Third 'Class'

I didn't actually make it to today's class, but I did get my assignment in on time :) It was the 'first page' of the novel which she scrutinized for content and character development. Aaaand aside from a few minor tweaks, she really liked it :D She said I had a very well developed character in Nis'ku and interesting backstory that can be peppered throughout the story.

So I'm happy :D Now my new assignment is to create a character chart, outlining my main character's 'Goals, Motivations and Conflicts' that will carry the story. I know all of these, for sure, but wording them right will be a challenge!

I'm up to it though! I will prevail :D For now, here's the 'First Page' I submitted that she liked (except for a few tweaks that I'll add later).

“My name is Nis’ku, and I’m an alcoholic.”

The room around her was quiet, but restless. Some of the others were giving her their full attention, staring at her in a way that she’d hated since the first time she spoke at a meeting, and others were looking away, staring off into space or sitting with their eyes closed, listening blindly. She looked back down at her hands in her lap, watching her thumbnail scrape back and forth across her palm in a slow, steady rhythm.

“I’ve been sober for three years and five months,” she said, tempted to add in the days, hours, minutes, seconds. She was proud of each one of them, because even now, after so long on the program, they were each their own tiny battle. Some of which she’d lost.

“That…that’s not true,” she sighed, looking away from the others, unwilling to see whatever expressions they may be showing now. “It’s actually been six days.”

The very first meeting she’d attended, then a strung-out twenty year old angry at everything, she’d used a truly anonymous name. A mask she wore at all subsequent meetings until she’d constructed a completely false self that had been safe to share. She’d construct stories about a fictional family and a fictional father who beat her, when in reality it had been her addict boyfriend who had put her in the hospital the week before. She couldn’t give him up even then, even when the police had tried to drag out of her what had really happened. She couldn’t admit to what he’d done to her, any more than she could admit that she, Nis’ku, was the alcoholic, and not the anonymous ‘Sarah’ that she had created. She’d loved him too much. Loved it too much. She still hadn’t come to the point of letting go, and so Sarah got the help and not Nis’ku, and it was a simple matter for Nis’ku to return to the bottle when Sarah finally crumbled under the weight of her own lies.

Now, five years later and sitting under the weight of accountability and her own failed confession, she wished she’d just stuck with Sarah. Or Jane. Jane was a nice, nondescript name.

Until next time! Let me know what you all think, I love feedback (good or bad!)

Second Class

So I sent in my prologue and 'first line' to Nancy last week, and got it back yesterday. I'm quite happy with what she said about it, despite the fact that she said it wasn't needed. The prologue, while it was good and interesting, is kind of superfluous. When I sent it to her I told her that I was dubious about including it as a prologue, and listed my problems with it (like it's from the wrong POV, I'll be going over the same information later in the story, etc.) and she pretty well agreed with me. I liked it because I think I wrote it well, but it just didn't belong. It's back-story that should be cut.

So that's great. And she liked my first line, and I like it too, so it stays ^_^

My assignment this week is to write the first page of my novel. This will be the official start of my writing of the novel, for me, so I'm going to write as much as I possibly can. She only wants the first page though, so I'm a little nervous.

One page, double spaced, 12pt font, Times New Roman.

OUCH.

To me, that's like...a paragraph *lol* well, maybe three. She said that it will 'force you to be concise in your writing' and I'm all o.o thaaaat's juuuuust great. I get one double-spaced 12pt page to wow her with. Great.

On the up side, she did like the prologue I wrote (the prologue that's being scrapped), though she did have a few notes about style that I'll be paying attention to. She's also going to be watching that we take her 'show, don't tell' lesson to heart. She said (and I heartily agree) that the best way to tell a story is by not giving away EVERYTHING. Let the reader deduce things like emotions and thoughts from a character's actions. For instance, if someone's angry, don't say 'She was angry'. Instead, say 'She slammed the door, stalking towards the kitchen and ripping open the fridge door' or something like that. The reader gets it. She's angry. We don't need to become Captain Obvious ^_^

Did I mention I love this class?

We also spoke about character archetypes and how each of them behave. I discovered that Nis'ku is a blend of the Spunky Kid (Girl Next Door) and the Crusader (Rescuer) archetypes. Max, however, will be a progressive archetype: she will begin as a blend of the Boss (Trailblazer) and Seductress (Dark Lady) archetypes, and end up by the end of the novel, as the Nurturer (Caregiver) archetype. At least, that's the theory ^_^ I've already decided Rory is the Best Friend (Confidant) type and Stephen is a blend of Bad Boy (Rebel) and Lost Soul (Outcast), but haven't gotten to Holden yet. I'm thinking he will be 'book two', so I have plenty of time to figure him out ;)

All of these archetypes are outlined in a book 'Heroes & Heroines - Sixteen Master Archetypes' by Tami Cowden, Caro LaFever and Sue Viders. I wanna see if I can find it somewhere 'cause it sounds awesome. There's another she recommended that I want, 'Goal, Motivation & Conflict - The Building Blocks of Good Fiction' by Debra Dixon, but she thinks it's probly out of print o.o (I just looked for it, and it's about $200 on amazon. I kid you not)

So I have writing to do :)

...I also I have to put the garbage out. And it's midnight o.o

More later ^_^

Back to the Writing!

