Started to . . . Really?

Finished Chapter 6; 11,284 word count

Writing Tip: This time the answer is "Yes. Really."

“Let’s go.” Bealomondore started to climb out of the drawer.
Effie grabbed his coat sleeve. “Is it safe?”

Started to and began to should only be used when the action will be disrupted.

Done! Done! Happy Dance! Done!

Ch 54 and epilogue done!!!; 93,890

Writers Tip: It is a good idea to put a manuscript away for a week to a month after completion, then take it out and read through with fresh eyes. Don't be alarmed when you first finish. Often your impression at the end of the long haul is that this is the worst thing you have ever written. After a break, you can be more objective.

Remaining in the Scene

Finished 52: 91,990 word count

Writing Tip: Remember what the other players are doing. In this scene characters A and B are headed into a dangerous situation. Lots of action is going on around them. This is the battle. So, I have to get A and B from point one to point two without taking them out of the scene and setting them back down where I want them. They still have to be a part of the ongoing action. So, as they skulk along, they overhear enemy chatter, they watch a dragon fight in the sky, and they aid a fight going on by snatching a weapon from the bad guys, and eventually get to point two. Lots of fun, not boring, and feels realistic.

Realism

Finished 51, started 52; 89,825 word count



Writing Tip: Remember these characters are not real people! I'm writing the battle scene and it is so very, very hard. Why? Because I don't want anyone to get hurt.

Creative Paragraphing

finished CH 49 again; word count 87,042

Writing Tip: In fiction, we can get away with re-writing some of the rules, some of the time. Not all the time, even though poet e.e. cummings did banish capital letters in his work. Sentence fragments are something that fiction writers can get away with. Again! only if they don't over do it.
So what is creative paragraphing? You may have already picked up the idea that it is breaking some rule. Right! To add emphasis, the sentences are listed instead of running along back to back.
This is The Grawl thinking:

So where were the statues? Where was their protector? The castle? The island? The mine?

But this is the same stream of questions in creative paragraphing:

So where were the statues? Where was their protector?
The castle?
The island?
The mine?

Short Sentences, Short Chapters

Finished 49; 86,925 word count

Writing Tip: Fast action scene=short, clipped sentences with simple language. This syntax moves the reader forward in the same staccato rhythm of a boxing match. As I come to the climax of the book, I find myself with short chapters as well. In this instance, the brevity of the chapters, the short accounts of where the main characters are and the direction they are going lends an urgency to the writing.
Boy, I can't wait to find out what happens next.

Prepositional Phrases Proliferating - No! No!

finished chapter 48; 85,597 word count

Writing Tip: When I present myself with a string of prepositional phrases, I know it is time to reword.


She tasted the breeze as well as luxuriated in the brush of warm wisps of breath on her skin.

Four prepositional phrases in a row are too many. Three is pushing the limit. This is the way I rewrote the sentence:



She tasted the breeze as well as luxuriated in the brush of warm breath-like wisps on her skin.



All on its own, it looks a little like purple prose, but since it is in Hollee's POV and she is rather flamboyant, it works.



Purple prose = overdone style, usually in descriptions.

Sustaining Creativity

Finished Ch 46; 82,270

Writing Tip: Two readers have asked basically the same question. One wanted to know how I kept going and didn't get stopped by writer's block. The other wants to know how I keep the creative spark going page after page.
The answer is in how much you've invested in the story. The best books come out of an author's obsession with the characters and their "what ifs." Life can be awkward when a story has a hold of you. But without that compelling curiosity to find out what happens next, how your characters are going to react, and if the poor hero is going to make it through his/her next personal challenge, you might as well hang up your hat, or in this case, your keyboard.

So when a period of non-productivity raises its ugly head, focus on your characters. Eat with them, go shopping with them, drive the car with them, until you are forced to go to the computer and confine their activities to the printed page.

"the"

Writing Tip: Sometimes "the" is not needed.
I'm not really done for today so I am not going to list chapter and word count. But a reader note brought my attention to this passage, and I saw another edit. In the end, my editor has to take the manuscript away from me, or I would tweak forever.

In this sentence:

Tipper gasped as the pain shot from her foot, up her shin, and beyond her knee.

we can take out the "the."
And have:
Tipper gasped as pain shot from her foot, up her shin, and beyond her knee.

I like the second version a lot better.

What's up?

finished Ch. 45; 80,603 word count

Writing Tip: This was a hard chapter, and I know why. Every scene should move the protagonist toward or away from a goal, or the scene should reveal character development. This chapter was weak in those areas. Chapters with strong ties to progress frustration, or character are much easier to write, but this is a necessary chapter and had to be written.
Why is it necessary? Because it is one of those chapters that covers what someone is doing even though what they are doing isn't that riveting. But if you don't let the reader know what this character is doing, the reader is going to be saying, "Yeah, but what about so and so? What's up with him?"
So, since I had to write about what Tipper is doing while the war is going on, I decided to put her in some danger, demonstrate what the advancing forces were like, and put in a humorous defense. I admit, that Tipper's character didn't grow. She didn't move towards any goal except to stay alive, and that is always a worthwhile goal. And the plot did not make any leaps forward. Sigh.

Show don't tell in dialogue

Finished chapter 44; 79,102 word count

Writing Tip: You don't have to say that the character speaking is embarrassed. You can add a couple of words and say it in the spoken dialogue.

“The main point of your father’s message is that he is proud of you.

“Well now then, the main point of your father’s message is that he is proud of you.

First sentence

finished Ch. 42; 74,968 word count

Writing Tip: It is important in a novel, a scene, a chapter to establish who, where, and mood. So as close to the first sentence as you can manage, tell the reader the setting and characters present and the mood of the passage.

Hollee hummed a sprightly tune as she followed Wizard Fenworth through the long tunnel that took them from the statue site to the surface.