Some Things that have Been Accomplished – May 5, 2008

I had a very productive weekend working on my story. I spent three hours Friday night, a couple of hours on Saturday and just a half-hour or so yesterday but I was wiped out from a whirlwind weekend. (The positive is that I still managed to work on the story at least a little bit.)

I filled out most of the details of my map (although I just realized I do not have a name for the overall land, but that's not very critical at this point), wrote several pages of back story that has enabled me to know where the story has come from and where I will take it to. I created a list of potential names for my characters but I have only settled on one name for sure for the female thief.

My next step is to corral the back story that is, get it organized so I don't have any conflicting data, finalize on character names and start creating scene cards.

No real surprises so far but I have added a bad guy point of view character and I have added an important book that the bad guy will be stealing.

My goal for this next week is to have names and some back story for the characters. I like doing this because it helps me to understand how they will act in any given situation and why they respond the way they do to said predicaments. I love the details!

I also want to have several scene cards made. I can use these to map out my story and using note cards allows me to lay them out and create an order that fits properly. The scenes will just be a sentence or two that I will expand for the novel. A fun exercise, I hope. (At least I have been told it's fun. I will let you know).

I also have a piece of software that I can use to do this. I might try using that; it would certainly keep things tidier…J

One thing I have realized through this process is that I do not have to get this done by Friday. In fact, I want to take what I have, start molding it into a story and massage it into a good story.

Another thing that has come to mind is that I am more focused on the cool items in the story and I need those to take a back seat to the characters. I want the characters to come alive and the goals they have will just boost their characters. I think that if the story is about a magical staff or an important book it will not have the depth I would like to get it to. We'll see what I can do.

 

I will send out another update later this week or next Monday.