SonshineMusic is having a contest to celebrate 100 blog posts!
Enter to win an amigarumi owl!
Fun!
Thursday, March 11, 2010
In Which I Scene Block
I finished scene-blocking Foxfire. I had a lot of fun and it's the first time I've tried it. Always before I thought it seemed like a useless exercise because I write in a linear fashion, so there's certainly no reason for me to move scenes around - that would mess up the plot something fierce.
But for Foxfire, I knew I needed to add a few scenes here or there and more importantly I needed to list out all the scenes to try and figure out where the chapter breaks fall (since I do not write with chapters in mind).
Here's the results:
But for Foxfire, I knew I needed to add a few scenes here or there and more importantly I needed to list out all the scenes to try and figure out where the chapter breaks fall (since I do not write with chapters in mind).
Here's the results:
The green notes (though they look a bit yellow in the pic) are scenes from MC Fox's POV while the pink ones are scenes from MC Quill's POV.
The blue ones are scenes from any other characters (of which include 2 antagonists and 4 other minor characters)
Counting the Prologue (which will be cut) and the epilogue I have 24 chapters, though I plan on combining some of those single scene chapters or adding another scene here or there.
The gaps are chapter breaks and though some of them look much much longer than the others, some of the scenes are only a page or two, especially with that long chapter towards the right. Also that one might need to be broken up a bit.
I need a blue card earlier in the story and also I think I need to break up that long pink Quill stretch, but we'll see.
It's kind of neat, seeing my story structure in a physical manner.
Does anyone else do any scene-blocking during revisions?
Also here is the answer to yesterday's post:
1. I have had a menagerie of pets, including squirrels, ducks, dogs, guinea pigs, rats, gerbils, hamsters, chameleons, fish and raccoons
This one is a lie. I've never had a raccoon
2. My favorite vegetable is carrots
No thanks on carrots. Unless they come from my own garden. Then they taste delicious
3. I've broken my clavicle twice
DING DING! This one is the true one! I broke it when i was an infant when my mom tripped and fell over a garden hose while carrying Twin and I. The second time Twin broke it when were were 6 and wrestling
4. I hate watching Supernatural
This one is an obvious bold faced lie. There is nothing to even dislike about this show
5. One of my favorite places to shop is Wal-Mart
Nope. I avoid it at all costs
6. I really don't like to play boggle
Lie! Who doesn't like to play boggle? I even had it on my phone
7. I've been to Italy, Austria and France
I've been to Italy and Austria but not France.
So there you have it! Congrats to anyone who guessed correctly!
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
In Which I Tell Lies
I have a few awards I've been sitting on. So if you sent me one, don't worry, I'll get to it, I promise. I've just been pretty busy with the "day job" and have had to scurry a bit to get blog posts written (which is also why I haven't been commenting as much lately on other blogs. This will hopefully be rectified soon)
Tara, from Feel Of Something New passed on the "Creative Writer" blog award
For this award I have to make up 6 lies and provide 1 truth. Feel free to guess which one is the truthful one, I will provide the answer tomorrow.
1. I have had a menagerie of pets, including squirrels, ducks, dogs, guinea pigs, rats, gerbils, hamsters, chameleons, fish and raccoons
2. My favorite vegetable is carrots
3. I've broken my clavicle twice
4. I hate watching Supernatural
5. One of my favorite places to shop is Wal-Mart
6. I really don't like to play boggle
7. I've been to Italy, Austria and France
Which one is the truth and which ones are lies?
Tune in tomorrow!
Tara, from Feel Of Something New passed on the "Creative Writer" blog award
For this award I have to make up 6 lies and provide 1 truth. Feel free to guess which one is the truthful one, I will provide the answer tomorrow.
1. I have had a menagerie of pets, including squirrels, ducks, dogs, guinea pigs, rats, gerbils, hamsters, chameleons, fish and raccoons
2. My favorite vegetable is carrots
3. I've broken my clavicle twice
4. I hate watching Supernatural
5. One of my favorite places to shop is Wal-Mart
6. I really don't like to play boggle
7. I've been to Italy, Austria and France
Which one is the truth and which ones are lies?
Tune in tomorrow!
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
In Which I Entered Another Contest
I entered something in Natalie Whipple's Dark and Stormy Contest. I actually wrote a little flash fiction piece. Of course, once I finally got it down to 250 words is when I realized I forgot to open with the weather.
Yeah, I left out the whole point of the contest. Smooth Sarah...
So anyway, I was able to delete a few more words (and it was hard, I had already cut out 150 words, which is a lot for a short piece) and stick in my weather reference.
I was pretty sure I had no chance because I didn't weave the weather throughout, and I was correct.
But still, I kinda liked it, so here it is for everyone to read.
*******
On a sunny afternoon, Jim left Jena with a bellyful of baby for some trollop. Still, Jena sometimes missed him. After all, Jim had made her a mommy.
