Writing
I got another chapter in my prequel finished, so go me! I now have to kill off a major character (he has to be dead before the original story's start), and I know how it's going to happen...already wrote that part. I just have to figure out how to get him to where he dies. Then I have to have my protag recover from the trauma of the death, meet her previously unmet half-brother, and set her up to a point where only a few months separate the end of the prequel with the start of the original.
I didn't use to think I could effectively write "Scene X" first, then go figure a way to fit it into my universe. But now I find it's actually making the composition of the interim scenes easier. So I have about 4 scenes pre-written, as it were, and now just have to connect the dots. I figure about 4 or five chapters will finish up this prequel, and then I can work on the editing of it so that it smoothly matches my protag's past with her present. After I've done that, I can start concentrating on the sequel, of which I have about 5 chapters already finished (approximately 1/4 of the story) and another three scenes written that will need the dots connected.
I'm good at writing scenes; I need to improve on finales and on introducing necessary world-building without getting too much exposition so that the reader gets bored. I think (thinking back over the trilogy) that I have perhaps seven or eight spots that I need to split up so that the exposition isn't all in one chunk. The challenge when writing new worlds that are not earth is you want to let your readers know why this isn't earth and how it's different, but you can't drop the action for long or you lose your reader's attention.
And I just want to say a public thank you to my beta readers--you have been a huge help by giving me feedback that's more than just nice words to make me feel good. I realize that one chapter needs more conflict--that's where the editing comes in and I've already got some ideas on how to fix it percolating in my brain.
I didn't use to think I could effectively write "Scene X" first, then go figure a way to fit it into my universe. But now I find it's actually making the composition of the interim scenes easier. So I have about 4 scenes pre-written, as it were, and now just have to connect the dots. I figure about 4 or five chapters will finish up this prequel, and then I can work on the editing of it so that it smoothly matches my protag's past with her present. After I've done that, I can start concentrating on the sequel, of which I have about 5 chapters already finished (approximately 1/4 of the story) and another three scenes written that will need the dots connected.
I'm good at writing scenes; I need to improve on finales and on introducing necessary world-building without getting too much exposition so that the reader gets bored. I think (thinking back over the trilogy) that I have perhaps seven or eight spots that I need to split up so that the exposition isn't all in one chunk. The challenge when writing new worlds that are not earth is you want to let your readers know why this isn't earth and how it's different, but you can't drop the action for long or you lose your reader's attention.
And I just want to say a public thank you to my beta readers--you have been a huge help by giving me feedback that's more than just nice words to make me feel good. I realize that one chapter needs more conflict--that's where the editing comes in and I've already got some ideas on how to fix it percolating in my brain.