Writing and laptop updates
May. 6th, 2010 09:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anthimeriaThe laptop is fixed! It cost some money, but it means I probably have at least another year with my current computer, which is good because without a job my pockets are burning. I hadn't realized how much having a wobbly screen/monitor was making me nervous. It's a huge relief to be able to stand up without making sure I'm holding the computer correctly and gentle when I put it down.
I mean, it's still an elderly laptop, so I'm careful, but now vigorous typing is okay. Which is good, because I have picked up Skywatch again.
Skywatch is almost definitely going to be way shorter than I initially anticipated. I'm at about 25k words and I'm three-quarters of the way through my outline. Right now I'm just hoping Draft I will be at least 35k, which at least puts me in publishable range for an intermediate reader. I think I'll be easily able to add a few thousand words in editing, but given how off I was when anticipating how I'd edit The Novel, I don't think I'll speculate too seriously.
What made the biggest difference between my 10k-longer-than-anticipated The Novel and 15k-shorter-than-anticipated Skywatch is the fact that The Novel has two primary POV characters. The Novel is equally Owen and Fiona's story, so even though I don't overlap scenes, I do have to take the time to advance both character's arcs and evolution. Which led to a new ending and 10k more words than I expected from my outline.
After I wrote The Novel, I used that experience when outlining and planning Skywatch--a novel aimed at a younger age group, completely different in style and tone, and with only one POV character.
Lesson learned.
Skywatch's outline was much more explicit, to the point of mentioning and outlining some specific scenes. I'm starting to think that while it works for Skywatch--a shorter story and a mystery story, to boot--such a detailed outline might not be to my advantage when I return to works aimed at older readers (YA or adult fiction). The Novel's outline was really vague, and sometimes resulted in mutli-thousand-word sections that had to be cut. So next time I outline a novel, I'll be aiming for the middle ground.
I have also started reading Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan, which is an interesting YA steampunk book. So far I like one of the POV characters more than the other, but the worldbuilding seems both solid and intriguing. Like all of Westerfeld's books, the writing is solid, so I'll probably post a rec soonish.
I mean, it's still an elderly laptop, so I'm careful, but now vigorous typing is okay. Which is good, because I have picked up Skywatch again.
Skywatch is almost definitely going to be way shorter than I initially anticipated. I'm at about 25k words and I'm three-quarters of the way through my outline. Right now I'm just hoping Draft I will be at least 35k, which at least puts me in publishable range for an intermediate reader. I think I'll be easily able to add a few thousand words in editing, but given how off I was when anticipating how I'd edit The Novel, I don't think I'll speculate too seriously.
What made the biggest difference between my 10k-longer-than-anticipated The Novel and 15k-shorter-than-anticipated Skywatch is the fact that The Novel has two primary POV characters. The Novel is equally Owen and Fiona's story, so even though I don't overlap scenes, I do have to take the time to advance both character's arcs and evolution. Which led to a new ending and 10k more words than I expected from my outline.
After I wrote The Novel, I used that experience when outlining and planning Skywatch--a novel aimed at a younger age group, completely different in style and tone, and with only one POV character.
Lesson learned.
Skywatch's outline was much more explicit, to the point of mentioning and outlining some specific scenes. I'm starting to think that while it works for Skywatch--a shorter story and a mystery story, to boot--such a detailed outline might not be to my advantage when I return to works aimed at older readers (YA or adult fiction). The Novel's outline was really vague, and sometimes resulted in mutli-thousand-word sections that had to be cut. So next time I outline a novel, I'll be aiming for the middle ground.
I have also started reading Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan, which is an interesting YA steampunk book. So far I like one of the POV characters more than the other, but the worldbuilding seems both solid and intriguing. Like all of Westerfeld's books, the writing is solid, so I'll probably post a rec soonish.