I would appreciate a little extra love from my Muse this week in order to help me catch up with "Peeping Tomcat".
My second week of the Writers’ Huddle Winter Writing Challenge went about as well as the first one. Prior to the challenge starting, I had the following break down:
- Chapters 6 and 7 redone and ready for my beta readers by the close of the first week: February 4th
- Chapters 8 and 9 set for my betas by close of the week: February 11th
- Finish chapter 9 if need be, touch up on the mostly fine chapter 10, and start chapter 11 by close of the week: February 18th
- Catch up week if I need it, but still have chapters 11 and 12 done by close of week: February 25th.
- Chapters 13 and 14 by the end of the week: March 4th
- Chapter 15 before I need to head to my mom's to visit my sister: March 9th
After the challenge started and I knew I had to work chapter 5 in as well, my new goals look like this:
- Chapters 5 and 6
- Ooooh kaaaay.... how about 6 and 7?
- Chapters 7, 8, and start 9?
- Here's hoping I can finish 9 and just quickly polish a few words here and there in chapter 10.
- Shoot! I need to get chapters 11, 12, and 13 taken care of!
- Race through chapters 14 and 15; taking no more than 2 days each. @_@
Oh! That's right! I shared on DeviantArt, but not here. I have a tentative publication date of Friday, April 6th, or even late Thursday night so it's available all of Friday. With the help of my two betas Cyhyr and ChibiSunnie, I should have the first chapter polished and ready to go by that April publication date. Then I'll polish a new chapter each week, and post said chapter every consecutive Friday... or Thursday night, whichever one I decide on. If I can at least be far enough ahead in my edits/writing to keep up with this schedule, then I'll finish off "Peeping Tomcat" about mid-July. I'll then start posting "One and the Same" on a weekly schedule as well.
That means I not only need to be ahead of the game in my weekly posts for PT, but I also need to have at least the first few chapters of OatS ready to go. I have no clue how large that story is going to be, but, if it doesn't carry me to the end of the year, then it should at least carry me long enough for me to polish up that Devon/Trish battle fanfic. Then THAT will be my final post of the year. Given the plan of FINALLY doing the Varekai fan-novelization over this year's NaNo, since I pushed it aside last year, I should get that polished and set to go March/April 2019. That's quite a ways away, though, so let's focus on PT, shall we?
As I mentioned, Cy and Chibi both offered to beta for me. Cy is actually a Miraculer as well, so she's going to be my main beta reader for this project. Chibi hasn't had time to get into the show, and she's also pretty booked with her own writing and schoolwork. However, she's always been a beta reader for me, so she's keeping that hat on, as it were. Since she knows my writing style and voice, she'll help assist me with that. Plus, she's my gauge on how well people outside the fandom might understand and/or enjoy the story.
So, can we take a brief time out to thank these two ladies for taking what will probably be massive amount of time helping me figure out this story? Likewise, can we thank my writing group for dealing with my kooky fanfiction I bring every meeting? No one is ever in the fandoms I write for, but they are good spirits and let me read anyway. So, thanks, everyone, for indulging me.
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Anyway, I joked that, thanks to the raffle accepting anyone who checks in, even if they don't hit their weekly goal, I got rewarded for not figuring out my story.
I guess that was the encouragement I needed, though, because I DID figure out the rest of chapter 5 shortly after. Actually, once I published last week's post, I hopped in the shower. I was barely in there three minutes when I figured out the Lucky Charm I needed to finish the chapter. Bam, just like that. It almost felt obvious. The rest of the chapter fell into place quickly after.
Problem was, I still had to work on chapters 6 and 7 this past week, and I didn't even start them until Wednesday since I wanted to get chapter 5 done first. I wasn't worried though, because chapters 6 through 8 were already written. I assumed I only needed to clean them up a bit. Much easier and faster than the "writing from scratch" chapters I had just completed.
I even stated in this blog a few weeks back, "at least chapter 6 is a fun one of Cat spying on Marinette yet again, so that one should be quick to revise/edit."
I then READ the chapter!
Good lord, it was bad.
It was obvious that I had written it about half-way through NaNo, and after the emotional and mental drain of losing the first half of my story. I was rambling; trying to get words on the page in a frantic attempt to catch up. I spilled everything from my head onto the paper. Adrien was trying to figure things out, and so I was too. It wasn't pretty. And it was long!
I.... uh.... I don't know if I improved it at all.
