Day 7: A Novel Is Born

Hello again. It’s been less than a week and I’m posting again. What it this madness?

Alright. So, finally, seven days in, I’ve finished my plan for my series . . . Except I really actually haven’t. Sure, I still need to finish the plan for book number five, but that’s set years after the other four, so won’t need to be so tightly connected with the other four.

Anyway, it’s day seven and now I’m finally ready to shut up and actually write. I guess that means a novel isn’t really born. I haven’t even written a word into the first draft. So at best, I would say that my novel at the stage of conception . . . What the heck am I talking about?

So, now that I have a plan/rough-ish outline, I should be able to actually finish it. Should. If I don’t . . . Well, I don’t know. I can’t imagine that will happen, because now I know what’s happening. Now I know virtually everything important (and some not important) that happens (except for how to start this thing, which is the part that I really should have planned first, seeing as how that’s the part I always have trouble with).

I guess now I can participate in Camp NaNoWriMo without banging my head on my laptop with the knowledge that I would never be able to salvage the monstrosity that I wrote. And even though I said I wasn’t aiming to write 50000 words by the end of it, I still set my personal goal to 75000 words, because that’s how many words I estimate it would take me to finish book number one (which I’ve named Syndicate, and named the series Vital Strike. You know. Because all of you were just dying to know).

To conclude, when I hit the “Publish Post” button on this blog post, the first thing I’m going to do is go into my word document and stare at the blank page while I try to figure out just how to get this train rolling. I’m going to attempt to write 75000 words for the novel, even though I said I wasn’t even aiming for 50000 words (because that totally makes sense). And I’m . . . well, I guess that’s it. I’m going to go attempt to finally conquer this damn novel and laugh maniacally when it likely drives me further into insanity and makes me tear this laptop to pieces with my teeth and never think about writing again.

Don’t expect an update. See you all when I’m done with this thing.

Laurence out.

Camp NaNo . . . Again.

Yes, yes. It’s April and it’s Camp NaNo again (just ignore the fact that I’ve been gone for however long it’s been. Let’s pretend I’ve been posting the whole time). So, putting aside the fact that I’ve done very little writing these past few months, I have been making good progress with my series. How? Well, let’s go on a little, huge deviation from the original topic, shall we?

I have found out something about myself. I write much better and quicker when I actually plan what I want to write. Go figure, huh? So, as always happens when I go into a story without a written plan is that I either hit a wall, just end up writing absolute crap, or I work in extremely convoluted plot points to get around the solid brick wall I hit. So, as I kind of expected, my last attempt at writing what is becoming the bane of my existence was not exactly a success. Again. Ignore the fact that in one of my past blog posts I said that I knew exactly what I wanted to write, or some crap like that. I didn’t write it down, I have no idea what my ideas for my series were back then. At the end of the day, if I don’t write down a plan or an outline, I will not write anything of quality. I’ll just keep making up random stuff that either keeps the story from progressing or contradicts everything I mentally planned about a character. So, yes. As you’ve all probably guessed by now (surprise, surprise!) I’ve started yet again.

Now. I am planning on participating in Camp NaNo. Yes, it’s already three days in. No, I have not even written a single word yet. Why? Because I haven’t finished my plan for my entire series yet. Yes. I said my entire series. I really do think I have something here and I’m not just going to rush into Camp NaNo without a solid idea of what the hell is going on in my world and end up writing mindless crap. Again.

I think I’ve reached the point where I love my characters to bits, I really, really do, but I just hate the idea that if I totally screw this up, I’ll have to start it over for the billionth time (to be honest, I can’t imagine anyone enjoys doing that). It’s not that I hate writing, because if I did hate it, I wouldn’t do it. I’ve got other things I can waste my time doing.

So, I’m not dead yet, even though I’ve been gone for months. I am participating in Camp NaNo. I’m not planning on ‘winning’ and writing 50000 words. My next attempt at writing this bloody novel will manage to get to the second draft. And I probably won’t be back soon . . . Well, there’s no point in lying, is there. At least I’m honest about it. I reckon that should keep you all satisfied. Here’s a smiley to artificially force that to sound playful and not at all like an asinine comment.

