Random Thoughts

[queenoftheskies]

On Tuesday, it'll have been 10 weeks since I subbed Spilt Milk to Glimmer Train. Someone told me they pretty much only accept from well-known writers, and this is my first submission and all, so I don't have delusions that I'm going to make a sale. However, the same person told me that they offer feedback on submissions, so if that's the case, I think I'll be very excited to hear from them.

My daughter made dinner tonight. Hamburger steaks and red potatoes. Yummy. My hamburger steak had crumbles of bleu cheese in it and is WONDERFUL. (I'm eating while I drive-by post.)

Today, I discovered what I already knew, subconsciously...that I'd started my current novel Phantom Song in the wrong place. I needed something else to happen before my starting point. It all fell into place this morning; I found my starting point and have been happily pecking away at the keys in between real life today.

I'd love to get more written tonight. I need to get my characters out of a precarious position right now and then have a couple more scenes I'd love to get written if there's time.

I should have hit 1/3 of my novel finished, theoretically, this weekend, in order to finish in one month. But, the drive from hell last week left me with no time to get real life things/errands done, and my weekend was filled with those.

Still, I hope to adjust life so where I can get more writing done. I'm just pleased, after many terrible things that have happened recently, that I'm back to writing at least 1,000 words every day. This makes me happy, whether I finish the novel in one month or not.

I'm still going to try to finish it, though. That would make me very happy.

Comments

[spaceoperadiva.livejournal.com]

The inciting incident starting point is very popular advice, but advice that needs to be tempered somewhat by the genre of novel you're writing. It's easier to start with an inciting incident in a Romance than in Fantasy for example. Even in most period Romances, readers already have some idea of what the world is like, the culture and the expectations.

I'm not saying that it's a good idea to start with a prologue full of world history and a complete genealogy of the cast and crew but some time to develop the setting is needed, IMO, in anything that isn't set in a setting that's very familiar to the common reader.

This is one of those "there really are genre differences" moments, as well as a reminder that novels are not movies (since my favorite writing book is a screenwriting book, it's easy for me to get seduced by the inciting incident idea).

With my Ran Shaipur WIP, I felt like I needed a backhoe to fill in the beginning after trying that stark right on top of the inciting incident starting technique.

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

Obviously, since I used to write screenplays, that's where my fascination with the inciting incident comes from. :)

My novels are mostly urban/contemporary fantasy, so I don't have as much world to describe, though I do have backstory that I try to include along with the plot. It's a tight-wire balancing act not to info dump, of course, but I think writers of all types of fantasy face that problem, don't you?

I do agree, though, that there are times when you have to build up to the real inciting incident and have the reader ready/knowledgeable for it.