I've done basically nothing since the last post. Originally I thought I'd spend some time working on it over Labor Day Weekend (going on right now), but then the apartment complex said they wanted to raise my rent by $56, and that kind of threw me out of writing mode. I've lined up a new place to move into in a couple months though. And I need to start packing.
Things that have occurred to me however:
For Amulet I Part III, what needs to happen is wrap-up for both James and Charles. So it won't just be James going back to Lagarnica. It will also be the other end of what happens with Charles and Felna, during the Sundering. What will that be exactly? Well, it so happens that I also need to put in a battle between Nathaniel and the Demon somewhere, scheduled to happen less than a decade after the events of Amulet I. So now I'm entertaining the notion of somehow having both of these events happen at the same time. And it would also explain how Nathaniel knows about the Duchenes during the court scene in Triangle II if he has met Charles.
Meanwhile, Rumen is tugging for my attention again. I'm now in the middle of ruminating about the part where he carries Jenya to her people. Might do another attempt at writing that soon.
2014/08/31
2014/08/11
Second Draft: The Second Drafting ...
So far my second draft process for Fortress Launne seems to be:
1. Assemble all the drafts into one big file.
2. Skim them while compiling them into the one big file, but don't edit anything.
3. Make a duplicate copy of each draft to actually work on.
4. Do detailed rereads of each one. Make an outline of what the story looks like it's supposed to be.
5. Iterate. Rewrite the older stuff, write new stuff to fill all the holes.
I haven't done #4 for Amulet II or Myan yet, but it's certainly been a helpful exercise for the others.
The Flattening of a Temple
This was the one I wrote first (2004), and it has by far the most setting holes. It was also highly melodramatic - I can definitely tell that my writing skills improved as the years went by. The ones from 2007 forward are very readable as-is. Temple on the other hand, I think I'm basically going to have to rewrite the whole thing from scratch.
I'm probably going to keep the original structure idea, sort of. Start the story with the epic battle scene. Then have the king start an investigation into why that happened. Once the background is laid out, go back to the battle and cover all the parts that the king isn't going to find out about. End with Pedro. Of all the parts of the original draft, I really like the last few sentences with Pedro and Sarabelle.
The outline I made has pointed out a number of important holes in the story, too. Notably with Felicia. By the time I figure out how to fix that, I'm hoping it will also help with figuring out Antoine and the rest of the mages.
Other than that... well, I tried to reread my notes from all the tinkering I did between 2004 and 2006 or so. But I'm probably going to ignore most of it. It was a useful exercise for something, I'm sure, and all part of the process.
Amulet II
It basically has occurred to me that Triangle I -->Amulet II --> Temple is a story arc about the Reiter House. The tower gets built in Triangle I and demolished in Temple. So this one will likely make more sense from Antoine's point of view when I figure out what his point of view was in Triangle I - and also what Felicia's goals were in Temple.
Triangle II
The outline for this one turned out to be straightforward, much to my surprise. The first half is going to draw heavily on the Janis draft of 2006, where I basically wrote everything Janis is going to do and why, but didn't have the scenes in the right order, or the right setting elements pinned down yet. Then in the middle will be the court scene from Taint. And then there's a whole other half I haven't written yet, which will be from Jacob's point of view.
In general, the structure reminds me of Amulet I because it's in three parts (sort of). Only, the middle part with the king's court is actually quite short - only about 3 chapters or so. Whereas Aunlania is the longest part of Amulet I (so far, anyway). Also: the Janis part of the story, which will be around 20k words long, just like the Edward part of Amulet I ... can in fact actually be a completely complete story with all loose ends wrapped up and etc ... just like Edward's story would be if Lucien's spell actually worked.
I still find it kind of amusing that I had no idea that there was going to be a single coherent book in this part of the timeline until after I'd finished Nano 2006. Of course, on the other hand. I have a sneaking suspicion that what I'm writing isn't actually 7 novels. It's more like 15-20 novelettes, where each segment is 20k words long....
