What I'm Listening To: Hey Pretty - Poe
What I'm Doing: Still reading The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams, and enjoying my theft of the fan from the living room. Not hot for once!
First of all, I have to share this absolutely mind-wrenching link from Meg Cabot: My Little Pony, Live Action Thriller.
My childhood.
Moving on. I was thinking of popular bloggers, and what they do, and came to the conclusion that they blog. Brilliant, wasn't it? I think so. In that vein, I've decided to actually do so, myself, and as I was casting around for something to talk about that wasn't a rehash of yesterdays blog (a friend on LJ was talking about how bad her first chapter is, and it reminded me of what I was saying yesterday.) my roving eyes fell upon the novel I'm reading.
The Dragonbone Chair, by Tad Williams. It's an absolutely fantastic novel, and a long-time favourite of mine. It seems I'll be rehashing a bit of yesterdays blog, anyway; one of the commenters on said-friends' LJ said something to the effect of 'chuck the first chapter, and start right in on the action if you want readers hooked.'
That's a good idea, I suppose, but I can't really recall any books that started, "My sword cut swathes through the hordes of vampires like a hot knife through butter..."* can you? No. Most books start out something like, "The vampire scourge has walked among us for thousands of years, but it's only been recently that they've come forth from the shadows and made their presence known; recently that they've moved themselves from legends to reality. My childhood was a happy one, and I grew up neither knowing nor caring what happened beyond the walls of my house, so long as my family was safe within... " etc, etc.
They give a little bit of back story, and introduce you to the main character before the action starts. Because even if you've got an action-packed thriller for a novel, if people don't know your main character, they're not going to be interested in the book.
Take Tad Williams' trilogy, Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, of which The Dragonbone Chair is the first. Quite literally, no action begins until approximately 200 pages in. The first two hundred or so pages are just introducing Simon, the main character, and his home life, and some of his back story, and by the time you get into the action, the meat of the story, you feel like you've grown up next to Simon, and have always been dealing with him, and are maybe a friend of his, and once the action starts, you're on the edge of your seat, wondering what's going to happen to your new friend, and whether he's going to make it or not. This makes it a little bit harder to get into, I suppose, because you've got two hundred pages of Simon catching beetles and bringing home birds' nests, and knocking over suits of armour in hallways, but interspersed with that is the tidbits that make it interesting; the old king is dying, and his two sons don't quite get along, and then suddenly the younger son disappears and some people think he's dead, but what's going on? Mr. Williams achieves two separate things before the action even starts; he lets you into the life of Simon, and he drops hints and sets up for later story points that grab your attention and make you think.
There's another book in a totally different setting that I absolutely worship. It's called Sunshine, by Robin McKinley, and when I first picked it up, I got about two pages in, and then didn't touch it again for about four months. It starts right in on the action, or at least, AN action: "I didn't hear them coming. Of course, you don't, when they're vampires."
This tells us two things. There's vampires, and the main character is involved with them in some way. But then instead of continuing on in this vein, the main character (whose name is Sunshine) immediately launches into a ten-page jaunt of talking about her family, and her youth, and where she works and lives, and it's all very interesting, but it's a bit like talking to someone who can't quite come to the point. The entire book is like that; it's less of a story you're experiencing as you read, and more a story that you're sitting down with Sunshine, and she's telling it to you after it all happened. Sunshine, as a character, tends to go off on rambling tangents for pages and pages, before she finally comes back to the point, but the author, Robin McKinley, doesn't always write like that. If you pick up Beauty: A Retelling of the story of Beauty and the Beast, The Blue Sword, and Sunshine, and read through them all, you'd probably think they were written by three completely different authors. Not one of her books has the same 'voice', but they're each engaging and interest-snagging in their own ways.
On the other hand, Anne Bishop has written several inventive and interesting trilogies, and one 'twosome', but they're all the same. Notably, The Black Jewels Trilogy and what's listed as The World of the Fae on her website, are like reading two different versions of the same novel. Both trilogies are good, but they have exactly the same 'voice', and basically the same characters, rehashed, and the same basic idea, rewritten. It's like she's got cookie-cutters for her books, and when she starts a new one, she just recreates her old worlds and characters and renames them before setting them into a new plot. Even her Ephemera novels are slightly similar to the other two trilogies, but not in exactly the same way (which is something of a relief.) The world of Ephemera is utterly different than the worlds of the other two trilogies, but she undoes her good work with the world building by plopping the same, cookie-cut characters into those worlds. There's the dark, mysterious main male lead, the ditzy/clueless/otherwise innocent female love interest, the dark, mysterious, super-powerful outcast main female lead...
They're good books, don't get me wrong, but I don't like the feeling of rereading the same thing over and over again. If I want to reread the same novel, I'll open it back up and reread it. I don't want to spend money on three different sets of novels, only to find the same underlying themes and people running through them all.
This is a good way to improve your own writing. After you've gone through the bookstore and read the first page and decided why you'd continue reading or not, pick two or three off your list, and buy them, or get them out of the library, and actually read through them.
