Saturday 29 December 2012

Plot Changes And Major Editing Shifts

Yesterday I started editing Chapter 6, a part in the book which follows on for four chapters.
And I decided that this part is so totally irrelevant, we might as well not have it; in fact, it would look bad if we did.
In the four chapters, we meet lots of characters, who go no where, help with nothing, don't move the story forward and aren't used again. What is the point in them?
So I cut out four chapters! These chapter took a long time and a lot of mental energy to write. These chapters were the bane of our lives when we were writing them. But it's good that they're gone. It now means that we have stuff from these chapters that we can use in other chapters to flesh them out.
Because I have cut out four chapters, I added in two.

Wednesday 26 December 2012

Inspiration on Christmas Eve.

On Monday, I went to see The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey, which was bloody brilliant!!! (We unexpectadly bumped into my good friend MF!) It really inspired me! I know where my novel is headed now. And I think I'll know where I want to stop. Before, I doubted that I knew whether the story would ever be completed and would ever end but, having seen this, I think I have discovered my limit. I don't want to go into such detail (I feel truly silly making up new languages...trust me, I've tried!) but I love having detailed histories, songs and poems.
That night, I got home and had brainwave after brainwave of ideas!

For ages, I had been wondering what race The Dwellers could be. These people live in a large area by the sea. There will be different sections to their land. Port Dwellings, North, South, East and West Dwellings and Common Dwellings. At first, I didn't want these people to be human but there started to emerge the idea that they once were humans.
Anyway, my idea of brilliance was that, once Shalo (the human centre) started to earn a name of disgrace and disgust, other human societies disassociated themselves from the type of creature. So, although they are exactly the same and are actually humans, the Dwellers (and many more creatures from around the globe) will never admit it. To them, they are Dwellers and have nothing in common with human scum.
I thought this was a brilliant idea because it solved my problem of having to create a new type of creature!

I also decided that the map we have so far is no way big enough! I was thinking, for the first novel, the map wouldn't be very big, but it would grow as Malina added her knowledge of the new lands to it. There will be new lands and undiscovered lands learned about in the next book. Annoyingly, I do need to plan the second and third books meticulously for the first book to make sense in accordance with the next two!

On Christmas Day, Mum gave me a Kindle!
Okay, so I've never really agreed with the concept but I've got to accept that I will most likely be publishing my book/s on the Kindle so I've got to get to grips with how it works.
Dad gave me this bloody brilliant book outlining the basics on writing fictional novels. I had a look and it is really useful! Hopefully it will help with me with dialogue and expressing character traits.

I hope everyone had a brilliant Christmas!
M. x

Thursday 20 December 2012

'Still' Is A Very Boring Word...

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while!
Okay...I know...I keep saying that!
Well here I am now.
I am still...yes, still...editing the printed third...I think I'm up to Chapter 6/12.
It is actually really hard to edit it! It takes ages and a lot of focus and I have been really busy lately and haven't really found the time for it...especially because I'm writing another book at the same time!
My little brother is a little annoyed that I am but I think it's nice to have a distraction from this story. The other book couldn't be more different to this one so it does refresh my brain a bit to be able to concentrate on them both.
I've editing two chapters out of forty for the other novel but they're not very good yet. I'm only really editing that one when I really feel like it, whereas I'm editing Homeland whenever I can!
Today I sat in Costa thinking up the next chapters I need to write. I'm now thinking about how to start the second part of the novel. Should I carry on to Chapter Thirteen or should I start again with Chapter 1? Opinions please!
Also, should I called them 'Chapter 1, 2, 3' etc, or should I just number them with Roman Numerals?
Hmm...these are those annoying little things I really need to think about!


RANDOM IDEAS:
Okay, so while thinking about the novel and where to go next, I've come up with new ideas here and there.

- I want a fairy called Simkin. Don't know why...it just seems to fit.
- The bad guy is now called Nemico...instead of just 'Bad Guy'...!
- I have created three cheeky imps called Bish, Bash and Bosh

Well, please tell me your thoughts!
M. x

Saturday 1 December 2012

Editing


I have decided that I want to be a literary editor when I'm older.
When I was really young, I wanted to be a train driver because I wanted to pull the horn that went "toot, toot!". But Mum and Dad persuaded me that, one, you don't get those sorts of trains anymore and, two, it would be really boring to drive a train all the time because you'd only ever go to one place and then come back.
Back then I didn't understand. Wasn't that the point? I also wanted to be a train driver so that I could go to loads of places and see different places without actually having to explore them and participate in the social life there. I was never much of a social kid, I'm still not very social. But I understand what they mean, now. I'd probably just end up seeing the insides of loads of different train stations which wouldn't be very interesting.
When I was around 6 or 7, I decided I wanted to be an author. I'd never finished any bit of writing but I did write. Everything I wrote were copies of the stories I liked just with little twists. For example, I started to write The Incredible Journey, just with a snake family instead of a cat, a dog and...Okay I can't even remember what animals there are in the story...isn't there a porcupine at some point?
*shrugs*
So the dream of becoming an author stuck for many years until my Mum said, "You know being an author isn't a proper job". She explained to me that most authors don't get as much money as J.K. Rowling and weren't as famous as her.
I never told anyone, but that hurt, quite a lot. Did she really think I was that stupid? Did she really think I only wanted to be an author for the money and fame? My reasons were quite the opposite!