See you all in however many months it will be till I can be bothered to post here again . . . (wow, I sound like such an arse).

Laurence out.

Highly Infrequent Blogging Is Better Than No Blogging, Right?

Right.

And a long title is better than . . . well, maybe not.

Well . . . I’m not dead. That would probably make a much better title.

You know? I find the thought of being back on this blog extremely hilarious. I don’t even know how long it’s been. (Well, that’s a lie. I kind of do) But, I don’t need to tell you all that this blog has been seriously neglected. What’s even worse is that this wasn’t even because I forgot about it. Because I hadn’t. I still remembered it existed. And I’d like to think that the reason I posted nothing in almost three months was because I had just been busy. That’s definitely better than the real reason, which is that I just couldn’t be bothered to put in the effort and found it more useful to procrastinate, literally doing nothing.

Okay. I could ramble on far longer about that, but that’s enough of that. And as is the norm for me for when I come back from a ridiculously long break from blogging, I tend to update you on my shenanigans with my writing. Right?

Right.

*Sigh*

Sorry. I needed to put that sigh in, because this is just going to be the same old *bleep* all over again.

First thing’s first. I ‘won’ NaNoWriMo. Managed to write 50 000 words in a month. Yay? Well, I’d say yay if the thing wasn’t swamped with plot holes. Plot holes that are absolutely ridiculous. I mean, I guess the mentality of NaNo is to just write and write and not look back, but seriously. This was some seriously dreadful stuff. Anyway, I think it’s needless to say that I didn’t actually finish my NaNo novel.

Why, I hear none of you ask?

Well, I’m sure in any of my other blog posts you’d see me talking about how important planning is, but how I just can’t be bothered to do it. But then in my very last post, before I took a three month break, I said that I would actually write an outline that I would actually follow that would actually help me finish my first draft.

So, here’s a new rule that I want you all to follow.

Never listen to a thing I say on this blog. If I say I’m going to do something, it’s probably not gonna happen. If I say I promise I’ll try to do something (like stay active), it’s definitely not going to happen.

So, no. I didn’t make a plan for my current work in constant progress. No. I didn’t finish it. No. I didn’t even stick to the little outline I made for the prologue. And as is so incredibly foreseeable when it comes to me and writing that it’s no longer even that surprising for me anymore, No. I haven’t stuck with the idea that I wrote for NaNo.

So, to put it simply. I have started again. Again.

From the very first idea I had with these characters, I can’t tell you all the times that I’ve reworked them, remodelled them, redone the entire story and and just overhauled the entire thing and essentially started from scratch. I forgot where or when I wrote this, but I don’t think it was on this blog. But I remember writing somewhere that from all the times I’ve started this story all over again with the same characters but with a drastically different storyline I could probably make so many entirely different novels of those failed attempts, just with different character names.

So, what am I doing now, I hear some of you ask?

Well, one of the reasons I disliked the way my NaNo novel went was because it was in the third person and present tense, and it just did not work for it and sounded way to jarring. Not to mention the fact that there was next to no plot whatsoever, and if I wanted to make it a series that would really have had to change. So, until recently, I’ve barely written a word. I just could not be bothered. And now, as I’ve said, I’ve started again. I’m making it past tense (hardly anything important enough to mention), I have got a vague idea that finally, actually makes sense. I have a beginning and an end of the entire series, but I’m trying to figure out just what all the stuff in the middle could be about, and I’ve got vague idea about some of that, too.

So, really, what I’m trying to say is that I am actually getting my act together as a writer. (Like I said, don’t listen to a single word I say on this blog. I’ll probably end up doing none of what I said I would).

So, on a slightly different note, I just want to take a second to just spill my thoughts here on my writing. Why? Well, I don’t really know. I just feel like it. I just need some sort of outlet.

Warning, severe self-criticism follows!

