Can you believe it, it is week 6 of a 10 week term at school? Over halfway, and counting down til the July holidays.
I've spent the past few weeks working on more episodes for my romance serial. Episode 3 took me almost a full two weeks to write. One scene I rewrote three times before I could move on. It took me days to work out what the problem was. In the end it came down to not knowing my characters well enough. There was a new character, Timothy, who I didn't really get. So I ended up spending an hour interviewing him. I asked him all about how he felt, what he wanted, as well as a bit about his past relationships and history. Suddenly he made a lot more sense. Once I got back into my main character's eyes (it's written in the first person), it was much easier to describe what was going on as I could guess what Timothy was thinking behind his actions.
Episode 4 then came out in three days. The second day I really wanted to go see a movie (the new X-Men), but I had told myself I wasn't seeing any movies until I finished the entire series. Surprisingly, that wasn't very motivating. It was just too far off to imagine the gratification. So in the end I said I could see the movie that night if I wrote 5,000 words. 5,037 words and two and a half hours later, I was out that door!
I'm now working on Episode 5, so feel I'm getting somewhere. And just to let you all know, I still haven't worked out which guy she's going to end up with!
To break up the writing a bit, I've also been thinking about cover art (a fun diversion). Testing out fiverr.com, I got Goodaugther to do an original digital watercolour for the serial (just so you know, because I wanted it detailed, high resolution and with the psd file, it wasn't $5, but I think it was still a fantastic deal at $25). I gave her a few examples and told her that I wanted a brownhaired girl in a cafe with a laptop and a coffee. Now I just need to add the text and play with it a bit.
And can I just say that writing a serial is FUN! Each episode is short (12,000-15,000 words), so the action needs to be fast paced, and no slack sentences. But overall it is a much longer work than a novel (I'm aiming for 14 episodes at the moment), so a lot more can happen. I have characters popping in and out, situations coming up and then hiding away until a few episodes later, and lots of other excitement. Though, I do keep remembering things that I should bring in a bit earlier, or refer to again, so I'm very glad that I'm not actually publishing it an episode at a time. Maybe once I'm a bit more practiced at the artform I can do that. But for now, I want to get as closed to finish as I can.
Out of the three publishers I queried, one has gotten back to me saying it was bit too niche an idea for them, which is fair, but the other two are still out there, possibly considering it.
By the way, I've loaded the first day as a free sample on the Synopsis page, if you're interested in seeing what it's all about.
Finally, for those who need some constructive procrastination, I watched this great YouTube video on current research behind Willpower. It is about an hour and goes through some really interest studies, and gives you five great hacks for improving your powers. Who doesn't want more willpower? So enjoy.
Did you end up going to see the new X-Men movie? My hubby and I went to see it on Monday and we both really enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you're making great progress on your stories. Congrats!
I did enjoy it, though I thought some of the plot devises a bit weak (though I won't mention them, as I don't want to put in spoilers). But James McAvoy and Hugh Jackman were still great.
DeleteI love writing shorter pieces because I love the intensity of action. So great that you motivated yourself to write 5K to see X-Men. I need to learn how to dangle the carrot better for myself. Great job!
ReplyDeleteFinding effective carrots can be difficult, or resisting the urge just to jump off the treadmill and grab the carrot. Yesterday I got 4,500 done in 2.5 hours so I could go watch TV. But today I've cracked and am just going to see the movie without doing the work. (It's been really noisy around here, so I haven't been able to work. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!)
DeleteGood for you. That's the way to make it work. Keep up the grat work! :-)
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen the new X-men movie. I hope it was good. It's on the list to watched. I just watch Star Trek Into Darkness on the Holiday weekend. That was a good watch.
I really like the new Star Trek movie, and adding in Benedict Cumberbatch is only increasing the goodness!
DeleteThis episodic format sounds like a lot of fun.... and a bit stress-inducing. Still, so very cool. You still have a place for full-on character development, just in larger steps more than slowly drawing it out over the story. And you've got action...
ReplyDeleteWhat inspired you to start things this way this time, Buffy? Just a "let's try it"? Something you read? Inquiring minds and all that. Were you thinking of making something in graphic novel form ortrying to sell a script?
I'd think there'd be an excellent market for stories in this format. I'm surprised you were given the "it's too niche" response. Though, I guess it depends on what direction you want to take the project.
I used to listen to the Self Publishing Podcast with Sean Platt, Johnny B. Truant and David Wright (https://selfpublishingpodcast.com/) (I haven't been so good with podcasts lately, though should get back into them.) And David Wright and Sean Platt do a lot of their writing as serials, so much so that they've now joined the Amazon serial imprint (invite only, sadly). They generally write horror/thriller series, and do episodes and then seasons. Each episode is 99c and then a whole season is bundled together at the end. They were talking about the advantages of this, and it seemed like a really fun and good idea. So, will see how it goes. Just finished the first draft of episode 5 yesterday!
DeleteIt sounds like fun writing a serial! I love the idea that you got to revise/edit your great-grandfather's story too.
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