Spinwork Blog

It’s been a little while since I’ve had time to update. Took the week off on working on the project. I finally found a suitable working title for it–”The Paper Angel.” No idea if it’ll stick or not, but it works for the time being, so there we go ^^;

I’m beginning to reach the part of writing where I have to take time off and slog through plot change after plot change to keep the story working. Already, I’ve discarded a number of plotlines I’ve written in and I’m working in a few others. I’m using a nice little trick to help me organize all this. Pullman mentions that making a scene, sticky note map after the first draft is done help to give you a good view of the piece from above.  I’m trying this to help organize the stuff I’ve already written and updating as I go along so as soon as I finish the first draft, I won’t have to take my two weeks to a month and then have to read through and organize. I can just use the map I’ve already put together. I haven’t been using it long enough to gauge the use of it yet, but I’ll let you know how it works out.

Logically, I see why people say not to edit the quality of your work as you go along, because it can become obsessive. For me, it looks like if I keep the storyline solid, it’ll mean less headaches in the actual editing process. So far, so good there.

My only gripe with the book right now is that I hate breaking stride. This new plotline I’m adding in involves adding five chapters of stuff (two weeks of work, roughly) to the book. Maybe it’ll be less. Maybe it’ll be more. But it definitely saves me from rushing things later on in terms of plot development. I guess I’ll see how it works!

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It’s a little hard to believe I’ve been working on this book for just under a month and I’m already a third of the way through. Somehow, karma is going to come back to bite me in the ass. I just know it.

To be honest, I don’t know what’s more bothersome–how long I’ve been working on it, or that I don’t have a title for it yet. Usually by this point, I have something to call it, at least for myself when I refer to it in my head. I’m not honestly bothered, it’s just not something I’m used to. I had a name for Salamander after I wrote the first chapter. Now, I’m at the start of the 11th and I’ve got nothing.

But I like it. I like it a lot. I’ve actually got a method now, one that seems to be working kind of nicely and yet is easy enough to adapt. I’m fairly aware I’m over writing a lot of things–especially in the first half of what I’ve got so far (just over 50,000 words and 100 pages). But those things are as necessary as notes at this point. The characters I’ve been discovering as I go, and while I’m still discovering voices and their stories and what-not, I know it’s all stuff I can change later. I’m not running blind, which is something I effectively did with Salamander.

Also, I have a fall-back.

The other night I went deep into my archives and dug up some notes from late 2003 when I was starting off planning on Wild Jack. It’s freaking ridiculous that I still have love for a story I wrote that long ago, but something about the character got to me. After some idle day-dreaming, I began writing anew. Its nothing major… I probably won’t do anything with it unless I hit major turbulence with what I’m working on now and need to take a few weeks/months off. But I want to write it eventually because the themes I have in mind are something I’ve always been curious about. So it’ll be a journey for me and the character. Also, it was one of those times where I knew the character the moment I started writing him.

Ugh… that actually bothers me, especially with what I’m working on now–getting to know your characters. Every writing-help book I’ve read tells you not to rush it, to get to know your characters–and this is what has me apprehensive about this current work of mine. I know the characters–a little. Enough to move the story forwards. But not enough to say, “well, I don’t think they’d do/say/act like that.” In a way, I think I will have to stop soon, because next chapter I’m introducing at least three new characters that have a major baring on the plot (Oh helllllll! ;_;). And when their paths cross, how many chapters from now, I’m worried that I’ll muddle them up and won’t be able to tell them apart. Maybe that’s what I ought to spend tomorrow doing.

It’s nice making your weekly quota. In a way, I’m sort of surprised that I did. I base my 5-page a day, 25-page a week, 100-page a month quota thing on Jonathon Stroud’s method. Thing is, I usually top it by at least one page. Maybe three, four days a month I’ll do 3-4 pages, but most of the time I’m pushing out 5-7. I had one 9-page and one 10-page day this month, which makes up for at least two days work. Maybe it isn’t a surprise I got to this point as fast as I did.

Waiting for the other shoe to drop–praying it doesn’t mean break my will to go on when it falls.

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What I wouldn’t give for the time and energy to write every idea in my head at once right now. Seriously, some of the stuff I’ve been coming up with lately is great. I’m writing it all down in hopes to use it some day.