Did they live up to the expectations of the first page? Would you read them again, or was it a waste of money? Did you learn anything to incorporate into your own writing?
I own dozens of books. Scores of them. If I sat down and counted them all out, I'd probably have well over a hundred. And even for myself, looking over my collection, I think I must be slightly schizophrenic in my tastes, because there's no set genre. They span the range.
An example:
Directly behind me (I have no bookshelf, so the coffee table in my room is crowded over with books) there is approximately thirty books. (probably more; I didn't move any of the stacks, just briefly glanced over them.) Clearly visible are books like The Bride and the Beast, by Teresa Medeiros, Reliquary by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling.
I make that one historical romance, two suspense fiction, and a YA fantasy. And that's just a sprinkling. Other favourite books of mine include The Crystal Singer Trilogy by Anne McCaffrey, and The Hot Zone by Richard Preston.
A sci-fi trilogy and one that I have no name for, (it's about ebola and marburg, the effects, origins, and outbreaks.)
My book tastes run the gamut, and it's made me a better writer because of it. I don't limit myself to just one or two authors (though I do admit to seeking some authors out repeatedly. If I see something by Michael Crichton that I haven't read yet, I pick it up. Likewise, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. And Teresa Medeiros is my absolute favourite historical romance author ever; I'm well on my way to owning every single book she's put out to date). Because of this wild and eclectic taste in novels, I have no shortage of places to turn if I'm feeling the dreaded Writer's Block. It's amazing how a little reading can turn that around. After staring at a blank word document for an hour and a half, all it takes is for me to sit down somewhere quiet with a book, and about ten pages in, I'm itching to go write for myself.
What amazes me is the amount of people who don't read, who can't read. I inherited my love of reading from my mother, and it's something I've never regretted. But then I look back on people I went to high school with, who struggled to read to themselves, and made me want to snatch the book out of their hands and beat them with it when they tried to read out loud. That these high school seniors - people about to graduate from mandatory school and either go on to further schooling or unleash themselves upon the world at large - can't read...
I suspect that many of these people who never willingly picked up a book in their life are the ones who attempt Nanowrimo and then immediately upon finishing their 50k words send it to publishers and editors and the like. It is, I'm firmly of the belief, utterly impossible to be a writer if you don't read.
*Addendum: I ammend that. Certainly there may be some books that start off that way, but it would be followed with something like this. "My sword cut a swathe through the vampire horde like a hot knife through butter. I'd been fighting them since I was fifteen years old, and my mother sat me down and said, "Michael, daddy's not coming home." and into the shocked silence this statement produced in me, went on to explain that he'd been taken by the vampires on his way home from work." Sure, it starts off right into the action, but then it takes a step back and introduces the main character, and gives you the reason he's currently 'cutting a swathe through a horde of vampires.'
Friday, May 8, 2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Things to Remember
What I'm listening to: Nothing. :/ My itunes is on the fritz. It should be Going Through Changes by Army of Me.
What I'm reading: The Dragonbone Chair, by Tad Williams
I've got something Ally Carter said posted on my wall. (Not facebook. My literal bedroom wall, right above my computer.) "Don't get it right - get it written." The day I put it up, everyone in my house passed through my room* and asked me about it. Basically means it doesn't have to be perfect the first time, as long as it's done. Editing can come later.
But that doesn't stop me from thinking about my current word-count versus chapters, and despairing. Especially when I happened to catch a glimpse of the first few paragraphs when I restarted my computer, and re-opened Eversong (if it's right in front of me, I'm less likely to forget that I need to be writing every day) and those paragraphs ... really kinda sucked. XDD Not ... oh, what am I trying to say here? *bashes head into desk at specially marked 'Bang Head Here' on mouse pad* Not that it's bad. I believe it's really well written. As a long-time fanfiction author, I continually tell myself "This sucks, it's terrible, no one's going to like it, why am I even posting this crap!?" as I'm writing, post it, receive good reviews, forget about it for several months (or years, in some cases) go back, reread it, and utterly amaze myself at how wonderful it is. Not to toot my own horn or anything, although I'm firmly of the belief that a certain amount of ego is required for artistry - even if no one else in the world likes your work, you'll always know that you did a good job of it.
No, the problem is not that what I've written is written badly (though it can definitely be better, which will come later, and therein lies the problem) it's that they're short. They can be better. They can be more engaging. I'm starting into chapter two, and I only have four thousand words. Granted, it's only the beginning of chapter two, and I know for a fact that there's no 'set word count', specifically, but my goal is at least 75,ooo words, and the first novel is only 25 chapters long. (Give or take one or two. The original outline was set for 26, but the first chapter proved so reclusive that I combined what had been chapters one and two on the outline into chapter one, so that it would have some depth to it, and so that the story wouldn't take nine chapters to get started.)
