Update

A couple of quick updates to share with you.

TIPS & TRICKS BLOG UPDATED

I added some entries to my TIPS & TRICKS blog, offering some very important tips and questions to ask yourself that can help anyone struggling with plot and character development.

This blog is best read in reverse order -- in other words, start with the oldest (first) entry, and read backward, in the order in which things were actually posted. Of course, you can also skim along and read whatever catches your eye in whatever order you come to it. One day before too terribly long I will create a web site and organize this information, and add to it, so that it is presented in a clearer fashion. Blogs are not really the best venue for this sort of information.

THE ORIGIN OF THE "THINKING BLOGGER AWARD"

Susan Flemming was able to find the original posting by the blogger who actually started the whole THINKING BLOGGER AWARD meme. She has updated her blog with her own posting after receiving the award, and has included the link there.

I include it here as well in case anyone is curious to see it. I was. I'm glad the person started the meme. It certainly made me think about what blogs have a real value to me, on what basis I think that, helped spur me on to seek additional blogs out there that can make me think, and helped me to recognize some quality blogs by quality people when I made my own posting about this.

Chapter 30, 81k

Hoo-hah! A marathon session. Stayed up all night. This story is so fascinating, I just can't put it down. So much of the heart of the story is coming out right now.

I wrote for a span of probably nine hours. During that time I think I churned out about 25,000 words. That comes to 2777 words per hour, similar to my output the other day when I was on a roll. That's about 46 words per minute sustained output for nine straight hours non-stop, although in real terms of course I did take breaks. I actually worked over a span of about 10 hours, with an hour off for breaks.

I just couldn't stop myself. The story has me in its grips.

I'm technically doing the second draft, but since I have changed plot details around, it feels more like a first draft at this point. Some of it is loose, but some of it is tight, and some of it is darned good stuff that I'm really happy with. It'll certainly take a bit of work to tighten up the loose parts.

At the start of this past week, I was at Chapter 10 and 27k. That means I wrote twenty chapters this past week, and 54,000 words.

Okay, I'm now officially a writing maniac!

Feels good. Hope I'm inspiring someone else out there to see what they can do if they pull all the stops.

Best wishes while I can still see clearly enough to type it,

Adrian

11k = Personal Record!

I just realized I set what might be my personal record last night: 11,000 words written in one writing session! (About four hours writing time.)

That's 2750 words per hour, or 45-46 words per minute sustained for four hours.

Of course, I took breaks here or there, so at times I was moving a little more quickly and at other times not moving at all.

I know I had written 7k and 9k previously. This is the first time I've reached 11k, as far as I know. Wow! Practice makes for productivity!

I'll toast to that!

Adrian

Chapter 22, 56k

Made a bunch more progress last night. My goal earlier this week of letting the story speak for itself, of getting into the heart of it, has worked really well. Last night I was flying along, feeling the very heart and pulse of the story (and the potential series).

That's all. I'll write again this weekend and am really, really enjoying the story. This second draft will finally resemble the finished product. That's exciting.

Best wishes to others working on their novels,

Adrian

Chapter 17, 45k

Moving right along. I made it to Chapter 15 on Tuesday night, then Chapter 17 last night, so about two chapters per night. They vary from 2k to 3k in length. The most I wrote in one night this week was 7k words.

Sometimes I think I'm not realizing the potential of the story with this new material, and then when I read over what I wrote, I feel it is actually really good. So, I have no idea whether it's any good or not. I'll have to continue working through, complete the draft, and then a good look back at it after a short break from it.

What I do like in the new material is that I'm delving more into the heart of the characters, trying to draw out the emotion more. The first part of the story (Act I) moved along fairly quickly and I was writing in a style that was brief, without much exposition or inner reflection. I wanted the Reader to deduce the emotional reactions without my naming them. In this part (Act II, First Half), I'm commenting more on the thoughts or feelings, which I think ultimately works better. I'm not stating the obvious, but allowing more consideration of how the MC feels about things. There is much for him to feel about, much that has already happened, and probably in the edit or rewrite of this I'll need to go back to Act I to draw that out more there as well.

I've also been very pleased with some of the scenes in general, that they are engaging and heartwarming and allowing for some story questions to remain unanswered, building suspense to some degree, while also developing new questions of immediate interest, yet again not fully resolving them. There are also a number of twists and turns, unexpected things that make perfect sense but which I did not see coming and the Reader will probably not see coming either, as written.

