Writer’s Desk, 5/14

Ready for another look into my utterly fascinating world of writing? Me neither. 🙂 Despite that, here we go.

Out the window: Gray skies and misty rain. Colder temps that are leaching in around the windows, which I’d finally removed the plastic sheeting from earlier this week. Too soon, it appears. Ugh.

On the desktop: The general clutter of maps, glasses and note-like bits of paper, along with the plant that I’ve removed from the window sill so it doesn’t “catch cold.”  Also, a cup of jasmine green tea, to make it feel warm and springy whenever I take a sip. Mmm, good.

Today’s Work-in-Progess: The novel, naturally. I am relieved to be able to report that I’m nearing the end of Act 1–the part where conflicts are gaining steam and the good stuff is getting underway–and I’m somewhere near the 1/7 of the book’s total word count. This is a relief, because I planned (as much as I’m able to plan any of this, at this point–more like hoped, but planned sounds so much more in control and writerly, doesn’t it??) for Act 1 to consume 1/7th, and Act 3 to consume the final 7th, while the majority of the book goes into Act 2 (with 5/7th total word count).

Where did this come from, you ask? I think it came from the Donald Maas book, Writing the Breakout Novel, which I read a few months back. Regardless, it seemed like a good rule of thumb, one that fit how I saw this book of mine progressing, so I was happy to see this falling into place in reality.

And Another Thing, or Two: This may be really old news for some of you, but I somehow found myself over at an old (antiquated, in online terms) LiveJournal page by Jim Butcher, reading his discussion of Scene and Sequel. If you’re writing almost any kind of fiction, I highly suggest reading these little nuggets of wisdom. Scene comes first, then click to the “next page” for Sequel. (Cool how that happens, no?)

And finally, I have to squee just a moment here: my contributor’s copy of Twisted Boulevard: Tales of Urban Fantasy, edited by Angela Charmaine Craig of Elektrik Milk Bath Press, just arrived in yesterday’s mail. It is so nice to hold an actual book containing your work and byline in your hands, you know?