As of yet untitled

So. Avatar. Just like watching Fern Gully, but better and in 3D. And I loved Fern Gully. 'Nuff said.

For several days now, I've been thinking more and more about my Nano story. That was so much fun to write. And because I was actually able to finish it. Even though there will be a lot of gaps that will need to be filled in, extra characters and scenes that will probably need to be weeded out, I feel my muse calling out to me to work on that one instead of Magic Touch.

Perhaps that's what I need. Maybe I need to get away from Magic Touch for a while, and possibly gain a new perspective by working on the revisions for  the nano story. Or any other story for that matter. Like the Gundam Seed Destiny fic that's about 70% done, I think.

This weekend, I'm going to try and finish the scene outlines (at least) of Magic Touch until the end. If I still don't have anything "workable" after that, I'll move on to my nano story. I do feel bad for those following Magic Touch, but I can't just finish the story for the sake of ending it. Hopefully a month will be enough time for me to get back on track.

by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

It all starts with a thunderstorm, unlike any that had been seen or felt in all of Krynn. Mina, a warrior-child not even 18 years of age, becomes a Talon Leader of a group of Neraka Knights; a kender who was supposed to be dead 30 years ago, travels forward in time to give a eulogy for his friend who would die the next day; an exiled young elven King returns to his kingdom; an aged High Cleric regains her youth when she had been expecting to die soon (of old age).

 

One of my goals for December was to read a fantasy or sci-fi novel to sort of 'broaden my reading and writing horizons'. The search for a good fantasy novel started around mid September when I had in mind to write a fantasy novel for NaNoWriMo. The last good fantasy novel I read was Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception. That was two years ago. I was tempted to just get the next book in the series, but changed my mind because I was supposed to be checking out other writer's styles.

 

What made me pick up Dragons of a Fallen Sun was the character of Mina that I read about on the back cover of the 2^nd or 3^rd book. A novice female knight who's supposed to lead a group of older and experienced knights to war, and win. Ironically, she became the character that made me grimace just a few paragraphs after she was introduced. No flaws. No emotions. I'm not even sure if she's supposed to be human, or a demigod. The only speck in her youthful beauty is her shaven head. She had been ordered by her One God to shave it because it was a source of vanity. And everything else was just perfect. I'd be reading some lines about her feats and in my mind and I'd be like "Oh please..." and then rolling my eyes. But, I had my December goals to think about so I plodded on even though I wanted to put the book down after chapter 1. Plus, I've already paid for the book and only had 3 days to finish a fantasy novel before the January 1--among the other things I needed to finish before midnight of December 31.

 

The rest of the characters were, sadly, flat. One dimensional. And there were a lot of them too. My curiosity would be piqued at the introduction of a new character in the next chapter and then at the end, nothing. It was either nothing or I'd get annoyed at the character.

 

Something was just off in the way that the characters talked. A mix of old and modern--as in modern day language. As if the characters who were in the same scene weren't even in the same plane. In the whole 627-page book, I don't remember a single remotely intriguing dialogue. Thus, the dull characters. I finished the book, but for the most part it was like eating paper. My only thought was that I had to finish it. I didn't even fast-read it because I wanted to give it a chance. Maybe it gets interesting 1/3 into the book.

 

Two-thirds in, my understanding of the story was still vague. Who was fighting for who, which side was good, and who was the real enemy? By the time I finished the entire book, I was only able to identify the sides people were on. Whatever the authors' objectives were for writing this book, they could not have included leaving the readers wondering what they'd just read about; left hanging about an impending war from all sides of the continent with no idea why.

 

The description of the places were okay, but nothing spectacular. It was like looking at a picture book--from far, far away. Even when I tried to place myself anywhere in the story, I felt numb and deaf.

Rating: 1.5 / 5 stars

My first (posted) review and it had to be about a book I had to force myself to read.

Wow. More than a month and no entry.

What have I been doing?  I think I suffered a mild burnout from the November writing madness. I tried to finish the draft of Magic Touch until the last chapter but my muse continued to evade me. At least for that particular story. Or I got tired of thinking how to continue the story. How to write the scenes building up to the scenes I actually wanted to write about. Currently I'm at chapter 10, but I'm still not there. Based on the story outline I've somehow managed to come up with (instead of the actual first draft), they don't happen until chapter 12.

But it wasn't a total waste. I've managed to catch up with my reading. Quite a few books that I've put away during NaNoWriMo. Kept telling myself that when I finish the novel, I can reward myself with them. So that's what I did, and then some.  Went on vacation, bringing the same books along with me. Watched anime.

