Well, I tried again this year to write 50,000 words during National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), however I didn't get out more than 25% of that number. And only about half of those words are the actual story. I have a tendency to brainstorm as I write, which means I end up with a notebook full of notes and story written in longhand, and two computer files - one with the notebook in it and one with just the story in it.
But, now I know the snowflake method is successful (see my previous input on this subject during August/September), and will use it to review/revise/resuscitate my other current work, as well as start new work in the coming year.
Now it is time to let everything sit (as much as that's possible when one is a writer and ideas/characters decide when they want to drop in on you - sigh...) and enjoy the holiday season with family et al. I have two grandbabies to shower attention on now (don't know if I posted that the grandson was born in Mar 08 and the granddaughter was born in Nov 09), which has led my writer's mind down another path - writing holiday stories for them and collecting family traditions (recipes, rituals, etc.) to put in printed form (probably out on lulu.com by this time next year and updated annually). See what I mean about ideas???
Monday, November 30, 2009
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Poetry Contest Results
Well, yesterday I received the news - none of the poems I entered in the Redwood Writers Poetry Contest placed. The rejection e-mail was very sweet and thoughtful, which makes the non-placement much easier to swallow. The other contest I had entered my work in I have not heard on, but am assuming I did not place there either, since they said the winners would be notified by 15 Sep 09, which has come and gone. Oh, well - there are more contests to enter and more writing to be done...tomorrow is another day!
Snowflake Method - Expanded Proposal/Summary
The next step in the Snowflake Method is to take the one-page synopsis and expand it to a four-page synopsis. Here is my take on expanding the first paragraph of the shorter synposis:
Para #1
Nick Aceret is a crime novelist with a penchant for creating characters who are more than they seem to be on the page. He doesn’t realize his characters have a tendency to become more than he created him to be. Take Millie – short for Millicent Marianna Freedman – for example. Who would have thought that a one-dimensional character who barely appeared in three scenes in one novel would have the audacity, let alone the ability, to force another author’s essence out of said author’s body and move her own essence in? Millie’s freedom from the character realm only lasted a few months, and the team from the Asylum for Miscreant Characters was able to return the author to her rightful body, but still – who’d have thought this type of situation was possible at all?
Keep in mind, Millie was one of dozens of less notable characters who existed for a few scenes here or there in Nick’s Diabolical Soul crime series. Nick also created Malcolm Price, the antagonist in the series, and Marlena Kevan, a character used as a foil for Malcolm until she was written off the page at the end of the third novel. Or so Nick thought. Marlena had actually developed over the course of the three novels to a point that Malcolm saw her as a serious threat, and influenced Nick to write her out of the series. Neither Nick nor Marlena realized what was happening to them due to Malcolm’s influence!
After the incident with Millie, Tracey Averdue, an agent with the Character Stabilization Unit at the Asylum, studied the flow of Nick’s series, noting where Malcolm had encouraged Millie’s delusions of grandeur as well as how he managed to get Marlena written off the page. Agent Averdue also discovered Malcolm’s plot to switch places with Nick and brought this to the attention of Mr. Von Schutzel, the director of the Asylum.
Mr. Von Schutzel attempted to gain Nick’s attention and inform him of Malcolm’s machinations, but to no avail. Nick was deep in the throes of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel on this particular novel, hell, this particular series, and nothing was going to distract him from reaching that light! Nick put Von Schutzel’s voice in his head down to lack of sleep, overcaffeination, and finally letting go of the character who had been his bread and butter for the last ten years.
Para #1
Nick Aceret is a crime novelist with a penchant for creating characters who are more than they seem to be on the page. He doesn’t realize his characters have a tendency to become more than he created him to be. Take Millie – short for Millicent Marianna Freedman – for example. Who would have thought that a one-dimensional character who barely appeared in three scenes in one novel would have the audacity, let alone the ability, to force another author’s essence out of said author’s body and move her own essence in? Millie’s freedom from the character realm only lasted a few months, and the team from the Asylum for Miscreant Characters was able to return the author to her rightful body, but still – who’d have thought this type of situation was possible at all?
Keep in mind, Millie was one of dozens of less notable characters who existed for a few scenes here or there in Nick’s Diabolical Soul crime series. Nick also created Malcolm Price, the antagonist in the series, and Marlena Kevan, a character used as a foil for Malcolm until she was written off the page at the end of the third novel. Or so Nick thought. Marlena had actually developed over the course of the three novels to a point that Malcolm saw her as a serious threat, and influenced Nick to write her out of the series. Neither Nick nor Marlena realized what was happening to them due to Malcolm’s influence!
After the incident with Millie, Tracey Averdue, an agent with the Character Stabilization Unit at the Asylum, studied the flow of Nick’s series, noting where Malcolm had encouraged Millie’s delusions of grandeur as well as how he managed to get Marlena written off the page. Agent Averdue also discovered Malcolm’s plot to switch places with Nick and brought this to the attention of Mr. Von Schutzel, the director of the Asylum.
Mr. Von Schutzel attempted to gain Nick’s attention and inform him of Malcolm’s machinations, but to no avail. Nick was deep in the throes of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel on this particular novel, hell, this particular series, and nothing was going to distract him from reaching that light! Nick put Von Schutzel’s voice in his head down to lack of sleep, overcaffeination, and finally letting go of the character who had been his bread and butter for the last ten years.
Snowflake Method - Other Important Characters
Since I last posted, I have told the story from two other important characters - Agent Tracy Averdue and Mr. Von Schutzel, both from the Asylum for Miscreant Characters. Here is the story through their eyes.
Agent Tracy Averdue – POV
The basics of this case were as follows: The perp – Malcolm Price – was plotting to change places with his creator – Nick Aceret – and then kill Aceret off. We discovered the plot after Millicent Marianna Freedman succeeded (for a short time) in taking over her author’s body by basically pushing the author’s essence – her soul, if you will – out into the ether so Freedman could enter her body. Since Aceret had created Freedman prior to her author’s use, and since the other characters created by Aceret seem to become more than he created them to be at a higher ratio than that of other authors’ creations, we decided to review Aceret’s work to find out why. What we discovered instead was Price’s plot and the machinations he’d already accomplished to this point – encouraging Freedman’s delusions of grandeur to a dangerous point and working to get Marlena Kevan written off the page when she became a threat to his how delusion of being the superior character.
I brought this information to the attention of Mr. Von Schutzel, the director of the Asylum for Miscreant Characters. He attempted to gain Aceret’s attention and inform him of Price’s plot, but to no avail. After reviewing our options against the severity of the threat, we decided to assign Agent Kevan the task of ensuring Price’s plot did not succeed as well as the task of bringing Price to justice.
At first, Agent Kevan was a bit reluctant to take on these tasks due to her previous dealings with both men. Additionally, she did not agree with the assessment that it was Price, no Aceret, who had her written off the page in the third book of Aceret’s series. However, when she perceived the threat to both the character realm and the realm of reality, she accomplished the task at hand like any good field agent would. Successfully.
Mr. Von Schutzel – POV
When Agent Averdue brought Malcolm’s plotting to my attention, I was alarmed! We’d had other cases of characters attempting this sort of maneuver, but managed to abort the attempts before they were visible even to the other characters in the story lines – at least until Millie came along. Her brief stint in the realm of reality alerted us to look more closely at Nick Aceret’s characters – for some reason, the characters he creates have a higher rate of being more than he created them to be than those of other authors. Agent Averdue reviewed Mr. Aceret’s work and found the markers, warning signs, clues, however you wish to describe them, where Malcolm had influenced not only Millie in her delusions of grandeur, but also where he convinced Mr. Aceret that Marlena was no longer an asset to the storyline. There were also indications of his plot to switch his essence (his soul) with that of Mr. Aceret, so it would actually have been Mr. Aceret that died at the end of book five in his series, not Malcolm.
I tried to tell Mr. Aceret, to warn him, but to no avail. He was too wrapped up in his story – authors tend to get extreme tunnel vision when they are close to finishing their projects we’ve noticed – to listen to anyone, let alone a voice from the character realm – he likely thought I was his inner critic, who’d never really liked Malcolm from the start – that should have been a major indication, Mr. Aceret! – oh well.
