Work in Progress Wednesday #7
June 24, 2009
The past week has been a whirlwind of new writing activity for me! I've fleshed out the outline and characters for a new novel and come up with several rough ideas for short or flash stories. And I got to writing, which is the really good stuff. :)
ValorQuest
This is my shiny new novel in progress! It has geeky gamers, a case of mistaken identity and, of course, romance. I'm going out on a limb with this one by actually having an outline. I'm not just talking my usual "outline" of knowing the beginning, a few plot points ahead of where I'm currently at and the ending. Nope, not for this one. ValorQuest arrived in my mind fully formed. I'm sure there will be detours, and that's one of the most fun things about writing, but I've got a fairly solid road map this time and I'm eager to see it through. This is a skill I've been anxious to learn and I think I can make it work for me this time around.
I finally felt ready to start writing it yesterday and got out a whole 2%! I've got a ballpark of 80k words this time around, which is something new for me too. I know I need to break away from the standard NaNoWriMo mold of 50k and hopefully I can with this project. Maybe I can also learn how to not rush my endings.
And surprisingly (and excitingly!) enough, I even coaxed my hubby into reading the first chunk of ValorQuest. He's a great test audience since he's a gamer himself, and I was rewarded with pointers on how to fix my battle scene and him lighting up with laughter in the appropriate places. I'm glad I was brave enough to get his early opinion! :)
Working Stiffs
My new zombie related short story is about (you likely guessed it from the title!) zombies in an office setting. I'm trying a different kind of zombie from my last zombie story You Are What You Eat. These are a little closer to traditional zombies, but still not-so-much. Maybe I've been influenced too much by Mark Henry and Daniel Waters, but I'm all over some zombies that are integrated into "regular" living society. You won't find mindless droning hordes of flesh eaters in my zombie tales. Not yet anyway! I like my zombies to have personality.
I'm around 3/4s of the way done with this one. I'm just about at the climax of the story, but I took a little break to start on ValorQuest since it was eating my brain yesterday (heehee!). Here's another one I was able to get my hubby to take a peek at. In this one I'm concerned with voice and pacing. I'm writing it in first-person present tense and I'll be pestering all my beta readers about how well it actually works for the story. My hope is that it gives a bit of immediacy and oomph to what might otherwise be a rather slow, shambling series of days at the office. At first... ;)
So I asked my husband how he liked the characters and if they seemed like real people to him:
"Yeah, I liked them all. But one was kinda stiff," he said.
I pause for half a second, wondering if this is a classic set up, and then go for it because, as a writer, I have to know. The Inner Editor won't allow me to walk away. "Which one?"
"The zombie. HAHAHA!"
For more info about the wonderful WIP Wednesday phenomenon please check out Kate Karyus Quinn's blog.
Tags: short story, novel, process, writing, wip wednesdays, horror, working stiffs, contemporary romance, valorquest.
4 comments
Annie
Wed, 24 Jun 2009
Did your blog just make me do math in order to write a comment? Wow. That is awesome a novel came to you fully formed. That has never happened to me, and I don't outline, though sometimes I wish I could. Also great that your husband is a valuable reader and even kind during rough drafts! It's awesome to have someone right there cheering you on.
Annie
Wed, 24 Jun 2009
Also, hey, we started doing NaNoWriMo at the same time! I also began participating in 2004. It has taken me this long to write at a somewhat regular basis outside of November. Every year, I improve.
Kate Karyus Quinn
Wed, 24 Jun 2009
Your works in progress always sound so exciting and interesting! I especially love the "Working Stiffs" (and very jealous of your clever titling abilities too) concept. Zombies in an office is just a genius concept!
Violet
Wed, 24 Jun 2009
Annie - LOL yeah, my captcha isn't the word kind :)
I normally don't outline either. I'll have some vague idea of point A and point B and just... fly by the seat of my pants! Over the last year or so I've been teaching myself to figure out a solid ending before I start a piece. It was hard at first, but now it's how I have to do things. I guess it was a good first step towards outlining. :)
And yes, he did grumble a bit about them not being done yet this time around, but he relented!
I'm the same way with writing too. NaNo's a great catalyst and has really helped me build my confidence over the years :D
Kate - Thank you! I've had a good bout of title luck recently. I like to go for old sayings or quips or half-way clever plays on words.
And I so wish I could take credit for office worker zombies, but I know I got the idea from the comparison I've heard between corporate workers and zombies. Plus a little Shaun of the Dead since they played up the working class being indistinguishable from the undead! I'm sure there're other sources, but really it just made sense lol :D Glad you like it!