Old People Writing for Teens, IV

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Robert L.B.

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Have you ever failed to meet one of those "deadlines" Zoombie?
 

Zoombie

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Nope!

I mean, sometimes, it's taken way longer than it should have and made words that suck like a sucky suckness of suckonium, but I still write them!

Buuuuuuuuuuuut that's just me. And what works for some people won't work for every people, because writing is a really personal job and is all sorts of weird.

So, if you can't or don't want to work the same way, then don't feel bad or think I'm trying to say anyone should work the same way I do. But, hey, if the shoe fits, then throw it at a President!
 

Stuck In Kansas

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Like Zoombie, I wrote fast. Knocked out seven manuscripts in two years. Emphasis on the "was." Now, I'm finding myself having to revise the crap outta' em. 'Cause they sucked. It's a slower process. I've been so busy rewriting and revising, I haven't written anything new since last November. Gah! Hope I haven't lost the creative muse.
 

Stuck In Kansas

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I do write like you do, Zoombie. Write in a feverish pitch, worry about it later. Sadly, "later's" come early for me. And I'm all kindsa' hung up on revising right now. Sigh.
 

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The more I write, the more I outline.
It's precisely the opposite for me. :) I used to be a total outliner. I once did a 37 plot points type of outline for a 100 p. long screenplay.

Now I need to know the main events and especially the primary conflict, and then I make up details as I go. For example, I have only two Word files for a WIP I put on the backburner:
1) Teh Plan
about a page and a half of general concept, including how it all started and what happens in the middle
2) CHAPTERS
which has the outline for the first four chapters, about 1/2 p. for each one
"Zoombie, you can't use the bathroom until you've written 1,000 words, you lazy bastard."
I must try it!
Loose deadlines with relatively low requirements just don't seem to work. It's like "Ok, so you need to write 1,500 words a day for the next three weeks"--and then um, it's okay if I don't write today, I'll make up for it... and tomorrow... and the day after tomorrow... it will be only a few words added to next week's norm, after all, so it's okay if it's only 700 words today and watching a movie afterwards.
And then the last week rolls by and I suddenly need to write 40k words in order to make it.
 

Zoombie

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I sometimes go through cycles! Like, the past week, I didn't write ANYTHING because I'd finished off Shattered Sky!

Now I'm back in the saddle!

And, I've gone from 50,000 to 52,500!

And now, a scene from my book! The dramatis persona are Vengeful Crystaline Hawk 45C (or Cee for short) as our narrator, Spy-Dar 6661 (or Spy) as the shy one and Endless Panoply of Destruction (or Pan) as the floating legless one who usually pilots a gigantic mecha!

Spy rubbed shampoo into her hair, which she extended long enough to almost totally cover her body, making me wonder exactly what the point was of showering at all – though, I figured some of the water got through anyway. “I hate stutter sleeping!” She blurted, in one of the loudest tones that I’d ever heard her use ever.

Pan, who hadn’t had time to reattach her legs after using her warform, turned, the hover-gems in her thighs humming faintly, making soft crackles and pops whenever water rivuletted over them. “What is stutter sleeping anyway? I've heard Doc tell you to use it before and never got a chance to ask...”

Spy hung her head forward. Then, her shoulder wriggled and one of her component spiders stepped out of her body and onto her shoulder. She didn’t seem all that diminished, but I had been told that there were at least two hundred of those spiders making up her body, plus the mithril they extruded to make up the “memtic polyalloy” that she used for skin.

The spider leaped out and Pan caught it, looking only slightly nervous. See, this was why I think Pan might be braver than me. Yes, she went into fights in a twenty foot tall warform wielding a weapon that could destroy small city blocks, while I went toe-to-toe with fairies using nothing but a beamsword and my speed.

But at least she didn’t freak the hell out when Spy started using her spiders. Meanwhile, I’d flattened myself against the wall of the shower.
The spider’s central eye dimmed, slowly, its silvery legs lying flat against Pan’s palm.

