Wow. I'm now on Chapter 8 of my new novel, about 7,400 words in. Things are starting to flow a bit more smoothly. I think I've fallen into the groove. I'm still pretty sure this one will require some heavy editing, but we'll see.Recently talking about this on the Absolute Write forums, the topic was chapter size. Mine tend to be pretty short, about 4-6 pages, with little *** breaks in between. I love the pace of books with short chapters. I don't like being in the middle of a 30-page chapter, knowing that I have so far still to go before there is a real break, and I don't like stopping in between chapters. And when they are consistently shorter, I seem to read more, knowing that it's only a few more pages until the next one, then a few more to the next, and so on. So, I've kind of naturally picked up that quicker pace in terms of chapters and sub-chapter breaks. It feels like you're accomplishing little goals to encourage you to keep going.
Oh, and I'm coming up on Part Two of the story, which is where some really fun stuff starts to happen.
Let's see, what else have I been up to? Well, I'm about to start coloring a hardcover graphic novel for a kid's publisher that I'm really excited about. Can't tell you anything about that yet. Did some sketches to show to some big company to see about getting a really cool gig. That tells you nothing. Working on the next page of that Nightwing story.
I'll try to be on later tonight with a little something to show you. Thanks for stoppin' by!
* Edit - Well, scratch that. No artwork to show. But I did add that very abstract visual hint at my novel up at the top. ;o)
5 comments:
Do you have any sort of outline written for your novel, or do all the ideas just swim around in your head until you get them all out on paper? Me, when writing a piece, I'll write a few key words down or a tiny bit of a quote, just to remind me of the flow I'm going for.
Also, do you listen to anything in particular when you write?
Normallly, I have a very in depth outline so I can work all the hard stuff ahead of time, so I can focus on writing and pre-editing as I write, instead of where the story is going and how things tie together. Plus, I'm afraid of hitting a block and getting lost.
This particular novel, though, started out weird, because it was a short story that turned itself into a novel, so I didn't have an outline done at first. But, last weekend I went through and did an outline, fleshed out characters, theme, etc. to keep myself on track. That's probably why things are moving more smoothly now.
Of course, there are little surprises along the way that change the original outline, but having that structure really helps me stay on track.
Oh, and I can't really listen to music as I write. Distracts me too much. I do try occasionally to listen to instrumental or ochestral music; scores to movies and whatnot. It's gotta be really quiet, though.
You?
I can't listen to music much either. I have the bad habit of getting up to dance around or sing along to the lyrics and forget what I'm doing. Unless I'm writing a music review, in which case, naturally, I'm listening to the album.
Since you write children's fiction, did you have a favourite children's book when you were younger?
Ha! Dancing and singing when you're supposed to be working ... sounds just like me. Luckily, I work from home.
Childhood favorites? For sure! "Chronicles of Narnia" was at the top of the list. Movies like "The Never-Ending Story" and anything Disney. "Goonies."
"Hatchet" was another big fave. Hadn't thought about that in a while, but I loved it. "Hardy Boys," "Choose Your Own Adventure" books. It's hard to recall too much. I had a lot of pocket-sized classics like "The Man in the Iron Mask" was great. I liked R. L. Stine books. Scary stories and whatnot.
I also got into Stephen King and stuff pretty young. His movies "Stand By Me," and "It" were big influences.
There are probably a lot that I can't remember.
My tastes have remained the same, more or less. Any story with kids going through adventures or trials or general danger really grabs my interest.
The Chapter 8 is a needful Chapter rto me .
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