Outlining the First Draft

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Sam had a great question yesterday...

When you outline for the first draft do you outline in terms of Scene and Sequel or do think about that after the first draft is written? 

Scene and sequel, totally. More scene than sequel though. Structure is my most useful tool in my writer's toolbox. (POV is second) It allows me to focus on what drives a story and keeps me from wandering aimlessly off. I'll tweak that after the first draft of course, and tighten the book up, but I plan my novels by what happens.

For those who don't know, scene and sequel are the building blocks of any story. (learn more about this in depth here) A scene is basically the section of the story in which your protag is trying to achieve a goal. When that goal is resolved (good or bad) then they have a sequel. They react, think about what just happened, and decide on what to do next, which sets up the next scene goal.

A World Building Workshop

Juliette Wade over at Talk ToYoUniverse is launching an ongoing World Building Workshop. Every week, she'll do a mini-crit/workshop with a submission of up to 500 words. She's looking for submissions now. She has a wonderful world building eye, and I know I find her feedback extremely valuable (she's one of my crit partners) so I highly recommend submitting something to her.

She also has a great post today on POV and pronouns. Nobody explains POV like she does, and I just love it when she gets all technical and breaks out her linguistic mojo. You really understand why POV works like it does.

Let's Get Ready to Write! Researching Your Novel: Setting

By Janice Hardy. @Janice_Hardy

Although I write fantasy, I do think that any world--fantasy or otherwise--can benefit from world building. Knowing where your story is set will determine the inherent problems your characters will face. Challenges in Manhattan are different from those in Montana. So even if you're writing about a gal from Ipanema, setting plays a big role.

For this post, let's assume you have a basic idea of the book you want to write. (coming up with ideas is another post) You know the general idea and are looking to develop that idea. This is the time when having nothing but a premise is just fine. You may not know what the core conflict is until you learn more about the story and its world.

With fantasy, the entire world needs to be created, so real world writers have a leg up here. You can go right ahead and start researching the place you've chosen. For those who don't know yet, it's time to pick or create a location.

Wait! Back Up: Protecting Your Writing Files

By Technical Tom 

The Fiction University Tech Guy

Well, it's that time of year again. With a fresh set of resolutions in hand, we make bold plans, set strong agendas and optimistically get ready for the new year.  If you are anything like us, that level of motivation will last about 10 days, maybe two weeks, then it's back to business as usual. So my goal today is to capitalize on the heady “I can do it” feeling that is coursing through our veins and help you make a solid positive step for your new year.  Something you can accomplish in less time that a Geico commercial promises to save you 15% on your car insurance.  This can save you a lot more though.  It can save your world.

Ask Away

Since I'll be back on track with regular posts next week, I figured it was a good time to see if you guys had anything in particular you wanted to hear about.

Things you can look forward to in the coming months...

Since I'm starting a new book, lots on planning a novel and getting started.
Me finally having time to get back to the "Defining what we do" idea.
More writing a first draft type posts.

It's actually a good time to start a novel, really. Y'all know I do extra posts about whatever stage I happen to be working on, so I'll be writing it along with you and likely running into the same issues. I imagine Find Your Plot Fridays will be better since I'll be actively plotting.

There will still be plenty of revision tips and general writing stuff, so don't worry. But hopefully I'll have a lot of fresh new discoveries to pass along. I haven't written a whole new story (sequels don't count) since I started blogging, so I'll be paying attention to what I do and why.

Happy New Year!

I can't believe 2010 is gone. I can remember going to the movies to see 2010: The Year We Make Contact in the theater. I don't remember anything about it anymore, but I do remember seeing it with my parents. Dad was a huge sci fi fan.

So, January 1 is a day of resolutions and goal setting. It's like page one of the novel of our lives. There are certainly things I hope to accomplish this year.

I should start with "finish Shifter 3 edits/copy edits" since that way I know for sure I'll complete one thing on my list, but that would be cheating. So here are the real goals I've set for myself and how good a chance I think I have of meeting them.

The Writing Goals


1. Write my spy novel and have it ready to go to my agent by August.
Odds of success: 100% for the writing part, maybe 70% by August. You never know how a book will go. But I do want it done before I have to start ramping up for the launch of Shifter 3 in October.

2. Write a few short e-books on special writing topics.
Odds of success:  100%. I'll be doing these in January while I'm researching world-building stuff for the spy novel. I'd like to do two or three as test books and see how they go. If they're a hit, I'll do more.

3. Do NaNo with an MG fantasy idea I have kicking around.
Odds of success: 50%. The end of the year has always been busy for me, and being able to do 50K in 30 days takes a lot of time. But I'd like to try it this year, and 50K is a good size for an MG novel so I could get a first draft done quickly. Odds can go up here depending on...

4. Do a fun blog/NaNo tie-in idea I had last year.
Odds of success:  50%. I'll go into this more later if it all works out, but I think October is going to be NaNo prep month on the blog (and everything will also tie into regular writing) while I'm doing the blog tour again.I'd also like to tailor a lot of November posts to NaNo (and again, it will all also apply to those not doing NaNo) to tie in with a "do NaNo with me" type thing.

5. Finish a novel called "Creatures" that's almost done and had to be back burnered, and keeps getting back burnered.
Odds of success: 30%. I love this story, but it's one of those where the market is already saturated, so putting effort into finishing it is hard when I know the odds of selling it are low. But I could probably finish it in a month, so it's hard not to do it. Maybe I'll dedicate a weekend a month to it or something.

6. Blog Tour!
Odds of success:   90%. I enjoyed it last year, so I want to do it again, with some tweaks. But I also want to have all the posts (aside from interviews and special request topics) done in September. I didn't make that work last year, but this year I won't have a book on deadline hanging over my head. (and hence the reason I want to finish the spy novel in August)


The Non-Writing Goals

1. Exercise 
Odds of success: 100% to start, 60% to finish the year. My husband isn't going to let me slack off, so maybe I'll be able to sick with it better this year. I've felt like such a slug the last few years because I've been too busy to get on that treadmill in the mornings. That has to change. Feeling better physically with definitely make it easier to accomplish my other goals. I'll need that energy!

2. Balance work, writing, and life better.
Odds of success: 70%. I got into a routine this last year, and while I was working too much, I did prove what I could do if I had to. Hopefully I can keep up the productivity and just cut out the "overworked" parts. Which shouldn't be too bad since I won't be on deadline.

3. Read more.
Odds of success:   80%. I really missed reading in 2010. I did put a dent in my To-Read pile by the end of the year, but I really didn't have time the rest of it. I love to read and miss it when I can't, so I want to make more of an effort to carve out some free read time for myself.


4. Get organized.
Odds of success:  70%. I have a bunch of these, but they're all like, "organize all the closets" so I won't bother to list them. Let's just say I want to streamline my life so the rest of it can flow more smoothly.


So that's my list of hopefuls for the year. It'll be fun to look back at this 365 days from now and see what I actually got done.

How about you guys? What are your goals for the year?