Although I'm moving faster, I'm getting a handle on scene length, pulling them back down to 2k+, trying not to hit 3k and certainly not to exceed it. It's still a problem with some chapters, but other chapters are right on target, which is better than having no chapters on target. My first draft featured chapters of about 10k each and some scenes as long as 6k+. Shorter is better, and hard for writers like me to accomplish since (as my blog postings show on occasion ... well, rather frequently) I tend to write a bit more rather than a bit less. At least I don't have any trouble most of the time finding something to write!

Also, the overall quality of the prose is remaining good enough that I'm comfortable with it. I thought style would go out the window, which it has to some extent as I am writing more quickly, moving ahead without looking back, but in fact my developing sense of style is becoming more ingrained and I'm holding it together much better than I might have in previous drafts/attempts over the years. I sense much more control at storytelling emerging. It just takes lots and lots and lots of practice!

Finally, I wanted to mention that as I do more work in this draft-mode mindset, turning off the internal editor and just going for it, I find it is getting much, much easier to do. It is no longer as emotionally draining. It is becoming a habit. I can sit down now and just glance at the last lines of the previous chapter, and suddenly all of it comes back to mind. The continuity is there with very little effort. I don't have to spend an hour going back over previous chapters to "get in the mindset". The downside, of course, is that I am never not in the mindset: I carry the story around with me day and night, although I am now able to carry conversations and actually notice what the other people are saying. I'm not totally pre-occupied, just unwilling to let the story go for longer than it takes to watch "24" (!).

Best wishes to others working on their novels,

Adrian

THINKING BLOGGER AWARD!

I was recently awarded the Thinking Blogger Award by Gabriele. This definitely feels like an honor. The idea of the award is to recognize blogs that make you think. The rules are posted below, along with the five blogs which I am also tagging.

Here are the rules to play along:

1. If you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.
2. Link to that post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.
3. Optional: Display your Thinking Blogger Award with a link to the post that you wrote.

And the five blogs I have chosen:

Benjamin Solah: A young man who lives in Sydney, Australia, who is both a Marxist and a Horror Fiction writer. He uses his fiction to capture the horrors of Capitalism. I admire the depth of his convictions and his commitment to using his art to express his view on the world.

Wynn Bexton: Wynn is a travel writer and writing instructor who is also working on a novel. Through her travels and studies she is also very knowledgeable about history. Her blog is always interesting and I love the quotes and the samples of her writing that she shares.

Susan Flemming: Susan is another aspiring novelist whose blog makes me think. She is in touch with much that goes on in the world of writerly blogging, including writers' contests and other events.

Scott Marlowe: Scott is an aspiring novelist who blogs about his writing and also shares other interesting tidbits of interest and relevance to writers. He recently posted a completed manuscript online for free download, earning him the dubious title of webscab.

Sherry Thomas: Sherry is a newly published writer who hasn't blogged as much lately as she used to but when she posts, it is generally well worth reading. I have enjoyed several of her posts immensely and hope she will continue blogging regularly!

Honorable Mentions:

There was a blog that really made me think, but apparently it is no longer available. It was called "A New Rico" and belonged to an Italian man that I came into contact with through Nanowrimo one year. He was blogging and writing creatively about his life experiences as a gay man in Italy dealing with HIV and other significant issues. I hope he is alive and well.

Another very interesting blog is "The Elegant Variation", a literary weblog that has attracted considerable attention. If you haven't heard of it, check it out.

Pendrifter is the blog of another aspiring writer who, like me, blogs about the struggles, the ups and downs, of working at her novels. This blogger also includes a beautiful piece of artwork with each posting, which always stimulates the creativity and constantly reinforces a sense of art's potential to inspire.

If Gabriele hadn't tagged me for this award, I would certainly have tagged her. She maintains two blogs and a web site (see Featured Links in the sidebar). She writes historical fiction and I'm amazed by her work. She also provides an excellent list of links well worth visiting.

Which blogs make YOU think?

Adrian

PS: If anyone linked to or mentioned here does not wish to receive the recognition, please let me know and I'll remove your name/link.

Chapter 13, 35k

Yup, back to work, riding the churning seas of creativity, new pages materializing right before my very eyes . . . must be magic! There has to be some explanation for it.

Chapter 12 was surprisingly tight. Otherwise, the chapters are running longer than intended. That's what happens when I write faster without editing. Looks like this will be another 120k draft. Was hoping for 80k and was on track for that before.

Have broken that exciting new ground. It's exciting. New scenes now for the next 30k words, a rewrite of this portion of the original storyline. I love the joy of discovery. It's so joyous.