After reviewing our options on how to best deal with the situation, we decided to bring Marlena in to work the case. She’d done a remarkable job with fetching Millie back to the Asylum and getting that poor author back into her own body after hanging about her library watching Millie nearly make a muddle of the author’s writing career – so we though Marlena would be perfect for the job, her previous dealings with the two men not withstanding. We did not expect her to be so reticent about accepting the task at hand however! Agent Averdue did an exceptional job laying out the facts to her, but Marlena had to reconcile her head with what she’d lived through, and we didn’t realize how much of a debate that would be! It was nearly too late when she finally agreed to take on the task! If it hadn’t been for Mr. Aceret’s over-caffeinating ways, we would have been too late!
Be that as it may, Marlena, the dear girl, came through and we got Malcolm back in his proper spot just in the nick of time. That is one character that will never attempt any such thing again! Oh, and we saved Mr. Aceret as well. I believe he is still on sabbatical from writing however.
Agent Tracy Averdue – POV
The basics of this case were as follows: The perp – Malcolm Price – was plotting to change places with his creator – Nick Aceret – and then kill Aceret off. We discovered the plot after Millicent Marianna Freedman succeeded (for a short time) in taking over her author’s body by basically pushing the author’s essence – her soul, if you will – out into the ether so Freedman could enter her body. Since Aceret had created Freedman prior to her author’s use, and since the other characters created by Aceret seem to become more than he created them to be at a higher ratio than that of other authors’ creations, we decided to review Aceret’s work to find out why. What we discovered instead was Price’s plot and the machinations he’d already accomplished to this point – encouraging Freedman’s delusions of grandeur to a dangerous point and working to get Marlena Kevan written off the page when she became a threat to his how delusion of being the superior character.
I brought this information to the attention of Mr. Von Schutzel, the director of the Asylum for Miscreant Characters. He attempted to gain Aceret’s attention and inform him of Price’s plot, but to no avail. After reviewing our options against the severity of the threat, we decided to assign Agent Kevan the task of ensuring Price’s plot did not succeed as well as the task of bringing Price to justice.
At first, Agent Kevan was a bit reluctant to take on these tasks due to her previous dealings with both men. Additionally, she did not agree with the assessment that it was Price, no Aceret, who had her written off the page in the third book of Aceret’s series. However, when she perceived the threat to both the character realm and the realm of reality, she accomplished the task at hand like any good field agent would. Successfully.
Mr. Von Schutzel – POV
When Agent Averdue brought Malcolm’s plotting to my attention, I was alarmed! We’d had other cases of characters attempting this sort of maneuver, but managed to abort the attempts before they were visible even to the other characters in the story lines – at least until Millie came along. Her brief stint in the realm of reality alerted us to look more closely at Nick Aceret’s characters – for some reason, the characters he creates have a higher rate of being more than he created them to be than those of other authors. Agent Averdue reviewed Mr. Aceret’s work and found the markers, warning signs, clues, however you wish to describe them, where Malcolm had influenced not only Millie in her delusions of grandeur, but also where he convinced Mr. Aceret that Marlena was no longer an asset to the storyline. There were also indications of his plot to switch his essence (his soul) with that of Mr. Aceret, so it would actually have been Mr. Aceret that died at the end of book five in his series, not Malcolm.
I tried to tell Mr. Aceret, to warn him, but to no avail. He was too wrapped up in his story – authors tend to get extreme tunnel vision when they are close to finishing their projects we’ve noticed – to listen to anyone, let alone a voice from the character realm – he likely thought I was his inner critic, who’d never really liked Malcolm from the start – that should have been a major indication, Mr. Aceret! – oh well.
After reviewing our options on how to best deal with the situation, we decided to bring Marlena in to work the case. She’d done a remarkable job with fetching Millie back to the Asylum and getting that poor author back into her own body after hanging about her library watching Millie nearly make a muddle of the author’s writing career – so we though Marlena would be perfect for the job, her previous dealings with the two men not withstanding. We did not expect her to be so reticent about accepting the task at hand however! Agent Averdue did an exceptional job laying out the facts to her, but Marlena had to reconcile her head with what she’d lived through, and we didn’t realize how much of a debate that would be! It was nearly too late when she finally agreed to take on the task! If it hadn’t been for Mr. Aceret’s over-caffeinating ways, we would have been too late!
Be that as it may, Marlena, the dear girl, came through and we got Malcolm back in his proper spot just in the nick of time. That is one character that will never attempt any such thing again! Oh, and we saved Mr. Aceret as well. I believe he is still on sabbatical from writing however.
Monday, September 07, 2009
Snowflake Method - Marlena's POV
As I stated in an earlier post, I'm in the process of telling the story from each character's POV - at least for the major and important characters. Marlena is the most important character apparently, since her POV is the longest of the three major characters. Enjoy!
Marlena Kevan – POV
I received the summons from Von Schutzel as I was hanging about in the corner of the library of the author we rescued from Millicent Marianna Freedman – aka Millie – a few months back. Man, I really like her writing style! The summons was simply that a serious situation was in the making, one that required my unique talents.
Once I arrived back at the Asylum for Miscreant Characters, Von Schutzel and Agent Averdue of the Character Stabilization Unit informed me that Malcolm Price appeared to be planning a similar feat to Millie’s – changing bodies with his creator, author Nick Aceret. They need my ability to change gender in order to throw Malcolm enough off-kilter to bring him back to the page to finish his story, and, if necessary to face his fate at the Asylum.
Von Schutzel knew that Nick had created me, but he was not aware of the circumstances of our parting, nor of the history between Malcolm and me. Agent Averdue had reviewed Nick’s previous work, but didn’t see things quite the same as I did – having lived them and all.
Being the compliant character that I am – which annoys me to no end at times like these, but then again I don’t want to end up in the Asylum myself – I agreed to the assignment with a strong sense of foreboding. You see, I wasn’t just a bit character in Nick’s storyline. I was an integral part of it, closely involved with Malcolm, first as his victim, then as his lover and accomplice. Malcolm and I made a good team, but for some reason Nick decided I didn’t fit anymore, so my character went into the river at the end of book three of the series, and I came to work for the Character Stabilization Unit at the Asylum for Miscreant Characters.
Anyway, back to the situation at hand. After reviewing the information Agent Averdue had collected, I could see very well that Malcolm was not only planning to move into Nick’s body, but also to trade places with Nick, so that Nick would be the one killed off in the book – in Malcolm’s body of course.
You see, when a character is killed off easily – gunshot or other quick method of causing death – the essence of that character simply moves out of the body and waits to be reassigned to a new story with another name and a few cosmetic changes. But when a character goes through multiple and massive trauma such as Nick is putting Malcolm through, usually the character’s essence is reduced to a quivering glob of sludge only good to feed the creative ether with. So Malcolm’s plan was to make Nick’s essence into compost (and vice versa, although Nick probably doesn’t realize what happens to characters when they are written out of existence in a storyline – most authors don’t).
So, my assignment was to stop Malcolm and save Nick. My head knew that, in general, characters have to fall in line with what their creators, the authors, planned for them to do in a storyline. Everyone has their place, but that is not to say there was no potential for growth – that depended on the character/author interaction – but in any given storyline, the author decided the level of growth, not the character. Malcolm was planning to use his place in the storyline to his own ends, though – by switching places with Nick and, in essence, committing murder. Even in the character realm, murder is considered a capital crime when committed outside the bounds of a storyline – and to have the audacity to even attempt to kill your creator – what that’s just unheard of! At least it had been until now. But it’s wrong, and my head knows it’s very wrong!
But my heart thinks in personal particulars, and my particulars in this case were that Malcolm and I had a good thing going. We made a good team when all was said and done – and for whatever reason Nick decided I no longer fit the storyline and dumped me in the river at the end of book three. So, my heart was rooting for Malcolm (even though it too knew that was he was planning was wrong, very, very wrong). About Nick – ambivalence tinged with hurt – he created me (and I’m very thankful for that, of course), put me in plenty of situations where I grew into a multidimensional character (thankful for that too) – then he wrote me off the page. Ouch! I didn’t even see that coming! Most authors at least have the decency to use foreshadowing to warn their characters who are about to get the axe – but not Nick – at least not for me! He even treated Millie with more than that, and she was a bit character who lasted maybe three scenes in book two. Sheesh!
