Thursday, August 18, 2011

When the Writing Gets Complicated & Plotting Scenes

Hello all two of you! *chuckle*

I'm still working along in the 4th book. And because I will now be working longer days, it will be difficult for me to post most of the time in here, or elsewhere.

However, here is where I'm at in my WIP: 43,227 words. Which I would consider at half-way through, depending upon where I want to end it. I don't try and reach a limited amount of words, but at the same time I don't want an overly long novel. With my publisher, he doesn't limit word count, but the book will merely cost more for the consumer, depending upon the pages. Thus, with the economy as it is, I'm trying to work toward much less than 100,000 words. I try and keep the work within 300 pages, if possible.

My pick for best book on
 Nephilim and fallen angels
So, with that in mind, and knowing that I am working with several character's POV's, I have to limit what each one gets to have in their moments/scenes in the book. Because I've been just working along from the beginning with what I had, I'm now adding the other characters, having their scenes in here, I have to now drop them in as I go along. With one character in particular, Bill Gannon (who is introduced in second book about to come out), I've had to develop his history. He is the off-spring of Nephilim, and I had to develop their history according to what I wanted them to be and so forth. I've read only two novels pertaining to Nephilim, and one was very good, called Angelology, by Danielle Trussoni. I would recommend this book over all. I felt she did the most extensive work on the background and history out of the two I've read so far. The other book was a YA. Not that into YA, but it was an alright book for young adults. This was called Fallen by Lauren Kate. The cover, and the first chapter are a bit deceiving, so I had to read into the center of this book to even become interested. I don't care for young adult, I guess it's because they always have them in some sort of school. Which is fine. I simply hated school, when young. I guess nothing will even touch the Harry Potter series for most interesting schools for me.

Anyway, what I've had to do is think on who Bill is, his history, and come up with some moments from his past. I had to also decide how old he was. Came up with that he's at least 110 years old, but still looks in his 20's. I had to decide--earlier than this book--what his purpose was to finding Sabrina and trying to woo her, in second book. I knew he would have to be brought into another book to address him, his true background, history, and so forth. It only took a few days for me to come up with his history. Now I need to sprinkle it in.

In order to keep him straight--because there are several characters who I will get into their heads and have scenes with--I've taken note cards and briefly written each scene down on a card for Bill. In a separate document, I've written the ideas more fully, to the point in some cases dialogue, or the scene itself. This is easier for me than to try and write it into the main doc. itself. I have ADD, so if I begin reading portions of my writing, I get distracted away from what I want to do.

The note card ploy works with anything you need for plotting your novel. You can briefly describe the scene, lay them out on a flat surface and figure out what goes first. I've addressed numerous advantages of using this method, and the plot planner, etc. over on Lorelei's Muse in my WORDSMITHING 101 series. If you wish to take a look at those, that's the heading for any you wish to take a look at in past posts of mine. One happens to be on my most viewed at the left side bar. It was the first one I'd written, and it must be pretty good, or I wouldn't have that many people looking at it.

Well, I'll leave you two for now. If you have anything to share here, or at Muse, please do. I always like to hear about what you're doing. Also know that I'm unable to see who my followers are here. I don't know why it's blocked for me. So, if you wish to leave me a link in order to find you, do so. I'll be happy to stop by, and follow you as well!


8 comments:

  1. Hello from follower #3! Yay, I love odd numbers. Best of luck with the WIP, and cool bio pic :)

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  2. Well, YAY! Follower #3. And thank you. send me your blog site if you want me to follow (;

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  3. Multiple POV's are a juggling act, aren't they? I managed to dance through two plus my hero my YA urban fantasy by having him see through their minds for brief moments.

    Thanks for the nice comments on two of my recent posts. You can download for free PC FOR KINDLE, making your computer a Kindle for free. If I had your email, I would send you a Kindle copy of THE BEAR WITH TWO SHADOWS and THE LAST SHAMAN since you are interested in Native American lore.

    Have a great weekend, Roland

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  4. Sorry I missed a few words at the beginning of my comment above. There's a terrible storm above the center where I am working and taking a break. I meant to say "I managed to dance through two perspectives plus my hero's in my YA urban fantasy by having him see through their minds for brief moments." I need an editor here at work!! Roland

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  5. Sounds like you're planning out your scenes and characters well! It's always so chaotic for me, this stage of the game.

    Thanks for following me already (http://lydiakang.blogpsot.com)

    Nice to meet you!

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  6. Hey, Lydia. Nice to meet you and sure is nice to see you here!
    I have plot planning guides and have notebooks. The best secret is figure out what works best for you. I may have to suggest some things here on this blog. I had no idea people would find it, or find it interesting.

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  7. Hey, I just went to your blog, VildesVerden, and commented on a couple of your posts. Cool blog, girl!

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Hey, did I get you thinking? Want to add a comment? Be my guest and be nice about it. Since I've seen too many "anonymous" users I've taken this option off. Sorry, but you are only interested in selling me something. But my regulars are always welcome!