A new plot

Oi.  A new plot snuck up on me a few weeks ago, and it's developing really nicely.  However, I already have a nice, very detailed outline to work from in November.  Maybe the same thing will happen this year that happened last year: I'll finish my planned story 2 weeks in and then start on the new plot in the second half of the month.  Last year, I was unemployed, though ... this year, I'll probably be doing overtime.  Eh... it can't hurt to have too many plots, right?

It started as just a murder mystery, but a ghost story has sort of crept into it.  I've wanted to do a ghost story for a while (especially dealing with spirit photography), but couldn't think of a non-cheesy way to approach it.  This murder plot coupled with a ghostly sub-plot complement each other nicely; while the amateur sleuth is trying to figure out who killed her friend, she's also got to reconcile her feelings about the afterlife and if her murdered friend is still in her apartment.

I still need a title for this thing.  I can't keep calling it "New Idea" ...

Edit:
Ah, I've got a title:  Die once, and then ...

It's actually taken from a Bible verse which some use to prove there are no ghosts.  But it's got all the elements of a murder mystery in it as well.  We'll see if it sticks.

Finishing touches before the ... beginning.

Only a week to go before NaNoWriMo starts.  I wish I could do more right now than tinker around with an outline I'm not even going to use in November (because, if you remember, the out line I'll be using has long since been finished).

So I'm stocking up on good music to keep me going during November.  Lots of Turkish pop (especially Murat Boz and Gökhan Özen) and wordless soundtrack stuff (I'm really loving the Bleu soundtrack because of its sadness ... it fits certain scenes).  I've also stocked up on some lovely flavored coffee creamers.  

Outlines, Audiobooks, and other rambling stuff

The Outline (again)

Yes, I got my outline to 50,000 words (and worked much too hard to make the number exact). It's excessive, and I'm guessing the finished product won't be much longer than that. Although, I've got to add all the dialogue, so that could take up a few thousand more words. I think the story itself is nice and solid now. When I wrote it before, I only got up to 40,000 words, and there were way too many plot gaps for it to be considered good at all. Ask me on December 1st if the monstrous outline was worth it.

Audiobooks

In an effort to keep my brain happily occupied at work while I'm doing things that don't require much thought, I've been looking for something worthwhile to listen to. I found a very good website called LibriVox, which specializes in making public domain (i.e. classic) books available free to the public. Today, I started listening to the German version of The Picture of Dorian Gray, and the guy who reads it makes me love the German language more than I thought I would (very expressive ... beautiful voice).

Yes, I understand a little German. In listening to this book (got through 3 and a half chapters before I went home), I understood about half of it. It helps a lot that I'm familiar with the story already.

But the website (LibriVox) has mostly English books. I haven't listened to any of the others yet, but I'm looking forward to letting my brain occupy itself with some classics while my hands sort the mail/email at work.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

I'd really forgotten how much I enjoyed this story. I've read it 2 or 3 times already, and saw a movie version of it (from 1945). I didn't like that movie because Dorian didn't show any emotions ... I don't think that's an accurate portrayal of the character because even though Dorian became evil, that doesn't necessarily mean he's got a blank face all the time.

I even got to thinking that my current project, Awake, is sci-fi/fantasy in the same way that The Picture of Dorian Gray is sci-fi/fantasy. That is, a tiny plot point is supernatural, and the rest of the story is rooted in reality. I enjoy reading things like that because I don't have to learn a completely new world or alien races, etc. (such as Lord of the Rings -- which I loved, by the way).

Awake is also a mystery in the same way that the TV show Lost is a mystery. There's no "whodunnit" to figure out, just a big "what the heck just happened??" As such, it's extremely difficult to categorize my story. Is it urban fantasy? mystery? literary ... something? Ah, you guys don't know because I'm not giving out any plot details, am I? I like that to be a secret because ... I just do.

I guess genre placement doesn't matter a whole lot, and I'm not worried about it. But when it comes to submission (It'll get to that point probably this time next year once I'm done with the tedious and numerous edits), it helps to pick out who to send it to. Anyway. Doesn't matter. Thanks for reading all this rambling!

