And… YEP… Still outlining on Ohio Four

By Holly Lisle

And there’s really not a lot you can say about that. It’s one 30-word sentence per scene that has to encompass the essence of the chapter while moving the whole story forward, and it is a pretty fast, efficient way to give yourself a migraine.

It works. It’s essential to my process of getting books done, and when I don’t do it, bad things happen. So I do it.

It just isn’t fun.

I’ll note, however, that today I discovered in the existing Ohio Four first draft one of the best scenes I’ve ever written, which I re-read today while making myself cry again… and that is DEFINITELY coming with me.

Now, however, on to very very much other stuff that must be done.


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Ohio 3 is now done in first draft!

By Holly Lisle

57,841 words total. I like the story. I love the ending.

And now the novel gets to sit quietly for a while as I plot the replacement Ohio 4.

In revision, it will probably get a bit longer. Most of my stuff does.

Based on some very good advice, I am, however, now considering doing a slower release, and NOT having all five initial books finished before I begin releasing them.

I think I might have a better time of this if I didn’t try anything rapid-release-ish, but instead simply had a nice little reserve in place, and then released them one every six or so months — about the speed at which I can reasonably write one, and revise it, and be happy with the quality of what I’m creating.

Want to be Invited to the Private, Secret OHIO NOVELS Launch?


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Technically, I finished Ohio 3 this morning…

By Holly Lisle

I’ll start my read-through, Monday. And I am considering the possibility of a final very short chapter to point the book toward Book 4.

I have the empty file sitting in my template.

But I’m not sure the “summation” chapter is needed, and I won’t know until I’ve finished the read-through.

The book is currently 57,040 words long, and will gain a few thousand words during revision as I find places where I wrote thin. (It always happens in first draft, especially to me.)

Meanwhile, I made myself laugh writing the ending.

ANYWAY… I’m looking forward to outlining Ohio 4 starting on Monday, working off of what I’ve now built into the first three novels, and seeing if there’s anything in the first draft of Ohio 4 that will be worth saving.

I’m not holding my breath on that. But I did find some things worth keeping from the first drafts on 1, 2, and 3. So it could happen.

Have a fantastic weekend!

I’m looking forward to mine.


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Evil Afoot — 2077 words, and I got a nice bit of a cliffhanger at the end

By Holly Lisle

Very pleased with the nasty situation in which I’ve dumped my MC — she’s going to have a rough rest of the week, too.

Evil is a foot (it left its footprint all over everydamnthing, in fact…) and my MC is in the process of using what she discovered to lead the bad guys into helping her.

So, with that done, I’m now going to work for a bit on the new Big Course for Writers I’m putting together.

Not going to discuss the course, or give hints about what it is. I’ll have it pretty much done when I take it live.

It will fill a big hole in my current classes, though.


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Ohio 3, and the Shoe-Drop Moment

By Holly Lisle

There’s the “make yourself cry” moment, and there was some of that today. I did, indeed, make myself cry. Again.

There was a bit of making myself laugh.

There was giving my character one moment I would take in a heartbeat if someone could just stop the world and roll back time.

And there was the bit that you couldn’t even pay me to sit through watching in a movie in a well-lit room.

So… big story day, and the moment where the other shoe dropped gave me a terrific place to pick up tomorrow.

So now, on to the OTHER STUFF.

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Ohio 3: A thing about family – the VERY good writing day

By Holly Lisle

Today was a tough writing day — not because of getting the words, but because the words are about things that hit me hard.

Family, and what that world could mean, and should mean, and also what it sometimes doesn’t.

This chapter is deep inside the magic of the world… and the conflict there comes from the danger that magic brings to those who can’t use it… but who can nonetheless be affected by it.

I love what I got. Got a bit teary-eyed and choked up at one point. But I ran long because I couldn’t bring myself to quit until I actually finished the scene.

This was the last sentence of the scene:

And with everything to lose, I was, I discovered, still angry.

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Second take on Ohio 2 done in first draft

By Holly Lisle

So…

I didn’t use a word of the first version of Ohio 2. Even my “and’s” and “the’s” are brand new, and fresh and sparkling.

NOW, HOWEVER… the novel sits for a week or two or maybe three while I outline Ohio Three. Ohio Three will also be brand-new. I won’t even be reading the old Ohio Three, because I took the town and the magic in better direction.

