xenith: (Moon behind trees)
The end is on sight!

It's right there... on the other side of the canyon.


You see, what's supposed to happen next is everyone runs off to rescue the guy who was kidnapped (who we'll call Tom, because that's his name). The rescue involved going to a cabin in the woods, finding Tom there and untying him. Which is a little dull, straight forward, bit of let down. All right, there is this confrontation with poor Jack afterwards, but he's not really much of a threat and it is a little after fact.

Not a problem though. We can have a confrontation between the kidnapper and the Agent who is one of the rescuers. This involves guns & posturing & lots of tension-type stuff. Good!

Except, why are we doing this?
Because it'll add some excitement.
But what is the story reason?
There'll guns and showing off and goods stuff.
There's no story reason. It's inconsistent characterisation. It takes the tension out of the next scene.
But it's good stuff.

I think I have a workable solution though (bring forward the confrontation with J) that might even involve some of the 'good stuff'. I just have to get the POV on it worked out. (THE kiss needs to be from Tom's POV, unfortunately most of the other action around it, can't be.)
xenith: (Moon behind trees)
It looks like I have just 5 or 6 scenes to go, and then the short wrap-up bits.

  • Working out where antagonist's hideout is
  • Rescue x2
  • Discussion after rescue
  • Confrontation with antagonist
  • Taking antagonist home

I might combine those last two.

Most of that has to be written from scratch, of course, but I think I know what happens.
xenith: (Moon behind trees)
I've been using filler (like X and Xxx and Xxxian) names while writing this draft.

The lost of Things I Need To Find Names For is getting a bit long.

1. Planet
2. Continent (same as 1)
3. Mine
4. Company that owns mine (could be same as 3)
5. Capital city
6. Large town
7. Small town
8. Another small town
9. Large house/estate on edge of 7
10. Another planet
11. Country on 10
12. Nationality of 11.
12. City in 11
13. Surname G-----------
14. Doctor's name
15. Counselling/psychiatric institution
16. Location of 15

I'm sure there's others I'll think of.

Whiteboard

Jun. 6th, 2007 11:30 pm
xenith: (Moon behind trees)
That next "scene" is acutally three. Fun ones though, and mostly just tweaking what is already there. Some interplay between the female main character and a friend who'd she'd probably say Yes! to if he asked her to marry him, but he can't, and he's been missing for days and she's worried he might go away again.



Nightboard

Jun. 2nd, 2007 11:23 pm
xenith: (Default)
Whiteboard: the night version.

5 scenes to go.





Problem: scene as written doesn't feel right.

Solution: go back and see how the characters want to play it.
xenith: (Moon behind trees)
Writing been slow lately, as I've been doing assignments. Still, we make progress.



Although, 'Going Home' needs to go down a bit, and 'Corrie at hospital' should go in its place. At least she'll be doing something. And I don't need 'Morning Visit' now.

Still six to go, but need a new whiteboard!
xenith: (Moon behind trees)
Two down. Eight to go.

Interesting that doing this seems to help my focus when writing. I had been very frustrated with this novel. Sick of it really, although I did (do) want to finish it.

Frustrated with the supposed main character who won't act. Frustrated with the plot that wanted to meander. Frustrated with not being able to connect with it, in the way I had in the first draft.

This, at least, lets me see that I cam going somewhere and I am making progress.

xenith: (Moon behind trees)
I have ten scenes to go before the "end game". So, as a motivation and to stop me making lists of what the scenes are, I put them on my whiteboard.

I'll cross them off as I finish them.

xenith: (Moon behind trees)
"And I think I know how to make him show his hand."

That's good. Now would you care to share with me, seeing I'm the one who is going to be writing it?

So Agent Kyle has thought of something that he can do or say that will give away the midnight rider's identity. What would that be?

I'm still working on Fox obviously. It was a close thing. This morning I pulled out the first draft of Falcon, which was my Nanonovel from last year. The one I spent 10 days fighting to get words for and then wrote the remaining 27,000 words in *mumble*3*mumble* days. I read the first few paragraphs, and liked what I read. The writing sucked. It is put together with words scraped off the bottom of the writing pond. I knew it sucked. But the ideas, the characters, the situation, I like it. I kept reading. I read the whole bloody draft.

The main character in this, I have spent months trying to get him to shut up so I could concentrate on what I wanted to work on. I finally managed this about 10 days ago and what do I do? The one thing guaranteed to "get his attention" again. I do wish it was possible to hire the ingrates out to other writers.

