And I thought rewriting would be fun... Ha. I've entered one of those my-story-is-terrible-why-am-I-doing-this stages and the only way I know to combat those is to keep pushing through, even if I think everything I'm writing is dull and boring and completely lacking in the character development department.
I think I found a way to make things a tiny bit better, though. Too many things were happening over too many chapters. It was bogging down the story. I kept wondering when these scenes would end, and when the plot would advance. So, as much as I hated doing it—because it messed up my entire outline—I combined several chapters into one and moved one entire chapter to later in the book, where I think it fits better. Now, my novel is two chapters shorter. When your book is 65 chapters to begin with, cutting out two chapters is probably a good thing.
Still, it's taking me about two hours on average to rewrite one chapter. It doesn't help that I'm having a bear of a time concentrating. The Internet keeps distracting me (and, yes, it is grammatically correct to capitalize "Internet"). Namely, comic con panels keep distracting me. The best one, by far, was the Muppets panel where the Muppets ACTUALLY JOINED IN ON THE PANEL! Their performers were right there, too, and you could see them Muppeteering their Muppets, but all you could see was the Muppet talking. It was as if the performer wasn't even there.
The Muppets constantly break forth wall; a movie or show can hardly go by without them mentioning that they are in a movie or TV show. But I have never seen the Muppets break their puppet forth wall. There were so many puppet puns flying around. It was surreal. And Steve Whitmire (Kermit's performer) is a little troublemaker. Half the panel is his snarky comments. It's hilarious.
Well, I should probably get back to rewriting... and tearing my hair out.
It is the fluffy purple rug on my bedroom floor. Unfortunately, it does not get vacuumed – only shaken out. Currently, it is in great need of being shaken out. There are little sticks and strings and pieces of fluff stuck in it from the summer's adventures (and a dog who like to investigate underneath the bushes in the backyard and then come inside and hide under my bed, taking the path via the purple rug, of course).
Today, my goal is to finish making the plot changes (so much for doing five chapters a day)! So far, I've already eliminated two more unneeded chapters, and I'm so happy with the plot changes that I'm making that it hardly seems like work! I think yesterday's changes were the hardest.
Finishing the plot changes today will give me a day (tomorrow) to look over them and make any further changes before I take a week's break. After my break, I can start rewriting! Eeep!
At the beginning of the year, I made an rewriting/editing plan for this novel. I got so horribly off-track that I was afraid I wouldn't get the story rewritten by the end of the year. Now, however, I feel far more optimistic! Huzzah!
Remember what I just typed about yesterday being the hardest? Forget it. It's about 40 minutes later, and I've changed my mind.
I've reached the end of the novel.
Which I didn't even bother writing the first time.
In 2014, when I wrote this book, I had so many plot holes and the story was just dragging on and on and on and I didn't have a clear direction, so I never finished writing the story. Instead, I made a synopsis saying, "And then there was a big battle and it ends happily ever after." (Oops, spoilers!)
So, basically, I have reached the stage of the story where I am making up what happens next.
I've thought a lot about the ending since 2014, and I know exactly how I want to do it. Getting those ideas from my head to the notecards in front of me is a different matter.
~Time Passes~
Let it be known that on August 13, 2015 at about 11:50 AM, Abbey finished the plot revisions to her fantasy novel's outline! Hip hip!
Self-congratulatory selfie with my outline.
In my hand (well, actually, it's on the floor right now), I hold a fully-functioning outline! Yay! And I am SO happy with how it turned out! I can't wait to start rewriting this story!
The original story had 65 chapters before I gave up and decided to do an outline before attempting to rewrite the story with an actual ending. The final chapter count in my sparkling, new outline is 65 chapters! What a cool coincidence!
Now, I can bask in my triumph, and prepare myself for driving alone to voice lessons for the first time ever. And eat lunch. I'm hungry.
Today, my soundtrack is Natalie Cole's CD Unforgettable.
The second notebook has always been the most boring of the three. The first one has a lot of action and adventure. The third one has a lot of action and adventure. The second one... It sits still—sinking—in a stinking, stagnant marsh of politics and bad characterization on the part of The Author who had no clue what she was doing when she wrote the first draft.
Going through the fifteen chapters that encompass the second notebook makes yesterday's plot work look easy. And I haven't even reached the big issues that I mentioned yesterday.
As I said, the second notebook is boring. Nothing exciting happens. And if I, as the writer, gets bored reading it, then so will the readers. Today, I realized that I can achieve the same plot advances that I currently have in half the amount of chapters. So, that is what I am busy working on: combining events from various chapters into glorious, new chapters (making sure to include a plot change as I go along, of course!). Hopefully, I can keep my audience (and myself!) more entertained by cutting out a lot of unnecessary scenes.