“See?” Spy said. “I’m now one two hundredth of the ways asleep…so, uh, if I spread out, half of my spiders can sleep and half can stay on watch and we can have the whole peremeter patrolled. But…uh…it…kind of doesn’t sleep me enough, but, you know, it’s okay…” She looked down at her hands, wringing them nervously.

“You know, we could always patrol too, right Spy?” Pan asked. "Then you can ALL sleep!"

“Yeah!” I said, forcing my jaw apart. “I mean, without Loco, I have nothing to do at night except think about Loco. Which isn’t nearly as much fun as-“

“Cee, are you about to go off on one of your overly detailed retellings of your sexscapades?” Pan asked.

“…maybe.”

“Please don’t.” Pan said, covering her face with one hand, tossing Spy’s spider back. Spy caught it – caught herself, really – and let the spider reform with her body.
 

Robert L.B.

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Never tried that method before, Zoombie. Though it probably wouldn't work so well for me since I don't do either very often.

Speaking of back in the saddle though, it's been a few days since I finished my outline so I'm gonna get right on editing that. Been spending the last few days playing Divinity 2. Horrible story, horrible ending, don't bother.
 

Windcutter

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Zoombie, that was fascinating, imagining all those fantastic techniques. I love their names, too.
 

Zoombie

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They're magical cyborg golems animated by the reincarnated souls of ancient heroes, made to battle the enemies of the glorious state of Korvosa!

...there was just one tiny problem...

Cee's, who was designed to be the mobile melee support (she has wings, see) for the group, composite soul included hundreds of lives, each one lived heroically...but one of those lives, two hundred years before, had been a partisan fighting AGAINST Korvosa for the free nation of Surya.

That personality was the core of her memories, so when she woke up, she woke up in the wrong nation, two hundred years after her homeland was conquered.

Now, she is under oath binding contract to serve Korvosa. But once the contract is up, she will be free to emigrate to Free Surya. There's just one problem...

She LIKES her coworkers, and she's finding that the common folk of Korvosa are just as worthy of protection as her remembered countrymen. And, as she falls in love with the Unstoppable Locomotion of Destruction, a charming Korvosan super-spy, she finds herself stuck between her loyalties to the past and her loyalties to the future.

But the real killer isn't fighting fairies, tentacled nameless, or the Champions of hostile nations.

No, it's the endless interviews with magazines, posing for statues, signing comic books and working with her agent and publicist to maintain and expand the massive fan-club that every Champion needs.

Because human imagination and willpower is what shapes reality, so if a Champion has a huge fan-club and loads of people making smutty artwork and fanfiction about them, they actually GAIN in power and are more effective in combat.
 

FMAnderson

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Pitches are up for writeoncon

And I got to round 2 in pitch madness, but I don't know what round 2 is...

I know! What are we supposed to do now? Mine is up as number 25 and she asked a question, but I though we weren't supposed to reply on these!?! She said it was an intriguing concept! But she asked someone else for their first three chapters.
 

Netz

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I know! What are we supposed to do now? Mine is up as number 25 and she asked a question, but I though we weren't supposed to reply on these!?! She said it was an intriguing concept! But she asked someone else for their first three chapters.

Yeah, you're not supposed to reply. The feedback is so you know where to focus on (well, in that agent's opinion, of course) if you're going to revise your query.
 

Sage

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The question is just to give you something to think about, where info is missing or what's on her mind as she reads it.

I was surprised by the one that got a request. Guess it shows how an agent will overlook grammar and spelling problems if she sees something else in the query she likes. (But, still best to have a clean pitch!)
 

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If you ever wrote stories with mysterious plots (I don't mean necessarily crime)--did you ever feel like you are dropping too many clues?

My current wip. It's written in bits and pieces and right now I'm filling up two missing chapters close to the beginning. I'm not ready to reveal the plot and the spoilers, so I'll just make up a simple but similar example:

let's say your female MC suspects Love Interest Boy of murder. She secretly looks through his things and finds silver bullets and holy water. The reader also knows from chapter one that the girl who was murdered lost a lot of blood.