'Nuff for now.

Adrian

Chapter 10, 27k

Yes, the word count is beginning to surge, and golly, that just happens to coincide with the point at which I am moving forward more quickly! The rapider I go, the wordier I get . . . .

I threw caution to the wind and I'm not sure yet what the wind blew back on my face, but after I clean it off I'll try resist the urge to go back and edit what I wrote. I'm in Chapter 11 already, and will finish it tonight. That will mark the end of Act I.

It feels good to make more rapid progress, but I long for the sense of polished text. Wish I could have it both ways at the same time. I know, I'll just have to wait and then I can edit later. Okay. I'll wait. Grr . . . .

I'm still excited about getting into the first half of Act II. That'll be something new, a revised version that will involve many new scenes I have never written before. I'll go where I've never gone. Hopefully I won't get lost. My map is pretty good.

Back to work,

Adrian

Chapter 8, 18k

I spent a lot of time recently going over and over the existing chapters of the second draft, tightening, tweaking, making it sing. I'm really pleased with the results. I feel this second draft, the portion already written, is very solid. It's what I had hoped the first draft would be.

Last night I worked on Chapter 8. I still have a little to add to it, but it's mostly done. After I had stopped work, I felt what I had written was terrible, but later when I read it over, I thought it was actually very good. So, the doubts will creep in, but are not reason to become discouraged. It seems the more I go over this story, the better I know it, and the better I can tell it. I make more connections now between scenes and especially the forces that drive character motivations. This deeper understanding shows up in each scene I write for this second draft.

As there are multiple scenes in most chapters, and the number of chapters and scenes is beginning to grow, I found it useful to update my Master Scene List, a table where I keep track of each scene in each chapter so I can tell at a glance what has happened and what needs to happen next. I compare what I am doing with what I did before, but I am not bound to follow the exact pattern from before. The idea in this second draft is that I am making minor reshuffles, adjusting the flow of scenes to enhance motivation and cause/effect. Also, as I mentioned in a previous posting, I'll be reshuffling one major portion of the story, moving it earlier where it will have a greater effect and set up more potential in other scenes that come later. Still, I need to refer to the Master Scene List from the first draft to remind me of the various scenes I'm working with. Some I can consolidate, some I can shuffle, some I can drop and replace with other ways of getting the story across. Eventually I will put some of my tables online with links for free download. I know I've been promising that for months; I will get to it eventually.

At this point I'll try to keep moving forward. I love tweaking text but enough is enough. There is much more to write to get this draft done, and I'm falling behind schedule, sacrificing speed for more polished results.

Back to work,

Adrian

A "Langolier" Moment

This has turned into an unplanned break! Other things have come up recently and my writing time has been limited, plus I was not getting enough sleep on a chronic basis, so I've needed a break to catch up on some rest, and basically catch up with myself. I'm sort of getting closer to where I am now, the way the survivors were waiting in the airport at the end of Stephen King's THE LANGOLIERS. Any moment my own time frame will come rushing through, and I'm ready to leap back in! [I know, that's a little metaphysical, but my fiction delves into such things on occasion.]

Anyhoo, just letting visitors to my blog know I'm still here and will make a "real" posting again soon, probably this weekend. I have been reading a lot, and also doing more editing on the existing chapters for THE REFLECTING STONE, 2nd Draft. The lastest "tweaks" have really brought out the sparkle and shine, or more accurately the intensity of a couple of scenes. The material is really coming together. The suspense is rising.

Hasta la vista, escritores!
C U l8tr alligator,
Ci vediamo,

Adrian

Chapter 6, 13k

Took some days off as I needed a break -- was burning the candle at both ends for a little too long, and getting very fatigued. The rest helped. Used the time to let my mind wander. I rethought the novel and the series, reviewed ideas I'd already established, added to the ideas, shored them up with more ideas that tie it all together. Used my imagination to imagine scenes, explore how things are now fitting together after changes over the past couple of months. It's good. Real progress.

I also tinkered with the text and edited, tightened, added more to it. I even took a short break from the text of the rewrite to let it cool and then took a fresh look back at what I had been working on. I was planning to condense more, but when I reread last night I was quite happy with what I had written. What's there needs to be there, at least for now. Can't shorten too much or the story loses its essential fabric.

It's always slow for me at the start, then I gain momentum. As I've said before, I like to feel I have a solid foundation before taking off for the mad dash to the end. I think I have enough of that foundation now that I can shift my attention to moving forward.

Back to work! And, wishing everyone else success with their work!

