Holly Lisle's Blog, page 8

Ohio 3 goes dark — 1331 words and an unexpected callback

And darker yet.

My MC had one of those “best news in the world, worse news in the world” days today.

And while she had the last part of truly wonderful news, I got a big chunk of writing to finish up Chapter 3 and got 729 words into Chapter 4 before I managed to get to a place where I could let myself stop.

Wonderful went dark in a big damn hurry today. If I’d been writing a comic-book superhero, this would have been where I tripped into a really ugly part of her origin story.

As it was, it was just my MC showing up for the reading of a will after the death of an elderly friend of her grandmother’s.

The stuff I found out today, though… HOLY CRAP!

And I got also got the weirdest loop imaginable from a previous novel (in a completely different universe) pouring into this novel.

I was writing, my MC was talking, and my MC was ripping these little pieces out of that previous novel as quotes, and I kept thinking both, “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?” and “…This is perfect. I cannot believe how well it fits.”

It was, to sum up, one of those fine, fine writing days you can only hope for, and rarely experience.

Now, though, I’m off to work on a surprise thing I’m putting together.

Ohio 3: A thing about family – the VERY good writing day

Today was a tough writing day — not because of getting the words, but because the words are about things that hit me hard.

Family, and what that world could mean, and should mean, and also what it sometimes doesn’t.

This chapter is deep inside the magic of the world… and the conflict there comes from the danger that magic brings to those who can’t use it… but who can nonetheless be affected by it.

I love what I got. Got a bit teary-eyed and choked up at one point. But I ran long because I couldn’t bring myself to quit until I actually finished the scene.

This was the last sentence of the scene:

And with everything to lose, I was, I discovered, still angry.

OHIO 3: MURDER… and another solid writing day!

The words went happily and twistily today, and I’m delighted with what I got. Evil is afoot, (and probably a couple of knees, and a hand or two), and my main character has just had her whole life flipped upside-down. Nice thing to have happen in Book Three.

So now I’m getting to work on a surprise I’m putting together for writers.

Onward!

809 words, and a pretty decent writing day

The book has been coming along well all week. I’m now at 14,326 on the new first draft of Ohio Three. Hitting the daily word counts pretty well, and this time I’m sticking closely to my line-for-scene plot and not going “WHEEEEEE” and pantsing like there’s no tomorrow.

I know there are folks who pants as their process (work without an outline, or a net, or even a tightrope to carry them across the crevasse of novel).

I have my process — line-for-scene outline with a story Sentence (Protagonist VS Antagonist in Setting with Twist). And this time, (with four novels I hate obtained by pantsing) I’m sticking to the Sentence like the science that it is.

Pantsing is, for me, the equivalent of religion — you close your eyes and leap on faith. And as happened every time in my past when religion and I slammed into each other, when I pantsed, I got clobbered.

So… line-for-scene outline. It’s my Science. My process that does not require faith in the unprovable (writing into the dark). It lets me see where I want to go, and then get there. And this time, I’m getting there… and the places I’m getting are where I want to go.

A good week of writing on Ohio Three, Take TWO

I’ve gotten good words on the third Ohio novel all week… and today was especially fun. (There was some on-page barfing, but it was related to an important story element, and a job no one in her right mind would want). There was also a brand new mystery that popped up at me.

And my discovery of what’s going on behind the scenes with my main character and her basement (stuff that wakes me up in the middle of the night) just keeps pulling me back down there to see more.

1134 words for the day, and I’m now about fifteen percent of the way through the first draft of OHIO 3.

Ohio 3: For my characters, today was Good News, Bad News

I like what I’m getting on Ohio 3. While I wrote previous versions of all five novels, I’ve used very little of any of what I wrote except for Ohio 1.

Wordcount today is 1077, and I’m very happy with that.

Right now, Ohio three is mostly first draft, but I’ve been able to use pieces of a couple scenes from the previous version of the book. Today was ENTIRELY new… but it flowed smoothly out of what I got over the previous few days, and I’m very, very happy with the words I got.

I love the world I’ve built — which is a pretty sideways version of the Ohio town I actually live in. Much more dangerous, much more magical… but the bones of the place are the home I remember from childhood here, and what I’ve rediscovered since we moved back.

Not doing any teasers — these are all coming out under a new pseudonym, and I’ll be testing a specific launch process while bringing them out, and I can’t put up any teasers because those would be searchable back to me, and would then wreck the pseudonym and the testing process.

