How to Write a Fight

So, I'm a girl, obviously. The most intimidating thing for me to write is a fight sequence. Anyone who knows me well can tell you that I am a Lord of the Rings officianado, and I have watched ALL the special features on ALL three extended director's cut dvds. Anyhow, where I'm going with this is that in those special features, Peter Jackson mentioned that he never wanted to write "kissing scenes," and so he would just write in "and they kiss" on the script and hand it over to the women to fill in. Likewise, the women didn't want to write fight scenes, so they would write in "and they fight" and hand it back to the men. I couldn't help but think about this over the last couple days as I knew I had this imminent fight to write. I'm always intimidated by writing fights because I worry that I won't be able to make it realistic or exciting. But then I got to thinking... I am NOT a sissy girl. I would rather watch Terminator any day over When Harry Met Sally, and I have seen more action movies than your average teenage boy. Of course I can write a fight scene! And it's not like I don't have any existing fight scenes to reference for help, so I took out a few of my favorite fantasy novels and re-read some fights to see how others have done it. All things considered, it was quite a process just to psych myself up to get this one chapter written, but I think the outcome has been pretty successful. I wrote it VERY late last night, and I love it! But I guess the jury will be out until the book is published and read by others. SO, the chapter is called "Magician and Mayhem," and I look forward to hearing from you all whether I wrote it successfully or not.

I have reached page 286 and I think that I could possibly finish this book over the weekend. It sure would be nice to be able to sleep again!

My three-year-old is watching Phineas and Ferb right now and Phineas just said, "Ferb, I think we just stopped, and/or started, an alien invasion!" Lol. I love that show.

Like Walking Downhill

Well, I can happily say that I have reached the halfway point in The Oracle. I am on page 190 and, like I already said, I want the novel to be about 375 pages. So I guess you could say that I am a little over halfway. Yay! Writing the second half of a novel is a little bit like what Treebeard said about going south: it's like walking downhill. I took the time tonight after my husband went to bed to read over the last fifty pages that I wrote, and I'm very pleased with it. I wrote a chapter today in which I introduced seven new characters. Let me just say that I had a lot of fun with naming these characters, and anybody who likes to look for deeper meanings in things should look them up after the book comes out. :O) It's very late, I'm very tired, and I'm going to bed now.

Sub-Conflicts

I have managed to turn out over fifty pages this week, which is great. I feel like, okay, I can do this! I am now on page 118 and have a good chunk of the main plot introduced, all though I haven't really gotten to the meat and potatoes of the book yet, which is, of course, the journey to the oracle. I'm feeling okay about that, though, because I can't treat this story like it exists in a vacuum. I have elements from the first book that have to be incorporated and expanded upon, and I have to think about the four books that will follow this one. SO, while the Oracle is the main point of this book, it is only a part of the overall story, so it's okay if I spend some time on other things. Really what I see before me right now are three sub-conflicts: One that is internal for Darcy, one that she and Tellius will tackle together, and one between the Six and Colin Mackaby that they will hash out together with Rubidius. And all of these have to play court to the overall conflict of getting rid of Tselloch and closing the gateways to his world. I need to acknowledge, too, that there will probably be further sub-conflicts that will emerge as the story goes on. SO much to keep straight! It's fun, though, it really is, and every time I have a eureka moment about how to piece things together, I feel really good about myself. (That sounds rather self-absorbed, doesn't it? Oh well). I'm going to do my best to keep my momentum up, and I think I can really get this thing done by early August. My husband is going to read through the first couple chapters tomorrow and give me some much-needed feedback. Looking forward to that!