It's like the devilish NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, for the uninitiated) you have thirty days to write 50k in words. And not just "THIS SUCKS" over and over again, but an actual, coherent novel. The following instructions are then to shunt it to one side for at least three months and not even think about it until that three month time period is up, at which point you go back and edit, and revise, and polish, and generally drag it out of the slush pile before it has a chance to make it into said pile. I'm pretty sure there's an actual NaNoEdMo, or something similar (National Novel EDITING Month, in which those 50k word drafts get taken out of the milk crate, and get prettied up.)
Do not. Ever. Ever. Submit your unpolished manuscript from Nano to an agent or editor. I found an article about that (somewhere) and was absolutely horrified. It was talking about the massive increase in queries and MSS during December, particularly the first week, and that the majority of those queries and MSS were not only unpublishable, but almost unreadable. There were comments about said submissions that included things like "There were exactly fifty thousand words. EXACTLY. It stopped in the middle of a sentence." and "After every 1700 words or so there was a note reading "Done for the day."
I nearly cried reading that. Who in their right mind would submit something to professionals without proofreading it at the least? I left a comment on the post that said I was utterly ashamed to be among the Nano Writers, if they behaved like that after completion of their 'novel.'
Another thing that makes me weep. Miss Snark's First Victim holds a Secret Agent contest, in which people submit the first 250 words of their completed novel, and a real agent looks over, and comments as to whether they'd be hooked on the story or not. Other people comment, too, but it's a good way to get an agent to look at your work, as well as to get some constructive feedback on your story. It's a good excercise for the other aspiring writers out there too, when you're in a bookstore. Wander through, pick up random books, and read through the first page, and then think about whether you'd actually read the rest, and why, what worked for you, what was it about that first page that really caught your attention, and how the author made that work, and how you can apply it to your own writing.
But now on to the weepy part.
I could only get through five or six of the entries, and they were all horrible. I wouldn't read any of those books if you paid me to do it. Now I grant you, there were likely some gems hidden among the garbage, but wading through all that crap just to get to one good story seemed about as easy as dodging raindrops. It certainly gave me new respect for my future queried agents, and a new resolve to not allow my story to end up in the slush pile. There's a new Secret Agent contest starting soon, and I'm going to do my best to keep up with it, rather than have to read through fourty or fifty entries all at once. (250 words isn't a lot, but two hundred and fifty words in an unconvincing and uninteresting story makes it feel about as engaging as reading through the dictionary.)
*Note from above: My room isn't a bedroom in the normal sense. It's more of the downstairs den that happens to have a bed in it. My house is awesome, by the way. It's got three floors. The middle floor is where the front door is, and it opens into the living room, and directly off the living room is the kitchen. Upstairs is a bathroom, and three bedrooms, where my aunt, cousin, and brother sleep. Downstairs is the garage, back yard, another bathroom, and my step-parents room. Between my SP's room and the garage is an open space with a futon, computer, and television, and since I've moved back in with them, it's been filled to the brim with books. The garage is where the dryer, two chest freezers, and another stand up fridge/freezer are, so anyone needing anything out there passes through my room, hence the reason that everyone saw the sign.
What I'm reading: The Dragonbone Chair, by Tad Williams
I've got something Ally Carter said posted on my wall. (Not facebook. My literal bedroom wall, right above my computer.) "Don't get it right - get it written." The day I put it up, everyone in my house passed through my room* and asked me about it. Basically means it doesn't have to be perfect the first time, as long as it's done. Editing can come later.
But that doesn't stop me from thinking about my current word-count versus chapters, and despairing. Especially when I happened to catch a glimpse of the first few paragraphs when I restarted my computer, and re-opened Eversong (if it's right in front of me, I'm less likely to forget that I need to be writing every day) and those paragraphs ... really kinda sucked. XDD Not ... oh, what am I trying to say here? *bashes head into desk at specially marked 'Bang Head Here' on mouse pad* Not that it's bad. I believe it's really well written. As a long-time fanfiction author, I continually tell myself "This sucks, it's terrible, no one's going to like it, why am I even posting this crap!?" as I'm writing, post it, receive good reviews, forget about it for several months (or years, in some cases) go back, reread it, and utterly amaze myself at how wonderful it is. Not to toot my own horn or anything, although I'm firmly of the belief that a certain amount of ego is required for artistry - even if no one else in the world likes your work, you'll always know that you did a good job of it.
No, the problem is not that what I've written is written badly (though it can definitely be better, which will come later, and therein lies the problem) it's that they're short. They can be better. They can be more engaging. I'm starting into chapter two, and I only have four thousand words. Granted, it's only the beginning of chapter two, and I know for a fact that there's no 'set word count', specifically, but my goal is at least 75,ooo words, and the first novel is only 25 chapters long. (Give or take one or two. The original outline was set for 26, but the first chapter proved so reclusive that I combined what had been chapters one and two on the outline into chapter one, so that it would have some depth to it, and so that the story wouldn't take nine chapters to get started.)
