Where are you in your book?

Discussion in 'Character Development' started by CoyoteKing, Apr 10, 2018.

  1. xanadu

    xanadu Contributor Contributor

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    My projects:

    By the Wayside
    is collecting dust on a flash drive, where it belongs. I don't really have any intention of redrafting or editing any more, as it was my first novel and has long since served its purpose in teaching me how to write a novel and, more importantly, how not to write a novel.

    Song of the Silver Fox is on its 5th draft now, the most rigorous one yet. I'd ballpark I'm about 30k words into the revision, of about 86k. The intention with this is to make it good enough to be read by other people.

    Down Came the Rain is on its 3rd draft, I believe (or rather, the 3rd would be the one I start next). This is next in line once Silver Fox is done. I believe it's at 90k or so, but I haven't looked in quite some time.

    Where the Trees Grow Sideways has only the completed first draft to its name, somewhere in the ballpark of 92k. This one will need to be heavily edited, and I have a list of changes I want to make to it. It'll happen once Down Came the Rain has gone through another revision.

    Time's River is a novel I started a few years ago and only got a few thousand words into. It's on hiatus indefinitely while I determine if I want to continue and, if I do, what changes I want to make to it. As it is, I'm not super into what I had originally planned anymore.

    Valentine is the working title of my current WIP, now almost 17k. The title will almost certainly change at some point.

    I also have another novel in mind, but haven't started writing anything yet. I know what I want it to be about, but I have a hard enough time setting time aside to work on one project :) Man, I wish I could be as productive as I was in 2013.
     
  2. graveleye

    graveleye Senior Member

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    I am just about to hand my MS over to an editor.
    Problem is, I keep seeing little things I want to change, so I keep procrastinating.
    It's bugging me too. I need to say, "IT IS FINISHED" and move out of the way and let the editor do his thing.
     
  3. izzybot

    izzybot (unspecified) Contributor

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    LAFS has been on hold for longer than it should be while I try to get my head together, but I'm just at the toughest part -- the lead-in to the climax where out heroes are separated and everyone's sad, stressed out, in danger, and injured (in approximately that order). I've already written it all once and that was hard enough, but then I decided to completely rework the entire final fifth of the book, so I gotta do it all again, but different, and more ._.

    Eerie Pleasant is about two-thirds of the way done and just pulled up from the darkest point (yay!), but I haven't worked on it for a bit because of a combination of 1) lack of motivation in general, 2) boredom/disinterest in writing another sex scene (it's erotica, I knew what I was getting into, but ...), and 3) indecision on which scene should come next. I'm being flighty on that last point because I think the story would probably be better if I broke from the pattern I've been following, but breaking patterns is really hard for me. Another darling to kill, no doubt, but those other two things have kept me from getting on to finally hefting the ax.

    What, y'all don't kill your darlings with an ax? Posers :p

    I also have a couple short stories in the oven at the moment, and I know generally what's going to go down next in both of them, but, y'know, motivation. One of them I was writing for last month's short story contest, but I didn't get there in time, so I was thinking about reworking it a little to make it more likely publishable (it's a length thing). I should probably just finish a first draft of the damn thing and then worry about whether the pacing's spot on. Fail faster and all that.
     
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  4. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

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    "Ahem...what you don't slowly and sadistically torture your darlings? Amateurs. " :p
     
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  5. izzybot

    izzybot (unspecified) Contributor

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    If this case and the last one are any indication, my darlings tend to slowly and sadistically torture me until I finally make myself off'em >.>
     
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  6. GlitterRain7

    GlitterRain7 Galaxy Girl Contributor

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    I’m in revision with my WIP. Hopefully I’ll be sending to betas soon.
     
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  7. jos84

    jos84 New Member

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    God only knows. I cant seem to get my head straight at the moment. I write one part from the start and then something I need to get down from the middle comes and then the end, back to the start again. everything just seems so muddled.
     
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  8. alanzie

    alanzie Member

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    I'm about 20% into my storyline @ 16K words. That might make it about 80K when complete. I finally discovered that my first draft does not have to be perfect. The writing is going much faster now and my characters are becoming their own. Every time I sit down and write a bit, I am finding out new things about my characters that I didn't even know existed the day before. It's finally getting fun!
     
  9. Necronox

    Necronox Contributor Contributor

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    Currently speaking, I've finished my first draft and now in the process of radically editing it, along with cutting down on the word count (currently standing at 120k) to something a little more respectable. My main issues right now is fixing my characters, a couple plot-holes and some scenes. Then, once that is done I will begin radically cracking down on the word-count, "wordage", grammar, spelling, etc....
     
  10. awkwarddragon

    awkwarddragon Member

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    Not writing a novel per se, but I'm currently outlining a light-hearted fantasy short story. I mentioned in another thread about working on a fanfiction, but I've decided to put that on the side. I have finals coming up so both projects are on the burner, one way or another.
     
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  11. Lawless

    Lawless Active Member

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    What do you mean by "falling in love with the wrong characters"? Like, you like characters who would be "bad guys" in the eyes of most other people?
     
  12. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

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    Just passed 88k with an intense romantic sex scene between two aliens. :)
    (I needed to give Cor a break, poor lass has been carrying the story all on
    her own the previous ten pages, and the other 2 MCs need to get back into
    the story before they get left behind. Though I am sure you would love it
    to just follow around Cor and guess how many more eyeballs she will eat
    out the skulls of the Confeds.) :p
     
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  13. John Calligan

    John Calligan Contributor Contributor

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    That sounds awesome.
     