Adrian

Chapter 5, 10k

I have now written the first five chapters of the second draft, coming in at about 10k words. I covered the first step of my outline in the first three chapters, which ran about 6k words instead of 10k words as in the first draft.

This makes me happy. It's what I was shooting for the first time through, but things just ran long all the time. I'm leaving stuff out now, focusing on keeping what's most important. The result is a story that moves forward much more directly, with more momentum and continuity. It's tigher, leaner.

Regarding the "stuff" from my previous posting: I ended up moving most of it to an "outtakes" file and completely rewriting these chapters. It's worth it to take the time to get it right, especially at the beginning, the foundation of the story. Wasn't difficult, and successive versions improved naturally. One new chapter was amazingly solid the first time through. I definitely see where keeping at it is helping me over time to become a better writer. I know I can write, but my skills are continually sharpening. The more I practice the particular style I am using, the more natural it becomes (more about that in a later blog posting).

I'll have to rethink things a few times along the way, I'm sure, since I'm skipping scenes, consolidating them, and sometimes shuffling them around. This is not a major change to the story, just a refocusing, a narrowing of purpose. It's good to do this, the results are positive. I'm connecting with the "dramatic need" and the internal plot as well. I may change some chapters, or rewrite a bit of the new stuff, to redistribute the load between scenes/chapters, if I misjudge. Want to keep it in balance, moving forward plot point by plot point, without spending too much time on any one event.

I'm not limiting myself to simply retelling what I wrote in the first draft. The basic story will be the same, with a revised and improved ending. What is different this time is I am allowing myself to truly rewrite scenes, to reimagine them, to use a new take on them that might work better. I am drawing out differences between characters, heightening the pressures at work that are bearing down on the main character already at the beginning of the story. I am seeking ways to be more dramatic, or subtle, as the case may be, whatever will help convey the story and involve the Reader.

One example of this is one of the principal characters, a woman we meet early on in the novel who is of lasting importance (she reappears several times throughout the story). I am experimenting with a new way of depicting her, quite different from the way she appeared in the first draft. She is much more intense now, and quirky. Much more interesting and mysterious. She is also less friendly, more distant, and possibly scary. This is a great new development because it will heighten the suspense in some later scenes when other characters are present, and help provide a better basis for how the main character interacts with her later. It has even prompted me to rethink her involvement in some later scenes. That's not good, if my rewrite has me rethinking too much! However, this change would be significant but easy to integrate, so it doesn't put me off. Her attitude change has helped bring several pieces together more tightly, so I am happy however it turns out with her later role.

Another new development is taking more time for the main character to interact with his love interest. These interactions did not reveal enough of the love interest's personality in the first draft. It's important to know who this person is, and why the main character is so interested in this relationship, and why the obstacles to the relationship matter and are not easy to overcome. Getting to know the love interest better is a big plus in this second draft.

This same thing is happening with other characters as well. They are getting more meaningful interaction with the main character, and their personalities and motivations are much clearer now, more apparent. I chose to dramatize some interactions that were only exposition in the first draft, allowing characters to speak for themselves about what turn out to be key points.

This fluidity is important. "The story's the thing." How can I best tell this story? Again, the idea of successive layers, but not in the story, in my own understanding of it. Each time through I learn more, can do more with it. The story evolves as my understanding of it evolves. I am getting much closer now to what will be the final version. I don't know when that will be, after this draft plus editing, or after another complete draft, but I can see light at thd end of the tunnel, a sense of what this will look like when it's finished. It will be tight, and the characters will be well drawn. They will be distinct, three dimensional, vivid, memorable.

Back to work!

Adrian

Rough Stuff & New Blogs

Rough Stuff:

I wrote Chapter 2, then it grew, then I cut it in two . . . .

Wait a minute, this wasn't supposed to rhyme! Anyhoo . . . .

[Ouch. My keyboard shocked me. Getting its revenge.]

Chapter 2 is now 3 chapters long, which means I have stuff labeled as chapters up through chapter 4, but of course I really only have Chapter 1, which I had written previously, and 3 chapters worth of some pretty rough stuff. The good side of this is that I've dived in and explored the characters and their personalities, motivations, etc., in more depth than before. The challenging side of this is weeding it out, pruning it, getting it down to one or two solid chapters instead of three loose accumulations of, well, whatever that stuff is. I like what is happening so far with this rewrite. I have much more control in the sense that I know the story well by now, but also I am "discovering" much more depth to what is already there. It's like I'm getting "the rest of the story" now. That's cool.

