Incoming game plan!

Here it comes, the infamous and merciless gameplan. I've been studying this fantastic book by Noah Lukeman, "The First Five Pages", and to my dismay many of the caveats he mentions find an echo in my novel. I've first tried to list everything I should be watching for as I was reading it, and thought with a great dose of arrogance that I could fix it all at the same time... Nice try, Sherine. Think again, LOL! I was getting so confused and had to change so many things at once that I ended up freaking out--unable to come up with good rewritten material; I was losing myself in the process as well.

I found that if I address the problems one rewrite after the other, it works a LOT better. Of course, it means that I'm going to have to rewrite that blasted MS 10 times instead of one. But hey, whatever works, as long as it ends up as good as it can be, right?

So here goes:.

1. Current rewrite. I'm taking care of the changes of settings. The new races, the new beginning, tying up a few lose ends and rewriting a few chapters I'm not happy with. I'm also going to sneak in there to watch out for abusive use of adverbs and adjectives, and change the most common/cliche ones;
2. Rewrite + 1. Dialogs part I. I have to look at my dialogs under the microscope, and make sure they are all relevant, essential to the story and the scene. Eliminate all commonplace dialogs. I also have to eliminate useless descriptions, whether they are between scenes or included in dialogs. 
3. Rewrite+2. Dialogs part II. Same as above, this time concentrating on eliminating unnecessarily informative dialogs and letting the characters show it instead, whenever possible. Also track down overly melodramatic dialog, specifically in the "romantic" scenes... I'm a girly girl and I have to watch myself to make sure I don't tip over the cheesy line, lol.
4. The next step isn't a rewrite per-se, but it's going to be an important and hard thing for me to do. I need to leave my MS alone, I'd say for at least 2 weeks. I can add new scenes or write alternate endings, but after being so immersed in my edits for so many rewrites, I need to give my eyes a chance to be fresh again.
5. Rewrite+3. What have I lost?. I personally think that a risk we take when we do so many rewrites is to lose the soul of our story by cutting a little here, changing a little there. I need to read the story as if it was the first time and ask myself if my characters are still compelling or if I polished the story so much it has no texture left. In which case I need to strengthen my plot and check for improvements I can make on characterization if needed. Make sure that by swapping things around, I didn't end up making the read confusing, or something like two POVs in the same chapter. Make sure my hooks are still powerful enough.

If I make it that far I'll be at least ... half way there LOL! What? You thought that is all it was going to take? I wish--but I have no illusions. After I'm done with the above, I will have a better, tighter MS, but it won't be perfect by any means. I'm thinking another Algonkian workshop after that---not the pitch and shop one, but one we'll actually work on our manuscripts together. I had originally planned to do the April one, but with what happened with my mother, I fell behind the schedule I had for myself. 

So there you have it. That's what my writer's life is going to be for the next couple of months. Am I overwhelmed? A little; am I excited? Most definitely!


PS: A note on "The First Five Pages" - It's not a writer's manual. It has nothing to do with "Story", by Mckee, or "The 20 Master Plots" by Tobias. Both were excellent books, but this one is different. It doesn't even attempt to teach us how to write. It just tells us, in no uncertain terms, what will get a MS rejected. If the examples given are a little exaggerated, they show very clearly what you absolutely have to avoid. Will it stop my MS from ending up in the trash if it isn't good enough? No. But at least it won't be for the reasons he lists ;)

The Dragons are taking a day off...

That's right, I didn't write a single word today. What's even worse, I don't even feel bad about it. Had a lovely afternoon with Dave. We first drove to Sonic and got ourselves 2 huge slushes, then proceeded to take the scenic route to Delicious Orchards, one of my favorite shopping places. The fruits and vegetables there are literally harvested every day, and the quality is truly superior. Nothing in common with those waxed tasteless goods you find at your local supermarket.

Sadly it's really expensive, and we're kind of broke, so we can't go there very often. I bought some fresh fava beans that you can only get for about a month every year, and some beautifully fragrant heirloom tomatoes. Then we sat outside of the Orchards (they have nice tables there with parasols and a few really good food stands). We shared a chili dog and some fresh apple dumplings covered with powder sugar.

We then drove to town, for I had to check Bestbuy for a few things; the weather was so beautiful that we decided to take the scenic route home around 5pm and Dave surprised me by taking me to PFChangs for dinner. Amazingly, despite the chili dog and the dumplings, we were starving!

Definitely a great day in my book! Nothing else than good food, great wheather, and my man's company. Sorry, my dragons, but you'll have to wait till Monday to get pampered again! :)

Time for big decisions...

I'm at a point in my rewrites where I have to make really big decisions... What do I leave untouched, and what do I change? I've been advised to remove all Tolkien reminders from the story, which I did. No more elves, orcs or goblins--I created new races and settings to fill their parts, and changed too cliché city and character names to more original ones. I'm obviously leaving dragons, because DUH it's a story about dragons, and also griffins, because if they are fantasy-based creatures, I don't consider them specifically Tolkienish.