It's like the devilish NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, for the uninitiated) you have thirty days to write 50k in words. And not just "THIS SUCKS" over and over again, but an actual, coherent novel. The following instructions are then to shunt it to one side for at least three months and not even think about it until that three month time period is up, at which point you go back and edit, and revise, and polish, and generally drag it out of the slush pile before it has a chance to make it into said pile. I'm pretty sure there's an actual NaNoEdMo, or something similar (National Novel EDITING Month, in which those 50k word drafts get taken out of the milk crate, and get prettied up.)
Do not. Ever. Ever. Submit your unpolished manuscript from Nano to an agent or editor. I found an article about that (somewhere) and was absolutely horrified. It was talking about the massive increase in queries and MSS during December, particularly the first week, and that the majority of those queries and MSS were not only unpublishable, but almost unreadable. There were comments about said submissions that included things like "There were exactly fifty thousand words. EXACTLY. It stopped in the middle of a sentence." and "After every 1700 words or so there was a note reading "Done for the day."
I nearly cried reading that. Who in their right mind would submit something to professionals without proofreading it at the least? I left a comment on the post that said I was utterly ashamed to be among the Nano Writers, if they behaved like that after completion of their 'novel.'
Another thing that makes me weep. Miss Snark's First Victim holds a Secret Agent contest, in which people submit the first 250 words of their completed novel, and a real agent looks over, and comments as to whether they'd be hooked on the story or not. Other people comment, too, but it's a good way to get an agent to look at your work, as well as to get some constructive feedback on your story. It's a good excercise for the other aspiring writers out there too, when you're in a bookstore. Wander through, pick up random books, and read through the first page, and then think about whether you'd actually read the rest, and why, what worked for you, what was it about that first page that really caught your attention, and how the author made that work, and how you can apply it to your own writing.
But now on to the weepy part.
I could only get through five or six of the entries, and they were all horrible. I wouldn't read any of those books if you paid me to do it. Now I grant you, there were likely some gems hidden among the garbage, but wading through all that crap just to get to one good story seemed about as easy as dodging raindrops. It certainly gave me new respect for my future queried agents, and a new resolve to not allow my story to end up in the slush pile. There's a new Secret Agent contest starting soon, and I'm going to do my best to keep up with it, rather than have to read through fourty or fifty entries all at once. (250 words isn't a lot, but two hundred and fifty words in an unconvincing and uninteresting story makes it feel about as engaging as reading through the dictionary.)
*Note from above: My room isn't a bedroom in the normal sense. It's more of the downstairs den that happens to have a bed in it. My house is awesome, by the way. It's got three floors. The middle floor is where the front door is, and it opens into the living room, and directly off the living room is the kitchen. Upstairs is a bathroom, and three bedrooms, where my aunt, cousin, and brother sleep. Downstairs is the garage, back yard, another bathroom, and my step-parents room. Between my SP's room and the garage is an open space with a futon, computer, and television, and since I've moved back in with them, it's been filled to the brim with books. The garage is where the dryer, two chest freezers, and another stand up fridge/freezer are, so anyone needing anything out there passes through my room, hence the reason that everyone saw the sign.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Book Giveaway!
The YAthenaeum is giving away advance reader copies of The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan and The Rose of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon. Whoo hoo! Maybe this will be the day my luck changes, and I can possibly win an ARC of TDL!
Good luck to all who join. The rules of the contest can be found in the link.
Good luck to all who join. The rules of the contest can be found in the link.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Pseudonyms
I was born under the name Amber, and it's done me true all my life, but when I was ten or eleven, I lived in a neighborhood where there were two Daves, two Mikes, and two Ambers. They became Big Mike and Little Mike, Big Dave and Little Dave, and there was no way in a burning eternity I was going to become Little Amber, so I picked up a baby name book from my mum (she'd just found out I was going to have a little brother) and discovered that Amber meant 'Jewel.' This is a load of crap, as amber is actually nothing more than fossilised tree sap. Amy was just above it, and meant 'beloved,' so I chose Amy, and I have been Amy for over ten years now.
I'm not sure how names go when publishing - if I'm going to be forced to write under Amber, or if I can have them print Amy when it's published, and then note in the little author's blurb at the back that my name is actually Amber - but I've decided that since I have plans to write novels in two entirely different genres (Eversong falls under 'fantasy', YA or not, but there's two more that are definitely going to be Historical Romances) I'm going to write my historical roms under a psuedonym.
I'm going to be coy, and use a nickname that I created as an inside joke with some friends, when we were discussing freedom fighters and revolutionaries - Kori de Liberte. (Kori of Liberty, basically. XD) Kori is my internet handle on most websites (or the full version, Koritsimou, but as most people can't even spell that, much less pronounce it, Kori I have become.)
A fantasy trilogy under the name Amy Kinsey, and a set of historical romances under the name Kori Deliberte. I'm going to giggle insanely every time I step foot in a bookstore, and see Kori Deliberte on the shelves, I just know I am.
