Weekly Blog Entry 7-29-13

Hello and welcome to the first of the blog entries on the new weekly schedule, in which I discuss writing and whatnot. I had meant to tackle this earlier, but unfortunately procrastination reared its ugly head – still working on beating that. Statistics this week: I tackled about ten hours of writing, when all is said and done and I wrote around 16k words, when the dust cleared – around the same as last week. We’re slowly, but surely, building our way up to the top. 

I had originally intended to work on an actual essay type thing, going over my problems with procrastination and writing in general, but that obviously didn’t happen, so instead let’s play catch up. Writing wise, I spent a great deal of time on one project, only for it to collapse under its own weight. I was experimenting with how to plan, and it just kept grown and growing, until it was this enormous monstrosity of a story that had completely focus of what I was originally trying to do. So, I scrapped that but I think I’ve learned things from that – you learn a lot from failure: firstly, keep it simple. 

Narratives might become complex later on – especially for massive multi-volume narratives – but there’s still, I think, an inherent simplicity to be found in them. Those large narratives are made of many smaller narratives that’s built around a central core. 

The second thing that this mess of a project taught me was a possible way to approach my writing from here on out, a four-step method, as it were, involving firstly a stream-of-conscious “plot sketch”, where I work the basic plot of a story, then a more formal synopsis where the plot’s finalized, a breakdown of the plot into chapters – complete with summary and a laundry list of things to include in each chapter, and then finally use that to write the draft itself. You basically have the complete guide. Write it out and checkmark stuff as it’s done. 

I think I might write another blog entry later this week, going into this in a lot more detail. (Read: almost certainly, keep an eye out for that) I’m currently trying it right now on a different project (an older project that needs revamped), and its coming along quite well, though I’m still on the first step

Meditation, as I mentioned I was trying it out and seeing how that went, does seem to work, but I think more important I have a certain drive to what I do. I felt increasingly like I was running on a treadmill – moving, yes, but not moving forward or anywhere at all really. 

So I decided I’m going to try and come up with a goal and accomplish that. My first one? Finish the plot sketch for the current project, ideally by tonight and I can then get moving on the other steps and, with any luck, be writing the actual draft before the week is out. It had something to do with the timers, as I mentioned before. 

While they are helpful for gauging how much time I spend on these sorts of things, I tend to just stop and don’t do anymore after that, because its done. I’m now starting to think in terms of projects – what can I do today to get somewhere and feel like I’m moving forward, instead of ‘Okay, that’s 80 minutes now I’m going to wander on the Internet for a while’. 

I think it helps to think like that, though again it’s a little early to say where its going or what I’m doing yet. Other changes that I have made to my writing routine: I’ve upped the timer from 30 to 40 minutes. I still, of course, require two sessions at a minimum from myself, so now we’re looking at 80 minutes a day instead of a full hour. We’re going to keep building up from there. I also added a time stamp on both the blog entries and the main project, so that I can gauge when I worked on it, and get a feel for my own habits.

Still another (albeit much smaller change) I made was to be more precise in labeling of whatever project I worked on: for example, instead of just saying ‘Project X’, I’ve started putting ‘Project X (Plot Sketch)’, or ‘Project X (Draft – Chapter One)’. Like that. 

I think that’s pretty much all of the news I can think of for today. I will be back later this week, with my promised entry on this four step process I’m developing and am going to use.

Thanks for reading.  

Weekly Statistics + Story Planning

Firstly, some housekeeping: This week’s writing yielded around 570-something minutes (which is an average over the past couple of weeks), and I wrote about 16k words total, and average about 2200 words per session. Not too shabby. Now, onto this change in schedule: as I said, I really have nothing to say on a day by day basis. 

I’m thinking that I’m going to update weekly with statistics and whatnot, and possibly some articles I’ll put together, where I try and be a lot more detailed about my philosophy and how I approach writing. There will also be the occasional short story I come up with on the cuff. I say ‘weekly’, but there will probably still be multiple posts a week. One guaranteed post and other stuff as I write it and think that it should go on the blog. That’s all for scheduling updates.

Now, let’s tackle the planning thing and think about how I’m going to do stuff. I’ve decided to try an experiment and attempt meditation in an attempt to sharpen my focus on my writing and maybe help deal with the procrastination thing, as well as break my addiction on the internet. Twenty minutes a day, ten in the morning and ten before I go to bed. Too early to tell if it’s going to work or not, but I’m definitely up for giving it a try. 

I’ve been thinking about planning a series I have in mind, and was thinking that I might start by throwing what I’ve already developed on paper, world-building wise, then work from there. What I need, I realize, is a framework of some sort (I talked about this at length yesterday) – the plot needs a structure for how it’s going to develop, and give me ideas about where to put certain plot points and subplots, where to introduce major characters and so forth.

But how to develop this framework? That’s the question. What is the basic plot of the this series? Our young lead becomes a spellcaster and embarks on an epic journey that leads him to face a great, hidden evil. That’s about as general and broad as I can get (and yes, fairly generic, I know, but there’s some fun twists and turns that I don’t want to get into here. Plus I love the setting). I need to get more specific. I need to decide how the events of the journey will shape the plot and how whatever the evil’s doing is going to shape it.

