Whatcha up to, Everyn?

Glad you asked!
The outline is underway.
I have to admit, as I stated in my last post, having Scrivener has really improved my writing life. I had so many years worth of content, annexes to keep track of characters, locations, culture per kingdom, maps I had drawn along with notebooks and various scraps of napkins and paper table cloths with random ideas scribbled (sometimes in crayon). Now it is all in one place... except the very first draft of the novel, which I have in three binders on my desk (they're covered in marker and red pen already from previous re-writes so I'm probably better off using those anyway.) Now that I've gotten myself mostly organized, I've started remaking the annexes and writing out character bios for the main characters. My character bios are pretty extensive and it took me almost a whole day to finish one bio, despite the fact that I know these characters better than I know my children and longer than I've known even my own husband.

I've pretty much been eating, breathing, sleeping the story for the past week. Which is great, but kind of awkward when I'm flooded with ideas in the middle of the train during rush-hour on the way to work, with no way to whip out my pen and paper to write it down because I'm standing (you'd think being 8 months pregnant someone would give me a seat, right? That's a rant for another day though,) and we're all packed in that car like sardines - forgive the cliche. ACK!
I've gone off on a tangent.

Anyway, I'm starting the read-through of the various versions and taking notes for how I want to arrange the new outline. I'm hoping to have it prepared by next week, which is a full month earlier than I originally scheduled. YAY ME! Current estimated start-date for beginning the new first draft is April 1st. I'm hoping to put myself on a writing schedule to get somewhere between 2000-5000 words per day written (5 days per week) to have it finished somewhere before end of May (which happens to be when new baby is due. The thinking is, it'll be a whole lot harder to keep any sort of schedule with new baby here). So, we're off to a good start and ahead of schedule.

When I'm not working on the outline, I've been doing a lot of research - looking at other authors in similar genres' cover art - or more specifically, scoping out cover artists that I like and may want to work with. Snooping through the Best Covers on Goodreads, I found quite a few (mostly on DeviantArt) whose work I adore...

Unfortunately, I ended up getting distracted looking at the reviews people posted on Goodreads for a lot of these books and got a little freaked at just how harsh some of them are. I know it's honesty (I've done my share of brutally honest critiques, but usually for people who are looking for advice on a work in progress). I think I need to steel myself ahead of time for the tough love reviews. It comes with the territory and you can't expect everyone to like your work. I'm just not ready to be thinking about someone ripping my work a new one when I haven't even gotten it finished yet. It tarnished my excitement a little.

I'm also trying to break out of my socially awkward anti-social shell and attempting to connect a bit more (thus Goodreads... oh and I'm learning how to use Twitter, which I have avoided like the plague for years. I always wondered what that hashtag nonsense was about... still not really sure I get it either.) Anywho, I'm trying to connect instead of disconnect, which takes effort for me. If you see me around on the social sites, say hi. I promise to try and not freak out (see sad little Everyn cowering in the corners of her Twitter page, hyperventilating.)

And now, back to work!

4:49 AM

Yesterday was the one month mark of this website and The Red Handed Writer Project. It was also the day after I finally got my brand spankin' new laptop (I've needed one desperately for a long time now. Mine was about 9 years old and stubbornly refused to partake of the internet.)

The very first thing I did (after going half mad trying to figure out Windows 8) was upload Scrivener and begin transferring my writing files.

I have fallen hopelessly in love with the Scrivener program. I feel as if I've been doing this stuff the hard way for years. I can already attest to the fact that my writing life has and will get a whole lot easier now that I have an organized method for my work and a new piece of hardware to work on when and how I want (increased productivity! Whoohoooo!)

I've managed to find, organize and begin working with all the various versions of the Firechild book except, strangely, the very first version. I suppose this now means I will have to get even more old school and see if I can find my old floppy disks, burned cds and zip drive to see if I still have the backup copies. If not, never fear... I still have the printed copy (I've lost too much work due to temperamental technology NOT to back things up in multiple places!)

I suppose the real question is: Why is this blog post titled 4:49AM?

Simple answer: I'm so worked up with ideas and working on this project I can't sleep... which is actually bad because I have to get up for work in a couple hours (you know, real 9-5 get a paycheck type work) and I've not really gotten any rest.

Hmmm. To have my coffee and try to work more on the character bios I've been creating OR attempt to get another hour of sleep before my alarm starts screaming? Decisions...

Soundtracks and Writing.

I don't actually remember what I was listening to the very first time I started working on The Firechild books.

At 14 years old, I had a music obsession - CD and record stores were still fairly prolific and I spent most of my allowance (remember, I was in high school) on new music just about EVERY WEEK. I bought and listened to a new album over and over for a week or so and then started listening to something else. You can imagine just how immense my music collection is, I just wish I had the patience to upload all of it to my computer (sooo many CDs, ack!) I think, as with most of my fantasy stories, I probably listened to a great deal of Celtic music, classical music (nothing with words to distract me) and things like Enigma and Dead Can Dance. I am also incredibly fond of Loreena McKennitt.