Speaking of anime, for a long time now I've been wanting to watch one that revolved around adults instead of teenagers or children. Adults being silly, going about their seemingly boring working lives. One that perhaps I could relate to in the real world, or close enough. One such anime was You're Under Arrest. The first time I saw it was when I was a freshman in college, X years ago. My search started then. And I don't think I ever found any other that had the same feel to it.  For the last two weeks, I found myself watching seasons 1 and 2 all over again. Twice. It was as if I couldn't get over the characters, especially Natsumi. My favorite anime character of all time. To me, she has the perfect mix of human flaws and strengths. Someone I wish I could be in real life.  The theme song, "Love Somebody - Narita Airport version" gives me goosebumps still. Especially when I remember the part where she rushes to the airport to tell Tokairin about how she feels.

I was about to watch the series again--for the third time, when I remembered the December goals I'd posted in the dec_thru_oct community. One week to go, and not one item I'd listed there had been striked out. I wasn't able to accomplish anything literary or creative during the long weekend from Dec 24 to 28 because of my friends who spent the holidays over at our farm. We had a blast, so that's okay. I wasn't able to finish all of them, but I'm satisfied with what I was able to finish. For December and 2009.

Final word count: 56,211
Final title: "And A Baby Makes"

When I opened WriteMonkey before I started typing for this post, a quote came up: "Conclusion is where you got tired of thinking."

When I reached the 50K mark, I was two conflicts away from ending the story. I think they got resolved at around 55K. In my outline I was supposed to have proposal, hospital, and wedding scenes to make way for a knockout ending. I did the proposal but it was rushed. And for the ending, I skipped forward to four years later when Serena had just given birth to their second baby. Darien bringing their 4 year old daughter to meet her new baby brother for the first time.

So yeah, I got bored. Tired of thinking what to add to the story or how to end it--in a way that it would leave a mark on my writing soul. Well, just for the ending anyway. I can't deny the fact that I've gotten really attached to the characters. I even cried once or twice when Darien said something (forgot which ones), and wanted to pull one of Serena's pigtails when she was being stubborn. Blaming unstable hormones for what she was feeling. Although there could be some truth to that, medically speaking. I'm not sure either.

Since I'm relatively new at this writing thing, this is the longest piece I've ever written. It has met all my expectations, and then some. However, it also makes me worry about my ongoing story that I've already posted. I'm trying to create/stretch the tensions, but when I reach the climax I just might come up blank. Or most likely, what happens after the climax. It would be easy to just give it a Nano-ish ending. "And they lived happily ever after… on a house at the top a hill…"

My writing goal for the last week of Nano: 20K($#?!) to the draft of Magic Touch. Hopefully that would be enough to end the story. And that I could come up with a decent ending instead of a "conclusion."
Finish 3rd book of Stephanie Plum series and "A Clash of Kings". I don't think I can get that much writing done with the long weekend plans coming up.

Current word count: 50,213

I've messed up the story timeline a bit when I inserted a few scenes. But there'll be time for revisions. It's gonna need a lot of work but I'll think about that later too.

And now to finish the story... =)

Current word count: 43,069

I haven't written anything in two days. I had mush and drama overload when I did that 7k+ from Friday night to Saturday morning. My story has only two more conflicts that need to be resolved and it's the end. But the problem is that it's not supposed to end yet because of the timeline in the story. I'll need to add a few more scenes before those two conflicts, which are gonna take place immediately one after the other.

When I gave a friend of mine a summary of the story so far, he commented that my story is just like a soap opera. One conflict after another, which are actually resolved immediately. By immediately that could range from 4k to 7k words. I'm not sure how I feel about that because I did plan out those conflicts that way, but it seems I've lost track of what the main plot is supposed to be about. Or what the main conflict should be since Serena and Darien are together together now.

I think I made the character growth too fast. For both of them. Also, when I'm dealing with one conflict, nothing else matters and the subplots are forgotten. One villain that was responsible for getting them together just faded into the background.

Current word count: 25,731

       It took me that many words to finally get to write the scenes I've been dying to write during the planning stages.  That's only Act I. At this rate, I'll exceed the 50k mark before I finish my story.  I'm now more concerned about finishing the story before Nov 30 than the actual word count. I think.

       (Nano) writing-wise, I haven't been doing a good job though.  My left pinkie is still too quick to hit the backspace key even when it's a word I'm not comfortable using. And it would take me about 10 seconds thinking of the right word.  There were times I even looked it up in the Thesaurus.   More than once, per writing session, I would delete up to three sentences. If I had been doing this on a full screen monitor, instead of Neo's 6-line display, I might be doing in entire paragraphs.  Good luck to my word count.

