You are hereA little request from Bufi
A little request from Bufi
Hey guys,
Gnosis recently hit chapter 42, and passed 70k words. This is huge for me, because Gnosis is my first big fiction project. I wouldn't have made it so far without Stormy's precious help *hands over cake to Stormy*, but I still have a very long way to go before I can feel like an actual writer.
Chapters 41 and 42 - Road Trip parts 1 and 2 - contain a big piece of important backstory. This is probably long overdue, as I'm now looking back and wondering how come I made so little happen in 40 chapters... but I'm learning.
Truth be told, I was terrified of posting these two chapters. They sat in my computer almost-but-not-quite finished for months before their turn came to go online. I went over details over and over again, wondering if I'm creating a Mary Sue, or jumping sharks and nuking fridges. I hope I steered clear of those mistakes, but as the 'parent' of these characters and their story, I have a major fault - I'm a bit biased. It's hard to take an objective look at what I wrote, but maybe I'll grow out of this later, once I gain more XP. I hope I will.
I'm not fishing for praise, really. But what I am hoping for is to get some opinions.
If you read Gnosis (thanks for reading and for bearing with me! :) ), could you please tell me if I messed up, or did something right, or jumped sharks and nuked fridges with Road Trip? Was it too much information crammed in two chapters, after so many chapters in which so little is revealed?
You will have my (and Stewie's) uber-gratitude! :)
Love and cookies,
Bufi
As a fellow writer (I won't say author, as I think we're both still climbing that ladder...) I say just do what comes naturally.
I haven't actually read Gnosis, because I was kinda waiting for a bookend (I don't like cliffhangers much, you should have seen me read The DaVinci Code, I was rabid for a week!) but I'll give it a go either today or tomorrow and let you know what I think at that time.
But seriously, just keep on writing, and if you really, really hate it when you're all done, you can whip out version 2.0. I've already re-written the first chapter of Require: Holiday. It's still very silly, but it's more in-character (now that I've established the character of Vincent a bit more...) and less completely weird. I was planning on posting it after finishing VDU, but at the rate I'm going... Hah.
Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a chapter to procrast- *ahem* plot out.
...then it might not be a great idea to start reading Gnosis - unless you promise not to come after me with a chainsaw! Not necessarily because I like writing cliffhangers, but because I sometimes take pretty long breaks between chapters (and sit in a corner, hating myself for writer's block). And when I do write again, wham, 4.5+k chapter. Consistency is not one of my strengths, and definitely something I should learn. -_- Also, I don't see the end of this book being very near.
But if you do start reading, thank you! :)
And yup, version 2.0 sounds like a good plan. I will definitely do that, either when I'm done with Gnosis #1, or sooner - if I get to the point where I just hate what I wrote.
And *throws Stewie at you* stop procrastinating and bring Vincent back already! :p
*hands over cookies* Thanks for the advice! :)
Resident owl.
I find that when I get stuck on one thing, writing another keeps me going. actually, the little bits of fan fic i write here now and then have been great for getting the juices flowing. uhh, no pun intended.
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...and it led me to the conclusion that my writer's block is selective. I can't write two words on what I want to write about, but I write thousands of words on something completely different. Not fair. -_-
Resident owl.
just keep collecting what you CAN write, it will come back around to it.
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Maybe it's like a muscle, the more you use it, the stronger it gets.
Resident owl.
a good story moves like a river. Slow and easy, carrying you along, only to plunge you through a rapid, back to a smooth placid ride, then, WATERFALL!
She has powers, but cant control them, people are after her, shes afraid, alone, doesnt know what to do, and while she's handling well, shes now been told that she was TRAINED to handle it? no, no mary sue, she's getting SCREWED like a proper main character. You're doing good so far. the scenes with the telepath are a little jarring, and where I would focus my proofreading when you go to polish it to completion, but otherwise, gold.
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"a good story moves like a river. Slow and easy, carrying you along, only to plunge you through a rapid, back to a smooth placid ride, then, WATERFALL!"
"Sharp rocks at the bottom?"
"Most likely."
"Bring it on."
...right there. :)
Resident owl.
best scene of the whole damn movie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhOrxkGlLDM
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...forgot about that. Must re-watch!
Resident owl.
...seriously going to write this on my notebook -> "a good story moves like a river. Slow and easy, carrying you along, only to plunge you through a rapid, back to a smooth placid ride, then, WATERFALL!"
This is brilliant!
