The Other Side

I found this cool blog post over at Write-or-Die that talks about the antagonist of the story and how important they are because they're what's really driving the story by giving the protagonist something to do. And she had a cool idea.

Somehow it had never really occurred to me to really get into what my antagonist is doing while the story goes on centered on the protagonist. I mean, I have vague ideas on what my villain is doing behind the scenes, but most of the time it's really blurry. The stories not centered on the villain so why bother, right?

I'm starting to rethink this. Outlining what the villain is doing throughout the story could bring up some good stuff that I hadn't realized before, and could add more depth to the story when I know precisely what's going on with both sides. Not to mention it could be downright interesting. And fun.

I wouldn't let this take over into a book of it's own (try not to, anyway) cause it would only be for reference on what's going on over there.

So what do you guys think of this? Writing about what's going on on the other side, what they're doing to get at the protagonist, how they're planning they're stuff and just general stuff like that? Only to know what they're doing throughout the book while your protagonist is doing his/her thing?

Just Writing

I have been terribly sidetracked from writing by some other hobbies. Thus, my writing is progressing slowly. I can only wonder how long my interest in this stuff will last before I return solely to writing again.

But, despite this, I have written nearly 5k so far, have three different versions of the prologue, and the first chapter. I'll soon be re-writing the first chapter to fit with the prologue I've chosen, though.

I'm really excited about writing this, I love writing it and wonder when this feeling will go away. Will it be like Nanowrimo, and three weeks into this I'll be all like 'Oh no! What have I done?! It's horrible!!!! D:' I sure hope not.

But, I don't think that will happen. Since, this time around, I'm not just focusing on quantity, but quality as well, giving into that inner editor some. It's really quite pleasant to actually think about the words I'm about to write before I start spitting them out. And going back through to reread and fix errors when I see them, satisfying and stress free. Well, mostly stress free. Lets not get into the actual plotting and planning.

And you know what makes me really happy? When I write a chapter and realize it was in the wrong POV or needs to be written in a future time frame or whatever, and I rewrite it, it all still counts towards my word count for the year and it's what I want! It's a win-win!

So in conclusion, while I dearly love Nanowrimo for the deadline and excitement and all, it's just been so wonderful to write without deadline or word count only in mind.

Do you guys feel the same way?

The Mission of a Chapter

Something should happen in every single chapter to further the plot.

Now, I already knew this before, but it's quite easy to slip your mind when you're actually writing a story. You get caught up in your character, the world, the story and just the general awesomeness of writing your book, and totally forget that this chapter is supposed to have something important in it. Happens to me all the time, happened to me earlier today. I was writing along and then was all like "Oh, wait. What's furthering the plot here?"

Now, I went to one of my most favorite books of all time to scan through the chapters and see does something very important happen every single chapter. I went through Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. And something important does happen every single chapter. Something that furthers the plot. Now, when I was writing earlier I was pretty much just thinking, "Okay, introduce characters, setting etc. until I get to the first twist, however many chapters that takes."

I can't do that though. I can't have chapters there just to be there. They have to do something for the plot. I can't have a chapter in my book just because it's interesting or funny, unless it furthers the plot. It's a bit frustrating for me but at the same time it makes things easier cause I know that each chapter has their own individual mission of getting the plot a bit further, instead of just acting as separators within the book.

When I forget this kind of stuff it makes me feel a lot like this:

Good day!

Plan First, Write Later

Well, I started writing The Chronicles today, starting with the prologue of course. So, I write 1,000 words of this prologue and am finding that. . . it's not needed. I mean, not in the way I was writing it. I introduced a character that would pretty much never come back into the book - not in the flesh anyway - instead of someone else. Which, I have heard more than once, isn't a good idea. People usually say you should introduce the main character at first. Makes sense. And, my MC is kinda in the prologue, but it's being told from another POV - or omnipresent - at a point before the real story starts.

I love the idea of this prologue but I'm wondering if it's necessary. Still, I think it is, it just needs to be done differently. Coming from a different POV, and set in the very near future from where I had originally written the prologue.

Anyway, this got me to reread some stuff on StoryFix.com, namely the structure stuff. And, well, it reminded me of something I had forgotten. I have no idea why, but I was thinking that one of my early plot twists was the first plot point. Just a few weeks ago I knew exactly what the first plot point was but I had somehow forgotten. Good thing I remembered now, before I got passed the prologue.

I have to admit that I feel a bit foolish for running into some problems the first day I decide to write my book. But, if anything, this has reinforced my new 'plan first' strategy of writing, which I am admittedly struggling to follow. So, what am I going to do tomorrow? Why, go back to planning of course.