The reader wouldn't expect MC to accept vampires and vampire hunters as a credible explanation, because she is inside the story and doesn't have to be genre savvy. But the reader 1) knows it's urban fantasy/horror 2) can make the connection between holy water, silver and blood loss just fine.

Mine is more subtle, but I would have guessed it myself if I were reading it. On the other hand, aren't we told making readers feel smart is a good thing? When they figure something out before the characters do?
 

wampuscat

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I was in a meeting from 8:30 a.m. until almost 4, guys. My brain is mush.

Dorothy, I know you'll make your deadline! You seem very driven. :)

Good luck to all the WriteOnCon folks!

Zoombie, I write just like you. I set a timer for every half hour and expect a certain word count, then I get a prize for it. Like Mountain Dew.

I usually don't mind revisions. In fact, I usually enjoy revisions, but with one of my WIPs, I also let myself write out of order and without an outline. I think this was a mistake.

Windcutter, I always wonder if I'm dropping too many clues. Or just being too heavy handed. I always just leave it in and wait to see what the crit group/betas say.
 

Parametric

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If you ever wrote stories with mysterious plots (I don't mean necessarily crime)--did you ever feel like you are dropping too many clues?

My current wip. It's written in bits and pieces and right now I'm filling up two missing chapters close to the beginning. I'm not ready to reveal the plot and the spoilers, so I'll just make up a simple but similar example:

let's say your female MC suspects Love Interest Boy of murder. She secretly looks through his things and finds silver bullets and holy water. The reader also knows from chapter one that the girl who was murdered lost a lot of blood.

The reader wouldn't expect MC to accept vampires and vampire hunters as a credible explanation, because she is inside the story and doesn't have to be genre savvy. But the reader 1) knows it's urban fantasy/horror 2) can make the connection between holy water, silver and blood loss just fine.

Mine is more subtle, but I would have guessed it myself if I were reading it. On the other hand, aren't we told making readers feel smart is a good thing? When they figure something out before the characters do?

I'd be cautious about making it too obvious to the reader. It drives me up the wall when characters don't see the blindingly obvious. Shannon D3lany's 13 TO L1FE was a particularly egregrious example - the heroine, an urban fantasy fan, couldn't figure out the hero was a werewolf even after about fifteen increasingly obvious clues, up to and including him outright telling her he was a werewolf. :tongue (It also annoys me when you have to slog through 110,000 out of 120,000 words before the protagonist realises they're in a paranormal - but that's more a matter of pacing and wordiness.)
 

Smiley0501

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Oh paranormals...I can go one way or the way other with you. ;)

I got another partial request!!! :snoopy: Can't believe it! I'm up to 4 partial requests. Hold me guys... I hope I hear soon from somebody, whether it be an R or R&R (or offer). :tongue
 

Robert L.B.

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Got a question for people who edit. Would you say backwards editing works? As in instead of going "This happens, then this, then this" it's "This happened, because this happened, because this happened."

I just think it might be easier to spot holes in the plot if look at it from a "How did this result come about" instead of a straight line from beginning to end.
 

JKRowley

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I have a pal who has Kathleen Rushall as an agent, and she is super communicative and targets the right editors, IMO.

Very excited for you, Sage.

FM, I liked hearing more about your story in the pitch. It sounds interesting to me. I, too, like stories based on real life. I think they capture a picture of the past that would be otherwise forgotten. I find the genre has less commercial acclaim, but well received by critics.

I am worn to a nub writing these articles. Three more days. I don't know if I will make it. Ran into a technical glitch tonight and I don't have the energy for battle.

Nothing in editing yet. It may not matter if I quit, these editors hold my fate. The articles have to be approved to qualify for the bonus, which means they have to be edited, which is taking several days. Several days means a lot in a seven day challenge.
 
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