We interrupt your regular programming to bring you this weather report: Outside, it is thundering ominously. As of 11:57 AM on August 12th, there has been no rain yet. We expect it shortly.
My stormy view. (The rain never did come.)
I have managed to cut out four chapters. And, I have managed the finish the fifteen chapters in the second notebook! Tomorrow I shall tackle Notebook No. 3. (AKA, the one with the biggest revisions).
Stay tuned for more...
Today I am beginning plot revisions to my fantasy novel. After writing out a synopsis of each chapter on a notecard, I'm ready to go through them and fix plot holes and add plot changes when necessary. In the end, I shall have a complete and fully-functioning outline! Then, I can start rewriting.
How novel: a novel in notecards!
The very first notecard presented a problem. A huge plot hole. While waiting for my mom to finish what she was doing so I could talk it out with her and do a little brainstorming, I created a "Classic rock" playlist on youtube. This playlist features a nice blend of Paul McCartney, Elton John,
Billy Joel, and Queen, with a scattering of Lou Rawls, The Beatles,
Michael Jackson, Focus, and others.
Ahile later, huzzah! We fixed the plot problem! Onto notecard no. 2.
I'm slightly apprehensive. Out of the whole novel, the beginning needs the least revisions to the plot. If it took an hour of thinking and talking to fix the first chapter; how long is it going to take to fix some of the bigger issues? Then again, I have thought quite a bit about the later issues, and not at all about this first one. Hopefully, I can quickly and easily fix the problems that I've already thought a lot about.
My goal is to go through five chapters a day; it will take me about two weeks.
Although, my progress today has put me significantly ahead of schedule! I got through the first twenty chapters, which are contained in the first notebook (which is really only half a notebook; the other half is filled with random ideas and stories). These first twenty chapters are the easy chapters. The only real difficulties are a few plot holes that need patching, the need for some foreshadowing, and some inconsistencies (goats magically changing into sheep and then back into goats again). The major plot changes happen in the second and—even more so—the third notebooks. I have a feeling that they will take quite a bit longer to get through than the first notebook.
75 plot notes and 20 notecards down; 160 plot notes and 40 more notecards to go!
My mom and I are in Minnesota with the grandparents. Those who are familiar with Midwest summers may find it strange to hear that it's nice to escape the heat in the Pacific Northwest to the coolness of Minnesota! It's been about 70 degrees with a cold wind the past few days. At home on the west coast it's been in the 80s and 90s the past few days!
So what have I been up to?
Writing:
I've been getting a lot of writing-relating things done in the past month! In June, I wrote a Sleeping Beauty retelling. My motivation for this was for this story was Rooglewood Press' writing contest, but I don't know if I'll end up submitting it. I'm not sure it's Sleeping Beauty-ish enough. However, I fully plan on editing it in July (and perhaps sending it to a beta reader or two?) and, if I decide not to enter it in the contest, share it via installments on my blog.
I've also just finished a whirlwind week of editing/beta-ing a book for a friend. Now that I'm finished, I have more time to work on my own projects. Not only will I be editing my Sleeping Beauty story this month, but I will also be working on my fantasy story. Remember that mysteriously hinted-at story that I wrote last year? Probably not, because I'm far too secretive about my writing and don't tell you anything.
Back in March I did a post proposing my editing plan for my fantasy story. I started Step Two—"Go through story again, this time writing down each scene on a separate note card. Also, note (in the notebooks) all character traits and quirks with sticky notes"—and got through the first notebook (of three) and then realized my plan wasn't working. I had written out, scene-by-scene, the first twenty or so (out of sixty-some) chapters and I already had fifty or sixty note cards! That was too many! So, I cut up all the note cards that I had already written out (because I'm that paranoid that someone will steal my ideas. That's why I don't talk much about my writing on my blog, too) and decided to write out a synopsis of each chapter on separate note card instead.
The cut-up note cards.
I began writing out the chapter synopsis' the other day and it's going so much quicker than it was when I was writing out each scene! I've already gotten through one notebook and am hoping to get through the second one by tomorrow night. After I finish writing out each scene, I am planning on going through them all and changing the ones that need changing (filling in plot holes and such).
Then I will rewrite it and it will be so great that I will feel confidant enough to share it with a few select people. And then, taking their suggestions in mind, will continue editing until the book is finished. And then, I will publish it and it will become the next New York bestseller. And then, I will take over the publishing world and make millions of dollars and then it will be turned into a movie and then the next best seller will come along and I will be all alone in my New York apartment rocking back and forth on my knees wondering what went wrong while surrounded by ten cheap, knock-off sequels to the first book that I wrote to try and reclaim some of my former fame.
...I may be a tad overconfident.
