Writ large

I've written in the past about wanting to make my story bigger. Not in word count, per se, but in feeling. The complexity of the story and characters have to be large enough–interesting enough–to carry the novel through 300+ pages.

Thanks to my most wonderful critique partner, I now have some ideas for how to make it happen for Slow Burn. I'm not tearing into it yet, I have lots of brainstorming to do, but I'm excited about the possibilities. My friend Martha is facing a similar challenge.

Good luck to both of us! 😉

I'm still interested in ensuring that the structure of the story works, and working on pre-planning for my future MSs. To that end, I broke down and bought Larry Brooks' e-book, Story Structure Demystified. While I agree with regular commenter Curtis that $14.95 is a bit high for an e-book, Larry's offering a twofer deal until March 15th, so I went for it.

I'm a regular follower of his blog, and I find his explanations both well-written and engaging. I'm expecting the book to be more of the same.

Now, I'm off to bigger things…

0 Comments

Martha W

4 / Mar / 2010

Oh, I am soooo glad to not be the only one in this boat! LOL.

I’m at the planning stage – character studies & GMCs (brand new ones). The ideas that Mark helped me hash out are going to push my MCs to new heights (thank goodness). And my villain… I have faith. I can do it! 🙂

Christine rocks, doesn’t she?!

Good Luck with yours!
- Gwen Hernandez
  
  4 / Mar / 2010
  
  I feel like I’m going in circles with this stuff, but despite my linear style, it’s still an iterative process.
  
  Good luck with this. I know you can do it!
  
  And yes, without a doubt, Christine totally rocks!
Curtis

5 / Mar / 2010

O.K. you got my attention with his twofer. 🙂

After you take a look at it let me know if it is printer friendly. It will serve me best when it becomes black ink on white paper and at least in a three ring binder.

Also, does the file look portable? I took my NaNoWriMo 50,000 words to the print shop ( actually I e-mailed the file) printed it on 8/11 so I could work with it.
I would hope to do the same with this.
- Gwen Hernandez
  
  5 / Mar / 2010
  
  I haven’t started reading it yet, but it’s a nicely formatted PDF, so you should have no problem printing it. There are about 125 pages.
Curtis

5 / Mar / 2010

RE: your “Okay, as far as place marking goes, I use something uncommon, like ZZZ to mark a spot for later. I usually do this so I don’t forget about areas that need research, or marking a paragraph that I want to add/edit, but don’t know what to write at that moment.”

I found this http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/03/04/annotations-keep-it-simple/
on annotations. Annotation is under the Text pull down menu in Scrivener.

Should be handy for what you describe. I really should have the good sense to go to bed. It is only 1:15 in the A.M.
- Gwen Hernandez
  
  5 / Mar / 2010
  
  The annotations feature would work very well, too. I know it’s there, but I haven’t used it so far. It’s just not my habit, but it would probably be a good idea so that if I export and print for a contest or something, I don’t have to worry about forgetting to take my ZZZs out. 🙂
  
  David Hewson always has good tips.
Martha W

5 / Mar / 2010

Gwen – just checked out (and subsequently bought) The Three Dimensions of Character… wow. I read the first couple of pages and all I can say is Thank You! for the referral over to his site!!
- Gwen Hernandez
  
  6 / Mar / 2010
  
  Oh, I’m glad it’s good. I got that one as my freebie, so I’ll have to check it out after I read Story Structure Demystified. Larry’s blog is really good, too. Have a great weekend!
Christine

8 / Mar / 2010

Actually it’s Y’all!
Christine

8 / Mar / 2010

Hi Ya’ll–growing a book is tough! I know!! Back from my mini vaca…. keep on writing now!
- Gwen Hernandez
  
  9 / Mar / 2010
  
  Glad you’re back. Hope you had fun!