So I'm letting the characters in WTSBIP (Work That Should Be In Progress) have their heads for now, to encourage them to do something interesting. Coming up with plans that I don't know about wasn't really what I had in mind though.
xenith: (Coloured scales)
Twenty questions to ask your character

1.When was the last time you saw any member of your family?
2.What is/was your favorite toy/game?
3.Who is your best friend?
4.Do you dislike your name? What name would you prefer?
5.If you could change one thing about your appearance, what would it be?
6.What did you do on your last birthday?
7.Do you wear any jewellery?
8.Who was the last person you wrote a letter to?
9.What is your worst habit?
10.Have you heard any good jokes lately?
11.When was the last time you cried?
12.Do you have any pets? Do you want any pets?
13.Do you currently have a lover? Details!
14.What do people most misunderstand/get wrong about you?
15.What one act in your past are you most ashamed of?
16.What one act in your past are you most proud of?
17.Has anyone or anything you've ever cared about died?
18.Have you ever been in a fight? Did you win?
19.What is the most frightening handicap or disfigurement you can think of?
20.What would you wish for, if you could have anything?

I'll do it another post.
xenith: (Default)
Pinched from [livejournal.com profile] buffysquirrel

I was just thinking yesterday I hadn't gone a meme thing in a while.

Turn to page 123 in your work-in-progress. (If you haven't gotten to page 123 yet, then turn to page 23. If you haven't gotten there yet, then get busy and write page 23.) Count down four sentences and then instead of just the fifth sentence, give us the whole paragraph.

After some pondering, on what to count as a WIP, I went with both.

The Weaver was silent and for a moment Grace thought she'd gone again, then the barque grumbled. They're listening to us.

Only have 115 pages in current version of Fox, so it's page 23.

"It's nothing to do with us, and there are plenty of people to do something, if something is to be done."
xenith: (Moon behind trees)
Corrie (main character) isn't actually doing anything. She's just goes about her day to day stuff, feeling sorry for herself and reacting to events. Have to keep an eye on this.

Jack comes across as a pathetic loser. Possibly because he keeps telling everyone that he's a pathetic loser, so might not be a problem. Have to keep an eye on this.

Title character isn't playing enough of a role in the early bits.

Kyle is getting more interesting, and his partner is too.

Is killing of the antagonist early on a good idea?

Reading reviews of other novels is very discouraging. They sound so clever and well thought out. *sigh*

I finished two scenes today. Which makes the "agents shoot the mystery rider" the next scene. Again. It's always the next scene.
xenith: (Moon behind trees)
Next scene doesn't yet exist and I'm not sure what happens. I know what the result has to. Our mystery rider gets shot, and the main character discovers who he is and has to protect him from the g/o/o/d/ bad guys.

I think it's too early for that.

Stakes aren't high enough. We don't care about him, or whether he's in danger yet. I think he needs to take more of a role in the story, which he does later. The agents need a better motive to start shooting at him too.

So I push this bit back and bring forward the murder bits.

This is going to have changes the ripple right through and means changes to everything, I know :\
xenith: (Moon behind trees)
Taking far too long to rewrite each scene.

I want to get to this interesting stuff! But this shouldn't this be an interesting scene? Our POV and his colleague are sneaking around at night trying to get a good photo of the mystery man while he's robbing the mail coach. Except,our POV is actually sitting down the road a bit while his partner watches things through the camera and it's not so much 'robbing' as the guys in the mail coach quietly handing over anything interesting (it's become part of their job description). Bleargh.
xenith: (Default)
119 words Christmas eve

260 words today.

More each time. Good.

Aaron has decided he wants to be Kyle. I'm not sure if he actually wants to be Kyle or he just wants to be non-Aaron. He seems to developing a personality though, so he can stay Kyle for now.

Fox

Nov. 29th, 2006 09:51 pm
xenith: (Default)
Tomorrow I start rewriting Fox. This was last year's Nanowrimo novel.

Distant mining planet. A handful of settlements have developed on the edge of the only inhabited continent. The only contact with the rest of civilisation is through a space ship that arrives twice every year. Mine & ship are both controlled by the Company, which is owned by the Family, which gives them control over the settlements. Not everyone is happy with this situation.

One night the coach carrying money from the Family's house to the mine is attack by a man who wearing a black cape & mask, and riding a black horse. Things escalate.

I think it's the only novel of mine with a female main character. It's also got a strong romance element. A son of the Family has been in love with MC since they were children & a former miner who stuck around wants to marry the MC. One is exciting & fun, but a bit of a rogue; the other is nice & reliable.

Tomorrow.

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