I started my writing course 'Crafting a Novel' last week. (I am now finished work, so I actually have time to write now!) I'll be taking it every Thursday until the second week of June. I've only been to one class and I'm already inspired by it! It seems to me it'll be a good course for guidance and such. The teacher Nancy, is a published author who is willing to share with us the tricks of the trade that us budding (hopeful!) novelists need to know about the industry and the actual writing of a novel. I am most excited that she will be reading some of what we write and providing feedback on style and other things that editors and publishers look for when picking up new authors.

I'm. Very. Excited.

I am on the fence about a prologue too. It's a piece I'd written many many moons ago (in 2008 I believe) as a 'flashback' for the character Nis'ku. I have several of these snapshots of her life before her work, and I was thinking I could polish/rewrite them so they can be...perhaps interludes between crucial sections of the story. I like the way Jodi Picoult does that...her stories aren't always completely linear, she sometimes sets separate chapters in a different timeframe (orienting the reader with the date at the beginning of the chapter, I include the exact date and the age of the protagonist). They're scenes from the past that have direct influence on what's happening in the present and...I have them already written :D I'll wait to see what she says about it though, but I'm tipping towards the 'use them' side of the fence. Before that class I hadn't even thought to include them in the novel.

Sooo starting this week I'm going to give myself a daily word count. I'm thinking of starting off with 1k per day, and moving up to 2k or more depending on how well I do. I want to wait for my first 'assignment' to come back with comments (she wanted the first line of our novels) but I know that's a cop out, and I can always rewrite, so I will just write.

So that's where I'm at :) Today I had an outing of a lecture at the college, dealing with social media types and their application in the college environment (Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, Alexa, etc.). It was quite interesting and I had a great time learning stuff I didn't know before :D Buuut now I gotta get to work on writing :P I'm gonna aim for 1k or 5 pages, whichever ends the thought first ^_^

Behind! Always behind!

Life Changes Hindering Writing...

So I've been away for a while. I've started working 10 hour days lately, and will be doing so until the second week of May, but there's a bright spot at the end of that time - I'll be taking some time off. It's sort of a 'have to' thing, being that my contract with the college will be over until the fall, but I'm glad I'll have some time to myself. My search for a summer job has been quite fruitless, and so I've decided to give myself a little time to reflect and possibly take a course while I figure out what to do with myself. I'll be back to work for sure in the fall, but hopefully find a second part time job as early as June or July. There just aren't any jobs right now for a unilingual English Library Technician out there :(

Also, I've been away because of sadder reasons. My hamster died this past weekend, in the wee hours of the 18th, and so I've been steadily working through the grieving process of that. I'm a lot better now than I was, but it's still taken a lot of the wind out of my muse's sails. That, combined with my extremely long working hours has made me a zombie whenever I do have some computer time, and so my novel has temporarily been put on hold.

I do, however, have big plans. I plan to work on my novel every single day, starting when my contract ends for this term (early May). I plan to spend my days writing and napping and working out on Wii Fit and walking and searching the internet for jobs in my field. I hope, by the time I do go back to work, to have at least a partially completed manuscript, if not an entire rough draft. I also plan to document my progress here, so as to be accountable to something other than myself ^_^

I've also paused in my writing for Suite 101, although I have managed to punch out two articles in the past two weeks and outline a few more for later writing. Being so tired after work has made it almost impossible to write interesting articles, but I found a few that were pretty easy to write, so I managed to publish a little. My revenue has made it up to $1.47, but I know I'll have to work on more 'moneymaker' articles than simply 'ohh, I wanna write about this topic I like' articles. That would of course, require brain power, which I'm quite short on at the moment!

All in all I'm hanging in here. I'll be back to my normal inspired self in a few weeks. Novel is quietly simmering on the backburner though, and while my muse is very tired at the moment, it's still there.

Thought...

Always remember:

No matter what you do, there will always be somebody who can do it better than you.

That means that no matter what you do, you will always be better at it than somebody else.

