Showing posts with label nephilim. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nephilim. Show all posts

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Nuts & Bolts, and Notebook/Journals for WIP's

It's been a while, but I've been taking a little break from writing in this blog. I don't usually blog here unless I have something to talk about. Don't want you guys to get bored, don't you know?

Working on the next book, my WIP--Vampire Caprice--and I realized when I went back to my notes that I wrote the first draft last year about this time, and got it done in 3 months. I had a lot of researching to do, and had to remember what Colorado Springs area looked like, ordered a catelogue, and did some Google Earth searching on the area too.

My notes on this book helps me pull up where my head was, what I was trying to do at that time.

And creating all the characters, and having their individual stages (because in this book, I'm writing both first person, as well as third), and each one I allow the reader to see into his head, I had to come up with their "back story" and history. A couple of them have some distant history, too.

But hey, I was working along and thought I'd share a little excerpt from these notes. They sort of read like a running interior monologue, or journal, in some cases.

The following was written on 8/29/11

I need to be in Eddie's head for this. I haven't got him down as yet. It creeps me out, actually, to be inside his head. It has to be that he thinks the Albino is “The Devil” He's here, again. the Devil.
Eddie is working on a car. The Albino appears. Eddie says, “Oh. It's you.”
Yes. It's me. Surprise!” he sang, hands out. “Oh, you're working on a classic.” The Albino walks around the car, looking admiringly inside. “Fifty-nine. Right?”
Yep.” Eddie ducks back under the hood. He makes some adjustments. The wrench he holds falls, clangs to the cement floor of the garage. “Fuck!”
Let me get that for you.” Albino moves Uber fast and he has the wrench in his hand. He spins it so fast that Eddie can't follow it with his eyes. In fact it looks like the propeller on an airplane going full spin. Albino moves to the side of the car.
You know why I'm here?”
Eddie stares at him.
I've found you another sweet one.” He says low. “She's exactly what you want. What you crave.”
Eddie licks his lips.
Small, and sweet. Pigtails.”
Eddie wipes the back of his hand across his lips.
I can take you to her.”
I need wheels.”
What's wrong with this one?”
I can't get the sprocket to fit.” {not sure on this, but go with it for now.} I added this 8/29th and have been working on it.


This is what it looks like in my "notes" and from this, you see, you add to it. Fill out the scene. It now reads very different as you can see here:

Eddie Roland reached down into the engine compartment of the baby blue, two door hardtop '59 Cadillac Coup de Ville. He wanted to finish this today. The man who'd sold it to him had lost his job and had needed the money. He had paid him a thousand for it. Cash. Hell, brand new it had probably cost over three thousand. It had leather upholstery, chrome grill, bumper and trim. Eddie had some money put away for extravagances like this. He got by with the odd jobs he could find fixing cars. But mostly he loved to work on the old classics, when they came his way. This was a honey of a ride. He considered himself one lucky son of a bitch that he had the cash to help the guy out. As if. He could now turn around and sell this for twice maybe three times he'd bought it off of Ted Roland, the man he'd bought it from. In fact he was lucky Ted hadn't put it up on eBay. Someone looking for just such a classic might have given him more. But Eddie had the cash, up front.
It had had a leaky head gasket—that was the big expense. But Eddie knew he could fix it up in a week and eventually get everything he put into it and more back. He had been able to pull the engine in his fully equipped garage and in two nights replaced the gasket and had it put back together. He was just finishing it up, in fact. He couldn't wait to hear the 390 cubics inch V8 turn over. The '59 Cadillac had the biggest tail fins of any car, and he knew when he went cruising down the street in the neighborhoods, he'd be the envy of all classic car enthusiasts.
Hello, Eddie.” The voice was clear as the sound of a crescent wrench landing on cement. In fact it startled him so, that he did drop the socket wrench, and it went clattering down through the engine compartment, but not to the ground. It had stopped somewhere midway.
What the fuck?” Eddie spun around, ready to rip into whoever the hell had snuck up on him and scared the living shit out of him. He realized quickly that this person was behind him, in the back of his garage, not the front. All the doors were closed, and the front garage door was down with only about six inches for air. How they had snuck in here defied all reason.
It's been a long time, Eddie.”
In the over-head fluorescent lights, he saw a man in a trench coat standing there smiling at him. At first he thought he as a figment of his imagination. But he wasn't. He looked exactly the same as he had the first time he'd appeared to him at least twenty-five years ago. He was real, alright. The long white hair, very pale skin and blue sun-shades gave it away. He was The Albino. The guy had a name, but he couldn't remember it. He referred to him secretly as The Devil, because he made Eddie do things he knew he shouldn't do. It wasn't that he didn't want to do those things. The temptation was so overwhelming that he couldn't help himself. But The Albino not only gave him the notion to do those things, he encouraged, helped and abetted him. And Eddie was dead certain The Albino was why he was never caught. No one knew that Eddie had done the things he had done, except the Albino.
Oh. It's you.” Eddie turned back to the car feigning disinterest, then looked over his shoulder at the man.
Yes. It's me. Surprise!” he sang, hands out. “Oh, you're working on a classic!” The Albino strode up and then around the car gazing at it, running a gloved hand over the chrome and smooth-as-a-silk paint job. He bent and gazed admiringly inside. “'Fifty-nine. Right? Leather seats, chrome bumpers. You're doing pretty well for yourself, Eddie.”
Yeah.” Eddie ducked back under the hood and located his wrench. The damned thing got lodged between the pitman arm and the steering box. Shit, he couldn't do that again in a million years! And it was well out of reach, from every angle he tried. He lowered himself to his hands and knees on the cement floor and reached for it. His middle finger was an inch away, and he couldn't reach any further under the car because basically his arm didn't bend that way. “Fuck!” he swore out of frustration.
Let me get that for you.” The Albino disappeared from the spot he had been, and the next instant was standing right next to him with the wrench in his white-gloved hand. He spun it so fast over his fingers that Eddie couldn't follow it with his eyes. In fact it looked like the propeller on an airplane going full spin. 
© 2012 Lorelei Bell

