Draft 2

It's funny, how a single new idea can upset months of work. Despite my earlier trepidation, I find that I am eager to begin with the prospect of this story blossoming beneath my hands in an entirely new direction, one that could take it far further and with greater depth than Draft 1.

I was once told that the best way to begin a story is by stating a concise, well-compacted fact that will, with its presentation, snag the reader and encourage them to read onward. I have, in the past, not stayed true to this, but the concept behind a single fact being stated that requires further explanation, can shock the reader with a jarring phrase, or flow delicately into the next paragraph. I have always had a taste for flowery description and prose, but there's something enticing about disrupting a pleasant scene and throwing the reader into complete chaos as the characters within one's stories are presented with the problem at hand.

For the past four days I have been debating upon how to begin Draft 2. Again, the old lesson returned and I decided that it should begin simply, with something easy for the reader to infuse, process, and continue to explore as it grows. In this case I decided to begin with a cheerful memory of the main character's childhood, a lighthearted foray into better times, before throwing them into the chaos of the current situation with which the book begins. I am not entirely sure as to how it will pan out, but I have a feeling that whatever the result, it will not be what I expected.

I always end up running hundreds of scenarios through my head before I sit down to the actual writing; I decide how to begin, and then immediately the story takes a turn in a direction I didn't even remotely consider. I suppose that's one of the most fascinating things about writing; sometimes it seems as if a story develops and grows of its own volition as much as the writer's, living, exhaling words and scenes and plot twists. There is nothing more satisfying than watching your story unfold before your very eyes; each new page is like a new breath of air, like you didn't realize you'd never breathed before, never opened yourself to the world around you.

Draft 2 has begun, and I'm positively ecstatic because it looks to be twice as good as the last, and twice as complex. I think I need challenges in my life; they provide compulsion, drive, dedication; all things that I would be floundering without. This story is indeed one of my greatest challenges, and my fingers shudder with anticipation above the keyboard even now, ready to begin the challenge anew.

So I went back on my original declaration that I wasn't going to start editing until I had finished the first draft. As I was driving down the highway for many long hours, as is often the case, I found myself imagining two children running through a field, spurred on by the sounds of war, and disappearing into the trees, taking flight as far as their feet could carry, and it occurred to me that my dissatisfaction with the beginning of my novel was easily remedied by this situation, but not easily integrated. As such, I am in the process of reorganizing the sequence of events and altering it to accept this beginning.

Funny, that such a restart coincides with the new year.

At this point, the story has a long way to go. I’ve barely even scraped the surface of this world and its people even sixty-four pages in. I’ll admit, such an amount of writing in such a short time as one month is an accomplishment, but there’s no point to patting myself on the back until it’s complete. 

As a result I need to set goals as to how I’m to go about this story; earmark different points at which I can step back and take a look at what I’ve written so far, to ensure continuity within my work even with little editing.

On the subject of editing, I don’t intend to edit my work until I’ve completed the first draft, at the very least. Not until I am able to hold a bundle of pages within two hands and call it a story will I be done with the draft, and it will go through at least five revisions before I think about sending it to a publisher.

In the meantime, I have gathered a couple of links to useful sites regarding the publishing of work, either by self-publishing or how to go about sending work to a publishing company, and have listed them below for the usage of anyone who bothers to stumble across this bit of writing. I will continue to add to this post as I find links, and at some point go back in and evaluate their usefulness for anyone interested in writing/publishing.

http://www.blurb.com/?SSAID=314743

http://cbiclubhouse.com/

http://www.agentquery.com/

http://www.smashwords.com/

So it's December now; I didn't reach the goal of 50,000 words by November 30th, but I managed to break 40,138 words. I'm currently still working away on my novel, and it has now reached 40,691 words so far. From the looks of it, this is going to be considerably longer than I originally intended, and may perhaps be part of a series.

Leeder's Grain Snippet

Here's a little gift for all of my readers, few as you may be: 

She smelled of the sea, the sweet salty brine of the ocean and the foam of a white-capped wave as it roiled toward the shore. Her hair seemed to have a life of its own, the thin filaments moving with the slightest motion within the room as they reacted to small sounds, flickering about like grass in the wind at the quiet pad of Molly's footsteps as she hesitantly made her way across the room to stand before her.

The woman extended a thin-boned hand as she turned, fingers curling outward and gently sliding beneath the young girl's chin, tilting her head upward and to the side. “Remarkable,” she said, and her voice had a music in it of a kind Molly had never heard before, the low moan of deep waters beneath its softness.

 “What's remarkable?” Molly asked, returning the pooling gaze of her brown eyes.

 “Why you are, young lady,” the woman laughed, and Molly smiled.

A snippet from page 16 of my novel. Currently on day 9 of NaNo, and catching up to the quota! 

NaNoWriMo Day 6

It is the sixth day of NaNoWriMo, at 3am. At present I have fallen massively behind on my word count. The hoped-for quota at present was about 8,333 last night, but today's quota is 10K (10,000), which I doubt I will achieve unless I do some serious word-crunching. I'm currently trying to word-war my way to the correct amount, but it is doubtful that I will reach it in time. Regardless I will try my best, and see how far I can go.

NaNoWriMo day 2

My word count has bumped  up to 2,416 in the past couple of hours, but is still behind for the day's quota of 3,333. Either way, the story is developing right from the beginning in ways I didn't even think possible. For one, my main character has switched back to that spunky little redheaded girl, Molly, as Prian  has yet to be introduced to the story. It's begun rather slowly, starting with Molly's arrival in Cadge Down and moving onward from there as she settles into her life within the village. So far,  the story is going good and I haven't hit any major roadblocks (yet). I'm sure many hurdles lie in the future, but for the moment, I'm going strong (Despite it being 2 in the morning and being half-awake), and hopefully I will reach the proper word count before heading off to sleep for t he night.