Where are you in your book?

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

  1. King Rangvald X1111

    King Rangvald X1111 New Member

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    Currently, I'm still stuck in chapter one, and for one reason and one reason only. There's an escape/mild chase sequence that I can't figure out how to word interestingly. I can't really just cut it, because the encounter after the sequence is kinda how MC gets out of her current predicament, and is a major plot point for the overall gimic of the book, so...
     
  2. Lew

    Lew Contributor Contributor

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  3. Lew

    Lew Contributor Contributor

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    That is a pretty impressive first draft @Rick Hansen. A "beta reader" is a volunteer who will read your work and give you a critique, recommendations for improvement, etc. You can probably find some here. The Maryland Writers Assn of which @K McIntyre and I are members, has exchange readers, who do the same thing, more of a "you show me yours, I'll show you mine" type arrangement. They are very helpful for someone who is at your stage (advanced or finished first draft) If you think you may have SPaG issues, let your beta know, otherwise fix the SPaG before you let them see it. Good luck, and well done on getting so far along
     
  4. pyroglyphian

    pyroglyphian Word Painter

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    I seem to be everywhere all at once like gas... or like an octopus playing Twister with friends.
     
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  5. ITBA01

    ITBA01 Active Member

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    I'm still in the planning phase, which feels like it could go on for a long time.
     
  6. SoulGalaxyWolf

    SoulGalaxyWolf Active Member

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    It could be discouraging sometimes, but there's this quote that makes it a whole lot easier to just keep writing:
    "It took me fifteen years to discover that I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous." this was said by either Robert Benchley or Mark Twain
    One of these years I'm going to frame this quote and hang it on my wall, haha. There's also another inspiration that keeps me going: "You're going to be someone's favorite author". The thought of my ideas at least reaching one person who enjoys it is good enough for me. Also, being able to publish a book and being able to go back read what I made and feel like I finished something is another inspiration. It's better then not doing anything at all! :D
     
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  7. SoulGalaxyWolf

    SoulGalaxyWolf Active Member

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    Yeah. Who knows, I might just have my character be with someone else or just have it centered around the MAGIC OF FRIENDSHIP! Except "magic of friendship" will be somewhat more grounded, lol
     
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  8. samgallenberger

    samgallenberger Member

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    I'm a little over 60k words in and once I ditch pieces and throw in some finishing touches it'll likely be in the 60-65k range. I just need to complete two sections, then I can go back and answer all the questions and notes I left for myself. Finally I'll add in some last minute key details and make sure the dialogue and characterization is how I want it. Then I'll be good to publish. This is a much longer process than I anticipated.
     
  9. Nariac

    Nariac Contributor Contributor

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    Amen.

    Five years on, having discarded over a million words, I'm just praying for death completion of the first draft.
     
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  10. BlitzGirl

    BlitzGirl Contributor Contributor

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    I understand that! I will be lucky if I can even finish a first draft! :bigoops: I've been notorious about never finishing an original story. Fingers crossed, here...
     
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  11. samgallenberger

    samgallenberger Member

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    Holy crap. It took me six years to even put pen to paper and at this pace it will have been over a year since I started before I finish writing this. I thought that was bad and that's not even in the same stratosphere as discarding a MILLION words.
     
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  12. Nariac

    Nariac Contributor Contributor

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    The problem I had was that I was learning while doing. And of course, as you get to the end, you realise the early stuff is just bad. Maybe it's poorly written, maybe the plot has changed, maybe you haven't yet found your "writer's voice" and it sounds all over the place. Sometimes it's all of this, as it was for me. So basically I rewrote the entire story many times over. It's far far better now, and I'm happy with where it's at. Call it the "final draft of the first draft" but, oh boy, getting here took a long time and a lot of discarded stuff. :C
     
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  13. Nariac

    Nariac Contributor Contributor

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    Fingers, toes, eyes ...

    Cross all the things!

    And eat a hot-cross bun, while finishing that first draft. I've read some of it and I know it's beautiful so I'm cheering you on!
     
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  14. BlitzGirl

    BlitzGirl Contributor Contributor

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    I know how that is as well! There are many things that I've added or tweaked in earlier chapters because of things I've added to later chapters, things I never originally planned on adding. It can be difficult sometimes to create consistency, which makes me end up reading earlier chapters a dozen times over to make sure I didn't miss anything. It's quite the chore!
     
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  15. X Equestris

    X Equestris Contributor Contributor

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    Sitting at almost 52k words.
     
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  16. Spirit of seasons

    Spirit of seasons Active Member

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    My goal is 50k words, I'm at 30k right now, about two thirds of the way through the main story arch. I plan on adding subplots and flashbacks later as needed. There's a lot of backstory I can add for Rose, and maybe even Jormond (antagonist). Even if the final story is only 70k I want every word to sing off the page, waste not want not sort of thing.

