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Theme: revenge vs justice
On how theme relates to the story : again, from March of ’23, as I reflected on how to build my novel that was once in progress, Who By Fire: I Will, planning it out scene by painful scene, before I simply managed to spent several months writing the rough draft of my sequel to the Ann & Anna serial, Passing, with no pain at all, pretty much, at least in the planning (because there was a lot of…
Novel dedication
(originally written in March, ’23…) -Featured Image quote taken from Sr. Felix Manzilla’s memoir preserved by the Oblate Sisters of Providence (OSP) in her document “The Singing Heart” kept by the Order after her death in 1978 Baltimore. It occurs to me, that in fact the entire direction of the novel was already given to me when I thought of the dedication, so I really didn’t need to try to…
Plotting vs spine
More old notes that I emailed to myself back on Mar 10, 2023 at almost midnight, with absolutely no sense: “Being flexible in story planning is essential to staying sane!” Right. -Nia, of ShiraDest pubs and Project Do Better, East (scheduled in October 2024…)
Planning Out Scene Tension Levels?
I read in a book on novel writing, written by a famous author, either J. S. Bell or someone else, that it could be helpful, in fact, this author insisted that it would be helpful, to plan out the levels of various kinds of tension in every scene, laying them out in a grid by subplot. Like this: “now all Acts Tension levels are done/scene, and new notes added, so need to rePlot all 3 plots… ”…
Working title renaming and darkening the novel idea 3/4
So a year later, I was still working on this novel idea and had now changed it to a new working title of birthright bed set. Trying to darken it or write a horror story, didn’t help. I thought I finally had a working storyline based on sewing and the Wolf and sheep’s clothing? No that did not work either. Reading in my genre also didn’t really work but I did start using more colors in my…
Writing Process Wednesdays: Genre Questions
I’m starting to think that figuring out the genre might also be better left to after the rough draft is written, but if you plan to pitch, everyone says it’s best to write to a genre expectation from the outset. That worked for me, for this book, since I wanted fearful dreams and daring sacrifices, making psychological thriller seem like an interesting possibility. That also tends to be one…
Writing Process Wednesdays: Painful Cuts
I now see that sometimes what appears to be a scene excerpt, when first imagining the dialogue, may later turn out to be important character voice and thought pattern, but not work as part of the book. Character bible folders would have helped, earlier, for this, rather than sticking this page into my research notes, for whatever odd reason I did that. I also see even more clearly,…
Writing Process Wednesdays: Never Give Away The Plot
Never tell people pestering you where you are in the novel writing process, because it will never be good enough. And they will not understand, anyway. And once again, separate research and character bible notebooks are a must. So, this novel in progress, Who By Fire, certainly is a learning experience: Still working on my craft… Shira Action Items: 1.) Share your thoughts,…