Early on when I started writing seriously, my writing just sucked, and yet in my eyes, what I was writing was actually fairly decent. Now, I don’t think that’s too uncommon. I’m sure we’ve all experienced that, where we’ve written something, and then after a long while and you go back to it and read over it, you realise that it’s just garbage. Well, as is the case with writing, my current writing is way better than the *bleep* I wrote early on. So, in some ways, I’m glad that it’s taken me so, so, so many attempts to actually try to get these characters right, in a story that actually makes sense, both in plot and for the characters. And in some ways (Warning! Super mushy, stupid, crazy, emotional mush follows) I feel as if I’ve really connected with my characters, and so far this has been one incredible journey with them. I feel as if I’ve finally got them to their optimal personalities and traits (Is this the right context for the word ‘optimal’? Probably not) And now, I just can’t imagine writing any other characters other than them. And the fact that . . . (You know something? I am starting way too many sentences with ‘And’ or ‘So’ . . . ) Anyway, so the fact that I’ve already planned out exactly how this series will end and where I’m going to leave these characters is kind of sad. Well, for me, anyway. The thing I liked about winging it all this time was that I could keep working on the characters and was also under the illusion that if I didn’t really know what was going to happen to them, myself, I could just write these characters forever. And hey, yeah. Sure I could write prequels (Yeah right!) but . . . well, I don’t know where I’m going with this, anymore. This kind of took on a life of it’s own.

That’s unplanned blogging, for you.

Anywho. This was a blog post of mine. Completely unplanned. Completely jumbled up nonsensical mush. Three months absent has turned me into this terrible, sappy thing who produces bad quality blogs like this. That will not happen again. (But remember what I said. Do not believe I’ll do a single thing I say I’ll do on this blog) So, I’m not going to promise I’ll be back soon, because if I don’t come back soon, I won’t be a liar. I’m not going to promise that this will be the absolute last time I’m going completely restart my novel (which, of course, I’ve renamed yet again), because if I do, I won’t be a liar. And I’m not going to promise to stay active, because we all know my word means nothing, when it comes to that. So, since I’m not promising any of these things, I won’t lose any credibility if and when they do or don’t happen.

Jeez. Let’s hope my next blog (whenever that may be, hopefully soon) won’t be so self-criticising.

Till next time guys. (Oh, I bet you’re all laughing at that)

Laurence out.

Change Of Plan

50 000 words. Thirty days. Yep. Sounds simple enough.

So there are only two more days till NaNoWriMo in my region. I previously said that I had very little idea of what my novel for the month would be about, other than the fact that it would be the sequel to my current, never progressing, work in progress, Syphon. Well, now that I’ve got an idea that I know will stick (I’ve told myself that so many times now I have actually lost count… but I definitely mean it this time… maybe), instead of being all backwards and awkward and working on a sequel to a story that I’ve… started again and barely even gotten that far into, as a result (I swear that this is the absolute last time I will start this story again. Just try to forget how unreliable I am at keeping my word) I’ve decided that it would make far more sense for my NaNo novel to be Syphon, the first in my trilogy turned series.

Now… I know I say that I do not plan and I hate the mere concept of it, as I just cannot follow one and they just feel too restricting, but brace yourselves, because here comes the most shocking news of the century; I am going to make an outline for Syphon.

Shock horror!

But wait; there’s more! I am going to follow it!

Good god!

Surely not!

You’re insane, Laurence!

Please. Please, try to calm down. I know how difficult it may be for some of you to grasp and too much for some of you to bear, but it is happening. I repeat; I am going to make an outline for Syphon. This is happening… I hope. And… well… with NaNo only a couple of days away, I guess I know what my priorities need to be.

Only two more days. So, to amend what I said it my previous NaNo post, I am most definitely not winging it this year. I most definitely will be planning. There will most definitely be quite a lot… a bit… a little of it.

That’s that, I guess. I managed to win last year, though that poor, disgraceful manifestation of what is now going to be Syphon will never see the light of day (and to you NaNo muggles who are unaware, ‘win’ does not necessarily mean I beat anyone, it merely means I accomplished the goal of 50 000 words), but this year, with my outline that I will manage to make within these next two days, I will actually know what on earth it is that I’m writing, and I won’t just skip the middle of the story because I got stuck, and resume writing with all but a couple of the main characters, who were present throughout the entire story, dead. (Oh, I don’t know why I haven’t erased that novel from existence, yet).