That being said, thank you so much for your reassuring words! (After posting #42, I just sat there going "I screwed up, I definitely screwed up. *wibble*"). Writing a Sue is one of my biggest fears for this story. I recently found what I wrote when I was about 12 and started messing around with the character that is now Jubilee (used to be little Sonja back then), and I can't believe what a horrible, horrible Sue she was... (and how bad the plot was, too) -_-
The telepath scenes (you mean Achilles, right?) indeed feel a bit jarring. I'm hoping I will figure out how to write him soon enough - he started out in my head as this neat character, but when I got to introduce him to the story, he just jumped out all different than what I'd prepared... I'm not trying to use this as an excuse though. He may fit better this way, but I need to figure out how to write his chapters.
Thank you very much, dear sir, this helps a lot!
*hugs and cookies*
Resident owl.
Im glad you like it, Im totally saving that one for the file myself.
If you're worried about sueism, then you wont do it. Just make sure she struggles, fails, and if she suddenly sprouts a new power, it makes SENSE for her to do so.
Yeah, not to be hypercritical, but it seems obvious you aren't comfortable writing him. BUT, i wonder... is it that you aren't comfortable writing him, or aren't comfortable writing him in that person? As much as you are in his head during it, maybe switching to first person when he's the viewpoint?
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...noted!
I think writing Achilles is still a bit weird because I have some fears for him as well. I don't want him to be a Sue either, and (latest fear for this guy) I really don't want him to end up similar to Edward Cullen in any way.
...Can't believe I wrote that. -_-
But yeah, in the chapter when he arrives at Rutherford and sees Jubilee for the first time, he instantly hates her. He wants to kill her, then doesn't want to kill her, then feels connected to her, then wants to kill her again, then changes his mind, and all that reminded me of Twilight. That's one of the last stories I would ever want to compare mine to, or would want others to compare it to. I'm worried that, while trying to adapt to how he is now, I'll write a worthless, unidimensional character. He used to be one of my favourites, but now writing him is a bit of a struggle (and his story is just beginning >_<).
Switching to first person might be a solution! I've never written in first person before, but I'll give it a try and see how things go. Thanks for the tip! :D
Resident owl.
Have you seen how rabid I've been getting for mmoarmoarMOAR!!!!! after every chapter you post? I'd say you're doing just fine ;)
And no, nothing seems shark/fridge/sue-tastic to me, it just seems like a great story that I can't wait to read more of. Yes, some places could use some polish, but overall you've done a wonderful job of drawing me into the world.
...I'm paranoid, I always worry about messing up! >_>
Plus, even if I get some good chapters in a row, there's no guarantee that I won't just screw up with another really, really bad chapter. I was uber-worried that this would be the case with Road Trip. Now I get to be worried about another chapter that's not too far away from now. *goes to worry corner*
Thanks for being so supportive, Wraith! :) *huggles*
Resident owl.
Any time you have author wibbles, I'm happy to help. Just ask Stormy, I've lost track of the number of times she's come to me with author wibbles.
All the writing I see on this site is top-notch. I almost wish I could write that well, but then I'd have less time for reading (and games :P )
So:
*huggles*
*Requires a pile of cookies*
*hands over a wibble blankie*
*gives Stewie a pile of potatoes*
>_>
<_<
*Goes back to playing Heart of the Swarm*
Thanks Wraith! :) You can be our official de-wibbler - a good person to have near! :)
And actually have Stormy's wibble blankie. It's pretty magical. ^_^
*goes to play HOTS too*
Resident owl.
To get the official Wibble Blankie, but other things keep coming up. I do believe I'll order one once I'm down in Oz, though. After all, a Wibble house should have a wibble blankie. ;)
I started reading, and what stuck out to me was the sparsity of detail. That's something that can be fixed later, though.
I think you'd be best suited by finishing it. You want to be in the habit of finishing things. (It's a hard habit to start, once you're in the habit of not finishing.)
As things stand right now, you can't fix what's not on the paper. Eventually, you might be able to revise midstory, but unless you're 100% positive that something needs fixing, you needn't worry about it, at this point. (But if you have writer's block…some of us can't continue a story until we fix what's wrong in what we've already written, but from what I've observed, writers like me are the minority.)
