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Hmmm... not a great writing week for me. Had some time in hospital and have been stuck on a difficult writing bit. Am trying to move forward, nevertheless. I think I'm going to have some work ahead of me going back over some of the crap I've written. But I think there is some good stuff in there as well. Oh well, looking forward to the week ahead.

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Hi!
Sorry for the late reply.
I have been off on client site in Cooma and only just came back.
(Any place that has a McDonalds as its defining landmark is not worth visiting.)
It's safe to say that it was exciting!!!
As a result of the above and a flood at home I have only managed 4000 words. (500 above my minimum and 3000 below my desirred target). That puts me at 28800 so far.
Good bits: I managed the conversation on magic by making it a tutor and pupil discourse between teh main characters.
Turned into 1100 words but the exercise worked quite well. I only have to see where to now best place that and I am likely to put it into two "lessons".
I also managed to get some more story definition and clarity thanks to my much smarter other half.
Bad bits: I did not hit my desired target. (Buhuu)  I am facing some changes and rewrites and I think I have to make a castle cave in. (Sniff)
Any ideas how someone totally soociety bred forages for food? Mushrooms are out!

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Inkwell, your city-bred character can watch the animals...see what they eat and emulate. At least one item of food, a berry or fruit, should cause halucinations during which perhaps some secrets are revealed?? Good luck.

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Sounds like everyone's had busy weeks. I ended up at my minimum rather than my desired goal, partly because of other commitments, partly because the wretched thing is driving me mental. A character who was supposed to be secondary at best has injected themselves and threatens to become the main character while the one who was meant to be the main character is turning into little more than a recurring plot device. A third one I may have to kill. Oh well, I suppose I'll just have to see where things lead.

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Hey Marelle!

 

I have some issues with characters having to go along in their own story lines after some (stereotypical) event disconnected them.
That means I sometimes have problems how much “time” to give them in their current situation and how to drive them on.
Sounds like this could easily lead to some similar issues where one may gain dominance.
I think Fiona’s exercise about the dialogue on magic may help here too. When I did some rather amateur acting and had problems identifying with the character, the director and I sat down in a closed session. I would be the character and she would ask about my background, my family, my troubles and motivations. It went on into specific situations within the script wherein we interrogated and dissected some reactions of the character. As a result, the character gained more definition and more strength in acting in response to his surroundings and circumstances.
Maybe you could sit down those 2 or 3 characters and ask them a bit about who they are, where they are from, what is happening to them, how they feel and how they intend to react. You can also ask them hypothetical questions like “What if I throw you onto a deserted island? Will you lose hope or become self sufficient? What if I cage you in magic? What do you do?” etc (I am making up BS here but I guess you get the drift.)
This way you will get them to tell you a bit about how they will behave throughout the story, how they will want to end the challenges ahead and how they actually are going through them.
To be honest, I have to do that myself again. That coupled with an image of what they look like (e.g. Fiona seems to freely admit to a Colin Firth addiction…Mel Gibson popped up too… J) and maybe give them a (movie) character you can work with.
(F: Correct me if I’m full of it!)  

Phil: Thank you! I have to think about whether he is even that savvy. Some guys are dolts that would not chew without assistance. My character is still in the process of realising he really is stuffed and that he won’t find his slippers, boudoir, servants and flying fried chooks behind the next tree.
I might have him starve a bit longer…

Thanks!!!

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Hm. Thanks Inkwell, it certainly sounds worth a shot. Much better than having Under Represented Hero hire Dead Character Walking to tie Pushy Self Promoter up in a basement somewhere before dying.

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Hiya inkwell... Not sure if it's important to you, but humans can usually only go a few days without water, especially if he's stumbling about a forest and using energy. Food is actually less important and he could potentially go a couple of weeks without food. So, he probably needs to find a stream fairly quickly... or it might rain...

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Hey Merry, You are obviously correct. Thank You. I have taken that into account. It's not too much of an issue bceause the trip is too short. --> Discounting any extinuating circumstances humans can survive for about 3 days without food and about 3 weeks without water. (Wikipedia offers more info onm this. Thanks WIKI!) I do appreciate the thought though. To be honest, he is "ODing" a bit on water right now and the trip is too short to effectively kill him. It would only be a decent 2 day hike without troubles. However, he has spent some energy and is spoiled. For someone who has at least 3 meals a day, with lots of everything in excess in between, a day without food must be torture. I have been contemplating making him feel a bit worse than he is right now, just to humble him a bit further. One could also introduce him to detox headaches. (Will leave that though, it's to small a hike.) Sounds funny, but with an introduction of a pure water diet, his body will detox and excrete toxins he might have accumulated through the skin and the plumbing. This can lead to a detox headache as of day 2 depending on his earlier excesses. Thanks again! Keep the suggestions going.