Monday, September 26, 2011

At the Climax Portion of the Book

pinical in Garden of the Gods, Colorado
I've worked up to this point in the book--the climax! The pinical! Finally, I'm there. But then as I wrote out the scene, something wasn't working. I had to let it rest. And I sort of mulled around through the weekend, waiting for the answer to come. Why wasn't this exciting me suddenly?

Then, I was reading one of my favorite authors, Kim Harrison, her Black Magic Sanction (and it's as good as I'd expect from her). I had inspriation from something inside the pages (for an earlier scene that takes place), but something about the way in which she creates problems for her Rachel character, made me realize I had not done this in this scene. I needed there to be a real challenge for my characters to find the little girl before the man does. (If I say more, I'll spoil this). They are in Cave of the Winds in Manitou Springs, Co. I have three buses drop off children at the cave. The man is after the little girl, and Sabrina knows what the little girl looks like and why the man wants to find her.

But I have another problem lurking for her: The Albino, who is a true Undead, and he desires to take souls to feed on and that's one of the reasons he is there, but he would like nothing better than to feast on Sabrina's soul because she is a sibyl. (Yummy!)

What I had failed to do was make her search a little more complicated, put up obstacles, problems. I had Sabrina, Chris, and Bill get there just as the children get there. WRONG! I had to have them be delayed by traffic, plus a long drive down a mountain road. Also, I needed to have them realize the man who holds danger for the little girl in Sabrina's vision is already there. He drives a very destictive car--a '59 Caddilac with the big fins, and I thought I'd better have them find it there in the parking lot. At first I didn't.

So, I fixed all this. They find the man's car first. They get inside and there are more than one tour and so Sabrina makes up a little white lie about being late for the school tour, and once they get inside the cave, they are not with the group which has the little girl.

And while they discuss things off to the side, Dante showes up (because he is an Undead too, but is very VERY devoted to Sabrina), tells her that The Albino is there with them. She now has Bill, who is a Nephilm, a werewolf (Chris), and now Dante (Undead). I'm setting the thing up. I'm moving slowly, as though I'm walking through this cave too.

This is where I am:

"The Albino is very near," Dante said. "He is here, in fact. Waiting."

I looked from him to Bill and then to Chris.

Bill stepped in front of me. "Then we must all guard her." The two other men fell in beside me and behind me and we all moved along the cave's uneven floor.

"This is crazy," I complained mildly. "The only one of you who would have any chance against another astral vampire is Dante."

"It is true," Bill said. "But there is one soul that the Albino would crave more than yours."

"Whose?" I asked, incredulous.

"Mine."

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!