Hopefully though, it'll just be for tomorrow and I can get back to writing on Friday.

A word of advice: Don't do what I just did.

Going to Write My Book! (And a vid)

Okay. Tomorrow (or today, whatever), I think I'm going to start writing again. Even though nothing is really properly planned or outlined I can't wait any longer to get writing. Not to mention I'm also nearly 50k words behind my word count schedule. I think that things will probably end up rewritten before I even get a first draft out, as things become clearer and I go back and fix things.

And (because I'm too sleepy to really write a post, sorry), here's a video on how to write a book, by Kaleb Nation. He is probably the most inspirational person for me with my writing because he came up with his novel idea when he was 14 years old and worked on it until it was finished and published in 2009. His book is Bran Hambric: The Farfeild Curse and his second book in the series, released last year, is Bran Hambric: The Specter Key.

Enjoy the video!

Reading Stories While Writing Stories

Oops, look like Valentines day totally passed me by. I didn't even notice until I saw all the blog post popping up about it! I have to say I'm not much for the minor holidays like Valentines. The only holidays that I really celebrate are New Years, Easter, sometimes Halloween and Christmas. (And NaNoWriMo. But I don't think that's an official holiday. Yet. :p) So happy belated Valentines day to those who celebrate it!

And now, to the real post!


My story has been deciding to go in a vaguely different direction, especially in regards to the main character and the ending. Well, actually, I take that back. Everything is deciding to turn on it's ear. My main character is deciding that his personality will change some, the villain wants to be more powerful and sneaky, and much much more cunning than before. The ending can't decide whether it wants to be uplifting or depressing. Depending on which way the ending decides to be the character arc may have to be redone. But, these changes are for the good. I think.

I can never be sure though. Especially when I've been reading other stories. If I read things while I'm working on an idea the idea can morph into something laughable as I attempt to bring in some aspects of what I've been reading into what I've been writing.

Hah, you should have seen what happened when I was reading The Fellowship of the Ring! Poems - poems! - ended up all over the place! And, my gosh, there was even a song. A very horrible song that would make me embarrassed if I were to go back and read it. But thankfully I didn't waste all those thousands of words, for the more refined version of what is now The Chronicles of Siron came from there.

But, you see, this is why I'm wary of going along with these new ideas that are plaguing me. Are they really for the good? Or, three months from now, will I be looking at tens of thousands of words of garbage, wishing I had never went with those new ideas?

But I don't see the damage in these ideas. I mean, they're not poems, thank God! Just some stuff to make my story, my characters in particular, much stronger.

The ending on the other hand, I'm still very indecisive on that.

So, I've got some more stuff to figure out now, all because I decided to get back to reading a lot. . .

Sometimes I just wish I could stop reading completly until I was finished writing a story, but unfourtunately I would die.

Do you find that reading other stories does this to you? That there's just something you have to put in your story after reading so and so book? Have you ever regretted it?

Magic

I've been working on my magic system and, though I've been doing well, I am beginning to wonder if I can really do this at all. I mean, magic is such a vast realm I don't think I would ever be able to explore every corner of it, even for just my world. I am thinking that I will plan the general rules of the magics that will appear in my books, and probably a bit further, but there will be much that I won't be able to touch on. Some will just have to be left to the imagination.

I mean, take Harry Potter for example. The magic in there is very ambiguous in my opinion. But it still works. The reader is given just enough rules and structure for this magic while leaving a vast majority of it to the imagination. Some fans who write fanfiction for Harry Potter have come up with detailed amounts of rules and structure to explain how and why the magic in their fanfic works the way it does or even how magic exist and all that. They give more depth, more possibilities, whole new realms to build on what are already in the books. And, well, lots of it are viable ways for magic to work, even in the Harry Potter books themselves.

And this is because J. K. Rowling left a lot to the readers imagination.

Maybe she does have detailed descriptions for exactly why and how her magic works in a journal of hers somewhere, but if she does I haven't heard anything about it and so it gives fans something to fill in with varying theories. And that's fun. That is something I would love to give to my readers, heck, even to myself.

I mean, if I were to give rules and structure to every little single thing there would be no flexibility, no ambiguity, and without those I believe the whole appeal of magic kinda goes away. Cause where's the magic in that? At that point, it would kinda be reduced to science, I think.

So I'm going to plan what needs to be planned, keep blank what can be left to the imagination and give space for there to be many theories and ideas abound to any reader who comes across my book.

What do you guys think about this? Do you think that some stuff about magic should be left to the imagination? How far is too far when it comes to planning magic, in your opinion?