    My story is kinda constructed like so:

    Beginning, exposition, and start of threads

    Middle: Payoffs for most of the earlier story lines. The "death of the protagonist", kinda like in the hero's journey story type.

    End: rebirth, and then the climax and resolution, then Epilogue.

    I don't really have any outlines, just a bunch of ideas that are stuck in my head. Hopefully I can use most of them without bending the story in unnatural manners. Today at a local chapters book store I had a short chat with an author doing a book signing. I hope I can stand in her place one day. LOL
     
  17. Mckk

    Mckk Member Supporter Contributor

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    Hey, 5 years on, it ain't bad. I started mine when I was 19 and I'm gonna be 31 this Aug... :ohno: and I think I may finally have my first working draft! (still writing but so close to the end now) I have at least 3 finished drafts that I remember, plus probably at least 2-4 other unfinished drafts, all of which I edit as I go along. (I have 3 more drafts that aren't even included in the count I just did, too) Some parts were reused in various drafts. Large chunks of all of these drafts were deleted and/or rewritten. My current, best draft so far sits at 105k words and still going. God only knows how many words I've discarded :supercry:

    Anyway. All this to say, I feel your pain and HELLO KINDRED SPIRIT!!! :superhello::cheerleader:
     
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  18. Catrin Lewis

    Catrin Lewis Contributor Contributor Contest Winner 2023 Community Volunteer

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    Where am I in my book? Well, originally I was in the female main character but I realized someone with my personality made a lousy protagonist, so I fired myself and put in someone who'd be better for the job instead, so now---

    Oh, sorry. You mean in terms of progress. I'm formatting. 98% done with the print book, and around 80% along with the ebook. There's only one last global coding issue to solve for the overall template, so that's good. The biggest task will be to convert my Back Matter to html, meaning I'll have to remember how to do a lot of stuff I learned for the first time last fall and haven't messed with since.

    Once that's done, I need to do the back cover for the print book and get my website live. I really could launch the ebook without that, but I'd like it to be ready all at once.
     
  19. Genghis McCann

    Genghis McCann Active Member

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    About 20,000 words, so that's about a third of the way through. It's my second book. The first was really just an attempt to see if I could do it, on a project that just wouldn't get out of my head until I wrote it down. But as a first attempt it left a lot to be desired. I know that the second is much better, but whether it will cut the mustard as far as traditional publication is concerned is another thing.
    So I just keep going, writing short stories in-between whenever an unrelated idea starts to nag at me.
     
  20. Laurin Kelly

    Laurin Kelly Contributor Contributor

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    I just submitted my new novel to my publisher last night! Now time to start working in earnest on my next book, which will be a sequel to my first one.
     
  21. marshipan

    marshipan Contributor Contributor

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    Got maybe 10% in and realized I have to actually plot out the story now. This week I'm outlining and detailing the world. I got the murder mystery part figured all out yesterday. The romance sub plot is still non-existant and the world building/fantasy aspect still needs work. Hoping to be done enough with all that this weekend so I can start working on my word count again.
     
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  22. Nariac

    Nariac Contributor Contributor

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    Believe me, you can just work on the first stuff you listed! The word count ... yeah, that takes care of itself.

    (Might have to shave 100,000 words off this book >.< )
     
  23. Hublocker

    Hublocker Active Member

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    30,000 words in writing off-the-cuff. Now I'm m looking at the characters I've got, the situaiton they've got themselves into and plotting where to go for the next two-thirds of the book.
     
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  24. deadrats

    deadrats Contributor Contributor

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    I'm thinking about things. Probably got about 100 pages down. I'm not in a rush with this one. I am primarily a short story writer. But I do want to finish this and I believe I will. I think it's not so bad. I probably need to read it again to remember just how bad it is. And I should really get back to it. My intentions are totally in the right place.
     
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  25. Lew

    Lew Contributor Contributor

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    Up to 70,000 words in "The Long Road Back to Rome." Introduced two chapters that seemed initially to be exciting but out of place, one FMC successfully breaking a stallion that no one else could ride in Khojand in Central Asia, and winning him in a bet. The second, her surreptiously entering him in a horse race in Ctesiphon (Hamedan, Iran) on the eastern Parthian king's celebration of nowruz, Zoroastrian new years on the vernal equinox. Turns out, she not only won the race, but made an enemy out of someone in the palace, which solved my problem of how to plausibly kidnap one of my MMCs and take him off to the West Parthian capital of Ctesiphon (Baghdad). Sometimes these threads just connect!
     

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