Adelaide Thorne's Blog, page 3
January 20, 2016
Two Things
1) Book 3 has a name, and it is "The Cost." The title was harassing me while I wrote, cropping up repeatedly until I finally went, "Oh, I see--you're trying to tell me your name. Fine, calm down, already."
2) First draft of The Cost= completed. I finished it yesterday. I wrote the last sentence, changed around a word or two, and then didn't feel anything else coming afterward. My brain went, Wait, is this it? and my mouth hung open a little. Then I clicked Save and proceeded to run around my house shouting with glee. My cats gawked at me with giant pupils, but I screamed nonetheless.
So what happens now? Well, you know the drill. I went straight to OfficeMax and printed all 418 pages (how in the world did it get so long?). The stack of paper is sitting on the floor beside my desk, calling for me to dive into it, but I'm resisting. Resistance is futile. I've already combed through the first couple of pages and found 1 error. And I did that in the parking lot of OfficeMax. I'm being stern with myself now, however. I won't touch it for a week or two, allowing my mind to digest and refresh. Then it's back to my favorite grind of editing. This is the roughest first draft yet, complete with pages of straight dialogue without any mention of tags; brackets that say ["X" happens here]; and a whole escape from a prison where I have yet to figure out how exactly the escape occurs. I did the whole [she escapes] thing, and then proceeded to what happens afterward. Needless to say, I'm a bit frightened to begin approaching this book. I'm also ecstatic, of course.
The end is near, folks. I'll finish The Cost, and then comb through Trace and Integer for any discontinuity. And then...Whitewashed will be done.
Let's not talk about that quite yet.
2) First draft of The Cost= completed. I finished it yesterday. I wrote the last sentence, changed around a word or two, and then didn't feel anything else coming afterward. My brain went, Wait, is this it? and my mouth hung open a little. Then I clicked Save and proceeded to run around my house shouting with glee. My cats gawked at me with giant pupils, but I screamed nonetheless.
So what happens now? Well, you know the drill. I went straight to OfficeMax and printed all 418 pages (how in the world did it get so long?). The stack of paper is sitting on the floor beside my desk, calling for me to dive into it, but I'm resisting. Resistance is futile. I've already combed through the first couple of pages and found 1 error. And I did that in the parking lot of OfficeMax. I'm being stern with myself now, however. I won't touch it for a week or two, allowing my mind to digest and refresh. Then it's back to my favorite grind of editing. This is the roughest first draft yet, complete with pages of straight dialogue without any mention of tags; brackets that say ["X" happens here]; and a whole escape from a prison where I have yet to figure out how exactly the escape occurs. I did the whole [she escapes] thing, and then proceeded to what happens afterward. Needless to say, I'm a bit frightened to begin approaching this book. I'm also ecstatic, of course.
The end is near, folks. I'll finish The Cost, and then comb through Trace and Integer for any discontinuity. And then...Whitewashed will be done.
Let's not talk about that quite yet.
January 1, 2016
Anamnesis
*Anamnesis has since been changed to Whitewashed, but I wanted to keep this post to remind all readers (mainly myself) that stories change and grow and develop, and that's not a bad thing.*
First, it is a real word. Merriam-Webster says it is a "recalling to mind." It is a memorial, a remembrance.
Second, it is the official title of my collective trilogy. The Trace, The Integer, and The Cost now belong to Anamnesis. How possessive of you, Anamnesis.
Initially, I thought that Integer was going to be called The Anamnesis, but then I decided that the word was too grandiose to belong to a single book. With all the depth and meaning attached to the word "anamnesis" (which IS a word, computer, so stop doing the squiggly red underline!), how could it fit a single book? It couldn't, so I stole the word and gave it to the whole trilogy, formerly called Evolution. In the end, Evolution was too small, and didn't quite apply any longer. Once I got to the final book, I realized what I was trying to accomplish with this trilogy, and so Evolution lost its meaning and Anamnesis took over.
I am super excited about this, although my tongue gets tied every time I try to tell people about Anamnesis. "So I'm writing this trilogy called Anam-eh-nem-e-sis." Then, when I do pronounce it correctly, people are still confused, because no one has heard of this word. Why doesn't anyone know this word?! It's so cool! It deserves to be known. I don't really have a right to judge, because I didn't know what it was, either, but now that I know, it has become my mission to ensure that everyone knows this word. Therefore, I shall now direct you to Wikipedia for a more thorough explanation. The word also happens to have a religious meaning that I find very cool.
So, why is this trilogy called Anamnesis? All I can say is...spoilers.
First, it is a real word. Merriam-Webster says it is a "recalling to mind." It is a memorial, a remembrance.
Second, it is the official title of my collective trilogy. The Trace, The Integer, and The Cost now belong to Anamnesis. How possessive of you, Anamnesis.
