 5 WIPs) I have

2 Humans

1 Ghost

1 Alien

1 mermaid-like humanoid

1 robot

1 vampire

1 shift-shaper canary woman

2 cats

1 Dog

1 Ferret