Going into the Wilderness...

Impromptu blog post. I'm about to bask in the glory of mistletoe bay for five days. Thought i'd better touch base before I shoot out of town.
I'm going to be yabbering on about bookish things more often for the next couple of weeks. My story is taking it's final breaths before the plunge.

Firstly, cheers to Tom, my six-hundredth viewer since i started nattering on here a few months ago. Thank's for pointing out my bad spelling and pitiful attempts at grammar. I have now changed the language of my blog so that it doesn't spell-check all my words into American-English. I did that for you. No promises on the grammar front though.

I'm edging my way into the final climax of my book. A few more chapters and I'll be back at the beginning, editing this baby like a mad woman. The chapter I'm finishing at this current moment (or procrastinating from..) is chock full of fun, some purple seeds, a wolf-hat or five, kitten faces, more rain and a handful of flaming arrows....

anyway I don't have anything more to say other than a huge thanks to Sam, who has plowed her way through a chunk of my chapters in the last few days and has responded with exclamation marks, kind words and just the right amount of enthusiasm..

This picture never ceases to cheer me up.  

This one has clues in it!

I'm contemplating how i should move my small army of pens to Wellington. Also discussing ferry's and how many bags i need for all of my bits and pieces... getting very close this whole moving business. Which means that completion of my first draft is only weeks away. weeks. I'm going to cry a wee bit now.

Today while i was chatting with a Wellington friend and trying to start chapter twenty-something, she informed me that the four chapters she had read were the 'best story she had read in quite a long while.' I considered this happily whilst trying to stop my cat from scaling a woolen coat into the top of my wardrobe. Ultimately i failed on the cat-front and she sat up there perusing me with her little yellow eyes. (she's up to something).
It was around then that I was gathered up to help clip the wings of the families hens... (I wonder what hens would think of us if they knew we ate their eggs? I mean it's pretty weird...). Being the best inheritor of the 'small-gene' I was commissioned to crawl into the smallest chicken-village, where i crouched for a while trying to convince the rooster that he should hand over his woman-folk. Negotiations failed. My Characters were given a chicken lunch.

Here... this is a new synopsis for all the people who want to read it. for those who don't scroll down to the unicorn, the mermaid and the army of man-eating-squirrels.
I have still kept it vague. Iv'e not included names, places yadayada, but it's longer than the last. (it has full stops at least).

synopsis in more than one sentence 

The story follows a member of the misplaced...
At five moths old, she makes the snaggers list- a list of children hunted by an old enemy. She's a future threat.
Quickly she is removed. hidden from the world by a Murean with a horse called Ben (there's a name hah). For thirteen years she is raised in the harbor, no status but orphan-status, no family but her tutor and minder.

Like all Children in the empire. She is taught to fight. As orphan-status she learns to fight with whatever she can get her hands on. If she cant afford a broadsword she'll have to learn to survive one.

On her fourteenth birthday She knows that the days of dreaming are over. She will be moved into employ. Employ worthy of her status, but that isn't to be...

Her Murean show's up with snaggers on his tail and news that shocks her life into a new trajectory. Port-ella and a city protected by a wall...
She is taken to a new tutor, given a chance to prove her worth and fight for the chance to break free from orphan-status.

Not long after arrival the walls begin to crumble. An old enemy has been picking away at them, now he is starting to gain the upper hand.

Faced with a series of truths, minor and major tragedies she (our protagonist) eventually discovers her own kind of power. The really, really powerful kind.

She's thrust into training and eventually takes her bow to meet her chance at redemption, and a chance at revenge for the family she never had and the fate she never knew. She meets truth instead.

The mist clears, she cracks a riddle and she realizes that the only piece missing from the enemies puzzle was her. She rides to meet a demon and ultimately destroy a box that has sucked the 'safe' out of 'safety'.
 
the books ends with her success, her failure and the start of a new life as a missing-missy.

A matter of decision.

