The Question of When

Part of craft of writing comes when determining the best time to reveal information.

I say the "craft" of writing because it's inherently different than the "act" of writing. The act of writing, at least for me, is more like a system purge. You get all of the information out in whatever form it comes. The end of this process will probably resemble a narrative, but it's also most likely not complete.

Infodumps and darling passages overpopulate most 1st drafts because they're necessary components of creating the world and characters. When I type out hundreds of words full of backstory in the middle of a passage, it's usually because that's the first time I've thought of that particular aspect of the character's life. I realized this today as I was reading over 3 chapters of one of my WIP. There's a piece of very pertinent information in there that has absolutely NO business being there.

Not only does it slap the reader upside the head and shout "Look! You need to know this for later!", it interupts the flow of the narrative. So, it's being surgically removed for use elsewhere. The information is still required, but there has to be a better way to reveal it.

Drat those stories that know they can be better than they are. Once they figure it out, they won't settle for good enough, and they won't let me do it, either. Sometimes it seems like I read through something I wrote and passages almost highlight themselves, pointing out that they don't belong. No, I'm not hallucinating :-P, it's just a matter of them "sounding" off when I read them back. The only thing to do is tinker around until they sound right.

Obviously, I'm still a rambling blogger, so I'll stop as not to make anyone's eyeballs bleed from reading.

GRRRRR.....

Growl.
Snarl.
Hiss.
Spit.

Dear Migraine,

Please take this as formal notification that you should vacate my cranium without further delay. You are no longer welcome on the premises. Your things will be left on the curb for you or the garbage man to pick up. Don't forget to take your stupid slobbering pet "Writer's Block" with you or I'll have it neutered and/or put to sleep.

Sincerely,

Josie

Blogger the Terrible

If I were a viking this would be my name. (If I were a Viking, I'd also be a foot taller and most likely blonde, but that's a different rant that I would be unable to make as a Viking because most Vikings are off having dinner at Valhalla and didn't speak English, so back to the blog...)

I've earned the name Blogger the Terrible because it's been almost two months since I posted a new entry. I even missed the perfect opportunity to turn myself around by making it a new year's resolution (unless I wait for Chinese new year and try and make this the year of the blog as well as the year of the ox, which could work I guess).

Once November hit, a few things aligned to keep me from blogging to mostly empty space. 1st, NaNo - I'm pretty sure I have a total of 50K, but not all on one book, so I disqualified myself. I can't turn off my internal editor and let myself write garbage no matter how hard I try. It's like trying not to sort my crayons by color as soon as I open the box - it's not gonna happen. Once I settled on NaNo - NoMo, the family tidal wave known as "the holdiays" hit. Vacation meant that I was suddenly not the only one who wanted my computer. Apparently writing is "playing" and someone else thought they could do just as much while busting brightly colored bricks on screen, so I was outsed. Once the TV found itself locked in the "on" position for weeks on end, it was time to give up on trying to think of anything other than the questionable dialogue on screen.

Yes, those are excuses. Deal with it. :-P

So, now that it's the end of Christmas break, I have the opportunity to reclaim my computer chair and try to hammer out those last 30K or so to finish my current favorite WIP. YAY *tosses confetti*

Hopefully, I won't be Blogger the Terrible for very long (it was horrible to come over here and discover I'd missed a comment from my favorite shark.)

/ramble.

A False Start

So, here it is, NaNo: Day 3, and I'm on novel #2.

No, I didn't do a suicidal marathon typing binge and hammer out 25K a day for two days (though it would be interesting to try that, hmm....) Apparently, my original story has abdicated to its successor.

Story one was like pulling teeth. I know how it goes, but can't quite get it on paper yet. Story two is being more cooperative. 10,190 words and counting. Woo Hoo.

Back to the WIP.

NaNoWriMo!!!

Who knew novel writing had its very own month? (You'd think a writer might know that, but well... I didn't.)

Apparently, every year for the last 11, November has been National Novel Writing Month, where participants are challenged to write a 50,000 word novel in one month by hitting a goal of just over 1,600 words/day. (On the same novel, of course ;-))

I've decided to try it out this year and see what happens. Hopefully having a concrete level and goal will help with time budgeting.

I know I'm capable of that many words in that period of time (I wrote 800K words last year alone, which comes out to around 66K a month) but they were on multiple projects of varying lengths.

So, now I'm going to stop procrastinating and get back to my totally awesome WIP.

Yowza!

I just realized I didn't make a single blog post for all of September. (Since no one's reading this, it doesn't really matter one way or the other, but I'll berate myself none the less.) I think I may have to change my name to Blogger the Terrible. Now when I put on my Viking helmet the terrified masses will have something to call me ;)

Tiara Day!

I'll be the first to tell you, I'm no girly girl (though the influx of pink EVERYTHING onto the market is making me start to like the way said color looks... yipes!) Susan Adrian had a contest yesterday - Tiara Day - for a 50 word story including the words: "princess", "sparkly", and "tiara".

Tiara Day is a regular Friday occurrence that I usually only remember because agent Janet Reid's avatar on Twitter changes to a jewel crowned Shark (which is just awesome, btw. That's a fairy tale waiting to happen.) So, when Janet mentioned the contest in one of her tweets, I hopped over to Susan A's blog and entered something. We're supposed to find out by next week who won.

My entry:

The princess cut diamond sat loose on her finger. Sparkly and pink, it was the last bit of shimmer left from a vibrant life of color and fury. Fire made flesh, reduced to ashes. She was buried in her tiara, and when she arrived in heaven she outshone the sun.