I'm pretty excited about my book, so you are all going to have to put up with me talking about it. My most recent bout of crazy has inspired me to give that quality to one of my characters. She could use more development anyway. But in a post holocaust world understanding and acceptance of mental illness won't be the same as you and I experience, so it should be challenging enough to write.
I rely heavily on interesting characters, probably more than I should. Because even though I have a decent interesting plot and a load of good ideas, I can't seem to master plot twists and mystery. My brain doesn't work like that. I try not to make my stuff too predictable, but you know how sometimes you'll be reading and you'll stop and be all "OMG that is amazing!" yeah, you won't get that reading my book, I'm pretty sure. I don't have the kind of mind that can come up with intrigue like you see in game of thrones, or that can surprise you like finding out who the true heir is in Ryria Revelations. I'm too honest. I think I write more like Isobelle Carmody than anyone else - where you never know where the story is going and you're damn sure the writer doesn't either.
Like right now, I've got my FMC (female main character) and the character that at one time was based off Obi (we were kids, he wanted to be in my book. I intended to kill him off but just couldn't) hiding in the enemy's city, getting ready to free the MMC, but neither they nor I have the slightest clue how they are going to do that. All I know is that when they try, he'll think it's a trap and won't go with them.
The scary part about this is that this chapter was originally the last chapter of the book. It was my 50,000 word mark for NaNoWriMo in 2007. Now it's just another chapter in the later half of the second book... but after this, then what happens? Until this point I've been working with my original material, fleshing it out, adding sub-plots... but I know that if I got stuck I could fall back on my three original people and they'd lead me on. But now I need to come up with new stuff, the details of which I've brainstormed out with Obi (I have enough material for another four books, or so) but are vague and incoherent. If I've made that sound bad, it isn't. It's exciting! It's also hard. The first draft had so many plot holes I needed to create two new races to make it all make sense. God knows what kind of mess I'll make from here on in!
I tried to story board, but that's boring. I also, somewhere, have a notebook. When I finished the first book, I sat down with Obi and he read it to me (excepting the last two chapters, so he doesn't know how it ended) and I took note in the notebook like: Chapter 6, Paragraph 3 - No way FMC would say that. Or C4,p8 - Takes off hat twice in this scene but wasn't wearing one when he came in. Then I'd go back and fix things up. I wonder what other people do? The notebook also contains every character's name and a few points about them, and all place names that aren't on the map yet (Obi made me a map). I meant to type that up, but yesterday I opened the file to find out what I'd called some island only to find the file is more or less empty. I annoy myself.
See, I have a dreadful habit of forgetting things I've written or not being able to think up a cool name for something right away, so I'll write like this Xanthe could see the majestic spires of <city that still needs a name> in the distance and, full of awe, she gripped Sable's hand whispering <insert a memory of vision here>.
Because if I stop to go look up that name, or to find that vision I know is somewhere in the first half of the book but I didn't write it down separately because I didn't intend for it to amount to anything, I might lose my groove and forget that awesome sentence that was coming next. So I just write from memory and fill in the blanks later. If I story boarded, or used a proper writing program instead of just Word, it might be more orderly. But all that organizational stuff takes time I could use to write!Anyway you're thoroughly bored now aren't you?
In other news, my baby is eating like a horse, and going to bed earlier. She still wakes up a bit, often because it's freaking cold, (she's already got two blankets and two quilts on her bed and I'm worried she'll smother herself) but she feeds and goes back to sleep quickly, so most days I'm functional, and Obi and I have had more time together (and more time for video games.) Life is good, even if the real estate are dicking me around.
It's Ma's birthday
And I'm not distressed. It's a nice feeling. Happy Birthday Mum! She'd be 56 today.Ok ok, the nappies won't walk themselves to the clothesline so I'll go now. I might blog more later though, I'm a chatty Cathy today.