Goodness, I made some strange decisions about this book yesterday, but it turned out for the better (possibly). I really just turned two convoluted chapters into three very straight-edged ones and added a song. It seemed to change everything, all of a sudden the story hadn't dissolved into mess it had become a little bit poetic... gory situation became a little bit more 'touching'.

cheesy? maybe, but a bit of cheese is always nice. Especially mixed in with the havoc I've been trying to pen lately. It seems that when I wrote this synopsis sometime in the past, I didn't care to tone down the action.

One thing I have been fighting with myself over is narrative. The story is written in third person, but i recently have come to question that decision. My protagonist is very internal, it would almost make more sense and certainly be easier for me if I wrote her story in first person. However i'm not sure if I like writing in first person. Sometimes I feel like I write better in first person, others I feel it sounds all wrong. I toyed today with the idea of editing two books simultaneously, one in first, one in third. Either that's insane or it's the closest I have come to a solution.

I suppose as the book is slowly encroaching that final chapter, I am now making my final decision's. Characters that weren't supposed to die are on the brink, (or perhaps past it). I have some truths to reveal and others to hide. I promised myself that my protagonist would learn something vital about herself before the close of this book. I now have to delicately begin weaving it into the story.


A friend asked recently If I had based any of my characters on real people, (Kristen I believe?). Truth is no, no I haven't but then It isn't really that simple either. There are some characters which I have in a sense 'given' to people. I have a couple of characters like that.


Just re-read the first hunger games book cover-to-cover in eager anticipation of the film. I just took it off the shelf and devoured it. yum.

Iv'e not been sharing much story spoilers here, sorry i suppose...

Its not that I don't want to share, I really just don't want people to have to hear about it unless they truly want to. I don't want to be forcing my story onto people who don't want to know about it, I despise the idea. If people want to know I am all to happy to sit and divulge. come find me, or just keep reading. Because I have a new synopsis coming very soon.
I do clutch this story very close to my heart, few have looked upon it's drafted words. When an eight year old idea starts to take shape, that's bound to be the outcome.
In saying that however, those people who genuinely show an interest never hear the end of it. (apologies)..
I should mention Sam, who walked with me in the hills and heard a very detailed version of the synopsis. Mainly though I should mention my wall (Oliver) who next to me knows the most about this story, thanks to a very long series of fantastic emailing (because you can't really re-build a world without first establishing a solid wall).


STILLL considering the blog unfinished. sorry about that. that's why i keep changing things around. I understand that it isn't entirely user friendly. sorry. Enough from me. follow me here and there (twitter) xxxx

I'm at a loss.

When I sat down to re-start this book in September it started with a new notebook. On the very first pages of that notebook I wrote the outline for a scene in a hurried, nonsensical scrawl. It the margin the penned the words 'this will come later, after most major events.'
Iv'e wanted to write this chapter ever since. It's probably the chapter I can visualize the best. Rain on the lake, wolf in the water... tears, demons, abandoned boots..

I pass it every time I open that notebook--it was starting to drive me a little crazy actually.

Yesterday I set myself down and started it. in fact I am
jolly close to finishing it (4.033 words) . When you have high expectations of a scene like this it's going to take some thinking about. Then i had to work out where I'd written parts of it because Iv'e written them everywhere.. I don't feel any sense of elation. This scene is rather dark, it isn't like 'the pinnacle' where I finished the chapter and felt like singing. This time I feel bad, bad because I came very close to killing a minor character, in fact I came so close that I might just have to accept that she isn't coming back to the story.

Sometimes these things happen, the story starts to write itself in new directions. Nothing major, just twists that were never meant to be, characters that don't, can't or wont do as intended. I suppose if  I wanted to turn this into some sort of extended metaphor I could talk about the rogue arrow (I did once or twice promise to write about it). It's a seemingly straight arrow that I have that always flies ridiculously off course, recently it went though the target was deflected right by a post, went through the side of our old hen house, hit the floor, veered upward and embedded itself (vertically) in the roof. It's not important, certainly not worth blogging about, but one of those moments where you find yourself standing in a hen-house absolutely bemused as to what just happened.
My protagonist did this to me today. So did the minor character who is now balanced precariously on the lip of the void. She was meant to be A OK. not so sure about that anymore.. it just no longer seems like that will be the reality.

