At about six p.m. I have officially finished my first draft!
Now the fun begins!
I’m as mentally exhausted as I am excited. Time for a celebratory cocktail and some NFL.
Also now I can get back to browsing your blogs. Terribly sorry for my prolonged absence.
Cheers!
m
While I cant say I’ve written every day since Nov 1, I can say that I have done close to 8k words.
AND…. I can see my way clear to the end of the book…
YAY!.
Okay. That is all for now. I am hand scribing this evening and getting back to it while I have some ideas.
Woot woot!!
m
Well… I thought about writing, I did. Truly. I even found a trajectory of sorts for the remainder of the plot…
However…. I wrote about 2.5 sentences. Total. That’s not including the 1.5 sentences I wrote today.
Ugh.
BUT… there’s always a but isn’t there- I did get to spend some awesome time with a couple of the kids. I haven’t been able to do that since I decided to break bones.
Good news is I got my kid fix and my kids got the mom fix.
That to me is a win.
And by the by… the photo in yesterday’s blog and today’s blog (I try not to reuse) is a natural rock cropping in Baja. If you look closely or not so closely it looks like a profile to me.
Meet Dave. Dave will be introduced in book 2. Dave is real.
Gonna try and tap the keys and get a page or two done.
cheers!
m
I’ve written a lot over the years. Mostly short stories in the erotica genre. I mentioned in previous blogs that I have no trouble writing a down and dirty sex scene. Sometimes even way outside the box of what might be considered a “norm”. Norm meaning no fetish involved.
I digress, but also setting a stage so to speak.
One of the reasons I think my characters have been successful, sex or no sex involved- is because I “feel” what the character feels. Maybe it’s because I’m an empath (not digressing into that topic, promise) but if I close my eyes and just put out the feelers, I knew what should come next, be it movement, feeling, emotion.
BUT, is it empath, or is it just me putting a piece of me into my characters? Is it me putting my wants and desires into how the peripheral characters interact with the main character?
How do you define your characters? Do you think that you put a bit of you, your alter ego, the person you want yourself to be onto the pages?
If you sit back and think about it, I think there’s a small part of every author in one or more of the characters. It can apply to any genre… is the character organized? Bold, introvert/extrovert… the list goes on.
Have you ever had an aha moment where a character does something and it’s a WTF moment and when you ponder the scenario you realize that it’s a part of you?
It’s Saturday! yipee! no paid work to be done. I have my laptop, full size keyboard and a day to do nothing but write!
Big Dreams, yes indeed. I realized when yapping with @jaybederwwehl yesterday and informing him of my “big day” of writing. On a side note, I did tell him my current page count so there would be no cheating. Anyway, I realized that I really don’t have a good direction for the second half of the book.
The main characters introduced thus far have broken their huddle, but are looking toward the sidelines waiting for the next call. Of which I really don’t have. There’s bits and pieces, but some of my lightbulb moments of mental plotting have fallen by the wayside and it is very fragmented and doesn’t feel well planned.
So I think I’m going to reread my last chapter (hopefully I won’t scrap it as poo) and see if I can get my gist.
I just realized that I do have some writing paper in here, so I can handwrite some ideas. FANTASTIC!!
I was not looking forward to hopping 100+ feet to my office on uneven ground.
Have a spectacular day!
m
So I’m at a small crossroads. I have to decide how this investigation of the explosion is going to move forward.
There are two issues at hand, one is the being that escaped during the explosion- could be catastrophic for Earth and who cast the spell that resulted in the explosion in the first place.
It was bad juju there, that much has been decided. I also decided to halt on the Dani potential romantic interest. Someone is interested, but he decided it wasn’t the time or place with everything going on. However, he also decided that he was going to keep himself up front and center just to annoy her.
Sounds like the second grade.
In some ways it is. Dani is a badass. Her mother is too, but way more of the law and order type. Dani is more renegade, but she’s damned lethal in all worlds.
She’ll have her tests, but for now I think she’s just going to roll her eyes and any potential romance. That will come out more in book two.
Book one, is almost more of a prequel. Bert told me she’s tired and once the end of this book happens she is going to take a back seat and focus on other priorities.
Of course she and I know the priorities, but no-one else does yet.
Book two, not sure of any others yet, will hop into the first person, whereas I’m in the third person right now, but I think it works for this cast of characters and how it’s setting itself up for prequel.
The person, the tone, the language, the sex (or lack thereof) will become more prominent.
What can I say, I like writing about sex. (insert smirk here)
Eureka! I’ve hit it. 200!!!! I mean barely. One sentence, but STILL!!! I did it!
I still haven’t gone past that 24 hour mark yet though. But at least the humans are thinking about bedtime. The Fae and Elves? Not so much.
That’s it for now. I’m on a roll and I want to keep going!
wOOt!!
m
I’m a couple pages closer to my 200 mark. A lot of dialog going on and I tripped myself up a bit and had to regroup. I think it’ll be okay though, the tripped up part can fit in perfectly in a couple of days.
Now I have to take a creature, give them life and give them a purpose and well basically figure out a way to capture them.
I guess that maybe I still tripped myself up haha. Nah, it’s all good. Just trying to find the time to get some energy to be creative. Not feelin’ it these days.
Life… gotta love it, but dang some times it just gets in the way of some good vibin’.
cheers!
m
Got two more pages done today! Yipee! What a long process some days. Most days actually. The brain is constantly whirling and turning trying to plan and plot what comes next.
The ghosts were last chapter, so now I’m moving on to the next stage in the mystery, and all the main players are back in the same room. Well the main players up until this point.
It occurs to me as I’m writing this and mentally lining up my main characters that I have NOT even identified the bad beings yet. Yikes. I need to ponder this and see if I have introduced a faux paus. There is one character that I wouldn’t even say has a supporting role yet, but I’ve already created a disdain for him and his “house”. I need to explore that.
I think tonight I might sit with the old fashioned pen and paper and create some notes. I might need to have a semblance of a path to follow for the second half.
I do feel like I’m right smack in the middle of this chapter of the saga (each book being a chapter).
It feels good to have moved past that partial block. The ghosts will be back Tobias already said so. Tobias has been around since the beginning of “man”. I tend to listen to what he has to say.
m
For the past few days, probably almost up to a week now, I’m angst’ng over whether I’m creating a story that’s real and believable.
I also need to remember that I’m writing Urban Fantasy, where it’s a mix of, well, real and fantasy. So I’m not quite sure why I’m adding this additional pressure on my back. I have enough worries about becoming hunchback in my not so distant golden years, why add to it?
Well, because.
Because you say? Yes, I say. Even with the fantasy part, there’s got to be a sense of real in there as well. Can these series of events truly blend with the every day happenings of a “normal” society. The answer is obviously yes given how huge and successful the genre is.
So I took a step back yesterday and mulled the story thus far. Yep, I think I’m doing okay. Jay has already told me the pieces lock together. It’s the imposter syndrome methinks. I don’t really feel like I earned the right to belong here.
Self… knock that shit off.
Will work on that.
m
Marina Skynnar- Author 