Of course, by the time I’d worked through my qualms about the case, it was nearly too late. Malcolm had changed bodies with Nick and was writing the rest of the storyline. At least he was smart enough to know that the flow had to match, so he had to go back and review Nick’s previous work to match his ending with the already-in-progress story. That gave Nick the time he needed to make his way out of the scene and into the sewer before Malcolm sent Riley Brown – the detective created to stop Malcolm in the series - looking for the body. And, at least Nick was smart enough to know that Riley, based on a two-dimensional model, would look at the obvious escape routes first – especially considering the fall Nick’s new body had just endured – so Nick had time to move towards the (further away river) instead of the (closer river). Which is where I caught up with him – in the sewer system heading towards the (further away river).
To say Nick was surprised to see me was a bit of an understatement. But, to his credit, he recovered quickly. He was a bit arrogant and annoying, not wanting to believe we could do what we said we were going to do – a bit ungrateful when someone you wrote off the page comes to your rescue there, dear! That is until we actually engineered the switch.
When Malcolm re-entered his own body, he thought he could send Riley off balance with a bit of cajoling about Sherlock Holmes killing off his Moriarity – wasn’t done in that series, you know. He was a bit shocked to realize I was impersonating Riley and I had a gun trained square on his head. As he lunged at me, I fired and down he went. Dead.
Marlena Kevan – POV
I received the summons from Von Schutzel as I was hanging about in the corner of the library of the author we rescued from Millicent Marianna Freedman – aka Millie – a few months back. Man, I really like her writing style! The summons was simply that a serious situation was in the making, one that required my unique talents.
Once I arrived back at the Asylum for Miscreant Characters, Von Schutzel and Agent Averdue of the Character Stabilization Unit informed me that Malcolm Price appeared to be planning a similar feat to Millie’s – changing bodies with his creator, author Nick Aceret. They need my ability to change gender in order to throw Malcolm enough off-kilter to bring him back to the page to finish his story, and, if necessary to face his fate at the Asylum.
Von Schutzel knew that Nick had created me, but he was not aware of the circumstances of our parting, nor of the history between Malcolm and me. Agent Averdue had reviewed Nick’s previous work, but didn’t see things quite the same as I did – having lived them and all.
Being the compliant character that I am – which annoys me to no end at times like these, but then again I don’t want to end up in the Asylum myself – I agreed to the assignment with a strong sense of foreboding. You see, I wasn’t just a bit character in Nick’s storyline. I was an integral part of it, closely involved with Malcolm, first as his victim, then as his lover and accomplice. Malcolm and I made a good team, but for some reason Nick decided I didn’t fit anymore, so my character went into the river at the end of book three of the series, and I came to work for the Character Stabilization Unit at the Asylum for Miscreant Characters.
Anyway, back to the situation at hand. After reviewing the information Agent Averdue had collected, I could see very well that Malcolm was not only planning to move into Nick’s body, but also to trade places with Nick, so that Nick would be the one killed off in the book – in Malcolm’s body of course.
You see, when a character is killed off easily – gunshot or other quick method of causing death – the essence of that character simply moves out of the body and waits to be reassigned to a new story with another name and a few cosmetic changes. But when a character goes through multiple and massive trauma such as Nick is putting Malcolm through, usually the character’s essence is reduced to a quivering glob of sludge only good to feed the creative ether with. So Malcolm’s plan was to make Nick’s essence into compost (and vice versa, although Nick probably doesn’t realize what happens to characters when they are written out of existence in a storyline – most authors don’t).
So, my assignment was to stop Malcolm and save Nick. My head knew that, in general, characters have to fall in line with what their creators, the authors, planned for them to do in a storyline. Everyone has their place, but that is not to say there was no potential for growth – that depended on the character/author interaction – but in any given storyline, the author decided the level of growth, not the character. Malcolm was planning to use his place in the storyline to his own ends, though – by switching places with Nick and, in essence, committing murder. Even in the character realm, murder is considered a capital crime when committed outside the bounds of a storyline – and to have the audacity to even attempt to kill your creator – what that’s just unheard of! At least it had been until now. But it’s wrong, and my head knows it’s very wrong!
But my heart thinks in personal particulars, and my particulars in this case were that Malcolm and I had a good thing going. We made a good team when all was said and done – and for whatever reason Nick decided I no longer fit the storyline and dumped me in the river at the end of book three. So, my heart was rooting for Malcolm (even though it too knew that was he was planning was wrong, very, very wrong). About Nick – ambivalence tinged with hurt – he created me (and I’m very thankful for that, of course), put me in plenty of situations where I grew into a multidimensional character (thankful for that too) – then he wrote me off the page. Ouch! I didn’t even see that coming! Most authors at least have the decency to use foreshadowing to warn their characters who are about to get the axe – but not Nick – at least not for me! He even treated Millie with more than that, and she was a bit character who lasted maybe three scenes in book two. Sheesh!
Of course, by the time I’d worked through my qualms about the case, it was nearly too late. Malcolm had changed bodies with Nick and was writing the rest of the storyline. At least he was smart enough to know that the flow had to match, so he had to go back and review Nick’s previous work to match his ending with the already-in-progress story. That gave Nick the time he needed to make his way out of the scene and into the sewer before Malcolm sent Riley Brown – the detective created to stop Malcolm in the series - looking for the body. And, at least Nick was smart enough to know that Riley, based on a two-dimensional model, would look at the obvious escape routes first – especially considering the fall Nick’s new body had just endured – so Nick had time to move towards the (further away river) instead of the (closer river). Which is where I caught up with him – in the sewer system heading towards the (further away river).
To say Nick was surprised to see me was a bit of an understatement. But, to his credit, he recovered quickly. He was a bit arrogant and annoying, not wanting to believe we could do what we said we were going to do – a bit ungrateful when someone you wrote off the page comes to your rescue there, dear! That is until we actually engineered the switch.
When Malcolm re-entered his own body, he thought he could send Riley off balance with a bit of cajoling about Sherlock Holmes killing off his Moriarity – wasn’t done in that series, you know. He was a bit shocked to realize I was impersonating Riley and I had a gun trained square on his head. As he lunged at me, I fired and down he went. Dead.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Snowflake Method - Characters' POVs
The next step is to write the story synopsis from each character's point of view, allowing a full page for each major character and a half page for each important character.
I've let Nick and Malcolm tell the story from their viewpoints thus far. There is, of course, more information I need to tease out of them, but here is what they've given me to date:
Nick Aceret – POV
There I was, working furiously to finish my novel, and BAM! The next thing I know, I wake up in a body that feels like it’s been put through the wringer and then crushed like a junked car. It took me a few moments to get my bearings, and then I heard a voice I’d only heard in my head before say, “I think the body fell over here, Sarge.” Oh my God – that’s Riley! I struggled to my feet, looked down at my body – the one I woke up in – and realized something with either very wrong or I’d been on this writing binge way too long! Note to self – 75 hours is the wall! Don’t hit the wall! I shook my head to clear the scene and refocus on the print of (insert name of painting) by (insert name of artist) hanging on the wall in front of my desk. Big mistake! The world went fuzzy, and I had to sit down before I fell down! Choking back the vomit rising in my throat, I realized – Nick, you’re not in Kansas anymore! – I was actually living Malcolm’s final moments – wait a minute, if I’m here, where is Malcolm? I heard Riley coming closer and looked for a place to hide, a way to escape. I knew his intent was to stop Malcolm, by deadly force if necessary (and for the purposes of my novel that’s exactly what was necessary – this was Malcolm’s last appearance in my work – he’d become too disturbing a character even for me, and it was time to move on). Ah, salvation! An entrance to the city’s sewer system. All I had to do was get in there without leaving too much of a trail for Riley to follow. Just got to power through this body’s injuries – come on grate! Ah, success! Ok, one foot below the other on the ladder, pull the grate back into place, gently. Good. Now down the ladder – close the eyes, one foot at a time, ah – the bottom. Breathe – ouch! – maybe some busted ribs there – focus – go down the darkest path – there, to the left – quietly – ah, a turn to the right – stop! Listen – nothing coming – find a dry spot to rest for a while. At least it was only a two story tumble – and Malcolm does – did – know how to land – injured ribs, slight concussion – major bruises, but no other damage to internal organs as far as I can tell – arms and legs still work. Should have thought to devise a schematic for the sewer system – oh well, with the way the city grew out, it’s probably a hodgepodge anyway – focus – where’d we land again? That’s right, off the highway bridge that goes over the big park near the river. Think – what would Riley be doing now? How close were we to the river? That’s too expected – Riley would have the entrances to the system near the river covered, as well as the ones in the park – damn! Hey wait – I went left, then right – if I keep going until I hit another left, I should be able to daylight in the city somewhere – got to keep moving. Ok, enough of the inch by inch stuff…I start hearing voices as I’m making my way through the system – wait – that’s a female voice – a familiar female voice – Marlena? But – I wrote you off the page and into the drink at the end of the third novel – how did you? Never mind – why are you here now?
