For Blogging’s Sake!
Posted by mgnann on June 18, 2009
I haven’t been doing a lot of blogging because I have been actually writing. Also, I have a hard time deciding what to say here. So this is a random collection of thoughts as I wrote today.
- I both love and hate describing settings. Stopping myself from trying to write a whole page describing a doorway and the room behind it is hard. Sometimes I have a heck of a time deciding what is descriptive and what is superfluous. Most of the the time when I’m reading a book, unless the author just lets me picture the scene myself, I can’t get what they are saying anyway, but for some reason when I’m writing I want to describe every single detail.
- The two characters I am working on right now are in the biggest city they have ever set foot in. A common scene, you know it. Small town farm children find themselves swept into the greatest city in their realm and they are blown away by the vastness of it’s sprawling horizons. I feel like I’ve seen this in hundreds of movies and read it in lot’s of books, but it is a bitch for me to write. Do I describe the layout of the roads? Does Reader need to know that? Do they care? I have maps I’ve sketched out, I could show you.
- I’ve been looking for other authors who blog about the progress of their work, but haven’t found anything I really enjoy reading. Most of it is more about their life as a writer. Maybe I don’t like people. Maybe this type of blog is not engaging.
- Siblings in the city. Cerra is getting caught up in her plot. This is a really fun part. It took me a while to figure out how to write it, but I like what is going down now. Concentrating on one character at a time is easier, write all their stuff and then sort out what goes where.
- I think I have about 50k new words left to write. Then some splicing and I should be done. End of June is looking good.
- Cerra and Alyandra chapters are fun. Theirs is probably my second favorite plot line, with Kabladan’s being first. They are also some of the easiest characters to write. One is a main character, the girl Cerra from Paxon. The other is a noble member in Taris. I’ve been really excited to have the two of them meet for a while, their personalities were made for each other.
- Have trouble writing about this sect of minor charaters that play a important background role called Sha’shin. (Means assassin, okay?) They have one of the longest histories of all the peoples in the book and drive a major plot element, but for some reason I cannot get them to pop, sizzle, smolder. The seem very flat, even though I have given them multiple devices to work with (What are those mystical tattoos? Why are their eyes yellow?) The elements are there, but the Sha’shin will be a major player in any revised drafts.
- Trying not to rush things is hard. I know there will still need to be a re-read and a final editing before I call this thing completed, but my epic first draft is almost complete and, goddamn it, I am glad.
