Plotting

Not evily. Not at the moment anyway. But as I'm working on rewriting my sequel, I'm reminded of my favorite chapter of Sol Stein's, On Writing that I read a few years ago.

If you haven't read this wonderfully informative and humorous book yet, get yourself a copy. You'll be glad you did. Thanks to Ray Rhamey at Flogging the Quill for recommending it.

The chapter I found most enlightening discusses 'The Crucible'. As in: An environment, emotional or physical that bonds two people. This could include situations such as being trapped on a lifeboat, being in the army, a family, marriage, business partners, etc. Essentially what this boils down to is the thing that keeps your character(s) locked into the situation where they must seek resolution from the main conflict.

The (biggest) problem I had with my first novel was that the plot was weak. There was a good guy and a bad guy, but there was so much going on that there was no concrete direction. Enter the crucible! Ah ha! Having that solid 'this is the crucible' statement really helped pinpoint the main plot and helped me shave off countless subplots that weren't as important as I'd originally thought they were -- even though some of them were my favorite scenes.

Focusing on the crucible can also help up the tension level, especially in what can often becomes the barren wasteland known as the 'middle of the novel'.

Now I keep this lesson in mind during all my first drafts. It's really helped cut down on frivolous subplots and extraneous characters. Which is good, because looking down at the masses under my desk, this is a lesson I wish I had learned a lot sooner.

And now for something completely different

This has nothing to do with writing really, other than perhaps staying alive to write another day. However, when I saw this on Janet Reid's blog last week, and having walked away from a horrible car accident with nothing more than a few bruises just months ago, I knew I had to make time to share it.
(You may want to get a tissue first.)


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Novel in a Blender 2

Back in the mid-eighties, I branched out from mainly reading fantasy and fell upon sci-fi. These books were littered with male main characters. Which is fine, yet, not as fun for a young women looking for someone of the same gender to identify with that wasn't playing a dutiful secondary character or love interest.

Ms. Wildstar was having a hard time finding a spine, and I needed some inspiration, darn it. I wandered off to the bookstore.

What's this, a women in a lead role and a man as her underling? I like it!

I quickly realized that this was the final book in a series, but it sounded so good, I didn't care that the other books weren't available in the store at the time. When I finished it, I hunted down the original three books that had been published ten years previous. The first of which turned out to be C.J. Cherryh's first published novel, the Gate of Ivrel.

In trying to get back to my original mindset now that I'm working on the sequel, I've pulled the Gate of Ivrel back off the shelf. Unlike many of my other old favorites, this one is still as good of a read as it was before my critiquing eye ruined my joy of getting lost in a novel. It's currently in my coat pocket so I can squeeze a few pages in where ever I happen to find the time.

Neither of these novels appear to be sci-fi upon first glance at the cover, which is probably what drew me to them in first place -- having just come off a fantasy binge. There are swords, magic and horses, and gates, various planets and time travel! Yes, young readers, there were transportation gates before any Stargate movies or series.

This is where the seed for Jumping came from as well as the inspiration for a certain Mr. MC's name, whose original name was much more befitting of Ms. Wildstar's early draft than that of her current bossy incarnation. Though, you won't find Mr. MC's teen self milling about the Barthromians, he's been reincarnated -- the only character to date to have had that honor.

If you happen to be looking for a book/series with an old race that used time travel and transporation gates, a strong female lead, magic, swords, an honorable but conflicted male character, no swearing or overly adult situations, this one might be for you. Who knows what seeds might get planted in your head.

Quit watching me!

As I sit here, I can't help but feel the gaze of unreal green eyes. Why unreal? They're cybernetic implants. They can see in the dark, but they don't glow. I'm never sure when they are watching or who happens to be playing with them. Which, you can probably imagine, is a little unsettling for me as I often write in the dark -- less distractions that way.

When is too much tech bad for a story?

- When the word count gets crazy high.

- When your MC starts to sound too much like a superhero, and she's not.

- When the tech creates plot holes the size of Idaho.

- When your realize it's nothing more than ornamental because that scene you intended to use it for never came into being.

What to do about it? Whip out the editing knife.

Ms. MC narrows her freakish green eyes. The iris is solid green, no pupil. They give me the creeps. They kind of creep out Mr. MC too, which is another issue, because he's supposed to be somewhat attracted to her.

"Just what do you think you're going to do with that knife?"

"Hold still, this will only hurt for a couple minutes until I find/replace all mention of your artificial eyes."

She hops up on my keyboard and stomps on the space bar. "You're going to do what?"

"Get off there!" Empty pages fly by as the curser speeds down the screen. "Look what you're doing to the document!"

"I happen to like my eyes." She lays off the space bar and crosses her arms over her chest "You can't just delete them, there's an entire chapter of backstory that shows how and why I got them."

"I know. That's the whole idea. Have you seen the word count lately?"

Ms. MC snorts. "Why would I care? You knocked my pov to the backseat, remember?"

"Exactly, and that's why you don't need as much page time." I grasp the knife and go for her eyes. Two minutes and a lot of struggling later, we're done.

She shakes her head and blinks, holding her hands in front of her face and peering at them. "Huh, they don't look any different."

"Notice anything else?" I point at the new short scene that took the pace of the entire chapter of backstory.

"I don't have to lose my original eyes in a horribly graphic and painful scene that made our readers say 'euw'?"

I put my knife down. "Nope."

She peers over the edge of the desk at the characters below and waves to Nekar. I suppose it makes sense that they'd be getting along better now that the eye gouging scene is gone. I smile to myself.

Nekar looks up from his adverb crate and gives her a tenative wave back.

Ms. MC stops waving and flips him off.

He spins around, pulls two words from the stack and whips them at her.

Hatefully and Vulgarly make it as far as my chair.

So much for getting along.

My mojo is back!

My laptop arrived (again) this afternoon. This time, I plugged it in right away and was relieved to see that it is charging. It's now loaded with my latest updated files. I'm all comfy with my blankets. My type is no longer lagging between my keyboard and my monitor. Now, if it weren't for these two new mysterious pin prick spots on my monitor that appear to be in the screen itself as they wont wipe off no matter how hard I try... that are right in my line of sight as I type and are blatently apparent on a white screen... which I type on all the time...

But it works and I'm cozy and I should be writing. This sequel isn't going to write itself. Apparently. I've given it a couple days to try. No luck.

Guess its up to me.