Category: Writing

Writing Wednesday: Hurtling Towards NaNo

On By cherylmahoneyIn Writing2 Comments

I’m still preparing for NaNoWriMo, starting on November 1st – so just over a week away!  I’m on track at the moment with revising the first half of my Princess Beyond the Thorns novel, so that I can write the second half during NaNoWriMo.

I’ve also realized that, on some days at least, my pre-NaNo goals are more ambitious than my NaNo goals.  I intended to revise one chapter a day, but some of those “revisions” actually mean writing an entirely new chapter from Terrence’s point of view.  And a couple of those chapters have stretched over two days, which felt like I was getting behind…but the two days’ worth of writing was more words than would be a two-day goal for NaNo.  On Monday, for example, I felt like I was just trying to wrap a chapter that was taking too long–but I ended up by writing 2,400 words, well above NaNo’s 1,667 goal.

On the whole, I’m finding that encouraging…

I also think I’m past the most difficult revision sections, so hopefully this final week should be an easier slide towards NaNoWriMo.  For today, here’s something from a new scene I wrote yesterday–Rose fainted and Terrence brought her back to her room, and I realized that in his POV, I had a chance to do a bit of a play on the whole Sleeping Beauty aspect of the story.

************

Terrence got Rose inside her rooms, laid her down on the long couch, and knelt next to her to study her still face.  “Rose?” he tried again, touching her cheek.  What did he do now?  Should he get her water or put a blanket over her?

Silvertips seemed more confident, leaping up onto the couch and settling down across Rose’s stomach.  A moment later Emerald Eyes emerged from the bedroom and scrambled up onto Rose’s skirts.  Fine, that was fine, but she still wasn’t awake…

He had the sudden, slightly absurd idea that maybe he ought to try kissing her.  This was, more or less, what he had expected when he had first plunged into that thorny tunnel.  A sleeping princess, waiting to be woken up.

Before he could decide if the idea was a good one or just strange, the door burst open and Elena rushed in.  “Terrence?  What’s going on?  What’s wrong with Rose?”

Writing Wednesday: NaNo Is Coming

On By cherylmahoneyIn Writing1 Comment

NaNoWriMo is fast approaching!  With only half of October left, I’m getting ready for November’s writing in earnest now.  I’m set up on the NaNoWriMo website (add me as a writing buddy, if you’re writing too!) and am putting the pieces together to be ready to go on my next project, The Princess Beyond the Thorns.

I already have 35,000 words written for this project, but those words are in a somewhat complicated shape.  I essentially wrote two novellas some months ago, which are now Parts One and Two of the planned novel.  I revised Part One before my September writing retreat, but I still need to finish revising Part Two, so that everything is lined up and sorted before I dive in to completing the novel for NaNoWriMo.

I’ve already gone through Part Two and determined where I need to add a chapter or reorient an existing one.  The biggest changes I need to make are to bring Terrence’s perspective in (because the original version was all Rose, and now I want it split more evenly between them!) and to add in details and context that weren’t important when this was a smaller piece.  So I need to rewrite around three chapters to put them from Terrence’s point of view, and add in about six more (mostly Terrence, but there’s some extra Rose stuff I need too).  Plus do any revision on the remaining, less heavily to-be-altered chapters.

As I calculate it, if I take care of one chapter per day, that will get it all done before NaNo starts (with three days to spare).  And if that turns out not to be feasible, there are less significant changes in the final portions, so it won’t be too big a crisis as long as I get most of the way through.

We’ll see how that all goes…  In the meantime, here’s a bit I expanded in a Rose chapter, now that I have a better sense of her character growth over the span of the novel.

***********

Instinctively, automatically, she reached out for Terrence’s hand again.  She had known they’d be separated eventually, but she still wasn’t ready for that, not yet.  Only after their fingers were entwined did it occur to her that the entire room, and the king, had seen that gesture, had seen her reach for Terrence.  What would they read in it?

Without even looking at her, Terrence’s fingers tightened around hers and he said evenly, “I’ll show Princess Rose to her new rooms.”

A longer look from the king this time, and did she hear a faint murmur in the crowd?  But finally the king said, “My youngest son has grown suddenly bold.  How…remarkable.”  He turned away, to return to his throne, everything in the movement speaking of dismissal.  “Very well then.  I expect to meet with you directly after.  We have much to discuss.”

