M. B. Weston’s Writing Diary: 03/13/15

Posted on March 14, 2015 by M. B. Weston

I love it when I figure out how to solve a problem in one section of the story using something from another section.  Case in point: I have had a bit of a problem with a key character who gets killed off in the first part of my story. I need the death to show how an imortal can be killed. However, I have three problems:

  • My hero, Michael, doesn’t know for sure if the guy is dead because the area gets blown up. (I’ll spare you the details on why he can’t be sure, even with DNA testing of the body, but yes I have thought it through.)
  • I have to blow the store up because if the police find the body with stab wounds and all, they will immediately blame Michael. It was self-defense, but this is a novella. I don’t have the word count to explore Michael getting arrested, finding a lawyer, getting bail… And besides, the big bad villain has to blow up the store. Too many important documents need destroying…
  • I know my hero will have doubts about whether this guy lived or died since he wasn’t able to watch the body for twenty-four hours the way he wanted to. I know that as the author, it’s my job to exploit this fear. But I didn’t know how to do it, so I decided to let it go for a while.

I know… Chalk it up to “writer problems.” These are the kinds of silly things we think about constantly. It’s part of the second/third draft period when we try to massage the story to make it work with the characters and plot.

Last night, I figured out my answer with another group of creatures I decided to bring into this particular story: zombies. The voodoo kind that are under the control of a witch. I now have a way this guy can be dead but appear alive for a while and totally make my hero doubt all he has been led to believe.

My zombies in the second half of the story answered the problem I had in the first half of the story. And now I get to totally mess with Michael’s brain! Ha ha ha! Achievement unlocked!

Oh, and I just now realized. I still need a few events that lead up to the climax… If my hero has to deal with a wizard he already killed I’ve got at least one or two filler chapters that will help tie in the first parts of the story. Yet another problem just got solved!

It’s times like this when I love writing!

How about you? Have you ever solved a plot problem using another part of your story?

Toodles!

Posted in M. B. Weston's Writing Diary | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

M. B. Weston’s Writing Diary: 03/10/15 to 03/12/15

Posted on March 13, 2015 by M. B. Weston

I apologize for the lack of posts. I tend to write them on my phone during my morning walk to work, but that didn’t happen for the past three days.

I’ve been working on the urban fantasy pulp novella every night, basically writing until I simply had to go to sleep. Haven’t gotten as far as I wanted, but I’m excited because my characters are definitely taking on their own personalities. It’s what I love about the second draft. The characters come alive, and I can figure out how to better fill in some of the missing links.

I have to buckle down this weekend. I’ve got a convention next week in Memphis and won’t have much time to write. Crunch time is coming…

Toodles!

Posted in M. B. Weston's Writing Diary | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

M. B. Weston’s Writing Diary: 03/09/15

Posted on March 10, 2015 by M. B. Weston

Last night’s writing session was an exercise–no, a battle–of desire. Basically my will and my brain/body went to war. My will was fully determined to finish the 2nd round of edits in Chapter One of my urban fantasy pulp novella. My brain kept getting distracted, and my body took interest only in sleep. It was definitely one of the hardest writing sessions I’ve experienced, and I have stayed up 48 sleepless hours to finish a short story by the deadline–twice. (I think tonight’s little clash of will vs body felt so much more difficult because I’m so warn down from a good month and a half of staying up so late.)

I’m happy to report that my will won out. I finished my daily allotment of edits by 2:00am and hit the showers.

Granted, my bathroom walls appeared to tilt back and forth a bit, and I kept swatting at flashes of light that probably weren’t there as I walked to bed… And I had 15 minutes to get ready for work this morning (horay for ponytails!).

But I finished my edits, and I accomplished my goal. Granted, I am definitely feeling the exhaustion today, and I have another chapter to edit tonight. April 15th deadline, here I come. I refuse to falter on this.

How about you? Have you ever put yourself through the wringer to meet a deadline?

Toodles!