You know, if I wasn’t living it, I’d still ignore the warnings about Malcolm – how could I have been so blind? And how in Hades do I get out of this mess?
Oh, right, you’re going to distract Malcolm long enough and strong enough for Agent Averdue and his team to do a reverse transfer? You know he grew tired of you, right? That’s why I/we threw you in the river at the end of the third novel. So what makes you think you can distract him without fear of recognition now? Ah, oh, okay – that’s a neat trick – too bad you can’t switch with Riley Brown, the lead detective now.
You think you can?
Oh, now you’re telling me to step back and let you do your job? Okay, okay – yes, I want my body and my reality back. Don’t hurt him too bad, I need him for my next book! Wow – identical! Ok, off I go – Pop!
Whoa – gingerly moves head and takes slow, deep breath – looks around writing room to see the print of (need name of painting) hanging on the wall in front of my desk. Looks down at the manuscript to find that Riley Brown has tracked the injured Malcolm Price through the sewer system with the help of the cadaver dogs.
“I’m sorry old chap.”
As Malcolm gathers and lunges at Riley Brown, a shot rings out and Malcolm falls to the filthy floor of the sewer tunnel. Dead for real this time.
Nick felt the tension go out of his body as he hears Marlena whisper in a smoky male voice, “Got him!”
POV – Malcolm Price
It was the perfect plan – switch spots with Nick and I’d be home free – after Riley finished me, I mean him, off, of course.
Nick should have died when he went into the body he’d run off the bridge anyway, as bruised and broken as it was – how was I to know that his caffeinating ways would restart everything?
I paused to take a glance around my new abode and the sucker finds his way into the sewer system, slithering away as fast as he can before Riley Brown – the detective type he thought would be able to finish me off – Please! Riley’s not that wily! – got to the spot where the body landed!
So, Riley spent some time poking through the sewer system on the (name of river) River side before deducing that Nick was heading towards the (name of another river) River – makes sense – Nick’s actions, not Riley’s – I would have done the same. Then I caught this familiar flavor in the story, like….Marlena was back – but she couldn’t be – I mean, we dumped her in the river at the end of the third novel – and even I with caffeinated Nick’s help couldn’t have survived That Fall! I shook it off – turns out I should have paid attention that time – as I was enjoying a sumptuous meal of veal with a nice chianti and some fava beans, Riley allowed himself to be knocked out cold, and then somehow Marlena took his identity - the base flavor was still there, but muskier, stronger, now – then I felt a bit light-headed – figured it was the wine, until I heard Von Schutzel’s voice – just as annoying as when he was trying to convince Nick I was dangerous – should have listened to him, Nick, old boy! – Hey, I’m slipping – nooo! Damn! They figured out my plan – come on Riley, you’re not really going to kill off your Moriarity, are you? Wait! You’re not Riley! You’re, you’re – Marlena!
Pop! World fades to black.
I've let Nick and Malcolm tell the story from their viewpoints thus far. There is, of course, more information I need to tease out of them, but here is what they've given me to date:
Nick Aceret – POV
There I was, working furiously to finish my novel, and BAM! The next thing I know, I wake up in a body that feels like it’s been put through the wringer and then crushed like a junked car. It took me a few moments to get my bearings, and then I heard a voice I’d only heard in my head before say, “I think the body fell over here, Sarge.” Oh my God – that’s Riley! I struggled to my feet, looked down at my body – the one I woke up in – and realized something with either very wrong or I’d been on this writing binge way too long! Note to self – 75 hours is the wall! Don’t hit the wall! I shook my head to clear the scene and refocus on the print of (insert name of painting) by (insert name of artist) hanging on the wall in front of my desk. Big mistake! The world went fuzzy, and I had to sit down before I fell down! Choking back the vomit rising in my throat, I realized – Nick, you’re not in Kansas anymore! – I was actually living Malcolm’s final moments – wait a minute, if I’m here, where is Malcolm? I heard Riley coming closer and looked for a place to hide, a way to escape. I knew his intent was to stop Malcolm, by deadly force if necessary (and for the purposes of my novel that’s exactly what was necessary – this was Malcolm’s last appearance in my work – he’d become too disturbing a character even for me, and it was time to move on). Ah, salvation! An entrance to the city’s sewer system. All I had to do was get in there without leaving too much of a trail for Riley to follow. Just got to power through this body’s injuries – come on grate! Ah, success! Ok, one foot below the other on the ladder, pull the grate back into place, gently. Good. Now down the ladder – close the eyes, one foot at a time, ah – the bottom. Breathe – ouch! – maybe some busted ribs there – focus – go down the darkest path – there, to the left – quietly – ah, a turn to the right – stop! Listen – nothing coming – find a dry spot to rest for a while. At least it was only a two story tumble – and Malcolm does – did – know how to land – injured ribs, slight concussion – major bruises, but no other damage to internal organs as far as I can tell – arms and legs still work. Should have thought to devise a schematic for the sewer system – oh well, with the way the city grew out, it’s probably a hodgepodge anyway – focus – where’d we land again? That’s right, off the highway bridge that goes over the big park near the river. Think – what would Riley be doing now? How close were we to the river? That’s too expected – Riley would have the entrances to the system near the river covered, as well as the ones in the park – damn! Hey wait – I went left, then right – if I keep going until I hit another left, I should be able to daylight in the city somewhere – got to keep moving. Ok, enough of the inch by inch stuff…I start hearing voices as I’m making my way through the system – wait – that’s a female voice – a familiar female voice – Marlena? But – I wrote you off the page and into the drink at the end of the third novel – how did you? Never mind – why are you here now?
You know, if I wasn’t living it, I’d still ignore the warnings about Malcolm – how could I have been so blind? And how in Hades do I get out of this mess?
Oh, right, you’re going to distract Malcolm long enough and strong enough for Agent Averdue and his team to do a reverse transfer? You know he grew tired of you, right? That’s why I/we threw you in the river at the end of the third novel. So what makes you think you can distract him without fear of recognition now? Ah, oh, okay – that’s a neat trick – too bad you can’t switch with Riley Brown, the lead detective now.
You think you can?
Oh, now you’re telling me to step back and let you do your job? Okay, okay – yes, I want my body and my reality back. Don’t hurt him too bad, I need him for my next book! Wow – identical! Ok, off I go – Pop!
Whoa – gingerly moves head and takes slow, deep breath – looks around writing room to see the print of (need name of painting) hanging on the wall in front of my desk. Looks down at the manuscript to find that Riley Brown has tracked the injured Malcolm Price through the sewer system with the help of the cadaver dogs.
“I’m sorry old chap.”
As Malcolm gathers and lunges at Riley Brown, a shot rings out and Malcolm falls to the filthy floor of the sewer tunnel. Dead for real this time.
Nick felt the tension go out of his body as he hears Marlena whisper in a smoky male voice, “Got him!”
POV – Malcolm Price
It was the perfect plan – switch spots with Nick and I’d be home free – after Riley finished me, I mean him, off, of course.
Nick should have died when he went into the body he’d run off the bridge anyway, as bruised and broken as it was – how was I to know that his caffeinating ways would restart everything?
I paused to take a glance around my new abode and the sucker finds his way into the sewer system, slithering away as fast as he can before Riley Brown – the detective type he thought would be able to finish me off – Please! Riley’s not that wily! – got to the spot where the body landed!