One of my fondest dreams, in fact, is to walk into a bookstore, and look at Eversong on the shelves, and have someone walk up and start checking it out, and then discreetly sidle over and tell them about it, say that it's very good, and I should know - I wrote it. In those exact words. It's another very fond dream of mine to talk to some of my favourite authors (a dream that's coming true via Twitter, mostly) and I think that would be the most delightful bomb to drop into someone's lap. They're talking to the author.
*sigh* Someday. Someday.
I'm not sure how names go when publishing - if I'm going to be forced to write under Amber, or if I can have them print Amy when it's published, and then note in the little author's blurb at the back that my name is actually Amber - but I've decided that since I have plans to write novels in two entirely different genres (Eversong falls under 'fantasy', YA or not, but there's two more that are definitely going to be Historical Romances) I'm going to write my historical roms under a psuedonym.
I'm going to be coy, and use a nickname that I created as an inside joke with some friends, when we were discussing freedom fighters and revolutionaries - Kori de Liberte. (Kori of Liberty, basically. XD) Kori is my internet handle on most websites (or the full version, Koritsimou, but as most people can't even spell that, much less pronounce it, Kori I have become.)
A fantasy trilogy under the name Amy Kinsey, and a set of historical romances under the name Kori Deliberte. I'm going to giggle insanely every time I step foot in a bookstore, and see Kori Deliberte on the shelves, I just know I am.
One of my fondest dreams, in fact, is to walk into a bookstore, and look at Eversong on the shelves, and have someone walk up and start checking it out, and then discreetly sidle over and tell them about it, say that it's very good, and I should know - I wrote it. In those exact words. It's another very fond dream of mine to talk to some of my favourite authors (a dream that's coming true via Twitter, mostly) and I think that would be the most delightful bomb to drop into someone's lap. They're talking to the author.
*sigh* Someday. Someday.
Self-made icons and a meme!
Currently on the iPod: Caroline Lost - Stars (from the film adaptation of the book The Little White Horse)
Currently doing: Reading The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned by Anne Rice.
I was reading Jennifer B. White's blog and she posted the most adorable meme.
Now, the majority of my meme madness goes into my LJ, where I can inflict it upon my poor, unsuspecting friends, but as this concerns the book, I simply had to post it here.
But first, I've created two LJ icons for my own use. (Please don't take them. They make sense to no one else but me, anyway! I just wanted to show them off.)
Jessica Szohr is how I imagine Vicky would look, specifically in the picture I posted in my last entry, and when I realised I had no Eversong icons, I immediately turned her into one. Naturally, she has absolutely nothing to do with Eversong (now, or ever, I'm afraid, but it's nice to dream freely) and I'm only using her face as a reference of sorts.
The next one was born of my attempt to find a good picture for the facebook page I made for the book. (it's never too early to start building a fanbase!) I searched 'free fantasy pictures' on google, and this was one of the results. I played with the colours a bit, because the girl was green, and the background was green, and it was difficult to tell there was anyone there at all, but it's absolutely perfect. I must dig up the full picture and show it off. I adore it so hard.
(dug up the full picture of the second icon. very beautiful!)
And now, onto the meme!
(Hopefully) Twenty five things you didn't know about Eversong!
1. The main character, Victoria Crawford, is named after my best friend, and my favourite character from Weiss Kreuz.
2. The first novel, Eversong, has roughly twenty six chapters in the outline.
3. Vicky's mum, Claire, was named after Claire Redfield of Resident Evil fame.
4. Vicky herself is based unashamedly upon myself. I will endeavor to see that she's not a 'mary sue' despite this fact.
5. Final Fantasy 9 Piano Collections inspired quite a few scenes.
6. The timeline I wrote covers just over a hundred years of backstory, but most of it will never see print.
7. I drew a very crude map (I believe I've mentioned I'm no cartographer) and created an entirely new language and religion.
8. A great deal of Eversong was based off of a four-year RP between a good friend and I.
9. The beginning and all 'earth' scenes take place in my home town of Virginia Beach.
10. The trilogy has no name (I'm open to suggestions with this, though.) Book one is simply Eversong, book two is Return to Eversong, and book three is Eversong: Dark Star Rising.
11. Vicky is not the first of her family to wind up in Eversong.
12. By chapter 12 of book 1, one of the main characters has died a messy, unpleasant death.
13. Book 2's outline is currently up to twenty nine chapters, and still counting.
14. I'm going to have to poll people on whether or not Vicky should suddenly (but plausibly) turn up with magical powers, because I can't decide for myself.
15. Each of the different races have names that are similar. (Dark Elves[NOT the official word for that race, but simply the best way to refer to them for the moment] have harsh sounding names, usually with unwieldy letters like X - Ixtli; The winged folk [again, not their official name] have airy sounding names, Aeryn, Pennelynn)
16. I have approximately fifteen pages of names written down, scattered through various notebooks. Most of these names will likely make it into the books.
17. Danica's married.
18. I can't decide whether or not to include a prologue. I've heard from a very reliable source that prologues aren't really welcomed by agents, because they give too much away in the beginning, and the information contained within them could just as easily be woven into the main threads of story at some other point. But there's absolutely no way to get everything in my current, mock-up prologue, into the rest of the story without halting the flow, so I'm in the middle of a conundrum.
