Kimber An's Blog, page 18

The Innermost Cave

I have such a cluttered imagination.  Don't even look at my house (my kingdom for matching socks!).  The nice thing about the Hero's Journey or Blake Snyder's Beat Sheet. is that I can look at that and figure out what goes where and what's missing in my story.  Oftentimes, I'm muttering, "Something's not right, something's missing..."  And I'll have to go back and study those structures a bazillion times and the story's scene-by-scene outline.  Even at this late juncture, even with something obvious, I'm still finding holes and searching.  My daughter/editor helps a lot with that.  Anyway, the hole I just found yesterday is known as the Innermost Cave.  Check it out at the Coyote Tale pages.
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It's Bilbo Baggins in Gollum's Cave.  It's Frodo in Shelob's Lair.  Luke Skywalker in the trashmaster on the Death Star.  Harry Potter in the Chamber of Secrets and Bella in the ballet studio with James.  It's where heroes go to experience their darkest moment and emerge, as though resurrected from the dead.
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I knew I was missing something with Martin.  Oh, yes, of course, he lives.  You don't waste an effective villain by killing him off too quickly.  Too many readers have found Martin creepy enough to keep around for a while.  Martin is to Ophelia like Voldemort is to Harry Potter, although, yeah, I realize I'm not J.K. Rowling.  The nice thing about Fantasy and Science Fiction is it's easy to bring folks back from the dead.  You just twist the Bad Guy to make him Even Badder.  So, I knew Ophelia was going to have to have a showdown with Martin, but it just wasn't gelling in my brain.  Now it is, so I'd better go working on it.  Yeah, yeah, don't worry, she kicks serious butt in this one.
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Or, as Bianca says, "Geez, you're getting vicious!"

Acid Test for SWEET BYTES

SWEET BYTES goes to a real YA reader, my daughter, today and she's mean and thorough and isn't afraid to say, "This is crap, Mom.  Fix it!"

I'm at Reader Girls Today!

Don't know why, but Blogger won't let me leave a comment to thank the visitors there.  Anyway, here's the link-
Bianca Interviews Adrian and Ophelia About their Favorite Romantic Couples in Literature

This Site Updated

The major updates were to the My Calendar and Free Stories, Reviews, Interviews, and Guest Blogs pages.  Links are on the sidebard.

Revision Resource: Just About Write

Every writer is different, even within the same genre.  So, what resource works for your crit partner might not work for you.  It's worth it to check out the different resources, so I always do when I hear of a new one.  Just About Write  is a bunch of articles by various authors which are loaded with just the kind of help I need in the Weed & Polish Stage of Revision, like transitions and descriptions always stump.  I have to work hard at them.  There's also some awesome self-editing articles too.
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P.S. I should've added this link to my Writers' Resources page when I first set it up, but I just plum-forget.  I'll go do that now.  This site has been desperate for renovations since Crushed Sugar.

SWEET BYTES in the Weed & Polish

Pop on over to The Ophelia Dawson Chronicles  to read all about it.

CRUSHED and SUGAR RUSH Reviewed

Crushed Sugar at Got Romance Reviews
Sugar Rush at Got Romance Reviews

I Guest at Daily Dose of Decadence

I'm talking about the series' playlist.

No Day Off

I try to take Mondays and Tuesdays off the computer, but I'm going to slug it out in the Second Draft of Sweet Bytes because I'm so near the end.  Then, I'll take off two or three days before the final Weed & Polish.  Ugh, it's always kinda scary thinking, "Am I actually going to get there?"

Summer Reads & Writes

Enduring Romance