Nevertheless… I’m really, really happy with what I’m getting, and if you like dangerous urban fantasy, I think you’ll really enjoy these.

Second take on Ohio 2 done in first draft

So…

I didn’t use a word of the first version of Ohio 2. Even my “and’s” and “the’s” are brand new, and fresh and sparkling.

NOW, HOWEVER… the novel sits for a week or two or maybe three while I outline Ohio Three. Ohio Three will also be brand-new. I won’t even be reading the old Ohio Three, because I took the town and the magic in better direction.

I have to let TWO grow cold so that all the love I feel for it right now has a chance to die down.

If I love it too much, I won’t be willing to do what has to be done to fix it.

Once I have the new Ohio Three outlined, I’ll go back do my read-through of Two, and my debug, and when that is done, I’ll print out a fresh copy and hand off to Matt for editing.

And while he’s editing, I’ll start writing Three.

Yeah, I’m going to end up having four completely unused novels sitting on my hard drive when I’m done repeating this process.

Am I going to do anything with them?

Dunno. I might pull out especially egregious wrecks as demos for my writing students.

I might point to all four novels and in the Voice of Doom, say something like, “BEWARE THE IDE(A)S OF MARCH…” (work-safe Wikipedia link)

But I’ll probably just wince at the bruises those books gave me, and give them wide berth.

Closing in on the ending, with pending adventure that will slide into Ohio 3

This time through, I’m happy with the novel, with the twists and turns, with the basic premise of the thing, and with how THIS story will roll into Ohio 3.

I figure it’ll take me another week or so to get to the ending, and I do have an ending I’m shooting for (with the caveat that my game of Beat the Ending is still running, and if I come up with something even better that won’t break the world or the characters, I reserve the right to take that.

Big thing, though… this time, I’m HAPPY.

So… Now I’m off to start on weekend things.

Attics and Basements and Monsters, Oh, MY!!!

Good writing day today in spite of having to fight with some software. Not the software’s fault, but owning both the version sold by Apple and the version sold by the software’s creator…

Should not be news to anyone, but buying from the creator turns out to be the way to go. You get fantastic customer support from a live person quickly, and the recommendations actually work.

Meanwhile, novel-wise. I discovered today that my word count was artificially inflated by having saved two chapters that I knew I wanted to use (but not necessarily in this book) down to the bottom of my Scrivener sidebar. They were still checked as active in there, so they were counted, and for a few minutes, I thought I’d hit my completion wordcount with a long way to go to the end of the story.

When I unchecked them, all of a sudden I had 57,490 words, and I still have enough elbow room in this novel to do thing things I want, and still hit 70,000.

So… good day all around.

Recommended software for folks with Macs who blog? Red Sweater’s Mars Edit. I’ve been using this for years, and it makes blogging fun, and straightforward, and it eliminates a whole lotta pain-in-the-ass back and forth stuff, including logging into your blog to post in the posting window.

You do everything on your computer.

Last day of the year… and about ready to get back to work

It hasn’t been the best year in my life. It hasn’t been the worst, either.

I wrecked four first drafts of my Ohio Series (books two through five) by exuberatant pantsing.

After a longish Think Week and some time spent away from fiction writing and away from deadlines, I’m rested and ready to go through OHIO BOOK TWO, and finish up that revision.

I’m not going to make any judgements on Three through Five until I’ve read them. There will be some salvagable stuff. There always is.

Probably not a lot.

I updated my blogging software to the next version. From my end, since I’m not a power user, it’s essentially “same software, different-shaped logo”.

In an app I want to NOT make my life difficult, that’s the best possible outcome.

If you’re looking for something like that, this is a shout out to Red Sweater Software and MarsEdit. Not an affiliate link — I don’t make a dime if you buy it. But when you can move seamlessly from Version Four to Version Five of a piece of sofwware without folks being damned determined that you’re going to get all the new bells and whistles right in your face… when, in other words, you get to just keep working rather than re-learning everything you knew — that company deserves thanks.

Have done the rest of my work for the day, and I am now going to go crawl under the big wool blanket I’m knitting, and work on it wrapped in the warmth of it. It’s cold here. I’m glad.

Cold is my excuse to knit up all the wool I have… so I can buy more.

Have a great New Year.

I’ll be back on Monday, doing year goals and planning out my work (as much as that’s possible).

One of my goals is to blog more. There will be others… but you’ll get them when I decide they’re worth the committment.