New Blogs:

I added four new blogs to the list of WRITERS' BLOGS (see the sidebar). I found them on the index list, AUTHORS BLOGS, which has grown substantially in the past few months. When I joined that list last Fall it was much shorter. I was absolutely amazed at how much it has grown. I think it's ten times longer now than when I last viewed it. The new blogs are wriers who identified themselves either as gay or as working in the fantasy genre. Glad there is such a convenient way for published and aspiring writers who blog to learn about one another.

The four new ones on my list are:

The Broken Quill (published author, Erik Buchanan, of Canada)
The Maze of My Mind (aspiring writer, Paul Westdorp, of USA)
MYPAJAMA.COM (aspiring writer with a long name I can't spell easily, of India)
Thom Jaymes (published author of erotic gay fiction, of USA)

I don't read nearly as many blogs as some others do, and I only read blogs related to writing. I guess I just don't spend much time online! I prefer to use my time writing. Speaking of which . . . .

Back to work!

Adrian

Beginning 2nd Draft of THE REFLECTING STONE

I have tied things together well enough that I feel comfortable starting the rewrite of THE REFLECTING STONE. This will be the second complete draft. I'm starting at the very beginning and will continue through to the end. I will write it in such a way that it could stand alone, but would readily lend itself to serving as the first of a series should it get published and a publisher be interested in a continuation of this story. There is much, much, much more to tell, although this first volume is already an amazing, epic story in its own right (are writers biased about their own work?).

I wrote the first chapter and went back over it, editing it a bit, although I will try to curtail my tendency to heavily edit the first several chapters before turning myself loose to move quickly through successive chapters. I'm getting back to "draft" mode, which is enjoyable once you put all your cares aside and let go of the internal editor. I hope to finish this draft in about a month, no more than six weeks if I run into obstacles.

It's possible this draft will be close enough to a finished product that I can simply edit it, but if I feel another complete rewrite would aid in the storytelling, I'm willing to do it. Each time through you understand better the connections, the motivations, the cause and effect relationships. Each time through you get better at telling it. I had tried to avoid successive rewrites, putting emphasis on the planning before writing, but I'm willing to accept the need for rewrites even with all that planning. Anything to make the story better. "The story's the thing."

This week I have been feeling a little under the weather, so I haven't pushed myself as much as I would have liked. I think I needed a bit of a break. I'll just ease into it, and within a few days should be in full swing again. Then it'll be a mad dash to the finish line. Loads of fun for us writerly types.

Gearing up again,

Adrian

Making Progress

As so often happens in planning work, I have come up with a few different versions of how things could work. I also took a couple of days off to let things sit, so I could come back with a somewhat fresher perspective and use that to see more clearly which route seems best.

I'm still not done, and I realize this work on the mythology and possible series is very important and must not be rushed, even though I am more than eager to move ahead with the next draft.

As I've looked over the options, I've also considered again that there may be a virtue in keeping different story ideas separate -- not linking them into a series. In general, in the fantasy genre, series are a good thing. Publishers like them, and fantasy readers love them. However, for a first novel, it is often best to have a stand-alone volume. Publishers are more comfortable with that from a first-timer. If that stand-alone volume could also later be used as the starting point for a series, so much the better, but it's not obligatory.

I will probably end up splitting the difference, doing the rewrite with an eye out to how it could fit into a larger series while also writing it in such a manner (mostly, ending it in such a manner) that is is satisfying on its own. I want that anyway from volumes in a series. There is nothing worse than ending an installment with a call that beckons "Sequel!" (I'll never forget my disappointment with the ending of Star Wars Episode V). The reader wants satsifaction each and every time, as well as the titiliation of more to come.

If I proceed with this idea of "stand-alone and/or first-of-a-series", then I should be ready to begin writing the next draft tonight or tomorrow night. I can always use the weeks to come to revise the ideas for the series. At least I do have a general framework now for the series, which I did not have before, and the key questions of how this first volume interfaces are nearly answered (they are answered, just in different versions, so I have to pin it down to which version I'll go with).

Anyhoo, it's been an eye-opener the past several days, seeing the potential for the series in various incarnations, three volumes, five volumes, and more. One thing has definitely stood out: I have other exciting stories I want to tell that are not part of this possible series, so whatever I'm doing with it, I need to get a move on -- there's so much more writing to do!

