Week Ten: Nearly There

Holy shit.

So last week I began renewed with a sense of hope and optimism.  And it didn't fade - by Friday I was maxing out at a 15 page day.

I also wrote what will be the last scene of the book.  Contrary to the happy-go-lucky feeling I had while writing, the ending is much darker than I originally anticipated and leaves it much more ambiguous as to whether or not the goal is actually accomplished the way the protagonists think it is.  Of course in Farrell-dream-world where it rains cookies and ponies are common household pets, this novel is just the beginning of a series, so that kind of ending makes sense, since it leaves a good jumping place for the next book's plot to begin; however, I am trying to allow for the book to be a stand-alone, so that just makes it a slightly downer ending.  That does fit with the tone of the book, though, so I'm not too distraut.  It was strange writing the last scene.  I've never written a last scene of a novel before.  Short stories, absolutely - mostly because my short stories have one scene, which makes writing the last scene far less monumental.  I don't know what I'm going to do when I write the other last scene, not chronologically within the novel but that I will write for this draft.

Technically that should be happening either this coming Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, by the way.  I say "technically" because I'm babysitting for my adorkable nephew again on Thursday and Friday.  For those days, I'll be skipping ahead to my agenda for Week Twelve:  I've divided the manuscript into 6 neat chunks and will be editing one chunk a day.  So, Thursday and Friday, I'll have a hardcopy of the first chunk (I doubt I could get to the second one) that I'll edit betwixt moments of helping him stand, playing with him, feeding him, changing him, calling him adorakable, etc and while he plays/naps.

My nephew's mother is completely fantastic, in case I haven't mentioned.  I don't want to say too much until things are more certain, but she's a graphic designer/web designer/book illustrator, and she's trying to get me an intro to an editor she's doing some design for.  I adore this woman.  She called me about it last Thursday, and it's very exciting because it's... real.  I don't know how else to describe it.  With the book coming to a close, the prospect of meeting an editor just mkaes everything I've been doing for the past ten weeks now, and will be doing for the next three weeks, feel just utterly real.

Weeks Eight and Nine: Burn Out, Baby, and Break Through

OK, I'm back.  I recognize the irony of posting an update about wanting to post more just before disappearing from posting for two weeks.

Toward the middle of Week Eight, I started to fail miserably in getting through my days.  By the end of the week, I was completely burnt out.  I finished Saturday with some pages, and on Monday of Week Nine I wrote about 3 pages.  Then, Tuesday came.  Even if I wanted to write I wouldn't have had a chance.  It was a baby-day.  And by that I mean, it was an "Auntie-Farrell-is-a-jungle-gym-day."  And by that I mean, my close friends have one of the cutest babies ever, and I babysat him from 7 am to 5:30 pm on Tuesday.  He's a 9 month old in the learning-to-stand phase.  Lifting baby > lifting weights.  It was a fabulous mini-vacation.  I wrote again on Thursday.  Once again, not very many pages.  Then, Thursday night.  Harry Potter.

Harry Potter has always been near and dear to my heart, and I know this is a writing blog that I have dedicated to my writing and not other people's, but that means I need to talk about Harry Potter.  Watching Deathly Hallows Part 2 Thursday night/Friday morning (and again on Saturday morning) reminded me of everything I love about writing, and how I started in the first place.  I celebrated the release (yes, celebrated) with my best friend since junior high, Chelsea Bailey, whom I met because we were both re-reading Harry Potter in anticipation for the next book release.  I never wrote when I was young.  I wrote for class, and I didn't hate it.  But it wasn't until I was reading Harry Potter as a pre-teen that I ever considered writing.  Like many pre-teen fans of the Harry Potter series, I began writing fanfiction, which was utterly, devestatingly terrible.  But for the first time I considered the possbility that I could be a writer, and here we are a decade later, and oh hey, I'm writing a novel.  Hanging out with Chelsea and re-entering the world that introduced me to the love of writing gave me a much needed boost this past weekend.  So, I'm heading into my next week with renewed optimism for this novel.

I've reworked my calendar and I think I should still be able to get through everything in time.  I have about 80 to 100 pages (I think) of scenes left.  The next two weeks will be for writing; the two weeks after that will be for hard-copy editing.

Quote of the Week: Fight
It's been a struggle these past two weeks is all I'm trying to say.  And there are plenty of fight scenes to choose from, but Bar room brawls are iconic.

"There were two kinds of nights at the Dyre Den. Nights when Ala’omond was there. And nights when Ala’omond wasn’t.
Nico had chosen the second:  the patrons threw fists, spells, mugs, stools, and whole bodies across the tavern’s main room."

More Involved

As I said in my post-week wrap up yesterday, I wanted to post this last night; however, I got a little excited over Independence Day (hope yours was a blast, if you're in the US - apparently there are people from Germany and Italy reading) and  learning to make chocolates.  So, I'm writing today instead.

With the novel becoming more and more complete by the day, and my becoming more and more anxious about it by the day, I want to make this blog more involved than just the post week wrap ups.  I haven't really filled you in on anything to do with the novel since the very first post, so now every week in addition to my wrap up, I'll be giving you some information on the world, characters, and the like as I hammer out the details myself.

As always, I truly appreciate all comments and posts to facebook and twitter.

To begin, just a refresher on the plot of the novel:
Prophecy (working title) follows the stories of three mages, Nico, Contierra, and D'rina, as the world around them - almost literally - falls apart and they make the choices that will either save or destroy it.
Although the plot makes it an epic fantasy, its a combination of the individual character archs merging that bring that scale into focus, with Nico's being the largest individual storyline in scope.

More to come as the days (38!) go on.

Week Seven: Structurally Stifling

So I've talked a lot about my difficulties going back and forth between too much freedom that I didn't know what to do and too much planning that I didn't have creative freedom.  Last week started off all right, but by Wednesday, I was fighting to write just a few pages.  Being past the halfway point if obviously fantastic, but now I am at the crunch so I have to write certain scenes on certain days and that's not usually how I operate.  I finally realized what was happening on Friday and switched to a different POV to keep things from getting stiffling.  That seemed to work pretty weel.  So I've worked out a basic schedule for the next six weeks that keeps me switch perspectives every couple of days; that way, even though I'm under the clock, I'll keeping everything fresh.

Obviously, since everything fell apart my Weekly Stats are dismal 40 pages for the week - as if I skipped an entire day of writing.  Saturdays have now been added to my weeks.  I won't be working a full 9-5 on the weekends, but in addition to writing, I need to start editing what I've already written.  Some of that is going to have to happen on the weekends.

Later today - maybe during lunch, I'm going to post another update, so watch for that.  Until then, this is it for now.  Sorry it's so short.  It's really crunch time now.