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Well hello all....how are all my lovely writers? Have you had a good week or is the silly season threatening to dismantle all your best intentions. Stay disciplined, stay sane. This is a very easy time of year to throw the towel in but not yet....not for you. Stick with your plans, even if you write less per day but keep writing, keep pushing the story forward or pushing yourself forward in terms of practising your craft. So what have you all been up to? Did the magic exercise help at all? Here's something to try. Imagine yourself in an inn at a busy trading town. You've been helped in, because you're blind, and you're going to sup an ale. Use your five senses. What are you 'seeing' without the aid of your eyes. Describe it! Good luck. Fx

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Well I have to confess I haven't done as much as I'd like to have. I have done a little more than my bare minimum though so I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself. Hopefully I can stick to that over the next few weeks. I've decided to just go with the flow as far as my recent problems with characters who refuse to hang about in the background. If things end badly there's always the delete button.

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Hi! I have been somewhat slack. I managed over 1200 yesterday but only about 2500 during the whole previous week. This is due to me being busy and lazy. (Both really...) I guess I have to tell the Christmas revellers to bugger off as well. Good news: I am past the 30000 and have some traction on a specific part of the storyline. I hope that will keep me out of trouble. Bad news: The above lack of typing on my part. I'll have to sit myself down for a severe talking to. Question: I have a city description of about 500 words. It does not appear too long and I have not been tremendously verbose in my mind. Should I halve this and introduce it in bits or keep it as one? Fiona: It was great to catch up last week. Thanks for your time. I hope Dymocks did not do permanent damage to your hand? I saw that you went there on Thursday beforehand... Would you like us to submit the exercise above? Ax

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No don't submit anything. No one needs to share your writing. It's really for those who find themselves stuck and is simply an exercise to get you thinking in different ways about how to produce a scene. Don't do if you don't want to - I'd far rather you were getting on with your manuscripts. There is no rule on description. The main factor you have to consider is this. Does the action grind to a halt while you give us a 500 word description of your city, or does it engage the reader and take them on a tour in their mind that feels exciting and in no way diverting from the main storyline? Get the opinion of some draft readers - ask them to tell you if they feel like they've been sidelined from the action. If so.....you need to dripfeed that city's information through your prose or it needs to enter via dialogue or character viewpoint. Beware the info dump! Good luck. talk next Tuesday

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How does one find a good draft reader? For example I'm not good at requesting favours of people and the only people I know well enough to ask refer to fantasy as "that dungeons & dragons stuff of yours". That can be a little discouraging.

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Oh, man... I completely forgot about last night. Too busy watching Ab Fab DVDs. I'll give the exercise a try tomorrow night - should be fun.

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Marelle (and all others in the same boat), It is extremely hard finding beta readers if you're not Fiona (who wouldn't do anything to read a new Fiona, even in rought first draft?). But there are loads of great on line crit groups. Most require that you crit others' work in return, and that's a great learning curve as well. It helps you learn to analyse your own work as well as other peoples. A good, general place to go is... http://absolutewrite.com/forums/ It's free to join, the guys there give very good crit and all it will cost you is a crit or two in return (it's not demanded, but it is nice to repay the favour). There are other groups, such as Crit Monsters, where the giving and recieving of crits is more official, but they're a good service. Do a Google search and good luck!! Cheers, Lisa.

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If you feel funny about showing your work on line or emailing it to anyone, then I'd suggest you grit your teeth, go to a library and find a librarian who loves fantasy. Then say, my friend Fiona McIntosh says I need to have the advice from a draft reader I'm wondering if you would be prepared to read some of my manuscript so I can learn from your feedback. Or if he/she can't then do they know anyone who visits the library who is a fantasy fan and mature enough to respond with constructive comments. I got to know a couple of booksellers (before I'd written betrayal) and I asked them to read a few chapters. They were a great help. One of them continues to read my early drafts to this day and right now is hooked on Valisar. If you find it hard to approach new people, write to your local librarian (ring first, find out who may be that fantasy specialist) and drop them a note. They will LOVE it! Marelle, when your book is published and on national bookshelves, publishers will expect you to do talks, do readings, meet an endless array of strangers and be capable of connecting easily with them. Start practising now!!!

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Reg.: Draft Readers - Just some thoughts
Maybe you can grab some people off the forum...??
You did notice that we are all in the same boat, didn't you. (Although it is a round boat and we all have the oar out to our right...) If you are NOT too shy about sharing (some of it) with your fellow rowers on the proverbial creek, some of us might be willing to help. (I'm always pleased to be a smart-alec. )
Problem is that you either do not know us or feel that some are too close.
Otherwise, some bookstores have reader/writer groups and you might someone sympathetic there.

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Well, I'm overwhelmed. Thank you Lisa, Fiona and Inkwell for your advice. My local librarian especially hadn't occurred to me as being an option and now I have no idea why. After all I was once of the opinion that librarian was the perfect job for me because I love books. And Inkwell, you were dead right, being so new here I don't know people yet. Perhaps I should work on that.

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Talk about the silly season. I thought yesterday was Monday.

Well, I'm about a quarter of the way through and really starting to wish I'd done some sort of outline. All this work and I have no idea whether or not it's going to find its way to anything resembling a conclusion. I also feel a little bad now whenever I write a scene featuring the character I know is going to die.

On the bright side, I'm a quarter of the way through. Yay. I'd set that as my first milestone. Don't ask me why, it's just a number I came up with when choosing milestones.

Oh and I tried that exercise. I wonder what it says about me that almost all of it revolved around smells.