Amulet I
The broad outline for this one is relatively straightforward ... probably. I sort of plotted out a sensible order of useable scenes from the 2006 and 2007 attempts. And then there's huge new blanks to fill in again for what happens after I run out of outline, that explains why the Duchenes and the Eenin are talking to each other.
I don't know why I have so much trouble with this one. I'm starting to have doubts about whether the Duchenes are even supposed to be in the Fortress Launne series, since, as noted, the Edward part of the story could be its own completely independent story. Plus the random scene about Charles and a tree and a prophecy and etc. I kind of wish I'd gone with it now, just to see where it went, because the only other time a scene like that randomly appeared (Thomas and Arrun fleeing Edward in Amulet I 2005), it was because I was doing the whole rest of the story wrong.
The Fall of Myan
So far I've reread the first draft and reread my notes from this blog. The rough outline I'd figured on before is probably what it'll end up being - where it starts out by following Suunja, then he eventually runs into Martha, whereupon it then goes over Martha's storyline about Endron Oil, and then moves Suunja and Martha forward together until they run into the zombie storyline. Then it would cut back to the Rouge Rogues. Something like that.
Eventually I run out of both outline and draft, though. I haven't written what happens after the zombies start their attack. I stalled out on what specifically the attack strategy was. At some point I'm still going to have to figure that stuff out.
Birthright
This one also has a three-part structure. It starts with scenes of Janis and Felicia at the Culture Center, and ends with Jalai in Mindy's house (along with others). The whole middle is a mobster story where they fight over possession of the magic box. I don't think I should intersperse anything in between - better to just let the readers immerse in that one for the whole go. I have a fairly detailed outline for the mobsters. The biggest problem is that it needs some kind of satisfying ending, where everything gets resolved to the mobsters' satisfaction. I can't just suddenly take the box away from them and leave them all hanging.
Triangle I
A lot of this one is ready to go as-is. The biggest problem is a complete lack of motivation for Antoine. I need to give him either a really good reason to try to kill Frank, or, he was trying to do something else and poisoned Frank by accident. Either way, there needs to be more to the character than what I have at the moment. And have it somehow also be related to everything else the mages do in the other books.
I guess that's it for where things currently stand.
1. Assemble all the drafts into one big file.
2. Skim them while compiling them into the one big file, but don't edit anything.
3. Make a duplicate copy of each draft to actually work on.
4. Do detailed rereads of each one. Make an outline of what the story looks like it's supposed to be.
5. Iterate. Rewrite the older stuff, write new stuff to fill all the holes.
I haven't done #4 for Amulet II or Myan yet, but it's certainly been a helpful exercise for the others.
The Flattening of a Temple
This was the one I wrote first (2004), and it has by far the most setting holes. It was also highly melodramatic - I can definitely tell that my writing skills improved as the years went by. The ones from 2007 forward are very readable as-is. Temple on the other hand, I think I'm basically going to have to rewrite the whole thing from scratch.
I'm probably going to keep the original structure idea, sort of. Start the story with the epic battle scene. Then have the king start an investigation into why that happened. Once the background is laid out, go back to the battle and cover all the parts that the king isn't going to find out about. End with Pedro. Of all the parts of the original draft, I really like the last few sentences with Pedro and Sarabelle.
The outline I made has pointed out a number of important holes in the story, too. Notably with Felicia. By the time I figure out how to fix that, I'm hoping it will also help with figuring out Antoine and the rest of the mages.
Other than that... well, I tried to reread my notes from all the tinkering I did between 2004 and 2006 or so. But I'm probably going to ignore most of it. It was a useful exercise for something, I'm sure, and all part of the process.
Amulet II
It basically has occurred to me that Triangle I -->Amulet II --> Temple is a story arc about the Reiter House. The tower gets built in Triangle I and demolished in Temple. So this one will likely make more sense from Antoine's point of view when I figure out what his point of view was in Triangle I - and also what Felicia's goals were in Temple.
