Watcha Writin'?

[Zkribbler]

My current project is to take the 40,000-word first part of my high fantasy trilogy and expand it to Kindle Scout's minimum of 50,000 & publish it that way.

The nice thing is that I had this wonderfully berserk dwarf but had no place to put him. However, now that I'm focused, I'm seeing all kind of places to wedge him in. For example, Chapter 4 was really two short "chapters" crammed into one. Now, in Chap 4, he comes raging out of his bedroom to beat-up a supporting character for talking too loudly. In my new Chap 5, he beats up another character for telling unfunny jokes.

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

That is an amazing mental image.

 

[Kyriakos]

I will try to write something new these days

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I've started prepping for the April NaNoWriMo. Considering what a mess my life was last year in March, getting an early start this year just seems like a good idea. I don't want that 2016 hat trick to be a one-time fluke.

 

[Zkribbler]

April: Camp NaNoWriMo
Grab your suntan lotion and garden spade—it’s time to get your hands dirty! During Camp NaNoWriMo you can:

• Complete a writing project (novel, script, memoir, anything you want to write!) in a month.
• Set your own word-count goal and track your progress.
• Build community through “cabin” writing groups and forums.

Hmmm, probably not for me. I'll be working on stuff, but I'll probably not be trying to "Complete a writing project."

Good luck to all that decide to go for it.

 

[Zkribbler]

So...lots of strategizing on my orc trilogy.

In Scroll 1, even with adding in my new berserk dwarf, I'm not going to reach 50,000 words, and so Scroll 1 won't be published independently of the two following scrolls.

For months, people here have seen me struggle with Scroll 2. My problem essentially is my main character doesn't give a rat's tail about the goings on there. Without his passion to drive the story forward, the plot flounders. I have recently been enlightened by reading K.M. Weiland's Creating Character Arcs. The Lie my main character tells himself is that he is an uncaring person. His dealing with this Lie will lead to the resolution of the story. That is, this problem should not dominate the middle of the story but rather the end of the story.

Therefore Scroll 2 will now be Scroll 3.

I envision my new Scroll 2 to be about 30,000 words. I'm just beginning to outline it. My plan is to outline it during February and March and to write it during April's NaNoWriMo. BTW: My berserk dwarf looks as if he'll be the nemesis in Scroll 2.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I started prep work for two possible April NaNoWriMo projects. One will be part of my Hulzein Saga fanfic project (there are so many loose ends F.M. Busby left, not realizing that readers would pick up on them and start wondering "what happens next" and now that he's dead I'm just going to have to write it myself).

The second will be another Fighting Fantasy gamebook novelization. I've figured out how to tie it into the stuff I've been working on already, that's still stuck in limbo on my other computer. When in doubt, set it 20-25 years in the future so there's less risk of continuity errors. Not that I care about that anyway, at least as far as the official Fighting Fantasy chronology is concerned. I threw that out the window years ago.

 

[Kyriakos]

I started a new story. Titled "The rejection", it is a letter to a university, detailing why an award has to be denied by the beneficiary.

 

[Zkribbler]

I envision my new Scroll 2 to be about 30,000 words. I'm just beginning to outline it.

Chapter 2 is going to be tough. It will open with a comedy mini-monologue--and those are hard--and then segues into the opening stages of a romance...and I don't do romances.

 

[Zkribbler]

For years, I've been stuck in my sequel to "Wee." For the plot to proceed, one of my characters had to do something contrary to her main goal in life...and she just wouldn't. Tonight, I finally had the breakthrough I've been looking for: a deeply-buried psychological ghost from her past.
So my orc trilogy goes onto the back burner, and I'm now working on my Wee sequel.

 

[Synobun]

I have such a poor memory that I couldn't imagine needing to juggle different novels at the same time. I'd forget everything and end up with nothing usable.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I have such a poor memory that I couldn't imagine needing to juggle different novels at the same time. I'd forget everything and end up with nothing usable.

Not everyone is Asimov, who usually had at least half a dozen projects on the go at the same time and was still able to fit in the odd short story or article at the drop of a hat.