The middle of the book is called "midbook doldrums" for a reason. Feeling "This sucks!" is normal. ^_^
I can't remember who exactly related this story (I'm thinking it was DWS & KKR, but it might've been the Andrews), but I heard it about a pair of spouses who are professional writers: One will go to the other, start saying how the story sucks, and the other will ask "Where are you in writing it?" At which point, the writer suffering from the doldrums curses, turns around, and goes back to the office to keep working. *grin*
Look—everybody screws up sometimes. Kristine Kathryn Rusch (a pro writer who's won all sorts of awards) has told of a time she brought a story to…a workshop, I think it was. If I remember rightly, it was "supposed" to be horror—as in, she wrote it intending for it to be horror—and the end story worked out great…
Except it was humor. *grin*
All you can do is get the story out. Fix it later. And I say this despite having written a novelette in which all the details were misplaced and some of the plot points were in the wrong order. (That was…fun to figure out how to fix. I knew what was wrong; I just couldn't figure out what needed moving. But how I fixed that is another story altogether.)
No story is perfect.
Just write your story as best you can, right now. I'm only up to chapter 8, but you have an interesting story in there. And being able to tell an enjoyable story is what really matters, as a writer.
Indie author of A Fistful of Fire:
Read online, or buy on Smashwords and Kindle.
... the sparsity of detail is one of the faults of this story. I'm hoping to fix that in the rewrite though, because I feel like I'd make more mistakes with the details. I've made enough mistakes so far as it is. I think I'll be able to fix these best once volume 1 is completed - I'll surely have a better picture on the story than I do now.
So yup, I'll go ahead and do my best to finish it. :)
I didn't know that the middle of the book is called "midbook doldrums"! That's absolutely spot on!
Thank you so much for your kind and supportive words, and great examples! This really helps me get closer to accepting that these doldrums too shall pass if I keep going. Now, the going is the hard part. :)
Thanks, Carradee! *huggles*
Resident owl.
On the "sparsity of detail" note, my own novel A Fistful of Fire began life as a novelette. (It was around 17k words. The final version is over 70k words.) I have another first draft sitting on my computer right now that is 48k words long…and is probably the foundation for a novel trilogy.
So you're not alone on that front, either. *pats on back*
And on the funny-things-you-learn-while-writing, I've had a situation where a story was stuck and not working and I couldn't figure out why…and finally realized that the first person narrator (who I'd thought an epitome of common sense) was actually insane.
I was seriously in the middle of the book when I consciously realized that. >_> My subconscious had even left hints in the previous book, though. That was something that did me a lot of good to figure out before I continued, because I literally couldn't figure out the rest of the story without knowing that.
When it's the midbook doldrums, though… All you can do is muscle through. Different techniques help different people, but the short of it is: Sit And Write. (Okay, so it's usually phrased differently, but I'm being polite.) ^_^
I've found that timers and story/character/setting theme songs can help. So can have people randomly asking me how the writing's coming.
So… How's the writing coming?
Indie author of A Fistful of Fire:
Read online, or buy on Smashwords and Kindle.
Turning a 17k novelette into a 70k novel is no easy feat! O_o
Also, I started reading A Fistful of Fire earlier today. Haven't gotten too far yet, but it wasn't easy to stop reading! :)
And best of luck on turning that 48k draft into a trilogy! Fingers crossed!
It's really inspiring to be around writers who accomplished this much - you and Stormy have developed such solid stories so far, and you keep on writing. It's very nice, and very helpful to talk to people I look up to! :)
finally realized that the first person narrator (who I'd thought an epitome of common sense) was actually insane. >>That must have been a surprise! Did your character who turned out to be insane stay insane, or did you go back and re-write? My characters pull stunts on me, too - I work on them in my head, and they seem so cool, and I imagine that writing them will be a breeze, and then when I actually start writing them, they just won't work. One of them needed several re-writes of the chapter he is introduced in until he felt right... he started out as a thirty-something arrogant, self-centered man, and ended up fourty-something, wise, nice, and much more likeable. Another one wouldn't work until I changed his gender! The character has the same personality, but now she can be written. It's like they have a mind of their own...
How do you use timers to help you write? And songs indeed work (sometimes it's stuff I wouldn't normally listen, but hey, if it works, it works!), but often they're only good for so long, and then I need to go and find new ones to help with the same topic.
So… How's the writing coming? >> That's a question I don't really get asked (mostly because many of the people around me don't know that I write), so it's not a method I've tested yet. But what it does do for me right now is remind me that I should be writing. To share a little, I have some people in suits whom I just realized I planned quite poorly, so it's back to the drawing board. :)
How's your writing coming? :)
Resident owl.
