ROW80 Round 1 - 5th Update

I have been a naughty girl this week :)

I don't mean running around with a whip and a corset, or drawing all over the walls in permanent marker. Though I did do that a lot when I was little (drawing on the walls. Not the whip and corset thing. That would have been weird).

No, instead of writing, I have been watching DVDs.

I intended to write. I really did. I would wake up, go and sit at my computer, stare at my screen, then flick through my notes, and then stare at my screen a bit more. After an hour or so of that, I would come to the conclusion that I was just not going to be productive that day. So instead I got out some of my TV show DVDs (Firefly, Sherlock and Doctor Who), sat on my bum with a block of Cadbury and watched as Reavers were fought, crimes were solved and the Tardis was flown through various corners of the universe.

This morning, though, I started to behave myself again; I rewrote my prologue and some of chapter 1 in response to feedback I received from workshopping on the weekend. I also wrote more of chapter 2, which I think is now around 50% complete. Based on my goals, I have until Saturday of next week to finish it, though I would like to get it done earlier if possible. Unfortunately I didn't get chapter 1 completely written as I had hoped (as I said in my last post, bits of it were just filler for the sake of completing the chapter). I have decided that I will more or less leave it for now and work on later chapters, only returning to chapter 1 if I get some decent motivation/inspiration to write it.

Anyway, by the next check-in on Sunday, I'm hoping to have at least the main scenes of chapter 2 completed, leaving only the 'bridging' sections to be written the following week.

Here is Rex, putting the 'mental' in 'Judgemental'. And he expects me to take him seriously...

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So You Want to Write a Novel

This video has been kicking around on the Interwebz for a while now, but I thought I'd share it here, not just because it's amusing, but because there are so many 'writers' out there who actually think like this.



The more delusional the writer is, the less likely they are to be aware of it :)

ROW80 Round 1 - 4th Update

hmm... As far as getting new writing done goes, this week hasn't been much better than the last, with health issues still refusing to leave me alone (incidentally, doctors have looked at my MRI and decided that my head isn't likely to explode in the next 24 hours, but beyond that, they have no idea what causes the severe migraine/nausea/dizziness/passing out thingies I keep having). I did (sort of) manage to finish chapter 1. However, while some parts of it were respectable, other bits of it were literally thrown in at the last second so I could say I had finished a chapter; in other words, they're not particularly good hehe Most of these dodgy bits will be more or less thrown out entirely, with those sections being rewritten from scratch.

We did, however, have our first proper writing workshop meeting on Saturday, with two of us presenting work for critiquing. I was up first (the sacrificial lamb, so to speak) and I workshopped my first five pages of chapter 1. Aside from the odd person reading a fragment of my work and sending it back with some basic suggestions, this was the first time in more than three years where I have had the opportunity to submit a piece of writing to rigorous examination and criticism. It was a little nerve-wracking; being away from the workshopping environment for so long had me wondering not only if my writing was still decent (as most people seemed to think in TAFE), but also if I was still up to giving in-depth feedback on other people's writing.

It turned out to be a very productive session, both for the workshoppers and the workshoppees. Everyone there felt driven to write, inspired by the creative atmosphere. I'm really looking forward to seeing what the other writers bring to the table in the future. I got a lot of suggestions for my own piece of writing; some issues pointed out were so obvious I wondered how they'd slipped by in the first place, while others were more subtle but still had a great impact on the effectiveness of the chapter. I have a lot of work ahead of me to improve it for its next incarnation. But this is a good thing. The only real way to make a piece of writing better is to put it in front of others, carefully consider the feedback they give and, where appropriate, make changes that reflect that feedback to bring the writing to the next level. I'm sure we all know writers who believe that their work is Perfect and that any criticism of it is Wrong...

Anyway... Time for this writer to have lunch :)

Judgemental Dog is always so judgemental:

I should probably take him for a walk so he stops guilt-tripping me...

(see other ROW80 blogs here)

ROW80 Round 1 - 3rd Update

Or... the Week of Fail.

Working extra hours over the last week has taken a large chunk out of my writing time. This, coupled with family and illness issues of varying severity, has taken a serious toll on my productivity this week. Not just due to time constraints, but also because of the general crappy mood all of it has put me in; I just have not been in the right mindset to write. Normally when something happens I can work around it, but when lots of things happen, I tend to throw my hands in the air and give up, which is more or less what I did this week.

Earlier today, in an attempt to force some productivity out of myself, I decided to set myself a small writing challenge. As all Australians (and some overseas people) would be aware, Queensland is being decimated by torrential flooding that has turned three quarters of the state into a disaster zone. Watching footage of it on television and seeing houses and cars tossed around in the water like bath toys is so horrifying it's almost surreal, especially when it seems that there's so little anyone can do about it. I decided I'd do my (albeit meagre) bit by donating $1 for every hundred words I write today to the Flood Relief. I ended up with just over 1300 words for the day. I know it isn't much - being a student, I don't really have a lot of spare money - but I guess every bit helps. And since that's more words than I've written over the rest of the week combined, at least it was beneficial on a few levels.

