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Post by Tiger on Nov 1, 2016 9:25:58 GMT -5
Another year of cheating for me \ o / ...I have two old novels (the start of NaNos, actually) sitting around, and I've been stuck on them for months because of various worldbuilding/logic issues. I'm going to at least start off trying to fix those problems - hopefully in the form of short stories and snippets? - and eventually, I hope, move on to actually writing more of one of these puppies. Stupid modern fantasy, having to have all the fantasy bits slotted into the real world - and how dare common sense conflict with the plot beats I wanna drop! XDD |  |
- M's backstory- Ian's backstory- Do M and Ian's backstories intersect? ...I mean, I know they already do but how much- Why did Ian leave, especially without telling anyone anything 8I- Why didn't M tell K what sensing the supernatural creature he's hunting feels like?- Or if he did, how do I keep K from acting on it and ending the book early? Wordcount Calendar ( embiggened) |
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Post by Tiger on Nov 17, 2016 15:14:44 GMT -5
November 17th
Ahaha, so, writing and plotting is. Fun.
I've written about 20k of this character's backstory so far...and I finally had to just face the fact today that, the way everything is going, I cannot have this character just not say anything to his family about his supernatural abilities. Which is sort of a problem because I'd rather the main characters not know like everything from the get-go. Not to mention there's a decision Ian makes that not only makes him kind of terrible, but actually would make some other characters kind of suck.
But then I realized I could make a compromise - if I take away one piece of knowledge from Ian and the other characters he's involved with, he can make that decision unknowingly, find out about it at pretty much the last minute so he doesn't have time to tell anyone everything (he gets some information to one other character - but that character also doesn't have time to tell MC (well, MC's mom, really) very much before he winds up murderated). And then I can bring in some other characters to mess things up, and as a bonus, get Ian all tangled up with the supernatural police to deal with his disappearance (because it was making less and less sense any time I thought about it). So, yay! New plot things! And one of the MCs can know some of it because fine, logic, you win this round, but there's still plenty he doesn't know. And while I think it kind of messes up the surprise Ian reveal I had planned for later...I think it'll work okay this way for the reader, if they're like "yep this is probably Ian here - oh dang, how's MC gonna react when they find that out?" It reminds me of a piece of writing advice I read once that said something to the effect of "if there's a bomb under the table where two characters are talking - tell the audience it's there." (obviously not always, there are places for surprises and twists, but you get the idea). Heck, even my mom was telling me when I complained about this issue a while back that there could still be tension about whether or not another character finds something out. ...I'll have to tell her she was right XDD
So yeah. That's all great. Except taking out that one thing Ian knows meeeeans I'd have to rework some big chunks of the story - including the backstories of a few other characters, dangit - buuut the one advantage of writing stories people are never going to read iiiis I can just write up a 1,300 word summary of all the changes I'm making and where I see the plot going from there and I don't actually have to go back and fix any of the prose-stuff ever if I don't want 8D
...now I have to decide, though, whether I continue this character's backstory or not. ...I think I might? It'd be some decent character stuff, at least, and I am curious as to how he met his wife (and I wouldn't mind giving her some more fleshing out, too - I mean, she's in the actual story and has scenes and a personality and such, but it could be expanded on and beefed up. Her relationship with Ian pre-Ian-vanishing would be good to have as well, especially since they're going to be interacting at some point later in the actual story.
This has been a Tiger rambling. I was going to do these more frequently but then stuff! Things! Time! I was going to wait until I finished Ian's story and talk about how it went but that hasn't happened yet! You know how it is.
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Post by Mostly Harmless (flufflepuff) on Nov 18, 2016 12:32:49 GMT -5
Hm...I'd say give Ian's wife a bit more of a backstory. ^^ It certainly wouldn't hurt, I don't think.
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Post by Tiger on Nov 20, 2016 22:56:03 GMT -5
Well, if I disappear anytime soon, it's probably the NSA taking me away for today's writing research. You know how it goes, though, sometimes you have a weird and weirdly suspicious and murdery-looking search history <.< >.> Like today's, in this order:
- Wolfsbane
- Gel capsules
- Capsule-filling machines
- Home capsule-filling machines
- Dissolving medicine in tea
- Tea flavor pairings (normal, until...)
- Koomum (an apparently strongly-flavored black tea. Which is fine...until you take everything else into account)
(if the possible concern the NSA might have with this isn't apparent, wolfsbane is super-poisonous)
(but even the characters in the story aren't using wolfsbane to poison anyone so chill, gawd)
Also I guess I passed 30k and weirdly, I didn't have Week 3 Doldrums this year? Which might mean that's coming this week instead, but we'll see. Wrote a bit more Ian-story (with some timeskips and summarizing) and now I'm at the point where I think I need to at least start writing M's backstory. He might have an opportunity to meet Ian here (though he might also be too young?) and I kind of need to find out how he would find out A Thing that winds up causing...basically the entire reason Ian's not around for the first...I dunno, half, at least, of the book. I might also periodically jump back to this scene with Ian chatting with his future wife but right now the conversation is just feeling weird and I'm super-tired so, gonna just hold off on that. Might scribble a bit of a fanfic to cap off my wordcount tonight without straining my brain too hard, and maybe tomorrow I'll get started on M's story.
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Post by Tiger on Nov 28, 2016 1:06:24 GMT -5
Me: Well I know how M's backstory goes from here, he gets his powers, wrecks stuff for Ian later, I don't need to elaborate on this ^_^
Me the next time I don't actually have time to write: Oh shoot, I'm still supposed to figure out like three other things in between those two points, aren't I - maybe I should skip this 'how he gets his powers' scene but then pick up afterward so I can figure those things out!
Me the next time I have time to write: Well I know how M's backstory goes from here, he gets his powers, wrecks stuff for Ian later, I don't need to elaborate on this ^_^
Break the cycle, Tiger!
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Post by Tiger on Dec 1, 2016 0:00:37 GMT -5
So I've still got a plothole to fill and I brought the wrong shovel [/obscure references], but I got the one that had been bugging me for a super long time patched, figured out more about my antagonist (turns out he was kind of a prat even before getting his mind-warping villain powers), and hit 50k, so I'm not too worried about the one remaining issue - I'll figure something out XP ...I just had a vague idea, actually, though it may not work 100%. I'll scribble it down and maybe look into it more tomorrow.
...I'd maybe write more here but I kind of just finished NaNo, so you will excuse me if I delay any reflective posting for a day or two =P
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