I have to let TWO grow cold so that all the love I feel for it right now has a chance to die down.

If I love it too much, I won’t be willing to do what has to be done to fix it.

Once I have the new Ohio Three outlined, I’ll go back do my read-through of Two, and my debug, and when that is done, I’ll print out a fresh copy and hand off to Matt for editing.

And while he’s editing, I’ll start writing Three.

Yeah, I’m going to end up having four completely unused novels sitting on my hard drive when I’m done repeating this process.

Am I going to do anything with them?

Dunno. I might pull out especially egregious wrecks as demos for my writing students.

I might point to all four novels and in the Voice of Doom, say something like, “BEWARE THE IDE(A)S OF MARCH…” (work-safe Wikipedia link)

But I’ll probably just wince at the bruises those books gave me, and give them wide berth.

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Last day of the year… and about ready to get back to work

By Holly Lisle

It hasn’t been the best year in my life. It hasn’t been the worst, either.

I wrecked four first drafts of my Ohio Series (books two through five) by exuberatant pantsing.

After a longish Think Week and some time spent away from fiction writing and away from deadlines, I’m rested and ready to go through OHIO BOOK TWO, and finish up that revision.

I’m not going to make any judgements on Three through Five until I’ve read them. There will be some salvagable stuff. There always is.

Probably not a lot.

I updated my blogging software to the next version. From my end, since I’m not a power user, it’s essentially “same software, different-shaped logo”.

In an app I want to NOT make my life difficult, that’s the best possible outcome.

If you’re looking for something like that, this is a shout out to Red Sweater Software and MarsEdit. Not an affiliate link — I don’t make a dime if you buy it. But when you can move seamlessly from Version Four to Version Five of a piece of sofwware without folks being damned determined that you’re going to get all the new bells and whistles right in your face… when, in other words, you get to just keep working rather than re-learning everything you knew — that company deserves thanks.

Have done the rest of my work for the day, and I am now going to go crawl under the big wool blanket I’m knitting, and work on it wrapped in the warmth of it. It’s cold here. I’m glad.

Cold is my excuse to knit up all the wool I have… so I can buy more.

Have a great New Year.

I’ll be back on Monday, doing year goals and planning out my work (as much as that’s possible).

One of my goals is to blog more. There will be others… but you’ll get them when I decide they’re worth the committment.

Contents © Holly Lisle. https://hollylisle.com All Rights Reserved


Today went better. I love a LOT of Ohio 3.

By Holly Lisle

I made it a nice chunk of the way through Book 3, and there is, in fact, a whole lot of story that’s worth saving — that’s funny, and in places moving, and overall very strange — but which fits the world I’ve built and the characters I’ve put into it.

So after a few stressful days, there’s actually a whole lot about Ohio Three that I’ll be keeping.

Cannot even begin to describe what a huge relief this is.

Contents © Holly Lisle. https://hollylisle.com All Rights Reserved


Replotting Ohio 2… The Experiment that Went BOOM!

By Holly Lisle

Book 2 has a lot of salvageable material. A lot of awesome world stuff, some wonderfully funny scenes, some pretty scary scenes.

It was fun for me to read, and I made myself laugh a bunch of times, got a little teary-eyed, did a light revision and passed it off to my Editor.

Matt, however, is really, really good at what he does.

And he discovered that while the story is a lot of fun, what it doesn’t have is a strong story through-line.

Here’s the thing…

I had a line-for scene plot for the book built out.

It, however, lacked the sort of epic sense of wonder that made my heart beat faster while I was writing it. 

So… when Epic Sense of Wonder crept past me while I was being a good girl and following the plot, my hunting brain caught the scent… 

…And chased.

I got some great stuff out of the chase. The plot, however, got eaten by volemarines and vile scunners in the process. 

So now, I’m going back and figuring out how to keep all the epic stuff, the sensawunda stuff, the glorious terrifying magic and the really creepy evil…

WHILE STILL HAVING A DAMN PLOT.

Today… plotting worksheet and tight focus.

There are folks saying, “But you teach classes on how to write novels.”

Yup. I also invent and test new processes, because if you do the same thing every time, you get the same results every time. And to get BETTER results, and consequently better novels, you have to experiment.

Many experiments… um… explode.

And the person looking at the new processes, and experimenting, is the one upon whom they explode.

SO…

THIS process is not going to be in any new class coming your way from me. You can thank me later.

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