Initially, I thought that Integer was going to be called The Anamnesis, but then I decided that the word was too grandiose to belong to a single book. With all the depth and meaning attached to the word "anamnesis" (which IS a word, computer, so stop doing the squiggly red underline!), how could it fit a single book? It couldn't, so I stole the word and gave it to the whole trilogy, formerly called Evolution. In the end, Evolution was too small, and didn't quite apply any longer. Once I got to the final book, I realized what I was trying to accomplish with this trilogy, and so Evolution lost its meaning and Anamnesis took over.
I am super excited about this, although my tongue gets tied every time I try to tell people about Anamnesis. "So I'm writing this trilogy called Anam-eh-nem-e-sis." Then, when I do pronounce it correctly, people are still confused, because no one has heard of this word. Why doesn't anyone know this word?! It's so cool! It deserves to be known. I don't really have a right to judge, because I didn't know what it was, either, but now that I know, it has become my mission to ensure that everyone knows this word. Therefore, I shall now direct you to Wikipedia for a more thorough explanation. The word also happens to have a religious meaning that I find very cool.
So, why is this trilogy called Anamnesis? All I can say is...spoilers.
November 26, 2015
Those Voices In Your Head
I've been going through a voice funk lately, and by that I mean I've been trying to answer to the different styles pulling me in multiple directions. It's been overwhelming trying to sort out blog voice from work voice from Ella voice. I've found Ella speaking in a journalistic style, and my food column diving into some confused, eighteen-year-old girl introspection. How do I compartmentalize those voices in my head? Well, when I figure it out, I'll let you know. In the meantime...
I'm really only slightly joking here. I haven't figured it out completely, but I do think it helps to switch up writing mediums, and of course to get in the right zone prior to writing. I've decided to assign particular mediums to whatever it is that I'm writing, so my laptop, tablet, and various journals serve different purposes. Since I did that, getting in the right mood has gotten so much easier.
I've been writing in the Anamnesis voice for about five years, so I have no idea what sort of writer I'll be once this trilogy is complete. As I'm sensing an actual completion date in 2016, I've been wondering about who I am as a writer more and more lately. What will happen when I start something new, with a fresh POV? My books are in first person, from Ella's perspective, which I originally thought would make writing easier. As it turns out, it's immensely difficult, and I won't be writing first person for awhile after this! There are pros, but the cons have started outnumbering them. While I'm writing these books, I can't know anything that she doesn't know, and (duh) everything that happens is from her perspective. As the plot gets more complex, it's gotten harder for me to figure out how she can learn things in an interesting way, or how the reader can suspect something without Ella suspecting it. I guess that's why they say writing isn't easy, right? On top of this complicated dynamic, writing as Ella actually started affecting my mood, which hadn't really happened before. She's depressed for half of the third book (spoiler?), and I was finding myself down and morose. It was only once Ella started perking up that I noticed that I was starting to cheer up, and I had a "Wait a minute!" moment and was glad to be over that unhappy hump.
Have I digressed? Probably. I think I can reel it back in. This post is about voices, right? So, Ella's voice has affected me both as a writer and as a person. I'll probably finish these books and realize that I hate oranges and love spiders.
Have you ever struggled to separate your writing voices? If so, do tell me how you overcame the hurdle.
I'm really only slightly joking here. I haven't figured it out completely, but I do think it helps to switch up writing mediums, and of course to get in the right zone prior to writing. I've decided to assign particular mediums to whatever it is that I'm writing, so my laptop, tablet, and various journals serve different purposes. Since I did that, getting in the right mood has gotten so much easier.
I've been writing in the Anamnesis voice for about five years, so I have no idea what sort of writer I'll be once this trilogy is complete. As I'm sensing an actual completion date in 2016, I've been wondering about who I am as a writer more and more lately. What will happen when I start something new, with a fresh POV? My books are in first person, from Ella's perspective, which I originally thought would make writing easier. As it turns out, it's immensely difficult, and I won't be writing first person for awhile after this! There are pros, but the cons have started outnumbering them. While I'm writing these books, I can't know anything that she doesn't know, and (duh) everything that happens is from her perspective. As the plot gets more complex, it's gotten harder for me to figure out how she can learn things in an interesting way, or how the reader can suspect something without Ella suspecting it. I guess that's why they say writing isn't easy, right? On top of this complicated dynamic, writing as Ella actually started affecting my mood, which hadn't really happened before. She's depressed for half of the third book (spoiler?), and I was finding myself down and morose. It was only once Ella started perking up that I noticed that I was starting to cheer up, and I had a "Wait a minute!" moment and was glad to be over that unhappy hump.
Have I digressed? Probably. I think I can reel it back in. This post is about voices, right? So, Ella's voice has affected me both as a writer and as a person. I'll probably finish these books and realize that I hate oranges and love spiders.
Have you ever struggled to separate your writing voices? If so, do tell me how you overcame the hurdle.