Triangle II
The outline for this one turned out to be straightforward, much to my surprise. The first half is going to draw heavily on the Janis draft of 2006, where I basically wrote everything Janis is going to do and why, but didn't have the scenes in the right order, or the right setting elements pinned down yet. Then in the middle will be the court scene from Taint. And then there's a whole other half I haven't written yet, which will be from Jacob's point of view.
In general, the structure reminds me of Amulet I because it's in three parts (sort of). Only, the middle part with the king's court is actually quite short - only about 3 chapters or so. Whereas Aunlania is the longest part of Amulet I (so far, anyway). Also: the Janis part of the story, which will be around 20k words long, just like the Edward part of Amulet I ... can in fact actually be a completely complete story with all loose ends wrapped up and etc ... just like Edward's story would be if Lucien's spell actually worked.
I still find it kind of amusing that I had no idea that there was going to be a single coherent book in this part of the timeline until after I'd finished Nano 2006. Of course, on the other hand. I have a sneaking suspicion that what I'm writing isn't actually 7 novels. It's more like 15-20 novelettes, where each segment is 20k words long....
Amulet I
The broad outline for this one is relatively straightforward ... probably. I sort of plotted out a sensible order of useable scenes from the 2006 and 2007 attempts. And then there's huge new blanks to fill in again for what happens after I run out of outline, that explains why the Duchenes and the Eenin are talking to each other.
I don't know why I have so much trouble with this one. I'm starting to have doubts about whether the Duchenes are even supposed to be in the Fortress Launne series, since, as noted, the Edward part of the story could be its own completely independent story. Plus the random scene about Charles and a tree and a prophecy and etc. I kind of wish I'd gone with it now, just to see where it went, because the only other time a scene like that randomly appeared (Thomas and Arrun fleeing Edward in Amulet I 2005), it was because I was doing the whole rest of the story wrong.
The Fall of Myan
So far I've reread the first draft and reread my notes from this blog. The rough outline I'd figured on before is probably what it'll end up being - where it starts out by following Suunja, then he eventually runs into Martha, whereupon it then goes over Martha's storyline about Endron Oil, and then moves Suunja and Martha forward together until they run into the zombie storyline. Then it would cut back to the Rouge Rogues. Something like that.
Eventually I run out of both outline and draft, though. I haven't written what happens after the zombies start their attack. I stalled out on what specifically the attack strategy was. At some point I'm still going to have to figure that stuff out.
Birthright
This one also has a three-part structure. It starts with scenes of Janis and Felicia at the Culture Center, and ends with Jalai in Mindy's house (along with others). The whole middle is a mobster story where they fight over possession of the magic box. I don't think I should intersperse anything in between - better to just let the readers immerse in that one for the whole go. I have a fairly detailed outline for the mobsters. The biggest problem is that it needs some kind of satisfying ending, where everything gets resolved to the mobsters' satisfaction. I can't just suddenly take the box away from them and leave them all hanging.
Triangle I
A lot of this one is ready to go as-is. The biggest problem is a complete lack of motivation for Antoine. I need to give him either a really good reason to try to kill Frank, or, he was trying to do something else and poisoned Frank by accident. Either way, there needs to be more to the character than what I have at the moment. And have it somehow also be related to everything else the mages do in the other books.
I guess that's it for where things currently stand.
2014/08/03
Post-Camp Progress Report
The biggest thing that Camp Nanowrimo 2014 did for me was force me to actually look at all the first drafts of Fortress Launne, figure out where things stand, and start to work out what needs doing next. I now have everything organized into a single Scrivener file and I've started "Second Draft" sections for all of what I think will be the actual books. This may actually still change around later, depending on what happens.
In general, Nanowrimo 2004-2010 were about figuring out what happens in the first half of every story. While at the same time working out settings, characters and their motives, etc. Once I have the first half figured out, I should (in theory) be able to write the other half.