I should theoretically have started this chapter the day before yesterday. My deadline for the previous one was three days ago. I made a spontaneous decision however to revive my mountain conquering habits of old. I'm talking literal mountains here. I drove to the lake, got out of my car and walked straight up the mountain. Felt good for about the first hour. four hours later -not so much. It wasn't a book-writing exercise, but it turned into one (like everything seems to).
I based a few places on the park here, being so close to home why wouldn't I? based is maybe the wrong word, 'associated' would fit better. It was nice to be able to see these places again before I put fingers-to-keyboard and wrote that unfortunate chapter.

One of the main reasons I like climbing this mountain is the basin you can see from the top (on the other side obviously) its a people-free slice of untarnished NZ goodness, and you have to climb a faffing mountain to see it. Suits me. The first time I set eyes on said basin and it's wee tarns, I dreamed up a hidden country, a sanctuary if you will. I was sixteen at the time -funny how things stick.

This has come a long way from raging Dub-step and brutality. I think the books getting rather serious, my characters a being whittled down to tougher stuff.

O gosh, this ones just random...

I seem to have a habit of posting here when it's really late at night, I feel this might affect the quality of my posts... so I tried to do this during the day.. day turned into evening now it's later evening, I tried. Really.

(It's still going to be average.)

I'm still learning to use this blog, that's why I keep changing things around. People have emailed me to say they can't follow or comment. HAH shame.. I actually don't know how to fix that sorry. Thanks for reading. I love you. Your emails make me smile even if they are pointing out my incompetence at setting up a blog.

Another habit which I previously touched on was the findings. Yes.. since this book-writing project has spanned several years I keep finding bits (read 'bit of an idea' if you haven't already, i linked it last post but here it is again. also  synopsis in a sentance because I'm writing you up a synopsis that's a little more meaty). Anyway I found a bit, or rather two. The first 'bit' was a character that I had invented who -quite conveniently- would show up in about half a chapters time. He's a soldier with past and a whole lotta miles under his belt.. but despite that he's seventeen and quite the ginger. I don't think he'll have the part he was once intended, but i can assure you he will be there...
I would be lying if I said that I had only 'found' the second finding. Actually it found me. Or rather I went looking for something else and I stumbled upon it knowing perfectly well that it was there. That 'thing' was the list. The List. The list mentioned left that I had to write in fourth form.. OK it might be strange that I still have this paper but believe it or not I actually carried it with me while I lived abroad, and it's been tucked in the back of an old travel diary ever since. It quotes that I will finish university -which lays rest to my conundrums in the previous post. It also states that I will build a mansion that is a replica of Monty Monty's mansion from the film version of  'Lemony Snicketts a series of unfortunate events' annd that I will have chinchillas, lizards and birds in what was his reptile room. It also says (and this part I had completely forgotten about) that I will have A horse named 'Tella.' For the two people in the world who know the significance of that name, know only that the list was written before Tella was called Tella. complete coincidence. Also very odd considering how it isn't exactly a common name.


For those who ask questions about my book, and know that I was stuck for a whole week in a rather ridiculous place -I have fixed it. Yes, I was trapped, incapable of moving forward because for a moment I had lost sight of where this particular half chapter was taking me. For that reason I changed it.. then changed it back... then created a hybrid chapter.
Heres how I fixed it (because I feel like i learned something).
Firstly I canned the whole thing (kidding). actually I stopped myself and went back to the drawing board I looked at the breakdowns for that chapter and the three chapters that would follow. I re-planned them. i worked out what the vital action was -what was important about that chapter. I focused on it. Then I remembered this post I had read after CP tweeted it. I remembered how it had helped me once before.. I gained a little enthusiasm for my crappy chapter. I went through what I had already written and took the bits that were really important for that chapter or for the later three. I pasted them together, added a juicy argument a smidgen of a theme and whammo, I ended the chapter this morning with a little moral contemplation. If that doesn't make any sense then I'm not surprised.