See, the problem with chapter 6 is that it would be a lot easier in a visual medium than a solely written one.
Chapter 3 starts five days after chapter 1; five days after Chat Noir accidentally spies on Marinette. Chapters 3 and 4 show Adrien's dynamic with Marinette. I try to keep it about par with the show in regards with Adrien's contradictory crush on Marinette. On the one hand, it's super subtle: more than willing to kiss her during a film their friends are taping, the constant need to call out her name to get her attention whenever he sees her, the constant touching of her shoulders, the glances he gives her later in season 1, the friggen SLOW DANCE in season 2, and even how he looks at the lucky bracelet Marinette gave him. It's easy to just look over everything as "he's just really friendly/comfortable with her" or even "he knows she likes him, so he's subconsciously flirting back." It's so subtle, it's kind of obvious that he doesn't realize he likes her. On the other hand, while the crush IS super subtle, it's just as much BLATANTLY OBVIOUS to anyone who's looking for signs of him crushing on Marinette. I point out the same reasons.
Anyway, my point is, chapters 3 and 4 of PT are supposed to set up that subconscious crush on Mari, so that late in the story, when he finds out she's Ladybug, the reader doesn't feel cheated that he realizes he likes her. The reader already knows this, it's ADRIEN who didn't, and struggles as he wonders if he likes her for her, or does he just like her because she's LB.
Chapter 5 is the akuma attack, which sets up the next chapter.
Chapter 6 takes everything that Adrien, and therefore the reader, learned from that day - chapters 3 through 5 - and applies it to what Adrien discovered throughout the week of spying on Marinette. These things combine to give Adrien the epiphany that Marinette and Ladybug are two sides to the same coin; Adrien not realizing how close to correct he really is.
It wouldn't work if he had this epiphany before chapter 3, and he wouldn't get it in chapter 6 if he hadn't watched Mari for 5 days already. Likewise, I can't really show the days in chronological order between chapters 2 and 3, because by themselves, the observations CN makes don't really move the story along; therefore, they aren't justifiable as their own chapter.
Which leaves revealing CN's week-long spying observations to chapter 6; making it a "recap chapter" as CN flashes back and "montages" the previous three nights. Because he's recapping each night, I can't really add any dialog without slowing the recaps down too much. Instead, each night is restricted to three or four short paragraphs. After the recaps, Adrien needs to have the epiphany that makes the chapter worth keeping in. He does this by using the information he gathered from the five nights of spying, and comparing his new view of Mari to how he views LB. This is more internal dialog since he can't talk to anyone about it, aside from Plagg, who is currently in the Cat Miraculous giving Adrien the power to be CN.
All-in-all, it was almost all show, virtually no tell, and there was no dialog, which just makes the whole thing jumbled and feel like it's rambling. I needed dialog, and I needed a better feel for the whole scene I was cutting down in the recaps. A way to know EXACTLY what would stick out.
So, I spent the week actually doing a LOT of writing. I wrote out the whole scene - from both Adrien's POV and Marinette's - for Adrien and Mari finding Alya and Nino after the akuma attack. I wrote the scene where they decide to forego the rest of their outing, and instead head home, complete with Adrien walking Mari home. I made sure to set the scene of Adrien asking Nathalie about showing Marinette's portfolio to Gabriel. I then wrote out what fully happened each night CN peeked on Marinette.
Once all that was figured out, I then cut every scene down to the aforementioned three or so paragraphs to recap. I also added some dialog this go, which helped a little. The whole thing still feels like a rambling, god awful, jumbled mess. However, it IS better than the original go. I'm sure I can cut down 6800 words to something more manageable....
Poor Cy and Chibi....
Even though I spent the whole week writing pretty much every moment I could steal away, I STILL couldn't catch up on my challenge goal. All because I'm writing a bunch of stuff that does help me better understand my story, like when I wrote The Birth of the Mimicker, but it doesn't add a single word to my actual story.
I did manage to finish chapter 6 by the close of the week, so yay to that. I just need to work on chapter 7.... and 8.... and create a second akuma attack for chapter 9... all before Monday. I can totally do this....
It's not like it kept me almost two full weeks to figure out an akuma, their powers, the Lucky Charm, and how the villain was going to be defeated... Simple.....
Eh, at least I'm keeping pace in my reread of "Lycopolis."
I should probably get back to working on my novel, though. But first, one last group hug with all of you.
I love each and every one of my readers, so thank you all lots for showing me love back! Happy Valentine's Day!
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