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  14. Stormburn

    Stormburn Contributor Contributor

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    Of Sins and Shadows is in the first draft stage and has passed the 15K WC. It's book one in a five book fantasy series called If Eternity should Fail. The progress is steady, but slow due to my insane work schedule.
     
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  15. JE Loddon

    JE Loddon Active Member

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    I'm editing one novel, whilst starting on the plan for my next novel. The planning is for book 2 of a series, and I've realised I don't remember the main character's name! So I guess I'mm gonna need to go back and read book 1. It's been a year, so it'll be interesting to see if it still feels really familiar as MY book.
     
  16. GiveMeBackMyMagic

    GiveMeBackMyMagic Member

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    Am 37k through my approx. 50k upper MG book. I am just coming to where things are all about to fall apart! In the past I have always been so fussy about my writing, but for this one the only rule is write it as far as possible. It is full of repetitive word usage, mixed metaphors, and inconsistencies, but it has heart. I can't wait to edit it and see how it comes out.
     
  17. CoyoteKing

    CoyoteKing Good Boi Contributor

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    Oh. Well— yeah, basically.

    I write romance novels. I guess I have a “thing” for clever anti-heroes. And sometimes outright villains. I have a tendency to end up shipping the “wrong”’couple in a romance novel.

    Like... let’s say I write a romance novel about Alex and Jamie, and the villain is a person named Riley. A lot of the time, halfway through writing the book, I’ll start shipping Alex and Riley instead. Which I creates problems for me. I’ve worked in a total of three separate series, and it’s happened all three times.

    I’ve found ways to work around it. In the first series, I said “fuck it” and made them a threesome. The second time, I made the characters romantically incompatible (I made one of them a lesbian and the other a man so I wouldn’t be tempted to pair them). This third time... I haven’t decided yet.
     
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  18. GiveMeBackMyMagic

    GiveMeBackMyMagic Member

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    You're irresistibly drawn to the dark side... mwa ha ha!

    In all seriousness, though, is 'Jamie' interesting and three dimensional enough? Does he have a bad streak in him to make him more human? If he's too perfect he may come across as too boring, which may make you go off him and make Alex fall in love with Riley instead. If you as the writer aren't convinced of the chemistry between Alex and Jamie, the reader certainly isn't going to be.
     
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  19. Dragon Turtle

    Dragon Turtle Deadlier Jerry

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    Yes! I've read two of the series in question and all the leads are compelling. Coyote is great at chemistry. The problem is there's just too much of it... among everyone... :D
     
  20. GiveMeBackMyMagic

    GiveMeBackMyMagic Member

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    Haha! In that case, I'd love to read the menage a trois, quatre, cinq, etc!
     
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  21. CoyoteKing

    CoyoteKing Good Boi Contributor

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    Yuuuuup.

    That might've been the problem the first time, but this time, it's definitely not. My two leads (Yoshi and Dieter) have plenty of sexual tension. I'm just fickle. I want everyone to be together.
     
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  22. Lawless

    Lawless Active Member

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    Why do you have to label your characters "hero" and "villain" in the first place? Is it that the majority of romance readers expect it and would hate the book if the "wrong" guy got the girl by the end or if it were unclear who was the "hero" and who was the "villain"?

    I'm just curious. It's a genre I'm not exactly familiar with.
     
  23. Tenderiser

    Tenderiser Not a man or BayView

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    Those are pretty standard terms in all genres?
     
  24. zoupskim

    zoupskim Contributor Contributor

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    In it's most BASIC form, the hero is generally an anthropomorphized version of GOOD in the story. Whatever it's form-- person, ideal, army, god-- we want to see the GOOD win.

    Villian is a tricky word. The correct term in a non-war movie might be antagonist or impact character. In a simple story like Star Wars there's Luke and Vader for good and evil, but in a more complex story like Beauty and the Beast there might be two versions of evil for Belle: The Beast, and Gastone slowly shift between romance interest and villain over the course of the story as Belle changes.

    https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/impact-character-2/
     
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  25. CoyoteKing

    CoyoteKing Good Boi Contributor

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    Maybe I should’ve said antagonist and protagonist.

    Romance novels have a few really basic expectations:
    • The book is about a couple.
    • The couple falls in love and gets together.
    • The couple must be together in a happy relationship at the end of the book.
    So if 90% of the book is about Alex and Jamie, the reader is going to be confused (and disappointed) when Alex and Jamie break up. It’d be like if you were reading Twilight and Bella wound up marrying one of the bad guys instead of Edward. The book is about Edward and Bella. The whole point of the book is watching them get together.

    Romance novels are a little bit different from other books, because the reader expects to know the ending in advance. The main couple gets together and has a happy ending. Period. Or it isn’t a romance novel.

    It’s not really about morality or immorality. Plenty of romance novels have “bad guy” heroes. There’s assassins, criminals, pirates, kidnappers, mobsters, kingpins, smugglers... I’ve even seen a couple outright psychopaths. It’s a taste thing. Some people like nice, safe, supportive, good-guy beta heroes. I lean towards anti-heroes.

    So the problem isn’t that “Riley” is evil. The problem is that “Riley” isn’t the main character. I could rewrite the book and make Riley the main character if I wanted to... but, well, I’d have to rewrite the whole book. And I like Jamie.

    EDIT: another thing is, in the romance world, the word “hero” literally just means “the designated male romantic lead.” It doesn’t mean good guy or bad guy.
     
    Last edited: May 3, 2018

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