The second major re-envisioning and writing of the Firechild novel (not editing, but actual full re-write - it turned into a whole different story, which I will probably make into the second book in the series,) I was in college and worked at a local bookstore. All I listened to for two months was the band Stabbing Westward as I churned out 350+ pages in inspired fury. That version probably would have stayed the version I would use for Book 1 except that it had too many point of view shifts and skipped the two main characters' entire childhoods, using constant flashbacks instead. It got very very complicated (I was trying to alter the tone of the novel by writing it from their "adult" perspectives - I did not want it to turn into a YA novel.) Regardless, it didn't work for my purposes but provided a whole lot of really good ideas to be used on the second book.

The point was, I now completely associate the series with that particular band. I can still listen to classical and Celtic music while I work, but I feel most in tune with the story while blasting out some slightly dark Stabbing Westward.

So, to share my current tone while trying to get back into this world I have created, I share some music:

What do you listen to when you create? Does music influence your mood / the tone of your work / does it give you ideas?

Novel Decisions - The Firechild Series

I have finally settled on which novel to tackle first.

Despite my desire to complete my stand alone novel “Lusus Naturae”, I have finally decided on the more daunting task of finishing the first book in my fantasy series (which I have tentatively titled "The Firechild Series”.)

I suppose I was avoiding this decision because, to be honest, the fantasy series is a MESS right now. I started the first draft 16 years ago (for those of you doing the simple math, I was 14 and a freshman in high school). I started "Lusus Naturae" the same year – I guess it was a good year for inspiration and my muse was in a pretty good mood back then.

I have written and re-written the first novel of the "Firechild Series" at least six times since then.

I have written it in first person perspective, I’ve written it in third person perspective,

I’ve written it from one character’s POV and from multiple characters’ POV.

I have written it starting in their youth and progressing into adulthood and I have written it from their adult perspectives with childhood flashbacks.

I have written the first book of this series in EVERY POSSIBLE WAY IMAGINABLE. So, when I say this is a daunting task, I am not exaggerating.

The next step is to get all of it organized and sift through it to decide how the final version should be written (picking a perspective and a story arc progression would help).

I need to gather ALL of the versions and read through the whole of my work - decide what I want to keep, what works and what doesn’t, what scenes I’ve grown out of (because I did start writing this when I was 14 and some of the content from back then was…. ummmm, childish). I plan to take the important bits that I intend to keep and use the “flashcard method" to get the scenes organized and work out a reasonable format and outline (like a movie storyboard, only with words and pretty colored markers). Once I have this in place, the actual re-writing will be a lot easier.

Granted, I’d have to do something similar when I finally re-write "Lusus Naturae", but I have only re-written that novel twice in those 16 years and it is not a series, so there isn’t as much info to work through to get the outline organized.

And there it is. Decision made. I’m starting with Firechild.

Now I’m excited.

Animal, Not Vegetable

Animal, Not Vegetable

Prompt Response for 2/24/13
Written by Everyn Kildare, All rights reserved © 2013

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The simple feline. That is what she called me.

I turned my head to the side, listening with my right ear. She likes that. It makes her eyes go wide.

"Are you hungry, kitty?"

I strolled over to her outstretched hand and rubbed my face into her palm in acknowledgement.

"Why else would I be in this room?" I meowed.

Her fingers rubbed under my chin and sent my fur tingling. I yawned and stretched my arms out in front of myself, arching my back.

What a dreary morning.

I could hear the sound of the metal snap as she pulled the lid off of the can. Immediately I could smell the tangy juices - my mind drifted to visions of tender chucks of white fish and gravy...

My daydream was interrupted by the shrill "Briiiing-a-liiiing! Brrrrrriinngggggg-a-lliiinngggggg!" of that incessant black box she always had in her hand. She placed the box next to her ear and started speaking in a slightly lower octave than the one she used when she spoke to me.

"Hello?" she paused, "Yes, of course. How've you been?"

I watched her set the can onto the counter and she bent down to pick my bowl up off the floor. She paced from the counter to the large cold foodbox and then back to the counter.

"Oh no! I was just about to get some lunch. I'm free for awhile" She smiled to herself and walked back over to the foodbox, opening it and bending down to peer inside.

I sat near the counter where she had placed my bowl.

"Mreow?"

"Yes, yes. One second!" She waved her arm at me dismissively without bothering to look away from the foodbox. I wasn't sure if she was addressing me or the talking blackbox in her hand.

These humans are so odd...

She stood suddenly in the foodbox doorway and tilted her head to the side in a gesture that mocked my own.

"Sure. I remember him...." She reached inside the foodbox and pulled out a small red container without looking down. She placed the container on the counter and mindlessly tapped her fingers on the lid. "Really? I had no idea!"

This had gone on long enough.

"Mreeeoooooow!" I protested.

"Yeah. Okay, okay" She pulled the lid off of the plastic container and dumped it into my bowl.

What was she doing? Where was my can?

She stooped down and thumped the bowl down in front of me and turned on her heel to walk out of the room.

What sat in front of me was green and smelled like garlic and butter. I could still smell the lovely fish aroma on the counter above me.

Prompt for the week of 2/24/13:

Write from the first person perspective of an animal.

Choose any animal (the more unusual, the better) and write in first person perspective: what do they see, hear, smell, taste? What other creatures are around them? Where do they go and what do they do? Be as descriptive as possible!

You Might Be An Artist If...

 

I think the first one is dead on... the rest are pretty true too!

 Source: amandaonwriting.tumblr.com via Everyn on Pinterest