Think about it :P

Artemis

I have a new laptop, and her name is Artemis ^_^ It's a cute little silver NetBook that I inherited from a totally awesome friend of mine :D She seemed to have a surplus of computers and she offered this one that she wasn't using. 'I have a MacBook so I don't need it,' she says. Is it possible to love and hate someone at the same time? *giggles* she's awesome. She even hooked me up with some awesome software to go with it ^_^ Nowwww since it's tiny I had to buy an external DVD drive for it, which was not a problem, and I need to get myself a USB hub since Artemis only has two and they're far apart from each other, thus complicating the DVD drive thing (it needs two side by side, though it came with a handy USB extender that I'm using for now) My old harddrive (now an external drive of awesome) also requires the two plugins, so I'm going for a hub *nods*

So, Artemis. She's awesome. She's got a tiny screen (hard to get used to after the monster 17" I had before) and a slightly smaller than normal keyboard, but I'm already getting used to that. I can play some games on it (I tried to load the Sims but the display was all wonky and gameplay is sluggish so I'll take it off...Neverwinter plays great though :D) most importantly my Luxor and MahJong games, though I'll have to download Chuzzle again. *luvs Chuzzle* Just downloaded iTunes but have to get MSN back soon, as well as find an effective antivirus software (I'm using a free one right now called ClamWin, and I was also told about another free one Avira which is supposed to be pretty good, though I heard I might be able to get a copy of ESET NOD32, the newer version of what I had. The fact that the older version left my laptop crawling with viruses however, gives me pause on that one o.o

And so, on the writing front...I managed to write a little bit using pen and paper while I was without a computer. I wrote a few random scenes that may or may not be used, and I also revised the outline. I have tentatively decided that the story I want to tell is not one but TWO novels, the first of which would be named 'Tough Love' and the second would be 'Free Fall.'

I decided that, the story arc of the first, 'Tough Love', will be Nis'ku and Sam (Max). Nis'ku's story will be her breakup with James (or she's already broken up with him before the start), her struggle with depression and alcoholism, the return of Stephen, and her eventually finding the strength to get out of the relationship and ask for help (when the first time he was arrested which forced the separation). Rory will be a big part of this storyline, being her best friend, neighbour and onetime (accidental, honest!) lover ^_^ Sam's storyline will take her from an unruly repeat offender to a nurturing mother by the end of the story. I haven't yet worked out the details of the guys in her life and what part Chris (best friend and the guy she REALLY loves) will play, and if I will write Ryan into the story or just meld him with Chris. That part is still up in the air, but by the end of the novel she will have graduated high school and be handling motherhood well.

Also, by the end of the first book, Nis'ku will discover that she's pregnant. And won't know whether it's Stephen's or Rory's o.o

Book 2, Free Fall, will be the kidnapping story. It will start with Nish having her baby, with Rory ever at her side (despite the fact that he's MARRIED and reconciling with his wife). I think, by this time, we know the baby is Stephen's. So does Stephen. When the baby is about six months old, he kidnaps her right from the daycare, and thus the plot of this story will be the police investigation/searching for the kid, as well as Nish's new friendship with Holden (he will either be one of the cops (cliche!) or a guy she meets at AA (original idea)). She and Holden will become very good (but platonic) friends and he'll be her support during her daughter's absence (I'm thinking Rory will be occupied with his wife and family by this point). This story will end, obviously, with the child being found and will probably end up with Stephen being arrested and/or shot, haven't decided yet. They don't find him until nearly a year later though, and so this introduces the angst of 'my child doesn't even know who I am anymore' when Nish and her daughter are finally reunited. Holden helps her through it, they fall in love, Nish makes a connection with her daughter. The End. *lol*

Sam will also be in this book too I think, though to what extent I haven't decided. She has things to work out with Chris (and the father, if I do write him into this and not just make it Chris). She will also be there as a good friend of Nish's, and will play a role when Nis'ku shuts herself off with depression following her daughter's kidnapping.

The side-plot at the school (yes, there's still a school in this one!) will be, most likely, Sarah and Parson. Sarah is a very troubled girl who has very unhealthy attitudes about sex and gender roles. She falls very hard for her male counselor, and almost brings him down with her before he lays down the law and teaches her why her behavior is inappropriate. It will get very awkward and very squicky in some places and I wanna see if I have the power to make readers squirm *evil laughter* I will have already establish the 'Parson' character in the first book as a co-worker and friend of Nis'ku's (though all the staff at that school are friends, he will have a connection to her, having helped with Sam/Max in the first book).

So...yeah. That's my brilliant idea. Thoughts? Please, I need thoughts ^_^ But what I need most of all is to start writing. I have to set myself a rigid schedule and stick with it. Writing time between this and this o'clock *nods* I need will power...anyone got any to spare?

Setbacks

My laptop crashed on the weekend, which is putting a serious hamper in my writing plans :( I guess the novel is on hold until I can get a new one, though I have a notebook I can scribble in if the mood strikes me. Never fear though, I will be back! I won't let this stop me ^_^