Another question was whether or not to leave Kings and Princes... Michael Neff wanted me to take it out; the editors I've pitched to didn't seem to have a problem with it at all--including the one who wants to see my MS (he didn't even bat an eye at the mention of Kings and Princes). I've thought about it a LOT. I even had alternatives to all royal characters and titles all laid out... but I decided against the change. If they are not absolutely vital for the story to work, they do bring an innocence and fairy-talish atmosphere to the party that I really wish to keep in the storyline.

The last big question was whether or not to remove the part of the book happening in a school setting. Detractors were saying that it reminded them too much of Harry Potter. Once again, I laid out alternatives. That part of the book could have happened in a magical military academy instead of a school, but frankly the differences wouldn't justify the change. You don't have a whole lot of potential settings if you want several youngsters to interact together, alongside adults and spies, with a war in the background.

Ive also realized that the school setting is only used in a small part of the book, about 100 pages into the story. By the time someone gets to that point of my MS and the hero arrives at the school, it should be painfully obvious to them that this is no Harry Potter story. It's the story of a Dragon-wizard, who in the course of his quest to save his kind, just so happens to spy undercover in a human school of magic for a while, before leaving the school altogether to go save the girl, and ultimately win the war. I don't see the shadow of Harry anywhere in there--do you?

PS: thank you Terri, for helping me to sort things out in my head ((hugs))

A small step for me, a GIANT step for my dragons...

Today was a good day--a very good day indeed. The muses were on my side, my dragons decided to cooperate with my efforts, and I finally finished to merge the new beginning with the old stoyline of my novel... What's even better, is that I actually think it's good! Of course, it's only the first 50 pages, but they are truly crucial to the rest of the story. I am so relieved to be over that particular hurdle, I could dance alone in my apartment like a 10 year old. Many rewrites will come on those pages, but I truly believe I finally nailed it.

Now I need a drink, a sandwich, and a break! I've been glued to my screen for the past 5 hours and my eyes are starting to cross, LOL!

I also need to start to think about dinner, I have veal that I need to use today. I think I'm going to make scalopini alla milanese, flatened and breaded veal scallops, fried in butter and olive oil. I put a third of parmesan in the breading and use panko breadcrumbs for extra crispiness. They are usually served with safran risotto (the milanese part), but I don't have arborio rice left for the risotto, so I think I'll make a salsa of diced roma tomatoes with a little olive oil, salt pepper and fresh basil, and maybe a few sauteed potatoes on the side.

Either way, it's going to be good. Tonight, we are celebrating the official rebirth of my novel! Bring on the Chianti!

Baby steps in the right direction

I finally managed to get back on track today, and if I'm not running as fast as I was before my Euro-trip, at least I'm back on the path. I think I finally found a way to link the new beginning with the former story, which was the hardest part. Wrote and rewrote a bunch of versions today, and I can feel I'm getting there. It needs work, of course, and it's frustrating not to be at the same writing level as I was 5 months ago, but I'm hoping that daily work will bring the cruise speed back--and the substance is there even if it needs polishing.

No other groundbreaking news for today. I'm now off to cooking dinner. Tonight: Cajun shrimp and pasta--my interpretation at least. A spicy cream sauce with plenty of good stuff like sauteed diced onions and pressed garlic, chopped pancetta and heavy cream, tossed with fresh angel hair pasta, and finished (in the pan) with shrimp that I sauteed aside with cajun spices and reserved for the final pan toss, and a handful of chopped scallions. Yum. Writing it made me crave it even more... off to the kitchen!

A new beginning... literally.

Finally came up with a new beginning to my story I'm actually happy with. Not that there was (in my humble opinion) anything wrong with the old beginning, although editors would disagree with me there. Apparently it's a no-no to start with a character's birth. Since I didn't want to condemn my poor dragons to death by trashcan before they were even born, I yielded and set myself to writing another start to my novel. My dragons were notoriously uncooperative during that part of the rewrite process. Even now, I can feel them glaring at me behind my back when they think I'm not paying attention.

At 3pm, I then resolutely put my pen aside, and tackled my second task of the afternoon: re-seasoning my cast-iron skillet. I bought these beautifully well marbled thick cut new york strip steaks earlier this week, and wanted to do them justice. Well, let's just say that this part of the day didn't go quite as smoothly as the rewrite. I didn't have shortening at hand, so I used peanut oil--and ended up with a sticky coat of shiny goo. Ack!

I caved in and went to buy some Crisco, and then proceeded to scrub the goo out of my pan, making it even more necessary to re-season it. It's now baking upside down in my 350 oven for an hour. I just hope I'll be able to achieve a proper (if thin) seasoning for tonight's dinner.

I totally blame the dragons, of course. I just knew they'd get me back for zapping their grand entrance scene.

Back on the saddle again...

That's right, I'm (finally) back. I apologize for letting this blog collect dust for so long. Long story short I had to take care of some pretty hard core family stuff, and only just managed to get back on the neverending rewrites train a couple of days ago. I found my pen pretty rusty and my dragons are not always cooperating. Expect more in a few days, once the dust settles!