Reading:
I am currently reading... The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas. However, I fear that this one may have to be put on hold until August. This month, I have too many other things to read! I'm really enjoying it thus far, though. Alexander Dumas is funny! Mistborn: The final Empire by Brandon Sanderson. This was my June fantasy read for my 2015 reading challenge. Oh, dear, I'm falling behind. Anyway... Mistborn is FANTASTIC! Any fan of fantasy should pick up this book. I haven't enjoyed a book this much in a really long time. (I especially think one of my cousins would enjoy this book... once he finishes with Wheel of Time, of course. :D). To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. This is one of my favorite books. I'm rereading it before the sequel comes out (ONE MORE WEEK!!!). We are planning on going to Sioux Falls to pick it up and I'm so excited! The Gershwins by Robert Kimball. This is my nonfiction for the month. It is a book all about my favorite person and his brother: George and Ira Gershwin! I love this book because it has SO many pictures of George Gershwin that you wouldn't normally see, including pictures of his paintings.
"Self-portrait in an Opera Hat" by George Gershwin. Did you know that he was a painter as well as a brilliant composer? And he never had an art lesson in his life.
What I will be reading soon... Homecoming by Christie Golden. This is a Star Trek novel that tells what happens after Voyager returns to earth (because the TV series ends as they enter earth's orbit). This one has to go back to the library in the next two or three weeks so I need to start it soon! The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson. Mistborn, book 2. From the Earth to the Moon (& Around the Moon) by Jules Verne. This is my reading challenge book for July. I haven't started it yet. Whoops. Since August's book is Cinder by Marissa Meyer (I changed it from an Isaac Asimov book, which I still plan to read this year), I think I will survive if this month's book trickles into August, like June's book has trickled into July.
Playing:
I was SO happy to stop playing my senior recital songs! After playing solely the same songs for six-nine months, I was desperate for new music. Now, I'm playing a boogie woogie version of "Awesome God" by Rich Mullins; "The Russian Rag," which is a ragtime version of Rachmaninoff's "Prelude in C# Minor" (which I played for my recital); and another Claude Debussy song: Arabesque no. 1.
In December I "finished" the fantasy novel I wrote in 2014 (I say "finished" because I got nearly to the end battle and then gave up, because I desperately needed to get my plot, characters, and world developed before I could continue writing).
Then, I posted my plan for planning, re-writing, and editing that novel. I finished the first step on Thursday night!
Step 1- Read through book, writing down inconsistencies, plot holes, and
disappearing details. Also, taking note of changing scenes by
separating them by a line. Step 2- Go through story again, this time writing down each scene on a
separate note card. Also, note (in the notebooks) all character traits
and quirks with sticky notes. Step 3- Arrange, rearrange, add, and subtract note card scenes.
Eventually, come up with a detailed outline, complete with places for
theme and character and plot development (via sticky notes attached to
the note cards). Do world building on this step as well. Step 4- Rewrite. Step 5- Analyze. (Send to beta readers?) Step 6- Rewrite and analyze some more. Step 7- Edit. Copiously. Step 8- Decide what to do with brilliant, finished manuscript.
Overall, the novel is much better than I anticipated, as far as the actual writing goes. The plot, however, is another subject. It could—and does—go so many ways! I think I've figured out which way is best, though, which makes me excited! My next step is to write out a summary of that plot and then start going through the book again, writing down scenes and looking for character traits (as step #2 says). I'm hoping to have this step done by June (July at the latest). Then, over the summer, I can work on an outline and world building. After that, I can rewrite! I'm hoping to have the second draft done by the end of the year. Then I can send it out to beta readers and get their opinions on the story and characters.
Meanwhile, I have some other writing projects looming on the horizon. First: Camp NaNoWriMo in April!
This is 2013's banner, because I don't think they've issued 2015 ones yet.
I'm going to be writing the fourth book in that one spyish series that I've mentioned millions of times. I don't know what to call it, because Daniel and Varina aren't spies, but they aren't secret agents either. They aren't detectives and they aren't really investigators. Mostly, they do paperwork, and undertake missions for a super secret government agency which specializes in finding important information.
Although this series lacks in plot (for the most part), it makes up for it in the characters. Daniel and Varina are the characters that I hold closest to my heart (sorry After the Twelfth Night and 2014 Fantasy Story and unwritten Steampunk Novel casts). They are probably the most developed of any of my characters and I love exploring their friendship and their dynamics with their families.
One of the characters—Andrew—is the first character I ever created. He's jumped from series to series, always staying relatively the same, and he ended up paired with Daniel and Varina.
I have three Daniel and Varina novels written already, with the help of NaNoWriMo's of yesteryear. This fourth one follows Daniel and Varina as they go to London, to help Daniel's snobby, rich family with some sort of plot problem that I haven't come up with yet. To make matters worse, Varina has fallen and broken her leg, and her sister Beatrice has invited herself to come along to London to be Varina's caretaker.