Posted in M. B. Weston's Writing Diary | Tagged , | 1 Comment

M. B. Weston’s Writing Diary: 03/08/15

Posted on March 9, 2015 by M. B. Weston

Ediring the second draft of a novel or novella is like trying to sculpt a block of play-doh the size of a football field… With a scalpel…

Urgh.

That’s where I am right now. The glorious second draft, trying to take the scenes and make them sound good. I’m adding in the actual fights in the fight scenes. I’m making the dialog feel like dialog rather than an overdone Shakespearean play.

I have given myself two weeks to do this. It looks as though I will be confined to my office for a while…

Sigh. What is the hardest stage of the writing process for you?

Toodles!

Posted in M. B. Weston's Writing Diary | Tagged , | 5 Comments

M. B. Weston’s Writing Diary: 03/07/15

Posted on March 8, 2015 by M. B. Weston

In the rough draft, dialogue is not my friend. Generally, my characters overstate the obvious, say things in long, awkward, complete sentences that no one actually says, and generally talk too much–especially in battle or fighting.

Basically, they talk like Legolas from the Lord of the Rings movies.

What is interesting, in going through my edits, is how often shutting my characters up and describing their behavior makes the scene so much better.  

For instance, in the opening scene, my hero, Michael Lodestone is fighting an imortal wizard who was once Rasputin. (I explain how he came back to life after he was killed and transformed another body, including the DNA, to look like him later in the story.) Here is an example of my cheesy dialogue:

Gregori drew low to the ground like a lion ready to spring [lose the cliche]. “I always knew it would be you who broke.”

Michael grasped the knife. “You can leap if you like, but you won’t make it.”

Really? Really? Seriously, that’s bad. I’ve got a huge cliche there, which I fortunately marked down to reword in brackets when I first wrote it. Gregori’s comment will be said, but in a different place, possibly. It’s a necessary comment because it lets the reader know that of all the evil witches and wizards who became imortal, Michael was the one they suspected would betray the group. But it’s Lodestone’s comments that really do this scene in. Now it’s only my rough draft, so I’m not going to get too upset at myself about it. But here is the first round of changes:

Gregori crouched low to the ground, ready to spring. “I always knew it would be you who broke.”

Michael tightened his grip on the knife. “You won’t make it.”

It still has a long way to go. But I was able to cut words and say the exact same thing with more power. (I’ve decided to leave the part about Michael breaking in until I found a better spot for it in the story.) I hope that people will hear Michael’s sarcasm without me having to describe it, but as I mentioned before, this is only the first round of edits and still has a long way to go.

How about you? What is the big issue that you have to clean up when you Combe through your rough draft?

Toodles!

Posted in Editing Your Work, M. B. Weston's Writing Diary, The World of Writing | Tagged , | 1 Comment

M. B. Weston’s Writing Diary: Batman Begins & Character Development 03/06/15

Posted on March 7, 2015 by M. B. Weston

Awesome happened last night, but it didn’t happen while I worked on edits for chapter two. It happened while I was watching Batman Begins. I realize this first Batman movie by Christopher Nolan wasn’t as big a hit as The Dark Knight. I believe it really shows Nolan’s genius, however, and part of this movie reminded me about some of the important parts of developing character.

Picture the scene. Young Bruce Wayne, sitting in the police station. His parents have just been killed in an alley. The police and detectives are talking around him instead of to him. He is alone in a room full of people. Suddenly, a policeman with the last name of Gordon walks up to little Bruce, puts his jacket around the boy’s shoulders, and talks with him.

Everything we need to know about the character of Commissioner Gordon we get in that scene. Thirty seconds. That’s it. And we all know who Gordon is on the inside.

That’s what I need to remember to do when I’m writing this novella (and any other story as well). It’s the little things. Those tiny, quick, two sentence things that can totally bring a character to life.

How about you? Have you ever seen a movie or read a book and gone, “That’s how to write”?

Toodles!

Posted in Character Development, M. B. Weston's Writing Diary, The World of Writing | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

M. B. Weston’s Writing Diary: 03/05/15

Posted on March 6, 2015 by M. B. Weston

Sometimes writing goals have to be cut short for friends and paella.

