As my blog isn't in use I thought I'd log my thoughts and processes here as I go along, then link to them when I post drafts. If that's not what I'm supposed to be doing, or if there's somewhere else I should put this, I'm hoping someone will tell me
FIRST DRAFT:
https://writerinmotion.com/WIMForum/index.php?topic=233.0The IdeaMy first draft didn't go to plan. I started off panicking about a story not instantly coming to me. I had lots of ideas but none jumped out. And as I said in my impressions post (
https://writerinmotion.com/WIMForum/index.php?topic=203.0), I couldn't get over how much the building in the pic was out of place among the natural beauty. Also my mental image of a woman standing in front of it wouldn't go away, nor would the idea of weaving mythology into the mix.
I eventually came up with the idea of an urban fantasy involving a reluctant Buffy-style character who accidentally summons an evil demon (I forced myself away from dragons!) when she gets a tattoo, and has to kick his arse and destroy his portal underneath the concrete building with the help of her nymph sidekick.
Unfortunately, the evil demon and the nymph sidekick rebelled.
The demon Malthas refused point blank to be the personification of evil, probably because I'm a sucker for the 'villain redemption'/'bad boy hiding a good heart' tropes. Sweet Echo the nymph requested the happy ending she didn't get in the Greek myths (sidenote: does anyone in the Greek myths get a happy ending?
). And the human character didn't speak to me at all. She just stood there in front of the building looking blank.
I don't consider myself a writing expert AT ALL but one thing I have learnt is when your characters demand something, it's best to hear them out. So I went with it!
The Process and My StyleUmm... I may have edited a bit
. I've been revising another manuscript for so long that to leave that zone and simply write is tricky, especially as an overwriter with a 1000 word limit. I tried, I really did, and I forced myself not to change too much, but when I got to 1400 words I started to panic about the next self-editing stage. So I edited just a little, just so I wouldn't worry. If I do WIM next time (I probably will
) I'll try not to do this or I'll at least document my changes as I go along.
It needs work, I know that. I lean heavily towards dialogue as I'm not strong on descriptions and I tend to go from one extreme to the other, I'll either write "the green leaf" or I'll splurge out seventeen paragraphs trying to explain what shade of green it is, rather than using simple but effective imagery. And I'm unsure if it really stands as its own story, or whether it needs a more twisty ending, like it's the mic drop at the end of a first chapter. But it's not completely without promise, and, as I'm learning, WIM is about the journey!
Onward!Onward now to self-edits. I can't stop thinking about a possible new ending, so I'm looking forward to seeing if I can weave it in without smashing the word limit, or whether I keep it the same.
My Overall Thoughts So FarI wasn't sure what to expect when I joined WIM. I did NaNoWriMo a couple of years ago and to be honest, found it a stressful and lonely experience. This was possibly self-inflicted, as an introvert I didn't throw myself into the community aspect as much as I should, but it did put me off taking part again. I was worried WIM would be similar, but my fears have been unfounded. Every person I've interacted with has been kind, supportive, enthusiastic and encouraging, not to mention amazingly talented. I'm loving the sense of community and have read some INCREDIBLE first drafts that I can't wait to see refined. So no regrets so far!
Topic: Vicky Walklate: Romance, fantasy & historical fiction (Read 2556 times)