Clara was the perfect baby, Jena’s soul mate, the reason she allowed Jim back in their lives. Surely some good existed in him since he was partially responsible for the exquisite Clara. And more than anything, Jena loved Clara.
Which is why, when Jena first noticed the fangs, she wasn’t scared.
The two fangs were a shiny white, no bigger than grains of rice. They responded with Clara’s mood: happy meant no fangs, hungry or angry meant the delicate fangs would pop out.
Jena became anemic. But it wasn’t Clara’s fault. Jena loved every inch of Clara, even the inches that drew blood.
So she stopped breastfeeding and tried formula, but Clara lost all interest in food. Her nightly cries kept Jena awake and nothing soothed. Finally, when it became too much, Jena called Jim.
It didn’t take much to convince him to come over: the promise of liquor, maybe a little amorous fun.
“Say hello to the baby,” Jena said and thrust Clara into her daddy’s arms.
Jim held Clara to his shoulder and rubbed her back. He wasn’t, after all, a bad father.
Clara nudged her daddy’s neck. Her tiny fangs erupted and slid into Jim’s skin.
Jena was there to catch Clara when Jim collapsed. After all, she was a mommy, and would do anything for Clara.
*****
I know. Vampires again? Yeah. But it's a vampire baby. Anyway it's not like that's how I intended for it to go, but what can you do?
I might possibly like to stretch this out a bit, add a couple hundred words, so I can do less telling and really weave more of a theme throughout. But we'll see.
I've got bigger projects that need editing first.
Anyone else enter a piece in the contest?
Yeah, I left out the whole point of the contest. Smooth Sarah...
So anyway, I was able to delete a few more words (and it was hard, I had already cut out 150 words, which is a lot for a short piece) and stick in my weather reference.
I was pretty sure I had no chance because I didn't weave the weather throughout, and I was correct.
But still, I kinda liked it, so here it is for everyone to read.
*******
On a sunny afternoon, Jim left Jena with a bellyful of baby for some trollop. Still, Jena sometimes missed him. After all, Jim had made her a mommy.
Clara was the perfect baby, Jena’s soul mate, the reason she allowed Jim back in their lives. Surely some good existed in him since he was partially responsible for the exquisite Clara. And more than anything, Jena loved Clara.
Which is why, when Jena first noticed the fangs, she wasn’t scared.
The two fangs were a shiny white, no bigger than grains of rice. They responded with Clara’s mood: happy meant no fangs, hungry or angry meant the delicate fangs would pop out.
Jena became anemic. But it wasn’t Clara’s fault. Jena loved every inch of Clara, even the inches that drew blood.
So she stopped breastfeeding and tried formula, but Clara lost all interest in food. Her nightly cries kept Jena awake and nothing soothed. Finally, when it became too much, Jena called Jim.
It didn’t take much to convince him to come over: the promise of liquor, maybe a little amorous fun.
“Say hello to the baby,” Jena said and thrust Clara into her daddy’s arms.
Jim held Clara to his shoulder and rubbed her back. He wasn’t, after all, a bad father.
Clara nudged her daddy’s neck. Her tiny fangs erupted and slid into Jim’s skin.
Jena was there to catch Clara when Jim collapsed. After all, she was a mommy, and would do anything for Clara.
*****
I know. Vampires again? Yeah. But it's a vampire baby. Anyway it's not like that's how I intended for it to go, but what can you do?
I might possibly like to stretch this out a bit, add a couple hundred words, so I can do less telling and really weave more of a theme throughout. But we'll see.
I've got bigger projects that need editing first.
Anyone else enter a piece in the contest?
Monday, March 8, 2010
In Which You Can Win Goods!
Elana Johnson is having another awesome contest (she is like contest queen) in which you can win books!
Yippee!
Go forth and enter!
Also Suzette and Bethany are having a contest that involves, not only free things like books and toffee (*droooool) but also the possibility for a 40 page partial submission and critique by Suzie Townsend of FinePrintLit!
Enter Here
Yippee!
Go forth and enter!
Also Suzette and Bethany are having a contest that involves, not only free things like books and toffee (*droooool) but also the possibility for a 40 page partial submission and critique by Suzie Townsend of FinePrintLit!
Enter Here
In Which My Typo Is Hilarious
So I finished reading Foxfire.
It was weird; the parts that I thought were very weak, weren't as bad as I originally had thought, which is aways a pleasant surprise. Either that or I have an underservedly high opinion of my writing... I guess time will tell. And my crit group.
The pacing in the beginning seemed much much quicker than I had intended. I don't know if that's bad or not yet. I do think I'll be throwing in some scenes from some of the minor character's POVs (the ones that already have scenes and that I want to build up some more) so I'm sure that will help slow the pace.
I also came to the realization that it has a Part One and a Part Two.
