I'm halfway through the outline. I have, oh, about five hours. Two or so of which will be taken up by cooking and Evolution Core meeting. And I have an evil sinus headache. *meep*
I'm so screwed.
Nonny Blackthorne wrote at 6:59 PM
So, I'd get a fair amount of scenes plotted... and then I'd have to realise I don't have one of the storylines developed properly. Look a bit closer, ask a few questions... and now I've got a complication that's going to be a bloody pain in the ass to resolve. (Mainly, one of my viewpoint characters was enslaved for ten years, and only just managed to escape. Considering I'd intended him on being a fairly innocent character, all in all ... yeah. That's not happening.)
Which means, I get to do another char bio for the motherfucker, and figure out what to do from there on. *thunks*
And EvoLunacy is the day after tomorrow. Ack!
Nonny Blackthorne wrote at 2:36 PM
I finished up the majority of the prewriting for To Weather the Storm last night, to the point that I can actually plot. Yay!
Been playing around with StoryLines, a program specifically designed for organising plotting/prewriting notes. Very nifty program. Nice being able to notecard without fear of a little black feline fiend zooming through and fucking everything up.
So I started plotting. I've got 16 scenes so far. I'm estimating about 2k per scene, with the exception of the interludes with the Lords of the Void, which should be under 1k each. I need somewhere between 50 - 65 scenes, since I want the book to end up between 100 - 120k.
Now it's just a matter of tying all the threads together. I've got a couple of unknown factors, too, which isn't helping much. Well. Not unknown so much as ... I know their attitudes and that they'll get involved in the book, but I'm not sure how they're going to get involved, or what happens when they do. *sigh*
Granted, this is normal for me. The actual plotting doesn't usually take more than a couple days, but my mind ends up in, like, hypedrive while I'm banging away at it. :P
As I've been working on this for the past three and a half hours, I'm taking a fuckin' break.
Nonny Blackthorne wrote at 5:05 AM
Meh. I hadn't meant for it to be so long between updates. Just been somewhat busy recently, with writing, Evo, and everything. (BTW--for those who might be interested, I'm running Fighting the Blank Screen Blues, a workshop on combating writer's block, this week over at Evolution.)
I've been pretty busy this week, especially. Stronger's been giving me royal fits. Mainly because Eric doesn't want to cooperate, and I really need to have his character fleshed out more before I start the actual rewrite. He's the weakest link, and I hate having underdeveloped antagonists. Too many authors, especially in the fantasy genre, resort to cliches and easy answers. I like my characters realistic and complex. ;)
About four or so days ago, I started thinking about it, because EvoLunacy starts on August 1st, and I'm so not ready with Stronger. On the other hand, I had To Weather the Storm partially plotted.
Okay, I had the rough premise and a couple character bios. That said, it wasn't giving me nearly as much fits as Stronger.
So, the rewrite is on the backburner for the moment, with Eric tied up and gagged in the closet, and I'm working on To Weather the Storm. I've been working hard on worldbuilding, character development, and plotting, and I'm really liking what I've come up with. It's definitely expanded in both scope and complexity--but that's the whole point of the work I've been doing. What's the point of writing a simplistic novel? ;)
At this point, I've got enough material for one book, certainly, with threads leading into another, and I might could get a third out of it. (That being said, I'm planning on wrapping up what I can in one book, just with threads I could pick up on should it sell. :)
I hadn't really wanted to do this... I'd planned on waiting and doing the prewriting along with Above and Beyond, the advanced novel-writing class I'll be teaching over at Evolution come September. *shrugs* I guess I'll go back and work on Shadow's Blade alongside that, and go back to Stronger as soon as I've got To Weather the Storm finished. (Which should be within three months, given Stronger is roughly that length and it took me about four months to complete that.)
Anyhoo. Getting sleepy here. See y'all later. :)
Nonny Blackthorne wrote at 2:09 AM
This August at Evolution, we'll be holding our first all-month writing event.
Three goals: 10k, 30k, or 50k. (Yeah. Utter lunacy. Hence the name. ;))
The challenge is open to everyone, whether or not they're a member of Evolution. Come check it out!
Nonny Blackthorne wrote at 3:36 AM
Sorry for not updating in awhile. Past couple weeks have been hellish. I just switched birth control pills (orthocylene to a progestin-only pill), so my hormones have been all out of whack and I've felt shitty. It's starting to calm down some, though, thankfully.
I'm still struggling with the Stronger rewrite. Eric, my antagonist, is not being very cooperative. I'm having more trouble with him than Tasha, Aster, and Kierhan combined. It's rather annoying.
In other news, I'm also working on a short piece for the MuseMuggers anthology, Red Silk Skull. I think this is the first time I've outright written about a necromancer, and I rather like how it's coming along. :)
Nonny Blackthorne wrote at 11:59 AM