It's come to this

I've posted my trusty word count widget to the right regarding my monstrous outline word count. I'm having so much fun with this story that it's bordering on addiction. Maybe this is bad for me.

This outline is almost a novel by itself

I'm over 34,000 words at the moment on the outline for "Awake". I've said this about previous projects before, but I'm not sure if the length of this outline means I'll have an extremely long novel when I'm finished, or if it means I've just about said everything I can say. We'll see.

The plot has gone past the climax now, and I'm working out how everything winds down to a satisfying ending. Thinking about using an epilogue.

Awake!

Nothing really to report, but I've been having a good time outlining my latest creation. It is called "Awake" (as you can probably tell from the title of this post). So far, the outline is 26,000 words, which is about the length of a novella. This thing is getting crazy.

A Physical Copy

Who would have thought I'd be so excited about a single, physical copy of my story ... looking like a real live book? It's a good thickness (as you can see from the previous post, where I have it between other, "officially" published books by authors I enjoy), and it's got my name on the cover. What could be better?

(I guess what could be better is if I found this same book at Barnes and Noble or on the NY bestseller list. ... maybe later.)

Even though I've read the darn thing about 50 times by now (because of the extensive editing I put it through in just a short time), opening the cover and sneaking out a few paragraphs is more enjoyable than I thought it would be.

Even though the above-mentioned project has come to an end, I still have two other stories (at least) in various stages of done-ness. One is a sequel (or second in a series) to The Silent Treatment, using the same main characters, but moving them to Germany (because who wouldn't want to go to Germany??), and kidnapping one of them. What is a mystery series without a good kidnap? This story is in its rough draft stage, and I haven't looked at it since February.

The second project is a rewrite of something I've been messing around with for the better part of a decade. Though I've "written" the story TWICE now, it's again in its outline stage. Each time it gets better ... I have high hopes for the third try. It follows five people who wake up in a locked museum. If I told you any more, I'd have to kill you. All I can say is that from the time the characters wake up to the time the mystery is finally resolved, I'm hoping to leave my dear readers with a "wow, that was ... wild" feeling. In a good way.

Every time I re-work the story (which I've titled Awake, since first the characters physically wake up, but then they become conscious of what they've actually experienced), I realize it goes a lot further than I thought. Either this novel is what's going to make me famous, or it's complete crap that won't ever see the light of day. I guess we'll find out!

The Fun Starts Tomorrow!

Alright, everyone, this is the moment I've been preparing for all month ... this is why I have a fifty page outline right now! Tomorrow is November 1st, the beginning of National Novel Writing Month. You can check out my profile here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/261768
Also, check my word count status at the right-hand of the screen!

Seriously, 50 pages in my outline. That's over 15,000 words! My question now is: will this next month be a glorious win (an easy 50,000)? or epic fail because I've already said everything in my outline?

Outline

About 8 days left until Novemeber, and I'm already off to a great start. My outline is over 10,000 words long, and I've got to say, I'm rather proud of it. I surprised myself with a few plot turns that I think will work really nicely in the end.

Brainstorming

Stephen King's On Writing compares writing a story to unearthing a skeleton (like a dinosaur). The first step would be knowing where the skeleton is, then carefully taking away enough of the dirt to know what kind of skeleton you've got. As you work, more detail emerges until at last, you're flicking away the last pieces of dirt with a toothbrush. (I paraphrase)

Of course, not everyone writes the same way, but the method described by Stephen King really fit the way I like to write. I don't have to have the entire outline or the entire idea to get started. If I have one thing - an idea, an image, a character - I can build around it, picking up more detail as I go.

With the current story I'm working on, I have a lot of holes to fill (we'll say I still don't know where some of the dinosaur bones are). So I've written down everything I know about the story (characters, situations, basic plot points), and a list of questions of things I want to know about the story (why a character did such and such, what the consequences of blank are, etc.). It's a lot of fun when I'm doing something boring (like dishes or laundry) to think about my story and ask a lot of "why" and "what if" questions, because those questions lead to new pieces.

A sort of update on my previous project, The Morning After: I've written a query letter for it and submitted it to one (1) literary agent. So far, I haven't heard anything back, but in all likelihood I won't hear anything on my very first try. We'll see.