So, Riley spent some time poking through the sewer system on the (name of river) River side before deducing that Nick was heading towards the (name of another river) River – makes sense – Nick’s actions, not Riley’s – I would have done the same. Then I caught this familiar flavor in the story, like….Marlena was back – but she couldn’t be – I mean, we dumped her in the river at the end of the third novel – and even I with caffeinated Nick’s help couldn’t have survived That Fall! I shook it off – turns out I should have paid attention that time – as I was enjoying a sumptuous meal of veal with a nice chianti and some fava beans, Riley allowed himself to be knocked out cold, and then somehow Marlena took his identity - the base flavor was still there, but muskier, stronger, now – then I felt a bit light-headed – figured it was the wine, until I heard Von Schutzel’s voice – just as annoying as when he was trying to convince Nick I was dangerous – should have listened to him, Nick, old boy! – Hey, I’m slipping – nooo! Damn! They figured out my plan – come on Riley, you’re not really going to kill off your Moriarity, are you? Wait! You’re not Riley! You’re, you’re – Marlena!
Pop! World fades to black.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Book Proposal using the Snowflake Method
And here is what expanding the summary paragraph into a proposal ended up like:
Book Proposal - Untitled as Yet
Nick Aceret is a crime novelist with a penchant for creating characters who are more than they seem on the page. During the course of writing his Diabolical Soul crime series, Nick created both Malcolm Price, his antagonist throughout the series, and Marlena Kevan, a character used as a foil for Malcolm until she was written off the page at the end of the third novel, as well as other less notable characters that existed for a few scenes here and there. While Nick was writing the fourth novel in the series, Tracy Averdue, a security agent working with the Asylum for Miscreant Characters, noticed that several of Nick’s characters were much more than he had created them to be. One particular character, Millicent Marianna Freedman, had the audacity to push the essence of the author using her at the time out of the author’s body to hang about in the library until Mr. Von Schutzel, the Asylum’s director, recruited Marlena as part of the team to deflate Millicent’s ego, allowing the author’s essence to move back into her own body and enabling the team to move Millicent back to the Asylum without incident. As Agent Averdue studied the flow of Nick’s series, he noted that Malcolm was a more devious character than Millicent had grown to be, and brought his concerns to Mr. Von Schutzel. Mr. Von Schutzel tried to gain Nick’s attention about the situation, but Nick put the voice in his head down to the natural process of letting go of a character he had spent the better part of the last ten years with.
While working on the final novel in his latest series, Nick suffers a momentary blackout as he delivers the final death blow to the series’ antagonist, Malcolm Price. During the course of the last two novels, after his small success in getting Marlena written off at the end of the third novel of the series, Malcolm had studied Nick’s creative method in order to plot how to switch realities with his creator. He’d heard about Millicent’s escapade, and figured if a one-dimensional character that had barely made it through three scenes in the fourth novel of the series could get as far as she did, surely he, being more fully evolved, could succeed where Millicent had failed. Malcolm realized he would not only have to push Nick’s essence out of his body in order to fill it with his own, but also to put Nick’s essence into the body of his character on the page in order to be able to kill Nick off and keep Nick’s reality for his own. What Malcolm didn’t count on was Nick’s heavy caffeine habit during the final writing phases of his novels having the ability to restart a newly dead heart and bring his character back to life in the novel!
When Nick comes to, he finds his essence is now in the body previously occupied by Malcolm in the novel and he has to move quickly not only to stay alive but also to figure out what happened and get back to his own reality. Though the body he now inhabited was a mass of bruises, and probably even a fractured bone or two, Nick knew he had to keep moving in order to stay ahead of the protagonist in the novel, Riley Brown, the latest agent assigned to stop Malcolm. He also knew he had to cover his tracks very well until he could figure out what the hell happened and how he was supposed to get back to his own reality. He’d created Riley to be the one to finish Malcolm off in this novel after all! Nick moved to the sewer system, where he knew only by bringing in the cadaver dogs could Riley stand a chance of finding him. He only hoped one of the denizens of the system didn’t make the dogs’ job easier by making him an actual cadaver!
Enter Marlena Kevan, a character Nick wrote off in the third novel of the series, and who is now assigned to save his life and bring Malcolm to justice. After failing to gain Nick’s attention about the situation with Malcolm, Mr. Von Schutzel and Agent Averdue confer, deciding to bring Marlena in to work the case. Agent Averdue knows Marlena was created and then discarded by Nick; however, she is the best chance they have to stop Malcolm in his tracks. What neither of them considered was Marlena’s reaction to having to face her past and how it might affect her being able to complete the mission at hand.
Marlena, who had developed a talent for changing genders to fit the circumstances, has to face her past and resolve her feelings for both Malcolm and Nick in order to accomplish her mission. Being created to go from kidnapping victim to lover and accomplice, Marlena was already well versed in changing roles by the time Nick wrote her off the page at the end of the third novel in his crime series. Marlena took that talent to the next level by becoming an androgynous character, able to be female in one scene and male in the next. This ability was quite useful in dealing with Millicent Marianna Freedman, the only other character to attempt what Malcolm was plotting. Being away from Malcolm and Nick and finding her niche as a field agent for the Asylum for Miscreant Characters, Marlena was able to ignore her past. Now she must face it and, with Agent Averdue’s help, realize that it was Malcolm, not Nick, who had tossed her aside when she became too much of an equal in the series. By facing the truth of the matter, Marlena finds the key to returning Malcolm to the page to face his fate and get Nick back to his own reality.
Book Proposal - Untitled as Yet
Nick Aceret is a crime novelist with a penchant for creating characters who are more than they seem on the page. During the course of writing his Diabolical Soul crime series, Nick created both Malcolm Price, his antagonist throughout the series, and Marlena Kevan, a character used as a foil for Malcolm until she was written off the page at the end of the third novel, as well as other less notable characters that existed for a few scenes here and there. While Nick was writing the fourth novel in the series, Tracy Averdue, a security agent working with the Asylum for Miscreant Characters, noticed that several of Nick’s characters were much more than he had created them to be. One particular character, Millicent Marianna Freedman, had the audacity to push the essence of the author using her at the time out of the author’s body to hang about in the library until Mr. Von Schutzel, the Asylum’s director, recruited Marlena as part of the team to deflate Millicent’s ego, allowing the author’s essence to move back into her own body and enabling the team to move Millicent back to the Asylum without incident. As Agent Averdue studied the flow of Nick’s series, he noted that Malcolm was a more devious character than Millicent had grown to be, and brought his concerns to Mr. Von Schutzel. Mr. Von Schutzel tried to gain Nick’s attention about the situation, but Nick put the voice in his head down to the natural process of letting go of a character he had spent the better part of the last ten years with.
While working on the final novel in his latest series, Nick suffers a momentary blackout as he delivers the final death blow to the series’ antagonist, Malcolm Price. During the course of the last two novels, after his small success in getting Marlena written off at the end of the third novel of the series, Malcolm had studied Nick’s creative method in order to plot how to switch realities with his creator. He’d heard about Millicent’s escapade, and figured if a one-dimensional character that had barely made it through three scenes in the fourth novel of the series could get as far as she did, surely he, being more fully evolved, could succeed where Millicent had failed. Malcolm realized he would not only have to push Nick’s essence out of his body in order to fill it with his own, but also to put Nick’s essence into the body of his character on the page in order to be able to kill Nick off and keep Nick’s reality for his own. What Malcolm didn’t count on was Nick’s heavy caffeine habit during the final writing phases of his novels having the ability to restart a newly dead heart and bring his character back to life in the novel!
When Nick comes to, he finds his essence is now in the body previously occupied by Malcolm in the novel and he has to move quickly not only to stay alive but also to figure out what happened and get back to his own reality. Though the body he now inhabited was a mass of bruises, and probably even a fractured bone or two, Nick knew he had to keep moving in order to stay ahead of the protagonist in the novel, Riley Brown, the latest agent assigned to stop Malcolm. He also knew he had to cover his tracks very well until he could figure out what the hell happened and how he was supposed to get back to his own reality. He’d created Riley to be the one to finish Malcolm off in this novel after all! Nick moved to the sewer system, where he knew only by bringing in the cadaver dogs could Riley stand a chance of finding him. He only hoped one of the denizens of the system didn’t make the dogs’ job easier by making him an actual cadaver!
