Robyn’s Writing

I’m toying with a new idea for ‘Whispers’.  Currently the story is told from four main POVs, with a few sections told from a minor character’s POV.

It’s a challenging style to pull off successfully. George R. R. Martin does, Robert Jordan did, Steven King does, just to name a few.

But think of it. Each character has to be compelling and interesting enough to draw the reader into their story.  If one character is more sympathetic to readers than another, readers will be tempted to skip all chapters from another POV and just read their ‘favorite’ character’s sections.  Not what we want.

I’ve been playing ‘what if’ with my novel.  What if I concentrate on one main character per book, adding to what I already have written in their POV, fleshing them and the story out more. I would need some chapters or scenes from other minor characters’ POV, to keep the story moving but overall it would focus on one person.  Book One - Kalea.  Book Two - Jala.  Book Three - Lacent.

The beauty of it all is that they would all be included in the other’s stories, but it wouldn’t be told from their POV. It would be their combined story according to Kalea for the first book, etc.

It would be easy to do. I have the whole story written, for all practical purposes and I could use that as a very big outline for my actual novels.

Like I said, it’s an idea.

But I’ve had a desperately busy week, lots of kids going here and there, and general life busy-ness.

Now that NaNo is over, I’ll get back to ‘regular’ writing, which means another chapter of Whispers posted soon.

I also have an idea for a short story, Christmas related, and not fantasy which I’m going to work on over the next weeks.

I have a few projects starting to come together, collaboration on some writing, and some ideas for re-editing and re-publishing the Denith stories.  All for the new year. For now it’s Christmas, which generally means little time for writing.  But lots of time for fun.

I probably won’t be posting. We’re taking off for a few days, but YES I will be writing.  This is actually the ‘make or break’ days for me. Daily life doesn’t give me too many opportunities for really churning out the word count, so I’m hoping to get close to finishing over the next three days.

Think positive thoughts…pray for me…believe I will do it!

And I shall.

I will check in, in three days time.  We will see what I’ve been able to do.

I’m halfway there, with another 13 days left to finish the remaining 25,000 words. That’s a lot of writing, but from here on in there’ll be less to write than I’ve already written. Yeah!

If I can write at least an average of 1,915 words each day I’ll make it across the finish line. I have a three day mini-vacation coming up, and I intend on spending a good deal of that writing. Plus two more weekends (which are prime writing time.)  It’s looking better all the time.

I read a post tonight, well a group chat actually, regarding contractions in fiction.  It was interesting. I’ve done my best to apply what I considered were writing techniques, including ‘no contractions’; ‘no …ly words’; no ‘he uttered’… only ‘he said’ was all right.

I abided by that for a while, but then, in listening to some favorite authors I found they did all the things I was warned not to do, and they got away with them.

Re-think.  My  conclusion is that it has done my writing plenty good to abolish the “ly’s”, anything other than “he/she said”, and the contractions. But…  That’s the important word. Now that I have learned to do without them, and now that I have unequivocally banished them from all writing, it’s okay to allow them.

I think, with writing, that sometimes you have to banish something, and be very religious about it. Then, once you’ve learned how to do without it, you can let it back in.  But see.  You know what you’re doing. It’s not a random thing, it’s a “I have decided that I want this contraction.”

That makes all the difference.  I hope.

Slowly, but surely, I am catching up. NaNo writing is a bit behind, well, a fair bit. But I’m planning on a couple days of focussed writing, plus I have three days off coming up which, being in November, will also be dedicated in part to NaNo catch-up.

At this point I’m still fairly confident that I’ll make it.

Chris and Claire aren’t at their half-way mark yet, so we’ll all have to make a concerted effort these next two weeks, to churn out the words. Thankfully NaNo ends on the weekend, which means extra time to make that sprint to the finish line.

Jim and I have conversations from time to time.  He berates me when I don’t listen to him, and he advises me when I don’t know what to do. Most of the time he’s just there, egging me on.  If I ever need motivating, Jim’s right there, standing unseen before me.

Today he talked with me about NaNo.

In your case [participating in NaNo] is useful because it’s taking you away from perfection and editing, and getting you back into the mode of setting your imagination free and letting the story tell itself. That’s wonderful. You needed that, and it’s only just beginning. Sit back, let your fingers fly, and enjoy the ride.

He is right, wise old man that he is.  I got off to a shaky start but now I’m starting to really enjoy the story. That’s something I’ve missed lately, with all my editing first-draft Whispers, and critiquing and having my writing critiqued.  I need a balance, I need to do both things simultaneously.  Otherwise I feel stifled and dull around the edges.  Creativity and story-telling inspire me.  When I’m inspired, I’m happy and content. When I’m happy and content everyone around me sighs, and enjoys life.  When I’m crabby people run for cover.

So, if nothing else, I have seen clearly the need in my life for both creating and story-telling from scratch, something new, something fresh, something fun AND at the same time I can’t lose sight of editing what I have already written.

And I am most proud of my daughters.  I’m struggling…I think I will make it, but I’ll need days of concerted effort.  I will do it. I’m insistent.

Jeez, but my kids.  Chris has written  4,275 out of 10,000.  Almost half-way there. Claire’s total word count is 1,900 out of 5,000. They are awesome people.

If you have kids you realize it’s more than words.  It’s commitment. it’s determination. It’s all about self-worth. I’m proud of my guys.  Finish or not–hey I may not finish either–but they have worked hard to get where they’re at.

I’m proud of them.

We’re planning a camping trip for next Friday, Saturday, Sunday.  Peter was sitting in his chair trying to engage me and my two daughters in conversation about our need to plan for the trip. We were sitting with laptops in front of us.  Either one or the other of my daughters had been writing since they got up, I had too.  Finally he realized.

“So, this is what November’s going to be like isn’t it?”

“Yup. You betcha’. ”

Realization dawned on him.

?

Anyway, Day Two was pretty good. Didn’t churn out tens of thousands of words but I put enough down to be slightly ahead.  I’m trying to build up a surpluss so the camping trip doesn’t set me back too much.

Plot so far is okay, I’m only on my second chapter, so it’s still beginning stages.  Often I find that the beginning chapters of anything I write are pretty paltry compared to the rest of the story. I tend to take a bit too long introducing the characters, perhaps because I’m trying to get to know them myself. I’m really not worrying about that this time around though as obviously the more words the better, and it’s rough-draft. Editing can come later.

Actually, it’s probably good to spend a little domestic time on my characters if it helps me to get to know them, and understand how they’ll react in different circumstances.

It’s the first time I’ve written what I would call a YA novel.  My “Denith” stories were what’s loosely termed ‘coming of age’ stories in a way, where the protagonist started out as a teenage boy, but they weren’t written with that in mind.

Claire, my protagonist (yes, my daughter Claire is beaming over that) is around fifteen.  It’s been a long time since I was fifteen but I can still vaguely remember the trauma of being that age :-)  And I have had teenage daughters.  And I have a twelve year old daughter, who is growing up before my eyes, so maybe I’ll do okay on that score.

Day three is hopefully going to be my ‘big day’ where I write for a large block of time.

And it’s working so far.  I have a goal of 1,667 words per day, but I’d like to do at least 2,000 per day. That way I’ll get a little ahead.

Anyway, Day one worked. Day two is coming up soon.

The story is taking on a bit of a life of it’s own, at least the characters are

If I can manage to write, and be inspired, every day I think I’ll have a story to tell.

Oh, and I’m so proud of my kids. They both met their goals.  Yeah! Good on them!