Breakthroughs; or, the self-imposed task of building a unified fictional universe

July 7, 2015 / sarahelund / Leave a comment

Yo. Remember when I finished a first draft of that NaNoWriMo experiment-turned-serious project? That was a while ago. Maybe two whiles.

I put it away for a few months, and when I got around to reading it through with my editor hat on (man I wish I had an actual editor hat…) my biggest problem was pretty evident. The story is too complicated. Actually, to be accurate, the magical rules governing the universe are muddled and convoluted, and that informs the history, choices, and motivations of a number of my characters. Pretty much all of them.

So last week I set up camp in a local bookstore, drowned out the surrounding humanity with Songza’s “Acoustic versions of pop songs” playlist, opened up a brand-spanking new notebook, and set myself to the task of simplifying (or at the very least articulately defining) the key magical rules that govern the universe of my story.

Since I have a couple other faerie-based novels on the go, one of my supplemental goals was to create a universe that makes sense for all of these stories. I doubt they will ever overlap, but why not leave the option open?

I made a lot of progress on bookstore day (which basically meant I did some really dedicated staring off into the middle distance with some occasional scribbled pages of questions and all-caps major points), and since then I’ve been working to apply the “rules” to Mira’s story. By the way, Mira’s story is what I’m calling that NaNoWriMo-turned-first draft. I think I’ve called it Sea or The Nereid in other posts, but this feels more natural. I don’t want to give it a title until it has a title, if that makes sense.

Over the weekend I stewed on the issues that my new magical universe was causing (among them, the motivation of my main antagonist), and when I decided to have a wee brainstorming sesh over my lunch hour at work yesterday, the solutions were waiting for me. And I was right, fixing and defining the magical rules will improve everything else.

There are still some smaller issues to reason out, but I’m looking forward to re-writing for draft number two.

Well, I will look forward to it, after I finally decide if I’m going to change perspective of the story.

Dammit.

S.E. Lund

P.S. If I had an editor hat it would look like this:

Where are all the readers at?

June 30, 2015 / sarahelund / Leave a comment

A few years ago I was in a communications program and working at a bookstore. I look back on those years with a strange mixture of shame and fondness. Mostly, I don’t like how I acted, the person I was trying to be, but it was a wonderful time for creativity and learning. In all areas of my life, I was surrounded by brilliant, crazy comedians and detailed, thoughtful planners and wild-eyed, metaphor-obsessed writers and stunning, infectious performers. It was a great time to get inspired, to create, and to get help. It’s those things – the productivity and the creative support – I miss.

So here I am, five years later (five years?!), in need of a beta reader for my very, very rough first draft, and without a cocoon of creative types to throw it at. Where’d they all go? Look. Not to generalize, but… I’m friends with a lot of accountants now, and while they are all individuals with their own quirks and interests, fantasy doesn’t seem to run strong in any of them. The rest of my closest friends right now — the people I’d feel comfortable asking a favour from — are either non-confrontational (and thus useless for providing criticism) or not readers. Shoot.

The best person I can think of is the person who inspired me to write the story… and I really don’t want her to read it until it’s good.

Maybe I should give the accountants a chance.

Tricia’s List of Bad Guy Motivations

June 30, 2015 / sarahelund / 1 Comment

I’m on my first draft re-write, and as the rules governing the story universe shift, so does the “why” of my villain. Keeping these in mind:

The Plotless

Earlier this year I went to LTUE (Life, the Universe, and Everything—a symposium for science fiction and fantasy writers). While there I listened to a presentation on creating effective villains. One thing in particular that I learned was that bad guys can’t be bad just for the sake of being bad. In other words, every story needs a villain (whether tangible or not) and that villain needs to be three dimensional. He needs a back story. He needs motivation. He cannot be doing bad things just because you need a bad character. He needs to be driven. And as is mentioned several times in the Writing Excuses podcast, the villain needs to be the hero of his own story.

And even if you never explain the back story, the complexity of your characters will come through in your writing. Because the more you know about them, the more it shows.

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Waiting for that motivation to start

May 21, 2015 / sarahelund / Leave a comment

It’s nearly June, and around this time every year I get highly motivated to accomplish things. It’s when I do the grungy, grimy housework that can be put off for months at a time. It’s when I commit to joining another committee or club. It’s when I actually start to read the daily Groupon delivered to my inbox.

This year however, my motivation is still at nil. Sure, I’m doing things that must be done, but I’m dreading them and taking no great joy or satisfaction in their completion. Plus, blog-relevantly, my writing output is paltry and poor.

I need a catalyst for action. If I was writing my own story, I’d drop in a tragedy or a windfall at this point, just to give my character something that requires reaction. I’m hoping my impending trip to Toronto in June to visit the very wonderful C. Walnut will help. A change of scenery. A new cast. Maybe that will do the trick.