In my goals, I mentioned that I wanted to finish one chapter every fortnight, meaning that I'm due to complete one by the next check in. Well, I am quite close to finishing the first chapter, and I should be able to achieve this (provided everything doesn't go even more pear-shaped) by the weekend (or even tomorrow, but I think I said that last week and it didn't happen, so I don't want to jinx myself again :|). I have at least got the first five consecutive pages of it done, meaning I have something substantial to put before my workshopping group this Saturday, instead of just a wad of random paragraphs (which I am quite looking forward to - I've really missed the critiquing sessions from my TAFE days).

Here's my updated word tally:
Prologue - 804 (complete)
Part 1
Chapter 1 - 4,647
Chapter 2 - 1,704
Chapter 3 - 173
Chapter 4 - 0
Part 2
Chapter 5 - 95
Chapter 6 - 933
Chapter 7 - 1,777
Chapter 8 - 1,991 (complete)
Part 3
Chapter 9 - 852
Chapter 10 - 0
Chapter 11 - 0
Chapter 12 - 1,097
Epilogue - 1,373

Total - 15,812

So: Not as much progress as I was hoping for - I think all my progress since my last check-in was made today - but I still managed to make some headway, and I am more or less on track to meet my goals at this stage. And I cracked the 15,000 word mark, which I am quite pleased with, especially since they're 15,000 decent words, not the filler rubbish I pumped out for NaNoWriMo.

Anyway, I thought I should end on a positive note, so here's a picture of Judgemental Dog (a.k.a. Rex) watching TV:


Oh yeah, almost forgot... A link to other ROW80 participants' updates is here.

ROW80 Round 1 - 2nd Update

Since I was busy drawing this and this, and playing around with these, I haven't done as much writing as I would have liked over the last few days (and work eating most of my Saturday didn't help, either). In fact, I think since the last check-in, my word count hasn't budged. This sucks quite a bit, since I was hoping to have finished Chapter 1 done by the end of the weekend so I could email it to the other writers in my workshopping group - no chance of that happening now. I'll have to get it done by Wednesday at the latest so I can send it around and give people time to read it before our meeting next Saturday.

I've also realised I won't be able to workshop the whole thing anyway, even if I do get it finished. Our writing group has a limit of five pages per workshopper (for time constraint reasons), and my first chapter is already at five pages, and will most likely be around eight or nine pages by the time it is complete. Ah well...

On a more positive note though: A discussion with one of my friends about my novella last night posed a lot of questions about my characters and their motivations - some of which I had answers to, and some of which I didn't. Thinking about these things has given me a lot of material to build up my outline, especially for part 3 - and given that part 3 is the climactic point of the story, it's important that it is as real as possible so it has more impact. Even though I'm not specifically aiming to write that section yet, it's good to have the story clearer in my mind.

Now, hopefully I can get some writing done tonight...


Judgemental Dog is watching you...

Novella Cover and Title

Yesterday I didn't write because I was drawing. Today I didn't write because I was at work most of the day, and when I got home I was too tired and headachey to write, so I decided to muck around with the cover instead.

I already had one version (the middle one in the image below, with Orphea) and the title Dark and Silent Waters, but after drawing Zahtia yesterday, I thought I'd make an alternate cover with her (with a neon glow in the left and the original pencil drawing on the right), and with the other title I've been considering for the story, Astyrion.



When I'm closer to finishing the draft, I'll probably do a better drawing of whichever character I end up choosing for the cover (I know if a publisher accepts it I don't get to choose the cover but at least I'll have one for if I choose to self publish). I am also planning to attempt a real-life version of Orphea at some point. What I wanted to gather at this stage, however, is opinions on which sort of cover people prefer, and which title they like best.

Thoughts?

Illustration: Zahtia from DASW

Well, I had been planning to spend today writing (since I spent most of yesterday drawing my map), but that fell in a heap once I had an idea for another drawing.

Early on in the development of Dark and Silent Waters, I'd made a few dodgy sketches of Zahtia (my villain, the Ruler of the Underworld), but I'd never got around to doing a proper drawing, even in my usual Anime style. I had defined her personality (cold, uncaring, evil), but what she looked like was only ever a vague notion to me. When I had the idea for the drawing today, I started sketching in the Anime style, but three attepts later, I was unhappy with the look of it. So I decided that I would try a 'real-life' style illustration instead. This was the result:



It was the first 'real-life' drawing I have done for years, and I think my first ever attempt at a human(ish) portrait. It's not perfect, but I think it at least shows her personality. It took most of the day to draw and I did make some mistakes (luckily none that I couldn't erase or at least hide), and some of my poor coloured pencils are about half as long as they were, but it felt good to be drawing again. At some point I will draw Zahtia again, and I will have to remember to make her features more slender, elongated and feminine (she looks a bit too human in this version).

Speaking of drawing: I have updated my folio on PhotoBucket, which contains a selection of my illustrations (as well as some 3D work I did for uni). You can view it here, or click on the "My Artwork" link in my blog sidebar.