Keeping it exciting,

Adrian

Mythology & Series Work Continues

Making good progress on the mythology, which I worked on Sunday night. There are still different aspects of it that need fleshing out. Last night I wrote about 3500 words detailing the last major issue in the mythology, which is very important for linking the stories together now that I'm planning on a series. I'll work on this again tonight, and when finished should have a plan for the series.

The key concept helping me right now is EXTRAPOLATION. Given a part of the story, can you figure out what other parts go with it?

To help me in this I am remembering my 12-step outline based on the 3-act structure. I am asking myself questions like "what is the big story question?" and "what big conflict will it come to at the end of the series?" and "which characters will be essential in solving this conflict?", etc. Instead of doing this on the story level within the framework of one novel, I am doing this on the series level, creating the overarching story that will guide the individual volumes.

As I create all this information, I realize that some of it will be revealed early, some of it withheld and not revealed until later volumes. I have to see each story as it will seem to the Reader at the time, focusing on the story questions that are raised and how they will be answered, giving enough information to satisfy, piquing the Readers' curiosity to learn more, and working in foreshadowing for larger things to come. It's fun to see how this fits together. A complex puzzle, to be sure.

The work is very exciting, at times thrilling. This extra time spent developing the mythology, not settling for what works but seeking what is better, more interesting, more meaningful, is generating some really amazing material that I had never envisioned at the outset. The story is certainly growing, maturing, coming into its own. It just takes time and TLC.

The planning work is nearly done. I hope to wrap it up tonight or after one more night as I am eager to start on the second draft of THE REFLECTING STONE. The work I did the other night on the internal plot, the growth of the main character, will guide that rewrite. The external plot is fairly solid. Only a few minor events will be shuffled around, and that in order to bring out the internal development of the main character. Having this mythology work complete will also help whenever this story touches on the various aspects of it. It does affect the story in some places very directly, in other places indirectly. Again, what I'm creating now is consistent with what I already developed and wrote before; I'm just expanding on it, enriching it. So, the differences in this second draft will not be so great that they upset the apple cart. It's more a matter of revising the exposition and fine-tuning the goals, motivations, and attitudes of certain characters during certain moments.

The work goes on!

Adrian

Back to the Drawing Board

I've been on Cloud 9 since completing the first draft of THE ISLE, but it's time to move on. I've worked every night without missing a beat, revisiting my planning notes for THE REFLECTING STONE, preparing myself for the next draft of that novel, which is my first completed novel, still in first draft form.

On Sunday, after I finished THE ISLE, I spent several very productive hours reworking the mythology for both stories. I am now set on linking them together as part of a larger series.

When I worked on THE REFLECTING STONE last year, the mythology was always a struggle. Progress seemed slow and challenging, with a constant need to simplify. By the time I had finished the first draft, the mythology was in pretty good shape. With THE ISLE now complete and serving as a sequel, there are new ideas for me to incorporate into that existing mythology. Specifically, I needed to expand the range and focus of events.

In my work Sunday night, the new and the old meshed well together and it was not only NOT difficult, it was fairly easy going with terrific results -- the first time that has EVER occurred in the past year and half when working with this mythology!

Monday night I spent another several hardworking and highly productive hours working through the internal plot for THE REFLECTING STONE. I used Alicia Rasley's excellent article on this, working through her nine questions to help put things in perspective. She approaches the topic through the notion of the heroic flaw, but your MC does not have to be a Greek hero for you to find the article helpful. In fact, unless you're writing a tragedy, you want your MC to learn a lesson and overcome the difficulties, which is what those nine questions are geared toward. You can find her article on the internal plot here, and an index to her other helpful articles here.

Following a guideline is a technique I've discovered in the past year. It helps keep me focused. I normally don't use someone else's template to guide my own thoughts, but in this case Ms. Rasley knows her stuff and her articles keep me focused and save me a lot of time when I'm wrestling with difficult concepts or ideas that become convoluted when applying them to a lengthy and involved story.

Internal and external plots are related. My understanding of them is that there is a main external plot, something the main character (MC) is trying to accomplish: a goal, in other words, with obstacles that stand in the way. Separate from this, there are things going on in the MC's life that define how he/she sees the world, and responds to it. These emotional issues, beliefs and patterns of thinking and behaving affect how the MC solves problems, how he/she reacts in a variety of situations. Ultimately, they define some aspect of his/her personality, and will impact how he/she responds to the obstacles along the way toward achieving the external goal. The internal plot is essentially a progression for the MC from one point to another on some emotional and/or cognitive level. The internal plot is a journey of internal change in attitudes, beliefs, values, etc., that will ultimately affect external behavior and affect whether he/she can achieve the external goal over time. Ultimately, the MC has to solve some internal conflict, has to grow as a person in some way, in order to be able to "win" in the final climactic event.