Enter Marlena Kevan, a character Nick wrote off in the third novel of the series, and who is now assigned to save his life and bring Malcolm to justice. After failing to gain Nick’s attention about the situation with Malcolm, Mr. Von Schutzel and Agent Averdue confer, deciding to bring Marlena in to work the case. Agent Averdue knows Marlena was created and then discarded by Nick; however, she is the best chance they have to stop Malcolm in his tracks. What neither of them considered was Marlena’s reaction to having to face her past and how it might affect her being able to complete the mission at hand.
Marlena, who had developed a talent for changing genders to fit the circumstances, has to face her past and resolve her feelings for both Malcolm and Nick in order to accomplish her mission. Being created to go from kidnapping victim to lover and accomplice, Marlena was already well versed in changing roles by the time Nick wrote her off the page at the end of the third novel in his crime series. Marlena took that talent to the next level by becoming an androgynous character, able to be female in one scene and male in the next. This ability was quite useful in dealing with Millicent Marianna Freedman, the only other character to attempt what Malcolm was plotting. Being away from Malcolm and Nick and finding her niche as a field agent for the Asylum for Miscreant Characters, Marlena was able to ignore her past. Now she must face it and, with Agent Averdue’s help, realize that it was Malcolm, not Nick, who had tossed her aside when she became too much of an equal in the series. By facing the truth of the matter, Marlena finds the key to returning Malcolm to the page to face his fate and get Nick back to his own reality.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Snowflake Method of Writing
As you can see from my Twitter feeds, I'm working my next novel/story via the Snowflake Method.
To date, I've worked through the following steps:
A one-sentence summary of the story: A gender-switching character comes back to the page to save the author who wrote her off.
A paragraph summary of the story: Nick Aceret is a crime novelist with a penchant for creating characters who are more than they seem on the page. While working on the final novel in his latest series, Nick suffers a momentary blackout as he delivers the final death blow to the series’ antagonist, Malcolm Price. When Nick comes to, he finds his essence is now in the body previously occupied by Malcolm in the novel and he has to move quickly not only to stay alive but also to figure out what happened and get back to his own reality. Enter Marlena Kevan, a character Nick wrote off in the third novel of the series, and who is now assigned to save his life and bring Malcolm to justice. Marlena, who had developed a talent for changing genders to fit the circumstances, has to face her past and resolve her feelings for both Malcolm and Nick in order to accomplish her mission.
Character summaries for the major characters (as follows):
Name: Nick Aceret
One-sentence Storyline: Author Nick Aceret finds himself looking at his characters in a new light after one takes over his body and tries to write him off the page.
Motivation: to stay alive
Goal: to regain his reality
Conflict: Malcolm has his body and he has to find a way to get it back with the help of Marlena.
Epiphany: He realizes words truly do have power
One-paragraph Summary: Nick Aceret finds himself looking at the characters he creates in a new way when Malcolm Price, the antagonist in his crime series, switches bodies with him. Nick momentarily blacks out when he is writing the scene where Malcolm is being dealt his death blow. When Nick comes to, he discovers he is now in Malcolm’s body and has to move quickly to stay ahead of the novel’s protagonist who is trying to kill him. He also has to work with Marlena Kevan, a character he had previously written off the page, to find his way back to his own reality. During the course of their efforts to stay one step ahead of the protagonist and figure out how to get Nick back to his own reality and Malcolm back on the page, Nick discovers that Marlena is much more than he created her to be. He faces up to his callous treatment of his characters and the effects it has on them.
Name: Marlena Kevan
One-sentence Storyline: Marlena has to face her feelings toward the author she is sent to save and the character she must put back on the page to face his fate.
Motivation: Peace
Goal: To save Nick Aceret and put Malcolm Price back on the page to face his fate.
Conflict: Her feelings towards both men and herself.
Epiphany: Marlena realizes she is more than what others think of her.
One-paragraph Summary: Marlena Kevan’s assignment is to help Nick Aceret, the author who created her and then wrote her off the page during the course of the first three novels of his series, regain his body and his reality from Malcolm Price, first her kidnapper and then her lover in the series. In order to do so, Marlena must face her past, conquer her fears, and deal with her feelings towards both men, all the while using her talents, including changing genders, to outwit both the protagonist in the novel and Malcolm in order to return Nick to his reality and put Malcolm back on the page to face his fate. During the course of these events, Marlena realizes she has much more to offer than anyone ever gave her credit for, including herself.
Name: Malcolm Price.
One-sentence Storyline: Malcolm Price discovers how to step off the page into reality only to have the woman he tossed aside return him to the page to face his fate.
Motivation: Survival
Goal: To take over Nick Aceret’s body by killing Nick off.
Conflict: His plot is discovered and Marlena is sent in to thwart it.
Epiphany: Karma does get you in the end.
One-paragraph summary: Malcolm Price figures out how to switch realities (and bodies) with his creator, author Nick Aceret. However, Malcolm failed to take into account Nick’s caffeine habit and the effect that would have on a supposedly newly-dead body. He also didn’t think the folks at the Asylum for Miscreant Characters were aware of his activities, or that they would send in Marlena Kevan, the character he’d kidnapped, made his lover and his pawn and then tossed aside, to stop him. When Marlin Karvala came on the scene, Malcolm knew he was in trouble, and realized his actions caught up with him in the end.
Now, I'm working on taking each sentence in the paragraph summary of the story and making each one a paragraph.
Here's what I've got so far...
Paragraph #1: Nick Aceret is a crime novelist with a penchant for creating characters who are more than they seem on the page. During the course of writing his Diabolical Soul crime series, Nick created both Malcolm Price, his antagonist throughout the series, and Marlena Kevan, a character used as a foil for Malcolm until she was written off the page at the end of the third novel, as well as other less notable characters that existed for a few scenes here and there. While Nick was writing the fourth novel in the series, Tracy Averdue, a security agent working with the Asylum for Miscreant Characters, noticed that several of Nick’s characters were much more than he had created them to be. One particular character, Millicent Marianna Freedman, had the audacity to push the essence of the author using her at the time out of the author’s body to hang about in the library until Mr. Von Schutzel, the Asylum’s director, recruited Marlena as part of the team to deflate Millicent’s ego, allowing the author’s essence to move back into her own body and enabling the team to move Millicent back to the Asylum without incident. As Agent Averdue studied the flow of Nick’s series, he noted that Malcolm was a more devious character than Millicent had grown to be, and brought his concerns to Mr. Von Schutzel. Mr. Von Schutzel tried to gain Nick’s attention about the situation, but Nick put the voice in his head down to the natural process of letting go of a character he had spent the better part of the last ten years with.
Paragraph #2: While working on the final novel in his latest series, Nick suffers a momentary blackout as he delivers the final death blow to the series’ antagonist, Malcolm Price. During the course of the last two novels, after his small success in getting Marlena written off at the end of the third novel of the series, Malcolm had studied Nick’s creative method in order to plot how to switch realities with his creator. He’d heard about Millicent’s escapade, and figured if a one-dimensional character who had barely made it through three scenes in the fourth novel of the series could get as far as she did, surely he, being more fully evolved, could succeed where Millicent had failed. Malcolm realized he would not only have to push Nick’s essence out of his body in order to fill it with his own, but also to put Nick’s essence into the body of his character on the page in order to be able to kill Nick off and keep Nick’s reality for his own. What Malcolm didn’t count on was Nick’s heavy caffeine habit during the final writing phases of his novels having the ability to restart a newly dead heart and bring his character back to life in the novel!
Paragraph #3: When Nick comes to, he finds his essence is now in the body previously occupied by Malcolm in the novel and he has to move quickly not only to stay alive but also to figure out what happened and get back to his own reality. Though the body he now inhabited was a mass of bruises, and probably even a fractured bone or two, Nick knew he had to keep moving in order to stay ahead of the protagonist in the novel, Riley Brown, the latest agent assigned to stop Malcolm. He also knew he had to cover his tracks very well until he could figure out what the hell happened and how he was supposed to get back to his own reality. He’d created Riley to be the one to finish Malcolm off in this novel after all! Nick moved to the sewer system, where he knew only by bringing in the cadaver dogs could Riley stand a chance of finding him. He only hoped one of the denizens of the system didn’t make the dogs’ job easier by making him an actual cadaver!