I kind of hate that.
Mostly because I'm not a big fan of "parts" when I read books, but mine clearly has two. I think if I do decide to make them separate with a part distinction, it will help the pacing a bit in the beginning. I don't know, we'll see how it goes.
Also when I had finished writing it, I really thought the ending sucked big time. I thought it was much too passive and had too much of a touch of Deus Ex Machina (Tee Hee! I need to get a pet and name it that, just so I have a reason to say it out loud all the time. A ratty maybe...)
But when I reread the ending, I found it much more tense and action packed than I remembered. It still needs work (the Deus Ex Machina needs to go, or at least be trimmed so it's not as unbelievable) but I was much more pleased with it than I thought I would be.
The typos were horrendous. This is the only piece that I've ever written that I pretty much forbid myself to fiddle with as I went along. Normally I'm a "read the previous scene before I start the next part" type of gal. But not for this one.
Hence, the typos.
The best typo I found, and this may be the best typo I've ever made in all my years of sloppy typing, is the following:
What I meant to write:
She had striking long black hair
What I wrote (or what spell check cleaned up for me):
She had stinking long back hair.
Take it all in. Every word.
When I came across that (and Twin had highlighted it with a pen because she had obvs also found it hilarious) I laughed so long that I actually glossed over a few pages of reading because I kept thinking about the typo and kept laughing.
Ah good times.
Anyone else have a good typo they'd like to share?
PS: as of the writing of this post I'm at 92 followers (CRAZY!) once I hit 100 there will be a writing contest held with prompts and prizes!
Future Excitement!
It was weird; the parts that I thought were very weak, weren't as bad as I originally had thought, which is aways a pleasant surprise. Either that or I have an underservedly high opinion of my writing... I guess time will tell. And my crit group.
The pacing in the beginning seemed much much quicker than I had intended. I don't know if that's bad or not yet. I do think I'll be throwing in some scenes from some of the minor character's POVs (the ones that already have scenes and that I want to build up some more) so I'm sure that will help slow the pace.
I also came to the realization that it has a Part One and a Part Two.
I kind of hate that.
Mostly because I'm not a big fan of "parts" when I read books, but mine clearly has two. I think if I do decide to make them separate with a part distinction, it will help the pacing a bit in the beginning. I don't know, we'll see how it goes.
Also when I had finished writing it, I really thought the ending sucked big time. I thought it was much too passive and had too much of a touch of Deus Ex Machina (Tee Hee! I need to get a pet and name it that, just so I have a reason to say it out loud all the time. A ratty maybe...)
But when I reread the ending, I found it much more tense and action packed than I remembered. It still needs work (the Deus Ex Machina needs to go, or at least be trimmed so it's not as unbelievable) but I was much more pleased with it than I thought I would be.
The typos were horrendous. This is the only piece that I've ever written that I pretty much forbid myself to fiddle with as I went along. Normally I'm a "read the previous scene before I start the next part" type of gal. But not for this one.
Hence, the typos.
The best typo I found, and this may be the best typo I've ever made in all my years of sloppy typing, is the following:
What I meant to write:
She had striking long black hair
What I wrote (or what spell check cleaned up for me):
She had stinking long back hair.
Take it all in. Every word.
When I came across that (and Twin had highlighted it with a pen because she had obvs also found it hilarious) I laughed so long that I actually glossed over a few pages of reading because I kept thinking about the typo and kept laughing.
Ah good times.
Anyone else have a good typo they'd like to share?
PS: as of the writing of this post I'm at 92 followers (CRAZY!) once I hit 100 there will be a writing contest held with prompts and prizes!
Future Excitement!
Friday, March 5, 2010
Friday Fun Words
You'll never believe what happened on Sunday!
So Mom was writing out blog posts and I was sitting next to her when we heard a sound we had never heard before.
Fwwwooooshhhiiiissss is more or less what it sounded like.
Well of course George and I started barking. It was an emergency after all, a strange sound can be a dangerous thing...
So Mom got up (we let her go first because, you know, strange sound...) and walked into the dining room.
And what did we find? Tula's dog food bag tipped over and spilled ALL OVER THE FLOOR!
Of course Mom kept us out of there while she cleaned it up. But there was no way she could get every piece of kibble. That was when George and I got to go in and clean up the rest of it.
It was like a second breakfast!
Anyway, I thought I'd just share my bit of luck before we got into the words.
Obsoles - shoes that are no longer required
Pocardot - freckles on the Queen of Spades (this one is a bit of a stretch)
Explo - detonations for those people who are short on time
Liger - this is already a real word
Unwoody - what a beaver eats when they go on a diet (on a side note, in case you didn't know this, one of my many nicknames is Beaver)
Curefad - clearly when a cure is popular (like feeding everything antibiotics!)
Xpert - when someone is no longer vivacious
Bark at ya next week, ape friends!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
