Is this worth bothering with? I’m not talking about this series of posts on how I do the writing process–that’s certainly debatable. No, I’m referring to all the ideas that pop into my head that could become a book, or at least a story of some kind. My way of sorting that out is to let it percolate for a while and see if continues to grow, or dies on the vine. For me, a good story, one I hear or one I make up, never leaves me. If it sticks around long enough I’ll move to the outline phase, where I will grab a keyboard and turn my idea into a short summary, list of characters and an outline of any scenes I’ve dreamt up. I’ve found that if I don’t do that I will lose some of the details even if I don’t forget the overall plot and main characters.
Does taking that step mean I’ll eventually turn it into a book? No. I wish it did, but I just don’t have time to write all the stories ideas I’ve come up with over the years. Still, having said that, sometimes a story won’t go away even after I’ve ‘shelved” it. And that’s where Ehlsewhere comes in–one day out of the blue it just took over, elbowing aside all the other things I’d been working on. And that’s how I know if an idea is really a story.
Which still doesn’t mean it’s time to start typing yet–beyond the outline anyway. Usually, I’ll let things play out in my head for a good while, until the character grow and the scenes begin to multiply. Once enough of those things happen, and I’m confident I have a full-blown story on my hands–including a good ending–then it’s time to put my fingers to work too.
Typing Time
Most books start with an prologue, including mine. But I don’t always start there. In the case of Ehlsewhere, I started there twice…as in I have two prologues and I’m not sure which one I’ll use at this point. Both will likely end up in the book somewhere, but for now let’s shelve the whole prologue thing–we will get back to it eventually, and move onto the first chapter.
Ehlsewhere is different than anything I’ve ever written before. Not just the genre, but the style of writing. It’s supposed to be somewhat whimsical, but at the same time I want it to grab people’s emotions. With that in mind, I really need to set the tone for the whole novel(s) right up front. The writing, sentence by sentence, is going to be key since there isn’t a whole lot of ‘action’ up front. It’s equally important that the plot, and especially with the characters, grab their interest, and in the later case especially, their hearts. Plus, if I want them to hang around for chapter two, I’d better leave them wondering about a few things while I’m at it. Okay, that’s enough for now. You can click on the PDF file of Chapter One if you’re so inclined, then I’ll have some parting comments on how I think my first shot at it went.
Hmmm…I just read it for the first time since I wrote it too. Even for a first draft, pretty meh. But not hopeless. Here are my first thoughts on the next draft…first, the easy stuff, and I won’t even address the misused words, spelling and punctuation errors, and the like. The writing is uneven; too whimsical in places and too drab in others. Good start on the boy and wizard, but the king and his minions are too cartoonish. There were also some plot inconsistencies; the boy can’t read but he knows what the three “P”s are, and some stuff with the lizard/dragon tapestry too. The hard fix area…the writing was so subpar that I was happy when the chapter was over instead of being anxious to start the next. Which means more sentences and paragraphs need rewritten than those that just requiring a bit of polishing.
That brings us to the last note on this chapter and the whole book. When do I edit. I’m sure every writer has their own way of editing, but for me I don’t touch a thing–with one exception, until the book is finished–the exception is fixing or annotating plot errors or inconsistencies as they come up so they don’t get overlooked come editing time. I used to write, rewrite, and rewrite again and again, trying to get it right until one day I realized that I’d been working on the same paragraph for three whole days–and it wasn’t getting much better either. From that point on I reasoned that, at least theoretically, I would get better each time I wrote something, so I focused on writing a new something each day, and before I knew it I’d written a complete book. It wasn’t a well written book, but I took great satisfaction in finishing it. And when I compared the last chapter to the first, I had gotten much better. The thing that sealed the deal for me though was when I went back to the paragraph that had frustrated me so, I was able to turn it into what I still think is one of the best opening scenes I’ve ever written.
I think that’s a wrap for this post and chapter. I hope someone out there finds it helpful on their own writing journey, and I’d certainly appreciate any comments on what you think about the story and ways to improve it.
Blessings to you and yours,
Mike
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