WIP 2 - Nearly 40% Done

Ever since I started with regular daily goals on WIP2, I've been sailing through the writing. It was never actually an issue about writing itself, but without clear goals, I always ended up focusing on editing or worrying about it. So now, with minimum daily word count to write, it's been fun. 

What's interesting about this is that I've gone back to almost seat-of-the-pants writing. I know, I raved about outlining with the previous book. And the fact is, I would ideally like to have a complete outline. But with this one, outline thing just wasn't working out. I knew key points of the plot, but that's about it. So I decided what the hell...let's get started. And at least so far, I don't find myself floundering. It's nice to know the end point, but it's also good to have the freedom to let imagination run wild. Of course it will only be after the end of first draft I will find out if it works out or if there are plot holes to fill. But so far, like I said, I'm really enjoying it. 

Now I'm just getting it impatient, because I want to finish the first draft already, and run with the story. But that will be done before end of October, so not too long. 

How about you? How are your projects coming along?

WIPs Update

WIP 2 

Word count has reached 5K+ mark, so that's progress. I am happy to say that I have stuck to my daily goals - 500 words on weekdays, and 1000 words on Saturday and Sunday. Quite low, but realistic word count for my otherwise full schedule. 

Currently I am at the beginning of the book, and for these initial scenes I did have some outline of what's supposed to happen, so real challenge will begin when I go further into the novel, and haven't managed to work out the nitty-gritties. 


WIP 1

Editing continues. I do need to spend much more time on this. I make a point of doing at least a little bit everyday, but it certainly needs much more intense sessions. Hoping to make that happen over the coming weekend. What I have found is that I have good times and bad times. Some times I really get into editing, and then I enjoy it, and take pleasure in going over every line and improving it. At other times, I get too impatient and just make superfluous changes - not a very good thing, since I know I have to go over it again. 

But over all, productivity continues so that's the main thing. 

How are things going with your WIPS? 

Final Post: Dolly Garland - Why I Write Fantasy?

According to Oxford Dictionary, Fantasy is "a genre of imaginative fiction involving magic and adventure, especially in setting other than real world."

Magic. Adventure. Heroism. Fantasy makes it all possible. Even the least brave of us can travel through jungles, climb the highest mountain and fight the fiercest tiger. Fantasy makes impossible possible. Even the science fiction I like is because of its fantasy element - imagining things that could be or might be. Worlds that are similar enough to ours to portray humanity that we can relate to, characters we can care about, but different enough to show us a glimpse of a different, magical world that at some point in our life we wish to be in.

Fantasy opens the doors of imagination. It enriches our ordinary world. Fantasy offers a wide scope, with little magic that changes a person or something that changes a world. It could be a new way of looking at our own world, or a journey to completely different one. Fantasy could be anything, and as a writer and a reader of it, it makes me feel that I could be anything. 

I also like the freedom of being able to create my own worlds, and play with magic and creating societies. The most amazing thing is to make it believable, to portray it with such vividity that while people read it, they believe in the existence of that world. To sit in one's living room, and face the dragons or wield a sword or fall in love with a wizard or a vampire....where else could you have it all, but in a fantasy? 

P.S. "Why I Write..." series is at the end. Thank you to all the contributors and all the readers. I have enjoyed reading about what makes you love your genres.

Guest Post: Merry Muhsman - Why I Write Fantasy?

Why I write fantasy?

First, I want to thank Dolly for inviting me to be a guest blogger. I met Dolly in Margie Lawson’s Empowering Character Emotions Course in March.

Second, my topic today is why I write . . . Fantasy. My love for fantasy stories runs as deep as the lake that swallowed Excalibur. Perhaps, not as colorful as my beloved King Arthur stories, but still a tale nonetheless.

Once upon a time

I grew up on farm in Nebraska where we had one television; it had no remote and four channels. My nearest neighbor was about a mile away, and my older sister thought of me as a nuisance. (She would make me lie down in the back seat while she cruised with her friends around town. I in turn was bribed with a McDonald’s plain hamburger.) My best friend at home was my German Shepherd Duke. Duke was a great listener, never interrupted me and allowed me to speak my mind, craft my stories and imagine myself in a world of knights, dragons and magic.

Life had its limitations

My life could be complicated by limitations. On Saturdays, I got one hour of TV time in the morning (and somehow fit in chores, my mother was articulate with her lists and even drew pictures to show dusting down steps).  Since Saturday was the best day for cartoons, my choices lent themselves to Thundarr the Barbarian and Spider-man and His Amazing Friends. I still am a huge fan of Stan Lee.

Sunday became a time to either read or sit outside and write. No TV. So I sat underneath an old oak tree and composed my story by hand. I still have that notebook. My mother read a novel, while I wrote my story. To this day, she is still my editor. My first fantasy story was eventually typed on a real typewriter, complete with white out tape. A fancy typewriter!