But I digress. No one wants to hear my mindless rambling, so I’ll be going now. If you’re participating in NaNo, good luck. And for those of you who aren’t, here’s some advice right off the top of my head about writing: if you find that while you’re trying to write a story, that you always end up starting again and again and again, it may be a good idea to make yourself a little outline or a plan. It might stop you from ripping your hair out and save you from insanity. The more you know.

I’m sure I won’t be back informing you of how terribly, terribly wrong things have gone… At least not soon.

Happy NaNo-ing.

Laurence out.

Writing Genders In Fiction

Well, I didn’t promise I’d be back soon . . .

Okay, so . . . writing genders in fiction. How do you go about doing it? What’s the right way to do it? What’s the wrong way to do it? How far into stereotypes do you go? Well, I have absolutely no idea. So, it only makes sense that I give advice on the matter, right?

Right.

So, without further ado, here’s my short list of quite possibly terrible points of what to do on the matter of writing genders . . .

1. Do not write genders.

This is my number one golden rule when writing characters and comes before any other. Write a character, not a gender. When you start delving into how you should go about trying to write a convincing male or female or whatever your opposite gender is, you may find that you just end up restricting how far you can go into developing your character. Sure, men and women have some innate differences and experiences, but in reality, every individual is different. And besides, it’s fiction. Who knows what each gender’s role is in the society you’re writing? Have a highly emotional and sensitive man. Have a tough as nails woman who keeps her emotions to herself. Have a man who loves watching sappy soap operas. Have a woman who loves drinking beer and watching sports. Conclusion? Do not get caught up in trying to write a convincing member of the opposite gender. Get caught up in trying to write a convincing character.

~~~~~

2. Stereotypes aren’t bad if they’re convincing.

In other words. Literally, everything I pointed out in point number one. Nothing further needs saying.

~~~~~

3. Yes. There are actually differences in men and women.

This is a given. If you’re writing about today’s society, men and women will, in fact, have very different experiences growing up. Again, like the previous two rules, your story does not have to abide by any such social norms. But in general, each gender is essentially programmed by society into behaving as what is considered normal for their gender. And while my next point essentially contradicts my previous two points, it’s still true. Generally speaking, men are more aggressive than women. Generally speaking, women are more emotional and more open to talking about their feelings. Stereotypes. Yes. I am generalising. Biologically speaking, we are different and this does, to some extent, affect how we interact with each other. Without getting too much into such details, if you are really set on shoving it into your readers’ faces that, yes, this character is male, and yes, this character is female, then show how they behave differently from each other, in general. Show how different their daily/morning routines would be, and whatnot.

~~~~~

4. Friends?

If you have somewhat useful friends of the opposite sex and you’re having issues writing said sex, ask them for help. Not necessarily a rule, but a second opinion couldn’t hurt. They would likely be able to pick up some of the awkward parts in the writing and tell you what sounds right and what doesn’t. Though, if you’re not one for sharing your work . . . well, I’ll direct you to the other rules and rule number five.

