slithytove: Lovely PlumageA Blasphemous Christian Fa

Be wise. Be brave. Be tricky. (

slithytove) wrote,
@ 2008-02-18 07:28:00

Current mood:

hopeful

Lovely Plumage
A Blasphemous Christian Fantasy For Young Readers
Which Includes: Several Witches, Two Evil Overlords, The Usual Spunky Heroine, Magic Big And Small, A Well-Intentioned But Not Terribly Helpful Christian God, Misbehaving Furry Devils, A Murderer Come To His Just Deserts, A Perilous Journey, Mysterious And Shocking Events And Discoveries, Goblins And More Goblins, Practical Automata, Danger, Sin, Crime, Resourcefulness, Courage, Jokes, Droll Dialog, A Touching Friendship, And Some Mild Homoerotic Subtext.

Plus A Few Grice.

Despite the meter above, I actually have about 44,000 words of notes, worldbuilding, character sketches, plot outline, snatches of dialog, and some actual previous draft that needs to be vivisected and reassembled. I've been struggling with plot for the past month. Now it's done, or at least done enough to start actually writing.

I find plotting more work and less fun than actually writing. But I need to do it. If I don't, the story wanders all over, picking up whatever ideas are going through my head at the time, and usually ends up wedged. Did that a couple years ago, and wound up with three stories in a row stuck in the middle of the second act, and several months wasted.

Never again. As painful as I find it to work on plot instead of actually producing word output, I must know where I'm going if I'm going to wind up anywhere worth the effort. Not everyone is like this. Some people can just start writing and end up, after revisions, with a coherent story or novel. I have found, through experience, that I can't.

(Post a new comment)

	pnew8 2008-02-18 01:16 pm UTC (link)
	Sounds exciting, delightful and wondrous. Despite the sadness that comes from formulating plot. May the writing go swiftly, flawlessly, with abundant rewards! (Reply to this)(Thread)

	slithytove 2008-02-18 01:56 pm UTC (link)
	Thank you! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	oracne 2008-02-18 02:17 pm UTC (link)
	Go you!!! Like that description.... (Reply to this)(Thread)

	slithytove 2008-02-18 03:04 pm UTC (link)
	Fight-o, fight-o, fight-o! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	dormouse_in_tea 2008-02-18 04:07 pm UTC (link)
	That sounds like a book I want to read! (Reply to this)(Thread)

	slithytove 2008-02-18 04:42 pm UTC (link)
	Good. That's a start! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	retrobabble 2008-02-18 05:01 pm UTC (link)
	Your intro is a hoot. :) Yeah, I hate going over the plot too. Puppy brain, meet leash. sigh At least it's better than writing for a year and then realizing the book isn't salvageable. I think. (Reply to this)

dr_phil_physics
2008-02-18 05:21 pm UTC (link)

Having been enchanted many years ago with the book Good Omens, I find your précis to be quite a lovely mix of adventure and arcane -- ditto the above comment that I want to read this! But I shudder to ask this next question -- with that subtitle and description, this is "really" a YA book, is it? Well, I can always bring marshmallows and Kosher hot dogs when they burn you at the stake. (grin)

Dr. Phil

(Reply to this)(Thread)

slithytove
2008-02-18 05:37 pm UTC (link)

sdn says that the only thing you cannot have in a YA book is explicit sex. She also says that YA is a subset of adult literature, not a subset of children's literature.

I'm reading Holly Black's Valiant, and she edges up pretty damned close to the explicit sex rule.

But I dunno. We'll see. All I want to write is what I want to write. All I can do is hope someone else likes it, too.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	dagoski 2008-02-18 06:47 pm UTC (link)
	Out of curiosity, how do you plot your stories? Your longer ones anyway? Do you make an outline or do something like a treatment for a script? Or, do you do something else entirely? This may be moot for me since I may make grad school a way of life and try for my PhD. (Reply to this)(Thread)

slithytove
2008-02-22 06:52 am UTC (link)

I start with an idea: either a striking character, or a problem, or a scientific or magical idea, or a setting, or a dramatic conclusion, or a couple of those. Then I write out a linear description of the story events -- the plot -- from opening to end, building on whatever I started with. As I go, bits of description, scraps of dialog, or implications of my starting ideas occur, and I write them down into the plot description, along with any problems that come up that need to be solved.

As I go, I keep in mind the basic principles that I think I know about narrative: every scene should end in a 'disaster', things should get worse and worse for the hero until he finally pulls it out at the end, the hero must have agency, etc. Every scene must develop or reflect character, advance the plot, layer the atmosphere, and maybe build the theme. Shoes must drop one at a time. If we're writing fantasy then fantastical events must happen and must contribute to story, character, theme, and atmosphere.

Tim Powers, who was one of my teachers at WotF, said that he thinks of 'cool stuff' and writes it down on note cards until he has enough, then arranges the note cards in a pattern until he has a story. I've been trying to do something like that with Post-It notes and a white board, and with a spreadsheet; but I'm still learning.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	"Misbehaving Furry Devils" wendyb_09 2008-02-18 06:52 pm UTC (link)
	Hmmm...think that's what a friend called their new kittens this weekend upon discovery that those misbehaving furry little devils could open cabinet doors in the bathroom to which they are confined when no one is home to supervise them... Anyhow, good luck with the writing!! Can't wait to read it. (Reply to this)

	cristalia 2008-02-18 08:28 pm UTC (link)
	Hee -- I want to read that already. :) (Reply to this)

Mini Sitemap:

Username:		Create an Account Forgot your login? Login w/ OpenID
Password:
	Remember Me
	English • Español • Deutsch • Русский…