Right vs First and the necessity of format
A couple of things to mention today but not a lot of time to do so. Lunch break ends shortly, and I have a half-hour to finish my own work before training one of the new people. Perhaps I should wait until tomorrow? NO! For this morning was a great morning. Not in terms of word count, but in terms of revelation.
I'm at the beginning of a new project cycle. I've finished my final revision on WANTED and have not gone back to revise "Mistaken" yet. Time to start a new project. But what will it be? As I've said before, I have quite a few vying to be next on line. And really, how I do it, I'll write a little on this one, a little on that one, and eventually something will click, and I'll be off like a shot. That might have happened this morning.
This morning I was in the mood to work on THE SEVENTH SACRIFICE (a title I'm considering changing to CHESHIRE--I don't know. The former is very fantasy-esque, which is perhaps why I don't like it. Break down those boundaries, dammit!). This is the one that I was very excited about until I wrote the first chapter and then it sucked. I tried to force a second chapter, but that didn't make it very far at all.
Why? Because I hadn't done the first chapter right. Now, anyone who rights will immediately bust out the sage wisdom of, "it's never right on your first draft." This is sage advice for a reason. Your first draft will not be your final draft. If you hope for it to be otherwise, you are silly. Go outside, spit, run around the house three times, and then come back inside and continue reading this post.
So, now that we're all on the same page with first drafts vs. final drafts, why would I stop writing my first draft if chapter one wasn't right. Because. Chapter 1 wasn't right for a first draft. A first draft must still have a level of quality suitable for a first draft. It can suck, but it can't suck to the point of worthlessness, which is what happened with my first attempt. There has to be some quality in the first draft that a revision reveal its true potential.
This harkens back to my long-ago post on writer's block and making mistakes. Even in a first draft, it is possible to make such a horrible mistake, that it is better to go back and correct than to soldier forward and wait for official draft revision. The challenge is knowing which instance is which. It's a constant temptation to go back and revise your work rather than continuing forward. That way lies death...or at least an unfinished manuscript. You'll revise so many times that you'll lose all forward momentum. At the same time, you might write something so fundamentally flawed that any forward motion is impossible.
So, this morning I fixed the first chapter of THE SEVENTH SACRIFICE. How, you ask? Format.
Format isn't something I generally pay attention to. I write chapter 1 and I stop when the story is over. I might throw on an epilogue. I might try on a prologue, but I have yet to find one that fits or looks good on me. Some authors (such as Tad Williams) will have Book 1/Book 2/Book 3 breaks within an individual novel to show a dramatic advancement to the story. Much like acts in a play, etc. I don't--or at least, to this point have not--do this with my writing.
And this morning it occurred to me that the fundamental flaw in chapter one (as there were many others, but this was the fundamental one) was timing. If the main character learned what I was letting him learn in chapter 1, the methodology and world building I had created fell apart. There were too many Why?s without answers. And then I said it. Flashback. Chapter 1 is now, and then the next however many chapters are flashed-back. Sure not a revolutionary solution, but an effective one. I start with today, skip back seven years. Tell the story of the next seven years until I return to today, and then finish the story. Many a tale has been told this way and now I will tell mine. It eliminates many of the whys and forms a pleasantly circular story.
So, we will go:
The Beginning of the End
Book 1: Whisper
Book 2: Harper
Book 3: Crier
The End of the End
I will tell four stories (the first and last sections being one story split in half) that, when viewed together, will tell one much larger story.
BAM! I think this one gets my full attention now. I also think it may end up being an epic tale, so we're looking at a page count of 250k. Yeah, that'll endear me to publishers. :)
I'm at the beginning of a new project cycle. I've finished my final revision on WANTED and have not gone back to revise "Mistaken" yet. Time to start a new project. But what will it be? As I've said before, I have quite a few vying to be next on line. And really, how I do it, I'll write a little on this one, a little on that one, and eventually something will click, and I'll be off like a shot. That might have happened this morning.
This morning I was in the mood to work on THE SEVENTH SACRIFICE (a title I'm considering changing to CHESHIRE--I don't know. The former is very fantasy-esque, which is perhaps why I don't like it. Break down those boundaries, dammit!). This is the one that I was very excited about until I wrote the first chapter and then it sucked. I tried to force a second chapter, but that didn't make it very far at all.
Why? Because I hadn't done the first chapter right. Now, anyone who rights will immediately bust out the sage wisdom of, "it's never right on your first draft." This is sage advice for a reason. Your first draft will not be your final draft. If you hope for it to be otherwise, you are silly. Go outside, spit, run around the house three times, and then come back inside and continue reading this post.
So, now that we're all on the same page with first drafts vs. final drafts, why would I stop writing my first draft if chapter one wasn't right. Because. Chapter 1 wasn't right for a first draft. A first draft must still have a level of quality suitable for a first draft. It can suck, but it can't suck to the point of worthlessness, which is what happened with my first attempt. There has to be some quality in the first draft that a revision reveal its true potential.
This harkens back to my long-ago post on writer's block and making mistakes. Even in a first draft, it is possible to make such a horrible mistake, that it is better to go back and correct than to soldier forward and wait for official draft revision. The challenge is knowing which instance is which. It's a constant temptation to go back and revise your work rather than continuing forward. That way lies death...or at least an unfinished manuscript. You'll revise so many times that you'll lose all forward momentum. At the same time, you might write something so fundamentally flawed that any forward motion is impossible.
So, this morning I fixed the first chapter of THE SEVENTH SACRIFICE. How, you ask? Format.
Format isn't something I generally pay attention to. I write chapter 1 and I stop when the story is over. I might throw on an epilogue. I might try on a prologue, but I have yet to find one that fits or looks good on me. Some authors (such as Tad Williams) will have Book 1/Book 2/Book 3 breaks within an individual novel to show a dramatic advancement to the story. Much like acts in a play, etc. I don't--or at least, to this point have not--do this with my writing.
And this morning it occurred to me that the fundamental flaw in chapter one (as there were many others, but this was the fundamental one) was timing. If the main character learned what I was letting him learn in chapter 1, the methodology and world building I had created fell apart. There were too many Why?s without answers. And then I said it. Flashback. Chapter 1 is now, and then the next however many chapters are flashed-back. Sure not a revolutionary solution, but an effective one. I start with today, skip back seven years. Tell the story of the next seven years until I return to today, and then finish the story. Many a tale has been told this way and now I will tell mine. It eliminates many of the whys and forms a pleasantly circular story.
So, we will go:
The Beginning of the End
Book 1: Whisper
Book 2: Harper
Book 3: Crier
The End of the End
I will tell four stories (the first and last sections being one story split in half) that, when viewed together, will tell one much larger story.
BAM! I think this one gets my full attention now. I also think it may end up being an epic tale, so we're looking at a page count of 250k. Yeah, that'll endear me to publishers. :)