ROW80 Check-in – Page 11

Category: ROW80 Check-in (page 11 of 11)

ROW80: Motoring Along

Another Sunday, another ROW80 check-in! I’m currently lamenting the weather for this year’s Memorial Day Weekend: blue skies, sun… and winds up to 45 MPH. We’ve been under a severe wind advisory for days now, and it’s such a downer, because the weather would be perfect for the beach otherwise. As it is, I have to stay shut up inside because the wind is wreaking havoc with my allergies.

But let’s talk writing! I finally broke through the block that was holding me back with that coronation scene (well, to be honest, I abandoned it, though it’s mostly finished) and sketched out the next four scenes. I’m working with the wide paintbrush at the moment (or, to return to last Wednesday’s analogy, my machete) and aiming for getting the main points of each scene onto paper: dialogue, action and movement, and other “big” developments. I’ve found that working on the finer points, like sensory details and description, take more time than I actually want to spend, so I am going to set those aside and fill in the blanks when I return for edits.

The current manuscript stands at 15,529 words, which means that I’ve written something like 5,000 words since Wednesday. I’m really over-the-moon with this, though I know my output will probably slow down over the next couple of weeks, between the final papers I will have to grade, and the traveling I will be doing to my parents’ place and back.

However, I have the first “Act” of the book outlined. It will be 5 chapters long, and traces the beginning of Liandre’s journey from the comfort and safety of the “Ordinary World” to the start of her adventure in Peridion. As I move forward, I am going to have to give plenty of thought to the development of Liandre as a character. She is going to have a lot of hard truths to adjust to — the truth of her parentage, being forced to abandon everything that she knows and loves in order to return to the land of her birth — and I want to make sure that she responds to these changes in a way that feels realistic.

But those are concerns for another day! I will spend this Sunday grading (blech) and luxuriating in the wonderful feeling of reaching 15k. And, er, I’m not going to think about the new story idea that won’t leave me alone… or the fact that I’ve given it a title, and a cast of characters, or the fact that I know exactly who the murderer is going to be. We’ll see how strong my willpower is, lol.

Happy Memorial Day weekend to everyone!

ROW80: Back in the Saddle

May 25, 2011 / Lena Corazon / 6 Comments

Whew, it’s been a busy week with a ton of stuff going on in my non-writing life. I missed Sunday’s check-in, sadly, but I am back for the midweek report!

First, the happenings of real life. I delivered a 45 minute guest lecture last Thursday about my MA research, and it was received really, really well. I have been informed that I am (1) ready to teach my own course (always exciting to hear) and that (2) my MA project is clearly coming together.

I spent the weekend doing a mad rush of grading and prepping for the second guest lecture I am giving (tonight, in fact). I also met with my advisor, who had many lovely things to say about the progress I’ve made with my thesis. Sunday and Monday were spent thesisizing, and I am happy to report that I wrote over 2600 words, bringing up to a total of 12,000 words. I’m nowhere near done yet, sadly, but I have the summer to finish up and pull things together. If I give myself a nightly word limit, the way I do for my fiction, I think I’ll be able to pull this off. 😀

Now, onto writing. Between the stress of school and work and just being bloody tired last week, I found myself in a bit of a rough patch with Peacock. I was flailing about for direction with this coronation scene that I wrote, and while I’ve managed to tidy it up a bit and get it back on track, I know I’m going to have to come back through later on and shorten it up. I’m just not certain that everything that’s currently in there is necessary… but I am challenging myself to wait until the 1st draft is done (or almost done) to start major rewrites and edits.

At any rate, I have broken the 10,000 word mark (never thought I’d actually do that!), and I now stand at 10,222 words. Judging from my wee graph, I almost made my goal of writing 2100 words/week.

Daily word counts

Wordcount graph
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Looks like I’m about 500 words short, but given everything that’s been going on, I’m not about to berate myself. So yay me!

Moving forward, I’ll be hoping to make my way out of the expository stuff by the weekend. I’m utilizing Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey” (summarized quite nicely here by Eliza W.). The simplified version, in twelve steps, looks like this:

The Ordinary World
Call to Adventure
Refusal of the Call
Meeting the Mentor
Crossing the First Threshold
Tests, Allies, and Enemies
Approach
The Supreme Ordeal
Reward
The Road Back
Resurrection
Return with the ‘Elixir’

Right now I’m toiling within the “Ordinary World,” which I have realized is actually anything but ordinary. Rather, it’s in the midst of major change — the death of Liandre’s father, King Roland, the coronation of her brother, Prince Edric, and a whole set of new pressures and challenges.

At the moment, I plan on combining steps 2-4 together: Liandre will meet her mentor in Chapter 3, but when her mentor tries to tell her the truth of her lineage, the princess will refuse to listen. This will set off a whole set of conflicts that will result in the call being reissued, only this time in a way that Liandre cannot ignore. From there, it will be time for Liandre to journey across Peridion and over the sea to the country of Vao Artan, a realm she once believed was little more than legend and fantasy.