~~~~~

5. Just write!

Don’t worry about whether your character comes across as a realistic male, female, bigender, pangender, agender, or any other other gender identity. You know why? Let’s go back to rule number one: Do not write genders and Every individual is different (Shh, I can definitely quote myself). Write a realistic character.

~~~~~

I’m just going around in circles now, it seems. I should stop here, then. Hopefully I’ve helped someone get around any issues they had, writing their characters. I probably haven’t but hey, here it is. In my opinion, if you only go by one of them, make it number one.

So . . . if you like taking advice from an eighteen-year-old who is probably one of the most unproductive writers you will come across, I’ll be back soon with more . . . “advice”.

Till next time, guys.

Laurence out.

NaNo Season

Yeah . . . um . . . Quite a bit over a month, huh?

Sorry about that. Time has not been my friend lately.

So, let’s get blogging, shall we?

It’s NaNo season. The forums have been relaunched. People are touching up their plans and finalizing them. And people are buzzing with the knowledge that NaNo is only a few weeks away. So, what about me? I think you guys might already know what I’m going to say.

I am completely winging it this year, again. No planning. None. at. all.

Same old, same old with me, isn’t it. Okay, well maybe I’ve got a vague idea of what I’m going to write about. It’s going to be the sequel to Syphon which I’ve (so inevitably) started again. Let’s not dwell on that, okay?

So, I’ll be updating during NaNo. I’ll be blogging more often (you probably shouldn’t hold me to that, to be honest). I’ll be raising my writing productivity (I should probably stop lying). And I’ll definitely procrastinate much less (most likely not going to happen).

Well, this was a fun, short, little blog (yep, I’m definitely being sarcastic. This was probably extremely uninteresting, that it’s sickening. But hey, I need to get back in the flow). So, I’ll try to be back soon. Maybe next week, maybe the one after, but I’ll try to keep relatively active.

Till my next month long break, guys.

Laurence Out.

Updating And Incredibly Pointless Rambling.

So, what’s been happening these past two weeks? Besides getting my A-level grades and not being as worried as I probably should be, I have gotten a good deal of progress down, with Syphon. Though, I guess you could say that it has regressed even more.

So, what’s been happening with Syphon (my story, to those of you unaware)? Well, besides having thought of a much better plot that would effectively make me change half of what I’ve written, not much. Not much at all. I haven’t deleted anything, yet. I mean, this is the first draft. This is where I should just let my adolescent, out of control story do whatever it wants. I’m not going to pretend it makes even the slightest bit of sense. Of course it’s going to have crazy plot holes if I just change a significant element of the main plot in the middle of it. So, I’m pretty much just writing the key scenes in separate documents right now, because to me, that will make far more sense than trying to segue into what is essentially a significantly different plot.

Again, plans help prevent stupid and annoying plot changes and it would probably do you good if you make one instead of keeping your “plan” in your head and changing it whenever you please. Why, yes. I will follow my own advice . . . eventually.

Oh, but some good ideas have come from this system. Since I’ve started writing individual scenes, it’s given me a much clearer idea of just what the hell is going on. (MAJOR SIDENOTE: Now you’re probably thinking right now: “Hey, Laurence. Um . . . shouldn’t you have already had an idea of where you were going with this. Seems a bit stupid to write a novel without know what’s going on.” And you would be right. That isn’t very smart. But I did have an idea of what was going on. But me being me, I kept deciding: “Well, this is probably a much better plot. Much deeper and far more interesting. You know what? Screw it. I’m going to change the plot to this.” You have no idea how many times that thought has come into my head and I’ve listened to it. Boy, with the amount of times I’ve changed the plot I could probably make seven completely different stories if I just change the character names.)

Anywho, as I was saying, since I’m writing key scenes (not necessarily in chronological order) and expanding from them it’s sort of like a safety net throughout the story. So if I know what the next key scene is, I don’t have to worry about deviating too far away from the plot with minor scenes, because I can write towards it. (I hope this is making sense for you guys. It probably isn’t). Oh, and I’ve written some scenes for the next two stories in the trilogy. You know. Because there’s absolutely no way that I’m going to change anything in Syphon that will make those scenes create plot holes and whatnot. I guess I really do need something of a path, after all.

Well . . . that’s what’s been going on in my world of literature. Oh, wait! I’m going to start reading more often! Whew. Can’t believe I almost forgot to tell you guys that. Boy would you guys have missed out on some key information in my life. ‘Kay. Even I think I’ve rambled far too long. I should probably delete half of this post . . .

Till . . . (MINOR SIDENOTE: It took me far too long to figure out if ‘Til’ or ‘Till’ was correct. You’d think it would be ‘Til’, but it turns out ‘Till’ is correct, and not because it’s short for ‘until’, because it isn’t actually short for ‘until’. But ‘Til’ is actually acceptable as well. Super interesting. The more you know). I should really just stop . . . Till next time, guys.

Laurence out.