Also, I started reading A Fistful of Fire earlier today. Haven't gotten too far yet, but it wasn't easy to stop reading! :)
Thanks! *grin*
Did your character who turned out to be insane stay insane
She stayed insane. Since you're reading A Fistful of Fire, you've probably met her already, even, though she might not be entirely insane yet. *grin*
How do you use timers to help you write?
Set a timer for a time increment; sit down to write. Timer goes off—either "Oops! I got distracted and need to get back to work!" or "Yay! *repeat timer*"
My timers are all for Macs, but… Alarm Clock 2 lets the timer give a message when the alarm hits (like "Check on the stove before you burn the soup!") Howler loops automatically—which can be good or bad, depending on the day. FocusBooster is my favorite, at the moment; it has a "work" time period followed by a "break" time period, so you get two timers in one cycle, and you can adjust both.
How's your writing coming?
Pretty well, actually, though not on the projects I'd expected to be working on, this month. I've decided to institute a policy of First Draft Fridays (on Wattpad, right now), wherein I pick a story and commit to updating it every Friday, if not more often. I'm aiming to finish the current project's first draft by the end of the month, so I can spend Camp NaNoWriMo next month working on A Fistful of Water (book 3 in the series that A Fistful of Fire's in).
Indie author of A Fistful of Fire:
Read online, or buy on Smashwords and Kindle.
had that happen, had a character who seemed sympathetic and stuck in a really bad position with a really bad person who was controlling them. Then suddenly it came out as I was writing that no, that person was a certifiable PSYCOPATH who enjoyed their work very very much. shudder. Ended up having to kill them.
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I can relate. I can so relate.
Indie author of A Fistful of Fire:
Read online, or buy on Smashwords and Kindle.
even better, the character that KILLS her? totally didn't see it coming myself. I was outlining events in my head, not actually WRITING yet, and ... yeah, had to go back and add notes to forshadow, or people would have screamed foul.
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Stef started as a wise cracking action girl.
Taylor was supposed to be one note and the shallow psychopath everyone thinks he is.
Merlin was supposed to appear in one scene.
Screen was supposed to have one line.
I wasn't supposed to love Billy and Milla so much that they're going to be recurring characters.
Jonesy was never going to < REDACTED SPOILER >.
Clarke...was never supposed to be a villain, an arse, but not a villain.
Reality is a formality.
Jonesy was never going to .
TEASE! HORRIBLE TEASE!
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...I was using fakey HTML, fixing comment now...not that it actually makes it any better. >_>
Reality is a formality.
*points* Don't tease like that, or we'll wish the wrath of a hundred Taylors upon you!
Resident owl.
...one hundred Taylors like the very definition of "overkill"?
...I say as the Taylor banner glares at me. Damn your powers, Bufi!
Reality is a formality.
...you brought this upon yourself!
Resident owl.
...do you actually think I have any control over Jonesy?
He honestly plans a lot of stuff behind my back. I'll write him doing stuff, and only realise later that it was part of a larger plan, or that it meant something different to what it seemed like it did.
Hell, he's practically grooming Stef to become a tech agent and it took me ages to grok onto that. -_- (IE, it's not normal for one agent to babysit another's department so often).
Reality is a formality.
... Jonesy is the #1 guy who schemes behind your back, no arguments there.
But that still doesn't offer you an excuse for teasing. -_-
Resident owl.
...I'll stop teasing here and just go back to writing a chapter where Ryan is breathing his last breath.
Reality is a formality.
in honor of the wild mass guessing that almost became true on order of the stick, ill say it. VAMPIRE RYAN?
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I don't know about what she's currently writing, but I know that long-term, the plan is for Ryan to become an [redacted spoiler].
...is still the plan, but it's not until sometime after the war.
Reality is a formality.
Zombie Ryan!
Resident owl.
...fill our quota of zombies in the main cast?
Reality is a formality.
...make her dad one too?
Resident owl.
...there's no vampires in the Cookieverse. :P
Reality is a formality.
yet. all it takes is one interview fan with a shard of mirror. (well, two shards, because they would use the first shard to rid the world of twilight)
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...quite a bit of mirror to create a new race. Less so, if they changed themselves into a vamp and basically wished to be a carrier for the virus.
Reality is a formality.
that was my thought. become one, and spread it around.
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...one twisted way to "share the love".
Resident owl.