I’m slowly coming to terms with the fact that having an idea, and having the inspiration to start something are two entirely different things. For example, I spent over eight months working on notes and plot lines for what I’m writing now, and when I began it, I really had no idea what I was writing. Then, as the chapters scrawled by, I began to notice that the beginning was a great catalyst to the story I wanted to tell. When I was making notes for Twice Born, the plot of which this has adapted, I had a lot of stuff–numerous beginnings, at least half a dozen plot threads, and then some. The problem was I didn’t have a feasible way to execute it. So I wrote other stuff for a while until this idea hit me. Really, it played out more or less like my writing guide says. I got the mental image, took some time, and wrote. And wrote. And infodumped (which will make good notes). And wrote. Only I haven’t run out of momentum yet, and my planning–with the exception of using dump notes–has really been adapted.

My chapter plan is nothing like what I have for Avondalius, and I’m not surprised. They’re two very different kinds of projects. The only notes I’ve really taken are stuff that’s way off down the pike, or setting up character motivation, laying it out so I know it works (that’s a work in progress, actually ^^). For Avondalius, I could take it a scene at a time and base the scene on a particular point in the story I wanted to move towards. I’d sit down and go, “okay, to get here, I need to introduce this, this, this and this,” and because my chapters were 2-3 pages, it was easy. So far for this I have 3 page chapters, I have 7 and 10 page chapters, and 15-20 page chapters. There’s really no set length. It’s what the story seems to need right now. What I’m working out now is who’s the POV of what chapter, and what else I want to add in when I do first edits. I also worked out a draft system so I won’t get confused about what file has what. Slowly but surely, I’m refining my system.

Also, I’m thinking of stopping to edit in a bit. I have one chapter I never finished that needs some sprucing, and it got tied into a plotline I want to add later, so just to save me time when I finish the manuscript, I’m going to stop and fix that up sometime next week. I’m not touching the story flow/grammar wise (there’s a lot there that needs fixing, especially early on), and I’m not cutting anything major, so the page count shouldn’t go down much. I swear, if I did that this early on, I know I’d get depressed. You really want to avoid things like that in the first months of a project, really. I don’t want to discourage myself, even slightly, if I want to finish this, which right now has a very good chance of happening. I’m not counting my eggs–I remember loving Salamander this much, too when I was writing it. I even loved it when I stopped, but you know how that went in the end. I actually wrote a bit of Salamander a while ago, just to see if I could continue the story. Sort of worked, sort of didn’t. I think I’ll let it sit.

So, it’s class time for me. ^^

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So, I’m approaching 100 pages in my project with still enough momentum to move forward–a very good sign. I’m facing some problems involving important plot elements, but nothing that can’t be overcome. Chances are I’ll stop next week and plan for a bit.

Basically, I’m working on three things at once at the moment–the untitled work, a new SE skin and the ESS site move. Yeah, wait, hold up–what was the last one? I’m going to be moving ESS to another domain in the coming months, something that better suits my persona. I’m finding the ESS name to  be a little too cumbersome to type out into a browser. This new one I have in mind works a bit better, though–and actually has an honest to god logo (yeah, any creative mind, try coming up with something for “element spinner.” It’s very difficult.)

I’ll be importing the blog over there, and this new one should have some work-in-progress snips of stuff (not my current work, sorry ^^;) and most likely, Avondalius, which is still coming along. Avondalius takes place in the same world as my current work, in a similar time frame, but it’s more of a story of personal struggle than epicness. ^^;

Keep an eye on meh Twittz0r.

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I know lately I’ve been kind of quiet, both in general and regarding stuff I’ve been working on. On the 18th of February, I figured I’d take a break from Avondalius for a bit and start something new. What cropped out of that is what one might describe as an epic tangent that somehow managed to pull a Salamander and become a novel.

I’m starting to get the idea all of my inspirations start off intended as short works that somehow tie into nether concepts or stuff I’ve wanted to use. I have so much shit lying around plot-wise that I love that I have no idea how I’m going to write. Sometimes, plot ideas come before inspiration for a story, period. In this case, I had an idea for something entirely different that kind of did an osmosis into what looks like a mix of The Madonna Lily and Twice Born. But to be brutally honest? I don’t know what it is. And I really feel like I should shut up and see where this goes. I mean, I’m seventy-some odd pages into this and I don’t even have a title yet. That should tell me something =)

Now that this work has not only leeched onto several of my unfinished plot threads, the only real thing I’ve left to do is just sit back and see where it takes me, while simultaneously praying I remain interested. Besides that, nothing else to report on that front =)

As for Avondalius, it’s still in the works, only not as much. This project, plus school and SE stuff are taking up my time.

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