What's Up Wednesday
WHAT I'M READING
So I made myself promise that I wouldn't buy any more books. I have a buttload of unread eBooks on my Kindle plus around four other books that I haven't gotten around to reading or finishing (This includes The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - I will get back to this book one day. It's just the font is so small and despite my youth I have terrible vision.) Well, anyways, you'll understand why my current predicament is a problem when I tell you that a book I really wanted to read came out and it took a lot of self-restraint for me to not just buy the book and throw all the promises I made out the window. Yeah, Faking It by Cora Carmack was *this* close to being an exception but then the best thing in the world EVER happened. I won an e-copy of the book on twitter and...this is amazing because I don't usually win things and so my lucky streak with winning books (I've won quite a few of them lately) has been a little crazy/wonderful.
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| I love my Kindle |
WHAT I'M WRITING
I was *this* close to reaching 10K in my NA Science Fiction wip but instead of moving on, I decided to start over. No matter how many times I tried to write, there was this nagging voice in the back of my head telling me that this wasn't the right place to start the story, and though I complained for a bit about starting over...I knew that if I didn't do it now, then I would end up doing it farther down the road when I had 50,000 words instead of 10. I like the new beginning a lot better than the old one. I read a blog post about first pages (can't remember where I saw it) but the advice that stuck out to me was this: Start the story when your character's life changes.
After reading that, it didn't take long for me to get a sense of when Seren's life changes and what happens when it does. The good thing is...I still get to keep bits and pieces of all the words I wrote, so I don't have to get rid of them completely.
I keep all of my notes for Starfall in Scrivener and I'm really excited about writing this because for the first time I have an outline, a plot, and characters that I really want to write about. Since I'm a pantser, I usually only have the characters, and so when I finish writing a wip, there isn't any plot for me to build off of. I don't want to have to trunk another project, so I hope the fact that I outlined this time around will give me better results.
I also know how Starfall is going to end which means that I don't have any excuses. I have a Point A and a Point B. Now I just have to fill in all of the parts in-between.
WHAT INSPIRES ME RIGHT NOW
I would have to say that writing in general is inspiring me right now. I read over stuff I have written now, and can't help but think about how much I have grown as a writer. I might just be biased, but my writing has improved a lot since I first started writing almost ten years ago when I was nine.
A lot of my progress can be attributed to the books I read/the tv shows I watch. I'm not sure about you guys but whenever I read a book, I analyze how the author writes this or that. I pick apart some of my favorite scenes and ask myself what do I like about this scene? What makes this scene good? What makes it bad?
The same goes for the writing on tv shows I watch. Seeing the way different characters interact with each other on screen really helps me to think about my characters and who they are not only as individuals but who they are when they are around other characters. This is all just going back to the saying that if you want to improve at writing you have to read (and in my case: watch tv).
WHAT ELSE I'VE BEEN UP TO
- Well, I am trying to dodge spoilers for Game of Thrones because I am so behind and I keep hearing about the Red Wedding and everyone on twitter/other places on the internet have made it sound terrifying which can only mean that someone died. And if it's my luck, then it was a character that I really liked. And...yeah. I'm really scared to start S3 but I must be brave.
- I'm really horrible at explaining things but I'm looking forward to Ready. Set. Write. which you can find out more about here. Basically, if you're like me and need people to hold you accountable for your writing, then this is for you. I'm really hoping to finish the first draft of Starfall this summer, so this couldn't have come at a better time. It's going to start officially on June 12th so you guys have a little bit of time to figure out what you want to work on (if you want to participate). I'm hoping a lot of people decide to do this because the more people the better.
Enough about me. What are you guys up to?
14 comments
Sometimes the best thing to do is listen to that little nagging internal voice. And that's great advice for where to start a book! Thanks for sharing ^_^
REPLYFree books. There aren't many more pleasant phrases, are there? And good for you for starting over on your book. I just started over on my WIP, too, but I didn't have 10K words. That's always a brave thing to do!
REPLYI like that tip for writing story beginnings that you shared. Very useful info! Like you, I've started analyzing a lot of what I read in books and watch on TV for a whole variety of things. A big one would have to be believability. {I find a number of things on TV shows in particular that just don't jive with a certain character's normal actions, etc.} I'm really happy you're joining in with Ready. Set. WRITE! I think accountability and encouragement are about the best things ever when it comes to writing. :D
REPLYGood luck on starting over with your WIP! I've had to do that and the fresh start was so helpful. I was initially grumpy when I had to do it, but it's been the best thing yet.