19. Vicky is very much into foreign music.
20. Chapter 1 eludes me, but I have no problems imagining Vicky's descent into Eversong, which doesn't occur until chapter three in the outline. (the outline is a VERY rough draft, and is liable to change without notice.)
21. There's a possibility for romance between Faye and Daemyn, but I'm not sure. They haven't told me yet.
22. Each book is a self-contained story; it's not like some trilogies, which require all three books in order to resolve the conflict. There is a different conflict within each book, and each is resolved before the end. The three novels are for character development and story progression more than the conflict itself.
23. Two characters from B2 are taken directly from my high school RP, and very nearly had a novel of their own, before they incorporated themselves into Eversong.
24. I can't quite decide if this is going to be considered YA or not.
25. This meme was quite possibly harder to think up than the outline itself has been.
Currently doing: Reading The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned by Anne Rice.
I was reading Jennifer B. White's blog and she posted the most adorable meme.
Now, the majority of my meme madness goes into my LJ, where I can inflict it upon my poor, unsuspecting friends, but as this concerns the book, I simply had to post it here.
But first, I've created two LJ icons for my own use. (Please don't take them. They make sense to no one else but me, anyway! I just wanted to show them off.)
Jessica Szohr is how I imagine Vicky would look, specifically in the picture I posted in my last entry, and when I realised I had no Eversong icons, I immediately turned her into one. Naturally, she has absolutely nothing to do with Eversong (now, or ever, I'm afraid, but it's nice to dream freely) and I'm only using her face as a reference of sorts.
The next one was born of my attempt to find a good picture for the facebook page I made for the book. (it's never too early to start building a fanbase!) I searched 'free fantasy pictures' on google, and this was one of the results. I played with the colours a bit, because the girl was green, and the background was green, and it was difficult to tell there was anyone there at all, but it's absolutely perfect. I must dig up the full picture and show it off. I adore it so hard.
(dug up the full picture of the second icon. very beautiful!)
And now, onto the meme!
(Hopefully) Twenty five things you didn't know about Eversong!
1. The main character, Victoria Crawford, is named after my best friend, and my favourite character from Weiss Kreuz.
2. The first novel, Eversong, has roughly twenty six chapters in the outline.
3. Vicky's mum, Claire, was named after Claire Redfield of Resident Evil fame.
4. Vicky herself is based unashamedly upon myself. I will endeavor to see that she's not a 'mary sue' despite this fact.
5. Final Fantasy 9 Piano Collections inspired quite a few scenes.
6. The timeline I wrote covers just over a hundred years of backstory, but most of it will never see print.
7. I drew a very crude map (I believe I've mentioned I'm no cartographer) and created an entirely new language and religion.
8. A great deal of Eversong was based off of a four-year RP between a good friend and I.
9. The beginning and all 'earth' scenes take place in my home town of Virginia Beach.
10. The trilogy has no name (I'm open to suggestions with this, though.) Book one is simply Eversong, book two is Return to Eversong, and book three is Eversong: Dark Star Rising.
11. Vicky is not the first of her family to wind up in Eversong.
12. By chapter 12 of book 1, one of the main characters has died a messy, unpleasant death.
13. Book 2's outline is currently up to twenty nine chapters, and still counting.
14. I'm going to have to poll people on whether or not Vicky should suddenly (but plausibly) turn up with magical powers, because I can't decide for myself.
15. Each of the different races have names that are similar. (Dark Elves[NOT the official word for that race, but simply the best way to refer to them for the moment] have harsh sounding names, usually with unwieldy letters like X - Ixtli; The winged folk [again, not their official name] have airy sounding names, Aeryn, Pennelynn)
16. I have approximately fifteen pages of names written down, scattered through various notebooks. Most of these names will likely make it into the books.
17. Danica's married.
18. I can't decide whether or not to include a prologue. I've heard from a very reliable source that prologues aren't really welcomed by agents, because they give too much away in the beginning, and the information contained within them could just as easily be woven into the main threads of story at some other point. But there's absolutely no way to get everything in my current, mock-up prologue, into the rest of the story without halting the flow, so I'm in the middle of a conundrum.
19. Vicky is very much into foreign music.
20. Chapter 1 eludes me, but I have no problems imagining Vicky's descent into Eversong, which doesn't occur until chapter three in the outline. (the outline is a VERY rough draft, and is liable to change without notice.)
21. There's a possibility for romance between Faye and Daemyn, but I'm not sure. They haven't told me yet.
22. Each book is a self-contained story; it's not like some trilogies, which require all three books in order to resolve the conflict. There is a different conflict within each book, and each is resolved before the end. The three novels are for character development and story progression more than the conflict itself.
23. Two characters from B2 are taken directly from my high school RP, and very nearly had a novel of their own, before they incorporated themselves into Eversong.
