New review and fun news

[alanajoli]

Just had a new review posted over at the Tangled Muse forums (which are related to Empty Room Studios, Baeg Tobar, and new forum partner Bean Leaf Studios). There's a lot of fun stuff going on over there, including this review of Into the Reach by Daniel Taylor Gooden.

(Daniel is the writer of the Baeg Tobar online novel The Unmade Man. At the bottom of the review is a link to his homepage, where he has a lot of great short fiction posted.)

A big thanks needs to go to everyone who advised me to expand the villains in Into the Reach (which includes my publisher, editor, and first reader: Arielle Kesweder), because at least two of the reviews I've gotten have mentioned Mordyss and been very complimentary about his development. This is where I say it: You guys were right. Thanks!

--

Quick question for the other writers out there: Do you sometimes find that one of the characters you weren't as interested in either really needs to be expanded during the editing process, or is one of the favorite characters of your readers?

--

In other fun news, Julie Kenner added me as a MySpace friend, which is exceedingly nifty. I may have added her first, but I honestly don't remember. Either way, it was exciting to find her on my pending list! (Julie Kenner is the author of Carpe Demon, a novel about a demon-hunting soccer mom, and its sequel, California Demon. Must reads for Buffy fans!)

Speaking of Buffy, I got my copy of Season 8 #1 at one of the local comic shops yesterday. They still had a stack of them, so if you haven't found your copy yet and you're in New England, try New Haven's Alternate Universe.

I'm still catching up on livejournal, but actually met a couple of deadlines, so I'm feeling a lot more in control of my whole schedule. I don't expect this feeling to last... but I can hope!

Comments

[eyezofwolf.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on the review! That is incredibly good news! I always liked when I would get a new review and would get super excited about it. I am pretty sure it is like that for most writers, or so I would imagine.

I'm sorry that I haven't gotten you my review of your book yet. I've been distracted and had precious little reading time as of late. I'm ashamed to admit it, but one of the things I have been distracted by has been Dragon Quest VIII - a great game BTW. Don't worry, I will give you my thoughts on it (via email) once I am done.

As for your question - I would have to say that yes, that sometimes happens. I don't know about a character becoming a fan favorite, but I have found quite often that characters I originally only meant to be stand-ins for a couple of scenes becomes a major player, and then I need to go back and flush them out so they aren't as flat. That has happened to me in several stories.

[dmoonfire.livejournal.com]

I love DQ8. The characters are so much fun and it has a very nice, light-hearted plot. But, I really, really hate those metal slimes. Filled with so much experience and so hard to kill. Though, the slime forest is fun when you get groups of eight at a time. :)

As for interesting characters. Not really. Mainly because people don't read that much into my story. I do have one story (Stone Blood, on my site) that people kept asking for "what happens next" though I felt the story was about the children, not the raider. So, I guess that was a case of when people seemed to like the less than obvious characters (to me).

While I write, I get that all the time. Then again, I have no clue how my novels end when I start since I frequently go down some other track, finding a bit of story that ended up being much more interesting than the original one I followed.

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

I've been trying to write with an outline in order to keep track of where my current novel is going, but it's a new technique for me. James Wyatt (in his January 18th entry, (http://aquela.com/blog/index.html) which it doesn't seem to want to let me link to directly) wrote about using an outline for WotC on his first (I believe) novel for them. It sounds like a pretty revolutionary way to organize thoughts, and I'm wondering if I can organize myself that far in advance...

Which is somewhat irrelevant, but seemed worth linking to. :)

[dmoonfire.livejournal.com]

For Muddy Reflections, I used MindMap to keep track of the characters, but I had to keep that much detail since it was a forensics murder mystery and I had to make sure every single detail was perfect. In the end, I had a 300+ node map to describe the novel, hair and eye color (big things with me), scents of people, locations of items. I also kept an outline, but at the start and stop of every writing session (typically 2-3 hour blocks for me), I reviewed and updated the outline (the working outline he talks about). It got me in the mood to write and also let me keep notes. The next couple of chapters would have lots of data, while I purposely kept the further ones back sparse until I got closer, mainly because I get a lot of "um... where did my story just go?"

