Category Archives: TalysMana

Making More Sense of the Story
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I focused on character development in TalysMana tonight, since I was actually giving Will Grey his first real time onstage.

Kettan ended up with a few good moments, too. I’m still not to the big bang for the scene, when Will finds out what Kettan’s been up to.

But he’s going to be smart getting there…and that part of the scene, which I’ll hit tomorrow night, will be a lot of fun.

It’s important to keep asking yourself, “Why would he do that?” about any character while you’re writing him. Your characters with make a lot more sense to the reader and your story if you keep that one question in mind every time you get ready to have a character do something. Saved Kettan from a moment of deep stupitude by asking that just before she was ready to answer a question Will asked her.

For tonight, I got 517 words I like. I’ll take that.

Am a couple thousand words now into Lesson 13 of How To Revise Your Novel. Am dealing with all the issues of revising and tracking conflict that come up as you’re in the process of hacking your first draft to pieces.

This is one of those area’s that can be tricky to work through, and require a lot of effort to get right.

I want to make sure I cover all the possible problems AND the solutions.

It’s an interesting writing night.

How are your words coming?

Pitch-And-Toss Writing
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I threw out 364 words I wrote last week, and wrote 738 new words on TalysMana tonight.

The clue I got while posting my last TalysMana post last week, where I suddenly realized that the story would be more interesting if Bill were present when the next big thing happened, led me to toss everything I’d done on Lightcross, Shadowcross, and redo it.

It paid off. I actually like what I got on the scene—and writing it filled out a couple of neat details of Bill’s personality that made him a smart protagonist, and fit in with who I’d already said he is. And added some good conflict.

Tomorrow I have to see what Kettan does with the situation. But I’m excited to write that.

How are your words coming along?

Lightcross, Shadowcross
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Got 364 words on TalysMana tonight. I’m back in Kettan’s point of view, and she’s with Bill (the detective from the Broward County Sheriff’s Department), and in a couple of minutes she’s going to have to figure out a way to politely shoo him out of her apartment, because…well, that’s tomorrow night.

Tonight, though, she was simply wrapping up her sketch of her Kendles under his admiring gaze.

And I find myself wondering…what if she didn’t shoo Bill out of her place? What if he was there when the next big thing happened?

That might be cool. Something to think about for tomorrow.

Finished up Lesson 12 of How To Revise Your Novel . By the time I got to the end of it, I was cringing for my students. I had forgotten how huge the character revision process is. It’s amazing how much of the whole process disappears once you’ve internalized it to the point that it’s second nature. Writing out the steps, I once again remembered what life was like before I internalized the steps.

Ouch.

It was a good writing day.

How about you?

Retrieving the Lost
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Writing fiction went pretty well tonight. I got 601 words, and wrapped up the scene Interlude: Spinning Back the Reel.

Got it posted, so if you’re that far along in the story, it could show up in your mailbox as early as tonight.

I’m not sure I’m entirely happy with it. I think there’s more I could do… but I kept to the rules of the world as I have them right now, which includes denizens of Story not being able to cross the Gray, or from one Story world into another, unless led by a Spinner. And Spinners not being able to rewrite their worlds from within Story.

Like the separation of Church and State, those two requirements are necessary for limiting the magic in Talysmana, and also like them, they do limit a lot of really over-the-top power plays (which are cool in fiction and suck like a Hoover in real life).

I don’t see myself changing the rules in the revision. I do hope I’ll figure out a way to show a bit more of the magic and wonder of what just happened.

Now, though, on to Lesson 12 in How to Revise Your Novel, and Keeper Characters.

Spinning Back The Reel
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421 words on TalysMana tonight—it was another interlude chapter, this one taking me into Kettan’s world after she returned to the What Is to make her talysmana to protect her Fendles.

Tonight I got as far as showing what happened to them after she left. I have not yet gotten to the point of showing what happens when she works out the idea for the talysmana. That comes next, and I’m looking forward to it. Tonight, the writing was grim.

Elsewhere, it’s been a zoo. I’m still coughing up junk and tired all the time. I remembered income tax stuff in time (barely) to get the info for the 1099s I have to send out to my accountant. It was pretty cool this year to have a handful of affiliates who made enough money that they NEEDED 1099s. There would have been a lot more, but many of my affiliates are outside the US, and don’t have to report their earnings in this country.

We’re looking for new digs, which is about the least fun thing ever—but rent is high, and our current neighborhood isn’t great. Somewhat better than the place that had the crime scene tape a couple buildings down from the building we thought we wanted into, though. Amazing how much less attractive “Police Line, Do Not Cross, Crime Scene” makes a neighborhood.

And I’m doing the HTRYN course. So I was AWOL from the writing diary for a lot of last week.

Hoping this week will be better, but I’m remembering that every January is a zoo. So I’m not holding my breath.

How’s your writing coming along?

Still Sick
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I’m still not over whatever this mess is. Since I have almost no energy at the moment, I’m focusing on getting HTRYN lessons done.

Voting on the scholarships is on hold until I’m feeling better, too. Actually, VOTE, VOTE!

But I’ll get everything set up to TALLY the votes when I don’t feel like Morte Au Gratin.

I did write about 150 words of outline for what happens next on TalysMana, but not actual prose.

I’m hoping to get back to it soon.

Meanwhile, I hope your story is coming better than mine.

The Fendle Warrior’s Heart
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I did 1731 words on TalysMana today, starting and finishing the next scene/chapter, and uploading it into the mailer.

For those of you who are history buffs, you’ll find my spontaneous, very brief rundown of the Peloponnesian War as part of a discussion between my MC and a guy I _think_ might be the hero. Maybe.

In any case, when I’m doing this dialogue, I’m recapping the Spartans and the Athenians and their nasty war from memory, writing at the speed of light without fact-checking, so I’m going to remind you—this is raw first draft. I do the majority of my fact-checking in revision.

If I got it wrong, PLEASE don’t send edit comments. I’ll look everything up before it goes to my agent.

Beyond that… well. The writing was a blast.

Hope yours was, too.

New TalysMana Scene Posted
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Got 1067 words tonight, and the next scene of TalysMana, HUNTING DEMONS BY SMELL, went into the mailer.

I like what I got. I’m working off the barest of bare-bones outlines for this story, and I really like the way some of the details filled in on this bit. I was especially pleased with the way i FINALLY got to work in lightcross and shadowcross, and just a teaser (for now) about how they work.

I know parts of this were rough—and I know some typos and such made it through. But this is as raw as first draft gets. I wrote it, did not re-read it. Just posted it.

I’ll read and do a bit of sharpening on it tomorrow as part of my warm-up for the start of the next scene.

But I already have the next scene visualized. It’s a candybar scene for sure.

So.

If you’re writing a book with me, how are your words coming along?