Wednesday (31 Jul) - When The End is not THE END
The novel, The Majik of Spark, was officially completed in May, 2013. It came in at 295 pages with twelve very large chapters. I recently went through the book to set more natural chapter breaks, and after that was done I had a twenty-five chapter novel. Getting that first draft to something more polished and final is still a work in progress. I do have a reader who has been very helpful, and I've already made one change to the book based on her comments.
While the editing process continues I began putting together the second book of the trilogy. I have a rough chapter summary, something which I didn't have for the first book. I have the makings of two chapters for the second book as well. That's where I ran into a challenge.
The first book was about the world of Spark. The second book is to be about Spark's sister world, Chord. I struggled over how to start the second book, particularly how to transition the storyline from one world to the next. It finally dawned on me that the problem wasn't with the second book. The problem was that I had ended book one prematurely. I had been concerned about how to end the first book all along, worried that I would continue it endlessly and never finish it. As a result I ended up closing the cover a little too soon, with a few things left hanging that had to be in place before the second book could take flight.
So, how do I know when to end it now? Well, having worked back and forth between the ending of the first and the beginning of the second, I found the specific break points I wanted. In other words, it was now clear to me where all my characters should be, and in what situation, when the story closed. When I finally had that part spelled out, I knew what I still needed to do. When I finish this time, there will be thirty chapters instead of twenty-five. Two of those chapters are already mostly written, so I hope it won't take that long to wrap it up.
I doubt that will totally close the book. The editing and critiquing is still in progress. I am now delving into the background I had already prepared for book 2, and reading through that has raised some issues that I may have to go back to book 1 to address. These things are not plot related, but more about fleshing out book 1 to meet the expectations of book 2. Spark is a faded, badly damaged shell compared to the richness of Chord. To make that very clear in book 2, there needs to be more hints and vestiges in Spark to show just how far Spark had fallen, and what had been taken from them.
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Monday, July 22, 2013
Finally, a Writer's Group!
Finally, a Writer's Group!
On 18 July I made it to my first meeting of the Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer's Group. The group meets in a conference room at the local library in Chula Vista. We have a nice library. Not only are there the books to check out, there are large, comfortable spaces for reading, listening to music, watching movies, getting online, and other activities.
There were eight members at the meeting. For three of us, counting me, it was our first meeting. At first glance the outfits of a couple of members were, well, somewhat outlandish. Did I wander into a group that operated "in character" or something, like a World of Warcraft toon? It only took a few seconds for the light bulb to come on. This is the annual Comic-Con week, one of the biggest comics conventions in the country. Most everyone comes in costume for the event, and a couple of members had come to the meeting from the convention.
We all made introductions. The organizer, Robert, then gave a great presentation on what to do when that novel is finally finished. Talk about great timing for my first meeting! There was a lot of great information and I took copious notes, even though my cat bitten left hand (my writing hand) burned and complained at the abuse I was putting it through.
Three members gave readings from some of their work, which I enjoyed. I spoke up to tell the group that Robert had "ambushed" me on the night we met at the play writing evening by asking, "What is your book about? In one sentence." I didn't do so well that time, but I was prepared for this meeting and got to say my line, even if I did have to cheat from the back of my business card a little.
One new member, Melody, came as a proxy for her son, who has written more than one eBook novel and was looking for advice about improving sales. He and his family recently moved to Hawaii. Melody offered to do some reading of my novel and give a reader's opinion, which I was happy to accept. I also took a look at her son's most recent novel, Blood Brothers, and decided to give that a read and provide some feedback as well.
I came away from the meeting with homework. Should I ever get to pitch my novel to an agent/publisher, there is a list of things I must have ready to go at a moment's notice. Here is the short summary:
The one sentence story description - that I have
The five sentence summary of the book
The two page synopsis
Sample Chapters (1-3 usually)
The Complete Novel (in the correct format, of course)
A Character Synopsis (have it, but use only if it's asked for)
Out of the above comes the formal Query Letter.
There is a lot more information about what to do/prepare for if asked for a complete proposal.
My next task is to find out when and where the upcoming Writer's Conferences are being held. The best way to contact an agent is to run into one at one of the many conferences that are held. Agents are at these conferences to find talent. It doesn't come cheap, though. Typical conference fees run $300-$400 and up depending on which events you want to attend. If you manage to interest an agent, reading fees of $50 for each reading are pretty common. I am a bit fortunate (or unfortunate from a billfold perspective) that between now and February 2014 there are five Writer's Conferences scheduled within a two hour drive.
On 18 July I made it to my first meeting of the Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer's Group. The group meets in a conference room at the local library in Chula Vista. We have a nice library. Not only are there the books to check out, there are large, comfortable spaces for reading, listening to music, watching movies, getting online, and other activities.
There were eight members at the meeting. For three of us, counting me, it was our first meeting. At first glance the outfits of a couple of members were, well, somewhat outlandish. Did I wander into a group that operated "in character" or something, like a World of Warcraft toon? It only took a few seconds for the light bulb to come on. This is the annual Comic-Con week, one of the biggest comics conventions in the country. Most everyone comes in costume for the event, and a couple of members had come to the meeting from the convention.
We all made introductions. The organizer, Robert, then gave a great presentation on what to do when that novel is finally finished. Talk about great timing for my first meeting! There was a lot of great information and I took copious notes, even though my cat bitten left hand (my writing hand) burned and complained at the abuse I was putting it through.
Three members gave readings from some of their work, which I enjoyed. I spoke up to tell the group that Robert had "ambushed" me on the night we met at the play writing evening by asking, "What is your book about? In one sentence." I didn't do so well that time, but I was prepared for this meeting and got to say my line, even if I did have to cheat from the back of my business card a little.
One new member, Melody, came as a proxy for her son, who has written more than one eBook novel and was looking for advice about improving sales. He and his family recently moved to Hawaii. Melody offered to do some reading of my novel and give a reader's opinion, which I was happy to accept. I also took a look at her son's most recent novel, Blood Brothers, and decided to give that a read and provide some feedback as well.
I came away from the meeting with homework. Should I ever get to pitch my novel to an agent/publisher, there is a list of things I must have ready to go at a moment's notice. Here is the short summary:
The one sentence story description - that I have
The five sentence summary of the book
The two page synopsis
Sample Chapters (1-3 usually)
The Complete Novel (in the correct format, of course)
A Character Synopsis (have it, but use only if it's asked for)
Out of the above comes the formal Query Letter.
There is a lot more information about what to do/prepare for if asked for a complete proposal.
My next task is to find out when and where the upcoming Writer's Conferences are being held. The best way to contact an agent is to run into one at one of the many conferences that are held. Agents are at these conferences to find talent. It doesn't come cheap, though. Typical conference fees run $300-$400 and up depending on which events you want to attend. If you manage to interest an agent, reading fees of $50 for each reading are pretty common. I am a bit fortunate (or unfortunate from a billfold perspective) that between now and February 2014 there are five Writer's Conferences scheduled within a two hour drive.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)