In the end, I found the mixed approach is good. I used the mind map program to keep track of little details and tibits and a outline for the general flow (which didn't look good in mind map). Outlines aren't good for facts, so that is why the map seems to work out.

It takes a while to get used to it though. It helps that I have two screens, one for details/notes/flow and the other for actual writing.

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

Is MindMap a software? Or is it just a style of creative writing webbing that I'm not aware of? :) It sounds like a good thing to have--I usually end up with several documents open (in the case of Regaining Home, I usually have the final draft of Into the Reach and Departure open, my "calendar" cheat sheet that gives the months and seasons of the campaign setting, character sheets of various characters that I've created (with their backgrounds, eye colors, likes and dislikes, spells, and such), and the names of family members or recurring characters who are too minor to have their own character sheet entries. It gets a little overwhelming on occasion.

Actually, I may try to blog about that tomorrow. I'll have to pay attention to just how many documents I have open in order to keep myself set in the game world.

[dmoonfire.livejournal.com]

http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map

Sorry, I meant to put in a link. Mind map is the style of organization, FreeMind is a free application I use. It's a Open Sourced, Java application. Basically, it is also a method for keeping notes. They have some nice screenshots if you want an idea of what it can do.

It is only slightly more effective for memorization, but I found it is useful since I can keep everything in a single document, then do a find. The bit I really like about freemind (the actual application) is that you can fold up a node. So, I have a note called "Characters" then underneath it, every character I introduce. To add a new node, I just click on the node I want, hit insert, and start typing. Double-click to fold if you don't want to see something. It lets me focus on the areas I need at that point in the story.

I've done the calendar thing too. Though, for Muddy Reflections and Wind, Bear, and Moon, it's a decimal calendar so pretty easy to figure out the day of season. Though, converting between my bells (tenth of a day) and approx times in our world I usually use a cheat sheet.

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

No worries about the feedback--as long as I'm writing, it'll apply, right? I'm very lucky to have a great editor right now who has been good about catching some of the things that slid in the first book (everything from language use to content). He's getting novel #3 in segments, which may change the process a bit--I hope for the better.

[elven-wolf.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the review, first of all.

Now to answer your question, yes, that has happened to me. I introduced a spunky sidekick for one of my two protagonists, and my best friend was all 'oh she is so cool! I want more of her!' and I started toying with the character. She turned out to have more of a backstory and more potential than I'd originally thought of.

Also, the way it turned out, the villain's sidekick ended up being a more fascinating villain than the villain himself. So I did some remastering to bring the former underling up as the main villain.

Writing can be so much fun. *lol*

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

The villains are always the hardest for me--but your situation is very familiar to me. Right now I'm working with a main bad guy who is not of my creation (he's essentially the toughest villain in the campaign setting I'm writing for), which is difficult. It's given me a chance to create some really fun secondary baddies--but since I'm now in the third book of a trilogy, I really have to get inside his head.

We'll see if people like him when I'm done!

[elven-wolf.livejournal.com]

I'm a sucker for a good villain. They're not easy to write, I agree, but when you find that groove, when you get a good storyline going with a villain and really find what makes him tick, it's so much fun.

I'm sure I'll love it. But I'm a little behind on LJ (real life kept me from reading for a few weeks), did you say book 2 is already out? Where can I purchase it?

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

It's up at Amazon, (http://tinyurl.com/2en89c) believe it or not! Earlier it said there were actual copies in stock, as well. Now it's doing something bizarre, but I've come to vaguely expect that.

It's also available at White Silver's (http://www.whitesilverpublishing.com/ramlar) web site, or at your local game store.

[elven-wolf.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'll try my local stores first, always best to support them before turning to Amazon.