December 21, 2016

Writing Up-To-Date v2.016

As per the norm every Wednesday, we bring to you a semi-fresh post from I Are Writer!, which features an update on a book review posted this past August.

For today's post, I thought I would bring everyone up-to-just-over-the-speed-limit-date in regards to my writing. As you know, the majority of my writing updates can be found at I Are Writer!, which for those who are cruising by for the very first time, is the current result of wanting to shake things up with my blogging.

For those of you who read my post a month or so ago about the continuation of this blog, no final decision has been made, since we're still waffling like HRC.

I've been chugging/chipping/snipping/clipping away at my current project, The Friendship Has Begun, for the majority of the year and I'm happy to say that there is some light at the end of the tunnel. The word count presently stands {as of 12/18} 50,588, with the page count standing at 85.

I'm pretty happy about that, since it's taken me forever and a day to find a project that would click {aka, stick with me so that I would look forward to working on it}. However, as I'm nearing completion, I'm now finding myself ankle deep in a prickly bush.

The micro-flash fiction version is this: took old story; gutted; complete re-write using original as outline for the new.

The thorny problem I'm having is something that some of you may or may not experienced, and that's writing to a sequel. In my case, I originally wrote the sequel, self-pubbed, and decided to re-write the sequel {currently stands at 35 pages} into something better before belatedly realizing that I needed to fix/rewrite the first story.

So, because I wrote the sequel before writing {or I should say, re-writing} the first, I'm finding myself referring to the sequel to see how I should write what is currently a peripheral character that got introduced in this story, but is getting fleshed out for 3rd billing in the sequel.

In the original version of the story, I had the peripheral character all bad ass & bitchy {pardon the word, but it really does fit here} towards Nikia. Who sadly, turned into a major head case and ultimately killed the story, much to my regret {last time I let that particular event happen}.

So I'm now re-writing this peripheral character to be more like the one that I created in the sequel: a curiously complex person, vulnerable and confident at the same time. Because of doing things out of order, which for linear guy like myself is simply not done, I'm finding things are really grinding to a crawl. Which, after looking at the last chapter of the story, is probably a good thing, 'cause while I can write a good sex scene that lasts less than a half page, having to devote an entire chapter to it, is something I'm not really looking forward to.

Seriously.

Anyways, this concludes our writing update. Tune in next week where we might wax philosophically on why it seems that most Hallmark movies have as their main character, a writer.

(c) 2016 BOOKS BY G.B. MILLER. All Rights Reserved.

12 comments:

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    1. That is for sure. I find it very easy to track my progress by using sticky notes every time I complete a writing session.

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  2. It's like going back in time, trying to fix things. That would be a mind bender. I wrote one prequel to my books but fortunately it was short enough and simple enough I didn't have to worry about upsetting anything later.

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    1. Now that's the only way to do it. I'm fortunate enough that this particular character is already there in both stories. The trick is to make sure that I'm writing her to what I already got in the sequel.

      Did I mention I got her speaking Spanish as well?

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  3. Oh, look at you, G.B.! Admitting you have something in common with Hillary Clinton!

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    1. Yeah, but at least I wasn't changing my views to fit whatever narrative was being pushed at the given hour.

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    1. All the time. It's the only channel that I'll watch G-PG rated movies. I do enjoy the themed (Valentines, T-giving, Christmas) they show every year, and did you know that the Hallmark channel has been around for at least six decades (according to them)?

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  5. Cheers to all of those words! And wow, that sounds highly confusing. This is why we write comedy; if we screw something up in a sequel/prequel then we can just say, "Uh, it was a joke."

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    1. It's very confusing, which is why at one point I had stopped writing for about twenty minutes while I went back to the sequel to brush up on the character. I didn't want to write the character one way, then have her do a complete 360 in the next book.

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  6. I look forward to the updates and reading more! Because I am a person who is great 😀😀😀😀

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    1. And I will look forward to providing you with more because you are a person who is great.

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