I've still got two paragraphs to go here, but I already see some tweaking and straightening out of plot I need to do. Now, the creator of the Snowflake Method, Randy Ingermanson, does point out that you are likely to revise things as you go along, as your characters teach you things about your story - and I can definitely see some revision in my future already!
To date, I've worked through the following steps:
A one-sentence summary of the story: A gender-switching character comes back to the page to save the author who wrote her off.
A paragraph summary of the story: Nick Aceret is a crime novelist with a penchant for creating characters who are more than they seem on the page. While working on the final novel in his latest series, Nick suffers a momentary blackout as he delivers the final death blow to the series’ antagonist, Malcolm Price. When Nick comes to, he finds his essence is now in the body previously occupied by Malcolm in the novel and he has to move quickly not only to stay alive but also to figure out what happened and get back to his own reality. Enter Marlena Kevan, a character Nick wrote off in the third novel of the series, and who is now assigned to save his life and bring Malcolm to justice. Marlena, who had developed a talent for changing genders to fit the circumstances, has to face her past and resolve her feelings for both Malcolm and Nick in order to accomplish her mission.
Character summaries for the major characters (as follows):
Name: Nick Aceret
One-sentence Storyline: Author Nick Aceret finds himself looking at his characters in a new light after one takes over his body and tries to write him off the page.
Motivation: to stay alive
Goal: to regain his reality
Conflict: Malcolm has his body and he has to find a way to get it back with the help of Marlena.
Epiphany: He realizes words truly do have power
One-paragraph Summary: Nick Aceret finds himself looking at the characters he creates in a new way when Malcolm Price, the antagonist in his crime series, switches bodies with him. Nick momentarily blacks out when he is writing the scene where Malcolm is being dealt his death blow. When Nick comes to, he discovers he is now in Malcolm’s body and has to move quickly to stay ahead of the novel’s protagonist who is trying to kill him. He also has to work with Marlena Kevan, a character he had previously written off the page, to find his way back to his own reality. During the course of their efforts to stay one step ahead of the protagonist and figure out how to get Nick back to his own reality and Malcolm back on the page, Nick discovers that Marlena is much more than he created her to be. He faces up to his callous treatment of his characters and the effects it has on them.
Name: Marlena Kevan
One-sentence Storyline: Marlena has to face her feelings toward the author she is sent to save and the character she must put back on the page to face his fate.
Motivation: Peace
Goal: To save Nick Aceret and put Malcolm Price back on the page to face his fate.
Conflict: Her feelings towards both men and herself.
Epiphany: Marlena realizes she is more than what others think of her.
One-paragraph Summary: Marlena Kevan’s assignment is to help Nick Aceret, the author who created her and then wrote her off the page during the course of the first three novels of his series, regain his body and his reality from Malcolm Price, first her kidnapper and then her lover in the series. In order to do so, Marlena must face her past, conquer her fears, and deal with her feelings towards both men, all the while using her talents, including changing genders, to outwit both the protagonist in the novel and Malcolm in order to return Nick to his reality and put Malcolm back on the page to face his fate. During the course of these events, Marlena realizes she has much more to offer than anyone ever gave her credit for, including herself.
Name: Malcolm Price.
One-sentence Storyline: Malcolm Price discovers how to step off the page into reality only to have the woman he tossed aside return him to the page to face his fate.
Motivation: Survival
Goal: To take over Nick Aceret’s body by killing Nick off.
Conflict: His plot is discovered and Marlena is sent in to thwart it.
Epiphany: Karma does get you in the end.
One-paragraph summary: Malcolm Price figures out how to switch realities (and bodies) with his creator, author Nick Aceret. However, Malcolm failed to take into account Nick’s caffeine habit and the effect that would have on a supposedly newly-dead body. He also didn’t think the folks at the Asylum for Miscreant Characters were aware of his activities, or that they would send in Marlena Kevan, the character he’d kidnapped, made his lover and his pawn and then tossed aside, to stop him. When Marlin Karvala came on the scene, Malcolm knew he was in trouble, and realized his actions caught up with him in the end.
Now, I'm working on taking each sentence in the paragraph summary of the story and making each one a paragraph.
Here's what I've got so far...
Paragraph #1: Nick Aceret is a crime novelist with a penchant for creating characters who are more than they seem on the page. During the course of writing his Diabolical Soul crime series, Nick created both Malcolm Price, his antagonist throughout the series, and Marlena Kevan, a character used as a foil for Malcolm until she was written off the page at the end of the third novel, as well as other less notable characters that existed for a few scenes here and there. While Nick was writing the fourth novel in the series, Tracy Averdue, a security agent working with the Asylum for Miscreant Characters, noticed that several of Nick’s characters were much more than he had created them to be. One particular character, Millicent Marianna Freedman, had the audacity to push the essence of the author using her at the time out of the author’s body to hang about in the library until Mr. Von Schutzel, the Asylum’s director, recruited Marlena as part of the team to deflate Millicent’s ego, allowing the author’s essence to move back into her own body and enabling the team to move Millicent back to the Asylum without incident. As Agent Averdue studied the flow of Nick’s series, he noted that Malcolm was a more devious character than Millicent had grown to be, and brought his concerns to Mr. Von Schutzel. Mr. Von Schutzel tried to gain Nick’s attention about the situation, but Nick put the voice in his head down to the natural process of letting go of a character he had spent the better part of the last ten years with.
Paragraph #2: While working on the final novel in his latest series, Nick suffers a momentary blackout as he delivers the final death blow to the series’ antagonist, Malcolm Price. During the course of the last two novels, after his small success in getting Marlena written off at the end of the third novel of the series, Malcolm had studied Nick’s creative method in order to plot how to switch realities with his creator. He’d heard about Millicent’s escapade, and figured if a one-dimensional character who had barely made it through three scenes in the fourth novel of the series could get as far as she did, surely he, being more fully evolved, could succeed where Millicent had failed. Malcolm realized he would not only have to push Nick’s essence out of his body in order to fill it with his own, but also to put Nick’s essence into the body of his character on the page in order to be able to kill Nick off and keep Nick’s reality for his own. What Malcolm didn’t count on was Nick’s heavy caffeine habit during the final writing phases of his novels having the ability to restart a newly dead heart and bring his character back to life in the novel!
Paragraph #3: When Nick comes to, he finds his essence is now in the body previously occupied by Malcolm in the novel and he has to move quickly not only to stay alive but also to figure out what happened and get back to his own reality. Though the body he now inhabited was a mass of bruises, and probably even a fractured bone or two, Nick knew he had to keep moving in order to stay ahead of the protagonist in the novel, Riley Brown, the latest agent assigned to stop Malcolm. He also knew he had to cover his tracks very well until he could figure out what the hell happened and how he was supposed to get back to his own reality. He’d created Riley to be the one to finish Malcolm off in this novel after all! Nick moved to the sewer system, where he knew only by bringing in the cadaver dogs could Riley stand a chance of finding him. He only hoped one of the denizens of the system didn’t make the dogs’ job easier by making him an actual cadaver!
I've still got two paragraphs to go here, but I already see some tweaking and straightening out of plot I need to do. Now, the creator of the Snowflake Method, Randy Ingermanson, does point out that you are likely to revise things as you go along, as your characters teach you things about your story - and I can definitely see some revision in my future already!
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Writing, Contests and Conferences
Well, I signed up for another conference yesterday. This one will be in Santa Rosa the last weekend of October. Here's the website: http://redwoodwriters.org/conference.html. I also entered three poems in their poetry contest for that conference. We'll see what comes of that!
I've also started organizing my writing files so that I know what I have to start with and then I can find things/track things easier. I mean to make this gig my next career, one I hope to have for the next, oh, 50 years, so I really need to keep things easy to find!
I'm on Twitter as bethane13, but haven't been able to post the last few times I've tried. Very frustrating! I follow Laurell K. Hamilton, Lance Armstrong, Leif Sorbye from Tempest, and a freelance writer from South Africa who is also on one of the Yahoo writing groups I belong to. Laurell K. Hamilton also blogs, and had a great one on writer's block cures and preventatives last week.
I've also started organizing my writing files so that I know what I have to start with and then I can find things/track things easier. I mean to make this gig my next career, one I hope to have for the next, oh, 50 years, so I really need to keep things easy to find!
