I am still here! I have been working on Lost Lady for some time. It is the novel that I am most motivated
to work on so that is where my focus has been. My goal is to get the first
draft completed, or at least very close to completion by the end of this month.
There were some days off, and some days of hard writing where I knocked it out
of the park!! I am extremely happy with my progress. I need to save my draft's
more often. I am very familiar with the tragedy of computer errors.
I am using a method I don't usually do for this novel. I made
plot cards. Each scene that I had a distinct plan for I put on a blank 3x5
index card and then I put them in order. As I write I move the cards from my
to-do pile, to my done pile. I like this a bit better than a traditional
outline because I have a brief idea of the scene already in front of me and I
don't have to shuffle between word docs which causes me to lose my place and
my train of thought.
I'm also gearing up for NaNoWriMo. Mostly I am trying to get
some of The Chronicles of Odde stuff
panned out. I know a lot about the first few books, and some things about of
the end ones, since I brain-stormed them rather recently, but the middle ones,
starting with my next NaNoWriMo project, The
Knave and the Rose, is still very vague. I think I will start with more plot cards. I
have a 150 word description that I uploaded to the NaNoWriMo website, but
little more than that.
Here is the series blurb if you were interested:
The
Chronicles of Odde tell of the Great Convergence. It is a time when the doors
to another world are open.
Pulled
from their mundane lives, these young woman are called to a new world full of
magic and the unknown: The Kingdoms of
Odde. Here they must fend for themselves, and if they are brave enough
and clever enough, an extraordinary destiny awaits.
Not too bad, but kind of vague. I still like it.
So on other fronts, my sister is working her way through the
FINAL edit of The Beast of the Ruin.
I just hope I gave her the most recent edit, and not some earlier edition. I
hate to think of her running through all of that for nothing. She has also said
that she will update the cover on that novel and my one officially published
work, Ties of Fate: The Lost Continent.
Cover design is hard, but my sister makes it look easy with
her Photoshop skills. The hardest part right now is trying to come up with an
idea that we love, and not settling for something we like. The original cover
for Ties of Fate is missing, so she
made me a new one, which is in the same vein, but we both agree that it is not
as good as the first. Now, we think that the idea of a sailing ship, while relevant
to the book, is not exactly where we want to be for a young adult novel. The
book is not so much about ships as a young princess's voyage. While very
beautifully done, we think that there are some better ideas out there that will
appeal more to my audience, and hopefully promote sales.
Question: Do you have an idea of the cover while your write?
Do you look at popular novels and get ideas for you own cover? Are there any tricks you use to choose
your cover design?
Well, that's all for today, my friends! Write On!
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