Still need a Better Name (Thesis Diary 36)

Still Need a Better Name (Update 36)

Welcome. Since we have moved out of Revision and into pre-Query/ Outlining the next novel, I kind of feel we need a new name for these posts. Just like “Thesis Diary” is losing its clarity as a name as well. The thesis is finished (minus the last round of revisions I will make after I get my final course feedback). The thing is “thesis” feels like a stronger word, than just calling it my writing diary. Not that I’m using a lot of SEO or really trying to bring in views.

I mean, I hope these posts help people and I want more people to see and read them. It’s just that I’m not trying to hound people to read, nor am I all about the numbers. Even if I had just a single reader, I would still make these posts.

Anyway, welcome to week 36 of the diary. Not a whole lot going on but some progress.

Goals

Last week was my final week of my Thesis 3 class. All essays, discussion posts, etc were finished before the week even began. My other goals included a 4^th draft of an essay/article and starting my character and outline work for the next novel.

Essay:

I did, in fact, write and finish the 4^th draft of my essay. And have been “cutting my darlings.” I am a bit of a classic over writer, also when writing personal things, I tend to want to over explain, make sure all the details are accounted for, and keep things very concrete. I have an editor helping me with this essay and they’ve helped me rein in my impulses.

The first draft of my article came in at almost 2000 words. Over three drafts I have cut and cut again until it is now a lean 1190. I like to think that all of the emotional impact is still in the piece. But I do worry about just hitting the salient points and moving on. The third draft felt the most personal and moving to me, whereas this last draft gets to the meat of the matter and still jabs the emotional side of things.

It is one of the most deeply personal things I have written. Which I guess is weird since this is a non-fictional article and you would think I would mine that emotion for my fictional work. The thing is, I have always avoided writing directly about my life in my characters and fiction. I mean, I still mine the same emotional well, but I don’t write things as they really happened. Then again, I do mostly write in the fantasy genre, and there haven’t been many undead monsters trying to murder me in my life (just living ones).

Perhaps this is a topic for its own post?

Outlining/Character Work

Last week, I mentioned that I needed to get started on my outlining for the series and then for the first novel in particular. Specifically, the Plans of the Villain and the Wants of the Characters.

For the series I am leaving it just to broad strokes and main concepts. That way, when I do something stupid in the first book it allows me to flex things in the later books. But I was having the problem of whether I should treat the books like a D&D game or if I should have better planning.

Did you read last week’s post? The short version is do I leave the villain’s plans completely nebulous and just say that whatever happens is exactly how he planned it… or do I actually have a full plan worked out?

I went Hybrid.

Villain Plans:

I ended up exploring my villain’s wants and needs, and also making a timeline of events. But I also kept it kind of loose and fast. This allows me to know where he was, what he was thinking, and how he thinks/plans. It also leaves me with openings for other story explorations and future changes to the story.

Perhaps I should stop for a moment and mention that I am a hybrid writer. If you go to conferences or online forums/groups, you will often see writers talking about being pantsers or plotters. The first makes everything up as they sit at the keyboard. The latter will spend months working on an outline that is detailed down to the chapter count and every moment of the story.

Hybrid Writer:

I sit between the two. I like to work on my characters and figure out everything about them. Then I have an end goal and a number of stops along the path to that end goal. Almost all of my pre planning is character and world building. Once I know how the characters would react, I drop them into the narrative and they run wild as they move from main point to main point.

Now while I’m writing the novel I will often pause in the writing and plan the next three to five scenes, or even outline the next few chapters, and then I go back to writing. So, it becomes, write a bunch of chapters, pause and outline the next few chapters, readjust the later scenes and move the ending a little, write a few chapters, repeat.

Wants of the Characters:

The second thing I worked on last week is a list of all of my main characters (far too many once again) and all of their main wants and goals. Or motivations.

Technically I still need to do a few more, but I feel like things have started to move forward again. All of my planning and outlining is done with pen in notebooks, though I have been trying to do more on the computer as well. With trying out Scrivener on the last novel, the ability to have notes and pictures and such right in the word processor is great. I just like to write my notes while at work, or eating dinner, or sitting watching stupid movies on tv. I don’t always want to be sitting at my computer.

Last week I managed to add 8 handwritten pages to my notebook outlining the villain’s plans and the character’s wants. For the first book at least. Knowing what each character is trying to accomplish and how these wants can come into conflict with each other and the antagonists is the basic meat for my character interactions. I still need to do full write ups on several of the new characters being introduced into this book.

Character Issues:

So, part of the inspiration for these novels comes from discovering that several of my favorite authors work their novels based on their gaming sessions, sometimes even going so far as to novelize the events of battles and character deaths based on the role of the dice.

This series of books is based on a campaign that I ran three times (three different editions of D&D and first time in a published world, and the other two times in my own world). What this really comes down to is that several of the characters in the book are based on characters that were in my games. Many of them were mine, but I’m also including characters that were played by my friends.

This has a few problems. The first is that in this novel these characters come from the very first time I ran this storyline, which was in the mid-90s. I barely remember all the details of these characters. This also leans in on the second problem, where I’m just trying to mostly recreate the character. I don’t want an exact carbon copy; I just want to hit the high points and use the same name. Get the feel for the original character, but this is still a character that fits into the world I’ve created. (Besides not wanting to tread on things specific to the game setting I ran the original games in, like copy-righted monster names or powers/spells/etc. I also don’t want my brother whining when his character shows up with a different ethnicity and less murdery).

This Week

Digressions aside, I have the characters coming together.

This week is supposed to be a bunch of icy storms and might see me miss a day or two of work. Hate that. It is also a week off of school before I start my final term.

I plan on painting more minis and also working on the characters more for Invasion 1 (working title for the next book). If I get past the character work, I will start outlining the prologues and opening chapters and then figuring out my “stones across the river.” I think I’m going to need to create a timeline drawing that lines everything up, as the books will be overlapping.

Just typing that, I realize I need to spend more time with the chart for the whole of the series. I’ll be drawing a full version of the tiny sketch in my notebook.

Well, I think I babbled long enough today, I hope this blog finds everyone healthy and well. Thanks.