Week 5

Happily enough, I've managed to complete some of my last week's goals. (There was a time problem, as in never enough.)

• Germany story is edited and titled
• Contests are researched
• Birthrite-Raven is somewhat edited, but not the part I really wanted to do.

Which will go on this week's goals:

• Edit Birthrite-Raven the beginning of which I really want to take another look at.
• Enter contests previously researched
• Start writing Birthrite-Morganna (plotted, looked at, ignored, replotted...)

I forget what week I'm in...4?

But I know my goals for the week! And isn't that all that counts?

• Edit Germany story (and possibly title it)
• Stare at synopsis file (currently blank) and create a wonderful synopsis to wow and amaze potential editors/agents
• Stop fooling myself and hope for the best when it comes to the synopsis
• Research contests and enter at least 2
• Edit Birthrite - Raven as it's been ages since I last looked at it and think I could change and tweak things to better suit the overall story.

Complete!

I've finished my Germany-set story! OH, happy day, I love it when things are finished.

OK, it's finished as in done but not finished. I haven't gone over it again, not the whole thing. Gotta trim some words, and I think tighten a chapter towards the end - it's missing something and I suspect it's the H/H.

Last, I have to figure out the word count. I know how many words it is, but publishers have a variety of formulas that don't make much sense to be, but what do I know.

Steamy

As it turned out, steamy works. I didn't have to change much, an added sentiment here, an erotic touch there. And boom! They were having sex on the floor of the library. A room in the house, that is, not a building.

This is a short story, and the more I though about it, the more I realized the plot takes off running and doesn't stop until the end. Even then there's a sense of openness, a lack of closure. No, it's not a series, it's the time frame. 1934 does that to a story.

So hot monkey sex on the floor and a fast-paced plot that tears apart my couple. I think I'm set.

Order

As in the order of things. The writing of them, more specifically. I like to start at chapter 1 page 1 and move swiftly (or at least move) from there. So here I am, writing chapter 1. Then I rewrote it to have a little more umph to it. OK, Check.

Chapter 2. This is where I discovered I'm not as orderly as I thought. Yes, once in a while I have a flash of writer-brilliance and a scene several pages/chapters away magically materializes on my computer screen, needing very little editing once I get to that actual part. I love those moments, they make me all warm and fuzzy and think 'Hey, I am a writer!'

But I digress. Chapter 2 was going and going and going, and once I hit chapter 3, I realized nothing in chapter 2 needed to be there, or at least most of all 7 pages. What's a good writer to do? Naturally, I panicked. Why oh why? I'd spend days (hours at least) doing all that writing and dialog-ing and planning how to get my characters from A to B, and suddenly I realized no. It didn't work. It was all...junk.

Telling not showing. I mean literally telling. Like why the hero and his BFF were talking in front of the building they were supposed to be going into when they could've had this conversation any place/time from the moment they left their home, boarded the train, taken the taxi, arrived. Sure, it wasn't a conversation for other's ears, and people are so nosy no matter where or when, but come on! Go inside already! Why are you talking out here like a pair of idiots casing the joint, and badly at that?

Sigh

So chapter 2 now has less nothingness and more dialog. I wonder, upon umpteenth reading, how much of that dialog will be scrapped and how much will be merged with chapter 3.

Steamy vs not so much

I love steamy scenes. A well written (and graphic) sex scene can move the story ahead as well as the black moment, the beginning hook, or even the moment they realize how they feel about each other. The level of graphic-ness in said scene describes the level of trust between your H/H more intimately than merely saying it ever could.

However, I've been debating the placement of such a scene in my latest story set in Germany. Too soon, and I feel as if they've jumped into bed for no real reason. Too late and I'm deep into the middle of the story and there's no real place for them to have sex.

I think that them having sex before marriage is valid since the time is 1934, and even in Germany mores about such things were in flux. Though I'd love to read anything anyone had on that, even if it contradicts my aforementioned hypothesis. That isn't the problem. The plot hits the ground running and doesn't stop. Having the couple intimate early on shows certain things I want to include - their level of trust and a fairly major taboo that's broken by the hero. Two actually, now that I think about it. (Well that 2nd depends on the direction of a tidbit I haven't decided on yet.)

But I still have that placement problem. Early on works on several levels. But would it turn a reader off? Would it skew the plot in a direction I don't want to go in? I don't want to write the scene, finish the story or even 1/3 of the story and then discover I need to seriously rework things. That's why I plot ahead. To avoid just this kind of headache.

I guess I'll write it, see how it gels, and hope my weekend isn't so booked I can't rework anything I don't like.

Week 2

Week 1 consisted of about 5 pages, not too bad since I also spent part of last week refining the plot to better represent what I wanted the theme to be, and realizing a plot to another story needed...work.

So 5 pages of chapter 1. Pretty excited about that. I need a little more research into Germany, the landscape, the people, the feel of it but I finally think that it’s going the way I want it to.

And it’s so nice to have a story in the works! I’ve been hemming and hawing over a few different ones, but couldn’t really sink my teeth into them. This one is coming along (and ever so nicely) and I think will flow better now that I’ve got those issues (mostly) ironed out.

Clarity

Would you looky there. It's the light at the end of the tunnel. It does exist! Coolness.

Brownies really do help, though it could've also been the fact that I let everything slide Saturday afternoon and only worked that night. Same goes for Sunday.

I’ve managed to remember to look at everything calmly and rationally and realize that yelling at one’s computer does little but aggravate you further. That said, it was kinda therapeutic.

So it’s back to both Vienna 1810 (or whatever, I can’t even remember this morning, so so sad) and Germany 1934 with a new, fresh outlook and determination.

On a side note, why isn’t my blogger spell checker working? Don’t they know how much I rely on that?

Writer's ADD

I don't mean to make light of people who do have ADD or ADHD, but I have to say, recently I've been all over with the concentration.

Between continued research for Austria during Napoleon and finishing that story, I've plotted out 2 more. I'm really into this newest one, set to take place during the early stages of Hitler's rise to power. (Research on that is easier than anything Austria related!) But it's just amazing what the average person did, felt, and experienced during that time. It was mass chaos. Wonderful to write about, terrible to experience.

So I flip between the two - Austria 1814 and Germany 1934 - and hope that some weekend I can sit and finish one.