24. I can't quite decide if this is going to be considered YA or not.
25. This meme was quite possibly harder to think up than the outline itself has been.
Monday, April 20, 2009
An Ideal
Back when Eversong was in it's infancy (I presume that it's in it's toddler years at the moment) I searched various actors and actresses that, if Eversong were being made into a movie tomorrow, I would choose to portray the characters.
(I am in no way affiliated with these people, their names, or their celebrity status. There is no movie of Eversong yet, though I hope that one day it will be, and if it does get filmed, there is no guarantee that these actors and actresses will portray the characters I chose. This is simply an author's silly dream that I wished to share with the world, and an excuse to present how I imagine the characters in my novels to look.)
Major Characters
Victoria Crawford, generally referred to as Vicky:
Jessica Szohr
Jonas Brightblade:
Jim Sturgess
Jesse Flamestar:
Chace Crawford
Fwaip (pronounced 'Faye'):
Annasophia Robb
Daemyn Swift:
Ben Barnes
Danica Skyheart:
Jessica Alba
Minor Characters:
Ember Flamestar (Jesse's Sister):
Amber Tamblyn
Shian (Faye's mum):
Liv Tyler
Mayra Flamestar (Jesse and Ember's mum):
Keira Knightley
Pennelynn Swift (Daemyn's mum):
Jennifer Garner
My choice of Jessica Szohr and Chace Crawford for Vicky and Jesse was compounded when I found this picture of them on the internet:
You can probably deduce from this that Jesse and Vicky are the center 'romantic couple' of the story, but it doesn't revolve around them. This is a fantasy novel, not a romance.
(I am in no way affiliated with these people, their names, or their celebrity status. There is no movie of Eversong yet, though I hope that one day it will be, and if it does get filmed, there is no guarantee that these actors and actresses will portray the characters I chose. This is simply an author's silly dream that I wished to share with the world, and an excuse to present how I imagine the characters in my novels to look.)
Major Characters
Victoria Crawford, generally referred to as Vicky:
Jessica Szohr
Jonas Brightblade:
Jim Sturgess
Jesse Flamestar:
Chace Crawford
Fwaip (pronounced 'Faye'):
Annasophia Robb
Daemyn Swift:
Ben Barnes
Danica Skyheart:
Jessica Alba
Minor Characters:
Ember Flamestar (Jesse's Sister):
Amber Tamblyn
Shian (Faye's mum):
Liv Tyler
Mayra Flamestar (Jesse and Ember's mum):
Keira Knightley
Pennelynn Swift (Daemyn's mum):
Jennifer Garner
My choice of Jessica Szohr and Chace Crawford for Vicky and Jesse was compounded when I found this picture of them on the internet:
You can probably deduce from this that Jesse and Vicky are the center 'romantic couple' of the story, but it doesn't revolve around them. This is a fantasy novel, not a romance.
Trials
By the time I have any sort of publishment (hush, it's a word because I say it is), I'll either have stopped writing fanfiction, or I'll have buried it far underground while I continue, with absolutely no hints to who I am. But at the moment, I wish someone else was writing Eversong, because I find it infinitely easier to write stories that deal with other people's prefabricated characters. I already know how a certain character is going to react to a certain episode, because I have prior experience with reading and/or watching that character.
Having to write my own characters and make them different from one another, but still likeable enough that they would willingly 'hang out' together is tough.
Added to the fact that most of the time, I picture what's going on in my writing while it's in my head. It plays like a movie in my mind, and then I take that movie and translate it to written words, something like a screenplay in reverse. Eversong simply refuses to play. It's like a scratched up DVD that won't work any more.
I said last night on my Twitter that I needed a creative kick in the head.
Do I ever. It is now the end of April, and I still have less than a page written. I'm going to be very busy in the coming months, the moment my inspiration for the novels arises, because there is absolutely no way I'm going to allow the new year to come and go without having at least the first draft written.
Having to write my own characters and make them different from one another, but still likeable enough that they would willingly 'hang out' together is tough.
Added to the fact that most of the time, I picture what's going on in my writing while it's in my head. It plays like a movie in my mind, and then I take that movie and translate it to written words, something like a screenplay in reverse. Eversong simply refuses to play. It's like a scratched up DVD that won't work any more.
I said last night on my Twitter that I needed a creative kick in the head.
Do I ever. It is now the end of April, and I still have less than a page written. I'm going to be very busy in the coming months, the moment my inspiration for the novels arises, because there is absolutely no way I'm going to allow the new year to come and go without having at least the first draft written.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
The History of an Author in Progress
I don't know exactly when work on Eversong began. It started as most books do, as an idea. I wanted to see a girl very much like I am now, transported into a mystical world of magic, and fantastic creatures, where she becomes a hero, and gets everything she ever dreamed of.
My first major problem was who is it, and how does she get there? Well, character creation has long been a favourite past-time of mine. She became Victoria Crawford, an average, slightly overweight girl who doesn't run with the popular crowd, but instead cuts her own path through originality. She likes foreign things; music, food, clothes. She's something of an outcast due to her weight, and interest in books.