REPLYAnd I understand what you mean about analyzing books/tv. I find it really interesting to read up on the background behind a favorite tv character. I like seeing what they intended a character to be vs. what that character ended up as on the screen. (How did they make so-and-so sympathetic if they were doing x terrible things the whole time? Why did everyone hate Main Character #3 if they were supposed to be showing this good quality or etc?) I'm amazed at how certain actions can carry the exact opposite of the mood or motivation intended. (Granted, it also gives me an excuse to watch tv. :P )
Good luck on starting over with your WIP. You can do it!!! *waves pom poms*
REPLYI also analyze characters and plots in books and movies I watch. LOL Way too much... I wrote a lot of my college papers on themes and main characters in YA literature (yes...I got away with it - thank goodness for open minded professors). I also think it helps when writing your own work or revising, just to see how they did it. For my current WIP/novel, I've re-read BEFORE I FALL by Lauren Oliver over 100x to see how she pulls off the mean girls/sympathetic thing. I STILL can't seem to nail it. :P
Oh gosh, I just went through the same thing with my WIP. I hate starting over - but sometimes it's necessary. And I love winning books! Last year I went through a streak where I won four or five all within a few months. It was crazy - but awesome at the same time! :)
REPLYAnd spoilers for me are unavoidable for GOT. I've read all the books, but I'm still on season 1 of the show. I liked what you said about watching characters interact on TV. It made me realize I do that too, I just never thought about it the way you did.
Good luck with Ready. Set. Write. I'm planning on doing it too! :)
Sounds like you ultimately made a wise decision with restarting your WIP. I am sure that is frustrating, but will be ultimately VERY rewarding. It also shows that you're capable of critically reading your work as you go along: that's priceless.
REPLYI know I have to go back and write a new beginning for my WiP--but at the moment, I'm more concerned about writing an ENDING, since I've never actually gotten to the end of a novel-length piece of writing before. But I really like that quote you shared. Now I'm kind of excited to go back and fiddle with my opening!
REPLYOh, I so want to read FAKING IT!!!! It's definitely on my TBR list and might just make it's way up to the top, once I'm finished with THE 5TH WAVE (which is awesome, btw! And I know you won a copy from Jaime last week, right????).
REPLYA big kudos to you for starting your WiP over, when you knew deep down, it's what needed to be done. That advice about starting your story where your MC's life changes, is priceless and oh, so true. And you gotta love Scrivener for making all of us pantser style writers, outline so much more! I only moderately outlined before (even though I'm a HUGE list geek in real life!), but thanks to Scrivener, it's made it so much easier to plot my story from start to finish.
I also so agree about not only reading as much as you can, but watching TV also helps, too! I'm a big VAMPIRE DIARIES fan, although will admit, not so much for the books. I love the different character arcs and watching how they unfold - and knowing that even if I'm not staring at the TV, I know when Damon is talking (although that RARELY ever happens, as I mean come on, it's Damon).
I think I'll be participating in Ready. Set. Write! this summer - although I'm almost done with my current WiP (only one more chapter to go!). However, it will be going out to my CP's soon and once it's back, I'll have plenty to rewrite. :) Not to mention, I do have a few new story ideas swirling around in this head o' mine. We shall see...
Happy Wednesday, Raven!
I thought it would be best to listen to it because I knew it wouldn't leave me alone until I took it's advice, hehe. Also, I thought that was great advice too. If only I can find the blog post I got it from. I really wish I remembered to bookmark it. But I'm hoping that bit of advice helps other people. I know it helped me think about where my character's life changed and how I can mold that change into an opening. I'm really confident this new beginning will work better than the last one did.
REPLYPutting free next to book has to be the most wonderful ordering of words in the history of syntax. And good luck on your wip. Yay for starting over. It's a scary thing to do but sometimes you have to do it for the sake of your story. :)
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REPLYBelievability was something that my last opening lacked, which is why I'm glad I ran across that tip when I did. My character likes to keep moving. She can fight and always seems to find herself in some kind of situation so it didn't seem right not to open the story with her not doing anything (she was in her dorm room w/ her roommate...boring) where she wouldn't be in some kind of trouble. As a reader, I didn't believe that that was something she as a character would do, so the writer in me scrapped it. I changed the scene and the scenerio to fit a moment of change. Hopefully this new beginning is a lot more believable/sets the stage for her actions later on in the story.
I can't wait for Ready. Set. Write! Motivation is really important, and though we're the only people who can write our novels it doesn't mean that we can't help each other stay motivated.
Story beginnings are so tough! Good for you for making the hard decision of starting over! I recently rewrote the first chapter of the manuscript I'll be querying soon, and that wasn't fun at all. Sometimes it has to be done though.
REPLYI love what you said about picking apart book scenes you like. I tend to take notice of things I like as I read, but maybe I should start making note of my favourite scenes, so I can return to them later and study them a little more. Good advice!
Happy writing this week, and I hope your outline works out well for you!
I did EXACTLY the same thing with my semi-sci-fi wip. Scrapped it all and started over. Sometimes that's what's best for the book. It's tough but worth it. All the best with the rewrite!
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