The BSN writers club

Well, as always this comes with the "if I say so myself" addendum. But it is getting easier to write this chapter with revised plotline and the hope that the developments in this chapter will make the character less of a 1D caricature. And, omg, tomorrow Chapter 1 is up for critique. Fingers crossed I get at least one with a chapter. If I get none, I might just have to write the whole thing in solitude, and then start asking for a Dedicated Reader, as the requests for a dedicated reader in the workshop requests for the whole thing to be ready.

Ha-ha, you will overtake me in no time. The last of my major characters does not appear till Chapter 7. Not ideal, I guess. But oh, well. First try at a novel, after all.

It’s nice when things like that happen, when you find a workaround.

I was pleasantly surprised to receive three pieces of critique so far on my first chapter. They essentially told me the same thing I was worried about, and that it takes too long for the things to start happening. But I do need the background. So, I am pondering if I should do:

a) have a spoiler alert sort of opening: Tien Lyn, the future Demon Empress, had no idea that this would be the day shit hit the fan... then hope it’s enough for peeps to be intrigued enough to want to know about the setting. OR
b.) start with the events in chapter 2, when the characters are waiting to know their fate, and drop chapter 1 as a flashback at the point they flee the estate.

I put a pin in that and noted it in the newly started document with notes for Draft 2.

And, well, another thing is, since I did nothing on Chapter 5 yesterday between the chores and the game I was playing, if I am serious about finishing my novel, I need to cut back on gaming. It’s the same story again. One hobby at a time, two cannot be maintained properly.

Pushed through to finish the first draft of Chapter 5. I am glad it is roughed in, but the editing is going to be extensive. I did not struggle with the language the way I did in Chapter 3, but there is a few things I wanted to work in, and they did not get enough exposition, or were too short or unclear.

It also came shorter than 3K words at 2.7K, but I need to make sure that I stay closer to the 3-3.5K words per chapter in order to meet the 50K words minimum for a novella length piece all together.

I think I will have to edit Chapters 3 through 5 while trying to put together Chapter 6 in my head. For one, I am not sure which character's POV it is going to be, because I want to try to narrate it from one PoV. Lady Mother in my story might be the best candidate since she can interact with and introduce the new character who is coming on board and who relates Chapter 7 (already written as a short story) and with her Lady Daughter (who was a narrator in Chapters 1-3) but that will be the only chapter from her PoV and I have no handle on her voice. Initially, I wanted the New Character to narrate it, but I dunno. I guess, I should just try to turn it over in my head some more until it makes sense to me.

...and I am hitting another one of those "it's terrible, I should not write it, I will never get to 50K words anyway" periods. Heh. I am tired of those, despite being geared with the "so what?" against each end every one of those statements, because, really who cares either way, so might as well write it.

Thank you Editing Chapters 3-5 for now, but trying to put together different ways to write Chapter 6 in my head. There is a paragraph in chapter 3 that fights me. As a single dump of a dialogue it is too long, and feels like lecturing. If the second character tries to talk with Finch, it looks artificial. If I just break his speech into few separate sentences without body language ets descriptions, it looks odd. And overall, i don’t like it. I think I might just cut out a bunch of it and leave it at one line, and let the rest be said elsewhere or stay in my background notes.

That’s what it was and it looked very odd. I rewrote it more conversationally, but I will need to come back, and try to look at him, and see the way he is when he talks in non-trivial, non-repetitive way.

EDIT: on the upside I figured out how to avoid a serious breach of the genre I've picked (the light adventure romp) and still move the plot forward. It is not as realistic as my previous plan was, but using a plot device fits way better with the genre conventions. So, I am going with it.

I have been having a devil of a time trying to write the last couple of days. Finding the time.

But here is an amazing video on writing I found recently to share with everyone.

Okay, this is an insane contest, given how close to the deadline this is (2 months for a 100K words interactive novel) but I just wanted to post it for those who are prolific:

www.choiceofgames.com/contest/

I did not quite finish the re-editing of Chapter 5, but I could not keep containing the beginning of Chapter 6 in my head, so I typed out about a page of it. Not happy with a couple of things, and I need to push to the next plot node, but I am happy I did *something*. I do know that if I wait for time and space to write I won't ever, but I could use at least a tinsy bit of time & space just now.

All kinds of respect to prolific writers who can put out the tens of thousands of words...

www.newmansprings.com

Well lookie what i just found.

Worked a bit on my ME:A holiday fic with working title of Sloane For The Holidays. Yes, it's exactly how it sounds. So far, Addison is getting my best comedy and I love every minute of it. Playing around a lot with Sloane in this one.

Worked a bit on Breathless rewrite (Alex/Keri) and have decided to make Keri my sandbox character. So fun to play with her.

Melody of Fools (Sloane/Addison) is on pause until after the holidays, but I do have some ideas for Chapter 12 and 13. Oh and I got the art back for this one. I will post it up I think in Sloane's romance thread. I already broke Tumblr with it. Yes, it's SFW.

Biotics Brawn and Being (Liara/Korynn), (Jack/Miranda) is also on pause for now, but did a few dialogue sprints that will get a third person rewrite after some new ones are published.

Truth Hurts (Keri/Alex) third person rewrite is also on pause for now until two Lexi fics are done.

Started a few one shots:

Demons Cast Their Arrows (Keri/Alex) which will discuss Alex's dark past as well as her struggle with combat PTSD. Giving her character a chance to stretch and adding some meat to her relationship with Keri. Also adding some abrasiveness to Keri's relationship with Davis.

Risks And Rewards - Working title (Lexi/Casey Ryder). Shameless romance that a friend requested. Having fun playing with Lexi's character. Depending on how this goes, this might turn into another long fic, but not quite as intense as Melody of Fools.

Games We Play (Alex/Keri). Alex is a competent Adept, but she's still young and new and has a few things to learn, even from just an ordinary person who is barely a century. Another one where I am playing with Keri's character. Do like the idea of putting Keri in armor and giving her more dimensions.