Hatrack River Writers Workshop: NSG 4/27

This is topic NSG 4/27 - 5/3 in forum Hatrack Groups at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
http://www.hatrack.com/ubb/writers/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=000320

Posted by WBSchmidt (Member # 8533) on :

Welcome to this week's Novel Support Group (NSG). Anyone can join. If you're new, tell us a bit about who you are and what project you are working on. Feel free to update the NSG Work in Progress thread with your current projects. Although we can report on any number of things, here is a list of suggestions (suggestions welcomed).

What were your goals last week and did you accomplish them?
Describe what you worked on.
Set goals for next week.
Did you learn something during this week?

Here is a list of things that you can do each week as we work on our novels (suggestions welcomed).

Writing on a novel
Characterization
World Building
Relevant research

=-=-=-=-=

Last Week's Goals

Wow, it's Friday already. Things are picking up at work again and time has flown by unfortunately. Just when I thought things were easing up again. Oh well.

My goals for next week:

World Building
Scene Segment Consolidation

The usual desire to get back to world building.

What did I learn this week?

I've been doing more web programming at work for the last couple years. We have some large projects coming soon that are quite large. We will need to do a great deal of planning to accomplish everything we have been asked to do. I'll be breaking down each component of that project into smaller pieces and working on individual sections. As I thought of that this week I realized that the same works in writing as well.

In the past I have just plunged into the outlining process and wrote the book from there. Some writers can do that. Other writers write novels with even less planning than that. However, I don't think that I'm either of these writers. I need to break down a book by its individual parts (character, setting, plot, etc.) before I feel comfortable with it. Unfortunately, this has crippled my ability to move forward with a story because I never feel that have enough so I write the book anyway. I then get stuck because I don't know enough to write the scenes. A definite conundrum.

As part of my writing process moving forward, I want to write small articles of ideas, mostly for myself, on how to go from story idea to completed novel. Eventually these may end up as a how to novel or blog posts. This will mainly be an experiment because I'm not confident I have fully determined my writing process. One of the first things I want to study and learn is how to develop an interesting, fully developed setting without taking too much time developing needless background like family genealogy (unless it later becomes important to the story).

This is something I hope to learn if I can get back to the writing. [Frown]

--William

Posted by Meredith (Member # 8368) on :

Last Week's Goals:

MAGIC'S FOOL: Wait for feedback.
Easy one. [Smile]

FIRE AND EARTH (formerly known as SEVEN STARS): Two more queries out this week.
Yes, and I'm sending out a third today. [Smile]

BLOOD WILL TELL: E-publish.
Yes. Go check it out on Smashwords, Amazon, or B&N. [Big Grin]

BLOOD IS THICKER: Let it rest.
Another easy one. [Smile]

THE BARD'S GIFT: Continue with the first draft.
Hmm. Not much progress on this, yet. [Frown]

OTHER:
Update my blog twice a week.
Yes. [Smile]

Next Week's Goals:

MAGIC'S FOOL:
Wait for feedback.

FIRE AND EARTH (formerly known as SEVEN STARS):
Two more queries out this week.

BLOOD WILL TELL:
The hard part (for me)--marketing.

BLOOD IS THICKER:
Let it rest.

MAGIC'S APPRENTICE:
Work through Chapter 5 first draft. That'll be a good stopping point and I can concentrate on THE BARD'S GIFT.

THE BARD'S GIFT:
Continue with the first draft.

OTHER:
Update my blog twice a week.

What I Learned This Week:

Don't be in a rush when e-publishing. E-pub with Smashwords first and then take a day or two to really check out the results before going on to Amazon and B&N. This is because it's much easier to upload changes on Smashwords than anywhere else. I did look at three of the resulting files, but I didn't catch a subtle font change (which I still can't explain) that PDBlake found for me.

Posted by aspirit (Member # 7974) on :

Hi, I'm back.

Last Week's Goals and Accomplishments

*Update* I had set goals:

Rewrite the current Chapter Five for RITN
Plot for DeCo
Sort the loose notes and drafts for DeCo into the appropriate binders and folders

I accomplished two of the three. I planned a couple of new scenes for DeCo and thought through what's needed for rewrites in both DeCo and RITN. Mostly, I wanted to let my mind work through plotting possibilities.

Although I'm still certain DeCo is beyond my abilities to write, I can't help but try. For whatever reasons, I can't work on RITN for long without thinking about DeCo.

Next Week's Goals

*Update*

Rewrite the current Chapter Five for RITN
Plot for DeCo
Sort the loose notes and drafts for DeCo into the appropriate binders and folders

Lesson (Re-)Learned

Write down ideas as they come! Even a half-legible note on a paper towel is better than failing to remember twelve hours later what scene-changing development you'd worked out while preparing for work that morning.

[ April 29, 2012, 04:22 PM: Message edited by: aspirit ]

Posted by EmilyS (Member # 9447) on :

Finally finished my Null Prophet revisions this week! I also worked a bit on my synopsis for submissions that want one a bit longer, and did some research for North.

Next week I want to finish up the synopsis and submit the revised Null Prophet to one publisher's open submissions (which close tomorrow, so really, this'll happen today). I might also send another query or two. Then I'll continue researching and maybe flesh out the outline for North.