This of course changes when she discovers a small, leather-bound novel by the name of Eversong in a local used bookstore. Through the magic of this book, she finds herself IN Eversong, amongst the characters she's just been reading about.
Sounds a bit like the Never-Ending Story, doesn't it?
Similarities end there, however, because she soon finds herself immersed in the turmoils of the world, fighting desperately to save it from the scourge of - for lack of a better immediate word - dark elves.
As of the creation of this blog, Eversong is still just an unfinished collection of outlines, character notes, and a childish map (for I am many things, but a cartographer I am not). The finalities of Eversong will include:
As a writer surrounded by artistically talented friends, I constantly find myself at a loss to describe the troubles I go through trying to get words out, and they to describe issues with drawing to me. I haven't the foggiest what it takes to visualize something in your mind, and then take a pencil to hand and recreate that image on paper. But I've been writing from the time I was able to form letters, and find myself toiling beneath a constant barrage of runaway characters, side-plots, setting changes, and a host of other problems.
My goal for the first novel of the Eversong Trilogy, (which I realize needs a name of it's own - I refer here to the Memory Sorrow and Thorn Trilogy, by the incredible Tad Williams; the first book is The DragonBone Chair, the second is The Stone of Farewell, and the third is To Green Angel Tower) is to have at the very least the first draft of the entire novel written by December 31st, 2009. It's at that time that I can begin hunting for all the other people a writer needs - a publisher, an editor, and an agent.
I'm extraordinarily lucky to be vague acquaintances with the lovely Sarah Rees Brennan, from Ireland, whose first book, the Demon's Lexicon, is being published this summer. Through her journal, I have been able to read about the trials and tribulations she went through to get to this landmark point in her life.
I had originally wanted to have all three books written to at least the first draft before beginning my hunt for the trappings of a true author, but I'm incredibly impatient by nature. If I find someone willing to buy the book, then they should be okay with waiting until the next two are written (I believe that this is the way Miss Rees-Brennan is writing, herself).
With that said, I end this first entry to what I hope will one day be a blog that is flocked to by my adoring fans. To you, future readers of my book, I salute and thank you, and urge you to leave comments.
I am, as all authors must be, incredibly susceptible to the flattery of people who like my work.
My first major problem was who is it, and how does she get there? Well, character creation has long been a favourite past-time of mine. She became Victoria Crawford, an average, slightly overweight girl who doesn't run with the popular crowd, but instead cuts her own path through originality. She likes foreign things; music, food, clothes. She's something of an outcast due to her weight, and interest in books.
This of course changes when she discovers a small, leather-bound novel by the name of Eversong in a local used bookstore. Through the magic of this book, she finds herself IN Eversong, amongst the characters she's just been reading about.
Sounds a bit like the Never-Ending Story, doesn't it?
Similarities end there, however, because she soon finds herself immersed in the turmoils of the world, fighting desperately to save it from the scourge of - for lack of a better immediate word - dark elves.
As of the creation of this blog, Eversong is still just an unfinished collection of outlines, character notes, and a childish map (for I am many things, but a cartographer I am not). The finalities of Eversong will include:
- Several complete languages, encompassing Elvish, Dark Elvish, Winged, Fae, and Saurian, to name just a few
- Three complete novels, spanning the entirety of Vicky's adventures there
- A better map
- Things that even I'm not aware of at the moment.
As a writer surrounded by artistically talented friends, I constantly find myself at a loss to describe the troubles I go through trying to get words out, and they to describe issues with drawing to me. I haven't the foggiest what it takes to visualize something in your mind, and then take a pencil to hand and recreate that image on paper. But I've been writing from the time I was able to form letters, and find myself toiling beneath a constant barrage of runaway characters, side-plots, setting changes, and a host of other problems.
My goal for the first novel of the Eversong Trilogy, (which I realize needs a name of it's own - I refer here to the Memory Sorrow and Thorn Trilogy, by the incredible Tad Williams; the first book is The DragonBone Chair, the second is The Stone of Farewell, and the third is To Green Angel Tower) is to have at the very least the first draft of the entire novel written by December 31st, 2009. It's at that time that I can begin hunting for all the other people a writer needs - a publisher, an editor, and an agent.
I'm extraordinarily lucky to be vague acquaintances with the lovely Sarah Rees Brennan, from Ireland, whose first book, the Demon's Lexicon, is being published this summer. Through her journal, I have been able to read about the trials and tribulations she went through to get to this landmark point in her life.
I had originally wanted to have all three books written to at least the first draft before beginning my hunt for the trappings of a true author, but I'm incredibly impatient by nature. If I find someone willing to buy the book, then they should be okay with waiting until the next two are written (I believe that this is the way Miss Rees-Brennan is writing, herself).
With that said, I end this first entry to what I hope will one day be a blog that is flocked to by my adoring fans. To you, future readers of my book, I salute and thank you, and urge you to leave comments.
I am, as all authors must be, incredibly susceptible to the flattery of people who like my work.
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