I’m just saying…

Two things got in the way of comet ing my fo of finishing the edits of chapter one:

  • Dinner plans. I’m a writer, not a hermit. Friends keep writers from going insane. And did I mention paella?
  • Administrative stuff. Herein lies the problem with writing. We have to write to make money, but we also have to promote to get people to buy our books. Last night (and the night before actually) I was working with CyphaCon on panels. I will be the author Gueat of Honor there, and I needed to give them some panel ideas I wanted to do.)

Long story short, I have edits from chapter one done, but they need to be entered. I will do that tonight and catch up this weekend.

Sometimes you have to sacrifice the short term for the long term, and relationships with friends and with conventions are long term things well worth spending extra time tonight entering edits.

Happy Friday!

And Toodles!

Posted in M. B. Weston's Writing Diary | Tagged , | 1 Comment

M. B. Weston’s Writing Diary: 03/04/15

Posted on March 5, 2015 by M. B. Weston

Finding your plot can often feel like a snipe hunt. Generally it lasts until the wee hours of the morning, and you come back empty-handed and grouchy.

After combing through the rough draft of this urban-fantasy novella, I’ve got a killer first have and an intense last quarter. However, I’m still missing 3 chapters… (Basically the last half of my rising action.) I spent a few hours racking my brain on this, trying to figure out what ought to happen, but… 

Last night, I felt like I was stuck out in the middle of a field during a snipe hunt (while all the hunt organizers were laughing at me). (I blame the muse in this one.)

Fortunately, I know the answer to this one. Anytime I have trouble finding the plot, I generally have to get into the story instead of trying to figure it out on my own. This means tonight I ignore my lack of plot in chapters 8-10 and edit chapter 1. My goal: edit one chapter a day, which I think will get me through the second round of edits in 13 days–assuming I find my plot.

After that, I have about 10 days to polish it up, and then I have to send it out to beta readers. (My goal is to have it done by March 31, which gives me 15 days to fix anything the beta readers find.)

Anyway, that’s my solution to this little “where’s my plot” problem. I’m just going to get inside the story and write. Because April 15 isn’t going away, and I haven’t yet found a Tardis.

How about you? Have you ever tried finding a plot only to find out it’s as elusive as a “snipe”? What did you do?

Toodles!

Posted in M. B. Weston's Writing Diary | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

M. B. Weston’s Writing Diary: 03/03/15

Posted on March 4, 2015 by M. B. Weston

#writerproblems :::adopting a whiney voice::: I can’t figure out whether the cops are on my hero’s side or if they consider him a vigilante…

Like, seriously, it’s a problem. It’s an urban fantasy pulp story in which my hero hunts down evil witches and wizards. Each side has a body count, some of which must eventually get discovered by police. My hero’s kills are in self-defense usually, but a scene that starts with Michael explaining to on officer that his life was in danger because the person he killed could shoot lightning from his fingers ended up with Michael in an interrogation room…. 

Sigh…. At the end of this novella, I have to figure out how the cops come into play here. The cops not liking Michael creates tension, but that makes the story harder to write…

Maybe I will make one or two cops like him and the rest can be either neutral or enemies depending on the situation.

Sigh. I will have to table this one until I figure out where the rest of the story is going.

How about you? Have you ever run into something like this?

Toodles!

Posted in M. B. Weston's Writing Diary | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

M. B. Weston’s Writing Diary: 03/02/15

Posted on March 3, 2015 by M. B. Weston

I spent yesterday morning on two planes I should have been on the night before. Weather delayed my Chattanooga flight to the point where I would have missed the last flight to Ft Myers from Charlotte, NC. I actually got home early enough that I was only late for work by an hour.

I spent those too flights trying to put together the missing pieces of my story.

I’m still missing pieces.

My big problem: my conplex brain created a real estate/murder scam by the vlians that I have to unfold in about six 2000 word chapters of pulp.

Stop laughing!

:::psyching myself up::: I can do this.

I have to by tonight anyway. The deadline looms…

How about you? Have you ever encountered something like this before?

Toodles!

Posted in Random Musings, The World of Writing | 2 Comments