When it comes to my writing process, I rather feel like I am trying to forge a path through a jungle with nothing but a machete in hand — slashing and hacking wildly to form the beginnings of a road. I cut through about a quarter of a mile before pausing, pulling out a smaller set of garden shears, and back-tracking to pretty things up a bit. Once I’m satisfied with my work I can pick up the machete and force my way through the jungle a bit further. Right now I feel like I’ve done enough manicuring with my shears; I want nothing more than to push ahead and set my heroine onto her path towards adventure.

ROW80 Check-in, and Thinky Thoughts about POV

May 18, 2011 / Lena Corazon / 2 Comments

Time for my mid-week ROW80 check-in! Surprisingly, I managed to exceed my expectations over the past few days in terms of word count. To review:

Sunday, 300 words in the form of an old legend, to be told at the funeral rites in Scene 2.
Monday, another 300 words, this time wrapping up the funeral, which had been hanging for a few days.
Tuesday, roughly 1000 words, trying to forge my way through a coronation scene that is proving to be a bit difficult (possibly because I have a very, very vague idea of what should happen. Once I refine my expectations, the writing should flow a bit more easily).

Not sure how much time I’ll have to write today, as I need to double-down on my grading and prepare for a meeting with my thesis advisor. I’m also giving a guest lecture in the undergraduate course that I’m TA’ing tomorrow… and that has been giving me nightmares for the past few days. :/ At any rate, I seem to be on track to meet my goal of 2100 words by Sunday, so I can feel proud about that.

I’ve been giving some thought over the past couple of days to the pros and cons of including multiple perspectives in my story. At the moment, Path to the Peacock Throne is told in 3rd-person Limited POV. We see the world and learn everything from Liandre’s point of view, which means that, as readers, we have the same blinders that she does. Lately, though, I’ve been wondering what it would be like if I switched perspectives in different scenes, or different chapters, rather similar to the way that George R.R. Martin or Joe Abercrombie do in many of their books. Part of me imagines that seeing the world out of her brother’s eyes, or even from the perspective of the story’s villain, would give me a different “slant” on what has happened… but I’m not sure if that slant would be a good one.

Have any of you dealt with the debate over multiple perspectives? What were the criteria that made you choose one way or the other?

Thanks, all, and have a lovely rest of the week. Hump-day is here, and the weekend is beckoning!

ROW 80 Check-in: And So It Begins

May 15, 2011 / Lena Corazon / 7 Comments

A Round of Words in 80 Days, the 80 day writing challenge, is half-way through Round 2, and I’ve decided to leap on in. I stumbled upon the writing challenge through some circuitous blog reading last week, and given that I am trying to finally be serious about my writing, I felt the time was right to give it a try.

So here I am, pledging that I will write an average of 300 words/day. That adds up to 2100 words/week, which is on the low end of the spectrum, but given everything that will be happening over the next few weeks (grading, thesisizing, 2 guest lectures, final exams, etc.), it’s definitely a practical decision.

Honestly, I’ve been doing surprisingly well in terms of word count. I started tracking my progress last week, and this is what I have to show:

Daily word counts

Wordcount graph
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It’s not too shabby, if I say so myself. I started tracking on Friday, May 6th with my first 1000 word scene. By the following Friday, May 13th, I hit 7000 words. I’m not quite sure where all of this energy and excitement is coming from, and frankly, I’m not about to ask. This is the most I’ve written since I entered my writing slump almost two years ago, and I am incredibly grateful that the art of writing, of imagining, and of creating has returned (knock on wood).

There is, however, much work to be done before I can emerge from the other end of chapter one, including:

Brainstorming the culture and history of Peridion, particularly surrounding the role of magic within the world. The disappearance of magic a few centuries prior to the tale’s beginning (captured here in a mini “codex” excerpt) is pivotal to the actions of my current villain, the royal mage Leopold, and also helps to explain the mysterious circumstances around Liandre’s origins and heritage. I’ve got a vague sense of what’s gone on, but I will need to solidify what’s happened over the coming weeks.
Scribbling the tales and legends that are considered important in the world of Peridion. What are the stories that every person, commoner and noble alike, seem to know? Why are they important? What messages or themes are prevalent, and what can they tell us about the overall psyche and culture of Peridion?
Thinking more about birds, and Liandre’s eventual introduction into the world of Vao Artan. I will be reading Daphne du Maurier’s short story, “The Birds,” and also watching the Hitchcock film based on her tale for a bit of inspiration. I’ll most likely be posting about it as well, so look for that in the coming week.

That’s about all, at least for the moment. I am battling a migraine, so this post is neither as long nor as informative as I’d like… but there’s always next check-in. With that, I am off to pop some aspirin… and to try and scribble a few more ideas for this funeral scene that I am trying to write.

Lena Corazon

Flights of Fancy

Category: ROW80 Check-in (page 11 of 11)

ROW80: Motoring Along

ROW80: Back in the Saddle

Daily word counts

ROW80 Check-in, and Thinky Thoughts about POV

ROW 80 Check-in: And So It Begins

Daily word counts

Lena Corazon

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