Getting Back on Track

Okay, so I've had a few delays this summer with my writing schedule. My boys were sick the first week of June, and then we took a family road trip the third week and I, unfortunately, did not get any real work done on The Oracle while we were visiting family in MN. (We did have a lot of fun, though). Driving 17 hours, and through the night nonetheless, does give one plenty of time to ponder plot, however, so I did get quite a bit of brainstorming done. I think it was sometime mid-Missouri in the middle of the night while all my boys (husband included) were sleeping that I figured out some pretty juicy details. My brain has always worked well late at night (or early in the morning, however you want to look at it), I often have a hard time falling asleep because my brain is so active after dark, so it was actually a pretty productive time for me. I also had the presence of mind to write down everything I came up with once we arrived at our friends' house. Aside from that, however, work on my book on the trip was nil. Okay, so taking stock of everything, I had about fifty pages completed when we left. In the five days that we've been home I have really put my nose to the grindstone to get back on track and I managed to write 28 pages. Unfortunately, that's not enough, so I have to pick up the pace. I figured out the math that if I am shooting for another 375 page novel, I need to write roughly 10 pages a day to finish by August 2nd when my teacher in-service begins. I could push the deadline back to finishing by the time school starts, though, which still puts me at about 7 pages a day. So let's just average things out to 7-10 pages a day. That's a little daunting, but I'll get it done. I'm through the most difficult portion of the writing, I think. My main characters are back in Alitheia and almost everything that needed to be re-introduced has been. I've also introduced a couple new characters that I'm pretty excited about and everything seems to be falling into place nicely for me to build to the real conflict of the story. I wrote a description of Tellius today, as he is at age 12, and, well, let's just say that adolescence is not always friendly. I should know, as I teach adolescents, and I get to observe their physical transformations. Some of them breeze through it, but it is really rough on others. I do have to say, though, sometimes the kids that look the most awkward through their adolescent years turn out to be the most attractive people in the end. *wink*

Rolling, rolling, rolling...

I really feel like the ball is rolling on The Oracle now. I have written 42 pages and, for the most part, have a clear idea of where the story is going. It's funny because I had diverged quite a bit from my outline and was just questioning the validity of even having an outline when I hit a little snag in the story and had to refer back to it to pull me back on track. The chapter I just finished (chapter 5: The Tail) is the longest chapter so far and I am on the cusp of sending the six main characters back to Alitheia. I'm excited to begin writing that stage of the book as it will be something quite different from anything I've written in the Chronicles so far. I have to now begin formulating in my mind how I am going to set up reintroducing Alitheia to my readers. The second book in any series is always difficult in this way: how does the author describe something in such a way as to be different from how it was described in the first book, but complete enough to introduce a potential new reader to the story? I don't want to describe everything the same way over and over again (there will be six books, after all). I just hope that I can provide my readers with sufficient diversity!

The First Hurdle

I can proudly say that I have completed the first two chapters of The Oracle. Obviously it is all a rough draft, but I really feel like I have gotten over the first hurdle. Even better, I really like what I've written so far, and this book has taken on its own identity almost immediately. It's always amazing to me how, once you get rolling, the characters lead you in different directions than you thought you were going to go. Not in very big ways, but significant enough for me to diverge from my outline within the first couple pages (that's what makes it a working outline, I suppose). At any rate, I think my readers will be pleased with how the book is shaping up. It's a little more mature (not in a bad way, in the sense that my main characters are now a year older and should act more mature) and while I think it maintains the spirit of the first book for continuity, it is also something completely new. Darcy is in a much different place at the opening of this book than she was at the opening of the last one, and I think people will be pleased to know that she's not going to be quite so disagreeable, at least, not right away. (She still has to be flawed, you know?) Anyhow, here's the first two chapter titles (liable to change!): Chapter 1: Darcy Has a Dream. Chapter 2: Questions Without Answers.
So long for now!

Almost there!

Goodness! It has been much too long since I have updated my blog! Well, here's my excuse: I'm a full-time school teacher and the school year is winding down. It's crazy right now, but school will be out in 4 short days and I am counting down the time until I can begin actually writing The Oracle. So I guess this is just a short update to anybody out there who cares that I have not disappeared off the face of the planet, and I have a novel in my head that is crying to get out! I hope to have weekly or biweekly updates on The Oracle throughout the summer.
So long for now!