For just a moment, this felt like a solution.  And then some little part of Rose rebelled, maybe the same part that had been so angry when she thought she was going to die.  Because this was a solution, but it was a dismissal too, and she didn’t want to be that girl anymore, the one she had been in the before time.  The girl who was sent off into another room while the men discussed important things.  While they discussed her.  And if she had just showed the king and all his court that she couldn’t stand without Terrence next to her—it felt suddenly as though, if she didn’t make some kind of gesture right now, right at the beginning, she would never be anything more than she had been.

Squeezing Terrence’s hand, wanting him to know she wasn’t exactly rejecting his effort to help, she very carefully, very clearly said, “I appreciate Prince Terrence’s kind offer, but I would like to attend that meeting.  To discuss my return to court.”

This prompted a louder murmur among the crowd, and the king stopped a step away from his throne.  He turned very slowly back around to look at her, eyes narrowing.

Writing Wednesday: Plans Revisited

On By cherylmahoneyIn Writing1 Comment

Before I went on a writing retreat in mid-September, I put up a list of writing goals.  I didn’t get to most of them on retreat, but I’ve been working away at projects since then.  I thought it might be fun (and good for me to keep things straight!) to come back and see where projects stand now.

Here was the list…

  1. Finish revising Guardian III for beta-readers – I completed this on retreat, my main goal!
  2. Guardian II revisions based on second-round beta reader feedback – This got done as my first project when I came back.
  3. Guardian I revisions based on read-aloud review – I started this on retreat, and finished it within a few days after.
  4. First-round revisions for Thorns I, Part Two – This is my next project, and planned focus throughout October!
  5. Beta-read a friend’s novel (due by mid-October) – I sent this off to her at the end of September.
  6. NaNoWriMo prep for Thorns I, Part Three – Closely related to #4, this is my other October focus, especially as NaNoWriMo gets closer.
  7. Continue drafting short stories for planned “Bookstore Anthology” – My main project of late September, I made some good progress on my story of a ballerina falling into Leroux’s Phantom.
  8. Stonehenge Circle Writers’ biweekly blog prompt short story – Well, this is ongoing…

So that’s five out of eight complete, which is a nice feeling.  I don’t usually have quite this many things going all at once in different stages. 😀  It’s been interesting, but I’m looking forward to being more focused again…

Writing Wednesday: Down Once More?

On By cherylmahoneyIn Writing1 Comment

I’m having a bouncing-around kind of period for my writing right now.  Until I dive into NaNoWriMo, I’m working more casually on a number of smaller projects.  One of these is my short stories for a planned anthology, in which characters magically enter books.  I wrote about my plans to send a character into Leroux’s Phantom of the Opera before.  I wrote roughly the first ten pages some months ago, moved on to other projects, and now have circled back to write a bit more.  Because obviously the weeks before NaNoWriMo should be spent writing!

Michelle has been at the Opera overnight, and in the morning is ready to hunt for the Phantom.  She just isn’t sure exactly how to go about that.

*********

I thought about trying to find a way below the Opera—if I descended enough stairs, would I find the underground passages the Phantom had led Christine through?  Could I eventually find my way to the Phantom’s rooms?

Somehow I doubted it.  After all, it couldn’t be that easy, or the Opera Company would have found the Phantom long ago.  Unless that was authorial suspension of disbelief.  Maybe Leroux’s story just wasn’t that plausible.

Yeah.  It was weird being in a book.

Writing Wednesday: Cover Design

On By cherylmahoneyIn Writing1 Comment

Despite finishing up this round of revisions for Guardian III, I’ve still been deep into the trilogy so far this week.  I’ve made some minor edits to Guardian I and II, but also got rather distracted from more pressing matters by a sudden desire to play with cover art.  I’m working on coordinating covers for the three books–and happily, some time ago I found available stock photos of a ballet dancer who looked like Meg to me.  Photo shoots with multiple images of the same model are the best when dealing with covers for a series.

Cover reveals are a long way off,  but here’s a glimpse…a closer view than the one that’s been lurking in my blog header for quite a while now!  I like her expression a lot–though I had to do some Photoshop magic to hide a tattoo on the model’s arm.  Not very 1881, that detail!