In real life, this is not always the case. Sometimes we set an external goal, strive for it and achieve it, and we do this without any significant change in ourselves or our lives other than we worked for something and got it, whether it be through actual work (earning money, putting it aside, buying something), or in some other figurative sense (wooing someone, earning their affection).

However, sometimes our lives do play out exactly like this. Sometimes we are our own worst enemy. Sometimes we have something in our attitudes or beliefs or patterns of behavior that cause us to stand in our own way. We cannot achieve a certain goal sometimes until we resolve some inner conflict, find a better way of coping or acting or managing ourselves or our lives. Only after resolving our own issues are we finally able to achieve some other goal. This could mean learning to manage a budget in order to buy that new house or car, or overcoming drug addiction (or whatever) so that special someone will consider a relationship with you.

For purposes of our fiction, it is convenient to think of the MC as having a particular strength that will help him/her achieve the external goal. That strength comes with a price, a weakness, on the flipside. For example, being daring might help the MC rise to the occasion when others shy away from it, but this strength is also a weakness if the MC takes people up on foolish dares and gets injured. There is what Ms. Rasley calls a "default behavior", a way of acting when pressed on the issue that is purely reactional. If someone offers a challenge, for example, the MC takes them up on it. I think of the BACK TO THE FUTURE movies where the MC could not turn down a dare if someone called him "chicken" (or whatever the case was). When challenged, the MC will typically engage in the default behavior, which in turn can lead to negative, even potentially dangerous consequences which hurt the MC's chances of achieving the larger external goal.

It is important to show this trait as both a strength and a weakness, and to establish the default behavior as a reaction under certain circumstances. It is also important to show that while the MC may respond with this default behavior more or less automatically, in fact he/she does not have to. There is a choice. As the MC learns that this default behavior is not a good one, he/she has the opportunity to make a choice and do better (= growth).

Circumstances must develop that put the default behavior to the test, and finally teach the MC the lesson he/she needs to learn. At some point, the coping mechanism is simply not good enough, and a better response is needed. The MC will not necessarily do the right thing at that time, but at least the idea will get through. Ms. Rasley points out that even a moment's hesitation before engaging in the default behavior is enough to show that the concept has gotten through to the MC, that he/she is now aware of the fact that this behavior is not helping, and maybe something better is out there, a better way to respond. Eventually there will be other opportunities for the MC to try out the new pattern, and by the end of the story the MC will be able to combine the main strength from the beginning of the story, which is still there, still a strength, with the insight gained along the way, the lesson learned, thereby overcoming the weakness, capitalizing on the strength, and overcoming the final conflict to win the prize.

Of course, sometimes winning the prize is realizing that the prize was not worth winning in first place. All sorts of twists and turns are possible.

After all this progress over two nights, I spent last night, Tuesday, going back over all this work and for the first time officially putting together ideas for the remainder of the series. The series is based on ideas I've had for years, and had intended to put together in one volume, a stand-alone novel. However, I am now drawing on that concept, applying these stories to it, and seeking to develop a multi-part series that expands on the original idea and makes use of some pretty cool and interesting stories, in my opinion (THE REFLECTING STONE and THE ISLE -- I like them both a lot).

I'll comment more on that work tomorrow, since the work will continue tonight, and I'll be sure to include comments on the virtues of EXTRAPOLATION.

Best wishes, whether planning or writing, or even just dreaming,

Adrian

FINISHED 1st DRAFT OF THE ISLE!

The photo is of a spiral galaxy that emits a colorful, natural fireworks display. No actual fireworks or galaxies were harmed in the making of this image or this blog posting.

Yeah! Done! The first draft of THE ISLE came in at just over 130,000 words, only two of which actually fit together (duh-dum). If you overlook the purely random punctuation and the tendency to replace words that almost make sense with words that bear no relation to one another, the text could almost qualify as one of the greatest pieces of literature ever written by a monkey on a typewriter.

Disclaimer: No actual monkies or typewriters were harmed in the making of this draft or this blog posting.

I had to work against a lot of interruptions the past few days which made it a challenge to maintain the continuity at such a crucial time. I patiently kept at it, whenever I had time. Bit by bit it came together. It ran a little longer than intended because of some exciting new twists and turns that developed in the delivery of the climax.

It was like....

You know how great sex suddenly gets even better when everyone involved slips and slides and collapses in a heap on the floor, thereby spontaneously discovering a whole new approach that did not even seem possible just minutes before?

