Nano updates
Apr. 3rd, 2020 12:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
arias_hollowI'm doing camp nanowrimo this month, and so I think I may use this space to periodically rant about my projects/organize my thoughts about them. One of the things I'm working on is the second draft of my novel, which I'm writing as an incredibly detailed synopsis to figure out the structure of the revised plot (since...it's still under revision to be honest). So far I'm two and half pages in, and plot progress has been made! I was able to make some connections from my free-form pseudo-outline to keep the plot going, and while the pacing feels almost rushed right now, I'm mainly concerned with figuring out the key plot events and how we get to them. The synopsis, after all, doesn't take into account any of the little character scenes and extra narration that fill out a scene or chapter, so draft three will be in charge of fixing the pacing as well as ironing out more plot details.
One thing I had fun with was working on the intro scenes for each character, and looking at what we learned from each of them. I was of course primarily looking at how to introduce their plot lines, but it was good to think just a bit about what info I wanted the reader to have about each of the four protagonists right away. For example, we had:
Euphranor
- Homeless
- Agile thief
- Anxiety
- Impulsive/Hot-headed
- Morals(tm)
Fiera
- Diligent
- Academic
- Easy going demeanor
- Adept liar
- Has no friends
Ena
- Fighting skills
- Strong sense of justice
- Cynical
- No nonsense attitude
- Sarcasm (tm)
Kadri
- Passive aggressive
- Skilled in magic
- Relies on rules/structure
- Straight up belongs to a cult
- Polite with a slightly manic edge
(Yes this is also an entirely self-indulgent reference piece for myself, but that's just what it's gotta be xD)
With the first draft everything you, the author, knows about the character can pretty much just be assumed until you Feel Like explaining, but so far in draft 2 I'm having a lot of fun thinking about these sorts of first impressions from the reader's perspective, and I think that will be extra fun to explore in draft three once I'm back in novel format. Plotting is generally a bit of a nightmare for me, but I've also enjoyed the satisfaction of really getting down and problem-solving for the new plot and actually structuring things, since draft one was such a structural mess.
One thing I had fun with was working on the intro scenes for each character, and looking at what we learned from each of them. I was of course primarily looking at how to introduce their plot lines, but it was good to think just a bit about what info I wanted the reader to have about each of the four protagonists right away. For example, we had:
Euphranor
- Homeless
- Agile thief
- Anxiety
- Impulsive/Hot-headed
- Morals(tm)
Fiera
- Diligent
- Academic
- Easy going demeanor
- Adept liar
- Has no friends
Ena
- Fighting skills
- Strong sense of justice
- Cynical
- No nonsense attitude
- Sarcasm (tm)
Kadri
- Passive aggressive
- Skilled in magic
- Relies on rules/structure
- Straight up belongs to a cult
- Polite with a slightly manic edge
(Yes this is also an entirely self-indulgent reference piece for myself, but that's just what it's gotta be xD)
With the first draft everything you, the author, knows about the character can pretty much just be assumed until you Feel Like explaining, but so far in draft 2 I'm having a lot of fun thinking about these sorts of first impressions from the reader's perspective, and I think that will be extra fun to explore in draft three once I'm back in novel format. Plotting is generally a bit of a nightmare for me, but I've also enjoyed the satisfaction of really getting down and problem-solving for the new plot and actually structuring things, since draft one was such a structural mess.
no subject
Date: 2020-04-06 10:29 pm (UTC)