Surprisingly, some of these first halfs are more organized than I would've thought. I can combine the useful parts of what happened in the two attempts at Janis (20k words in 2006 and 15k words in 2010) to make an actual coherent story with its own beginning, middle, and end. The total length of this will probably only be about 20k words by itself, so it also serves as the first half (or third?) of Triangle II. What happens after the parts I have first draft material on? Well, I have basically a paragraph summary on that - Jacob is going to help Janis build the cultural center. I have nothing else.
Triangle I is about 2/3rds there. I just need to figure out how Antoine fits into everything. He really needs a compelling motive for poisoning Frank. Preferably so compelling that it will also carry over with consequences into Amulet II.
Amulet I sort of has a very rough outline. I'm basically keeping all of the first third, where Edward is in Lagarnica. Then the next part is in Aunlania, and really needs to show off who the Eenin are. Then there needs to be a third part that's back in Lagarnica so that the overall story can have an actual satisfying ending of some sort, and I have nothing on it except the vague inkling that it will probably be from James's point of view.
I suspect that as I keep digging around (and I'm doing this via Distraction Method more than anything else), all of the other stories will be like this too.
SO. New plan for Nanowrimo 2014: "Fortress Launne: The Second Half of Everything."
If I can get my act together on organizing where things stand with every story by November, complete with detailed outlines of what has already been written and what needs to be written, then I can spend November writing new material toward the second half of everything. All of this will also be essentially first draft material, doing what I did with the first halfs, only it'll be adding on. It technically probably breaks their rules, but from my perspective it will count as first draft from scratch.
I also added what I have from Emerald Sword into the same Scrivener file. It isn't part of Fortress Launne, but in the back of my mind it's a story about Lucien Duchene, so it's in the same universe and therefore belongs. No idea yet if I'll actually do anything with it in the near future. The first 6k words were really damn amusing though, and I do want to finish it at some point.
In general, Nanowrimo 2004-2010 were about figuring out what happens in the first half of every story. While at the same time working out settings, characters and their motives, etc. Once I have the first half figured out, I should (in theory) be able to write the other half.
Surprisingly, some of these first halfs are more organized than I would've thought. I can combine the useful parts of what happened in the two attempts at Janis (20k words in 2006 and 15k words in 2010) to make an actual coherent story with its own beginning, middle, and end. The total length of this will probably only be about 20k words by itself, so it also serves as the first half (or third?) of Triangle II. What happens after the parts I have first draft material on? Well, I have basically a paragraph summary on that - Jacob is going to help Janis build the cultural center. I have nothing else.
Triangle I is about 2/3rds there. I just need to figure out how Antoine fits into everything. He really needs a compelling motive for poisoning Frank. Preferably so compelling that it will also carry over with consequences into Amulet II.
Amulet I sort of has a very rough outline. I'm basically keeping all of the first third, where Edward is in Lagarnica. Then the next part is in Aunlania, and really needs to show off who the Eenin are. Then there needs to be a third part that's back in Lagarnica so that the overall story can have an actual satisfying ending of some sort, and I have nothing on it except the vague inkling that it will probably be from James's point of view.
I suspect that as I keep digging around (and I'm doing this via Distraction Method more than anything else), all of the other stories will be like this too.
If I can get my act together on organizing where things stand with every story by November, complete with detailed outlines of what has already been written and what needs to be written, then I can spend November writing new material toward the second half of everything. All of this will also be essentially first draft material, doing what I did with the first halfs, only it'll be adding on. It technically probably breaks their rules, but from my perspective it will count as first draft from scratch.
I also added what I have from Emerald Sword into the same Scrivener file. It isn't part of Fortress Launne, but in the back of my mind it's a story about Lucien Duchene, so it's in the same universe and therefore belongs. No idea yet if I'll actually do anything with it in the near future. The first 6k words were really damn amusing though, and I do want to finish it at some point.
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