      I am loving this habit I seem to be forming because of Nano: I don't open my laptop anymore unless it's to update my word count or I have to work.  I've been told by my mom, for as long as I can remember, that I spend too much time in front of the computer. Thus, my eyesight being far worse than hers at  the age of 55.  Also, when I'm stuck on what or how to write my next scene, I find something else to do as I mull over it: I do housework (Egad!) My mom would be crying tears of joy if she saw me.  My younger brother, with whom I share the apartment, was staring at me most of the time.  Inwardly, I was laughing at how uncomfortable he looked as he watched me.  I knew what was going on in his mind: "She's doing something, I must do something too! But she's almost done with the whole house!"  LOL

    

When the clock struck 12 last night, I had my Neo 2 on my lap, fingers on the home keys.  I must have stayed like that for about 15 minutes, changed my writing music four times. Word count: 0

I knew what I was supposed to write about, I even had the first scene ready.  Watching the minutes ticking away, I forced myself to write something.  Three and a half hours later, I had 1800+ words.  I don't remember having hated any of my written work as much as those 1800+ words.  The paragraphs were just dry, the dialogues sounded like reports. As if my characters were reading their lines with a script in front of them in monotone.

I've read many times over at the forums that there was a high probability that I would be writing crap. But I just couldn't stomach such bad writing to be part of my first draft. So, I hit the "clear file" button and emptied Filespace 5 and went to bed.

I woke up this morning feeling a lot better and refreshed. I made my coffee and set it on the breakfast table just above my Neo 2. I put on my headphones and listened to Pachelbel's Canon in D major.  The words flowed from my fingers to the six-line display.  After 2 hours, I had about 2000+.  I  went out to do grocery shopping but I brought my Neo with me. I was able to add another 200 words, I think, while waiting for my Kiss Quiche at Heaven and Eggs.  A friend came over because he was feeling a little depressed. Even as we talked, I had my Neo on my lap.

At 10pm, checked in my 3998 words at the Nanowrimo site. And I intend to keep them... :)

Just posted chapter 7 a few hours ago. And below is what my first reviewer for that chapter wrote:

"UH MAN! I ALWAYS do this to myself...I get so wrapped up in this story...and then...I have to wait for another update! I'm not complaining though...its always like I get a piece of really good chocolate when I see updates for this.^^' I wonder if Usagi will end up with Seiya or Mamoru in this? (hint,hint) I also enjoyed this chap as well! Thanks!"

I will never look at chocolate the same way again. Or maybe that chocolate will now have twice the effect as a reward for accomplishing my writing goals XD

I just finished reading James Scott Bell's Revision and Self-Editing from the Write Great Fiction Series. On the chapter that he actually talks about revision, he mentions how the weakest scene should be cut out.  I've read through my first draft three times already and I'm seeing the first scene as one of those that should removed.  But I can't.

For two day's I've been mulling over it, defending in written statements why it should stay there. It's a setup scene with only a few lines of dialogue but it tells the reader how much time had passed. I'm also trying to show the awkward moments which I think are just as important. Or maybe I'm just being biased in thinking that all moments between Usagi and Mamoru are significant.  And this is just scene 1 out of 26! I'm running out of time. I have to post this soon and get back to making my rough outline for Nano at least 3 days before Nov 1st.

I'm torn between reading another How-to book about scenes or just follow James Scott Bell's advice.

Finally posted Chapter 6. 

Without a beta reader, I could sure make use of Microsoft Word's spelling and grammar checker.  I'm just too lazy to have my laptop installed with it.  I must be a masochist for still writing in OpenOffice when I could just get MS Office installed by the tech folks at the office.

I got less than ten days to upload Chapter 7. Although I consider this my favorite chapter, there's gonna be a lot of rewrite involved because the new plotlines should reflect here.  

I've noticed that as I'm doing the revisions, I'm liking the chapter less.  I wonder why that is...

The Good:
1. I was able to finish all of the scene rewrites needed for Chapter 6. A lot tougher than I thought.
2. I think I'm getting better at expositions
3. New plotlines I've discovered on the drafts of 8 and 9 won't affect chapter 6.

The Bad:
1.  I'll need another day to finalize chapter 6 before posting to fanfiction.net. A day late on the goal I've set for myself.  Ah well..
2. New plotlines I've discovered on the drafts of 8 and 9 won't affect chapter 6.

Notes to self:
1. Work on improving characterization so that I don't have to use that many dialogue tags when there are more than three people in a scene.
2. Finish at least one of the two (fiction) books on my desk.
3. Never ever take revisions lightly.
4. Never ever ever post a multi-chaptered story if not yet done with the first draft of the whole story.


Highlight of my day: One of my fave fanfic authors, Alicia Blade, is now my friend here on LJ.  Feeling starstruck right now XD

I've somehow managed to finish the first draft of Chapter 8 and started Chapter 9 of Magic Touch.  It's kinda tough when you're trying to build possible plotlines for the later chapters just so you could find something to add to what's already written. I'm referring to Chapter 6, which I'll need to post tonight--hopefully.  I'm not even halfway done in the revision, but I'm being optimistic. So, I did manage to create/find 2 more but nothing that would still affect chapter 6.  I'm not sure if I should be relieved or worried about that.

