Drawing from the Well
Scenes Arranged: 8
Total Scenes: 110
Remember how I said Meibor’s scenes were the most difficult to write? Well, it’s more like the first domino is the heaviest. Once that goes down, the rest falls into place.
I also had a couple of killer ideas for the book today (one involves pet cows!) so I’m really excited about it all. It all came from refusing to relent on the great, unavoidable Why (more on that in Well Chat below).
I’m just about to the quarter-point. I have to evaluate how I had all those listed for various characters and make sure that we’re up to speed here, otherwise things’ll feel wonky when I dive into the First Plot Point along three plot simultaneous plot lines.
I’m a word nerd. I get it. Isn’t that why you’re here? 😉
Filling the Well
Vengeful: 100%! (Book 6 of 25 for #ProjectBookworm2019)
Old Media: 100%! (Book 7 of 25 for #ProjectBookworm2019 – a Tor short story that was lovely)
Perelandra: 67%
The last 24 hours have been a wonder of reading consumption. It’s been a great ride and I feel invigorated to pour into my own writing. That, of course, is the whole point so go me for mission accomplished. Plus, one of the five books above is crossed off the list now. I’ll have to compile a more complete list of what I consider my immediate TBR at some point. We’ll get there. New books all the time.
Polishing the Well
My wife and I have a rare kid-free weekend this weekend…which means our hearts are broken, of course. We miss them, but we’re going to enjoy some much-needed time together tonight. I hope you’re all having a great weekend so far as well.
Well Chat
Why is the Root of All Good Books
For once, I’m writing the blog first. Driving home from errands today, I was pondering what to write for the blog today. I have some topics written down so I wasn’t too worried about it, but then my brain had geared into writing. After the revelation I had yesterday of a lynchpin scene, I started asking the all-important question in fiction:
Why?
I’ve learned over the last few years that knowing a character’s why is the most important thing. It needs to feed into their actions, but as long as the author knows, it’ll bleed into the prose despite their best efforts. So since I had made a pivotal plot decision, I asked myself why. Why would this be here? Why is it so important? Considering the national and racial tensions, why would it be HERE of all places? After I answered that, I kept asking why.
Suddenly, a great number of pieces fell into places that are going to ripple forward into at least two of the books in the series. This one decision created a cascading effect that solidified so much of Rorian’s plot line that it kind of scared me.
I went over the whys again and it all made perfect sense. It was like the character told ME the history behind it and why it was important to him, like I was speaking to the soul of this voice in my head. I discussed in a previous blog how characters drive my stories through nudges and discomfort rather than outright refusal to perform. This was one of those glorious times that the character directed my mind.
And it’s going to be awesome.
As to whatever YOU are writing, the same is just as important. Character motivations, even when in nonfiction (people are still characters even if on their own stage), are vitally important to drawing readers in. If you can create a motivation that makes sense or, even better, resonates with readers, they’ll gobble your book up as if it were espresso cake with peanut butter frosting…
And now I want cake.
May the tide carry you to safer shores.
BSG