I'm on Twitter as bethane13, but haven't been able to post the last few times I've tried. Very frustrating! I follow Laurell K. Hamilton, Lance Armstrong, Leif Sorbye from Tempest, and a freelance writer from South Africa who is also on one of the Yahoo writing groups I belong to. Laurell K. Hamilton also blogs, and had a great one on writer's block cures and preventatives last week.
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Just Stopping By
On one hand I feel bad not blogging more often, since one of my favorite authors (Laurell K. Hamilton) does so nearly daily - and tweets as well - I don't do Twitter yet, and on the other hand I don't, since my other favorite author (Diana Gabaldon) hasn't posted on her blog since April 19th. It's a moderate summer day here in the Sacramento area, merely mid-90s in sunny Rocklin. The muse is on vacation I'm thinking - or at least is making me really work for any inspiration. I've got prompt duty on CHPercolators (a Yahoo group) starting the 26th, and I'm collecting those as I go during the month. I sort of started on something to go with The First Line's prompt for the upcoming contest yesterday, but it doesn't feel right...don't know if I'll do anything with it or not. Sigh...at least I got to watch Barry Manilow on A Capitol Fourth last night on our local PBS station. And it was fitting to have Jimmy Smits as the MC, with his stint on West Wing and all!
Monday, June 22, 2009
Writing Contest Entry
Well, I did it - I sent off five entries to a local contest. Focus On Writers Contest 2009, sponsored by the Friends of the Sacramento Public Library. Three poems, two short stories...wish me luck!
Saturday, May 02, 2009
Wow - Where did 2 months go?
The road to, well you know, is paved with good intentions, and seems that's where I was heading the last couple of months - at least as far as this blog is concerned. So, what have I accomplished since last I posted? I have a fledgling publishing company - Green Haired Lady Publications - online now. Haven't got a book to hawk there yet (that's supposed to be Harken the Change, but may start out with the collected stories related to Theft by Character at this point), but I've duly stated my intention to the appropriate business community and started a website at least!
Also, I did attend the NCPA Writer's Conference on 25 Apr 09 at the Red Lion Inn in Sacramento CA. Great speakers! Picked up John Kremer's "1,001 Ways to Market Your Book" and several other titles. And, most importantly, now have a major change idea for Harken the Change that may move me much closer to getting it finished! Yeay!
And it looks like I'll be attending the Redwood Writers Conference in Santa Rosa CA on 24 Oct 09 - it's at the Flamingo Resort and Hotel, which if you've ever been through Santa Rosa and seen the pink flamingo, you know where it is!
Also, I did attend the NCPA Writer's Conference on 25 Apr 09 at the Red Lion Inn in Sacramento CA. Great speakers! Picked up John Kremer's "1,001 Ways to Market Your Book" and several other titles. And, most importantly, now have a major change idea for Harken the Change that may move me much closer to getting it finished! Yeay!
And it looks like I'll be attending the Redwood Writers Conference in Santa Rosa CA on 24 Oct 09 - it's at the Flamingo Resort and Hotel, which if you've ever been through Santa Rosa and seen the pink flamingo, you know where it is!
Sunday, March 01, 2009
February's Over - on to March
Ok, so I didn't get as far as I thought I would on the Belkher series - Watery Death et al - last month, but at least I've got the stories sorted out and worked a bit on adding to a couple of them.
So, now it's March, which means I'm back to editing Harken the Change. I've read through everything I typed up in January, and finally have some ideas on how to button up the storyline so I can finish writing/editing it and get it ready to publish!
Speaking of publishing, I am now Green Haired Lady Publications as well. I set this up so I can publish my works as I see fit and not wait for some "other" publishing house to take them on.
So, now it's March, which means I'm back to editing Harken the Change. I've read through everything I typed up in January, and finally have some ideas on how to button up the storyline so I can finish writing/editing it and get it ready to publish!
Speaking of publishing, I am now Green Haired Lady Publications as well. I set this up so I can publish my works as I see fit and not wait for some "other" publishing house to take them on.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Sorted Out - Now to Add!
Okay, so 13,531 words and 45 pages (8.5 x 11, 1.5 line spacing) later, I have the stories untangled from each other - looks like I actually have five different yet interconnected stories with a few bits that fall into a miscellaneous category. My goal this month was to write 28,000 words, and I'm nearly half-way there (on the day after the half-way point in the month...but hey!).
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Watery Death, plus two
Well, 6,651 words in, I now have three separate and distinct storylines going with connecting characters - Watery Death, Sangre Madre, and Papacita. As soon as I finish untangling the stories from each other, I can start taking each of them to completion!
Sunday, February 01, 2009
And On To February...
I finished breaking my first draft of Harken the Change into segments - ended up with 77 segments totalling 164 pages. Now I can take each segment and edit out all the unnecessary adverbs and such and ensure I'm using action and active voice - show not tell! Some of the stuff I saw as I was retyping this into segments made me flinch and squirm in my chair!
Also, I'm signed up for FebNaNo 2009 - I'm aiming for 28K words on a crime/mystery/police novel I've been chewing on since '05 - I found the related files yesterday. Wow, four years I've been working on that one! Working title is Watery Death.
Also, I'm signed up for FebNaNo 2009 - I'm aiming for 28K words on a crime/mystery/police novel I've been chewing on since '05 - I found the related files yesterday. Wow, four years I've been working on that one! Working title is Watery Death.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Still Plugging Along...
Life does tend to get in the way of writing a bit - something about a day job - but hey, I'm still plugging along. It's my week to post prompts to the CHPercolators group on Yahoo, so I'm at least giving others grist for the mill! I've only managed one more piece out of my 2006 FebNaNo novel since I last blogged, but plan to get some more typed up today. Less than 30 pages to go on this part of the editting process! Ok, back to the grind...
Monday, January 19, 2009
Progress!
Well, I am making progress on editting the novel I wrote back in February 2006 during the NaNoPubYe's FebNaNo that year. I'm in the process of breaking it into sections, of which I have 64 to date, and still have 30 pages of the first draft to get through. Then I will go through section by section and edit, refining sentences, coming up with missing pieces (like village names), and seeing if the section still fits with the story or not. Oh, yeah, and I need to bring the story to closure as well. Went down a path to get to that point, but got tangled in the weeds somewhere.
And I promised to review a novel - "The Take~Us", website: http://www.emeraldbookcompany.com/authors/takacs/ - by a fellow NCPA member, John Raymond Takacs. The premise - a gentleman inventing a car that does not use gas and then driving that car across the country - caught my attention. John says it's a thriller with a bit of romance, which made it sound intriguing as well. Don't worry, John, I promise to have it read and a rough draft of the review done by the next NCPA meeting!
And I promised to review a novel - "The Take~Us", website: http://www.emeraldbookcompany.com/authors/takacs/ - by a fellow NCPA member, John Raymond Takacs. The premise - a gentleman inventing a car that does not use gas and then driving that car across the country - caught my attention. John says it's a thriller with a bit of romance, which made it sound intriguing as well. Don't worry, John, I promise to have it read and a rough draft of the review done by the next NCPA meeting!
Sunday, January 11, 2009
First Submission of 2009
Well, I did it - I submitted a story to The First Line, a quarterly publication out of Plano TX. Check them out at http://www.thefirstline.com/. The premise is to use the given sentence as the first line of a short story (300 to 3,000 words). The first line of this story is: Herman Sligo was a bit actor who played Uncle Emil in three episodes of the popular television series The Five Sisters. For those of you who have read my story Theft By Character (and thank you if you have), the current submission runs in a similar vein If you want to know more, well...you'll just have to wait for publication, one way or other other! The deadline for submissions for the Spring 2009 issue of this quarterly is 1 Feb 09, and those who submit will be notified of their status two-three weeks after that date - according to the submission rules posted on their website.
Sunday, January 04, 2009
Writing Goals for 2009
Writing Goals – 2009, 1st Qtr
January
- 10 hours per week!
- Rewrite Harken the Change
o BE RUTHLESS!!
February
- 10 hours per week!
- Work on Soultalker
- Write short stories using TFL, Writing Journal and CHPerc tag lines
March
- 10 hours per week!
- Rewrite Harken the Change (again)
o Be Ruthless
o Get tight, very tight!
- Check goal progress for last three months
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