As for Chapter 9, I've written myself into a corner yet again.  That part when you're writing your story and you discover something, or your character gets new info, and you're like, "Now what?"  Well, back to the drawing board, or rather, plotting board.

I wasn't able to put one letter to the Neo, or rather Magic Touch over the weekend. Saturday night, while I was trying to add ro review my story, I found myself missing Edna. Missing the feel of her hard keys against my fingers. Half the time I was thinking of Edna and trying to come up with a scene to add to chapter eight of Magic Touch.

    Sunday morning I told my dad the weekend has not been productive for me on the writing front. Well, considering the number of people here, and a 4-yr old running around, it would be quite a challenge. He said that one has to be in the mood, the creative writing mood. I'm not one to totally disregard his opinion because I look up to him as a writer. He wrote my oratorical pieces. My winning oratorical pieces. So anyway, again, to him it's mood but I don't totally agree. Then again, it's different for everyone, for every writer at least. For me, it's the perfect scene to proceed the last one.

    I've read an advice wherein you write the scene you want that could happen anywhere in your story, or perhaps at some point in your story, you're just not sure yet where. And then you work around that scene to connect it somehow to the previous one. I wish it was that easy for me because for every chapter I do have a main scene. How nice it would be if I could just plant the scene there and then be able to plot more scenes around it, like some sort of scene mapping. Perhaps I could try that sometime, when I'm not pressed for time. But right now, it's just not working for me.

    Well anyway, I'll go and work on those next three scenes to add to my last. Thankfully they've finally decided to show themselves.

I just finished the research needed for my Nano novel. Yay me!!  My fingers still hurt from writing for more than two hours on my journal--haven't done that in a long time. But.. Yay me!!

Now all I need is a writing plan for my plot. Not necessarily a more detailed plot outline than what I already have. Although I think I can make use of a subplot or two just two make sure I exceed the 50k mark. At an average of 670 words per scene, I'm gonna need 90 scenes to reach 50k. Before Nov 26 because I don't think I'll be able to do anything productive on the writing front while I'm vacationing in Davao until Nov 30th.

I'm probably thinking too much already. November is supposed to be a productive month for me because I'll be on the lighter work schedule of 4pm to 12 midnight, on top of which I'll be working from home the whole month anyway.

I can do this! I can totally do this!  XD

I haven't done any serious writing in almost a week. Well, as serious as writing fiction gets for me anyway. A few plot planning every now and then.  I'm too caught up in revising my work.  I read the previous chapters I've posted and it makes me cringe.  It's difficult for me to read through a single posted chapter.  My hands are itching for a rewrite.  Not so much as to deviate from the main story, but a few grammar fixes and typos.

So anyway, that's basically it.  I'm just revising and thinking of how to revise the plot. I miss plainly writing stories.  Those wonderful moments wherein the stories unfold as I type. The story itself leading me. The writing magic.  I need to come up with an effective writing schedule.  One that I'll actually follow for more than two days.  My work schedule next week will be changing and I'll be a night owl again. Less time for everything.  I'm not procrastinating, but it will be better to create that schedule next week and see how I can adjust or fit in my writing.

I need to find a way to salvage my original plot for Magic Touch or save some of my minor characters.  I think I may have overdone the "de-cluttering" on my drafts.  Also, key characters on the final chapters of the original plot have yet to make an appearance and I'm supposed to be starting chapter 8 already.  

Hopefully I can come up with a new twist before I post chapter 6 so that it won't be too late (or obvious) for the changes I need to make.

On the Nano front, I think I have a pretty solid plot. I just need to fill in the blanks some more on the outline so that I won't have to think of what'll happen next.  And I should do my research. Starting now. And I need to come up with a decent title, one that's not overused or too plain.

Finished the first draft of chapter 5 to 7 of Magic Touch.  That's the whole of the original chapter 5.  I think it would be more appropriate to call it a story arc now.  One of most advised step after the first draft is to let it 'sleep' for a while. I think the shortest was a week, the longest being a month or so.  If I could do that, it would be good. Because then I can concentrate on my plot for Nano. If, I could keep myself away.  But then I just printed them out. Initially telling myself that when the time comes, which is supposed to be a week at least, it would be easier. 

However, the printed word makes the temptation even more difficult for me. Moreso because it seems highly likely that after the revision of these chapters, I'd be working on chapter 8.  Chapter 8 is supposed to be on hold until after Nano.  That is the plan. The plan is good, I should stick to it.  But it is hard.

I don't know what will happen. I'll try to keep those printed drafts hidden away somehow. Out of sight, hard to reach.  Hopefully the 'out of sight, out of mind' thing works for times like these.

Another thing is that even though I've sort of conditioned myself to write an average of 1.5k words a day, it isn't forward writing. I keep on looking back up even if it is the Neo.  My right pinkie is just too darn quick to reach that backspace finger.