My love for Fantasy was born in Camelot

I have always had a love for King Arthur and Avalon. I fell in love with Mary Stewart and Marion Zimmer Bradley. (Current favorites are Robin Hobb, Jennifer Roberson, Stephen Lawhead, Mercedes Lackey, Morgan Llywelyn and L. Jagi Lamplighter.) They transported me away from my boring life of drinking straight from the garden hose, walking barefoot across the gravel and climbing trees down by the creek. I fell in love with a time that broke all the rules. When I was a child, fantasy had no bounds, no rules, no limits. I have read a few books that tell me that’s not entirely true, but being able to create your own world, your own rules and your own heroes and villains, that was extraordinary. Still is.

At one of my book signings for Peddler’s Trials, a woman came up to me, as her son literally salivated all over my book with excitement. I could tell she was going to be a tough sell for her older daughter’s arms were full of textbooks. They did not come to buy my book, but the son couldn’t tear his eyes off the page and was determined to leave with something for himself. The mother looked at me with dark eyes beneath perfectly plucked brows and asked, “Why do you write fantasy?” I looked at her son and smiled. “When I started, I did it for me. Now, I do it for him.”

Guest Post: Adam Slade - Why I write Humour?

My name is Adam Slade, and I write humour (usually in the form of humorous fantasy). My reason for writing humour can be summed up in four words. 'To make people laugh.'

Okay, see ya later, guys and gals!

"Ow, ow, OW! Cut it out! Geeez..."

*Rubs shoulder.*

Apparently Dolly thinks elaboration is required. Lemme see...

First up, my obligatory pimp:

My first book, A Reaper's Tale - The Undecided, is available from May 17th at Lyrical Press. There's an excerpt on the book page, and there will be another on my blog soon (I'm spacing 'em out for effect).

Right, onto the meat. Yum.

All my life I've played the fool for the entertainment of others. Anything to get a smile, pretty much. For a time, I wanted to be a stand up comedian, but was very shy (and still am to a degree), and the thought of standing up in front of hundreds of people terrifed me. As you can imagine, that would make a stand up career tricky, to say the least. Despite my love of making people laugh, when I began to write a couple of years ago, my first work was a rather serious fantasy novel. There was the odd light scene and snippit of sarcastic dialogue, but it was mostly, doom, gloom 'n fightin'. After that, I wrote a variety of genres of short stories, but again, there was no humour.

Then came 'A Reaper's Tale.' Hooo BOY, I loved writing that. The main character, Mal, is almost as sarcastic as I am, and the secondary main character, Amy, was about as perfect a straight-woman as I could have asked for. From the first word till the last, I had a riot. Even the editing was fun... to begin with, anyway.

Since writing (and selling) Reaper, humour writing has been on my brain, and I'm not sure why it wasn't before. It entertains, it produces larfs, and it's great fun to write. I can have the most ridiculous events, coupled with dialogue that any "serious" genre couldn't get away with. Couple it with fantasy (as I often do), and I have complete free reign! (For some great examples of what fantasy allows you to do, see Julia Knight's guest blog from a couple of weeks ago. Also, buy her books.)

My current project is a sequel to Reaper, and I'm having a riot pratting about on the page. I also produce a humorous serial blog called Gumshoe Casefiles, which is about a fictional sarcastic private eye named Frank Peterson. It's basically a spoof of old fashioned noir detective stories. I'm slow to update it, as I have to put my paying writing first, but I'm thoroughly enjoying writing that, too.

I'm not sure what else to put, to be honest, so I'll say that I'm happy to answer any and all questions (keep 'em PG), and leave it at that.

Toodles!

Adam

PS - May 17th. My book. You buy.

Challenge 44: Charging Ahead

After declaring my 44 days challenge few weeks ago, time to post a little update.

It's definitely going well. As I said previously, this is just one pass of revision so I am not aiming for perfect. Main thing is to make sure all the plot changes are made, the new plot layer added and weaved throughout the story lines, and scenes that need changing as a result of it are changed. So far I have done the easy bit, as the new plot layer doesn't need adding until middle of the book, so there weren't too many major changes in the beginning and just one new scene to add - which did take a while, because it's always difficult adding things in already finished story.

However, currently I am ahead of schedule. I am trying to pull ahead now, because I know that once I get to the middle - in about a scene or two - and have to start writing new material, it will take much longer, and might even make it harder to meet daily goals, so the better I do now, the more time I have.

Also, instead of 44 days, now I want to complete this challenge in 39 days, which would be 30th of April. Since it's end of the month, makes a neater ending. That's my ideal plan, and one I am aiming for, but it all depends on how things go.

This challenge has certainly proven, yet again, that short term fixed goals do work for me. NaNo was a success, and this challenge so far has proven more productive than last two months put together. So this is the kind of format I plan to use in the future for all writing/editing goals. It also, to a certain extent, enables me to work on one thing at a time, which is good for me, because flitting about all over the place is not as productive as focusing on one thing at a time (and I am the queen of multi-tasking so when I say it, I mean it).

For me, it is also more important because majority of all books I have planned include my own created worlds. It's not easy to keep two worlds unique when you work on them at the same time, ideas inevitably move from one to the other. I think this could work when the worlds are set concretely in my mind, but not at this stage when I am still exploring them. So this world deserves all my attention. And like the real world, it takes time to get to know every facade of imaginary worlds too.

So that's all the news on editing.

In other news, tomorrow we will have another guest post for "Why I Write..." series, so stay tuned.