Maybe the plot is defined by the actions of the villain(s) – they act, the heroes respond. Their plots and schemes together form an elaborate network that pretty much drives the plot forward. Or maybe, as I talked about in another series, it has something to with the spatial relations. Draw up a map, pick some spots and send the character to them. You then have your framework for the plot ready to go. 

Or maybe there’s other machinations at work, on the part of the good guys, working against the bad (or against other good guys, if this is more of a political series) – expanded alternatively into different groups of people, with different agendas doing different things. 

The plot of a book is essentially made of events – obvious I know – and each event is caused by a character or characters doing something or another, with various motivations behind it. It’s a very abstract thing, trying to put together the basic shape and structure of the plot – is it a quest to collect a McGuffin from somewhere? Political intrigue? 

We need to define characters and their motivations. We need a establish a villain, I think. And we need to establish a few key plot events that stuff is going to build towards, and fit things in there to suit them.

I’m going to try these ramblings out and see if they bear fruit. 

Thanks for reading.

Schedule Change

This blog is basically going to be a weekly thing going forward, mostly because I don't have enough to say on a day-to-day basis to keep things interesting.

First post on this schedule will be tomorrow at some point down the line. I'll elaborate there.

Thanks for reading.

Another Short Entry...Plus Update (Maybe)

Once again, this will be a short entry. I’m thinking of changing the blog’s schedule, from daily to weekly – mostly because I really am running on empty for what to say most of the time. It’s the same stuff over and over again. Today, I put in another hour (consecutively, once again), about 1400 words or so this time around. 

Maybe I could come up with some short stories or something every week, but at the moment I really don’t have anything to say. Chapter Three is coming along – I’m digging into backstories here. I’m getting a rough idea for the fourth chapter and, possibly five as well. I don’t want to jinx it, so I won’t say anymore.

That’s about all I have to say. These short blog entries are good, because it means the writing went pretty well – made a couple of minor tweaks to the first two chapters (though nothing significantly plot changing), will carry on tomorrow (or maybe tonight, to get through the flashback I’m tackling at the moment.). That’s all. 

Thanks for reading.

Quick Entry

This will be a really quick blog entry. I did not get an hour in early today, but I did get one basically in consecutively and finished another chapter. I added about 1650 words or so (more or less, but that’s a general ballpark estimate). I’m going to keep forcing myself to do the writing consecutively, I think. It helps when they’re done back to back. I don’t have much else to comment on beyond that (well, I do, but its more spoiler stuff than I care to post on this blog) so sorry, there. You don’t get to read more ramblings and constant musings about this story.

This was the same project I tackled before. I’m thinking that, as I mentioned before, lack of focus is part of the problem. I need to pick a story and stick to it, all the way to the bitter end, whenever that is. We’ll see where it goes and hopefully I’ll stick to it. That’s all I have to say for now. Oh, this is the blogs two week birthday. Yay. Thanks for reading.

A Good Session

Just a real quick blog entry. I ended up working on something else that grabbed my attention, instead of the Tomb-Robber story – another old project that I felt like playing with. I wrote out the first chapter, will work more on the second tomorrow. I may sketch out a map tonight of the world, so we’ll see where that goes, anyway. 

Not much else to say. I’m doing a pretty good job, overall, of keeping up an hour a day. Today’s was actually consecutive (for once), so I’m hoping to keep that going as I progress in this story. Maybe tomorrow’s will even be a morning session (wouldn’t that be weird?). This should be fun to write, easy and enjoyable to immerse myself in. I don’t have much else to say beyond that for today’s updates, so I guess I’ll write a short description.

The Great Gates of Ithaal stood open in the daytime, simultaneously impressive and terrifying to look at.  There were five of them all together, gleaming archways of white stone, with friezes of ancient beasts carved above the entrances, invoking their power to protect the city. Waterfalls roared down the walls on either side of the gates, splashing into canals that radiated to the circular moat that encircled the city. 

A line of statues – protective lions and birds – ran for about a half mile down the broad road leading into the city, each etched with the carvings for order.  Battlements ran about the friezes, patrolled by guards with bows, ready to shoot down troublemakers. Beyond the gates itself the huge city of Ithaal sprawled on forever, gleaming domes, statues, tall stone houses and palaces and solemn temples. Wide roads led to plazas. Smaller offshoots led to quiet parks and meditative gardens. 

The great heroes of the city and the nation stood in gleaming bronze and stone. At the top of the hill stood the palace of the King, glittering spires and graceful towers arched into the air, flags fluttering. Birds wheeled around, dogs barked. People talked, laughed and cried in the streets of the city. It was a city alive and kicking.

That’s kind of a lame place to end it, but I don’t think I have much else to say. I like the description – I think I may this place somewhere (and possibly that description, I don’t know), but we will see when the time comes. For the moment, I have enough on my plate and need to quit piling more on. 

Aside from that, that’s really all I have for you guys tonight. Take care and thanks for reading.