I'm amused by this author wearing a book on her head, so this is me blogging about her hat-book habits in vain hope of achieving a hat-book of my own (this). everybody should go there and enter and have hat-books... also I enjoyed this post of hers http://www.laurendestefano.com/blog/?p=322

It makes me think of a letter I once wrote (down there in another post somewhere -look for the green dragon) in which I confessed that while I read a lot of books and know their creators names, I really am guilty of not knowing enough about my favorite authors. The few i have had the pleasure to meet, research, watch or learn from have inspired me greatly. Another lesson for me there I think. More Author researching less dilly-dally.

The day the earth fought back.

Happy new year!

welcomed it in style this year, jandal wars, cool people, fire dancing, terrible badminton, rum, food (etc).


I like it when people are straight up. Not mean but honest, put your cards on the table and say what you feel. No beating around the bush.
If I'm going to be brutally honest and say what i think then it would apply to my book-writing-ventures as follows.

Firstly publishing. I said from the beginning, the aim of this wasn't to be a published author,( read this) it was to see if i could actually do it. I stand by that, though now that i have made it this far i think about 'when this is done and published', to be honest i have started to think that the moment this book is in print will be the moment it is truly 'finished'.
I don't want people to think i'm deluded, sitting here thinking thinking 'I'm writing the next best seller,' it isn't like that.. just 'I'm writing my book. my book makes me happy and it makes me sad and if everybody else hates it then so be it. It might be terrible (it's a bare-bones draft, it's not meant to be amazing) perhaps edited  it'll be better -perhaps not. we'll see. to see it in 'book form' would be a dream come true, so perhaps i should think more about it.

University.

My classes from march are as follows, English literature (narrative, genre stuff), Art history (analysis whatsit and historical whatsit) film (101) and writing. I'm excited about finally getting around to making these choices, but secretly wonder how it will affect my book-writing-ventures. I can't live without writing, my notebook army agrees... My aim is to finish this draft before march, i should be able to do it, it's more than halfway there, then i have the task of editing, finding me some readers then what.....???
sometimes i wonder, if this was published then it's 'book one', 'book one' of a proposed five books, and if i published this then i would have to sit and write book two -hell, knowing me I probably will write it anyway, i'll have too.
I wonder if it's possible to be a university student and a novelist simultaneously?

good thing i like chaos.


On a far less than cheerful note, not a very smiley faffing blog post (I'm sorry).

Visited Christchurch for the first time since all of the big earthquakes (and by all i mean so far). I realized that it was bad, but i suppose that recently i had started to think about it less, like the quakes were dying down and it wasn't as big of a deal anymore or it just kept happening so you don't think about it as much. It's become weirdly common now to just live with quakes... like they're completely normal.
The center of the city is still cordoned off -since the Feb quake- which is just so odd.. all of the tall buildings in the city, the shops it's all just empty, dilapidated, destroyed. There's tall grass growing in places where there shouldn't even be grass, over-grown spaces where there used to be proud buildings, holes in the road and tall fences you can't cross.
the seaside was worse, most of the houses were just empty, roofless or clinging precariously from the broken edges of the coastal cliffs. There's tattered tarpaulins hanging over hollow windows, buildings with no sides -like weird cross sections- and the roads have moved and become bumpy, broken or drowned in liquefaction.

The weirdest thing was the quiet. We stood in a park next to the fence -right at the edge of downtown- and it was dead silent. The city center and the apartment buildings around it have been empty since February, looking around there was like walking into some strange, macabre, museum exhibit -maybe because that's where we learn about these disasters... Everything within has been preserved as it was in February, the day the earth fought back (almost everything) they can't do anything till the quakes stop, and the quakes don't stop. you can see onto the balconies of high rise apartments, the tables there are still lying on their sides where they would have fallen after the February Earthquakes, furniture inside too has fallen against the windows where it has remained and shall remain.

http://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake/quakes/recent_quakes.html

 War zone, that's what people told me it looked like. which is so true. Christchurch is like a war zone.

kia kaha.