I just realized that it's soon going to be March, and that doesn't give me a lot of time to decide what to do about NaNoWriMo. I've been on an organization/cleaning kick lately, and not really thinking much about writing... although I did find a page of notes to do with a Handmaid's Tale fanfic I was planning (I made those notes before the TV series started last year; that story is based partly on the novel and partly on the 1990 movie).

 

[Zkribbler]

I've had so many distractions, I haven't been able to put together a solid outline for the remainder of my Wee sequel. I currently have written 20,000 words, making me 30,000 words short of the Kindle Scout minimum of 50,000.

So, I'm taking another look at the first "scroll" of my orc trilogy.

My current project is to take the 40,000-word first part of my high fantasy trilogy and expand it to Kindle Scout's minimum of 50,000 & publish it that way.

The nice thing is that I had this wonderfully berserk dwarf but had no place to put him. However, now that I'm focused, I'm seeing all kind of places to wedge him in. For example, Chapter 4 was really two short "chapters" crammed into one. Now, in Chap 4, he comes raging out of his bedroom to beat-up a supporting character for talking too loudly. In my new Chap 5, he beats up another character for telling unfunny jokes.

My best guess is that the addition of the berserk dwarf will take me to about 44,000 words.

I have a clever ploy.
I've seen other authors submit collections of short stories. Kindle will post them [although I've never seen one selected for publication]. So what I could do is to append Scroll 1 with previews of the opening chapter of Scroll 2 and Scroll 3. That leaves me:

44,000 words, Scroll 1
02,000 words, Scroll 2, Chap. 1
02,000 words, Scroll 3, Chap. 1
-------------------
48,000 words total.
...so close Albeit, I would still have to run my book through my editor in Texas and she can do magical things.

The ironic thing is this will leave me with April free to take a NaNoWriMo-crack at finishing my Wee sequel with my quasi-outline. I predict a crash and burn, but

 

[Buster's Uncle]

Back on topic- my point, at any rate, was that I'd been working on primarily that yesterday, attending to writer forum business I'd been neglecting too long, re-reading some of my own stuff and that of others, and getting organized and back up to speed and making plans. I'm excited. I've been doing a lot of talking story -I have all the tools to write, I fancy, but rarely think in fiction unless I'm helping someone else. It's my idea of a good time, one of my favorite things, and I do feel good when I'm able to honestly help someone.

In fact, I've got a reading/workshopping in progress and what am I doing here? My bad.

 

[Buster's Uncle]

What's the money like in that line? I'm asking for a friend. Care to talk about the hows of finding paid work, and the prospects? My friend enjoys doing that for free, and might not mind ruining it for himself doing it for $...

 

[Buster's Uncle]

How does one even find the work?

 

[Buster's Uncle]

No interest in patrolling any of those places, so fairness issues aside, I my friend won't be circling those feeding pools in competition, no worry.

 

[Zkribbler]

Hrumph. 2 o'clock in the morning & I'm reviewing stories I have written, submitted & have not been responded to.

I see a problem with my "Oz 2.0" story. I knew, in an updated version of the Wizard of Oz, no one would care about Kansas, and so I compressed it down into a single chapter. Now as I look at it, I realize this is still too much. I will obliterate Kansas & start the story in Oz. There is one critical song [lyrics] that I'll rescue & give to Dorothy as she's traveling the Yellow Brick Road.

 

[Buster's Uncle]

Hm. Oz is public domain now isn't it? So doing something with it has a powerful name hook and selling potential. Good job.


You know, if any of your intent in updating relates to the movie version, as opposed to the very-different book, I'd counsel you to find a way to make the Kansas work, because it's setup integral to the structure of how the movie told the story, especially the "it was all a dream" ending.

-Of course that's go-back-to-later stuff while you're generating the heart of the story and getting the first draft down...

 

[Zkribbler]

the book is in the public domain; the movie is still under copyright protection. Hence, my Dorothy's slippers are silver, not ruby, and there is no apple-throwing tree.

(Similarly, Tarzan and Jane are in the public domain; the copyrights to Boy & Cheetah are owned by the studio.)