I'll take your word for it.

I think there are 51 chapters at this point, typically in the 2,000- to 3,000-word range. Some of them are actually divided into paragraphs.

At one point I confided to a loved one that it felt like I was in one of those Irwin Allen Airport movies, trying to land a severely damaged 747 with pieces flying off it, the wings shuddering from the gaping holes in them and an abandoned baby crying in a stroller on the runway below. Whoosh!

Well, I made it. The plane made it. And no babies or baby strollers were harmed, although the neighbor's children might have been adversely affected by all the screaming as I re-enacted the final scene with sound effects on a karaoke machine at 3 am. I was wearing headphones at the time. I didn't realize my voice could carry like that.

The story also ran a bit long because I took the time to explore some additional back story and foreshadowing for future volumes in the series, if I will indeed link my last novel and this novel and expand on them. I think I will. It's a great concept and made for a really gripping, fascinating ending to this second novel. If I take out the series aspects and make each novel a stand-alone work, each would certainly stand on its own. But linking them allows me to create another layer that really draws out a lot more from these same stories.

Thanks for the encouragment and support from those who have shared comments with me over the past months as I planned and wrote THE ISLE. I really do appreciate the support. I am happy to offer it as well. Sharing the ups and downs in this process does make it more bearable.

After 15+ years of trying to write without completing a single novel, I have now completed two first drafts (120k & 130k) in the past 17 months. That includes significant planning time and a few months of downtime. Actual writing for both of them together ran about 6 or 7 months, I think. Amazingly I wrote about half of this second novel in just the past couple of weeks. Once you get on a roll, things can really move along.

I feel so much more capable now after so many years of struggling to do this. I see that I can, and I've done it twice, and it got easier the second time. Practice hasn't yet made "perfect" for me but it has certainly helped. Now the challenge is to rewrite and edit and turn these first drafts into finished manuscripts which I can send out to agents and publishers so they can send them back to me with restraining orders prohibiting further contact.

I kept an eye out on the process this second time to try to discover what my hang-ups were that stalled the editing of my first novel. I think I have figured out enough to jump back into the first novel now and get some serious work done on it. The main issue was trying to edit where I really needed to stand back, throw up my arms in frustration then sit down for some serious rewriting. I know which parts need the rewriting.

I don't want to miss a beat, so I'll start later tonight with getting back to work on THE REFLECTING STONE! As I do, I'll also make some notes on THE ISLE to keep thoughts in mind for when I get to the second draft of this novel.

Now...to celebrate. I want to see if I can spontaneously erupt into a human fireworks display. I'll keep a bottle of sherry on hand to douse the flames.

Warning: Stunts performed by trained professionals and/or unrestrained monkies. Do not try this at home. Or anywhere else.

Best wishes to everyone else working on a novel! And thanks for humoring me. I think I'm having one of those happy moments.

Adrian

110k

Back into the swing of it. Currently just before the final climactic scene. I will write a chapter for the main conflict, possibly two if it carries over and there's a suspsenseful breaking point, then one or two chapters to tie things up, and it'll be done.

Feeling good that I can finish a story that I start! After so many years of trying, that means a lot.

Looking forward to the final words on the last page . . . .

Adrian

96k

Had a lovely weekend. We're back to the cold weather this week, so I'm happy I took the time to enjoy the better weather while we had it.

I worked in a few writing sessions and managed to bring the word count up to 96k. The word count really doesn't mean anything, since I'm planning on a total rewrite, but it is a sign of progress. I'm into Act III now, turning all the corners toward the final home stretch. I want to wrap this draft up in no more than 120k words. Hope to have it done within the next few days.

Then, I'll reflect on how it went, make some notes for the rewrite, and set it aside for later.

At that point, in the near future, I'll turn my attention back to my first novel, THE REFLECTING STONE, and do a rewrite of it. The first 3 chapters were very solid, so I may limit the rewrite to chapters 4-12, or I may just go ahead and do a complete rewrite. Either way, it needs work to bring it into a form that I can simply edit. The second half in particular is loose. I imagine I'll spend up to 8 weeks on the rewrite, but will try to get it done in 4-6 weeks.

After that . . . well, I hope to edit and polish that first novel and then start sending it out! And then . . . rewrite the second novel, THE ISLE!

So much to do, but I am enjoying it and do sense finally that I am getting near some tangible results. They're coming. Down the road a ways, but they're coming.

Best wishes to all aspiring writers,

Adrian