B. Jeanne Boyko » Nanowrimo

So, What’s Your Book About?

B. Jeanne Boyko — Thu, 27 May 2010 22:21:53 +0000

Recovering from a week away for a family wedding, I pulled out Lesson Four again and spent some time writing a new "one sentence summary" of my first Nanonovel, Gift of the Ancients.

I had a one sentence summary for the story before I wrote it, but Holly Lisle's way of going about it is different than Randy Ingermanson's (I used his Snowflake method to plan the novel in the last ten days of October 2007). As usual, at first I resisted changing a pre-learned method, but I have to say I'm very pleased with the results. The new summary brings the story to life better. As I work on more things in coming weeks some things in the sentence may change, but overall I think we have a winner.

The purpose of a one sentence summary is a marketing tool. It's a fast but complete response to the question "So what is your book about?" and is your first line of attack in trying to interest an editor. It's important, and not easy to do. My original one sentence was:

Forbidden friends must reach and activate an ancient weapon to save their land from invasion.

Ingermanson recommends a 15-17 word limit to keep your sound-bite short. It's accurate, but doesn't hook the way I wanted it to.

In How To Revise Your Novel, Holly Lisle allows for 30 words, but advises including your Protag, Antag, Plot, Setting and Twist and breaks down just how to do it. The new sentence is:

A strong-willed troublemaker secretly discovers Ancient technology and must use it to protect low-tech Ympyra from powerful invaders, but an enemy becomes a friend and nothing works out like she thought.

The twist needs some work, but this is by far the stronger sentence. Anyone agree?

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Begin again

B. Jeanne Boyko — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 22:18:31 +0000

So this week I have made the time to prepare a new undertaking. I got further in revising my novel Phoenix and the Vulture than the progress bar currently indicates (will fix that soon), and then got blindsided by other commitments.

Lesson learned? Don't make other commitments!

The new goal is to go back to my first Nanonovel, Gift of the Ancients and give it a final revision.

This is a manuscript I've already spent at least a year working on since it was written. I've made may improvements, but there were still some things I knew needed fixing, just couldn't properly define.

Going through How To Revise Your Novel will give me the tools, as it says, to "Get the novel I want from the novel I have." I meant to cut my teeth on this course with Phoenix and the Vulture, but only made it so far. There is a time factor for getting Gift done, which helps me to focus, so I'm really looking forward to this. Deadlines are my friend.

Watch for progress reports, which will include actually submitting the manuscript to an editor. It's time for this Work In Progress to get to work!

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I’m Baaack! After a much needed hiatus during December, I’ve begun my new Holly Lisle course, “How...
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One down! Woot!

B. Jeanne Boyko — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 04:16:54 +0000

Well, it was fairly grueling but certainly educational to do a first critical read-through of my Nanonovel while taking extensive notes. I managed it in two days, and I'm looking forward to fixing the messy bits.

The good news is there are still lots of things that I love, and hopefully that will encompass all of the book by the end of this course.

And of course I always get a thrill just from watching the progress widget advance.

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Making something good even better I made good headway in understanding the method to be used as I begin my...
So, What’s Your Book About? Recovering from a week away for a family wedding, I pulled out Lesson Four again...
Begin again So this week I have made the time to prepare a new undertaking. I got...

We have a Winner!

B. Jeanne Boyko — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 02:40:10 +0000

Thank you, thank you. I'd like to thank the academy....

Just kidding. But today I completed my 50 000 words for Nanowrimo this year, and a few hundred words after that I finished the actual story, very rough first draft.

Phew!

I am hoping to get in on Holly Lisle's new class, How To Revise Your Novel (which this one will surely need) right away, but if the class fills too soon, I think I'll be content to go back to learning more plot techniques and other goodies from my still unfinished courses. Yes, I am a quick start and I'll leave one thing for another that's shinier, only to return to the first thing at a different time. Keeps life interesting, and it's all the more reason to be proud that I kept the pace up for the whole month of November.

Go me!

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On the Threshold

B. Jeanne Boyko — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 00:36:51 +0000

And here I am, within sight of the Nano finish line. I still have some writing to do, and my ending has morphed somewhat from what I had originally planned, but I think it’s going to all come together alright. I have a quiet evening before me and if I press on, I may get to the end by tonight.

Another unexpected death occured in my characters, but this one served to strengthen the protag — she had been if not exactly rescued, then helped a few times already and I think she needed to go through some hard things on her own. The next helping hand to appear will be in the form of another woman, and I like that. We’ve had her figurative knight in shining armor attempt and fail to rescue her, but then she struck a bargain with her jailer and he helped her escape, but he died in the process, leaving her stranded in the wilderness, supposedly close to some kind of settlement. Gotta get wrapping this story up, and since the title is “Phoenix and the Vulture”, we better have a bit more Vulture action before the end.

I’m rambling, and should be adding to my Nano wordcount instead. See you on the other side.

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Third disaster: set up for the end

B. Jeanne Boyko — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:10:00 +0000

The words keep piling up and my big climactic ending is about to unfold. The third disaster in my three-disaster structure will happen probably the next time I sit down to write. It will change everything and propel my unsuspecting characters into earth-shaking decisions and a dramatic ending that may or may not be happy. The jury’s still out on that.

I’m hoping to do at least a few days worth of writing tomorrow, get the momentum rolling and just keep rolling with it. With the other life things going on, I’d be glad to finish a few days before the dead line. And then read it! With any luck it will still make sense when read from beginning to end.

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Looking Forward

B. Jeanne Boyko — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:15:58 +0000

I’m looking forward to re-reading my story, if it counts as reading when you write it the first time.

I’ve been able to enter the Nano flow so well, letting new things emerge and connect, it’s been really neat. A lot of the time I know I used the same word last sentence, and that people are nodding altogether too often, but at the same time some really cool stuff has somehow found its way out of my fingers. I’m hoping it still all strings together well.

I’ve forgotten the names of some mostly inconsequential characters who’ve shown up a time or two again, and I really don’t have time to go back and find out what I called them before so they are High Ladies This and That, who mostly appear together. That’s the sort of edit that will be easy to do.

I know I will need more character development / deeper POV in a few choice places, but hopefully by the time I get to the end I will know them better and be able to do that effectively. All in all, for my own self at least I’m proud of my story and what I’ve accomplished. Even if Viv’s word count is bigger than mine.

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Decisions, Decisions

B. Jeanne Boyko — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:41:57 +0000

I’m getting to a new meaty part, the second beginning almost concluded. There’s a lot of high action toward the end of this novel, but now I’m still putting in place relationships and politics and various more subtle forms of conflict that will eventually culminate in the exploding helicopters type of conflict. I did my best to plan each scene with a concrete goal, but when change in a relationship is the goal, there are so many ways one can go about that.

So it comes down to decision making. I’m finding that in my non-writing life too, directing theatre productions. How will I decide to play this scene, on stage or on paper? There are infinite ways it could be done, but nothing moves forward until a decision is made. So you plunge in, and later, revise as necesary.

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Another Beginning

B. Jeanne Boyko — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:34:51 +0000

This novel is following the 'Three Act Structure' commonly used. The first quarter of the book is the introductory Act 1, the next two quarters are the main story part as Act 2 and Act 3 is the climax and denoument, the final quarter of the book.

I always struggle with beginnings. Middles and ends I'm quite good at, but overcoming inertia, finding the right place, it's a struggle for me. Once I got going, completing Act 1 has been fun, but now in Act 2, my heroine is in a whole new situation, a new environment and other characters. It's just like having to write another beginning! So I've jerked and stuttered my way through the awkwardness again and am now into the interesting bits. Hopefully more new and interesting things will crop up as did while writing Act 1, and I'll manage to continue into Act 3, where everything comes together, without this annoying second-guessing.

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One down! Woot! Well, it was fairly grueling but certainly educational to do a first critical read-through of...
Third disaster: set up for the end The words keep piling up and my big climactic ending is about to unfold. The...

Rolling Along

B. Jeanne Boyko — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:09:17 +0000

I seem to be rolling along racking up the Nano-numbers fairly smoothly. Today I did nearly double what I needed as I know I have a lot going on tomorrow. Ditto for the rest of the month, really, so I'm happy to get more words as more words are coming.

I think I've made a significant improvement in pacing the story, slow enough for everyone to keep up, quick enough to keep it interesting. That's the hope at any rate. It makes producing the word count a lot easier. I'll end a section and then it's 'how will she get to the next important thing?'. Sometimes it's a direct cut, but more often there's a bit of description along the way, as she is seeing it, and a little dialogue to move her along. It adds to the word count, let me tell you! And I'm feeling a lot less stressed out telling the story too. That's gotta be a good thing.

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Looking Forward I’m looking forward to re-reading my story, if it counts as reading when you write...
Broke 35 000 Well, I’m truly in the final stretch of this novel. The Great Betrayal has occurred,...
So, What’s Your Book About? Recovering from a week away for a family wedding, I pulled out Lesson Four again...